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 124

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 124

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At Los Angeles August 23, 1903, occurred the marriage of Mr. Hezmalhalch to Miss Lottie B. Harris, a native of Orange, the daughter of Chas. T. and Elida ( Hale) Harris, pioneers of Orange, of which union have been born the several children: Frederick H., Lillian E., Nance E., Robert and Charles (twins), Jean O and William H. Hezmalhalch. The family attend the Presbyterian Church, where Mr. Hezmalhalch has charge of the music. He belongs to the Odd Fellows, has passed through all chairs, and is a Master Mason, a member of Fullerton Lodge and Chapter. He is an Independent in politics, is fond of out-door sports, and is an adept in fencing. Public- spirited by nature, Mr. Heznialhalch could hardly fail, even were he not an incumbent of office, to take a deep interest in the rapid and successful development of so favored a section of the Golden State as Orange County.

FREDERIC JOSEPH WAGNER .- Among the ablest machinists in all of Orange County must be rated Frederic Joseph Wagner, who resides with his devoted wife at 3061/2 East Third Street. Santa Ana, having been born at New Orleans, La., on October 6, 1872. His father was Joseph Wagner, and he had married Miss Marie Hagstette. He came ironi Alsace-Lorraine, and has been a well-known transfer-man in New Orleans for many years. There Frederic grew up, and as the Hagstettes were machinists from "'way back," when fifteen years of age he was apprenticed at the machinist trade in New Orleans. He then branched out as an employe of different sugar mills in Lou- isiana and served them as both master mechanic and chief engineer.

After working in many of the leading cane-sugar factories of Louisiana, in 1899 he moved north to Minneapolis, to accept the very responsible post of chief engineer of the Minnesota Beet Sugar Factory. In 1904, he set up the machinery for the Chippewa Sugar Company at Chippewa Falls, Wis., from which town he went to Riverside, Ill., and put up the machinery in the Charles Pope Sugar Works, continuing with that con- cern until he came out to California in 1908.

Coming to Orange County in that year, he installed the machinery for the South- ern California Sugar Company plant in the Delhi precinct, and remained with that company for four years as chief engineer and master mechanic. In 1913, he came over to the factory of the Santa Ana Sugar Company, in the same precinct, was made master mechanic, and has occupied that position ever since. The relative importance of the two important and successful factories may be seen from the output of the former, 600 tons of beets a day, and that of the latter, 1,000 tons a day. The intricacy of the highly- specialized machinery naturally calls for unusual ability and wide experience.

The Santa Ana Sugar Factory is said, indeed, to be the best-equipped to produce sugar in the most sanitary and economical manner of any beet-sugar factory in Cali- fornia. It was erected in 1912: the size of the main building is 66 by 266 feet; the length of all buildings is 971 feet; and they are equipped with American machinery. Two hundred twenty-six independent farmers grew beets for this factory in 1912, and the area of their beet-patches aggregated 9,061 acres.

At New Orleans, Mr. Wagner was married to Miss Fredericker Silbernagel, a native of New Orleans, and one child has been granted them-a son, William J., also an expert machinist, who is conducting, however, a general merchandise store at Delhi. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner live at Santa Ana, and attend the Catholic Church. Mr. Wagner is a member of the Knights of Columbus and also of the Elks.

CARL J. GRINNELL .- That it is not necessary for one to have lived long in Orange County to partake enthusiastically of its progressive spirit and to wish to contribute in any way possible to its further development is demonstrated by Carl J. Grinnell, the successful citrus grower of East Orangethorpe Avenue, who has a fine grove and keeps it in excellent condition. He was born near Lansing, Mich., on July 25, 1886, the son of Theron J. and Cora (Craft) Grinnell, natives of Michigan, whose parents came from New York; they were farmers and raised grain, cattle and all kinds of stock, on their farm, where they still make their home. Carl J. is the oldest of their two children and was graduated from the Mason high school at Mason, Mich. He then matriculated at the State Agricultural College at Lansing and was graduated with the class of '10, with the degree of M.E. after which he took up the practical end of mechanical engineering with the Detroit Edison Illuminating Company.

