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 36

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 36

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PAUL LORENTZEN .- The genealogy of the Lorentzen family is traced back through a long line of worthy ancestors identified with the po- litical and religious history of Schleswig-Holstein and transplanted to Amer- ican soil as a direct result of the revolution of 1848 in Germany. An unusual coincidence is found in the fact that the heads of three successive genera- tions bore the name of Paul Lorentzen and each served as a minister of the Lutheran Church in Schleswig-Holstein. It was the third of these three Pauls who bore an active part in the great revolution and as a consequence was forced to leave the country. America appealed to him as a land of free- dom of thought. Crossing the ocean to the new world, he had among his companions in the voyage Carl Schurz, later one of the leading German- American citizens of the United States. Well qualified for ministerial work through his graduation from Heidelberg College and his successful labors in the old country, he threw himself actively into the Lutheran ministry and held a number of important pastorates. Perhaps the most responsible of these was the work in the Lutheran Church at Eighth and Mound streets, St. Louis, and he continued in that city throughout his remaining years. After crossing the ocean he had married Anna Broises, who was born in Pennsylvania and died in Petersburg, Menard county, Ill. The Revolution- ary participant was not the only member of the family to emigrate, for his father, the second Paul, also lived in Pennsylvania for some years and later settled in Illinois, in both commonwealths engaging in the ministry of his chosen denomination.

Out of a family of nine children, seven of whom are still living, Paul Lorentzen was the third youngest and he represents the fourth generation of the name of Paul. Unlike his ancestors, however, he did not enter the ministry, although he has been devoted in his allegiance to the Lutheran Church and a contributor to its missionary movements. Born at Mount

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Carroll, Ill., September 16, 1857, he was reared at Petersburg, four miles from New Salem, that state, and in early boyhood attended public schools. At the age of fourteen he became an apprentice to the trade of carpenter. Having completed his time he went to Denver, Colo., in 1878, and secured employment as a carpenter. After two years as a day worker he was made a foreman in the bridge and building department of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, which position he filled for three years. Coming to Cali- fornia in 1883 he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Company on the Shasta division. Five months later the company sent him to Guatemala, Central America, for the purpose of acting as foreman in the building of the pontoon and laying of the track across lake Amatilan, also in the build- ing of the track to Guatemala. At the expiration of two years he was called back from Central America to California, where he acted as foreman of car- penters in building the branch from Berendo to Raymond. Next he filled a similar position on the Coast line between Soledad, Monterey county, and Templeton, San Luis Obispo county. From that division he was sent to act as foreman in building a bridge across the American river at Sacramento, after which he had charge of construction work between Napa Junction and Santa Rosa. In 1888 he was foreman in construction work from Templeton to Santa Margarita and the following year he worked on the bridge across the San Joaquin west of Fresno, after which he engaged as foreman on the line from Merced to Oakdale, Stanislaus county. The company then sent him to Kingsburg, Fresno county, to take charge of building a bridge across the Kings river, after which he was a construction foreman between Fresno and Kerman.

Having engaged as foreman in the bridge and building department of the San Joaquin division until 1899, the Southern Pacific Company in that year transferred Mr. Lorentzen to Texas and stationed him in Galveston as general foreman of the Southern Pacific docks. The memorable flood and destruction of Galveston were personally witnessed by Mr. Lorentzen, who took an active part in the work of rebuilding the city and particularly the company dock. Returning to California in 1905 he here had the rare ex- perience of a vacation of three months, after which he was appointed road- master of the Tehachapi division between Bakersfield and Mojave. Since March 10, 1906. he has served in that capacity and his difficult position has been filled with admirable energy and recognized fidelity.

The marriage of Mr. Lorentzen and Miss Pearl Hedgpeth, a native of Eureka Springs, Ark., was solemnized at San Lucas, Monterey county, Cal., and was blessed with five children, one of whom, Ray, died in Tulare at the age of twenty-one years, and Genevieve died in Tehachapi May 16, 1912. The survivors are Paul, Anna and Harold. Paul is employed at Needles. Since attaining his majority Mr. Lorentzen has supported the Democratic party. While living at Tulare he was a leading worker in the Fraternal Aid, also in Tulare Lodge No. 306, I. O. O. F., and Mount Whitney Encampment No. 82 of the same city. In addition he has been identified actively with Sum- ner Lodge No. 143, K. of P., in East Bakersfield. Mrs. Lorentzen is active in social and educational work in Tehachapi and is a member of the board of trustees at Tehachapi and clerk of the board.

