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 146

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 146

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Edmond Shirley House was born in Stoddard County, Mo., in 1840, his parents being Henry and Kitty House. He was the youngest of a family of four girls and three hoys and when a lad of ten he accompanied his parents to Texas, where he received his early education in the district schools there. He remained there until he was nine- teen years old, when he made the overland journey to California, arriving at El Monte in the fall of 1859. The next spring he went to Salinas and went to stock raising there, very little grain farming being carried on at that time. The next twenty years he spent in stock raising, in which he made good success, meanwhile acquiring the Spanish language, which he found a decided asset in his transactions with the native settlers. In 1880 Mr. House removed to San Benito County, where he took up two government claims, raising stock on this land. After two years he went to San Luis Ohispo County and bought forty acres which he devoted to dry farming. This did

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not prove entirely successful, however, so he came to Orange County in 1884, bought forty acres of peat land near Westminster and continued his agricultural operations. He was always a very successful farmer, and notwithstanding the low prices of farm products in those days he was able to amass considerable means.

In 1889 he moved to Arizona, spending one season there, and it was during this time that Mrs. Bricke was born. Later he went to Honolulu, and with his family spent two years in the Hawaiian Islands, and on his return to the United States settled at Redlands, where he resided until the fall of 1919, when he went to live with his son on the Irvine ranch.

Mr. House was united in marriage with Miss Alice Henrietta Grimes in 1869 at Salinas, Cal., her parents being California pioneers. Of their six children, four are living: Margaret is the wife of Charles Wheaton, a rancher at Redlands; Edmond H. married Bessie Whisler and resides on the Irvine ranch; Ethel is the wife of Joseph Bricke, of this review; John Earl is a ranch foreman at El Toro. An interesting talker, Mr. Honse has indeed lived a useful and successful life, full of varied experiences, and he and his good wife, after fifty-one years of companionship, are still in the enjoyment of good health and the devoted friendship of a large circle of friends.

JOHN P. HOEPTNER .- A splendid example of what the larger, freer oppor- tunities of America may afford is furnished by the now well-to-do family of John P. Hoeptner, who rose from the laboring classes of Prussia, came to the United States, and was able, through hard work and frugality, to establish a home and bring up a large family in the most intelligent and loyal manner. He was born in Prussia on May 12, 1865, and when twenty-seven was married to Miss Ida Minach. Three years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Hoeptner came from Germany to California with their two children, and at once located in Los Angeles County, and there he lost no time in buying land and establishing a more permanent home. He purchased twenty acres of the Dominguez Ranch near Long Beach, in that county, and this was the place where the worthy couple reared their children, and where they still maintain their home. He has a fine, up-to-date residence, which he himself ordered built.

In 1915, Mr. Hoeptner bought another ranch of forty acres at Talbert, in Orange County, which he still owns and operates, and which was known as the John McDowell ranch. He raises beets and beans,, and has had very good crops. He is far-seeing in his operations, untiring in his attention to the work of the hour, and so carries out a program almost sure of success.

Eight children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hoeptner, bringing out the best traits of the parents, and evidencing the best of devotion from sons and daugh- ters. Bertha is in the government service as a trained nurse at the March Field Aviation Camp at Riverside; Max, a rancher, farms eighty-five acres of rented land at Talbert, and lives on the forty-acre ranch of his father; Herbert served in the California National Guard and served on the Mexican Border, receiving a medal for bravery. When America entered the World War he enlisted, and served until the armistice, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of lieutenant. He married Miss Clara Ball of National City, and is now with the Santa Fe Railroad at Santa Barbara. Hazel, who graduated from the McKay Business College at Los Angeles, is a stenographer in that city; Irene had the same training and is also similarly employed. Frederick is another graduate from this excellent institution, and is a bookkeeper for the McCor- mick Lumber Company at San Pedro; Lincoln is at home with his father, and Louise is in the Compton High School.

A Republican in national politics, Mr. Hoeptner and his family are preeminently Americans, and not only aided in the Red Cross work to the extent of their ability, but also bought Liberty Bonds to their full capacity.

JEROME T. LAMB .- One of the most prosperous and successful walnut growers of Orange County but now living retired at Huntington Beach, Jerome T. Lamb is related to two distinguished American families, the Grant and Fillmore families. Mr. Lamb is a native of Wisconsin, born at Waukesha, December 17, 1854, a son of James and Mary J. (Fillmore) Lamb, both natives of the state of New York. The father of Mrs. Lamb. Daniel Fillmore, was a cousin of President Millard Fillmore, while her mother was Thankful Ann Grant. a cousin of President U. S. Grant.

