History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 100

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1700

USA > California > Orange County > History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 100

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He next returned to Illinois and located in the vicinity of his old home, and there, engaged in contracting and building. When he removed from that section, he went to Jewell County, Kans., and stayed for a year; and after that, he went to Thayer County, Nebr., where he again followed the building business.

In 1886 Mr. Knowlton left the Middle West for the Pacific Coast; and arriving in California, proceeded to Anaheim and for a time followed contracting. In course of time, he acquired five acres in Fullerton which he set out to Valencia oranges, and this trim little ranch of richest soil, thanks to the care and hard work of its industrious and progressive owner, is now in a highly productive state.

Mr. Knowlton's love of country, justice and right naturally led to his assuming public office in order to assist in effecting certain reforms or results, and to do his share of the world's work such as somebody must worry about, and during his resi- dence here he served as commander of the Southern California Veterans Association, and also as state mortuary officer for Orange County for eighteen years and as such has done much good in the county and is serving without pay.

When he married, Mr. Knowlton took for his wife Miss Julia A. Huntington, a graduate of the University of Illinois, and a teacher at the time of her marriage; and five children blessed their fortunate union: Charles is a rancher at Fullerton; Avis presides gracefully over her father's home; Kent was a sergeant in Company A, Three Hundred Nineteenth Engineers, and saw service overseas; he is now horticultural commissioner of Orange County; Hollis was gunnery sergeant and expert instructor in the U. S. Marines and also served overseas; Ruth, who graduated from Los Angeles State Normal, is now engaged in teaching.

In 1901 Mr. Knowlton was bereaved of his wife, who was mourned by her family and friends. He is a member of Malvern Hill Post No. 131, G. A. R., at Fullerton, of which he is past commander and of which he has been adjutant for eighteen years past. He has served as aide-de-camp on both the department and national commander's staff, with the rank of colonel. Intensely interested in civic matters, he is a strong Republican and has much influence in local matters.

Q.V. Knowlton

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OTTO LOESCHER .- An enterprising, public-spirited and successful man who likes the superb climate of California and the superior folks of Orange County, and who in turn is equally esteemed, is Otto Loescher, a native of Koenitz, West Prussia, Germany, where he was born in 1859. He was brought up in the village, where his father was a miller, and sent to the public schools and when fourteen he was appren- ticed to a miller and began to learn his trade. At the end of three years, when he was pronounced a journeyman, he worked at his trade; and in 1885 he crossed the ocean and came to the United States.

Settling for a while at Goshen, Ind., he worked as a miller; but feeling the lure of the Pacific West, he came out to California, in the "boom" year of 1887, and went to Selma, Fresno County. He was made foreman of the Selma Mills, and for many years continued there in that capacity. While there, he bought twenty acres of land, raw and unsightly; and that he improved by setting it out to Muscat grapes, and making of it a first-class vineyard.

Later, Mr. Loescher was miller at the Reedley Mills, and there he bought an- other twenty acres of land, which he set out to Muscat and Thompson seedless grapes, having forty acres of vineyard in all. These vineyards he managed until April, 1917, when he came to Orange and retired. Here he makes his home in a beautiful residence which he built on Palmyra Street, devoting his time to looking after his property.

Mrs. Loescher was Miss Lena Miller, a native of Fort Dodge, Iowa, who came to Norfolk, Nebr., with her parents when a child, and was there reared. Some years ago she came to Orange, and here she and Mr. Loescher met and were married. Both are members of the Lutheran Church. In national politics Mr. Loescher is a Republi- can; but when it comes to lending a helping hand in local political affairs, his patriotism knows no partisanship.

HUGH T. O'CONNOR .- A representative citizen of the Los Alamitos section of Orange County who won recognition for his locality during the various drives for loans and other allied needs, is Hugh T. O'Connor, who served as chairman of the committee that brought their section "over the top" in every drive in record time, thereby winning for Los Alamitos the medals and banners offered for efficiency.

Mr. O'Connor is a successful merchant in Los Alamitos, and has served as the postmaster since 1914, and since 1916 under civil service rules. He was born in New Orleans, in 1865, a son of Daniel and Eliza (Sheffield) O'Connor, the former born in Ireland and the latter in New Orleans. Hugh T. was the third in order of hirth in a family of five and is the only one living in California. He received a good schooling and launched out in his business career when a young man and by strict attention to business has gradually worked his way to a position of trust and responsibility.

