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 72

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 72

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

to Washington, where he joined in the desperate chase after Wilkes Booth, the slayer of President Lincoln, then a clerk at headquarters, administering the oath of allegiance to the Confederates, and afterwards he participated in the grand review and June 2, 1865, was mustered out of the service at Washington.

Returning to Illinois Mr. Condict had charge of the old homestead until 1872, when he sold out there and came to California. Bakersfield was then a small hamlet, but in the fall of the same year it secured the county- seat and its real development began at that time. For about two years he was proprietor of the old Stage hotel on the present site of the Odd Fellows hall and next he ran the old ferry for one season. During 1877 he embarked in the scda business on Nineteenth street, where the Southern block is, and later he moved it to G and Seventeenth streets. Two years later he bought one-half block across the street reaching from G to H on Seventeenth street and moved to the new location, where he has continued to the pres- ent time, meanwhile building up an important trade in all kinds of soft drinks, making his own syrups and manufacturing his popular products at his headquarters, known as the C. O. D. soda works. At the same time for twenty-five years he followed the truck and dray business, having four large trucks, and was agent for the Standard Oil Company. In 1905 he sold out the truck business and also gave up the oil agency. Since then he has devoted his time to soda works and looking after his private interests. He is secretary and director of the Paraffin Oil Company, one of the oldest producers on the west side, and is a stockholder in the Coalinga Peerless and the U. S. Oil Company. On account of the bad well water, Mr. Condict, with others, was induced to organize the Bakersfield waterworks, becoming a director and the first superintendent, and putting in all the original pipes. After serving as superintendent for several years he resigned. Near his large manufacturing establishment stands his comfortable residence on H and Seventeenth streets and here he and his wife hospitably entertain the many friends won during the long period of their residence in Bakersfield. With them is one daughter, Miss Charlotte, while the other daughter, Bertha, Mrs. C. L. Hollis, makes her home in San Francisco. At the adoption of the city charter Mr. Condict was chosen the first city assessor of Bakersfield. Throughout all of his life he has believed in the Republican party and sup- ported its principles. Besides being connected with the Sons of the Revolu- tion, he is a charter member of Hurlburt Post No. 127, G. A. R., and in 1886 was chosen its first commander. When he identified himself with the An- cient Order of United Workmen in 1879 his worth was recognized and he was chosen for official responsibilities. For twenty-three years he served as financier of the local lodge, of which he also is past master workman. After coming to Bakersfield in 1873 he was made a Mason in Bakersfield Lodge No. 224. F. & A. M. During that year also he identified himself with Kern Lodge No. 202, I. O. O. F., and afterward he was selected to serve as noble grand of the organization, besides which he became prominent in encampment work and was the first selected to fill the office of chief patriarch.

FREDERICK S. MAZE .- The emigrant trail across the plains, although less sought by ambitious Argonauts than in the memorable years of 1849 and 1850, was still a popular highway when in the summer of 1853 J. W. Maze. a Kentuckian by birth and ancestry, traveled the course of its monotonous miles in "prairie schooner" drawn by ox-teams. Accompanying him was Mrs. Maze, formerly Miss Elizabeth Mann, who was born in Missouri about 1834 and who, now an invalid as the result of an accidental fall that broke the hip- bone, is considerately cared for by her son, Frederick S. The father engaged in grain-raising in Stanislaus county and removed from there to Fresno 30

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county, settling near Selma about fourteen miles from Fresno. His death occurred about 1907 at the age of seventy-eight. Of his seven living children we note the following: Julia is the wife of S. B. Shaw. a carpenter at Visalia ; William E. is engaged in farming in Kern county ; Alice married Marshall A. Cotton, a fruit-packer at Visalia : Laura is the wife of C. H. Brown, a team contractor at Fowler ; Zetta married F. S. Jasper, a drilling contractor at Fel- lows: Frederick S., a twin of Zetta, was born near Modesto, Stanislaus county, Angust 22, 1872; and Christopher E., is engaged in the poultry busi- ness at Fowler.

