History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 26

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682

USA > California > Kern County > History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 26

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In 1898 a railroad was built from Kramer to Johannesburg, about a mile distant from Randsburg, but prior to that time everything the Rand mining district wanted from the outside world had to be hauled fifty miles by team from Mojave.

The post office was established at Randsburg in 1895 with Fred Moores as the first post master. At the first miners' meeting in 1895 thirty-three votes were cast, but so rapidly did the new camp acquire fame and population that a year later the number of votes at a similar meeting was 687. In the fall of 1896 the St. Elmo hotel was built, only to be burned in the big fire the next June. Twice since 1897 fire has swept the mining town.

The first school was established in 1897. In April, 1901, the present school building was built at a cost of $3500.

Randsburg now has a population of about 1000, and is the metropolis of the greatest mining district in the state in the value of its output. The principal mines are the world-famous Yellow Aster, the Consolidated Mining Company's properties, the Little Butte, the King Solomon group, the Baltic and the G. B. Mining Company's group.

Just at present Randsburg is being given a boost by the introduction of electric light and power by the Southern Sierras Power Company, the installa- tion of dry crushing, the cyaniding of raw ore and the starting up of some of the larger placer mines. The town is supplied with water by the Rands- burg Water Company, which pipes it from Squaw and Mountain springs.

Johannesburg

Johannesburg, a mile south of Randsburg, was founded in the fall of 1897 and the spring of 1898. it is said by Chauncey M. Depew and associates,

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who bought a half section of school land, laid out the townsite and built the railroad connecting it with the Santa Fe main line at Kramer, expecting that the new and thriving camp of Randsburg would move over to the railroad en masse. In this hope they were disappointed, and the Johannesburg railroad was sold to the Santa Fe.

The founders of the town piped water from Mountain spring, and this system later was combined with the Randsburg water system, which had its supply from Squaw springs.

Johannesburg boasts the Johannesburg Reduction Works, known as the Red Dog, a custom mill, built in 1897 ; the Santa Ana, the Pioneer and the Windy.

Mojave

The town of Mojave was established by the Southern Pacific railroad when it laid its tracks through the desert in 1876. The first store was built by a man named Moon, and Mrs. Morrissey opened the Morrissey hotel, which was the first hostelry. Robert Charlton was the first postmaster. W. C. Wilson, at one time county auditor, conducted a general merchandise store at Mojave for some years.

Up to the present time the railroad has been the chief reason for the existence of the town. It is situated at the foot of the climb from the south to the top of Tehachapi pass, and is therefore a convenient place for coupling and uncoupling helper engines. It is now the end of an oil pipe line carrying fuel oil over the Tehachapi mountains for the use of the railroads. Mojave also has been the shipping point for borax hauled from Borax lake and Death valley. The beds at Borax lake were discovered' by John Searles of Skilling & Searles, who for many years have hauled the product across the desert sands to Mojave with 20-mule teams, taking fifteen days for the round trip.

During the early days of the Randsburg mining boom Mojave was the point at which miners and their provisions and materials left the railroad, and the trade so produced helped the town to prosper until the railroad was built to Johannesburg. The building of the Los Angeles aqueduct gave Mojave another temporary boom.

For many years some mining has been carried on in the country tributary to Mojave, and recently satisfactory results have been obtained in developing water for pump irrigation in the vicinity of the town. The desert lands are rich and adapted to cultivation if a sufficient supply of water for irrigation can be obtained, and on the experiments in this line may depend Mojave's ultimate prosperity or adversity.

During the past year a refinery has been built at Mojave for extracting some of the lighter elements from the oil that is piped over the mountains, the residue being as valuable for fuel as the native oil, and the part taken out selling for enough to make a very substantial reduction in the railroad's fuel bill.

Two churches and a good grammar school are among Mojave's public assets.

