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 69

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 69

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When the family came to California in 1883 Thomas L. Cummins im- mediately secured employment on a ranch. For such work he was well qualified, being experienced, industrious and persevering, but at the expira- tion of two years he gave up farming in order to serve an apprenticeship to the trade of a carpenter in Los Angeles. His time ended, he worked at the trade and soon became foreman for a contractor. From 1889 until 1896 he followed the trade in San Diego, where he became known as a careful builder and skilled carpenter. Meanwhile he had become interestd in min- ing and during 1897 he turned his attention entirely to the building and operating of mills in mines of San Bernardino county, where with a partner he owned a valuable mine and mill. The interests 'became highly profitable in their developed state, but the partner proved dishonest and Mr. Cummins lost heavily in the enterprise. Nor was his next venture any more success- ful. Going to Madera county, he leased a sawmill in the pines, began to operate the plant and had every promise of a large business, but his sanguine

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expectations came to an end with the burning of the mill, entailing a heavy loss. During 1904 he came to Bakersfield and took up carpentering, since which time he has bought a residence. Interested also in farming he owns three hundred and twenty acres. eight miles southeast of the city in the Weed Patch country, which he has checked and ditched and will seed to alfalfa. In this city he married Miss Susan Fleckner, a native of New York City, a woman of education and an active worker in the Women of Wood- craft. She is very literary and a playwriter of ability, having written and staged "The Matrimonial Club," "The Last Rehearsal," "Women's Rights in Pumpkin Center," "Life of David," "Life of Joseph," also being the author of Scotch, Irish and American songs as well as lectures. All her productions proved popular and were favorably commented upon. Mr. Cummins is a well-known member of the Woodmen of the World.

WILLIAM HARRISON LOWELL .- Although not one of the earliest settlers of Bakersfield, the date of the arrival of Mr. Lowell, May 27, 1876, indicates that he identified himself with Kern county long before its present wealth of resources was appreciated and before its present era of expansion had been inaugurated. From the time of his arrival until his useful existence came to an end, May 11, 1910, he labored for the advancement of his adopted home and while endeavoring to attain independence for himself never slighted any movement that would promote the growth of the community.

Descended from an old English family long resident in New England, William Harrison Lowell was born at Concord, Me., April 14, 1841, and was a son of William and Mary (Tyler) Lowell, also natives of Maine. When but little more than twenty years of age he enlisted in the Civil war as a member of the Fourth Maine Cavalry and accompanied his regiment to the front, where he served with valor and fidelity for a period of three years. In January, 1865, he received an honorable discharge and returned to his home in Maine, where he took up farm pursuits. July 2, 1875, at Pleasant Ridge. Me .. he was united in marriage with Miss Hannah C. Ball, a native of the same village as himself, and a daughter of Daniel and Eliza (Carl) Ball, farmers by occupation. Both of her parents died in early life and she was but eighteen months old when left an orphan. after which she was taken into the home of Mrs. Mary Bridgen, an English lady. The foster mother sent her to school and trained her carefully in a knowledge of housekeeping duties, so that she was well qualified to take charge of a home of her own. Shortly after her marriage she started with her husband for California and here established a home in Bakersfield.

The Lowell brothers, Wilmot, Danville, Alexis and William Harrison, engaged in sheep-raising, the last-named being first merely a salaried em- ploye, but later admitted as a partner. While they met with the reverses always to be counted upon in the sheep industry, in the main they were suc- cessful and their large investments of means and time in the business brought them satisfactory returns. With a portion of their profits they bought a ranch of three hundred and twenty acres adjoining Bakersfield, and there they engaged in raising alfalfa and fruit. A part of the tract was eventually made a subdivision and as such was sold off in lots, many of which were improved by the brothers themselves with neat cottages or commodious residences. Eleven of the houses were erected by Wilmot and William H., and they also built a number of houses on Chester avenue, besides which William H. bought a large residence at K and Twenty-first streets, that he owned but rented for a rooming house up to the time of his death. His only son, Arthur, is living in Bakersfield, and since her husband's death Mrs. Lowell has continued to reside at the old home place, No. 1120 Seventeenth street, carefully superintending the family interests, which include the own- ership of unimproved property, houses and lots, stock in the Bank of Bakers- field and other valuable interests. In national politics he always voted with

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Hamah & Lowell

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

the Republican party, while fraternally after the organization of Hurlburt Post, G. A. R., at Bakersfield, he was one of its leading and most highly honored members and the incumbent of a number of its leading offices. Mrs. Lowell is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps of Bakersfield, and takes an active interest and is ever helpful in all movements that tend to improve and better the conditions of the city and citizens of her adopted home.

