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 63

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 63

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E. H. WHITAKER .- The supply house of Fairbanks, Morse & Co., at Shale, over which Mr. Whitaker has been manager since its establishment. is one of the recent additions to the important list of business houses in Kern county having for their object the filling of the needs of the oil operators in this section of the country. Since the opening of the house there has been kept in stock a full complement of oil well supplies of the guaranteed quality for which the name of the firm stands sponsor. Throughout the oil fields near Shale the manager of the house has an established reputation for energy. reliability and sagacious judgment, and he is not only capable but also popular.

A native of this state, Mr. Whitaker was born in the city of Los Angeles September 24. 1877. and at the age of thirteen first came to the Kern river oil fields, since which time he has been more or less closely identified with the business now engaging his attention. For a time he was employed in the shipping department of Fairbanks, Morse & Co., in Los Angeles, but in

Af Grand

Mrs. a. P. Eyraud

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

July of 1909 the company transferred him to Bakersfield and during the fol- lowing month sent him from that city to Taft, eventually transferring him in August, 1911, to his present post at Shale, where he was the first and has been the only manager of the supply house. The erection of the store build- ing was carried forward under his personal supervision, the stocking of the room with such equipment as must be carried by such a house also was given over to his charge and the success of the business may be attributed wholly to his oversight. With his wife, whom he married in Bakersfield and who was formerly Miss Josephine Dempsey, he makes his home at Shale. Fra- ternally he is connected with the blue lodge of Masons at Bakersfield and the Improved Order of Red Men at Taft.

AUGUST PIERRE EYRAUD .- As far back as the genealogical records of the Eyraud family can be traced they were residents of that portion of France embraced within the limits of Hautes-Alpes lying in the shadow of the snow-capped Alps and a short distance to the east of the vine-clad valley of the Rhone. In the midst of this fertile section lies the thriving city of Gap, where Joseph Eyraud was born in 1803 and where, after years of active identification with mercantile affairs, he died in 1884, having long survived his wife, Victoria (Sauva) Eyraud, who passed away in 1853. While the family name is still represented in Hautes-Alpes the immediate members of this family circle no longer have identification with the region, for the sole survivor and the youngest of the four children, August Pierre, who was born there May 15, 1852, has made his home in the United States since 1872. For a short time after his arrival in San Francisco he was employed as clerk in a hotel and later he worked in a tannery on twenty- sixth and Mission streets, after which, in 1877, he opened the Hotel des Alps on Pacific street. San Francisco. Since 1880 he has made his home in Bakers- field and while during this period he has endured vicissitudes and faced business reverses resulting from fires, by persisting in a course of straight- forward dealing with all he has gained a gratifying degree of financial prosperity.

Shortly after his arrival in Bakersfield Mr. Evraud became the pro- prietor of the Alps hotel on the northwest corner of Nineteenth and M streets, where also he conducted a hotel and liquor business. During 1885 he took the agency for Wieland's brewery and was able to reduce the cost of bottled beer from $16 to $9 per barrel by having the work done at this point. A disastrous fire in 1889 entailed upon him a heavy loss. Prior to the fire he had bought unimproved real estate on the southeast corner of Nine- teenth and MI streets and at once he began to erect the building which he called the French hotel. Upon the completion of the structure he hung at its front the flag of his adopted country. For a number of years he made his headquarters at that place, but during the autumn of 1900 he again met with a heavy loss through the total destruction of the building by fire. Upon rebuilding he changed the name to the Commercial hotel. This he leased to others, while on the corner he established a wholesale liquor bnsi- ness. During 1909 he erected on adjacent property a three-story building known as the St. Regis hotel. This gives him a frontage of one hundred and thirty-two feet and a depth of ninety feet, with six store rooms facing on Nineteenth street. In March, 1912. he retired from the wholesale busi- ness to devote his time to looking after his city property and his ranches. Besides his other holdings he owns oil lands in the McKittrick field and is also the owner of a fine cattle ranch of nine hundred and sixty acres lying in the Greenhorn mountains fifty miles northeast of Bakersfield. On the ranch, which is superintended by his brother-in-law, Jules Caillaud, he has a large herd of cattle bearing the brand BO. He also owns two alfalfa ranches under the Kern Island canal, which he is improving and superin-

