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 54

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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NELSON THOMAS EDWARDS .- A representative Californian, although a native of Illinois, having been born near Galena, Derinda Township, Jo Daviess Coun- ty, on September 19, 1872, Nelson Thomas Edwards, supervisor of the Fourth District in Orange County, has been privileged, beyond the good fortune of the average citizen to participate in public, commercial, financial and social affairs, and so to help guide the destiny of Southern California. His parents were Samson and Diana (Rogers) Edwards, highly esteemed pioneers of Orange County and residents of Westminster and Santa Ana for close to a half century, a sketch of their lives being given elsewhere in this work.

The youngest son of the Edwards family, Nelson Thomas, through whose business integrity the community of Orange has profited since his advent in the middle nineties, was graduated from the grammar school at Westminster in 1887 and from the Orange Business College in 1890. His first experience in business was as an employee of his brother John, who had succeeded Samson Edwards and was proprietor of a meat market in Westminster and, as a driver of one of his brother's wagons, he got his first insight into a field into which in time he ventured on his own account. He then built up a fine wagon trade in and around Santa Ana, which he continued until he came to Orange in 1894. For a time thereafter he was employed by the Santa Ana Meat Company, but subsequently he bought out the stock and good will of the pro- prietor and ran the business for himself. Later he took into partnership J. E. Meehan,

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this continuing for six years, and during this time they made the Plaza market the finest establishment of the kind in Orange or vicinity. The meat market, however, is not all that has come to command the attention of Mr. Edwards. Besides owning several orange groves in Orange County, an interest in business blocks at Orange, the townsite of Gadsden, Ariz., acreage at Yuma and stock in the Olive Milling Com- pany of Olive and the National Bank of Orange, Mr. Edwards is a director in the Olive Milling Company and also in the National Bank of Orange and the Santa Ana Canyon Oil Company of Santa Ana.

A Republican in matters of national political moment, he has served his fellow citizens as city trustee of Orange, postmaster at Orange, from June 11, 1906, to April, 1915, a member of the Orange County Highway Commission, from September, 1917, to January, 1919, was appointed county clerk to fill a vacancy and served a little over a year, and he is now one of the Orange County supervisors. He belongs to the Orange Commercial Club at Orange and the Yuma County Commercial Club at Yuma, Ariz.

At Olive, on December 31, 1896, Mr. Edwards was married to Miss May Tetzlaff, a native of Bloomington, Ill., where she was born on Christmas Day, 1877, and the daughter of Mrs. Susie Tetzlaff, of Olive. Two children have blessed this union, a son, Roy Edwards, and a daughter, Maybelle. Mr. Edwards is a member of Orange Grove Lodge No. 293, F. & A. M., of which he is past master. He also belongs to Orange Chapter No. 73, R. A. M., the Santa Ana Commandery No. 36. K. T., and Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Los Angeles, and he belongs to and is a past grand of Orange Lodge No. 225, Independent Order Odd Fellows.

LORENZO NATHAN BROOKS .- Whatever the future historian of Laguna Beach may find desirable to say concerning those pioneer men and women whose far-sightedness, courage, industry, frugality, enterprise and self-sacrifice made possible the founding and development of this unrivalled coast resort, he will not fail to give a prominent part of his narrative to Lorenzo Nathan Brooks, better known to all his friends and acquaintances as "Nate" Brooks, who was born in Rockford, Ill., on January 6, 1852, and came first to this locality on horseback in 1876, arriving in the month of December, having been preceded by his brother, W. H. Brooks, who arrived in June of that same year. That was at a time when these two men were the only whites in the place, the balance of the inhabitants being Indians who tried to steal what these white men had brought with them-their ponies.

