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 76

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 76

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JOHN A. MAAG .- The owner of two fine ranches which comprise his thirty-one- acre home place on Fairhaven Avenue, immediately south of the city of Orange, and sixteen and a half acres at Olive, John A. Maag is a phenomenally successful citrus grower. His success is due to industry, close attention to every detail of the business, and unusual executive ability.

He is of German lineage and birth, having been born in Westphalia, Germany, October 31, 1851, where his father, Frank Maag, was a tenant farmer, and who died when John A. was a child two and a half years of age. The mother, Elizabeth (Schmeltzer) Maag, courageously assumed the responsibility of bringing up her two sons. John A. and Frank P., kept the family together, and through many vicissitudes and hardships successfully accomplished the task.

John A. lived in his native country until he was a lad of fourteen. He acquired his education in the local public schools and in the summer time worked for the neighboring farmers herding cattle. 1n 1865 the mother and her two sons sailed from Bremen for the shores of the New World, and landed at old Castle Garden, New York City, going thence to their destination at Eagle River, in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. They lived in Michigan five years, then went to Columbus, Platte County, Nebr., in 1871. where the mother took up a homestead. She was the first white woman settler in Union Township, in Platte County, Nebr. The family lived through the discouragements inci- dental to the grasshopper scourge, blizzards, and other vicissitudes and hardships, and young John helped break the virgin sod of Nebraska with oxen. His brother Frank became a Nebraska farmer and died in that state in 1917, leaving a widow and three children. On reaching his majority. John A. homesteaded 160 acres, which he improved and brought under cultivation. This was his first real estate holding and he continued to farm in Nebraska from 1871 until 1891. He was married in Platte County, Nebr., in 1884. to Miss Catherine Steffes, a native of Michigan, who came to Nebraska as a girl. Their union was blessed by the birth of twelve children, ten of whom are living. Two children died in Nebraska, and the youngest six children were born at Orange, Cal. The ten living children are: Frank P., a rancher near Olive, married Virgil Meats of Olive. They are the parents of two children; John W., also engaged in ranching: Mary lives at home; Joseph A .. a rancher in the Santa Ana Canyon; Henry, a rancher at Covina, married Florence Amons; William H., who married Catherine Kermer, and is now ranching in Santa Ana Canyon; George W., who is also ranching in the Santa Ana Canyon, served six months in France in the Thirty-sixth Balloon Company and was honorably discharged: Charles E., at home; Elizabeth Mary, a student at Ramona Convent at Shorb, and Clarence Edwin, who is fourteen years of age.

In 1889 Mr. Maag made an extended trip to the Pacific Coast, and was so favorably impressed with the land of sunshine that he made a second trip in 1891 and visited Los Angeles and Orange County. He liked Southern California so well that he de- cided to move his family to the state. When they first came they stopped at Los Angeles and remained five months, purchasing a horse and wagon with which they drove all over Southern California. Finally, after looking over the country they bought their present home place in the fall of 1891.

Mr. Maag has taken an active part in the community since he first settled in Orange County. He helped organize the Santiago Orange Growers Association and was the second man who subscribed to its stock. He was president of the association two years and has been a director in it for twenty years. He is a member of the Central Lemon Growers Association at Villa Park, which he also helped organize, is a stock- holder, has served as director ever since the association started, and is still on the board. He is a charter member of the Olive Heights Orange Growers Association and has been a director in it since its inception, and is still on the board. He is also a member and director of the Richland Walnut Growers Association, as well as the Orange County Fumigating Association. He helped organize the Citizens Commercial and Savings Bank at Santa Ana, which was afterwards consolidated and is now the Cali- fornia National Bank, being a stockholder in the institution. In 1899 Mr. Maag built a fine two-story frame residence which would cost $10,000 to build at the present time. It is a twelve-room house, commodious and up to date in its appointments. Mr. Maag

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was reared in the Catholic faith, and he and his wife and family are communicants of St. Joseph's Catholic Church at Santa Ana. Mr. Maag gives due credit to his excellent helpmate for much of the success he has attained in life. She, like himself, has worked and striven, early and late, and their large and highly respected family of children are following in the footsteps of their parents. Upright in character and enterprising in disposition, Mr. Maag is a man of whom Orange County may well be proud.