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tending. In 1911 he built a beautiful modern residence on the corner of Y and Truxtun avenue, where the family make their home. On the organi- zation of the National Bank of Bakersfield he became an original stock- holder and he is also a member of the board of directors. Politically he has supported the Democratic party ever since he attained his majority. Fra- ternally he holds membership with the Eagles and the Knights of Pythias. His marriage was solemnized in Bakersfield February 4, 1884, and united bim with Miss Rosalie Caillaud, who was born in Paris, France, but was brought to this country at an early age by her father, Charles Caillaud, who settled in Kern county in 1869 and engaged in stock-raising on his ranch which was afterward known as the French ranch. He passed away in 1878, and his widow, Frances (Guillion) Caillaud, reared their family of five children and spent her last days in the home of her daughter, Mrs. August P. Eyraud, in Bakersfield, where her death occurred in 1911, at the age of seventy-nine. The original settler of the Caillaud family was Eugene, a brother of Charles, who came on a sailer around Cape Horn in 1849 and arrived in San Francisco that year. He engaged in mining and drifted into Kern county in the early days; as early as 1859 he located in the Green- horn mountains, where he was a storekeeper and miner, engaging in placer mining on Bear Trap creek, where he was accidentally killed by the caving of the gravel bank in 1886.

The only son of Mr. and Mrs. Eyraud was August, a promising youth, who died at the age of sixteen years. The only daughter, Mrs. Alice Ingram, is a resident of San Francisco.

WILLIAM PARKS RUSSELL .- Success has marked the experiences of Mr. Russell as a driller. To him belongs the credit of having drilled all the wells on the Acme and all but two on the Sacramento, which two proper- ties laid the foundation to the present prosperity and influence of their superintendent, W. W. Colm, one of the leading men in the Kern river field. Purchasing a block of the promotion stock of the Alberta Oil Company on section 15, 31-22, in the North Midway field, where work was begun in May of 1911, Mr. Russell has since drilled all but two of the wells on the lease of forty acres. Under his able supervision the five wells are now producing an average of five thousand barrels per month and there is every reason to hope for an increased output as the work of development progresses. The president of the company is W. W. Colm of the Kern river field, while Harry Thomas of Bakersfield acts as secretary, and the Security Trust Company officiates as treasurer. Capitalized by Kern county men, who repose the utmost confidence in the superintendent, the latter has been able to work unhampered by limitations, and therefore may reasonably hope to reach the success in this proposition that rewarded his efforts in the Acme, the Sacra- mento and all the other properties with which he has been connected.

In the vicinity of the great oil fields of Clarion county, Pa., on a farm owned by his parents, John A. and Hannah (Tippry) Russell, William P. Russell was born May 10, 1864. His father died at the old homestead and the mother, now eighty years of age, is still living on that place. There are six children in the family, namely: Josephine, wife of Ambrose Spencer, who is connected with the iron business at Scranton, Pa. ; Marcus E., an Alaskan gold miner now making his headquarters at Juneau ; Lizzie, Mrs. John Parkin, of Parkers Landing, Pa. : William P., of California ; A. Barton, a farmer living near Foxburg, Clarion county, Pa. ; and Orrin M., a contract driller working in West Virginia. At the age of eighteen years William P. Russell became a roustabout in the Clarion fields. Going from Pennsylvania to West Vir- ginia, he spent fifteen years in the.oil fields of that state and meanwhile acquired a thorough practical knowledge of drilling. In Ohio he engaged in drilling at St. Mary's.