"Nate" Brooks at once homesteaded a claim which took in what is now known as Arch Beach and part of Laguna Heights, and purchased the balance lying between the former and Laguna from George Rogers, who had preempted it from the Govern- ment, paying $1.25 per acre for it. The holdings of Mr. Brooks totaled 600 acres. This spot was to "Nate" Brooks the very choicest spot on earth and he held on to what he had during many years when others became discouraged and "let go" their holdings. He was made of sterner stuff and the hardships and deprivations he en- dured to hold on to his land were remarkable. His promptness is meeting every obligation was characteristic of the man. Money was not to be earned nearer than Los Angeles, and then only by working in the grain fields for one dollar a day from sun up till sun down; and later on as he saw the development of his dreams he was ever ready to even mortgage his holdings to promote the best interests of Laguna Beach. In 1883 he platted Arch Beach and installed a small water system from a 500- foot tunnel in the hills. In 1912 he subdivided Laguna Heights, developing water for that tract after thirty years of patient search and experimental digging and pumping. He could be depended upon to help in any enterprise that was beneficial to all, and he lived to see many of his dreams come to pass.

After living a life of single blessedness for nearly fifty years he was united in mar- riage on December 14, 1899, with Mrs. Catherine A. Skidmore, widow of the late George E. Skidmore, well-known pioneer merchant of Los Angeles and a native of Texas. A mention of his life will be found in the sketch of J. W. Skidmore on another page of this history. Mrs. Brooks was in maidenhood Catherine A. Brenizer, daughter of Josiah K. and Antoinette (Roberts) Brenizer, the former a native of Ohio, where he was born on a farm and while pursuing the even tenor of his way the Cival War broke out and he enlisted in the Forty-sixth Illinois Regiment and served his country from 1861 to 1865. He came West in the early seventies and settled on a ranch near Compton, later retired to Long Beach and died, in 1905, in Los Angeles where he was then living. His wife was born in Pennsylvania but was reared near Rockford, If1., her father being one of the founders of that city. Mrs. Catherine A. Brooks, who is one of the pioneers of California and had many interesting and dangerous expe- riences in the early days, was an able helpmate to her husband and when he died, on April 27, 1914, after an illness of some months' duration. she became sole owner-

LA Brooks

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by purchasing the interests of the other heirs-of Laguna Heights, and this property is now being looked after by her son, Joseph W. Skidmore.

At the passing of this worthy pioneer of Orange County, not only the county and Laguna Beach, but the state lost one of its upbuilders. "Nate" Brooks always backed his "boosting" of his favored section with cash, and he could always raise that. No one ever went to him for help that he did not put his hand in his pocket and give the aid asked for.

Other settlers came to Laguna Beach in those hard years, saw, but failed to "stick." Making the utmost record compatible with opportunity, without duality of allegiance to his self-set task, with a complete hold on the realities of life, with a towering self-confidence, erected on a solid foundation, "Nate" Brooks must be re- garded as "The Father" of Laguna Beach. It is easy, and cheap, to be wise after the event. Well did he know that his vision's realization could not be an act of startling immediacy, and this has been borne out by subsequent events. Communities often express their feeling toward the "father" of their town in monumental masonry. Santa Ana, for instance, has the Spurgeon building, dedicated to the memory of the father of the county seat. The memory of the father of Laguna Beach, Lorenzo Nathan Brooks, is perpetuated in the work he started. Most beginnings are difficult, and this case was not an exception. May those who happen to have been accorded the privilege of continuing the good work, so bravely started by this valiant pioneer. prove themselves worthy of their predecessor.

THOMAS HILL .- One of the most highly esteemed citizens of Stanton, Orange County, is Thomas Hill, who has been a resident of that section of the county for thirty years. Mr. Hill is a native of Ireland, born in 1858, the son of William and Margaret Hill, whose family consisted of seven sons and one daughter, five of whom emigrated to the United States.

Thomas Hill came to Orange County in 1883 and since that time has witnessed many marvelous changes and developments. He is the owner of sixty acres of fine land which he devotes to general farming. This land was in its primitive state when Mr. Hill purchased it, but after years of hard work and close attention to its special needs he has brought it up to a high state of development, and has installed many modern improvements for the operation of his ranch as well as for the comfort and convenience of his cozy home. He is regarded as one of the most progressive ranchers of his community, a man of strict integrity and probity of character, well known for his patriotism. It is a recognized fact that many of the natives of the Emerald Isle are counted amongst the best and most loyal citizens of the United States, being friends of education and enlightenment.