ANDREW F. MILLS .- Among the native Californians residing in Orange County is Andrew F. Mills, more familiarly known as Frank Mills, who occupies a prominent position among the substantial agriculturists that have acquired a compe- tency in their calling. His one hundred sixty acres lies half a mile south of Garden Grove, and is the eastern quarter section of the old Mills family home owned by his father, who settled in the neighborhood in 1875, fourteen years before Orange County was organized and before the town of Garden Grove was in existence.

Andrew F. was born at Princeton, Colusa County, Cal., August 18, 1865, and is the son of Andrew Mills, senior, a California pioneer who came to the coast with a drove of cattle from Missouri in 1851. The elder Mills, a native of Massachusetts, was born near Great Barrington in 1814, and as a young man went West, locating in Missouri, where he married Miss Ruth Ann Ripper, and became a prominent stockman. After coming to California he settled in Colusa County, where he became one of California's early and prosperous stockmen and horsemen, at one time owning 2,000 head of cattle. Of the six children in the parental family Julia is the wife of George McCrindle, and resides at Long Beach, Cal .; Maria is deceased; Abe died at the age of twelve; Jane is the wife of James Young, a rancher at Lemoore, Kings County, Cal., and Andrew F. and his brother George H. are ranchers at Garden Grove, where George owns the west quarter section of the old homestead adjoining his brother's quarter section. Andrew, or "Frank," was ten years old when he accompanied his parents and their family to Los Angeles County in 1875. Anaheim was their post office and trading town and there was only one store at Santa Ana in those days. Frank grew up on his father's ranch and in 1899 was united in marriage with Miss Ura B. Conkle, daughter of Samuel Q. Conkle. They are the parents of three bright and interesting children: Andrew R., Ruth M., a student in the Santa Ana high school, and Floyd H., a pupil in the Garden Grove grammar school. Mr. Mills owns some of the best soil in the vicinity of Garden Grove and rents his acreage to tenants for growing chili peppers. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Church.

WILLIAM R. YOST .- A sturdy, active man and a very interesting personality, representing as he does the good old pioneer days of the blacksmith and wagon maker who knew his trades, and now classed among the properous farmers of the Southland, is William R. Yost, of Talbert, who was born near Troy, Davis County, Iowa, near the Missouri boundary line, on January 27, 1863. His father was Isaac Yost, a native of Indiana, who married Miss Nettie Hix, a native of Iowa. In 1873, they removed to Santa Ana, Cal., and pitched their tent for a time in what was then called the Gospel Swamp. In a short time, however, they removed to Santa Ana. In coming west, the Yosts traveled by way of the Central Pacific, and the Union Pacific, over what was known as the Ogden Route, to San Francisco, after which they journeyed south on the steamship "Orizaba," to Wilmington Harbor, and then to Gospel Swamp by wagons.

The elder Yost was a blacksmith by trade, and soon set up his forge at the corner of Main and Fifth streets, Santa Ana. A year later he sold and the family moved to Klamath Falls, Ore. Being a good millwright he built a saw mill on Lost Run Creek, run by water power. Selling out eight months later he returned to Santa Ana and built a blacksmith shop on Fifth and Broadway, and came to have a very interesting association with the early development of the town. He died in Santa Ana in 1882.

The maiden name of Mrs. Yost was indicative of her Scotch-Irish blood, although she came of the best Revolutionary stock, and her father, one of the early settlers of Iowa, fought in the Black Hawk War. She died on December 24, 1919, eighty-three years old, the mother of ten children. Charles is a vineyardist at Coachella; Clara is the wife of John Miller, a merchant at Phoenix, Ariz .; William R., now a farmer. is oper- ating the McQuiston ranch of 120 acres at Talbert; John was accidentally killed at El Toro; James resides in Santa Ana; Mary is the wife of William McLaughlin and resides in Ventura County; George, also a rancher, resides in Fresno County; Malin works in the shipyard at San Pedro; Myron is in the auto business at Los Angeles; and Leo is the wife of Fred Cole, of West Fourth Street, who owns a walnut ranch of twenty acres in Santa Ana.

William R. attended the common schools in Santa Ana, learned the blacksmith's trade under his father, and in the same town started in business for himself. He ran

andrew Baker Elizabeth A Baker

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

a machine shop and a foundry, and made all kinds of vehicles and implements such as would be demanded thereabouts, and he did all the blacksmithing work for James McFadden, who was the chief spirit in building the Santa Ana and Newport Railway as well as for the Fairview Railroad, now a thing of the past. His shop was located at the corner of Fifth Street and Broadway, and there, among other exceptional things not turned out by everyone, he made all the switch plates for the Newport road.

