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 158

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 158

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Mrs. Arballo owns the ranch of five acres in the Yorba precinct where they make their home. It is devoted to walnuts, and as the grove is now about twelve years old, is in fine shape. Mr. Arballo's regular line of work has been teaming and farming, but of late he has been appointed to the position for which he is so well prepared by experience and enterprise, that of assistant road overseer under V. G. Yorba. In national politics he is a Republican, but this party preference never interferes with his cordial support of whatever seems to be best for the community.

J. VALENTI .- A young man who served in a California regiment in the World War is J. Valenti, who was born near Palermo, Sicily, May 16, 1892, where he received a good education in the public schools. At the age of twelve years he was apprenticed to the shoemakers' trade and on completing the trade at the age of seventeen he started a shop in his native town. He served three months in the Italian army when he was taken ill and was duly honorably discharged. In 1913 he came to New York City, where he worked at his trade. Having always had a desire to see California and to try his luck in the land of gold and sunshine he came to the Pacific Coast in 1914, locating in San Bernardino, where he was employed at his trade until Congress declared war on Germany.

Being anxious to join the colors of the Stars and Stripes he immediately took out his first papers and on May 29, 1917, he enlisted in the Coast Artillery Band. He was stationed at Fort McArthur and later transferred to the Quartermaster's depart- ment as corporal and was stationed at San Pedro until February 24, 1919, when he received his honorable discharge. Looking for a location he was so well pleased with conditions in Orange he located here and opened his present place of business for the repairing and making of shoes, having the latest machinery, all operated by electric power and thus has acquired a large and paying business in a short time.

In San Bernardino occurred the marriage of Mr. Valenti with Josephine Valord. who was born in Texas and they have one child, Mary Grace. Mr. Valenti is a very liberal and enterprising young man and is ready at all times to aid movements for the upbuilding of his adopted country. In political views, Mr. Valenti is a Republican.

CHARLES L. CRUMRINE .- A native son who has made an enviable record as the manager of the La Habra Citrus Association, one who is very progressive and believes in adopting the latest methods that make for business advancement, is Charles L. Crumrine. He was born in Ventura County, May 30, 1881, a son of Harrison and Mary (Trotter) Crumrine, natives of Pennsylvania and Illinois, respectively.

Harrison Crumrine is a pioneer of Ventura County, having located there in 1869. Charles was educated in the grammar and high schools of Ventura, and since entering the business world has followed the citrus packing industry very closely and by centralizing his efforts along a single line he has achieved marked success as a manager. For six years he was manager of the Santa Paula Citrus Association and in 1911 became manager of the Leffingwell Packing House, on the Leffingwell ranch near La Habra. It was in 1915 that Mr. Crumrine accepted the position of manager of the La Habra Citrus Association. This plant is now the largest in Orange County, and its phenom- enal growth in business, since Mr. Crumrine took charge, emphasizes his fitness for such an important post. The excellent business judgment and fidelity to details he has exhibited and his wise, tactful and courteous treatment of the employes is conclusive proof that the directors of the association made no mistake when they chose Mr.

Longer Dunton

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Crumrine as their manager. There was but one section to the plant when he took charge; now there are four. One hundred forty cars each of lemons and oranges was the maximum shipment in a season, but through his efficient management there were packed during 1919, 425 cars of lemons and 375 cars of oranges. He predicts that the next three years will see 800 cars of lemons and 600 of oranges packed and shipped each year by this association. The management contemplates the building of a new orange house in 1921, to care for its anticipated increase in business.

The La Habra Citrus Association is composed of 170 growers, who represent 2,000 acres of land devoted to citrus culture, and it maintains a fumigating and picking department. A Mexican colony has been established by the association for the comfort and benefit of its pickers; a settlement worker is located in the colony, who looks after the morale of its members and the general welfare of the colony. The citrus district of La Habra is one of the most productive in the county, its soil being especially adapted to the growing of a fine quality of fruit, which commands the highest price in the Eastern market. The officers and directors of the association are: A. M. Otis, presi- dent; W. L. York, vice-president; C. L. Crumrine, secretary and manager; and the following brands are packed La Habra, Shepherd, Reliable Sunkist brands, and Rex and Bengal, choice brands.

