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 34

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 34

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A Democrat in matters of national politics, Dr. Lacy was a member of the city council. He belonged to the State and County Medical Societies, and served for a while as city health officer of Santa Ana. He belonged to the First Presbyterian Church, and was a Mason, having joined that order in 1860, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. When he died, on February 2, 1913, at Santa Ana, he was almost seventy-six years of age.

Old-time friends of the deceased bore the casket, and the Rev. J. A. Stevenson paid the departed such a tribute as he deserved. He said, in part: "The working days of the physician are restless days. He knows no hours that are his own. He is the servant of suffering humanity, morning, noon and night. No man knows the weary hours that are contributed by the men that are tired almost to death. But when the restless days and nights of Dr. Lacy's working time were gone he knew a harder restlessness in the times of his own sickness. The days were long, and the nights were longer, and pain and suffering were there. Then out of the restlessness of life. God called him to the rest of a blessed eternity. Dr. McLaren has made im- mortal the 'Doctor of the Old School.' But thank God we do not have to hasten to the distant fields of Scotland nor into the pages of literature to find the splendid hero. The cultured, kindly, unassuming, uncomplaining, self-forgetful Christian gen- tleman, Dr. Lacy, was an honor to the Church of Christ, a benediction to this com- munity, and an adornment to the medical profession."

MRS. EROLINDA YORBA .- A distinguished, highly esteemed representative of one of the oldest and most historic families in California is Mrs. Erolinda Yorba, the well-to-do widow of Vicente Yorba, whose family settled along the Coast at a very early period. His parents were Bernardo and Felipa (Dominguez) Yorba, born in San Diego and Los Angeles, respectively. Bernardo Yorba was the holder of grants aggre- gating over 165,000 acres, given him by the King of Spain. These grants were La Sierra. in Riverside County, and Rancho San Antonio Cajon de Santa Ana, in Orange County; and just how historical the character of the founder of this family was, may be gath- ered from the reference to him by his contemporary, Harris Newmark, the Los Angeles pioneer, who says in his personal reminiscences, "Sixty Years in Southern California."

"Bernardo Yorba was another great landowner; and I am sure that, in the day of his glory, he might have traveled fifty to sixty miles in a straight line, touching none but his own possessions. His ranches, on one of which Pio Pico hid from Santiago Arguello, were delightfully located, where now stand such places as Anaheim, Orange. Santa Ana, Westminster, Garden Grove and other towns in Orange County-then a part of Los Angeles County." In McGroarty's Mission Play, one of the leading char- acters is Josefa Yorba, the grandmother of Vicente Yorba, who was selected because of her beautiful character and many deeds of kindness.

As early as 1835 Bernardo Yorba settled and built his home-a ninety-room adobe-at what is now the town of Yorba, and a part of the old building is still stand- ing. In it was a crude jewelry shop, harness shop, saddlery, blacksmith shop and a general merchandise store; in other words, it was a miniature city, known all over Southern California. It was a more or less dreary section then, and these worthy pioneers improved the land and the surroundings at the cost of their own lives and health. For a long time the well-known Yorba adobe sheltered the growing family. but the enterprising father never lived to see all the transformations he and others associated with and guided by him brought about. Bernardo Yorba died on November 20, 1858, and thus followed to the grave his devoted wife and companion, who had passed away seven years before.

Vicente Yorba, one of the youngest of the family, was born at Yorba on February 3. 1844; and being early thrown upon his own resources, he in time amassed consider- ahle property. He owned, for example, a fine ranch of forty-four acres on the north side of the Santa Ana River, and another ranch of 343 acres at Yorba. The old home ranch upon which Mr. Yorba passed away came to be noted for its walnuts, its vineyard and its alfalfa, and was especially famous for its productivity. The other property, on the south side of the river, was given up to general farming and the raising of walnuts. Upon Mr. Yorba's death, the family moved to this last-mentioned ranch, and there erected a large and modern residence, in which they have since resided. Although Mr. Yorba was very optimistic in his belief of a great future for Orange County, yet in his most optimistic moments he could not have dreamed of the wealth so soon to be brought from the depths under these lands; and on his original home place the Union Oil Company is now sinking wells for oil, and have been rewarded with an excellent showing.

