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 128

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 128

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The marriage of Mr. Harvey, which occurred October 12, 1882, in Jefferson County, Ind., united him with Sarah E. Siebenthal, born in the same county in Indiana, daughter of Perret F. Siebenthal, pioneer miller of Indiana; one daughter has blessed their union, Birday Daisy, wife of William A. De Moss of Fullerton. Fraternally Mr. Harvey is a member of the Jr. O. U. A. M. Lodge of Riverside, a charter member, and has passed through all the chairs up to vice counsel of the state of California; he has the ritual of the order committed to memory and has installed different lodges of the order. He is also well known throughout this section as deputy sheriff of Orange County, is the owner of an orange grove planted to Washington Navels in Riverside County, and owns his own home in Fullerton, and is popular throughout the community, interested in all things for the further development of his district, and active in bringing it about.

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SAMUEL E. TALBERT .- Not many men have the honor to be the leading citi- zens of their districts, or to have an embryo town named after them, as is the case with Samuel Edmonson Talbert, whose honored family will be celebrated in the name given to Talbert, Orange County. He was born in Piatt County, Ill., on February 4, 1874, and his father was James T. Talbert, a native of Kentucky, who went to Illinois when he was a young man. In Piatt County he was married to Miss Rachel Weddle and when the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in one of the Illinois volunteer infantry regiments, and served for four years with the Union Army. He sent to his wife, while he was in the field, such money as he could save, and with it she invested in forty acres of Piatt County land, and there he settled after the war.

Samuel was eight years old when his mother died, leaving eight children: Mary, the oldest, is the wife of William Piper, and resides at Deshler, Henry County, Ohio; Nettie became the wife of Fred Finity and died in Los Angeles, leaving a son named James; Eva is the wife of J. B. Irwin, and resides in Orange County Park, Orange County, Cal .; Frances married a Missouri attorney, David McCullem, and died, the mother of three children; Lavina resides at Chestnut, Ill., and is the wife of Joe Miller, a farmer; Samuel E., the subject of our sketch, was the sixth in the order of birth; T. B. Talbert, the next, is the Orange County supervisor; and Henry E. resides at Huntington Beach, having married Ella McGowan, by whom he has had one child, Henry Kime.

After a boyhood and youth spent in Piatt County, Ill., until he was eighteen, Samuel left Illinois on his birthday, accompanied by his father and brothers, destined for California. They reached Long Beach, where an uncle, William Talbert, lived, on February 9, 1892. He had attended the public schools in Illinois, and he continued his schooling at Lucerne, Los Angeles County, where his father rented a ranch. They went up to Antelope Valley, but did not like it, and traveled around to other places; and finally, in November, 1896, came down to Fountain Valley or what used to be called Gospel Swamp. While he was a resident at Long Beach, James T. Talbert became prominent as a member of the Grand Army of the Republic; and at Long Beach he died on May 18, 1918, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.

Father and son bought 320 acres of land, of which a cousin, W. O. Afer, took forty acres, and now Samuel owns 178 acres of the best land at Talbert. He has eleven flowing wells, one and two on each twenty acres, and a fine bungalow residence, which he remodeled about four years ago; but it is rather for what he has done for the county, than for what he possesses, that he is best known, and most honored.

He was the main spirit, for example, in organizing the Talbert Drainage district, and made the first ditch, and has made nearly all the other drainage ditches in that district since. On account of the land lying so low and near to the water-level of the Pacific Ocean, the question was asked, whether the land could be drained at all; and when many doubted, Mr. Talbert both said that it could, and actually drained it. Twenty-thousand dollars' worth of bonds were voted, to build the ditches, which are constructed on the east side of the section line, or the half-section, as the case may be, and the dirt has been put on the west side of the ditches, to throw the drainage down toward Newport Bay and make the roads in the district.

The flood of 1916 filled up the bay, and a new channel was cut below Newport Bay and Huntington Beach. That filled up with sand, and it became necessary to put two 54-inch galvanized corrugated iron pipes leading into the ocean, equipped with gates to keep the water back during high tide, at a cost of $5,000 to Talbert district. This project has reclaimed about 1,000 acres belonging to the Pacific Gun Club. The Talbert drainage district contains 15,000 acres now excellent land for the growing of sugar beets, lima beans and celery; and to such an extent has drainage been the making of the district that farm land there is now worth as high as $1,000 an acre and rents for $25 to $75 an acre, where formerly there was only a swamp covered with willows and tules and could have been bought for from $12.50 to $40.00 per acre.

