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 86

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 86

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ERNEST L. BLANCK .- A life of varied activities, during the course of which he has been familiar with conditions in three different parts of the world, has given to Mr. Blanck a cosmopolitan knowledge of men and affairs. The first eight years of his life were passed in New Zealand, where he was born May 17, 1878. Reared in Seattle and educated in its public schools, he was on the threshold of maturity when in 1897 gold was dis- covered in the Klondike. With eager hopefulness he started for the north. The long overland journey to Dawson was safely consummated and he then began to prospect in the gold fields, where he met with the usual round of success and failure, prosperity and adversity. Taken altogether, how- ever, the returns were satisfactory and when finally he returned to Cali- fornia to establish a home he still left interests in the north so important and valuable that he returns each summer to superintend their development.

With the first starting of a village on the site of Fellows Mr. Blanck came to the new place in January of 1910 and on the 7th of February formed a partnership with H. J. Lawton in the general mercantile business, buying a location and putting up a suitable building which the firm still occupies. Accompanying him to the town were his wife and only child, Lois, and the family are comfortably established in a home of their own. Mrs. Blanck, prior to her marriage in 1902, was Miss F. E. Boynton and lived in Berkeley, this state. Since coming to this county Mr. Blanck has joined the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks in Bakersfield. During his sojourn in Alaska he was associated with the Arctic Brotherhood and Camp No. 75. Fraternal Order of Eagles, at Nome.

The store of Lawton & Blanck, Inc., contains the Fellows postoffice. for Mr. Lawton was chosen the first postmaster May 26, 1910, and in July. 1912, Mr. Blanck was appointed postmaster, succeeding his said partner, whose interests in the large mercantile store he bought out at the same time. As dealers in general merchandise Lawton & Blanck, Inc., gained a wide reputation. The line of goods is the best of its kind. Mr. Blanck acts as

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exclusive agent for the canned goods of Sussman & Wormser, also for Carson gloves, Hannan shoes and Selz Blue shoes. Not only does he main- tain a large trade in Fellows, but he has customers in the entire district surrounding the town. His two delivery autos are used for the convenience of customers in a radius of six miles of town.

ALEXANDER BERGES .- Born in France March 19, 1862, Alexander Berges at the age of fifteen years bade farewell to friends and native land and crossed the ocean to the new world, where at first he se- cured employment in San Francisco. In 1880, three years after his arrival in California, he came to Kern county and with this section of the state his subsequent interests were intimately identified. During 1889 at Bakersfield occurred his marriage to Miss Margaret Rouquette, a native of San Luis Obispo county, Cal., and a daughter of Peter and Dora (Cer- vantes) Rouquette, both now deceased. As a girl from the age of eight years Miss Rouquette lived on Palata ranch, a large stock farm, of which her father served as foreman for a number of years. Later the parents removed to Bakersfield and here she met and married Mr. Berges, their union resulting in the birth of six children, namely : Alexander, Jr., Leopold, Grace, Henrietta, Armand and Eugene.

At his death, which occurred on Christmas eve of 1910, Mr. Berges left to his family a valuable estate, including the Quitol ranch of one hundred and sixty acres in Ventura county, the Sunset ranch of six hundred and forty acres and the home place of eighty acres on Union avenue six miles south of Bakersfield. It was as a stockman that Mr. Berges made his greatest success and the raising of sheep was his specialty, his prominence in the occupation proving a special adaptation for the work. Since his death Mrs. Berges has remained at the elegant country residence and has managed her landed and stock interests with the assistance of her oldest son, a young man of worth of character and energy of temperament. well adapted to take up the father's work with every hope of future success. The family hold membership with the Roman Catholic Church of Bakersfield and are gen- erous in their contributions to its maintenance as well as to general philan- thropic projects.

On May 10, 1912, occurred an accident which caused added sorrow to the Berges family. While at work on the Sunset ranch, near Maricopa, the horse which young Leopold Berges was riding fell down on him and broke his left leg above the knee. As a result of this injury he died July 14, 1912. He was an exceptionally bright and able young man. Although less than twenty-one he was of great assistance to the mother in operating the ranches.

