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 38

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1700

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RALPH A. PATTERSON, FRANK E. PATTERSON .- For the past forty years partners in the ranching business, and later as house movers, Ralph A. and Frank E. Patterson have for fifteen years lived on their well-kept ranch of thirty-five acres one mile east of Bolsa, and four miles west of Santa Ana. Of sturdy Eastern lineage on both sides, their parents were William A. Patterson, a native of Newark, N. J., and Sarah Jane Crowell, whose forbears were among the old families of New Hamp- shire. The town of Paterson, N. J., was named for William A. Patterson's grand- father, who was a silk manufacturer there, there being a slight change in the spelling of the family name. William A. Patterson came to Ogle County, Ill., when a young mar, and engaged in farming, and there he met and married Miss Sarah Jane Crowell, whose parents had moved there from New Hampshire. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry and served with distinction in the Union Army. At the Battle of Gettysburg the great siege gun, "Monitor," exploded, and a piece of the gun struck him in the left leg and he was crippled for life.

After the war was over, Mr. Patterson and his family moved to Nodaway County, Mo., and there carried on farming, specializing in the raising of broom corn and the manufacture of brooms, in which they made a good success. As is well known, certain localities in Missouri continued even for several years after the war to be divided in sentiment and allegiance to the Union. The Patterson boys were often singled out as the subjects for derision and revenge, and the Copperheads would seek to plague them by calling them "Yanks," which the Patterson boys usually ignored, but when the term began to be prefaced by opprobrious epithets, they decided that it was time for a battle royal, and it is related that the Patterson boys never came out second best in one of these encounters, and, incidentally, the whole locality began to have a wholesome respect for "Yankee" principles, as inculcated by the massive fists of the Patterson boys. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. William A. Patterson in Ogle County, Ill., and two in Nodaway County, Mo .: Charles, a light- house keeper in Oregon, died July 18, 1919, at the age of sixty-three, leaving four children; Frank E., born March 21, 1859, is a partner of R. A. Patterson; Ralph Aus- tin. of this review, born September 1, 1861. Watts Turner died at Bolsa, where he was a rancher, leaving a widow and two stepchildren; William 11. M. died at Santa Ana, leaving a widow and two sons.

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The Patterson family came to California from Nodaway County, Mo., in 1881, and settled at Westminster. Ralph A. soon began ranching on his own account, locat- ing at Carlsbad, in San Diego County, where he was extensively engaged in grain farming for twenty years. He then sold his holdings there, consisting of 480 acres, and came back to Bolsa precinct and bought his present place of thirty-five acres, which he and his brother Frank have farmed ever since. They have put down a ten-inch well, 214 feet deep, and have installed a pumping plant with an eight- horsepower engine, which furnishes fifty inches of water for irrigation and domestic purposes, also another four-inch well, pumped by a windmill. A comfortable resi- dence and barns have been erected, and a house moving shop, this having been a side line with them for a number of years, doing business in Orange County on the west side of the river. The farm is largely devoted to garden truck, specializing in sweet potatoes, melons and carrots. For twenty years he was employed at threshing in Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and gained a wide acquaintance thereby.

Ralph A. Patterson was married first in 1888 to Miss Lydia Dumphy, who passed away in 1890, her infant son, her mother and herself all dying within a few hours of the grippe. Mr. Patterson's second marriage united him with Miss Mamie Payne of San Diego; she died in 1901, at the birth of her second child, the infant also living but a few hours. * Her eldest child, George A., is a student at the Santa Ana high school. Mr. Patterson's present wife, before her marriage was Miss Hallie M. Fill- more, and she is the daughter of William and Eliza Fillmore; she is the mother of five children: Charles T., William E., Hattie Jane, Hazel, deceased, and Lloyd Fillmore. Frank Patterson has never married, but makes his home with his brother, with whom he has been associated in business for forty years. Both brothers are steadfast and consistent Republicans.