On June 30, 1903, at Santa Paula, Mr. Crumrine was united in marriage with Miss May Brookhouser, and this union has been blessed with a daughter, Pauline May. Fraternally Mr. Crumrine is a Mason, a member of Whittier Lodge No. 323, F. & A. M., at Whittier, Cal. In addition to the responsibilities of his position, Mr. Crumrine is the owner of a citrus orchard in the La Habra Heights Addition, which he has himself developed.

GEORGE DUNTON .- A progressive young man of superior business qualifica- tions who has been identified with the automobile business since he was eighteen years of age, George Dunton has made for himself a distinct place in Anaheim's busi- ness circles. Quick to discriminate and swift to grasp the opportunity for success, his selection of Orange County as the scene of his operations in the automobile field has been well rewarded.

He was born in Chicago, Ill., November 27, 1888, the only child of William B. and May B. (Keeler) Dunton, natives of Belvedere, Ill. The father was engaged in the grain business in Chicago until 1914, when he decided to locate in California, and he has since been engaged in orange growing at Anaheim. George Dunton was edu- cated in the public schools of Chicago and at the Athenaeum in that city, and upon embarking in business lfe was engaged with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific and the Southern Pacific for a period of two years. In 1906 he entered the automobile business in Chicago, continuing there until he came to California in 1911, where he was at first with the Stromberg Carburetor Company. In 1912 he entered the employ of the Ford Motor Company at Los Angeles, continuing with them for six years and becoming their sales manager. Wishing to engage in business for himself, in 1918 he purchased his present business, the Ford Agency at Anaheim, from G. T. Ingram, and also added the agency for the Fordson tractor for Orange County, which he held until the agency for the tractor was divided among the Ford agents of the county. His territory is Anaheim and vicinity, including Garden Grove and Los Alamitos. His business has rapidly increased until he now employs twenty-six people, and finds that his thorough business experience in the East in the automobile field is of great advantage to him. He occupies a large garage, 60x110, located at North Los Angeles and Cypress streets, and besides has a warehouse on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Up until October 1, 1920, at the end of the first two years' sales, he has delivered 344 tractors, a surprisingly large number, even outnumbering the sale of Ford automobiles during the same period, showing the wonderful popularity of the Fordson tractor.

Mr. Dunton's marriage, on June 15, 1914, at White Bear Lake, Minn., united him with Miss Ruby Matthews of St. Paul, Minn., and two daughters have been born to them, Elizabeth and Barbara. Mr. Dunton is a member of the Orange County Automobile Trades Association, and is popular in the circles of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Orange County Country Club and the Hacienda Country Club of La Habra, in all of which he holds membership. In fraternal circles he is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner, belonging to Al Malaikah Temple at Los Angeles, and is also a member of the Anaheim Lodge of Elks.

Mr. Dunton finds recreation from the arduous cares of business in golf and tennis, and his deep interest in Orange County is manifested in the enthusiasm with which he furthers all measures or organizations that tend toward the development of the county and for the public weal.

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CHARLES EBERTH .- A thorough workman who has done much to perfect the manufacture of auto tops and to improve the methods of anto painting, is Charles Eberth, the expert upholsterer of Orange, who is a familiar figure in the social life of his home town, Santa Ana. He was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1859, educated in the excellent public schools of that country, also attending the gymnasium, and there learned the trade of an upholsterer and a cabinetmaker. For five years he served in the Austrian army, as a member of the Sixth Hussar Regiment, in which he was ser- geant, and campaigned at the front in the Turkish-Russian War of 1878-79, taking part in the battles of Serreava and Burtscka, and was wounded in the thigh in the latter struggle. He obtained a furlough; and while on the reserve list came to the United States in 1881, and went to work at his trade in New York.

In 1894, he removed to Chicago and entered the employ of the Pullman Car Works; and for thirteen years he was one of their most accomplished upholsterers. In 1907, he came out to the Northwest, and for five years followed his trade at Portland. His natural gifts, his developed technical skill and his superior taste, together with his known determination never to deliver any work that was not finished in every respect, all combined to bring him all the patronage that he could take care of.

