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 93

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 93

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Regarding the ancestry of the mother of George C. Russell (who was a member of the Duncan family) it may be stated that during the eighteenth century three brothers left their native Scotland and crossed the ocean to the new world, where they became separated. Concerning the fate of two of these brothers nothing is known with accuracy. The third, Henry Duncan, who was born September 3, 1710, in Scotland, and who became a pioneer of Virginia, married Rebecca Briggs, who was born January 7, 1710. By their union seven sons and three daughters were born and six of these became pioneers of Kentucky, namely: Coleman, Charles, George, Henry, Fanny and Rebecca. The first-named, Coleman, married Mary Lyne, and they be- came the parents of seven sons and three daughters. Among the sons was George, born August 11, 1750, and married to Nancy Connelly, member of a colonial Virginian family. The family of George and Nancy Duncan com- prised six sons and three daughters. Of these there still survived as late as 1897 two, the eldest and the youngest, viz .: John S., eighty-two years of age, and Jennie, who was at that time past sixty.

The mother of J. Kelly Russell was a daughter of John J. and Susan Jane (Ray) Kelly and a granddaughter of Richard W. and Mary (Knott) Ray, of whom the late ex-Governor J. Proctor Knott was also a lineal de- scendant : and also a granddaughter of George P. and Ann (Kelly) Kelly. George P., a son of John and Jane (Payne) Kelly, was born April 6, 1793, and died April 27, 1847. Ann, the wife of George P. Kelly and a daughter of James and Nancy Kelly, was born February 21, 1796, and died in Obion county, Tenn., September 27, 1830. John J., son of George P. and Ann Kelly, was born November 23, 1818, and died July 12, 1861, while his wife, Susan Jane, daughter of Richard W. and Mary (Knott) Ray, was born April 28, 1824, and died December 19, 1895. The Ray family was prominent and active in the early colonization of Kentucky. About the year 1774 three brothers, John, James and William Ray, removed from Maryland to Ken-

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tucky and settled near the present site of Harrodsburg, Mercer county, where William was soon killed by the Indians. John and James represented the very highest type of physical manhood, being over six feet tall, muscular, broad-shouldered, fearless and brave, endowed with remarkable powers of endurance and with every requisite of the typical pioneer, Indian fighter and woodsman. During their first years in Kentucky they made extensive ex- plorations of the surrounding wilderness. In one of these trips they visited the wild lands of Kentucky county (now Marion county) and there they entered large tracts of land in the western part of the county near the present site of Raywick.

During the year 1794 a number of families (including the Rays, Beards and Knotts) from near the present site of Ellicott Mills in Maryland re- moved to the wilderness of Kentucky and settled on the lands of John and James Ray, including the present site of Raywick and the surrounding country. Even before the migration of that colony as early as 1792, Thomas P. and Frances (Ray) Knott, had left Maryland for Kentucky and had taken passage on a flat-boat at Pittsburg, whence they sailed down the Ohio river to the Falls near the present site of the city of Louisville. Leaving the boat at that point, they traveled by wagon to the new colony near Raywick and in the primeval wilderness established a frontier home. Their family in- cluded the following-named children: Nancy, who married Anthony Bick- ett; Joseph P., who married Maria I. McElroy ; Mary, wife of Richard Ray ; Thomas P., who married Frances Payne; Frances, Mrs. Stephen Bristow; Jane Hart, who died unmarried at the age of twenty-five; Samuel, who mar- ried Elizabeth Ray; Lloyd, who married Martha Allen; and Ellen, who died at the age of sixteen. Included in the Ray family were the following brothers and sisters: John S., who married Kitty Beard; Samuel, who mar- ried Rosa Everhart; Frances, Mrs. Thomas P. Knott; Deborah, Mrs. Lloyd Thurman; Mrs. John Barbee, whose husband was the son of a noted general ; Lloyd, who married Nancy Wickliffe, a sister of Governor Charles A. Wick- liffe and Robert Wickliffe, the most famous lawyers of their day in Ken- tucky; and William (known as Col. Billy Ray), who married his cousin, Sarah Ray.

