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 77

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 77

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Paul Chatom attended the public schools of his native village and also St. Joseph's College at Locarno, Switzerland. In 1882 he came to California and was first engaged in the building of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Reading to Roseburg, Ore .. and thence to Shasta county, Cal. The next year he worked in the Maison Dorée restaurant at San Francisco, where he remained for a year, going from there to Merced, where he had charge of a restaurant for Johnny Smith. After conducting the latter place for two years he went to Modesto, where he engaged in the same business on his own account, and here met with gratifying prosperity. Two years later he sold out and went to Santa Barbara, where he soon built up a fine business, but after five or six months was obliged to relinquish this interest because of poor health, and going from there to Phoenix, Ariz., he accepted the position of steward in the Commercial hotel. After six months he returned to Fresno and opened up The Reception, a fine restaurant there which he conducted for the next two years, in 1890 disposing of it and coming to Bakersfield, which place suited his tastes so well that he has ever since made it his home. For one year he ran the Mocha restaurant, and then leased the Monte Carlo restaurant for five years. During the panic of 1893 he lost about ten thousand dollars, which left him without funds and almost dis- heartened. Nevertheless he dauntlessly opened up a small place in the east end of Bakersfield, which he called The Klondike, in which business he was enabled to save a little money and his next move was to embark in the furniture business which he built up to a flourishing condition. Ill luck, however, seemed to follow him, for the last mentioned place was destroyed by fire and the loss was considerable. He then took charge of the Bakers- field Club for five years, during which time he exercised the utmost economy and his thrift proved valuable to him, as he was soon able to open the restaurant over which he is at present the proprietor, the Mascot, located in the old Berges building, on Nineteenth street, for which he obtained a three years' lease. He then purchased the Packard property at No. 1517 Eight- eenth street, where he erected the brick building 30x65 feet, which is occupied by the New Mascot, also purchased the residence at No. 1521 Eighteenth street. In 1909 he erected the splendid Mascot Apartment house on Six- teenth street, and a year later the Chatom apartment on Seventeenth street.

In 1890, Mr. Chatom was married to Miss Laura Rose Wall, a native of St. Louis, Mo., and two children were born to them: Paul, a student in the University of California; and Virginia, who is being educated at the convent of the Notre Dame, at San Jose. In politics Mr. Chatom is a stanch Repub- lican, always voting that ticket.

JAMES MARCUS HAYDEN .- A diversity of occupations and the various environments which have surrounded him in his work have con- tributed to James Marcus Hayden his wide knowledge of affairs, his broad business experience and his clear insight into affairs in general. The son of Capt. Marcus A. and Eliza (Proctor) Hayden, he inherited from these

Paul Chaton

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

two sturdy children of Kentucky the many admirable traits of those country- men. The father was engaged in the general merchandise business at May- ville, and during the war served as a captain in a Missouri regiment under General Price. After receiving an honorable discharge from duty in the war he resumed his mercantile pursuits, and both he and his wife passed away in Missouri.

Mr. Hayden, who was born in Lexington, Mo., March 26, 1869, is the only surviving child of his parents. Reared in Lafayette county, that state, he attended the local public schools and was later sent to the Wentworth Military Academy at Lexington, where he was schooled in the rigid prin- ciples of honor, courage and trustworthiness. His first occupation was rail- roading, as agent at Corder, Mo., for the Chicago & Alton Railroad, with which company he continued at various points for a period of three years. He then for six months filled the position of city agent for the Burlington & Missouri at Deadwood, and became interested in mining in the Black Hills region. Butte, Mont., was his next location and when the Rossland, B. C., excitement was reported he made his way to British Columbia, where he mined at different places for some time with varying success. An oppor- tunity to return to railroading led him to return to the States and he accepted the position of agent at American Fork, Utah, for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. In 1906 he came to California and entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company in the pipe line department at Corcoran, when he was transferred to Coalinga. Here he was bookkeeper for a short period, his ability being soon recognized by his promotion to superintendent of the Coalinga division, and in this capacity he served with splendid success for three years, and in 1911 was transferred to the main office at Bakersfield as chief accountant under J. M. Atwell. When the property at Lost Hills was purchased by the company he was sent there to superintend the division and as such opened the work and continued the supervision until July, 1912. when he resigned to enter the mercantile business for himself in Lost Hills, where he has already built up a good trade.

