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 94

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 94

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ROY D. TRAPP .- A native son of the Golden West, born at the old home place at Ninth and Lemon streets, Los Angeles, October 28, 1882, the late Roy D. Trapp was a very successful rancher and business man, accomplishing more in a few short years than many men do in a long lifetime. By his energy and optimism he accumulated a competency as well as contributing very materially to the building up and improving of Orange County, thus contributing his share towards making this one of the most important agricultural and horticultural counties on the Pacific Coast. His father, Frank M. Trapp, was a native of Missouri who crossed the plains with his parents in an ox-team train over the old Oregon Trail in 1849. Grandfather John M. Trapp was a rancher in Oregon until about the year 1860, when the family came to Los Angeles and located at the corner of Ninth and Lemon streets, where Frank M. Trapp and his father farmed together, raising oranges, limes and lemons as well as grapes and small fruits with success, so much so that at the Centennial Fair held in Los Angeles Frank M. Trapp received the first award for his exhibit. He was married in Los Angeles on November 4, 1869, to Elizabeth Pierce, also born in Missouri, a daughter of James Pierce who brought his family across the plains to San Bernardino, Cal., in 1849.

After he left the old home at Ninth and Lemon streets, Los Angeles, Frank M. Trapp engaged in farming at Artesia, then for a few years engaged in raising cattle on the Toler ranch near Whittier, after which he spent five years at Compton. He then returned to Los Angeles and there his wife died in 1901, while he survived her until December 23, 1905. They were the parents of nine children: Wm. C. is a business man in Los Angeles; Chas. E. was a successful farmer in Florence until his death; Ida E. is Mrs. Levreau, residing at Florence; John M. died at Huntington Park; Geo. O. a farmer at Buena Park; Lillian C. is the wife of Edward E. Chapella of Hollywood; Roy D., our subject; Frank M. resides at Florence; and James B. who served in the U. S. Army overseas in the World War is now a farmer at Norwalk.

Roy D. Trapp was reared on his father's farm, so from a youth became familiar with farming operations as well as the marketing of the produce. During these years his education was not neglected for, after completing the public schools, he took a course and graduated at the Woodbury Business College in Los Angeles, accumulating a knowledge that was of so much assistance to him during his business career as a rancher. His marriage took place in Los Angeles, March 10, 1906, when he was united with Miss Elfrieda Warnke who was born in Berlin, Germany, and came to Chicago, Ill., with her parents, Fred and Minnie Warnke, when she was a very small child. In that city she received a good education; when she was sixteen years of age her father passed away and soon afterward the family came to Los Angeles and it was here that she met Mr. Trapp, the acquaintance resulting in their marriage, and was a union that proved exceedingly happy to them both. With youth, health, energy and ambition they started out to gain a competence; Mr. Trapp by this time had saved enough to. own a team of horses, a plow and cultivator, so full of hope he started out and leased twenty-seven acres, which he devoted to raising wax beans and watermelons, the begin- ning of his success as a vegetable grower, gradually increasing the number of acres he farmed each year. In 1912 his home at Eightieth and South Park avenue, Los Angeles, was destroyed by fire and the next year they removed to San Jacinto for a year, and then located in Orange County, purchasing ten acres on Brookhurst Avenue, which he improved to Valencia oranges and which he afterward sold at a good profit. At the same time he leased ninety acres of the Bastanchury ranch, raising cabbage and beans and cleaning up $90,000, as prices were then at their highest level. He then leased 350 acres of the Irvine ranch near Tustin, where he engaged in intensive farming, raising hay and vegetables, specializing in cabbage and cauliflower, which he was able to market at a large profit, so that he was able to purchase forty acres on West Common- wealth Avenne in the west end of Fullerton, which he proceeded to improve, grub- bing out a few acres of walnuts and setting the whole place to Valencia oranges. He also purchased a citrus grove of about two acres on an elevation overlooking the city and here he and his wife planned and built a beautiful residence where they were

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enjoying life to the fullest, when on July 14, 1920, the horrible tragedy occurred which resulted in his death, an incident that is very fresh in the minds of the people of Southern California. This same year he was also farming the Norwalk ranch of 275 acres. Such had been his success, his optimism was strengthened so that his plan was another five years of close application on the large scale he was undertaking and he would quit and arrange his affairs so he and his devoted wife could travel abroad and enjoy the scenes of other countries. In all his plans he always included his wife, who had ever entered heartily into his business operations, assisting him in every way she could and encouraging him in his ambition so that he always gave her much of the credit for his success, but he was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his labors for he was cut down by an assassin while still in the prime of life.

