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 78

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 78

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In May, 1916, Mr. Macdonald came to Orange County, locating at Garden Grove, where he engaged in raising sugar beets. Later, with keen business foresight, he saw

Ulf heouard Lucy aLeonard

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an opportunity for the development of a great field in the handling and selling of fertilizers, for in these days of scientific farming a broad knowledge of fertilizers and modern methods of their application to certain soils is absolutely essential to success, and this is particularly true in citrus culture. With his characteristic progressive spirit he entered into the new venture and opened an office at Anaheim at 171 West Center Street, and has built up a large and lucrative business. Not only does he furnish fertilizer to the orchardists, but makes contracts for spreading it. One of the largest contracts received by him was one for 139 carloads of fertilizer for the Sam Kraemer ranch at Placentia.

In June, 1901, Mr. Macdonald was united in marriage with May Pickering, a native of Utah. Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World, and in religious matters he is a member of the Catholic Church. One of Anaheim's sterling and dependable citizens, he can always be found enthusiastically supporting every move- ment for the advancement of the best interests of Orange County.

J. FRANK SCHWEITZER .- California has been fortunate in the large number of expert workmen of one kind or another who have been attracted to her. promising domain, and who have therefore made no small contribution toward her development on broad, progressive lines, and among such efficient workers must be mentioned J. Frank Schweitzer, the popular foreman of the Brea and Pacific gasoline plant. He is an Ohioan by hirth, and so comes rather naturally by a liking for, and a knowledge of an industry early developed in parts of the East and now so important in California.

Born at Toledo on February 3, 1877, Frank is the son of William and Mary (Luty) Schweitzer, both of whom are now living, retired from their long and active labors. They were worthy folk, and devoted to their three children; and none the less helpful to our subject, the second child, who was sent to the grammar schools and then given two years of study at the high school.

As soon as a good opportunity presented itself, Frank learned the trade of a machinist, and this he worked at previous to coming to California in 1905. At first he located at Olinda, in Orange County, and since then, his experience and ability being more and more recognized, he has had charge of various shops.

In 1914 Mr. Schweitzer took the position which he holds at the present time and which he fills so well to the satisfaction of all concerned. He has became an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, and although recognized as a Republican in matters of national politics he supports the best men and measures in local affairs; he was once appointed to fill a vacancy in the city trustees, and since then he has been elected for a four-year term beginning with 1918.

On July 24, 1906, Mr. Schweitzer was married to Miss Julia E. Meissner, by whom he has had two children, Dorothy and J. Frank, Jr. The family attend the Christian Church, and cooperate in all movements for social uplift, as they also show their public-spiritedness in endeavoring to raise civic standards.

JOHN ALLEN AKERS .- A native son of the great Golden State, who, by hard, intelligent work has won a place for himself in the agricultural world, is John Allen Akers, residing with his family in the La Habra district of Orange County. He was born at Santa Paula, Ventura County, November 23, 1872, the second eldest son of John Akers, born at Salem, Ind., November 26, 1835, but was a farmer in Iowa, whither he went as a young man and there married, March 25, 1858, Miss Sarah Harbord, who was born in Missouri on December 7, 1841. With three small children the family crossed the plains with ox-teams in an early day and settled near Salt Lake City, where Mr. Akers operated a sawmill for two years. There another child was born. The family came to California in November, 1866, and for a while lived at El Monte, later moving to the vicinity of Santa Paula, where they stopped a short time and then settled on a ranch of 200 acres on the Sespe River, near the town of Fillmore, improved the place and raised grain and stock. Mr. Akers met an accidental death on May 6, 1885. This ranch is still in the possession of the family. Of their eight children, seven are alive. Mrs. Akers is living at Santa Paula and is in the enjoyment of all her faculties and the best of health. Her father. Robert Harbord, was a soldier in the Black Hawk War, and a brother, James Harbord. died from exposure while a soldier in the Northern Army during the Civil War.