Mr. Hayden was married in Logan, Utah, September 21. 1905, to Thelma Johnson, who was a native of Logan. They have three children, Thomas, Marcus and James, Jr. The family make their home in Wasco, where they enjoy the friendship of a host of well-wishers. Mr. Hayden is a Democrat.

CHARLES MINER VROOMAN .- The genealogy of the Vrooman family is traced back to the old Knickerbocker stock that formed a most important element in the colonial upbuilding of New York. During the Revolution the family had representatives at the front and bore its share in the sanguinary struggles of the period. Joseph Brown Vrooman, a native of New York state and a land speculator through his active years, married Abbie Chapman, of Stonington, Conn., whose ancestors had served in the navy during the Revolutionary war and had been identified otherwise with the early history of New England. The only living son of this marriage, Judge Charles Miner Vrooman, was born in the city of Rochester, N. Y., November 29, 1852, and received a public-school education in his native town, later attending the University of Rochester, from which he was graduated, in 1873. with the degree of A. B. Afterward he held a position as teacher in the Rochester high school. Coming to California in 1877 and settling in the then sparsely inhabited county of Kern, he was duly chosen principal of the Sumner (now East Bakersfield) schools, a position that he filled acceptably for five years. After having taught in East Bakersfield and other parts of Kern county until 1889, he then gave up the work of a teacher to engage in stockraising on Mount Breckenridge. From his advent in the county his summers were spent in the South Fork country and he has been a permanent

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

resident of this section since 1905, meanwhile maintaining a close association with local advancement along every line of progress.

The title by which Judge Vrooman is familiarly known came to him through his occupancy of the office of justice of the peace of the first judicial township of Kern county, to which office he was elected in 1910 on the Repub- lican ticket. During January of 1911 he took the oath of office and entered upon its duties, which he has since discharged with impartiality, efficiency and exceptional promptness. The judicial district is the oldest in the county and he has in his office the docket extending back into the '60s, when it was a part of Tulare county. His office is located at Isabella, it being the most central place in the judicial township. On the organization of the Bakersfield Lodge. Knights of Pythias, he became one of its charter members, and in addition he is a member of the Delta Psi. In the midst of his labors as a stockraiser and as a justice he has never lost his early interest in educational matters. The relinquishment of the work of teaching did not mean an aban- donment of interest in the profession. In every way possible he has striven to promote the success of the public school system, which he believes to lie at the very foundation of all future prosperity and progress in our country. For eight years he served as a member of the county board of education and during part of the time he was honored by being chosen president of the board, in which capacity he was instrumental in promoting the welfare of the schools and advancing the standard of education in the county.

JAMES E. CHITTENDEN .- The state of Illinois has taken a place in the history of the development of western America as a stopping place for pioneers from the East and a breeding ground of pioneers destined for the tar west. Among well known citizens of Kern county, Cal., who were born in the Prairie State none are better or more favorably known than is James E. Chittenden, of Glennville. Mr. Chittenden was born in Warsaw, Hancock county, Ill., May 17, 1839, and when he was old enough entered public school there and studied until he was about fifteen years old. His father, E. F. Chit- tenden, crossed the plains to California in 1852 and the rest of the family, the mother and four children, came to the state in 1855 by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and settlement was made at Calaveras, fifteen miles from Stockton. There James E. worked for his father until he was twenty-four years old, and then for six years he was a salesman in the employ of Bowen Brothers in Stockton. Taking up his residence in Sacramento he was employed during the ensuing six years in a produce house. For a time he was a proof reader on the Sacramento Union and assisted in the delivery of the paper to its subscribers. After his father's death he returned to Stockton in order the better to help care for the household. There he engaged in the notion and cigar business, continuing this for some time, besides which he was agent for and manager of the Stockton Theatre. Subsequently he became agent of the Southern Pa- cific road at Banta Station. His identification with Kern county dates from the year 1875 and soon after coming here he located at Sumner, where he estab- lished himself in the general commission business which ultimately grew to large proportions. In 1890 he settled on the property which has come to be known as his home place, on Sandy creek near Glennville. It consists of three hundred and twenty acres, of which about sixty-five acres are under cultivation, thirty acres in alfalfa and the remainder in fruit. His chief busi- ness, however, is the raising of horses, cattle and hogs. His buildings, ap- pointments and implements are thoroughly up-to-date and his methods are modern and productive of the best results.

