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 53

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 53

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Nebelung then bought twenty acres of land on West Orangethorpe Avenne, which he planted to vineyard, but later lost all by blight. He then planted ten acres to walnuts and figs and on the other ten he planted Pampas grass, which in those days was very popular for decorative purposes. After being cured he packed it and shipped it in carload lots to England and Germany, Mr. Nebelung receiving $2,000 a year for the crop. After Pampas grass went out of fashion he planted the acreage to walnuts and oranges. During this time he followed the real estate and insurance business in Anaheim.

In the meantime, Mr. Nebelung had bought nineteen acres of land on East Sycamore Street, which he planted to budded walnuts and Valencia oranges, selling

1.6 Sheppard

467

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

his Orangethorpe Avenue ranch. He personally did all the work of planting on his new place, rebuilt the old house, made many. improvements, and here he has made his home for many years. A successful orange grower, he was the first manager of the first orange growers' association in Anaheim. He was the first man to start the de- velopment and shipping of walnuts in Southern California. He urged the ranchers to plant more walnuts, and then became a buyer, shipper and packer, selling them in the Los Angeles market; for the first lot he paid nine cents a pound. For fifteen years he carried on this business, one year shipping twenty-two cars from the district, buy- ing all over Orange County, the largest buyer in his day. He was also the originator of sugar beet growing in Southern California, importing the seed from Germany. It was tried out with success and he urged the farmers to plant on a commercial scale, and from this small start has grown the large sugar beet industry, so he can justly be called the father of the sugar beet industry in Orange County.

Progressive and public spirited, Mr. Nebelung has held many official positions in the civic and commercial organizations of the community. He served as a director of the Anaheim Union Water Company, and for ten years was a member of the audit board; for fourteen years consecutively he was city clerk of Anaheim, being elected seven times and defeated the last time by only one vote; he was chairman of the board of trustees of Anaheim from 1910 to 1914, and one term on the board of education; for seventeen years he has been secretary of the Anaheim Cemetery Association. . For three years he was proprietor of the old Anaheim Hotel, which stood where the beau- tiful new Valencia Hotel now stands. He is the owner of a modern apartment house which he recently built on the corner of Chartres and Lemon streets. With three associates Mr. Nebelung owns a small ranch at Richfield which is leased for oil to the Midway Petroleum Company.

In 1883, Mr. Nebelung was married to Josephine Finck, born in Missouri, daugh- ter of Henry Finck, a pioneer of Oregon, who later moved to Anaheim where he was a music teacher. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Nebelung: Dolores died when four years old; Mrs. Elsie P. Skinner of Anaheim, the mother of three children living: Violet, Mrs. Thomas F. Cantwell of Los Angeles, who has one child; and Raymond E., who is a graduate of University of California and is farm adviser of Riverside County.

JAMES C. SHEPPARD .- An esteemed rancher who, after a busy apprenticeship of many years in the science of agriculture, has become a successful orange and walnut grower, is James C. Sheppard, who was born near Eldorado, Union County, Ark., on August 31, 1856. His father, who was killed when our subject was only one and a half years old, was Abner Sheppard, and he married Miss Lucinda Carrol, now de- ceased. Of their three sons, James was the second in order of birth and is the only one living.

Having been educated in the public schools of Arkansas, Mr. Sheppard came to California in 1875, and wishing to acquire a higher education, he attended the Southern California College at Downey for two years and then entered the law department of the University of California, but before graduation was advised by a specialist that he must give up studying or lose his eyesight; so he was obliged to give up his ambition of a legal career and turn his attention to other lines. In 1880 he began working as a railroad contractor and helped to build the Santa Fe from San Diego to Colton.

