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 79

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 79

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Jacob Walter

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lems of national or civic importance, his devotion to the city leading him to fill the office of city trustee for a period of two years.

MRS. ELLEN M. TRACY .- As a link between the deprivations of frontier existence and the refinements of twentieth-century civilization the life of Mrs. Tracy possesses a rare and permanent interest to the residents of Bakersfield, who appreciate the importance of her optimistic faith to the early upbuilding of the city and the value of her unfailing hospitality to the social amenities of the then frontier town. Rooted deep in her soul, a part indeed of life itself, is her love for California, whither she came during the '50s and to whose material progress she has given of time and physical strength and mental resources. Particularly has she been interested in the advancement of Bakersfield, the city named in honor of her first husband, Col. Thomas Baker, and dear to her not only for that reason, but also on account of her own long identification therewith. As the pioneer woman

resident of the then unattractive hamlet, she and the Colonel, himself one of the few white male citizens, lived in an adobe cabin which he had built on the corner of Nineteenth and N streets. During the first three years they spent in the cabin it had no floor save Mother Earth. There was, however, in the hospitality extended by the mistress of this primeval home a gracious- ness, a warmth and a kindness that won the heart of every visitor.

Descended from Holland-Dutch ancestry, Ellen M. Alverson was born in Ann Arbor, Mich., December 21, 1837, being the daughter of a talented physician whose birth had occurred in Perry, Wyoming county, N. Y., in 1808 and whose remarkable professional attainments had led to his selec- tion to serve as a lecturer in the medical department of the University of Michigan. After resigning that position he removed to Marengo, Iowa county, Iowa, where he engaged in practice for twenty years and became widely known for skill in diagnosis and accuracy in the treatment of disease. Upon his removal to California in 1874 he opened an office at Bakersfield and scon built up a practice that extended into all of Kern county, con- tinuing in active professional labors until shortly before his death, which occurred in 1879 at Tehachapi. Prior to his departure from New York he had married in Genesee county Miss Charlotte Graves, who was born in Perry, that state, and in 1866 died at Marengo, Iowa. From her earliest rec- ollections Mrs. Tracy was familiar with the frontier. During the '40s the now cultured and populous city of Ann Arbor was an insignificant hamlet whose one claim to distinction was its seat of learning, then as now one of the great educational institutions of the country. For a time she attended school in that town, but in young girlhood she came to California, where at Visalia in 1857 she became the wife of Col. Thomas Baker, one of the noted pioneers of the west. In all his work he had the benefit of her shrewd counsel and active co-operation. While he was acting as receiver of the United States land office at Visalia an occasion arose when he had $20,000 on hand be- longing to the United States government and to be taken to San Francisco for deposit. When preparing for the journey an Indian smuggled to him a note written on a dirty piece of paper and warning him that Vasquez and his band were planning to rob him in the stage when he took the govern- ment money to San Francisco. The woman's wit of Mrs. Baker saved the day. She suggested that she accompany him, taking their infant son, Thomas A., (now the sheriff of Kern county), believing that by so doing the desperadces would conclude that they were not taking the money with them. The ruse was successful. The money was packed in a buckskin sack and placed in the bottom of a carpet-bag, with baby clothes on top. On Monday morning they mounted the stage and departed from Visalia. By eight o'clock on Tuesday night they were in San Francisco and the money had been turned over in safety to the proper authorities.

After the Colonel's death his widow made her home in Kern county and

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took charge of his estate. During 1875 she married Ferdinand A. Tracy, a pioneer citizen and extensive stockman, whose demise occurred in Bakers- field January 9, 1908. Mrs. Tracy now makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. John M. Jameson, of Bakersfield. In this city she still owns real estate purchased by her first husband during frontier days. From all of his lands and possessions she saved eighty acres located in the vicinity of O and Twenty-second streets. On Nineteenth street she erected a neat frame house, but shortly after the completion of the residence it was destroyed by fire, July 7. 1889. The tract of eighty acres was mostly subdivided and sold off in lots. From it she donated the site for two public institutions, one of these being the Children's Shelter, where about fifty orphans are cared for. Under hier supervision were erected a number of residences that were a credit to Bakersfield. She is a member of Bakersfield Chapter No. 125, O. E. S., and for the past fifteen years has been worthy chaplain.