MRS. ZORAIDA B. TRAVIS .- An estimable and exceedingly worthy represent- ative of one of Orange County's most distinguished families, herself a descendant of aristocratic Catalonian Spanish ancestors, is Mrs. Zoraida B. Travis, a daughter of Prudencio Yorba and a granddaughter of Bernardo Yorba. His father was Antonio Yorba, a soldier under Commander Fages who landed at Monterey, lived for a while at the Monterey Mission, visited Yerba Buena, and finally came south to the Santiago Creek, and in time obtained title to the rich grant, "El Cañon de San Antonia de Santa Ana de los Yorbas."

Bernardo Yorba received a grant from the King of Spain embracing about 180.000 acres, extending from nearly the present site of Riverside west to the ocean. As early as 1835 he located his home on the north side of the Santa Ana River in Santa Ana Canyon, and there built his commodious residence, famous in those days for its liberal hospitality. It was a very large adobe building, containing ninety rooms, and many were the activities carried on beneath its widespread roof. The various members of the Yorba family were highly intelligent and highly esteemed; the most celebrated for her many charities and kindness was the great-grandmother, Josefa Yorba, a much- loved woman, who in McGroarty's Mission Play was selected as one of the leading characters. In 1887, the period when so much attention was directed to California and its realty, the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed title to the Yorba lands, Bernardo Yorba having passed away in 1858, while his devoted wife had passed to the Great Beyond seven years before.

Prudencio Yorba was a son of Bernardo Yorba by his marriage to Felipa Domin- guez. He was born at the old adobe homestead, June 11, 1832, where he grew up, and from a boy learned how to farm and raise stock successfully. His schooling was obtained at the school at San Pedro. He was married August 4, 1851. to Dolores Ontiveros, who was born on the Coyote ranch in the La Habra Valley, August 4, 1833. Her father, Juan P. Ontiveros, was a native son, born in what is now Orange County, and he married Martina Ozuna, born in San Diego, who also came of a very old and prominent family. They farmed here for many years until they removed to Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County, where Mr. Ontiveros purchased the Tepesquet ranch and there engaged in ranching until his death. An extensive and successful sheep raiser. Prudencio Yorba became the owner of a large ranch in the vicinity of Yorba, where he resided until his death on July 3, 1885, his widow surviving him until November 24. 1894, having devoted her life to her family.

Of the twelve children born to this worthy couple, eight are still living, among whom Mrs. Zoraida Travis is one of the youngest. She was born on her father's farm near Yorba and as a girl received an excellent education, attending St. Catherine's Convent at San Bernardino, where she completed her studies. On October 20, 1898, she was married to J. Coleman Travis, the ceremony occurring at her old home. Mr. Travis was a native of Alabama, where he was born on August 8, 1853, at Gainesville, near

I . c. Trans

Geraida B. Travis

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Mobile. Impelled to leave the South on account of the disastrous effects of the Civil WVar, the Travis family came to California via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in Los Angeles on Washington's Birthday, 1869. His parents, Amos and Eliza Ann (Cole- man) Travis, were natives of Georgia and Alabama, respectively, and came of prominent Southern families. For a time they resided in Los Angeles and engaged in orange culture on Eighth Street, between San Pedro and Alameda streets. In 1871, however, the family moved to Santa Ana, and a short distance north of the present site of Orange, Amos Travis laid out the famous tract of about 800 acres.

For a number of years, J. Coleman Travis was superintendent of the plant of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, and in this capacity he played an important part in the building up of the plant and in the construction of its canals and ditches. Mr. Travis also became the owner of a ranch of sixty acres on Tustin Street, near Orange, which they developed and set to oranges, going through the discouraging days when the fruit was ruined by pests, before the experts were able to control them. While living there their five children were born, four of whom are living, J. Coleman, Jr., Kate, Zoraida and Amos. Later Mr. Travis sold the greater part of this ranch and pur- chased the Esperanza ranch of 249 acres, a part of the old Prudencio Yorba place. Mrs. Travis' father having named the ranch Esperanza for a daughter who had passed away just before he moved onto this ranch from his old home. Then they located at Santa Monica, where they resided until 1917, coming then to the Esperanza ranch. Mr. Travis began developing this property, but was not permitted to carry out his plans, for this estimable man died on June 19, 1919, his body being interred at Fair- haven Cemetery, Orange. He was a man of pleasing manner and very affable and was endeared to every one, and particularly to his family, to whom he was a devoted husband and a loving father. He was fond of outdoor sports and insisted on his family enjoying many outings, and also on his children learning to swim and to be proficient in other athletic sports. He was especially fond of hunting and fishing and was a member of the Orange County Fox Hunting Club, excelling as a rider and marksman. Mr. Travis was always very interested in the building up of Orange County. He was a deputy assessor of this district when it was still Los Angeles County, and he took a prominent part in the county division and the organization of Orange County in 1889. It is to men of J. Coleman Travis' type that much of Orange County's present greatness and development is due, because with other early settlers he gave generously of his time and means to all objects that had for their aim the improvement of the county and enhancing the comfort of the people; and thus those early pioneers paved the way for the opportunities and pleasures of the present-day citizen.

