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 49

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 49

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From early youth he had felt a drawing to the medical profession and after he had received his honorable discharge from the army he determined to take up the study of pharmacy. He entered the Highland Park College of Pharmacy at Des Moines, Iowa, and graduated from there in June, 1901. After he had received actual experience in drug stores, at various places for a while, he opened up a drug store at Story City, Iowa, which he ran successfully and sold out to advantage in time to matriculate at the medical department of Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa. in the fall of 1903, and thus carry out his cherished plans to become an M. D. He con- tinued two years at Drake University and finished up by taking the last two years of a four-year medical course at Jefferson Medical College, Phila- delphia, from which he graduated with the degree of M. D., class of 1907.

To one of his ambitious and aspiring mind, the completion of a medical course did not signalize a cessation of study. On the other hand, he became very solicitous in enlarging his medical knowledge so that he might be better qualified to practice with success. For a time he served as an interne in the Philadelphia hospital and for two years he had the advantage of experience in Bellevue hospital in New York City. About 1909 he was commissioned surgeon in the United States navy, and assigned to duty at the naval hospital in Philadelphia. Soon he was transferred to Washington, D. C., and during his leisure hours in that city he took a post-graduate course in a medical school. Next he had a brief experience in the New York City naval hospital and from there was transferred to the battleship Mississippi, after which he was assigned to recruiting duty in Chicago. From there he was ordered to San Francisco and there in May, 1911, resigned his commission.

Immediately after he resigned as surgeon in the navy Dr. Johnson came to Fellows and opened an office for practice, also acquired the

4 Temple Tasion

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

pharmacy establishment known as The Fellows Drug Company's store. Since he arrived here in June, 1911. he has won the confidence of the people, who recognize in him a surgeon of unusual skill and an experienced physician. While his practice is general and includes the treatment of disease in every form, he has specialized in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and surgery. The need of a local hospital led him to interest himself in that work shortly after he had located here and he organized a hospital association of eight hundred members, of which he is now the president. The concern was incorporated in January, 1912. and the hospital was opened on the 10th of February, affording to the people of the vicinity a modern institution equipped with every convenience for the care of the sick. Before coming to the west Dr. Johnson joined the Knights of Pythias at Des Moines, also Des Moines Lodge No. 98. B. P. O. E., and the blue lodge of Masons. He is a member of the Fellows Chamber of Commerce.

JOHN TEMPLE TAYLOR .- When the colonial wars were calling for the stalwart young men of the new world to assist in the defence of their adopted country among those who responded were several members of the Taylor and Temple families, representatives of the F. F. V's of Virginia and imbued with the patriotic loyalty characteristic of every generation back to the English progenitors. The outbreak of the Revolution found the men of that generation eager to respond to the call of the colonies for help and willing to sacrifice money, time. and, if need be, their lives to aid in securing independence for their country. In the later years of peace the family pros- pered and acquired large Virginian plantations. On one of these estates lived Richard and Elizabeth (Temple) Taylor, whose son, John R. Taylor, M. D., was born and reared at the old homestead in Hanover county and was given exceptional educational advantages that culminated in a course of study in that famous Philadelphia institution, the Jefferson Medical College. Upon receiving the degree of M. D. from that college he returned to Virginia and purposed to devote his entire life to professional labors, but more and more the management of his lands began to engross his attention and finally he retired from practice in order to give his time to landed interests in different parts of Virginia. For years prior to his demise he made his home at a picturesque old plantation, Fall Hill, situated near Fredericksburg, Va., over- looking the Rappahannock river. On that place occurred the birth of his son, John Temple, February 16. 1845. There too were born the five other children comprising the family and there also the mother spent her last days, so that the endearing associations of both happy and sad memories clustered around the old homestead. Three of the children are still living. Of the five sons four bore arms for the Confederacy during the Civil war and one of these, Capt. Murray F. Taylor, a member of the staff of Gen. A. P. Hill, after the war came to California, secured employment in Kern county, rose to be superintendent of the Stockdale ranch and some years later returned to Vir- ginia, where he died.