AMBROISE VILLARD .- Near Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France, Ambroise Villard was born July 1, 1851, the son of Ambroise and Amiee (Rambaud) Villard, farmers near Gap, where they reared their nine children, of whom five are living, Ambroise being the oldest. Educated in public schools in his native land, Mr. Villard lived with his parents till in 1872, when, having heard good reports of the Golden West, he came to California to try his fortune. Settling in Ventura county, Cal., he worked there for wages three years, after which he engaged in sheep raising for himself in that county, herding his sheep through the San Joaquin valley into Inyo county. In 1877 he made his first trip to Kern county, but he did not locate here permanently until 1881, at that time making his headquarters in Delano. By adhering steadily to the business which he had undertaken he finally made a success of it, bringing to bear in its fruition a good knowl- edge of affairs and a strong personality. In 1903, after over thirty years con- tinuous experience, he sold his sheep in order to give his attention to cattle raising, a business which he has since developed to large proportions. Eight- een miles east of Delano Mr. Villard took up a claim to which he later added from time to time by the purchase of adjoining land until he became the owner of forty-eight hundred acres all in one body. All of his cattle and horses bear the brand which he has adopted as his trade mark, which is a "V" and "A" closely connected, "VA." All in all Mr. Villard's business career is one of which any man might be proud .. Coming to this country with very little capital, he has won a place as leader of leaders in a great state. As he has found good opportunity he has invested in enterprises of different kinds, always with profitable results. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Delano and in the Delano-Linn's valley telephone system, in which he is a director, and is also interested in the Rochdale store here.

In San Francisco, January 29, 1887, Mr. Villard married Eugenie Marie Faure, also a native of Hautes-Alpes, France, born January 24, 1868. Upon coming to California she resided in Los Angeles until coming to Kern county. Mrs. Villard became the mother of eleven children, as follows. Ambroise, deceased; Albert, who in 1912 was married to Agnes Panero; and Adriene, Eugene, August, Joseph, Mary, Jule, Gabriel, Annie and Daniel, all of the last mentioned at home, and the older sons assist their father in the cattle business.

WILLIAM TYLER .- The honor of having recorded the first deed in Kern county belongs to this well-known California pioneer of 1859, who although of Canadian birth, is of American parents, and allows none to . surpass him in devotion to the commonwealth of the Stars and Stripes. The old homestead where he was born June 20, 1836, stood in Napierville. Que- bec, Canada, only a few miles north of the New York state line, and the

Ambroise Sillar.

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

later residence of the family, at Iberville, Quebec, was almost equally near to the United States. His father, Orange Tyler, a member of a colonial family of New England, was born at Thetford, Orange county, Vt., in 1801 and from there removed to the province of Quebec, took up land and acquired considerable property first at Napierville and later in Iberville, where he remained until death. In the same Canadian district occurred the demise of his wife, Mary (Poutre) Tyler, who was of French extraction. After having been a student in the public schools of Iberville and an academy at Bakers- field, Vt., William Tyler went to New York City to earn a livelihood and from there in 1859 came via Panama to California, making the voyage on the Star of the West to the Isthmus and the Golden Gate on the Pacific. After he had landed at San Francisco May 17, 1859, he went direct to Amador county and began mining at Jackson, but was unsuccessful and returned to San Francisco in 1862.

A brief experience during 1863 as a clerk in a general mercantile store at Santa Clara was followed by a return to mining, but this time Mr. Tyler went into Nevada and prospected at Aurora and also in the Mont- gomery district. From there in 1864 he and a companion walked across the country a distance of three hundred miles, down the Owens river, through Walker's Pass and through a valley where only three days before the Indians had massacred a party of white men, finally landing at Havilah. Kern county, after a perilous and wearisome journey. Shortly after his arrival the county was organized with H. D. Bequette as the first county clerk and he chose as his deputy Mr. Tyler, who in that capacity recorded in his own handwriting the first deed in the county. For several years he was employed in a mine owned by Dr. de La Borde. During 1869 he went to Los Angeles, then a picturesque but small and unpromising Spanish village. Returning to Kern county in 1870 he resumed mining and pros- pecting. but later gave his attention to boring wells in the interests of L. R. Hodgkins. Upon establishing a permanent home in Bakersfield he held deputyships under various county officers, including the position of deputy assessor under T. E. Harding. Later he held the office of county auditor for two terms of two years each, after which he engaged in the real- estate business for some years with his brother, Edmond Tyler, and since retiring from that business he has devoted his attention to the oversight of his personal interests. At this writing he acts as manager of the Tyler Timber Company of Delano, Kern county, in which capacity he superin- tended the planting of one hundred and sixty acres in eucalyptus trees and has a general charge of the two hundred and forty acres owned by the company in the vicinity of Delano.