Mrs. Travis continues to reside on the Esperanza ranch, looking after her affairs and the training and education of her children. She has an abundance to do and her time is well taken up, for she still owns the 344-acre ranch that she originally inherited from her father's estate, a part of the old Bernardo Yorba ranch. So it is indeed for- tunate for herself and her family that she was endowed by nature with good judgment, enabling her to manage and develop her property and enjoy her inheritance. A cul- tured woman, with a taste and appreciation for the beautiful which finds expression in her home, Mrs. Travis, in her graceful, charming manner, dispenses an old-time California hospitality, and her ranch home continues to be a center for social gatherings and family reunions.

GOTTFRIED KLOTH .- Among the many naturalized German-American citi- zens at Orange, Gottfried Kloth is worthy of special mention. He is a retired rancher and cement worker who, in 1920, sold his interests to his son-in-law, Benjamin F. Dierker, to retire from the more active duties of life. Mr. Kloth was born in Stettin, Germany, December 15, 1850, a son of Christian Kloth, who owned a farm of 300 acres in that country, and there married Fraulein Mana Dreyer, and they were the parents of four children who grew to maturity. Christian Kloth was married three times, and was the father of twenty-three children.

Gottfried Kloth is the oldest child by the second wife, and has one own brother and two own sisters. He grew to maturity in his native land, received a good education, and was confirmed in the German church. His marriage occurred in his native land in 1873, and united him with Huldah Trettin, also born in Germany. He was the owner of an eleven-acre farm, which he disposed of before coming to America with his wife and four children. They sailed from Bremen on the Steamship "Sillare" of the Hamburg American line, and landed at New York, in May, 1880, going at once to Young America, Minn., the place of their destination. Here Mr. Kloth purchased an eighty-acre farm, reaped two crops off of it, and came to California in 1882. Fred Struck and the Borchards, of Orange, relatives of his wife, caused them to consider Orange as a future home. Mr. Kloth worked at the cement business at Orange for twenty-three years, in the employ of the Santa Ana Water Company and the El

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Modena Water Company, manufacturing cement pipe and cement ditches. He pur- chased a ten-acre ranch near Olive, operated it several years, then disposed of it, and in 1910 bought the ten-acre place he sold in 1920. The oldest trees on the last place are sixteen years old, and the youngest ones are seven years old. He planted all the trees on the place except three acres, which were six years old when he bought the place.

Mr. and Mrs. Kloth's four children were all born in Germany: Emma became the wife of Joe Derson, and they were ranchers at La Habra. She died in 1908 and left a child, Leona, whom Mr. and Mrs. Kloth reared, and legally adopted, April 2, 1920. She was two years and two months old when her mother died, and is now fourteen years of age. Lena is the wife of Henry Franzen of Riverside, a hardware merchant, and they have three children; Rosella married Benjamin F. Dierker, a rancher at Orange, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; they have four children, two boys and two girls; Herman is single and farmed the home place for his father.

Gottfried Kloth has helped build three Lutheran church edifices at Orange, the last one erected at a cost of more than $42,000, and he advocates the cause of tem- perance and is a consistent Christian. He and his good wife have been hard workers and deserve a rest after such arduous and useful lives. Much credit is due Mr. Kloth for the success which he has won by a life of industry and integrity.