Attendance at the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Va., was brought to an abrupt close in 1862, when John Temple Taylor abandoned the practice work and drills on the college campus for actual service in the field. At the time of his enlistment in Company B, Ninth Virginia Cavalry, he was a youth of seventeen years, courageous and enthusiastic, glad to enlist in the cause of the south where his life had been passed and where generations of his ancestors had lived and labored. The regiment to which he was assigned and in which he continued until the close of the war, served around Richmond and in other parts of Virginia, taking part in the battles of the Wilderness. Spottsylvania, the Shenandoah valley, Petersburg, etc. In several battles he received saber wounds, at Ashland he was wounded by a bullet in the right shoulder and at Five Forks his horse was shot from 21

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

under him, but he escaped by securing and mounting a riderless horse. Upon the close of the war he returned to the Fall Hill plantation. but in the fall of the same year (1865) he moved to the Hayes plantation in King George county, on the Rappahannock river, twelve miles below Fredericksburg. This plantation he owned throughout life, although for years it was leased to other parties.

Coming to California in 1875. Mr. Taylor joined a relative. Dr. George F. Thornton, the general superintendent for J. B. Haggin. This relative gave him employment as a foreman. One year later he was made super- intendent of the Bellevue ranch, which property he developed and put under cultivation. On account of failing health in 1883 he went to Contra Costa county to recuperate and while there he engaged in farming. With strength renewed in 1887 he returned to Kern county and again became an employe of J. B. Haggin. In 1891, when his brother, Capt. M. F. Taylor, returned to Virginia, he became superintendent of the Stockdale. Bellevue. Buena Vista and McClung ranches. Later he was tendered a similar position on the Canfield ranch. Upon the formation of the Kern County Land Com- pany he was retained as superintendent of all of these various ranches. At the same time he himself became a property owner and invested in valuable residential sections of Bakersfield and Los Angeles. Mr. Taylor's son, Wallace Temple, is a railroad and general contractor with headquarters in Los Angeles. Through all of his life John Temple Taylor was stanchly devoted to Democratic principles. Some years ago he was chosen a member of the county Democratic central committee and his service in that capacity. as in every other association of political or business life, reflected his own strength of character. energy of temperament and high ideals of citizenship. Bakersfield mourned the loss of one of her most dependable citizens when John Temple Taylor passed from earth August 23, 1913. His remains were buried in Bakersfield cemetery by the side of his brother, Capt. Murray F. Taylor.

GEORGE MOLIDOR .- The rotary disc bit, which was invented through the combined efforts of T. F. Litaker and George Molidor in 1910 and later covered by patents in this and foreign countries, is a device that will work quickly and successfully in all formations, thus rendering unnec- essary the changing of bits when another formation is struck. October 15. 1912, the Rotary Disc Bit Company was incorporated, the two hundred shares being held by the gentlemen named, together with R. U. Harris and W. J. Holland. Arrangements have been made whereby the Oil Well Supply Company of Los Angeles will undertake the manufacture of the bit on a royalty basis and as this concern has about one hundred and fifteen branch stores in the various oil fields of the world. it would appear that the bit will soon become well-known among oil operators everywhere.

Since the organization of the company its president, Mr. Molidor, has traveled as a salesman introducing the bit into different oil fields, and he finds that oil men are interested in the device by reason of its simplicity of construction and the fact that there are no delicate parts. The discs and pins are the only parts upon which there is any wear, and these can be replaced quickly and at sinall expense. The discs are made of manganese steel and are so constructed that they keep a cutting edge. As the discs revolve on their pins they have over sixty inches of cutting surface. Another advantage of the rotary disc bit is that it uses only one-third the amount of steam required for a fish tail. This means there is very little strain on the drill pipe and the danger of twisting the pipe is reduced to a minimum. In drilling with the bit it is necessary to feed slowly or the pumps will be choked. On the LaBelle lease on section 4. 32-23, near Fellows, at a depth of three hundred and thirty-seven feet, in ten hours

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

and ten minutes of actual drilling, a soft formation was struck and the dril- lers put in a fish tail, which ran through the formation, struck coarse gravel and lasted only thirty minutes. The disc bit was again used and made nine feet in boulders in one hour and thirty minutes. As the discs and pins were worn the disc bit was taken out and the fish tail put in, which made ten feet in fifty minutes and then had to be dressed. The formation con- sisted of sand and gravel, two hundred and seventy-four feet; gypsum, thirty feet : soft clay, twenty feet ; and boulders, twenty-two feet.