In 1912, he came South to Los Angeles and was soon engaged by Barker Bros. as upholsterer. Next he removed to Pasadena and worked for Knowles and Phillips in the same line. In 1915 he located in Santa Ana, where he bought a residence and followed his trade, making a specialty of automobile tops and other motor upholstery. In 1919 he sold out and started the same business at Orange, making tops and uphols- tering. He also went in for automobile painting at the corner of Olive and North Glassell streets; and his advent into Orange was followed by an immediate increase in profitable trade.

Twenty-five years ago, at Seattle, Mr. Eberth was married to Miss Anna Studavil, a native of Galveston, and a lady with a strong, winning personality. They have had twelve children, and six are still living. Mr. and Mrs. Eberth belong to the Baptist Church in Santa Ana, and are active in all good works in time of war as well as in times of peace.

EDSON JOEL BALL .- An experienced, well-posted realty dealer of Orange, California, whose prosperity has very naturally made him an enthusiastic booster and loyal citizen of Orange County, is Edson J. Ball, who was born in Petersburg, Monroe County, Mich., December 24, 1850. His father was Wesley Ball, a native of Rochester, N. Y., who came with his father, Joel Ball, a farmer, to Michigan, where the latter lived and labored, and died at the age of ninety-four. The Ball family are of Puritan stock, closely related to Mary Ball, the mother of George Washington, and were long residents of Massachusetts. Wesley Ball cleared a farm from the timber at a time when there were only cow paths and Edson J. could often, as a boy, see bear tracks near their cabin. There were six children in the family, but only two now living.

Edson J., the third eldest, was brought up on a farm when for a time there was no public school, and finally a log schoolhouse was put up, with a teacher who "boarded 'round," and he continued at home with his father until he was eighteen years old. He then struck ont for himself and started to learn the butcher business, buying cattle and hogs and wholesaled meat in Toledo, Ohio. There were no railroads over which to ship stock and he drove them through from Southern Michigan to Toledo, and having no scales at that time, he had to guess at the weight hitting the mark, generally, within a few pounds. As he paid cash for the stock he was able to sell then to good advantage. Many a time he bought A-No. 1 beef cattle for from $14 to $16 per head, selling the entire carcass for three and one-half cents per pound- some difference in prices compared with the present time when the high cost of living is the principal topic of conversation. Mr. Ball met with good success in his ventures and in 1876 added dairying to his stock business in Petersburg, along the stamping grounds of General Custer, who was reared only seventeen miles from the home of the Balls, so that they saw much of him as a boy.

It was while Mr. Ball was living in Petersburg that he became city marshal and street commissioner of the town. There was a bad element at large in the town and he made it his first duty to clean up the place and make it safer for the people who believed in law and order. He had the entire confidence of the citizens, and was known by the rough element to be absolutely fearless in the discharge of his duties as an officer and many a desperate man did he take to the penitentiary without using bracelets, nor did they attempt to escape for they well knew the results. Mr. Ball often says that the Lord must have spared him for some particular purpose as he took his life in his own hands many times.

In 1905 Mr. Ball went to Spokane, Wash., and was made meat inspector for that city, remaining in that position two years, or until a government inspector was in-

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stalled. After that he was called many times to render expert opinion on practical subjects. While meat inspector he made better the working conditions for employes of the slaughter houses, the handling of meat more sanitary, thereby rendering a distinct service to the consumers. He was appointed deputy city assessor of Spokane and held the office until 1911, when he resigned to come to California. On looking about the southern part of the state he finally selected Orange as a satisfactory place to settle and he at once established himself in the real estate business, selling city and ranch properties, writing insurance-representing the German-American and the Spring- field companies-and negotiating loans, in all of which he has been singularly successful and has been a real benefactor to the city and county.