WITTEN W. HARRIS, A.B .- The ranks of labor have no champion more sincere in purpose, more brilliant in mind or more helpful in counsel than Witten W. Harris, who as an editor of the Union Labor Journal has cast in his fortunes with those of the great army of workmen toiling cour- ageously for their daily bread. The Kern County Labor Council, recogniz- ing the imperative necessity of a sheet devoted to their own interests, estab- lished the Union Labor Journal during 1904 as a weekly and its pages have since been used for the advancement of the labor organizations of this local- ity, at the same time posting all readers concerning the great field of social- ism the world over. The Journal is a six-column quarto, pungent in denun- ciation of the evils of the age, acute in criticism, penetrating in its analysis of national problems and characterized by an editorial policy as effective as it is forcible.

In lineage Mr. Harris represents two families, those of Harris and Witten, that have been identified with AAmerican history since the colonial period and that had representation in the patriot army during the Revolu- tion. His parents, W. M. and Mary (Witten) Harris, were born in Ken-

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tucky and Virginia respectively and now make their home in Bakersfield, but for years engaged in farming near Albany, Gentry county, Mo., where the father held the office of county assessor for several terms. The original home of the Harris family in America was upon the castern shore of Mary- land, but the tide of migration afterward took them to Kentucky and Mis- souri. There were eight children in the parental family and all are now living, the third being Witten W., who was born near Albany, Gentry county, Mo., August 17, 1872, and received his early education in the public schools, afterward taking the complete course of study in Christian College at Albany. During the spring of 1897 he was graduated with the degree of A.B., after having paid all the expenses of his college course by means of teaching and preaching. Ordained to the ministry of the Christian Church, he held a pastorate at Princeton, Mo., prior to his graduation and afterward he was elected by the state board of the denomination as evangelist for the district south of the Missouri river in the state of Missouri. For two years he engaged actively in evangelistic work through all of Southern Missouri under the auspices of the society. Meanwhile he had been a deep student of theology. The result of his studies caused him to espouse the cause of the higher critical school of Biblical interpretation. His views therefore took him away from the teachings of the church to which he belonged. Being too liberal for sympathetic and harmonious relations with the church, he resigned his position and retired from the ministry.

A brief connection with the Cabool Democrat at Cabool, Texas county, Mo., gave Mr. Harris an experience in the work of editor and publisher and after he had sold that paper he held similar positions with other journals. From 1905 until 1909 he served as editor of the Union Labor Journal in Bakersfield, but retired to remove to Oakland and establish the Harris print shop. At the expiration of two years he left Oakland on account of the ill health of his wife. Hoping she might be benefited by the climate of New Mexico he established a home near Albuquerque, but the change proved of no avail and she passed away in June of 1912, leaving four children, Gerald, Robert, George and Witten. She bore the maiden name of Louise Murphy and was born in Dekalb county, Mo., but her marriage was solemnized in Springfield, Greene county, that state. After her demise Mr. Harris returned to Bakersfield and again took up the editing of the Union Labor Journal, which owes much to his wise editorial policy and devotion to the labor movement. During 1909 he served as a member of the state board of con- trol of the Socialist party.

WILLIAM G. TALBOT .- The Western Pipe and Steel Company of California, which has engaged the services of Mr. Talbot as manager of its Taft branch, is a well-known corporation organized under the laws of the state and dealing in steel and galvanized tanks, steel well casing, riveted steel water pipe and irrigation supplies. In the oil fields of Kern county the trade of the company has mostly to do with oil and water storage tanks of every size and description, from the small galvanized iron tank to the largest steel tank. Stove-pipe casing also is manufactured by the concern in large quantities, while the Taft shop further engages in riveted steel work. A large business is carried on in the irrigated sections of the county in the way of water-well casing and water pipe for surface irrigation, so that the company in its various departments controls an extensive and valuable trade. Besides the shop and office at Taft, there are offices at San Francisco, Los Angeles and Fresno, also factories at Los Angeles and Richmond, so that access is easy and shipments prompt to every portion of the state.

The first fourteen years in the life of William G. Talbot were passed in Bourbon county, Ky., where he was born November 7, 1882, and whence in 1896 he came to California in company with his father. Dudley Talbot.

