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 135

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 135

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Mr. Garber has always taken a live interest, as a Republican, in America national politics, ever ready to elevate the standard of patriotic citizenship, and has participated in Chamber of Commerce and other "boosting" and developing work; and during the war he had been notified of his recommendation for a first lieutenancy in the construc- tion division of the quartermaster department, but the commission was never forwarded because of the signing of the armistice. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and also belongs to the Orange County Commercial Club.

On June 2, 1909, Mr. Garber was married to Miss Freda B. Kelley; and their marriage has brought them the inestimable blessing of an attractive daughter, Marian Elizabeth. Mr. Garber is a Scottish Rite, thirty-second degree Mason, and also a Shriner; and Mrs. Garber shares his popularity in fraternal circles. Both are fond of outdoor life, and glad to be in California, the land of outdoors.

ARCHIE M. ROBINSON .- Since every other important line of industry in the world centers around the occupation of tilling the soil the rancher may truthfully be called the Hub of the World. One of the industrious, progressive and self-made orange growers of Orange County, Cal., is Archie M. Robinson, a native of Delhi, Delaware County, N. Y., where he was born October 21, 1871. His father, Buel W., and mother, Jane (Christie) Robinson, also natives of the Empire State, were the parents of seven children, of whom A. M. Robinson is the only one residing in Cali- fornia. The father, Buel W., now deceased, served as a volunteer during the Civil War in Company C, One Hundred Fourty-fourth New York Volunteer Regiment.

Archie M. Robinson received a common school education and resided in his native state, following general farming until 1901, when the call of the West caused him to turn his face toward the shores of the Golden State, and since then he has been a resident of Orange County. The first year in his new home he worked on a ranch, cleared $300 and invested it in a twenty-five-acre ranch on Prospect Avenue, which he improved, owned for two years and sold. He then purchased his present twenty- six-acre ranch on Fairhaven Avenue, which is devoted exclusively to the culture of oranges. The property was formerly planted to oranges and apricots, the latter being reset, so now the whole acreage is producing fine Valencia oranges. During the earlier years of Mr. Robinson's residence in Orange County he experienced, in common with other ranchers, the scarcity of water. Necessity caused the combination of their forces and a company was formed to overcome the difficulty by developing water. In 1913 wells were sunk to the depth of 300 feet, resulting in an abundant flow of water, which insured the crops and increased the value of land immeasurably. He has been a director in the Tustin Hill Citrus Association from its organization in 1909.

In 1910 Mr. Robinson was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Pilcher, a native of St. Louis, Mo., and daughter of William Pilcher. Two daughters have been born of their union, Elizabeth and Dorothy by name. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are members of the Baptist Church of Santa Ana, being a member of the board of trustees, and fraternally Mr. Robinson affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, his membership being in the Santa Ana Lodge.

JOHN C. HAYDEN .- A Philadelphian of extraordinary business ability, who is "making good" in Orange County as district superintendent of the Southern Counties Gas Company, is John C. Hayden, popular, with his family, in the best social circles. He was born in the City of Brotherly Love on November 27, 1888, and grew up in that center of Pennsylvania life. His father, now deceased, was Michael J. Hayden, a very successful business man who ran a chain of retail stationery stores in Philadelphia. His mother was Rose G. Deehan before her marriage; and she is also deceased. There were three boys and a girl in the family, and John was the youngest of them all. A sister, Mrs. Marie Warke, resides in Los Angeles, and they are the only two in California. He attended the Gesu Parochial School and St. Joseph's College at Phil- adelphia, and then entered the stationery business of his father, his mother having died when he was nine years old. Michael Hayden made a visit to Los Angeles and other parts of California in 1906, and four years later, accompanied by John, he came out here to reside.

At that time our, subject entered the employ of the Gillespie Book and Stationery Store, Los Angeles, and he was placed in charge of the book department, and there he remained for five years. In September, 1916, he came to Santa Ana as chief clerk for the Southern Counties Gas Company, and he rose to be commercial agent, holding that post until he was promoted to be district superintendent on December 1, 1919.

At Santa Ana in 1913, Mr. Hayden was married to Miss Gladys Starkey, of Los Angeles; and one child, a boy named Herbert Hughes Hayden, has come to bless their fortunate union. Mr. Hayden is prominent in the Elks Lodge No. 794. at Santa Ana,

I'm Klausing

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and also in the Rotary Club of that city, whose motto is: "He profits most who serves best."

