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 157

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 157

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HOWARD A. KRAUSE .- A very aggressive young banker, from whose inspiring leadership much may be expected for the future progress of Fullerton, is Howard A. Krause, cashier of the First National Bank of Fullerton and son of Fred C. Krause, the bank's president, whose interesting career is elsewhere sketched in detail in this volume. His father, who had been a clergyman of the Congregational Church, and had spent some time in Alaska as a United States Commissioner, finally took up banking in Washington, and organized and presided over the Security State Bank at Newport; and so it came about that Howard was born at Hood River, Ore., on July 9, 1896. His mother was Miss Adelaide V. Beck before her marriage, a native of Iowa and a fellow student at one time with Mr. Krause at Northwestern College, the latter having also hailed from Iowa.

The public schools, including a first-class high school, helped Howard to prepare for his part in the world, and two years at Pomona College finished his academic career. Entering the bank with his father, he made progress quite as rapidly in winning friends for himself and the institution as in mastering the many and intricate details of financial and commercial and banking procedure. Few, if any, young men in Fullerton enjoy a more deserved popularity.

On April 10, 1917, Howard Krause was married to Miss Lila G. Foss, the cere- mony taking place at Anaheim; the bride is a native of Corona, Cal. One child, Harriett, has gladdened the parents' hearts.

Mr. Krause is a Republican in national political affairs, though admirably non- partisan as to local issues, and ready at all times to cooperate in work for the advance- ment of the nation, the state, the county or the town. He belongs to the Masons, and there enjoys the popularity natural for one of his affability and progressiveness.

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON .- A well-known and, what is infinitely more desirable. a well-liked citizen, William H. Robinson, the rancher of East Orangethorpe Avenue, has enjoyed an enviable association with Fullerton so that he is indeed a part of the history of the town. He was born near Barrie, Ontario, Canada, on November 14, 1879. the son of Moses Robinson, a native of the North of Ireland who came to Canada when he was two years old, and who eventually married Miss Matilda Lockard of Scotland. She died when William was six years of age, and his education in Ontario was continued without her guiding care. His father now makes his home in Barrie. When thirteen years of age William began to earn his own livelihood, continuing on farms until 1896, when he came to New York State. From 1896 to 1900, he spent four years in the restaurant business in Rochester. In 1900 he went to New York City and acted as cashier in hotels for three years, and for a summer he was dining room cashier on the coastwise steamer, Shinnecock. In 1903, he journeyed to Detroit to attend the wedding of a brother, and from there he reached Chicago, where he spent a year. Then he went to St. Louis and worked in the St. Nicholas Hotel during the Exposition.

In 1904, Mr. Robinson came to Los Angeles on a tour to see California, and he has since made this state his home. At first he opened a cigar business, but it satis- fied him for only a year. Then he came to Fullerton, and for ten years worked for Cline Bros., the grocers. He purchased four and a half acres on West Amerige Ave- 52

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nue, but in 1919 subdivided a part into lots, continuing Wilshire Avenue through it, and sold the balance to the Fullerton Home Builders, to be subdivided into lots. On November 25 of the same year he bought a ranch of twenty acres on East Orange- thorpe Avenue, near the Santa Fe Railroad, and on December 4 he moved onto the farm. Six acres are devoted to lemons, five to Valencia oranges, and nine acres to walnuts; and from a rundown ranch he has made it a first class grove. He owns nineteen shares in the Anaheim Union Water Company.

At Fullerton on October 31, 1906, Mr. Robinson was married to Miss Ida Morri- son, a native of Ontario. She lived with her aunt, Mrs. Harry Scott, in Buffalo, N. Y., and as Mr. Scott was a prominent citizen and an equally prominent Mason, she en- joyed various advantages. Two children blessed this fortunate union; the elder is Edith Matilda, the younger Harry William Robinson; and they both attend the Fullerton grammar school. The family attend the Christian Church at Fullerton, and Mr. Robinson is a member of Fullerton Lodge No. 339, F. & A. M., of Fullerton Chap- ter No. 90, R. A. M., and Santa Ana Council No. 14, R. & S. M., and politically is a Republican, with decided preferences as to the fitness of men for office regardless of party ties. Mrs. Robinson is a member of the Order of Eastern Star and the Ebell Club, Fullerton. During the ten years in which Mr. Robinson was with Cline Bros., he served on the Volunteer Fire Department of Fullerton, serving as assistant chief for three years, and six months he filled the chief's place, and he has the record of having been the promptest member. He also served as truant officer of the Fullerton grammar school, and from 1915 to 1919 was the town's deputy marshal.

