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 27

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 27

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Among the memories of childhood days treasured in the mind of Col- onel Roberts are those associated with the removal of the family from Ten- nessee to Missouri when he was six years of age. In company with a train of emigrants comprising probably thirty teams he and other members of his family journeyed in their own wagon drawn by oxen and crossed the Mississippi at St. Louis in a ferry run by horsepower. The frontier of

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Missouri was the environment of his boyhood. The country was new and settlers few. so that schools were widely scattered. About two or three months of each year a subscription school was held six miles from his home and to it he walked each day. Notwithstanding the handicap of limited education he became a man of broad information and fine mental attain- ments. During the opening year of the Civil war he lost his father, and the example of that gallant Confederate soldier led him to enlist in the Southern army. During 1862, when scarcely nineteen years of age, he enlisted in Company A, Third Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, under Col. Dick Campbell, of Springfield, Mo., remaining at the front until he gave up his arms at Shreveport, La., in June of 1865. Among the engagements in which he bore a part were those of Pea Ridge, Cain Springs, Saline River, Prairie Grove, Poison Springs, Hartville (where he had a horse shot under him), Camden and Pine Bluff, all in Arkansas, besides which he fought in Price's raid, where six weeks were given to continuous skirmishing, includ- ing the battles of Iron Mountain, Jefferson City, Herman, Little Blue and Big Blue, Brush Creek, Ilelena, Little Rock and Granby, Ark.

During the battle of Saline River the young Southern soldier served as an orderly for General Shelby. Many years later, when the General was serving as United States Marshal of Missouri and had engaged a negro lad to act as deputy. Colonel Roberts met his old commander and inquired about the deputy. General Shelby replied that the boy's father and mother took care of and saved his family from danger during the Civil war and the gratitude which he felt caused him to recognize the undoubted worth of their son. Returning home at the close of the war. Colonel Roberts visited there for a month and then went to Kansas City in search of employment, landing there without a dollar. His first position, which he held for four vears, was that of assistant in a saw mill at $33.33 per month. When he left the place he had saved an amount sufficient to buy one hundred and sixty acres near Paola, Miami county, Kansas, and to that location he moved, beginning there in agricultural undertakings that continued with fair success until the grasshoppers in 1874 completely destroyed his crop. With such funds as he could secure from the disaster he came to California in September, 1874, and settled at Oakland, where he formed a partnership in the butcher business. There he not only lost the balance of his money, but was left in debt. Beginning anew he became buyer for H. M. Ames. Six months later he paid the last of his debts, besides which he had been able to buy a span of horses, harness and wagon. With $20 in cash and his team, accompanied by his wife and child, he came to the San Joaquin country in April of 1876. On the first of May he arrived in Kern county and located on one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land, which he im- proved with such success that the railroad company charged him $10 an acre for the place, an excessive amount for those days. One year after com- ing to the valley he became superintendent of canal work for the Kern County Land Company (later known as Haggin & Co.), and in addition he had the contract for building the Beardsley canal of thirty miles and the McCord canal of fifteen miles. With a partner. W. H. Brand, he built twenty-five miles of the Calloway canal and the East Side canal of twenty- seven miles. Under his direction about sixteen sections of desert land were reclaimed for the Kern County Land Company, and after ditches had been dug and the land brought under irrigation, settlers could legally prove up on claims.

The trials of frontier existence are indicated by the fact that when Colonel Roberts began to farm in Kern county he and his wife lived in a brush shed for a time, then occupied a log cabin and next had to content themselves with a box-house 12x15. Finally, however, his increasing pros- perity was evidenced by the erection of a two-story residence of ten rooms,

