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 45

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 45

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Mr. Watson was married the first time in Watsonville, when he made Miss Eliza Hildreth his wife. They had several children, but only one lived to maturity-Mrs. Winifred Stoner, who resides near Hemet in Riverside County. Mr. Watson's second marriage, which occurred at Santa Ana, April 16, 1891, united him with Miss Lenna May Barger, the daughter of Josiah and Mary F. (Robinson) Barger, born in Virginia and Ohio, respectively. They came from Nebraska to California September 17, 1884. settling first at Olive, but later were orange growers at McPherson until they moved to Hemet, where the mother died September 25, 1919. while Mr. Barger is still engaged in horticulture. Lenna was the eldest of their six living children and was born near Meade, Nebr. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Watson by this marriage:

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Floyd, of the firm of Thompson & Watson, auto electricians of Orange, resides there with his wife, who was Effie E. Whitcomb, they have a daughter, Georgia E .; Errol Trafford is a rancher who married Beatrice Durkee, they have two children, June L. and Maxine, and live on a part of his father's ranch; Florence M. is the wife of Herbert J. Beckler, a merchant at Deshler, Thayer County, Nebr., and they have one child Virginia; Harold A. is also a rancher, living on a part of his father's ranch, he married Bernice Wilbur, a stepdaughter of Dr. Royer of Orange.

Mr. and Mrs. Watson are members of the Christian Church at Santa Ana, and for many years Mr. Watson has been a school trustee in the Olive district. A Democrat in politics, he has always been active in civic affairs and took a prominent part in the formation of Orange County. Kindly, pleasant, straightforward and honest, he is still hale, hearty and athletic at the age of seventy-six, and can look back on a life well spent and filled to the full with interesting experiences. Taking it all in all he is one of Orange County's genuine upbuilders, a true type of the hardy pioneer who has made possible the wonderful development of today.

WILLIS G. MITCHELL .- The efficient manager of the Irvine Company's ranch at Tustin, Orange County, Cal., is Willis G. Mitchell, a native of London, Canada, where he was born on November 20, 1867. He is the son of Ralph M. and Johanna (Allen) Mitchell, also natives of that country. Ralph M. Mitchell was a successful farmer near London until the family moved to California in 1889, locating in Orange County, where he engaged in ranching near Tustin, becoming owner of the farm, where he and his good wife spent their last days. Of their three children Willis G. is the youngest of the family, growing up on the Eastern farm, receiving a good education in the excellent schools of that region. As was the custom in that country he made himself generally useful, thus learning the rudiments of farming from the time he was a boy.

Since 1889 Mr. Mitchell has been a continuous resident of Orange County, Cal., coming direct to this country from his Canadian home when a young man of twenty- one. In due time he became a citizen of his adopted country and for the past thirty- one years has been connected with the citrus industry. He is also well versed in general agriculture. Since 1890 he has been associated with the Irvine Company, and for a number of years was assistant manager of the Irvine ranch. Since 1915 he has occupied the important position of manager of the ranch and his knowledge of general ranching in California makes him a valuable man for the position. The ranch embraces about 100,000 acres of land, upon which all varieties of grains, vegetables and fruits raised in Southern California are grown. This vast acreage has been apportioned into smaller ranches comprising several hundred acres in area, which are leased to about 130 tenants. The Irvine Company operates a part of the ranch, thus giving employment to a large number of men. Mr. Mitchell has the entire oversight of these vast holdings with its many cares and responsibilities, including looking after the leases.

Being very optimistic over the future greatness of Orange County land, and particularly of orange and walnut groves, Mr. Mitchell many years ago purchased lands which he developed and set out to oranges and walnuts and he has seen to it that they have had such excellent care that they are among the most attractive properties of their kind in the district.

