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 31

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 31

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In a family comprising four sons and two daughters, of whom two of

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the sons are deceased, William Vandever Matlack was third in order of birth and was reared in Philadelphia, where he was graduated from the high school and where later he held a mercantile position. Coming to California in 1887, he made a sojourn of two years in Monrovia and in 1889 settled at Bakersfield, where since he has made his home and where he has wielded a large influence as public-spirited citizen and progressive business man. For some years he was associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, first as an assistant and later as chief clerk of the Bakersfield freight office. During 1898 he was chosen local freight and passenger agent, a position of great responsibility, which he filled with recognized efficiency and tact. Resigning in 1908 to accept a position as assistant cashier of the Bank of Bakersfield, he entered upon his present connection with the financial affairs of his home city. Since February 1, 1911, he has been cashier of the bank of the Security Trust Company. While still living in Philadelphia he married Miss Margaret V. Mendenhall, who was born in that city and descended from English ancestry. They are the parents of five daughters, Florence, Edith, Lydia, Mary and Ellen.

Ever since attaining his majority Mr. Matlack has voted with the Re- publican party. Throughout the entire period of his residence in Bakers- field he has maintained an unceasing interest in civic and educational affairs. During 1891 he was elected a member of the Sumner school board and for fifteen years he served as derk of that organization, two new schoolhouses being erected during the term of his service. During April of 1908 he was elected a member of the Kern board of trustees and in the summer of the same year he was chosen chairman to fill a vacancy caused by the death of James L. de Pauli. Upon the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern in 1910 and the organization of Bakersfield as a city of the fifth class, as decided upon by a majority of the voters of both towns, a new election was held July 10, 1910, and Mr. Matlack was chosen a member of the board of trustees of the new city. At the organization of the board he was elected its president. The election of April, 1911, again made him a member of the board of trustees and again he was chosen president of the board, which position he now fills, discharging its duties with characteristic energy and efficiency. For years he has been a leading local worker in the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, in which he served as Exalted Ruler, and in addition he has been associated with the Bakersfield Club. In Pennsylvania he was made a Mason in Fort Washington Lodge, A. F. & A. M.

The Security Trust Company, of which Mr. Matlack is cashier, was incorporated October 7, 1910, with an original paid-up capital of $300,000, but which was increased to $500,000 on January 21, 1913, and conducts business at Chester avenue and Eighteenth street. A savings department forms an important addition to the bank. There is also a trust department, which acts as executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, etc., and the advan- tages of a strong and perpetual company over individuals in these capacities are too apparent and too universally recognized to call for special comment: The safety deposit department is outfitted with fire and burglar-proof vaults, with rental compartments convenient for the needs of patrons. Since its inception the bank has pursued a conservative course in the making of loans and has won the confidence of a growing list of depositors. On October 19, 1912, the Bank of Bakersfield was purchased and consolidated with the Se- curity Trust Company, whose deposits have now reached practically $3.000,- 000. The success of the concern may be attributed to the sagacious judg- ment of its officers and directors, who are as follows: G. J. Planz, Presi- dent ; William V. Matlack, cashier ; C. A. Barlow, D. L. Brown, A. S. Crites, W. W. Colm, W. W. Frazier, H. R. Peacock, Chris Mattley, J. M. Jameson, J. A. Hughes, D. Hirshfeld, L. P. St. Clair, G. J. Planz. F. W. Warthorst, J. W. Heard and W. A. Howell.

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WALTER OSBORN .- Education and experience alike abundantly qualify Mr. Osborn for able services in the profession of law. When first he determined upon his future calling he placed before himself a high ideal and aspired to gain a classical and legal education that would give himn a standing equal to the best. Studious in childhood, always near the head of his class in the public schools, he carried the same devotion to scholarship into college and university and allowed no trivial matter to lessen his ardor for his books. The result was that he acquired a broad knowledge concerning all subjects of general importance, while in his specialty he grasped the principles of jurisprudence with a calm, logical and well-trained mind, and upon receiving his degree entered upon a professional career with every promise of success. During the course of his practice in Indiana he was more than ordinarily popular and it was only the failure of his health that induced him to sever ties so promising for future gains. Since he came to Bakersfield he has been given a place in the profession for which his talents, education and former record qualify him.

