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 68

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 68

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On March 25, 1901, Mrs. Sansinena was married a second time when Ysidoro Eseverri became her husband. He was likewise born in Navarra, Spain, the son of Pablo and Josefa Eseverri, the father being a prominent merchant in that locality. He received his education in his native land and when still a youth he came alone to California, where he engaged in sheep raising. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Eseverri continued ranching, gradually selling off their sheep and engaging in farming and horticulture. Mr. and Mrs. Eseverri are the parents of one daughter, Josephine. They have disposed of a considerable portion of the Sansinena ranch, which at one time was one of the largest in this part of the county. The whole acreage formerly lay in Los Angeles County, but when Orange County was organized its northern boundary line passed directly through the Sansinena ranch. The family have planted large orchards to Valencia and Navel oranges, lemons, walnuts and avocados now in bearing, while the balance of the ranch is devoted to raising hay. The place is under an excellent system of irrigation for, besides service from the La Habra Water Company. they have installed their own pumping plant, thus giving ample water for irrigating their orchard and crops. In 1917 a large and beautiful new residence of colonial style of architec- ture was crected, where Mrs. Eseverri resides with her husband and children, who are devoted to her and shower on her their affection and loving care, and in their liberal and unostentatious way they are all pleased to welcome their many friends and take great delight in dispensing the old-time Californian hospitality.

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WILLIAM H. BURNHAM .- An experienced business man of the East who has distinguished himself as a good financier and has therefore been able, as a resident of California, to exert an important and helpful influence in controlling and directing movements in the development of the Golden State, is William H. Burnham, who was born at Ellington, Conn., in 1851. Both his father, John Burnham, and his grandfather, of the same name, were natives of Brattleboro, Vt., the family having been founded in Hartford, Conn., in 1636, by Thomas Burnham who came from England. John Burn- ham, the father of our subject, settled in Ellington and later was associated with Daniel Halladay, the windmill manufacturer at Coventry; and in 1856 he came to Chicago as sales agent for the Halladay Company. Under his able initiative, their western business rapidly increased, and they established a factory at Batavia, Kane County, Ill., on which account Daniel Halladay came out to Chicago, and had the concern incorporated. The enterprise was known as the U. S. Wind Engine and Pump Company, and Messrs. Halladay and Burnham were the principal owners. The Daniel Halladay referred to afterwards located in Santa Ana, where he was prominently con- nected with that city's growth and development. In time, John Burnham became president of the company, and he held that office for many years; and when he retired, to spend his last days at Orange, where he eventually died, he was succeeded as presi- dent by his son, our subject. Mrs. Burnham was Miss Delia A. Damon before her marriage, and she was a native of Lunenburg, Worcester County, Mass., and the daughter of the Rev. David Damon, a prominent Unitarian minister of English descent, who for many years preached at West Cambridge, now Arlington. She also died at Orange, the mother of two children, of whom William H. alone grew to maturity.

He attended the public schools of Batavia. Ill., and later studied at Lombard University, reluctantly abandoning his courses in the sophomore year when, on account of failing health, he had to hie away to Florida. On his return, in the spring of 1872, he entered the employ of the United States Wind Engine Company, beginning at the bottom in the paint shop and advancing as draftsman, shipping clerk, and traveling salesman. In the latter capacity he visited almost every section of the United States. Canada and even Mexico; and having served the company with signal ability as general sales agent, he became superintendent and finally president, a position of honor and responsibility he filled for several years.

Undoubtedly Mr. Burnham inherited much ability for executive management, for especially during his presidency the business of the company was greatly increased, and they came to enjoy a large and ever-expanding trade with both the United States and foreign countries, a volume of work and prosperity of direct personal interest for father and son held a controlling interest in the concern. Finally, the close application and strain again told too much upon him, and, desiring to conserve his health, he con- cluded to give up the management. The Burnhams, therefore, in 1892 sold their controlling interest, but retained a tenth of the stock and the business of making windmills, pump fixtures, tanks, railroad water stations, steel towers for tanks, water cranes and standpipes goes on under the old firm name. They made the steel towers used by the Edison Company of Southern California, and they turned out three differing patterns of mills-the United States, the Gem and the Halladay Standard.

