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 94

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 94

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

By the marriage of Hon. John Galbraith and Ellen McCary, who came via Panama to San Francisco at an early age and who is now living in Bakersfield, there were four children, the only son and youngest child being G. H., whose birth occurred in San Francisco February 22, 1875. The schools of his native city gave him fair advantages. After he had been graduated from the San Francisco high school in 1890 he secured a clerical position with a mercantile agency and continued in the same place until 1897. During that year he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company as a clerk in the San Francisco warehouse. Later he was transferred to the freight house in the same city and there continued until 1907. Meanwhile the ordeal of the earthquake and fire had placed him under a great strain. The work of the department became greatly involved. Under the pressure of his responsibilities his health became impaired and he found it necessary to resign. In order to recuperate he followed ranch- ing for nine months in the Santa Cruz mountains eight miles from Santa Cruz.

Upon coming to Bakersfield in September of 1908 Mr. Galbraith entered upon his duties as chief clerk of the freight office. For two years he filled the position with ability and tact. In recognition of faithful service he was promoted in September. 1910, to be freight agent at Bakersfield and con-

962

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

tinued in the position until May of 1912. But he had determined to embark in business for himself and became proprietor of the Bakersfield Truck Company, which he now owns and operates. Under his active supervision the business has been made successful. In addition to the use of teams and wagons he owns two auto trucks and these are kept in almost constant use. Some time since he acquired by purchase a block of land on the Santa Fe Railroad and on Fifteenth and S streets. On this site he has erected large stables, garage and storeroom as a headquarters for rigs. The main office is at No. 2016 Chester avenue.

In politics Mr. Galbraith votes with the Republican party. Fraternally he is connected with Bakersfield Lodge No. 266, B. P. O. E. His family consists of two sons, Howard and Donald, and his wife, formerly May Helen Lowney, who is a native daughter of San Francisco and a graduate of the Polytechnic high school of that city. Thoroughly educated in the schools and naturally talented, she has been of the greatest assistance to her hus- band, for she is not only a wise mother but a capable home-maker. She represents the third generation of the Lowney family in California. Her father, Thomas, was brought to this state when only a year old by her grandfather, Timothy Lowney, who had been a shipbuilder in Massa- chusetts and crossed the plains in 1849, and who for some years served as a foreman in the Mare Island navy yard, afterwards was proprietor of a car- riage repository in San Francisco. Eventually he became very prominent in the public life of San Francisco and filled a number of important offices, among them that of superintendent of streets of that city. Thomas Lowney was a graduate of San Francisco Boys' high school and St. Mary's College, and continued the business established by his father.

KENT S. KNOWLTON .- In an era when horticulture to an ever in- creasing extent is attracting the attention and commanding the highest talents of the people of California the office of county horticultural commissioner imposes great responsibilities upon its incumbent, who necessarily must be an authority upon the subject, a man of wide information and wise judgment, and one regarding a public office as a public trust. After having engaged for one year as deputy to Dave Hirshfield, then the horticultural commis- sioner of Kern county, Kent S. Knowlton was commissioned to the office April 1, 1912, by the board of supervisors, who selected him after thoughtful consideration of the matter, and with a realization that the office, in a county as large as Kern and one just entering upon a great horticultural develop- ment, demands more than ordinary ability on the part of its incumbent. Already it has been proved that no mistake was made in the selection of Mr. Knowlton, who is a man of progressive tendencies, a warm admirer of Bur- bank, and an influential member of the State Association of County Horticul- tural Commissioners. One of his first steps after entering upon official duties was the preparation of a county map outlining the lands suitable for siic- cessful orange-growing. On the completion of the map and after having made a most careful study of the subject, he gave it as his opinion that there are at least two hundred and fifty thousand acres of mesa land in the county, upon which the growing of oranges can be made a commercial success.