Mr. Sheppard then took up farming on the Alamitos ranch at Long Beach, and for four years he was a partner of John W. Bixby & Company, in the raising of stock. Selling out his interests there, he came to Fullerton in 1890 and bought his present place of fifty-six acres, and in the following Jannary he came here to live. He has been very successful in the development of this place, which is devoted to oranges and walnuts, and it is now bringing in splendid returns. Mr. Sheppard has not given all his time to agriculture, however, as he has been very active in a number of irrigation projects. A good illustration of his capability is found in the building up of the Ana- heim Union Water Company, which he superintended; it was badly run down, but for more than eight years he clung to it and reconstructed it, restoring it to its old pros- perity. After resigning as superintendent of this company he engaged in general con- tracting; he built the Arroyo Ditch Company's system at Downey, the Los Nietos Irrigation Company's project. the Cate Water- System at Riviera and the San Juan Capistrano Irrigation System, all splendid water systems. Next he built five and a half miles of the Salt Lake Railroad through Senator Currier's ranch and in each direction from his place in Pomona Valley. Next he constructed the water system for Canal No. 6 in the Imperial Valley through Lower California, about thirty miles in length. In his work he used 250 head of stock and a full complement of men. Mr. Sheppard has always been a lover of fine horses and at various times has owned some very

468

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

fine standard-bred stock. He is particularly fond of horseback riding and now has a beautiful black saddle horse which he admires and enjoys very much.

At Spadra, Jannary 16, 1884, Mr. Sheppard was married to Miss Dixie C. Fryer, the accomplished and charming daughter of Rev. R. C. and Caroline (Veazey) Fryer, natives of Alabama, who were pioneers of El Monte where she was born. Reverend Fryer with his family crossed the plains in 1852. In 1869 they located at Spadra, where they engaged in agricultural pursuits. Reverend Fryer was one of the pioneer Baptist ministers in Southern California. He founded numerous congregations in Southern California, among them Santa Ana, Pomona and many others. He also served as a member of the state legislature. He passed to the great beyond in 1890, his wife having preceded him eleven years. Mrs. Sheppard was engaged in educational work and taught school in Pomona, in 1883, until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard have four children: Edna May is the wife of W. K. Tuller of Los Angeles; Carrie assists her mother in presiding over the home; Sne Lucinda is the wife of C. C. Mc- Bride of Hermosa Beach; James C., Jr., left Occidental College to enter an officers' training camp and was stationed in Texas when the armistice was signed. He is again at Occidental College and is president of the student body.

Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard are prominent members of the Baptist Church, having been among the twelve original members that organized the church at Fullerton, Mrs. 'Sheppard serving as the secretary for many years. A firm believer in protection Mr. Sheppard is a decided Republican, but he has never solicited nor accepted public office. He has for many years been affiliated with the Odd Fellows, is active in the circles of the Fullerton Board of Trade, and for several years served on the board of directors of the Anaheim Union Water Company. Fullerton may be congratulated on such a citizen as James C. Sheppard-an idealist ever desiring the best that is avail- able for his town and its environs.

O. T. CAILOR .- To such learned, experienced and common sense members of the California Bar as O. T. Cailor, the well-known attorney and junior member of the firm of Tipton and Cailor, Orange County owes much of her rapid progress in certain fields, on which account all who enjoy an acquaintance with this gentleman will con- gratulate him for his steady and increasing success. He is a Hoosier by birth, and was born in Clay County, Ind., on June 19, 1865. His father was Tobias Cailor, a general mechanic and wagon maker, who married Miss Alma Moody, by whom he had five children. He passed away years ago, and Mrs. Cailor died in 1912 at the home of our subject. The second eldest in the family, O. T. was sent to the rural schools in Clay County, and later attended the State Normal School, after which he taught for twelve years, then entered the University of Indiana, from the Law School of which, after a stiff course of two years, he was graduated in 1894, and for a while practiced in Clay County, and there he tried himself out.

In 1902, Mr. Cailor came west to California and settled at Anaheim; and almost at once he began to practice. The readiness with which he impressed those who came in contact with him of his knowledge of the law, and the force of his strong, but pleasing personality, combined to bring him more and more patronage; and for years he has been numbered among the leading lawyers of Orange County. He belongs to both the State and the County Bar Associations; while as a Republican, he has taken an active part in national political affairs and in the elevation of citizenship and a stimulated, healthy civic interest. He is especally active in the Board of Trade.

On December 15, 1898, Mr. Cailor was married to Miss Essie Glick, also a native of Indiana, and they are the parents of four children. Ray and Fay are twins; while the other children are Clarence and Alma. All are able to boast of California birth, and thus to belong to the enviable army of "native sons and daughters." Mr. Cailor is both an Odd Fellow and a Mason-having passed all chairs in the former.

