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 122

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

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Removing to Fullerton when she was a child. Miss Yaeger attended the public schools and even as a young girl went to work. Step by step she advanced in a knowledge of modern industrial and trade conditions, and in 1909 she engaged in the line in which, as has been said, she has made such a pronounced success. notwith- standing that she started with very little capital. Her shrewd insight into "the great game," and her desire to serve, please and accommodate, while dealing justly in every respect, has placed at her disposal an establishment occupying the building which she erected in October, 1919. carrying a full line of accessories, and manned by no less than fourteen highly-trained people. In addition to representing the fast-selling Dodge Brothers motor cars, Miss Yeager also maintains the largest garage in the county, the repair department being located on the second floor and equipped with modern appli- ances and machinery to care for her growing trade. So long as Orange County boasts of such wide-awake promoters of commerce as this enterprising young woman of Fullerton, so long need the county have no worry as to its future.

FRANK J. GOBAR, M. D .- Fullerton has been unusually fortunate in the caliber of the men who have elected to make that city their home and the field for their professional and business efforts. Prominent among these is Dr. Frank J. Gobar. the physician and surgeon who has become well known in the practice of his profession in different cities and now centers his work of relieving suffering humanity in Orange County, which section has for the past fourteen years had the benefit of his knowl- edge and skill. He was born in Alma, Buffalo County, Wis., June 14, 1860. When he was six years old, in 1866, the family removed to southwestern Missouri, and there the young lad attended the common schools for his primary education. Returning to Wisconsin while still a youth, he located in Durand, and there clerked in a general store, and studied pharmacy; later he conducted a drug store in that town.

The study of medicine was his object, however, and he entered Rush Medical College of Chicago in 1883, graduating in 1885 with the degree of M. D. Then return- ing to Durand, the young medico practiced his profession in that city until 1901, and while a resident there took a prominent part in civic affairs, serving as mayor of the town, and was a member of the board of health and active in all good works for com- munity betterment: he was one of the promoters and founders of the electric light system and of the telephone company there. He also took an active interest in fraternal orders, joined the Masons in Durand and received the Consistory Degree of that order in Milwaukee, Wis. The Odd Fellows took him into the fold in Durand, also, and professionally he was a member of the County Medical Society. For fifteen years Dr. Gobar was surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, and a mem- ber of the National Association of Railway Surgeons.

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In 1901, he removed with his family to western Oregon, locating in Tillamook County, where he practiced his profession and also engaged in the cattle business, and owned a toll road. In 1906, he sold out his interests there and that year marks his arrival in Fullerton, and he has since that date been in general practice and specializing in casualty work. He is surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad, receiving his appointment in 1913, and his time is well filled with good works for the general welfare.

The marriage of Dr. Gobar, which occurred June 10, 1885, united him with Miss Nellie Hutchinson, a native of Durand, Wis., where the ceremony took place, and the daughter of a prominent surgeon there. Eight children have blessed the union: George H., an attorney associated with Kemp, Mitchell and Silverberg, with offices in the Marsh-Strong building, Los Angeles; he was active in local war work, acted as chief clerk of the exemption board at Santa Ana and also at Fullerton; Elizabeth, wife of Victor A. Porter of Fullerton and the mother of two children, Miriam and Frank; Frank H., a student in the medical department of the University of Southern California, saw service in France during the World War, acting as corporal in the Three Hundred Sixty-first Field Hospital Corps, Ninety-first Division, and saw active service in the Argonne, at St. Mihiel, Meuse, Lys, Scheldt, and in Belgium; since his discharge he has entered Stanford University to finish his medical course. He is married and has one child, Robert Franklin; Julian S., the fourth child, remained at home to care for the Victor Valley ranch; David E. saw service in the war, first as sergeant in a machine- gun company, and later he was trasferred to the field hospital at Camp Lewis, and he finally saw service in France in the same company as his older brother, the Three Hundred Sixty-first Field Hospital Corps, Ninety-first Division, in the freighting de- partment with rank as wagoner; Charlotte, a graduate of the Fullerton high school, is a student at Brownsherger College, Los Angeles; Roland K., a graduate of the Fuller- ton high school; and Eunice, a student at the Fullerton grammar school.

