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 29

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 29

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Mr. Harris was a director in the Santa Ana Cooperative Sugar Company, and took a live interest in the establishment of this plant which has done so much to build up the county. He also served for a time as assistant postmaster at Westminster, and also started the telephone company there. During the early history of the oil industry in Southern California, he was one of the prime movers in the organization of the Fidelity Oil Company, and operated in the Whittier field. His ventures were successful and he retired from that line with a considerable fortune .. On his demise, on November 28, 1911. the local newspaper said of him: "A man of business affairs, he was progressive, and had been active in the promotion of several enterprises that have benefited this city and county. That he was highly esteemed and enjoyed the confidence of the public is evidenced by the fact that he held county office at two different times."

DANIEL KRAEMER .- Among the famous pathfinders bringing civilization and progress to this promising corner of the Golden State, and the first white settler to pitch a tent in the Placentia district in Orange County, and the first white family to settle outside of the willow fence inclosing the Anaheim settlement, Daniel Kraemer, who passed to his eternal reward in 1882, deserves the lasting recognition of a reveren- tial posterity. Born at St. John, one of the most picturesquely-situated mountain re- sorts in the Swahian Alps, Bavaria, not far from the renowned castle of Lichtenstein, on November 17, 1816, he came to America at the age of twenty-six, and located near Belleville, in St. Clair County, Ill., where he took up farming. He also married there, and in that prosperous section of the Middle West his nine children were born.

Two tedious trips were made between his Illinois home and Southern California before he made this section his permanent home; for he first came West in 1865, bought his land, and returned to Illinois. The following year he came here again, hut once more found it necessary to return East. On his third trip, in 1867, he brought his family with him. To make the journey at that time meant to take the railway from St. Louis to New York, thence by boat to the Isthmus of Panama, after that by steamer to San Francisco, and next by boat to San Pedro, from which port the tourists took wagons overland to the ranch.

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When he first came here, in 1865, Mr. Kraemer purchased a portion of the original Mexican grant known as the San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana Rancho, his par- ticular part being designated the Peor Es Nada Rancho, named from a Mexican village then near by, and meaning in Spanish, "Worse than nothing." Its English name, however, was "The Cajon Ranch." This strip of land comprised 3,900 acres, and its original boundaries were what is now Placentia Avenue on the west, the J. K. Tuffree Ranch on the north, the Richfield territory on the east, and the Santa Ana River on the south. Cattle and horses at first roamed freely there, but later the sheep herds crowded them out, so that really the latter made way for the farmer and the horticulturist.

This great ranch remained intact until the death of its owner in 1882, and since that time most of its acreage has been sold, so that the once princely domain consti- tutes a large portion of the present Placentia district. On his first trip here, Mr. Kraemer found a ditch, the Ontiveros, which ran eastward from the house he bought through what is now the district of Richfield, and then through Yorba, the intake being close to the old Trinidad Yorba house; and returning from the East in 1867, he dis- covered that the flow from this ditch, his only irrigation supply, was being seriously interfered with. He then built a ditch of his own to the Santa Ana River, which intersected the Ontiveros ditch, one and a half miles east of his home, and this was the first individual canal to be built in this section. He was also one of the projectors of the Cajon Canal, built in 1875, which carries water through all of the Placentia district, through Fullerton and Orangethorpe, and much of Anaheim.

Mr. Kraemer showed his appreciation of popular education in helping to organize the Cajon School district, in 1874, the first district in this section, and donated an acre of ground for school purposes. Five years later, this district was renamed the Placentia. He brought both the first mowing and the first sewing machine here, and before he laid aside his earthly labors, on February 6, 1882, he had splendidly im- proved between 400 and 500 acres of his vast estate.

When Daniel Kraemer married, he took for his wife Miss Magdalena E. Schrag, a native of Battenberg, Germany, and of Swiss parentage; a most valuable helpmate, who died on January 3, 1889. One of their daughters, Elizabeth, died on November 18, 1875. The other children are: Henry Kraemer of Placentia; Mrs. Barbara Parker of Anaheim; D. J. Kraemer of Brownsville, Texas; Samuel Kraemer, also of Pla- centia; Mrs. Emma M. Grimshaw of Anaheim; she has a daughter, M. Alice Grim- shaw, a teacher in the Anaheim public schools; Edward M. Kraemer of Olive; Mrs. Mary K. Miller of Anaheim, and Benjamin, living on the original Kraemer home place at Placentia. A son of Mrs. Miller, Edward L. Miller, is a graduate from Occidental College, and when the World War called for his services, he enlisted. He served twenty-two months with the now historic One Hundred Seventeenth Engineer Corps, was in six important drives, and six times went "over the top."