He was a splendid type of man, of a pleasing and attractive personality that drew men to him, so he counted his warm friends by the thousands who esteemed him for his good fellowship, kindness and honesty of purpose and appreciated him for his integrity and worth. Since his taking away Mrs. Trapp is caring for the property they accumulated in the way they had talked and planned and thus she is carrying out, as far as she is able, his plans and ambitions for the place. Mr. Trapp was a great home man, was a member of but one lodge, Anaheim Lodge No. 1345, B. P. O. Elks.

GEORGE W. WELLS .- Well known in Orange County for years as the proprietor of the Santa Ana Soda Works and the pioneer in that industry in the county, George W. Wells is now the owner of a fine citrus ranch at Yorba Linda, having developed it from the very beginning. Born in Kirkwood, Warren County, 111., August 27, 1861, Mr. Wells is the son of W. J. and Doratha (Berican) Wells, and his forbears were well-established tradesmen of Pittsburgh, Pa. W. J. Wells, who was born in 1820, at Pittsburgh, Pa., was a veteran of the Civil War, having been a member of the Eighty-third Illinois Infantry, and for a number of years he farmed in Illinois. The mother, who was born in Germany, came to the United States in 1856, her marriage to W. J. Wells being solemnized at Quincy, Ill. The district schools of Warren County furnished George W. Wells his early education and when still a lad he accompanied his parents, with their family of five children to Wellington, Kans. These were the early pioneer days in that state and the country was sparsely settled, and Mr. Wells keenly remembers the hardships of that period, many times the only available food being buffalo meat and cornbread.

Until he was nineteen years of age Mr. Wells worked on his father's Kansas farm, then taking up an apprenticeship in harness and saddle making, to which he gave three years, later becoming the manager of a branch house in this line of trade, buying out the interest and establishing the business under his own name. During his resi- dence in Kansas Mr. Wells also became heavily interested in the stock business, but during the extreme cold in the winter of 1900 he was frozen out and suffered a dis- couraging loss. The next year he came to California with his family and located at Santa Ana, where he began the manufacture of soft drinks. He began on a very modest scale, doing all his own work, but year by year his business grew until it reached such large proportions that he was employing six men and buying his bottles by the car load, his products being sold all over Southern California. Mr. Wells made a scientific study of his enterprise and was the originator of Wells' Orange. Phosphate and other fruit punches.

In 1912 Mr. Wells purchased a tract of ten acres at Yorba Linda, which he soon began to improve. His nursery stock came from orange seeds which he planted himself. later budding them and setting out his own orchard, which he developed into a very attractive ranch. This ranch is in the center of the famous Richfield oil fields and is leased to the Union Oil Company, which is now operating on it. In 1917 Mr. Wells sold the Santa Ana Soda Works to Albert Biner and with his family removed to the Yorba Linda ranch, where they have since made their home. In addition to the home place. Mr. Wells is also managing forty-four acres of citrus groves.

Since coming to Yorba Linda Mr. Wells has taken an active interest in all the affairs of the community and has served two terms as director of both the Yorba Linda Citrus Association and the Yorba Linda Water Company, and is also a promoter of the good work being accomplished by the Farm Center. During the war he was prominent in all the drives and war loans, giving both of his time and means to further all the Government programs. In fraternal circles Mr. Wells is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, and politically he espouses the platform of the Republican party.

Mr. Wells' marriage, which occurred in 1885 at Caldwell, Kans., united him with Miss Clara L. Stearns, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William W. Stearns. Her father, who was a successful farmer in that part of Kansas for a number of years, was horn in Steuben County, N. Y., in 1834, and in 1861 he was married at Hornellville, N. Y.,

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to Miss Mary Sharp, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1841. Four children were born to them, Mrs. Wells being the only daughter. She was born in 1865 at Canisteo, N. Y., her childhood being spent near Traverse City, Mich., where Mr. Stearns was in the lumber business. When she was fifteen years of age the family moved to Wellington, Kans., and it was here that she met Mr. Wells. For some time previous to their marriage she was engaged in teaching school in Kansas. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wells: Glenn W. married Miss Jessie Ross of Santa Ana, and they are the parents of three children; they now reside in Richfield, Cal., where they are interested in the oil business; Leta is the wife of Dr. Edward Abbott of Los Angeles, and is the mother of two children; Clara is Mrs. Ray Lambert of Lemon Cove, near Santa Ana, and they have one child; George C. is in the confectionery business at Fullerton and is also interested in the oil industry.

