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 141

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

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Brought up at Jefferson, Ind., John attended the grammar schools three months a year, and from his tenth year, worked on a farm, especially in summer time. At first he received only $4.50 a month, with his board; then, after he was fifteen, $9; and later, $13: and for these meager wages, regarded at that time as good, he worked from before daylight until dark. When he reached his twenty-first year, he leased a farm in Perry township, bought an outfit, and went in for raising grain and stock.

Mr. U'tz was first married in Perry township. Clinton County, in 1862, to Miss Phoebe Jane Lane, a native of that county; and there, after twelve years of happy mar- ried life, she died. There he became owner of a farm of ninety-one and a half acres, which he cleared, ditched, tiled and planted to grain and supplied with stock; in other ways he improved the property, and he erected the necessary farm buildings. Mr. Utz's second marriage took place at Oakland, in Coles County, Ill., in 1875, and then Miss Ellen Street became his wife. She was a native of Ohio, and the daughter of Aaron and Sarah (Sinkey) Street, also of the Buckeye State. Mr. L'tz leased his land and moved to Colfax, Ind., and became a merchant. After ten years, however, he returned to the farm and operated it once more; and getting it into good shape, sold it in 1906.

On account of his health, he then came to California and bought a ranch of ten and a half acres in the Tustin district of Orange County, which was already planted to apricots and walnuts. He took out the former and planted oranges instead, and this he operated until 1917, when he leased it for a couple of years, and in March, 1919, sold it. In 1917 he moved to Orange and bought the residence that is now his home. By his first marriage, he had a daughter, Clara E. Utz, who became Mrs. James H. Worrell and now resides at Salt Lake City, and the mother of four children. By the second marriage two children were born, but they died in infancy. Both Mr. and Mrs. L'tz are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and Mr. U'tz is a Republican, with broad views and sympathies as to the relation of politics to local movements and the development of the community. He was made a Mason in Plumb Lodge No. 472. A. F. & A. M .. at Colfax, Ind. Both Mr. and Mrs. Utz were members of the Eastern Star, in which she was worthy matron two terms in Colfax.

ALEXANDER P. NELSON .- Although Alexander P. Nelson did not come to California until 1914, when he settled at Santa Ana. he has been a prominent man in the affairs of the city of his adoption since that time. Born in Barnet, Vt., July 9, 1866, he is the son of W. H. and Margaret (Monteith) Nelson, who were the parents of twelve children, Alexander P. being the eleventh in order of birth. Mrs. Nelson is now living at the advanced age of ninety-one years, Mr. Nelson having passed away. Alexander P. Nelson received an unusually good education, having attended the public schools and later Dartmouth College, being graduated from the latter institution with the degree of A. B. Afterwards he studied privately and attended a course of lectures on law, being admitted to the bar in 1891 in the state of Vermont.

He practiced his profession for five years in Vermont, went to Boston, Mass., and from Boston to Alaska, where he stayed for three years, not practicing during his sojourn there. On his return, he practiced law in New Hampshire and then in 1914, he came to Santa Ana where he wrote law for three years, being elected to the office

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of deputy district attorney on January 1, 1919, a position he is filling ably. During his years in the East, he was city attorney at Medford, Mass., and later held the same office at Huntington Beach, Cal.

On November 25, 1914, Mr. Nelson was united in marriage to Frances Read and the couple are well known in the social circles of Santa Ana. They attend the Chris- tian Science Church.

In politics Mr. Nelson is a Republican. He is fond of hunting and all out-of-door life, being greatly interested in the development of the orange industry in California. Santa Ana surely has no adopted son more public-spirited and anxious for the future greatness of that thriving city than Alexander P. Nelson.

DR. CLIFFORD HUGH BROOKS .- Since his location at Santa Ana in 1911, Dr. Clifford Hugh Brooks has quickly risen to a place of prominence, not only in the city of his residence, but throughout a large radius of the surrounding country. Born at Vinton, Benton County, Iowa, on June 12, 1885, Dr. Brooks is the son of Chester B. and Sophia (Pratt) Brooks. The parents are prominent farmers there, where they have resided for many years and both are still living. Of their nine children, Clifford Hugh was the fifth in order of birth. He was fortunate in receiving an excellent early train- ing in the public and high schools of his native place, and this he continued with a course at the University of Iowa at Iowa City, where he graduated from the Medical Department in 1910. He also had the additional benefit of post-graduate courses at the University of Iowa and at New York and Chicago.

