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 180

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 180

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E. OYHARZABAL .- A sturdy, interesting pioneer of Orange County who, as one of the early settlers in San Juan Capistrano added one more to the French colony in Southern California, is E. Oyharzabal, popularly called "Steve" Oyharzahal, owner of the California Hardware Company's building in Los Angeles. He was born in the Basses-Pyrenees, on January 26, 1854, and sent to the local French schools, where he received instruction in French and Spanish, while he acquired the idiom of the Basques. His brother, Domingo, who was born in the same locality eight years before, and had come to America in 1863, was already in California; and this fact proved an encouragement to our subject and another brother, William, who also set out for the western land of promise. William died soon after reaching San Juan Capistrano, and Domingo and "Steve" who was still in his teens, went to Inyo County and bought land, and then embarked in the raising of sheep-an enter- prise later carried on at Bakersfield. Their father, Baptiste, and their mother, Sabina (Belsunce) Oyharzabal, were farmers and stock-raisers; and although the father died when "Steve" was only two years old, the lads grew up to have a better understanding of that line of work than any other. The burden of nine children upon the mother made it necessary for some to leave home, and the three sons mentioned took the initiative in striking out for themselves.

Both brothers worked hard, and Domingo, perhaps because he was the elder, soon became prominent. He had a keen eye to climate and conditions, and when he came to Orange County in 1878, and settled at San Juan Capistrano, he believed that he had found here, a combination of advantages to be had nowhere else in the state. His faith in Orange County's future led him to make investments in real estate. purchasing ranches from time to time, as his means permitted, until in 1910 he owned over 4,000 acres of choice land. He himself planted 150 acres of walnuts. He also raised large herds of cattle, sheep and livestock, and in time installed a fine system of irrigation reaching to the remote ends of his ranch, thus greatly enhancing the value of his land. He even acquired valuable real estate in Los Angeles, and during his early residence at San Juan Capistrano, he erected the old French hotel, long a landmark of the Mission town. He is especially mentioned by Harris Newmark, the distinguished pioneer, whose "Sixty years in Southern California" is such a store- house of information concerning old-timers in the Golden State. Domingo died, unmarried, at San Juan Capistrano, in 1913, recalled by all who knew him as a typical Franco-American. Then, for the first time, the long partnership between the brothers was dissolved.

They were equal partners in all building as well as farming operations, and while Domingo was the most enterprising, "Steve" did the hard, outside work. Domingo, for example, superintended the erection of the building now used by the California Hardware Company at the corner of Alameda and First streets in Los Angeles, while his brother was in France, but he never lived to see the edifice completed. He was taken ill and died in his sixty-seventh year; and his demise was regretted by many, for he was a good-hearted, upright man.

E. Oyharzabal owns the building now used for a grocery store on Central Street, San Juan Capistrano, just north of his home, a two-story affair maintained, from 1878 to 1903, by the Oyharzabal brothers as the French hotel, and presided over for seven years by Mrs. E. Oyharzabal, a woman of accomplishment, in maiden- hood popular as Miss Lucy Darius, whom he had married in 1896. Mr. Oyharzabal returned to France for the first time in 1884, while his mother was still living; and in 1903, after he had taken to himself a wife and had his business affairs in excellent

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shape, he went back again to visit his beloved Basque country. He remained in the Basses-Pyrenees until 1905, when he returned to California and to San Juan Capi- strano with Mrs. Oyharzabal. Once more, in 1909, this deserving pair crossed the ocean to France and Spain, and set foot again on California soil in 1913, shortly before Domingo Oyharzabal's death.

Mrs. Oyharzabal is a daughter of Pierre and Antoinette (Pocheln) Darius. resi- dents of Bayonne, and she attended school there and also at Bordeaux, where she acquired, in addition to the Basque dialect, both French and Spanish. She has since added English. Her father was a railroad conductor in France, and that circum- stance enabled her to travel somewhat in her country. Mr. and Mrs. Oyharzabal live in a stately adobe house on Central Avenue, near the State Highway in San Juan Capistrano. The years of their hard labor have certainly been rewarded, for Mr. and Mrs. Oyharzabal, knowing where they can find a million or more when they want it, are about to start once more for France and Spain, to be gone, they hope. for another three years at least.