In life, character and attainments J. Kelly Russell has added prestige to the honored name which he bears. After leaving school he became a mes- senger in the Marion National Bank in Lebanon, Ky., and later was pro- moted to be bookkeeper. Upon resigning that position he came to Califor- nia, where for eight years he was connected with the Edison Electric Light and Power Company of San Francisco. After a period of service as assistant cashier he was placed in charge of a branch office in San Francisco and be- came office manager of the Western Light & Power Company, in which also he was secretary and a director. When he resigned that responsible position he became credit man and confidential secretary for Swabacker Bros., a firm of wholesale commission merchants, with whom he continued until the busi- ness was sold and the partners retired. During January of 1911 he came to Bakersfield as assistant cashier of the Bank of Bakersfield and a year later was promoted to be cashier, remaining in that capacity until the bank was discontinued at its old location November 1, 1912, having been consolidated during the previous month with the Security Trust Company. However, in the meantime he had become convinced of the great possibilities of Bakers- field. Entertaining the most optimistic opinion of the city's future develop- ment, he was anxious to continue in the banking business at this point. Ac- cordingly through his own efforts, supplementing the enterprise of other pro- gressive citizens, a new bank was organized March 6, 1913, and on the 15th of April the National Bank of Bakersfield, with a paid-in capital of $100,- 000.00, began in business. The success of the institution has surpassed the most sanguine hopes of its projectors. Conservative loans and judicious in-

I.H. Beck man

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HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

vestments govern the policy of the managers, who make their motto, "Not the largest business, but a safe business at all times." The officers are as follows: C. L. Claflin, president; F. H. Hall and W. A. Bonynge, vice- presidents; J. K. Russell, cashier; F. J. Galtes, assistant cashier. The fol- lowing are the directors: C. L. Claflin, F. H. Hall, W. A. Bonynge, J. O. Michelle, J. K. Russell, Joseph Redlick, George Haberfelde, A. P. Eyraud, W. W. Kelly, L. P. Keester, J. B. Batz, E. D. Burge and E. M. Brown.

Since coming to this city Mr. Russell has allied himself with the Bakers- field Club and Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. During the period of his residence in San Francisco he met and married Miss Aimee Rogers, a native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the San Jose high school, her father, William J. Rogers, having been a well-known citizen of San Jose.

LEWIS ROGER BUCHANAN .- Of western birth and formerly a resi- dent of various parts of the west, Mr. Buchanan was born at Coal Creek near Pueblo, Colo., November 7, 1882, and is a son of John L. and Mary Ann (Buck- bee) Buchanan, the former a laboring man for years employed as a well-digger by the Santa Fe Railroad Company. There were three children in the family, namely: Lewis Roger, of Taft; Ora P., a partner of his older brother in the pool hall at Taft ; and Eva May, who married J. W. Skaggs, an employe at McKittrick of the great corporation of Miller & Lux. When the eldest child was a mere infant the family removed from Colorado to the Indian Territory, where the father was employed in digging wells for the Santa Fe. About 1885 another move was made to Oregon, where the father first engaged in construction work at Cascade Falls. The mother died at Roseburg, that state, when Lewis R. was a lad of ten years and afterward he left the schools of Roseburg, finishing the grammar-school studies at Myrtle Point, Coos county. During . 1900 he came to California and settled at Hanford, where his father still resides.

After having been variously employed until 1906 Mr. Buchanan then spent a short time in Los Angeles at the carpenter's trade. During the winter of 1906-07 he worked as a carpenter at Coalinga. In a short time he was made head rig-builder for the Imperial Oil Company and for two years he filled the position with efficiency. Shortly after the great fire at Taft he came to the town and began to work in the rebuilding of stores and houses. Much of his work was done for the J. F. Lucey Company, the Union Tool Com- pany and the McCutchens. Besides putting up shops, stores and houses in town he engaged in building houses on the leases in the Midway field and in 1911 he had charge of the erection of the Fellows hotel. Forming a partner- ship with his brother, he started the pool and billiard hall which has been conducted by them up to the present time. About November of 1912 he received the appointment of chief of the Taft fire department. After coming to Taft in April, 1910, he organized and became manager of the baseball nine of the town.