In partnership with his sons, Dr. Gohar, owns a 480-acre cattle ranch in Victor Valley, San Bernardino County; the venture has been very successful. He is a member of the board of sessions of the First Presbyterian Church of Fullerton, and is a member of the American Medical Association, the State and County Medical Societies. A man who stands out from the ranks in many respects, Dr. Gobar has brought much to the community life of Fullerton and Orange County; he has gained the respect and admir- ation of all who have come in contact with his fine personality, and in rearing and educating his typically American family, he and his wife have proven themselves citizens of inestimahle value to their country and the world.

JAMES HERVEY ROCHESTER .- Eminent among the distinguished citizens of Orange County certain to he depended upon for the exertion of a widely-felt and beneficent influence making for both the upbuilding and the building up of California, is James Hervey Rochester, of Costa Mesa, the branches of whose family tree reach out through successive generations and centuries to distant climes and great or notable. people. He was born at Owasco, Cayuga County, N. Y., on April 18, 1859, the son of James Hervey Rochester, a native of Bath, Steuben County, N. Y., where he was born on April 19, 1819, and a great-grandson of Nathaniel Rochester, who enjoyed the abiding honor of establishing the now great city of Rochester, N. Y. The family name. Rochester, originated from the city of Rochester, a place of great antiquity in County Kent, England, about twenty-five miles further out than Canterbury from London. The name is a relic of the days of Roman occupation, and means "rock castle" or camp, and besides the ever-interesting cathedral, which gives the place the English status of "town," the remains of the castle occupy a commanding position overlooking the river Medway. The family of Rochester were residents in County Essex in 1558 as is evi- denced by the Herald's Visitations when the coat of arms, "or a fesse between three crescents" was confirmed, or allowed to the family.

Nicholas Rochester, the first member of the family to come to America, was born in Kent, England, in 1640; and having settled in the Colony of Virginia in 1689, he purchased, on Christmas Day of that year, 100 acres of land in Westmoreland County. His only son, William, was born in 1680 and died in October, 1750; and his eldest son, John, was born in 1708 and died in November, 1754. Nathaniel Rochester, the third son of John, was born on February 21, 1752, and died on May 17, 1831; and his oldest son was William Beatty Rochester, who was born on January 29, 1789, and died on June 15, 1838. James Hervey Rochester, first, eldest son of William Beatty Rochester died on March 22, 1860.

This association of James Hervey Rochester, 2d, with his pioneer great-grand- father is of more than personal or temporary importance; it is a matter of national and historic interest to recall some of the incidents connected with the founding, by Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, in 1810, of the city which has played a such a role in the development of the Empire State. Many monuments have been erected to perpetuate

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the memory of eminent men, but none more unique and enduring than this where, by the adoption of the founder's name, the city itself, so long as it shall endure, will keep alive the name of Colonel Rochester.

Nathaniel Rochester was twenty-three years of age at the beginning of the War of the Revolution, but before April, 1776, despite his youth he successively held the positions of members of the Committee of Safety of Orange County, N. C., where he then lived, Justice of the Peace, Major of Militia and Paymaster, and then Lieutenant- Colonel. In May, 1776, he was elected a member of the state convention which adopted the State Constitution, and later, the same year, he was appointed Commissary Gen- eral of Military Stores-certainly remarkably rapid promotions, without reference to age, and of especial note when this important factor is considered. Severe illness pre- vented continuous service in the Continental Army, but in 1777 he was appointed a state commissioner to establish and operate a gun factory at Hillsboro, N. C., for the Continental Congress.

The personal history of this energetic patriot illustrates throughout his life the same active and efficient connection with public work. Colonel Rochester was born in the same county in Virginia (Westmoreland) where twenty years earlier George Washington entered upon the stage of human affairs; and after the War of the Revo- lution he was engaged in the practice of law in Hillsboro, N. C., and Philadelphia, Pa., but soon removed to Hagerstown, Md., where he built and operated mills for the manu- facture of nails and rope, and later still erected a flour mill. In 1788 he married Sophia, daughter of Colonel William Beatty of Frederick, Md., and while living at Hagerstown, he successively filled the offices of Member of Assembly of Maryland, Postmaster, and Judge of the County Court, and in 1808 was chosen a presidential elector. He was the first president and founder of the Hagerstown Bank, and a portrait of him painted at that time is in the bank at the present day, and a vignette steel engraving of this portrait is used on the bank's checks.

