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 116

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 116

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JOAB STANFIELD .- An alert and fine old gentleman, whose many years of arduous service, always of benefit to others as well as himself, have brought him many friends, is Joab Stanfield, who was born in Indiana on June 14. 1847, the son of William W. Stanfield, a native of eastern Tennessee. He removed to Indiana and there married Miss Jemima Wright, and in time he was thrice married. He had fifteen children in all, and Joab was the third child by his second wife. The Stan- fields descend from an interesting English ancestry, and some of them were among the early Pilgrims who came to Plymouth and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Joab migrated with his parents from the Hoosier State in 1851, and for twenty- three years lived in Guthrie County, Iowa, sixty miles west of Des Moines, and there he attended the common schools. In 1874 he came out to the Pacific Northwest and spent the following four years in Northern California, in Humboldt, Trinity and Siskiyou counties. He mined, trapped, worked on farms, and proved up on a home- stead of 160 acres in Humboldt County. These years spent in Northern California were among the happiest in our subject's life; for, having inherited his love for the great out-of-doors from his father, who had been an intrepid pioneer of Indiana. Iowa and Kansas, he lived on the frontier, quite unafraid of the Indian, and enjoyed to the fullest both the hunt and the chase. He worked on the ranch of William Olmstead of Humboldt County, and handled about 1,800 sheep for him. He finally got his patent for the 160-acre tract, and then, with a natural desire to see the old home once more, he went back to Iowa in 1878.

In the fall of the same year he journeyed to Kansas, and in Osborne County bought 160 acres of school land. In Kansas he prospered, as usual; but in the summer of 1883 he was tempted to move into Benton County, Ark., and to try his luck there. He found the locality malarial, however, and thereupon moved back to Kansas. With this exception, Mr. Stanfield lived in Kansas from the day when he left Iowa until he decided to take the greater step and locate in the Golden State.

While in Kansas, Mr. Stanfield was married to Miss Gulielma Macy, a native of Hamilton County, Ind., and the daughter of Stephen Macy, who had married Miss Mary Charles. Mr. Macy was born in Ohio, became a farmer, and was also a mechanic. Her grandfather was also named Stephen Macy, and was a well-known homeopathic doctor. The Macys were of English origin, and settled upon Nantucket Island, where they followed whaling. Josiah Macy, sea-captain, who died at Rye, N. Y., in the early seventies, was probably the most distinguished of this branch who went in for the seafaring life. He had made a name for himself among Nantucket sea- captains when merely a young man, and in 1812 enjoyed the distinction of bringing to New York in the "Prudence," of which he was one of the owners, the first news of the declaration of war between the United States and Great Britain. Later he hecame a very prominent commission merchant in New York City. Those of the Macys who removed to the Central and Middle West became farmers, and they were also consistent members of the Friends' Church. Her maternal grandfather, John Charles. was a farmer at Richmond, Ind. He was a strong Whig and Abolitionist, and played an active part in the conduct of the "underground railway."

Six children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Stanfield: Bertha married Clinton Bales, a farmer of Osborne County, Kans., and has two children; Stanley is the husband of Miss Annie Shipman, and is a farmer at Ramal, Colo., and the father of six children; a daughter, who was the third child, died when she was three months old: Oscar, an Orange County rancher, married Miss Olive Hockett and has six children: Jesse is a minister in the Friends' Church, having been graduated from Penn College, Iowa, and also Whittier College, later taking a four years' theological course at Hartford, Conn. He married Marian Catlin, who died recently, and he is

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now a pastor at Glens Falls, N. Y. The youngest of the family is Alvin Stanfield, also a neighboring rancher, who married Miss Rose Faris, by whom he has had two children. It will be seen, therefore, how well these offspring of a worthy and highly- esteemed couple have added honor to the family name.

Eleven years ago Mr. Stanfield came to California from Kansas, to spend the balance of his days, and now he resides in the Olive precinct, Orange County, on the west side of Cambridge Street and north of Collins Avenue. He had traded his highly-cultivated farm of 1,000 acres in Kansas for a splendid citrus tract of forty acres here, twenty acres of which were planted as follows: eleven acres to lemons, six acres to Valencia oranges, two acres to Navel oranges, and the remaining acre to walnuts and a yard, while twenty acres were left vacant; ten of these vacant acres he sold, and what was left, namely ten acres, he disposed of to his sons, which were planted to Valencias. He still has twenty acres in full bearing, and he has put in a pumping plant and a never-failing well, although he is also under the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company's ditch, and so is certain to he supplied with water. He has remodeled his residence, and maintains his yards in fine, symmetrical shape.