In various fraternities Mr. Buchanan has been influential. While making his headquarters at Coalinga he was made a Mason in Coalinga Lodge No. 387, F. & A. M. Upon the organization of the Improved Order of Red Men, Tribe No. 233, at Taft, he became a charter member and was chosen the first presiding officer. In addition he has been prominent in Taft Lodge No. 426. I. O. O. F., and at this writing is a member of the building committee having charge of the erection of the new hall on Center street. The corner stone was laid June 21, 1913, and the building completed in the fall of the same year.

FRANK TEMPLETON WILLIS .- Mr. Willis is one who has had much experience as a stationary engineer and has taken a three years' course in engineering with the International Correspondence School. He now holds the position of foreman in charge of the pumping plant of the Chanslor-Can- field Midway Oil Company located six miles west of McKittrick in the Little

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Santa Maria Valley. The plant supplies water for the company's oil opera- tions in the North Midway at Fellows. It comprises a system of deep wells and the water is pumped over the hills and delivered at a distance of fourteen miles to the Fellows Camp and has a capacity of about fourteen hundred barrels per day.

Frank Templeton Willis was born in Mt. Vernon, Posey county, Ind .. October 29, 1876, and is the son of Joshua and Hannah (Templeton) Willis, natives of Mt. Vernon, Ind., and White county, Ill., respectively. They were farmers at Mt. Vernon, but now reside in Wickenburg, Ariz. Of their three children Frank is the oldest; he was brought up in Lakin, Kans., where he was educated in the public and high schools, graduating in 1893, when he began to learn engineering in Victor, Colo., and in time became a stationary engineer. Later he held positions with mining companies in different parts of Colorado, Montana, Oregon and Arizona, and during this time learned min- ing in all its details and held positions as foreman and superintendent of mines. He was for five years foreman of the water service department of the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railroad at Prescott, Ariz., a position which he resigned in September, 1910, to accept his present position as foreman of the Chanslor-Canfield Midway Oil Company's water plant, since which time he has remodeled the plant to its present efficient service and capacity.

Mr. Willis was married in Phoenix, Ariz., to Miss Anna Wilson, who was born in Oakland, Cal., and to the union have been born three children : Dorothy, Frances and Charles. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and with his wife is a member of the Women of Woodcraft. Mrs. Willis is a member of the Presbyterian Church. For many years Mr. Willis was a member of the Stationary Engineers Union and is a Democrat.

HARRY MILO ELWOOD, M.D .- A thorough preparation for the practice of medicine and surgery qualifies Dr. Elwood for successful work in his chosen calling. As the surgeon at Mojave for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific Railroads, and as a private practitioner with a large list of families to whom he acts as physician, he stands at the head of the men of his profession in his community.

The older of two children, Dr. Elwood was born at Nunda, Livingston county, N. Y., May 9, 1880, and is a son of Homer C. and D. Estelle (Gif- ford) Elwood, natives respectively of Nunda and Gainesville, N. Y., the father for sixteen years a manager in the postoffice department of the govern- ment service, but more recently and at present a partner in a wholesale hard- ware business in the city of Buffalo. After he had completed the studies of the grammar and high schools of Nunda and had enjoyed the excellent ad- vantages of being a Normal post graduate, H. M. Elwood matriculated in the medical department of the University of Buffalo, where he completed the regular course and was graduated in 1905 with the degree of M.D. Spe- cial opportunities for the study of nervous diseases came to him during a service of one year as interne in the New York state hospital and later he engaged in private practice in Buffalo, from which city in January of 1909 he came to Los Angeles and since then he has engaged in professional work in California.

Not long after his arrival in the west the young Doctor received an offer to take up surgical work for the Los Angeles aqueduct project. By the nature of the work there were frequent accidents among the workmen and the company desired to secure the services of a physician of ability, surgical skill and thorough medical knowledge. In their selection of Dr. Elwood they were peculiarly fortunate, for he was by temperament and education qual- ified for the difficult task of establishing and maintaining hospitals in the different fields of labor extending from Saugus as far north as Haiwee. Dur- ing the period of aqueduct construction work he started and conducted hos-

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pitals at Cinco, San Cañon, Le Brun and Monolith, meanwhile establishing headquarters at Mojave, where ever since he has made his home. His wife, formerly Elizabeth Gray, was born at Tombstone, Ariz., and is a daughter of John Gray, who served as a division engineer of the aqueduct. After severing his connection with the aqueduct Mr. Gray was engaged by the Pierson Engineering Company to put through a four-track subway power and light tunnel in Barcelona, Spain, which was successfully accomplished by him, after the failure of foreign engineers. Politically the Doctor votes with the Republican party. In religion he is of the Baptist faith. Made a Mason in York state in Nunda Lodge No. 682, A. F. & A. M., after coming west he became identified with Los Angeles Consistory No. 3, Scottish Rite of Los Angeles. In addition he is associated with the Royal Arcanum, also the Alpha Chapter of the Alpha Omega Delta.