MRS. MARTHA A. NIMOCKS .- One of the beautiful country homes in western Orange County is owned by Mrs. Martha, or "Mattie" A. Nimocks, and lies one-half mile east of Talbert. Mrs. Nimocks resides in her beautiful country residence, but leases the 184 acres of her ranch to tenants for raising lima beans and sugar beets. A native of Wisconsin, she was born in Milwaukee, the daughter of Plummer Brownell, a manufacturer there of the Brownell plows and other agricultural imple- ments, who moved to Omro, Wis., after the death of his wife, which occurred when Martha was four years old. Mrs. Nimocks is a grand-niece of Stonewall Jackson on her mother's side, who was in maidenhood Ann Jackson. Her father married again, and Martha was adopted into the family of Bonaparte Blackmer, storekeeper at Omro, Wis., in whose family she grew to young womanhood and was educated in the public schools of Omro. Later she went to live with some of her mother's relatives

Henry It Rohs.

Mrs anna Polis

471

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

near Milwaukee, Wis. She has an own sister Elsie, Mrs. Williams Brooks, living at Argyle, LaFayette County, Wis.

For over thirty years Mrs. Nimocks has owned the ranch near Talbert, and has lived on the place since 1904. Previous to 1904 she owned the celebrated Hawkins Ranch at Santa Fe Springs, which she operated successfully as an orange grove and fruit ranch, its 140 acres being set to oranges, pears and alfalfa under her direction. Magnificently built up for those days, this property was for many years one of the show places of Los Angeles County, Mrs. Nimocks' rare sense of the beautiful and artistic nature serving in good stead in the plans carried out on the ranch. Needing pasture for her increasing herd of cattle and band of horses she purchased the 184 acres near Talbert from the Stearns Rancho Company about thirty years ago, when the county was yet undeveloped. This place was a part of what was known as "Gospel Swamp," and was grown up to willows and tules. She cleared the land and made it one of the most valuable ranches in the Talbert district. When she purchased the place a cow corral was located near the site of her present residence. She had bought fine blooded, registered Jersey cattle and for many years successfully ran a large dairy business. She formerly owned the Argyle Hotel at Second and Olive streets in Los Angeles. Mrs. Nimocks was in early life a member of the Good Templar Lodge, and has been a consistent worker for prohibition, suffrage, and the good of the common weal. She has been interested in all movements for the advancement of Southern California and gifted with unusual tact, business ability and executive force, she is one of the few women of her generation who have really been successful in business operations, and is a well-known business woman with a wide acquaintance in Cali- fornia. Attractive, accomplished and interesting, her admirable traits of character in addition to her natural ability, have won many friends who esteem her for her intrinsic worth, and her name will be chronicled in the annals of Orange County among its citizens who have contributed to the highest development and progress of that portion of Southern California.

HENRY W. ROHRS .- Among the enterprising and successful of Orange County ranchers is Henry W. Rohrs, the well-known pioneer horticulturist and capitalist, who attributes much of his prosperity to his devoted and equally far-seeing and industrious wife. He was born in Hiddingen, in the kingdom of Hanover, Germany, on June 12, 1851, the son of Henry Rohrs, an experienced farmer of that section, who had married Annie Vos. The lad attended the grade schools of Hanover until he was fifteen years of age, and then began to paddle his own canoe, working on farms in the vicinity of his old home for seven years.

In 1873 he left home for America, sailing from Bremerhaven in a steamer that took nine days in crossing the Atlantic. He stopped for a while in Ohio, and helped raise grapes, peaches and other fruit. He also assisted in making wine, for which, as well as the choice fruit, there was a good market in Chicago, Detroit and Toledo.

On December 1, 1880, Mr. Rohrs arrived in Wilmington, Cal., in which city, none too attractive then, he remained for a couple of weeks. Then he came into what is now Orange County; and at Santa Ana purchased his present place of fourteen acres at the corner of Lincoln and Santa Clara avenues. Then the best of land sold for seventy-five dollars an acre; and the price, as well as the promise of the new acquisition, appealed to one who had seen the more worked-out East.