The Southern Counties Gas Company is a very important utility corporation, supplying both domestic and industrial consumers. The general meter shop, for the whole system of California, is located on East First Street in Santa Ana, where is also the automobile shop and the general store-rooms employing some sixty-five persons. Four districts and eight divisions represent the business interests of this corporation. The eastern district comprises Orange County division, which includes Santa Ana, Orange, Tustin, Anaheim, El Modena, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Placentia, Buena Park, along the route from Garden Grove to Huntington Beach; the Whittier division com- prising Whittier, La Habra, Monterey Park and the adjacent territory: the Monrovia division includes Monrovia, Arcadia, Sierre Madre, South Santa Anita and El Monte; while the remaining division of Pomona is made up of Pomona, Claremont, Spadra, La Verne, Glendora. Chino, Ontario, Uplands, Azusa, San Dimas and Baldwin Park. Mr. Hayden has supervision of the Orange County division.

WILLIAM KLAUSING .- An old-timer who, by improving the soil of a barren waste, has developed a splendid orchard and in so doing has not only acquired property worth the whole for himself, but has added to the wealth of an already rich country, is William Klausing, who was born in Troy, Madison County, Ill., on June 15, 1864, the son of Henry Klansing, a farmer of that state who died there in 1870. He had married Miss Mary Taake, and she died in 1886. They had four children, of whom three grew to maturity. and of these, William is the second eldest. He was brought up on the home farm, while he attended the local schools; and until he was seventeen, assisted his mother with the farm work. Then he went out to work for others as an experienced farm hand.

During the great "boom" in Southern California realty, Mr. Klausing came west to Los Angeles, in 1887, then pretty small and provincial, and secured an engagement to work for Mrs. Hollenbeck on Boyle Heights. At the end of two years, he entered the employment of William H. Perry, and then he was with Dr. Gray and also Judge Gardener, on West Adams Street. At the end of two years there, he traveled north to San Francisco, where he worked for eighteen months for George D. Toy at San Mateo: and after that he was in the service of Andrew Harrell of Visalia, with whom he con- tinued for four years.

In July, 1897, Mr. Klausing returned east on a visit to Missouri and Illinois, but the lure of California still holding him, he came back here in 1898, and with a brother rented a ranch for a year in Eagle Rock. They were not very successful, and they dis- solved their partnership. Then his attention was directed to Anaheim, and in 1899 he located here. At first he was in the employ of John Brunworth, as zanjero for the water company, and assisted him also on his ranch; but in 1901 he bought his present place on Sunkist Avenue in West Anaheim, which was raw land, covered with cactus and bushes. He paid thirty-five dollars an acre; and while he continued with Mr. Brun- worth for eight years, he cleared, leveled and otherwise improved his own property. In 1905 he set out orange and walnut trees, and two years later he built his residence.

Now he has twelve and a half acres in Valencia oranges, and seven acres in wal- nuts, and is probably the oldest orange rancher in the district, with property on which he worked very hard. in the beginning, to grow chili peppers. He also owns fortv acres in the Palos Verde Valley, which is devoted to the raising of cotton, and he has ten acres in the Golden State tract which he set out to Valencia oranges. Of course, he is a member of the Anaheim Orange and Lemon Association and the Anaheim Walnut Growers Association.

At Anaheim Mr. Klausing was married to Miss Dora Dieckoff, a native of Ger- many. and two children have further blessed their union-Gertrude and Henry. Mr. Klausing is a Republican; and he and his family are members of the Anaheim Lutheran Church, of which he was formerly a trustee.

PHRANDA A. ROBINSON .- A pioneer railroad and livestock man who is replete with interesting stories of early days on various frontiers, is Phranda A. Robinson, a native of the Empire State, where he was born, in St. Lawrence County on August 21. 1851. His father was William A. Robinson, a farmer and a contractor, and a true Wisconsin pioneer, and he married Miss Almira Davis, by whom he had six children.