Rosamond

Rosamond is a station on the Southern Pacific fourteen miles south of Mojave, near the southern line of the county. The first store was opened about 1888 by a man by name of Hyde and Miss Sarah Hayes. C. P. Sutton

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was the first postmaster and was succeeded by E. S. Waite, Charles Graves and Miss Kinton, in the order named. Ike Boyles ran the first hotel, and Miss Kate Titus taught the first school. It was kept up for two seasons by private subscription, but not until 1908 were there enough children to warrant the establishment of a school district.

Rosamond was named for a daughter of one of the Southern Pacific rail- road officials.

Henry a. Jason

BIOGRAPHICAL

HENRY A. JASTRO .- A record of the life of Henry A. Jastro is in many respects an epitome of the progress of Kern county. So long has been his identification with this great region and so intimate his association with local development that, viewing the remarkable transformation wrought within his memory, he may well exclaim, "All of which I saw and part of which I was." Great as has been his business activity, bringing to him prominence and prestige throughout the entire United States, it is as super- visor that the people of his home county know him best and regard him with the deepest affection. Through the period of more than twenty years measuring his service as a member of the board of supervisors, to which he was chosen by a large majority at each election and as invariably made chair- man of the board, mind and heart have been engrossed in the well-being of the county. Evidence of his unusual ability as a financier appears in the fact that Kern county is operated on a cash basis with the lowest tax rate in the state, yet there have been erected quite recently a county high school and hall of records, an addition to the county hospital doubling its capacity, and a courthouse that ranks among the finest in the state; also, the Kern River bridge, one of the longest bridges in the state, built of reinforced concrete. Each of these buildings and structures is attractive in architecture, substan- tial in construction, modern in equipment and convenient in interior arrange- ment, each in a word a model of its kind, yet such was the skill of the super- visors as financiers, under the leadership of their chairman, that the enor- mous tasks were completed amicably and economically without taint of graft or criticism of extravagance. The courthouse in particular has attracted architects from distant points, for its pronounced excellence invites a close inspection on the part of all associated with the architecture of public build- ings. The plans of the supervisors did not end with construction work, but include the ultimate transformation of the courthouse grounds into a bower of horticultural beauty unsurpassed in the valley of the San Joaquin.

Born in Germany in 1850, Henry A. Jastro was thirteen years of age when he accompanied his family from Germany to America. Later he came alone to California by way of Panama and after landing in San Francisco traveled from there by stage to Los Angeles. With youthful enthusiasm he threw himself into the task of earning a livelihood in a strange country, far from the friends of earlier days. For a time he engaged in freighting to Arizona. Another task was that of working with cattle and sheep between Wilmington and Catalina Islands. In the meantime he was learning much concerning the great undeveloped resources of the state. During 1870 he saw Bakersfield for the first time. The now flourishing city was a small ham- let, comprising a primitive collection of cabins and offering little inducement to the ordinary settler. But Mr. Jastro was then as he is now an optimist con- cerning the country. From the first he realized its possibilities and foresaw its future growth, although not realizing at the time that oil and natural gas would form the secret of such development. Subsequent events have deepened his faith in Kern county and he is now a "veritable encyclopedia" concerning its resources. In his opinion the discoveries of oil and natural gas are the greatest benefits California has ever received, not excepting gold. With the advent of natural gas in Bakersfield, pipes were laid to convey it to San Francisco and Los Angeles; while it is not inferior to manufactured gas for illuminating purposes, it has the advantage of a greater heat unit. After oil had given the state cheap fuel, California jumped from the twenty-fifth place

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in manufacturing to the eleventh, and Mr. Jastro believes that within a few years it will rank fourth or fifth among the manufacturing states. In his estimation this will come through the establishment of cotton and woolen fac- tories. Already cotton is being produced in large quantities in the state, while sheep always will be raised on lands adapted for no other purpose than graz- ing.