The youngest of eight children, all of whom lived to maturity, Walter Osborn was born near Wanatah, LaPorte county, Ind., June 10, 1875, being a son of John and Jane (McIntyre) Osborn, both now deceased. The father passed away when his youngest child was a boy of ten years, but the mother, a woman of energy and capability, did not permit the education of the chil- dren to be neglected by reason of their bereavement, and she constantly aided the boy in his efforts to secure the best possible advantages. After he had completed the high-school course at Wanatah he entered Valparaiso Uni- versity, where he took the commercial course. Next he matriculated in the classical department of Indiana University at Bloomington, from which he was graduated in 1902 with the degree of A.B. Continuing in the same insti- tution as a law student, he completed the regular course and in 1904 received the degree of LL.B., at the same time winning admission to the state and federal courts of the Indiana bar.

Three and one-half years of association with the firm of Anderson, Parker & Crabill, of South Bend, Ind., proved most helpful to the young law- yer, who left them in order to form a partnership with Charles Weidler under the firm name of Weidler & Osborn. For one and one-half years he remained in that connection and meanwhile enjoyed a steady growth in practice, laying the foundation of a success that would have been permanent had not the failure of his health forced him to seek another climate. Altogether, his experience in South Bend has proved most helpful to him in later activities. The firm with which he first associated was one of great prominence, repre- senting the Grand Trunk Railroad, the Pennsylvania lines, St. Joseph County Savings Bank, Studebaker Bros. Manufacturing Company and other large corporations of that important manufacturing city. Upon leaving the state he spent fifteen months in the Coeur d'Alene district of Idaho, whence in October of 1910 he came to California, settling in Bakersfield on the 13th of December of the same year. On the 12th of that month he was admitted to practice in the courts of California, this being about six years after he had been admitted to practice in the St. Joseph Circuit Court of Indiana, the Supreme Court of that state and the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Indiana.

As an attorney Mr. Osborn is to be credited for two things particularly, first : he makes a very thorough preparation of each case and his briefs on questions of law are most thorough ; second, he is a lawyer of strict integrity. To these particulars he clings with most unswerving fidelity, much to the advantage of his growing clientage. While engaged in practice in Indiana he married at Remington, that state, April 27, 1905, Miss Priscilla Hawkins, by whom he lias two children, Marion B, and Priscilla J. In politics he is

P.S. Mbutcher

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stanch in allegiance to Democratic principles and the present administration. Fraternally he holds membership with the Elks and Masons and is a firm believer in the principles of kindness, philanthropy and helpful comradeship for which these orders stand.

PRESTON SMITH MCCUTCHEN .- Very early in the colonization of America the Mccutchen family became identified with the agricultural devel- opment of a region lying near the Atlantic seaboard. In the new world, as in their former home in Scotland, they evinced a forceful and resolute deter- mination that won local prestige. Not the least conspicuous member of the family and certainly one of its most gallant patriots and honored representa- tives was James Corsey Mccutchen, a native of Georgia and a soldier in the war of 1812, where only his lack of education prevented him from winning an officer's commission. Upon the close of the war he engaged in the trade of blacksmithing in Virginia. However, while giving his days to manual labor, he devoted his evenings to study, for he was ambitious to make up for lack of early advantages. After he had attained man's estate he took up the common branches of study, taught himself by dint of resolute perse- verance and eventually became the possessor of a broad fund of information along every line of mental activity. Particularly was he thorough in math- ematics and his work in that line showed considerable native talent. Withal, he was a skilled mechanic, a capable blacksmith and invented a process of setting wagon tires which has never since been improved upon by anyone.