Mr. Tyler is a widower and his home in Bakersfield is presided over by his daughter, Miss Louise Adelaide. His wife, whom he married in San Francisco and who bore the maiden name of Carrie B. Evans, was born at New Durham Ridge, N. H., and died in San Francisco October 24, 1902. The only child of the union, who possesses her mother's energy of tempera- ment and charm of manner, is a popular guest at social functions and also a leading worker in the Eastern Star. Fraternally Mr. Tyler was made a Mason in Dorchester Lodge, F. & A. M., at St. Johns, Canada, and now holds membership with Bakersfield Lodge No. 224, F. & A. M., to whose philanthropies he has contributed generously and regularly for years. In politics he votes with the Democratic party.

W. W. KELLY .- Genealogical records attest to the Anglo-Saxon origin of the Kelly family and their emigration from England to Alabama, where occurred the birth of G. M. Kelly, a son of the original immigrant and him- self a pioneer of 1857 in California. When a young man he had married Miss Sarah Henderson, who was born in Illinois in 1837, and the eldest

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

of their children was an infant when they joined an expedition bound for the western coast. A brother-in-law, Capt. Bass Parker, acted as leader of the emigrant train and all went well until a shortage of provisions led to changes in the route. The party divided. the larger part going by way of Salt Lake in order to secure necessary supplies. A smaller body decided to proceed via Mountain Meadows and started along that highway without fear of trouble. The savages fell upon them and massacred them without mercy. Shortly afterward the larger expedition came along and first learned of the disaster when they found the dead bodies of their former companions. The bodies were given a Christian burial and the party then came on to California. Always afterward Captain Parker clung to the belief that if the smaller party had remained with them, they would have formed a force sufficiently large to withstand any assault made by the Indians.

Arriving at Visalia in the autumn of 1857 G. M. Kelly made a temporary home there, but soon went to Elkhorn in Fresno county for the purpose of conducting a stage station. In the fall of 1858 he again came to Visalia and bought land one mile south of town. The property still remains in the family. Immediately after his arrival he put up a crude cabin of shakes with a puncheon floor. Later he replaced this with a better house and eventually erected a modern house. The original tract of forty acres has been enlarged until the fine stock and grain farm now includes one hundred and ninety acres. Since the death of Mr. Kelly in 1884 at the age of fifty-three years the widow has continued at the old homestead and now occupies the third house built on the tract. Of her eleven children all but one are still living. W. W., the fifth of these, having been born in Visalia. this state. July 22, 1863. When the Native Sons of the Golden West organized a parlor in Visalia he became one of its charter members. During early life he assisted his father on the farm and at the age of sixteen clerked in a store. After the death of his father he remained at the old homestead for some time, meanwhile engag- ing in the dairy industry, general farming and the raising of alfalfa.

Upon coming to Bakersfield in 1895 Mr. Kelly started in the agricul- tural implement business with W. C. Baker and Van Stoner. Eventually they sold out to A. F. Stoner, the present owner, for whom Mr. Kelly acted as manager until 1902, resigning then in order to embark in the real-estate business. Since then he has been among the most active and successful handlers of property in the county and has bought and sold various farms, also bought lots and built residences in Bakersfield. Altogether he has erected about sixty houses. Included in his activities may be mentioned the improvement of one-half block on Thirteenth and I streets, where he built four houses, one of these being his own modern and comfortable residence. In the organization of the Bakersfield Realty Board he was deeply inter- ested and became its first secretary, holding the office for a long time. Besides real estate he has an insurance department and represents the. Mary- land Casualty Company, Phoenix Assurance Company of London, Con- nectient Fire Insurance Company of Hartford and American Surety Com- pany of New York.