On this model citrus and walnut ranch, therefore, Mr. Stanfield lives with his devoted wife, the calm influence of their peaceful religion giving them a serene tem- perament and a happy, hopeful disposition. At the age of seventy-three, Mr. Stan- field is in excellent health, and were it not for a runaway accident of several years ago, when he was nearly killed and was in bed for seven weeks, with a leg and foot permanently crippled, he would be an active man yet. Mrs. Stanfield, an excellent Christian lady, also enjoys the esteem and thorough good will of a very large circle of friends, and is ever of interest, as our story shows, as a member of an old-time American family. Mr. Stanfield has for years been a consistent temperance man, and is happy to have lived to see the national prohibition amendment adopted.

California, which has attracted to its borders an army of the most talented pioneers in the world, may well be congratulated on claiming as residents such enter- prising, highly intelligent settlers as these; while Mr. and Mrs. Stanfield may almost be envied their lot and share in the wonderful development of the great Pacific com- monwealth.

MISS JESSIE LEE TOLER .- A remarkably successful woman, noted for her keen senses and her rational judgment, and distinguished as a representative of one of the hest known pioneer families that had so much to do with the development of Cali- fornia, is Miss Jessie Lee Toler, who resides on a real landmark-the oldest ranch in the northern section of the county. She was born in Madrid Bend, Tenn., and is the daughter of William Henry Toler, a native of Goldsboro, N. C., who married Miss Sallie ( Hickman) Edwards, born in Madrid Bend, Tenn. Grandfather W. C. Edwards, was of Scotch ancestry and was a wealthy landowner and proprietor of Island No. 10, in the Mississippi River, acquiring thousands of acres of land along the river front. opposite the island. He married Miss Susan Marr, the original owner of Island No. 10, so it was inherited by Mr. and Mrs. Edwards on Capt. W. C. Edwards' death in 1856. Sallie Edwards was educated at the celebrated academy in Cape Girardeau, Mo., and married William H. Toler in Madrid Bend, Tenn. He came of an old and prominent Southern family and served as a major in the Confederate army in the Civil War.

Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Toler became owners of a part of the Edwards plantation where they raised cotton, corn and stock, which were shipped to the New Orleans and St. Louis markets. Mrs. Toler died in Memphis, Tenn., in 1874. In 1875 Mr. Toler brought the family to Orange. Cal .. and purchased land in the Chapman-Glassell tract, and here he brought his household goods. among them a piano, the first brought to Orange, which is still in the possession of Miss Toler and is a square grand with pearl keys, which was made for and presented to her mother when she was a young lady. In 1878, W. H. Toler traded 1,700 acres of Tennessee land for 640 acres at that time in Los Angeles County, but part of which is today within the county limits of Orange. This ranch land belongs to William Worsham, a Kentucky gentleman who came to California in the early sixties, and there still stands on the ranch, close to the dwelling and neighboring buildings, a large fig tree planted by Mr. Worsham, of unusual size and bearing large, splendid figs. The 1,700 acres of Tennessee land traded was cov- ered with timber, whereas on the 640 California acres there were 10,000 head of sheep, which were included in the sale. An old negro sheepherder, named Jim North was also attached to the ranch, by long residence, and as he refused to leave, he was allowed to live on the ranch until he died.

William Henry Toler spent many of his early years in California in promoting excursions to the Golden State, and as an active worker in the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, he was instrumental in bringing settlers to California, and especially in inducirg them to locate in the vicinity of Whittier and La Habra. When he died,

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January 13, 1892, widely respected for his high sense of honor, his enterprise and his general capability, the 640 acres were divided among his family of five children, Susan, Jessie Lee, W'm. H., B. E. and Annie H .; 150 acres fell to the subject of our sketch, Miss Jessie Lee Toler, who had studied at the Los Angeles high school and from 1892 to 1900 had enjoyed the advantages of wide travel. In 1900 she began to make her perma- nent home on her ranch, and eight years later the first house in the northwestern part of Orange County and standing on the Toler ranch, was burned to the ground. This was two years after she had sold off fifty acres of the northern portion.