HARRY V. WILLIAMS .- The favoring conditions in both the industrial and commercial fields of Fullerton, together with its growing importance as a residential town and educational center, have attracted to the city financiers of ability and ambi- tion, and among the gifted and most promising is Harry V. Williams, the popular assistant cashier of the First National Bank. He was born at Port Hope, in Canada, on October 12, 1874, but was reared at Brantford. His father was George Williams, a meat merchant, who married Lucy Jull, a native of Kent, England; they were the parents of seven children. Both parents are now dead.

Educated in the schools of Brantford, to which town the family had moved when our subject was six years of age, Harry, the youngest child in the family, later attended the Collegiate Institute there. After leaving school, he grew up on the home farm, and there he assisted until he was twenty-one years of age.

His first move, in breaking away from home, was the long stride to the Pacific; he first came to California, in 1895, but located permanently here in 1903. He luckily wended his way to Pomona, where he found employment for five years in the orange industry. Then, for ten years, he was with E. E. Armour's Drug Store at Pomona. In September, 1915, attracted by the more favorable prospects in Fullerton, he removed to the town in which he is now so well known.

For two years Mr. Williams was interested in the drug business as proprietor of the Corner Drug Store, but selling out, he entered the First National Bank as book- keeper, and was later advanced to be assistant cashier. Since then, he has become more and more identified with the growing town. He has been active as a Republican in national political movements, and as a nonpartisan in local affairs, has participated in the uplift work of the Christian Church, of which he is a member, and has gotten his share of deserved popularity among the Masons and the Knights of Pythias. On June 10, 1903, Mr. Williams was married to Miss Fanny Mae Varcoe, a native of Dungannon, Ontario, and the daughter of Wm. and Sophia Varcoe, now of Pomona. One child has blessed their union, a daughter, Dorothy Grace.

JAMES H. WHITAKER .- Among the old residents and business men in Orange County is James H. Whitaker, a native Chicagoan who has long been identified with Southern California, so that Orange County seems his natural home. He was born on December 19, 1864, a date memorable in American history, for. or that very day President Lincoln called for 300,000 more volunteer soldiers. His father was Andrew Whitaker, a farmer, who came to California in 1887, and located in Anaheim. He had married Miss Mary Cox, a native of Connecticut, and the family came West in 1887; both parents are now dead.

There were four boys in the family, all of whom are living, and James was the second child. He went to the local public school and the Lake Forest University and on completing the course he came to California in 1884 with an uncle, James Whitaker, who laid out Buena Park in Orange County. For some time uncle and nephew worked together, and then our subject, with Tom Deering, bought out a general merchandise establishment at Buena Park, at which place he was in business until 1909. He was the first postmaster at that place, and he remained there for about twenty years.

Elmer Ottoour Adelma S. Yorker

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On removing to Anaheim, Mr. Whitaker edited the paper called The Derrick, after which he was with Mr. Yungbluth in the clothing and furnishing business for three years. On January 1, 1917, he became secretary of the Anaheim Board of Trade- a happy appointment, for never did the organization flourish so well as during Mr. Whitaker's assignment to the wheel. Having become interested in the Orange County Rock and Gravel Company, Mr. Whitaker resigned as secretary of the Board of Trade in July, 1920, to devote his time to his personal interests. He is secretary of the Mother Colony Club, is an influential Republican, is a Knights Templar Mason and an Elk. In Chicago, he was a loyal member of the National Guard.

At Buena Park on September 1, 1891, Mr. Whitaker was married to Miss Lillian Whitaker, also born in Chicago, and they are the parents of four children: Madeleine is Mrs. Ralph Maas; and there are three sons, Loring, Gerald and James. The family attend the Episcopal Church, of which Mr. Whitaker is a vestryman.

ELMER ORVAL HOOKER .- Prominent among the interesting pioneers of Orange County who have contributed something worth while toward the development of the section in which they have lived and toiled, must be mentioned Mr. and Mrs. Elmer O. Hooker, identified in an enviable way with the introduction of the sugar beet into Los Alamitos. He was born at Terre Haute, Ind., on January 18, 1873, the son of William O. and Elizabeth (Ratts) Hooker, natives of Virginia and Indiana, respectively, and when three years of age was brought by his parents to Phillips County, Kans. There his father raised wheat, corn, rye and oats; and while he strove for a common school education, he helped on the home farm. Of their six children, four of whom are living, our subject is the third eldest.