In 1876, Mr. Ball was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Hill, born in Peters- burg, Mich., the daughter of Horace C. Hill, a Vermonter by birth and attorney by profession, who drove to Michigan, with his first wife and five children, with an ox- team. Mrs. Hill, who was before her marriage, Amelia Trumley, died in Michigan; for a second wife he married Miss Julia Bowen, by whom he had seven children. He practiced law in Monroe County and there both he and his wife died. Seven of the two families of children are still living. The Hill and Ball families were among the very earliest settlers in Monroe County and Jennie Hill and Edson Ball grew up to- gether as children. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ball: Harry, a farmer of Jackson, Mich., has three daughters, Josephine, Mabel and Winnifred; Mable Ball be- came the wife of Dr. E. T. Lamb, of Alma, Mich., and they have two sons, Woodburn and Gordon; Iva Lena, is a graduate of Alma College and taught school for some years, she married Cleve Best and they have a daughter, Ruth, and live at Flint, Mich .; Bernice is Mrs. G. W. Moore and the mother of two daughters, Marian and Lucile, they reside in Hollywood, Cal .; Everell J., lives in Montana, is married and has a daughter, Audrey; George Ball, the youngest, also makes his home in Montana, is married and has a son Norwood Dickerson Ball, who bears a striking likeness to his grandfather. George was commissioned a captain during the World War and was stationed at Quantico, Va., as supervisor of the officers' training school there. He is a member of the Officers' Reserve and subject to call should his services be needed.

The Ball family attend the Presbyterian Church in Orange, and Mr. Ball marches with the Republicans in national affairs, but in local issues he supports the men and measures he deems best suited for the town and county regardless of party lines. Mr. and Mrs. Ball have an ever-widening circle of friends and well-wishers in Orange and the county.

G. W. STRUCK .- An enterprising Californian who has been very successful, but who, while attaining prosperity for himself, did not fail to do his best to help build up Orange and the surrounding locality, is G. W. Struck, who came to Orange County in the early eighties. He was born in Pomerania, Germany, in 1866, and when only four years of age was brought across the ocean to Minnesota. His father, Carl Struck, settled near Zurnbrota, Minn., and from 1870 to 1878 was a farmer there; then he . removed to near Austin, the county seat of Mower County, in the same state, where he remained for four years. In December, 1882, he came west to California and at Orange was a raiser of fruit until he died, on October 4. 1917, in his seventy-eighth year. He was one of the organizers of the Lutheran Church at Orange, and was on its board of trustees. Mrs. Struck, the mother, was Amelia Kamrath before her mar- riage, and she died at Orange in November, 1892, aged fifty-three years. She was the mother of four children-Fred, G. W. and Herman Struck, all now in Orange, and Max Struck, who died in 1908.

From the early seventies until 1882 G. W. Struck was reared in Minnesota, where he attended the local schools; and when he came to California in 1882, he went to work at teaming and at farming. He learned the blacksmith's trade at Jack Goodin's shop in Los Angeles, on old Fort Street, now Upper Broadway, and when Goodin sold out and removed to Sespie as a contractor in the stone quarry, he went with him, and worked as a driller and a blacksmith. After six months. Goodin removed to Oakland, and again Mr. Struck went along in his service, and took up teaming. Still again, when Goodin went to Telluride, Colo., to work in the mines, he shared his venture, and while Goodin ran the blacksmith end of the enterprise, Struck ran a pack train of burrows, from Marshall Pass to the end of the railroad at Bridal Veil Falls. Then he went to Cripple Creek, Colo., when there were all tent houses in that section, and located some claims and worked as a blacksmith; but the sickness of his mother compelled him to return, after three years' absence from the state.

He bought a shop at the northeast corner of Chapman and Orange streets, and started in at blacksmithing and carriage-making and repairing with A. Albrecht, under the firm name of Albrecht and Struck, and built up an extensive business; and later they removed the shop to its present location, at the south side of Chapman, between Grand

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and Orange streets, and extended the variety of business undertaken. Later, Mr. Struck bought Mr. Albrecht out. and for six or eight years ran the business alone, when he sold it to Frank Wheeler.

While blacksmithing, Mr. Struck had bought ten acres on Batavia Street, near Taft, set out to apricots and walnuts, which he afterward sold, but not before he had purchased his present place of ten acres at 621 North Glassell Street. It had at first only a few orange trees; but he improved it, and set it out to Valencia oranges. He also owns two other valuable orange orchards. He still owns the buildings where he had his shop, and also built a garage, 60x100 feet in size, next to his shop.

At Orange, Mr. Struck was married to Miss Clara Boese, a native of Wisconsin, who died here in 1913, leaving one son, George M. Struck, who assists his father. In 1917 Mr. Struck married a second time, the ceremony also taking place at Orange; his bride being Miss Minnie Maas, a native of Norfolk, Nebr. Mr. Struck belongs to the Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Men's Club, and is a member of the Foothill Valencia Orange Growers Association, and also a director in the same.