In the spring of 1893, Messrs. John and William H. Burnham came west to California; and taking a fancy to Orange, they purchased property there and that summer built a residence. In October, they moved to the Golden State "for good," and at once began to improve the place, grubbing out the old trees and setting out oranges and lemons. About seventeen other families also came here from Batavia, Ill., and accordingly they named the street Batavia, as a result of which the property of the Burnhams was situated on the corner of Batavia and La Veta.

From the time when he was once well established here, Mr. Burnham has taken a prominent part in local affairs. He became interested in the old Commercial Bank in Santa Ana, and was a director, and later he was also interested in the Bank of Orange, when it was principally owned by the Commercial Bank of Santa Ana, and was a " director there as early as 1898. When the Bank of Orange was taken over by Orange people, he continued to be a director, and later he was made president. He continued in that enviable office when it was made the National Bank of Orange; and after many years of service as a president and a director, he resigned first from one office and then from the other, but he is still intrested in the bank as a stockholder. He was also one of the organizers of the Orange Savings Bank, in which he is still interested. Mr. Burnham was also one of the organizers of and a director in the Santiago Orange Growers Association, withdrawing after many years when he sold his ranch in 1916 and moved to Los Angeles, where he and his family now reside at 401 South Kingsley Drive. He was one of the organizers and director of the H. R. Boynton Company, afterwards changed to the Pacific Pipe and Supply . Company, and succeeded Mr.

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Boynton as president, a position he filled for some time, until he resigned to accept the vice-presidency, as it required less of his time. For the past ten years he has been a director of the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles.

At Geneva, Ill., on December 9, 1880, Mr. Burnham was married to Miss Katharine P. French, a native of St. Charles, Kane County, 111., and the daughter of Rolla and Mary C. (Cook) French, born, respectively, in Vermont and Erie County, N. Y .; they were joined in matrimony at St. Charles, after which Mr. French hecame a stock broker in Chicago. When he died, he was an officer of the Miner Bank of St. Charles. Mrs. Burnham's maternal grandfather, Franklin Cook, emigrated with his family, includ- ing herself and her mother, to Denver in 1861, crossing the great plains with ox-teams, and in 1862 he died at Guy House, Colo. Mrs. French with her daughter, Katharine, returned to Illinois in 1868 and located in Chicago on account of the educational advantages offered there for her daughter, making the trip from Denver to Cheyenne by the Overland stage, and then by rail to the city on the lakes; and in Chicago, Mrs. Burnham enjoyed the best educational advantages in the West. The fortunate union of Mr. and Mrs. Burnham has been blessed by three children, all of whom have reflected the highest credit upon the family name. Ralph F., the eldest, and William H., Jr., the youngest, are both graduates of the Throop Polytechnic Institute at Pasadena, and together they have developed a citrus ranch of 140 acres three miles east of River- side, which they haye named La Colina. Mary, the only daughter, a graduate of the Marlborough School in Los Angeles, married Henry Fay Grant, who died at Franklin, Pa., and now she assists her mother to preside over the Burnham home.

Mr. Burnham was one of the original trustees of the Orange Union high school, having been prominent in the energetic work required to bring it into existence; and he was also one of the original members of the Orange County Highway Commission and did yeoman service with Charles C. Chapman and M. M. Crookshank. In national political affairs Mr. Burnham is a Republican; but he is too broad-minded to permit narrow partisanship to interfere with his hearty support of every good candidate and every excellent measure likely to help upbuild the community in which he lives and prospers.

JOSEPH G. QUICK .- A successful real estate broker. who has done much to bring about sound and stable conditions in California realty, is Joseph G. Quick, a native of Canton, Fulton County, Ill., where he was born on April 1, 1856. His father was Andrew Jackson Quick, a farmer and wheelwright, who married Elizabeth Gardi- ner. Andrew J. Quick was born in Penn Yan, N. Y., in 1831, of an old family of that state. He came to Illinois in about 1852, where he ran a carriage and wagon factory and also engaged in farming. Joseph G. Quick's maternal grandfather, Joseph H. Gardiner, came from Penn Yan, N. Y., to Fulton County, Ill., about 1836, when his daughter Elizabeth was a little girl. The parents both passed away in Illinois. They liad nine children, among whom Joseph was the eldest.