HERBERT GEORGE BALL .- The history of the Ball family is traced back to the early period of the American occupancy of California. The first of the name to identify himself with the then unknown west was John Ball, a Kentuckian by birth and education and a member of an honored and in- fluential southern family. Such was the wealth and prestige of the family in the Blue Grass state that in his own name he owned two thousand slaves and vast tracts of land. After removing to Missouri he became heavily in- terested in cattle. During 1848 he was made high sheriff of Missouri, which at the time was undergoing great excitement and trouble owing to the pres- ence of the Mormons, exiled from Hancock county, Ill., subsequent to the killing of Joseph Smith earlier in the same decade. In his capacity as high sheriff it became necessary for Mr. Ball to confine Brigham Young in his own home for three weeks. The great Mormon leader when released de- termined to revenge himself upon his jailer and when the latter determined to cross the plains to California, he sent word to him that he would not be permitted to cross the plains alive. However, John Ball was not a man to be frightened by a threat. Instead, he became all the more resolute in his purpose and in the spring of 1848, shortly after Young had been released and had gone to Utah, a large company of Missouri people set out for Cali- fornia. Twelve hundred persons formed the party, which carried a suitable equipment of wagons, cattle, provisions, supplies and, most important of all, a large amount of ammunition. In the outfit were two brass cannon made at New Orleans, with one and one-half inch bore and shooting balls attached together by means of chains from three to seven inches long.

The winter of 1848-49 was passed in camp, the men of the party build- ing Fort Hall and fortifying it against the Indians. Every mile of their journey across the plains was contested by savages. Through the country where the Mormons could attack them their progress was one continual warfare. Particularly memorable was the battle of Bloody Hollow, where Ball's forces, consisting of one hundred and six cavalrymen, thirteen scouts (of whom Kit Carson was the leader) and twelve hundred men in the train, met and conquered a great army of Indians and Mormons, inflicting a heavy loss of life. The expedition was the first to get through after the ill-fated Donner party. On account of the hostilities of savages they were forced to take the northern route, and it was not until the spring of 1850 that they landed in California via Portland, Ore. Immediately John Ball put up a canvas hotel in Sacramento. For a few years he met with phenomenal suc- cess, but his large generosity involved him in financial difficulties and his large fortune was spent before his death. He built the first brick house in Sacramento and also built and equipped the first railroad ever in California, this being a road eight miles in length, built primarily for the purpose of hanling wood to Sacramento. From the latter city he moved to Sonoma county and founded Frankville, afterwards known as Santa Rosa, where he died in 1865 from the result of injuries caused by a kick from a horse. Of his family of two daughters and six sons only two are now living.

At the time of starting from Missouri William P., son of John Ball, was a child seven years of age. In youth he learned the trade of a blacksmith. For many years he struggled to secure a footing in the business world. Meanwhile he lived as far north as Washington and as far in the other direc- tion as Southern California. During 1856. when taking a herd of eight

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hundred Arizona cattle from the lower part of California to Sacramento via the San Joaquin valley, he and his comrades noticed smoke issuing from the hills north of McKittrick. Believing the smoke to come from a volcano they started an investigation. They ascertained that the Indians had set fire to the hills where the oil oozed out of the earth and the soil was burned to the color and appearance of lava. However, Mr. Ball had no means for developing oil and being anxious to get his herd through to their destination, he gave no further attention to the discovery of oil. Later he worked in the Kern county oil fields, but at this writing he is engaged in the real estate business at Santa Rosa.

