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 93

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 93

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After Mr. Newland's marriage he continued to farm in Morgan County until 1882, when he sold out his holdings there and removed to California. The first eight months were spent at Half Moon Bay, and then he came to Los Angeles and bought an eighty- acre farm one mile west of Compton. In 1886 he came to what is now Orange County and leased land from James Irvine, where Mr. Newland cleared and broke the land and put in the first large crop of barley raised on it. Afterwards he came up to his present location near what is now Huntington Beach and bought a tract of 520 acres; mostly tule land, and for the most part considered valueless. But with the native perspicacity and foresight which has always insured his success, Mr. Newland saw its possibilities and with his neighbors cut a ditch sytem, cleared and improved the land, and for some time made a very profitable venture in the raising of celery. Later he engaged extensively in the raising of sugar beets, in one year netting $35,000 from this crop, and of late years he has devoted quite an acreage to raising lima beans.

Mr. Newland was at one time president of the First National Bank of Huntington Beach. Always appreciating the necessity and importance of good roads, he has served on the county highway commission, and it was during his tenure of office that the county bond issue went through, appropriating the sum of $2,500,000 for 146 miles of road in Orange County. He is a trustee of the Huntington Beach high school. At present he is a director and one of the largest stockholders of the Huntington Beach Linoleum Company. In July, 1916, accompanied by Mrs. Newland, he made a trip to Astanchia Valley, N. M., and there bought a tract of 2,500 acres of land ..

Mr. and Mrs. Newland are the parents of ten children: Clara is the wife of P. A. Isenor, a rancher at Talbert; Wilmuth is the wife of Irving Thompon, who lives at El Toro; Mary Frances resides with her parents; Idelpha is the wife of Colson McConahy, a broker at Seattle, who served his country in the late war; John D. was in the U. S. Army and served in Siberia until his discharge; Jessie is the wife of John W. Corbin, and they reside on Mr. Newland's ranch at Astanchia, N. M .; William T., Jr., married Miss Hazel Fox and rents a part of the home ranch; Clinton C. married Miss Annie Hill and also rents a part of the home ranch, he also served during the war in the Signal Corps; Helen H. and Bernice M. are attending the Huntington Beach high school. Mr. Newland is prominent in I. O. O. F. circles, having been a member of that fraternity for many years.

LARS TOBIAS EDWARDSON .- A worthy couple who have done their share to develop the natural resources of the Placentia section of Orange County are Mr. and Mrs. L. T. Edwardson, who now live retired from active business cares at their comfortable home in a beautiful, well-kept Valencia orange grove, highly esteemed for their enterprise, liberality and kindness of heart. The picturesque west coast of Norway was the birthplace of both Mr. and Mrs. Edwardson, Soggendal being their native town. There on February 14, 1841, Mr. Edwardson was born, and six years later, on April 1, 1847, was recorded the natal day of Mrs. Edwardson, who in maiden- hood was Miss Anne Tolena Jacobsdatter. They were both reared and educated in the neighborhood of their birth and on March 6, 1868, were united in marriage.

Reared to agricultural pursuits, Mr. Edwardson followed farming in his native land until 1885, when they came to America. They stopped for the summer at La Crosse Wis., and in the fall of that year came west to California, locating on a farm in what is now Orange County. Two years later they came to Placentia and purchased two and a half acres, which they improved and set out to oranges; later they purchased twenty acres north of Placentia and this is set to walnuts, now bring-

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Paul Freydle

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ing in a splendid income. This place has been leased for oil and one well has already been sunk on the property. They also own a home at East Newport, where they frequently go for recreation. Always deeply interested in the progress of the com- munity, Mr. Edwardson is a member of the Placentia Orange Growers Association and the Fullerton Walnut Growers Association.

Six living children complete the happy family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Edwardson, who have journeyed together along life's pathway for more than fifty years. Anna Bergitte is the wife of John Lemke of Placentia; Carrie is Mrs. John Hetebrink of Fullerton; Ludvig is a rancher at Placentia; Hanna is Mrs. William Kennedy of Anaheim; Mary is Mrs. Frost of Boston, Mass .; Jacob is engaged in ranching at Placentia. The two sons look after the ranches, giving them the best of attention, and thus relieve their parents of all unnecessary responsibility and care, so that they can enjoy the reward of their well-spent years. They spend many pleasant days at their Newport Beach home, where Mr. Edwardson especially enjoys the fishing. In the spring of 1920 they made an extended tour of three months, traveling east as far as Boston, where they visited their daughter, Mrs. Frost, returning by way ot Wisconsin, where they visited old friends, and thence through British Columbia, down to Seattle and home, taking in many points of interest all along the way.