The eldest in the order of birth, Phranda attended the common schools of Wis- consin, to which state the family moved when he was only four years of age. Growing 11p, he made his way to Colorado and for a while worked with a railroad contractor in constructing the first three railroads built into Denver. This was at the beginning of the seventies. At the end of two years he removed to Ellis County, Kans., and there, for seven years, he homesteaded and engaged in the cattle business. The west-

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ern part of the state was then the hunting grounds of the Indians, and he hauled sup- plies to them for the Government. Buffalo were plentiful, and one could buy plenty of buffalo hides at five dollars a pelt. Taking up his residence in Wisconsin again, he engaged for seven years in mercantile trade at Antigo, and selling out, he spent ten years in southern Wisconsin at Clinton Junction. After that he removed to Gray's Lake, Ill., where he was in the banking business for seven years, also building several houses there. In 1906 he came to Berkeley, Cal., built houses and sold them; and four years later he removed to Santa Ana. Since coming here, he has erected over fifty of the most desirable houses in the city.

Mr. Robinson married Ida Lusk, a native of Wisconsin. He is the father of three children-Caroline, Charles and Harriet, and grandfather to five. The family attend the Methodist Church. Mr. Robinson belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, and is ever ready to aid any reasonable movement likely to make for the growth or the betterment of the community. He is a standpat Republican, and yet never draws the party line in seeking to elevate the standard of local civic pride. Keenly alive to public questions of moment, he has never accepted any of the invitations to stand for public office, and still pursues his quiet way as a private, if thoroughly wide-awake citizen, interested at all times in Orange County and its rapid development.

GEORGE FREDERICK ANDRES .- A prosperous rancher who has by his own efforts and the able assistance of his capable wife developed an excellent orange and walnut grove northeast of Garden Grove is George Frederick Andres, popularly known to his large circle of friends as "Fred" Andres. This forty-acre ranch is on the Garden Grove Road and twenty acres of it is planted to Valencia oranges and the remainder to walnuts. Mr. Andres also owns fifteen acres within the city limits of Santa Ana, which is set out to ten-year-old budded walnuts. He also maintains a chicken ranch on the Santa Ana property and has 1500 White Leghorn fowls on it at present.

Born on October I, 1868, in Germany, about fifty miles west of Berlin, Mr. Andres was the eldest of a family of five children, four of whom were horn in Germany and one in Jowa. His parents were Ludwig and Marie (Dee) Andres. The father was a stone and brick mason and stone cutter, having learned his trade very thoroughly in Berlin, and he could do the finest kind of stone work, even to lettering on marble and stone monuments. The whole family sailed from Hamburg on the S. S. Wieland of the Hamburg Line, landing in New York the first week of April, 1875. They went on to Lansing, Iowa, where they settled. In September of that year, Winnifred, the youngest child was born, and the mother passed away the next month, the arduous conditions of the new life and homesickness for the old home proving fatal to her. A year or so afterward the father married again, being united to Mary Laaps, and one child, William was born to them. The family remained at Lansing for two years, then went to Waukon, and later to Village Creek, lowa. While living here Ludwig Andres went to Minneapolis to work as a stone mason on the great Pillsbury Mills, and here he was instantly killed, when a scaffolding on which he was working gave way. The loss of both father and mother filled the young lives of the Andres children with sadness as it meant their separation. Fred, who at that time was only ten years old, was taken by his uncle. Gustav Dee, while his younger brother, Charles A., went to live with another uncle, Theodore Dee, both farmers in Allamakee County. Iowa, and for three years the brothers did not see each other. Fred remained with his uncle until he was seventeen years old and then hired out at the rate of five dollars a month during the winter, in the meantime securing what schooling he could. He kept working out by the month and saved his money and for two years was in Western Iowa, still working out, also farmed for himself there and then broke up 160 acres in Adrian, Minn., which he later sold and in 1894 went to Rock County, Minn., and began renting land near Luverne. Like many other pioneer farmers of that region, Mr. Andres at times suffered may discouraging reverses; one year his crops were a total failure, so that he could not even pay his rent. and he was compelled to borrow corn to feed his horses, which he afterward repaid at the rate of two bushels for one. In 1903 he moved to Hutchinson County. S. D., where he bought 320 acres of land and raised three crops, and from there he removed to California in 1906. His brother, Charles A., had already located at Santa Ana, and Mr. Andres in the meantime had purchased his present home ranch of forty acres, at that time alfalfa land, paying $300 an acre for it.

After his removal, Mr. Andres at once began the improvement of his land, raising alfalfa, horses and hogs. He bred fine Percheron horses for a number of years from some full-blooded Percheron stock which he brought with him. He continued general farming and stockraising until 1911, when he began to set out walnut trees, the next year setting out his Valencia orange grove. Since that time he has given his time to developing his orchards to a high state of productivity and he is meeting with gratify-

Fred andres.

