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 86

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 86

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In 1911 Mr. Helmsen was married to Mrs. Jane D. (Cross) Green, born at Chau- mont, Jefferson County, N. Y., the daughter of Geo. W. and Harriet Canfield ( McPher- 'son) Cross. The father died at Cape Vincent, and his widow, with her four chil- dren, came to Orange County in 1885, where her two brothers, Stephen and Robt. McPherson, were large ranchers. She now makes her home with Mrs. Helmsen, at the age of seventy-six years. Mrs. Helmsen came to Anaheim about twenty-seven years ago as manager for the Western Union Telegraph Company, and later for eight years was assistant postmaster of Anaheim. She still owns the Helmsen Block on West Center Street. Mr. Helmsen gave to the town half of the lot on which the City Hall now stands, and he was a trustee of Anaheim for eight years, half of that time serving as mayor or chairman of the board. He was a prominent Mason, belong- ing to the Anaheim Lodge, of which he was secretary for nineteen years. He was also known as "the boys' friend," and started many of them on the road to success and fortune. He taught them to save, to keep out of pool rooms and loafing places, and to lead clean and honest lives; and it is impossible, therefore, to state how far-reaching was his example and influence for good, and his life is certainly worthy of emulation.

EMIL R. TURCK .- To learn one thing thoroughly, and then to spend the active years of life in the industry for which both study and natural inclination have fitted one, is to carry on the world's work to the best of any man's ability, and it is such work that is building up our civilization of today. Such a man is Emil R. Turck, one of the prominent citizens of Orange County. Born August 6, 1857, in Brandenburg, Germany, he received his education in the public schools of that country, and in the engineering school, later taking a course in sugar chemistry in a German college. He has followed the sugar industry all his life since finishing his studies, and in Germany was chemist in the leading sugar factories.

Coming to the United States, in 1890, Mr. Turck was chief chemist for the sugar beet company at Grand Island, Nebr. When the American Sugar Factory was being built, at Chino, Cal., in 1891-92, he came there and was chief chemist at that factory for fourteen years, up to 1906, when he located at Anaheim, and for a time gave up his life work to engage in horticulture. He bought seven acres of land on South Lemon Street, and planted an orange grove, which he brought to a high state of culti- vation. In 1913, Mr. Turck became chief chemist for the Anaheim Sugar Company, and continued in that position until 1917, when he retired and spends his time looking after a twenty-acre orange grove, the property of his wife and her sister, situated on North Lemon Street. An expert in sugar refining, Mr. Turck has taken a large part in the

Jacob Mueller

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

development of the comparatively new industry in the state, and as such takes rank with other able men who have helped, each individual to the best of his ability in his chosen line, in making California the richest state in the union. It is to such that the praise of posterity is due.

The marriage of Mr. Turck united him with Clementine E. Schmidt, daughter of Theodore Schmidt, one of the original fifteen settlers of Anaheim, who came from Germany in 1857 and bought 1,200 acres at the purchase price of two dollars per acre, and founded the town of Anaheim; Mr. Schmidt himself selected the name of the town. Water was brought from the river, vineyards planted and the town started. A more extensive biography of Mr. Schmidt will be found elsewhere in the work, and of the body of men who made this garden spot of the state possible.

One son has blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Turck; Arthur W., a graduate of the University of California with the class of 1919, and who served as ensign in the U. S. Navy during the World War, doing his share to preserve the rights of his country, though he did not see foreign service. He is now with a bond and banking house in Oakland. Fraternally, Mr. Turck is a member of the Mother Colony Club of Anaheim, and of the Odd Fellows. All movements that mean the upbuilding and development of the county have received his substantial assistance, and his unqualified approval for the advancement of his community.

JACOB MUELLER .- A very successful citrus grower who, with the aid of his good wife and excellent family, has amassed, after the hard work and residence of a third of a century in Orange, a comfortable competency, is Jacob Mueller, a native of Schawallingen, Saxe-Meiningen, in the heart of Germany, where he was born in 1860. There he attended school, and early received such a substantial grounding in the things worth while knowing, that later, in more leisure hours, he has been able by self-culture to add materially to his knowledge and capability. He was also so well drilled in the practical affairs of life that when he pushed out and was far away from home in the New World, he was better able than many other pioneers to grapple with raw and difficult conditions.