WILLIAM E. OTIS .- A banker distinguished for his high sense of honor and his straightforward, intelligent methods of transacting business is William E. Otis, presi- dent of the Orange County Trust and Savings Bank of Santa Ana, whose keen intuition, enabling him to accurately and justly judge men, coupled with a pleasing personality, has well fitted him for years to be the head of a large financial institution. He was born in Framingham, Mass., on March 29, 1852, the son of John M. Otis, a native of Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, Pa., where he first saw the light in 1822, a descendant of an old Pennsylvania family. In 1835, he removed with his parents to Chicago, and thence to Elgin, Ill .; and on attaining his majority, he engaged in mercantile business in Lancaster, Wis. He married Sarah Georgiana Eaton, a native of Framingham, Mass., whose grandfather, Eben Eaton, was born on the same farm in 1789. He was of the third generation on the old Eaton estate at Framingham, and was a deacon in the Con- gregational Church for over fifty years. The ancestors on the Eaton side came from England to Massachusetts in 1635; and his father, Ebenezer Eaton, was an officer in the Revolutionary War and in command, with others, at the Battle of Lexington. He also followed the British on their retreat to Boston, and took part in the battle of Bunker Hill; and when General Warren fell, Mr. Eaton was one of those detailed to carry him from the field. He fought both bravely and with daring persistency to the close of the war, after which he returned to his farm at Framingham, and resumed the pursuits of peace.

In 1852, John M. Otis concluded to come out to the California gold fields and returned East to Framingham, Mass., where he left his wife and children while he made his way via Panama to California; and soon after their return to Massachusetts, William E. . Otis was born. For five years, Mr. Otis engaged in mining at Michigan Bluff, on the American River, and then, in 1857, he returned to Massachusetts by way of Panama. The family then migrated to Illinois; but after a short stay there, they continued on westward to Bentonsport, Iowa, where John Otis embarked in the grain and forwarding business and established himself as a dealer in agricultural implements. Finally, when the Des Moines Valley Road, now the C. R. I. R. R., reached that city, in 1866, he located there and engaged in the grain business, dealing as well in agricul- tural implements; and at Des Moines this worthy couple passed away.

The second eldest of six children, William E. Otis attended both the grammar and the high schools of that locality, and having completed his studies in June, 1867, he entered the First National Bank at Des Moines as collection clerk and was soon advanced to the more responsible position of teller. In March, 1871, he removed to Kansas, and there at Thayer became cashier of a bank called the Southwest Loan and Land Company. In November, 1871, he removed to Independence, Kans., where he was appointed cashier of J. O. Page's private bank; and he remained in that position until the fall of 1873, when Mr. Page sold his banking institution to William F. Turner and William E. Otis, whereupon Mr. Otis conducted the bank under the firm name of Turner and Otis until October, 1879, when he purchased Mr. Turner's interest and the . name of the firm was changed to William E. Otis and Company. In September, 1883, he organized the First National Bank of Independence, retaining nearly the entire stock; but in April, 1886, he disposed of his holdings and removed to Kansas City, where he embarked in the land business, purchasing considerable real estate.

In October, 1891, he bought the controlling interest in the Winfield National Bank of Winfield, Kans., and served as cashier until about 1903, when he was elected president of the bank and his son, E. G. Otis, was elected assistant cashier. In 1901 he organized the Dexter State Bank at Dexter, Kans., and owning the control for several years, was also president. In January, 1902, he acquired control of the Farmers State Bank of Arkansas City, Kans., and became its president. In 1907 he sold his interest there, and the following year purchased a third interest in the National Bank of Commerce of Wichita, Kans., where he was a director for a number of years, being the largest stock-

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holder, in fact, in the bank. In 1909, he bought the Bank of Commerce at Udall, Kans., became its president and his son-in-law, C. A. Vance, was made cashier. In 1911 he sold his interest in the Winfield National Bank, having decided, after several visits to California, to locate on the Pacific Coast.