The fraternal relations of Mr. Kelly bring him into active association with the Modern Woodmen of America, Woodmen of the World, Knights of Pythias and Ancient Order of United Workmen. Politically he always supports the men and measures advocated by the Republican party. His marriage took place in Kern county and united him with Miss Lillie Pulliam, who was born in Clinton, Henry county. Mo., and is the daughter of T. J. Pulliam, a builder by occupation. The only child of the union, Edward A., a graduate of the Kern county high school, now assists Mr. Kelly in the real-estate and insurance business.

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

LEWIS B. CROW .- A native son, Lewis B. Crow, of Delano, Kern county, was born on the Stanislaus river near Ripon, San Joaquin county, Cal., June 2, 1859, and has lived in Kern county since 1892. He is the son of William H. and Barbara E. (Dye) Crow, born in Kentucky and Ohio respectively. Married in Scotland county, Mo., they were farmers in that state as early as 1852. The father first crossed the plains alone to California with ox-teams. Returning east, he again crossed the plains in 1854, bringing with him his wife and one child. Settling in Sonoma, he later located on a ranch near Ripon, where he followed stock-raising and grain-raising until his death, in 1884. His wife died about 1866. Of their union were born five children, three daughters and two sons, of whom two daughters and one son are living, Lewis B. Crow being the youngest member of the family.

After leaving the grammar school, young Crow was for two years a student at Santa Rosa College. Having completed his education, he was for two years an assistant to his father in stock-raising. When at length he left home he went to Waterford, the same county, where he farmed rented land seven years. Failing to make a success there because of adverse con- ditions which it was impossible for him to overcome, he came to Kern county in 1892, locating at Delano. For fifteen years after his arrival he worked for wages at general farming. In 1907, having accumulated a little capital, he engaged in the butcher business at Delano, an enterprise which has since commanded his best efforts and advanced him to a good position in local business circles. The business covers a wide territory, extending throughout the northern part of Kern and southern Tulare county, delivery being made by automobile. Farming also has had his attention and he has been much more successful in Kern county than he was in Stanislaus county. At this time he is operating over six thousand acres of rented land, raising wheat which he gathers with a combined harvester. As occasion has furnished opportunity he has had to do with various business interests and he is at this time a stockholder in the local telephone system, the Delano & Linn's Valley Telephone Company.

Since his young manhood Mr. Crow has been interested in politics and wherever he has lived he has been in a public-spirited way active and helpful in the promotion of local interests, and from time to time he has filled various offices of importance. While still a resident of Stanislaus county he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of sheriff. In 1906 he was appointed a justice of the peace at Delano to fill a vacancy and afterward elected to the office of constable. Both these offices he filled with signal ability and fidelity. Fraternally he affiliates with Camp No. 460, W. O. W., at Bakersfield.

THOMAS BLAINE WISEMAN .- The opportunities offered by the great northwest attracted Abner Wiseman from his native commonwealth of Kentucky during the year 1884, when, accompanied by his wife, Sarah E. (Abney) Wiseman, and their children, he established a home in Walla Walla. For some years he was unusually successful and carried on a grain business representing large interests. In all probability he would have become very wealthy had not the unfortunate panic of the Cleveland admin- istration occurred, but in 1894 he was forced to give up his business, having lost many thousands of dollars. The following year he moved to California and began anew in the world, but he never regained his lost fortune and his children were obliged to become self-supporting when yet quite young. At this writing he makes his home at Sawtelle, Los Angeles county, and is practically retired from business cares. He served in the Civil war as mem- ber of the Fourth Kentucky Mounted Infantry for three years and then joined the Eighth Kentucky Infantry, serving until the close of the war. He is an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