Dr. Brooks first began his practice in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but having a strong desire to make California his home he came to Santa Ana, and began his work as a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Gifted with unusual medical skill, and with his years of scientific training, Dr. Brooks has met with marked success in the special branches to which he confines his practice-a success that has rapidly established his preeminence. He has made an especial study of the tonsils, and has become an authority in this line and probably has few equals west of the Mississippi. Even during his college .days, Dr. Brooks' grasp of his subject was such that he was made assistant professor of Opthalmology at the University of Iowa, holding this chair for three years, so that his ability was early recognized.

From the beginning of his residence in Santa Ana, Dr. Brooks has taken an active interest in the civic affairs of the community, and despite his busy professional life, finds time to enter into the progressive movements that are promoting its growth. With a personality wholesome and kindly and a sympathy that is genuine, he has won his enviable position through his consistent upholding of the best ethics of his pro- fession. In his professional associations he is active in the work of the various medical societies, being a member of the American Medical Association, the State and County Medical Societies, the Pacific Coast Opthalmological Society, and the Los Angeles Medical Society.

ARTHUR C. STANLEY .- A North Carolina boy who has made good as a Val- encia orange grower at Garden Grove, is Arthur C. Stanley, the popular president of the Garden Grove Farm Center. After nearly a quarter of a century in the postal service he has settled down to ranch life, bringing with him, in the performance of his new civic duties, a most valuable experience likely to benefit his fellow-citizens as well as himself. He was born at Colfax, in Guilford County, on June 18, 1873, the son of James Stanley, also a North Carolinan, and a planter by occupation, who married in that state a daughter of North Carolina, Miss Laura Pegg.

Arthur C. Stanley grew up in North Carolina, and in time attended Guilford College. At the age of twenty he entered the railway mail service, and for years traveled on the Southern Railway Seaboard Air Line; he was also stationed at Jack- sonville, Fla., for several years, and at Washington, D. C. His coming to Orange County was for the purpose of visiting his father, who had moved here in 1897; the father had become a rancher, but the mother had died in North Carolina when Arthur was three or four years old. In 1901 his father died near Santa Ana, at the age of fifty-seven.

While in California, Mr. Stanley met the lady who was to become his helpmate for life -- Miss Lillian Agnes Ware, the daughter of the late Edward G. Ware; and they were married at Garden Grove on August 24, 1905. He was then in the railway service, and lived at Jacksonville, Fla .; and hither he took his bride. Later he was trans- ferred to Washington, and later, still, to San Francisco; and from that city he ran out on the Santa Fe system for eight months. Then he resigned having a very enviable record of twenty-four years in the U. S. Railway Mail Service.

Mr. Stanley now farms the forty-acre ranch belonging to Mrs. Stanley, where they have three acres of Navel oranges. ten acres of Valencias, and sixteen and a half

Frederick Bastady Willie Mr. Bactady

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acres of walnuts. In 1918, he remodeled the residence making it a modern dwelling and strictly to-to-date. Having been reared in the church of the Friends, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley still remain devoted to that denomination and its excellent and many good works. They have one child, Emerson, the ninth generation on the Ware side in America.

Mr. Stanley is the president of the Garden Grove Farm Center, having been elected to that responsible office at a regular meeting held at Garden Grove on January 26, 1920, concerning which the Garden Grove News of January 30 had a flattering report. One hundred and forty members, so it said, representing an increase of 150 per cent over the previous year, was the strength of the Center reported by Secretary Oldfield. The farm adviser commented on the success of the membership drive, and predicted that the Farm Center could be the leader of progress and development in the community, if the members would accept the opportunity that is within their reach. The Farm Center has become a strong institution in Garden Grove, and is looked to, each month, as the forum for the expression of local sentiment on all local pertinent issues. According to Carl Nichols, formerly farm adviser of Contra Costa County, and a rancher in Garden Grove, the centers in the north having the largest member- ship and displaying the greatest interest in the work are those that bring the entire family out. The officers elected on this occasion are: president. Arthur C. Stanley; vice-president, E. R. Stillens; secretary and treasurer, Waldo Tournat; director, J. O. Arkley; vice-director, Carl Nichols.