After a while, Mr. Yost quit smithying and became a cattle buyer and a drover, raising, buying; selling and shipping cattle in Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties. About 1906 he began farming on the O'Neill ranch near El Toro, and then he went to San Juan Capistrano, leased a ranch where he raised grain and beans, then back on the San Joaquin ranch where he farmed about five years. In 1920 he leased the McQuiston place of 120 acres near Talbert, where he raises beets and alfalfa.

On April 30, 1889, Mr. Yost was married to Miss Ida Kell, a native of Sacramento, and a daughter of William and Sallie (Sharp) Kell, early Californians. Her father later settled at Pomona, and there she was married. They have had nine children. Lucy is Mrs. James Leonard and resides at Los Angeles. Edith is the wife of H. P. Thelan of Santa Ana. Wilmath is in the telephone office at Santa Ana. Ida is Mrs. Jack Melchard, and lives in Santa Ana. Wilfred is an engineer at Sacramento. John is with his father on a farm, and so is Robert; and Ruth and Angela are at home.

Mr. Yost is prominent as an Odd Fellow in Santa Ana, and has been very active in many ways in furthering the development of Orange County; and he is well known among and highly esteemed by the pioneers of both Santa Ana and Orange counties.

ANDREW BAKER .- An enterprising and successful rancher who has devoted over a quarter of a century of his life towards the development of Orange County is Andrew Baker, a resident of Stanton. He was born in Perquimans County, N. C., on December 25, 1848, the son of James A. and Lucretia (Blanchard) Baker, who moved to Indiana before the Civil War. It was some years later that Andrew Baker migrated further westward, stopping in Jasper County, Mo., where he followed farming until 1879, then disposed of his holdings and located in Morris County, Kans. Thirteen years later he decided on a new move that would take him to California, and he arrived in Orange County on March 22, 1892, purchasing his present property the following year. This forty acres was situated on what was called the alkali flat, and was a part of the great Stearns Rancho. The land was in its primitive condition, covered with cacti and infested with jack rabbits. Possessed with the indomitable spirit of the pio- neer settler, Mr. Baker at once began to clear the land and make necessary improve- ments so he could begin ranching, and even had to help to build the roads in this section, which had only been staked off. He hauled off from his property over fifty wagon loads of cactus, and has made of his place one of the best and most productive ranches in this part of Orange County. At first his water for irrigation came from an artesian well, but this source of supply soon gave out, and he sunk a new well to the depth of 159 feet, which gives him an abundance of water for irrigation and domestic purposes. For seven years he pumped the water by horse power, then in- stalled a thirteen horsepower gas engine. He grows a diversified lot of products, and is well satisfied that he has cast his lines in such pleasant quarters as Orange County.

Mr. Baker has always been interested in every movement that had as its aim the upbuilding and development of the best interests of his community, and took an active part in the incorporation of the town of Stanton, and in the educational affairs of his district. He was the prime mover in having the Magnolia School district organized in 1895, and gave the name to the school, and he was a member of the first board of trustees. His ranch is near the school on Magnolia Avenue, and therefore he was more deeply interested in the maintaining of a good school, which now has an enroll- ment of almost 100 scholars.

On January 1, 1878. Andrew Baker was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth A., daughter of John P. and Martha (Hayworth) Mills. Mrs. Baker was born in Keokuk County, Iowa, on March 8, 1853, lived there until she was fifteen, and then accompanied the family to Jasper County. Mo., where she was united in marriage with Mr. Baker, at the city of Carthage. This happy union has been blessed with six chil- dren: Arthur G., a graduate of the Hastings Law School in San Francisco, is a well- known attorney in Los Angeles. He is married and lives in Pasadena. Fannie M. is the wife of J. T. Lyon, a realty dealer of Anaheim; Dora M. became the wife of G. N. Miller, and had two children. Viola and Alice. She died June 24, 1919. Oliver G. was in charge of the Pacific Electric station at Stanton for over eight years. He owns eight highly improved acres of oranges on Stanton Avenue, where he and his wife re- side. James A. owns ten acres of oranges on Broadway, was a teacher for several

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years, but is now a member of the realty firm of Lyon and Baker in Anaheim. He is the father of three children, Marjorie, Warren and Gerald. Paul Noble received a high school education and was an electrical engineer in the employ of the city of Los Angeles, and when the first call came for soldiers and sailors for the great World War, he enlisted as a common sailor in the U. S. Navy, and through his exceptional ability and efficient service rose to the rank of ensign. He is still in the Navy.