During his engagement there, Mr. Grinnell was married at Kalamazoo on October 26, 1911, to Miss Jessie Dean, born in Rockford, Iowa, a daughter of Rev. J. O. and Helen Dean, who had lived in various communities in the Middle States, as her father

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was a Baptist clergyman; he is now deceased, while his widow resides at Kalamazoo. She received her training first in the public schools of Michigan and then at the State Normal in Kalamazoo, and for several years she was an instructor in both the graded and high schools at Fowlerville and Pinckney, Mich. After his marriage, Mr. Grinnell spent three and a half years with his father on the home farm near Mason. In Novem- ber, 1916, he came out to California, and purchased ten acres on. East Orangethorpe Avenue. Walnut and orange trees were already interset there, but Mr. Grinnell took out the walnuts and put in Valencias instead. He brought the land under the Anaheim Union Water Company, and in 1917 built his home on the ranch. He markets his oranges through the Placentia Orange Growers Association.

Mr. and Mrs. Grinnell are members of the Baptist Church of Fullerton, and also of the Eastern Star. Mr. Grinnell who was made a Mason in the Mason ( Mich.) Lodge, No. 70, A. F. & A. M., is now a member of Fullerton Lodge, No. 339, F. & A. M .; Fullerton Chapter No. 90, and Santa Ana Council, R. & S. M. In local politics he is an Independent, preferring to vote for the men and measures irrespective of party.

JOHN OBORNE .- England has given many a first-rate settler to the United States and especially has she furnished her sons and daughters for the great work of developing the commonwealth of California, so wondrously rich in her resources. Among these Britons to come here and cast their fortunes in with thousands of others willing to wage in order to win is John Oborne, the successful and well-known cement contractor of Fullerton who was born in Somersetshire, on October 14, 1867, the son of George and Amy (Higgins) Oborne, who were the parents of thirteen children. From the boyhood experience of our subject, who was the third child born to the enter- prising couple, it is fair to assume that the number in the family was a lucky one, albeit John got more schooling from the outside world than he did from the class room for he had to go to work as a boy, and that much he certainly learned-how to work.

When only fourteen years of age, the lad crossed the ocean to Canada and for two and a half years stopped at Woodstock, Ontario; then, crossing the line into the States, he lived in Michigan until 1904, where he worked in timber camps and at farming. In that year he came west to California, and from the first located at Fuller- ton, although for two years he was in Santa Ana.

For the past eight years, Mr. Oborne has been contracting for all kinds of cement work, and while employing five men or more, he has built most of the Fullerton side- walks, and among other buildings "poured" by him is the local jail-as ornate as it is substantial and safe. Besides his home place he is developing a five-acre orange grove near Olinda.

On January 11, 1900, at Detroit, Mich., Mr. Oborne was married to Miss Susie Chovin, a native of Detroit, Mich., and the daughter of Frank A. and Hannah Chovin, farmers near Detroit. She is a member of the Methodist Church, while Mr. Oborne clings to his Anglican, or Episcopal Church. Three children-all girls-have blessed their union; and they bear the names of Mary E., Mildred E. and Edith M. Mr. Oborne is a Republican, and also a Woodman of the World and a member of the Protected Home Circle of Detroit, Mich. He and his good wife are deeply interested in Orange County, and ready to cooperate in any civic movement for the uplift of the community, and the furtherance of its progress.

LORENZO A. HAMPTON .- A promising young rancher whose scientific knowl- edge is likely to assist him in more satisfactorily solving some of the problems of hor- ticulture, is Lorenzo A. Hampton, a native of Iowa, where he was born near West Bend in Buena Vista County on August 13, 1885, the son of Lindley E. Hampton, a farmer who raised stock and also followed general agriculture. He had married Ruia Swart- wout, and they removed to Palisade, Colo., when Lorenzo was only eight years of age. He attended the schools of that town, and later graduated from the Denver high school. Lindley Hampton had a peach grove of twenty acres near Palisade, and this had to be irrigated, a work in which father and son both joined.

Once having finished his studies, Lorenzo Hampton came to California in 1906 and studied at the University of Southern California, from which he was duly grad- uated in 1911 with the degree of A.B. He made a specialty of chemistry and was em- ployed as a chemist by the engineer department of the city of Los Angeles. At the end of a year, he left municipal service, continuing in the line of his professional work with the Federal Chemical Fertilizing Company.

