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 97

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1700

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FRED LIEFFERS .- An enterprising rancher who has been able to make such improvements on his valuable property that he is now both successful and influential, is Fred Lieffers, who first came to Orange in the early eighties. He was born in Han- over, Germany, ou February 2, 1861, the son of the Rev. William Lieffers, a minister of the Lutheran Church, and was brought up in the kingdom of Hanover, and educated at the public schools and the Hildesheim Gymnasium, or high school. When only fifteen years of age, he came out to the United States and in 1876 located at Omaha, where he continued his studies for a year at a private institute. Then, for eighteen months, he became a clerk in a grocery store, and later in Goodman's drug store; and there he studied pharmacy, serving the most practical apprenticeship to that important line for five years.

About that time, in 1883, Mr. Lieffers came west to Orange, accompanied by his mother from Omaha, and they bought a ranch half way between Orange and Tustin, and he went to work to improve it. He planted it to Muscat raisins, but they died out; again he set out the same kind of vines, but once more they withered away. He then set out the twenty-one and a half acres to walnuts and apricots and engaged in farming.

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

At Orange, too, in 1892, Mr. Lieffers was married to Miss Amelia Gatzke, a native of Posen, Germany, who came here with her parents in 1883. He then leased a ranch in Olive and ran it for four years, after which he bought the thirty-three and a half acres, set out to walnuts, and added some apricots. These he later grubbed out and set out oranges instead, and is now raising high-grade Valencia oranges. In the spring of 1919, he turned the management of the ranch over to his son and bought a home in the town of Orange, where he resides with his wife. Two children have blessed this fortunate union of Mr. and Mrs. Lieffers. Walter conducts the home ranch; and Gertrude has become Mrs. Boehner of Olive.

Mr. Lieffers and family have attended several churches, according to circum- stances. Beginning with the second year of its organization, Mr. Lieffers belonged to the St. John's Lutheran Church at Orange. When he moved to the neighborhood of Olive, he was a charter member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in that place, and for many years he was a trustee and the secretary of the church board. When he moved back to Orange, he again became a member of St. John's Lutheran Church.

In national politics, a Republican, Mr. Lieffers takes a live interest in nonpartisan endeavor for the advancement, development and uplift of the community in which he lives, and he is at all times first, and last, an American for America.

HON. CLYDE BISHOP .- An eminent representative of the legal profession in California who has twice served a satisfied constituency as a member of the state legislature, is the Hon. Clyde Bishop, who first came to California in the early eighties. He was born in Chicago, Il1., on May 23, 1875, the son of A. D. Bishop, a native of Ohio, who came to Chicago with his father, Umphry Hine Bishop and there built the first ice house on South Water Street erected in that city. Later, they lost everything by the great conflagration of 1871, after which they assisted in rebuilding the city. A. D. Bishop removed to Story County, Iowa, where he was a pioneer settler, engaging in contract painting at Nevada, but in 1881 he brought his family to California and located a mile south of Orange, where he now lives. Mrs. A. D. Bishop was Miss Annie Sabin Knight before her marriage. She was born on North Hero Island, Lake Champlain, Vt., a member of an old New England family, and died in California on the home ranch. These worthy parents had four children, all boys. Roy Knight is an orange rancher near Orange; Clyde is the subject of this review; Fern Sabin is a contractor at Santa Ana; and Umphry Holmes is also an orange grower at Orange. He graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston, but prefers the life of an orange grower.

Clyde Bishop was brought up at Santa Ana and was educated at the public schools of Orange. He assisted his father on the farm until he was twenty and then, as an actor, he joined a company and traveled through both the West and East and as far south as Mississippi. He served several years in the National Guard and when the Spanish-American War broke out he enlisted as a volunteer and was mustered in at San Francisco as a member of Company L, Seventh California Volunteer Infantry. He was stationed at the Presidio and was honorably discharged as a corporal. After the war he continued in the National Guard and at the close of fourteen years of honorable service had risen to the rank of first lieutenant. In May, 1899, Mr. Bishop began the study of law in the offices of C. S. McKelvey and Victor Montgomery at Santa Ana and on April 15, 1902, he was admitted to the California Bar. Four years later, on November 26, he was admitted to all the United States courts. In 1902 he opened the same office he has today, with the same desk, and is now the second oldest practicing attorney in Orange County with one of the largest and most lucrative practices in the county, and an ever-increasing clientele.

