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 104

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 104

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JAMES A. MORRIS .- A late-comer to California and to Huntington Beach who. has amply demonstrated his experience and ability as both an agriculturist in general and a horticulturist, and also as a successful business man, is James A. Morris, the resident and managing superintendent of the great Huntington Beach Company ranch of 1,500 acres, one and a half miles north of the beach city. His father was Thomas J. Morris, a native of Northumberland County, Pa., and a descendant of Robert Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and also Superintendent of Finance for the Colonies during the Revolutionary War. He came to Ohio in 1854, and was sheriff of Athens County. He was also an extensive coal operator, and owner of valuable coal lands. He married Elizabeth Hooper, a native of Ohio, and a near relation to the late Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, the distinguished naval com- mander. She is still living at New Madison, Darke County, Ohio, well and hearty at the age of seventy-eight. Thomas J. Morris died in 1891, at the age of sixty-seven, the father of seven children, five of whom are now living.

James A. Morris, the second child, was born at Athens, Ohio, on September 29, 1869, and in that city completed the course of the Athens high school. Later he was graduated from the Agricultural Department of the Ohio State University, as a member of the Class of '92, having previously completed the law course in 1889-a choice of study undertaken, perhaps, because his maternal grandfather was the well- known Judge Hooper of Athens County, Ohio. He was admitted, as a matter of fact, to the Bar when he was nineteen years of age, and was the youngest member of his class that graduated. He still owns his grandfather's law library, which is large and valuable, and although well qualified and equipped as a lawyer, yet the practice of law did not appeal to him.

At the age of twenty-one, therefore, he took the management of his father's farm of 1,800 acres, in Hocking County, Ohio, and successfully conducted it, as long as his father continued to own it, or until about 1888. His father was a man of the most progressive type, by the way, and installed the first electric drills and machinery for mining coal ever used in the state of Ohio-as a result of which the miners struck. The elder Morris owned and operated the Morris Coal Company, serving as its presi- dent and general manager, and as a coal operator often was in conference with John J. Mitchell, at that time president of the miners' union. He died in 1891, but as early as 1888 disposed of his farming lands, and when he sold his coal-mining interests, they were taken over by the Morgan Syndicate. He was always a stauch Republican and active in Ohio politics, and counted as his personal friends President Wm. McKin- ley, Governor J. B. Foraker, Mark Hanna and other natives of the Buckeye State who were also of national repute.

James A. Morris came west to California in 1910, and settled at Los Angeles, where he soon established himself so successfully that he now owns two ranches in the San Fernando Valley, and one in the San Joaquin Valley. One of those in the San Fernando Valley is the celebrated "Toluca Rancho," recently disposed of for-

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$80,000, consisting of some 200 acres of the finest fruit land in the state. Mr. Morris also owns a ranch of forty acres, which is situated not far from Sunset Beach, between that place and Huntington Beach. In September, 1917, he had the great misfortune to be accidentally poisoned from arsenic of lead, and for a whole year he was sick in consequence.

In 1919 Mr. Morris became managing superintendent of the Huntington Beach Company's ranch, being a practical as well as a professional and theoretical agri- culturist; and it is hardly necessary to say that he is making good. This ranch con- tains 1,500 acres, planted mainly to lima beans and barley. Some 250 pigs and hogs are raised here annually. The farm is really one of the show-places of Orange County, and of Huntington Beach in particular; there are beautiful drives, lined with Mon- lerey cypress trees, and the yards are ample and symmetrically laid out.

Mr. Morris has twice been married. At Athens, Ohio, he was joined in wedlock to Miss Ida M. Whitmore, who died suddenly from appendicitis, leaving a son, Herrold Morris, now twenty-one years of age, assisting his father on the Huntington Beach Company's ranch. In July, 1909, Mr. Morris was married a second time, his bride being Miss Margaret Starr of Lexington, Ky. Two children have blessed this union- Helen and James.

JOHN WINTERS .- A veteran nurseryman, John Winters is thoroughly con- versant with the conditions under which citrus trees thrive to best advantage, and has raised all the trees on his ten-acre orange orchard from seed and budded the trees to Valencias, the first plantings of which, made eight years ago, are now coming nicely into bearing. He has lived on his ranch near Garden Grove for seventeen years.

