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 87

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 87

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The children born to Domitilo Castro and his wife were: Marguerite. who is a trained nurse at Oakland; Frank, who is a blacksmith in Coalinga and is married to Effie Godley, of Bakersfield; Louis, who is an oil man at Mojave : Albert H. and Andrew M., twins, the latter an oil driller at Taft for the K. T. & O. Company: Adlai, in the employ of the American Petroleum Oil Company ; Lucy M., Felix C. and Amelia, at home. Of these Albert

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Hamilton Castro was born in Bakersfield September 29, 1886. After gradu- ation from the grammar school he attended high school and then took a course at the Bakersfield Business College, from which he was graduated in 1908. Ile immediately found employment in the Sunset oil field at Maricopa, where he became a tool-dresser. In the latter capacity he worked for the Western Minerals Oil Company and continued in their employ for fifteen months. In 1911 he assumed the management of his father's ranch, five miles south of Bakersfield, where he raises chiefly alfalfa, hay and barley and is making a success of it. His forty acres of alfalfa he cuts five times a year, his annual product amounting to two hundred tons of alfalfa, while he also raises annually fifty tons of barley. He has also taken up a one hundred and sixty-acre tract in the Breckenridge mountains, twenty-seven miles east of Bakersfield.

Mr. Castro is a trustee of the Fairview school district, and is greatly interested in the cause of education. Fraternally .he is a member of the Red- men, Woodmen of the World, and the Knights of Columbus.

JOSE J. LOPEZ .- The honored old Castilian family of Lopez became established in the new world when Claudio Lopez, an officer in the Spanish army, crossed the ocean during one of the revolutions that occasionally dis- rupted Mexico and gave efficient service in the quelling of the disturbances. In recognition of his capable assistance the Mexican government appointed him an Indian agent for Southern California and he established his home at San Gabriel, Los Angeles county, where he continued to reside until his death. Next in line of descent was Estavan, a native of San Gabriel and a lifelong resident of Los Angeles county, where he died after many years of successful identification with the stock industry. The following genera- tion was represented by Geronimo Lopez, who was born in Los Angeles and is now living in the San Fernando valley, hale and robust notwithstanding his eighty-four useful and active years. Until he retired from business cares he engaged extensively in the raising of sheep and cattle and ranked among the leading stockmen of his locality. His old homestead, situated one and one-half miles north of San Fernando, has been purchased by a company which intends to build thereon the last dam of the Los Angeles aqueduct. During early manhood he was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Lopez and thus became allied with a family whose maternal ancestors held rank among the prominent pioneers of Southern California. Under the priesthood administration her father, Pedro Lopez, a native of Los Angeles, held office as administrator of the mission of San Fernando, but his main occu- pation in life was that of stock-raiser and for many years he followed that pursuit with industry and fair success. His daughter, Mrs. Lopez, has reached the age of eighty-one years and is physically and mentally vigorous for one of that advanced age.

The family of Geronimo and Catherine Lopez comprised sixteen chil- dren, of whom eight daughters and two sons are now living. Jose J., the eldest of all, was born at the family homestead in Los Angeles October 22, 1853, and at the age of seven years accompanied the family to the San Fer- nando valley. Until twenty-one years of age he alternated his time between Los Angeles and the ranch, meanwhile attending the public schools and also gaining under his father a very comprehensive knowledge of the stock business. Coming to Kern county as early as 1874, he embarked in the sheep business and made his headquarters at the Tejon for three years. Meanwhile his success with his flock attracted the attention of others and led to his selection as manager of the sheep industry for General Beale at Rancho el Tejon. During the seven years of his incumbency of the position of manager he had charge of about sixty thousand head of sheep. At the expiration of that time the sheep industry was turned over to J. W. Forbes and Mr. Lopez