Mr. Talbert was also the first to devise plans and later to dig ditches to keep the Santa Ana River from spreading over this entire delta country. He secured a right-of- way for deepening and making a new channel for the said Santa Ana River from Seven- teenth Street in Santa Ana to the ocean, and took the contract to dig the channel, and successfully dug it. This has confined the river to its new channel, and protected the farming lands from flood water. No money was available for this work at first; the Newbert Protection District was organized, bonds were voted and he was made presi- dent and manager and the success of the enterprise followed. His work was highly praised by engineers and he has repeatedly been the subject of interesting write-ups in the Santa Ana and Los Angeles papers.

With his brother, T. B. Talbert, our subject secured the right-of-way for the Pacific Electric Railway. He excavated the road-bed, moved houses and grubbed trees, and graded six miles of the route from Huntington Beach to the Santa Ana River

nathan. E. allen mary Allen

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channel, in twenty-eight days, finishing the job in two days less than the time stipulated in the contract. The distance from Huntington Beach to Santa Ana is fifteen miles, and the performance was one of which anyone might reasonably be proud.

On January 26, 1895, Mr. Talbert was married to Miss Hattie L. Brady, then a maiden of fifteen and a half years of age, who was born at Santa Ana, the daughter of John and Louisa (Shrode) Brady of that city. Her father was a butcher, and con- ducted a butcher shop there when the town was only a village. The parents had both been born and married in Texas, and when they came from Texas to Santa Ana, in the seventies, they brought two children with them. Her father, therefore, was well known to the pioneers of Santa Ana. He removed to Long Beach, and there he died when Mrs. Talbert was a girl of only eight. Hence, she attended school in Long Beach. Mr. and Mrs. Talbert have never had any children of their own, but they have brought up several, both boys and girls, among them Will Howardson, now employed by the Southern California Edison Electric Company at Long Beach.

Mr. Talbert has always been working for the improvement of the county and the building up of the farming section. He has worked honestly and conscientiously for the public welfare, thus being in the van of progress for the great future he saw in store for his section of Orange County.

NATHAN E. ALLEN .- A successful rancher who made a splendid record for himself in an entirely different field prior to undertaking orange growing, is Nathan E. Allen, who lives at the corner of Cerritos and Placentia avenues, in southeast Anaheim. He was born at Jefferson, Jefferson County, Wis., on March 9, 1866, the son of Samuel Allen, who went to Idaho to engage in the cattle business, but died soon after going there, in 1872. He was a native of England and came from Worcestershire, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him; and he married a most estimable lady, Miss Nora Britton, a native of Watertown, N. Y., of an old New England family who also enjoyed a wide circle of devoted friends.

Nathan Allen attended the country schools of Jefferson County, where he had to "dig" for an education, and spent his early years on a Wisconsin farm. Then he was apprenticed to the marine engineer's trade, and when just twenty-one was granted a license to act as assistant engineer on a fresh-water steamer. He therefore sailed on the Great Lakes as one of the marine engineering staff for more than twenty-four years. He was chief engineer of the "L. C. Waldo," once the third largest fresh-water steamer afloat, for fifteen years until he resigned to come out to California in the winter of 1911. Mr. Allen settled at Anaheim and purchased thirteen acres of Tom Walton, on Placentia and Cerritos avenues. It was bare land: but he set it out to Valencia oranges, and put it under the service of the Equitable Water Company, which takes in an area of 104 acres in that vicinity, and such care has he bestowed on it that it is counted one of the finest groves in the section. He also became a director in the Anaheim Cooperative Orange Growers Association.

On February 13, 1904, Mr. Allen was married to Mrs. Mary ( Knox) Peltier, a native of Canada, and the daughter of George and Martha ( Hansel) Knox. She was educated at the grade schools of Brampton, Ontario, where her father died, while her mother came to California and spent her last days with the Allens on the ranch and died March 18, 1917. Mrs. Allen belongs to the Anaheim Methodist Church, and finds the highest pleasure in doing good. Mr. Allen is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. and is a Knight Templar.

NORMAN B. TEDFORD .- A visitor to Anaheim cannot help but be attracted by the many fine homes and business blocks in that city, and also the beautiful country places in its environs. all evidence of the wealth and prosperity of the community, and also of the class of architects and builders who have made this district the center of their business interests and by their handiwork have beautified one of Nature's garden spots of the world. Prominent among these men may be mentioned Norman B. Tedford, contractor and builder. A native of Canada, he was born at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, November 30, 1876, and received his education in the public schools of that country.