Mr. Baker is a firm believer in Christianity and supports all movements that come to his notice for the elevation of the standard of morals and the social betterment of his community. He and his family are very highly esteemed by all who know them for their genuineness of character and high ideals of citizenship.

HENRY ROHRS, JR .- A resident of Orange County since his fifth year, Henry Rohrs, Jr., is developing a flourishing and productive orange and walnut orchard on West Fairhaven Avenue in the vicinity of Orange. Ohio was Mr. Rohrs' native state, his birth occurring at Defiance, Henry County, in that state August 3, 1876. His parents, Fred and Anna (Grobrugge) Rohrs, were both natives of Germany, coming here in the days of their youth. The father located at Defiance, Ohio, and after pur- chasing eighty acres of land, which he cleared of timber and stumps, there engaged in raising stock and grain.

There were five children in the Rohrs' family; Henry, the subject of this review; Fred, John, George and Minnie. When Henry Rohrs was five years of age the family removed to Santa Ana, Cal., arriving on March 12, 1881, where the parents still make their home. He attended the public school in Santa Ana and at the same time worked on the home ranch, his father being engaged in ranching after coming to California. Until he was twenty-four years of age Henry remained at home, working hard in help- ing his father with all the duties of the home place. He was always thrifty and indus- trious, so that in 1900 he was able to purchase eleven acres on West Fairhaven Avenue to the development of which he diligently applied himself. In 1916 he became the owner of nine acres at Tustin and Fairhaven avenues, which was planted to Navels and Sweets, but he has since reset the whole tract to Valencias, which bids fair to be one of the best producing groves in this locality.

At the home of the bride's parents in the Orange district on March 21, 1901, Mr. Rohrs was united in marriage with Miss Minnie A. Franzen, the ceremony being per- formed by Reverend J. Kraeber. Mrs. Rohrs is a daughter of Asmus and Dorothea (Schmidt) Franzen, who were born near Flensburg, Denmark. The father served in the Danish army in the Slesvig-Holstein War, 1864 to 1866, and afterwards also served in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71. He resided near Flensburg until 1879. when he came to America, and later brought his family to Columbus Junction, Iowa, where he pioneered, cleared the raw land from brush and broke the soil for growing crops. In March, 1889, he located in Orange County and soon afterwards bought twenty-seven and a half acres on Fairhaven Avenue at the corner of Yorba Avenue, where he built a residence and made his home until 1908, when he sold it and moved to Santa Ana, where his wife died at the age of seventy-three. He then made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rohrs, Jr., until his death on February 4, 1916, at the age of seventy- seven. Mr. Franzen for his services in the Slesvig-Holstein War received a medal of honor from King Christian of Denmark. The last three years of his life he received a pension from the Danish government. Mrs. Rohrs is the youngest of four children, three of whom are living. She came here in her youth and received her education in Orange County.

Mr. and Mrs. Rohrs are the parents of four children, to whom they are giving the best educational advantages within their means: Frances A. who is in the Orange Union high school class of 1921; Alvin H .; and the twins, Clarence and Kenneth. They are active members of Zion's Evangelical Church at Santa Ana.

In partnership with Mathias Nisson and John Maier, Mr. Rohrs sunk a well 400 feet deep on his place and installed a Pomona deep well pump run by a twenty-horse- power motor. This was completed June 12, 1912, and with its flow of forty inches of water has since then been of exceptional value to the three ranches although they all get service from the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company.

Mr. Rohrs is a member of the Santa Ana Walnut Growers Association and is deeply interested in public affairs, gives intelligent consideration to all the vital ques- tions of the day, although he personally does not care to hold public office. While a supporter of Republican principles he casts his vote for the best man in local affairs, regardless of party. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rohrs' highest ambition is to rear their family according to the loftiest ideals of American citizenship.

Henry Pokus Je

Minnie a Rohr.