In 1894, Mr. Hooker came out to California, and that same year he took up farm- ing at Pomona. Three years later, he removed to Los Alamitos, settling there early enough to build one of the first houses, and to become one of the first sugar beet grow- ers in that vicinity. He helped on the construction of the sugar factory, and he also became one of the foremen for the five following years of the Los Alamitos Sugar Re- finery and helped to make its reputation for a superior product. He was manager of the Los Alamitos Beet Growers Association for a number of years, and set the pace in growing beets by the latest, most up-to-date methods. He operated from 150 to 500 acres planted to sugar beets, but in 1919 he gave up raising sugar beets and located on a ranch of forty-seven acres he had purchased in Santiago Canyon in 1917. The ranch was formerly a part of the Madame Modjeska ranch, and has over 3,000 olive trees planted by the distinguished Polish actress over twenty years ago which he is grubbing out so that he may plant the land to alfalfa and walnuts. Besides seven head of horses and eight of cattle, he follows the chicken industry as a side issue. He also improved and still owns valuable residence and business property at Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Huntington Beach.

At Los Alamitos on September 12, 1915, Mr. Hooker was married to Mrs. Adelina S. Upperman, a sonthern lady born at Macon, Ga., the daughter of Harry I. and Laura A. (Alverson) Joy, natives of Ellsworth, Maine, and Macon, Ga., respectively. Harry Joy served in a Maine regiment during the Civil War, after which he married a southern woman and engaged in farming until his death; his widow now lives in Evans- ville, Ind. Adelina Joy was educated in the schools of Macon, Ga., and there, too, she married William Upperman and they removed to Saskatchewan, Canada, where he was employed as railroad engineer on the Canadian Pacific until he was killed in a train wreck. After his death his widow engaged in railroad Y. M. C. A. work until she came to California in February, 1915, and in September of the same year changed her name.

Besides ranching so successfully, Mr. Hooker has had both public office experience and done good civic work. He was in charge of the road improvement work in his district for years, and has served for a season on the jury. He is what might be termed an exceedingly useful citizen, both doing things and setting an inspiring, con- tagious example to others.

O. T. JOHNSON .- Among the highly-respected citizens now residing, retired, at Santa Ana are Mr. and Mrs. O. T. Johnson, who were long prosperous farmers in Iowa, and reside at their comfortable bungalow at Washington and French streets in Santa Ana. They have been privileged to rear a family, all of whom have married well and are in turn occupying positions of responsibility and esteem in the world.

Mr. Johnson was born in Holmes County, Ohio, on February 6 of the historic year. 1848, and eight years later was taken by his parents to Cedar County, Iowa. There he grew up and became the owner of a well improved farm of one hundred sixty acres. There. too, on New Year's Day, 1873, he was married to Miss Mary Elijah, a native of Delaware County, N. Y., who came West and became a resident of the Hawk- eye State. They joined the Methodist Church, and have been consistent Methodists

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ever since. 1n 1908, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson bade good-bye to their Middle West home and came out to sunnier California, locating in Santa Ana, where they have since made their home. And every day in the happy years intervening, they have been busy adding to their cherished memories of devoted friends or pleasant places or occasions.

Four children have blessed their uninterruptedly happy home life. William E. Johnson is employed by the Pomona Valley Telephone and Telegraph Union, and is the father of eight children; he married Miss Jessamine Coe, of Clarence, Iowa, who passed to the Great Beyond in April, 1917: Myrtie is the wife of W. W. Wasser, the secretary of the Santa Ana Elks; Clare was for fourteen years mechanical foreman for the Santa Ana Register, he lives in Santa Ana, but is ranching near Anaheim; and Mildred is the wife of Fred D. Stever, the well-known realty man of Santa Ana, just returned from an eight months' service in France. Her first husband was Walter Galbraith, a native son of Santa Ana's first generation; but he died in 1917, leaving one child, De Mont Galbraith.

NORTON W. HATFIELD .- A worthy representative of a fine old pioneer family naturally proud of its record of useful and successful activity in two states is Norton W. Hatfield, who was born near Maquoketa, Jackson County, Iowa, on August 22, 1884, the son of George Henry Hatfield who was then a prosperous farmer in the Hawkeye State. He distributed milk and dairy products in the county, and also had charge of one of the rural delivery routes of the U. S. mail service. In 1885 he removed to California and purchased forty acres on the Garden Grove Road, at that time cactus and sagebrush; but with the assistance of his good wife, who was Helena A. Fuller before her marriage, and his son Norton, for a while a pupil of the Orangethorpe school, he cleared the cactus and sagebrush and planted the land to grapes. The grapes died, however, and then the vines were grubbed out and apricots, peaches and walnuts were set out instead. These in turn were pulled out, and some of the forty acres have since been sold. Now his sister, Mrs. Parrett, owns eleven acres, five acres belongs to the mother of the subject of our sketch, and ten acres to him.