Mr. Mag.J. Lopez

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was transferred to the cattle and horse departments, both of which he super- intended for twenty-one years. In these industries no less than with sheep he proved exceptionally resourceful, sagacious and succesful. Finally, twenty-eight years after he had become identified with the ranch, he was chosen its manager, at the same time being appointed manager of Rancho Costec, la Liebre and Los Alamos, by Truxtun Beale, with whom he can- tinned for four years or until 1909, when he retired, after an identification of thirty-two years with the Beale interests, and removed to Bakersfield, erecting a residence at No. 1203 Chester avenue. On May 1, 1912, the Tejon Ranch Company that purchased all of the interest in the estate of the late Gen. E. F. Beale, comprising the four above-named ranches with stock and improve- ments, induced Mr. Lopez to accept the management of the four ranches, and he is once more actively engaged in the management of large affairs with which he has been so closely identified in Kern county. On his large ranch of eight hundred acres near Gorham station he keeps fine droves of cattle, using not only the brand of L with a cross, but also L with an Indian arrow, which brand was used by his father for sixty-three years.

The marriage of Jose J. Lopez was solemnized in Bakersfield May 27, 1885, uniting him with Miss Mary Winter, who was born at La Providencia rancho, near Burbank, Los Angeles county, the daughter of James P. and Jennie (Christie) Winter, natives of Aberdeen, Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Lopez have one daughter, Margaret Pearl. Upon coming to the United States Mr. and Mrs. Winter crossed the plains to California, locating in the southern part of the state. They now make their home in Kern county, near the Tejon ranch.

HUGH A. BLODGET .- The records of the family show that Arba Blodget, a native of Massachusetts and a soldier of the war of 1812, migrated to New York state, and took up land from the Holland Land Company. An ac- cident caused his death while yet he was in the prime of usefulness. The farm which he had purchased in Chautauqua county, N. Y., and which extended over the state line into Pennsylvania, was the birthplace of his son, Wil- liam O., and grandson, Hugh A., but the former, having little taste for agriculture. gave up farming for merchandising. Upon the outbreak of the Civil war he offered his services to the Union and aided in raising a com- pany, of which he was chosen lieutenant. While a member of Reynolds division, fighting in front of the historic stone wall at Gettysburg, he was slightly wounded, and his death, which occurred in 1865, when he was fortv-one years old, was the result of exposure and arduous campaign duty. Three days before his death his wife passed away, leaving three orphan children. Prior to her marriage she bore the maiden name of Esther A. Spencer. Born in Warren county, Pa., she was a member of an old established family of that section.

. Hugh A. Blodget was born October 23, 1855, and was about ten years of age at the time he was doubly orphaned. During the next seven years he made his home with his maternal grandmother and meanwhile took a course in the Jamestown Collegiate Institute. Quite early in life he became self- supporting and destiny turned his steps toward the west. During Decem- ber of 1872 he arrived at Windsor, Sonoma county, poor in purse, but rich in hope. For two years he clerked in a store during the winters and worked on a ranch in the summer. After coming to Kern county he worked on a ranch for about two months, after which for two years he served as clerk in the office of the county recorder. Next he became bookkeeper in the Kern Valley Bank. During 1884 he was chosen cashier of the bank and in 1902 was made its president, but the following year, owing to the pressure of outside business, he retired from the bank, since which he has devoted his energies largely to oil development and refining business.

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

One of the first promoters of the oil industry in the Sunset region, dur- ing 1890 Mr. Blodget, associated with Solomon Jewett and Charles Barnard, put down the first wells drilled in that district. but the project did not prove a success and Mr. Barnard withdrew from the field. Although Messrs. Blodget and Jewett continued further experiments with undiminished energy, it was not until 1897 that they mnet with any results. Mr. Blodget organized the Phoenix Refining and Manufacturing Company in 1907 with Arthur Webster as its manager and himself as president, since which time the com- pany has built up a large refining plant. The enterprise then started has developed into one of much importance to Bakersfield and Kern county and is the largest manufacturing concern in the city and county. This corpora- tion on its own account and that of its allied companies maintains a monthly pay roll of approximately $5000, which supports many families and which is distributed among the various merchants of Bakersfield. It uses exclusively in the manufacture of its various products, oils, distillates and greases, Kern county crude oils and Kern county fullers earth. Through the medium of its superior and economic gas engine distillates and lubricating oils, which are sold at prices which represent only a reasonable profit on the cost of manu- facture, this corporation will be instrumental to a large degree in rapidly developing this and adjoining counties through pump irrigation. Mr. Blodget expresses himself as feeling a pardonable pride in this achievement as he has been a resident of Kern county for more than thirty-nine years. Those competent to judge assert that no one has done more than Mr. Blodget to encourage and develop the oil business in Kern county. His ample facilities for ascertaining facts and his clear judgment have been given to the industry from the first, while his reputation for reliability has counted for much in the business. In addition to aiding in the development of the oil producing and oil refining business he has been a leading factor in local enterprises of permanent benefit. The first sewer system of the town, a private enterprise, received his financial aid. Railroad and street transporta- tion have been promoted by his foresight: also the gas and electric light systems. As a director of the Bakersfield Board of Trade he has encouraged all measures for the upbuilding of the city. That he has a firm faith in his chosen town appears from his many investments in real estate and in the building of an elegant residence, where he and his wife, formerly Miss A. L. Park, dispense a gracious hospitality. Mrs. Blodget, who was born in Wisconsin and came to California during 1878, is the mother of three chil- dren, Haselton P., Ruth and Anna L.