Mr. O'Connor has been a resident of Los Alamitos for a number of years, spend- ing six years as bookkeeper and cashier for the Felts Company, at the same time serv- ing as postmaster. In 1918 he opened up in the grocery business for himself in a structure he erected on the boulevard, in dimension 66x50 feet, and well stocked with an assorted line of goods suitable for the needs of the community. Mr. O'Connor served as a justice of the peace, being appointed to fill a vacancy.

In 1905 occurred the marriage of Hugh T. O'Connor and Miss Florence Shattuck. After two years of happily wedded life Mrs. O'Connor passed away. Mr. O'Connor is a genial, courteous gentleman and has won the esteem of a large circle of friends in the county. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks.

LE ROY D. PALMER .- A man unusually posted in all that pertains to his field of activity is Le Roy D. Palmer, whose natural endowments together with a pleasing personality make him very acceptable, as manager of the Orange County Fruit Ex- change, to a large circle of busy and progressive folk. He was born in Sedalia, Pettis County, Mo., on September 13, 1880, the son of L. D. Palmer, a native of Ohio, who settled at Sedalia and was in the employ of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway as engineer. He married Marietta C. Emery who now lives at Los Angeles. Mr. Palmer died in 1900 at Sedalia leaving his widow and four children.

After finishing with the grammar and high schools of Sedalia, Le Roy went into a railroad office at St. Louis, that of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, and afterward entered the employ of the Government in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Ter- ritory, now Oklahoma. It was a land office, where lands were allotted to the Indians; and he was the enrollment clerk.

In 1909 he resigned and came to Los Angeles, and for five years he was employed by the California Fruit Growers Exchange. He arose from a clerkship in the claim department to be assistant sales manager, and then he resigned. He was in charge of both the Southern and the Northeastern markets, a position of responsibility afford-

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

ing continued experience of a valuable nature; and it is no wonder that when D. Eyman Huff resigned as manager of the Orange County Fruit Exchange in 1915, Mr. Palmer was tendered the position. Just what this compliment means may be estimated from the fact that this exchange is made up of eleven different local associations, and in 1919 alone it shipped 3,200 cars of fruit. It is, therefore, one of the largest fruit exchanges in Southern California.

At Tahlequah, Okla., in 1904, Mr. Palmer was married to Miss Georgia Trent, a native of that section but the representative of an old Eastern family, and a daughter of Dr. Trent, a well-known surgeon of the U. S. Army, located at old Fort Gibson. Two children were born of this marriage-Madalyn and Marjory. Mr. Palmer is a popular member of Santa Lodge No. 794, B. P. O. Elks and Orange Lodge No. 293, F. & A. M. Orange may well be proud of such public-spirited citizens as Mr. Palmer, and the Orange County Fruit Exchange, in particular, is to be congratulated on the captain at its helm.

DAVID JESSURUN .- A man whose scientific knowledge and thorough experi- ence in the sugar industry has proven especially valuable to Orange County, and whose successful career should inspire the youth of this and other countries, is David Jessurun, superintendent of the Anaheim Sugar Company. Born in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, a Holland colony, October 11, 1867, he was reared in the city of Haar- lem, Holland, receiving his education in the public and high schools there. After graduating from the high school he entered the Mechanical Engineering school at Amsterdam. Holland, where he was graduated in 1887: he then entered the School of Technology at Brunswick, Germany, and in due time graduated from there as a chemist. Then he did post-graduate work in the sugar school in the same city, per- fecting himself in this line, thus laying a firm foundation for his future work in the world. His first experience in the sugar industry was in a sugar factory at Amster- dam, as a sugar chemist. Then to Germany. where for one year he was chief chemist in the sugar factory at Linden, and superintendent of the same factory for the next year.

Arriving in the United States in 1892, Mr. Jessurun was superintendent of the Sinclaire Central Sugar Factory at West Baton Rouge, La .; next he was chief chemist of the Henderson Sugar Refinery of New Orleans. Then for three years he was superintendent of the Magnolia Sugar and Railroad Company of Lawrence, La., going from there to Minneapolis, Minn., where he became operating superin- tendent and built the plant of the Minneapolis Sugar Company. Alma, Mich., was his next location, and there he was operating superintendent and built the plant of the Alma Sugar Company, and his next move was to Wallaceburg, Canada, where he was in a like capacity with the Wallaceburg Sugar Company of that place. He next rebuilt the factory for the National Sugar Manufacturing Company of Sugar City, Colo.