A. J. ALBERTS .- A philanthropist who first very wisely learned the great lesson of doing for himself before attempting to help others, is A. J. Alberts, the successful rancher of 1135 East Washington Street, who began his career as a newsboy in Chicago. He was born in Sterling, Whiteside County, Ill., on March 12, 1878, the son of A. J. Alberts, a dry goods merchant of Chicago, whose foresight and hard work eventually brought him prosperity. He was a native of Illinois, and he had married Miss Sophie Beuck, also a native of that state.

Our subject enjoyed the advantage of both the grammar and the high schools of Chicago, during which time he sold newspapers as a boy in that city. He earned for himself not only many dollars a day, but a reputation which led to his appointment after five years as the assistant circulation manager of the Chicago Daily News, which responsible post he held for fifteen years.

In 1903 he made a trip to Antelope Valley, and for a while he stayed at Littlerock, Los Angeles County. He was connected for some time with a realty company in Chicago, so that when he again came to California and visited Los Angeles in 1913 he tvas in a position to profit from a tour of the orange grove districts.

He bought eleven acres of full-bearing walnut and orange trees, nine years old. joined the Santiago Orange Growers Association, and also the Santa Ana Walnnt Growers Association, and subscribed to the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, getting their service.

When Mr. Alberts married, he took for his wife Miss Anna Kochl, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Koelil, residents of Pennsylvania, where they died, after Mr. Kochl had been for years an active merchant. The Alberts are liberal supporters of the Presbyterian Church of Santa Ana, and they also patronized the Red Cross and helped along the War loans. Mr. and Mrs. Alberts have three children. Grace and Paul are attending school at Santa Ana, and Edward is at honie.

JOHN L. PLUMMER, Sr .- A successful promoter of realty in the now famously fashionable Wilshire district of Los Angeles, who has come to have unshaken faith in the future of Balboa and as a logical result calculated to influence others, has already built a great deal there and plans to accomplish far greater things for the bay town and himself, is John Louis Plummer, who was born on Powell Street, San Francisco, on March 31, 1856. The story of his parent's life, it has been well said, reads like romance. His father, John C. Plummer, was an English sea captain, who came to the United States from Southampton as early as 1832, and sixteen years later crossed the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on foot in his eager desire to reach the Pacific. He navigated successive sailing vessels for the P. & O. Company in the Orient. and after years of adventure and even hardship, during which he had done his share to build up the merchant marine on the Pacific, he retired from the sea and lived comfortably at Los Angeles, where he died in 1910. He had married Miss Mary Cecilia McGuire, a native of the Hawaiian Islands, and a daughter of George McGuire, a well educated woman of advanced ideas and an early advocate of woman suffrage in California. On taking up her residence in Los Angeles in 1862, she acquired Government land, bought and sold real estate, and became the owner of 1,000 acres in the Wilshire District, which the family continued to hold title to until it had greatly appreciated in value.

John Louis Plummer, therefore, had the unusual experience of growing up more or less familiar with life in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, and of being able constantly to make comparisons between the pulsations of the two municipalities. He came to the Southland to reside in the early sixties, and for many years farmed more or less of the 800 acres or more in the West End, raising cattle, hogs, grain and

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garden truck, where now rise some of the stateliest residences in the city. He and his folks also owned downtown property of great value in Los Angeles. He laid out 160 acres on Sunset Boulevard and cut it up into two-acre traets, and 140 acres in Highland Park, which he sold off without subdividing. Besides owning property in Hollywood, Mr. Plummer has in recent years subdivided the Plummer Ridgewood Park on Van Ness Avenue, an estate of ninety acres, into lots sixty by 170 feet, with streets 100 feet wide, on which have been built some thirty houses costing from $6,000 to $30,000 apiece.

Wishing to hie away from city life, Mr. Plummer in 1914 purchased some sixty acres of Brand Boulevard land, near San Fernando, set out an orchard and built four attractive houses, for himself and his children; but as early as 1906 he had begun to invest at Balboa, and he has continued to do so ever since. In 1919, he erected ten bungalows in a court, known as the Plummer Place, and he intends to add eleven more, and a large residence on the Bay front, where he will make his home as his final harbor.