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The family settled in Los Angeles county and the youth grew to manhood there, working for a time upon the orange grove of his father, but after sixteen years of age employed in business houses and principally retained in a clerical capacity in railway offices. About 1910 he became connected with the Western Pipe and Steel Company of California, founders of the second supply house at Taft, where a building was erected in 1908 and T. H., brother of W. G. Talbot, put in charge as manager. Until William G. suc- ceeded to the management of this shop he was employed at Richmond and Los Angeles by the same company and meanwhile gained a thorough knowl- edge of every phase of the work. With his wife, who was formerly Miss Lucy Craig, of Kansas City, he has established his home in Taft, where he is a prominent member of the Petroleum Club and popular among the men of the West Side oil field.

R. T. BAKER .- More than one-half century of progress has marked the history of California since R. T. Baker came hither with a small expedition of emigrants, who to the number of about thirty, including men, women and children, crossed the plains during the summer of 1857 and early in the autumn landed safely at Sacramento, he then being about twenty years old.

Clark county in Illinois was the native place of R. T. Baker and there his father, James, died at the age of seventy, many years after he had removed thither from his native Kentucky. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Malinda Fry and was born in South Carolina, came to California after the death of her husband and made her home with her son. R. T .. in Los Angeles county, where she passed away at the age of sixty- seven years. Upon his arrival in California Mr. Baker had proceeded from Sacramento to Solano county and had engaged in farming near Dixon, where he made his home from 1857 until 1895 and then for seven years engaged in farming in Los Angeles county. Meanwhile he had married Miss Mary A. Bailey, who at the age of four years, in 1849, had been brought across the plains from Illinois by her father, Peter Bailey, a pioneer of Solano county. where she was reared to womanhood. Born of their marriage were three children. The eldest, Vina, is the widow of John A. Johnson and lives in Kern county. The only son, Frank C., is engaged in the oil business in Kern county, near Maricopa, and the youngest, Louisa, Mrs. McGar, died in Yolo county, leaving six children.

Having purchased in 1902 a tract of land in Kern county Mr. Baker brought his family to this place and since then has devoted his attention to the improvement of his property, which comprises twenty acres on section 19, about twelve miles south of Bakersfield. Quietly following the duties of his chosen occupation and caring little for outside activities, he never- theless maintains a warm interest in all movements for the general upbuild- ing of Kern county. Ever since he cast his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln he has continued a stanch advocate of Republican prin- ciples and a voter for measures promulgated by the leaders of that party. Various fraternal organizations have had the benefit of his active co-opera- tion, most important of these having been the blue lodge of Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Ancient Order of United Workmen.

EDWARD C. KELLERMEYER .- The Independent Well Supply Con- pany, of which Mr. Kellermeyer is treasurer and in the promotion of which he has maintained a warm interest, was incorporated under the laws of Cali- fornia April 6, 1912, with a capital stock of $500,000. Practically a closed corporation, its stock has not been placed upon the market and its stock- holders have been fully satisfied with the management of their interests on the part of the directors of the concern. The main office of the company is located in the Bank of Bakersfield building at Bakersfield and the officers are as follows: William H. Fenneman, of Coalinga, president : William H.

Mo A Baker

Baker

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Landmeyer, of Los Angeles, vice-president ; Clarence Wilson, of Bakersfield, secretary ; and E. C. Kellermeyer, treasurer, also manager of the Taft branch.

Identified with the Taft branch of the concern since June of 1912 and a resident of California since 1901, Mr. Kellermeyer came west equipped for practical work by thorough training as a machinist and by superior mechan- ical skill that already had made him an expert in the building and repair- ing of bicycles and in similar tasks. He is a native of the city of Indian- apolis, Ind., and was born January 13, 1876, being a son of A. F. W. and Minnie (Teckenbrock) Kellermeyer. The latter, a native of Germany, was brought to America in infancy and grew to womanhood in Indianapolis, where her parents were pioneers. The former, a mechanic by trade, still follows his chosen occupation in Indianapolis, and in the same city the paternal grandfather, a native of Germany, now eighty-seven years of age, had a long and active career as a railroad mechanic and inspector. The parental family included five children, named as follows: Harry, a machinist employed at his trade in Indianapolis; Edward C., the only member of the family to leave his native city ; Walter, who is connected with the Indianap- olis fire department; Charles, an employe of the Indiana Trust Company in Indianapolis ; and Clara, who is employed by a large business corporation of Indianapolis.