When he migrated to America, he entered the port of Baltimore, and having taken a train west, located at Napoleon, Ohio. Soon after, however, he went to Kelley's Island, in Erie County, and there, for three years, he rented land. At the latter place. on April 30, 1878, Mr. Rohrs was married to Miss Anna Cordes, also a native of Han- over, Germany, who came to America with her parents while she was quite young. Five children survive from this fortunate union. William H. lives at Orange; Marie C. resides at Dixon and is the wife of William Wittman, a rancher; the next in order of birth were twins-Albert F., who is at Orange, and Nellie K., who resides at home: while the youngest living is Otto C., who also resides at Orange. Mrs. H. W. Rohrs passed away on February 27, 1914, and was buried at Fairhaven; she was a woman highly esteemed for her many virtues and was mourned by her family and friends.

Mr. Rohrs owns some of the best land between Santa Ana and Orange, where at first he set out half of the acreage to vineyard, reserving the balance for Australian Navel and Mediterranean Sweet oranges, and later he put in Valencia oranges and wal- nuts instead. In 1883, he purchased ten acres across the Santa Fe tracks, and there he is growing oranges and walnuts. The Santa Fe laid a track through his land in the "boom" year of 1887, from Santa Ana to Orange.

Mr. Rohrs is the owner of some very desirable ranch property at Olive. and is interested in other ranches at McPherson and Buena Park. He uses a tractor and four

472

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

horses on his farms. In 1881 he built a beautiful, symmetrical residence on his ranch, or home-place. A believer in cooperation, he is a member of Santiago Orange Growers Association and also in the McPherson Heights and the Olive Heights Associations, and he also belongs to the Central Lemon Growers Association at Villa Park, and the Santa Ana Valley Walnut Growers Association, and he is a stockholder in the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company.

In national political affairs-a subject always of absorbing interest to Mr. Rohrs- he is a Republican, although he never allows partisanship to affect him in his support of local measures and men likely to benefit the localities in which he lives and operates, and where he endeavors to see that others besides himself have a winning chance. He has always favored Prohibition, and in church membership belongs to the Evangelical Association, having been one of the organizers of the church at Santa Ana, and served on the board of trustees as well as the building committee. In 1910, he made an ex- tended trip to his old home in Germany, when he was accompanied by his daughter, Marie. They visited the relatives at his former home, and then traveled through France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Italy, remaining away from home for abont seven months, and during their trip they had the pleasure of visiting Oberammergau, when they witnessed the Passion Play. In Italy they visited the Coliseum and Catacombs of Rome as well as Vesuvius and ancient Pompeii.

Albert F. Rohrs enlisted on May 21, 1917, in the naval reserve band, at San Pedro, and traveled with that organization to many cities on the Coast, playing at concerts in behalf of the loan drives, the Red Cross campaigns, and in support of other war activi- ties. And on December 21, 1918, he received his honorable discharge at San Francisco.

MRS. ELLA D. COLE .- The owner of one of Orange County's most profitable ranches is Mrs. Ella D. Cole, whose husband was the late Myrtle Cecillian Cole. The history of the Cole family in America dates back to the earliest colonial days, the first representatives of the family coming over from England in 1629 and settling at Ply- month. They were prominently identified with all the early development of those pioneer days and when the days of the Revolutionary War came the Cole family fur- nished more than 1,000 soldiers to help in the defense of the principles of American liberty. In religions affiliation the Coles were of the Baptist persuasion and they played an important part in the early days of that denomination as well as in the succeeding generations. A family of education, character and progressiveness, they have always been leaders in every community in which they have settled.

Mrs. Cole, who before her marriage was Miss Ella Delavan, was born at Canaan, Columbia County, N. Y., in 1855, the Delavan family being of French Huguenot ances- try. Her parents were Albert H. and Mary A. (Sperry) Delavan, the Sperrys being one of Connecticut's prominent families who settled in central New York in the early days, Mrs. Delavan having the advantage of an education in the select schools of the latter state. At the time of Mrs. Cole's birth, her father, Albert H. Delavan, was engaged in farming in eastern New York, but when a young man he had been in the railroad business, having had charge of the freight house at Canaan, N. Y. He was also superintendent of construction of the street railway at Albany, N. Y., and of the Albany and Binghampton Railway.