JAMES S. RICE .- Back to an enviable ancestral record, James S. Rice of Tustin. one of Orange County's early citizens, can trace his lineage. Of English descent, the first representative of the family settled in Massachusetts, and here Harvey Rice, the father of James S., was born at Conway, on June 11, 1800. After his graduation from Williams College, well-known as the alma mater of President Garfield, when a young man of twenty-four, he decided to try his fortune at Cleveland, Ohio, then a little frontier town of only 400 inhabitants. Reaching there without funds or friends, he began his career there as a teacher, being one of the pioneers of that profession in that vicinity. With true foresight he invested his first earnings in real estate, and when, in later years, this land increased in value it made him a wealthy man. He took up the practice of law and became one of the leading lights of his profession during his long career. He was a leader among the public-spirited citizens of his day, and several of Cleveland's most noted monuments were promoted through his influence, among them the Perry monument and that of Geo. Moses Cleveland, the founder of the city. His early work as a teacher always gave him an added interest in educa- tional matters, and he was ever at the forefront in every movement that made for progress in those lines. He was the author of the original common-school law of Ohio, a law that has been copied in many states. As a recognition of this service and his many years of disinterested work on boards of education and boards of charity, a life-size bronze statue of him was erected in Wade Park at Cleveland, largely paid for by pennies from the school children of the state. In the early fifties he represented his district in the state senate and made for himself a high place among the legislators of that period. Educator, legislator, historian, he passed away at the age of ninety-one years, full of honors. Mrs. Rice, who was Maria Fitch, a daughter of Col. James Fitch of Putney, Vt., died in Cleveland, aged seventy-seven.

Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Rice were the parents of five children, and of these, James S., the subject of this review, was next to the youngest. He was born at Cleveland, Ohio, October 31, 1846, and was educated in the schools of Cleveland and at the Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio. He completed the classical course and, in accordance with his father's wishes, was looking forward to a legal career, but decided to enter business instead. In company with an elder brother, already estab- lished in the house furnishing business, he remained a partner for eleven years, until in 1874, in search of health and a warmer climate, he made a trip to California to visit his brother-in-law, James Irvine, the original owner of the San Joaquin Rancho in Orange County. He remained here for three months, and then returned to Cleve- land. He was so well pleased with what he saw of the Golden State, however, that he decided to return, reaching here on January 18, 1877. He went into the stock busi- ness with James Irvine, raising cattle and hogs on the San Joaquin Rancho, but that year was extremely dry and they had no feed for their stock, the sheep dying by the thousand. He was then living at the old San Joaquin ranch house at the head of Newport Bay, the first plastered house in Los Angeles County, remaining there six months. He next purchased some land of Peter Potts at Tustin, and started an orange grove, and later he bought a tract of fifty acres north of Tustin, part of which he still owns. He paid fifty dollars an acre for this land, and set it to Muscatel

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grapes, from which he averaged $200 an acre for several years. During the boom of 1886-1887 in this vicinity, he sold quite a portion of his land, some of it at the rate of $4,000 an acre. Land values, of course, receded after this abnormal inflation, and Mr. Rice was compelled to take back some of it. He erected a fine three-story resi- dence on his property, and now has a twelve-acre orange grove that has been brought up to the highest state of cultivation and productivity.

Mr. Rice's marriage, which occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, united him with Miss Coralinn Barlow, the daughter of Gen. Merrill Barlow, an eminent lawyer of that place, who was quartermaster general of Ohio during the Civil War period. A brother of Mrs. Rice is Hon. Charles A. Barlow, of Bakersfield, who has been one of the most prominent figures in the oil development of Kern County. Mrs. Rice was an exceptionally talented woman, a singer of note, having had an excellent musical edu- cation, and her gracious hospitality made their home the social center of a large coterie of friends, among them Madame Modjeska. She occupied an individual place in the community, to which her death, in November, 1919, came as a distinct loss. Mr. and Mrs. Rice were the parents of four children: James Willis, a rancher at Tus- tin, married Miss Rubel Martin, and they have two children; Merrill and Harvey are both deceased; the youngest son, Percy F., is an inventor.

In politics Mr. Rice has always been a stanch adherent of the Democratic party and prominent in the local affairs of the organization. He is now chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee.

