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 107

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 107

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In the fall of 1882 Mr. Penman came to San Luis Obispo County and bought a preemption claim of 160 acres on the Huero, five miles east of Paso Robles, engaging in farming and stock raising. He added to his holdings until he had 360 acres in this place, and also owned a stock ranch of about 500 acres in Keyes Canyon, north of the Estrella River. This ranch is still known as the Penman Ranch. After farming in San Luis Obispo County for thirty years, with varying success, he removed to Orange County in the autumn of 1912 and settled on the Irvine Ranch-the wisest move he ever made, although it did not at first seem so. He was $6,000 in debt when he came

William Wright Pension

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here, but he had thirty head of horses and a full equipment, valned at $12,000, for the cultivation of sugar beets. The very first year proved disastrous, and he lost $6,000 . more, but since then they have been more and more successful each year. Now the firm has 625 acres planted to sugar beets and 200 acres to barley and hay; the acreage was mostly all tule land only six years ago, which they cleared and broke up and brought to a high state of cultivation, and they have the largest beet crop in for the Santa Ana Sugar Company. In the operation of the ranch they use the latest improved machinery and methods, using a Holt sixty-five horsepower tractor, as well as a Ford- son tractor and a three and a half ton truck, besides twenty head of horses. A switch has been built through the district from the Santa Fe with a beet dump adjoining their place, which saves much time in delivering the beets to the Santa Ana Sugar Factory.

It is to men of Mr. Penman's type that California owes much of its present devel- opment and greatness, for with his energy and optimism he has always pressed forward, and, being a man who is never idle, is never satisfied unless he is helping to increase the yield of the soil, thus aiding materially in the progress of the commonwealth. Mr. Penman takes a keep interest in politics, especially in such measures as have their bearing on the development and maintenance of important business interests, and as might be expected, he is a Republican and a protectionist.

Mr. and Mrs. Penman have had nine children and, with four of them, reside on their ranch. Newton, the eldest, who is a partner with his father, married Mrs. L. Wallenberg, nee Hubbert; Gertrude died three years ago in Nevada County, Cal .; Robert is also a partner with his father; Minnie is a teacher at Orange; Marian has become Mrs. Paulson, and lives in the San Fernando Valley; Lalla became the wife of Julian Gray, a rancher at Lemoore, Kings County, Cal., and passed away; Viola, the seventh in the order of birth, is at home; Lawrence died when he was twenty-six years old; and Leland is at home. The family are members of the Episcopal Church.

ABRAHAM GUSTLIN .- A hard-working, highly intelligent man whose desire to escape the frigid East fortunately led to his making for the Pacific Slope and landing in the Golden West, is Abraham Gustlin, now retired and living on the Edgewood Road in Santa Ana. He was born in Batavia, Ill., on April 5, 1855, the son of Abraham and Katherine Gustlin, and his father was a railroad man who served his country in the Civil War. When his father returned from the battlefields, he decided that, inasmuch as he was away a good deal of the time railroading, Batavia was not a good place in which to rear a boy, and so Abraham, Jr., was sent to Tipton, Iowa, to grow up on the farm of Mr. Gustlin's sister. Two years thereafter, the father brought his family out to Webster County, Iowa, and began to farm for him- self; and when, still later, he removed to Boone County, in that state, our subject joined him and remained at home helping until he was eighteen years of age.

It was then that Abraham left home to work for various railroad companies in the capacity of a boiler maker, serving the Chicago & Northwestern for twenty years, then the Iowa Central at Marshalltown, Iowa, next the Illinois Central and also the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul at Dubuque, Iowa, during which time five years were given to the last three companies. In the fall of 1898, Mr. Gustlin made a flying trip to California, but returned East rather disgusted, instead of charmed, with what he saw here.

Luckily for him, as well as for California, in the autumn of 1900 he and his son made a second trip to the Coast, and this time he spent the winter working at his trade in San Bernardino. The next year he brought the rest of the family to Cali- fornia to enjoy the good things he had discovered, and they took up their residence at Santa Ana. In 1902, Mr. Gustlin returned East and settled his business affairs by selling his estate, preparatory to locating permanently in the Far West.

At first the family lived at the corner of Sixteenth and Main streets in Santa Ana, but Mr. Gustlin sold his holding there, and lived for a while on Lyon Street. Then he removed again to his ranch on Greenleaf Street, where he lived until 1900, when he turned the ranch over to his son, Walter F., and purchased a beautiful home on Edgewood Road. Besides the site of his home, he has an acre of land devoted to walnuts, and there are no better, of the kind, for miles around.