There were six children in the parental family, the eldest of whom,

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Annie, married Jefferson D. Wiseman and died in 1895, leaving two children. The eldest son, George W., resides at Sawtelle, where he owns diversified interests as proprietor of a livery stable, flour and feed business and ice business, also buys and sells real estate; he was a member of the Thirtieth United States Infantry and served in the Philippines during the Spanish- American war. Martha married J. R. Armstrong, of Turlock, Stanislaus county, Cal., now engaged in ranching and in the commission business, besides being proprietor of a store and postmaster at Irwin, Stanislaus county. Joel S. is a contractor and builder at Sawtelle and Haldon. Ray is an inventor, residing at Santa Monica. The youngest of the six members of the family circle was Thomas Blaine, whose birth occurred at Walla Walla, Wash., April 23, 1885, and who was ten years old when the family came to California, where he attended the public schools of Santa Monica. At the age of thirteen he left school and began to learn the carpenter's trade. When seventeen he began to take contracts for building and in the same year he built the Christian Church building in Sawtelle, also the Sawtelle branch of the Santa Monica Bank and the first railroad depot at Sawtelle on the Los Angeles Pacific road. B. A. Nebeker of Santa Monica was his first backer. Later W. E. Sawtelle, founder of the village of that name, Roy Jones of Santa Monica, and L. D. Loomis, seeing his ability, industry and his skill in construction, backed him financially in his contracts, and this was of the greatest assistance to him. The mid-winter edition of the Los Angeles Times in 1903 devoted considerable space to the young contractor and emphasized the remarkable success which he had achieved when still less than twenty years of age.

Mr. Wiseman removed from California to Arizona and on the day of his arrival became superintendent of construction on the government cus- tom-house building at Douglas. For eighteen months he continued at that place, meanwhile building perhaps more than twelve stores and public structures, several buildings for the Arizona & Mexico Realty Building Com- pany, the Nihart building and the store owned by the Douglas Wholesale Feed & Fuel Company, and he also drew plans for and built the branch territorial jail at Douglas. On his return to California he became draftsman and superintendent of construction for leading architects of Los Angeles. During the latter part of 1909 he removed to Bakersfield and took up archi- tecture as manager for Train & Williams, of Los Angeles, whose interests he purchased in 1910. During February of 1911 he took the examination before the California state board of architecture and received his license as architect. At this writing he is the youngest licensed architect in the state and enjoys the distinction of being the only person who has passed the state board examination without a technical training or scholastic course in architecture and without having received university or high-school education,

The marriage of Mr. Wiseman took place in Los Angeles in 1902 and united him with Miss Alice E. Thacher, a native of Onyx, Kern county, and they have three children, Chauncey E., Thomas B., Jr., and Alice. The par- ents of Mrs. Wiseman were Oliver and Bertha Thacher, the former a soldier of the Civil war (having served in a Pennsylvania regiment) and a pioneer of 1869 in Kern county where for some time he resided at Hlavilah, then the county seat. Later the family removed to Los Angeles, where Miss Thacher met and married Mr. Wiseman. In the early part of his business career Mr. Wiseman had the contracts for the Roy Jones residence at Santa Monica. the Santa Monica garage and the Savannah school in El Monte. Since coming to Bakersfield he has the following buildings in this city to his credit : Hotel Euclid. Hotel Manchester, Baldwin building, Gardner build- ing, Hotel Moronet, Scofield building, El Reposo Corte, Echo building, Mor- gan building, and the manual arts building of the Kern county high school;

Edwin S. Lewis

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

also in the outside districts, the Bank of Maricopa, Coons & Price building and the Bush building at Maricopa; the Conley school at Taft; Midway school at Fellows; grammar school at Wasco, the Helm and Cormack build- ings and the Greene building at Wasco; Lowell school at Turlock and Haw- thorne grammar school in the same town; and the Merced Security Savings Bank at Atwater, Cal. He is a member of the Los Angeles Architectural Club and the American Institute of Architects.

EDWIN THOMAS LEWIS .- Allured by reports concerning the pos- sibilities of the then unknown west, Josuah Flood Lewis, a native of Pike county, Mo., while a young man left his lifelong home during the summer of 1851 and crossed the plains to California in an ox-team train. The tedious trip contained the usual round of excitement and danger, but came to a safe and uneventful end with the arrival of the expedition at its point of dispersion. As he had brought cattle and horses across the country from Missouri, it was his desire to find land suitable for a stock range. In his search for a suitable location he visited Tulare county and selected a tract of land above Visalia, where afterward he engaged in the stock industry with more or less success. During the residence of the family on that ranch Edwin T. Lewis was born March 12. 1858, and in due time he was sent to the Visalia school, later attended the Porterville school, and after his par- ents moved to Kern county in 1869 he became a pupil in the Woody school. The father continued as a stock-raiser in this county until his death in 1879. Leaving home, the son worked on farms in California and Arizona for a time.

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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 79

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