In 1911, therefore, Mr. Otis came west to San Diego, and in December of that year he purchased a large interest in the University Avenue Bank of that city, and was elected vice-president; and in June, 1912, E. G. Otis severed his connection with the Winfield National Bank and joined his father in San Diego, as cashier. In 1913, Mr. Otis was elected a director in the Bank of Commerce and Trust Company of San Diego. In January, 1917, he disposed of a part of his interest in the University Avenue Bank and removed to Santa Ana; and here he purchased a large interest in the Farmers and Merchants National Bank and the Home Savings Bank of Santa Ana, and was elected vice-president of both banks. At the same time, in connection with his son-in- law, C. A. Vance, he bought a large interest in the First National Bank of Tustin, where Mr. Vance was made cashier. In the fall of 1917, he sold the balance of his interests in the San Diego Bank and in the fall of 1918 sold his interest in the Farmers and Mer- chants National Bank, and the Home Savings Bank of Santa Ana, and on January 1, 1919, retired from the vice-presidency, at the time of its consolidation with the First National Bank. On February 1, 1919, he purchased a large interest in the Orange County Trust and Savings Bank, and was elected president of that well-established institution.

During all the years of his residence in Kansas, Mr. Otis had been interested in agriculture, and in the development of Western lands, and at one time he owned thirteen farms in Kansas and engaged extensively in the stock business at Winfield, even carrying it on for several years after coming to California. In the seventies, he also had an agricultural implement store in Independence. It is natural, therefore, that since coming to California, Mr. Otis should have the same spirit and faith in lands, hesitating neither to advise others to invest nor to invest himself. He owns two citrus orchards, totaling sixty acres, in San Diego County, and 110 acres adjoining Santa Ana on the south, where on exceptionally rich soil he is raising alfalfa, but will soon set the place out to walnuts.

Mr. Otis has been twice married. At Cairo, Ill., in September, 1880, he became the husband of Miss Daisy H. Robbins, who was born in Chicago in 1857, a daughter of Chandler Robbins and a member of an old Boston family. Her grandfather, the Rev. Chandler Robbins, was a pastor of one of the Congregational Churches in Boston for many years, and she was a graduate of Ferry Hall Seminary, Chicago. She passed away, a sweet memory to all who knew her only to love and esteem her, in Kansas City, in April, 1891, leaving five children: Lillian is the wife of C. A. Vance of Tustin; William E. Otis, Jr., lives at Fort Worth, Texas; E. G. Otis is assistant cashier of the California Bank of Los Angeles; Clara has become the wife of A. S. Cosgrove of the Southern Trust and Commerce Bank of San Diego; Mildred, who passed away in. 1918, appre- ciated by a circle of admiring friends, was the wife of Eugene Ferry Smith, an attorney of distinction in San Diego. On the occasion of Mr. Otis's second marriage, at East Orange, N. J., in September, 1916, he was joined to Mrs. Emma (Gould) Whipple, a native of Andover, Mass., and a representative of another old New England family who have been prominent in American history, being a descendant of Capt. Joseph Gould, who served as a captain in the Revolutionary War, raising a company of twenty men at Topsfield, Mass., and marching them to Boston where they fought with the Con- tinental forces. He was one of Paul Revere's men who rode out and gave the alarm. On her maternal side Mrs. Otis is descended from the Cogswells of Westbury, Eng- land, who came to Massachusetts in about 1635 and settled at Andover, and she now owns the old Cogswell homestead, a quaint old New England home. She is an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, having served as regent of the Santa Ana Chapter. Mr. and Mrs. Otis are members of the First Congregational Church of Santa Ana, where Mr. Otis is chairman of the board of trustees, an office of honor and responsibility which he also most creditably filled for years during his . residence in Kansas.

WALTER ALBERT STORTZ .- One of the most loyal residents of Seal Beach who is always pleased to extoll the advantages of its climate and beach attractions, is Walter Albert Stortz, a native of Ohio, born at Newark, April 24, 1883, the son of John C. and Elizabeth (Hershman) Stortz, also born in Ohio. His father was a moulder until cement construction came into general vogue when he followed cement contracting until he came to California, his wife passing away in Los Angeles, and he now lives retired in Seal Beach.

Walter A. is the second oldest of their four children, being reared and educated in Newark. When his school days were over at the age of eighteen years he was

Henry Vinter. Cordelia Winters.