An experience of six years in mining in New Mexico was sufficient to

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prove to Mr. Russell that he was far less interested in mining than in the oil industry, hence he eventually returned to the West Virginia oil fields and worked at Cairo, Ritchie county. Upon coming to California in 1900 he struck the Kern river field in the height of its fame. At first he worked for the Chicago Crude, now a property of the Associated. Later he drilled all the wells on the Acme and all but two on the Sacramento, also drilled on the Sterling and Sovereign leases in the Kern river field, from which he came to the North Midway to take up development work with the Alberta. In 1909 he married Miss Elizabeth Dunkle, of Parkers Landing, Armstrong county, Pa., a woman of culture and education, and an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

A. A. SLOAN .- In Crawford county, Pa., A. A. Sloan was born April 24, 1858, the only other child, Alice, dying about 1897. The father, Erastus Sloan, died in 1862, and was long survived by the mother, Rosanna (McGuire) Sloan, whose death occurred November 9, 1911, at the age of eighty-three years. Having completed the studies of the common schools, A. A. Sloan had some experience as a drug clerk at Little Cooley, Crawford county, and at the age of eighteen started west to see the country. The hard- ships of life on the plains of Kansas, Colorado and the Indian Territory did not appeal to him and he went back to Pennsylvania, there to gain his first knowledge of the oil industry while working at Sawyer City, Mckean county. As a roustabout with the Hazelwood Oil Company he experienced the diffi- culties incident to the beginning of work in the great industry. Step by step he rose to be a driller. Successively in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and California he followed the occupation of drilling, and while in Indiana he engaged in contract drilling as a partner of Joseph Wilson under the firm name of Sloan and Wilson.

For two and one-half years after his first removal to California in 1887 Mr. Sloan engaged as a driller for the Pacific Coast Oil Company at Newhall. On returning to eastern oil fields he continued as a driller for seven years, when again he was induced to come to California. On this second sojourn in California he drilled for the Santa Fe Company at Fullerton. At the ex- piration of ten months he went back to Pennsylvania. January of 1900 found him again in the Fullerton field. During June of the same year he came to Kern county to drill at the old Sunset, having purchased an interest in the Navajo Oil Company. Going to Lompoc in 1901, he worked for the Union Oil Company. On returning to Kern county he engaged with the Bear Creek Oil Company and later was with the Fox Oil Company. but in the meantime he had spent one year on his ranch at Altadena. His connection with the Engineers Oil Company began July 3, 1913, and already has proved helpful to the interests of the concern on section 14, where he makes his headquar- ters. Fraternally he became connected with Esperanza Lodge No. 339, F. & A. M., at Fullerton. By his marriage to Miss Hattie Bailey, of Jamestown, N. Y., he has an only daughter, Miss Marie Sloan, who has developed marked vocal talent and is now studying voice culture under competent instructors. it being the desire of her parents to prepare her for a successful career in the art. For some years Mrs. Sloan has been a prominent worker in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and in religion she is an earnest adherent to the doctrines of the Congregational Church.

JOHN COLE RAMSEY .- On a farm one hundred miles below Pitts- burg. near Morgantown, W. Va., John Cole Ramsey was born June 11. 1875. the son of Josephus A. and Annie E. (Waters) Ramsey. The father, who owned a quarter section of fine farming land in West Virginia, was killed in a runaway accident when he was sixty-seven years of age. The mother, who still lives at Morgantown, has charge of the husband's estate, besides owning thirty-seven acres adjacent, the whole forming a valuable tract. Of her twelve children seven are now living, namely: John Cole, the eldest of the

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family: D). B., who has drilled on the Globe division of the General Petro- leum and in other places: Lillie, Mrs. Charles W. Morris, of Cassville, W. Va .; Mrs. Maude Pride, also of Cassville; Pearl, Grace and Blanche, who reside on the old homestead in the east.

At the age of nineteen years John C. Ramsey found employment in the oil fields at Cassville, W. Va., where he worked for two years in the pipe line department of the Standard Oil Company. Next he entered the producing department of the Standard at Mannington, continuing there and at Bristol, Pa., and Weston. W. Va. In each of these places he had charge of Standard property. Coming as far west as Oklahoma in 1904, he worked at Bartles- ville and Tulsa, mainly as a driller. The year 1906 found him in Coalinga, where he began to drill in the employ of the California Limited. From Coalinga he went to Sherman and engaged with the American Oilfields Com- pany. Limited. Later periods of work kept him in the employ successively of the Alma, Alma, Jr., and the Blackjack in the Kern river field, after which he came to the North Midway in the interests of Barlow & Hill. One year was spent at Taft, from which place he went to the 25 Hill for T. M. Young. Two years were devoted to various departments of the work on the lease, and he then came to his present position in 1911, since which he has made all the improvements on the property and has converted it into a remunerative proposition. Politically he votes with the Democratic party, and fraternally he is connected with the Moose at Taft and the Elks at Bakersfield. While still living in the east he married at Oakland, Md., Miss Grace Chesney, a native of Morgantown. W. Va., and they are now making their home on section 14, 31-22, lease of the Midway Gas and Petroleum Company.