While living in Virginia James Corsey Mccutchen married Mrs. Mary Humphreys, a widow with three children, James, William and Jane. Born in the Old Dominion. she was a daughter of John Nevins, an Irishman who enlisted under the English flag and became a sailor in the British navy, but deserted his ship in order that he might enlist in the feeble army of patriots fighting for liberty during the Revolutionary war. Having served with dis- tinction until the close of the struggle, he then secured an honorable discharge and settled in Virginia to devote his remaining years to development work in his adopted country. In person he was stalwart and strong, the possessor of a splendid physique, while temperamentally he had the characteristics of the Celt. His daughter, Mary (or Polly, as she was called in the home circle) became the wife of John Humphreys, who served as a commissioned officer during the war of 1812 and remained at the front until he was shot in battle. A few years later the widow became the wife of James Corsey Mccutchen. Nine children were born of their union, namely : John N., Allen (who died at the age of six months), Preston Smith, Robert Sloan, Nancy, Martha, Mary Margery, Elizabeth and Perry.

From Virginia the family removed to Missouri and after a brief sojourn in St. Louis proceeded up the river to St. Charles, where the second son, Preston Smith, was born February 24, 1820. In March of that year the family removed to Callaway county, Mo., where the father not only had a blacksmith shop, but also cultivated land. Leaving Missouri in 1836, he took the family to Iowa and settled on a tract of raw land in Van Buren county. where his wife died. Later he married a second time, but had no children by that union. In 1854 he died at the old Iowa homestead. When the family left Missouri Preston Smith Mccutchen was a youth of sixteen. strong and sturdy, eager to be of use in the home and in the world. His father had not permitted any of the boys to learn blacksmithing, therefore he had turned his attention to farming and kindred pursuits. In those days one of the most important tasks on a farm was the clearing of the land and no one could use an axe with greater skill than he, nor could any of the young farmers of the locality surpass him in swinging a scythe or in cradling the grain. Agri- culture was then conducted in somewhat primitive fashion. for the magnifi-

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cent harvesters of the present day, the drills, pulverizers, planters and other modern machinery had not then come into use.

While living in Van Buren county Mr. Mccutchen married Miss Jane Wilsey, a splendid young woman, who contributed much to his later success. Of the union there are eight children. namely : James B., Warren C., George W., and Edmund W., who are represented elsewhere in this volume; Mary A., wife of C. W. Johnson, whose sketch appears on another page; Clara J., widow of William G. Wallace and a resident of the vicinity of Hanford; Harriet C., wife of Benjamin Scott, a contractor in San Francisco; and Robert Lincoln, the youngest of the family, and living ten miles southwest of Bakers- field. The MeCutchen brothers not only own some of the best producing wells in the Sunset Midway oil field, but also own considerable good agricul- tural land as well as dairy farms in the Old River district south and west of Bakersfield.

The first trip made by Mr. Mccutchen across the plains occurred during the summer of 1850, when he accompanied an expedition of Argonauts to the western country. Starting from Bentonsport. Iowa, with a team of oxen and a wagon, he landed safely at Diamond Springs, Eldorado county, after a tedious trip of six months. In placer mining he met with a fair degree of success. Soon he was able to send $100 back to his wife and later he sent her $500, while in addition he forwarded $200 to pay off an indebtedness he had incurred. The balance of his money he took back in person, when he returned via Panama in 1853. The one-year old son had in his absence grown into a sturdy child of four years, but the success of the trip compensated him some- what for the long absence from his family. In 1854, accompanied by wife and child, he again crossed the plains with oxen and wagon. Upon his arrival in California he went to the mines of Placer county. After some three years he took his family to Sacramento county, bought land and started to develop a farm. Unfortunately it developed that the land was underlaid with hard pan, but he refused to give up until fourteen years of unsuccessful effort con- vinced him that it was useless to remain longer. Next he settled in the mountains of Monterey county and engaged in the sheep business, but his sons found the work uncongenial and on their account he removed to Kings county, taking up land five and one-half miles northeast of Hanford, where after the death of his wife in 1877 he made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Wallace. About 1911 his sons prevailed upon him to remove to Kern county and he now makes his home with his son, George W., on the Mccutchen Brothers Oil Company's lease near Maricopa. Every member of the family is devoted to his welfare and displays the most tender consideration for his happiness. Notwithstanding the fact that he has been a hard-working man, his ninety-three years rest lightly upon his broad shoulders and he still looks out myon life with the cheerful optimism. progressive spirit and keen men- tality more often found in youth than in age.