Born at Healdsburg. Sonoma county, Cal., July 28, 1875, Herbert George Ball was educated mainly in public schools in Washington, where he finished the grammar grade. As a boy he lived in various places, but principally at Walla Walla, Wash., and San Francisco. From the age of fourteen until twenty-one he was apprenticed to the old California Electric Light Company (now consolidated with the Edison Power & Light Company). From twenty-one until twenty-six he was employed as an artistic metal worker with Thomas, Day & Co., of San Francisco. Were he not an exceptionally proficient oil superintendent, he could earn his livelihood either as an elec- trician or as a metal worker. While he was working with the metal com- pany an older brother, residing in San Francisco, had made the acquaintance of E. C. Landis, then as now connected with the Kern River Oil Company. Mr. Landis was in need of a blacksmith to work upon his lease and the older brother secured the place for his father, who was an expert at that trade. After the father had been working for some time on the lease, a demand developed for an electrician and he recommended his son, Herbert George, who was thereupon requested to begin work at the lease. As an electrician, the young man made good. However, the price of oil began to drop until it was only ten cents per barrel. This meant practical ruin to the oil industry. The plant was shut down, but he was retained as caretaker and when an increasing price caused the resuming of operations he was ready to start in at the bottom and work his way forward by dint of efficiency.

Since first coming to the oil fields, April 8, 1901, Mr. Ball has never been out of the employ of the Kern River Oil Company nor has he ever been absent from the McKittrick field with the exception of the seven months from January 1st to August 1st, 1903, when his employers sent him over to the Kern river field to observe the water in the wells and learn the best methods of shutting it off. This he did so successfully that he was called to many of the leading leases to aid in similar tasks, among them being the following : West Shore Oil Company, Monte Cristo Oil Company, Green-Whit- tier Oil Company, Astec Oil Company, Rasmussen Oil Company, Red Bank Oil Company, Del Rey Oil Company, Nevada County Oil Company, Peerless Oil Company, Kern Oil Company, Omar Oil Company and the Reed Crude Oil Company. At this writing he has the Kern River Oil Company's lease of ten acres under contract from year to year and through his enterprise he has made a success of the property. Out of the four oil wells two are producing and give an average monthly output of four thousand barrels. Altogether he has spent tens of thousands of dollars in wild-catting and putting down discovery wells in the McKittrick field. Associated with Mr. Bandittini of McKittrick and H. S. Williams he put down the discovery well on the I. X. L. lease, now a part of the Associated, and sold out to advantage after striking a good flow of oil. Together with Mr. Williams he put down a well to a depth of three thousand one hundred and eighty-seven feet on eighty acres of government land, known as the Leader Oil Company lease. As they began operations before the government withdrew the land they are

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entitled to a patent. Indications for a gusher of high gravity oil are excel- lent and in that event the lease will become one of the most valuable prop- erties at McKittrick. Upon forty acres known as the S. and W. lease, Messrs. Williams and Ball have one well producing one hundred barrels per day. On his lease of ten acres Mr. Ball uses gas for fuel and for generating steam, while he has installed electrical power for pumping purposes. In addition he has an electrical pumping plant on his fine ranch of eighty acres in the Laurel colony, Tulare county, where he is developing a model country home. In politics he is a Progressive Republican, and fraternally he is a member of Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M. During 1902 he married Miss Jessie N. Mull, member of a prominent family of Tulare county, and their union has been blessed with two children, Cornelia Elizabeth and Herbert William.

FERDINAND A. TRACY .- The life which this narrative depicts began in Wilkesbarre, Pa., in 1829, and closed at Bakersfield, Cal., January 9, 1908. The intervening years represented a period of intense activity crowned by the regard of friends. From 1850. when he was attracted to the west by the discovery of gold and crossed the plains with a large expedition of emi- grants, he was identified with the material upbuilding of California and gave to its development an intensity of devotion indicative of his fondness for the commonwealth of his adoption. In the early '50s he was commissioned lieutenant of a company of United States troops to quell an Indian uprising in northern California. The company was successful in establishing peace, and it was the last time these Indians were on the warpath. When his ser- vices were no longer needed Mr. Tracy was honorably discharged. During the period of mining activity he followed the occupation in the Mokelumne region and indeed he never lost his interest in the industry, but after he had left the Sierras he became interested in the mines of Kern county, notably those in the Tehachapi range. From mining he turned to stock-rais- ing. During 1860, in search of feed for his herds, he came into the Carissa valley and from there he proceeded to the Kern delta, whose possibilities attracted him. Becoming a resident of Bakersfield in 1862, he operated his stock interests from this point and with Wellington Canfield, under the firm title of Canfield & Tracy, he became a leader in the cattle industry through- out the San Joaquin valley. Their herds increased in size until their brand was more frequently seen than that of any of the stockmen in the state. It is said that during the fifty-six years of their co-partnership, never a word of disagreement arose between the two partners, but they remained in the end as in the beginning close personal friends, congenial associates and devotedly attached each to the welfare of the other.

