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 48

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 48

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Lumber Company and continued the manufacture of lumber and shingles for shipment to San Francisco. A decade of prosperity followed his installation as president and manager of the company. Meanwhile he had acquired oil interests and during 1907 he sold his milling interests to a brother and sister, at the same time removing to Bakersfield in order to take charge of his oil holdings on the west side.

As early as January 23, 1901, the Paraffine Oil Company had been in- corporated by A. W. Gilfillan, under whose supervision the first well on the Temblor lease, McKittrick, had been sunk, but the venture proved a failure. A contract was then obtained by Mr. Gilfillan personally, to drill on the north- east quarter of section 25 on 25-Hill, it being agreed that if he struck oil he was to receive a deed to forty acres. This contract he turned over to the company, but they were discouraged and the funds for this work were fur- nished personally by Mr. Minor. As soon as a good well was struck the deed to forty acres was turned over to the Paraffine Oil Company, and since then the company has put down six wells on the forty acres and all are producers, thus giving financial success to the concern. It is said that this was the second oil company on 25-Hill to pay dividends. Since 1905 Mr. Minor has officiated as president and since 1908 he also has acted as manager.

Taking a lease on property one mile south of their former location, Messrs. Minor and Gilfillan drilled and struck a small output of oil, after which they bought adjacent property. At the time there was no sale for oil. Later it brought thirty cents per barrel. During 1906 this lease was incorporated as the Arcata Oil Company and since then Mr. Minor has served as president and manager of the organization, which now operates on the North McKittrick front. With F. E. Mannel as partner in 1912 he organized the Mannel-Minor Petroleum Company and leased two hundred acres on the northwest Belridge front, seven miles from the Belridge wells and ten miles from the Lost Hills wells. The first oil was struck at a depth of four hundred feet, but they continued to drill to a depth of seven hundred feet. A second hole went to a depth of two thousand feet and gave them an exceptionally profitable well of twenty-five gravity oil. At this writing the first well is being deepened under the management of Mr. Mannel, who is vice-president, Mr. Minor being the president of the company. Besides all of these important oil interests he owns mining claims in Inyo county, Cal., is further interested in hydraulic mining on New river in Trinity county. this state, and has built a mill and concentrating plant at his tungsten mine near Tucson, Ariz. In addition he owns farm lands and real estate in Kern county. Ever since coming to Bakersfield he had maintained his office in the Hopkins building. At present he serves as treasurer and member of the executive committee of the Kern County Oil Protective Association, an asso- ciation formed to guard against the encroachment and percolating of water into the oil sand and securing legislation to that end.

In politics Mr. Minor is a Republican, while fraternally he holds mem- bership with Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. O. E., and was made a Mason in Excelsior Lodge No. 166. F. & A. M .. at San Francisco. While living at Arcata he married Miss Emily Daniels, a native of that city, the daughter of Hibbird S. and Ann (Hawken) Daniels, who were natives respectively of New Hampshire and England. Mr. and Mrs. Daniels came from Illinois to California in 1853. making the way via Panama and locating in Uniontown. now the city of Arcata, Humboldt county. where Mr. Daniels engaged in farming. Upon retiring from active life they located in Los Angeles where Mrs. Daniels died. her husband passing away in Fullerton. Mrs. Emily (Daniels) Minor was a graduate of Humboldt Ladies' Seminary in Eureka and is a woman of rare taste and refinement. Two sons were born to Mr. and

a. W Gilfullun

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Mrs. Minor, namely : Henry Samuel, who is engaged in the manufacture of lumber ; and Herbert Hibbard, who is interested with his father in the oil industry and mining claims.

The family hold membership with the First Presbyterian Church of Bakersfield and Mr. Minor is giving most efficient service as chairman of its board of trustees, besides serving as a member of the board of elders. While he was chairman of the board the new Gothic structure was erected at the corner of H and Seventeenth streets, costing $25,000. It has a seating capacity of five hundred and is so arranged that the large Sunday school department may be separated into sixteen rooms for class purposes. The basement is fitted up as a social hall and equipped for a gymnasium. The plan had been the wish of Mr. Minor for years, and he and his co-workers feel amply repaid for their efforts. Mr. Minor was selected by the San Joaquin Presbytery one of six commissioners to the General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church of the United States of America held at Atlanta, Ga., May 15 to 24. 1913. Accompanied by Mrs. Minor he attended and took part in the important proceedings of that assembly.