On April 19, 1883, Mr. Gustlin was married to Miss Lovina Feathers, a native of Prairie City, Jasper County, Iowa, the daughter of Otis and Belinda (Record) Feathers, New York farmer folk, born and reared not far from Saratoga, N. Y. They had five sons and ten daughters-six daughters living, five in California. Two children crowned the blessings of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Gustlin. Clarence A., the elder, is a musician highly esteemed in Santa Ana, who studied both in Berlin, and Florence, Italy. Naturally, he profited greatly from the advantages which so long made the German capital one of the greatest centers in the world for musical culture,

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and he became especially fond of the quieter, more ancient city of Florence, with its innninerable traditions and an atmosphere certain to draw out of one any spark of genius. Mr. Gustlin returned to America and Orange County one of the accomplished musicians of the day. Walter F. Gustlin, the second son, is an experienced, enter- prising business man and is now living at the old homestead on Greenleaf Street. He keeps abreast of the times in all that pertains to agriculture, and contributes his share toward the development of the promising Southland. He is the father of a son, Paul Raymond Gustlin.

JOHN LANDELL .- A former trusted and efficient public officer, who is making good as a rancher and expert walnut grower, is John Landell, the pioneer, who also is proprietor of the oil and auto-service station near Serra, two and a half miles south of San Juan Capistrano, on the State Highway. This station is just seventy-one miles north of San Diego and sixty-four miles south of Los Angeles, and is so sitnated that it cannot fail to be more and more in requisition.

He was born at Philadelphia, Pa., the son of James Landell, also of that Quaker city, a manufacturer of engines and boilers. His grandfather was John Landell, a Philadelphian, who was a dealer in lumber there; while his great-grandfather was Captain Landell, sailing master, a seafaring man who was born in England and finally settled in Philadelphia. The maternal ancestors are to be traced back to sturdy emi- grants who ventured into wild America with William Penn. Mrs. Landell's maiden name was Sally Moore, and she was born in Philadelphia. Originally, the Landells were French Huguenots, and their name was spelled Landelle.

The oldest in a family of six children, four of whom are living, John Landell was born at Philadelphia on April 2, 1866, and the year before the opening of the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia came west to California with his parents in the fall of 1875. After a very short stay in Los Angeles they located in Anaheim the same fall, while it was still a part of Los Angeles County. John's Grandmother Moore had married a second time, becoming Mrs. Hughes, and resided in Los Angeles, so for some time he lived with her and went to school at Second and Spring streets. After his school days were over he returned to the home ranch and took up farming. His father, after a time, sold his ranch in Anaheim and purchased one in Buena Park. where he resided until his death, after which his widow made her home with her mother, Mrs. Hughes, in Los Angeles until her death. Mrs. Hughes was a very prominent woman in Philadelphia, as well as in Los Angeles. In the former city she was a member of a committee in connection with the Centennial Exposition, and onr subject now has a certificate for one share of its stock which she gave him. He had an uncle, John Landell, who was a first sergeant in Company A, One Hundred Ninety-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, in the First Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, and was a dispatch rider under General Chamberlain. He came to Los Angeles, where he served many years in the fire department, and was also deputy county assessor under Smythe.

For a while he was city marshal of Anaheim, and then, for years he was deputy sheriff of Los Angeles County under Martin Aguirre. When he had been Anaheim's marshal for five years, he went into the sheriff's office at Santa Ana under Sheriff J. C. Nichols, and he was there for four years.

In San Juan-by-the-Sea, now Serra, April 6, 1898, Mr. Landell was married to Miss Soledad Pryor, a danghter of Pablo Pryor, a large landowner at San Juan Capis- trano, and three children blessed their happy union. Charles T. is a graduate of the Santa Ana high school, and now helps his father in business; and there are Gladys J. and John P. Landell.