Residents of Orange County for thirty-five years, Mr. and Mrs. Edwardson can well take pride in the accomplishments of the past ycars and in the fact that they have done their part in bringing them about. They have prospered because of their industry and good management and are today well-to-do and in comfortable circumstances, which they well deserve. They, in turn, are always ready to aid those who have been less fortunate and show their hospitality in many ways. Reared in the Lutheran faith of their forbears, they are still active in its good works; in political matters they are firm believers in the principles of the Republican party.

PAUL TREYDTE .- Coming to.America to seek success, feeling that the oppor- tunities here were greater than in his native land, Paul Treydte was indeed successful in reaching his goal, despite the short span of his earthly existence. He was born in Eisleben, Germany, on August 22, 1879. His boyhood days were spent in the neighbor- hood of his birthplace and he received his education in the public schools of that locality where he learned the baker's trade. As the years went by he became desirous for wider fields than the land of his birth seemed to afford so he accordingly set sail for America, reaching New York June 26, 1904. For the succeeding two years Mr. Treydte worked at his trade in and around New York City and at various places along the Jersey Coast, and it was during that period that he took out his naturalization papers. Feeling that the Pacific Coast presented a broader scope for his activities, Mr. Treydte set sail in 1906 with San Francisco as his destination, coming by way of the Isthmus of Panama, reaching there shortly after the disastrous earthquake of that year. He first established himself in the baking business in St. Helena, continuing there about eighteen months, and then going to Roseville, in Placer County. There he established and operated a bakery with good success for two years and he is still the owner of the buildings occupied by the bakery and drug store in that city. Seeing the benefits of a good English education, Mr. Treydte spent much time studying at night and the diligent effort put forth by him has since been of great service.

After leaving Roseville he engaged in the bakery business in San Francisco, at 141-147 Eddy Street, and from there removed to Whittier, in Los Angeles County and ran the Whittier bakery for three years, making his manufactured product popular in Los Angeles and Orange counties. In 1916 Mr. Treydte became the owner of sixteen and a half acres of citrus land at Yorba Linda and later acquired an additional tract of nine and a half acres, making twenty-six acres in all, ten acres of the property being in oranges and sixteen acres in lemons. After oil was struck in the vicinity he leased the places to the General Petroleum Oil Company, who are now sinking a well on his place, making the ranch more valuable than ever. Besides his ranch property in Yorba Linda, Mr. Treydte owned real estate in Riverbank, Stanislaus County, and at Lynwood, Los Angeles County.

At St. Helena. Napa County, Mr. Treydte was married on December 24. 1907, to Miss Emma Kueffer, a daughter of G. and Margaret (Roming) Kueffer, who migrated from Falls County, Texas, to Napa County, Cal., in 1895, and located at Calistoga, where they were engaged in horticulture and viticulture. The father died in 1905, being survived by his widow, who resided on the old home place until 1919, when she dis- posed of it and now makes her home at Yorba Linda. Of their three children, Mrs. Treydte is the youngest and was born in Falls County, Texas; coming to California, she received a good education in the Calistoga schools. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Treydte, all of them native sons and daughters of the Golden State:

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Paul, Jr., Ella M., George S., Myrtle D., and Raymond. They all attend the school at Yorba Linda.

A loyal citizen to the land of his adoption, Mr. Treydte was an enthusiastic sup- porter of all progressive movements in Orange County. He was a member of the Yorba Linda Citrus Association and the Yorba Linda Water Company. With his family he was a member of the Lutheran Church in Whittier. A self-made man, he made a genuine success of all his undertakings after his arrival in this country and in all of this he gave due credit to his wife, who was a real helpmate to him in all his enter- prises. Mr. Treydte passed away December 2, 1920, deeply mourned by his family and friends, who appreciated him for his many virtues.