The president of the company is of American birth and German par- entage and belongs to a family noted for rugged physique and sturdy con- stitution. His father. Henry G., a native of Hanover, Germany, crossed the ocean at the age of twenty-one and settled in Ohio, where he followed his trade of merchant tailor. After a few years he moved to Springfield, Ill., and followed the same trade. Later he went to Kansas and bought a farm southeast of Independence. While living in Ohio he was married at Radnor to Miss Katherine May, a native of the Buckeye state. Both he and his wife are deceased and their farm, which still remains intact as an estate, has become valuable oil land, since about 1904 oil having been pumped daily from three wells. The parental family consisted of five sons and three daughters. The second son, George, was twenty-one at the time of the removal to Kansas. After two years on the farm near Independence he went to the mountains and engaged in prospecting for gold. Four years were spent near Leadville. Upon his return to Kansas he engaged in ranching and also with two brothers and another gentleman engaged in operating a threshing machine. Meanwhile he had married Miss Mary Hayes, of Independence, who died on the farm near that town in 1909, leaving six children, namely : Gertrude, George A., Paul A., Nellie, Katherine and Genevieve. The elder son, George A., now in school, has devoted his vacations to the driving of a transfer wagon at Fellows and to employment in the Jones drug store, but is especially fond of mechanical work and intends to take up work with machinery upon leaving school. The second son, Paul A., is now employed in the Jones drug store. In 1911 Mr. Molidor married Miss Nellie Mills, who was born and reared in London, and of that union there is a daughter, Frances Irene, born in December, 1912.

A most serious disaster befell Mr. Molidor with the burning of his buildings in Fellows on Christmas eve of 1911, when he and his family were left without means and with almost no clothing. Encouraged by his wife and children, he took up transfer work and anything that it was possible for him to do, but in the meantime he had been interested in the rotary disc bit and now devotes his entire attention to its sale. For five years he worked in oil fields and by actual experience he has become familiar with every phase of that industry except drilling. Inventive ability has been one of his characteristics from early life. While living in Kansas he invented a combination can-opener, meat and vegetable chopper and ice shaver. and sold one-half interest in the invention for an amount that enabled him to put up a factory building at Independence in 1890. Other inventions are also to his credit and it is his chief ambition to erect a factory wherein several of his inventions may be manufactured. The ambi- tion may be unrealized for a few years, but there is every reason to believe that eventually his hope will be realized. From early years he and his wife have been identified with the Catholic Church, and while in Kansas he was an active worker in the Knights of Columbus at Independence. In that town he was likewise prominent among the Woodmen of the World.

JOHN T. GREEN .- It was in Tulare. Cal .. that J. T. Green was born March 12, 1884. He entered school when seven years old and when he was nine he was taken by his parents to Lemoore on their removal to that

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town. There he was graduated from the grammar school and devoted a year to high school attendance, and in 1904 he was duly graduated, at the end of the prescribed course of study, from the San Francisco business college. That same year he came to Kern county and for four years there- after he was employed in the motive power department of the Southern Pacific railroad. In 1908 he came to Wasco to become manager of the Hayes & Murray general merchandise store, which he bought a year later and conducted until 1911, when he disposed of it in order to engage in the real estate business. He was appointed postmaster of Wasco May 27, 1909, and has ably filled that office ever since. He established the first barber shop in Wasco, encouraged the opening of the first butcher shop there and was instrumental in the installation of the first newspaper plant in the town, that of the Wasco News. He is the commercial agent for the Universal as well as the Associated Oil Companies. Another of his activities is his energetic management of the Wasco Land Company. It will be seen that not only as a real estate man, but in numerous other ways he has done much for the upbuilding of Wasco. He owns four residences in the town, his home lot consisting of two and a half acres, as well as three business lots. In 1912 he erected a large brick building, 60x70 feet, occupied by two stores and the postoffice, which is located centrally on the main business street. Since 1909 Mr. Green has held a commission as notary public.