When James Lamb was a lad of fourteen years, he ran away from home and hecame a sailor on a whaling vessel, following the adventurous life of a sailor for eleven years, afterward returning to Wisconsin where he married and engaged in farm- ing. During the year 1848, he made the trip around Cape Horn, and up to California, returning to Wisconsin in 1852. In 1857. with his family, he joined an overland train, consisting of eighty covered wagons, bound for Oregon. The emigrant train started on its long and perilous journey the year of the Mountain Meadow massacre and in

J. J. Hoeptner

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crossing the Indian-infested plains they were also attacked and lost all their cows and oxen. The party reached Utah through Echo Canyon, and Mr. Lamb was obliged to remain in the canyon for six years, where he was engaged in cutting timber for saw mills. The original idea of going to Oregon was abandoned and instead Mr. Lamb and his family took the southern route, and in course of time reached San · Bernardino, Cal., in 1865.

In 1871 the family moved to Los Angeles County and located on the Brea ranch, farming the land where the oil wells were afterwards found. James Lamb died in 1908 in San Diego County at the advanced age of eighty-one years; his wife returned to Los Angeles County, where she passed away in 1910 at the age of seventy-one. They were the parents of nine children, eight of whom reached maturity.

Jerome T. Lamb was the eldest child and was but three years of age when the family started on their long overland journey across the plains. He grew up in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, following farming in the latter county. In 1912 he located in Orange County, settling in Buaro precinct where he purchased twenty acres of land, fourteen of which he planted to walnuts and one and a fourth acres to oranges. He installed a pumping plant and has developed his place into one of the most productive walnut groves in the district.

On November 13, 1879, Jerome T. Lamb was united in marriage with Miss Clara E. Short, daughter of John E. and Mary Elizabeth (Hardy) Short, natives of Illinois, the ceremony being solemnized at Pomona. Mrs. Lamb was left an orphan at the age of twelve years, after which she made her home with an uncle, Thomas Short, a farmer at Percy, Ill., When nineteen years old she came with a married sister to Los Angeles and was married to Mr. Lamb the following year. Of this happy union two children were born: Mary Adella is the wife of Earl W. Jonas, bridge inspector for the Salt Lake Railway Company, and they have four children-Helen I., Thelma M., Earl W. and Margaret; Walter T. Lamb, the second child, is a civil engineer at Los Angeles and was born at Pasadena, August 22, 1883. He is in the engineering department of the Pacific Electric Railway and lives in Los Angeles. He was married August 27, 1912, to Miss Agnes Nast of Los Angeles and they are the parents of three children-Audrey E., Mildred and Dorothy. Jerome T. Lamb is a member of Palms Lodge No. 422. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while with his wife he is a member of Acacia Rebekah Lodge No. 314, Huntington Beach.

WENDELL P. READ .- Well adapted for the prominent and important position he holds as principal of the El Modena grammar school, Wendell P. Read, is recog- nized by all as a competent, successful and popular teacher. Mr. Read was born in a log cabin on a Kansas homestead at Council Grove, Kans., October 8, 1876, and is the son of Dwight R. Read, a native of Oswego, New York, and an old time abolitionist who enlisted in Company H of the One Hundredth New York Volunteer Infantry, serving valiantly throughout the entire Civil War. After the close of the war he was married at Atchison, Kans., to Miss Mary Elizabeth Ingersoll, who was born in Indiana and reared in Iowa, and was a distant relative of the late Colonel Ingersoll-about a fourth cousin. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Read went to Morris County, Kans .. and homesteaded a piece of property, and upon this homestead their three children were born: Dwight, who is now the editor of the "Milton Gazette," at Milton, Fla .; Lilly, who is the wife of Harvey Short, a business man of Wyoming; and Wendell Phillips. The parents continued to farm until the father's health failed. They then retired to Fredonia, Kans., where he passed to the Great Beyond, in 1896, aged seventy- three. The mother came to California in January, 1919, and died at Mr. Read's home at El Modena, at the age of eighty-four.