In 1888 Mr. Hill was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Tait, also a native of Ireland, and the daughter of George and Matilda Tait. Of this union three children were born: Matilda, who is a graduate of the State Normal School; William and Margaret E. The family are members of the Episcopal Church and Mr. Hill is a Mason, a member of the Buena Park Lodge No. 537, F. & A. M. For six years he has held the office of trustee of the city of Stanton and has been an efficient member of the school board for eight years.

LOUIS D. GUNTHER .- A highly esteemed citizen whose influence in many di- rections is due to his successful business career during a long and exemplary life, is Louis D. Gunther, who located in California in the early part of the present century. He was born in Maywood, Cook County, Ill., in 1858, the son of Justus Gunther, who was a mason and a builder, and a first-class one at that. He made a trip to Fort Dodge. Iowa, but returned to Cook County, where he married Miss Wilhelmina Weiss; and in 1859 he moved his family to Fort Dodge and became there a pioneer contractor in mason work. Through a sad accident, he died at Fort Dodge on February 19, 1879. Twenty-seven years later, Mrs. Gunther, after a comfortable life in which she had surrounded herself with a large circle of friends, passed away in Iowa. Six children had blessed their union: Louis, the eldest and subject of this sketch; Ernestine, now Mrs. Craemer of Orange; Annie, Mrs. Trost of Fort Dodge; Laura, who became Mrs. Grumm and Louise, who is Mrs. Adolph Dittmer, both of Orange; and Mrs. Clara Loescher of Richfield.

Brought up at Fort Dodge, Louis attended the grammar schools, and while yet a boy began to learn the mason trade under the guidance of his father. Then, when old enough, he, too, took up contracting and building, and for years followed that line of activity in Fort Dodge and vicinity. In 1901 he made a trip to California, and was more than pleased with what he saw here.

He was so well pleased, in fact, that two years later he decided to return to the Coast and to locate here permanently; and having settled at Orange, he erected a large,

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handsome brick residence at the corner of Almond and South Olive streets. He then engaged again in contracting and building, which engrossed him until, in 1915, he re- tired. In the meantime, he had built three residences for himself, and one by one sold each of them. He also built a store, and when he had a good offer, disposed of that. A second store was built and sold in the same way-each deal evidencing the shrewd, but straightforward and honest business sense of the man. He has also owned and operated both orange and walnut ranches. In 1920 he erected a very artistic and attractive residence on South Olive Street which is one of the show places in Orange.

Mr. Gunther was married in Forest Park, 111., April 3, 1884, to Miss Adolphine Aneling, also a native of Maywood, Cook County, Ill., a daughter of Gotfried and Lauretta (Gunther) Aneling, who were prosperous farmers at Maywood. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Gunther has been blessed with two daughters and three sons: Clara, the oldest, is Mrs. Bandick of Orange; Emma, a graduate of the Clara Barton Hos- pital, Los Angeles, is at the Letterman Hospital in the United States service; Louis G., a contractor, who enlisted for the great war, but was not called to the colors on account of the armistice, is now ranching at Orange; Oscar, who is also ranching near Orange, was in the harness business, while he served the city as a trustee, until he enlisted in the United States service as a leather inspector; and Elmer is attending the Concordia College at Oakland. Mr. and Mrs. Gunther are members of the St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, at Orange, and he is chairman of the board of trustees. He has been a member of this board for many years, and was on the building committee when the church was erected. He is also a member of the Lutheran Men's Club.

During his residence in Iowa, Mr. Gunther was for two terms a trustee of the city of Fort Dodge; and in 1918, on the resignation of his son Oscar, as a trustee of Orange, he was appointed to fill the vacancy thus created, and is chairman of the finance committee, and a member of the light and power committee. He is interested in various enterprises, of more or less local business significance, and is a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Orange.