John A. Akers attended the common schools of his district until he was thirteen, when the circumstances of his father's death threw the responsibility of the care of his mother and two younger children upon his shoulders, and he was thus able to minister to and relieve his devoted mother of much hard work. When the season's work on the ranch was finished he went to work in the oil fields north of their ranch and at the age of twenty-five was an expert driller. In 1900, he removed to Orange County and entered the employ of a contractor in drilling oil wells for the Brea Oil Company, making his home in the canyon. In 1902 Mr. Akers bought twenty acres of

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land, where he now makes his home and upon which he set out a walnut grove in 1905. Such were the conditions of the soil at that time that he was ridiculed for his pur- chase and attempt to raise walnuts without irrigation. While the grove was matur- ing the family lived in Los Angeles, whither they had moved after the oil industry had taken a slump and where he found employment until 1910, when they settled on their ranch. In spite of all discouragements Mr. Akers continued his experimental work, and in 1919 he harvested sixteen tons of nuts from his acreage, ninety per cent of which were classed as Al. This fine crop he marketed independently. He has also developed a fine family orchard of pears and other fruits.

At Los Angeles on December 20, 1900, Mr. Akers was married to Miss Eva May Chase, the daughter of Fred G. Chase, a pioneer merchant of Los Angeles. He was born at Lowell, Mass., July 18, 1851, came to California in 1872, and settled on a bee ranch near Pomona. He married Margaret L. Cunningham on October 25, 1877. She was born at El Monte on January 24, 1858, and became the mother of five children. Through her father, Mrs. Akers traces her ancestry back to Aquila Chase, who came from Cornwall, England, in 1670. The Chase family married into the Leland family, members of which came from England to America in 1652, Mrs. Akers representing the ninth generation in a direct line from the progenitor of the family in America. She is a native daughter, and a graduate from the Los Angeles Normal class of '99, and was a public school teacher a few months in Ventura. She has served as president of the Parent-Teachers' Association of La Habra, and treasurer of the Woman's Club. Three children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Akers: Dorothy May, born in Brea Canyon, March 18, 1902, and died May 25, 1913; John Fred Akers, born February 6, 1906, in Los Angeles, attends the Fullerton high school, and Elizabeth Lois, born November 17, 1909, in Los Angeles, goes to the grammar school of La Habra. Both Mr. and Mrs. Akers have supported the work of both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and Mr. Akers, as a Democrat, has sought to elevate civic life standards.

SAMUEL ROSS .- The good old days of the pioneer and his picturesque prairie schooner, of the bravery and the sacrifices of the men and women who founded the great commonwealth of California, are recalled by the life story of Samuel Ross, the early settler long honored throughout Orange County, and especially so at Santa Ana where he made his home. He crossed the plains in 1865 with his bride, Catherine Leonard before her marriage, to whom he was joined in matrimony in Ross Town- ship (now Rossville), Vermilion County, I11., a place named after his father, Jacob Ross, who also came in the same wagon train. This train was made up largely of farming people in Vermilion County, Ill., and Hoosiers, from across the Illinois line in Indiana, and was augmented with two wagons falling into line in Nebraska. There were 87 wagons in all, and they were drawn by horses, oxen and mules. In the com- pany were Jacob Ross and his wife-whose maiden name was Elizabeth Thompson- and four sons and a daughter: William Ross, Samuel Ross and his wife, Josiah Ross and his wife, and Jacob Ross, at that time single. Ross Street in Santa Ana was named after this brother, Jacob, who was later tax-collector and assessor for Orange County. In the party, also, was Christie A. Ross, now Mrs. S. T. McNeal, of 1004 Baker Street, Santa Ana.

The Rosses settled first in Monterey County, where they rented land for two years, and then they came to Orange County, in 1868, then a part of Los Angeles County, and bought land where Santa Ana now stands. The elder Jacob Ross bought all the land from Broadway to Ross Street, and later he sold it to William H. Spur- geon. Samuel Ross took up agriculture, and established as comfortable a home as any of the company; but in 1890 his devoted wife died, leaving seven children-three having already passed away. Of these seven, Lambert Ross died, unmarried, at the very promising age of twenty. The six living are: Frank Ross, who works for a lumber yard in Los Angeles, and married Annie Hansen, by whom he has had one child, Harvey. Ida B. is Mrs. King, a widow, who farms on the Irvine ranch. James Arthur is popularly known as Ott Ross; he married Mrs. Jennie Kight, nee Smith, a daughter of William Smith, who had married Carrie Reed, pioneers of Georgia. They have four children-Catherine, Lulu, Christie A. and Leonard. Myrtle is the wife of John Froehlich, and resides in Los Angeles, where he is a carpenter for the Fox Film Studios, and also their foreman. Alda Lawrence is a farmer at Holtville, in the Imperial Valley, and has five sons; and Jessie May is the wife of Glenn W. Wells. They have three children and reside at Yorba Linda.