Mr. Plummer was married at Los Angeles to Miss Ellen Dalton, the youngest daughter of Henry Dalton, the famous pioneer of the Azusa, who came to Southern California by way of Peru, and owned among other extensive tracts of more or less historic interest later, much of the land acquired by "Lucky" Baldwin. Mrs. Plummer, it is sad to relate, passed away in 1918, a noble woman who had nobly fulfilled her mission in each community wherein she had dwelt, and mourned by a large circle of friends, and especially by her four sons, John. Charles, Theodore and Anthony, and the four adopted children, Raymond, Henry, Inez and Eudora. Balboa looks to Mr. Plummer with greater confidence than ever in facing the problems of the future. nor will the deserving beach resort be disappointed, for in all that he has hitherto set his hand, this courageous path breaker has always succeeded.

J. C. WILLIAMS .- An esteemed pioneer who has the distinction of having Leen among the first to advocate the cultivation of the Valencia orange as a com- mercial industry is J. C. Williams, the rancher and real estate dealer of Fullerton. who was born in Monona County, Iowa, in April, 1878, the son of J. W. Williams. an expert mechanic, who had married Miss Delphina E. Mendenhall. The worthy couple came to California in 1886 and settled in Los Angeles; and there, for twenty years, Mr. Williams followed his trade. Our subject received his early education in the graded schools of the old Mission city, and later attended the University of Southern California, where he pursued a business course. Then, at the age of twenty- one, he went into the hardware business. He started modestly, but came to have a profitable wholesale trade with a store in Los Angeles and another in San Francisco, and he sold out when the fire at San Francisco wrecked so many.

Mr. Williams then entered the real estate field, joining his brother, A. G. Williams. in a partnership. They had offices at both Los Angeles and Anaheim, and during their efforts to advance the best interests of this part of the Southland, they took up the possibilities of Valencia orange development. and enthusiastically presented the prospects of the industry. They were thus instrumental in inducing many persons to develop Valencia orange groves, and handled millions of dollars' worth of prop- erty when land was cheap. Such was their experience in contributing to advance valuations that they saw a certain grove jump in price from $1,200 to $1,400, then to $7,500, then to $14.500, and recently to $28,000. This grove is near Anaheim, and is only one of many that the Messrs. Williams handled to the great benefit of sue- cessive owners, and to the advancement of the orange industry in Orange County.

Unmarried, and residing with his sister on Orange Grove, near South Spadra, on a ranch of choice land, well irrigated by a private pumping plant, Mr. Williams leads a quiet life, studying citrus and realty conditions, and lending a hand whenever and wherever he can to elevate politics and civic life, and to upbuild as well as build up the community in which he has so long and pleasantly lived and labored.

MORTIMER HUGH PEELOR .- A well-known and always interesting pioneer who, having made a success in business and become a prosperous merchant, has been able to branch off and become an equally expert and successful horticulturist, is Mortimer H. Peelor, who helped establish the foundation of things in Orange as far back as 1885. He was born in Henry County, Mo., and came to California when he was sixteen years old. His father was C. P. Peelor, a merchant of Orange, and he had married Miss M. C. Lotspeich. Two uncles, the Lotspeich brothers, were the earliest settlers of Villa Park in the Mountain View district, and they were very worthy men.

Mortimer, the eldest in a family of four children, enjoyed the advantages of both the common and the high schools, and later was graduated from the Woodbury

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Business College in Los Angeles. Then he worked in his father's store for a while, and coming to Placentia entered the employ of Stern-Goodman, with whom he remained for a number of years or until he bought them out and established himself in the mercantile world under the firm name of M. H. Peelor. Two years ago, he sold out his well-conducted grocery, and turned his attention to quite another field.

In 1906, Mr. Peelor had purchased ten acres of choice land, on which he set out both walnuts and oranges; and in time he became a member of the Placentia-Ful- lerton Walnut Growers Association; The Placentia Mutual Orange Growers Asso- ciation. He also became a shareholder in the Anaheim Union Water Company. He is interested in bank stocks, and he wishes prosperity to everybody else, hence he is a first-class "booster" for both town and county. He is a Democrat in matters of national political moment, but never allows partisanship to interfere with his enthu- siastic, loyal support of things strictly local.

On October 7, 1890, Mr. Peelor married Miss Mayme Jones, daughter of the well-known rancher, O. P. Jones of Santa Ana; and one child, Kathleen, now the wife of S. James Tuffree, and a graduate of the State Normal School at Los Angeles, class of '13, has blessed this fortunate union. Two years ago Mr. Peelor erected his residence, where a generous hospitality is dispensed to all of Mr. and Mrs. Peelor's wide circle of friends.