J. H. STEVENSON .- The hotel Metropole at East Bakersfield, of which Mr. Stevenson has been one of the owners since 1905, deservedly occupies a high place in the estimation of the traveling public and has become a favorite stopping place for people of all classes, but particularly with miners, rail- road employes and stockmen has its popularity been manifest and its prestige assured. The location of the building, at the corner of Baker and Sumner streets, furnishes every facility for the prompt accommodation of travelers

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on the Southern Pacific Railroad and many of the trains stop at this point for incals. Those desirous of quick service are accommodated at the lunch counter, while others find every facility for elegant service in the well- equipped dining room, with its large seating capacity and its supply of ex- cellent food at moderate prices. The management prides itself on its model kitchen, equipped with every convenience for cookery, ventilated in accord- ance with the most modern systems and finished by experts understanding the laws of sanitation. The hotel maintains thirty-five guest-rooms neatly furnished and provided with modern conveniences, a number of them having private baths attached.

The senior proprietor of the hotel comes from Missouri, but has made Kern county his headquarters for fifteen years or more. He was born in Texas county, Mo .. March 15, 1870, and was fourth in order of birth among ten children who lived to years of maturity. The father, John, died in 1904, and the mother, who bore the maiden name of Louisa Martin, still makes Missouri her home and is hale and rugged at the age of seventy-nine (1912). J. H., being of a venturesome disposition, fond of travel and change, consid- ered it no hardship that he was forced to earn his own livelihood from boy- hood. Work indeed interested him far more than schooling and he felt a special interest in mining, so it is not strange that at the age of thirteen he was working in quartz mines in Colorado. Ever since that time he has kept posted concerning mining of every kind and few men in Kern county are better posted than he concerning the details connected with the occupation. Upon leaving the Colorado mines in 1895 he went to Alaska, where he mined in the Klondike and the Yukon basin, remaining for eighteen months. Leav- ing the cold frozen north he came to California and later mined at Esmerelda, Calaveras county, at Pine Grove in Amador county, at Bodie in Mono county, besides other mining centers. In addition for three years he spent considera- ble of his time in Nevada mines. After having prospected in the Panamint range in Inyo county he was attracted to Randsburg, Kern county, and to the Mojave district, where he was one of the first to develop prospects. One of his best-paying claims, the Eleven, he sold to Dr. Nelson in 1900, after having developed it to a high degree of profit. For some time he was iden- tified with the development of the Yellow Rover, and it was not until 1911 that he disposed of his interests there, the sale bringing him an excellent return upon his investment.

The first connection of Mr. Stevenson with the hotel business occurred in Caliente, Kern county, in 1902, when he purchased the Caliente hotel, but after having managed the property for two years he sold it and removed to East Bakersfield. For two years he conducted the hotel Metropole alone, but, realizing the need of co-operation in the large undertaking, he took into partnership James A. Bernard under the firm title of Stevenson & Bernard. Subsequent changes have made the title of the firm Stevenson, Woody & O'Meara, the other owners being A. J. Woody and P. J. O'Meara, well-known real-estate men of Bakersfield. The present management dates from April 11, 1911, and has been successful from the first, so that each member of the firm is receiving a deserved return for his time, labor and investment. While giving close attention to the hotel, Mr. Stevenson finds time to keep posted concerning politics, aids the Democratic party in local affairs and is public- spirited in every respect. Fraternally he holds membership with the Elks, Eagles and Knights of Pythias. During 1909 he was united in marriage with Miss May Gazzolo, a native of Coulterville, Mariposa county, this state. With his wife and two children, Athena and Regina, he has a comfortable home in East Bakersfield and finds a special delight in a happy and contented domestic life.