In 1906 Mr. Bishop was elected on the Republican ticket to the assembly of the California legislature and served during the winter of 1907 and he wrote, among other measures, the Newbert Protection District Bill, designed especially for the safe-guard- ing of Santa Ana. Having been elected again to the assembly in 1910, he was chairman of the committee on counties and county boundaries and a member of the judiciary committee and the committees on constitutional amendments and municipal corpo- rations. In 1915 he wrote the act under which county bonds were voted for the improvement of the harbor at Newport Beach and spent his time and influence at the capital to see that it was passed. For two and a half years Mr. Bishop was city attorney of Orange and conducted the first bond issue, by which Orange bought the present city water works. He was also attorney for Newport Beach and conducted the proceedings creating Newport Beach. This office of city attorney he has held since Sep- tember 1, 1906. In criminal and civil procedures Mr. Bishop has attained distinction. It can safely be said there has not been an important case in the courts of Orange County in last two decades that he has not been retained on one side or the other. A

Clyde Bishop

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

prominent Republican, but too broad-minded to be ultrapartisan in local affairs, Mr. Bishop is an honored member of the Orange County Bar Association and he also belongs to the Spanish-War Veterans' Association.

At Santa Ana he was married to Miss Ana Young, a native of New Jersey who was reared in Orange County. He is a Knights Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and is also a member of Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., in Los Angeles, the Santa Ana Lodge of Elks, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, in which he is a past officer. Mr. Bishop is truly a self-made man, having risen through his own efforts to the high place he holds among the California Bar. He is very thorough and painstaking and is not satisfied until he gets to the bottom of the case in hand. He is an indefatigable worker and is never idle. With his pleasing personality and affable manner together with his integrity and honesty of purpose it-is not to be wondered at that he has attained a standing of such eminence.

JOSEPH F. VOLLMER .- A successful contracting painter is Joseph F. Vollmer, the principal sign writer of Orange, pleasantly identified with the town for almost a decade. He was born in Mascoutah, St. Clair County, Il1., in 1879, the son of Wendel Vollmer, born in Germany, who came as a young man to Illinois and St. Clair County, and was married at Mascoutah to Miss Anna Goodwein, a native of that place. He was a farmer there, and later removed to East St. Louis, where he was in business until he died. He had nine children, seven of whom grew to maturity, and six of them are still living.

The eldest of these, Joseph attended the public schools in East St. Louis, and having obtained a place in Van Houten's paint shop, in East St. Louis, was appren- ticed to learned the painter's trade. At the end of four years, he left there, and from 1907 for the next three years he was in the service of George A. Watts at St. Louis. Returning to East St. Louis, he worked at his trade under Mr. McNitt; but in 1912 broke away from the East, came to California and located at Orange.

Here he formed a partnership with Frank Pister, under the firm name of Pister & Vollmer, and together they understook contract work in painting. In 1914, how- ever, he sold out to Mr. Pister and took a trip East. Returning, he started in business for himself, and soon was in great demand as a sign writer. He did the painting of the El Modena School, the Center Street School and the Lemon Street School; the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Newport Harbor Yacht Club House, . the N. T. Ed- wards residence, the house of the Foothill Valencia Growers Association, and all four of the Acme stores in the county, and numerous residences, including many bunga- lows. He belongs to the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and is always glad to do what he can to advance the best interests of both city and county. A Republican in matters of party politics, Mr. Vollmer stands shoulder to shoulder with his fellow- citizens, without regard to party affiliations, in the support of every good measure likely to benefit the community. He is the father of three children-Jack, Otto and Roch Vollmer.

RUDOLPH W. MILLER .- One of the ablest contractors and builders in Orange whose success is doubtless in part due to the fact that, in addition to a valuable tech- nical training, he has been favored with a well-developed sense of the artistic, is Rudolph W. Miller, familiarly known by his many friends as "Doc" Miller, a native of Fort Dodge, Webster County, Iowa, where he was born on May 24, 1874. His father, C. G. Miller, came to Iowa in the late fifties, while still a youth in his teens, accompanying an uncle; and although he was only eighteen on the breaking out of the Civil War, he immediately enlisted and throughout the great struggle served in the Thirty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry. After the war, he learned the cabinetmaker's trade in Fort Dodge, and later started a furniture factory; and still later, he was engaged in contracting and building. He had married in Iowa, Pauline Loescher; and in that state he continued business until 1880, when he removed to Norfolk, Madison County, Nebr., and continued as a contractor, and thus helped to build up that town.

Rudolph Miller having come to Orange in 1905, the parents followed two years later; and here, in comfort and peace, they ended their days. In 1911 Mr. Miller died, and six years later, Mrs. Miller breathed her last. She was the mother of eight chil- dren, of whom Rudolph was the third eldest. He received all the educational advan- tages afforded by the Norfolk public schools, and then learned the carpenter trade under the guidance of his father. As soon as possible, too, he studied architecture during his spare moments, and so became skilled as a draftsman as well as a carpen- ter. In 1905 he located at Orange and here entered the employ of the Ainsworth Lumber and Milling Company, working in their cabinet department, and continuing with them until they sold out.