REV. JOSEPH WANNER .- Of the many Roman Catholic priests labor- ing in California few have charge of a larger territory than that which has been assigned to Father Wanner for his spiritual oversight and none has in larger degree than he the qualities necessary for the successful discharge of great responsibilities. The fact that he is able to speak five languages, Ger- man, French, Spanish, English and Italian, indicates his classical education and fine powers of mind and also makes him somewhat of a cosmopolitan in his outlook upon the world.

Father Wanner was born at Belford, Haute Saone, France, October 12. 1865, and is a son of the late Casimer and Marie (Grelle) Wanner, the latter a farmer's daughter, and the former a son of Fortune Wanner, an educator and owner of a farm in Haute Saone. The family was of high standing in the community where so many generations had lived and labored. It was pos- sible, therefore, to give the ambitions youth excellent educational advantages and he was sent to the La Chapelle College in France, where he completed the study of the classics. Later he studied philosophy in the St. Sulpician Sem- inary at Vesoul, Haute Saone. On the completion of the course in that insti- tution he went to Switzerland and studied theology at Luzerne near the shores of the beautiful lake of that name. The historic university in which he was a student had been the alma mater of many men of influence in former generations of religious progress.

Upon coming to the new world the young priest devoted two years to theological study under the Benedictine Fathers in St. Vincent's Seminary at Pittsburgh, Pa. Ordained to the holy priesthood by Archbishop Feehan of Chicago in 1891, he was assigned to the Chicago diocese as an assistant. Later he was appointed rector of the Holy Ghost Church in Chicago and during his pastorate he established the Sisters of St. Agnes convent and academy in his parish. The demands of the work upon his time and strength were great. After a time his health began to suffer under the strain and it became necessary for him to resign his charge in order to benefit by a change of climate. In this way he was led to come to California during 1903. For three years he served as chaplain at the old mission in San

Rev. Joseph Warmen

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Diego and then for a similar period he was rector at Cayucos, San Luis Obispo county, where he built the new church and the parsonage. At the same time he conducted the missions St. Cambria and St. Simeon. During 1906 he was assigned to Tehachapi as rector of St. Malachy's Roman Catholic Church, which had been started in 1884 by Father Bannon. In 1910 he built the St. Mary of the Desert church at Mojave. During the construction of the aqueduct he had charge of all the Roman Catholic missions up to Cinco. In addition he has rebuilt the edifice used by the Sacred Heart congregation at Lancaster, Los Angeles county, and has visited regularly the missions at Amelia and Paris. His most distant mis- sions are at Tejon ranch and the Indian mission near Weldon, on the south fork of the Kern river, eighty-five miles from his home, the entire extent of his territory covering one hundred and thirty miles. It is necessary for him to ride horseback over the mountains, for much of the route takes him over roads impracticable for conveyances. To one of his consecrated spirit and tireless energy the hardships of the trips to mission points count for naught in his zealous efforts to advance the kingdom of Christ in the world. While he has traveled extensively in Europe, has visited Africa and many islands of the Pacific, no country is so dear to him as California and no spot in the commonwealth more interesting to him than his present parish with its widely scattered parishioners, its constant difficulties and its calls upon his sympathies, patience, tact and leadership.

JOHN JOHNSON .- Although having recently established a residence in East Bakersfield, Mr. Johnson still makes his headquarters at Weldon on the South Fork of the Kern river, where he was born May 10, 1867, and where now he has stock interests. Much of his life, however, has been passed in other places, for the interests of the stock industry, to which his father devoted the greater part of his active life and in which he has been con- stantly interested, have obliged him to seek different locations and as a boy he spent much of his time in the Sierra country of Kern and Inyo counties. Later on he had a disastrous experience in San Bernardino county in the vicinity of Daggett, where a severe and protracted drought caused him losses so heavy that he was forced to begin anew. The spread of the Texas fever among his herds completed the catastrophe that left him without either stock or capital. However, since returning to Kern county he has been more fortunate. The losses have been retrieved and he now ranks among the prosperous stockmen of his district.