When Miss Toler began, in her characteristically progressive manner, the energetic development of the Toler ranch, she was told that it was in a dry spot of the county. and that water could not be found there. Despite these predictions, she engaged C. E. Tower, an expert driller, and a well was started in 1915, and although the process proved slow and discouraging, the work was continued, largely through Miss Toler's fortunate persistence, and at a depth of 506 feet water was struck, and when the sand had been pumped out of the well, the test pump showed sixty inches of the desired-for liquid. After that, the flow increased to 100 inches; and when the well was finished, people came from all parts of the county to see the attainment of the well-nigh impossible. The well is equipped with a Lane and Bowler pump, with thirty horsepower electric motor, and Miss Toller operates the plant herself. She has worked out a very flexible irrigation system, covering her entire ranch; the orchards laid with ten-inch cement pipe and all the hundred acres are equally watered according to their needs.

In 1916, Miss Toller set out 1,800 Valencia orange trees on twenty-five acres of the northern portion of her ranch, and now this grove is coming into bearing and promises rich returns. Three years later, she set out the adjoining twenty-five acres to the same popular citrus fruit. leaving the balance of her land open for the raising of grain and hay. Owing to her remarkable business ability, quite equalling that of many successful men, Miss Toler has always secured results, and results of the most satisfactory nature. She takes great pride and satisfaction in the development of her ranch and making of it a beautiful orange orchard in this favored section, pronounced the finest citrus section in the world. This she is doing to the memory of her father who had such faith and optimism in the future greatness of La Habra, and was one of the greatest boosters Southern California ever had. When the Pacific Electric Railway was built through La Habra they located a station on her ranch which was named Toler station.

Miss Toler has been particularly rewarded in the excellent prospects for oil on her land, where it is perceptible in the well water. Years ago, the Standard Oil Com- pany had a lease there and sank a well 4,500 feet, until it struck oil; but for some unknown reason, they never continued the development. The ranch has been proven to be oil land, however, and consequently Miss Toler's holdings are not only valuable, but bound to increase in value as the years roll by. This fact alone will give her more and more a desirable position of leadership and influence, a fortunate circumstance, for Miss Toler's influence for good in the community is always of the best.

ANDREW R. REISCH .- In a natural beauty spot against the foothills in El Modena precinct lies the attractive ranch of Andrew R. Reisch, who through his care- ful management and industry has brought his acreage up to a very high state of cultivation, so that he is now enjoying handsome financial returns from his years of labor. His hirthplace was in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. that little coun- try which is so intimately and interestingly associated with many of the events of the late war. He was born on May 5, 1872, the son of Frank and Katherine ( Webber) Reisch. The father was a shoe merchant at Heiderscheid and he still lives there, hay- ing retired from active business. The mother passed away in 1906, leaving five chil- dren to mourn her loss.

Andrew Reisch grew up in Luxemburg and attended the village schools of his native town, acquiring French, the court language of that country, German and the various dialects of the district. At the early age of thirteen he started to make his own way in the world, and since that time he has been entirely dependent on his own efforts. He began by working on the farms in the neighborhood of his village home. continuing at agricultural pursuits until he was twenty-one, when he decided to seek his fortune in America, where the opportunities were greater. He left Antwerp on the SS. Slavonia, expecting to land in New York, but smallpox broke out on board ship, so that they were not allowed to make landing there, but were taken on to Hali- fax. Nova Scotia, where they disembarked in March, 1893. Chicago was Mr. Reisch's destination, and he pushed on there as rapidly as possible, reaching there the first week in April.

Mr. Reisch was not only without funds when he reached Chicago. but was in debt, as he had borrowed his passage money from his father. Nothing daunted, how- ever, he secured work at once with Reinberg Brothers, the largest florists in America.

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The firm was composed of Peter and George R. Reinberg, whose parents were natives of Luxemburg: indeed the cut flower business of Chicago and the Middle West was controlled by Luxemburgers. At the time Mr. Reisch went to work for Reinberg Brothers they had forty acres under glass at Summerdale, a suburb of Chicago. He grew much interested in the florists' business and remained with this firm for nine years, learning the business thoroughly.