In 1906 his parents came out to California to live, and the following year they purchased a ranch of twenty acres on East Orangethorpe Avenue. Part of the ranch was planted to walnuts, but he took out the walnuts and planted orange trees instead. Now all of the ranch but one acre-in walnuts-is devoted to the culture of oranges. Lorenzo A. Hampton spent three years on the home ranch, from 1912 to 1915, and 42

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then he purchased five acres from his father. That same year he returned to the University of Southern California, after which he taught in Burbank for a couple of years. His next move brought him to the Los Angeles high school, and there he is at present, one of the faculty. He teaches chemistry, and in his spare time looks after his five acres of Valencias. He has a private pumping plant and it commands thirty-five inches of water. He is a member of the American Chemical Society and aims to keep abreast of the times.

On June 15, 1911, Mr. Hampton was married to Miss Katherine Twombly, a native of Little Rock, Ark., and the daughter of Sidney S. and Etta Twombly. Her father was professor of agriculture in the University of Arkansas, and her home surroundings had been of the best. Mr. Twombly was made a professor in the University of Utah, and to that state they removed. They came to California in 1895, and having settled in Orange County, purchased a ranch on East Chapman Avenue, Fullerton. There were twenty-eight acres in the ranch, and there they have lived ever since. Two chil- dren blessed the happy union of Mr. and Mrs. Hampton. The elder is Gordon Francis, and the younger, Katherine Elizabeth. In national political affairs Mr. Hampton is a Republican, but in local movements he does not hesitate to support heartily the best men and the best measures, regardless of party.

HUGH CONGER THOMSON .- A native son, full of the genuine spirit of Amer- icanism, and an ingenious workman of valuable initiative, capable of pointing the way to others and leading in aggressive, bold movements, is Hugh Conger Thomson, the son of Hugh T. Thomson, the well-known and popular manager of the Jotham Bixby estate in Orange County. He was born in Villa Park, on July 6, 1893, and at that place attended the excellent graded school. Later, in 1909, he put in a very profitable year at Throop College, Pasadena, when he entered the employ of Brintnell's ranch at Guadalupe, Cal. He was also employed, for a year, in 1911, by the Jotham Bixby Con- pany, but the next year he became zanjero for the Gray Tract Well Company.

In 1918, Mr. Thomson became foreman for the Jotham Bixby Company, in which position he had the responsibility of improving and developing new acreage. In the fall of 1919, he gave up his position there to try farming for himself, and he continues to ranch on his home place in Villa Park, where he has five and a half acres of Valencia oranges and lemons seven years old.

On November 21, 1910, Mr. Thomson was married to Miss Edyth Popplewell, a schoolmate of days at Villa Park; and three children have blessed their union- Barbara Edyth, Emma Nancy and Hugh Conger, Jr. In national politics a Republican, Mr. Thomson is at all times ready to do nonpartisan "boosting" for the community and county in which he lives. He is also fond of sport in the open, and enjoys hunt- ing trips to Bear Valley and other natural preserves known to the real sportsman.

WILLIAM BAKER .- A successful manufacturer and business man, who has proven of great service to many in need of expert work in the mechanical field, is William Baker, proprietor of the Santa Ana Machine Works, at the corner of First and Sycamore streets. He was born in Ness City, Ness County, Kans., on July 10, 1885, the son of James H. Baker, a native of Ohio, who had married Susan Barker, born in Clearmont, Ky .; they were married in Kentucky and removed to Ness County, Kans., where he was a stockman. In 1904 they brought the family to Southern Cali- fornia and engaged in stock raising, and now reside in Escondido, San Diego County.

William attended the public schools in Kansas until he was fifteen years of age, and during this time helped his father on the ranch, riding the range and driving teams. Breaking away from home, he went to Yuma, Ariz., in 1901, arriving with $1.65 as his entire capital, and for seven and a half years was in the mechanical department of the U. S. Reclamation Service, learning the trade of machinist. Next he put in a year and a half in the oil fields at Santa Maria, Cal., and then went to Douglas, Ariz., where he worked for the El Paso & South Western Railroad. After that he was master mechanic for the Copper Queen Company at Tombstone for three and a half years. He put in eight months at Bisbee, Ariz., still following his trade.

On April 28, 1918, Mr. Baker came to Santa Ana and bought, from E. G. Jenks, his present machine shop, in which he installed new machinery, until it is now a fine establishment, thoroughly modern in every respect, whose equipment for first-class work is such that it serves patrons all over Orange County, and as far as Tacoma, Seattle, Chicago, St. Paul, Minn., and even to the Hawaiian Islands. He gives em- ployment to quite a number of skilled mechanics, and the constant increase in his trade has made it clear that he must soon considerably enlarge his place and equipment. He does all kinds of repair work on farm implements and pumping plants, and among special appliances of his own, makes a specialty, as a partner of S. E. Lane of the firm of Lane and Baker, of the manufacture of the Lane Rod and Tool Coupling

ThePritchard

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for oil well use. The object is a coupling for connecting, detachably, two sections so that they will not be subject to accidental disconnections; and in attending to first- class machine work of all kinds Mr. Baker has been more than successful. He also manufactures eye benders for auto springs for the Kenyon Eye Bender Manufactur- ing Company, as well as others.