Wendell P. grew up on the Kansas farm, attended the district schools of the locality in winter and spent his summers doing farm work. At seventeen he passed a teacher's examination and taught school in Wilson County, Kans. He afterward be- came a student at the Kansas State Normal at Emporia, where he pursued the regular three years' pedagogical course. He finished the course in 1902, and was listed with the 1903 class. His first experience in school work after graduating was as the principal of the Williamsburg grammar school, Fremont County, Colo., in 1902-3.

Mr. Read's marriage, which occurred at Fredonia, Kans., June 8. 1902, united him with Miss Pearl Souders, a native of Ohio. Her parents John and Amelia (Bonham) Souders, are now living retired at Hollywood, Cal. Mrs. Read also graduated from the Kansas State Normal. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Read, namely, Ruth, Paul I. and Lois A. Mr. Read farmed in Kansas until 1911, then went to Florida and purchased a forty-five-acre plantation. He again enlisted as a teacher and organ- ized and became the principal of the Parish, Fla., high school. Attacked with the malady so common to the southern states, malaria. he returned to Kansas and hecame superintendent of the city schools at Cunningham, Kans., serving one year. 1913-14. In

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the spring of 1914 he came to Los Angeles and entered the summer school of the University of Southern California, completing the course in the summer of 1916 with the degree of A.M. In 1914 he came to El Modena and took charge of the El Modena grammar school, an up-to-date school of eight grades, which gives manual training to the boys and girls, has a string orchestra, etc. Mr. Read is the owner of a ranch at El Modena. He bought the eight acres with the comfortable, modern bungalow upon it. January, 1919, and recently added another two acres to his possession, giving him a fine ten-acre ranch. He also owns a fifty-seven-acre ranch at San Jacinto. He finds recreation from the arduous mental labor as a teacher in taking care of the El Modena ranch, which is devoted to the culture of citrus fruit, working evenings and Saturdays. Mr. Read enters heartily into community affairs and was elected president of the Farm Center at El Modena, January, 1920. A firm advocate of national prohibition, he is a consistent Christian, he and his wife being members of the Friends Church at El Modena. A man of fine character, a clear thinker, broad-minded and original, his con- versation is spiced with dry wit and humor and he has a keen desire for the community's betterment, morally, commercially and educationally.

SAMUEL A. MARSDEN, M.D .- A physician of pleasing personality who is meeting with merited success, is Dr. Samuel A. Marsden, popular with his patients and fellow-citizens. He was born at Centerville, Iowa, March 17, 1885, where he spent the first twelve years of his life, after which he came to Oregon with his parents in 1897, and made his home at Portland. On completing the courses at the Marshfield high school, he entered Portland Academy, from which in due time he was graduated with honors; and then he became a clerk in a drug store, and for some years continued active in the drug business at Portland and at Marshfield, Ore. From a boy, however, he had had the desire to study medicine and surgery, and finally the way was opened to his reaching that goal. Having come south to Orange, he entered the premedical department of the University of Southern Calfornia, and there continued the study of medicine until his graduation, in 1917, with the degree of M.D. He then put in eighteen months as interne at the Los Angeles County Hospital.

A month later, Dr. Marsden volunteered his services to the United States Govern- ment, and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the U. S. Medical Crops. He was sent to the training camp for medical officers at Fort Riley, Kans., and at the end of sixty days was transferred to Camp Kearny, where he was stationed until the armistice. On December 10, 1918, he was honorably discharged, and three days later began his medical practice in Orange, associating himself as a partner with Dr. Domann, the firm becoming Domann and Marsden. He was made deputy county physician, and has since been unusually active in responding to the many demands for his services. He holds a two-hour free clinic at the Social Science League in Santa Ana each week, on Tuesdays, and there performs a philanthropic service that is of growing importance. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the State Medical Society, Southern California Medical Society, and the Orange County Medical Association and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.

Dr. Marsden was made a Mason at Blanco Lodge No. 48, A. F. & A. M., at Marsh- field, Ore., and belongs to Arago Chapter No. 22, R. A. M., at Marshfield. He is also affiliated with the San Diego Consistory of the Scottish Rite Masons, Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Los Angeles, and he is a member of the Doric Chapter No. 53. O. E. S., at Marshfield, Ore., where he is a past patron. In college, he belonged to the Phi Rho Sigma, and is a member of the local chapter of the American Legion.