Reared on a farm in Fresno county, Frederick S. Maze began to work in the oil business at the age of fourteen years and since 1899, when he came to the MeKittrick oil field, he has given his attention wholly to the industry. At first he was employed in driving teams and handled as many as eight head of horses at one time, hauling heavy machinery to the McKittrick field. When he ceased to work as a teamster he began to tend boilers with the Kern River Oil Company at McKittrick. In 1900 he came to the Midway field as a tool-dresser. However, drilling has been his main business and he has made an enviable record in this department of the oil industry. Eight wells on the Pierpont stand to his credit as a driller. In 1907 he drilled one well at McKittrick, later drilled a well on the Brockton, then returned to the Pier- pont and from that went successively to several other leases. Since 1911 he has been connected with the General Petroleum Oil Company, with which he has made a record for successful drilling on the Nevada Midway, Holloway and other leases. The demands of the work are so engrossing that it leaves him no leisure for outside affairs. . Early and late he has been at his post of duty. At one time he had five strings of tools running on the Holloway, Scrongo, Nevada Midway and Bankline, also five strings of tools on the Mid- way 32, having charge of a production that averaged about seventy-five thousand barrels per month until February 1, 1913, since which time his entire attention has been concentrated upon the Midway 32. One of his noteworthy achievements was with well No. 14, which came to him as a fishing job November 1, 1912. Practically abandoned, with boiler lost and equipment useless, he undertook a task of the greatest difficulty, and when he was suc- cessful in the attempt, removing the old casing, providing new equipment and making practically a new well that in June, 1913, came in as a three thousand barrel per day gusher, he was accorded the heartiest praise for the accom- plishment of a feat than which nothing more difficult had ever been accom- plished in the field.

MRS. W. M. MIKESELL .- The president of the Women's Improvement Club at Taft has, through co-operation with other progressive women of the city, accomplished much of inestimable valne to the community and made pos- sible the Taft library together with allied enterprises inseparable from civic advancement. In the very fineness of its far-reaching influence the spirit of the Club eludes definition. Its officers and members endeavor to exercise the art of kindliness, of light and of progress, and the city of Taft is not unmindful of the obligations of its large debt to these women of large-hearted service and philanthropic natures. In the task of promoting civic advancement the president has received the most able assistance from other officers and from members. Their tasks have been labors of beneficence and philanthropy, and their achievements have marked the pathway of local growth.

Born and reared in Pennsylvania, educated in the State Normal School of Pennsylvania and granted a state teacher's certificate in that state. Mrs. Mikesell followed the profession of an instructor in schools until her marriage to W. M. Mikesell, of Indiana. During 1909 she came to California and settled among the pioneers of the new town of Taft, where Mr. Mikesell became the proprietor of a hardware and furniture store and where she has thoroughly

R. G. Payne

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identified herself with every movement for community development. Of her union with Mr. Mikesell there are two sons, Emerson and William Milton, Jr. To enjoy the friendship of Mrs. Mikesell is a privilege. Gentle in thought, yet positive in convictions and resolute in action, she possesses the qualities neces- sary to a successful presiding officer, yet invaluable also in the home, in the church and in society. The value of her uplifting influence has been seen in many a life outside of her home circle and has been particularly apparent in the philanthropic enterprises of the Women's Improvement Club. The Ladies' Aid Society of the Presbyterian Church of Taft was organized in Mrs. Mike- sell's home at Taft. As an active worker in that organization she has been instrumental in building the fine Presbyterian Church at the corner. of Fifth and Kern streets, as well as the manse, which was built in 1912 and continues to be an uplifting influence in Taft.