Mr. Ross still owns a house and seven lots in Santa Ana, and 320 acres in Arizona, where he lived for three years. The Rosses are among the interesting families in America reaching hack to the Old World. Samuel Ross's great-great-grandfather was John Ross, who came from Scotland to Ohio; and the Rosses were prominent in the United Brethren Church. Most of them have also been life-long, stand-pat Democrats.

Samuel Ross

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ARTHUR STALEY .- A resident of Orange County since early boyhood, and taking an active part in its growth and development since reaching maturity, Arthur Staley is a native son of the state, born near Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, April 28, 1870, a son of Theodore and Drusilla (Teague) Staley, the former a native of Missouri, and the latter of Indiana. Both parents were pioneers of California, Theodore Staley having crossed the plains with ox-teams in 1856, and Drusilla Teague was brought on the long overland journey by her parents in 1865, the wagons being drawn by horses, and some trouble with Indians was encountered by the young pioneers.

Theodore Staley farmed in Sonoma County until 1881, when he located at Orange, remaining there one year, and then located in Placentia, where he followed grape, orange and walnut growing. He was an active member of the Christian Church, and a charter member of the Anaheim Church of that body. He was a man of broad inter- ests and active in politics in the county, affiliating with the Democratic party and serv- ing on the County Central Committee in early days; and as school trustee, he did his share in the educational upbuilding in the county. Three children were born to this pioneer couple-Arthur, Mrs. Myrtle Lillie and Walter, all residing in Placentia. The father passed to his reward in 1903, and the mother still resides on the home ranch in Placentia.

Arthur Staley attended the Orange and Placentia public schools, and graduated from the Fullerton high school, finishing his education at Stanford University, from which he graduated with the class of 1900. Since that time he has been very active in the development of the orange and walnut industry in Orange County. For five years he was secretary of the Fullerton Walnut Growers Association, and the Placentia Orange Growers Association; and for two years he was cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Fullerton. He is at present secretary of the Fullerton-Placentia Walnut Association, and a director in the following concerns-the Yorba Linda Water Company, the Placentia National Bank, and the Fullerton Masonic Temple Association. A man of foresight, and a firm believer in the future prosperity of Orange County, Mr. Staley has been an important factor in bringing his home section of the state to its present state of productiveness and development, and takes a just pride in being one of the farsighted men who have accomplished its upbuilding in all the ways which go to make Orange County an ideal home community, and with business interests which reach to the far corners of the world.

The marriage of Mr. Staley united him with Bessie Pendleton, a native of Pla- centia and daughter of Alexis T. and Sarah J. (McFadden) Pendleton, both pioneers of the state. In addition to his other business interests Mr. Staley owns a finely developed orange grove of twenty-five acres at Yorba Linda, now in full bearing, which he planted from nursery stock in 1910.

Active in Masonic circles, Mr. Staley is a past master of Fullerton Lodge, No. 339, F. & A. M .; a member of Fullerton Chapter, No. 90, R. A. M .; master of Santa Ana Council, No. 14, R. & S. M .; past commander of Santa Ana Commandery, No. 36, Knights Templar; now commander of Fullerton Commandery, No. 55, Knights Tem- plar, and a member of Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Los Angeles.

CLARENCE S. SPENCER .- A leader in Republican county politics, and the owner of an exceptionally fruitful and attractive grove of oranges, Clarence S. Spencer is not only influential in citrus fruit circles, but he is also one of the path-breakers in the fast-developing oil industry. He comes from a family of representative Californians, and is himself one of the best representatives of the ideal Californian of the future.

He was born in Chariton, Lucas County, Iowa, on September 23. 1881, and is the son of Thomas and Mary A. Spencer-the former from Newcastle, England, and the latter from Iowa. The father was both a physician and a druggist, and in 1849 crossed the plains in a prairie schooner drawn by an ox-team. He settled in Santa Rosa, Cal., opened a drug store and resumed the practice of medicine. There the first Mrs. Spencer died, and Dr. Spencer returned to Iowa, where he married a second time. His bride was then Miss Mary A. Rogers, and she became the mother of our subject.

