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 165

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 165

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In 1904 Reverend O'Rear joined the Methodist Conference, his first charge being at Eminence, Ky., later serving the churches at Woodlawn, Ky., Covington, Ky., for two years, and Cynthiana, Ky., for four years. Following this he joined the West Viriginia Conference, occupying the pastorate of St. Paul's Church at Parkersburg, W. Va., for four years.

In 1916 Reverend O'Rear was called to the pastorate of the Spurgeon Memorial Church, at Santa Ana, and here his ministry has indeed been crowned with success, pastor and congregation working together in closest harmony in promoting the affairs of the church and in enriching the spiritual life of the community. His marriage, which occurred June 15, 1904, united him with Miss Ailene Parsons, who was born in Kentucky, but reared in Marion, Ind., One son, Edward, was born to them during their residence in Covington, Ky.

DEIDERICH KLANER .- A self-made man who enjoys the satisfaction of having been able both to acquire excellent property for himself and family and to contribute something for the common weal, is Deiderich Klaner, for years a hard-working man in Nebraska, where he improved a farm of 160 acres and was esteemed by all who knew him as a patriotic American ready to lend a helping hand to every good cause. He was born about twenty-seven miles from Bremen, Germany, in Oldenburg, a quiet and pleasant town on the River Hunte, on September 9, 1864, and in his native land he was married to Katherine Wieker, in time the mother of five children. The family attend the Lutheran Church at Orange, and interest themselves in all good work, within and without that congregation's activities, for the religions, social and civic betterment of the community.

Mr. Klaner came to Orange from Nebraska fifteen years ago, and bought his twenty acres in the Olive precinct. It was then for the most part bare land, with a small patch of alfalfa; and its present high state of cultivation is due largely to his experience, industry and foresight. In time, he built his beautiful, up-to-date bungalow residence at 224 South Olive Street, Orange. He also ownis an excellent citrus ranch of twenty acres on North Tustin Street, somewhat south of Taft Avenue, which he has improved, and which is one of the best of its size in all the county.

Orange County has been fortunate, all in all, in the class of its incoming citizens, and it has been through such intelligent, industrious and honest burghers as Deiderich Klaner and his family that much of the present prosperity of the county has been brought about.

IRVING ALFRED THOMPSON .- A native son in all but birth, having come to California with his parents in the first year of his life, Irving Alfred Thompson was born near St. Paul, Minn., March 26, 1874. His parents having located at Laguna Beach in 1875, that is the scene of his first recollection and there, too, he attended school. From a youth he made himself generally useful on the farm and learned to drive the big teams in the grain fields.

In 1889 Mr. Thompson's parents moved to El Toro, and there he continued to farm until his marriage in Los Angeles, when he was united with Wilmuth Newland, who was born in Illinois, the daughter of Wm. T. Newland, the pioneer of Huntington Beach. For a time the young couple lived in San Diego, but soon purchased a ranch of sixty acres near Huntington Beach and engaged in raising celery. He was one of the first to raise celery in that section and was a member of the California Celery Growers Association; he was also one of the early beet growers. Having sold his ranch in 1911, he removed to Madera County and purchased 320 acres four and a half miles north of Skaggs Bridge and in February, 1912, moved on the place with his family. He sunk

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wells and installed an electric pumping plant, leveled and checked the land and planted sixty acres of alfalfa. He also engaged in raising grain and stock and bought and fed cattle and hogs for the market, in all of which he was successful.

In 1919 Mr. Thompson sold the ranch to advantage and came to El Toro, where he now resides. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are the parents of five children: Howard, Clara, Lawrence, Juanita and Irene. Fraternally Mr. Thompson is a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Huntington Beach, and with his wife is a member of the Rebekahs. In national politics he is a decided Republican.

JOHN W. TUBBS .- The phenomenal growth of the automobile industry in the past few years has attracted to this field many of the country's most capable men, and prominent among these in Santa Ana is John W. Tubbs, now the manager of the Santa Ana branch of the White Auto Company of Los Angeles, dealers in the popular Stephens Salient Six and White trucks, in addition acting as local representative of the Motor Transit Company. The latter is one of the largest stage companies in the United States, as they operate along the Pacific Coast from San Diego to San Francisco, with connecting lines into Oregon, Arizona and the Imperial Valley.