Ora L. andres.

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ing success. He has a never-failing well and has installed an electric pumping plant and laid over 5,000 feet of cement pipe for irrigation. He has remodeled his residence and the whole place reflects the intelligent care of its owners, as Mrs. Andres has been a true helpmate to him, aiding and encouraging him in all his undertakings. During his residence in Iowa Mr. Andres and John Gephardt owned and operated a Case threshing outfit and became quite expert in this line of work. With William E. and Arthur A. Schnitger he has run two threshing machines in Orange County, using them to thresh beans, converting the machines themselves into bean threshers.

The five brothers and sisters had not all been together since their mother died until the time of the Exposition at Portland, Ore., when they had a family reunion. The three sisters had been reared by different families in lowa and took the names of their adopted parents. They are: Elsie, now the wife of Dr. F. G. Ulman of Enum- claw, Wash., who was a captain in the United States Army in the late war: Miss Marie Rockwell, formerly a high school teacher in Salem, Ore., is now a stenographer and bookkeeper at Portland, Ore .; and Winnifred, who is the wife of Rev. J. V. Knoll of Lansing, Iowa.

On October 17, 1896, when farming in Rock County, Minn., Mr. Andres was united in marriage with Miss Ora Luvan Savage, the daughter of Oliver and Eliza (Young) Savage, the father being a native of New York, while the mother was born near Chicago, III. They were married in Wisconsin, moving later to Dodge County, Minn., where Mrs. Andres was born. There were three daughters in the Savage family: Emma is the wife of L. H. Owen of Pomona; Ora is Mrs. Andres; and Susie became the wife of Frank Welker, a merchant of Beaver Creek, Minn., where she died. By a former marriage Mr. Savage had two sons: Gibson, a resident of Los Angeles, passed away in 1917; and Elmer, who is a farmer at Waupun, Wis. Mrs. Andres was educated in Iowa, and afterwards became a school teacher, teaching four years in Rock County. Minn., where she met Mr. Andres, and one year in Minnehaha County, S. D. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Andres: Floyd E., a graduate of the Santa Ana high school in the class of 1919 is now a student at the U. C. at Berkeley; Marie Lillian died in 1904 at the age of seven years; and Charles Frederick. They are also rearing an adopted daughter, Ruth Estella Andres.

Mr. and Mrs. Andres are active in the membership of the Methodist Church at Garden Grove, Mr. Andres being a member of the official board, while Mrs. Andres is a teacher in the Sunday School and president of the Ladies' Aid Society; she was also prominent in Red Cross work during the war. Mr. Andres is a member of the Garden Grove Walnut Growers Association, the Garden Grove Orange Growers Association and the Garden Grove Farm Center, being a director and one of the moving spirits of the latter. Politically he is inclined to be non-partisan in his views, considering the best men and principles when voting, but always a firm advocate of temperance. Self- taught and self-made, he is a man of true worth, and both he and his estimable wife are popular in the community because of their generous, liberal views.

JOHN HUHN .- A veteran of the Civil War and a resident of the United States since he was eight years of age, John Huhn, whose ranch lies on the Garden Grove Road, west of Anaheim, has contributed his share to the development of this section since his removal here in 1898. He was born in Brunswick, Germany, August 18, 1844. and in 1852 he migrated to America with his parents, William and Anna Huhn. The father was a building contractor in his native land and, after coming to America. he con- tinued in this line of work at St. Louis, where the family located shortly after arriving in this country. Loyal to the land of his adoption, William Huhn served in the home guards during the period of the Civil War.

The early years of John Huhn were spent in St. Louis, where, as soon as old enough, he engaged with his father, learning the trade. Although but seventeen years old when the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the Union Army in Company F. Seventeenth Regiment Missouri Volunteer Infantry and served for three years under General Sherman, where he passed through many dangers and hardships in the hard- fought campaigns of that great leader. After the war was over he took up farming. settling, in 1870, in Montgomery County, Ill., and it was during his residence here that his marriage occurred, when he was united with Miss Louisa Struck on May 17, 1883, at her home near Hillsboro, III. She was also a native of Germany, born at Peine, near Hanover, the daughter of Henry and Wilhelmina (Stenzig) Struck, the father being employed at the iron foundry at Peine. Mrs. Huhn came to America in 1881 and made her home with an uncle, near Hillsboro, Ill., until her marriage.