J. C. PAYNE .- The colonial era of American history witnessed the arrival from Scotland of a sturdy representative of the Payne family. the founder of the name in the new world and a pioneer planter in Virginia. It is interesting to note that Collins' Early History of Kentucky records a dispute and disagreement that arose between General Washington and the progenitor of the Payne family, who were contemporaries, but differed in opinions con- cerning national policies. A Virginian by birth, Duval Payne became an early settler of Missouri and took up a tract of farm land five miles east of Kansas City on the road to Independence. When that property was sold he moved to Cass county, Mo., about fifty miles from Sedalia, and there his death occurred during November of 1862. Years before he had married Mary Jane Wilson, a native of Kentucky, and seven children had been born to the union. The next to the youngest of these, J. C., was born in Jackson county, Mo., March 10, 1853, and was only eight years of age at the time of his father's untimely demise. The widow was left in poverty-stricken circum- stances with a large family, only the eldest of whom were able to go out in the world to earn their own livelihoods. Upon the boy of eight devolved much of the burden of the family maintenance and his condition was ren- dered the more pitiable by reason of the Civil war being then at its climax. The portion of Missouri in which the family lived was a hotbed of guerrilla warfare. The lives of all, old and young, Union and Confederate, were con- stantly in danger. The rising sun of each day gave no prediction of what horror might befall the community before its setting. The barefoot boy, clad in coarse homespun clothing, had no opportunity to attend school during the war, but as he bravely tried to earn his livelihood he saw much that left an indelible impression upon his mind. More than once his life was threatened by outlaw soldiers who sought to get secret information. Quan- trell's gang operated in the neighborhood. At one time he saw six innocent men shot after they had been compelled to dig their own graves. Before the fatal shot was fired each man was required to stand in such a position that his body would drop into the grave he had dug.

Finally the long civil struggle came to an end and in 1866 the fatherless lad, who had been given a temporary home with an aunt, Mrs. B. F. Smith, was taken to Kentucky by his mother, who joined relatives in the vicinity of Paris. There he attended the common schools and became trained to farm pursuits. At the age of twenty-four years he returned to Missouri. From 1878 to 1880 he lived in Johnson county and there, in the year last- named. he married Miss Martha Cook, who had been born in Indiana, but had spent the greater part of her life in Missouri. During 1883 the family came to California and settled near Selma, Fresno county, where Mr. Payne planted a tract of land to vines and deciduous fruit trees. After the fruit was in bearing condition he disposed of the property to advantage. Next he engaged in raising wheat and had from two thousand to three thousand

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acres in grain, conducting extensive operations and meeting with consid- erable success. During 1902 he removed to Bakersfield, where with his only child, James Bruce Payne, he now conducts an undertaking business. The son is a skilled embalmer and a scientist as well. June 10, 1905, he was graduated from the Barnes School of Embalming and Anatomy at New York and March 4, 1908, from the Cincinnati College of Embalming.

The Christian Church of Bakersfield has had the benefit of the capable assistance of the Payne family, who are devoted to the doctrines of that organization. In politics Mr. Payne votes with the Democratic party. Fra- ternally he holds membership with the blue lodge of Masonry, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. For many years he has been a forceful worker with the Kern County Board of Trade and more recently he has served on the executive committee of the Bakersfield Board of Trade, in which he is a leading spirit and enthusiastic worker. Never has he lost an opportunity to "boost" his city, county and state. His faith in the city and his belief in its future prosperity found evidence in his erection during 1912 of a three-story brick building at No. 1928 Nineteenth street. On the top floor the family have a modern apartment fitted up for residential purposes. The basement floor is devoted to a display, sales and stock room and a workshop, while on the first floor are the office, the operating room, the morgue and a funeral chapel with a capacity of one hundred visitors.

FRED C. BROCKMAN .- Teutonic descent in an unbroken line is indi- cated by the genealogy of the Brockman family, whose American representa- tive, Fred C. Brockman, the proprietor of the Plant apartments in Bakersfield, is himself a native of Hesse-Darmstadt and identified throughout youth with that important kingdom in Germany. In the neighborhood where he was born December 21, 1866, he attended the national schools and served an ap- prenticeship to the trade of butcher, thus entering into manhood's activities fortified by a fair education and a thorough knowledge of a useful occupation. Meanwhile he had heard much concerning the new world and the oppor- tunities which it offers to men of energy and determination. Determining to try his fortune in the land across the seas, he bade farewell to the friends of boyhcod and took passage on a steamship bound for the port of New York. It was during 1884 that he became a resident of the United States and at first he settled in New Mexico, where he engaged in mining at Rio Mimbres. All the ups and downs incident to the existence of a miner and prospector fell to his lot in those early years of effort. There were times when all went well and the returns were fair, but also some seasons of depression and dis- couragement, when the profits of other times were forced to be turned to the payment of losses in unfortunate mining ventures. The Apache Indians were very troublesome in New Mexico and more than once they imperiled his life with their dastardly attacks, but in each instance he escaped in safety.