MRS. MARY ORILLA KELLOGG .- It seems eminently fitting that the names of the early pioneers of California should be perpetuated in such a manner that their labors, in the days of trials and hardships, may remain an inspiration and encourage- ment to the toilers of today. Great honor is due the names of those courageous men and women who braved the perils of the overland trail in their untiring efforts to blaze a path and establish a civilization for the generations to come. In California and Orange County, the names of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Orilla Kellogg stand out prominently.

By those who knew him during his active life, Mr. Kellogg is recalled as a man who contributed not a little to the permanent growth of the localities in which he elected to reside. No one knew better than he the terrors of the overland trail or more dearly won his right to be numbered among the most courageous of the western pioneers. He was born in Morgan County, Ill., April 31, 1822, and was the youngest of six children. A descendant of a prominent New England family. his father, Elisha, was born in Massachusetts, and settled in Genesee County, N. Y .. where he was judge and sheriff. Upon removing to Morgan County, 111., he built the first house in the county and did farming and stock raising on a large scale. Later he moved to Jo Daviess County, and there he died in 1844. He married Elizabeth Derrick, who was born in Connecticut, and died in Jo Daviess County, II1.

In his youth, B. F. Kellogg received but a limited education and was brought up to farm lahor of the severest kind. In 1844 himself and brother Erwin went to the Rocky Mountains in search of a silver mine, but, failing in their quest, secured a Gov- ernment contract and built Fort Laramie. They met with many uncanny and danger- ous adventures, which, however, did not diminish their enthusiasm for the West. Two years later found them en route to the Pacific Coast as members of the Donner party, but few of whom ever reached their destination. The brothers parted from the original

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Mary Culla Kellogg

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party at Donner Lake, and proceeded with others upon what proved to be a terrible and hauntingly gruesome journey. At one time, while searching for the silver mine near Fort Laramie, they were attacked by Pawnee Indians, stripped of their clothes and robbed of all they had with them. So reduced were they that they had to eat walnuts and raw frogs. The brothers were at one time separated from each other, and during this time, B. F. Kellogg, in lieu of any kind of food, and on the verge of starvation, scratched the hair from his buffalo coat and ate the hide. In time he was found by his brother, who had gone in search of help, in an almost dying condition, and was succored by some friendly Indians whom they chanced to meet.

Arriving in Napa Valley, Mr. Kellogg enlisted in General Fremont's army and served six months, and was honorably discharged in April, 1847. He was also a veteran of the Mexican War. He engaged in mining with varying success, then turned his attention to farming in Napa Valley, and later in the vicinity of St. Helena. On September 5, 1864, at White Sulphur Springs, he married Mary Orilla Lillie, who was born in Fulton County, Ill., on July 15, 1832, a daughter of Luther and Orilla (Morgan) Lillie, natives of Connecticut. Her paternal grandfather, David Lillie, was also born in Connecticut, and settled first in New York, then in Ohio, and later in Indiana. In 1831 he located in Fulton County, Ill., of which he was a pioneer, and where he died at the age of eighty-two years. He served as a soldier in the Revo- lutionary War and the Black Hawk War. Luther Lillie was a farmer in New York, Ohio and Illinois, and was also a millwright and machinist, and had shops in the dif- ferent places in which he lived. He settled in Illinois in 1831 at a time when the Indians were numerous and troublesome. He died in 1837 and his wife passed away in 1833, the mother of fourteen children. One son, Leonard G., came to California in 1850 and died in Napa Valley, and two daughters, Mrs. Rosana Evey and Mrs. Emeline Butler, came West in 1854 and 1855, respectively.

Mrs. Kellogg was reared in Illinois and attended school in a little log school- house with slab benches, and later in a frame building. When she was twenty monthis of age her mother died, and when she was seven her father passed away, and she went to live with a family named Breed. From the first she was obliged to work hard between the rising and the setting of the sun, so that school was a luxury and leisure an unheard-of commodity. In 1853 she undertook to accompany her brother, Leonard G., his wife and their five children, and her sister. Mrs. Butler, to California. The experiences while crossing the plains are vividly recalled by Mrs. Kellogg at this day, and contained much of interest and adventure. The ox-teams were out- fitted at Farmington, Ill., and they crossed the Mississippi at Burlington on May 3, 1853, thence took the Platte route and the Green River route to Humboldt and the Southern pass route to Sacramento and Napa Valley. In the Napa Valley the brother built and operated a grist mill, and here Mrs. Kellogg lived until her marriage in 1854.