Iowa was Mr. Tubbs' native state, and there he was born at Emerson, in Mills County, on October 8, 1881. His father was William L. Tubbs, who was born at Three Rivers, Mich., and his mother, before her marriage Miss Alice Tomblin, was a native of Plano, Ill. After a successful period as a farmer in Iowa, William L. Tubbs disposed of his interests there and located in Santa Ana, where he lived retired until his death, being survived by his good wife, the mother of three boys, among whom John was the second-born. He attended the public schools in the vicinity of his Iowa home, and growing up, followed, for a while, all kinds of mercantile work. Then he studied pharmacy and passed his examinations as a druggist, but never followed that line of professional work.

After coming to California he was engaged in the general mercantile business with Joe Parsons at Talbert for two years. He then came to Santa Ana, where for the next twelve years he was identified with the Santa Ana Commercial Company, one of the best-known manufacturing organizations in Southern California. Espe- cially during the three latter years of his connection with the company he directed much of the important activity having to do with its development, filling the important posts of secretary, treasurer and manager, and continuing with them until September 1, 1920, when he resigned to enter his new field of endeavor. His new place of busi- ness is at 415-17-19 East Fourth Street, where he occupies a fine fireproof building, 75 by 132 feet. With the pleasing personality that has won for him a host of friends, and is the open sesame of his success, it is a foregone conclusion that the progressive spirit that has always been one of his leading characteristics will be increasingly manifest. His general ability and peculiar fitness for responsibility having been widely recognized, Mr. Tubbs was elected a city trustee in April, 1915; and at the end of four years of faithful and effective service, during which time he carried through various reforms and meritorious projects, he was reelected in 1919 for another four years. In national politics Mr. Tubbs is a Republican, but his views and sympathies are too broad to permit of any narrow partisanship, particularly when matters of purely local moment are at stake.

The marriage of Mr. Tubbs to Miss Stella Brock occurred at Santa Ana on April 12. 1904, and was one of the pleasant social events of the season. Her parents, D. E. and Clara Brock, were for years well-known residents of Santa Ana. Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs are the parents of a daughter, Gwendolyn. Mr. Tubbs is a life and charter member of the Elks, and also belongs to the Orange County Country Club, and he is fond of outdoor life-hunting, fishing and golf.

MRS. C. ELLA WEAVER .- A resident of California since 1902, Mrs. C. Ella Weaver, proprietor of the Santa Ana Rug Factory, was born near Carney, Hamilton County, Ind., a daughter of Samnel and Rachel (Newby) Wilson, born in North Carolina and Indiana, respectively. Her father was a saddler and later a contractor and builder and also followed farming. Later on the family moved to Wilsall. Mont .. and there the father died. His widow came to Santa Ana in 1898 and she died here in September, 1918, aged eighty-two years.

Ella Wilson was the oldest of their five children and is the only one of the family residing in Santa Ana. Her parents moved to Iowa when she was eight years of age and she completed the normal course in Albion Seminary, after which she engaged in teaching. For sixteen years she taught in different counties, including Marshall. Story, Grundy, Shawnee and Hardin counties, Iowa, finally becoming principal of the Walnut Hill school in the suburbs of Des Moines. After this she removed to Topeka, Kans., and taught for two years; she also attended the Friends University at Wichita, Kans.

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Miss Wilson was married at Newkirk, Okla., in 1900, where she became the wife of Samuel K. Weaver who was born near New Enterprise, Pa., and who was a traveling salesman in Kansas until 1902, when they located in Santa Ana whither her mother had come four years before and Mrs. Weaver joined her mother who was making rugs and was desirous of making carpets. The rugs were originally made by Miss Esther Hill and Lou Burner on West First Street across the street from their present location, when her mother took the embryo business over and they continued the undertaking, In the spring of 1909, her brother, M. C. Wilson, joined them and they started the new place; he was a carpenter and made the looms and other machinery and they then named it the Santa Ana Rug Factory. Since 1918 Mrs. Weaver has been the sole proprietor.

Mrs. Weaver still preserves the first loom made and used in Santa Ana. Her mother had the first fly shuttle loom on the Pacific Coast. She now has power looms, cutters, frayers and twisters, run by electric power, manufacturing carpets of all sizes up to eleven and a half feet in width and is the largest rug factory in the county. Her displays at the various Orange County fairs, as well as the Glendale Bazaar, has taken its share of prizes. She was bereaved of her husband July 20, 1919. Mrs. Weaver is a member of the Friends Church in El Modena, as were her parents, and is a strong advocate of the principles of Prohibition.