LEO BORCHARD .- Among those whose exceptional enterprise and movements for progress have given them, more and more, an enviable rank among the leading ranchers of Orange County, may be mentioned Leo Borchard of Santa Ana, who with his brother, Frank P., owned a fine tract of over 900 acres on the Talbert Road, four miles south of Huntington Beach, which they reclaimed from tule and swamp land until it was one of the most productive ranches in the county, farming it until they disposed of the larger part of it. They are the sons of Casper Borchard, a native of Germany and a pioneer of what is now western Orange County, residing at Conejo, Cal., where he is successful and respected. The maiden name of the mother, Mrs. Borchard, was Teresa Maring, and she died when the lad Leo was seventeen. Casper Borchard was a stockman and a farmer, and came to own 4,000 acres in Ventura County, and 2,700 acres in Madera County, as well as several fine ranches in Orange County. In recent years he has disposed of his lands to his children, and Borchard Bros. were among the largest landowners in the city of Huntington Beach. Casper Borchard settled on land hitherto untouched by the hand of man, and cleared it of the underbrush with which it was covered, plowed it, and otherwise prepared it for culti- vation. He was indeed a true pioneer, for he was the first man to plow the soil south of the Santa Clara River in Ventura County, and was a pioneer cattle and grain rancher.

The eldest son of a family of five boys and three girls, Leo Borchard was born on a ranch two and a half miles northeast of what is now Oxnard, in Ventura County, on December 16, 1879, and there he was reared, remaining in Ventura County until 1900, when he came to this vicinity, very properly called the Swamp. Being apt, and clever in the use of machinery, he was given the job to run the big excavator or ditch-digging machine owned by his father, W. T. Newland and W. D. Lamb. That was the first work of importance that he ever did and he continued at it until two large ditches were constructed. The well-drained country, the great ditches through the Swamp, and the graded Talbert Road bear testimony to his judgment and thoroughness. Prior to that he had attended the public schools at Newbury Park, but his educational advantages were limited, for as the eldest boy, it was necessary for him to work.

Under his father, Mr. Borchard not only helped to build the drainage ditch and the Talbert Road, but he assisted in clearing it of willows and reclaiming large stretches of the Swamp, covered also with tules, and turning the morass into a veritable garden spot. To his energy and handiwork may be credited the many improvements on his own home ranch-a good bungalow residence, large barns, a tank house, a garage, a windmill, good yards for livestock, and a fine yard, besides a ten-inch well and three twelve-inch wells all flowing. With his brother Frank, their holdings were divided into the following excellent ranches: 316 acres and 160 acres on the west side of Santa Ana, 200 acres south of Huntington Beach, 118 acres on the Mesa, 252 acres in the bottoms, and seventy-six acres at Fairview. Mr. Borchard also owns cojointly with his four brothers a twenty-acre tract at Garden Grove, while these same brothers own a half-interest with W. T. Newland, Sr., in sixty acres on the southeast of Newland ranch in the Huntington Beach district. In 1920 the two brothers sold over 800 acres for $335,000, a vast difference from the orignal purchase price when it was swamp land, showing what well directed energy and perseverance can do.

Mr. Borchard and his brothers were well known as breeders of Percheron-Nor- man horses and also mules. They brought in here some of the best Percheron stallions ever imported to Orange County, and have raised draft horses weighing from 1800 to 2000 pounds. They own the celebrated jack, "Burr Oak," which cost $3.000. Mr. Borchard was one of the first in western Orange County to use tractors in farming operations, and he has owned three Holt caterpillars, two of forty-five, and one of sixty-five horsepower. His experience on road building and drainage is extensive. He

Leo Borchard

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has served as a director in the Newbert protection district, and he was also a director in the Talbert drainage district. Since selling his ranches he has retired to Santa Ana, where he purchased a bungalow at 802 South Broadway where, with his wife, he makes his home. He still owns valuable lands in Huntington Beach as well as near Newport, besides an orange grove on the Santa Ana Canyon Boulevard. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Santa Ana and also a stockholder in the Old Colony Oil Company, operating in Wichita Falls, Texas, that has fourteen producing wells. He owns land near Tampico, Texas, and is interested in copper and silver mines (the Midnight mine and Tidal Wave mine) in New Mexico.

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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 158

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