LEWIS W. BLODGET .- Prominent among the rising young attorneys of the state, is Lewis W. Blodget of the law firm of Blodget and Blodget of Los Angeles and Huntington Beach. The family of Blodget is one of the old and honored Puritan families of Massachusetts and has figured prominently in the history and development of Massachusetts and America. The first representative of the Blodget family in America was Thomas Blodget, who with his wife and two sons, came to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635. He was born in England in 1605 and left Suffolk, England, with his family, sailing from Plymouth on the ship "Increase" in 1635. He died in Cam- bridge, Mass., in 1641. The great grandfather of Lewis W., was Arba Blodget, who was born in Massachusetts in 1789. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and in the Indian Wars, and died in 1837. His father was Solomon Blodget, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, who was born in 1756 and died in 1844. Solomon Blodget's grand- father, Joseph Blodget, fought in the Indian and Colonial War in 1725. On his father's side, Lewis W. represents the tenth generation in America and on his mother's side the eleventh generation.

As progeny of the first Blodget, there are now 60,000 Blodgets in the United States, according to the genealogy of the family from their personal investigation. William Oren Blodget, the grandfather of Lewis W. was a first lieutenant in the One Hundred Fifty-first Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, and fought at Gettysburg, where he was severely wounded. His whole company was ambushed on the first day of that battle and seventy-five per cent were annihilated within fifteen minutes. He lived and died in Sugar Grove, Pa. The father of Lewis W., Spencer Langdon Blodget, was for thirteen years an honored citizen of Huntington Beach, where he came to take a position as cashier of the First National Bank in 1906, and he later became associated with the Holly Sugar factory. He moved to Los Angeles in September, 1919, and is now office manager of the Los Angeles office of the Motor Vehicle Department of the State of California. His first wife, whose maiden name was Carra M. Belnap, was born in Warren, Pa., and was a descendant of a pioneer Pilgrim family that also came to America in 1635. She died in 1893, the mother of eight chil- dren, six of whom are living: Clande Raymond, in the real estate and insurance busi- ness in Bakersfield, Cal .; Percy Langdon, a mining engineer in Darwin, Cal .; Rush Max- well, now the city attorney of Venice, was the first city attorney of Huntington Beach; Marian Bernice, wife of Cash C. Ramsey, oil man at Bakersfield; Ward Belnap, chief geologist for the Santa Fe Railway; and Lewis William. The four brothers of Lewis William are all graduates of Leland Stanford University. Spencer L. Blodget was married a second time, to Miss Florence Langdon of Chautauqua County, N. Y.

Lewis William Blodget was born in Bakersfield November 27, 1893, and lived there until he was twelve years of age, when he came to Huntington Beach. He was grad- nated from the Huntington Beach union high school in 1911, and entered the College of Law of the University of Southern California from which he was graduated in 1915 with the degree of LL.B. He opened a law office in Huntington Beach and when his brother, Rush M., who was in Arizona at the time, returned to California, the two brothers opened their law offices in Los Angeles and Huntington Beach. He enlisted in the Reserve Officers' Training Camp at San Francisco in Angust, 1917. He was com- missioned a second lieutenant on November 27, 1917, and first lieutenant August 1. 1918. He served thirteen months with the Thirteenth Infantry Regulars, and was under overseas orders and ready to sail from Hoboken, N. J., when the armistice was signed. Later he was assigned to special duty in Washington, D. C., and was honorably dis- charged January 9, 1919, at Washington. He was elected city attorney while yet in service and was notified by wire of his election, on the strength of which he secured his discharge. He lost no time in getting back into practice.

Mr. Blodget was married September 3, 1919, to Miss May M. Ball of Morristown, N. J. He is a member of the Delta Chi (legal) Fraternity of the University of South- ern California Chapter; Sons of the American Revolution; is a Mason, being senior

LeurBlodget

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warden of Huntington Beach Lodge No. 380, F. & A. M .; and is commander of the Joseph Rodman Post, American Legion, at Huntington Beach. He is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the Orange County Bar Association and the City Attorneys' Association of Southern California. He is a member of the Republican Central Committee of Orange County. Both Mr. and Mrs. Blodget are popular with a wide circle of friends and take an active part in social affairs.

