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 136

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 136

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Dropsy, however, sorely afflicted him, and with his family he moved back to Lee County, Va., toward Christmas, 1865 and there found relief in a cure effected by Dr. Henly Robinson; but while he was still ill, his good wife died of typhoid fever, her demise occurring on March 26, 1866. She left him four children, and a year later he married Miss Sarah E. Johnson, after which, taking his household, he moved back to Grant County, Ky., purchased some timber land, and went to work for a year on a

Eu. & Banous.

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neighboring farm. Failing health induced him to make another change and to trade what he had for a stock of general merchandise in Pendleton County, Ky .; but after a year, he moved his family to Hiawatha, Kans., and in January, 1869, purchased a farm one mile east of the town. At the end of another year, half eaten out by grasshoppers, he sold his holdings, and purchased 160 acres of land on the Kickapoo Reservation, and there for four years, he labored hard to improve it. Then, selling out, he moved into Hiawatha and there formed a partnership with his brother, A. H. Thomas, for the transaction of mercantile business. They succeeded, as anyone who knew them, their standards and their personalities, would have expected, and then they sold out. In the meantime, Josiah C. Thomas had bought one after another of four fine farms near Hiawatha, improved them and later sold them at a profit.

In the early summer of 1883, Mr. Thomas made a trip to California, on account of renewed illness, and taken with the climate and the prospects of Orange County, he bought 200 acres of land two miles southeast of Santa Ana. Returning to Hiawatha, he brought his family from Kansas to the Coast, and for a couple of years improved the new home farm. He then moved into Santa Ana, on Spurgeon Street, and there he died, in September, 1913. The four children left him by his first wife were: Melville C., Francis M., our subject, Alice and Charles L. Thomas. Melville died by drowning in the Galveston flood, he, his wife, their one child and their home having been swept away by the angry waters. He was a railroad man, and for years had worked in the railway yards at Galveston. Alice is the wife of Otis Bridgeford, the rancher; she was formerly Mrs. L. Hiskey, and is the mother of Walter E. Hiskey, a rancher in the Delhi district of Orange County. The last or youngest is Dr. Charles L. Thomas, the dental surgeon, of Los Angeles, who owns extensive, valuable citrus property at El Modena.

Francis M. Thomas left Virginia with his parents when he was five years old and for two years lived in Kentucky, then removed to Kansas, where he was educated in the public schools of Hiawatha. With his older brother he looked after the farm, while his father bought and sold farms and dealt in dry goods and groceries. He was twenty- two years of age when, in the spring of 1884, he came out to California and settled at Santa Ana. He worked out for a year or two, getting used to the climate and the ways of the country.

At Santa Ana, August 15, 1886, Mr. Thomas was married to Miss Zoura Kerr, a native of Mexico, Audrain County, Mo., who came to Santa Ana in March, 1886, with her mother, Mrs. Serilda (Bates) Kerr, a native of Lee County, Va., who came to visit her brother, A. T. Bates, whom she had not seen for forty-two years. Mr. Bates had crossed the plains during the gold rush and was an early settler near Santa Ana. Mrs. Thomas' father, William Kerr, was born near Rockbridge. Va., later coming to Mis- souri, where he engaged in farming, passing away there when Mrs. Thomas was nineteen years of age. Mrs. Kerr died at the Thomas ranch August 7. 1910, at the age of seventy-nine, the mother of nine children, seven of whom are living.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are the parents of six children: Lester R. is a mechanic with a specialty of automobiles and resides at Phoenix. Ariz .; Lelah married Clyde Deardorff, a tenant on Mr. Thomas' ranch; they have one child, Beverly June; Beulah is the wife of Harold Bullock, a tenant on her father's ranch and a partner with Mr. Deardorff; Gladys is an accomplished musician and resides at home: Eugene and Semone attend the Santa Ana high school. Mrs. Thomas is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Ana.

Mr. Thomas had ranched a number of years in Orange County when he bought his first farm and this was added to until he has 140 acres in one hody that he still owns. It is a very valuable ranch, devoted largely to the raising of citrus fruit and to mixed farming. He set out orchards of walnuts and oranges to the extent of about fifty acres. For many years, he also followed dairy farming. In the early days of 1885 he ran a self-binder over the southern part of the city of Santa Ana that is now all built up and so he has ent and reaped grain on the spot where his residence now stands on South Main Street. He is a Republican in matters of national politics. but never permits a narrow partisanship to interfere with a hearty support of local measures and local men.