When just twenty years of age, Mr. Mueller crossed the Atlantic to the United States at a time when the tide of emigration from Germany was still at its height, and tarrying but a short time in the great metropolis of New York, he made his way west to Allen County, Kans., and at Humboldt he followed for seven years his trade, which was that of a stonemason. While in Humboldt he was married to Miss Johanna Hoffman, a native of Wallbach, Saxe-Meiningen, Germany, and the daughter of Valen- tine and Caroline (Goldschmidt) Hogman. Her father was also a stonemason, and brought her out to Allen County, Kans., when she was fourteen years old, and in that state both he and his wife passed to their eternal reward. A sister of Mrs. Mueller remained in Germany and died there. A brother came to Kansas, and during the Span- ish-American War enlisted in the United States Navy. He served on the "Mariette" and accompanied the "Oregon" around Cape Horn. It is thought that he went to South Africa during the Boer War, but he has not been heard from for many years, and is probably dead. Mrs. Mueller, therefore, is probably the only member of the Hoffman family now living.

From Humboldt, Kans., on June 25, 1887- the year of the great "boom" in Cali- fornia-Mr. Mueller and his bride came to Orange County and settled at Orange, and for about a year he worked out by the day. The next year, he leased the Gallagher place, now the Fairhaven Cemetery. He bought his first place, consisting of eleven acres, at the corner of Fairhaven and Grand avenues, on October 30, 1895. It was set out to walnuts at that time, and he and his devoted wife had to work very hard to care for it and make it pay. Since then he has replanted the acreage, so that it is now in apricots, Valencia oranges and lemons, and has built a substantial and ornate cement- block dwelling house, and made many other improvements.

His next purchase was the.plot of land now his home-place on Fairhaven Avenue. at the south end of Glassell Street, consisting of 11.59 acres, which he bought on July 12, 1897. He made his third and last purchase on January 7, 1901, when he bought 7.17 acres on Grand Avenue, adjoining the eleven acres he first acquired. All three of these places are situated in the southern part of the city of Orange, in a section giving every promise of a bright future. Besides that, Mr. Mueller owns some residence property in Anaheim, and also some residence property at Huntington Beach . He is a member of the Santiago Orange Growers Association, the Villa Park Lemon Growers Association and the Orange Walnut Growers Association.

During these years of strenuous activity, Mr. and Mrs. Mueller have reared an attractive family of six children. The eldest, Gustav Herman, studied at St. John's College, at Concordia, Mo., from 1904 until 1909, when he married Huldah Stuerkc or

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

Sweet Springs, Mo. He became a rancher at Orange, and died on .March 1, 1920, lamented by a wide circle of friends, and leaving a widow and one child, Alvira. Emil Carl, the second in the order of birth, was in the United States Army, serving overseas in France and after the armistice was with the Army of Occupation stationed at Coblenz, Germany, until he returned to the United States, when he was mustered out in August, 1920, and is now at home. Ernest F. Mueller is a graduate of Oakland Col- lege and afterwards from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and ordained a minister in the Lutheran Church, is now pastor at San Luis Obispo. He married Miss Emily F. Thommen of Oakland. Lillie Marie and Lydia Lonise Mueller, twins, are graduates of the German Lutheran School at Orange, of which the youngest child, Annie R. Mneller, is also a graduate. The family are members of St. John's Lutheran Church at Orange. Mr. Mueller is a naturalized American citizen, and no one is more patriotic or public-spirited. In 1905, he erected his substantial two-story house of twelve rooms, up-to-date in all its appointments, and having a beautiful porch facing the southern end of Glassell Avenue and commanding a clear view of the American flag on the liberty pole at the Plaza in Orange. Of a sunny, philosophical, optimistic, common-sense tem- perament, Mr. Mueller is a good neighbor and a good friend, and is always appreciated by those who know his character and his conversational powers as "good company."

HARVEY B. ROYER .- An expert machinist .who has proven himself to be a successful rancher is Harvey B. Royer, one of the dependable employes of the Santa Fe Railroad since 1909 and now also farming along the Romneya Drive, to the south- west of Fullerton. He was born at Lockhaven, Clinton County, Pa., on August 23, 1871, a member of a family dating back to the early days of the Keystone State. His father was Franklin V. Royer, a lumber man who purchased whole groves of forest, cut them down and ran the timber through his own mills; and so extensive was his business that it developed in several counties, including Center, Clinton, Union, Lycoming and Cambria. He died in Pennsylvania in 1900. His widow was Susan (Brungard) Royer, born. in Pennsylvania and now makes her home with her son Harvey.