When a lad of eighteen he started out to make his own way in life, and came to "the States," locating in Boston, Mass., and there learned the trade of carpenter with one of the largest and most prominent contracting firms of that city, Mitchell and Sutherland, remaining in their employ eleven years, during which time he assisted in the construction of many residences for the millionaire colony of the Back Bay dis- trict, and was also foreman for the company in the construction of many large office buildings in Boston. For the same firm he went to Newport, R. I., and worked on some of the finest homes there, including those in the famous Vanderbilt colony.

In 1904, Mr. Tedford came west to visit the World's Fair at St. Louis, and from there came to Pasadena, Cal. After working a short time in the latter city he located

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in Anaheim, and here entered into partnership with the late A. E. Strehle, the well- known contractor, under the firm name of Strehle and Tedford. In about four years this partnership was dissolved and Mr. Tedford continued alone as a contractor and builder; his early schooling with one of the hest firms in the country made him an expert in his line, and he has drawn designs for many of the homes he has erected, and makes a specialty of fine residences, having completed one of the finest in Ana- heim, the John Ruther home on North Los Angeles Street. Other evidences of his craft are the C. F. Grim residence; the H. C. Lawrence home; four residences for Levi Mann, and the homes of Jas. O'Brien, J. Hunter, and others too numerous to mention, besides several business blocks and many fine homes on the ranches in the Anaheim district. His skill has made him well known in other parts of the country, and he erected a theater building in Yuma, Ariz., and also has done work in Northern California. The benefits gained from having a man of wide knowledge and ability in a community are far reaching and readily seen in the advancement and progress made in Orange County in the past decade, a progress phenomenal even for this rapidly growing State of California.

The marriage of Mr. Tedford, which occurred in Santa Ana on December 24, 1904, united him with Mae Horslin of Boston, Mass., and two children have blessed their union: Roma F. and Harvey L., both natives of California. In fraternal circles Mr. Tedford has been active in the lodge of Eagles, and is past worthy president of Anaheim Lodge of that order. A man of broad vision and keen outlook on life, he has been prominent in all good works of the county, and has earned a place distinct- ively his own in this section of the state.

ORRIN M. THOMPSON .- Among the enterprises of Fullerton long looked upon as especially serviceable to the community must be mentioned the Central Garage, owned and conducted by Orrin M. Thompson, at 121 North Spadra Street. Its pro- prietor first saw the light in Montgomery County, Iowa, in September, 1875, and was born into the family of W. S. Thompson, a farmer, who had married Miss Mary An- derson. Both parents are now deceased, but they left behind them the precious herit- age of character, industry and thrift, three factors that have contributed greatly to Mr. Thompson's success, especially in the attainment of the esteem of his fellow- citizens of Fullerton.

He attended the rural schools of his locality, and grew up at home until he was twenty. He was for a number of years a railroad engineer out of Sioux City, Iowa. Jn 1911 he came to California, and the following August he located in Fullerton, where he started the business he is at present expanding with such success. He is a member of the Board of Trade, and one that never loses a good opportunity to advertise the town, and to present it in its most attractive but true light, as a place of safe invest- ments. In 1914 Mr. Thompson bought land in the Richfield section, which is now pro- ducing oil.

In addition to the ordinary business of a garage, Mr. Thompson carries on the repairing of automobiles and the sale of auto accessories; and for this he requires the assistance of ten skilled men-a tangible fact that speaks much for his claims to do the larger part of such trade in the town.

On July 23, 1902, at Waterbury, Nebr., Miss Margaret Herrick, a native of Nebraska, became the wife of Mr. Thompson, and she is now the mother of four children, Raymond, Helen, Janet and Dorothy. The family attend the Methodist Church, and both Mr. and Mrs. Thompson take a keen interest in politics, political reforms and such higher standards in civic life as can best be promoted, they believe, through nonpartisanship.