FREDERICK BASTADY .- Of Swiss parentage, Frederick Bastady, the well- known rancher, whose residence is south of Buena Park, has been identified with this locality since 1906. His parents, Emanuel and Anna B. Bastady, eager to found a home for their family in the New World, left their native Switzerland and came to the United States in 1884, locating in New York City, where they lived for sixteen years. It was during their residence there, on June 6, 1885, that Frederick was born on Long Island, the other children being born in Switzerland. Here he was reared and educated in the public schools of New York City, making splendid use of his early opportunities.

In 1900, attracted by the wonderful climate and possibilities of California, they crossed the continent and located in Pasadena, and here they resided until 1906, when they removed to Buena Park, where they have since made their home. Emanuel Bastady passed away here on July 1, 1912: Mrs. Bastady died at the old homestead on February 29, 1920. The original Bastady ranch consisted of sixty acres, but through purchases made by the children the holdings increased to 103 acres, which is devoted to general farming. When the family settled upon this land it was a barley field and pasture, but through diligent and painstaking labor it has been transformed into a valuable, prosperous property.

Frederick Bastady was united in marriage on October 3. 1907, with Miss Nellie M. Ruedy, a native of Iowa, and the daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth Ruedy, and they are the parents of three children: Harriet Lillian. Edwin Frederick and Barbara Marie. His brother, Emanuel, married Miss Lydia E. Ruedy, a sister of Mrs. Bastady, and they have four children: Carl A., Ernest E, Ruth, and Albert. The sister, Rose, who became the wife of Harvey Hartman, is the mother of four children: Rosalie M., Helen E., Ida M. and Frank C. The oldest hrother. Adolph, died six months after arriving in California.

Held in high esteem as a useful and progressive member of his community, Mr. Bastady has been honored with the office of president of the Chamber of Commerce of Buena Park: he was chairman of the school board, holding this office from 1913 until 1919, and chairman of the Buena Park Farm Center for two years. The family are members of the Congregational Church.

GEORGE AHLEFELD .- One of the best-known and most respected citizens of the district in which he has resided since 1894 is George Ahlefeld, who then purchased five acres of land. with comparatively few improvements, for $1.000. In 1909 he added five more acres to his first block, and now he has a ranch as large as he wishes to handle, and quite sufficient for his maintenance. This ranch is located southeast of Orange, but is in the Tustin district. It is in a fine state of cultivation, and shows that a master hand guides the plow of progress.

Mr. Ahlefeld is a native of Hanover, Germany, where he was born in 1861, a son of Frederick Ahlefeld and Louisa (Wilkins) Ahlefeld, also natives of that country. Our subject, therefore, received his early training in his native country, and grew up with the attraction, buoying up the rest of the family, of early migrating to the freer American Republic. As fast as their finances permitted, one by one these subjects of a despotic government left for the United States, and one by one they became naturalized. The other children were Louis, who now resides in Canada; Mary, who

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is in Illinois; August, who is in Oklahoma, and Frederick, who is with his brother George in California.

Coming to Illinois in 1879. George Ahlefeld began life in this country with prac- tically nothing, but by close application to work and strict economy, he paid for his several holdings. In 1896 he came to Orange County and now he has all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life as a reward for industry in his young days.

In 1886 Mr. Ahlefeld was joined in marriage to Miss Louisa Stauch, also a native of Germany, who came to Illinois in 1881, and by whom he had six children. The eldest, George, is now deceased; then came Frederick and Otto, and after them Ralph and Harry, who are also both dead; while the youngest was Ethal. The family are Lutherans.

Mr. Ahlefeld resided in Du Page County, Ill., for twenty-five years before coming to Orange County, and while there he busied himself with agricultural pursuits. Otto has followed the example of his father, and has purchased a five-acre ranch which he devotes to citrus culture. He married Miss Verona Strong, daughter of Carl Strong, and they are the parents of one son, Karl George.