JOHN M. ORTEGA .- A prosperous young rancher whose family is intimately associated with the early history of Orange County, is John M. Ortega, of East Com- monwealth Avenue, Fullerton, in which town he was born on April 2, 1895, the son of James J. and Lucy (Wagner) Ortega. His father was born and reared in San Gabriel, and was one of the Ortegas so favorably known in California history; while the Wagners came West so early that two of the brothers made two trips across the plains, traveling with ox teams, and fighting their way through the Indian country at every step. The Wagners engaged in stock raising and ranged their sheep over the acres of land now active as oil fields and could have purchased it for fifty cents an acre, but like hundreds of others could not see its value then; however, later on they purchased some land in the same vicinity and set out orange and walnut orchards, and then divided it among the children.

John M. Ortega went to school in Placentia and graduated from the high school at Fullerton, and he also attended the Fullerton Junior College. During these youthful days, he lived on his father's ranch; but on April 8, 1916, he took the momentous step of establishing his own household and was married to Miss Margaret Chapman, a daughter of Fred Chapman of Fullerton. The gifted lady was born in Chicago, Ill., but came to California when a child; and here she attended the same educational institutions as had imparted instruction to her husband.

In the fall of 1919, Mr. Ortega purchased six acres of walnuts and six acres of Valencia oranges on East Commonwealth Avenue, under the service of the Anaheim Union Water Company, having before that owned a ranch of eleven acres in North Whittier Heights which he set out to Valencia oranges. At the end of two and a half years he sold the property which he had secured as an investment.

One child has resulted from the happy union of Mr. and Mrs. Ortega-Charles Bille. They are members of the Christian Church of Fullerton, and Mr. Ortega exer- cises his rights as a free citizen at the polls without party dictation and strictly in favor of the right man for the best place.

ARGUS ADAMS .- A successful California rancher who made no less than four trips to the Pacific Coast before he was persuaded that he had really found the Golden State, and yet a representative man of affairs in Orange County today who has never regretted that he pitched his tent here, is Argus Adams, a director in both the Fuller- ton Mutual Orange Growers Association and the Loma Vista Cemetery, and a resident on South Acacia Avenue, Fullerton. He was born at Allendale, Worth County, Mo., on December 27, 1867, the son of James Adams, who is still living, at the age of ninety-four, in Anaheim, one of the oldest men in Orange County, having been born in Missouri. He married Miss Ruth W. Cowan, who passed away a couple of years ago, also at an advanced age.

Argus went to the Allendale schools, and afterwards attended the normal school at Stanberry, in Gentry County, at the same time growing up on his father's farm where he learned to make himself useful. When twenty-two years of age, he started out to do for himself, and for a while he rented a farm in Missouri. Then he pur- chased 230 acres, which he devoted to general farming.

At Grant City, Mo., on January 27, 1892, he was married to Miss Dale Scott, who was born near that town, the daughter of George P. Scott, a farmer who had married Miss Jane Ross. She attended the graded schools near Grant City and grew

John M Ortega ·

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up to be very familiar with Missourian and Middle West life. Six years after his mar- riage, Mr. Adams came out to California for the first time; but after a stay here of fifteen months, he returned to Worth County. In 1905, he was back in the Southland and for a year and a half lived at Anaheim; but once more he journeyed back to Worth County.

On January 1, 1912, Mr. and Mrs. Adams came to California to stay, and at Fullerton they purchased twenty-three acres on Acacia Street, where they set out Valencia orange trees now eight years old. The land is under the Anaheim Union Water Company, and Mr. Adams markets through the Fullerton Mutual Orange Grow- ers Association, in which he is also a director. Four children have added joy and comfort to the lives of this worthy couple. Earl W. married Miss Frances McCloskey; they have two children, Evelyn and Wayne, and they live in Terrabella, Tulare County; Wayne H. resides on Sonth Acacia Avenue, southeast of Fullerton; Blanche is Mrs. Ernest Purbeck of Oakland; and Loman H. is at home. Mr. Adams is a Mason, being a member of the lodge, chapter and council and in politics believes in independent action by each voter, irrespective of party lines.