WILLIAM J. WICKERSHEIM .- An establishment which has grown to occupy a commanding place in Orange County, Cal., is that of the Wickersheim Implement Company of Fullerton. Its founder, William J. Wickersheim, was born in Lake County. Ill., May 6, 1866, the son of Jacob and Louise (Meyer) Wickersheim, both born in Alsace, the former in July, 1836, and the latter in 1839. Jacob Wickersheim emigrated with his parents to America in 1845, settling in Lake County, Ill., where his father died in 1865. His mother passed away in Cook County, that state, in 1868. Louise Meyer was brought to America by her parents when she was a child of three, and she was reared in Illinois, and in Lake County married Mr. Wickersheim at Long Grove, in 1858. They had five children, all of whom are living: Charles Jacob is a resident of Orange; Louise Mary lives in Hollywood, Cal., with her mother; William J. is the subject of this review. These three were born in Lake County, Ill. Edward F. is a resident of Santa Ana, and he was born in Wheeling, Ill., whither the family had moved. Emma is the wife of George Heil, and they live in Santa Ana. She was born in Roberts Lake, Minn., where the family, in the fall of 1869, had settled on a farm five miles from Faribault. In 1878 they all moved to Lincoln County, Minn., and continued to farm and improve a homestead and timber claim. In 1898 Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Wickersheim and two of their children came to Santa Ana and settled, and there the parents celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in April. 1908, and it was here, too, that the father passed to his reward on July 23, 1910, aged seventy-three years. His widow, eighty-three years of age, makes her home in Holly- wood, as does her daughter, Louise M. Wickersheim. Jacob Wickersheim always took an active interest in all movements in the localities where he lived to make them a better place morally, and he was a loyal American citizen and often held offices of various kinds where he lived. Grandfather Wickersheim had the distinction of having served under Napoleon.

William J. Wickersheim received a liberal education, attended the high school at Faribault for two years, then took a four years' advanced course in the second State Normal at Mankato, after which he taught school for nine years in Minnesota, and served four years as county superintendent of schools of Lincoln County. In 1894 he came to California, whither his two sisters had preceded him but a few months. He taught school one year at Fallbrook, then a like period at Menefee, Riverside County, and three years in Old Newport, Orange County, selling school supplies during vacations. He next moved to Orange, where he had bought two orange groves, and there spent three years in cultivating them. Hoping to broaden his field of business he moved to Fullerton in 1902 and opened a bicycle, vehicle and implement house,

Im. Stickersheim

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starting on a small scale, and as the locality expanded he increased his business to keep pace with the times and enjoyed an increasing prosperity. It was on January 1, 1913, that he secured the agency for the Ford automobile for the Fullerton terri- tory. The business was incorporated in May, 1907, as the Wickersheim Implement Company, and it now employs twenty-five men in its various departments. Their sales volume for the year 1920 will total a half million dollars, due in a great measure to the guiding hand of the founder of the business, who has won and held the confi- dence of a very wide circle of friends, which is ever increasing as the population increases. The courteous treatment and square deals accorded each and every cus- tomer at this establishment is the best advertisement they issue.

W. J. Wickersheim has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married on June 25, 1893, was Miss May Ladenburg, of Marshall, Minn., who was a teacher in Lyon County, that state. Two children blessed this marriage: Lyle is a graduate of the Fullerton High School, and the University of Southern California, where he took the course of electrical engineering. Since his graduation he has been in the employ of the Western Electric Company of New York and Chicago, and by the end of the first year he had been promoted to the research department, where he has specialized on the multiple telephone and telegraph. He served one year in the army in the signal corps and as instructor in radio. He and his wife are wintering (1920-21) in Key West and Havana, where he is in charge of the technical and scientific part of the laying of the multiple telephone and telegraph between Key West and Havana. Mildred is a graduate from the Fullerton high school, and also graduated in music at the State Normal in Los Angeles. She then taught school for one and one-half years in the Hawaiian Islands, then returned and entered the Southern California Uni- versity, and graduated with the class in December, 1920. The wife and mother. mourned by all who knew her, died at Old Newport on July 1, 1898. On March 5, 1902, Mr. Wickersheim was married to Miss Emma Oswald, and they have a son, Theodore J., a talented pianist, and a student in the Fullerton school.

Mr. Wickersheim is a Methodist in his religious belief, and politically he sup- ports Republican principles, and has served as a delegate to state and county con- ventions for years. He is a member of the California Auto Trade Association and a charter member of the Fullerton Board of Trade. He is a man of fine character, public spirited, and a supporter of every movement that has for its aim the building up of state or county; particularly is he interested in all projects that put Fullerton to the fore. His financial success has been deservedly won and he enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens, with whom his word is as good as his bond.