Harvey B. Royer attended the public schools of Clinton County, Pa., and remained with his father until he was twenty-five years old, at which time his father's mills burned down. Then he began to rebuild them, and took complete charge of the busi- ness. In 1900, he sold out and went to Johnstown, Pa .; and there he worked as a machinist in the employ of the Cambria Steel Company. Whatever he did, he so thoroughly carried out as to insure those for whom he was working of his intelligent, honest and expert service. In 1909 Mr. Royer came to California and settled in Los Angeles, and from 1909 to the present time has been a machinist with the Santa Fe Railroad Company, working on locomotives and giving genuine satisfaction to that well-equipped organization for difficult problems and delicate work. In 1912, he bought twelve acres in Orangethorpe on Romneya Drive, and in 1913 he moved his family to the ranch. When he bought the land, it was a barley field, and he himself set out the ten acres to Valencia oranges. He has his own private pumping plant and so supplies what water he needs for irrigation. His products in fruit he markets through the Stewart Fruit Company of Anaheim.

Mr. Royer's mother, Miss Susan Brungard before her marriage, was a woman of such superiority that it is not surprising that when our subject married, on June 25. 1895, he should choose, in Miss Rosie Schwenk, a helpmate worthy in every respect and promising from the first to be just the companion that he needed. She was born in the locality of his birthplace, and educated in the grade schools of Clinton County. Her father, Benjamin Schwenk, was a lumberman who engaged in business in the same way that the Royers had followed. He passed away in 1912, while his wife, Emma (Barges) Schwenk, died in 1916. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Royer; and the two sons have both distinguished themselves in the service of their country. Miss Ruth is the daughter, and her brothers are Merril C. and Le Roy H. Royer. Mrs. Royer helongs to the Presbyterian Church of Anaheim, and Mr. Royer is a member of the Knights of Pythias and also the Odd Fellows of the same city.

Merrill C. Royer enlisted on August 31, 1918, as a military engineer and was sent to the Berkeley Training School; and on October 30, he left for Fort Myers, Va., and later he was sent to Camp Leach, Washington, D. C. He was serving in Company K of the Twenty-ninth Engineering Corps when he was shot during target practice, the bullet penetrating his spine; and it is said to have been miraculous that he recovered from such a wound. This delayed his progress so that he was not ready to sail for France until the armistice had been signed. On December 21, 1919, he was discharged at Camp Kearny, after which he returned to civilian life. He married Miss Rose Livingston and is with the Santa Fe at San Bernardino.

Wilhelmine Grote Henry , Grote.

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LeRoy H. Royer enlisted on March 27, 1918, in the quartermaster's corps, and spent three weeks at Fort McDowell, after which he was sent to Camp Johnson at Jacksonville, Fla. He sailed from Hoboken, N. J., for France, after spending a few days at Camp Upton, N. Y., and bade good-bye to America on September 13. in a convoy of fifteen ships, landing at Glasgow, Scotland. He stayed in Camp Romsey near Liver- pool, and then went through Southhampton to Havre, France. He served in the motor transport service, and was stationed at such places as Tours, La Ronchelle, Nantes and St. Nazaire. On May 26, 1919, Mr. Royer returned to the United States, and on June 5 at Camp Mills, N. J., he was honorably discharged. Four days later he returned to California and is now attending Fullerton high and also assisting his father in caring for the ranch.

HENRY GROTE .- One of the earliest settlers and prominent residents of Orange was the late Henry Grote, who was privileged to contribute much toward the building up of both the city and nearby country districts. In his good work he was ably assisted by his wife, an excellent woman of business ability, so that both Mr. and Mrs. Grote enjoyed a wide circle of worth-while friends.

Mr. Grote was born in Rehburg, Hanover, Germany, on August 23, 1842, the son of Henry and Mary (Meyer) Grote, both of whom came to America and spent their last days in comfort at Bremen, Kans. They had four children-two boys and two girls-and among these, Henry was the oldest.