In 1800 he made his first visit to the "Genesee country" in New York State, where he had previously made a purchase of 640 acres, and in September of that year, asso- ciating with him Major Charles Carroll, Colonel William Fitzhugh, and Colonel Hilton of Maryland, he made large purchases of land in Livingston County, near Dansville. In 1802 he purchased 100 acres on the Genesee River which was to be the future site of the city of Rochester. In May, 1810, having closed up his business in Maryland, he first became a resident of western New York, and during the first five years he lived at Dansville. Then, disposing of his interests there, he removed to Bloomfield, Ontario County, and then to this place on the Genesee River at the Falls, which he had pre- viously visited, surveying the land and laying out a townsite, which received the name of Rochester.

In 1816. Colonel Rochester was a second time an elector for president; and in in January, 1817, he was secretary of the important convention at Canandaigua, which urged the construction of the Erie Canal. During this year he went to Albany, N. Y., as agent for the petitioners for the establishing of a new county in western New York, known as Monroe County, and he was first clerk of the new county, and also its first representative in the state legislature of 1821-2. Upon the organization of the Bank of Rochester, he was unanimously elected its president. He had always been attached to the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was one of the founders of St. Luke's Church of Rochester. After having opened his eyes to the beauties of this world in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, Va., he died in Rochester on the morning of the seventeenth of May, 1831, after a long and most interesting career of far-reaching usefulness. When his country had demanded his services, he freely gave them, participating alternately in its arduous financial, military and legislative work; and its exigencies terminating, he was a zealous coworker in all that related to the beneficial uses of free government. Almost constantly filling important public trusts, he at the same time established great business enterprises, promoted in many ways an enduring public prosperity, and finally achieved the enviable and lasting distinction, the founder of a city, and one now more than a century old.

Not less interesting, in its way, is the story of William Beatty Rochester, the Colonel's eldest son, who was born in Hagerstown, Md., on January 29, 1789, and was graduated from Charlotte Hall, in St. Mary's County, Md. He studied law with Henry Clay in Lexington, Ky., and having moved to New York State, in 1818 represented Steuben County in the legislature. In 1821, he was presidential elector from New York State, and was a member of the Seventeenth Congress. In 1823 he was appointed judge of the eighth circuit of New York, hut resigned in 1826 to accept the nomination for governor of New York. In 1837, on account of ill health he went to Florida where, at Pensacola, he became president of the Bank of Pensacola and a director in the Alabama and Florida Railroad. In 1838, he started for Washington, D. C., and at

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Charleston was persuaded by his friends, the Lamars, to accompany them to Baltimore on their new steamer "Pulaski" on her first trip north. On the morning of June 14th, the steamer left Charleston, and that night at 11 o'clock, the starboard boiler exploded. tearing out that side of the boat, which keeled over to the port side and floated about forty minutes, when she parted and capsized. Judge Rochester seized a settee, which hardly buoyed him up; but after he had floated for three hours or more, the first mate's boat came up and took him in. In endeavoring to effect a landing, the frail boat was capsized by the heavy surf, and he was lost within a few yards of the shore. Judge Rochester's career was also remarkable for the rapidity of his promotion to the various offices which he filled to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Genial and always fond of good company, both as a young man and through life, he deserved and enjoyed popularity.