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considered the finest farm house in the entire county in its day. Besides raising fine horses and mules extensively, he had one hundred milch cows comprising one of the largest dairy herds in the county. From time to time he added to his ranch until he owned three hundred and thirty-one acres under cultivation to alfalfa and fitted for the stock industry and dairy business through valuable improvements. During March of 1909 he sold the ranch at an excellent figure and removed to Bakersfield, where he owns and occupies a commodious residence at No. 2402 L street. In ad- dition he owns about twenty houses in Bakersfield and a ranch of one hun- dred and twenty acres in the county, besides being interested in oil lands. Throughout his long identification with the San Joaquin valley he has favored every enterprise for its development. From early life a Democrat, stanch in his adherence to party principles, he has been a local leader and for sixteen years or more has served as chairman of the Kern county Democratic central committee. For seven years he was a member of the board of supervisors and during four years of that time he officiated as its chairman. The congressional and state central committees of his party have had the benefit of his ripened judgment and intense devotion to party tenets. At the time of the election of Governor Gage he was the Democratic nominee for state senator in a district that gives a customary Republican majority of five hundred. Notwithstanding the fact that the Republicans received an overwhelming majority at that election he was defeated by only thirty-two votes, which in itself furnishes a tribute to his popularity and high standing in the district. The Bakersfield Board of Trade for years has had his name upon its membership roll and other organizations for local progress have enjoyed the aid of his splendid citizenship. Fraternally he is identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Ancient Order of United Workmen.

While living in Kansas City, Mo., Colonel Roberts married Miss Lydia Eaton, who was born in Ontario, Canada, and descended directly from Sir Francis Eaton of England, who crossed the ocean to Plymouth as a pas- senger on the historic Mayflower. The family owned a large estate in England. but the American descendants were never able to secure their share of the property. Three children of Colonel and Mrs. Roberts are now living and all reside in Bakersfield, viz .: Mrs. Maude Davis, Mrs. Daisy Pyle and Herbert. The older son, Lynn, enlisted in the Sixth California Regiment at the opening of the Spanish-American war and died in the service while stationed with his company at San Francisco.

W. W. KAYE .- The senior member of the law firm of Kaye & Siemon, who is also widely known as one of the most scholarly men of Kern county and one of the leading representatives of the Bakersfield bar, came to the west from Iowa. On a farm near Riverside, Washington county, that state, where he was born June 26, 1869, and where he spent the first seventeen years of his life, his parents, Jesse I. and Anna L. (Kling) Kaye, labored with self-sacrificing devotion to provide a livelihood for their family. While still in the midst of the struggle the father died on the home farm. The mother, who was a native of Pennsylvania, but a resident of Iowa throughout all of her active life, was privileged to reap the reward of her patient industry, and now, at the age of eighty-four years, is passing her declining days at Boulder, Colo., where she is surrounded by the comforts deservedly won in those years of strenuous labor. It was not possible to give the son good educational ad- vantages, but with characteristic ambition he determined to work his way through school. The splendid university education which he acquired rep- resents his unaided exertions. At the age of seventeen he entered the Iowa City Academy, from which he was graduated in 1889. During the fall of that year he matriculated in the Iowa State University and in 1893 he was graduated from the classical course of that institution. Meanwhile he had

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devoted eighteen hours of each day to study or to teaching, for in order to pay his expenses in the university he had taught higher arithmetic, algebra, geometry and physics in the academy.

Immediately after his graduation from the university in 1893 Mr. Kaye went to Washington and organized the high school at Waterville, of which he was chosen the first principal. During the two years of his service in that position he placed the school upon a substantial basis and raised its standard so that all of its graduates were eligible to admission to any uni- versity, their names being placed on the accredited list according to their standing. After two years at Waterville he left Washington for California and entered the Hastings Law School of San Francisco, from which in 1898 he received the degree of LL. B. During the same year he was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of California. Meanwhile he had paid all of his expenses in the law school. For a time he had taught school at Berkeley, Cal., and in addition as a traveling salesman carrying a commercial line he visited every town from Seattle to San Francisco. At various times lie worked in the law offices of Judge A. W. Thompson, C. L. Tilden, W. H. Payson and A. H. Ricketts. After graduating from the law college he spent several years with Curtis H. Lindley, author of Lindley on Mines, his special task being the making of an abstract on all current decisions of state and federal courts pertaining to mining laws. The abstract thus prepared played an important part in the preparation of the second edition of Lindley on Mines, which now is the standard text-book on mining law. When Mr. Lindley began to prepare data for his treatise on the Law of Waters, he engaged Mr. Kaye to abstract all statutes and state and federal decisions per- taining to the subject. Another task that commanded much of his time was important editorial work for a very prominent firm of publishers of law books.