On November 5. 1909, Mr. Green married Miss Pearl S. Lobb, who was born at Traver, Tulare county, Cal., August 25, 1887, and they have one child, Gwen Adell Green. Fraternally he affiliates with Delano Lodge, F. & A. M., with the Bakersfield Lodge, I. O. O. F., and with the local organization of the Modern Woodmen of America, of which latter he was a charter member.

EDWARD W. CRAGHILL .- Three generations of the Craghill family have been identified with the material development of California and the manager of the King Lumber Company at Fellows represents the third generation, being a grandson of Charles Craghill, the founder of the family on the shores of the Pacific. That gentleman, who was a native of London, England, but a citizen of the United States from early life, engaged in agri- cultural pursuits in Iowa prior to the Civil war. With characteristic loyalty to the country of his adoption he enlisted under the stars and stripes and rose to the rank of quartermaster in an Iowa regiment of infantry. Receiv- ing an honorable discharge at the close of the war, he returned to Iowa, but in a short time disposed of his holdings in that state and came to California accompanied by his wife and children. Selecting a location near Santa Cruz, he turned his attention to the tilling of the soil. In the community he rose to a position of considerable local influence and the highest reputation for probity and intelligence. For twenty years he gave impartial service in the office of justice of the peace. His life was prolonged to old age and he passed away in 1911 after an intimate and interested identification with his section of the state.

When the family came from Iowa to California Thomas E. Craghill, a native of the former commonwealth, was a small child, hence the greater part of his life has been passed in the west. During young manhood he engaged in teaming at Santa Cruz. For many years he raised stock and grain on a ranch near San Luis Obispo, but at this writing he operates a cattle ranch in Tulare county near the village of Corcoran. By marriage to Vianna Mclaughlin, a native of Santa Cruz, he became connected with another prominent pioneer family of the western country. In a very early period of California colonization her father, Daniel Mclaughlin, a native of Maine, crossed the plains with ox-teams and wagons and became a pioneer

Andrew, Frelich

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

of the vast undeveloped regions of the west. Somewhat later he married at Santa Cruz Miss Helen Rice, who had accompanied her parents across the plains and, like himself, claimed Maine as her native commonwealth. After their marriage they engaged in general farming, with a specialty of horticulture.

The eldest of the seven children of Thomas E. and Vianna Craghill is Edward W. Craghill, born on the ranch in San Luis Obispo county March 24, 1887, and educated in country schools near the old home. After leaving school he clerked in San Francisco for a short time, then went to Corcoran to assist his father in the cattle industry, but soon became an employe of the Cross Lumber Company. After two years with the concern, during a portion of which time he served as assistant manager, he came to Fellows in September of 1910 as an employe of the King Lumber Company. In a short time he was transferred to Wasco to act as manager for the company at that point, but in April. 1912, was sent back to Fellows, where he since has been manager of the vards. He is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce.

ANDREW FRELIGH .- Coming to California in 1870 with the hope that the change of climate might benefit his impaired health, Mr. Freligh ar- rived in Kern county during 1876 and settled during 1880 upon the ranch where he still lives and labors. The interim has been devoted to the stock business. Up to the year 1882 he specialized with sheep, but a number of heavy losses led him to dispose of his flocks and devote his attention to hogs. horses and cattle. At this writing he owns six hundred head of stock. His quiet, retiring disposition impels him to find his highest pleasure on his home ranch and in the care of his stock.

Born on the bank of Seneca Lake, in Seneca county, N. Y .. September 12, 1850, Andrew Freligh received a public-school education and upon leav- ing school went via Michigan to Prairie City, Kans., where he found employ- ment on farms and remained for two years. Ill health caused him to come to the Pacific coast in 1870 and from San Francisco he moved to Alameda county, where he worked as an orchardist at Haywoods for two years, con- centrating his attention upon the raising of deciduous fruits. Concluding then to engage in the sheep industry, he started in business at Jones' Ferry, Fresno county, at first having about three hundred head of sheep. In order to secure range for the flock he went into different parts of Fresno county and traveled through that district when there was not a single house on the present site of the flourishing city of Fresno. He saw the town started and attended the first Fourth of July celebration. With the intention of finding suitable range for his sheep he came into Kern county in 1876 and four years later he settled on his present ranch, where in partnership with an uncle, George Kinnie, he bought eight hundred acres, sixteen miles west of Bakers- field. The uncle deciding to leave in 1884 sold his interest in the land to Mr. Blodgett and since then Mr. Freligh has run the ranch, raising and selling horses, hogs and cattle, and making a specialty of raising draft horses of the Norman strain and Durham cattle. Six hundred acres of the ranch are under irrigation and in alfalfa.