Having completed the studies of the grammar school, Edward C. Keller- meyer served an apprenticeship of four years to the trade of machinist with Sinker & Davis and meanwhile acquired a thorough knowledge of the occu- pation. The bent of his mind was toward such work and he has shown unusual aptitude in the care and repairing of machinery. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he engaged with the Standard bicycle works in Indian- apolis for two years and for a similar period he was with the Waverly Bicycle Company, after which he held a trusted position as machinist with the Central bicycle works, also in Indianapolis. After a year with the last- named concern he went to Logansport, Ind., and secured employment in the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Coming to California in 1901, he secured work as a roustabout with the W. T. McFie Supply Company of Los Angeles. From the delivery force he worked his way up to be a city salesman. June 29, 1902, he arrived in Bakersfield, from which point he proceeded to the Kern river oil fields and for nine months remained there as a field solicitor. Returning to Los Angeles he remained for a year, then came back to the Kern river field and entered the service of the 33 Oil Company as a lease foreman. A year later he resigned the position, returned to Los Angeles and resumed work for the W. T. McFie Supply Company, whose supply department he superintended for nine months. As an employe of the Oil Well Supply Company he arrived in Maricopa May 1, 1907. Four months later he was sent over to McKittrick to take charge of the branch at that point. After a year as manager of that branch he was transferred to Moron (now Taft), where he built the Oil Well Supply Com- pany's store. On the completion of the store he became its manager and continued to fill the position with the greatest efficiency until he resigned, April 1, 1912, for the purpose of organizing the Independent Well Supply Company. Since coming to Taft he has been interested in various local organizations and enterprises, particularly the Taft Petroleum Club. of which he is a charter member. His marriage took place in Coalinga and united him with Miss Florence J. Williams, daughter of B. C. Williams, who is engaged in the real-estate business at that place.

JOHN E. HUBBARD .- The Buckeye state gave to California in the first and second generations many citizens of thrift, enterprise and high moral character, who have taken a manful part in the work of development which has made the state one of the greatest in the Union. John E. Hub-

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bard of Delano, Kern county, was born in Butte county, Cal., December 8, 1872, a son of William and Nancy (McBride) Hubbard. The father was born near Ottawa. Putnam county, Ohio, July 9, 1849, and the mother was born in Hancock county, that state, June 22, 1850. Of their marriage, which occurred near Sacramento, January 1, 1872, six children were born. The elder Mr. Hubbard was blessed with only limited educational advantages in the east and early in life began to give his attention to agriculture. In 1864 he came to California and settled in Yolo county, where he farmed for a time, or until he pre-empted a tract of his own near Oroville, Butte county. After remaining there for two years he returned to Yolo county and resumed farm- ing. Later he was similarly employed in Stanislaus county until 1884, when he located in Fresno. From there in 1886 he came to Kern county and located seven miles east of Delano, where he took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres which has been his home ever since. Besides the homestead he also, with his son, is the owner of four hundred and eighty acres which is devoted to grain raising. In connection with his agricultural endeavors he takes contracts for leveling land for alfalfa and orchard purposes, using a large steam roller in the operation.

The six children comprising the parental family are John Edson, Chaun- cey N .. Rachel E. (Mrs. Simpson of Munson), Rilla A., Oren F., and Archie F. John E., the eldest of the family, was early in life, enrolled in a public school, where he continued his studies until 1879. Later he was a student for three years in the public school at Oakdale, Stanislaus county. After the removal of his parents to Fresno he continued his studies there until 1884. Coming to Kern county with his parents in 1886, he busied himself until he was nineteen years old in assisting his father on the farm. By the time he was twenty-one he was master of the secrets of successful farming and his father took him as his partner in a dry farming enterprise which has proved a successful undertaking. For three years, from 1905 to 1908, they farmed in Tulare Lake basin, but on account of floods during the rainy season their efforts did not meet with the results they had anticipated. In connection with their farming they operate a steam harvester and leveler, a thoroughly up-to-date outfit which has been in wide demand. In April, 1908, John E. Hubbard married Miss Alice Harris, who was born in Missouri.