Vicente Vorba

Erolinda @ Torba

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

On October 25, 1876, Vicente Yorba was married to Miss Erolinda Cota, a native of Los Angeles and the daughter of Francisco Cota, another well-known native, whose family owned the Spanish grant, Rancho de Bellona, what is now the site of Venice. Her mother was Martina Machado, and her grandmother a Sepulveda. She was edu- cated in the parish schools of Los Angeles, and there received such an excellent train- ing that, while prepared to manage her own business affairs, she was also enabled to maintain the refinement characteristic of the highest social breeding, and to preserve a striking and natural beauty of feature, form and demeanor, scarcely altered since Mr. Yorba died, on February 24, 1913, on the ranch to the north of the Santa Ana River. in his fifty-ninth year. Mrs. Yorba is a member of the Catholic Church at Yorba, and is the center of an admiring and devoted circle. To Mr. Yorba's public-spiritedness is largely due the establishing of the well-equipped school at Yorba, on which he was a trustee for many years until his death.

Six children blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Yorba: Hortense M. is the wife of Porfirio Palomares, an extensive landowner of Pomona, now residing at Oxnard; Mantina L. is the wife of Lorenzo Pelanconi, and resides at Hollywood; Mary L. is the wife of Ignacio Vejar of Pomona; Ubenia Juanita married George Wents and lives with her mother; she has one child, Erolinda Dolores; Bernardo was in the Fortieth Heavy Coast Artillery, where he was assistant observer, and was in New York, on his way to France, when the armistice was signed, when he returned home and is now assisting his mother; he is married to Miss Edna Leep of Nebraska; Vicente Francisco married Lidella Walters of Placentia; they have one son, Vicente Samuel, and also reside on the Yorba ranch.

Since the death of Mr. Yorba, the family continue to reside on the ranch which is owned by Mr. Yorba and which they have greatly improved with an irrigation system and with Valencia orange orchards. Here they dwell together in harmony, each assisting and cooperating to the mutual advantage of all. With the mother at the head of affairs-an honor her children lovingly accord her- she is ably assisted by them and they in turn appreciate her confidence and shower on her their love and devotion, thus relieving her from much unnecessary worry and care.

JUDGE CHRISTIAN C. STONER .- An efficient, popular public official with a very interesting war record is Judge Christian C. Stoner, a native of Blair County, Pa., where he was born on December 27. 1844. He is the son of Jacob E. Stoner, a native of Lancaster County, Pa., who in 1849 removed to Noble County, Ind., where he was a pioneer farmer. In 1873 he pitched his tent in Cloud County, Kans., and there he continued to farm until he died, honored of all men. He had married Polly Cowen, a native of Blair County, and she also died in Kansas. They had six children, and the subject of our sketch was the fourth in the order of birth.

Reared in Noble County, Ind., on a farm, C. G. Stoner went to a log-cabin school house and sat on slab benches; later, he enjoyed more comfortable quarters in a frame school building, but left school to volunteer for service in the Civil War. In 1863 he entered Company B of the Eighty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered in at Kendallville, and sent to join Sherman's Army at Chattanooga. As a part of the Fourteenth Army Corps, he was with Sherman until the close of the war, and partici- pated in the battles of Resac, Dallas, Dalton, Snake Creck Gap, Buzzard's Roost, Kene- saw Mountain, Peach Tree (where General McPherson fell), Jonesboro, Goldsboro, Bentonville and other notable places. He never received a scratch or wound, nor was he ever in a hospital; but of five relatives who enlisted when he did, he was the only one to return. A brother, David, was in the same regiment and was killed at the Battle of Bentonville, N. C. With his comrades he marched to Richmond and then on to Washington, D. C .; and there he took part in the Grand Review. At Louisville, Ky .. in July, 1865, he was mustered out, and returned home.

After the war, Mr. Stoner went to the home school for a couple of years, and when there was a vacancy, he taught there. He remained for two years, and "brought order out of chaos"; then went to Wolf Lake high school, and after that taught for another two years. In 1873, he removed to Kansas, near Concordia, Cloud County, and took a homestead of 160 acres, where he engaged in farming.

Seven years later, the citizens of that district selected him to teach school, and for three years he trained the young idea how to shoot: was justice of the peace of Nelson township for fifteen years, and was probate judge of Cloud County for two terms, being elected in 1890 and reelected in 1892, and served until January, 1895. In 1896, he was elected a member of the Assembly of the Kansas State Legislature, and served there during 1896 and 1897. His legal knowledge enabled him to be particularly valuable to his constituency; for while he was prohate judge only two cases he had

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decided were appealed, and in each of these instances the higher court sustained his decision.