Mr. Mitchell established domestic ties by his marriage in Los Angeles in 1893 with Miss Sarah Emily Green, born in Middleton, Wis., a daughter of John W. Green of that state. Of their happy union three children have been born: Ralph, Willis and Florence by name. Mr. Mitchell' is a director in the First National Bank of Santa Ana, Cal., and has the confidence not only of his employers and employees, but of the citizens of the county, among whom he is well and favorably known and highly esteemed. In his fraternal associations he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

J. D. PRICE .- Influential in many departments of local activity on account of his enviable status as the largest individual realty owner in Garden Grove, J. D. Price, the well-known pioneer, has been able to contribute much toward the rapid and sure development of Orange County interests, and has thus been privileged, while making progress for himself, to give his neighbors and fellow-citizens, his friends and his com- petitors, a helpful lift along the way. He was born in the parish of Jefferson, adjoining that of New Orleans, on March 1, 1845, the son of David Price, a machinist who came from England, settled in Missouri, and there married Miss Eliza Williams, a native of that state. He made a specialty of installing sugar machinery, and equipped many Louisiana sugar cane mills. When only thirty years of age he died in Louisiana, leav- ing three children, all boys; among whom our subject was the second in the order of birth, and is the only one now living. Three years later, the devoted widowed mother also died, and so it came about that the lad was left an orphan at the age of nine.

E. G. Mitchell

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One of the sons was sent to relatives in Indiana, and two were taken by nearby kin in Louisiana; with the result that when the Civil War broke out, the latter enlisted from Louisiana as Confederate soldiers, while the former, the youngest of the trio, joined the Twenty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and fought as a Union soldier.

J. D. Price's education was very limited, and he was obliged to abandon his school books after the age of fifteen. In 1862 he entered Company I of the Eleventh Louisiana Infantry, and stayed in the service until the end of the war. He was in Bragg's Army in Tennessee, and fought at Shiloh, Farmington and Perryville; and upon his being honorably discharged, he reenlisted as a member of Company A, Ogden's Battalion, Louisiana Cavalry. He was wounded and captured at Perryville, and exchanged at Vicksburg, and was taken prisoner for a second time near Morganza, La., and exchanged at Richmond, a month prior to Lee's surrender. At the conclusion of the great struggle, he was paroled at Baton Rouge, La., on May 18, 1865, and returned home.

After the war, he went to farming at East Baton Rouge, where he remained until 1866; and then he removed to Arkansas, where he continued farming. In 1868, he crossed the plains from Arkansas, in a train of mule and ox wagons, coming by way of El Paso and Tucson; and he farmed at Prescott, Ariz., from 1868 to 1874, when he came on in wagons to California. He crossed the Colorado River at Ahrenburg, and arrived at Los Angeles in June, 1874. This was not his first visit to the Golden State, for he had already made several freighting and trading trips to California while resid- ing in Arizona.

Mr. Price was married at Azusa in May, 1871, to Miss Nannie Dougherty, a native of Virginia and the daughter of Charles and Rosamond (Hale) Dougherty. She was only three years old when her parents came from Virginia to Texas, and in the Lone Star State she grew up, until she came to California with her parents in 1868. She thus crossed the great plains about the same period as had Mr. Price, although it was her first trip over the continent. The Comanches and Apaches were hostile, and the immigrants formed large trains for their protection. After their marriage, Mrs. Price accompanied her husband back to Prescott, and there he settled up his business pre- paratory to coming here in 1874. In that year he took up his residence upon an eighty- acre farm one mile east of what is now the town of Garden Grove, and there erected the first house in this district, also bored the second artesian well.

Mr. Price owned several ranches which he farmed up to about 1910, and hic made his first investment in Garden Grove real estate in 1907. Since then his action in buying and erecting business structures and residences speaks louder than words of a supreme faith in Garden Grove. He owns a farm of forty acres devoted to peppers and potatoes two miles south of the town, which he rents out; he built the postoffice building, and the two-story brick building east of it, and he owns the hotel building; and he also owns the garage building east of the two-story brick. He has completed two six-room bungalows on Walnut Street, and he intends to continue his investments and ventures as fast as the growth of the town will justify.

Seven children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Price. Stella, now Mrs. R. B. Vaile, is a graduate of the University of California and a teacher at Katella, she has a son, R. B., Jr .; Sterling is an extensive rancher in Bolsa precinct, he married Florence Heiland and they have five children-Maurice D., Thelma, Gerald, Wilma and the baby; Charles, formerly county veterinary officer, is a veterinary surgeon at Santa Ana; he married Eva Bridgeford, and they have two sons, Kenneth and Ray; Gertrude resides at San Diego with her husband, R. S. Reed, secretary of an abstract company; Lida is the wife of A. D. Kinne, assistant manager of R. G. Dun and Company, Los Angeles; Rae became the wife of Dr. I. F. Baldwin of Los Angeles; she died on October 9. 1918, leaving two children, Irving and Eleanor; Dr. Baldwin died in 1919; Mattie Lou died at the age of four years.