THOMAS L. FARIS .- The value of experience and integrity in the conducting of any business, and especially in the handling of hay, grain and feed, has never better been shown, perhaps, than in the history of the establishment at Orange, owned and managed by Thomas L. Faris, a native of Bloomington, Monroe County, Ind., where he was born in the eventful year of 1868. His father was J. M. Faris, a farmer in Indiana but a native of Ohio, and his mother before her marriage was Margaret Smith, a native of Indiana.

Thomas L. Faris is a product of the splendid American rural school which, no matter what its other shortcomings may be, generally sets the lad fortunate in attendance there going in the right way in the world. The comforts and pleasures of home were accorded him until he was twenty-one years old, and then he engaged in the grocery and feed business, remaining in Bloomington, Indiana. After that he went to Greeley, Colo., and for six years was a contractor in cement work.

Reaching California in 1912, Mr. Faris settled first at Santa Ana, from which place he removed to Orange. The year 1914 saw him one of the progressive mer- chants of Orange, and in his present business, and three years later he had established another store at Fullerton. Little by little he has built up a trade that requires the daily work of five men to handle. The best of everything offered, by the fairest weight at the lowest price possible, promptly and cheerfully delivered-these features of Mr. Faris' management could not fail to win for him the loyal and grateful support of a wide public.

In Bloomington, Ind., 1892, Mr. Faris was married to Miss Haddie Curry, also a native of Bloomington, Ind., whose parents were J. H. and Lizzie (Moore) Curry, of that place, and by her he has had two children-Margaret and Dwight. The family are members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, in which he is an elder and is an active member of Orange Merchants and Manufacturers Association.

VICTOR W. LA MONT .- Among those who have endeavored to set a high civic standard for fast-developing Anaheim must be mentioned Victor W. La Mont, the enterprising owner of the Colonial Apartment Building at 149 North Lemon Street, one of the most agreeable in design and best-appointed of all the apartment houses, not only in the town, but in Orange County as well. He was born at Perth Amboy in New Jersey on May 27, 1882, the son of Louis La Mont, a terra cotta maker who built the first kiln for firing that kind of unglazed pottery in Canada. He married Miss Emily Wildhen, and the family came to Los Angeles in 1903. There were three chil- dren, and Victor is the second child. Mr. La Mont is now dead.

Victor attended the grammar and high schools of Illinois, and for a while worked in photography. Then he learned the machinist's and engineer's trades, and followed them for six years; after that he was in the postal service for six years. In August, 1912, he came to Orange County and then he went into the wholesale liquor business. His most recent enterprise is a strictly modern apartment house, with eleven single and nineteen double apartments-a very desirable and useful addition to the town. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. La Mont was married on June 28, 1910, at Anaheim to Miss Clara Fischer, a native of this city, whose parents, William and Clara Fischer, were pioneers of Anaheim. Two sons, Victor C., and Allan W. La Mont, have been born to this union. Mr. La Mont is a member of the Elks and the Masons.

In national politics a Republican and a citizen with a good record for volunteer service in the state militia of Illinois, Mr. La Mont has never neglected an opportunity for the uplift of the community or district in which he lives.

C. C. Bennett.

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CHARLES C. BENNETT .- An experienced, highly-esteemed walnut rancher who has proven thoroughly reliable as foreman of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, is Charles C. Bennett, who was born near Humansville, Polk County, Mo., on June 6, 1871, the son of Samuel Bennett, a native of Ohio, who settled in Missouri in 1866. While a resident of the Buckeye State, he enlisted for service in the great war for the Union and joined the Sixty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served with honorable mention until discharged from service. In 1866, while still a young man, he removed, first to Illinois and then to Missouri; and in the latter state married Miss Harriet A. Rentfrow, a native of Missouri. He worked at agricultural pursuits until 1900, when he and his devoted wife came to California, and located a mile east of Orange. He bought a farm, which he operated for five years; and when he sold it, they moved to Orange, where he died, in December, 1909, a member of Gordon Granger Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mrs. Bennett passed away in August, 1919, the mother of four children, two of whom are still living. The other son is F. M. Bennett of Orange.