ADAM WILLIAM GILFILLAN .- Of English birth and ancestry, A. W. Gilfillan was born at Greenwich, England, during the year 1854, but was brought to the United States in early childhood and passed the years of youth at Troy. N. Y., where he attended the public schools. When seventeen years of age he began to work in the oil fields of the Brad -. ford district in Pennsylvania. He seemed to possess natural ability in the oil industry. With keen judgment and energetic resourcefulness he quickly grasped every detail of the business and while yet a young man came to be known as one of the shrewdest oil operators in his district. Upon leav- ing the oil fields of Pennsylvania for those of California he became identified with the Puente district and there put down the first well for Rowland & Lacy, the head of that firm having been Hon. William R. Rowland, ex- sheriff of Los Angeles county. When the work had been completed suc- cessfully and promptly in the Puente district he went to the oil fields of Northern California and put down a well in Humboldt county, but that enterprise did not prove a success. A later connection with the mining in- dustry on the Mother Lode in Tuolumne, Calaveras and Mariposa counties also proved unsuccessful. In 1900 he came to Bakersfield and became one of the pioneers of the oil industry in Kern county and the first to operate in the Midway district. After he had taken contracts for drilling and had struck oil, he then promoted the Paraffine Oil Company, on section 25, Midway district, and of this he was acting as general manager and vice-president at the time of his sudden death June 9, 1907.

The marriage of Mr. Gilfillan took place in San Jose, this state. and united him with Miss Mary Moore, who was born at Holton, Kan., and is a graduate of the normal department of the University of Kansas at Lawrence. By ability and temperament Mrs. Gilfillan was well qualified to be a helpinate to her husband, whose ventures she promoted by her constant encourage- ment and whose hopes she fostered by her cheerful sympathy. In addi- tion. she is the possessor of business ability of an high order. When the sudden death of her husband threw his large interests into her care, she proved equal to the most trying emergency and since then has managed the estate with tact, energy and discretion. In inheriting his property, she became the largest stockholder in the Paraffine Oil Company. which ranks as one of the most successful oil concerns along the coast. Of this company she is vice-president and a member of the board of directors. From her husband she also inherited a one-half interest in the Arcata Oil Company, but this has been sold to the Santa Fe Oil Company. In addition she was largely interested in the Lost Hills district, where she was a fortunate seller of oil land at $1.000 per acre. She has lately become interested in horti-

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

culture and has purchased three hundred and twenty acres at Edison, which she will devote principally to the growing of citrus fruits. It has been dem- onstrated that the region is one of the most successful for the cultivation of oranges in California and she is planning to use her means and time to develop the horticultural resources of her adopted county, where she has met with such gratifying success. While giving her attention very closely to the management of the important interests bequeathed her by Mr. Gilfillan, she has kept in touch with political problems and always has maintained a sympathy with Democratic principles, as did also her husband; besides these and other interests she has occupied an enviable social position in Bakersfield. has been identified with the Woman's Club in its civic pro- jects and public-spirited enterprises, and has manifested a deep devotion to the permanent progress of her home city.

HAMILTON FARRIS .- The secretary of the board of health of Bakersfield, who also fills the position of health officer, has witnessed the development of Kern county through a considerable period of progress and with others originated the movement that resulted in the consolidation of Bakersfield and Kern, a decidedly forward step in local upbuilding. Al- though not a native Californian, nor indeed a native of the United States, he is most patriotic in impulses, loyal in sentiment and true to every measure making for the advancement of his adopted home. Of Canadian birth and parentage, he was born at Arcona, Ontario, February 19, 1869, and was the eldest among three children comprising the family of George and Sarah (Mellen) Farris. While yet a young woman the mother was taken by death from home and children and Hamilton was only thirteen when his father, a skilled blacksmith and man of honorable principles, passed away, leaving the children with little means. Friends, however, came to their aid. The eldest child was taken from school and apprenticed to the trade of a blacksmith at Arcona, where he continued for three years. Being then free to make his own plans for the future, he entered railroading and secured employment as checker in the freight office of the Grand Trunk Railroad. Later he became a brakeman with the same company. Four years were spent with the Grand Trunk Railroad, after which in 1889 he came to California and found work as a brakeman with the Southern Pacific, having for a time a run between Bakersfield and Lathrop in San Joaquin county.