JOHN H. KIRSCH .- Descended from a long line of honored ancestors, residents of that stanch little buffer state, Luxemburg, the pawn of kings since the thirteenth century. John H. Kirsch was the first of his family to leave the old home for the New World, which has now been his home for more than thirty years. His parents were John and Marie (Berg) Kirsch, both of whom passed their whole lives there. until their decease, some years ago. The eldest of a family of ten children, four of whom are now living, two at the old home and two in California, John H. Kirsch was born in Canton Diekirch, Luxemburg. November 11, 1865. The father was a well-known miller and farmer, and after receiving a good education in the local schools. John H. from his boyhood made himself useful on the farm and at the mill, learning the miller's trade and also how to dress the mill stones used in the old water-power mill. On reaching the age of seventeen he left the old home and went to France, working at his trade of miller, near Chalons-sur-Marne, in the depart- ment of the Marne.

In 1889 Mr. Kirsch came to the United States, and located at Winona, Minn .. where he engaged in farming, later leasing a large farm which he devoted largely to stock raising. Here he continued until he purchased a farm near Grand Rapids, Wis., which had an excellent location on the Wisconsin River. It was fine, rich land and here Mr. Kirsch was very successful, bringing it up to a high state of cultivation. Attracted by the great opportunities offered on the Pacific Coast, however. Mr. Kirsch disposed of his Wisconsin farm and came to California in 1906, locating first in Tulare County, where he purchased forty acres of land and engaged in dairying and alfalfa raising. Remaining there for a year and a half, he then disposed of his holdings and came down to Orange County, buying thirteen acres on East and Santa Fe streets, near Anaheim. This Mr. Kirsch set out to Valencia oranges, bud- ding and raising half of the trees himself, and caring for the orchard until it was five years old, when he sold it to Mr. Gruessing, and it is now one of the finest orange groves in the district. He then bought a tract of twenty acres on Nursery Avenue, which he also improved, setting it out to oranges and lemons, and under his expert care it soon became one of the show places of the neighborhood, so that in 1917 he was able to dispose. of it at a handsome profit. Since that time he has bought and sold a number of orange groves, and with his wide knowledge of all of the details of the citrus industry and of Orange County lands and soils, he has been very successful in all the deals he has closed, giving satisfaction to everyone con- corned. Optimistic for the future of Orange County, and believing it to be the finest locality in the world, particularly for citrus culture, Mr. Kirsch neglects no oppor- tunity to prove his faith by his works, taking an active interest in every progres- sive movement.

In 1891, while a resident of Minnesota, Mr. Kirsch was united in marriage with Miss Lena Litt, who like himself was a native of Luxemburg, and who came to the United States during the same year-1889. Three children have been born to them: Katie, is Mrs. J. W. Heinz, her husband being an orange rancher at Anaheim; Anna, married Ben Heinz, who is also the owner of a citrus ranch at Anaheim; John F. enlisted when twenty years of age in the U. S. Naval Reserve Corps, serving until he received his honorable discharge, and he, too, is engaged in orange growing at Anaheim. Mr. and Mrs. Kirsch reside in their comfortable, attractive home at Palm

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and Chartres streets, Anaheim, a property which Mr. Kirsch built and improved. In 1904, while a resident of Wisconsin, he made a trip back to his native land, and spent a happy time visiting his old home. and friends, but returning to the land of his adoption more than ever enthusiastic over its great opportunities. His fore- sight and initiative have enabled him to take advantage of these opportunities and he has made a splendid success. Liberal and kind-hearted, he is ever ready to lend a helping hand in every worthy enterprise and he shows his willingness to cooperate in local affairs by membership in the Anaheim Orange Growers Association. In fraternal circles he is popular in the ranks of the Knights of Columbus.

WILLIAM E. STRADLEY .- A man eminent in the busy world of affairs in Los Angeles, who has also become a leader in both the building up and the upbuilding of Placentia, is William E. Stradley, who was born in Humboldt County, Kans., on January 12, 1872, and came to Des Moines, Iowa, as a small boy. He was a mason by trade, and first reached Los Angeles in 1887, at the time of- the great boom in Southern California realty. The next year he made a trip back to Iowa, and then he came out to the state of Washington, and he laid the first brick in any building in Seattle on June 9, 1889, three days after the big fire there.