C. A. FOX .- The town of Taft has doubtless no more energetic and popular citizen than the proprietor of the Mariposa Hotel and cigar business, who is now busying himself in the erection of the forty thousand dollar hotel building, a three-story brick structure which promises to be the most sightly building in the town. Mr. Fox has been in Taft since November, 1909, and since then he has evidenced his sincerity in making it his adopted home by broadening his interests and taking an active part in the com- munity welfare.

A native of Cass City, Tuscola county, Mich., his birth having oc- curred September 20, 1870, he was but six years of age when brought by his parents westward to Texas. His boyhood was spent at Honey Grove, that state, where he attended the public and high schools, and his first busi- ness interest was running a cotton gin at Monkstown when he was eighteen years of age. He learned the trade of jeweler, serving an apprenticeship, and conducted a successful jewelry business in connection with the cotton gin at Monkstown. He next went on the road, and for a time made Port- land, Ore., his home, going later to San Francisco and then to Mariposa county, at the latter place becoming proprietor of the general store known as the Horseshoe. At the inauguration of activities in Taft he came to this town and invested in property, which has so increased in value that he has become a wealthy man. His place of business is strictly up-to-date, having every line of equipment necessary to make a place of recreation complete, a barber shop, club room and news depot being maintained in connection with the billiard and pool room.

The marriage of Mr. Fox took place in Minnesota, uniting him with Miss Maude M. Roney, who has surrounded herself with a host of friends.

CONRAD RITZMAN .- Not a few representatives of the Swiss nation- ality have found their way to California and almost invariably they have proved to be thrifty, industrious and persevering people, a splendid acces- sion to the population of the west. Of the late Mr. Ritzman it may be said that he displayed the traits of his countrymen and during the long period of his identification with our state he proved himself to be a capable work- man and honest citizen. He was a member of an agricultural family of Switzerland and was brought up on a farm in Canton Zurich, but had no desire to enter the occupation as a means of livelihood, therefore he was apprenticed in boyhood to the trade of stone-dresser, later serving his time at the miller's trade, in which he became very proficient. During young manhood he married Miss Susanna Beck, who was born and reared in Zurich. They established a home in Canton Zurich, where were born their two children, Carl and Alice. The latter, however, was taken from the home by death at the early age of five years.

Crossing the ocean from the old country and proceeding to California, during 1882 Conrad Ritzman entered the employ of the Starr mills as a

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stone-dresser. Later he bought and operated a mill at Roseville, Placer county. The destruction of the plant by fire entailed upon him a heavy loss and forced him to begin anew. Coming to Bakersfield he found work as a stone-dresser in the Kern river mills and the excellent character of his services led to his promotion to be head miller, in which capacity he continued for many years. In the meantime he had been very economical and thrifty, so that he had accumulated a neat sum for investment. Upon resigning from the mill he bought the northwest corner of Humboldt and Baker streets and erected a frame building, in which he engaged in the liquor business. When the frame structure was destroyed by fire he erected the Ritzman building, a brick structure, 76 x 100 feet in dimensions, con- structed with a view to use as retail stores. For a time he engaged in business, but on his retirement he rented the room to other parties. His death occurred October 4, 1910, at his home in Bakersfield.

The only son of the late Conrad Ritzman and the sole survivor of the family is Carl Ritzman, who was born at Flaach, Canton Zurich, Switzerland, in 1870, and came to the United States in 1882, after which he attended public schools and acquired a knowledge of the English language. For some years he was employed on farms in Minnesota, but upon his return to California he learned the trade of car-repairer in the Southern Pacific shops at East Bakersfield and is still a member of the Car Repairers' Union, although since the death of his father he has not followed the trade, but has given his attention to looking after his interests. Politically he votes for the men and measures promoted and sustained by the Republican party.