Securing a position as clerk in the old Central hotel in Kern in 1894. Mr. Farris left the road, but at the expiration of three and one-half years in the hotel he went to work in the Southern Pacific freight house as night foreman. At the expiration of one year he resumed work as a brakeman and continued in the same work until 1902, when he was elected marshal. On two separate occasions he was re-elected marshal. During 1907 he resigned that position to become deputy county clerk and continued as such until the spring of 1910, when he went to the Kern river oil field as a foreman for the Associated Oil Company. Resigning and returning to East Bakersfield in October of 1912. two months afterward he was appointed health officer and secretary of the board of health, since which time he has devoted his entire time and the closest attention to the careful discharge of every duty connected with the responsible place. In politics he always has supported Democratic principles. Fraternally he holds mem- bership with the Knights of Pythias. His marriage was solemnized in Chicago, 111., and united him with Miss Matilda Parkinson, who was born in Ontario and died in East Bakersfield November 14, 1912, leaving three children, namely: Clifford, now employed by the Associated Oil Company in the Kern river field; Floyd, an employe of the Wells-Fargo Express Company in Bakersfield: and Olga, who since the death of her mother has

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presided over the family home and ministered to the comfort and welfare of her father.

W. R. LEAKE .- From his earliest memories Mr. Leake has been familiar with the oil industry in all of its phases. Nor have his experiences been limited to one field or to one state. On the other hand, he has been employed in fields in various parts of the country, notably in Pennsylvania, where his boyhood years were passed, and in California, where for more than a decade he has been associated with the development of the business. With the early history of. the industry in the Midway field he became con- nected through his arrival in September, 1909, at Taft, then known as Moron. The West Side Oil Company, a close corporation with five prin- cipal stockholders (all residing in Los Angeles), selected him to take charge of their lease of eight acres, situated on section 25, township 32, range 23, and for that purpose he came from Los Angeles to Kern county at the time mentioned, since which he has had charge of three producing wells that form the holdings of the small but prosperous corporation.

Near Bath, Steuben county, N. Y., W. R. Leake was born February 11, 1869, being the only son of William H. and Amanda (Beebe) Leake, natives of New York state. The two daughters in the family are India and Inez A., the former married to Charles Hanks, a prosperous oil operator of Ohio and Pennsylvania. During the Civil war William H. Leake served for four years and four months and received an honorable discharge at the close of the struggle, after which he became interested in the oil busi- ness. When his son, William R., was an infant the family removed to Pennsylvania and settled in Butler county, later going to the Bradford field in the same state. In fact, the father visited almost every eastern oil field at some period and he became a very successful producer, besides owning some wells in Ohio. Nor did his activities lessen with advancing years. At the time of his death, which occurred when he was seventy-four years of age, he was at Beaumont, Tex., as superintendent for the Higgins Oil Company at Spindletop.

Educated in the grammar schools of Butler county, Pa., followed by a business course in the Tidioute high school in Warren county, that state, Mr. Leake became a regular worker in the Pennsylvania oil fields when he was eighteen years of age. His first work as a production man was with the Clinton Oil Company. For ten busy years he was an operator in the West Virginia fields and for two years he was associated with the development of the oil field near Boulder, Colo., whence in 1902 he came to California and sought the Coalinga field. After a long term of service as superintendent first with the K. C. Oil Company and then with the New Era Oil Company, he came down to Taft during September of 1909, since which time he has engaged as superintendent of the West Side Oil Company. A most capable assistant in his counsels and business enterprises is his wife, whom he married in Elk county, Pa., May 5, 1891, and who was Miss Martha M. Parker, daughter of W. H. Parker, a prominent oil operator in Pennsylvania. Thousands of acres of oil lands were held by the family. By the marriage of Mr. Parker to a Miss Hilliard, a native of Clarion county, Pa., there were seven children, namely: Alice, whose husband, Charles Brick, is superintendent of the National Gas Company at Youngs- town, Ohio; W. O., a contracting driller at Dewey, Okla .; Martha M., Mrs. Leake; May, wife of Alfred Williams, of Youngstown, Ohio; Stella. who married F. B. Long, a driller now living at Waynesburg, Pa. ; Charles S., a plumber engaged in business in West Virginia; and John, who has charge of an oil company's lease at Junction City, Ohio. Mrs. May Williams was first married to J. M. Leyman, a successful oil man, who for twenty years engaged as superintendent of the Jennings Oil Company and

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who held the confidence of operators in that industry throughout the east. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Leake, Irene Romain, is the wife of Wade S. Fitch, of Los Angeles, and the mother of a daughter, Frances Irene Fitch.