ALBERT CAILLAUD .- The fumigating department is one of the most important in the conduct of our modern citrus industry. The introduction of this system has freed the orchards from infectious diseases and caused thousands of trees to bear bounteous crops that otherwise would not have matured. The fumigating depart- ment of the Placentia Orange Growers Association, at Fullerton, is fortunate in having as its superintendent Albert Caillaud, a native son of French lineage, born at Riverside, Cal., August 12, 1893. His father, Alex Caillaud, now deceased, came to California from France in 1880. He located in Riverside County, where he conducted a nursery and engaged in budding and pruning citrus orchards, becoming an expert in this line; at one time he had a nursery at San Dimas.

Albert Caillaud received his education in the Riverside public schools and helped his father in the nursery business. In 1913 he located in Orange and for one season worked for a large fumigating company. His next move was to Pomona, where he entered the employ of the Growers' Fumigating Supply Company, one of the largest in

It & Penman La Vera Penman.

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the state. While with this company he gained a thorough knowledge of the business and became so efficient that he was made foreman of the fumigating outfits.

During the World War, Mr. Caillaud saw twenty months of service, becoming a sergeant in the One Hundred Sixteenth Engineers, Forty-first Division. As early as November, 1917, he was sent abroad and remained for six months after the close of the war, returning to the United States in July, 1919. Owing to his ability to speak French fluently he was made an interpreter and he also filled the position of buyer of supplies for the regiment. He spent six months in Belgium, where he was attached to the grave registration department, his duty being to take bodies from the battlefield to the cemetery. Whatever duty he was called upon to perform, Mr. Caillaud gave it his whole-hearted and loyal support.

Fraternally Mr. Caillaud is a member of Post 142, American Legion, at Fullerton and of the San Dimas Lodge of Odd Fellows. He accepted his present position with the Placentia Orange Growers Association in February, 1920. Mr. Caillaud was married in March, 1920, to Miss Martha Stolle, born in Missouri, but a resident of San Dimas.

NEWTON J. PENMAN .- A self-made, self-reliant American who has become one of the most substantial and promising citizens of Orange County, is Newton J. Penman, member of the firm of William W. Penman and Sons, now enjoying the distinction of being Orange County's most extensive individual sugar beet growers. He was born in Nevada County, Cal., on February 7, 1875, and was reared in the Paso Robles section of San Luis Obispo County, where he received a good education in the public schools. From a boy he assisted his father at farming and stock raising until 1912, when the family came to Orange County.

On December 24, 1915, he was married to Mrs. La Venia A. Wollenberg, née Hubbard, a daughter of Mortimer Hubbard, the Santa Ana pioneer, now the contracting carpenter and builder at San Juan Capistrano .. She was born and reared at Santa Ana. The father was born near Santa Rosa, Cal., while Mrs. Hubbard, who was Emma O. Burton before her marriage, was a native of Wisconsin, coming from there with her parents. Mrs. Penman's first husband, Edmund Wollenberg, a native of Beecher, Ill., was a business man in Tustin until he passed away, in 1914, and left her with two children-Marjory Pauline Wollenberg and Dorothy Edna Wollenberg. In national political affairs a Republican, Mr. Penman is a devoted citizen of the county and neighborhood in which he lives and thrives, and never allows party politics to interfere with his support of worthy measures for the betterment of society.

Messrs. William W. Penman and Sons are the most extensive and therefore the leading beet raisers in Orange County, and they operate two leases on the James Irvine, or old San Joaquin Ranch, each being separately located, but under one man- agement-that of William W. Penman, Sr .. and his two sons, our subject and a brother. John R. There are 920 acres in the two leases; the father lives on the one ranch, and Newton J. Penman resides on the other.

When one considers the ever-fast development of the sugar beet industry in Cali- fornia, the advent of such young manhood as that of Newton J. Penman augurs much for the future contribution of the state toward this economic need of the world. They are members of the Episcopal Church in Orange. Mr. Penman is a member of the Knights of Pythias, while his wife is a member of the Pythian Sisters, of which she is past chief.

JOSE FRANCISCO VELASCO .- The absorbing romance of more than one early native family of California is recalled by the life stories of Mr. and Mrs. Jose Francisco Velasco, long among the leading residents of the Yorba district, and the proprietors of the one store or commercial establishment there. Mr. Velasco was born in Tucson, Ariz., on November 6, 1872, the son of Carlos Y. Velasco, for years the editor of "El Fronterizo," a weekly Spanish paper published at Tucson. He was a native of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mex., and was twice elected a representative from Sonora to the capital, Mexico City. After having married in Mexico, Miss Beatrice Ferrer, also of Hermosillo, he removed to Tucson, Ariz., where he died in 1914, at the age of seventy-six, honored not only as a man of ability, but as a citizen and neighbor of generous deeds. Mrs. Velasco is still living, and is in her seventy-fifth year.