In 1888. Doctor and Mrs. Spencer came to Orangethorpe and purchased twenty acres of apricots and a few walnuts. Dr. Spencer took out both the apricots and the walnuts, and set out seedling oranges and lemons, and some young walnut trees. He devoted fourteen acres to the walnuts, and six acres to the oranges and lemons. Then, on June 1, 1891, he passed to his eternal reward, kindly remembered by all who knew him as a man who had contributed his best influence, wherever he had dwelt, for the building up and the upbuilding of the community. After his death, the widow, with the assistance of our subject and his two brothers, handled the estate.

On August 3, 1916, Mr. Spencer was married to Miss Annie Irene Thomas, a native of Cold Springs, Texas, and the daughter of James S. and N. V. (Dobson) Thomas. Her grandparents were plantation owners, and when she was very young, 28

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her parents moved to Shepherd, Texas, and there she was reared and educated. Later she attended the Normal School at Huntsville, Texas, but having finished her studies, she took up nursing near Shepherd. One child has blessed this fortunate union-a daughter, Gladys Bernice.

To the original Spencer estate now in the name of the widow of Dr. Spencer, twenty acres were added in 1906, making forty acres in all, and five of these forty Clarence S. Spencer purchased for himself. He built a beautiful home there in 1917, and by other improvements has made a neat "show place" such as one is willing to journey a few miles to see. Since the time of the purchase of the twenty additional acres, Mrs. Spencer has bought forty acres half a mile to the north, and one mile west of Fullerton. These forty acres are open land, as yet unimproved.

Mr. Spencer was a delegate to the Republican County Convention in 1912; and he is a stockholder in the Fullerton Citrus Orchards, and also in the Fullerton Leasing Company, handling oil leases. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Anaheim, and is among the most popular of its devoted members.

GEORGE S. SMITH .- If there is anyone in Orange County who has demon- strated a proper appreciation of both the responsibility and the delicacy of the task committed to the undertaker, then surely that man is George S. Smith, who came here to California during the great "boom" in Southland realty, and has seen Orange County and her sister districts gradually develop and take to themselves the best that modern social and business life, in all their complexities, can afford. He was born on a farm near Albany, Ill., on July 25, 1871, the sou of S. W. Smith, who came here in 1886 and later established the undertaking business which in "1891 became Smith and Son. He retired from active work in 1914, and on March 24, 1916, himself passed way. Mrs. Smith, too, who was Elizabeth Myers in maidenhood, is also dead.

George received his early training at the grammar and high schools of Santa Ana, and finished his course at the Los Angeles Business College. Then he learned the difficult work of undertaking with a first-class firm in Los Angeles, and after that became associated with his father in the partnership referred to. When S. W. Smith withdrew, the firm was named after our subject. In 1915 it became Smith and Tuthill. a name now widely and well known. For eight years, Mr. Smith was coroner and public administrator. As a leading business man, he belongs to both the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce and Merchants and Manufacturers Association, serving as treasurer for several terms, and was at one time a director of the Merchants and Manufacturers organization and the Chamber of Commerce. As an orchardist, Mr. Smith has developed four ranches.

On May 1. 1894, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Carrie R. Jones, who attends with him the Presbyterian Church. A daughter is Mrs. Georgia Atsatt of Berkeley. Mr. Smith is a Republican in national politics, and for two years was secretary of the Orange County Republican Central Committee. He is a Mason, a Knight Templar, an Odd Fellow and an Elk; and belongs to the Orange County Golf Club.

F. D. PLAVAN .- A well-educated, genial gentleman, who easily evidences his descent from the best of Roman ancestry, is F. D. Plavan, the successful ranch owner residing at 506 South Birch Street, Santa Ana. He was born on December 21, 1867, in the Waldensian Valley in the Duchy of Savoy-that picturesque and romantic country, once a part of the Sardinian Kingdom, but ceded to France in 1860. His father was David Plavan, a horticulturist and agriculturist, a native of that country, who had married Elizabeth Balmas, also of Savoy; they passed on to their eternal reward, the father at the age of eighty-four, the mother four years older. The grandparents of our subject were also hardy and long-lived, attaining each an age above ninety.

Having enjoyed the best of educational advantages in the schools of his native district, in which he was taught hoth French and Italian, while he learned the patois of the Waldenses, Mr. Plavan bade good-bye to home and parents when fifteen years of age, and followed an older brother. David, now deceased, who had migrated to America and settled in Missouri. Sailing from Havre, he landed in New York on July 28, 1883. At Plymouth, Mo., he joined his brother and remained for a month, then the two brothers came west to California. F. D. secured employment in Santa Clara County, working on fruit ranches and in almond orchards and vineyards in the Santa Clara Valley for four years.