Wayne H. Adams was born near Allendale, Mo., on November 23, 1897, and attended the local district schools. When he came to California in 1912, he continued his schooling at Fullerton and was duly graduated from the high school in that town. Meanwhile he helped his father with ranch work, and when he was able, he purchased from him five acres. This was in 1918, and since then he has been busy there develop- ing the land and cultivating Valencia oranges. He has the service of the Anaheim Union Water Company, and his four-year-old trees are therefore well irrigated. On June 20, 1918, Mr. Adams was married to Miss Juanita Owens, a native of Waxahatchie, Ellis County, Texas, and the daughter of L. A. Owens. One child, Donald Adams, has blessed this union, and gives promise of carrying onward an already honored name.

NORMAN LE MARQUAND .- Representative of the younger business men of Orange County is Norman Le Marquand, the wide-awake manager of the Fullerton Lumber Company, to whose wholesome expansion is traced the experienced guiding hand of our subject. He was born in Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada, October 18, 1882, the son of John and Maria Margaret (Pilcher) Le Marquand. John Le Marquand was born on the Island of Jersey and he was later a fruit merchant in Canada; after settling in California he engaged in the restaurant business in Los Angeles. Mrs. Le Marquand was born in Mount Forest and was the daughter of Joseph Pilcher.

Norman received his education in the public schools of Ontario and early in life became associated with the lumber trade in his native province. Soon after the family located in California he became an employe of the Southern California Lumber Com- pany in Los Angeles, remaining with that concern from 1899 until 1905; when he removed to Fullerton in December, 1906, it was to become assistant manager of the Brown and Danser Lumber Company with whom he remained for three years, then returned to Los Angeles. In 1910 he again came to Fullerton and ever since he has been connected with the Fullerton Lumber Company here and has very materially engineered its growth in this section of the county. By his close attention to business affairs he has gained a wide circle of friends and also built up a substantial business for his company.

Mr. Le Marquand served two years as secretary of the Fullerton Board of Trade, and he is one of the board's delegates to the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Orange County-and no better could be found, considering his public-spiritedness. He is a charter member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Fullerton Club, of which he was one of the organizers and its first secretary. Politically he is a Progressive. In many ways he has contributed to the welfare of the community with which he has been closely identified for nearly fifteen years, during which time he has witnessed the won- derful development of the whole of Southern California.

CLARENCE R. VANDERBURG .- A far-sighted, progressive young rancher who worthily represent ones of the sturdy pioneers to whom the United States owes so much for the expansion of a great empire, is Clarence R. Vanderburg, who was born at Cushing, Nebr., on September 6, 1893. His parents are Lester C. and Jennie (Hiserodt) Vanderburg. prosperous farmers in Nebraska before they came out to California in 1894 and purchased fifteen acres in Orangethorpe, five acres of which were set out to walnuts and some orange trees, while the balance was vacant land. In 1908, however, Mr. Vanderburg sold his ranch and moved to Montebello; and there he bought ten acres devoted to oranges, some deciduous fruit trees and truck gardening. In 1914, Mr. Vanderburg again sold his holdings, and came to Fullerton, having bought. the year previous, ten acres in the Orangethorpe district.

On account of these successive movings of the family. Clarence Vanderburg attended the school at Orangethorpe for five years and then the school at Fullerton

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for another three, and afterward went to the Montebello high school, where he was a student the first year the high school was organized, and he graduated from the Montebello high school in 1913. On May 11, 1916, he married Miss Hilda Richards, who was born in the famous cathedral town of Salisbury, England, the daughter of Herbert R. and Alice M. (Johnson) Richards. Her father was a florist in England and edited floral journals; and having removed to Bristol, Mrs. Vanderburg attended the parochial schools there. In 1906, her folks came out to Toronto, where her father spent a few months, coming on to Chicago in December, still interested in the floral trade; and to that city his family followed. Mr. Richards remained in Chicago for five years, both conducting a florist business and representing the "American Florist": and during that time Mrs. Richards, esteemed by all who had come to know her, passed away. In 1910 Mr. Richards came west to California and two years later settled in Montebello; and there he still lives, active as a florist.

After his marriage, Mr. Vanderburg continued on his father's ranch, caring for the ten acres, five of which he had purchased, and he also built a home there. The ten acres are devoted to the culture of Valencia and Navel oranges, and though under the service of the Anaheim Union Water Company, there were eight neighboring ranchers who joined together and put down a well, having a fourteen-inch flow, suitable for irrigating their various properties. Mr. Vanderburg markets his oranges through the Fullerton Mutual Orange Growers Association, and sends to market some of the choicest fruit raised hereabouts.