A native of England, Mr. Winters was born twelve miles east of the city of York, famed for its historic cathedral. His father, Charles, and his mother, Sarah (Buttle) Winters, lived and died in England, the father dying when John was nineteen years old. The mother died in 1917 at the age of ninety-two. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom John is the third child in order of birth, and the only member of the family in California. He has one sister living in Massachusetts, and two in England. Reared in his native county, the cream of England's farming section, he learned to read, write and figure before he reached the age of ten, after which his opportunities for schooling ceased. At the age of eleven he began working out for his board and twenty-five dollars the first year, buying his clothing ont of this meagre wage. Notwithstanding the lack of his early schooling Mr. Winters is one of Garden Grove's well-informed men, his education having been acquired in the school of experi- ence and actual business life, supplemented by reading and studying the best standard books, journals, magazines and other publications, and a daily reading of the Bible, the greatest of all books. He lived in England until he was twenty-one years of age, then bade farewell to old associations and friends and sailed for America from Liver- pool on the Cunard liner, Cuba, April 13, 1872. After a pleasant voyage of ten and a half days he landed at old Castle Garden, New York City, April 23, 1872, his destination being Malvern, Iowa, where he arrived the last week in April. The first season in his new home he worked on the farm of his uncle, John Buttle.

Mr. Winters was married in Iowa on February 21, 1880, to Miss Alice Newman, a native of Page County, Iowa, and daughter of Nelson and Malinda J. (Frady) New- man, natives of Ohio and Indiana, respectively. Mr. Newman died in Iowa in 1892; his wife is living, and makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Winters. By a singular coin- cidence Mr. and Mrs. Winters were married just twenty years to a day after Mr. and Mrs. Newman were married, and the same minister officiated at both weddings. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Winters farmed one year in Iowa, then went to Nebraska, where they purchased a sixty-eight-acre farm in Saunders County, upon which they lived two years, then bought another place nearby and stayed there three years. Disposing of the Nebraska property they went to Phillips County, Kans., and purchased a home- stead of 160 acres six miles southeast of Long Island, in that state. Of their eight children three were born in Nebraska and five were born in Kansas. They are: Charles N., a machinist and rancher residing at Golita, Santa Barbara County; Jennie, the wife of Purl Talbott, a rancher near Modesto, Stanislaus County; Nellie, the wife of A. L. Griffin, a carpenter and builder and anto salesman residing at Garden Grove; John Stanley, a machinist on the Conway ranch in Glenn County; Fred B., of Lowell, Ariz., resigned a position with a jeweler and optician in Los Angeles and enlisted in the Coast Artillery, then took the radio course, went to France and was there but a few weeks hefore the armistice was signed. He reached home, after an honorable discharge, in April, 1919, resumed his former position and later went to Lowell, Ariz., where he had worked some years earlier as a jeweler and optician; Mattie, the wife of Fred M. Shumway, a rancher at Creston, San Luis Obispo County, Cal .; Frank W., an orange

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and lemon grower at Garden Grove; and Carrie, who died in California, aged five. There are thirteen grandchildren.

Mr. Winters farmed in Kansas from 1886 to 1900, then Dr. A. Bennie, of Long Island, Kans., who had come to California, induced him to come to Santa Ana in 1900, where he worked at various occupations, finally removing in 1902 to Garden Grove. At that time there was only one store, the postoffice building, about a dozen houses, and three churches in the place. In 1903 Mr. Winters purchased his present ten acres, which was planted to grain, and a grove of eucalyptus trees. He was engaged in the nursery business at Garden Grove, and grew and budded Valencia oranges, lemons, etc., disposing of his nursery in 1919. Mr. Winters helped organize the Garden Grove Citrus Association, the officers of which are: Milo B. Allen, president; E. M. Dozier, secretary, treasurer and manager; J. O. Arkley, vice-president; Fred Andres, James Henry, Claude Crosby and John Winters, directors. Mr. Winters' early experience developed the qualities of independence and self-reliance, and his career has been marked by energy, thrift, frugality and economy. His ranch is well equipped with the appurtenances necessary to operate it successfully, and he has a comfortable house, and necessary outbuildings, a well for domestic and irrigation purposes, pumped by means of a centrifugal pump and a five-horsepower gasoline engine. His home is presided over by his estimable helpmate, who is an ideal housewife, hospitable, motherly and kind, a noble-minded woman who makes all who come within her domain welcome. Always a booster for Orange County, Mr. Winters' interest in Garden Grove is demon- strated in no unmistakable manner. No worthy project for its betterment is ever presented that does not receive his sanction and assistance. His citizenship papers were taken out while he lived in Kansas, and politically he is a Socialist.