Although from his earliest recollections a resident of California, Mr. Knowlton is a native of Nebraska and a member of an old Pennsylvania family. His father, O. V., was born at Spottsylvania, Pa., but accompanied his parents to Illinois in early life and settled near Marengo. When only fifteen years of age he enlisted in the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry and served during the three last years of the Civil war, returning home with a record which, considering his extreme youth, was not only meritorious, but almost remarkable. About 1885, accompanied by his wife. Julia (Huntington) Knowlton, and their children, he came to California and settled at Fullerton,

Trente& T mon flow

965

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

where his wife died in 1902. Ever since coming to the west he has been interested in the orange business. Meanwhile he has been prominent as a citizen and influential as a worker in the Grand Army of the Republic. Dur- ing the summer of 1913 he was elected commander of the Southern Cali- fornia Association at the Huntington Beach encampment, an honor richly merited by his long connection with the Army. Of his five children the eldest, Charles S., of Fullerton, is an expert in the budding and grafting of oranges; the second, Avis S., resides at home; Hollis is an employe of the Lord Motor Company in Los Angeles and Ruth C. is a student in the Fullerton high school.

In this family of five the second son and third child, Kent S., was born July 23, 1883, in Nuckolls county, Neb., near the village of Davenport. The scenes of his early recollections are in Orange county, this state, where as a boy he attended public school and learned to bud, graft and plant oranges. When sixteen years of age he became an employe of C. C. Chapman, who had purchased the Leffingwell ranch near Fullerton and who since has devel- oped the largest orange ranch in the state. After fourteen months on that place he went to Riverside to work in a packing house. Later he spent a year under a contractor, A. A. Polhemus, engaged in the construction of a breakwater at San Luis Obispo. Next he took the full course of three years in the California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo, where he specialized in dairying and horticulture. Upon completing the course and finding no imme- diate opening in the line of his special preparation, he went to the mining districts of Nevada and engaged as an engineer and freighter, also for a time carried on a feed business. Returning to California, he worked in the Santa Maria and Coalinga oil fields, thence came to the west side fields of Kern county, where, finding an available opening in the line of his preferred occu- pation, he turned his attention to horticulture and is now county commis- sioner, with office in the court-house. Aside from the duties of the office, he finds leisure to participate in the work of the Woodmen of the World at Bakersfield and since 1911 has been a member of Troop A First Squadron of Cavalry, National Guard California, in which he ranks as sergeant.

PIERRE DUHART .- An intimate association of some twenty-five years with the sheep and farming industries of California has enabled Mr. Duhart to conduct his farming operations along the most successful lines, and his active citizenship and untiring efforts toward the benefit of his community have been deeply appreciated by all who have come to know him. He is a native of the Canton of Hasparren, Basses-Pyrenees, France, his birth having occurred there in 1857. IIis father, Jean Duhart, was a farmer and stockman in that vicinity and he reared his son in that environment, imparting to him the rudiments of that occupation and thus preparing him for his life's work. His educational opportunities were naturally limited, as at that time there was no demand for public schools as now, and the young boy grew to young manhood learning the lessons necessary for his development more by observation than by teaching. In 1888 he came to Los Angeles, and later followed farming and sheep raising in Orange county for a period of five years. Then purchasing a flock of sheep he ranged them in Orange and San Bernardino counties. In 1894 he came to Kern county with his flock and ranged them in this vicinity, becoming so pleased with the country that he brought his family and settled in Tehachapi, where he built a comfortable residence which he still owns. He sold his sheep in 1905 and then purchased a forty-acre tract of land, located three and a half miles southwest of Bakersfield, which he immediately set to work to improve. Leveling it, he sowed it to alfalfa and corn, and the place is irrigated by the Stine canal.

Mr. Duhart was married in Los Angeles to Miss Elizabeth Borda, a

966

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

native of Cambo, the beautiful watering place of France, in Basses-Pyrenees. An only child has come to them, Lida, who is a graduate of the Kern county high school, class of 1912. The family worship at St. Francis Catholic Church. Politically he is a Republican.