On January 18, 1912, he was married to Miss Camilla Venneman, born in Chi- cago, Ill., a charming lady and a valuable helpmate. Both Mr. and Mrs. Baker are fond of outdoor life, and in leisure hours make the most of residence in a state un- rivalled for its climate, and in a progressive city with the most improved means of communication with the outside world. He is a member of the Merchants and Manu- facturers Association, and fraternally is a member of Santa Ana Lodge of Elks.

ABE PRITCHARD .- A man of vigorous activities, who knows how to persevere and to give his courage and unusual energy to the accomplishment of the task at hand, Abe Pritchard has for the past fifteen years ably guided the affairs of the Pla- centia Orange Growers Association, and his wise counsel and efficient execution have greatly aided in its upbuilding. A thoroughly wide-awake, admirably equipped organ- ization, it has done much to advance the individual interests of those engaged in citrus fruit culture, and which has thereby also forwarded the best and most permanent interests of the Fullerton district. During the season, when the two packing houses of which Mr. Pritchard has charge are running to their full capacity, they employ 225 people, so that their operations form one of those enterprises for which any ambitious and progressive community would be glad to make a substantial bid.

A Canadian by birth, Mr. Pritchard was born at Kazabazua, Province of Quebec, on January 17, 1865, the son of James Pritchard, a farmer, who had married Miss Eliza Steenson, by whom he had ten children, nine sons and a daughter, of whom Abe Pritchard is next to the youngest and the only one in California. He was educated in the local schools of his birthplace, and assisted his parents on the farm. After the death of his parents he engaged in farming on the old home place in partnership with his brother Robert, until 1900, when they dissolved partnership, as Mr. Pritchard had decided to try his fortune on the Pacific Coast. Coming direct to Orange County, Cal., in 1900 he liked it so well that he decided to locate here permanently, and fortu- nately both for himself and the young town, Mr. Pritchard early located at Fullerton, where he found work in packing houses. In time he became employed with the Benchley Fruit Company, and in 1905 he was made manager of the Placentia Orange Growers Association, their house then being located on the Santa Fe Railroad. In 1910 they built a packing house at Placentia, and in 1917, completed the large packing house on East Commonwealth Avenue, Fullerton, Mr. Pritchard being manager of both. They are hoth models of efficiency, being equipped with the most modern machinery in the line of the orange trade. In 1905, Mr. Pritchard's first year as manager, the association shipped 135 cars of citrus fruit, and in 1919 the shipment reached 1,280 cars, a wonderful growth.

Mr. Pritchard's many-sided business associations have awakened in him an intense interest in the welfare and the future prospects of Orange County, and just as in matters of national political import he seeks to do his full duty as a citizen under the leadership of the Republican party, so in an equally nonpartisan manner he is among the first to put his shoulder to the wheel and to help along any worthy move- ment likely to hasten the day when Fullerton "comes to her own." He is particularly active in this regard through the channels of the Fullerton Board of Trade and the Fullerton Club, being a charter member of the latter organization.

On November 12, 1912, at Los Angeles, Mr. Pritchard was married to Miss Bertha Wilhite, who was born at Dripping Springs, near Austin, Texas, and three daughters have come to complete the family circle and to further gladden their lives: Carolyn, Marian Louise and Katherine Elizabeth.

BENJAMIN H. COLE .- Numbered among the energetic and successful young business men of Olive is the efficient manager of the Olive Heights Citrus Association, Benjamin Harrison Cole, who has resided at Olive for the past eight years. Mr. Cole is a native of New Albany, Ind., born August 21, 1888, and is the son of Joseph, a dis- abled Union soldier, and Harriet F. ( Moore) Cole, also natives of Indiana, where the father followed the calling of a merchant. In 1899, when Benjamin was a lad of eleven, the family removed to California, settling at Upland in San Bernardino County, where the father died in 1905, survived by his widow, who is still living at Upland.