A son, Raymond Lester, has blessed the happy home of Mr. and Mrs. Vanderburg, who attend the Methodist Church. Mr. Vanderburg for years was a Prohibitionist, but now that the desired-for goal has been reached, he believes that attention should be concentrated on the fitness of the candidate for office.

THEODORE A. MEYER .- A progressive, successful rancher who has had the advantage of wide travel and a varied, extensive experience in other fields, is Theodore A. Meyer, a native of the city of Hanover, Germany, where he was born on May 24, 1860, the son of John C. and Albertine (Ash) Meyer. Theodore received a good edu- cation in the excellent schools of that country, completing his college course at the gymnasium in Hanover, after which he served in the German army from which he retired with a commission. His father was an educator who attained prominence and was well known beyond the confines of Germany for his furthering of commerce; and perhaps it was because of his early familiarity with distant lands that led our subject, when he was only eighteen years of age, to leave home and go to South Africa, where he engaged in plantation work. When the Zulu War broke out, he joined the Colonial forces and served throughout the campaigns as a first lieutenant. He purchased provi- sions and cattle from the Boers for the use of the Imperial troops, and so aided in British victory.

After the war, he made a small fortune in the diamond fields of South Africa, and later he took a trip to the West Coast. He spent two years in Africa, and then sailed for India. He was some time in Calcutta and later in Ceylon; and he had charge of government billets in India. After a year in India, he went on to Australia, and there he settled in Adelaide; and so well was he pleased with that country, that he spent thirty years there. He made up an expedition to explore the continent, intending to cross from the south to the north, about midway east and west; but he struck hardships. all his natives left him, and with another white companion he nearly died of thirst while crossing the arid regions. On this trip he discovered a gold mine that nine years later proved to be very productive of the coveted metal. While in Australia, he was an importer of house-furnishing goods, and he was also captain of the mounted police in the vicinity of Tanunda and he was postmaster for seven years at Tanunda. He intro- duced irrigation into southern Australia, but had to overcome the stupid obstinacy of the natives, who were slow to take up new ideas.

In 1911, Mr. Meyer came to California and settled at Upland, where he purchased six and a half acres of oranges and for six years made that neighborhood his home. In 1917, he sold out and came to Orange County. Now he has a twenty-acre ranch on Anaheim Road, near Sunkist Avenue, with four-year-old trees, which are developing splendidly in a rich soil. He receives the irrigation water needed from a private pump- ing plant known as the Eucalyptus Water Company.

Mr. Meyer has been twice married. He was wedded to his first wife, Miss Emily Edmonds, in Australia, a native of England who had come to Australia when she was a mere child. And in Australia the estimable lady died in 1906, the mother of five chil- dren, three of whom are still living: Mary is Mrs. Martin of Pasadena; Emily is Mrs. Muir of Los Angeles; and there is Theodore J. who served in the great World War with the regular army as one of the Thirteenth Field Artillery, Fourth Division. He

Theact. Meyer Maud F. Mayer.

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went through all the major offensives in France, and returned home to civilian life in September, 1919.

In February, 1917, in the city of Los Angeles, Mr. Meyer was married to Mrs. Maud (Farnham) Clay, born in Sanbornton, Belknap County, N. H., a daughter of Horace and Anna B. ( Pike) Farnham, born in Maine and New Hampshire, respectively. Her maternal great-grandfather Clark served in the Revolutionary War. Horace Farn- ham was an expert temperer of tools and watch springs. He passed away while on a trip to Maine while his wife died in New Hampshire. Maud Farnham was reared in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., where she specialized in bookkeeping and when eighteen years of age went to New York City where she was a bookkeeper for different com- mercial enterprises. In that city, too, she was married the first time, being united with Myron Clay. She came to California in 1907, and became the pioneer settler in the Golden State tract on the Anaheim Road in Orange County. When she purchased this twenty acres it was overgrown with cactus and brush, which she had cleared and improved for farming and she is now the only one left of the original settlers on the tract. She is a member of the Placentia Presbyterian Church as well as active in its Missionary Societies and Ladies' Social Circle. Mr. and Mrs. Meyer are both enter- prising; are believers in protection and Republicans.

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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 165

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