On May 21, 1869, Mr. and Mrs. Kellogg brought their family of eight children to Anaheim, in the vicinity of which Mr. Kellogg bought 640 acres of land from the Stearns Rancho Company. This land was improved from the rough, built up with residences and barns, and fitted with wells and fences, and rendered generally habit- able. While these improvements were being made the family lived in a tent. There were no houses between their place and Los Angeles, nor were there any towns to the south of them. Disaster followed in the wake of all this industry, for the grass- hoppers and wild horses played havoc with the crops for three succeeding years. In time Mr. Kellogg became prosperous, and a prominent factor in the general growth of this locality. He gave each of his sons a tract of forty acres of land which they improved. Politically he was a Republican, and while in Napa County served as coroner and as school trustee. In Orange County, then Los Angeles County, he donated three acres of land for a schoolhouse and was one of the trustees for many years. The death of Mr. Kellogg, December 16, 1890, witnessed the passing of a thoroughly good man, and one who knew the value of opportunity and how to use it.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Kellogg, with the aid of her sons, kept alive the interests of the home, and she now retains but eighteen acres of the original home- stead, and this is planted to walnuts and oranges. She has divided the portion of land left to her equally among her daughters. She is a Republican in politics, and in earlier years was a member of the W. R. C. and W. C. T. U., and is a member of the Christian Church. In that calm and splendid way known only to the pioneer women who have suffered much and endured patiently, she has reared to years of usefulness nine children, to any one of whom their mother is the embodiment of all that is true, gracious and approachable in women. H. Clay is a graduate of Wilson College and is a surveyor and civil engineer at Santa Ana; Mary E. became the wife of Byron O. Clark and lives at Paradise. Butte County; Erwin F. is deceased; Lonisa 13

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J. is Mrs. L. A. Evans of Orange County; Leonard G. is in Guatemala; Edward L. is ranching at Van Nuys; Lillie M. married William Dunlap and is deceased; Clara E. became Mrs. Carl F. Raab and is deceased, and Carrie A. married Richard N. Bird of Los Angeles.

A splendid type of pioneer woman, Mrs. Kellogg met the trials and hardships of the early years with patience and fortitude, and now in her eighty-ninth year, still retains a remarkable degree of vitality for one of her years, and is still greatly inter- ested in the development of the county where she has lived for over half a century. She has living thirty-three grandchildren and twenty-five great-grandchildren to call her blessed.

DR. WILLIAM FREEMAN .- Among the distinguished representatives of the medical profession in Orange County whose influence for scientific progress is still felt although, as the result of years of unremitting application to his work he has been retired for nearly six years, is William Freeman, M. D., a native of Medina County, Ohio, where he was born on January 6, 1841. He attended the public schools of his home district, but when seventeen removed to DeKalb County, Ind., and continued his studies in the Auburn Academy. Having been commissioned by the school authorities to teach, he took charge of a school the next year; but in 1861; at the second call by the Federal Government for soldiers he enlisted on September 5, and joined Company H, Thirtieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He campaigned in Kentucky and Tennessee, as a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and saw stirring action in more than one important battle or engagement. These included the battle of Shiloh, Stone River, in which he received a gunshot wound through the right hand, and the battle of Chica- mauga, where he was permanently disabled by a shot through the body. He was laid up for a while in a Chattanooga hospital, from which he was transferred to Murfrees- boro, where he was compelled to stay for several months. At length he was taken home by his father on a stretcher, and on his recovering to a degree, he was made sergeant of sanitary police at Totten Field Hospital in Louisville. At the expiration of his term of enlistment, he was returned to Indianapolis and honorably discharged. To such men as Dr. Freeman, the Union owes its preservation today.

Before he enlisted, our subject had commenced the study of medicine, and on once more regaining his civic freedom, he went back to Auburn, Ind., and again took up the subject under Dr. A. H. Larimore, a noted practitioner. When he was ready for a course of lectures, he went to the Cincinnati College of Medicine, and after the usual severe tests, he joined the graduating class of '67. Then he opened an office at Vevay. Ind., and later practiced at Madison, in the same state. Ambitious to still further perfect himself, he pursued post-graduate work at Indianapolis, and once more resumed practice, first at Vevay and then at Madison.