WILLIAM THOMAS BROWN .- An early pioneer in the commercial world of Orange County, enjoying the distinction of having been the first president of the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, and a pioneer advocate of the most enthusiastic sort of good roads, able to boast with pride that he actively participated in giving Fullerton her fine thoroughfares, renowned as among the best in all the state, William Thomas Brown, a native of Georgia, represents very ably the handsome contribution made from time to time by the South toward the development of the Southland in California. As president and general manager of the Brown and Dauser Company, Mr. Brown is not only a force in the lumber field, but influential at all times, and in the right way and most needed places.

He was born at Macon, Ga., on September 18, 1852, the son of Dr. William A. Brown, a physician and surgeon who practiced for years in Georgia and first came to California ten years after the arrival of our subject here. Dr. Brown married Miss Salina J. Jenkins, a native of North Carolina and she became the mother of seven children, among whom William Thomas was the fourth oldest child. He was educated in private schools in Winchester, Texas, and for three years was in a drug store in that state. Coming to California in 1873, Mr. Brown spent the first ten years as agent and operator for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and then for a year he was secretary of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company at Orange. In 1881 he pur- chased a ranch of twenty-one and a half acres on North Main Street, half-way between Orange and Santa Ana, where he spent a couple of years farming, and then he entered the lumber field, becoming interested in the Anaheim yard of the J. M. Griffith Lumber Company. He assumed the management, a position he filled with success for a period of sixteen years, and it is self-evident that he not only mastered the business there, but also had much to do with giving the development of the lumber business in general in Orange County the right turn and the needed impetus.

In 1899 Mr. Brown incorporated the Brown and Dauser Company and purchased the T. S. Grimshaw lumber yard in Fullerton, and here he has since been in business. In about 1904 he purchased Mr. Dauser's interest and devotes all of his time to the management of the business, being president and manager of the company. It is the oldest yard in Fullerton and has a fine planing mill; and it demands the services of fifteen men. Besides the Fullerton yard, the Brown and Dauser Company have two other lumber yards-one at La Habra, the other at Brea. As a live member of the Fullerton Board of Trade, Mr. Brown may look back upon the community in which he has become a commanding figure with mingled feelings. When he was the first agent for the Southern Pacific at Santa Ana, the station was in an old caboose. The next spring the new depot was completed and he was agent at Santa Ana from Decem- ber, 1877, until March, 1881.

When Fullerton began the agitation for good roads it required much effort and time to persuade many of the taxpayers that better and the best roads were the greatest of assets and after the bonds were voted Mr. Brown was appointed a member of the commission that had charge of the construction, and that finally gave Fullerton pave- ments such as many larger municipalities do not boast of. He has always been a Democrat in national political affairs, but a Democrat who willingly threw aside his partisanship in the consideration of local affairs. Mr. Brown still continues his interest

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in horticulture, for he not only owns his original ranch on North Main Street, but owns two other ranches devoted to citrus culture.

On April 17, 1878, Mr. Brown was married at Wilmington, Cal., to Miss Isabella Campbell, a daughter of William and Katherine Campbell. She was born at London, Canada, where she was reared and educated, coming to California in 1875. She passed away in 1893, leaving six children: Lottie M. is the wife of Dr. H. C. Stinchfield of Los Angeles; Catherine B. is Mrs. C. L. McGill of La Habra; Mabel G. is Mrs. Butler, also of La Habra; the second, fifth and sixth of the children are Albert W., W. Grant and Helen Brown, the latter living at home. Mr. Brown was married a second time, the ceremony taking place at Anaheim, on October 9, 1895, uniting him with Alice Beaizley, a native of Australia, bort at Sidney of English parents. Her mother died when she was a little girl and she came to California in 1870 with her father, Rev. Theophilus Beaizley, a minister in the Presbyterian Church.

Fraternally Mr. Brown was made a Mason in Wilmington Lodge, F. & A. M., in 1875, but is now a member of Fullerton Lodge No. 339, F. & A. M., and with his wife is a member of the Order of Eastern Star. He is also a member of the Knights of the Maccabees in Anaheim. Intensely interested in the growth and development of Orange County, he has always been a member of the local civic bodies and for six years was the representative from Fullerton in the Associated Chambers of Com- merce of Orange County.

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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 38

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