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY

Mr. Miller then took up contracting and building for himself. His first contract was entered upon with two partners, H. W. Duker and Emil Loescher, with whom he erected the St. John's Lutheran Church in 1913, the largest structure in Orange, and after that he formed a partnership with Emil Loescher and Fred T. Volberding, and engaged in contracting and building. A year later, these enterprising gentlemen put up a planing mill on North Lemon Street, and they also engaged in manufacturing. In January, 1919, Mr. Volberding and Mr. Miller bought out Mr. Loescher, and since then they have carried on the business together, styling themselves the Orange Con- tracting and Milling Company.

Having equipped their establishment with electric power and the latest and most modern machinery for doing mill and cabinet work, they have laid in a large stock of hardwoods, cedar, white pine and finishing lumber, and for those clients who desire them, they make plans, designing bungalows and more pretentious residences. They have thus acquired a reputation for the highest class of work, and a sample of what they can do may be found in Mr. Miller's own residence on East Palmyra Street, one of the finest finished homes in the county. Mr. Miller is naturally a member of the American Contractors Association.

At Orange, on July 4, 1916, Mr. Miller was married to Mrs. Fay (Casner) Meehan, a native of Ventura County, Cal., and the daughter of Thos. J. Casner, who was born in Texas and crossed the plains to California, in his twenty-first year, with his parents. They settled in San Diego County, where her father married Texanna Lester, also a native of Texas, and moved to Ventura County. There they farmed, later removing to Santa Paula, in which place Mrs. Casner died. The father now resides in Selma. There were eight children in the family, and Fay, as the second eldest, was educated at Santa Paula. She was first married at Orange, in 1897, to Jack E. Meehan, a native of York, Nebr., who came to Orange and was proprietor of the Plaza Market for many years, in partnership with N. T. Edwards; when they dissolved, Mr. Meehan went in for wholesaling meat, and in that line of trade he was engaged when he died, in August, 1912.

THOMAS L. McFADDEN .- It is interesting to chronicle the life of a native son who has had the ambition to acquire a wide and comprehensive knowledge of the law and, combined with high ideals, bring it into practice and make a success of his profession, commanding the confidence and respect of the people in the community where he was born and reared. Such is the case with Thomas L. McFadden, the son of pioneer parents, William M. and Sarah J. (Earl) McFadden, prominent in the development and building up of the Placentia section. Of their six children that reached maturity, five of whom are living, Thomas L. is the fourth eldest. A native son of Orange County, he was born at Placentia April 24, 1878. He was reared on the farm and early acquired habits of industry, laying the foundation of his physical strength, that is of such great assistance to him in everyday life.

He received his preliminary education in the Placentia schools and the Fullerton Union high school, where he was graduated in 1896, when he entered Stanford Uni- versity, graduating in the class of 1900, with the degree of A.B. During his university course he was for two years a member of the varsity football team, playing left end. He then studied two years at Stanford Law School, and taking the examination at San Francisco, was admitted to the bar in 1903. After practicing law in San Francisco for a year, he located in Bellingham, Wash., engaging in the practice of law. He served as city attorney of Bellingham, from 1908 to 1912. On account of the death of his brother in that year, he returned to Placentia, where he opened a law office and practiced until 1920, when he formed a partnership with H. G. Ames, as Ames and McFadden, with offices in the Odd Fellows huilding at Anaheim. Aside from his practice, he is interested in his father's estate, incorporated as the Pioneer Ranch Company, of which he is secretary.

Mr. McFadden established domestic ties by his marriage June 19, 1912, to Miss Lucana Forster of San Juan Capistrano, a daughter of Marco Forster, the pioneer of that place, and they are the parents of one daughter, Ysidora. Mr. McFadden achieved considerable success as a member of the varsity football team at Stanford, becoming a well-known coach, so that while at Stanford, he spent two season as coach for the Pacific University team at Forest Grove, Ore., then of the Oregon Agricultural College at Corvallis a season, and then his first year at Bellingham he spent a season as coach for the football team of De Pauw University at Greencastle, Ind. Fraternally Mr. McFadden is a member of Fullerton Lodge No. 339, F. & A. M., and Fullerton Chapter. R. A. M., and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias as well as past exalted ruler of Anaheim Lodge No. 1345, B. P. O. Elks. He is a popular member of the Fullerton Club, the Hacienda Country Club of La Habra, the Newport Harbor Yacht Club and the Union League Club of Los Angeles, as well as the state and county bar associations.