Politically Mr. Chittenden is a stanch Republican. In 1888 he was united in marriage with Mrs. Elizabeth (Clapp) Rigby, a native of Eldorado county, Cal. She passed away October 17. 1905, having become the mother of five children, of whom four are living, as follows: Virgil E., a rancher in Linn's

Mr and Mrs Christian Baptista

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

valley; Justin L., who assists with the ranch duties; Julia F., who presides over his household; and Elbert F., in Porterville.

CHRISTIAN AND MARGARET BAPTISTA .- Among the enterpris- ing citizens who have aided in the developing of farm lands in Kern county we find Mr. and Mrs. Baptista, who have been industrious, energetic and honorable in their effort to secure a competency, which they have accom- plished and are now living comfortably on their twenty-acre ranch in the Buena Vista district, while they lease their other ranch for dairy purposes.

Mrs. Baptista was in maidenhood Margaret Wolf, a native of Canton Graubunden, Switzerland, and was the daughter of Peter and Mary (Solis) Wolf, both natives of that canton, where they followed farming for a liveli- hood. When Margaret Wolf was eight years of age there occurred a tragedy in the family. While her father and mother and three of their children were making hay on another place an earthslide occurred in which they lost their lives, thus leaving the eight-year-old girl and her brother Christ, ten years of age, orphans. The brother still resides on the old home place. Her girlhood was spent in the home of her grandfather, George Solis, a farmer in Grisons, where she attended the common schools. In early life it became necessary for her to learn habits of self-reliance, and these have stood her in good stead in her later years. Having heard very favorable reports from people returning from trips to the United States, she concluded to cast her fortunes in the New World and in 1889 crossed the ocean and came forthwith to Hastings, Adams county, Neb. The next year, in 1890, she came on to Bakersfield, Cal., where she found satisfactory employment.

February 3, 1894, in Mrs. Ellen M. Tracy's home, occurred her marriage with Christian Baptista. He was born in Iner-ferera, Canton Graubunden, Switzerland, July 25, 1865, the son of John and Minnie (Meule) Baptista, farmers in the Alps, where he was reared, receiving his education in the free schools of his native country. In 1887 he came to Kern county. C'al., where he was employed by the Kern County Land Company. After their marriage they engaged in grain-raising in the Old River district until 1896, when they purchased twenty acres under the Stine canal in that same district. This was seeded to alfalfa and later they added to it until they had fifty-six acres all in alfalfa and a dairy herd of thirty-five cows. They met with de- cided success and in 1909 leased the ranch. They now own and reside on their alfalfa ranch in the Buena Vista district, where they live comfortably and well. With them resides their niece, Augusta Piper, who has brought youth and joy into their home, and they take genuine pleasure in bringing her up and doing for her as if she were their own child.

Mr. and Mrs. Baptista are both Rebublicans in their political views. While Mr. Baptista is a member of the Woodmen of the World, his wife is an active member of the Women of Woodcraft and in religion is a member of the Baptist Church in Bakersfield.

H. GUY HUGHES .- Kern county has many citizens born within the borders of the state, not a few of them within her own borders, who are leaders in the various industrial and commercial movements which are rapidly making her great. H. Guy Hughes was born on the Hughes homestead at Glennville in 1887, a son of William B. and Fannie (McKamy) Hughes. His father, who was born in Missouri in 1849, was brought across the plains by his parents, leaving his native state when he was about nine months old. The family settled at Sonora, Tuolumne county, and there he passed his childhood and while yet but a boy began working in the mines. Such local advantages as were available were afforded him, however, and when he was sixteen years old he became a student in a business college at Stockton. After the removal of the family to Glennville he bought the old Hight place and engaged in stock-raising, which he continued until his

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

death. Fannie McKamy was born in Stockton, Cal., June 7, 1866, and was married in June, 1886, when she was about twenty years old. She bore her husband two children, H. Guy and Florence. The father died January 4, 1897. Coming to Kern county in 1870, his life here embraced the era of small and crude things and he experienced many of the hardships incident to pioneer life in this part of the country. For a time he was in charge of a large bunch of cattle in Arizona and he often drove cattle to San Francisco to market, the round trip consuming three months. He was interested in education and long served as school trustee in the Wicher district. In many ways he demonstrated a public spirit which was potent in the advance- ment of worthy local interests. The grandparents of H. Guy Hughes, in both the paternal and the maternal line, were pioneer emigrants who came across the plains from the east.