CHARLES EUGENE DAY .- To the people among whom Mr. Day has lived since the year 1877, and who have learned to appreciate his splendid traits of character as a man and his tact as an official, there comes a feeling of pride in any recital of his achievements as a marksman, for in tournaments and contests in this part of the state he carried the record for years and made the best score ever achieved by crack shots. With one shell he has killed seventy quail and inside of seventy-nine days he shot eleven thousand. In one day with twenty-two shots he obtained four hun- dred and forty-six quail, following the next day with four hundred and fourteen, while on the third day he brought down three hundred and forty. Ilis hunting expeditions have not been limited to Kern, Tulare, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, but have extended as far south as the line of Mexico, and in the early days he made a specialty of shipping deer and quail to the San Francisco markets.

If skill in marksmanship may be denominated a matter of heredity then it may be said of Mr. Day that he inherited his expertness as a shot from his father, who was one of the noted hunters of his day and locality. A member of an old family of New York and himself during early manhood a farmer in Wyandot county, Ohio, the father, John Day, served in an Ohio regiment during the Civil war and became known among members of his company for his skill with a rifle. At the expiration of his term of service he received an honorable discharge, returned to his home in Ohio and at once made preparations to cross the plains to California. During the progress of the trip, which was made with wagons and ox-teams in 1864, he supplied the camp with an abundance of game and many a bear, buffalo and antelope fell as a tribute to his unerring marksmanship.

Some years prior to the removal of John Day to the west he had mar- ried Miss Harriet Bristol, a native of Wyandot county, Ohio, and a daughter of William Bristol, for years employed there as railroad and express agent. They became the parents of four children, the three daughters being Mrs. Della Griffin, of Oakland; Mrs. Alice Simpson, who lives near Bakersfield, and Mrs. Clara Knight, of Rosedale. The only son, Charles E., was born in Ohio March 18, 1862, and was three years of age when he was brought by his mother to California via Panama, joining his father on a farm near Lakeville, Sonoma county. During 1868 the family removed to a large farm on Marsh creek near Brentwood, Contra Costa county, where the father undertook grain farming on a large scale. At first he met with unusual success, but two years of continuous drought caused him a loss of all the accumulations of years. Removing to Calistoga, Napa county, in 1874, he engaged in hunting in the mountains and shipped deer and bear to the San Francisco markets. During the fall of 1876, with the assistance of his only son, he began to hunt quail for the city markets, and on this expedition he traveled through Ventura and Los Angeles counties, then came up to Kern county, where he found surroundings so greatly to his liking that he located at Bakersfield April 25. 1877. Soon afterward he bought forty acres five miles south of town under the Kern Island canal and there he began to raise fruit and alfalfa, afterward enlarging the tract by the purchase of another forty. In addition to farming he still engaged in hunting for game in the hills. February 28, 1882, when about fifty years of age, the team which he was driving ran away, threw him into the canal and he was drowned. Some years later his widow was married to J. W. Fitzgerald and at this writing she lives in East Bakersfield.

After the death of his father Charles E. Day took charge of the home farm in the interests of his mother and sisters and for twenty-one years

Charles Eugene Way.

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he operated one place. Besides engaging in farming and stock-raising he hunted deer and quail to ship to the San Francisco markets. From young manhood he has been a stanch Democrat. During 1894 his party nominated him for county tax collector. Duly elected, he took the oath of office in January of 1895. In 1898. 1902. 1906 and 1910 he was re-elected, the last time without any opposition whatever. His present term will expire in January of 1915. While giving due attention to the responsibilities of the office he also continued farming until 1910, when he disposed of his interests in the county. The residence which he erected and occupies in East Bakersfield is presided over hospitably by Mrs. Day, formerly Miss Susie Dragoo, who was born, reared and married at Martinez, Contra Costa county, being the daughter of a pioneer physician of that village. The only child of the union, Leona, is married to Palo Autrand and lives in East Bakersfield. The fraternal associations of Mr. Day are numerous and important and include membership in the Knights of Pythias, in which he has been a leading officer, besides being with his wife connected with the kindred organization of Pythian Sisters. In addition he belongs to the Woodmen of the World, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Eagles, Independent Order of Fores- ters, Fraternal Brotherhood and Ancient Order of United Workmen.