About 1904 Judge Stoner removed to Lincoln County, Kans., and for five years owned and edited the Lincoln Sentinel. In 1909 he located in Orange County, Cal., and bought an orange grove near El Modena, which he managed for two years, then disposed of the property, and retired. He was a city trustee for six years, and during that period was chairman of the board, or acting mayor, for four years. The night his term was up, the Judge was appointed city recorder, in April, 1918, and he has held that responsible office ever since.

While in ludiana, in August, 1867, Judge Stoner was married to Miss Rachel A. Winebrenner, a native of that state, and by her he has had three children. Barbara Ellen is Mrs. Secrist of Long Beach; George, a graduate of Lincoln College, Kansas, took a course at the University of California and is now a teacher in the Orange high school; and Peter is a graduate of the State University at Berkeley and is a teacher in the high school at Pasadena. Judge Stoner is a member of Gordon Granger Post No. 138, and is at present the commander of the post. He was aide-de-camp on National Com- mander Somer's staff, in 1918. He belongs to the Christian Church, where he has been an elder for many years.

DAVID CLARENCE DRAKE .- An authority on citrus culture in California, and a prominent factor in the development of the industry in Orange County, is David Clarence Drake, whose advice, as that of a sensible man of original ideas, is often sought by growers. He comes of an interesting family, long associated with the history of Long Island, and has identified himself in an enviable way with the history of the Golden State.

He was born at Southampton, Suffolk County, N. Y., in 1864, the son of David R. Drake, who was born at Roxbury, Morris County, N. J., and reared on Long Island becoming a sea-captain, thereby maintaining an interesting tradition from the time of the English renowned explorer. For more than thirty years the master of a whaler, he sailed out of Sag Harbor, L. I., and also New Bedford, Mass., into the various oceans of the globe, touched at many foreign ports, and thus grew familiar with important places all over the world, and was indeed a well-traveled man. About fifty years ago, he quit the sea and retired to his home at Southampton. He had married Harriet Fithian, a native of that place and a member of an old Long Island family of Welsh descent, and three children had blessed their union. Two are still living, and our subject is the only one in California.

Brought up in quaint old Southampton, L. I., David C. Drake was educated at the grammar schools of that neighborhood, and also at the Southampton Academy, after which, for a couple of years, he attended the Franklin Literary Institute in Dela- ware County; then entered Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., from which he was graduated in 1882; the pleasure of his studies leading him to move west to the Pacific Coast, and to study for two years in the Van der Nailen School of Engineering at San Francisco, where he took a course in railroad engineering and surveying, and was duly graduated with honors.

On his return East and to Southampton, Mr. Drake married Miss Harriet Ford- ham, who had also been born in that town, of an old and prominent family; and he then engaged in the raising of fruit for the New York City market, and also for the summer trade at Little Newport, L. I. This essay in horticulture he continued until 1896, when he sold out, came west to California, and pitched his tent at Pomona. It was in truth but a temporary camp that he established, for he then traveled all over the state, and up and down the Coast, even into British Columbia, getting first-hand impressions of the great West; at the end of which varied enviable experience, he de- cided that Orange was most to his liking, and ever since he has been closely asso- ciated with the fortunes of the fast-developing place.

He purchased his three acres on East Chapman Avenue, Orange, and made all the necessary improvements, set it out to oranges, and built his handsome, comfortable residence, and made of the whole a beauty spot. He also bought thirty acres of raw land at the corner of Seventeenth Street and Holt Avenue, where he set out twenty acres of Valencia oranges and ten acres of lemons.

For many years Mr. Drake was a director in the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, and assisted in bringing that popular concern to its present state of high efficiency. In 1897 he joined the local organization of citrus ranchers, the Santiago Orange Growers Association, and in 1898 they built their first packing house in Orange-the parent association from which have sprung eleven different citrus asso- ciations in this vicinity, and resulted in the final formation of the Orange County Fruit Exchange. Mr. Drake, after having been a director in the Santiago Orange Growers Association, is now its president; and he is also president of the Orange

Fng by E .. Williams & Bro NY

Peter Hansen

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County Fruit Exchange, which handled over five million dollars' worth of business in 1919. For six years Mr. Drake was trustee of the city of Orange, and all that period 1:e was president of the board, or mayor of the town. He started, with his associates, the building of sewers, and hought the present sewer farm, and they were starting the improvement of streets and sidewalks when he resigned. In national politics, he is a stanch Republican. A member of the First Presbyterian Church at Orange, Mr. Drake has been an elder there for the past twenty years. He was made a Mason in Orange Grove Lodge, No. 293, F. & A. M., and belongs to the Fraternal Aid Union.