Fraternally connected with the Masons, Knights of Pythias and Benev- olent Protective Order of Elks, Mr. Blodget has been a local leader in each order. In politics he always has supported Republican principles. Into whatever line of activity he has entered his fine mental endowments have proved helpful to the work in question. Particularly has this been the case in educational affairs. A firm believer in the public schools, he has given freely of his time, means and intelligence to promote the educational system of Bakersfield and it would be difficult to name any citizen whose contribution to this line of public welfare has been of more value than his own. Appointed on the school board May 24, 1898, he was regularly chosen to the office at the ensuing election. Ever since that time he has served as president of the board. Under his incumbency the schools have increased in enrollment four fold, while in efficiency they have reached a point abreast of the best schools of the state. The natural energy and wise zeal charac- terizing Mr. Blodget in all of his other dealings has been carried into this department and the result has been highly gratifying to all patrons of the city schools.

Ny Ovherty

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

WILLIAM J. DOHERTY .- A son of William M. and Alice (Keville) Doherty, he was born at Derby, Orleans county, Vt., in 1848. Derby lies near the line of Quebec and a little further to the north in that province, at Sher- brooke, the father owned and operated a large farm for years, also engaged in lumbering there and in Vermont, shipping ship timbers to Portland and con- tinuing in the lumber industry as long as he lived. In this way the son gained a thorough knowledge of such work and later he was sent to Lowell, Mass., (the native place of his mother) to serve an apprenticeship to the trade of a carpenter. Upon the completion of his apprenticeship he worked as a journeyman for three years at Fall River and for a similar period at Worcester, Mass., after which in 1876 he came to California and followed his trade in San Francisco and Oakland. Thence he went to Arizona and devoted three years to contracting and building at Tucson. Upon his return to California he helped to build up Tulare, after a disastrous fire had almost destroyed the town. Meanwhile in 1875 his brother, George C., had established himself in the building business at Bakersfield and also had engaged in the management of an apiary, continuing both lines of work until his death in 1894. He served for one term as supervisor of Kern county and filled other positions of local trust.

A visit to this brother gave Mr. Doherty an opportunity to bid on the construction of the Southern hotel. The contract was given him and in 1889 he erected the hotel, but sixty days after he had turned it over to the owners it was destroyed by fire. Meanwhile he had joined with his brother in the bee business. In different parts of the county he had from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred colonies, but these he sold upon engaging in the lumber business. While he has built many houses in Bakersfield, including his own residence at No. 2504 Nineteenth street, and has also had contracts for important public buildings, including that for the Roman Catholic Church in 1905, his leading business associations have been with the lumber industry. After he completed the Southern hotel he was absent from the city for a year and upon his return in 1890 he became interested in the lumber business. A company of men had been organized to take over five thousand acres of timber land on Mount Breckenridge and under the title of the Kern County Lumber Company they built a saw mill. A road was built to the mill on the east slope of the mountain, about thirty-five miles from Bakersfield.