HENRY E. SMITH .- From early life identified with the oil industry and employed in the eastern oil fields at an age when the majority of boys are receiving educational advantages, Mr. Smith correctly stands among the most experienced men in the oil fields centering around Taft. Born in Pennsylvania April 8, 1862, he passed the days of childhood in Venango and Crawford counties and had meager opportunities to gain an education. While in text-books he advanced no further than a knowledge of the three R's, by reading and observation he has become a man of broad culture and wide information, with a reputation for being particularly well informed in the oil industry. By working in various departments and in several capacities he acquired a versatile familiarity with the business. During 1890 he became an employe of the Standard Oil Company at Franklin, Pa., and remained with them there for three years, after which he bought an oil lease and devoted two years to its improvement. Next he represented the Standard Oil Company at Gibsonburg, Sandusky County, Ohio, for a number of years and then was transferred to their interests at Marion, Ind., where he remained for eight years.

On the 6th of March, 1909, Mr. Smith and his family arrived at Bakers- field after a quick trip from their former eastern home. On the 8th of the same month they came to what is now Taft, and here he engaged as store- keeper for the Standard Oil Company, having charge of their warehouse. On the present townsite of Taft he erected the first rooming house in the new town, it being the first building erected for business purposes, and was completed two weeks before the disastrous fire which wiped out all the busi- ness houses which were then located on Sidetrack No. 2. Since then he and his wife have continued to operate the rooming business and meanwhile have established a regular patronage among people whose business interests often bring them to this district. Upon the organization of a company to operate an electric light plant Mr. Smith was chosen vice president and a director of the new concern, which later became a branch of the San Joaquin Light & Power Company. When the Chamber of Commerce was established he was chosen its first vice president and gave of his time and influence to place the new venture upon a substantial basis to aid in the material upbuild- ing of the town. His marriage took place at Olean, N. Y., in March of 1886 and united him with Miss Mary Fitzpatrick, a native of Canada. One son, George, blessed their union.

In all his life's work Mr. Smith has had the most hearty co-operation of his excellent wife. She has not only carefully managed many of the business affairs connected with their household and rooming house, but has taken a decided stand for the civic betterment and the social and moral upliftment of Taft. She bears the distinction of having been the first woman to vote at a general municipal election at Taft. She is treasurer of the Woman's Improvement Club of Taft, and is a very active spirit in the St. Mary's Catholic Church of said city. She was elected the first president of the Altar Society of the Taft church, a position which she still fills with ability and fidelity. In company with Mrs. Fred O'Brien and Mrs. J. McEnany of Taft she started out with a subscription list and raised $1600 for the building of St. Mary's church the first week, thus insuring the splendid concrete church edifice at the corner of Kern and Second streets, which is under the pastorate of Father Prendiville and belongs to the East Bakersfield district.

In fraternal relations Mr. Smith has allied himself with the Loyal Order of Moose since coming to his present place of residence and his interest in the organization has promoted its numerical growth in substantial measure.

H. S. Smith Was Mary J. Smith

969

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

With a number of other prominent men of the town he was instrumental in securing the incorporation of Taft, the vote for which was taken November 7, 1910, resulting in the town being made a city of the sixth class. At the regular election, April 8, 1912, he was elected a member of the board of trustees, receiving forty votes more than even the most successful of the other nominees. Upon the organization of the board at its first meeting he was chosen president, a deserved tribute to his intelligence and one which received the warm approval of the general public.

REV. EDGAR R. FULLER, A.M., B.D .- The life which this narrative depicts began August 15, 1864, in New York state, on a farm near Gouver- neur in St. Lawrence county a short distance from the river of that name. The home was one of unostentatious comfort, in which high thinking and lofty principles of honor were made the chief objects of character develop- ment. Sturdy and patriotic New England ancestry was represented in the pedigree. The parents, Charles Thatcher and Ora Frutilla (Manley) Fuller, were natives of northern New York. The family lineage traces directly to the illustrious Dr. Samuel Fuller, who was a passenger on the Mayflower, phy- sician of the colony and deacon of Pilgrim Church, Plymouth, Mass. There were six children in the immediate family and two of these, together with the parents, have passed from earth. Of the four survivors, and fourth in order of birth, was Edgar Roselle Fuller, now pastor of the First Congrega- tional Church of Bakersfield and one of the leading men of the denomina- tion in Southern California.