H. Guy Hughes attended public school and high school until he was seventeen years old, meantime and afterward, busying himself on the farm. Ile was only ten years old when his father died and his mother came natur- ally, while he was yet very young, to depend on him in many matters of importance. He went to work in the oil field in 1908, but eventually returned to the home farm and devoted himself to general farming and cattle-raising. He was married to Miss Fannie Guthrie, a native of Tulare, Cal. He has from early manhood taken an active interest in public matters of importance, has been clerk of the board of education three years and is now filling the office of school trustee.

BARNEY A. ANDERSEN .- The father of B. A. Andersen, the late Fred- erick Andersen, for years was a merchant in Germany, where the mother, Anke, still makes her home. There were nine children in the family, but the eldest, Barney A., was the only one of the large family to establish a home in California and he came to this country and state in 1881 after hav- ing learned the trade of a tailor under his father at Uhlebull, Germany, where he was born November 12, 1863, and where he had received an excellent German education in the national schools.

A brief experience in farming followed the arrival of Mr. Andersen in California. From the neighborhood of Los Angeles he went to San Francisco and learned the trade of dyer and cleaner, which he followed for some time in the employ of others. As soon as possible, however, he embarked in the business for himself. Coming to Bakersfield in December of 1900 he bought property and built a dyeing and cleaning establishment on the corner of Eighth and L streets. In a short time he had built up a large trade. Meanwhile he established his up-town office on Nineteenth street, later removed it to No. 2027 Chester avenue and eventually purchased a lot at No. 1669 Chester avenue, where he built a suitable structure for the prosecution of the business. Prosperity had crowned his efforts and the future looked bright before him, when suddenly he was stricken by the hand of death and passed away May 19, 1910, in Los Angeles, where his body was laid to its last rest. In his last days he had the consoling influences of a deep religious faith, for he was an earnest member of St. John's German Lutheran Church in Bakersfield and had served ably as president of its board of trustees, doing all within his power to enlarge the sphere of its usefulness as well as to exemplify in his own daily acts the inspiring and uplifting influence of its doctrines. After he became a resident of Bakersfield he identified himself with various fraternities, including the Independent Order of Foresters, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Improved Order of Red Men.

Surviving Mr. Andersen are his widow and daughter, Frieda, the latter now the wife of Martin Fechtner, of Bakersfield. Prior to her marriage in San Francisco in 1893 Mrs. Andersen was Miss Louise Van Goethem.

J. J. Darnul

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Although born in Collinsville, Ill., she has lived in California since the age of four years and received her education in St. Paul's school, San Francisco. Her father, Frank Van Goethem, was a member of an honored old Flemish family, while her mother, who bore the maiden name of Bern- hardena Keisker, was a native of Germany. After a residence of some years in Illinois the family came to California and Mr. Van Goethem secured work as a tanner in San Francisco, where the daughter was reared, edu- cated and married. Being a woman of business ability as well as social charm, she has cared for her husband's interests with discrimination, has disposed of his business and now manages the property with discretion and energy.

JOHN JEFFERSON DARNUL .- As one of that illustrious band of pioncers who braved the dangers and endured the hardships of a new country in order that the way might be paved for the greater prosperity and the easier life of our great era of progress, Mr. Darnul occupies an enviable posi- tion in the regard of the people of Kern county. While his identification with this section of the state dates back as far as 1873, it by no means covers the duration of his residence in the west. for as early as 1855 he crossed the plains and became a permanent resident of the new commonwealth. He was at that time a youth of nineteen years, robust of constitution, indus- trious in habits of work, persistent in application and well qualified to suc- ceed in the west, although he had received only scant educational advantages and had been deprived of all the opportunities considered so essential to twentieth-century progress. Since coming to Kern county life for him has meant a close association with local development.