Through helping in the care of the stock owned by his father, John Johnson, Sr., who was a pioneer of California and a rancher in Kern, Inyo and San Bernardino counties, and eventually a merchant at Daggett, where he died, John Johnson, Jr., learned the stock industry in all of its details. For thirteen years he was employed on the stock ranch of W. W. Landers on the South Fork and his proficiency led to his promotion to the responsi- bilities of foremanship, in which position he continued until he embarked in the stock business for himself. After he had maintained headquarters in the Kelsey valley for some time and had made a most gratifying start in the industry, he unfortunately took his cattle to Daggett in 1908 and there the herd was practically wiped out through the Texas fever and the drought. What was left he sold in 1909 and returned to Kern county, bought a small bunch of cattle and started on the South Fork, where since he has maintained headquarters at Weldon and has ranged his stock on the Manache meadows. The brand of 22 which he uses is common in the district, this proving the size of his herd and the extent to which he has made up for former losses.

Buying a residence at No. 916 Eureka street, East Bakersfield. in 1912, Mr. Johnson moved his family to their new home and since then a part of his time has been spent in the city. He is interested in the development of East Bakersfield, maintains considerable pride in its growing prosperity and

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supports all measures for the local upbuilding. Politically he votes with the Republican party. His marriage was solemnized near Weldon, Kern county, and united him with Miss Victoria Seybert, a native of San Bernardino county, but a resident of Kern county since childhood. They are the parents of two daughters and one son, namely: Mrs. Viola Polkinghorn, who lives at Weldon and has one child, Dorothy ; Inice and James. The father of Mrs. Johnson is Robert Seybert, who at the age of eighty-two years, still survives, rugged and hearty, and still makes his home at his ranch on the South Fork, where he is an honored pioneer and prominent rancher. In an early day he came across the plains from Missouri and settled in California, whose devel- opment he has witnessed during the long period of his identification there- with.

CALVIN B. ALEXANDER .- The results of industry and perseverance find a fitting illustration in the successful activities of this well-known farmer of Kern county, who orphaned by the death of his father when he was only twelve years of age took up the battle of self-support immediately afterward and from that time onward made his own way in the world. . Not only did he accomplish the strenuous task of self-support when other boys were in school or enjoying the recreations of youth, but in addition he turned over all of his wages to his mother until he was twenty and thus assisted in the general maintenance of the family, including at the time six children. of whom he was next to the eldest.

Upon first settling in America it is known that the Alexander family. established their home in Maine, whence later generations drifted as far west as Ohio. There Isaac Alexander met and married Mary Harshberger, who was born in Ohio of German ancestry and who is still living, physically robust for one of eighty-six years. During the period of their residence in Miami county, Ohio, the second child in the family, Calvin B., was born on New Year's day of 1853. When only two years of age he was taken by his parents to Miami county. Ind., but seven years later the family returned to their old Ohio home, where the father died about the year 1865. The next year the son was put to work at $8 per month and from that time he worked without intermission for rest or schooling. At the age of twenty he moved to Warren county. Ind., where he secured work as a farm hand. Later he took up farming for himself. working land for him- self in the summer and then hiring out to others in the winter. For twenty years he continued in Indiana.

Coming to this state in 1893 and purchasing his first acreage in 1898. Mr Alexander since has devoted himself industriously to the care of land and of stock. Besides being a large grower of alfalfa hay, he is successful with other crops. In addition he makes a specialty of stock, is considered an excellent judge of horse-flesh and has on his place two very fine Percheron stallions, one of which is his private property, while the other is owned by a company. The home place comprises eighty acres located on section 7. township 31. range 29, and under his supervision the tract has been im- proved and greatly enhanced in value. In addition he owns an improved eighty on section 12. township 31. range 28, now operated and occupied by his older son. John C .. a progressive young farmer of Kern county. At this writing he also has one hundred and sixty acres under contract.

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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 63

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