REO C. ADAMS .- Among the old colonial families of America the name of Adams stands preeminent for physical and mental strength, virility, versatility and many other excellent qualities that have aided in large measure to develop our com- monwealth. A worthy exponent of his branch of this most estimable family, is Reo C. Adams, prominent citrus rancher of Alameda Street, at El Modena, Cal., who was horn of good old New England Adams' stock at Dublin, N. H., December 13, 1879. His parents. John L. and Abbie J. (Wheeler) Adams, are natives of New Hampshire, where the father owned a farm. They are now living at Pomona, Cal., and the father owns a walnut ranch. Reo C. is the second child in a family of three children: Willis J., a rancher, died in California in 1919; George A. resides at Monrovia, and is in the employ of the Edison Electric Company.

Reo C. came to California. a lad about ten years of age, with his parents, who first located at Los Angeles, where they lived two and a half years. They afterwards spent five years at Duarte. then returned to Los Angeles for five months before they settled in Bolsa precinct. Orange County, in 1896. Reo attended the public schools of Duarte, and before his marriage worked for Raitt's Banner Dairy at Santa Ana for two years. He then engaged with the Los Angeles Street Railway as motorman at Los Angeles,

Da Marsden, mit

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remaining with the company two years. His marriage occurred June 25, 1902, and united him with Miss Etta Clark, daughter of the late William C. Clark of Santa Ana. Mrs. Adams was born in Nebraska and was fifteen years old when she accompanied her parents to California. Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Adamns, May Etta and Eva Minnie, by name.

Mr. Adams' five-acre ranch is located on Alameda Street. He has lived on and operated the place for the past thirteen years, purchasing it about five years ago. He has lived in California for thirty years, and twenty-three years of that time his home has been in Orange County. His enthusiastic and optimistic nature makes many friends and his efficiency and energy as a worker have brought excellent results in the success he has attained financially. Fraternally he affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of America, and in his political convictions he is a consistent Republican. He and his wife are members of the First Methodist Church at Santa Ana.

U. G. LITTELL, D. O .- Prominent among the Orange County physicians of note who have done much to advance not only medical science but the proper appreciation of the possibilities of osteopathy must be mentioned Dr. U. G. Littell, whose offices at 317-18 W. H. Spurgeon Building, Santa Ana, have become a mecca for many suffering from various human ills. He was born at Odon, Daviess County, Ind., on June 28, 1864, the son of William N. Littell, a minister in the Church of Christ, who had married in Indiana Miss Mary E. Johnson, like himself a native of the Hoosier State, and a charming, good woman, whose life blessed all who came in contact with her.

The subject of our sketch lived at home until he was twenty-one, attending both the schools of his district and the Normal School at Owensburg; and having been grad- uated by the latter institution of note, he received a teacher's certificate and taught for a year, in Indiana. He then removed to Nebraska and there taught school for six years, after which he continued his teaching for a year in Iowa. If he had made no other progress than to acquire his first-hand knowledge of human nature thus obtained, he would have accomplished much.

In 1891 he accomplished the equally great step of migrating to California and getting acquainted with the great Pacific commonwealth at one of its most important periods of development, settling in what is now the Winterburg Precinct, Orange County. Here he farmed, and for a while also worked at the carpenter's trade. In Orange County, too, on August 25, 1893, Mr. Littell married Miss Mary E. Blaylock, a sister of W. W. Blaylock of the Ocean View school district, and thus happily set up his domestic establishment.

Public spirited to an admirable degree, Mr. Littell in 1898 became a candidate for the office of county auditor; but, after a live campaign in which he made an excellent run, he was defeated by Captain Hall, who obtained a small majority of the votes.

In 1903 Mr. Littell matriculated at the Pacific College of Osteopathy in South Pasadena, from which he graduated with honors in June, 1906, in Los Angeles. After graduation, he settled at Santa Ana where he has since practiced with great success. Their residence at 635 Parton Street is the center of a generous hospitality. Besides belonging to the National. State and County Osteopathic associations, Dr. Littell is a member of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce. Both Dr. and Mrs. Littell belong to the Church of Christ at the corner of Broadway and Walnut streets, and the Doctor is also a Modern Woodman of America. Dr. Littell is always a good "booster," be- lieving in Santa Ana and Orange County, first, last and all the time.