Norton Hatfield's acreage is devoted to Valencia oranges, and is under the service of the Anaheim Union Water Company, although he also receives water from the Browning pumping. plant, which commands a well of fifty inches; and the grove is properly rated as one of the most attractive, as it is one of the most fruitful and profitable, in Orange County. The ranching is carried on according to the latest guid- ance of scientific research, and only the most up-to-date methods and machinery are employed. He markets his fruit through the Mutual Orange Distributors Association in Fullerton in which he is a director.

On December 28, 1908, Mr. Hatfield was married to Miss Hattie Kaminske, a native of Burlington, Iowa, and the daughter of Charles K. Kaminske, who had married Miss Louise Bruns. He was a talented musician, but he gave up his profession for farm work; he died in Iowa and his widow with her daughter, Hattie, came to California in the fall of 1907. Two children came to brighten the Hatfield fireside, and they are Ruth and George. Mr. Hatfield is a member of Anaheim Lodge No. 1345, B. P. O. Elks, and Mrs. Hatfield belongs to the Presbyterian Church of the same place.

JOHN T. JOHNSON .- An interesting rancher of the class always sought for by every new community, their lives speaking for themselves, and each year of their activity bearing more and more desirable fruit, is John T. Johnson, who was born near Uniontown, Bourbon County, Kans., on September 7, 1886, the son of J. D. John- son, a farmer of that state, who was born in Missouri and came to Kansas when he was three years old. In time, he married Miss Mina E. Griffith, a lady of accomplishment, who proved a devoted wife and an affectionate mother. They are still living. J. D. Johnson raised stock and grain; and so, while he was attending school in Allen and Neosho counties, John spent the first nineteen years of his life at home, assistmig his father on the farm. In 1905 he came west to California and struck out for himself. For two years he worked at the packing house of the Leffingwell ranch at Whittier, and after that he put in a year at the Escondido packing house. He next went to Ven- tura County and for three years worked in a packing house at Fillmore, and while still there, he started to ranch in his fourth year. He purchased seven acres near Fillmore, and devoted all of the land to Navel oranges.

When Mr. Johnson sold out in 1914, he came to Orange County and settled in Anaheim, and at first he purchased five acres on South Los Angeles Street, just outside of Anaheim. There were three-year-old Valencia orange trees on the farm, and he had a good chance to experiment in cultivating citrus fruit. In July, 1918, he also purchased seven acres on Anaheim Road and Placentia Avenue, all set out to Valencias, and in October, 1919, he sold his five-acre ranch. He put up a house and such barns and other buildings as were necessary, and on his seven acres he is living today. In

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November, 1919, Mr. Johnson purchased a ranch at the corner of Broadway and West Street, and he thereby added to his holdings nine acres of full-bearing orange trees, surrounded by a row of walnuts. About three acres are devoted to Navel and sweet oranges, and some six acres to Valencias. He receives his water from a private irriga- tion plant, and markets his products through the California Fruit Growers Exchange. At Santa Ana on December 2, 1909, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Minnie E. Hodge, a native of Tennessee, where she was educated in private schools. Her grandparents were pioneers in northeastern Tennessee, and her father was a Southern planter, and a man of progressive ideas and wide influence in his district. Mr. Johnson is a Mason, affiliated with Anaheim Lodge No. 207, F. & A. M., and there is no more popular member in that order.

NATHAN C. STOCKWELL .- An up-to-date, thoroughly progressive and suc- cessful rancher, Nathan C. Stockwell, the well-known citrus grower north of Anaheim is a fine representative of the Buckeye State, where he was born, near Willoughby, in the vicinity of Cleveland, on September 16, 1871. His father was Joseph E. Stockwell, an extensive manufacturer of brick in Nebraska, who had the first machine for moulding bricks in Lincoln; and he had married Miss La Villa Henderson. She died on the ranch at North Anaheim, in October, 1919, mourned by all who had been attracted by her charming personality as a neighbor and a friend; Joseph E. Stockwell sustained serious injuries in an auto accident, which impaired his otherwise sturdy constitution, upon which he had relied for years, although he is still astonishingly active. These good parents moved to Lincoln when Nathan was ten years old; and near that city he was educated in a country school. He thus grew up to help his father in the brickyard; and when the latter left Nebraska and removed to Tacoma, Wash., he accompanied him and shared his varied and varying fortunes there for four or five years. In 1905, they came to Southern California and purchased sixty acres north of Anaheim; it was covered with cactus and sand, and was declared by the old residents to be worthless or at least undesirable acreage.