In 1902 Mr. Reisch came to California and located at Los Angeles, soon going to work for the Bartlett Nursery at Hollywood. In Chicago he had made a specialty of carnations, and he continued in this line for the next eight years, when the encroach- ment of an alien race into this industry made him decide to become an orchardist, his years of training eminently fitting him for this line of work. He purchased a tract of five acres of land on Santiago Boulevard and Bond Street, there being two acres of oranges, one and a half acres of lemons and one and a half acres of loquats. He erected an attractive residence of the bungalow type on his property, and here he has since made his home.

On August 13, 1910. Mr. Reisch was married to Miss Edith May Killifer, the daughter of Joseph and Matilda (Shoemaker) Killifer, for many years well-known residents of Orange County, where they both passed away, the father at Orange and the mother at Garden Grove. They were the parents of six children: Park resides in Los Angeles; Scott, at Corcoran; Bert, at Pasadena; Edgar in the state of Washington; Edith May, the wife of Andrew R. Reisch of this review, and Miss Lydia D. Killifer, who is principal of the Lemon Street School, having taught in that school for twenty- five years. Mrs. Reisch was born in Illinois, near East St. Louis, but has been a resi- dent of California since she was eleven years old. Mr. and Mrs. Reisch are the parents of one daughter, Lucile L.

In 1919 Mr. Reisch invested in a second ranch comprising ten acres of Valencia oranges near Olive, Miss Lydia D. Killifer being half owner with him in this project. A loyal and enthusiastic supporter of his adopted country, Mr. Reisch was made a citizen in 1902, while a resident of Chicago. Politically he is a believer in the prin- ciples of the Republican party, and in fraternal circles he is a member of the local lodge of American Yeomen.

SAMUEL S. WILLIAMSON .- A representative Orange County man who has been a leader in developing the fine acreage along West Commonwealth Avenue is Samuel S. Williamson, to whose own far-seeing efforts are due so many desirable im- provements both upon and outside of his own ranch. In 1907 he built there a beautiful home which is a credit to the neighborhood and is just such an addition to realty as is certain to help raise property values. He was born at Phillipsburg near Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, on February 4, 1853, in a region to which his grandfather. John C. Williamson, came from Kentucky and his grandmother Mary Croumbach, from Pennsylvania in pioneer days. His father was Peter Williamson, a farmer, who died when our subject was less than three years old; and he married Miss Abigail Thomas, born in Montgomery County, Ohio, a daughter of Wm. and Mary (Farmer) Thomas. natives of North Carolina, who were members of the Society of Friends. Samuel S. Williamson's father died in Ohio in December. 1855, and his mother lived for many years in Kansas and died there in Wyandotte County in April, 1913, aged eighty years.

The only child of this union, Samuel S. Williamson, removed to Howard County, Ind., with his mother, where he received a good education in the public schools, making his own livelihood from the age of twelve years; his mother having married a second time caused Samuel to start out for himself at such an early age. At first he hired out on various farms in his neighborhood, and in 1879, four years after the death of his stepfather, he accompanied his mother to Wyandotte County, Kans., and settled at Piper near Kansas City. He next became an officer at the state prison at Lansing, and continued in that responsible office for three and a half years. The following year he was foreman of the brick works connected with the penitentiary. He then engaged in farming near Lawrence for three years and then removed to Kansas City, where he was in the employ of the Metropolitan Street Railway for another period of three years, when he resumed farming on their old farm in Wyandotte County.

After three years here he decided to locate on the Pacific Coast, so in the fall of 1903 he moved to Everett. Wash., and there passed the following winter and in June, 1904, came to Pasadena, Cal., where he superintended a ranch for three years. During this time he investigated soil and climate in Southern California and decided on Orange County as the most suitable location for his purpose. In 1907 he removed to Orange County and purchased thirty-three acres of vacant land on West Commonwealth Ave- nue with one-half mile frontage, at that time- overgrown with volunteer hay and mus- tard; and when he had cleared and graded the acreage, he planted it to Valencia

Samuel S. Williamson

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

oranges. He has a pumping plant of forty inches capacity, and is a member of the Placentia Orange Growers Association.