In 1913, Mr. Jessurun was called to Anaheim to take charge of the Anaheim Sugar Company's factory, and in 1917 he remodelled the plant, increasing the capacity from 600 to 1,200 tons of beets daily. The plant is now a model sugar refinery. modern and up-to-date. Mr. Jessurun has invented and installed a number of labor- saving devices, which were first used- in the Sugar City, Colo., plant, and have since come into general use in factories throughout the United States. The Anaheim Sugar Company owns four large ranches, comprising approximately 2,900 acres. which are leased to tenants for raising sugar beets. Aside from this the company purchases the product of another 10,000 acres, and they manufacture annually about 10,000 tons of refined sugar; they also manufacture, as a by-product, dried molasses beet pulp for cattle feed. The company also operates the California Fruit Products Company, manufacturers of orange marmalade and jelly.

Mr. Jessurun is also interested in horticulture, and has set out and improved an orange grove on North Street, and has built a residence on North Lemon Street, where he resides with his family. He has also greatly improved the grounds of the sugar factory, planting an orange grove of twenty-two acres, which is in a thriving condition.

The marriage of Mr. Jessurun united him with Mrs. Johanna Van Eek, a native of Haarlem, Holland, and four children have blessed their union: Elizabeth, William, Johanna and Jeanette. William was sergeant in the Quartermaster's Department, Motor Truck Corps, stationed at Jacksonville, Fla., during the World War. Mr. Jessurun was appointed by the general headquarters at Washington, D. C., as chief of Orange County in the American Protective League. He organized Orange County into districts, with each town as a center, and appointed his assistant chiefs in each of eighteen districts. So closely did he follow the work that from the time of his

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

appointment until December 31, 1918, when the League was disbanded, he did not spend one evening with his family. This was all done because of his loyalty to the country of his adoption and without remuneration. But the satisfaction of having done his duty when the country had need of his services, and the fact that Congress afterwards passed an act commending the different chiefs and extending to them a vote of thanks, and that each be mailed a copy of the resolution, made him feel fully repaid for his time and efforts. He served acceptably and impartially as chief of Orange County until the close of the war. Mr. Jessurun was on the board of directors of all the bond drives, as well as all kindred war drives in Orange County.

Believing that protection is the fundamental principle in American politics, Mr. Jessurun has always been a Republican, and has taken an active part in the affairs of that party in the various states in which he has been a resident, though he has never aspired to or wished for public office, his time being entirely taken up with his profession. The family are members of the First Presbyterian Church, and fraternally Mr. Jessurun is a Knights Templar and Scottish Rite Mason, and is also a member of Anaheim Lodge No. 1345, B. P. O. Elks. Mr. Jessurun also takes much pleasure and pride in his membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engi- neers, as well as the Association of French Chemists. He is a director in the Ana- heim National Bank, and his broad vision and keen business experience have proven him a man of worth in the community, and one whose "footprints on the sands of time" are worth emulating.

WILLIAM A. HAZEN .- A young man of estimable qualities, who has not always toiled in the sunshine of life, but whose native ability notwithstanding, or perhaps because of, the shadowy places, has been able to assert itself, is William A. Hazen, now residing on Glen Avenue, Tustin, near where he has an eight-acre ranch on Ritchey Street, devoted to budded walnuts. He has owned the property since 1916, and since that recent date has worked wonders with the comfortable holding.

A native of Des Moines, Iowa, where he was born in October, 1895, Mr. Hazen's father was accidentally killed in a coal mine at Des Moines in 1897. His mother, now Mrs. Frank Long, resides at Philadelphia, Pa. Mr. Hazen was reared in the family of Hugh McQueen, a farmer at Quinter, Kans., but he was not received into their hearts and treated like a son and when a mere youth of sixteen was thrust out upon a cold world to shift for himself. His opportunities, therefore, were very limited, but he made the most of every favoring wind and has been able to attain both comfortable affluence and position with influence as a reward for his steady, honest efforts.