Still suffering from the wounds he had received in the service of his country. and broken in health from overwork, Dr. Freeman left the Middle West in 1894 and sought relief in less frigid California. For two years he rested at San Diego, and when he had practically restored his health, he came to Orange County. He was attracted to Fullerton in particular, and there for eighteen years he enjoyed a highly remunerative practice. A man of foresight, anticipating the needs of the community. Dr. Free- man was one of the early promoters of the Fullerton Hospital, which became also an excellent training school for nurses. He invested in city property, and so showed his confidence in the future of Fullerton, and built a cosy residence, at the same time that he improved seven acres to oranges on Orangethorpe Avenue. Dr. Freeman removed to near Anaheim and bought eleven and a half acres on Santa Ana Street, where he set out oranges, there being some walnut trees on the place, and soon demonstrated his ability to succeed as a rancher. He remained there eighteen months then returned to Fullerton and bought twenty and a half acres adjoining his original seven; this he also set to oranges and kept it until 1918 when he sold it. In Fullerton, where he is a pioneer. Dr. Freeman had been health officer, administering his responsibility so well that no contagious disease was ever allowed to spread during the four years he served as first city health officer. He was one of the organizers of the Chamber of Commerce. In Anaheim he lent his experience and counsel in the direction of im- proved sanitation and greater assurance for public health. When in Indiana, he served his fellow-citizens for a couple of terms in the state legislature, and was also one of the directors of the Indiana State Reform School, and these experiences enabled him to be the more serviceable when he assumed citizenship in California. He was also for seven years on the Indiana Board of Pension Examiners.

By his first marriage, Dr. Freeman became the father of four children-A. W. Freeman, an oil man of Oklahoma: J. A. Freeman, a produce dealer of Santa Barbara: W. A. Freeman, manager of the Mission Produce Company, at Santa Maria; and

Lawir F. Mouther

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Mrs. Fred Shaw of El Centro. At Whittier, he married his second wife, Miss Belle McFadden, a native of Illinois, who was reared in Mercer County in that state. Both Doctor and Mrs. Freeman are members of the Eastern Star, and the Doctor belongs to Fullerton Lodge, No. 339, F. & A. M. He is also a member of Malvern Hill Post, G. A. R., and was chief mustering officer under Colonel Merrill, when he was depart- ment commander. He is hale and hearty, and looks back with pleasure to the ardnons days in Indiana, when for twenty-five years he attended to his practice while riding horseback, often on wide circuits. Dr. Freeman belongs to the Christian Church.

LEWIS FENNO MOULTON .- The steady increase in population and the tend- ency toward intensive cultivation of the land have had much to do with the dividing up of the great ranches of the early Spanish grants into small tracts. Noteworthy among the few large tracts that still remain intact is the great Moulton ranch of 22,000 acres which lies southwest or El Toro. Lewis Fenno Moulton, its original proprietor and owner, still directs its affairs with the ability and energy that have always char- acterized his undertakings.

Prominent in the early colonial affairs of New England, the Moulton family has contributed many representatives who occupied important posts in the stirring political and military affairs of that day. One of the bravest of these was Gen. Jeremiah Moul- ton, who served with distinction in the Revolutionary War, and was one of the most zealous of the colonies' defenders, Sharing in this patriotic spirit were other members of the family, Samuel Farrar, who participated in the Battle of Concord, and Samuel Fenno, whose name is associated with the events that led up to the Boston tea party. In the second war with the Mother Country, Jotham Moulton, the son of Gen. Jere- miah Moulton, displayed the same spirit as his forbears, taking an active part in the conflict. Jotham Moulton, a physician by profession, married Lucy Farrar, and for many years they made their home in Bucksport, Maine. Among their children was J. Tilden Moulton, the father of Lewis F., who was born in Maine in 1808. After graduating from Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School, and practicing his pro- fession in Cherryfield, Maine, for several years, he removed to Chicago, Ill., where for many years he occupied a place of distinction in its legal circles. In addition to his large practice he served as a master in chancery of the United States Court at Chicago, and was as well known in its journalistic circles, being one of the first editors of the Chicago Tribune. His high professional standing brought him into contact with all the great men of that day and locality, and among the friendships he prized most was that of Abraham Lincoln, who was one of his classmates in law college. During his residence in the East he had been united in marriage with Miss Charlotte Harding Fenno, a native of Massachusetts, but who was reared and edu- cated in Connecticut.

Mr. and Mrs. J. Tilden Moulton were the parents of two children: Irving F., for many years vice-president and cashier of the Bank of California, hut now retired, resid- ing at San Francisco, and Lewis Fenno, the subject of this sketch. He was born at Chicago on January 17, 1854, and spent the first years of his life in the parental home there, one of his early and cherished memories being of Abraham Lincoln, who fre- quently came to the Moulton home. Unlike his father, his inclination did not lie in the way of training for a professional career, and as soon as he had completed the grammar school course he set ahout to earn his own living, the father's death when Lewis was but a young lad also making it expedient for him to learn to make his way in the world. His first work was packing shingles on Chicago wharfs, and later, after the death of the father, the family removed to Boston, Mass., and here he was employed by a storekeeper to run errands, earning a dollar and a half per week. At the age of fifteen he began working on the old Daniel Webster farm near Marshfield, Mass .. remaining there for three years.

