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 173

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 173

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The Springs which have made this resort so famous maintain their temperature of 137 degrees, winter as well as summer, and are charged with the most life-giving substances. They afford Nature another opportunity to dispense her own remedial properties for the restoration of health, and have proven to many persons to contain wonderful recuperative powers. They are situated at a high elevation in the picturesque and romantic mountains of San Juan Capistrano, where the bracing mountain air, and the life-giving heat of a southern sun, tempered by the ever-blowing afternoon sea breeze from the Pacific Ocean, only a short distance away, together make an Elysian paradise. Hundreds of visitors come annually to partake of the beneficial waters and to enjoy the wonderful baths; for the waters are of particular value to those suffering from rheumatism, gout, stomach disorders, skin diseases, nervous affection, neuralgia, and bladder, kidney and liver troubles.

FRED HUTTER .- A decidedly live wire is Fred Hutter, the live-stock dealer in Santa Ana, a circumstance the more interesting because, while Orange County makes no claim as a stock country, it shipped, in 1919, $1,500,000 worth of live stock. He is the proprietor of the "Illinois Stock Farm," and both as a wide-awake buyer and dealer of experience, and a man desirous of handing out the square deal to his fellows, he is enjoying increasing popularity.

He was born at Lincoln, Logan County, Ill., on March 1, 1875, the son of Frank Hutter, born in Germany but a butcher and stockman at Lincoln, where he died in 1918. He married Margaret Wachner, who died when Fred was only two weeks old. The lad was the youngest of four children, but by a second marriage his father had fifteen children, and eleven are living. Fred was reared, therefore, by his stepmother, who died in Illinois in 1919. He attended the German Catholic school at Lincoln, and also for three years the high school, and meanwhile learned the butcher's trade, working under his father.

In 1897 Mr. Hutter came to California for the first time and worked at his trade in various parts of Northern California for about eight years. He then went into Nevada, and from there to Colorado, and while in Denver was united in marriage with an estimable lady. Soon after they went to Lincoln, Ill., but in two months' time arrived back in California. Mrs. Hutter's health being delicate for two years, they moved about seeking a suitable climate, but of no avail, and she passed away in

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Pasadena in 1908, leaving a daughter, Zelma, now eighteen years old and living in Phoenix, Ariz. In Tucson, that state, in 1913, Mr. Hutter married his second wife, Miss Fredericka Korn, born and reared in Wisconsin until she was ten years old, when she was taken to Connecticut. They have one daughter, Dorothy Mae.

That same year, 1913, Mr. Hutter came to Southern California, and has lived in Santa Ana ever since, preferring that and Orange County to all the other wonder spots in the state. He bought his present place in November, 1919. There are six acres in his stock ranch on South McClay Street, and he has a slaughterhouse there. He buys hogs and cattle, and slaughters and sells to local dealers. He also buys and sells stockers and feeders, and makes a specialty of cows and dairy cattle.

LINDLEY B. SKILES .- A raucher deeply interested in the development of Orange County, whose modest estimate of the fruits of his years of hard, intelligent and public-spirited work still permits him to believe that he has had much to do with the building up of Santa Ana, especially as a home place, is L. B. Skiles, the rancher of 2548 Santiago Street. He was born on December 28, 1857, near Mt. Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa, the son of Henry and Jane Skiles, farmer-folk who made a specialty of raising corn, grain, cattle and hogs. He attended the Mt. Pleasant district school, while he lived with his parents on a farm. After a while Mr. and Mrs. Henry Skiles moved to Johnson County. Mo., and in 1867 took up farming there.

On December 28, 1881, Mr. Skiles was married in Johnson County to Miss Flora L. Miller, the daughter of John and Jane Miller, Missouri pioneers, who came to that state in 1869; and after his marriage he farmed, with three brothers, on an extensive scale in Missouri.

In 1887, during the great "boom," he came to California, and on Christmas Eve arrived in Santa Ana. There he worked at the carpenter's trade for twenty years, and during that period of bustling activity, erected many of the finest and most comfortable homes in Santa Ana. He himself lived on Orange Avenue for a while, and then, in February. 1919, he purchased a home on North Santiago Street, where he has half an acre of walnuts showing a high state of culture.

Four children have been granted Mr. and Mrs. Skiles: Harry L. is a rancher, living in Stockton; Roy is a plumber and resides at Santa Ana; Clarence is a cement worker in the employ of Preble & McNeal, of Santa Ana; and Maude, the wife of J. E. Prentice, lives at Azusa.