PETER HANSEN,-Horticultural enterprises have engaged the attention of Peter Hansen for a long period of successful activity, and by means of his skill in this field as well as his perseverance and industry, he has added another name to the list of prosperous fruit growers of the county and has furnished additional evidence as to the adaptability of the soil to such pursuits. He is now the only surviving member of the pioneers who settled in the Placentia district as early as 1867, a worthy repre- sentative of those hardy and intrepid settlers.

A native of Denmark, Mr. Hansen was born at Varde, Jylland, on Christmas Day, 1838. His parents were farmers, so from a lad he made himself useful about the farm, in the meantime receiving a good education in the excellent schools of Denmark. Being the next to the youngest of a family of five children, he remained at home and assisted his parents until he entered the Danish army and served the required two years' time, when he again followed farming until the breaking out of the Slesvig-Holstein War. He was called to the colors, and immediately responding, he became a member of a cavalry regiment of the Danish army and served as a corporal until the close of the war.

Immediately after his discharge, Mr. Hansen resolved to emigrate to the United States, so in the fall of 1865 we find him making the long journey via the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, where he was employed for two years. Having heard favor- able reports from Anaheim and vicinity, he came by boat to San Pedro and on to Los Angeles. The present metropolis of the Pacific Coast was then a small hamlet built around the plaza, with only a few houses and one hotel. He came on to Anaheim, where he was employed by Tim Boege at teaming, hauling freight to Los Angeles and Anaheim Landing, the latter now being known as Seal Beach. In the meantime he invested his savings in 106 acres of raw land at Placentia, then Los Angeles County: it was virgin land in what was then a wilderness, for which he paid the small sum of fourteen dollars per acre. He cleared the land of brush and wild mustard and planted rye, wheat and barley. In those days game of all kinds was abundant, and the wild horses and cattle that roamed the plains caused Mr. Hansen much trouble, invading his ranch and destroying his crops. He purchased one of the first threshing machines used in his district, a stationary machine run by horsepower, drawn by eighteen horses, and the first year his crop yielded enough to pay for the machine, which he used all over the country threshing for others. He next set out his ranch to grapes and built one of the first wineries in the county, a brick structure 40 by 100 feet in size. After making wine for many years and selling it in casks to people who came from miles around to purchase it, he took out the vines and planted seedling and Washington Navel orange trees; later he budded his trees to Valencia oranges, his present orchard. To his brother Charles, who came from the East and worked for him on the ranch, Mr. Hansen gave fifty-three acres of the property. The brother died in 1903. In later years Mr. Hansen deeded a large part of his holdings to his children, retaining enough property to give him a competency for his retired years.

Mr. Hansen's wife, who before her marriage was Christine Jensen, was a native of Abenrade, Slesvig, their marriage being solemnized at Orangethorpe in 1874. An able helpmate and a loving wife and mother, her death on March 14, 1900, made an irreparable breach in the family circle. She left five children, as follows: Mattic is the wife of Arthur Edwards of Placentia, and the mother of two children, Gladys and Hugh: Anna married Horace Head of Santa Ana and they have two children, Melville and Iris: George, who lives at Placentia, is married and has four children, Christine, Ernest, Robert and George; Charles L. also lives at Placentia; Christine is the wife of Walter C. McFarland of Placentia and they are the parents of one child, Forest Walter. Mr. and Mrs. McFarland own and reside in the old Hansen home, over which Mrs. McFarland presides gracefully, showing her loving care and devotion to her aged father, who appreciates her ministrations to his comfort and happiness. Mr. Mc Farland served in the World War in the Three Hundred Sixty-third Infantry at Camp Lewis until he volunteered in the Signal Corps, Aviation Section, being stationed at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas, and at North Island, San Diego, Cal., until after the

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armistice, when he was honorably discharged, returning to the peaceful pursuit of farming. In early days Mr. Hansen was a school trustee at Placentia and was one of the twelve men who founded Balboa Beach, in which he has always been deeply interested, and where he owns a fine residence, to which his fondness for the ocean canses him to make frequent visits. He was also one of the founders of the Anaheim Union Water Company. Fraternally he was a member of the Anaheim Lodge of Odd Fellows. Accompanied by his daughter Christine, in 1902 he made a trip back to his native land, from whence he came a poor boy, but richly endowed with the natural characteristics that Dame Nature is pleased to reward-indomitable energy and a spirit undaunted by the difficulties encountered on the road to life that leads to success.