The marriage of Mr. Tracy in 1875 united him with Mrs. Ellen Baker, the widow of the founder of Bakersfield. Politically he always advocated Republican principles. Frequently he was called upon to occupy positions of trust in county affairs, but these came to him without his seeking. In- deed he was so unassuming, so reticent in his own claims, so strong in his dislike for notoriety that he shunned public life and often was superseded by others who had not the moral and intellectual equipment for an honor- able career that he possessed. Had it not been for his exceeding modesty he would have ranked with men known in the annals of the state. His manly nature appealed to men in a manly way. Generous to a fault, hos- pitable in act, attractive in personality and genial in companionship, he made friends of all whether rich or poor. In every sense of the word he was a true gentleman and this was particularly noticeable in his desire to pro- tect all helpless and dependent creatures. The poor had in him a helpful friend, the suffering never sought his assistance in vain. His integrity and honesty were of the kind that sought no personal emoluments, but upheld the highest principles of honor through innate purity of soul. Self-poise

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guided all of his acts and was apparent in every business detail, but it was not the self-control of the selfish man, instead the natural temperament of one ever ready to make sacrifices for others and one who displayed patience and kindness under every circumstance. Possessed of splendid mind. he developed this through a wise and long-continued course of reading. The master-minds of all the ages became familiar to him in his readings and thus he acquired a cosmopolitan culture. A fondness for poetry did not deter him from delving into the intricacies of science and political economy, while in history he was exceptionally well informed. Of religion too he was a thoughtful student and while with innate reticence he never revealed his thoughts concerning the spiritual life, his own deeply religious nature per- vaded his entire existence and made beautiful his adherence to the strong- hold of Christianity.

CLAUS PETER CHRISTENSEN .- Many of the enterprising men who are taking an active part in the development of Kern county came here from the fertile country of Denmark and it was there that Claus Peter Christensen was born near Nakskov. Laaland, September 27, 1865. He was reared on a farm and received a thorough training in the local schools. In 1882 he came to Illinois and for a time was employed at farming in Sanga- mon county. In 1884 he came to Shasta county, California, where for eighteen months he worked on a farm and then began placer and quartz min- ing and learned millwrighting, building and running quartz mills in Shasta and Trinity counties. During this time he completed a course in mining en- gineering in the International Correspondence School.

Mr. Christensen built a dredger on the Klamath river and a smelter at Keswick, then was superintendent of the Dunderberg mine in Mono county for two years. Wishing to still further perfect himself for his life work he entered Vandernaillen's School of Mines at San Francisco, where he was graduated in 1898. In December of that year he came to Johannesburg, where he built two different cyanide plants and the Phoenix mill. Thence he went to Barstow where he rebuilt a cyanide plant. His next venture was prospecting and mining in Old Mexico where later he was in the employ of the Green-Cananea Company. On his return to California he erected a 100- stamp mill in Calaveras county and then went to Goldfield, Nev .. where he spent nearly a year. For the next three years he was engaged in contracting and building in Petaluma when he again returned to the Randsburg district. Here he was mill man in the Atolia mills and afterwards in charge of the mill and cyanide plant of the Skidoo Mines Company, resigning in 1909 to accept the position of superintendent for the Stanford Mining and Reduction Company, which position he is filling with conscientious ability.

In Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras county, May 27, 1900, Mr. Christensen was united in marriage with Miss Edna Vaillancourt, a native of Reno, Nev, and they have two children, Cecil P. and Hilda. Fraternally he is a member of the Dania society in Petaluma and Sergeant lodge No. 368, I. O. O. F., San Francisco. Politically he gives his allegiance to Democratic principles. Mr. Christensen is much interested in the cause of education and is clerk of the board of trustees of the Johannesburg School District.

GEORGE WALLER .- Two generations of the Waller family have been and are now in the employ of the same corporation, holding positions of trust and discharging their duties with efficiency. The second generation is rep- resented by George Waller, now the foreman of the pipe line department on section 1, township 32, range 23, in the Midway field; and the older gen- eration is represented by his father, J. H., a life-long employe of the Stand- ard Oil Company, and still capable, efficient and energetic, refusing to give up the work in which he takes great satisfaction, although officials of the company repeatedly have importuned him to retire on a pension. An exam-

Jak InKay

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ple of fealty and devotion is afforded by the long and pleasant connection of father and son with the same corporation.

Although a native of West Virginia (born February 15, 1879) George Waller spent his boyhood years in the Lima oil fields in Ohio, for he was only one year old when his father, J. H. Waller, moved over to Ohio to take up work in the pipe line department of the Standard. The boy was educated in Ohio and finished the high-school course at Fort Recovery, Mercer county, in 1897. Meanwhile he had become self-supporting by working in the Stand- ard office during vacations. As a messenger boy he proved that he had in him the making of an expert oil worker. Always the industry has interested him. To master its details has been his principal ambition in life. The Standard, the only company for which he has ever worked, has given him every opportunity to gain a practical knowledge of the business. At the age of twenty-one he was promoted to be connecting foreman. In that ca- pacity he later worked in Kansas and Oklahoma. Sent back to Illinois, he worked successively at Robinson, Bridgeport, Casey and Stoy, and in 1910 left Stoy for California, being assigned to work in the Coalinga field. For two years and eight months he was connected with the pipe line department of the Standard at Coalinga, from which point he was transferred to the Midway field and has since been foreman of the pipe line department on section 1. While making his headquarters at Robinson, Ill., he married Miss Myrtle Jacobs, and they now occupy one of the Standard houses on 1-32-23, where they have a comfortable home. While in Illinois Mr. Waller was made a Mason in the Eaton blue lodge and after coming to this state he became connected with the Scottish Rite Consistory at Fresno.

JAMES McKAMY .- Long association with the history of the south pre- ceded any identification of the McKamy family with the early settlement of California. The founder of the name on the Pacific coast was J. M., son of James, and a native of Tennessee, born in the vicinity of Memphis in 1822. While serving in the Mexican war from 1846 to 1848 he traveled much through the south and southwest and became interested in the opportunities afforded by the undeveloped country beyond the then confines of civilization. After he had sojourned for a time in Texas he joined an expedition of Argonauts bound for California. The trip across the plains via Fort Yuma occupied nine months of difficulty and danger. Upon one occasion the savages attacked the party and decamped with their stock, but the emigrants followed on horseback and were able to regain the animals. Among the people crossing the plains in this expedition there was a young lady, Miss Eleanor Petty, a native of Alabama, born in 1823.

The young couple became acquainted and their friendship ripened into affection. Some time after they landed in California they were married at Stockton, from which point Mr. McKamy engaged in freighting to the mines. Later he took up land on the Mariposa road ten miles east of Stockton and moved his family to the claim, where he engaged in rauching. While the family lived at that location a son, James, was born March 7, 1856. During 1873 the father visited Kern county and was favorably impressed with the country. Accordingly the following year he brought his family hither and settled on Poso creek at the old stage crossing, where he embarked in the sheep business unon a large scale. At first fortune favored him. The flock prospered and thrived. Returns were gratifying. However, with the drought of 1877 conditions changed, feed became scarce and water difficult to secure in sufficient quantities, so that he lost all of his flock, thus leaving him prac- tically bankrupted. Forced to begin anew, he took the family to Glennville, Kern county, and engaged in stock-raising there until his death in 1895. His widow, now eighty-eight years of age, still remains at Glennville. For several

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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 69

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