Mrs. Landell is a daughter of Pablo and Rosa (Avila) Pryor, and was born in Los Angeles. Her grandfather, Nathaniel Pryor, was an eastern gentleman who came out to California in 1828 and became one of the prominent men in the pioneer days of Los Angeles, where he was known as Don Miguel, and owned a ranch inside the limits of the Pueblo. Pablo, or Paul, Pryor owned the Rancho Boca de La Playa ( Month of the Beach or San Juan-by-the-Sea), an area of 7,000 acres; most of it was sold after his death, but a very small portion of this ranch is still the proud possession of some of his children, and on it are a few pear trees still bearing that are over 100 years old, having been set out by the natives in very early days. Pablo Pryor was also interested in the Palo Verdes Rancho at San Pedro, as well as the old Don Miguel place in Los Angeles. Mrs. Landell is a sister of Albert Pryor, who is also represented in this work. A year after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Landell came to their forty-acre ranch at San Juan-by-the-Sea, where they are engaged in raising walnuts. Mr. Landell is a popular member of the Elks of Santa Ana.

At the anto service station Mr. Landell sells canned goods suitable for lunches, soda water, tobacco and cigars, while he carries a full line of Eastern and Western

John Landry.

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oils, and the Union Oil Company's gasoline. He also has a large assortment of tires and automobilists' sundries.

Jack Landell, as he is familiarly known by his friends all over Orange County, was justice of the peace in San Juan Capistrano for twelve years, and is a trustee of the school district, and also of the San Juan Capistrano Union high school, in which they have succeeded in voting $65,000 for a new high school building, to be started immediately. He is greatly interested in the cause of education, and as a director he is giving it much of his time and efforts. Mr. and Mrs. Landell thoroughly enjoy their beautiful ranch at San Juan-by-the-Sea.

CHARLES F. MITCHELL .- There is something always very interesting in the success of both father and son in practically the same field, and that, perhaps, is what makes Charles F. Mitchell, the dealer in wall paper and paint, a subject of more than passing moment, for his father, John Wesley Mitchell, was long a well-known Santa Ana contractor in wall paper and painting. He was born in Waverly, Ohio, on Novem- ber 25, 1857, the son of John Morrison and Sarah ( Howard) Mitchell, the father passing away in Kansas and the mother in Illinois. To the latter state the family came from Ohio in 1863, and there John Wesley attended school until he was eighteen years of age, when he decided to go in for farming on his own account. Later, for two years he worked a claim he had bought in Kansas, and for four years he was engaged as a clerk in a store. In 1888 he opened at Santa Ana a painting and paper hanging business, and soon afterward began as a contractor; and still later he opened a store of his own, being the pioneer in that line in Santa Ana. In 1885 he married Miss Sarah Ella Holly, who was born in 1866, the ceremony taking place at Red Cloud, Nebr., and three children were granted the worthy couple, of whom Charles F. was the eldest. John Wesley Mitchell was a firm believer in Orange County, and in many ways demonstrated his faith in its future.

Charles Franklin was born at Salem, in Jewell County, Kans., on November 16, 1886, and came to Santa Ana in January, 1888, the year following the advent here of his father. When his schooling was finished, he engaged in the paint business with his father, and from a modest start he has developed the largest business of its kind in the county. He does contracting and employs from fifteen to thirty men. Full of public spirit, and deeply interested in Orange County, he is a member of the board of health and thus seeks to serve his fellow-men. In national politics he is a Republican. For three years he served in Company L of the Seventh Regiment, National Guard of California, the first two years as bugler and the last year as corporal.

At Santa Ana on December 24, 1906, Mr. Mitchell was married to Miss Irene Robinson, by whom he has had two children-Veda Irene and Geneva Eleanor. He is a Knights Templar Mason and Shriner, belongs to both branches of the Odd Fellows, and is an Elk. Santa Ana is to be congratulated on such a finely stocked establish- ment, under such experienced and liberal-minded management.

HERMAN J. MACHANDER .- Among the many successful ranchers who have found it necessary to abandon one field of industry in order to enter upon the one most profitable and for which they seem destined, is Herman J. Machander, a resident of Santa Clara Avenue, where his flourishing ranch of twelve acres is devoted to citrus fruit. He purchased the land in 1886, when it was set out to vines, but after the discovery that the soil of the vicinity was not well adapted for vineyard purposes, Mr. Machander and all the neighboring ranchers rooted out their vines and set out citrus orchards of Navels and Mediterranean Sweets and apricots instead. After they were bearing he found that more money could be made in Valencias, so reset the whole acreage and now it is a full-bearing Valencia grove. Mr. Machander has found by experience and investigation that Orange County's climatic and soil conditions are the most suitable for Valencias of any citrus section of California. The Machander acreage now presents one of the finest orange groves in California, its yield, in quality and quantity, coming up to his expectations.