In a life devoted thus far for the most part to agricultural pursuits, Mr. Hazen migrated to California in 1908, and located at Tustin, and there with Mr. and Mrs. Will C. Crawford he enjoyed the comforts of a good home. In addition to the Ritchey Street ranch he also owns five acres planted to Valencias on McFadden Street, adjacent to the Crawford ranch. He is an active member of the First Baptist Church of Santa Ana and seeks to lead an exemplary life and has been treasurer of the Men's Club and Sunday School.

ROBERT B. WEITBRECHT .- A well-educated, well-prepared "hustler," whom no one envies the fruits of his wide-awake labors, is Robert B. Weitbrecht, who took up his residence in Orange in the early nineties. He was born at St. Paul, Minn., on August 27, 1885, the son of George F. Weitbrecht, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and a graduate of Yellow Springs College, Ohio. He did graduate work at Harvard for a couple of years, and then came to St. Paul, where he founded and was principal of the Mechanic Arts High School, one of the first high schools in the United States to have a department of manual training and mechanical drawing. He came to California on his vacations, for the first time about 1890; and in 1893 he established his family in Orange County, and he himself intended to locate permanently here. However, the school he had founded was so dear to him that each year he would return to it, saying that that year would be the last of his active service; and being prevailed upon to remain as the principal-while he was developing it so remarkably that even Europeans came to inspect and study the results-he finally died in the harness, in February, 1916.

Mrs. Weitbrecht, who was Miss Mary Beals, a native of Providence, R. I., before her marriage, continued to manage the property on Walnut Avenue where Mr. Weit- brecht had started improvements, and in this difficult but highly interesting work, she was assisted by her childen, of whom there were three. Susan resides now in San Diego; Robert is the subject of our review; and George is in Santa Ana. Robert B. was reared in St. Paul until 1893, and it was on account of his frail health that the family moved out to California in that year. His health luckily improved at once, and he became strong and hearty, and fit for any kind of work. Mrs. Weitbrecht died on the Orange rauch on April 6, 1918.

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

From the home ranch, beginning with 1893, Robert went to the local public schools, but at the end of six years, the family returned East to St. Paul. There he studied at the Mechanic Arts high school, and was graduated in 1904 as a civil engi- neer. He then entered the University of Minnesota and remained until the close of his junior year, when he quit the lecture room to go to Idaho and enter the service of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad in their engineering corps. This was when that railroad company was building its Idaho division, and so he helped to construct the road from South Dakota to Seattle.

At the end of three hard and very fruitful years, Mr. Weitbrecht resigned from his railroad post, and came back to Orange for a visit; but on looking over the old home ranch, he concluded to take up its management, and he has remained here ever since conducting that property. He is engaged in raising Valencia oranges, and since his ranch is under irrigation from the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, and also the Aid Water Company, the twenty-six acres at the corner of Handy Street and Wal- nut Avenue are most productive. He is, naturally, a member of the . McPherson Heights Citrus Association. The ranch, by the way, is owned co-jointly with his sister, Susan, already referred to. Mr. Weitbrecht is also interested, with his brother- in-law, John Haig, in heavy trucking, owning a five-and-a-half-ton Mack truck, capable of carrying fifteen tons, with the aid of a trailer.

In the pleasant town of Alhambra, Mr. Weitbrecht was married to Miss Winifred Haig, a native of England, having been born at Liverpool of Scotch parentage. Mr. and Mrs. Weitbrecht attend the Episcopal Church, and Mr. Weitbrecht is a Mason, affiliated with Orange Lodge No. 293, F. & A. M.

DR. JOHN D. THOMAS .- An aggressive, successful organizer, whose fortunate handling of enterprises has made him exceedingly popular, is Dr. John D. Thomas, the president of the First National Bank of Olive, a native of Philadelphia, where he was born on February 8, 1850. He was the son of Richard W. Thomas, a Methodist Episcopal divine who filled various responsible charges at Philadelphia and elsewhere in the East. He died in the harness of his Christian ministry, being stricken with paralysis while he was delivering his sermon on a Sunday morning in the Fifth Street Methodist Episcopal Church at Philadelphia. He was forty-seven years old, and the father of six children; he was a native of Philadelphia, and the paternal grandfather, David Thomas, was born in Wales, and migrated to Philadelphia, where he became a shoe manufacturer, employing from thirty to forty men. Richard W. Thomas married Elizabeth H. Rouse, a native of New Jersey, who lived to be eighty-three years of age. Our subject, the youngest of his family, is now the only one to survive.