Whatever of ministerial success has come into the life of Rev. Mr. Fuller, whatever of culture he has achieved, whatever of good he has accom- plished, may be attributed to his own indomitable determination, coupled with an inheritance of splendid moral and mental qualifications and the religious zeal that led his ancestors in centuries agone to seek freedom from persecution in the new world. The substantial position of his parents came from character rather than wealth. There was little to aid him in his edu- cational aspirations, yet with characteristic determination he started out to secure first-class advantages. To accomplish this result it was necessary not only to earn a livelihood, but to lay aside a considerable amount for college expenses. Self-reliance was thus developed. The struggle that he expe- rienced in trying to gain an education lent him strength for the subsequent struggle to establish a church in the midst of a discouraging environment. After having completed the course in the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary he studied for one year (1882) in the Dansville Seminary and in September of 1883 matriculated in the Hiram (Ohio) College, from which he was graduated in 1890 with the degree of A.B. Meanwhile in the fall of 1885 he had married in Hiram, Ohio, Mrs. Julia (Buckingham) Mowbray, a descend- ant of the Buckinghams of New England and the Mastersons of Virginia, who was then a widow, with one child, Henry B. Mowbray. After his mar- riage he took his wife to Florida and engaged in ministerial work until 1888, meanwhile being ordained as a preacher of the Gospel. He returned to Ohio and completed the classical course at Hiram. In 1893 his alma mater con- ferred upon him for literary work the degree of A.M. As a high school teacher and minister he earned an amount sufficient to defray his college expenses and complete the classical course in Oberlin Theological Seminary at Oberlin, Ohio, where in 1896 he received the degree of B.D. at graduation.

A successful pastorate of one year at Imlay City, Mich., was terminated because the failing health of Mrs. Fuller rendered imperative a radical change in climate. From among several opportunities he chose the call to the First Congregational Church of Bakersfield. This was accepted with the hope that the California climate would prove beneficial to his wife and in that hope he was gratified by her steady improvement. Church conditions

970

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

at Bakersfield then were discouraging to an unusual degree. Had he been a man of less determination he would have given up the charge as hopeless. There were not more than twenty-five church members that could be found and their house of worship was a small frame building on Fifteenth street facing a large open irrigation ditch and the Santa Fe Railroad tracks, then being built. The church had been organized in 1892 by Rev. A. K. Johnson, D.D., who ministered to the charge for a time, followed by Rev. J. W. Phil- lips. The pulpit was then vacant for six months, after which Rev. Mr. Fuller was called. Most of the members favored disbanding. However, the home missionary superintendent, Dr. James T. Ford, importuned the new pastor to make a last desperate effort to maintain the church, assuring him that it would be no discredit to him if he failed in such an apparently hopeless undertaking, while if he succeeded it would prove his own ability and the zeal of his few parishioners. Studying the problem with prayerful earnest- ness, he decided to accept the call, provided a change of location was secured as the first step. Accordingly a lot was purchased on Seventeenth street near G and thither the old box building was removed, then enlarged and remod- eled to better suit the needs of the work. In 1898 a parsonage was erected. Later the corner lot was bought, giving them an area of 132x116 feet and ren- dering possible such an adequately equipped plant as a working church in a growing city requires.

So prosperous has been the work under the present pastorate that the membership, now numbering more than two hundred and twenty-five per- sons, plans to erect a more suitable building in the not distant future, it being the intention to erect a building, in the mission style of architecture, that covers the entire lot, plans for which are now in hand and the progress of the building fund foreshadows early realization. Fifteen years ago few would have predicted that the church could have reached its present size, zeal and prosperity. Nor has the work of the congregation been limited to the spiritual and material needs of the local parish, for with missionary en- thusiasm they have planted a mission for the Mexicans and another for the Chinese and the former receives regular pastoral supervision. In addition they organized the Pilgrim Congregational Church in East Bakersfield and have generously supplied funds to maintain and equip the work. Aggressive and laborious as has been his local work, it has not represented the limit of his activities. Elected a member of the board of directors for the South- ern California Home Missionary Society in 1904, and later of the State Con- ference, he has helped mould the work of his own denomination. Requested to take the supervision of congregational work throughout his own county, which then had, besides the church at Bakersfield, another at Rosedale and a schoolhouse appointment at Wasco, he has seen seven Congregational churches organized and four of these come to self-support and acquire good properties. These are East Bakersfield, Oil Center, Panama, Greenfield, Mc- Kittrick, Mountain View and Maricopa. When the total number had reached five a Congregational Association was formed in the county and this has been a source of great help in the work of religious upbuilding. The steady growth of the cause in Kern county is largely due to the tact, ability and sagacity of Mr. Fuller, whose keen intelligence may be seen in every forward movement, as his consecrated spirit is seen in the devo- tion to the work evinced by the majority of the members.