In Duanesburgh, N. Y., on January 31, 1878, occurred Mrs. Cole's marriaie, when she was united with Myrtle Cecillian Cole, who was also a native of New York. He was born at Deansboro, in Oneida County, September 18, 1854, and received his first schooling in that neighborhood, afterward attending a school at Delhi, N. Y., so that he was fortunate in receiving a good education. He also studied law and was admitted to the bar in the Empire State; for some time he practiced law at Deansboro and kept books for his father, Menzo White Cole, who was extensively engaged in growing hops in central New York. Mrytle C. Cole afterwards became interested in agriculture and operated a large market garden at Oneida, Madison County, N. Y. In 1898, with his wife and children he came to California, first settling at Glendora, where he re- mained for one year, coming then to Santa Ana, where he took up agriculture and horticulture, farming twenty acres at Wintersburg which was formerly the property of his father, M. W. Cole, who had passed away at Glendora in 1896; his widow survived him until 1917. Myrtle C. Cole became possessor of the twenty-acre Win- tersburg ranch, improved this place and afterward sold it, and then purchased the sixty- acre Ross ranch near Wintersburg, which Mrs. Cole still owns. Mr. Cole was a scientific and progressive farmer and he effectually drained and irrigated this farm and brought it to a high state of productivity. His death occurred at Santa Ana August 13, 1916.

Ш.в. вок

Cella D. leale.

477

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cole: Homer L. is a well-known con- tractor and builder in Santa Ana; he married Jessie M. Hoffman and they have one child, Clifford Delavan. Ernest Delavan, the second child, is a graduate of Stanford University with the degree of civil engineer and is now located in Gainesville, Texas, where he is engaged in building a large oil reservoir; he has spent considerable time in South America in connection with the oil industry. Philip Chester, a graduate as an architect of the International Correspondence School at Scranton, Pa., married Irma B. Hale and practices his profession at Chico, Cal .; Edith Blanche, a graduate nurse, is now the wife of Oscar Blake and they reside on the Cole ranch near Wintersburg and have a daughter, Ellen Dee.

Since her husband's death Mrs. Cole continues to reside in Santa Ana, where she has built a comfortable bungalow on East Pine Street, looking after the interests left by Mr. Cole, in which she is ably assisted by her devoted children.

Considerate and generous, Mrs. Cole is a woman of rare attainments and she has ever taken a genuine and active interest in all movements that aimed at the better- ment of the community. In her girlhood she was a student at the state normal school at Cortland, N. Y., and taught school in that state for five terms before her marriage. A consistent Christian, she is a member of the First Presbyterian Church at Santa Ana, in whose benevolences she takes an active and liberal part.

WALTER A. GREENLEAF .- A California agriculturist whose highly intelligent and aggressive work in walnut and citrus fruit culture has been productive of a decided advance in those important fields, is Walter A. Greenleaf of Santa Ana, who was born at Carson City, Nev., on September 25, 1865. His father was Edward F. Greenleaf, a pioneer who braved all the hardships necessary to cross the great plains to California in 1865; and his mother, who was Miss Lucy Sweet before her marriage, shared those trying experiences with her husband. In his time, Mr. Greenleaf was one of the leading men here. Both parents are now among the great silent majority. They had ten children, and Walter was the sixth in the order of birth.

Walter A. started to learn the lessons of life in the public schools, and continued in the vast school of human experience. In this way he progressed to what is popu- larly termed a self-made man. Little by little, he prepared for increasing responsibility; and when he undertook to farm some fifty acres at Olive and Santa Ana he made a marked success of it.

Busy as he has always been, Mr. Greenleaf has still found time to do for others, and especially to serve the state. He was a member of the National Guard, and for six months served in the Spanish-American War as first lieutenant of Company L of the Seventh California Volunteers. Later, imbued with a desire to help build up the town in which he lived, Mr. Greenleaf accepted election to the office of city trustee. He is a Democrat in national politics, but knows no partisan distinctions in campaign- ing for the best local measures and the best local men.

Inheriting from his father, who was one of the early pioneers and who also took an active part in public affairs, a deep interest in Santa Ana and its unrivalled valley, Mr. Greenleaf is keenly alive to all future possibilities in the region, while as observant of what has happened in the past, and the lessons we ought to learn from the set-backs and the strides forward of persisting man. He is a popular member of the Elks.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 53

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