From the first the Fresno Flume Company made a determined effort to put the new concern out of business. The easiest way to accomplish their purpose was to drop the price of lumber. This they did, so that the organ- ization at Bakersfield, after operating the mill for two years at a great loss, abandoned all effort to continue their enterprise. Their troubles were enhanced by the sudden death of their manager, Mr. Lincoln, and the stock of the company was almost worthless. About that time Mr. Doherty nego- tiated with a Bakersfield lumber firm to buy their business and take over their yard. Having almost closed the deal, he ordered a large consignment of lumber from Oregon. Meantime the Fresno company bought the yard after secret negotiations. It was necessary for him to find a place to unload his lumber, shipped from Oregon, so he secured the corner of Eighteenth street and Chester avenue and started in business. His next step was to go to Fresno and endeavor to buy mountain pine from the company there. but they refused to sell. Immediately he secured an option to lease the property of the Kern County Lumber Company on Mount Breckenridge and when he had taken over the mill and lumber he incorporated the Union Lumber Company. with himself as president, manager and sole owner. Heavy teams were utilized to haul the pine lumber to the Bakersfield yard. A need for more space caused him in 1902 to buy another yard on the corner of Truxtun and Chester avenue. where now stand the new Hall of Records and the Catholic Church. A year

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after he had established a yard at that point he was burned out, whereupon he bought one and one-half blocks on I and Fifteenth streets, along the Santa Fe Railroad, where he established a new lumber yard and built and operated a planing mill and box factory in connection. In the fall of 1905 he sold the business to J. H. Mallett of San Francisco, who still operates the Union Lumber Company at the same location.

Having purchased in 1911 the entire tract and holdings of the old Kern County Lumber Company, consisting of forty-seven hundred and sixty acres with a large area of timber, approximating forty million feet, Mr. Doherty immediately prepared to resume the manufacture of lumber and put the roads in shape so that gasoline trucks could haul heavy loads from the mill to Bakersfield. His long experience and thorough knowledge of timber con- ditions in this part of the state give promise of continued success in the lumber business. While carrying on extensive business affairs he has not withheld his support from civic enterprises, but has been a liberal contributor to move- ments for the advancement of Bakersfield along every line of endeavor. His first marriage united him with Miss Theresa Leeper, by whom he had one son, Earl L., now engaged in the real estate business at Larkspur, Marin county. He married (second) Gertrude Borgwardt of Bakersfield and has two children, Keville and William Henry. His present wife, whom he married in Bakersfield in the year 1904, was Miss Lillie C. McClaskey, a native of Marysville, Cal. Aside from taking part in numerous social and literary organizations she is identified with the Rebekahs and Mr. Doherty also belongs to that lodge, besides being a member of the Bakersfield Lodge and Encampment, I. O. O. F., and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. The father of Mrs. Doherty, Hon. Calvin McClaskey, crossed the plains with a large expedition during the summer of 1851 and settled in Yuba county. An attorney by profession, he turned his attention to law practice after having endeavored in vain to find a fortune in the mines. During 1872 he established an office at Susanville and for years he was a prominent citizen of Lassen county. Through his service as county judge he received the title of Judge McClaskey, by which he was known among his acquaintances. While still a resident of Yuba county he was elected to the state assembly and served during the sessions of 1869-70, while during 1883 and 1884 he served as assemblyman representing Plumas, Lassen and Sierra counties. His marriage at Virginia City, Nev., in 1865, united him with Miss Anna J. Slavin, who two years before had come from the east by way of Panama. As a legislator he achieved considerable prominence.

GEORGE A. McLEAN .- Possession to a marked degree of unusual business ability and well-grounded information of his particular line has been evidenced in the responsible position held by George A. McLean, who, after entering the employ of the Kern County Land Company, so proved his valuable services that he was promoted to the superintendency of the North Side Canals with headquarters at what is known as the Calloway headquar- ters in the company. A Canadian by birth, he is of Scotch extraction, his father, Archie McLean, being a native of Scotland. When a young man the father had come to Ontario to follow his trade of mason, but instead he em- barked in contracting and building. In about 1888 he came to Riverside, Cal., where he followed contracting mason work, later removing to Colton. While at Riverside he was engaged in constructing the Gage canal for the Riverside Water Company. He still makes his home at Colton, having fol- lowed contracting in different parts of California. His wife, before her mar- riage, Phoebe Harris, was born in Ontario, and she is making her home in Colton, in the enjoyment, with her husband, of a beautiful afternoon of life. Of their family of four children three survive.