He followed his trade in Seattle, and then, as a journeyman brickmason, traveled through twenty-eight states, returning to Des Moines in 1898. He took up contract- ing and building in masonry, succeeded very well, but in 1901 returned to Seattle, and there, as a contractor and builder he remained active until 1904. Then he came south to Los Angeles again, and there he has since resided, reaping the fruits of his own enterprises, started far back in 1898. A general contractor, he is the senior member of the firm of Stradley & Newton, brick, concrete and cement contractors, with an office at 500 Stimson Building in that city. In 1919, he himself erected twenty-eight store buildings in different sections of Los Angeles, and he also put up buildings in Wasco, Kern County, and at Newhall, Cal. Besides, he erected a large number of private residences in Los Angeles.

Mr. Stradley's entrance into Orange County dates from 1911, when he came to Placentia to construct the two-story brick block for the Placentia National Bank. He then bought lots and started to build up the promising town, and ever since, he has built additional structures, always holding on to what he has once acquired. These include the Marjie and the Stradley brick blocks of two stories, on Santa Fe Avenue, and no less than forty-four apartments in the town. Those who recall that Mr. Stradley erected the Wilcox Cafe at Seal Beach, will not be surprised at the thorough manner in which he has taken hold of Placentia real estate and the problem of the new town's development. He is a director of the Los Angeles Builders Exchange, and is also an officer in the Mason Contractors' Association of Los Angeles.

Mrs. Stradley, who enjoys the devotion of a large circle of appreciative friends, was Miss Marguerite M. Kuntz before her marriage, and is a native of Iowa. Mr. Stradley is a member of Golden State Lodge, No. 358, F. & A. M., Signet Chapter, No. 57, R. A. M., Perfection Consistory, No. 3, S. R., Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. and Jinniston Grotto, M. O. V. P. E. R., all of Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen, Knights of the Maccabees, and the Sunset Country Club.

HENRY G. MEISER .- A very successful rancher owning several tracts of desirable land, and a citizen fortunate not only in the esteem but the hearty good will of his fellowmen, who are familiar with his leadership in various movements making for the broad and permanent development of Fullerton and vicinity, is Henry G. Meiser, who was born near Lincoln, Nebr., on November 21, 1880, the son of Henry and Elizabeth Meiser, farmer folks of Nebraska. These worthy pioneers came to California in 1881 and settled at Anaheim; and there Mr. Meiser worked in the lumber mill for three years. In 1884, the elder Meiser purchased twenty acres of land, which he set out to grapes, oranges and walnuts; and these twenty acres are known today as the old Meiser home place.

Henry G. Meiser attended the schools in Fullerton, and when only fifteen started out for himself in the world. For five years he worked in the Orange County Nursery, and then in 1904, he purchased a ranch of twelve acres, on South Spadra Street, which he himself set out to Valencia oranges. There, too, in 1916, he built for himself a home. The land is under both the Anaheim Union Water Company and the El Camino Water Company, financed by a company of neighboring farmers and com- manding a well of 100 inches. Mr. Meiser took a live interest in this co-operative project, and until recently was secretary of the company.

Mr. Meiser was also president of the Federal Farm Loan Board of Orangethorpe, and soon after the precinct branch was formed, it was taken into the Orange County

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organization, in which Mr. Meiser then became a director. How much good this l'ederal loan movement has accomplished here, both to the individual rancher need- ing the aid of capital, and to the community needing the rancher, only those familiar with the general working of the Federal Loan may realize, but Mr. Meiser and his Associates are to be congratulated on the fruits of their strenuous labors.

In 1913, Mr. Meiser purchased ten acres of land half a mile west of Fullerton, a ranch formerly devoted to the culture of walnuts. He grubbed out the latter, lowever, and set out Valencia orange trees; and now he has a display of citrus fruit worth a journey to see. In the fall of 1918, he also bought ten acres on East Orangethorpe Avenue, near Placentia, and this land with its four-year-old trees bear- ing Valencias is also under the Anaheim Union Water Company. He belongs to the Placentia Orange Growers Association, and markets his products thereby.

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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 180

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