"Sarah Bartley, Mr. Thomas' maternal grandmother. died at Grand Prairie, Brown County, Kans., on December 10, 1889, aged eighty-two years. She was born in Wash- ington County. Va., on May 22, 1807, and with her parents removed to Lee County, Va., in 1828, her father being a Methodist minister. In 1829, Miss Sarah Speak mar- ried James Bartley of Lee County, Va. This was indeed a happy marriage; for over sixty years they walked side by side, and during this time they were trusting God. Their home, until they moved to Kansas in 1884, was the home of the itinerant preacher, who always found a welcome and a share in the best of home comforts. This family was wonderfully blessed with good health-only one death in sixty years. One daughter

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passed on, but nine children survive her, all having homes of their own and enjoying prosperity. The last year of her life was passed in Kansas, that she and her husband might be with their children. She was a great sufferer during that year, and death, when it came, was welcome, for she passed away in the triumph of faith. Her husband, eighty-three years of age, yet survives." Such is part of an obituary notice, honoring this widely-honored lady. Another obituary notice bearing upon the story of Mrs. Thomas' life reads as follows:

"William H. Kerr, Esq., of Milo, Vernon County, whose remains were interred in Deepwood Cemetery, Wednesday, was born in Augusta County, Va., in 1819. He moved to this state (Missouri) in 1840, and has lived here ever since. He united with the Presbyterian Church when he was nineteen years old, and has been an honored and faithful member for nearly half a century. He married Serilda Bates in January, 1846, and leaves nine children. It is a remarkable fact that in so large a family, there has not been a death these forty-one years. A good man has gone, and few have left behind them a more worthy life record for the comfort and imitation of their children."

EARL A. GARDNER,-One of the younger generation of ranchers of Orange County, Earl A. Gardner, is rapidly forging to the front and developing into a "bonanza" farmer. Practically all of Mr. Gardner's life has been spent in California, as he came here when but a lad of eight.years. Born in Cherry County, Nebr., August 9, 1886, his parents were David D. and Sarah (Hetzler) Gardner, who were successful farmers in Nebraska for a number of years, and there their six children were born :. Adam is in business in San Francisco; Allen is a resident of Talbert; Ralph is a rancher at Oakdale; David D. lives near Huntington Beach; Earl A., of this review; and Lyda, wife of Frank Benton, of Orange County. In 1891 the Gardner family moved to Utah, remaining there three years, and coming overland by wagons from Ogden to California in 1894. They stopped some three months at Clearwater, coming to Wintersburg in the fall of that year, and since that time members of the family have been continuously connected with the ranching interests of Orange County.

Since his father farmed on rented land in different localities, Earl A. Gardner attended the public schools in several places, among them the Fullerton, Orangethorpe and Ocean View districts. David D. Gardner, Sr., died in 1903, at the age of fifty-three years, so that Earl was thrown npon his own resources at an early age. With a genuine interest in and liking for agriculture, he entered with energy and enthusiasm into ranch- ing and soon branched out for himself as a tenant farmer. By hard work and excellent business management he has become one of the largest farmers in the Bolsa precinct, and has succeeded so well that now, at the age of only thirty-four, he is the owner of eighty acres of choice land, and an equipment of horses, two caterpillar tractors and a full complement of up-to-date implements and wagons with which he operates in all 750 acres of land, as besides his own farm he leases 670 acres from eight different landlords. The value of his crops will aggregate $85,000 per year, and his tools and implements of necessity are of a large range, variety and number, since his farming operations include the production of the following crops: lima beans, of which he will have thirty acres in 1920; 550 acres of sugar beets, celery, barley, oats and alfalfa hay. His equipment is worth $20,000 in money actually invested, and he keeps five men the year around and during the busy season has forty-five men on his pay roll.