The Golden Rule has been the chief guide for both Mr. and Mrs. Price in their dealings with others. He is a Democrat in national political matters, and yet always for the best men and the best measures, and served for about eighteen years as a school trustee. With his good wife, he answered every call of the Red Cross during the late war, and associated himself with various war activities. Ile has served on both grand and petit juries. Fraternally, he is a Mason. Mrs. Price, as a lady of exceptional culture, enjoys the esteem of a very wide circle of friends.

Not long ago Mrs. Price contributed a very interesting story to the Garden Grove News, giving her "Reminiscences of Pioneer Days," in which she says:

"We settled in El Monte, where my father bought a lease and the improvements on ten acres of land, for which he paid $50 and a mule, and gave one-tenth of the crop each year to the owner, Mr. Temple, who owned several thousand acres of an old Span- ish grant. About that time. Temple and his father-in-law, Mr. Workman, built the

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Temple Bank in Los Angeles. It was the second bank there at that time. The building still stands, and is known today as the Temple Block. Through Temple's generosity and his confidence in the people, he lost everything he and Mr. Workman had. Mr. Workman committed suicide, and Temple died in a miserable sheep camp, deserted by his family, and all alone. All this Spanish grant was taken over by their creditors, and sold off for homes. .

"I can never forget the first time that I saw Los Angeles. It was nothing but a straggling Spanish pueblo. Saloons were far more in evidence than any other business; every little grocery store sold wines and liquors. There was not a street car nor steam railway in the place. In the year 1868 a railroad was built from Los Angeles to Wil- mington, which created great excitement. . The first train that went over it afforded a free excursion, and what a jubilee everybody had.

"In 1874, we came to Orange, which was called Richland at that time. We only stopped there long enough to look about us and select a location, and finally purchased eighty acres one mile east of where we now live. Orange consisted of one mixed store, a blacksmith shop, one small schoolhouse, and a few straggling houses. Santa Ana had one general merchandise store, which was Spurgeon's, one blacksmith shop and one saloon. A little later, we had the privilege of helping to build the first church, which was the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

"Mr. Price hauled the lumber for our house from Anaheim Landing, which was the shipping point for all this country. There was only one settler between here and Anaheim, it being all sheep pasture. In a short time we could see little shacks going up here and there, until a school was talked about. The Bolsa school district took in all the territory from Huntington Beach to two miles north of here, except West- minster Colony, they having formed a school district of their own. Finally, we formed our district, and Mr. A. G. Cook named it Garden Grove. Some objected, thought it was not appropriate, as there was nothing that could be called a tree in the whole district, but Mr. Cook said: 'We'll make it appropriate by planting trees and making it beautiful.'" In this interesting manner Mrs. Price tells of the early sales of land, the first orange groves here, and the gradual discovery of the rich soil and its capabilities.

MRS. JULIETTE SMITH .- A distinguished resident of Santa Ana, who, despite advanced years, was privileged to take an active part in relief work during the late war, is Mrs. Juliette Smith of 122 East Eleventh Street. She was born in Little York, Warren County, 111., the daughter of W. C. Maley, one of the delegates to the National Republican Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency, and an enthusiast who stumped the state for and with him, and as a souvenir of that exciting campaign, handed down to her from her father, she treasures a piece of rail split by Lincoln at Decatur, Ill. She was educated at the academy in Little York and received there the best advantages of the period. Her father had come to Illinois in 1830, at the age of twenty-one, riding horseback from Harrisville, W. Va. Her uncle on the paternal side was Maj .- Gen. T. M. Harris, for whose family Harrisville, W. Va., is named, and he was a physician before he served in the Civil War. Her grand- father, Wm. Maley, did not believe in slavery, and came to Illinois with his family in 1831. Juliette Maley's mother was Margaret Giles, a native of Abbyville District, South Carolina, who came to Illinois with her parents, who were also opposed to slavery. Her father, uncle, and her father's brother-in-law, in 1869 removed to Cedar County, Iowa, and purchased 1,200 acres along the Chicago and Northwestern Rail- road and started the town of Stanwood, Iowa, which was named after the vice- president of the Northwestern Road. It was prairie land, but it soon came to have a more inviting appearance, thanks especially to the enterprise of the projectors.