JOSEPH J. MARSHALL .- An early identification with American devel- opment along the Atlantic seaboard is attested by the Marshall family gen- ealogy, which also indicates patriotic loyalty to country and a courageous participation in many a fiercely contested battle. During the Civil war George Marshall, a native of New York City, offered his services to the Union and was assigned to service in the One Hundred and Third New York Infantry, with which he went to the front and aided in the quelling of the rebellion. During the early '70s he became an employe in the St. Louis postoffice and the efficiency of his services is shown by the fact that he has remained in the department from that time to the present, being now with

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two exceptions the oldest employe in that great office. He and his wife, formerly Mary M. Francis, who was born in Davenport, Iowa, have a family of eleven children. The second of these, Joseph J., was born in the city of St. Louis, April 4, 1875, and received an excellent education in the public schools and Christian Brothers College. Immediately after leaving college he became an apprentice to the trade of carpenter. Inheriting the military spirit of his ancestors, he entered the army in 1895 and was assigned to Troop I, Second United States Cavalry, with which he served at Fort Logan for three years. Within fifteen minutes after his honorable discharge in April, 1898, he had re-enlisted in the same troop for service in the Spanish- American war. Under general orders he received an honorable discharge at Huntsville, Ala., in January, 1899, after which he returned to St. Louis and completed his trade. In that city occurred his marriage to Miss Louise Rathert, who was born, reared and educated there, and who shares with him the good-will of the people of their home town.

An experience as carpenter in Mexico gave to Mr. Marshall some knowl- edge of conditions in that country, where he worked first at Mazatlan and later at Empalme in the state of Sonora. From 1907 until he came to Fel- lows in 1910 he spent much of the time in Mexico, as foreman of the construc- tion department for buildings erected by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. When he came to the oil fields he was well equipped for success- ful work in the building business. At Fellows he aided in the erection of some of the first buildings and became a member of the firm of Ramage & Marshall, the first partnership of builders in the new settlement. The part- nership was later dissolved and in January, 1912, with L. H. Moon, he started the M. & M. Construction Company, which has had the contracts for the improvements on twenty or more leases, has erected houses and improved business property, and has built the largest bunk-houses in the oil fields of the west side, including Maricopa, Taft, Fellows and McKittrick. Besides keeping busily employed at his trade, Mr. Marshall is interested in the Fellows Suititorium and is a worker for the Chamber of Commerce as well as other local organizations of merit. The Republican party has received his ballot in all general elections.

M. A. DUNCAN .- The Duncan family comes of a long line of sturdy, law-abiding people, who founded family pride upon unsullied lives and patri- otic service and who cherished an altruistic spirit in all the relations of life. The fine qualities of the race came to them from a long line of Scotch for- bears and when Willis Duncan, a native of Scotland, established the family name and fortunes in the new world there were transplanted in this country the sturdy honesty and irreproachable integrity characteristic of elder gener- ations. From Willis the line is traced through his son, Gavin Bennett Duncan, to the next generation, represented by M. A., of Bakersfield, the latter being a grandson through his mother, Eliza, of Joel Frazier, long a resident of Kentucky, but a native of Ireland, being a member of a family that fled from Scotland to Ireland at the time of the religious persecutions. Ten children formed the family of Gavin Bennett and Eliza ( Frazier) Dun- can. One of these, the youngest and the last survivor. M. A., was born on the home farm in Adams county, Ill., August 24, 1850, there made himself useful in the care of the stock and the tilling of the soil as soon as large enough for such work. In that locality he met and married Miss Emma Lehman, likewise a native of Adams county. Four children were born of their union, namely : Alta Lelah, wife of Edward L. Hougham, manager of the store of M. A. Duncan & Co., in Bakersfield ; Eugene B., also of Bakers- field ; Nellie Lenora, Mrs. Arthur S. Crites ; and Anna Bertram, at home.

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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 49

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