On March 29, 1883, Mr. Williamson was married to Miss Luella Watson, a native of Leavenworth, Kans., and the daughter of Thomas J. and Barbara (Coulter) Watson. Her father was a Southern gentleman, born, reared and educated in Georgia, and he came to Kansas in 1855. He was a member of the Kansas State Militia when the slave trouble came up, and although raised in the South he decided that slavery was a great moral wrong and became a prominent Free State man and gave all the assistance he could to the Union and did his duty according to his conscience. Mrs. Williamson attended the public schools of Wyandotte County, Kans., and there began to acquire that excellent training so valuable to her when she had children of her own. Mary Grace, the eldest of the four children, is the wife of Maj. J. M. Hobson, of the U. S. Army at present an attache of the American Legation in Cuba, and is a brother of Capt. Richmond P. Hobson; Jessie A. is Mrs. C. L. Wood of Pasadena; Elsie F. is Mrs. Glen E. Biles of the same city; and Harold F. a graduate of the Fullerton Union high school is at present attending the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

EDWARD A. NOE .- Numbered among the successful and enterprising contract- ing builders of Orange County, one who has gained an enviable reputation for de- pendable workmanship, is Edward A. Noe, a "Buckeye" by birth, having been born July 30, 1873, at Marietta, Washington County, Ohio. He is a son of Lewis and Eliza (Welking) Noe, natives of Germany. Edward received his early education in the public school at Whipple, Ohio, and when nineteen years old began working for Andrew Hart, a contractor of Whipple, with whom he learned the trade of a car- penter. Later he moved to Marietta, Ohio, where he entered into partnership with William Lauer, under the firm name of Lauer & Noe, and they conducted a building business for three years, constructing many residences in Marietta. This partnership was dissolved, after which Mr. Noe removed to Akron, where he became foreman for Charles Deneke, a prominent huilder of that busy city, remaining in his employ for seven years. While with him Mr. Noe superintended the construction of some of the finest buildings in that part of Ohio, among which were a splendid high school building at Nottingham, East Cleveland, a large church at Oroville, also several large residences in Akron. Afterwards he returned to the home farm at Marietta, where he remained for three years.

In 1913 Mr. Noe came to California, locating at Santa Ana. After building three houses for himself in Santa Ana, he engaged in contracting work, and has erected over fifty residences in the county. Among those of which he is justly proud are the fine residence of C. P. Boyer at Tustin; three residences for A. J. Lasby, Santa Ana; an apartment house for Mrs. Lowman on North Bush Street: also a business block for Carden & Seamen. Mr. Noe has also constructed a num- ber of homes at Long Beach.

On December 29, 1896, Mr. Noe was united in marriage with Miss Fannie Lank- ford of Marietta, Ohio, and they are the parents of a son, James E. Noe. Fraternally Mr. Noe is an Odd Fellow and holds membership in Santa Lodge No. 236, I. O. O. F. On April 30. 1920, Mr. Noe and family left Santa Ana for a visit back East and visited many places and while there purchased an auto in Detroit and returned overland to Santa Ana arriving on July 24, well satisfied that this is the garden spot of the country.

CHARLES C. READ .- An esteemed, retired citizen of Santa Ana who saw much of the great Northwest, through business trips he made there, before he came to Cali- fornia, is C. C. Read of South Birch Street, one of the first settlers in that part of the city. He was born in Compton, Kane County, III., on November 22. 1844, the son of Ephalet Read, who had married Malinda Myers and had migrated with her from their native home in New Brunswick to Illinois in 1838. Our subject was edu- cated in Kane County, at the common district schools, and helped his father, who was a grain and stock farmer there, having developed his farm from the raw prairie.

On December 17, 1874. C. C. Read was married at Fulton, in Whiteside County, Ill., to Miss Margaret Ellen Wilson, a native of Whiteside County, and the daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Laughlin) Wilson, well-situated farmers She attended the schools of her home district, and so was prepared for the responsibilities of life. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Read purchased a farm of 265 acres, and there, in Kane County, they lived for fourteen years, while they carried on general farm- ing and stock raising.

When they had advantageously rented this farm, Mr. and Mrs. Read moved to Sycamore, III .. where they lived for twelve years, and there he bought and sold stock. He made trips to Iowa and Minnesota, in order to huy stock, which he again sold; and after a while he returned to Kane County and for another seven years lived on

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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 116

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