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WILLIAM A. HOWELL .- From the age of thirteen years a resident of Bakersfield, Mr. Ilowell is thoroughly in sympathy with the educational, com- mercial and material upbuilding of this city and holds it to be, in point of possibilities, unsurpassed by any place in our great commonwealth. Born in New Orleans, La., December 11, 1863, he is the only surviving child of the late William and Mary (Heavey) Howell, natives respectively of Wales and Ireland. After having crossed the ocean during early life, the father settled in New Orleans and worked his way forward until he acquired the ownership of a mercantile business in that city. Seeking the advantages of the west, he came to Bakersfield in 1876 and, finding the outlook favorable, sent for his wife and children, who joined him in 1877, establishing a permanent residence in the county-seat town. Scarcely had he established himself in business here when in 1879 his life came to an end. Afterward his wife remained in this city until her death, which occurred in 1897. Meanwhile she had given her only remaining son an excellent education in the public schools and had trained him for the responsibilities of the workaday world. While yet a mere lad he became proficient in stenography. The correctness of his transcripts attracted attention. It was deemed little less than remarkable that one so young should be so skilled and accurate in the reporting of cases involving technical terms to which he was unaccustomed. Before he became of age he was by stipulation of the attorneys secured to report court cases for over three years, and after he had attained his majority he was regularly appointed by the judge of the superior court as the official court reporter. Ever since then he has filled the same position and it is said that he has the honor of being the oldest official, in point of years of continuous service, connected with the courthouse of Kern county. Nor has his identification with county work been limited to stenographic service, for in addition he has been a deputy at different times in nearly all the offices of the county, also for three terms of two years each he filled the office of county auditor, there as in all other positions displaying accuracy, fidelity, energy and wise judgment. Mr. Howell was one of the organizers of the Security Trust Company and has been a member of the board of directors since its inception.

The residence which Mr. Howell erected on the corner of HI and Seven- teenth streets and which he still owns and occupies, has for its presiding genius a woman of great capability, a native daughter of the commonwealth, formerly Miss Elizabeth G. Dugan, who was born in Amador county, but made Bakersfield her home at the time of her marriage. Two children bless their union, Genevieve and William A., Jr. Upon the organization of the Knights of Columbus in Bakersfield Mr. Howell became a charter member and later he held the office of district deputy for three years, besides which in other ways he has contributed to the interests of the order and to its local growth. For five years he has served as a member of the board of trustees of the Beale memorial library and at the same time he has promoted other worthy movements identified with the permanent prosperity of the city. The Democratic party receives his support in local and general elections.

ANTHONY B. OLSON .- Although of American birth and typically American in mode of thought and action, he comes from Scandinavian forbears and is a son of John Olson, a native of Vermland, Sweden, the founder of this branch of the Olson family in the United States. Skilled in merchant tailoring, he followed the trade after his arrival in the new world. Starting in with a very small tailor shop on Chicago avenue, Chicago, he gradually built up an important business and finally had forty workmen in his employ. The great fire of 1871 destroyed his shop and ruined his busi- ness. Forced to start anew, he removed to Michigan and opened a tailor shop at Muskegon, where in time he recuperated his losses and attained a fair de- gree of financial success. Upon giving up the work of a merchant tailor, he 16

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returned to Chicago and there he died in 1906. One year later occurred the demise of his wife, who bore the maiden name of Erliana Swensen and was a native of Sparta, Mich. Surviving them are four children, the youngest of whom, Anthony Benjamin, was born in Muskegon, Mich., May 11. 1887, and received such advantages as the schools of that city afforded. After having graduated from the Muskegon high school in 1905 he removed to Chicago and there occupied clerical positions with different firms.