The first nineteen years in the life of John Jefferson Darnul were passed in Arkansas, where he was born in Pope county October 2, 1836. His father, Cook B. Darnul, was born and reared in Illinois and there married Miss Petray, who died in Arkansas leaving an only child, John J. Later the father was united in marriage with Elizabeth Shinn. By that union eight children were born, but only two of these survive, viz .: Mrs. Pauline Petray, of Linn's valley and Mrs. Hannah Wiley of Calaveras county. The parents spent their last years in California and died in Calaveras county. During the five months spent in crossing the plains from Arkansas to California the eldest son of the family, then a youth of nineteen, proved an indispensable assistant in the capacity of driver of the ox-teams and in the other work incident to such an arduous undertaking. Arriving at Sacramento, he pro- ceeded to the mines, but did not find the occupation of miner sufficiently profitable to induce continuance therein. With the exception of that early period of activity as a miner, he has devoted himself entirely to genera! farming, although he is now retired.

Settling in Sonoma county in 1858, Mr. Darnul there engaged in ranch- ing. Later he was similarly occupied in Ventura county. Since 1873 he has made his home in Kern county, where he was the first settler on the north side of the Kern river, on the site of what is now Oil Center. From that neighborhood he removed to Linn's valley in 1894 and has since occupied and operated a farm comprising two hundred and forty acres. While owning a quarter section at Oil Center he decided to dig a ditch. in order that he might irrigate the land from the Kern river. During the prosecu- tion of that work he discovered deposits of petroleum in the soil. being indeed the first to note the presence of oil in that field of later fame. Through his efforts the Kern River Water and Irrigating Ditch Company was organ- ized and incorporated, thereby establishing the now well-known Beardsley canal. In addition to doing valuable work in the development of the canal. he was associated with another important enterprise in Kern county. viz. : the first street railroad in Bakersfield, for which he did considerable grading.

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

FREDERICK LAVERS .- Near Glennville, where he was born October 26, 1888, Frederick Lavers was educated in the public schools. Later he was sent to Stockton as a student in Heald's Business College and con- tinned there until the completion of the commercial course in 1910, after which he acted as bookkeeper for a Bakersfield firm for six months. After a subsequent short sojourn at the parental home he removed to Hanford, Kings county, but in a short time he returned to his native county and pur- chased forty acres, comprising his present homestead. Upon this farm he has engaged in intensive agriculture. October 22, 1910, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Engle, who was born at Granite Station, Kern county, and is a daughter of David Engle. The only child of this union, David, bears the name of both of his paternal grandfathers.

The discovery of gold induced David Lavers, the father, to come to the Pacific coast. Born at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in January, 1831, his was the childhood of poverty, the boyhood of self-sacrifice and the youth of privation. At the age of sixteen he accompanied his parents to Cum- berland county, Nova Scotia, but work being scarce and illy-paid he soon went on to Massachusetts, where he was better able to earn a live- lihood. During 1852 he sailed from the Long wharf at Boston on a ship bound for San Francisco via the Horn. The voyage occupied six months of tedious travel not altogether exempt from danger and privation, but in the end anchor was cast safely within the Golden Gate. For almost one year he worked in Stockton, but the great floods of 1853 caused him to leave that section and to secure employment at San Jose. During 1855 he came to Kern county and mined in the Greenhorn mountains as a day laborer, after which for one year he worked on the ranch owned by William Lynn, then for a while engaged in mining with Samuel Reed. However, he soon began to realize that the only avenue to financial independence was the securing of a farm and, having no means with which to make a pur- chase, he took up a claim of one hundred and sixty acres which now lies half a mile south of Glennville. As best he could with scanty means and no machinery, he began to improve the land. Later a stage coach made regular trips between Visalia and Havilah, the then county-seat. There was con- siderable patronage of the old coach and this gave him an incentive for a new enterprise. Building the first hotel in the northern part of the county, he started the first hotel in Linn's valley and from the first had a fair patronage. The hotel later was converted into a private residence and now gives him a comfortable home for his old age. For two years he engaged in mining on the White river and later mined the Ball mountain mine, where he met with gratifying success.

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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 77

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