Through his marriage to Miss May E. Baker, who died in 1894, Mr. Jastro became allied with a notable family of Kern county, for his father-in-law, Col. Thomas Baker, is remembered in the annals of local history as the founder of Bakersfield. A son, Harry A., and two daughters were born of the union. One of the daughters, now residing at Albuquerque, N. M., is the wife of M. (). Chadbourne, son of Colonel Chadbourne, of San Francisco. Since the death of his wife Mr. Jastro has made his home with his widowed daughter, Mrs. May Greer, in a comfortable home in Bakersfield, and he is seldom away from the city except at such times as the demands of his large business inter- ests necessitate his presence elsewhere. His identification with Messrs. Carr and Haggin, the predecessors of the Kern County Land Company, began in 1874, four years after his location in Bakersfield. From that time to the pres- ent, excepting a period of about four years from 1886 to 1890, he has become more and more a power in the profitable development of this close corporation, comprising the estate of Lloyd Tevis (represented by William S. Tevis) and the holdings of J. B. Haggin, now of New York. Stockdale, one of the com- pany's great ranches, is the seat of the Tevis home. The tropical splendors of this ranch defy any description. One of the most unusual attractions is a bamboo forest, where the bamboo by actual measurement has grown twenty- five inches in twenty-four hours. The hothouse contains rare plants and the artificial lake is stocked with rare water fowl, while grottoes and foun- tains add to the charm of the ranch.

A colonization scheme by the manager of the company failed signally in 1903. Mr. Jastro, who had been with the company for nineteen years in differ- ent capacities, was chosen manager. The properties over which he has absolute control include four hundred and sixty thousand acres in California, six hun- dred and ten thousand acres in New Mexico, one hundred thousand acres in Arizona, and two hundred and twenty-five thousand acres in Mexico. An ex- tensive irrigation scheme has been installed by the general manager on the San Pedro river in Arizona and this will irrigate ten thousand acres. The site of the government Elephant Butte dam in New Mexico is on forty thousand acres formerly held by the company, but taken over by the government on an equitable basis. Water from the reclamation project will be used on the com- pany land.

As early as 1885 this company attempted to raise cotton and in that year they raised the first big crop of cotton ever grown in California. The product was of very fine quality, but labor conditions made the venture a failure. In order to secure the required number of cotton pickers they imported negroes, but they did not remain. Next they tried Chinamen, but cotton picking re- quires long fingers and the short Chinese fingers tore the staple. The industry was then abandoned. At the present time alfalfa and grain are the principal crops, but citrus and deciduous fruits and vines are raised, while in stock they have good success with every department, cattle, horses, mules, sheep and hogs. In Bakersfield and on the ranches the manager has established machine and wagon shops, warehouses, supply departments and tinshops, besides which he has built canals and waterworks. The cattle are raised in Arizona and New Mexico, then brought to Kern county for fattening on alfalfa or corn and chopped hay. Enough beef is produced to supply regularly eighty thousand people. The stock business conducted upon such an enor- mous scale calls for rare abilities, but the general manager has proved equal

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to every emergency and has displayed a sagacity, keen discrimination and wise foresight seldom equalled.

The fact that Mr. Jastro is a stanch Democrat has made no difference to the people in their solicitude to secure his public services. Republicans have displayed as much enthusiasm for him as supervisor as have the Democrats and during the great Roosevelt landslide in 1904, when the county gave a great Republican majority, he received a flattering majority for supervisor on the Democratic ticket. In fact, the people have divorced politics from public service in their desire for his able assistance in public affairs and in this respect they resemble Mr. Jastro himself, for one of his hobbies is the divorc- ing of trade relations and civic progress from politics. Five times elected president of the National Live Stock Association (the last time at Phoenix, Ariz., in January of 1913), in that office he has made a study of the tariff question in connection with the hides and wool schedule. It is his belief that the commerce of our country will not much longer permit itself to be a prey to political vicissitudes. As a remedial agency he favors the appointment of a board of tariff commissioners on a non-partisan basis, such board to be continuously in session and have the power to adjust the tariff duties as occa- sion may demand. The action of President Taft in appointing tariff commis- sioners he regards as a step in the right direction. As a member of the state board of agriculture of which he was president for three terms his able services have been given to the uplifting of the farmer, whose interests he believes to be second to none in importance if the permanent prosperity of our commonwealth is to be conserved. In every post of honor accepted by him he has given dignified and noteworthy service. With his commanding presence and magnetic personality, he is equally a power among the great- est captains of industry in the country and among the humbler workers of life's great field. His name ever will stand at the very forefront in the annals of Kern county and in the history of the stock industry throughout the west.