A year later, on April 7, 1870, Miss Maley was married to John Neal Smith, the ceremony taking place at Stanwood. He was a native of Illinois, where he was born on January 5, 1835, the son of Hugh Smith, who came from Ireland, and who married Esther Selfrage, a native of New York of Scotch descent. He moved to Mount Vernon, Iowa, and there in Linn County in 1854 took up Governmment land. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. John Neal Smith lived on the old homestead for eighteen months, when they sold the property and went back to Stanwood.

For the next year and a half Mr. Smith ran an agricultural implement store there, and when he disposed of that, he purchased a farm near Stanwood, embracing 110 acres, which were devoted to general farming, although he specialized in stock, buying and selling cattle. He also had a general store at Stanwood and handled general merchandise, grain and provisions. In August, 1881, he sold out and came west to Santa Ana, Cal. Here for five years he was engaged in the meat business with James McFadden, and then he sold that pioneer his interest. For a year he engaged in the grocery trade, but sold that also. When the "boom" came he went into the real estate business with Judge Humphrey and George Minter, but the "boom" burst. At

Mrand Mrs Samson Edwards

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the end of eleven years of residence here he went back to Iowa, having sold all that he owned in Santa Ana, and he farmed in Lyons County for nine months. The lure of California, however, brought him back here again in 1892, and he settled on a ranch of twenty-one acres on Fruit east of Grand Avenue, and there he devoted his time and energies to the culture of walnuts and oranges until September, 1913, when he died, mourned by all who knew him. Mrs. Smith now resides at 122 East Eleventh Street, Santa. Ana, but still owns the ranch, which now comprises twenty-nine acres devoted to oranges and walnuts.

Seven children, five boys and two girls, make up the family of this estimable lady: William M., Margaret E., Martha A., Hugh G., J. Herbert, Archie H. and James Merle. Mrs. Smith, therefore, is happy, being surrounded by her children, who assist her in looking after her properties, thus relieving her of all unnecessary worry and care.

Mrs. Smith is a liberal and helpful woman, and gives her aid to all enterprises that have for their aim the development of the county in which she has so much faith. She loyally shared in the burdensome program of the ever-diligent war drives, particularly in the Red Cross. Mrs. Smith belongs to the United Presbyterian Church and is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps and the Women's Christian Temper- ance Union.

SAMSON EDWARDS .- Among the pioneers of Orange County none were bet- ter known or more active in its upbuilding than Samson Edwards, who for nearly fifty years was identified with its development. He was a native of Berg Parish, Cornwall County, England, where he was born on February 26, 1830, into the family of William and Elizabeth (Pierce) Edwards. As a boy aged six he began working in local mines, but in 1846, when so many of Europe sought an asylum in the New World, he migrated with his parents to the United States, but the parents died soon after reaching this country and they were buried in Pennsylvania. There were left a son, John Samson, and his wife, and some smaller children to battle the world for existence in the new country. They all endured many privations and lived in cramped quarters until a start could be made and the younger children reared to such ages as they could be self-supporting. They had migrated to Pittsburgh, Pa., where Samson worked for sixty-two and a half cents per day in a steam brick mill and later. after locating in Wisconsin he worked for a dollar and a quarter a day at some of the hardest work of his life in the lead mines.

He met and married, at Hazel Green, Grant County, on November 1, 1851, a native of England, who was destined to share with him the joys and sorrows of a long and strenuous life, and also to go with him, almost at the same moment, through the shadowy portal of death. She was Miss Diana Rogers, a daughter of John and Jane (Curtis) Rogers and she was born in England on March 9, 1833.

Thus having set up his domestic establishment, Mr. Edwards took up farming across the state line in Jo Daviess County, Ill., and after four years moved somewhat east, where he bought and developed a good farm until 1874. Then, having read much about California and its advantages to men of thrift and energy, he sold out his hold- ings and crossed the continent with his family to San Francisco, thence by boat to Wilmington, where they were met by a nephew, W. H. Edwards, and located at Westminster. There were five children in the Samson Edwards family when they came to California: John H., now living in Santa Ana; William J., of Westminster; Mary Isabella, the wife of F. J. Rogers of Santa Ana; Hester Ann, who married C. E. Bowlsby and is deceased; and Nelson T., of Orange. Mr. Edwards formed a partner- ship with two brothers, John and Thomas Edwards, but at the end of two years they divided their interests equally. In the meantime they had started dairying with good cattle, but they had to haul their products to Los Angeles by team. They paid $18.50 an acre for their land, but to erect the necessary fences and buildings they had to order 250,000 feet of lumber shipped from the North. They raised some of the first corn ever planted in the peat lands, which yielded over 100 bushels to the acre.