After his marriage Mr. Huhn located on an eighty-acre farm near Raymond, Ill .. and here he farmed successfully, raising wheat, corn and hogs, remaining here until 1898, when he removed to California. Locating in Orange County, he purchased ten acres west of Anaheim and here he has since made his home. In 1919 he sold half of

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this tract and the remaining five acres is a fine walnut grove, which is irrigated by the Ideal Water Company's pumping plant. Mr. Huhn's ranch is a good producer and brings him in an excellent income. He markets his product independently.

Mr. and Mrs. Huhn are the parents of four children: Alice S. is a chiropractor with a growing practice in the vicinity of Anaheim; William Henry is at home, he is married and has three children, Leona, Mildred and William; Irma is also at home; Albert E. is a rancher at Red Bluff, Tehama County, Cal. The family attend the Lutheran Church at Anaheim. A resident of the United States for sixty-eight years. Mr. Huhn became imbued with the spirit of its institutions in his early boyhood, and since he has reached man's estate has been a stanch Republican, giving his influence and vote to the nominees of that party. He belongs to the Fullerton G. A. R. Post.

GEORGE A. BARROWS .- The prosperous, substantial district of Groton, Tomp- kins County, N. Y., claims the birth of George A. Barrows, the general contractor and builder, who first saw the light there on May 18, in the historic Centennial Year of 1876. His father was Theodore Barrows, a farmer well known to Tompkins County agriculturists; and he had married Sarah L. Wood, by whom he had six children. Both parents are now dead.

The fifth child in the order of birth, George attended the well-appointed grammar and high schools of Groton, and for a while stuck by the home farm, which he also took charge of at the age of twenty-one, when his father died. He added to his ex- perience some four years in a creamery and during these years he was also engaged in raising fancy poultry, but early worked at carpentering, for which he had unmistakable talent, and which he liked best of all.

In March, 1911, Mr. Barrows settled in Santa Ana, and from that date has given all of his time and attention to contracting and building, undertaking many notable works. He has erected some of the finest residences, and has also built some of the best structures in the business and manufacturing district of the city, and has long employed from ten to fifteen men for his varied and responsible operations. A thorough student of the latest methods both in construction and device, Mr. Barrows easily demonstrates his entire familiarity with modern building problems, and his advantage in experience and equipment for extensive and artistic work over his competitors. By his close application, honest and conscientious method of carrying out the various con- tracts, he has become singularly successful and as a result his business has grown to large proportions.

At Groton, N. Y., on Washington's Birthday, 1899, Mr. Barrows was married to Lucy Mae Harrington, a charming woman known for her good works. With her hus- band, she attends the Methodist Church. They have one son, Howard. Mr. Barrows is much interested in the purification and elevation of party politics, and therefore ackrowledges no slavish adherence to any of the political organizations.

FRANCIS M. THOMAS .- An enterprising rancher who by years of unremitting industry and the maintenance of a high sense of honor, always pursuing a conservatively progressive program toward a definite, laudable goal, is Francis M. Thomas, of 914 South Main Street, Santa Ana, where he resides in a beautiful two-story frame structure, in the full enjoyment of his interesting family. He was born in Lee County, Va., near Rose Hill, on January 29, 1862, the son of Josiah Clemmens Thomas. a native of Powels Valley, Lee County, where he was born on January 12, 1835. The latter grew up on a farm east of Cumberland Gap, some twelve miles west of the county seat, Jonesville, with little educational opportunity, owing to the modest circumstances of his parents and the dearth of public schools there. When nineteen years old, he undertook farm- ing for himself, and the first summer managed to make about nine dollars a month and his board, and the second summer eleven dollars. Then he went to a private school and studied reading, writing and arithmetic. When twenty-one, he crossed over the mountains into Kentucky and for three years worked on a farm, where his cash allow- ance was from ten to twenty dollars a month. By saving his money, he was able to get back to the old home in Virginia, and there, on November 18, 1859, he was joine.1 in holy matrimony with Nancy Bartley. After farming there for three years, they moved with their family to Grant County, Ky., where they lived on a farm for four years. The third year he purchased a farm, and the fourth year he was able to dispose of it again for practically double the price which he gave for it.

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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 135

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