ED. MANNING .- A live, far-seeing and, therefore, an experienced and suc- cessful business man, who is also president of the board of trustees of Huntington Beach is Ed. Manning, an Illinois boy who is now the oldest business man in the town. He was born near Lanark, Carroll County, of the Prairie State, the son of Albert Man- ning, also a native of Illinois, who was a Carroll County farmer. He died when the lad was five years old. Mrs. Manning was Miss Huldah C. Lindsley before her mar- riage; she was born in Ohio, and is now living at Azusa, Cal. Grandfather Ashley Manning was a Carroll County pioneer, widely esteemed for those sterling qualities characteristic of the typical American. Mr. and Mrs. Albert Manning had five boys and two girls, and all the family, with the exception of the father and a son, Baden Manning, a plasterer at Milledgeville, Carroll County, Ill., are now in California.

The fourth in the order of birth, Ed. Manning first saw the light of day on March 20, 1872, and grew up on a farm until he was eighteen years of age. Then he made a trip to Minnesota and Dakota, and returned to Illinois. On attaining his twentieth year, he came farther west to California, in the spring of 1892, and for a year worked at farming at Azusa, Los Angeles County.

When of age, Mr. Manning went to Los Angeles and for three years served as an apprentice to the plumber's trade. Returning to Azusa, he worked at his trade in the San Gabriel Valley, especially at Azusa and Covina and vicinities, for eight years.

In 1904 Mr. Manning went to Huntington Beach, a year ahead of the "boom," and having the foresight to invest, he now owns some very good beach property. In his business, which has become of much importance to the growing community, he employs from three to nine men, according to the season.

While in the San Gabriel Valley, Mr. Manning was married to Miss Carrie V. Preston, with whom he lives in a neat bungalow residence at the corner of Geneva and Delaware avenues. The happy couple have three children-Pauline and Mildred, who are in the high school, and Nona, who is in the grammar school.

An active Republican and an honored member of the Republican County Cen- tral Committee from Huntington Beach, Mr. Manning has participated considerably in public affairs, serving his community as a good patriot in the most nonpartisan fashion. He was elected a member of the first board of trustees of Huntington Beach, in 1909, and served for three years, and lately he has been appointed to fill a vacancy in that body. During his early service, he was president of the board for two years, a position to which he has again been selected. He stands for good and better roads, and has always been in favor of the various state and county bond issues for improving high- ways. He helped secure the municipal pier at a cost of $70,000, and favors a municipal pavilion and bath house. He voted for the issue of $500,000 worth of Newport Harbor bonds, and in many other ways has sought to express on all occasions his public- spiritedness. Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow and is past grand in Huntington Beach Lodge No. 183, and is a member of the California Master Plumbers' Association.

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STEVE PAGE .- Three and one-half miles west and north from Garden Grove is situated the twenty-five-acre dairy ranch of Steve Page, well known in and ahout the thriving little town. He was born in Dalmatia, Jugo-Slavia, on February 26, 1879, the son of the late Louis Page, who was born in 1844, in the same section of country, and who came first to the land of sunshine and gold in the year 1860, a lad of only sixteen. Upon his arrival in San Francisco he went to work in a fruit store, then as he became more familiar with the English language and the ways of the country, became a prospector and miner. He remained in America about twelve years, during which time he became a naturalized citizen, then returned to Dalmatia to marry the girl of his choice, Miss Annie Andriyasevich. He was then twenty-eight years old. After their marriage they settled down and were in Dalmatia several years, and there their first four children were born. Mr. Page left his family at their home and once more came to California and mined for three years in Amador County and was pre- paring to have his family join him when he had provided a home. He was taken with yellow fever and returned to Dalmatia in 1884. After he had recovered he became manager of copper mines at Zagrab in Croatia, and he died there in 1916, at the age of seventy-three. He was a fine linguist, and had command of six languages. His widow survives and is living in her native country at the age of seventy-one. They had thirteen children, nine still living.