PETER GARDETTE .- A record of the life of Peter Gardette is in many respects an epitome of the agricultural development of Kern county, whither he came at a period so early that no county organization had yet been effected and few emigrants had endeavored to surmount the sufferings inci- dent to existence on plains undeveloped, unsettled and often drought-stricken. The tenacity of purpose which characterized him is exhibited in his fearless attempt to aid in the huge task of pioneer development. While he knew little of frontier hardships, he had learned to be persistent in labor and self-reliant in action, and every former association of his busy life had qualified him for pioneering. Born near Danzig, Prussia, December 22, 1825, he had attended a school of navigation in youth and then had followed the sea for a livelihood. During 1851 the ship on which he was employed sailed around the Horn and came up the Pacific to San Francisco. The influx of emigrants had not lessened since the first excitement caused by the discovery of gold. Swept away from former plans by the contagion of large throngs making for the mines, he left his ship at San Francisco, although he did not follow the gen- eral example in trying his luck at the mines. Instead he spent a winter in San Francisco. It was a season of great excitement. Not the least important of his experiences there was a participation in fighting the great fire of that winter which almost destroyed the city. Shortly afterward he left the city for the mines of Mariposa county and in April, 1854, when the first excite- ment was aroused through the discovery of gold at Keyesville, then in Tulare county, he followed the rush of travel to the new camp.

It was the privilege of Mr. Gardette to witness the organization of Kern county and to be one of the very first citizens admitted by naturalization papers, this being about 1866. In partnership with Judge Sayles, later of

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Fresno, now deceased, he started a general store on Greenhorn mountain at the present site of the camp of the forest supervisors. Within ten miles of the store he located a homestead on Poso Flat, where he began to raise cattle and sheep. His brand, the capital letter "S," was the very first to be recorded in Kern county and is now used by his son, Henry B., who continues the stock business at the old homestead. A log cabin was built on the claim as early as 1859 and in it the pioneer stockman kept bachelor's hall for some time. Eventually his means permitted him to provide better accommodations and in 1871 he erected a frame house that still stands. Meanwhile he had put in a valuable irrigation system for his own use and had purchased adjacent land, so that five hundred and twenty acres were devoted to grain and alfalfa. When his children began to need educational advantages he erected a resi- dence on the corner of F and Twenty-first streets, Bakersfield, and there the family maintained their headquarters, although much of his time continued to be spent upon the ranch until his final retirement from heavy manual work. It was not until 1905 that he relinquished the management of the ranch into the hands of his son, Henry B., and thereupon he retired to private life, spending his last days quietly in Bakersfield, where he died May 19, 1911, at the family residence.

The marriage of Peter Gardette occurred in San Francisco March 24, 1871, and united him with Miss Agnes E. A. Weber, a native of Dresden, Saxony, and a daughter of Henry and Augusta W. (Otto) Weber. Her father followed the occupation of a builder and both he and his wife remained in Saxony until their death. During young womanhood Mrs. Gardette left her home in Ger- many and came via Panama to California in 1868, settling at Visalia. Three years later she became the wife of Mr. Gardette and accompanied him to the ranch in Kern county. Since the death of her husband she has continued to reside in Bakersfield and has superintended her business matters with quiet, keen capability, one of her undertakings having been the building, with her son, Henry B., of the Kern Valley garage on the corner of L and Eighteenth streets. For years she has been identified with the Kern County Pioneer Society, to which Mr. Gardette also belonged, he having been at the time of his demise one of the very oldest settlers of the county. In religion she is of the Episcopalian faith, while he was reared in the Lutheran denomination and always adhered to its doctrines and creed. Their family consists of four children, of whom one daughter, Margaret D., is a successful teacher in the Bakersfield schools; a son, Henry B., continues at the old home ranch; Mrs. Mildred Munsey is a resident of Bakersfield, and the younger son, Helmuth C., follows the occupation of an electrical engineer in Los Angeles.