GORDON WALLACE WATSON .- The lineage of the Watson family in America is traced back to the Gordon clan, inseparably associated with the early history of the highlands and illustrious in many of the ancient wars of Scotland. In leaving his native city of Aberdeen to cast in his fortunes with the new world, Gordon Wallace, Sr., gave up associations endeared to him from earliest memories and from the family traditions concerning bygone centuries. Shortly after his marriage to Miss Annie White in London, England, he had migrated with his young wife to Canada and later came to the States. For years he engaged in contracting and building at Jersey City, N. J., where both he and his wife passed their last years. The eldest of their five children, born at Jersey City, N. J., Decem- ber 8, 1868, was given the name of his father, thus carrying into another generation the old Scotch patronymics of ancestral associations. During infancy he was taken to Toronto, Canada, but at the age of six years accom- panied his parents in a permanent removal to Jersey City, where he attended the public schools and also learned the trade of carpenter.

During a trip to Europe in 1901 Mr. Watson formed the acquaintance of Miss Janetta Haley in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, and they were mar- ried in March of the following year. Mrs. Watson was born in Yorkshire. being a daughter of Henry and Eliza Margaret (Eastwood) Haley, resi- dents of Bramley. Leeds, where Mr. Haley engaged in business as a woolen manufacturer. The Haley family traces its lineage to Celtic ancestry. As early as 1675 some of the name removed from Ireland to England, where later generations engaged in business pursuits and were among the first manufacturers of woolen goods at Leeds, beginning with the old hand looms and gradually growing into an extensive business with the largest and most modern machinery for the manufacture of woolen goods. The family accumulated great wealth and a high social position.

The month after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Watson arrived in Jersey City and established a home at that place. where he engaged in carpentering. During 1905 they came to California for the first time and found the west attractive and alluring. Establishing a home in Bakersfield, Cal., in Novem- ber of 1907, Mr. Watson followed the trade of carpenter, also was identified with different branches of the building trades and assisted in the organiza- tion of the Building Trades Council, of which he served as business agent for two years. For some time he has been engaged in the building busi- ness in Bakersfield, where he has a reputation for reliability as a con-

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tractor, progressive spirit as a citizen and dispatch as a worker. Although an active worker for the benefit of the Democratic party, he has never sought office nor has he been willing to accept political positions. In relig- ious faith he and his wife are Episcopalians. Devoted to the welfare of their adopted city, they have the utmost faith in its material growth and promising future. Since coming to this city they have purchased a number of residence lots and have erected and still own five bungalows of a modern and attractive type of architecture. Their family consists of three children. Margaret Rutherford, Gordon Bruce and Donald Keith.

J. THOMAS JOHNSON, M. D .- Professional connection with the United States navy in the capacity of surgeon with the rank of lieutenant- commander gave Dr. Johnson a wide experience in the practice of materia medica and brought to him an important responsibility in the management of naval hospitals in the east. The selection of his life work was happily made. Natural qualifications adapted him for skill in therapeutics. From the beginning of his practice he has exhibited skill in the diagnosis of disease and efficiency in the selection of remedial agencies. Since he came to Kern county and opened a hospital at Fellows, he has risen to a high rank professionally in this new town, the "gem of the foothills." Much of his early life was passed in Chicago, where he was born May 18, 1882, and where his father, Thomas Johnson, was a member of the livestock com- mission firm of Johnson & Wilson, at the Union Stock Yards. He spent considerable time in Iowa while a young man and when the Spanish- American war broke out he was living at Des Moines, from which city he enlisted in Company B, Fifty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He went into camp at Chickamauga Park, Ga., and later was transferred to Com- pany D, Forty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. With this regiment he went to Cuba and remained until the close of hostilities.

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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 48

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