The standards of the Republican party have always appealed most to Mr. Skiles; but he is too broad-minded and too patriotic to allow partisanship to blind him to the desirability of common action in local affairs, and so throws out partisanship altogether. As an orchardist he cares for four groves-one of twenty, the other of twelve acres-of walnuts in the northeastern section of Santa Ana, or the southwestern part of West Orange; five acres of lemons near the county hospital and ten of oranges near Anaheim; and this keeps him in vital touch with some of the most important of California industries, to whose rapid, but permanent development, he is able to con- tribute in no small degree.

HAROLD C. HEBARD .- An energetic, hard-working and prosperous young poultryman, who not only thoroughly understands the many problems of his field, but has mastered some concerning the marketing of walnuts and so is also identified, in an interesting manner, with the walnut industry of Southern California, is Harold C. Hebard, a native of Topeka, Kans., where he was born on February 11, 1896. His father, Horace A. Hebard, was born in Iowa, but went to Nebraska when he was about eighteen, and was widely known throughout several Central States as an expert photographer. He had married Miss Belle Cromwell, a daughter of Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Hebard removed to Lincoln, Nebr., and there Harold attended the public school, after which he took a business course at Union College, College View, in the same state. On the evening of Harold's graduation, with honors, from the high school, that is, on June 1, 1915, the Hebards left for California, and their first home was at Santa Ana. The following year they removed to Riverside, and now the parents reside in San Diego; but our subject remained and embarked in a hatchery in Santa Ana. He established what is known as the Orange County Hatchery; and it was not long before he made it the largest and most successful hatchery in the region.

He commenced with a capacity of six thousand eggs, and the following year raised it to nine thousand, with which output he contented himself for a couple of years. During the season of 1919-20, however, he enlarged the hatchery to a capacity of twenty thousand. He has both Pioneer and Jubilee incubators, and uses a heating system devised by himself. He erected a hatching house, twenty-four by thirty-six feet in size, out of hollow tile, and has a ceiling with an air space made of building

OR. Januar

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paper and sawdust packing, that serves to keep the entire room evenly temperatured. For compactness, his incubators are arranged two tiers deep. Although hatching is the main business undertaken by Mr. Hebard-and to that he gives his entire attention from January to August-he has four hundred head of the very choicest Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rocks and White Rocks. His hatchery is located on the five-acre ranch of Fern S. Bishop. His five acres of walnuts are under the service of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company.

Between August and January, Mr. Hebard is busy as manager of the Irvine Walnut Association, which last year handled over nine hundred tons of walnuts, which they eventually marketed through the California Walnut Association.

On April 9, 1917, Mr. Hebard was married to Miss Clara Bishop, daughter of the well-known family of Fern S. and Nellie (Deck) Bishop of Santa Ana. The Bishops were old settlers in California, and Mrs. Bishop is a native of Santa Ana, where she was also educated. They have one boy-Harold C. Hebard, Jr.

CHARLES R. FARRAR .- Well known in business and civic circles in Orange County, Charles R. Farrar was born in La Crosse, Wis., February 25, 1864, and when one year old was taken to Minnesota. Three years later the family moved to Quincy, Ill., and there he was reared and educated, receiving his schooling in the public and high schools and finishing with a course at the Gem City Business College. When seventeen years old he entered the hardware business, with the firm of the Cottrell Hardware Company of Quincy. After spending four years learning the business he became traveling salesman in Illinois and Missouri for the same firm and continued for ten years, and at the end of that period traveled for twenty years for the Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett Company, of Chicago, in much the same territory. Having made three different trips to California, he finally concluded to locate here.

In the spring of 1915 Mr. Farrar came to Placentia, and bought out a small hardware store; this he has greatly improved and now has a modern and up-to-date establishment in keeping with the growing community, and with a stock which in its careful selection shows evidence of the years of experience which the proprietor has had the advantage of in the hardware business. In addition to his business demands, Mr. Farrar acts as postmaster of Placentia, receiving his appointment in 1917 from President Wilson when the office was in the fourth class and reappointed when it reached a third class basis.