Reared on a farm, Charles attended the public schools of his locality, and when twenty-two, entered into partnership with his father, buying a store at Rondo. There, too, he was married to Miss Maude G. Pollard, a native of Caldwell County, Mo., after which he continued in mercantile business. He enjoyed the confidence of the con- munity to that extent that he was also made postmaster of Rondo.

In 1903 he came to Orange in the employ of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Com- pany, and continned with them from June until November; then he returned to Missouri and bought a farm of 120 acres near Rondo. He engaged in farming and stock raising, and, also acted as school trustee; but, resigning from that pleasureable responsibility, he sold his property, in 1908, and on account of his wife's health, returned to California and located at Orange. At first, however, for a year he tarried at Oro Grande, or until his wife died, in May, 1909.

In March, 1910, Mr. Bennett again entered the employ of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, and in January, 1913, he was made foreman of all construction work-a position he has held with credit to himself and advantage to the company ever since. He has also been able to acquire a ten-acre ranch of walnuts one and a half miles southwest of Orange-a choice piece of property, sure to appreciate in the future.

By his first marriage, Mr. Bennett had two children-Clyde, who is in the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States Army, and Grace, who is attending high school. A second marriage made him the husband of Miss Hattie B. Tompkins, at Santa Ana, a charming lady who shares with him his responsibilties and his ambitions. and attends the Methodist Church. She is a native of Ohio, born near Jefferson, Ashtabula County, and came to Missouri when only two and a half years old with her parents, James H. and Maggie I. (Noble) Tompkins, also natives of Ohio, where her father died. Her mother now makes her home in Orange. Mr. Bennett belongs to the Woodmen of the World-and there is no more popular member in the order.

DR. PERYL B. MAGILL .- A thoroughly competent representative of one of the important branches of modern medical science, Dr. Peryl B. Magill has done much, not only to alleviate suffering and to prolong health and life, but to dissipate certain prejudice now generally recognized as one of the greatest barriers to human progress. She was born near St. John's, Stafford County, Kans., the daughter of Cyrus N. Magili, a farmer who proved his devotion to the cause of the threatened Union by serving in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery during the Civil War. He had married Margaret Brady, and they had four children, Peryl being the second in the order of birth. The family came west to California in 1890, and Cyrus N. Magill purchased a ranch near Santa Ana.

Peryl Magill attended the Orange grammar and high schools, from which she was graduated in 1909, after which she went in for professional training at the Los Angeles College of Osteopathy, from which well-known institution she was graduated in June, 1912. The following March she commenced to practice at Santa Ana; and here ever since then she has been steadily acquiring an enviable reputation. Her suite of offices is in the Rowley Building, at the corner of Fourth and Main Streets, and she has been more than successful in securing and holding a satisfied patronage.

Fond of out-of-door life, Dr. Magill also finds it agreeable to participate in the work and social activities of such organizations as the Ebell Club, the Daughters of Veterans, the Present Day Club, and the Women's Osteopathic Club of Los Angeles. She is president of Orange County Osteopathic Association as well as a member and trustee of the California Osteopathic Association. In politics, she is decidedly a woman above party, and lends her support only, in the most nonpartisan manner, to those men, women and measures she believes to be for the public weal.

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WILLIAM FRANKLIN WINTERS .- A hard-working, liberal-minded and justly popular young man of exceptional merit and, therefore, of interesting promise, is Wil- liam Franklin Winters, a native of Phillips County, Kans., where he was born on October 30, 1894. His father is John Winters, now a successful rancher near Garden Grove, who married Mary Alice Newman, also living to gladden all who know her.

When five years of age, Frank came to California and Orange County with his parents, and began to attend the local school at Garden Grove. In July and August, 1909, he commenced to work by the day for others, and ever since then he has made his way in the world largely by his own efforts.

In 1914 he was married to Miss Eva Loretta DeVanl, the daughter of Jasper N. and Mary (Holt) DeVaul, and by her he has had two children, Engene Newton and Glenn Franklin. Mr. and Mrs. Winters are consistent members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church at Garden Grove; and in their endeavor to elevate civic standards, work and vote for the best men and women, and the best measures.

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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 141

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