HUBERT ISAAC .- A most interesting pioneer, partly on account of his early history as a railway man and a miner before he came to California, is Hubert Isaac. distinguished to all who know him for his foresight and his strict integrity. He was born at Milwaukee, Wis., on February 26, 1856, the son of Francis Joseph and Anna (Schreiner) Isaac, natives of Aix-la-Chapelle; and grew up to do farm work. Going to Hancock, Mich., however, he joined a train crew, first as one of the operatives on a freight train, then as a baggageman, and then on a passenger train, on the Mineral Range Railway. For the next four and three-quarter years, he was employed in the Black Hills, weighing ore in the mining country, when he pushed on the California, via Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1879. He stopped at Los Angeles, but ran out to see El Modena, with friends, on a hunting trip.

He chanced to meet there David Hewes, the well known pioneer who has left behind him such a record for doing things, and as he needed some one to do carpenter work, he entered his employ. His first job was to build a corral enclosing a space of half an acre; and when this was satisfactorily finished, friendly relations were estab- lished and he continued to work for Mr. Hewes steadily for a year and a half. He was then under the direction of Henry Young, the first foreman of the great Hewes Ranch, on which ranch Mr. Isaac was also foreman twice. Later, he returned to Mr. Hewes' service, and was with him for twenty-seven years and nine months, so that it may safely be said that he was one of Mr. Hewes' most trusted employees.

Mr. Isaac bought eleven lots in El Modena before the "boom," and there he built thirteen houses, which he rents to others. Altogether, he owns forty-two lots. and is the largest taxpayer in El Modena. Personally, Mr. Isaac is known for his sym- pathetic nature, his keen insight into daily life, his sense of justice, and his desire to do right and to see that righteousness is done. In many respects, while ultra- conservative perhaps, he represents the dependable type of safe citizenship and financial endeavor, and enjoys, as he well merits, the esteem and confidence of his fellow-men.

RICHARD ROBINSON .- One of Orange County's oldest pioneers, Richard Rob- inson is living retired at Garden Grove, after a well-rounded life filled with many adventurous experiences, having reached the age of ninety-three years. Born in the township of Edwardsburg, Grenville County, Ontario, Canada, September 9, 1827, Mr. Robinson was the son of Isaac and Margaret (Moses) Robinson, both natives of Ireland, who soon after their marriage there in County Tyrone, came to Canada, and here all their nine children were born. Isaac Robinson was a shoemaker by trade. but followed farming to a great extent, owning a farm of 260 acres. He was killed by a horse when Richard was only sixteen years of age; the mother lived to be ninety-two years old. Richard early learned the shoemaking business and from the time he was sixteen years old he took his place in the world as a breadwinner for the family. He ran a shop on the home farm. often working in the fields all day and then at shoemaking until late at night. Necessarily his schooling was limited, both from his lack of time and from the scarcity of educational opportunities, as in those days they had only subscription schools, maintained by the people of the community, the teachers boarding 'round among the families.

When he reached the age of twenty-four, Mr. Robinson made up his mind to try his fortune in California, and accordingly sailed from New York on the "Fannie Major," which was bound for San Francisco around the Horn. While off the coast of Brazil they encountered a severe storm in which the top main mast of their vessel was broken off and they had to put in to San Salvador for repairs. While there Mr. Robin- son saw slavery in its worst form and has yet vivid memories of some of the horrible conditions that accompanied it in that country. Proceeding on their journey they doubled Cape Horn and again encountered a terrific gale which lasted for several days and nights during which every sail was torn to shreds. Although it was the latter part of June, zero weather prevailed and every hour it seemed as if they would surely be swallowed up by the angry waves. After miraculously escaping from being dashed to pieces on the rocky coast of Patagonia, they finally reached Tocawanda. Chile,

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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 34

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