In 1887 Mr. Plavan went back to Missouri and engaged in farming, and there he was married in 1889 at Monette to Miss Katie Planchon, born in South America of Waldensian parentage. After two years of farming he rented out his land and went to work in the railway shops at Monette for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway, and he continued in the employ of this company for eighteen years, heing for nine and a half years a locomotive engineer.

George W Pollard Martha C. Pollard

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In 1905 Mr. Plavan returned to California, and settled near Huntington Beach. He bought and improved a ranch of ten acres, then sold it and moved east to Talbert, where he improved a 200-acre ranch. At one time he farmed from 300 to 500 acres, usually putting 300 acres into sugar beets. Before that time he grew celery very extensively and successfully, and served as a director in the Orange County Celery Growers' Association. In 1920 he had 140 acres in sugar beets, 120 acres in lima beans, barley and alfalfa. He and his wife also own a fine dairy ranch of 100 acres near Talbert. With his oldest son, Urban H., of Huntington Beach, he owns some 440 acres of land at Lake View, Riverside County. Mr. Plavan helped organize the Greenville Bean Growers' Association, and with others was instrumental in building the large fireproof warehouse at that place.

Mr. and Mrs. Plavan have eight children, who have belonged to the First Presby- terian Church at Santa Ana, and in this organization Mr. Plavan was an elder for three years: Urban H. resides at Huntington Beach; Alma is the wife of Loren Mead, a Santa Ana hoy, a graduate of Cornell University and an employee of the Standard Oil Company; Ernest farms at Lake View, and Paul is also ranching there; Clyde assists his father on the ranch; Leland and Edith are graduates of the Santa Ana high school, and Wilma is a student there. Paul and Clyde rendered good service to their govern- ment during the late war, and were honorably discharged.

Orange County may well be proud of the invaluable contribution made to its permanent growth and real progress by such citizens as Mr. and Mrs. Plavan and their family.

GEORGE W. POLLARD .- A man who by hard and honest toil has become one of the best known ranchers of his district and has come to enjoy a large place in the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, is George W. Pollard of Tustin, who from a very small beginning has accumulated a large acreage now yielding, under his wise management, a bountiful harvest. His homestead comprises ten acres, which are de- voted to the production of oranges and English walnuts. In addition, he owns sixty acres in Delhi, in two ranches of forty and twenty acres, where he raises sugar beets. If we look for a self-made man, then surely Mr. Pollard will fill the bill.

He was born in Erie County, N. Y., on December 1, 1859, the son of Hopkins and Sarah (Grannis) Pollard of New England stock, and was reared and educated until his twelfth year, in Darien, Genesee County, N. Y. In 1872 he removed with a sister to Kansas, near Chanute, and in that state he remained until 1884, when he came to California. He first settled in Santa Ana, where he was employed on ranches for one year and then purchased the street sprinkling outfit from William Bush and con- tinued to sprinkle the streets of Santa Ana, until the city was incorporated. He pumped the water from a well at the corner of Spurgeon and Second streets with the old-fashioned horsepower method, using one horse, and the streets were served by a sprinkler drawn by a team. He also had a tank wagon to furnish water to contrac- tors in making foundations. When Santa Ana was incorporated he sold them the sprinkler and followed teaming for some years. He had the contract to haul the steel and granite for the new court house, and when it was completed, he moved on to the Ritchey ranch and ran it for four years and then bought twenty acres, his present place, but has since sold ten acres of it, retaining ten acres on Walnut Street, south of Red Hill Street in Tustin. This he has set to Valencia oranges and walnuts, and he has an electric pumping plant with thirty-inch capacity. As early as 1887 Mr. Pollard purchased land at Delhi and he now owns two ranches there, each having an electric pumping plant and devoted to sugar-beet culture. He was among the first in this vicinity to raise beets for the sugar factory, at times having out several hundred acres, at which he continued until he turned it over to his sons. Mr. Pollard helped to build the street car line to Tustin and also helped to build the railroad to Newport. He hauled the material for many of the early buildings in Santa Ana, as well as freight from Newport Beach to Santa Ana. Since that time he has turned his waste land into its present productive condition, and not only evidenced his own farsighted- ness, efficiency in general and special adaptability to just such problems, but he has demonstrated beyond question what California, and in particular what Orange County and Tustin can do for the ambitious settler.

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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 78

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