It is a source of gratification to Rev. and Mrs. Fuller that her son, Rev. Henry B. Mowbray, now filling the important position of associate pastor of Pilgrim Presbyterian Church at Cleveland, Ohio, is a recognized specialist in Bible school and all lines of institutional church work, and they also maintain a just pride in the only child of their union, Clarence Mark Fuller, a young man of exceptional ability, now a trusted official of the National

Marshall R. Cowon won

973

HISTORY OF KERN COUNTY

Petroleum Company, also president and manager of the C. M. Fuller Com- pany, Incorporated, dealers in oils, asphalt and real estate.

MARSHALL R. COWAN .- At the beginning of the nineteenth century the tide of emigration brought members of the Cowan family into Ten- nessee and it is authoritatively stated that Ross Cowan, a native Virginian, was the first white man to establish a home in the wilds of middle Ten- nessee, where he built his cabin as early as 1800. His son and namesake lived and died in Tennessee, where he followed the occupation of a planter. Among the children of the second Ross Cowan there was a son, James Wilson Cowan, who married Jennie Williams and settled upon a farm in Tennessee, of which state both he and his wife were natives. After their children were grown they gave up their Tennessee home and came west to California, settling in Kern county, where the father since has become a prominent and influential farmer. All of their children also live in Kern county with the exception of their eldest son, Frank, who resides in Mem- phis, Tenn., and follows the trade of a cement contractor. The only daughter, Mamie, is the wife of Arthur M. Cravath, employed as a tool dresser for the Associated Oil Company in the Kern river field. The youngest son, Manney G., engages in general farming south of Bakersfield.

The second son and third child, Marshall R., was born at Winchester, Tenn., December 1, 1880, and received such limited advantages as the means of the family rendered possible. As a boy he helped with the work on the plantation. Industry and energy aided him to secure a foothold and also to pay his expenses for two terms in the Tyrrell Normal College at Deckard, Tenn. At the age of twenty-one years he came to California in 1901 and settled temporarily at Bakersfield. Two years later his parents, brother and sister joined him in this county. For one year he was employed in the coop- erage department of the Vulcan refinery in the Kern river fields. Next he entered the employ of the Central Point Oil Company of the Associated, where he acted as gang-pusher of the well pullers, continuing with the same organization for eighteen months. The two following years were spent in the employ of the Peerless and afterward he lived for nine months in San Francisco, where he was engaged as fireman with the Geary Street Railroad Company. While employed in San Francisco he married Miss Ida T. Carlson, daughter of the late John Carlson, at one time a well-known mine contractor living at Bakersfield. There is one child of the union, James Wilson Cowan, Jr.

Upon returning from San Francisco to the Kern river fields Mr. Cowan secured a position without difficulty, for his former record was in his favor and he was known as a young man of industry and energy. During 1907 he was made foreman under George A. Betts, superintendent, of the Yellowstone, Seaboard and Section 6 Oil Companies, and since then he and his family have made their home in a comfortable cottage on the section 6 lease. There are ten acres in each of the leases. The Yellowstone produces forty-five hundred, the Seaboard three thousand and Section 6 about eighteen hundred barrels per month. February 1, 1913, he was made superintendent of the Yellowstone Oil Company, which necessitated relinquishing the fore- manship of the Seaboard and Section 6, and he is now giving his entire time and attention to the Yellowstone. Fraternally he belongs to the Woodmen of the World at Bakersfield and politically he is a Democrat.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 94

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