His experience in those days afforded Samson Edwards the theme for many a good story. Often he had to drag cattle out of the bog holes with his team and he rode horseback over all that section of country before there were any roads and these he helped to build. He became owner of 160 acres of land, which he developed into a valuable farm with the aid of his sons John H. and William J. He leased the Smeltzer pasturage for some years, and for several years was engaged in the meat business, running the wagons all over what is now Orange County, and through some parts of Los Angeles County, for the country abounded with wild Spanish cattle, hogs and horses. Robert McFadden sold him his first seventy head of wild cattle; he caught and broke wild horses, paying from $22 to $40 a head. All teaming was done with mustangs, as a horse weighing 1,100 pounds was a curiosity. The boys 18

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lassoed wild hogs which were then very plentiful in the tules. On account of the dearth of trees thereabouts, Mr. Edwards sent to San Francisco for eucalyptus seed, planted them in beds and then transplanted them to their more permanent places. President of the Westminster Farmers' Club, Mr. Edwards, assisted by his good wife, gave liberally of his time and means for years to advance in every way the best interests of the ranchers. He was a member of the Methodist Church for thirty years, and was instrumental in the building and support of the First Methodist Church in Westminster.

Some years ago, a previous edition of the History of Orange County, in very appropriately noting the life-work of these esteemed, influential pioneers, said among other things: "Mr. Edwards and his wife endured the hardships of pioneer life and, assisted by their children, made rapid strides toward success. They helped their children to get a start in the world, thus repaying them for the assistance they gave him in the early struggle in the county. He and his wife have been residents of Santa Ana for the past ten years, and it was here, November 1, 1901, that they cele- brated their fiftieth wedding anniversary and were greeted by hundreds of friends from all parts of the county. They are enjoying the fruits of their early labors, and can look back into the past upon lives well spent and to the future for the final call without fear." In the light of the foregoing, it is sad indeed to relate that on March 26, 1912, both Mr. and Mrs. Edwards were killed at Santa Ana when their automobile in crossing the tracks was struck by a Pacific Electric car.

D. EYMAN HUFF .- One of the best informed men in all Southern California regarding the marketing and the growing of citrus fruits is D. Eyman Huff, of Orange County, manager of the David Hewes Realty Corporation, which controls 675 acres of land at El Modena. With twenty-two years of constructive service in behalf of the citrus industry of the state, Mr. Huff looks back upon the development of an industry that has taken years to perfect, and a part in which he has had a strong influence in bringing about.

D. Eyman Huff was born at Osawatomie, Kans., September 17, 1880, the son of Samuel and Olive (Smith) Huff, natives of Indiana and Illinois, respectively .. Besides D. Eyman there were five children who came to California when the family left their Kansas home in 1887 and emigrated to the Golden State: Lewis N., William F. and E. Gertrude all live in Long Beach; Ralph E. still makes his home with his parents in Orange County; Ivy is deceased. The family first settled near Fallbrook, but in September of 1890 they located in Orange County, where the parents still live.

In 1890 D. Eyman Huff first located in this county, but divided his time between Los Angeles and here until 1910, since which time he has been a permanent resident of this favored section. He was educated in the public schools of Orange County, then went to Los Angeles to take a course in the Normal School there, but soon entered the store kept by his brother, as a clerk, in the meantime carrying a morning paper route in the business district, which took him into the offices of the Southern California Fruit Exchange, where Joseph L. Merrill was chief accountant. Mr. Merrill had picked some likely young lads from amongst the newsboys when a vacancy was to be filled, and his notice was drawn to young Huff, to whom he offered a position as office boy with a salary of fifteen dollars per month, and he began his duties on December 13, 1898. Two months later he got his first promotion and a salary of twenty-five dollars per month, and from this beginning he gradually worked his way through the various positions in the office until he was assistant sales manager and the most capable man to hold that position. Then the Covina Fruit Exchange wanted a manager, and he was recommended for the place and served for two years, the second year there, representing that exchange on the board of directors of the Central Exchange. During these eleven years he had gained an intimate knowledge of all branches of the citrus industry, and was conceded to be one of the best-posted men in Southern 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 45

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