Joseph attended the grammar and high school of his district, and later took a course at the business college in Jacksonville, Ill., then for a while he farmed and later manufactured brick and tile at Cuba, Il1. In both of these fields he succeeded, until his health broke down and he was advised to seek a milder climate. In June, 1887, he came to California and Santa Ana and in the latter place established himself in the real estate business and is today the oldest dealer in town. He was successful from the first, and having acquired local experience and extended widely his circle of friends, he did a general brokerage business. He made a specialty of handling estates, having served as state appraiser of Orange County for many years and is well qualified to advise people who come here and wish to invest in property or otherwise set their affairs in order. He was one of the organizers and secretary of the Santa Ana and Fresno Land Company: this company owns nine sections of land about fifteen miles southwest of Fresno, which is devoted to general farming. Mr. Quick has seen Santa Ana develop from a small village to a city of its present size, and he has been privileged to help shape the destiny of the town. He has served as a city trustee, and it was during his incumbency that the city hall was huilt. As a man of business affairs Mr. Quick's worth was recognized in his election to be a director of the California National Bank. in the organization of which he was a charter member. Influential in the councils of the Republican party, Mr. Quick has always attended to his local duties in the most nonpartisan manner.

At Cuba, Fulton County, Ill .. on March 6, 1879, Mr. Quick was married to Martha Grigsby, daughter of William and Dorcas (Collins) Grigsby, well-known residents of the Prairie State. William Grigsby served in the Union Army during the Civil War and was killed at the battle of Missionary Ridge. Mrs. Quick was educated in Fulton County, Il1., and for some years was engaged in educational work, teaching in her

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home district about six years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Quick are home-folks and take pride in their beautiful residence at 1608 East Fourth Street. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Santa Ana and have actively participated in its up- building and benevolences. Mr. Quick was a member of its board of trustees for many years and is now president of the board, and during the building of the church and later during its remodeling he was member and treasurer of the building committee. Both are musical and Mr. Quick was leader of the Methodist choir for twenty years until about ten years ago when he resigned from the position. Always intensely interested in raising the standard of education as well as society and its morals, they have made their influence felt and are much loved and highly esteemed for the part they have taken in the community's welfare.

REV. JACOB KOGLER .- A man of God who has had much to do with the development of education in Orange County on a broad and lasting basis is the Rev. Jacob Kogler, now enjoying a well-earned retirement. He came to Orange in the early eighties, and has been connected with important town and county interests ever since. He was born near Stuttgart, Wuertemberg, Germany, on January 6, 1847, the son of Michael Kogler, a worthy carpenter and builder, and Caroline Kogler, his devoted wife. They were conscientious Lutherans, and they both died where they had lived.

The lad received the customary elementary training given to the German youth, and then entered the high school at Ludwigsburg, and later on a preparatory institute at Steenden, Nassau, where he was prepared for the ministry. As early as 1870, he crossed the ocean to America and entered the Concordia Seminary at St. Louis, from which he was graduated in 1874. He was ordained at Minneapolis as a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and soon afterward accepted a call as pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church, whose congregation he served for four years. Then he removed to Belle Plaine, Minn., where he was pastor until 1881.

In that year he came to Orange, Cal., where he organized St. John's Lutheran Church, which was started with a membership of six families: also started St. John's parochial school, for which a lot on the corner of South Olive and Almond streets was purchased. To that site an old building was moved, and in 1882 the nucleus of the congregation was formed. Both that and the school grew, and the building was enlarged, so that it had an area of 24 x 48 feet, used for both school and worship purposes. The Rev. Kogler was pastor from the start, and he also taught the school until a teacher could be supported; and now the school maintains four teachers. 1n 1893 the church edifice at the corner of Almond and South Olive streets was built, and in 1913 the congregation built the imposing new stone structure at a cost of $50,000, including the pipe organ.

The Rev. Kogler continued active as pastor until 1917. when he resigned and retired. He had helped found and was an active member of the California and Nevada Synod. of which he is an ex-president, and he organized the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Anaheim, and was pastor there when the church was built. After a while, the church became strong enough to call and support its own pastor. He also started the Trinity Lutheran Congregation in Santa Ana.