It was in 1889, just after the great Southern California "boom" that he took up his residence on the ranch. A believer in cooperation he was one of the organizers of the Santiago Orange Growers Association at Orange. Mr. Machander was born in Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Prussia, on November 15, 1862, the son of Ludwig Machander, a native of Prussia of Scotch parents. At the time of the War of the Revolution Mr. Machander's grandfather, a native of Dundee, Scotland, whose name was Mackander, was serving in the English Navy, but did not believe in war on the Colonies, so left the English Navy at Danzig and located in Prussia, where he became a citizen and spelled his name with an h instead of a k. Mr. Machander's grandfather, as well as his father, was a farmer. He was also a trusted government employee for several years, and a prominent and influential business man. Mr. Machander's father was united in mar-

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riage to Emily Simon, who survives her husband and is now eighty-eight years of age. They are the parents of eight children, five of whom have come to live in the United States, the other three remaining in Germany and are still in the Government service. Herman J. Machander was reared and educated in his native country and enjoyed many advantages not vouchsafed his neighbors. He emigrated to the United States in 1882 and first located in Morris, Stevens County, Minn., where he resided on a farm for two and a half years. In 1884 he abandoned farming, came to San Francisco, was employed as ship contractor, worked on the Cruiser Charleston, and then took up mirring in Amador County, Cal., later cinnabar mining in Lake County and then went to Arizona, where he mined for several years until his health failed. In 1886 he had purchased raw land on Santa Clara Avenue, Santa Ana, and in 1889 located there.

In Santa Ana in 1890 Mr. Machander was married to Miss Edna R. Moyer, who was born in New York and came to California with her parents in 1887. Two children have blessed the union, Ernest R. and Nelda R. Mr. Machander is a loyal citizen to his adopted country, but is not afraid to tell what he believes to be the truth, and as a deep thinker, fluent speaker and one well versed in ancient European and American history, he is at all times entertaining and instructive. In 1914 he fulfilled a long-felt desire to visit his home, so he left New York in April for Europe, where he found his mother alive and spent about two months there visiting relatives, returning to New York only two days before the assassination of the Austrian Crown Prince. He descended from a long line of Protestants, and he favors the Baptist Church, and under its banners seeks to supplement good civic work and to make this old world the better for having lived in it.

THOMAS M. ROBERTSON .- One of the early ranchers of California who owns a fine grove of interset walnut and apricot trees is Thomas M. Robertson, who was born near Pella, Marion County, lowa, on November 1, 1853, the son of T. W. and Clarenda Robertson. The latter passed away in Iowa, after which the father, with his three children, in 1856, came west to California.

For a while he farmed in Tulare County, and then in 1869 he came to Gallatin. near the present location of Downey, and there engaged in farming. In 1871 he removed to Delhi and pitched his tent where there is now the beet sugar factory. He bought thirty-five acres there, and raised corn. In 1888, he, too, died.

Thomas had lived with his father at Delhi, aiding him in the farm enterprise, and in 1897 he removed to Texas, where at Midland, in the Panhandle, he engaged for a couple of years in the cattle business. He returned to California, however, as thousands of other folks have done, in 1899, and purchased forty acres near Winters- burg, and there he raised potatoes and celery. For four years he lived at Wintersburg, and when lie sold his property there he resided for three years at Santa Ana, where he engaged in the harness business. This, also, was disposed of in time, and then he purchased the ten-acre estate of the late Paul B. Matthews, on North Flower Street.

Mr. Robertson was twice married, his present wife having been Miss Blanche M. Matthews before her marriage, which took place on September 19, 1900. Her parents were Paul B. and Annie M. (Thompson) Matthews, and they were early settlers of Salina, Saline County, Kans. Mrs. Matthews died in 1892, and in 1894 the family moved to Santa Ana, and Mrs. Robertson's father came to acquire the choice property on which they are now living. One daughter and three sons have blessed this union of Mr. and Mrs. Robertson. Goldie Florence, James S. and Gordon Marion are students at the Santa Ana High School, and Boyd Lawrence is a pupil in the grammar school. The family attend the United Presbyterian Church of Santa Ana, and Mr. Robertson prosecutes his national political work under the banners of the Republicans. He is also a member of the Santa Ana Odd Fellows.