In 1908, Mr. Gardner was married at Los Alamitos to Miss Fern Shutt, daughter of J. D. Shutt, a very attractive and accomplished young lady who was a member of the first high school class in the high school at Huntington Beach. Three interesting chil- dren have come to enliven their home: Bessie A., Margaret E. and Myrtle L. They reside on one of Mr. Gardner's rented ranches one-half mile south of Bolsa. Mrs. Gardner is a Congregationalist and is very popular in church and social circles. In politics Mr. Gardner favors the principles of the Republican party and in fraternal cir- cles is a popular member of the Elks Lodge at Santa Ana. Mr. Gardner's mother, Mrs. Sarah Gardner, is still living and makes her home on one of the farms leased by him.

MRS. GRACE O. BOOSEY .- An excellent example of what a highly-intelligent. resolute, idealistic woman can do when thrown upon her own resources is afforded in the life and success of Mrs. Grace O. Boosey who operates 275 acres on the Irvine ranch, and in so doing enjoys the confidence and esteem, to an exceptional degree, of all in the community. A widow for the past five years, she has continued the business interests committed to her, maintained her cheerful and hospitable home, and reared her family of interesting children, and has accomplished more, in various ways, than many men have done.

Before her marriage, Mrs. Boosey was Miss Grace O. Chaffee, born in Riley County, Kans., and her parents, now both deceased, were Robert and Ann (Shields) Chaffee, who were early settlers of Riley County, Kans., he a native New Yorker.

Earl a. Gardner

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and she a native of England. They had eight children, and Mrs. Boosey was the youngest of them all. After completing the course in the public school she obtained a teacher's certificate at the age of seventeen and then taught school for four years. On February 17, 1897, she was married to George Boosey, who was also born in Riley County, Kans. His parents were Vermonters, the father having served in the Civil War. They also were very early settlers of Riley County and there George Boosey was reared on the frontier farm and there after their marriage they farmed until in 1909, they came to California.

Luckily, they early found their way to smiling Orange County; and on the Irvine ranch they settled as tenant farmers. Having mastered the ins and outs of agriculture in one of the greatest of all farm states in the Union, Mr. Boosey had no difficulty in succeeding as a rancher here; not merely accomplishing interesting things for him- self, but pointing the way to others less able to master the difficulties of new, un- developed environment. A loss to the county in which he had made such strides for- ward and where he would have undoubtedly continued to be a leader among aggres- sively progressive cultivators, Mr. Boosey died on November 9, 1915.

Now Mrs. Boosey plants twenty-five acres to black-eye beans, and 200 acres to lima beans, and sows fifty acres to hay; nor do other ranches yield a crop of superior quality than hers. She is assisted by her son, Raymond, the second-born, while her eldest child, Ramona, is employed in Los Angeles, and Florence, Robert and Cora are at home.

M. RUSSELL SCOTT .- A business man who has been able to turn his experi- ence to good account, both for his own benefit and that of others, by engaging in real estate operations such as contribute to the development of the locality, is M. Russell Scott, who was born in Appanoose County, Iowa, on September 17, 1875. His parents were John E. and Sarah J. (Wright) Scott, the former a native of Iowa and the latter of Indiana. The family were pioneers of Iowa, and in that state they became prominent. They had three children, and the youngest is the subject of our review. John E. Scott died on February 3, 1916, but the mother is still living at Santa Ana.

Russell Scott attended the public school at Glenwood, Iowa, and Shenandoah College, and then engaged in the merchandise business in partnership with his father, remaining in Glenwood, Iowa, for ten years. When he sold out, he came to California and soon located at Santa Ana.

Here he bought the old Ford Ranch of forty acres, devoted to walnuts which he still owns. All these years he has been engaged in real estate ventures, and as an experienced dealer has owned and traded land all over California. Now he resides at 123 North Orange Grove Avenue, Pasadena, with his devoted wife, who was Blanche L. Lingo before her marriage, which took place on May 9, 1906. She is a native of Belmont County, Ohio, whose father was born in Virginia, her mother being a native of Maryland. By a former marriage, Mr. Scott had three children-Gruba Leonora, Walter B., and Josephine L. The family attend the First Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Scott is an Elk, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and also belongs to the Golf Club, while he is especially fond of quail hunting. In national politics he is a Republican, but in all local affairs for the making of a better community, and the more rapid and permanent development of Orange County, he is a first-class "booster," first, last and all the time.

THOMAS JAMES WILSON .- One of our most eminent poets immortalized the blacksmith trade in his poem, "The Village Blacksmith." However, the present day blacksmith shop, with its modern machinery, is quite another affair from Longfellow's "village smithy which stood under a spreading chestnut tree."