CHAS. E. SMILEY .- The beautiful residence and home of Chas. E. Smiley, located on Collins Avenne near Tustin Street, attracts the attention of all who pass on the thoroughfare. The property is under a high state of cultivation and five of the ten acres comprised in the place are planted to Valencia oranges, the remainder being planted to lemons. Mr. Smiley was born near Ithaca, Tompkins County, N. Y., on May 16, 1862, and grew up on the home farm there. His father, Artemas L., and mother. Emily (George) Smiley, were members of old New York State families and were the parents of five children, two girls and three hoys, only two of whom survive- Mr. Smiley and his sister, Mary, the wife of George W". Sutfin, who resides at Dryden, N. Y., aged seventy-three. The other brothers and sister, who were all married, are survived by children. The celebrated Dr. N. K. Foster of Oakland, is the surviving husband of Mr. Smiley's sister, Jennie, who died in 1893. Dr. Foster served two terms in the California legislature and for ten years was secretary of the state hoard of health. He has one child, a son, Dr. H. E. Foster, a young and progressive physician of Oakland.

Chas. E. Smiley received a good education in the public schools of the Empire State and at the age of twenty left home to join his two brothers, Robert A. and John G., who were extensive sheep growers at Rawlins, Wyo., where he arrived in 1882. His

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brothers owned 15,000 head of sheep and Chas. E. worked for them about three years, afterwards engaging in the cattle business for himself in 1885. His home was in Rawlins, Wyo., but he made his headquarters in the foothills of Elk Mountain, near Fort Steele, Wyo., and his brand was Y 3. He ran from 400 to 500 head of cattle on the range for several years and in 1892 disposed of his ranch and engaged in wool growing. Purchasing a band of sheep he ranged them on the desert and in the moun- tains increasing his numbers until he had 9,000 head. He afterward drove his sheep to Bellefourche, S. D., where he disposed of them in the fall of 1905 and in the fall of 1906 he came to Southern California. To him the change from the plains of Wyo- ming to the citrus section of Southern California was rather extreme in one particular, to say the least. In Wyoming he had left plenty of land that could be purchased at fifty cents an acre and here he found orange and lemon orchards selling from $2,000 to $3,000 an acre and this made him desirous, first, to get an insight, not only in the care of the orchard, but income derived from same, so he put in the first few months working on the large Leffingwell ranch and there acquired considerable knowledge of citrus growing as well as the method of marketing the crops.

In the spring of 1907 he purchased an orange grove at Covina, and selling it in 1911 he purchased his present ten-acre orange orchard on Collins Avenue, Orange, which he has brought to a high state of cultivation and bearing. He is a member of the Villa Park Orchard Association and the Central Lemon Association of Villa Park. In Wyoming he was prominent in politics and in 1902 he was elected a member of the state legislature of Wyoming on the Republican ticket serving during the session of 1903; he took an active part in the session and secured the passage of several bills in the interest of stockmen and other needed legislation.

His marriage occurred at Fort Steele, Wyo., in 1898, and united him with Miss Mary Nelson, a native of England, who was reared in Ontario from the age of six years until she attained the age of sixteen, when she came to Wyoming with her sister. In his fraternal relations he is a life member of Rawlins Lodge No. 609 of the Elks. Mrs. Smiley is a member of the First Presbyterian Church at Orange, which he also attends and supports.

CARL E. DURNBAUGH .- A self-made man who has become a prosperous dairy- man is Carl E. Durnbaugh, who lives at the corner of Yorba and Chapman Streets, in Orange. He was born near Seward, Nebr., on March 7, 1893, the son of George E. and Laura Durnbaugh, prosperous farm folks. Mrs. Durnbaugh died in 1896, and then her husband sold his Nebraska farm and purchased several thousand acres in Osborne Coun- ty, Kans., on which he raised stock, wheat, corn, cattle and hogs. He aimed to keep seven or eight carloads of both cattle and hogs if the season was good, and less if the year was dry.

In 1900, however, George Durnbaugh sold out and came to Orange County, Cal., and settled at the corner of Tustin and Collins avenues, in Orange, where he pur- chased fifteen acres, set out to oranges and apricots. After ten years, he sold this land and bought property in the city of Orange. Tiring of this, after three years, he dis- posed of his Orange holding and removed to Madera, where he bought a grocery busi- ness. After another three years, Mr. Durnbaugh moved to Inglewood, Los Angeles County, where he at present lives, hale and hearthy at the age of sixty-five.

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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 146

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