BERTRAM C. ROBERTS .- A modest, energetic business man who seeks both to create and to hold his patronage by according to all customers the "squarest" of treatment, is Bertram C. Roberts, whose first-class millinery establishment at 417 North Main Street, Santa Ana, is the Mecca of a large clientele. He was born in Eureka, Humboldt County, on December 1, 1870, the son of Melvin P. and Chastina Roberts, and grew up in an environment of the cattle business, in which field, in Humboldt County, his father was engaged. He was married in Los Angeles on October 28, 1911, to Tena, the daughter of William and Louisa Homan, a popular belle born at Mitchell, Iowa, in March, 1871. Her parents were well-to-do Iowa farm people, who moved to Denver in 1885, where they are now living retired. Miss Homan received her early education in Denver, and there she attended both the graded and the arts schools.

Bertram Roberts left home when he was fourteen to "dig" for himself, equipped with only a district school training, and for several years clerked for the Wells Fargo

10.7. menton

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Express Company. With his wife he came to Santa Ana in August, 1914. and they then and there established a millinery business that has since developed into the finest concern of the kind in Orange County. The store is up to date in every respect. Not only is it not possible in this or other neighboring cities to find a more complete line of fine, approved creations, but the latest word of Paris or New York promptly finds expression here. Much of their success is due to the fact that Mrs. Roberts was an expert milliner with twenty-six years of experience before coming to Santa Ana. She first acquired reputation in Denver, and since then she has had various stores throughout the Middle West and California.

Mr. Roberts is a Republican in national political affairs, but a good community man, devoid of partisanship, when something worth while needs to be done. In such work, as in the various activities of the recent war campaigns at home, Mrs. Roberts gives invaluable assistance.

WILLIAM F. MENTON .- In his twelve years of residence at Santa Ana, William F. Menton has taken a distinctive place in the legal circles of this vicinity, and now occupies the position of deputy district attorney, a position he is ably qualified to fill. Mr. Menton is a native of Iowa, a state that has sent so many of her sons to take part in the upbuilding of California. He was born at Boone on September 13, 1874, being the son of John and Johanna (O'Leary) Menton, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Menton were the parents of nine children and William was next to the youngest of the family.

William Menton's early education was gained in the public schools of Boone, and after he had completed his courses there, he engaged in newspaper work for several years, working on the Boone County Democrat until he became one of the proprietors as well as its editor.

In 1907 Mr. Menton decided to take up his residence in California and on Septem- ber 8 of that year he arrived in Santa Ana, finding employment on the Santa Ana Register. Although he had a natural aptitude for journalistic work, his leanings were always toward the legal profession, so he began the study of law, gaining a wide, com- prehensive understanding of the subject by reading and studying in private offices. On July 22, 1915, he was admitted to the California Bar, and began the practice of his pro- fession in Santa Ana, and through the steady integrity of his work and his wisdom as a counselor, he has won for himself an honored standing, as is evidenced by his appoint- ment to the office of deputy district attorney on April 1, 1917, a position whose duties he has fulfilled to the satisfaction of everyone.

On October 15, 1918, Mr. Menton was united in marriage with Miss Helena F. Browning, a native of Tonawanda, N. Y. Mr. Menton is a member of the County Bar Association and also of the Santa Ana Lodge of Elks, and in politics he adheres to the platform of the Republican party. Fond of outdoor life, he takes a good part of his recreation in playing golf. While the greater portion of his time and energy is occupied by his legal work, he is always deeply interested in all public-spirited movements that make for the betterment of the community.

BENJAMIN R. FORD .- An enterprising, likeable business man of Santa Ana who has readily demonstrated his capacity for success in commercial circles of another city, is Benjamin R. Ford, the cement contractor and road builder of 417 West Seven- teenth Street, Santa Ana. He has one of the best equipments for cement road con- struction obtainable, and takes orders for, or gives estimates upon all kinds of work. He was born at Asheville, N. C., on April 21, 1856, and spent his boyhood there amid the privations of the Civil War period. His father was James M. Ford, captain of Company D. Sixtieth North Carolina Regiment, an old-line Whig who was im- pressed into the Confederate Army as a lieutenant and was promoted to be a captain: but he forced his way through to the Federal lines (taking his men with him-no small compliment to both them and him) and joining the Northern forces, fought through to the close of the war for the cause of the Union. When the war was over, his father entered the Government revenue service, and after twenty-five years, under the Federal Government, died at his home in North Carolina. Mrs. Ford was Sarah Ward before her marriage, a granddaughter of General Ballew of North Carolina and Revolutionary fame; and she died in North Carolina, the mother of eight children, among whom our subject was the eldest.

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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 107

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