Mining interests in Colorado attracted Mr. Brockman to Ouray in 1890 and there or near by he continued for some time, combining with his work in mines the management of a meat market which he had started shortly after his arrival in Colorado. The next enterprise that engaged his attention was the purchase of a tract of one hundred and sixty acres at Hotchkiss, where he engaged in general farm pursuits and secured water under a canal from the mountains. The presence of irrigation facilities and the fertile nature of the soil rendered possible the undertaking of horticultural enterprises. With this idea in view he platted the tract in tracts of ten acres and sold to fruit-grow- ers, himself retaining ten acres for his home place and planting the land in apples and peaches. The raising of fruit proved profitable. but the high alti- tude affected the health of his wife injuriously and he therefore came to Cali- fornia in the fall of 1912, settling in Bakersfield, where he purchased the Plant

bahar. E. Cooper

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apartments at No. 806 Nineteenth street. The building contains twenty-four furnished apartments and Mr. Brockman conducts a grocery on the first floor.

When a lad in his early German home Mr. Brockman was confirmed in the Lutheran Church and ever since then he has upheld the doctrines of the denomination. Fraternally he holds membership with the Woodmen of the World. During 1896 he was united in marriage at Delta, Colo., with Mrs. Mattie (Rosenkranz) Esch, a native of Keil, Germany, and a lady of amiable qualities, who since coming to Bakersfield has made many friends and also been greatly benefited in health. Besides being active in church work and a model housekeeper in the home, she takes a warm interest and leading part in the work of the Royal Neighbors and the Women of Woodcraft. By her former marriage she was the mother of three children, namely : Walter Esch, a fruit- grower residing at Hotchkiss, Colo .: Mrs. Gertrude Vincent. of Spokane, Wash. ; and Elsa, who makes her home in Denver.

CHARLES E. COOPER .- It is conceded by competent judges that few citizens of Kern county are more familiar with soil conditions and property valuations than Charles E. Cooper, who conducts a real-estate, insurance and loan business in Bakersfield, with office at No. 1514 Twentieth street. One of his specialties has been the agency for the Chester Park tract on Fourth street and Chester avenue, on the east line, comprising one hundred and forty-four lots well located on the main thoroughfare of Bakersfield from north to south four blocks from the street car line. In addition he acts as agent for the Mountain View tract in the Edison district east of Bakersfield and three miles from Edison station.

By virtue of long residence in the west Mr. Cooper has acquired the enthusiasm and mental breadth characteristic of those who breathe the air of mountain or sea. Besides the qualities that come through long association with the west, he inherited the substantial characteristics that belong to the sons of lowa. That commonwealth was his early home and Janesville, Bremer county, his native community, while a nearby farm gave him an in- itiation into agricultural knowledge as well as valuable information concern- ing soil necessities and possibilities. His father, a man of sterling worth and of considerable prominence in Bremer county, traced his lineage to Peter Cooper, who coming from England to America during the colonial era founded a numerous family whose influence has been felt in the majority of the states of the Union and whose present-day representatives are contributing effect- ively to the material upbuilding of their varied localities. That eminent writer on horticulture and recognized authority on olives and olive culture, Elwood Cooper, the millionaire olive grower of Santa Barbara, is a distant relative of our subject.

With the self-reliance that has characterized every generation of the family in the new world Charles E. Cooper started out to earn his own way in the world at an early age and became a resident of Denver, Colo .. where for fifteen years he engaged in the real-estate business. Meanwhile he enjoyed a substantial prosperity in material matters and became popular in the most refined social circles. A later period of real-estate activity was passed in San Francisco, whence he came to Bakersfield and in this city he has won recog- nition through marked business ability and agreeable personality. Giving his attention very closely to realty enterprises, he takes no part in politics aside from voting the Republican ticket at all elections. In religion he holds to the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church. Aside from his large real-estate business Mr. Cooper is resident agent for the Philadelphia Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia and the West Coast Life of San Francisco, as well as agent for the Continental of New York (with assets of $26,000,000), the Firemen's Insurance Company of Newark, the Fidelity Phoenix of New York (with assets of $17,000.000), the New Jersey Fidelity and Plate Glass

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Insurance Company, the American Union Fire Insurance Company of Phila- delphia, and the Fire Association of Philadelphia.