Rev. Mr. Kogler was married at Minneapolis to Miss Dora Schultz, a native of that city, and a charming woman most suitable as his life companion and real helpmate, Eleven children blessed their marriage, nine of whom are still living. They are Paul, Henry, William, Edwin, Walter, Dora, Ahna, Lydia, Clara, and they all reside in Orange County; there are also twelve grandchildren. Patriotic and devoted to the institutions of the country in which they have lived, labored and prospered, the Rev. and Mrs. Kogler may look back upon fields of religious and civic endeavor well tilled. and upon harvests of which no one need be ashamed. They have always been deeply interested in all that pertains to the permanent welfare of Orange and Orange County. and have lived long enough to see veritable miracles wrought in this most favored section of the Golden State.

ANGUS JAMES CROOKSHANK .- In every community that has shown a grad- ual growth and development of its varied industrial, agricultural and horticultural interests, the most active factor in that growth is the financial backing behind every movement which has as its aim the permanent building up and the stabilizing of commerce. The bank is the institution to look to for capital, and the banker has to be an extra human being with broad ideas to so safeguard the finances in his care that a minimum of loss will he a result. In Santa Ana the financial institutions are of the soundest and those men at the helm have shown their true worth in so looking after the loans and investments of their banks as to bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people. The First National Bank was established in 1886 hy Miles M. Crookshank, an experienced banker, whose career as a financier began in

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Iowa, and it was his guiding hand through a long term of years that firmly estab- lished the institution in the community. He had the co-operation of his sons, C. S. and A. J., and today, Angus James Crookshank, as president of the bank, has succeeded to the position long held by his sire.

Angus J. Crookshank was born in Central City, lowa, on June 1, 1865, the son of Miles M. and Margaret A. (McLeod) Crookshank, both born in Nova Scotia, of sturdy Scotch ancestry. After his school days were over A. J. began his active career in his father's bank at Gladbrook, Iowa, and in that institution he remained until the family came to California in July, 1886, and settled in Santa Ana. After the First National Bank was organized he has held a position in the bank, with but a short time that he was out of it on account of his health, up to the present time. His father died on January 15, 1916, at which time A. J. succeeded to that most important posi- tion. Besides he is a director in the Farmers and Merchants Savings Bank, the depart- ment organized as a savings bank from the original institution, and with these varied cares he is recognized as among the leading financiers in Orange County. Other busi- ness interests claim some of his attention, but it is as a banker that he is best known. In fact, there have been but few progressive movements put forward in this county that have not had his assistance and advice. He is loyal to the county of his adoption and has won friends in every part of Orange County.

Mr. Crookshank was united in marriage at San Jose, Cal., on January 5, 1898, with Miss Josephine M. White, a native daughter, born in Nevada County, the daughter of James M. White, an early settler of the state and for years an official in Nevada County. This union has been blessed by the birth of the following children: Miles J., Constance V., Josephine N., and Marion F., all natives of the Golden State. Mr. Crookshank is an active member of the Congregational Church of Santa Ana, having been for years an officer in the church. He is a stanch Republican in national affairs, but in local matters he places the man or measure before party. He has never failed to do his part as a public-spirited citizen and many are the projects that he has fos- tered that have helped to make Orange County one of the best-known localities in California.

FRANK L. KLENTZ .- Among the ablest of all the sugar manufacturers of the United States, F. L. Klentz, superintendent of the Santa Ana Sugar Company's plant at Dyer, is also one of the best known men in his line. He is also known to his many friends and admirers as a benevolent man with generous impulses and broad, liberal ideas. Born at Norfolk, Nebr., February 6, 1875, Frank L. attended the common schools of his locality and when sixteen years old entered the employ of the Oxnard Sugar Company at Norfolk, and remained with that concern for eight years, mastering the technical details of the business. In 1898 he went to Kalamazoo, Mich., and for two years was with the Kalamazoo Sugar Company, and for the two years following was in the employ of the sugar company located in Rochester, that state. A couple of years were spent with the Detroit Sugar Company, then for one year he was with the Menominee River Sugar Company, at Menominee; and still later spent three years identified with the Chippewa Sugar Company at Chippewa Falls, Wis. At Charlevoix. Mich., he superintended the erection of a large sugar mill for the West Michigan Sugar Company, and operated it for three years. In 1909 Mr. Klentz came to Cali- fornia and was with the Southern California Sugar Company, at Santa Ana two years.