HARRY SYLVESTER KNIGHT .- Three different commonwealths have formed the environment for distinct periods in the life of Mr. Knight, who passed the first twelve years of his useful existence in Iowa and spent the ten ensuing years in Nebraska, but since 1888 has been a resident of Cali- fornia, identifying himself with the development of the west and proving a trustworthy citizen and capable farmer. Jasper county, Iowa, is his native place, and March 13, 1866, the date of his birth. When only five years of age he was sent to the country school near the home farm. There were very few children in the district and in order to secure the number absolutely necessary before a teacher would be furnished for the school, every available child was sent as a pupil, hence his early initiation into the tasks of the schoolroom. The same little primitive country building remained the center of his educational activities and his daily pleasures for the next seven years and then he bade farewell to boyhood friends and accompanied his parents to Valley Junction, Douglas county, Neb., where they took up land and gave close attention to the cultivation of a prairie farm. Until attaining his ma- jority he worked for his father, after which without means or friends he came to California to take up the battle of life alone and single-handed. After his arrival in Pasadena in 1888 he began to team and to haul freight.

Identified with Kern county since 1890, Mr. Knight first settled in the Weed Patch district and spent three years on a tract of one hundred and sixty acres included in the claims of "Lucky" Baldwin. Although he lived there only those few years he placed the land under cultivation and greatly enhanced its possible returns. Next he removed to the vicinity of the Tejon ranch and engaged in dry farming for eight years. Discouraged by lack of success, he finally left the ranch and removed to Bakersfield, where he took contracts for the grading of streets. In addition he teamed to and from Oil City. The Standard Oil Company's interests kept him in the oil fields for four years and meanwhile he also built oil tanks on contract. During 1904 he leased one hundred and forty acres sixteen miles west of Bakersfield for a term of five years, with the privilege of purchase at the expiration of the term of rental. From the first he was pleased with the land and convinced

RESIDENCE OF HARRY SYLVESTER KNIGHT, RIO BRAVO, CAL.

PUMPING PLANT ON THE KNIGHT RANCH AT RIO BRAVO, THROWING A 350 MINER'S INCH STREAM

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of its possibilities for general farming. Therefore, instead of awaiting the end of his lease, he took up negotiations with the owner in three years and the year 1907 found him with the title vested in his own name. In addi- tion he has since bought three hundred and twenty acres on section 4, this being wholly unimproved. Altogether he now owns an entire section of land, the home place having one hundred acres under cultivation to alfalfa and grain. One of his specialties is the raising of horses, cattle and hogs and he now has two hundred head on the farm. It is said that he has here the best water well in the entire county, the supply being abundant and of superior quality. The pumping plant, which was the first brought into the locality, comprises a forty horse-power engine manufactured by the Besse- mer Gas Engine Company and operated at a cost of seven cents per hour. It is a twelve-inch well, in which is placed a No. 8 centripetal pump, bring- ing a stream of water flowing at the rate of about three thousand and eighty- five gallons each minute, or three hundred and fifty inches of water. It has the best record of any single well in the county.

After coming to California Mr. Knight formed the acquaintance of Miss Clara Day, who was born in Contra Costa county, this state, August 28, 1872, and is a daughter of John Day, a hunter and a farmer in Contra Costa county. They were united in marriage on New Year's day in 1892 and are now the parents of seven children, namely: Errol, Lydia, Loma, Doris, Virginia, Hal and Alta.

G. H. GALBRAITH .- The era of early American occupancy of Cali- fornia witnessed the arrival in San Francisco of John Galbraith, an advent- urous youth of Irish birth and ancestry, who sailed around Cape Horn and at the end of a tedious voyage landed in San Francisco. Although he landed here almost penniless and friendless, his own energy enabled him to sur- mount obstacles and achieve success. The Celtic wit carried him through many a trying situation and gave him friends in every circle. To the crude conditions of the nascent west he adapted himself with ready ease and such was his popularity that at one time he was elected by a large majority to represent his district of San Francisco in the state senate. With the exception of some years spent in Virginia City, Nev., during the period of the great mining excitement in that region, he remained in San Francisco until his death and during much of the time he was proprietor of a grocery establishment in that city.

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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 93

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