Upon coming to Bakersfield in 1902 and opening a law office, Mr. Kaye formed a partnership with C. V. Anderson under the firm name of Anderson & Kaye. Three years later the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Kaye opened an office in the Hopkins building, where he has continued ever since. During June of 1911 he formed a partnership with Alfred Siemon, who had come to Bakersfield early in the previous year and had identified himself with the Title Assurance Company as its secretary. The firm carry on a general practice in all of the courts and are consulted for every class of legal advice. The interests of their large clientele are protected with skill and success. To aid them in their practice they have one of the best law libraries of the San Joaquin valley, these books having been gathered together by Mr. Kaye during his stay in San Francisco and representing the decisions of the best legal lights of this and preceding eras.

Much of the success of Mr. Kaye is due to his fondness for work. The most difficult and intricate case does not weary him, but spurs him on to further efforts in his zeal to unravel knotty law problems. No case can be presented to him that he finds too intricate for his eager mind. An invet- erate, tireless worker, he finds his greatest pleasure in tasks that would dis- may men of lesser energy and to this fact may be attributed much of his success in the law. Good judgment is responsible for much of his financial success. Investments have been made sagaciously and have brought him gratifying returns. Included in his possessions are a ranch of two hundred and thirty acres with an adequate pumping plant, citrus property east of Kern, suburban acreage, town lots, a controlling interest in the stock of the Kern Citrus Realty Company, and a modern and attractive residence on North B street, Bakersfield. This home is brightened by the presence of his four children, Louise, William Minton, Emelie and Jessie, and presided over with dignity and grace by his accomplished wife, a woman of culture and at one time a teacher. Born in Oregon, she bore the maiden name of Fanny

OBarton

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B. Minton and received excellent educational advantages, which she utilized in her chosen profession. During 1895 she became the wife of Mr. Kaye at Berkeley, where they established a home and resided until their removal to Bakersfield. Politically a Republican, Mr. Kaye has served as secretary of the Kern county central committee and has been very influential in local party affairs. Fraternally a Mason of the Shriner degree, he has been chosen past master of Bakersfield Lodge No. 224,, F. & A. M., also has served as past high priest of Bakersfield Chapter No. 75, R. A. M., and has been an officer in Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T., all of which degrees of the order have benefited by his devotion to their advancement and his cordial co- operation in all of their philanthropies.