The eventful period in his eventful career came to him in 1911, when the Santa Ana Cooperative Sugar Company was organized with Mr. Klentz as superintendent, to procure for the company one of the most up-to-date sugar mills that could be brought into being here in Orange County. This was accomplished by Mr. Klentz writing his own specifications for the mill and letting the contract to the Dyer Company of Cleve- land, Ohio, to erect the mill as specified. This mill has proven to be the most eco- nomical mill in the United States from the point of cost of production. Not only did he superintend the building of the large plant but he has superintended the manufacture of the sugar there ever since.

The Santa Ana Sugar Company was started as a cooperative concern by the Crookshanks, Mr. Irvine and other Santa Ana capitalists, who financed it until it was purchased by the Holly Company, and it has done much to firmly establish one of the most important industries in the county. The factory at Dyer is 66x266 feet in di- mension, is stiuated two miles southeast of Santa Ana, and is said to he the most sanitary, the best equipped and most productive of high grade sugar from the beet. made in the most economical way of any of the great factories in California. During the husy season as many as 425 men are employed and the factory easily handles 1,000 tons daily, or 1,200 tons if pushed to extra exertion: 80 to 100 tons of lime rock is used daily for refining the sugar, and this is produced by burning the rock in its own kilns on the premises. In 1920. to enhance the efficiency of the mill, a new Steffens House.

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costing $300,000 was erected and equipped with the most modern of machinery known to science for the manufacture of beet sugar. The manager is E. W. Smiley; the master mechanic is F. J. Wagner; the field superintendent is William Gearhart and the super- intendent is Mr. Klentz.

The Holly Sugar Corporation of Denver is a gigantic concern and besides owning the Southern California Sugar Company at Delhi, the Holly Sugar Company, at Hunt- ington Beach; and the Santa Ana Sugar Company at Dyer, owns and controls many other factories in other counties in this state as well as other parts of the United States. The first mill of this company was started in Colorado. C. A. Johnson is the western manager, and has his headquarters at Huntington Beach, as has G. J. Daley, the general superintendent.

As a rough estimate it is safe to say that Orange County will produce $15,000,000 of sugar beets and $22,000,000 of manufactured sugar in 1920, considering the present inflated prices; this is interesting as compared with the output of the Santa Ana (Co- operative) Sugar Company's plant in 1912, when 226 independent ranchers grew 9,061 acres of beets, and there was an output of 600 tons daily capacity of the plant.

Frank L. Klentz was married in Chicago to Miss Lucy C. Breunig, of Humphrey, Nebr., and one son has blessed their union, Lawrence B. He is in the aviation service of the United States and is stationed at Riverside, Cal. The family home is at 806 South Birch Street, and is the center of a genuine, unostentatious hospitality.

JOHN M. BUSH, JR .- A thoroughly enterprising and successful rancher worthily representing a very thorough-going pioneer who stood for great things in early days, is John M. Bush, Jr., the youngest of ten children of John M. Bush, who was born in Kentucky, April 10, 1829, and who removed with his parents to Clay County, Mo., when he was twelve years of age. At the outbreak of the excitement concerning the discovery of gold in California, young Bush, on the day he was of age, set ont across the wide continent, crossing the plain in an ox-team train, and in his new venture he succeeded well enough to prefer to remain where he was, rather than to return East. In 1851 he was married in Northern California to Sarah A. Watson, of Independence, Mo .. where she was born in 1836. In about 1869 he came to what is now Orange County and bought land in Peralta district with his partner, Jonathan Watson, accumulating a large tract of land, part of it now known as the Bixby ranch. He sold off most of it but retained 150 acres which he highly improved and is now divided between his children. He was for a while a walnut rancher on the Santa Ana Canyon Boulevard, about two and a half miles northeast of Olive. He died on February 8, 1913. Mrs. Bush, his faithful companion for so many years, passed away on the home place, March 26, 1920, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. At her demise, the Santa Ana Register pub- lished the following obituary:

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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 68

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