HARVEY NEWTON MCCULLOUGH .- An illustration of the power of a determined will in the overcoming of obstacles appears in the life activi- ties of Mr. Mccullough, who during boyhood encountered many vicissitudes and endured countless hardships. The family were of southern birth and associations, yet of Union sympathies, hence they suffered from the Civil war in an unusual degree and undoubtedly the heaviest loss of all was the death of the father while serving with the First Arkansas Infantry in the Federal army. This gallant soldier, Marion R. Mccullough, was born in North Carolina and became a pioneer of Arkansas, where he started to improve a tract of raw land. Meanwhile he had married Lovenia Robinson. a native of North Carolina, who died in February, 1856, and their only child, Harvey N., was born August 17, 1853, at the home farm near Harrison, Boone county, Ark. After he left home to serve under the flag of the Union news was scant and privations many for his son left behind. It was learned that he had been captured and held as a prisoner of war and later word came of his death from hardships. The community being intensely southern in sympathy, the boy was taken to Missouri by the federal troops for protec- tion, and found refuge at Springfield, that state, where he remained until it was safe for him to return to the old homestead. Going back about 1866, he found the stock stolen, the farm despoiled and the old home scarcely fit for human habitation, but he undertook its restoration.

On account of all these privations it had not been possible for the youth to attend school. At the age of seventeen he began to feel his deprivations

Harvey N met all ough

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so greatly that he determined to attend school and for several years he was a pupil in free and pay schools. When finally in 1876 he completed the course of study in Crooked creek school district, he was presented with a quilt made by thirty-six young ladies, each of whom had sewed her name into a piece of the quilt. Through all the changes of later years this present was retained and no diploma ever gave to its recipient greater pleasure than the handiwork of these young girls. In 1877 Mr. Mccullough traveled with ox-teams to the Round valley in Arizona, where he arrived after a trip of ninety-five days. The following year he proceeded to Phoenix, Ariz., and took up farming, but in the same year he went back to Arkansas. During the return trip, which was made with horses, he had an encounter with the Apaches and narrowly escaped with his life. Returning to Arkansas and resuming agricultural pursuits, he continued there until 1882, after which he spent a year at Silver City, N. M. For some years afterward he engaged in farming near Phoenix, Ariz., and from there came to California in 1889, settling at Bakersfield. For a year he teamed in the employ of H. A. Jastro, and on his return after a brief trip to Phoenix he became interested in raising strawberries on the Kern river, where he owned an apiary. Five years later he sold out and returned to Bakersfield, where he opened a wood yard on the corner of Humboldt and Sacramento streets. Since then he has continued at the same location and meantime has built up a large trade in groceries, grain, hay, feed and fuel. At this writing he owns two corners with two residences and has recently completed a brick store building, 40x150 feet in dimensions. His family consists of one daughter and two sons, namely: Mrs. Mary Sterwalt, of San Diego; James, who is engaged in farming at Phoenix, Ariz .; and David, who assists his father in the grocery, feed and fuel business. In politics Mr. Mccullough gives stanch support to Republican principles, while fraternally he has been prominently connected with the local work of the Knights of Pythias.

ALBERT HAMILTON CASTRO .- The ancestral home of the family was in Mexico, where was born the father of Albert Hamilton Castro, by name Domitilo Castro, he in turn being the son of Thomas and Concepcion (Coro- nado) Castro, both natives of Mexico.

It was in 1867 that the grandfather of Mr. Castro brought his family to Kern county to embark in the stock-raising business three miles south- east of the present town of Bakersfield. Homesteading a half section, he later became owner of a stock range in the Breckenridge mountains, having at the time a great number of head of stock, and at his death, January 14, 1900. he left to his nine children a substantial heritage. His wife, who was the daughter of Jesus Coronado, a pioneer of California, passed away in Bakersfield April 25, 1897. Domitilo Castro was the third in order of birth of their children, and with them he received the benefits derived from the public schools of the district. Remaining on his father's ranch he fol- lowed stock-raising for many years and September 6, 1879, married Miss Lucy Cage, who was a native of Napa county, Cal., and the daughter of Edward and Macaria (Areneas) Cage, the former born in Mississippi and the latter a native of Mexico. Besides Mr. Castro's home five miles south of Bakersfield he owns a hundred and sixty acres at the mouth of Fort Tejon cañon, and where he ranges his cattle, bearing the brand DC. In 1911 he left the ranch to move to his residence at No. 1101 Brown street, Bakers- field, which he had built. He also owns other property in Bakersfield.

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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 86

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