Steve Page is the fourth child of those living, and besides himself, there are four brothers living in Southern California. He attended the schools of his native land and in 1905 left home and arrived in Butte, Mont., where he was employed in the copper mines, having obtained some knowledge of that business under his father. Eleven months later he arrived in Los Angeles and worked as a car repairer for the Southern Pacific Railway until 1911.

In 1909, in Los Angeles, Mr. Page was united in marriage with Miss Vice Kurtcla, daughter of Nick and Katie Kurtela, old neighbors of the Page family in Dalmatia, where she was born. She came to America with her brother, Martin Kurtela, now of San Francisco, and three days after her arrival in Los Angeles was married. Of this nnion there are five children: Louis, Nicholas, Mike, Steve, Jr., and Katrina. In 1911 Mr. and Mrs. Page moved to Gardena, where they ran a dairy for three years. In 1914, Mr. Page bought his present place, which he has greatly improved by putting in over 2,000 feet of cement irrigating pipe, built two silos and stocked the ranch with cattle for his dairy. He had to level the ground before he could put in alfalfa and corn and other crops, but he has kept busily at work and the fine condition of the place is seen today by the crops produced. In all his work he has had the cooperation of his wife and they have won a large circle of friends in their new home. They are members of the Catholic Church. Mr. Page is a believer in progressive methods and works for all good movements that will build up Orange County. He has had his "ups and downs" but is optimistic and knows every cloud has its silver lining. To such men and women of foreign birth. the State of California owes a deht of gratitude for they show their loyalty in the good work they do towards making it a better place in which to live.

ROYAL B. RICHEY .- One of Garden Grove's most energetic business men is Royal B. Richey, who conducts a prosperous transfer business there, using two good anto trucks, and who also is very hnsy as field agent for the Curtiss Corporation of Long Beach, organizing the planting and delivering of pimentos in this district for that company. A native of Nebraska, Mr. Richey was born at McCook, Red Willow County, that state, on March 21, 1879, and is the son of David N. and Sarah J. (Camp- bell) Richey. The father, who was born at Marshalltown, Iowa, died when Royal was nineteen years of age, and Mrs. Richey is now a resident of Hollywood. There were seven children in the Richey family and five are living: Mrs. Ed Davis of Holly- wood; Royal B. of this review; Mrs. J. R. Hook resides at Los Angeles; Ross C. lives at Los Angeles; and Mrs. Jack Hall of Hollywood.

Mr. Richey spent his early years at Wymore, Nebr., receiving his education in the public schools there, and when quite young he began railroad work. He worked as switchman, brakeman and engine foreman for the B. & M. Railroad, living at Wymore, Nebr., later becoming yardmaster at Beatrice for the same system. In 1904 he came to California, and settled at San Bernardino, working for the Santa Fe as switchman and yard foreman. He was soon transferred to Winslow, Ariz., where he held a like position. In 1907 he was returned to San Bernardino and he continued there with the Santa Fe until 1910, when he moved onto a walnut ranch of ten acres in the Anaheim district, remaining there for three years. In 1913 he came to Garden Grove and started in the transfer business. He built a residence in Garden Grove where he and his family lived until he sold it, and then purchased five acres south of the Pacific Electric depot. He paid $1,100 an acre for the raw land in 1914, and after setting it 36

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out to Valencia oranges the next year and improving it with buildings costing $3,500, he disposed of it in December, 1919, for $13,500, showing the rise in land values in this vicinity. He now owns thirteen acres a quarter of a mile north of Garden Grove, where the family make their home, and here he set out ten acres to Valencia oranges. He has spent considerable money improving this place, especially for irrigation. He has laid much cement pipe and has installed a K. T. valve for each tree row, thus reducing the hard labor connected with the irrigation process to a minimum.