With the assistance of his father, however, he cleared the land, sunk a well and installed a pumping plant; and having set the land out to lemons and oranges, it is today valuable to a high degree. From time to time, he has sold some of the area: but father and son still have sixteen acres devoted to raising Valencia oranges, served by a fine pumping plant tapping seventy-five inches of water, raised by a Krow pump.

Joseph E. Stockwell is a member and director of the Anaheim Cooperative Orange Growers Association; he marches under the banner of the Republicans, and Nathan Stockwell is a live member of the Modern Woodmen of America. Both father and son belong to that highly desirable class of settlers who, when they have once pitched their tent. never break camp without effecting some improvement in the neighborhood worth the while.

C. S. BUNDSCHUH .- The city of Huntington Beach and the surrounding coun- try are fortunate indeed to have such an efficient and considerate funeral director as is found in the person of C. S. Bundschuh, master of the art of embalming and numbered among the most able and successful business men of Huntington Beach. He was born March 31, 1873, in Olmstead, in Pulaski County, Ill., a son of August and Catherine (Lilley) Bundschuh. August Bundschuh passed away in Ohinstead, Ill .; his widow, now in her eighty-first year, is well and active and resides in Huntington Beach. Mr. Bundschuh's early life was spent on the home place in Pulaski County, and here he received his education.

In 1898 Mr. Bundschuh was united in marriage with Miss Mary Hanna, who was also a resident of Illinois. She passed away five years later, in 1903, leaving two chil- dren, both of whom are now deceased. His second marriage occurred in 1904, when he was united with Miss Alice Cockrum, of Arkansas, the ceremony being soleninized at Cairo. Ill. This union has been blessed with four children: George, a student at Huntington Beach high school; Alice Louise, Grace and Norbit. Mr. Bundschuh first engaged in the undertaking business at Ullin, Pulaski County, Ill. After several years there he sold his business in 1910 and moved to Chicago, locating at 1625 Wells Street, where he was engaged in the undertaking business until 1912. While living in Chicago Mr. Bundschuh had the proud distinction of owning and operating the first auto hearse in that city, and also said to have been the second one in use in the United States.

In 1912 Mr. Bundschuh came to California, locating at Huntington Beach, where he purchased six lots at the corner of Seventh and Main streets, and here, during the year, he built his residence. The following year his undertaking establishment and funeral chapel were built, Mr. Bundschuh becoming the pioneer undertaker of Hunt- ington Beach. His establishment is a model one in every respect, the chapel seating

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140 persons. In order to perfect himself in his profession he took a course in embalm- ing at Williams College, Kansas City, Mo., in 1905, and supplemented his training with a post-graduate course in 1906, at the College of Embalming at St. Louis, Mo. Fra- ternally, Mr. Bundschuh is a Mason, being past master of Huntington Beach Lodge No. 380, F. & A. M. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Modern Woodmen of America. In addition to his business at Huntington Beach, he is a partner in the Coachella Valley Undertaking Company at Thermal, Cal. Ever since locating at Huntington Beach, Mr. Bundschuh has taken an active interest in all the affairs of the community and with his family enjoys a justly deserved popularity.

PALITO ARBALLO .- A carefree, willing and devotedly conscientious laborer, whose simple, upright life and an attractive temperament, doubtless inherited from his worthy parents, have made him justly popular among his associates, is Palito Arballo, the rancher and assistant road overseer at Yorba Station. He was born at Anaheim, the son of Francisco Arballo, the farmer of that vicinity, and married Mrs. A. Frances Ruiz, widow of the late Francisco Ruiz, a native of Anaheim. She was the daughter of Francisco Lopez, who had married Ruth Urins. By her first union, Mrs. Arballo had four children: Albertine is now the wife of William Vasquez, and lives across the street from her parents on the same ranch; Ruby Ruiz is sixteen; Lily thirteen; and Josephine seven years old. The children attend the Yorba grade school.

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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 157

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