Feeling that the Far West offered greater opportunities Mr. Moulton started on the long trip to California in 1874, making the journey by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Locating at once at Santa Ana, then Los Angeles County, but now Orange County, he began work on the San Joaquin ranch near Santa Ana, and subsequently went into the sheep raising business with C. E. French, continuing in this for several years. Going to San Francisco he established a wholesale slaughter house there, but this did not prove a financial success, so he returned after a short time to Orange County. He soon was able to start afresh, and it was but a short time until he was on the road to prosperity. His first purchase, about 1895, was a tract of 19,500 acres adjoining the San Joaquin ranch and extending to the ocean, and this has been in- creased by subsequent purchase until the ranch now comprises 22,000 acres. Mr. Moulton is extensively engaged in raising beef cattle for the market, mostly high- grade Durham Shorthorn cattle; so he is very naturally a member of the California Cattle Growers Association. The acreage not required for pasturage is devoted to

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raising barley, wheat, beans and hay, Mr. Moulton leasing it to tenants for this purpose, from ten to fifteen farmers usually being engaged on the place.

Every department of the business is systematically organized and conducted, the greater part of it under the personal supervision of Mr. Moulton, whose ability as a business head and executive has been one of the chief factors in the eminent success that he has made. A well-appointed office is maintained on the ranch, and there are two commodious residences, one of which is occupied by Mr. Moulton, while the other is the home of Mrs. M. E. Daguerre, who owns a third interest in the ranch, her husband, Jean Pierre Daguerre, having been Mr. Moulton's partner before his decease. Excellent barns and outbuildings, well-kept lawns and drives add to the attractiveness of the ranch, which is always kept up to the highest state of cultivation. While the responsibility entailed by the details of this extensive busi- ness absorbs the greater part of Mr. Moulton's time, he has always been active in his support of the Republican party, and is known throughout the county as one of its most generous and large-hearted citizens in his many benefactions.

MRS. MINERVA J. FLIPPEN .- A liberal-minded, interesting native daughter, especially proud of the fact that her father was a forty-niner, is Mrs. Minerva J. Flippen, the widow of a well-known Californian, esteemed by all his associates. She is the daughter of Nathan Stanley Danner, who was born on the Catawba River, in North Carolina, in 1822, and the granddaughter of John Danner, who moved from North Carolina to Missouri, and settled as a farmer near Springfield. There his wife died; and in 1857 he crossed the great plains in an ox team train, and died in 1871 in Merced County in his eighty-fourth year. The Danners are of German extraction, the pro- genitor of the name in America, John Danner, coming to North Carolina before the Revolutionary War. Nathan S. Danner came across the plains from Missouri to Cali- fornia in 1849 as a gold-seeker, and mined in Marysville and the Sierra Mountains, down into Mariposa County, where he also had a store; and he was so successful that in 1852 he returned East by way of Panama, to Missouri. There he was married that year to Miss Minerva Pearce, who was born in Tennessee in 1835, the daughter of Edmund Pearce, of English descent, and in the year 1857 he again came to California, once more traveling by way of Panama, and located on the Tuolumne River, in Stan- islans County, where he engaged in farming and the raising of cattle. The flood of 1862 washed away his house, cattle and farm implements, and even the farm became lost in the bed of the Tuolumne River; whereupon he moved to the Merced River, in 1863. He first settled on an island, but the flood of 1867 covered it, and again he lost his crops; but he took his family away in a boat, and moved to Hopeton, six miles from Snelling. Here he farmed until October, 1872, when he and his family removed to Kern County, near Linns Valley, forty miles northeast of Bakersfield, where he followed stock raising; he improved a farm near Woody, and at Blue Mountain he opened the mine that is still being exploited. He set out big trees and otherwise improved the place, and went in for stock raising, although, since there were bear, deer and antelope in profusion, they had plenty of profitable hunting. Later he moved north into Tulare County, and owned a place on White River, where he resided until he died, in 1892. Mrs. Danner spent her last days with Mrs. Flippen, and died in 1911, aged seventy-four years. She had four children; Jolin resides in Porterville; Minerva J., Mrs. Flippen, is the subject of our interesting sketch; Jefferson lives at Willows, Cal., and Lee J. Danner is also a resident of Orange. Of these, John Danner was born in Missouri, and the others are natives of California.

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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 29

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