Thomas J. Wilson, of Tustin, Orange County, is engaged in general blacksmithing business, and owns a shop equipped with all the modern and improved machinery for the speedy output of all class of work. Although among the newer residents of Tustin, by his skill as a mechanic and his courteous and gentlemanly treatment of his cus- tomers he has won the favor of his numerous patrons and built up a profitable and permanent business. While he first came to California in 1901 he did not locate in Orange County until 1918.

Mr. Wilson was born in Boise City, Idaho, October 6, 1883, and is the son of James and Walburga (Jehle) Wilson, natives of Ireland and Germany, respectively. Reared and educated in his native state until 1897, he began to learn the horseshoer's trade in Omaha and later also took up general blacksmithing, which he has continued up to the present time.

During the Spanish-American War he served in the U. S. Navy as a blacksmith. He was first on the armored cruiser, Brooklyn, which was conspicuous in the battle of Santiago as Captain Schley's flag ship; later he served on the cruiser New York in the Philippines and was also in the Boxer uprising in China, and during his term of service

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his vessel touched at nearly every important port in the Orient. After the expiration of his three years' enlistment he was returned to San Francisco where he was honor- ably discharged as first chief petty officer. He then located at Moore, Mont., and engaged in the blacksmith business.

On September 12, 1915, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage with Miss Alice M. Robinson, born in Buffalo County, Nebr., a daughter of Charles L. and Mertie (Owen) Robinson, and they are the parents of a daughter, Mertie Marie. In their political views of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are Republicans, and religiously are consistent members of the Christian Church. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows.

BYRON ASA CRAWFORD .- The efficient manager of the Tustin Hill Citrus Association, Byron Asa Crawford, has held this position since 1915. He was born in Ripon, Wis., April 10, 1878, and is the son of Wm. F. and Ella J. (Newell) Crawford, natives of Connecticut and New York, respectively. There were two children in the parental home, Byron A. and Alice E. The father was a veteran of the Civil War, and served from its inception until the close. He enlisted twice; the first time in the Twenty-second Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, and the second time in the Forty- fourth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of the war, and was com- missioned second lieutenant. After the war he engaged in the manufacture of flour, becoming proprietor of the Ripon Flour Mills. The family came out to Tustin, Cal., in 1888, and he died in 1912, while living in Santa Ana; his widow survives him and resides in Los Angeles. He was popular in G. A. R. circles.

Byron A. Crawford received his education in the Tustin grammar school and then entered the Santa Ana high school, where he was graduated in 1897. After his school days were over he began his active connection with the marketing department of the citrus industry, finally entering the employ of the Ruddock Trench Company, becoming their foreman. From 1902 till 1905 he was engaged in the real estate business in Los Angeles, after which he made a trip to Nevada, where he operated a stage and freight line out of Searchlight. Returning to California, he became manager for the Iomosa Foothill Association at Cucamonga until 1913, when he returned to Orange County and was with the San Joaquin Fruit Company until 1915, then accepting his present position as manager of the Tustin Hill Citrus Association.

Mr. Crawford has been in the citrus business for almost twenty-five years, and is thoroughly competent for the responsible position he holds as manager of the Citrus Association. Since he has been in charge the directors have had no cause to complain of lack of interest on his part, and the growth of the institution under his capable man- agement is sufficient evidence of his efficiency. The Tustin Hill Citrus Association was organized in 1909 by M. Atkin, H. Sharpless, A. J. Padgham and R. Brinsmead. The plant is located on the Newport road and the Southern Pacific Railroad, so has splen- did shipping facilities. The plant has a large capacity, with plans for enlargement. The following are directors: A. E. Bennett, president; A. M. Robinson, first vice-presi- dent: J. A. McFadden, second vice-president; A. G. Finley, F. B. Browning, C. J. Klatt and Perry Lewis.

On February 22, 1906, occurred the marriage of Mr. Crawford, when he was united with Miss Violet L. Forney, daughter of T. D. and Elizabeth Forney, Denver, Colo., being her birthplace. Four children have come to bless their union: Dudley F., Wm. F., Janet E., and Kenneth B. Politically Mr. Crawford is an ardent Republican, and fra- ternally is affiliated with the Santa Ana Lodge of Elks and the Tustin Lodge of Knights of Pythias.