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apprenticed at the plumbing and steam heating trade; completing the trade he continued as a journeyman for several years. Wishing to come to the Pacific Coast, he came out to Los Angeles in 1909, later on going to San Francisco and afterwards on to Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, working at his trade in the different cities for about three years. On account of the damp climate his health became very poor and he came to Los Angeles and laid off for two years. He could get no relief, the physician finally telling him he could not live very long, so in his desperation he determined to come to the beach and enjoy the few days he had remaining. Coming to Seal Beach, then Bay City, he went in bathing, rested on the sand, basked in the sun, and ate shell fish; he started to pick up and in less than one year he went to work. There was no local plumber here and he was soon in great demand and opened a shop, since which time he has engaged as contracting plumber. He has done the principal plumbing and steam heating jobs in Seal Beach and vicinity. Mr. Stortz owns eighty acres of govern- ment land near Victorville in Luzerne Valley.

The marriage of Mr. Stortz and Inez Devenney occurred in Seal Beach. She was born in Anaheim, being a daughter of John and Elizabeth Devenney, old time settlers in Orange County. Their union has been blessed with one child, Tenney. Mr. Stortz is serving his second term as a member of the board of trustees of Seal Beach, being chairman of both police and street committee. He is also an active member and director of the local Chamber of Commerce. In national politics Mr. Stortz is a Republican of the progressive type. He is a member of the State Master Plumbers' Association.

HENRY WINTERS .- A pioneer of Orange County whose enterprise is con- nected particularly with Wintersburg, the town that bears his name, Henry Winters is a conspicuous example of a successful agriculturist, and notably associated with the advancement of the country during the past thirty years of his residence in California. Born in Trumbull County, Ohio, July 12, 1855, he was reared in his native county, where he attended the public schools and learned the carpenter's trade, at which he served a three years' apprenticeship. Mr. Winters is of German lineage. His father, Frederick, who came from near Hamburg, Germany, was a miller by trade, in the old country, and owned one of the quaint, picturesque old mills run by wind-mill power on the River Elbe. He married after coming to the United States, in Ohio, and worked five years for Governor Todd in the coal fields. In 1879 he removed from Ohio and settled in Saline County, Kans., where he became the owner of an eighty-acre farm, and lived practically retired until he died in Kansas at the age of seventy-two. His wife, in maidenhood Margaret Hardman, emigrated from Germany with her parents' family in 1830, and belonged to the first generation of boys and girls of Girard, Trumbull County, Ohio. Her father had seen active service in the French army as a soldier under Napoleon. She was the mother of eight children, six of whom were by a former marriage with John Krosinger, a tanner by trade. She attained the advanced age of eighty-nine and died in Kansas.

Henry Winters married Miss Ella Eckenrode, in Ohio, and with his wife and family lived at different places in Ohio, Kansas, Washington and Oregon. His wife died on their first visit to California, in 1883, survived by one child, a daughter named Blanche, who is now the wife of Peter Lauer of Sharon, Pa. For thirteen years Mr. Winters followed his trade in Ohio and Kansas, and did a great deal of construction work in the latter state. He made four overland trips, moving back and forth to various places, and finally settled in Orange County thirty years ago. In 1895 he again entered the state of matrimony, being united with Miss Cordelia Wilson, dangh- ter of John Benjamin and Sarah (Ivy) Wilson of Pasadena, who came to Orange County and engaged in farming and dairying. Later they moved to Modesto, where the father died in 1916. The mother is living at Modesto. Mrs. Winters is the oldest child in a family of eight children, six of whom are living. She was educated at La- manda Park, Cal., and was nineteen years old when the family moved to the Winters- burg section of Orange County. Mr. and Mrs. Winters are the parents of six children: Bonnie H., a stenographer with the Western Union Oil Company at Los Angeles; Josephine, the wife of Dale Elliott, residing at Santa Ana; Walter and Wallace, twins, and sophomores in the Huntington Beach high school; Hazel M .; and Homer A. After coming to California Mr. Winters turned his attention to agriculture, and his profound faith in practical development of the soil has not only convinced scores of his undisputed good judgment, but has been the means of their taking advantage of the conditions which he has turned to good advantage. In the earlier years of the county's history, Mr. Winters purchased twenty acres of land in Ocean View where his home is situated in what is now the great celery district, and turned his attention to raising corn and potatoes. To this he added in 1917, another twenty adjoining, giving him

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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 94

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