William Beatty Rochester's son, James Hervey, was married on May 14, 1846, to Miss Evelina Throop Martin, a native of Lyons, Wayne County, N. Y., where she was born on February 11, 1822. She was a niece of Enos Thompson Throop, the intimate friend of President Martin Van Buren, through whom he was made, to the good fortune of New Yorkers, first lieutenant-governor and then governor of the Empire State, was relected, and. served in that high office from 1829 to 1833, when he was appointed by President Jackson naval officer at the port of New York, later still being sent by Presi- dent Van Buren as charge d'affaires of the United States to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies at Naples. Mrs. Rochester, the mother of our subject, was a lady of rare accomplishment, and of more than passing interest. being a descendant of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland. A direct forefather was William Seaborn Martin, son of Lieutenant Samuel Martin of New Haven and Wethersfield, Conn., who was born in Devonshire, England, and came from Plymouth to America in 1640. Samuel Martin married Phebe Bracey; and inasmuch as their son William was born on shipboard. on their way to this country, he was called William Seaborn Martin. On June 25, 1685. he married Abigail Nichols, the daughter of Caleb Nichols; and he was the son of Francis Nichols, who married Margaret Bruce, daughter of Sir George Bruce of Car- nock, who was a son of Robert Bruce. He was a son of Edward Bruce (1565), the son of Sir David Bruce (1497), the son of Sir David Bruce who was a son of Sir Robert Bruce (1393), the son of Sir Edward Bruce, who was a son of Robert Bruce of Clack- mana (1367). The latter was a son of King Robert Bruce, who was born on March 21, 1274. crowned at Scone on March 27, 1306, and after a reign of twenty-three years. seldom equalled and never excelled, all things considered. died on June 7, 1329. Four years after his marriage, James Hervey Rochester, Sr., came out to California, and for eight years was a member of the banking firm of Oliver Lees and Company of San Francisco. A brother, William Beatty Rochester, was the first general manager of the Wells-Fargo Express Company, and was stationed at Marysville, the headquarters of the company at that time. Through his mother Amanda Hopkins, he was a cousin of the late Mark Hopkins of San Francisco, Cal.

James Hervey Rochester, 2d, was graduated from the Auburn Academy in Cayuga County, N. Y., in 1877, and as his inclinations favored an art career, he studied under the best teachers at home, and then at the National Academy of Design in New York. A great uncle. Whitfield Hatch, was founder and president of the American Banknote Engraving Company of New York, and this circumstance led James Hervey, on leaving home at the age of seventeen, to take up engraving as the most desirable branch of art work. He went to Buffalo and there worked with the Bureau of Illustration and the Courier Publishing Company; but wishing a more extended field, he went to New York City in 1880, and soon was busy producing the finest class of magazine engravings for Harper's, Scribner's and the Century. As some classes of engraving in particular have been peculiarly at home in America, Mr. Rochester's work could not fail of cordial recognition in the United States and abroad; and he continued in that artistic field until the constant and prolonged strain caused for him serious eye trouble. Through the advice of oculists, he therefore discontinued engraving and since then has devoted himself to portrait and landscape painting. In March, 1908, Mr. Rochester came to California and located at Costa Mesa, in Orange County, where he established a perma- nent residence.

Mr. Rochester at Lewiston, Me., on June 20, 1895. married Miss Edith Grensted, the daughter of Henry W. Grensted, of Maidstone, the county town of Kent, situated on the right bank of the Medway. She grew up near the old Gothic archbishop's palace dating from the fourteenth century; inspired by an uncle, Frederick Finnis Grensted, canon of Liverpool Cathedral and a writer of considerable note on ecclesias- tical subjects, she came to be favorably known as the author of a hook of poems on Southern California entitled "From Star to Star." and another volume entitled. "Fore- noon, Afternoon and Night." and rich in the esteem and affection of a wide circle of

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friends, she passed to the life eternal on January 18, 1920. Two children blessed this fortunate union-William Beatty Rochester was born on April 21, 1896; and Nathaniel Norman Rochester on November 8, 1897. During the World War, Nathaniel enlisted in defense of his conntry and became sergeant of Company L, Seventh Regiment, Santa Ana, Cal., later the One Hundred Sixtieth Infantry when federalized at Camp Kearney; and as one of a replacement unit, Sergeant Rochester was a member of Company B, Three Hundred Eighth Infantry, and so won undying honor when killed spiritedly fight- ing with the "Lost Battalion" in the French Forest of Argonne, on October 8, 1918. only a short time, comparatively, before the armistice.