Benjamin H. acquired a grammar school education and at the age of twelve went to work in the Upland packing house. He is the fourth child in order of birth in the parental family of five children. The oldest of the family, Will, is employed as ticket agent by the Pacific Electric Company at Long Beach; Laura is the wife of Guy

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Bodenheimer, who is employed by the horticultural commissioner of Los Angeles; Alma is the wife of Charles Perkin, a rural mail carrier at Upland, Cal., and Roy, the youngest of the family, is with the North Ontario Packing Company at Los Angeles. Benjamin Cole resided at Upland for thirteen years and at the age of sixteen became foreman of the packing house, continuing in the company's employ until he came to Olive for a change of climate on account of his health, eight years ago. He was in the employ of the Growers Fruit Company at Olive, and in May, 1915, accepted the position as foreman of the Olive Heights Citrus Association, succeeding Mr. White as secretary and manager of the company in 1916. The company handles the product of 700 acres of fruit, principally Valencia oranges, and market their product in New York and Philadelphia, shipping forty carloads of fruit a year, aggregating $375,000 worth of fruit. The present officers are Dr. Thomas, president; C. A. Palmer, vice-president; B. H. Cole, secretary and manager, and K. V. Wolff, treasurer. The Association's packing house is located on a switch of the Santa Fe Railway and is 70x120 feet in dimension, with a capacity of four carloads of fruit per day. The entire process of taking care of the fruit, excepting refrigeration, is done here.

In 1907 Mr. Cole established domestic ties by his marriage with Miss Mary Barton of Upland, Cal. They have two children-Marian and Robert B. Mr. Cole resides on a twenty-five-acre orange and walnut grove on the Olive-Orange Boulevard, in which he has a half interest. Fraternally he is affiliated with Anaheim Lodge, No. 1345, B. P. O. Elks, where he is justly popular.

GUSTAVE HEDSTROM .- Much credit is due to those who have succeeded in life solely by their own efforts, and among these, Gustave Hedstrom, the enterprising and up-to-date orange and walnut grower on the Garden Grove-Anaheim Boulevard, is classed as a leader and is in every way worthy of the success he has achieved. What he has in the way of worldly goods has been the result of years of toil, and in all his labors he has had the hearty cooperation of his wife, who shares with him the esteem of all who know them.

A native of Sweden, Gustave Hedstrom was born on May 2, 1858, the son of Charles and Sarah Hedstrom, both natives of that country, whose family consisted of seven children, only four of whom are still living. Gustave received his schooling in his native country and in 1879, thinking to be able to better his condition in the new world, left home and upon arriving in America located for a short time in Knoxville, Tenn. Later he spent six months in Pittsburgh, Pa., then located in Trenton, N. J., for a year. He was looking about for a place in which to cast anchor, and in 1881, he went west to North Dakota, where he took up a homestead and for the four years that he was proving up on his property he engaged in railroad work to make what money was necessary for a living until he could raise some crops. When he disposed of his farm he removed to Joliet, Ill., and for fifteen years he was engaged in the mercantile busi- ness, meeting with success in his venture.

He had acquired considerable information about California and its opportunities and he decided to cast in his lot with this commonwealth; accordingly he disposed of his holdings in the East and in 1893 located in Los Angeles. In his younger days he had worked at the trade of carpenter and after his arrival here he contracted for build- ings in Huntington Park for four years. He recalls the time when he was offered a lot where now stands the great Hamburger building for $400. He was to pay down $10 and to pay $10 per month till it was paid for, but on account of nothing in the line of improvements in that locality and being practically in the country, he could not see the proposition in the light of a good investment. Orange groves were then scattered throughout the district south of Tenth Street. He worked about Los Angeles at his trade until settling on his twenty-acre ranch, which he bought in 1906, and ever since locating on the place he has spent considerable time at his trade, in all working about twenty-five years at it in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The place he owns was formerly the property of A. M. Nutt and was appropriately called the Nutwood Ranch, which name is still in vogue, as Mr. Nutt set out the trees. Since becoming the owner of this valuable place, Mr. Hedstrom has added many innova- tions of labor-saving devices and nses electricity for his fine pumping plant, which has cost him over $5.000, also an automatic pumping device, and continues making im- provements in his buildings and grounds until he has made a veritable "show place" of the ranch. The walnuts are interset with Valencia orange trees. He also owns a ranch in the Imperial Valley, which is being improved under his direction.

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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 124

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