FENELON C. MATTHEWS .- A self-made young man of far-sighted and bustling enterprise, whose success as a sugar heet grower and also as a hreeder of the highest grade of Duroc-Jersey red swine has been notable, encouraging others to follow where he has led, is Fenelon C. Matthews, son of H. E. Matthews of Tustin, and junior partner in the firm of Stearns and Matthews. He was born in Kansas on September 2, 1889, and grew up on his father's Kansas farm where he had the greatest advantage in studying agriculture according to the most approved Middle West usages. At the early age of nineteen, however, his ambition urged him to push out into the world for himself; and coming to California in 1908, he took up his quarters on the Irvine ranch, and since then he has been a part of the history of Orange County. The Golden State offered him a rich reward for his exertions and sacrifices; and the challenge made him self-reliant.

Mr. Matthews owns a forty-acre hog ranch, one and a half miles southwest of Tustin, and there for the past year he has been breeding registered Duroc-Jersey red swine. The original stock was the best he could obtain, having been brought from Iowa bought from breeders who have the finest registered Duroc-Jersey hogs in the

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United States. Mr. Matthews is breeding both for the stock markets as well as breed- ers. He is a very naturally a member of the National Duroc-Record Association, and the San Joaquin Lima Bean Association. For the past twelve years, Mr. Matthews has grown sugar beets, and he leases 205 acres of the Irvine ranch all under irriga- tion, 150 acres of which he has planted to sugar beets, and fifty-five acres to lima beans. No better quality of beets or beans could well be found, for in addition to what he naturally acquires from his instructing personal experience, Mr. Matthews keeps abreast of the times and profits by the researches of those whose life work is to aid the farmer.

On this leased ranch Mr. Matthews resides with his wife and child, Harold Eugene, a happy family, if one is to be seen anywhere. Mrs. Matthews was Miss Edith Stearns, a daughter of Mr. Matthews' partner, before her marriage, and their wedding, one of the pleasant social affairs of the time, took place at Tustin in 1914. Mr. Matthews belongs to the Santa Ana Lodge of Odd Fellows and also to the Knights of Pythias in Tustin and in politics of national import he is an Independent Democrat. As might be surmised, this independence of view and action never permits partisanship to stand in the way of his giving hearty support to, local measures well endorsed.

BARNEY P. CLINARD .- One of Orange County's progressive and wealthy ranchers is Barney P. Clinard, who raises grain on an extensive scale in the El Toro neighborhood, now having under cultivation more than 2,000 acres of land devoted to barley, wheat and beans. North Carolina was Mr. Clinard's hirthplace, the Clinard family at that time residing near Thomasville in Davidson County, that state. The date of his birth was July 21, 1870, and he was the next to youngest of six children born to Randall and Jane (Payne) Clinard. Grandfather Clinard was born in Ireland, coming to North Carolina where he became a well-known farmer in Davidson County. During the Civil War Randall Clinard enlisted in the Confederate Army and saw active service in that four years of terrible fighting. Barney Clinard remained at the old home in North Carolina until he was of age, helping his father in the work on the farm, but in 1893 he decided to locate in the Far West, as he felt that the opportunities for success were greater than in his home state, which was still suffering from the ravages of war.

Mr. Clinard arrived in California January 17, 1893, and soon began working on ranches in the southern part of Orange County, spending several seasons with threshing crews in that locality. In 1904 he began ranching operations on his own account on the Lewis F. Moulton ranch at El Toro. He began in a modest way but was success- ful from the start and has expanded his operations until he now leases and cultivates 2,200 acres of this ranch. For the season of 1920 he has 2,000 acres in barley, eighty in wheat and 150 in beans. He produces an unusually large yield of all these crops and owns and operates his own bean thresher. In addition to this, Mr. Clinard is the owner of a thriving 40-acre walnut orchard on Halladay Street, Santa Ana, and also has a half interest in still another ranch at Irvine; Walter Cook, his partner in this enter- prise, is in charge of the place. It consists of 141 acres, of which 101 acres are set to budded walnuts, twenty to oranges and twenty to lemons. The whole is irrigated by means of two electric pumping plants. In addition, Mr. Clinard also raises live stock and at the present time he is the owner of over 100 head of horses, mules and colts and fifty head of hogs.

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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 136

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