He was seven years old when his father died, and then he went to Allentown, Monmouth County, N. J., to attend the common schools. From his tenth to his fif- teenth year, he lived on a farm. His first marriage made him the husband of Mary T. Middleton, of the Society of Friends. Later, he married Mrs. Elsie L. P. Hamuck, nee Passmore, daughter of William Passmore, owner of the excellent and celebrated Passmore ranch. She died in February, 1918.

After attending the Philadelphia Dental College, from which he was duly gradu- ated with honor, Dr. Thomas practiced dentistry in Philadelphia for forty-five years, during which time he filled the position of lecturer upon Nitrous Oxide Anesthesia and Oral Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon his advent in California, he retired from the dental profession. He resides at the Passmore ranch on the Santa Ana Canyon Boulevard immediately above Olive, and is now president of the Olive Heights Citrus Association, and is president of the Olive Improvement Association. He is the best kind of a "booster," for his invaluable experience and common-sense views, together with his breadth of vision and contagious sympathies, enable him to make all that he sets in motion roll on to the desired-for goal. In other words, the Doctor "makes it stick."

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF OLIVE .- California may well be proud of the large number of financial institutions of exceptional strength and prosperity contributing vastly to her monumental wealth, but she is equally to be congratulated upon the smaller, yet eminently sound and vigorously progressive banks such as the First National of Olive, which has done so much, and is still doing, to stabilize and develop the commercial life of that part of the great commonwealth in which it is its destiny in particular to operate. With one hundred or more visitors from Orange, Santa Ana, Los Angeles and Anaheim as especial guests, this bank was opened on Saturday afternoon, October 21, 1916, with a formal and fashionable reception, long to be pleasantly remembered by all who had the good fortune to attend.

With its shining mahogany and marble, the new bank presented an attractive and stimulating appearance of which cities much larger and older might have been glad

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

to boast. The visitors, therefore, some of whom were naturally, by long experience, more or less critical, were greatly impressed with the inviting air of the quarters, the convenience and liberality of which promised success.

Not only was the interest of the bank, as was readily to be seen, designed to satisfy an advanced architectural taste, but the convenience of both the operatives and the public was studied in the application of practical and common sense devices; so that in addition to the handsome mahogany and the marble bases, there was a thor- oughly up-to-date, spacious vault, containing the manganese steel time-lock safe.

At noon the Bank entertained the stockholders and their wives at a luncheon at the Olive Hall, when some fifty guests were present. A delicious chicken dinner was served by the ladies of the Olive Sewing Circle, amid the most tasteful decorations that could be devised. President J. D. Thomas made the opening address of welcome and discussed community development, while he urged the broadest and utmost cooperation for the advancement in every way of Olive. Cashier K. V. Wolff also spoke with the same cordiality and fervor, emphasizing business cooperation in particu- lar, and by easily understood illustrations, pointed out the various ways in which the business interests of the community are related.

In every respect, the reception and the dinner constituted an unqualified success, and reflected the highest credit upon the management of the new Olive institution, at the same time inspiring confidence in the bank's future. How well that confidence was placed, to what an extent the rapidly-developing First National has realized every anticipation and hope of its backers and friends, may be seen from the attested report of its condition made at the close of business four years later, on February 28, 1920. According to that sworn statement made by Cashier K. V. Wolff and attested by the directors, J. D. Thomas, A. M. Lorenzen and J. D. Spennetta, the bank had, as part of its resources, loans and discounts, including rediscounts, to the amount of $122,793.85; over $23,000 of notes and bills; some $15,000 worth of U. S. Government securities; $2,250 pledged as collateral; over $14,000 in still other bonds and securities; $22,026.63 cash in vault and net amounts due from other national banks, and over $1,100 of earned but uncollected interest, making a total resources of $170,682.72. Among its liabilities are $25,000 of capital stock paid in; $15,000 in outstanding circulating notes; $74,447.11 of individual deposits subject to check; some $12,000 in state, county or other municipal deposits secured by pledge of the bank's own assets; over $9,000 in other certificates of deposits, and $24,371.61 in other time deposits, and $2,000 in bills payable with the Federal Reserve Bank.

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History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 100

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1700

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1700