Mr. Farrar's marriage, which occurred in East Durham, N. Y., united him with Minnie Gifford, a native of New York State, and three children have blessed their union: Harry, married Marion Cober and they are the parents of two sons; he is manager for the Southern Illinois Gas Company at Murphysboro, Ill .; Gifford, is assisting his father in business; and Reba, wife of W. C. Cober, assistant postmaster of Placentia. The family attend the Presbyterian Church.

Active in Masonic circles, Mr. Farrar was made a Mason in Lambert Lodge, No. 659, A. F. & A. M., Quincy, III., and demitting, is now a member of Fullerton Lodge, No. 339, F. & A. M. He is also a member of Fullerton Chapter, R. A. M., and a charter member of Fullerton Commandery. Knights Templar, and of Quincy Con- sistory, S. R., as well as Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Los Angeles. For many years he has been and is a member of the United Commercial Travelers and is an active member of the Orange County Hardware Dealers Association. Mr. Farrar is liberal and enterprising and has always shown his readiness to assist worthy enter- prises and movements for the betterment of conditions in the community.

W. R. FREEMAN .- A modest, sincere and very public-spirited citizen, albeit he is interested primarily in the problems of ranching, is W. R. Freeman, of 2527 Santiago Street, Santa Ana, where he has lived for the past three or four years. He was born near Northfield, Dakota County, Minn., on September 12, 1886, the son of William H. and Mary C. Freeman, both natives of New York State. They were farmers, too, and early settlers in Minnesota, Mr. Freeman's grandfather having come to Minnesota in 1851.

W. R. Freeman was sent to the district schools in Minnesota, and lived at home, helping his parents, until they removed from Dakota County in 1906 and came to California, whereupon he took over his father's farm in Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. William H. Freeman came to Santa Ana and purchased a ranch on North Lincoln. They are now both deceased.

At Waconia, Minn., on June 4. 1907, Mr. Freeman was married to Miss Gussie Thom, a daughter of Fred and Elizabeth Thom, natives of Minnesota and farmers. Miss Thom was born at Waconia, in Carver County. On January 1, 1912, Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Freeman removed to California from Minnesota, and they lived on the ranch purchased by the elder Freeman in 1906, continuing to operate it until 1916, 57

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when they sold it. The same year Mr. Freeman purchased the twelve-acre ranch on Santiago Street. Two acres are in walnuts, three and a half in oranges, while six and a half are planted to beans. These six and a half acres will probably be planted to Valencia oranges next spring; formerly they had various kinds of old fruit trees, which were grubbed out by Mr. Freeman. The land is watered by the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company.

A member of the First Methodist Church of Santa Ana and a Republican in matters of national political moment, Mr. Freeman tries to do his duty before God and man. He joined Company F of the Santa Ana National Guards in 1918, and expected to have seen active service before the close of the war.

J. WILLIAM SACKMAN .- A native son, who is very successfully developing his choice ranch land, bringing it, by the most scientific methods, to a high state of cultivation, is J. William Sackman, who was born at Oakland on May 1, 1876, the son of John and Bertha (Brower) Sackman. His father was a skilled mechanic, who came to Santa Ana when our subject was two years old, and at Santa Ana he made an enviable reputation for himself in his ability, by original and Ingenious, but very thorough means, to do mechanical work.

J. William Sackman attended the schools at Santa Ana, and when only fifteen years of age he started out to make his own way, learning the butcher's trade. At the age of twenty-one he began conducting the Bon Ton Market at Fourth and Broadway, Santa Ana, but in 1905 he sold out and engaged in the manufacture of brick. He established a brickyard at Olive and Hickey streets, where he owned four acres, installed crude oil burners to burn the brick, and machines for the manufacture of brick, and developed the plant until it put out two millions of brick a year. When he had made a success of the enterprise he sold it in August, 1919, to Harvey Garber, but still retains the four acres of land on which the brickyard is located.

In 1916 Mr. Sackman purchased a ranch of nine and a half acres on North Olive and Sixth streets, five acres of which he planted in walnuts and four acres in Valencia oranges. It is improved with a two-story residence, where he makes his home with his family.