HON. CHARLES A. BARLOW AND WILLIAM H. HILL .- No industry has contributed in greater degree to the wealth of Kern county than that of oil development and probably no firm has been identified more intimately with the advancement of the industry during the past decade than that of Barlow & Hill. a title familiar to all who have kept in touch with local progress. Since the organization of the firm in 1902 they have organized many companies. all of which have been successful, and the six which they now operate have shares of stock that are quoted as gilt-edged security with a continuous tendency to rise in public and private markets. Besides the six companies they are at present interested in Maricopa and Midway oil properties and in addition have been successful in establishing a national reputation for Sunset road oil, which is extensively used in the states of California. Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Texas and Idaho and, in fact, as far east as Kansas City. To the enter- prise, knowledge and direction of the two members of the firm, Kern county is in a great measure indebted for its present high standing as an oil-pro- ducing section. No temporary discouragement has lessened their faith in the oil industry of this region and in the natural mineral wealth of the state. Thoroughly optimistic in temperament, yet conservative in action, they stand for that large element of loyal citizenship indissolubly associated with the progress of city, county and commonwealth.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, March 17, 1858. Hon. Charles Averill Barlow is a son of Hon. Merrill and Ann Frances (Arnold) Barlow, the former a distinguished attorney in Cleveland, who during the war administration was selected to serve as quartermaster-general of Ohio. About 1872, when forty-eight years of age, he was stricken suddenly with apoplexy and passed from earth before he had achieved financial success, but in the midst of a remarkable professional career that had brought him fame as a leading crim- inal lawyer of Cleveland. Surviving him were his wife and four children, the latter named as follows: Coralinne, now the wife of James S. Rice, a retired orange-grower living at Tustin, Orange county. Cal .: Charles Averill, of Bakersfield; Edward Sumner, who resides on the old home farm at Ventura, this state; and Belle Remington, now the wife of Frank Bates, of Ventura. When the family came to California about the year 1875 they settled at Ventura-by-the-sea and C. A., then a youth of seventeen years, began with eagerness to study western conditions, resources and prospects, meanwhile earning a livelihood on farms and in various occupations in town. Possessing ideas that were in advance of his time, he joined enthusiastically in many reform movements and for such work he found a favorable opening when he and a partner, Mr. Tuley, established and conducted the Reasoner, a weekly paper that became the Populist organ for San Luis Obispo county. As early as 1888 he began to support the free silver cause and for years he was the leading exponent of that movement in his part of the state. Dur- ing 1893 the Populist party elected him to the state legislature, where he served not only with fidelity, but even with distinction.

With the assistance of the votes of free silver Republicans Mr. Barlow

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in 1896 was elected by the Populist party to the Fifty-fifth congress as the representative from the sixth congressional district, which at that time included the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Santa Cruz. In congress he distinguished himself for his uncompromising stand in favor of reform measures. Credited to his efforts was the passage of a bill setting aside the Pine mountain forest reservation. comprising several million acres of land extending south almost as far as Pasadena. Other measures for the permanent benefit of the state and the people received his steadfast aid. When the principles of the Popu- list party were to some extent adopted by the Democrats, he turned to the older party organization, in which since he has been an active worker. During 1912 he was chosen one of four delegates-at-large from California to the national Democratic convention at Baltimore that nominated Woodrow Wilson for President of the United States. The American Mining Congress, of which he is a member, selected him as committeeman to propose a plank in the national Democratic platform of that year favorable to mining and the oil industry.

During 1901 Mr. Barlow and his accomplished wife, who was formerly Miss Elizabeth McDonell, of Ventura county, established their home in Bakersfield, where they erected and now occupy a beautiful residence fitted with all modern improvements and conveniences. Since his removal to this city Mr. Barlow has become a very prominent citizen and has served ably as president of the Kern county board of trade, besides being a large stock- holder and one of the directors in the new Security Trust Company. In business circles he enjoys a high reputation. Fraternally he has been actively associated with the Woodmen, Elks and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Since 1902 he has been a partner of W. H. Hill, a resident of California and Bakersfield from the year 1901 and a native of Geneseo, Liv- ingston county, N. Y., born November 19, 1848. While yet very young Mr. Hill began to work in the lumber business and for years he gave to that occupation his entire time and attention. For twelve years he served as chair- man of the board of supervisors of Schoolcraft county, Mich. Since coming west he has become known as a well-informed, accurate business man and his counsel is much sought, particularly by those wishing to embark in the oil business. He is a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of Bakersfield and the Producers' Savings Bank. Like his partner, he owns a fine home in Bakersfield and is a firm believer in a prosperous future assured for the city.