W. S. WILHELM .- The president and general manager of the Mari- copa Queen Oil Company is an lowan by birth and was born in Musca- tine October 16, 1864, being a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Christ) Wilhelm. The lineage of the family is traced back to worthy Teutonic progenitors. Very early in the colonization of America members of the family crossed the ocean from Germany and identified themselves with the material upbuilding of the new country. Later generations became pioneers of Iowa. The Muscatine branch of the family had little means, but possessed worth of character and nobility of purpose. In the midst of discouragements and poverty they re- tained their devotion to the higher principles of life. It was not possible for W. S. to attend school with any regularity, yet he has become a man of the broadest information and widest culture. Brought up to a life of hard work on a farm, when only fourteen years of age he engaged in cutting wood at sixty cents a cord. By such work he supported himself in the months of winter. The summer seasons were given to farming. The sterling qualities of industry and thrift instilled in his mind during youth have stood him in good stead through his subsequent career. For a time in young manhood he was con-

8 M. Robert

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nected with the secret service of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad in Missouri. While employed in that state he met and married Miss Dora J. Duncan, a cultured woman who in every way has promoted his success and enhanced his happiness. Seven children blessed their union and they still remain to brighten the elegant and attractive family residence in Long Beach.

For two years after his marriage Mr. Wilhelm engaged in farming in Missouri, but later he removed to Colorado and interested himself in mining. By slow degrees he rose to wealth. Important interests were acquired not only in Colorado, but also in Idaho, Montana and Nevada. Since coming to California and establishing a home in Long Beach he has devoted much of his time to the interests of the Maricopa Queen Oil Company, of which he is president and general manager. The company has the distinction of owning an exceedingly valuable lease, comprising twenty acres on section 32, town- ship 12, range 23, in the Sunset-Midway field. There are now seven wells on the lease and two of these flow from fifteen hundred to two thousand barrels per day. In the development of this important lease Mr. Wilhelm has used his large means lavishly and the returns have fully justified his most sanguine expectations. In addition to his holdings previously men- tioned he has valuable mining properties in the west and considerable oil property in Texas.

COL. E. M. ROBERTS .- Martial valor has been a leading characteristic of the Roberts family during the entire period of its known history, which in America dates from the colonial period of Virginian settlement and reveals a record of patriotic devotion guided by a high order of intelligence. It is worthy of note that not only the Colonel's paternal grandfather, but likewise his maternal grandfather, Adam Harber. served under General Jackson in the memorable battle of New Orleans during the war of 1812 and gave loyal service to the country throughout that historic struggle. Of English birth and honorable Anglo-Saxon lineage, Mr. Harber had immigrated to the new world during young manhood, settled upon a plantation in Tennessee and married a southern lady. Their daughter, Annie Aletha, a native of Tennessee and a lifelong resident of that state, became the wife of H. B. Roberts, who was born in North Carolina. While still a young woman she passed away, leaving a family of three sons and one daughter, the eldest son, E. M., having been born at Chapelhill, Marshall county, Tenn., September 11, 1843. After the death of the mother the children were taken to Missouri in 1849 by their father, who settled in Springfield in the midst of a vast tract of unimproved acreage. Being a skilled mechanic he opened a blacksmith's shop and there he made the first moldboard plow ever seen in Springfield. With this he turned the first furrows in the soil of his raw land. The other settlers, seeing the success of his invention, engaged him to manufacture similar implements for their use. The first decade of his residence in Missouri brought him grati- fying success and, had fate spared him for later usefulness, he would have gained financial prosperity. Through all of his life a resident of the south, in sympathy with its institutions, devoted to its people and attached to its policies, he naturally embraced the Confederate side at the opening of the Civil war. At the very outset he enlisted under General Price, but it was not his destiny to see the defeat of the Southern flag. Near the close of the year 1861, while in active service, he died in Springfield at the age of forty-five years.

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History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 26

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1682

Author: Morgan, Wallace Melvin, 1868- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1682