Upon his arrival in California during May of 1908 Mr. Olson secured employment at Sanger in the office of the Hume-Bennett Lumber Company. A year later he was transferred to the work of a yardman and from that rose to be foreman of the yard, in which responsible position he proved effi- cient and trustworthy. Resigning January 1, 1911, he came to McKittrick as an employe of the King Lumber Company, which in September of the same year transferred him to their Bakersfield yard to take charge of the work there. During February, 1912, he returned to McKittrick in the capacity of manager for the King Lumber Company, in whose interests he since has served with conscientious devotion and encouraging results. While living in Sanger he met and married Miss Carrie L. Barr, who was born in Kansas, but passed her girlhood almost wholly at Sanger. After graduating from the Sanger high school she had taken a course of study in the San Francisco Normal and had fitted for educational work, in which she engaged with suc- cess prior to her marriage. In political allegiance Mr. Olson adheres to Democratic principles and fraternally he holds membership with the Masons.

MAJOR W. H. COOK, M. D .- The notable record achieved by Dr. Cook in sanitation and surgical work during the Spanish-American war and subse- quent service in the Philippines duplicates in many respects the able and prominent identification of his father, the late J. A. Cook, M. D., with the Union army during the Civil war, in which as a surgeon attached to the Nineteenth Army Corps he had charge of hospital boats and hastily equipped surgical wards on Virginian battlefields. For such responsible tasks he was qualified by graduation from Rush Medical College and by long service as a physician and surgeon with a large private patronage. Himself a native of Tinton Falls, Monmouth county, N. J., he had married some years before the beginning of the war Miss Mary M. Harris, a native of Virginia, and they had established a home in Kendall county, Ill., where the eldest of their four children, William Harris Cook, was born at Fox, February 19, 1855. Following the Civil war, a home was made at Washington, D. C., but eventu- ally the doctor removed to Kansas and engaged in practice at Humboldt until his death. The last days of the mother were passed in the home of her son, W. H., at McKittrick, where she passed away in 1912 at the age of eighty- three.

Subsequent to graduation from the Aurora (Ill.) high school and the Naperville (III.) branch of the commercial department of Northwestern Uni- versity, at the age of eighteen William Harris Cook matriculated in Rush Medical College and completed the course in 1875, but, on account of not having attained his majority, he was not granted a diploma and the degree of M. D., until a year later, February 15, 1876. Meanwhile he had gained considerable experience as an assistant to his father in Aurora, Ill., but after graduation he removed to Kansas and opened an office at Larned, Pawnee county, where he remained for two years. Following a period devoted to recuperation in Colorado he returned to Illinois and opened an office at Elwood, Will county. The year 1880 found him a pioneer at Globe, Ariz., of which town he was a leading citizen and successful physician. On account of his familiarity with the language of the Mojave and Apache tribes he was chosen for two years to make the official count of the Indians at the White mountain reservation.

A pioneer of 1887 at Bakersfield, Dr. Cook engaged in practice in this

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then small town. On the organization of Company G, Sixth California Na- tional Guard, he was chosen the first captain and continued as such until the outbreak of the war with Spain. A commission as captain in that war bore date of May, 1898. and expired with his honorable discharge in Decem- ber of the same year. Entering the medical department of the United States army as an assistant surgeon, he was dispatched to Fort Leavenworth and with the Thirty-second United States Infantry was sent to the Philippines. From assistant surgeon with the rank of lieutenant he was promoted in December, 1899, to captain with the rank of surgeon and in March of 1900 was commissioned surgeon, on the recommendation of General Wheeler, the immediate cause of the promotion having been the skill displayed in the command of the extreme left of the firing line at the time of the advance on Porac. Afterward he was assigned to civil service as deputy insular health officer under Major C. E. Carter, in which capacity he visited every province but one, established boards of health and instructed the same in the best meth- ods of combating and preventing bubonic plague, cholera, leprosy and small- pox. Within less than ten months there had been over three hundred thou- sand deaths from cholera and one hundred eighty-five thousand deaths from bubonic plague. Such was the beneficent result of the fight against disease that contagious epidemics were almost exterminated.