Concerning the firm of Barlow & Hill we quote the following from the oil review edition of the Morning Echo, Bakersfield, February 28, 1911: "Califor- nia has no better known industry than oil and the oil industry has no more well known firm than Barlow & Hill, for the past nine years doing a large busi- ness in Bakersfield and Kern county as dealers in oil lands and producing oil companies, essentially the latter. The personnel of the firm, C. A. Barlow and W. H. Hill, assures its high standing and gives confidence to its con- stantly increasing clientele. Barlow & Hill formed a partnership in August. 1902, to deal in oil lands. Since that time they have organized many oil companies, all of which have become producers, and Barlow & Hill have never taken a dollar of their clients' money but what in each case the com- pany joined the ranks of the paying producers. They have six oil com- panies of their own and are extensively interested in Maricopa and Midway oil properties. They rehabilitated three oil companies which were sold to eastern capitalists and have produced oil in quantities as claimed by the firm, frequently in excess of their estimates. Among the many successful ven- tures which Barlow & Hill have had to deal with was the making of the country-wide reputation for Sunset road oil. They took hold of the Sunset companies at Maricopa when it was considered unprofitable and well-nigh

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impracticable to handle this oil, owing to its being too heavy and hard for fuel purposes. But Barlow & Hill were not discouraged and by dint of their well-directed efforts Sunset road oil or its equivalent has become a part of the specifications in road-building with oil as demanded by municipalities on the Pacific coast and elsewhere.

A Half Century of Progress, Bakersfield and Kern County, 1912, in mentioning the progressive business efforts of Barlow & Hill, give the following summary of their work in the oil industry and the importance of this industry to the development of local wealth: "It should be a matter of the liveliest satisfaction to the people of California to know that no single corporation or group of individuals is controlling the destiny of the state's oil industry by the monopolization of territory, rate of development and production, or the fixing of arbitrary prices. The petroleum interests of California are too big for any combination of capital to swing and manipu- late at will for any period of time. Petroleum apparently exists in every section of this big commonwealth, so blessed by nature in the glories of sky and air, in the ocean about it and in its pregnant soil, blessed even in the bowels of its earth, which yield a rich return to man's labor almost for the asking. There are any number of safe investments in Kern county open to inspection. Money must be active to make quick and large profits. Slow money slowly responds with slow interest. The investor who is content with the latter is out of joint with the times and in the rear end of the race for competency and wealth. No class of speculative investment is safer or promises larger profits than investment in oil companies backed by unlim- ited capital and experience, and directed by reputable men. Such is the character of the six oil companies operated by Barlow & Hill, a firm estab- lished in 1902 to deal in oil lands, and that since has been one of the effectual forces in the building up of the oil industry in Kern county. Among their many successful ventures was the making of a country-wide reputation for Sunset road oil. The two partners in the firm are widely known and are numbered among the most influential men of the community, taking an active interest in all measures for the advancement of Bakersfield and her commercial interests."

JOHN ALFRED FREEAR .- The superintendent of the Maricopa Queen Oil Company's lease of twenty acres occupies a position of importance in the Sunset-Midway field. Not alone a native of California, but also born in Kern county and practically a lifelong resident hereof, he is deeply devoted to this portion of the state, believes in its future possibilities and promotes with enthusiasm all movements for the local progress. With his twin brother, James Albian, likewise associated with the Maricopa Queen lease, he has exhibited a devotion to work, a morality of conduct and a talent for the oil business that reflects credit upon himself and upon his native county, the two men displaying an efficiency and thoroughness that came to them as an inheri- tance from worthy parents and patriotic ancestry.

Born in Bakersfield August 24, 1885, John Alfred Freear was primarily educated in the schools of that city and in 1905 was graduated from Heald's Business College at Stockton. During early life he had become familiar with farming in the old River district, but agriculture interested him less than oil enterprises and it is not strange that his preferences led him to seek employ- ment in the oil fields. For a short time he engaged as bookkeeper for the Associated and Union Oil Companies in the Kern river field and there too he gained practical experience in the industry through working as a roustabout. From this county he went to the Santa Maria oil field and remained four years, meanwhile learning to dress tools and to drill wells. Upon returning to Kern county and coming to the west side field, in 1909, he secured employment on the Maricopa Queen lease of twenty acres, situated on section 32, township

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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 27

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