Jose Francisco Velasco is the oldest son and the second child in a family of whom there are now only three living: Dolores resides at Tucson; Jose Francisco is the subject of our sketch; and Carlos is in business, dealing extensively in automobiles. at Tucson. Growing up, while attending the Tucson public schools, Jose became a typesetter in his father's printing office, and at the same time a writer in Spanish as well as in English. He founded a weekly newspaper at Phoenix, called "El Hijo de Fronterizo," and ran it for several months. Later he became foreman of that news- paper office, which passed into the hands of his father and Benjamin Heney, a brother

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of Francis Heney, the well-known lawyer. As in the case of early California papers, this newspaper was printed in both Spanish and English.

During this time Mr. Velasco was married to Miss Amelia L. Davila, the ceremony taking place at Yorba on April 21, 1897. She is the only living daughter of Pio Quinto Davila, who married Andrea Elisalde de Yorba, who was the third and last wife and the widow of Bernardo Yorba, then owner and proprietor of the great Yorba rancho. Mr. Davila was born in Bogota, United States of Colombia, and came from an eminent family there. Mrs. Velasco was born in Los Angeles, as was her mother, her maternal grandmother, and her great-grandmother. She was educated by an English governess, Miss Charlotte Knollys, and by private tutors in her father's home in Los Angeles. She also attended the Sisters' School there, and it was while she was on a vacation at Yorba that she met Mr. Velasco. After marriage they removed to Arizona, and engaged in the general mercantile business; but finding that the climate did not agree with his wife, Mr. Velasco came back to Yorba in 1899.

The following year he bought out the general merchandise store at Yorba Station, and since then he has been engaged in commerce and also in taking an active part in civil and governmental affairs. Not only is he the one merchant here, but he has found time to serve as clerk of the board of school trustees for Yorba. He is also deputy county registration clerk, and has filled that office with credit for years. A Republican in matters of national moment, Mr. Velasco is too broad-minded and too much interested in Yorba and in Orange County to allow any form of partisanship to interfere with his loyal support of the best attainable in home affairs.

Five children have blessed the happy union of Mr. and Mrs. Velasco: Josefita is the wife of T. E. Woods, the interior decorator, and resides in Los Angeles, the happy mother of one child, Thomas. Jose Francisco served for two years in the U. S. Navy, on the Cincinnati, and is a third-class quartermaster signalınan, with an honorable discharge, and also an "honorable mention" to his credit. By trade he is a lapidarist, and lives in Los Angeles. Victor is a graduate of Fullerton Union High School, class of 1920. now attending the electrical department at the Y. M. C. A. Vincent is a sophomore in the Fullerton Union High School, and there is Louis A. Velasco. Mrs. Velasco is a woman of interesting versatility, with a liking and ability for the study of local history. Besides bringing up her children, and attending to her household duties, she has written for various publications and studied hoth music and art. As a well- traveled person, she is the life of society at Yorba, where she is a general favorite.

CHARLES A. ANDRES .- A fine grove of twenty acres, consisting of Valencia oranges, walnuts and deciduous fruits of many kinds, is the reward of many years of hard, diligent effort on the part of Charles A. Andres, whose ranch is one-half mile north of Garden Grove, although he makes his home at 1711 North Bush Street, Santa Ana. Born in Prussia, Germany. August 10, 1871, Charles A. Andres is the son of Ludwig and Marie (Dee) Andres, a narrative of the Andres family being given at length in the sketch of George Frederick Andres, an elder brother, elsewhere in this volume. The death of the mother soon after the family had come to Lansing, lowa, and that of the father by an accidental fall, left the Andres children orphans at a very early age. George Frederick, the eldest of the family, was taken into the family of an uncle, Gustav Dee, while Charles A. went to live in the home of another uncle, Theo- dor Dee. When he was but a small boy he began working on his uncle's farm, plowing when he was so small that he had to reach up to hold the plow handles. He attended school when he could, but his opportunities were very limited as the schools were far away and he was compelled to wade through deep snow in the long cold winter to attend, and much of the time he was expected to be at work on the farm. He was determined to get a better education, however, and after he was twenty-one he worked out in the summers and saved his money so that he could attend Nora Springs Semi- nary in the winters, where he was graduated from the commercial department.

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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 128

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