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

J. EDMUND SNOW .- The inspiring annals of pioneer life are certainly recalled in the family history of J. Edmund Snow. His father, H. K. Snow, was born in White- side, N. H., in 1834, being directly descended from the three Snow brothers of Snow Hill, London, who arrived in this country four years after the Mayflower landed. When only eighteen years of age he came to California around the Horn on the "Witch of the Wave," the voyage lasting 116 days. Arriving in California, he went at once to the mines of Calaveras and Mariposa counties, where he remained four years. He crossed the Isthmus of Panama four times.

Later he was engaged in business at Osage, Iowa, and while there married Miss Cynthia Downs. In 1859 they moved to Bandera County, Texas, where they engaged in the cattle business. When the Civil War broke out, they moved to California; being Union sympathizers they could not pass through El Paso, so, driving an ox team, they made a detour through Chihuahua, arriving in San Francisco late in 1861. For seven- teen years Mr. Snow engaged in business in Vallejo and while there served for two years as county recorder.

In 1877 he removed his family to Tustin, buying a home place of fifty acres in orchard, and later bought and sold other properties. He devoted all his time to the improvement of these lands and to the extension of the irrigation system, being one of the originators of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation system. Mr. Snow made his name familiar to every horticulturist in the state while in Tustin. When the California Legislature recommended a tariff of twenty cents a cubic foot on citrus fruits he believed the amount too small and determined to give his efforts toward securing a higher rate. He originated the idea of the tariff of one cent a pound on citrus fruits. Accompanied by M. J. Daniels he was sent to Washington by the Los Angeles Cham- ber of Commerce. Securing the support of Senator Perkins and Senator Jones of Nevada, and of Senator White, a Democrat, his efforts were successful, after spending five months in Washington.

Not alone were his efforts devoted to citrus fruits, for he was one of the enter- prising parties to establish the peat drainage district at Smeltzer. In 1903 the Tustin home was sold to Ray Osmun, who erected a beautiful home of Mexican type upon it. Here the world-famed Madame Modjeska resided for a time, and later it was purchased by A. J. Crookshank, president of the First National Bank of Santa Ana, who now makes it his home.

Mr. Snow moved to Ventura County, building a new home on his walnut ranch. Here he lived the remaining days of his life, passing away in 1913. He was a life-long Republican and was a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to the Chapter and Con- sistory. His second wife, Elva Downs, a sister of his first wife, still resides at the Ventura County home.

James Edmund Snow, the third son of Mr. and Mrs. H. K. Snow, was born in Vallejo and was but two years of age when the family moved to Tustin. Here the lad attended the public school and later attended the Santa Ana high school. In 1899 he went to Cibola, Ariz., and proved up on- a half section of land lying along the Colorado River. At this time he also purchased from his father what was known as the Allen ranch, lying between Talbert and Costa Mesa. This place was adapted to the raising of grain and celery and for dairying. It was sold in 1906 to Goldschmidt Bros., and it is of interest to note that it was on this ranch that gas was first noticed in Orange County. Some fifteen years before this, Mr. Allen, the original owner, tound gas coming from an artesian well. This he collected in a tank placed over his well, pipes carrying it to his home and it was used successfully for fuel.

In 1903 Mr. Snow was married in Santa Ana to Miss Edith Johnston, daughter of John and Laura (Safley) Johnston, who moved to this state from Tipton, Iowa, when Edith was nine years of age. The Johnstons purchased a home on North Main Street. Santa Ana, and here Mr. Johnston still lives, Mrs. Johnston having passed away in 1914. Mrs. Snow was educated at the Santa Ana high school and at the Los Angeles State Normal School.

In 1908 Mr. Snow moved from Santa Ana to the Imperial Valley, where he pur- chased government land relinquishments near Brawley, until he had 800 acres under development with the service of the Imperial Water Company, No. 5, from the Colo- rado River. In 1912 this ranch was traded for seventy acres of oranges at Riverside. Here the family resided until the death of Mrs. Johnston, when they returned to Santa Ana and for the next three years kept the home on North Main Street for Mr. Johnston.

In February, 1918, the present home at 335 West Eighteenth Street was pur- chased, and here Mr. and Mrs. Snow now live with their interesting family of three sons-Jack W .. James Edmund, Jr., and Paul Johnston, who are pupils in the public schools. Mr. Snow is engaged in the real estate business. He is is a Mason and in national politics is a Republican, but in local affairs is as nonpartisan as they make 'em.

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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 76

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