He was brought up at the old homestead, and educated in the public schools; and in time he learned the trade of a harness maker and saddler. In 1866 he came to the United States and located in Chicago; and for a while he was employed at farm iabor. In 1868 or '69 he removed to Bremen, Marshall County, Kans .; and having undertaken to homestead 160 acres of raw land, he turned the first furrows in the soil. He planted corn and wheat, and raised stock; and for nine years continued as one of the progressive and successful farmers of that region.

In 1882, however, stirred by the reports of better things in California to be had for the coming, Mr. Grote sold out his Kansas property and moved to the Pacific Coast, and in the town of Orange he bought fifteen acres lying between North Shaffer and Pine streets, and running from Chapman to Maple. The land had been set out as a vineyard, but the vines died. and then he set out walnuts and apricots. Later, when the town grew, he laid ont the Henry Grote addition to Orange, in 1888, and sold lots at fancy prices, and now it is nearly built up as a residence district.

In time, Mr. Grote joined' P. W. Ehlen under the firm name of Ehlen and Grote. and conducted a general mercantile business, and such was their success in expanding their trade that they incorporated the concern as the Ehlen and Grote Company, and they built the Ehlen and Grote block, which they still own. Mr. Grote has also owned and improved and several ranches, and with Mr. Ehlen he was interested in the National Bank of Orange and the Orange Savings Bank. Both Mr. and Mrs. Grote were heavily interested in the Ehlen and Grote Investment Company, in which they were directors; Mr. Grote was vice-president, and Mrs. Grote is secretary of the organization.

At Bremen, Kans., on October 16. 1873, Mr. Grote was married to Miss Wilhelmine Dusin, a native of Pomerania, Germany, and the daughter of Henry and Louisa ( Kartt) Dusin. With her brother, August, the only other child, she came to Bremen, Kans., in the spring of 1873, and there met Mr. Grote. Six children have blessed their fortunate union: Emma has become Mrs. Heim of Olive; Sophia is the wife of Alfred Huhn, the manager of the Ehlen and Grote Company of Orange: Mary died at the age of thirty- five: Fred A. is assistant manager of the Ehlen and Grote Company: Lena assists her mother to preside over their home, although she is a graduate of the Orange County Business College at Santa Ana, and was bookkeeper until lately for the Ehlen and Grote Company; and Minnie, who is also a graduate of the Orange Business College, was also for a time with the Ehlen and Grote Company, in which Mr. Grote maintained his financial interest until his death, which occurred May 10, 1920, when Orange lost one of her hest men and upbuilders and his passing was mourned by his family and friends.

Mr. and Mrs. Grote identified themselves with the Lutheran Church here from its start: he was a trustee and treasurer, and was chairman of the committee having charge of the building of the old church and the school. He also presided over the responsible undertaking of a new church, erected at a cost of $50.000. Besides belonging to the church, Mr. Grote was also a member of the Lutheran Men's Club, while Mrs. Grote was always active in and an ex-president of the Ladies' Aid Society. Since her hus- band's death, Mrs. Grote continues to reside at the old home surrounded by her chil- dren, who shower on her their loving affection and devotion and assist her in looking after the large interests left by her husband, thus relieving her as much as possible from all unnecessary worry and care.

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

HERMAN A. DICKEL .- The enviable career of a worthy citizen of Anaheim is recalled in the family history of Mr. and Mrs. Herman A. Dickel, long honored resi- dents' of this place. A native of Germany, Herman A. Dickel was born on April 22, 1860, the son of George Dickel, also a native of that country. He had married Charlotte Zumwinkel, and they had eleven children. Among these, Herman was the youngest, on which account, perhaps, he enjoyed even more and better school advantages than ordinarily, attending the grade schools of his home district. Both parents, industrious and esteemed by those who knew them, are now dead.

As early as 1882 Mr. Dickel came to the United States, and having clerked for three years in Germany, and finished his apprenticeship in the proper manner, he had no trouble in securing employment in New York, where he also spent three years, and rapidly acquired a knowledge of American ways. In 1885, however, just when California was beginning to feel the impetus of the "boom," Mr. Dickel left the Atlantic metropolis and came to the Pacific Coast. Not only that, but he came straight to Anaheim, where for ten years he worked in Mr. Langenberger's store. In 1895 he leased the establishment, and for twenty-two years conducted it for himself as a general merchandise center.