W. A. EARDLEY .- In the pioneer days of any community the flouring mill is an important enterprise. A leading concern of the kind is the Kern River mills, at Bakersfield, which branch of the Kern County Land Company was established to provide a demand for wheat grown in the country round about and to put a fine grade of flour on the local market. The mills, at Truxtun avenue and S street, include roller machinery of the latest type and up-to-date appliances generally such as are requisite to success in this branch of manufacture. The establishment consumes all the milling wheat grown in Kern county and large quantities of the choicest Kansas hard wheat and of the best wheat produced in Washington. All its wheat is scientifically tested and each and every sack of its flour is guaranteed to be as good as any flour offered in competition. W. A. Eardley. the superintendent under whose watchful care

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this business is carried on, is an experienced business and mill man, and has long been identified with the development of Bakersfield.

Born in England, a son of William Eardley, Mr. Eardley was brought when quite young to the United States by his father, who located at Granville, Washington county, N. Y. There the son was educated in public schools and also acquired a practical knowledge of the mercantile business. In 1885 he removed to Kane county, Ill., but after four years of clerking there he found a new field of enterprise at Salt Lake City, Utah. From there he came to Cali- fornia in 1893, settling in Los Angeles, where he engaged in the hotel business. In 1900 he removed to Bakersfield, where he was manager of the grocery department of Dinkelspiel Brothers until 1905. It was in the year last men- tioned that his connection with the milling department of the Kern County Land Company was begun.

As a citizen Mr. Eardley is progressive and thoroughly up-to-date, de- voted to the best interests of Bakersfield, of Kern county and of California He has advanced to high rank as a Mason. having been initiated into the order in Illinois as a member of Batavia Lodge No. 404, A. F. & A. M., with which De still affiliates while holding membership in the Kern Valley Chapter, R. A. M .. Bakersfield Commandery No. 39, K. T .. and Al Malaikah Temple. N. M. S. of Los Angeles.

HON. JOSEPH H. TAM .- The attorneys of Bakersfield have gained distinction throughout the state by reason of their far-reaching activities, their broad knowledge of jurisprudence and their familiarity with cases in- volving intricate questions and large amounts. Not the least influential among these attorneys is Joseph H. Tam, son and namesake of an honored California pioneer of 1849 and himself the possessor of a substantial knowl- edge of fundamental law, a superior intellectual culture and a gracious dig- nity that has established him in local prestige. To ability and high purpose he adds the devotion that comes from a life-long residence in the west. The greater part of his useful life has been passed in his native commonwealth, although he enjoys the advantages derived by an intimate identification with Alaska during a period of professional practice in that country. Residence in Bakersfield, although covering only a comparatively few years, has brought him into prominence in many civic struggles and has led him into an unfore- seen political activity with increasing possibilities for useful public service.

The discovery of gold in California was the incentive for migration hither on the part of Joseph H. Tam, Sr., and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Glassford. For two years subsequent to his arrival the newcomer mined for gold, but. destiny withholding from him any great gifts in gold, he turned his attention to the tilling of the soil. He was one of the very first settlers upon the broad ranch lands of the San Joaquin valley, where as yet no attempt had been made at cultivation. On every hand the land remained in its primeval condition of sage brush and sand, its rich possibilities hidden beneath an uninviting surface, its future wealth unguessed by the most hope- ful of optimists. To his labors in the new field he brought the advantage of an excellent education, largely acquired in a western Pennsylvania college (of which he was a graduate). In addition he had the advantage of fine native abilities, excellent judgment and business acumen. The splendid pio- neer element that laid the foundation of American prosperity had in him a forceful representative.

Throughout his early years Joseph H. Tam, Jr., lived in Stockton, this state. There he was born April 8, 1862, and there he received his education in the public schools. It was while serving as city assessor of Stockton, to which office he was elected in 1884 and re-elected for a second term, that his attention was turned to the study of the law and his readings were con- ducted in the law office of Terry, Campbell & Bennett, of that city. He was

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admitted to the bar of the state in 1887, and immediately afterward began in practice in his native city, where in 1890 he was elected city justice. At the expiration of his term of four years he was re-elected for another term and when he had served out that time he removed from Stockton to San Fran- cisco, where he engaged in a general practice for six years. Attracted to Alaska during 1900 by a desire to travel through and investigate conditions in that country, he was induced to establish a law office at Nome, where he remained for seven years, meanwhile also engaging actively in placer mining. In addition to a general practice he acted as attorney for the Pioneer Mining Company and other corporations.