After a year in the United States, during February of 1905 Dr. Cook returned to the Philippines with the Eighteenth Infantry and served as surgeon on the island of Samar. About a year later he resigned and returned to New York, but in March of 1907 came to California and opened an office at McKittrick, where he has since engaged in practice, meanwhile forming associations with the county, state and American medical associations. Dur- ing his term of army service he became allied with the military order of Caribou and he is also prominent in Masonry, being connected with the Knights Templar, Scottish Rite Consistory and thirty-second degree. Mrs. Cook was formerly Lorena Williamson and was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. Her parents, S. Stryker and Mary E. (Hubbard) Williamson, were natives respectively of Brooklyn and Tinton Falls, N. J., and the latter traced her lineage to England, while Mr. Williamson was of old Knickerbocker blood, a member of a family that bore an honorable part in the Revolutionary war and in the activities of the colonial era.

HON. R. J. HUDSON .- The distinction of being a native son of the great west belongs to Judge Hudson, who was born in Napa county, this state, February 20, 1857, being a son of David and Frances (Griffith) Hudson, natives respectively of Missouri and North Carolina, the former now deceased, and the latter still a resident of California. It was the privilege of Judge Hudson, but a privilege largely resulting from his own determined energy and ambition, to secure excellent educational advantages. After he had com- pleted the studies of the Napa high school he matriculated in the classical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he took the regular course of study. Next he entered the law department of Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tenn., and in 1878 he was graduated from that insti- tution. Returning to California he was admitted to the bar by the supreme court during the same year and immediately afterward established himself in practice in Los Angeles, where for a year he had Judge Anson Brunson as a partner. From 1880 to 1882 he served as district attorney of Los Angeles county. The failure of his health led him to seek a change of climate and he established himself in Lake county, this state, where he soon rose to promi- nence through the prompt recognition of his splendid abilities. After a year in private practice he was elected judge of the superior court of Lake county, which responsible office he filled for ten years, meanwhile regaining his health. When he retired from the judicial connection he removed to Hanford, Kings county, where he engaged in practice for six years, coming from there

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in 1911 to Bakersfield, where he is a member of the law firm of Emmons & Hudson, with offices in the Producers' Bank building. Much important litiga- tion has been given over to his charge in the various places of his residence and he has fully proved his broad knowledge of the law as well as his ability to carry through to solution intricate cases involving large issues.

In 1882, at Napa City, Judge Hudson was united in marriage with Miss Panthea B. Boggs, a native of Napa county. They are the parents of two sons, the elder of whom, Howard, is a resident of San Francisco, while the younger, Marshall, is now in Dawson City. Ever since he became a voter Judge Hudson has supported Democratic principles.

ALVIN G. LUESCHEN, M. D .- To rise out of a condition of poverty, to earn self-support from the age of thirteen years, to secure an excellent education without aid and to develop into a successful professional man and a cultured citizen of his community, such is an achievement calling for supe- rior ability and the most undaunted persistence of effort. That this is the record of Dr. Lueschen affords a silent but eloquent testimony as to a self- reliant personality. By dint of personal energy he paid his way through medical college and gained not only a thorough professional education, but also a broad knowledge on all subjects of historical, national and scientific interest, thus rounding out a mental culture of breadth and dignity.

A descendant of old Teutonic ancestry, Dr. Lueschen was born in Co- lumbus, Platte county, Neb., in 1880, and is a son of Gerhard Lueschen, a pio- neer farmer and rancher of Nebraska, and in the early days a chum of Will- iam F. Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill. The father, still a resident of Nebraska, possesses abundant health and vitality notwithstanding his early years of hardships. Born about 1848, he has seen much of the development of the west and has borne his own share therein. As previously stated, the poverty of the family forced Dr. Lueschen to become self-supporting when thirteen years of age and by dint of persevering energy he carried out a child- lood ambition to become a physician. During the fall of 1900 he matricu- lated in Creighton Medical College at Omaha, Neb., from which he was graduated with the class of 1904. Returning to his native town, he opened an office and gained his initial experience as a practitioner, and in the same town in 1908 he married Miss Gertrude Elias, by whom he has one son, Alvin Gerald. The family came to California in 1910 and settled in Bakers- field, where the Doctor opened an office at No. 212 Producers' Bank building and about the same time erected a modern and beautifully appointed bunga- low at No. 1917 Orange street at a cost of more than $3,000. In political faith he adheres to Republican principles and in religion he is a generous contributor to the Episcopal Church, of which his wife is an earnest member.

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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 36

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