On June 8, 1887, Mr. Dickel married Miss Rosie Schmidt, a native of Anaheim and a member of a family rather distinguished as Californians of the pioneer sort. Traveling most of the way wearily and at great danger on foot, her father crossed the great plains and settled in this vicinity about 1851; so that when, in 1857, a group of optimists founded Anaheim, he was here and ready to join in the movement. Three sons blessed this union: Theodore E., a mining and civil engineer, now in Tejamen, Durango, Mexico; Arnold C., of the same profession, in Pittsburg, Cal., and Percival A. Dickel, an artist, is at home. Arnold saw service in the great war. Three grandchildren have been born to attest the sturdiness of the stock.

Mrs. Dickel was a cultured and refined woman, with a love for the beautiful, and was an artist of ability, having spent four years in the art centers of Germany, study- ing painting. The Dickel home is replete with paintings on china and canvas of her own production. Kind, generous and charitable, she was a woman of beautiful char- acter, and her passing, December 8, 1919, was indeed a severe blow to her husband and children, as well as her host of friends, for she was endeared to all who knew her.

A Republican in national politics, Mr. Dickel has served as city trustee of Ana- heim for four years, and has been treasurer of the Anaheim Building and Loan Asso- ciation for thirty-two years. He is an Odd Fellow, and also an Elk, and belongs to the Mother Colony Club. In many ways, Mr. Dickel has proven his value as a whole- hearted citizen, always having the future of Anaheim and Orange County before him, and ever ready to hasten the honr when the Golden State, among the late-comers into the Union, shall "come into its own."

FRANK WILLIAM CUPRIEN .- An American artist who has attained distinc- tion in foreign lands as well as in his own is Frank William Cuprien, of the Viking Studio, at Laguna Beach, the Mecca of many, frequently those favored in foreign travel, who have discovered his whereabouts and his art, and who appreciate him at his trne worth. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., on August 23, 1871, and attended the excellent schools of that home city. He grew up so near to the ocean that it is only natural he should have loved the sea while yet a mere youth; and he early became a marine painter. In the beginning, however, he received but scant encouragement when he most needed sympathetic help, his first efforts dating back to school days and his coloring picture books with the aid of a Murillo paint box given him-a keepsake he prizes today. His father was Charles Cnprien, a native of Brooklyn, the son of a tapestry and cloth merchant of that city who emigrated from Lyons. Charles Cuprien had married Miss Phillipin' Millar, a native of Brooklyn, and the descendant of a well-known and long-established family originally from Manchester, England.

Frank William Cuprien pushed into New York City as early as he could, and in the evenings attended the art and drawing classes of the Cooper Institute, one of the oldest and best established and conducted schools of its kind in America; and when he had the leisure, he spent his free time profitably in the galleries. Up to his eight- eenth year he had really been interested more in drawing than in painting, and his first course in painting at the Art League in New York was taken under the direction of the renowned artist, William T. Richards, of Brooklyn. When he was a mere boy, his ambition was to study under this master; and this dream was realized, on the attaining of his eighteenth year.

Soon afterwards, he left America to study in Europe; and in Paris he gave his attention to the voice and the piano, becoming proficient as a singer and a pianist, and earning a reputation for his own compositions. He attended the royal conservatories

A.Dikl.

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

at Munich and Leipsic for three years, and in 1905 was graduated from the Royal Conservatory. Then he toured Italy, and spent much time in Florence.

About that time, he began to study marine art, and to perfect himself, he traveled up and down the Mediterranean, even to Athens, and spent eleven years in Europe studying and painting. During this time, in order to familiarize himself with the local color of the North Sea, he spent six months on fishing smacks out from Hamburg serving as a common seaman, just as Dana and others have done, but taking along his sketch-book in order to profit by moments of leisure; and liking the experience so well, he put in four months on a steam trawler, as a friend of the captain, through which association he had the best of opportunities to study from nature and sketch. He visited Helgoland before the fortifications were erected and the great guns mounted, and that was an experience in itself.

Upon returning to America, Mr. Cuprien concluded that California must offer much to the artist, and in 1912 he came to Los Angeles, intending to settle at Catalina, and since then he has spent weeks at a time roaming over and and sketching the scenery of the island. In 1913, however, Mr. Cuprien began his association with La- guna; and in 1914, he erected there his studio to which, on account of his adventures in the North Sea of Europe, he has given the name of "The Viking." It is one mile south of the Laguna Beach Hotel, and overlooks the peaceful, beautiful Pacific; and as his own original creation, it attracts the attention of passersby,

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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 86

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