On January 6, 1904, Mr. Sackman was married to Miss Gertrude E. Osgood, who was born in Boston, Mass., on May 1, 1880. When a mere girl her father died and she came to California with her mother in 1884. They settled for a while in Los Angeles, and later came to West Orange. Two sons blessed the union, George D. and William C., both pupils in the grammar schools. Fraternally Mr. Sackman was made a Mason in Santa Ana Lodge No. 241, F. & A. M., and is also a member of Hermosa Chapter, O. E. S. For years he was active in the Merchants and Manufacturers Association and is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

EDWIN JULIAN .- An oil man and a rancher long entrusted with responsibility calling for hard, unremitting labor, is Edwin Julian, now retired, who was born in Cornwall County, England, on February 5, 1852, the son of William and Johanna Julian, residents there who were esteemed by all who knew them. He remained at home until he was eighteen, and then decided to try his fortunes in the New World. Coming alone to America, he landed in Quebec in 1869. Then he went to Petrolia, Canada, and worked in the oil fields for ten years; later became a foreman for the Ontario Land and Oil Company, of Petrolia, and had over 500 wells under his personal supervision. The wells had one and two-inch pipes, and each produced from four to 100 barrels of oil a day. To economize power, 120 wells were driven by one pumping plant The oil basins were shallow, and it was not necessary to go down more than 500 feet to get the flow. Mr. Julian was foreman for this company for twenty-two years, and was the first man to devise a system for the separation of the oil from the water, after the water had gotten into the wells. He used a plug system, plugging the well just below the oil, and above the water line. While in Canada he also had the supervision of five miles of the country roads in the vicinity of Petrolia.

On May 5, 1872, Mr. Julian was married to Miss Harriett Sophia Turner, a native of London, England, and the daughter of Philip and Harriett Turner. Philip Turner was an engineer, who came to America in 1870, followed the next year by his wife and daughter, now Mrs. Julian. He also went to Petrolia, and there made his home.

In 1908 Mr. Julian came to the United States and settled at Santa Monica, soon afterward purchasing a ranch of eighty acres in the Topango Canyon. This was devoted to fruit, alfalfa and bees, and such was his success with the 800 trees, free from insects and worms, that his apples were displayed by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. He had also cows, mules and hogs on his ranch, and in 1917 his bees gathered seven and a half tons of honey. On May 19, 1919. Mr. Julian sold his ranch to his son, Edwin, and removed to Santa Ana, where he purchased a beautiful bungalow at 2345 Spurgeon Street.

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Seven children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Julian, and five are still living. The eldest, William Charles, is deceased; Edwin is living on the Topango Canyon Ranch; John Henry is in Canada; Selena A., Mrs. L. A. Menges, is in Indiana; Victor is a machinist in the Long Beach shipyards; Arthur is deceased; and Fred is in Florida. Mr. Julian is a Mason, and also belongs to the Canadian order of Odd Fellows; Mrs. Julian belongs to the Church of Christ, Scientist.

CLYDE H. ELLIS .- An experienced rancher, who has the advantage of also being an expert machinist and a good business man, is Clyde H. Ellis, the son of a well-known pioneer in the Newport-Greenville-Talbert sections of Orange County. He was born at Tazewell, Claiborne County, Tenn., on May 14, 1885, the son of O. H. Ellis, a native of the same county, who died in 1913, at the age of sixty-three. He came to Santa Ana in 1886, and after living there a year removed to Newport, where he ran a dairy for twelve years. He bought the place he was long identified with some twenty-five years ago, and after a while successfully engaged in the cultivation of celery and sugar beets. When he died he owned 120 acres. He had married Mellie M. Kawood, by whom he had four children. Clyde was the oldest; then came Annie E., the wife of L. J. Buschard; the third in the order of birth was James N. Ellis, a native of Orange County, where he was born at Old Newport, or Greenville, on December 26, 1889; he married Myrtle Washburn. The youngest was Maggie E. Ellis, wife of Oliver Jones, the rancher, at San Anofra, Cal.

Clyde grew up here on his father's various ranches, and at the same time that he was learning how to make himself useful, and to prepare for a tussle with the world, he attended the public schools. His ambition and the desire of his parents for his higher welfare led him to attend the Orange County Business College, where he completed a profitable commercial course. Then he went to San Bernardino, where he accepted a job as a mechanic's helper, and at that he continued for three years. He still was bent on improving his time, and he therefore took a course, in his spare time, with the International Correspondence School, and was declared a competent machinist.

Mr. Ellis next entered the employ of the famous Holt Manufacturing Company, makers of caterpillar tractors, harvesters and threshing machines, as service guide or mechanical expert, traveling and looking after Holt machinery. For a time he made Phoenix, Ariz., his headquarters, and was sent by his company to different parts of Arizona and the Imperial Valley.