As field agent of the Curtiss Corporation, Mr. Richey makes contracts with the farmers for the growing of pimento peppers, and for the season of 1920 he has 650 acres under contract in the vicnity of Garden Grove and Westminster, this having proved a very profitable industry for the farmers. These peppers are canned by the Curtiss Company and a large part of their product is taken over by the big cheese makers for flavoring pimento cheese. It is during the canning season that Mr. Richey is particularly busy and his two trucks then run night and day, with three shifts of men to each truck. He has established the following central or receiving stations- two in the Bolsa district; one at Garden Grove; one at Stanton; one at Artesia; one at Norwalk; one at Westminster and one east of Artesia. From these stations he rushes the peppers to the large canning factory of the Curtis Corporation at Long Beach, hauling from ten to fifteen tons at each load. His auto trucks are also used for general hauling and transfer business after the press of the canning season is over. In his many years as a railroad man, Mr. Richey learned the value of accuracy and strict business methods and this he makes use of to good advantage in his growing transfer business.

Mr. Richey's marriage occurred at Winslow, Ariz., January 2, 1906, when he was united with Miss Isa May Rice, a native of Blue Springs, Nebr., the daughter of J. W. and Phoebe Katherine (Pike) Rice, who are now residents of Los Angeles; one brother, Charles Rice, is also a resident of Los Angeles, being engaged in the hay and grain business there. J. W. Rice was the first hardware merchant at Blue Springs, Nebr., and there Mrs. Richey received her early education in the grammar schools, later attending the high school at Wymore, Nebr. She came to California in 1901 to attend an art school at San Francisco and was a student there for a year. Her step- grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. G. G. Godfrey were among the early settlers of Tustin. Mr. and Mrs. Richey are the parents of two children-Benjamin and Katheryn.

Garden Grove has no more optimistic and untiring booster than Mr. Richey. He was the moving spirit in reorganizing the Business Men's Association and changing it to the present Chamber of Commerce and he is now second vice-president of that organ- ization. He has also served as a trustee on the Board of Education since 1917. Fra- ternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters and the local treasurer of that lodge.

OREL C. HARE .- One of Westminster's rising young business men who has by his enterprise and force of character made a leading place for himself in the commercial life of the community is Orel C. Hare, proprietor of the up-to-date garage and machine shop there. A native of Kansas, Mr. Hare was born at LaCygne, Linn County, in that state on June 30, 1886. He is the only child of Euphrates A. and Amy (Copeland) Hare, the father being the popular blacksmith at Westminster and the joint owner with O. C. Hare of a whole block in the center of the town, the father's blacksmith shop occupying the east part of the block, while the machine shop, garage and office occupies the remaining two-thirds of the block.

Euphrates A. Hare was born in Ross County, Ohio, March 22, 1851, his parents being Pleasant G. and Susanna (Moomaw) Hare; her father came from Europe (prob- ably from Holland) and settled in Pennsylvania in the early days, later moving to Ohio, where he followed the trade of a tanner. While yet a young man Euphrates A. Hare moved to Linn County, Kans., right near the Missouri-Kansas state line, and at Mulberry, Mo., he served an apprenticeship in the blacksmith's trade, working there for nearly five years. After his marriage in 1883 to Miss Amy Copeland he continued in the blacksmith business, and at the same time became the owner and proprietor of several saw mills, operating three different mills at various times. In 1891, he removed to Blaine, Wash., and conducted a bicycle shop and also a shop where he manufactured tools and implements for the fish canning industry. In 1905 he moved with his family to California, remaining at Los Angeles until 1908, when he came to Westminster where he has operated his large, well equipped blacksmith shop ever since, and where he may be found every day actively and busily engaged at his trade, and although he has nearly reached his three score years and ten he is efficient, strong and capable and enjoys perfect health. Mr. Hare is a Mason, belonging to the lodge at Huntington Beach. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows, but retains his membership in the

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lodge at Blaine, Wash., where he formerly resided. In political matters he has always been a consistent Democrat.

From his father Orel C. Hare learned the blacksmith trade when he was but a young man. His early boyhood days were spent at Blaine, Wash., and he re- ceived a good, public school education. When the family came to Westminster he soon began to branch out for himself in the automobile business. He has the Ford service station for this vicinity and has a thoroughly equipped machine shop, where he is prepared to repair all makes of cars, having in his employ several capable machinists besides himself, at all times. He also does repair and mechanical work for tractors, trucks, pumps and engines, all of which requires the equipment and expertness found only in first-class machine shops.

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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 104

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