In September, 1913, Mr. Cooper was elected president of the Bakersfield Realty Board and also selected one of the committee of five to secure the ap- pointment of fifteen freeholders to draft a new charter for the city. December 3, 1913, at the Van Nuys Hotel in Los Angeles occurred the marriage of C. E. Cooper and Miss Cora May St. Clair, a member of one of the pioneer families of Bakersfield, whose father, L. P. St. Clair, was the first mayor of Bakers- field, owner of the first electric light plant and a pioneer in the oil business. Mrs. Cooper had been identified with the oil business prior to her marriage and was a lady of prominence in her home city. Her brother, L. P. St. Clair, is president of the Independent Oil Producers agency.

ST. LAWRENCE OIL COMPANY .- Numbered conspicuously among the prosperous oil producers of the Kern county district is that of the St. Lawrence Oil Company, which represents the industry in its best form and fur- nishes to the investigator a splendid example of the methods employed in that industry. The company operates a one hundred and sixty-acre tract, it being the southeast quarter of section 5, township 32, range 23, and is com- posed of San Francisco investors, who started operations there in 1908. I. B. Strassburger of that city being president.

Under great difficulty well No. 1 was drilled, but at length was finished in November, 1910, when it was perforated and came in as a gusher about the same time as the No. 2-6 on the C. C. M. Oil Company's holdings. The well flowed from fifteen hundred to two thousand barrels and was soon placed under control. It is still producing, which marks the unusually fine con- ditions of the vicinity. The company has since put down five more wells and all are producers of better than twenty-one gravity oil. Ably superintending it is William G. Follansbee, who has met with signal success in his opera- tions.

JOHN C. MARLEY .- The superintendent of the Stratton Water Com- pany has been identified with the Midway field since January of 1910, when he came to Fellows to enter upon the duties connected with his present position. The organization of which he has charge and which ranks as the pioneer water concern of the entire field obtains water from a system of four wells, having a capacity of about thirty thousand barrels per day.

A resident of California since 1895, John C. Marley was born at Winterset, Madison county, lowa, in 1859, and is a son of J. A. Marley, a florist during his lifetime. After he had completed the studies of the grammar and high schools he became an apprentice to the trades of millwright and carpenter, which he learned thoroughly and in which he became unusually skilled. However, instead of following these trades, he turned his attention to a department of the railroad business and for some years acted as station agent for various roads in Iowa, his first work being done with the Burlington Railroad. After his arrival in California in 1895 he worked as a millwright with the Demming- Palmer Milling Company. An important position as superintendent of the Holmes Lime Company at Felton, Santa Cruz county, he filled for six years, and upon resigning from that place he came to Fellows at the begin- ning of the year 1910, since which he has developed the business of the Strat- ton Water Company and also has engaged as local representative of the Midway Oil Company of Oregon, having charge of the holdings of that con- cern in the Midway field. His family, consisting of wife and son Donald, still maintain a residence at No. 640 Post street, San Francisco. Mrs. Marley was formerly Miss Ida Hollingshead, of Albia, Iowa, where she was born and reared. In politics Mr. Marley votes with the Republican party, while fra- ternally he holds membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Fraternal Brotherhood.

Frank & Jude

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FRANK S. JUDD .- Very early in the colonization of America the Judd family came from England to the shores of the Atlantic and the rock-bound coast of New England, where they aided in the agricultural development of that undeveloped region and gave of their energies through successive generations to the material upbuilding of the new world. Of all their repre- sentatives none was more forceful in intellect and none more adventurous in his investigations of new countries than Truman Judd, a native of Wey- bridge, Vt., and a graduate of Potsdam Academy in St. Lawrence county, N. Y. Within the span of his earthly existence, which began March 10, 1813, and came to an end August 10, 1885, he witnessed the development of much of the United States and contributed thereto with the energy and resourcefulness typical of the progressive pioneer. While attending school in New York he formed the acquaintance of the young lady who later became his wife and who shared in his hardships and frontier experiences until her death left him bereaved and alone. A native of Potsdam, N. Y., she bore the name of Lournda U. Taylor and was a daughter of Reuben Taylor.

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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 72

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