DAVID F. CAMPBELL .- An excellent citizen whose reputation as an unselfish "booster" of the town and county of Orange has given him an enviable influence in many fields of activity, is David F. Campbell, who came here during the great boom of 1887. He was born at Alta, Peoria County, Ill., on December 12, 1854, the son of Robert Campbell, a native of Pennsylvania, in which state he was also married. His bride was Catherine Fasnacht before her marriage, and she was a native of the Keystone State. They moved to Peoria County, Ill., and here this worthy couple were success- ful farmers; and when they came to California in 1884, they brought with them a valuable experience. The father died in Los Angeles, and the mother passed away at Orange. They had two girls and five boys, all of whom grew up; and two of the sons were in the Civil War. Walker W., who enlisted at Peoria in an Illinois regiment, returned alive; John, however, who was in the Seventy-seventh Illinois Regiment, was killed in the battle of Vicksburg.

Next to the youngest in the order of birth, David was brought up on the farm at Alta, and there he started out to farm for himself. In 1878, he removed to Corning, Holt County, Mo., and engaged in the drug business with his brother-in-law, H. F. Ferris; but at the end of three years he sold out his interest and returned home to Illinois, to resume his farming.

When the boom was at its height in California, he again sold his holdings and came west to Orange; and immediately he located on his present place of twenty acres on South Cambridge Street. Here he began horticulture with the raising of oranges- seedlings in those days; but after a while he changed to Valencias. It happened that some of the original trees were of that stock, and now he has some Valencias over fifty years of age, the oldest of the kind in the state. This is a strange fact for which there is no accounting; and as he has about one hundred of these aged Valencias, the circumstance is all the more profitable and interesting.

Mr. Campbell also owns eighteen and a half acres of Valencia oranges on Tustin Avenue, and he is one of the original stockholders in the Santiago Orange Growers Association, where he has been a director for many years, and is also vice-president

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of the association. He is a member of the Central Lemon Association at Villa Park, and a stockholder in the Orange County Fumigating Company. He owns valuable residence property in Orange, has been a director of the First National Bank from the time of its organization, and is the vice-president of that institution. He is a stockholder in the Security Savings Bank of Orange, and is one of the directors. He is also a stockholder in the Orange Building and Loan Association, in which capacity he has served for over twenty-six years, was formerly vice-president and is now presi- dent. This association he has seen grow from assets of $20,000 to about $700,000.

While in Peoria County, Ill., Mr. Campbell was married to Miss Julia F. Shaw, a native of Illinois, where she was born near Alta. Ten children have blessed their union. Earl E. is a rancher on twenty acres adjoining the farm of his father; Henry S. is a rancher near Orange; Roy, a graduate of the University of California, is assistant entomologist in the Department of Agriculture, and is stationed at Afham- bra; Elma is Mrs. Wood of Corona; Ruby is a graduate of the University of California and won a Carnegie scholarship at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa .; she is now with Hamburger Bros. in Los Angeles; Ensley is also a graduate of the University of California and is assistant farm adviser in Monterey County; Robert is attending the University of California; Margaret is in the Orange union high school; and Hazel and Julia are in the grammar school. Mr. Campbell, who is a Republican in national politics, was a nonpartisan trustee for the Orange school district for many years. Mrs. Campbell is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

MRS. MARY E. ALSBACH .- A devoted, motherly woman who enjoys the quiet of California canyon life, is Mrs. Mary E. Alsbach, the widow of Montgomery Alsbach, who passed to his eternal reward in the summer of 1918. She was born in Carthage, Hancock County, Ill., the daughter of Isaac and Louisa Lucas, prosperous farmers, who raised corn and small grain on a large Illinois farm. In 1881 they re- moved to La Plata, Mo., where Mr. Lucas purchased 90 acres.

Montgomery Alsbach was the son of Michael and Sarah Alsbach-the former a German Evangelical minister, who traveled through the country creating new interest in the church. When twelve years of age, Montgomery accompanied his parents to Indiana, where he lived through the Civil War. At the conclusion of that terrible struggle, Rev. Alsbach moved to Chicago, where he made his home, while he continued to travel through Illinois on his mission work. After thirty-four years, they moved from Chicago to Missouri, and there he spent the rest of his days on a farm which he purchased.

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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 54

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