The second eldest child of his parents, George A. McLean was born in

A. C. Julius Kirsten

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Cathcart, Ontario, May 3, 1884, and a few years later was brought to Cali- fornia by his parents, who gave him splendid opportunities for an education. After graduating from the local high school at Colton he entered the San Bernardino Business College and was graduated, being thoroughly equipped to enter the business world. For the subsequent year he was in the employ of the Colton Cement Company as storekeeper, and then entered the sur- veying department of the Bay Cities Water Company, spending most of the time in Santa Clara county. His next employment was with the Union Con- struction Company at Calaveras and Tuolumne counties in the engineering department on the construction of power plants, and then was with the Pacific Improvement Company on a topographical survey of the peninsula. In 1908 he came to Bakersfield to work in the engineering department of the Southern Pacific Railroad, continuing in this connection until March, 1910, when he started his association with the Kern County Land Company as bookkeeper and foreman at the Calloway headquarters. It was not long, however, when his qualities and fitness for the special line of work attracted his superiors and on January 1, 1911, he was made superintendent of the North Side Canals with his headquarters at the above ranch.

Mr. McLean's marriage occurred in Colton to Miss Cora Lee Sisson, who was born in Missouri. Two children bless their union, Edith Lee and Virginia Phœbe.

A. C. JULIUS KIRSTEN .- A native of the kingdom of Prussia the subject of this biographical review was born at Nordhausen December 7, 1859, being a son of Frederick and Emelia (Ferchland) Kirsten, natives of Germany and lifelong residents of Prussia. For many years the father offici- ated as mayor of Rossla. By trade he was a glazier. The only child in the family was Julius, who was educated in the Kelbra gymnasium and served an apprenticeship to the trade of confectioner at Nordhausen. On the close of his term he went to Russia in 1878 and found work at his trade succes- sively in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Odessa. When the time for military examination drew near he returned to Germany, but there was exempted from service, so he immediately started for New York. After landing Janu- ary 29, 1882, he experienced no delay in securing employment in a bakery in the metropolis, where during the same year he married Miss Frances Pope, who died in October of 1888. Meanwhile he had come to California and worked for five months in San Francisco. Later he followed his trade for three years in Honolulu. Upon returning to San Francisco he bought a bakery, but the business proved unprofitable and he went to Guatemala, where for fourteen months he engaged in business. Next we find him in Costa Rica. After four years in that and other Central American states and four months in New Orleans, during 1896 he returned to San Francisco. where he followed his trade at the Cliff House. Later he was similarly engaged in Spokane, Colorado Springs and El Paso. From the last-named city he traveled into Mexico, then returned to the east on a tour of inspection, later finding employment in Denver, Colo. There was much to interest him in these various places and sections of the country, nor did he find less inter- esting the three years spent in Arizona. Meanwhile a tract of land he had owned in Washington was sold and with the money he bought a bakery at Florence, Cal., but at the expiration of ten months he sold out, and August 16, 1908, settled in Mojave, where on J street he erected the building in which is housed his present fine bakery and delicatessen. In politics he is a Republican.

HON. MILTON T. FARMER .- The judge of the superior court depart- ment No. 3 of Kern county has the distinction of being a native son as well as a descendant of a California pioneer of 1850 and a representative of old American stock identified with the colonial and Revolutionary eras.

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Tradition associates the Farmer family with many interesting events in the Old Dominion, whence some of the name crossed the mountains into Ken- tucky. From the Blue Grass state, his native commonwealth, George Farmer migrated to Iowa and settled among the pioneer farmers at Riverton, a fron- tier community of small population. From that region he went to the front with an Iowa regiment during the Civil war. ITis service was made note- worthy by conspicuous valor and one of the war heroes passed away when he met his death from a wound received while campaigning in Tennessee. Among the surviving members of his family there was a son, George Thomas Farmer, born at Riverton, Iowa, and a pioneer of Yolo county, Cal., where he married Miss Gertrude Ruggles, a member of a family identified with New England during colonial times and represented in the army of patriots during the Revolution. Born in Woodland, Cal., Mrs. Farmer was a daughter of L. D. Ruggles, a native of Illinois and a California pioneer of 1850.

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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 87

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