HARRY E. ZAISER, M. D .- Orange County takes pride in its County Hospital, and looks with confidence and satisfaction upon the daily responsible and trying work of the well-trained officials in charge. A leader among these is naturally Dr. Harry E. Zaiser, the physician selected to superintend the institution, upon whose experience, foresight and common sense judgment, as well as sympathy and tact, so much depends. A Hawkeye by birth, he first saw the light at Burlington in December 16, 1880, the son of John and Margaret Zaiser, the former since deceased, while the mother is living at the fine old age of eighty. There were nine children in the family, and Harry was the youngest of them all.

Having attended the grammar school, he was graduated in 1897 from the Bur- lington high school, and then began a clerkship of two years in the iron mill in that city. After that he took a business college course, and was employed as clerk in a wholesale office until 1898, when he went to St. Louis to study medicine. He matricu- lated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, studied there for four years, and was graduated in 1902. At the conclusion of his strenuous work in Missouri, he went abroad for post-graduate work, and then practiced in Burlington until 1909.

Removing to California, Dr. Zaiser settled in Orange County and established a practice at Santa Ana, which he continued until he was appointed to his present position in 1914. His record as county physician in Burlington, lowa, doubtless had much to do with his being selected for one of the important posts of its kind in California. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Orange County Medical Association and of the Southern California Medical Society. In national politics a Republican, Dr. Zaiser adheres to party politics in local affairs only when they promote and do not hinder nor defeat the important goal to be attained.

Dr. Zaiser was married at Burlington, in 1909, to Miss lda Thompson, a native of that city and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Ihrer. They attend the First Methodist Church. Since he has taken charge of the work. Dr. Zaiser has done much to bring the County Hospital to the front, and while regarding his own part in a very modest light, he is naturally proud of the good that has been accomplished there. Not only are the sick cared for to the best of human ability and with every scientific aid, but the poor proven indigent are also received, and enjoy equal care. Thus the good name of Orange County, that has poured out so lavishly to those in distress, is protected and enhanced by these faithful public servants, Dr. Zaiser and his excellent staff.

EVAN DAVIS .- An admirable man who left behind him both a blessed memory and an equally admirable woman, for years his devoted wife, was Evan Davis, who first came to Orange towards the middle nineties. He was born at Edgerton, Wis., on January 24, 1858, the son of Percival Ferdinand Davis, a native of Western New York, who settled in Wisconsin in early days, and was a merchant at Edgerton. Evan was reared in Edgerton, where he attended the public schools. He completed his studies at Milton College and then engaged in manufacturing at Milton, Wis., making a punch and die machine. After a while he engaged in real estate and fire insurance at the same place, and at Emerald Grove, on December 12, 1883, married Miss Ida E. Ransom, a native of that place and the daughter of Asa G. Ransom, who was born in Middle- field, N. Y. He came to Wisconsin and as a pioneer farmer broke the prairie. Mrs. Ransom was Martha Hubbell before her marriage, and she was born in New York state. She became the mother of five children, among whom Ida was next to the youngest, and is now the only one living in California. She also was educated at Milton College and there she met Mr. Davis.

In 1894, Mr. and Mrs. Davis located at Orange, Cal., and here, on South Glassell Street, he opened an office for the transaction of a real estate and insurance business. Soon after this he became an oil broker in Los Angeles, and with an office at 104 Stim- son Building, he bought and sold crude oil. He sold oil to gas plants as well as other manufacturing establishments, and being an expert machinist and engineer built up a good trade. At the same time he made his home in Orange; and inasmuch as he was musical and had been leader of the Wisconsin band at Milton, he was naturally made the leader of the Orange Band and Orchestra, and he also sang in the Presby- terian Church choir. He joined Orange Lodge of the Odd Fellows and became a

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past grand, and was a member of the Encampment and Couton in Santa Ana, being a past chief patriarch in the Encampment, and is a member of the Rebekahs, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Royal Neighbors, and the Fraternal Aid Union, and was also an elder in the Presbyterian Church at the time of his death, on July 16, 1917. After his death his son, Percy R. Davis, conducted the business, and then, when he was called to the war, Mrs. Davis discontinued the business.

Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Davis. Leon died at the age of twenty- seven; Percy R. served in the Three Hundred and Sixteenth Engineer Corps, Ninety- first Division, overseas, and on his return here took up his residence in Orange; and Arline, who graduated from the Orange Union high school and also the Library School in Riverside, before going to Pomona College, where she was assistant librarian, was graduated from Pomona with the Bachelor of Arts degree, and is now librarian of the Girls' School at Riverside.