In the fall of 1917 Mr. Ellis came back to the Ellis farm, which he rented and operated during that and the following years. It was then that he formed his present association, in partnership, with his brother, James N. Ellis, utilizing the farm owned by his mother. He also put sixty acres into cabbage, barley, hay and beans. He made a specialty, while growing cabbages, of the Winningstad variety, and having started with only $500 in capital, cleared up a small fortune inside of two years. The Ellis ranch has five flowing wells, with a fine pumping plant, giving and handling an abundance of good water, and this has proven a natural advantage, taken care of by a man thoroughly familiar with mechanical problems, and a most valuable asset.

Aside from the Ellis ranch of 120 acres he also leases 525 acres, the Snow and Grover ranches, where he is raising barley, beets and beans, and as is natural for a mechanic of his experience, he has the most modern motive power machinery, using a Best sixty-horsepower tracklayer and a Holt thirty-horsepower tracklayer.

At Santa Ana, in 1913, Mr. Ellis was married to Miss Sadie G. Miller, a native of Keokuk County, Iowa. She was one of seven children, and came to Los Angeles with her parents, Frank C. and Carrie J. Miller. Two children have blessed the Ellis union; one bears the attractive name of Naomi Fern, and the other is Jack N. Mrs. Ellis has proven a valuable helpmate to her husband, and has participated in all his activities for the betterment of the community.

R. EARL ELLIOTT .- A very successful Californian who has become an enthusi- ast for California is R. Earl Elliott, the mail carrier and rancher, who improves each shining moment, after he has discharged his official duties, in caring for and developing his valuable ranch property. He was born in the comfortable town of Sedalia, Mo., on Washington's Birthday, 1876, the son of William H. and Margaret Frances (Wason) Ellit, who at present reside at Wichita. Kans. His parents removed to Butler, Bates County, Mo., when Earl was a mere child, and in Bates County he was reared on a ranch, for his father had 160 acres devoted to general farming. He attended school in the Harmony district and meanwhile steadily mastered a knowledge of farming. The name was originally Elliott, but the great-grandfather. Thomas, was of Scotch descent, and changed it to Ellit. He was a pioneer of Louisville, Ky., and built one of the first honses there. The name remained as such until the present generation, when Earl

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with his eldest brother and sister, changed their name to Elliott. When Mr. Elliott was twenty-seven he came to California, in February, 1903, and for eighteen months, from June of that year, served as superintendent of the Santa Ana Cemetery. He undertook to do all the cement work there previously contracted for by private parties, and also started a record showing the lots for which the upkeep was paid by private parties.

After a while Mr. Elliott sold out his cemetery interest to S. H. C. Ritner, and with Dr. Newton, of Santa Ana, studied and practiced chiropractic. This did not permanently satisfy him, however, and he entered the Government service in 1906 and took charage of a rural free delivery route, which he has held ever since. This includes a section southwest of Santa Ana through Talbert, and he was the first carrier to use an automobile for rural delivery in this section.

In 1906 Mr. Elliott built a home at 1702 East Fifth Street and two years later he traded this for J. E. Livesey's home at 319 East Seventeenth Street, where he set out an orchard, and in 1912 he built a new home. In March, 1919, he traded that for a twelve-acre citrus ranch on Warren Street in Tustin, and in December sold it to C. M. Lyon. Then he purchased the five-acre ranch at 314 Santa Clara Avenue from John Winter. The ranch is under the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company's service, and so is well supplied with water, and is devoted to Valencia oranges. It is, in fact, now one of the model ranches of its size in the neighborhood.

In 1900, at Butler, Mo., Mr. Elliott married Miss Mabel D. Ritner, the daughter of Spencer H. C. and Mary Ritner, and a native of Henry County, Iowa. Four children have been granted the happy couple. Spencer, who is at present a gun pointer on the Battleship Brooklyn, enlisted at Santa Ana on May 5, 1919, and was sent to San Francisco to be trained on Mare and Goat Island. Ivan R. is a student in the Santa Ana high school; Ruth is in the eighth grade of the grammar school, and Grace is in the sixth grade. The family are members of the First Baptist Church of Santa Ana, where Mr. Elliott is a deacon and is as enthusiastic in his support of all church and civic improvement work as he is in the prosecution of business and the "booming" of the favored section and state in which he lives.

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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 173

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