Upon leaving Alaska to resume residence in the United States, Mr. Tam traveled for a time and during 1909 opened an office at Bakersfield, where he has since become prominently identified with professional and civic enter- prises. In coming to this city to establish a home he was accompanied by his accomplished wife, whom he had married in 1896, and who was formerly Miss Alice Carey Treadway, of Covington, Ky. Movements for the progress and development of his home city receive his cordial support. The high standing which he occupies in professional circles is indicated by the fact that he has been chosen chairman of the board of trustees of the law library, while his popularity in the Republican party is evidenced in the presentation of his name September 3, 1912, at the party primaries as a candidate for the assembly from the fifty-sixth district. Although not solicitous for party honors, preferring indeed the quiet round of professional duties and social enjoyment, he is not negligent of his duties as a loyal citizen and public- spirited patriot, nor is he unmindful of the opportunities for efficient service for which his unusual abilities eminently qualify him.

MRS. HARRIET VAN ORMAN .- Any list of the pioneers of Bakers- field would be incomplete without the name of Mrs. Van Orman, whose life has been identified with this place continuously since 1860 and who has witnessed the remarkable transformation of the community from a desolate, unpeopled spot to a large city, teeming with industry and surrounded by fertile, well-tilled fields. No attribute of her character is more pronounced than that of devotion to the community of her adoption. Every part of the city possesses for her a unique interest, far beyond the feeling it would arouse in the casual visitor. For many years she has lived at her present home on the corner of Seventeenth and K streets, where it is her expecta- tion to remain until her earth life ends and where she will continue to watch with unabated pleasure the upward growth of Bakersfield. ' Even in the days when Kern Island had no population excepting rabbits, mosquitoes and gnats, when the sole crop was weeds and the sole visitor an occasional wandering Indian, she had faith that a large city would one day stand on the spot, and she is equally optimistic now concerning Bakersfield's great future and large influence as a business center.

Harriet Taylor was born at Jonesboro, Tenn., September 26, 1835, and is a daughter of the late Skelton and Mary (McCray) Taylor, natives re- spectively of Virginia and South Carolina. Her paternal grandfather, Henry Taylor, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and her great-grandfather, Christo- pher, Taylor, who descended from English ancestry, served in the Revolu- tion. The maternal grandfather. Henry McCray, a native of Scotland, mar- ried a Miss Moore of South Carolina and became a large planter on the Chattahoochee river in Georgia. When she was one year old her parents moved to Alabama and settled at Huntsville, where she was educated in private schools and an academy. At the age of fifteen she accompanied her family to Texas and there completed her education in a private school.

At Bonham, Tex .. in 1854, Miss Taylor became the wife of Robert Gil- bert, a native of Tennessee and for years a large land owner in Texas, where he built and operated a saw and grist mill on Bordeaux lake. Two

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children were born of their union. The son, William Gilbert, became a mining man and died at Bakersfield in 1904. The daughter, Mrs. Callie Pettit, is now living at Tejen, Kern county. During 1859 Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert, accompanied by their two children, removed from Texas to Cali- fornia, making the journey via the Butterfield stage-coach. Their destina- tion was San Jose, but in the fall of the same year they settled at Visalia and September 26, 1860, they arrived at what is now the site of Bakersfield. Later Mrs. Gilbert took up a claim of a quarter section on section 18. near Bellevue, and afterward she became a shareholder in the canal, which made it possible for her to put the place under cultivation to alfalfa. Her second marriage united her with N. Van Orman, of this county. Having been well posted concerning affairs in early days and possessing a retentive memory. she is a very interesting conversationalist and an hour spent in her society. when she is in a reminiscent mood. enables one to gain a vivid comprehen- sion of the trials, hardships and discouragements of those far distant days.

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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 31

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