Mrs. Davis is a member of the Presbyterian Church and the Ladies' Aid Society, and is active in the missionary work of that organization. She is a member of the Rebekahs, and is a past noble grand and is an ex-representative of the same order, and a past district deputy president. She is also a member of the Veteran Rebekahs, where she is a past president; and she belongs to the Royal Neighbors, and has passed all the chairs.

BENJAMIN KRAEMER .- One of the oldest settlers of the Placentia district, having come here with his parents in 1867, is Benjamin Kraemer, who was born in Belleville, 111., in the year 1867. His father, Daniel Kraemer, was born in Bavaria; he came to the United States in 1842, arriving in New Orleans, then came up the Mississippi River to St. Louis and walked out to Belleville, the county seat of St. Clair County, 111., where he obtained employment on the farm of Mr. Schrag and became acquainted with his daughter Eleanora Schrag, resulting in their marriage. They became owners of a farm there and resided there until nine children were born to them. As early as the fall of 1864 Daniel Kraemer made his first trip to California, visiting Southern California and purchased 3,900 acres of land a part of the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana; the land was then a wilderness of mustard, brush and cactus. In 1866 he made a second trip to his California possessions and in 1867 he brought his family out and located on his ranch. Each trip he had come via New York and Panama to San Francisco and thence by boat to San Pedro, from which place he came overland to Anaheim. His was the first white family in the Placentia district and our subject was the first white baby in what was then the Cajon school district. A few years later Daniel Kraemer's friend, Mr. Kossert, came out to Santa Ana and was associated with Messrs. Spurgeon and McFadden in Santa Ana real estate; when he sold out he went to Mesilla, N. M., and was never again heard from by them.

Daniel Kraemer was active in irrigation matters and was one of the builders of the Cajon ditch, when it was first attempted, but it proved a failure at that time and he lost what he had put into it. Later, however, the Cajon ditch was carried through under the Bush Act and was later merged wtih the Anaheim Water Company, now the Anaheim Union Water Company. Daniel Kraemer was, however, the first individual to irrigate in Orange County from a ditch taken out of the Santa Ana River. He received twenty shares of stock in lien of his old water right of fifty inches from the Anaheim Union Water Company, which is non-assessable stock. This stock is now owned by our subject. Daniel Kraemer engaged in ranching and set out vineyards and the first walnut orchard here; he was very optimistic for the future greatness of this region and said that this part of California would be the garden spot of the United States and also from the Brea deposits he predicted it would some day develop into an oil field. He died in 1882, aged sixty-five years; his wife surviving him until 1889. All of their nine children are living but one.

Coming to Placentia in his first year, Benjamin Kraemer's earliest recollections are of the place he still owns and has resided on since 1867. Here he learned ranching from the time he was a lad and attended the local public school. Desiring to obtain a higher education he worked his way through St. Vincent's College in Los Angeles, as well as Woodbury's Business College, graduating from the latter in 1886, when nineteen years of age, and then returned to the old home ranch, where he took up his residence in the old house built by his father, and here he lived until he completed his new residence in 1919; he has the unique distinction of living longer in one house than any other one person in Orange County-over fifty-two years. His ranch comprises sixty-seven acres of which thirty acres is devoted to raising oranges and twenty acres to walnuts, having set out every tree in his orchards. He was one of the organizers of the Placentia Mutual Orange Growers Association, of which he was a director for

Goy D. Trapp

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eight years until he resigned; he is also a member of the Fullerton-Placentia Walnut Growers Association.

Mr. Kraemer was married in Anaheim, where he was united with Miss Mary Allec, who was born in France, and they have been blessed with twelve children: Mary, Mrs. Victor Reis of Whittier; Emma; Elizabeth, deceased; Gladys; Jennie, deceased; Lucy; Benjamin, Jr .; Louisa; Annie; Jonathan, deceased; William and Rosa Belle. Mr. Kraemer is a great reader, is well posted on early history and is a very interesting conversationalist; he has been a life-long student and is a linguist, speaking several languages fluently, and he has frequently been selected as interpreter in different capacities.

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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 93

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