Mr. Rochester is a member of the Episcopal Church, for the Rochesters have been Episcopalians, or Anglicans, as far back as may be traced. In Bishop Meade's "Old Churches and Families of Virginia," mention is made of the great-great-grand- father, John Rochester, as one of the vestrymen of Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, Va., serving in 1785 with John A. Washington, an uncle of the Father of his Country. Mr. Rochester has the inherited right to membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, and also in the Sons of the Revolution; and he took the master Mason's degree at Ionic Lodge No. 61, Oviedo, Orange County, Fla., in 1890. In national political affairs Mr. Rochester is an Independent.

SAMUEL N. FULLER .- A representative citizen of Fullerton who has aided much in developing the agricultural resources of that district is S. N. Fuller, promi- nently identified with progressive movements in Orange County as a dealer in country and city real estate, also a rancher who has made good in putting many acres of unimproved or partly improved land under a high state of cultivation and then sold at a profit to settlers who have chosen this part of Orange County as a home.

Mr. Fuller was born in Greene County, Ind., February 24, 1865, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Darling Fuller, farmer folk of Indiana. His mother died when he was a small child and he was educated in the rural schools of his native state and the high school, and a commercial college at Terre Haute, after which he farmed for a time. He came to California in 1901 and settled at Fullerton where he began improving a ranch by setting out an orange grove and then selling the same. This line of work has occupied almost his entire time since he has been in this state and he has improved many acres in this manner. He has bought land and subdivided it and then sold. With three associates Mr. Fuller purchased ninety-seven acres of what was known as the Benchley Estate and this was subdivided and sold in small tracts; on a part of this land are now located the Fullerton Union high school buildings, which, by the way, Mr. Fuller and others were instrumental in having located in its present location and which is one of the finest group of buildings of their kind to be found in the state and to which every citizen of Fullerton and vicinity point with much pride.

April 8, 1891, he was united in marriage with Miss Jennie McDermont of Indiana, the fruit of their union being two sons, both of whom served in the United States Army in France during the recent World War. Fred is cashier in the First National Bank at Fullerton, and Lloyd L. had the distinction of being wounded while in the service of his country and now is attending a commercial college in Los Angeles.

Mr. Fuller is a director in the First National Bank at Fullerton, and is deeply interested in all that concerns this section of country. He was clerk of the grammar school board and is a member of the Board of Trade and Housing Committee. In his religious convictions he is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and fraternally is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the I. O. O. F. He is a man of strong and forceful character, enterprising and public spirited, and worthily enjoys the respect and esteem of the residents of Fullerton and vicinity.

JOHN R. PARKER .- The high standard of education long ago established and always maintained in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in that commonwealth furnishing the American Republic with many leaders in educational work, and among these have been men and women who have for years helped to shape the educational policies, on broad and advanced lines, of the great state of California. To this well-trained staff belongs the district superintendent of schools of Fullerton, John R. Parker, who was born in Ontario, Canada. His father was Andrew Parker, a well-known business man now deceased. He had married Miss Margaret Cooper, the daughter of Robert Cooper, a Scotchman, and business man of Ontario, Canada. Mrs. Parker, a gifted lady, is still living in Los Angeles. John was the only child of this happy union, and enjoyed the best of educational advantages.

He attended the common schools of Canada, and the Collegiate Institute of Ontario, with its model school and normal school at Ottawa, and afterward accepted the principalship of a school in Trenton. At the end of two years, he resigned to come to California, in 1888. Here, having taken and passed the examinations for both ele-

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mentary and high school teachers, he taught in Santa Barbara County for thirteen years, and then for three years was principal of a school at Clearwater, Los Angeles County. He next was principal of a school at Long Beach for two years.

In 1911, he took charge of the schools of Fullerton, commencing his superintend- ency with seven teachers; and since then the schools of the district have so expanded that there were twenty-four teachers working under and with him. He introducd the normal training and the home economics, did good work as a member of the county board of education, and was twice president of that board. In June, 1920, Mr. Parker resigned to devote his time to his orange grove which he has developed east of Ana- heim. A Republican in matters of national import, Mr. Parker has never allowed partisanship to interfere with a hearty support of the best men and the best measures for local uplift and development. He is a member of the Men's League and the Board of Trade, and a member whose whole-souled activity counts.

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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 122

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