Twos. L. Me Gaddar

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HISTORY OF ORANGE. COUNTY

WILLIAM FALKENSTEIN .- A merchant who has attained an enviable success through having built on a foundation of unremitting industry, broad experience and the highest integrity, is William Falkenstein, proprietor and director of Falkenstein's Department Store. He was born in Germany, of an historic German family, on March 16, 1866, the son of Selmar and Anna ( Furstenheim) Falkenstein, both of whom are dead. Five children were born to them, and five grew up to do them honor; and fourth in the order of birth was William, the subject of our interesting review.

He enjoyed the best of educational advantages in his native land and not only attended the grammar grades, but also studied at the high school. He worked for several years in Germany, and at the age of twenty-six came to the United States. For awhile he stayed in New York City, but in 1893 he decided to push on to the great West.

Coming to California, he located at Fullerton, where for three years he was in the service of Messrs. Stern and Goodman. He went to Phoenix for a couple of years, but came back to Fullerton again; and in 1899 removed to Anaheim where, with a partner, he helped form the firm of Harris & Falkenstein. After several years he bought out his partner, and since then has conducted alone a very successful trade. He has, very naturally, become an important factor in the Merchants and Manufacturers Association and in the Board of Trade.

On September 16, 1900, Mr. Falkenstein was married to Miss Regina Harris, of Santa Ana, and they have had two children-Stanley M., who is attending the Uni- versity of California, and Edith Ruth. He belongs to the Mother Colony Club, and is a past master Mason in Lodge No. 207 of Anaheim. Having served for a year in the German army, and thus done his full duty in that respect by his native country, Mr. Falkenstein has been the more ready and experienced in performing his civic duties here, and as a Republican has taken an active interest in national politics, and has always worked hard for civic improvements. He has prospered in his adopted country, and has ever striven to give back from that which he has thus bountifully received.

WALLACE B. DENNIS .- A highly esteemed citizen of Orange who was for four years president of the school board and has long been a leader in his vicinity, is Wallace B. Dennis, a native of Iowa, where he was born near Iowa City on August 16, 1866. His father, Milton Dennis, was a native of Ohio, a member of an old Eastern family, and he became a pioneer of Iowa, when he came there with his parents and settled in Johnson County. The youngest son, he followed farming there and raised grain; and also went in for lumbering, operating on the Iowa River. He had a steam sawmill and made up lumber of ash, oak and hickory; and he became prominent in the lumber trade, being a sawyer and understanding the manufacture of just what was wanted. In 1875 he removed to Shelby County and became a farmer there; and after four years moved again to Villisca, Iowa. Then he went to Scribner, Nebr., still active in agricultural pursuits; and having retired, he died there, at the age of eighty-two. He had married Miss Eliza Crawford, a native of Ohio or Illinois; and she died in Ne- braska on the same day as did her husband, under pathetic circumstances. She was in her seventy-ninth year in 1907, and had been ill for some time; and when the old gentleman was told that his companion of so many years could not live, he fell dead. They were the beloved parents of eleven children, eight of whom are still living.

The youngest child of all, and the only one living in California, W. B. Dennis was brought up on a farm in Iowa and there attended the public schools. Then he went to Atlantic, Iowa, and completed his schooling, after which he commenced to work, with his brother, on his father's farm. At the end of a year, he went to Scribner, Dodge County, Nebr., and continued farm work, and at the age of twenty-one, began to farm for himself.

In Nebraska, on January 23, 1895, Mr. Dennis was married to Miss Mae Evelyn Neff, a native of Fremont, Dodge County, Nebr., and the daughter of Lewis H. and Lydia A. (Marshall) Neff, born respectively in Ohio and Iowa. When fifteen years old her father ran away and enlisted in the Civil War; and as a member of an Illinois regiment, he served throughout the great conflict. He then went to a business college in Davenport, and after that came out to Dodge County, Nebr., and was married at Fremont to Lydia Marshall. Then he engaged in the harness and saddlery business until 1912, when he sold out and, coming to California, located at Santa Ana, where they now reside. Mrs. Dennis is the eldest of the four children. The Dennis boys and their father had formed a partnership, but they dissolved the same in 1896, and W. B. Dennis leased a farm and engaged in raising cattle and hogs. He finally removed to Plainville, Rooks County, Kans., and bought a farm of 160 acres. He also leased land and raised wheat and corn. He was the first one to grow corn at Plainville, and having propitious rains that year, averaged sixty bushels to the acre.

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Two years later, he sold his farm and moved to Cody, Wyo., where he bought a ranch and also engaged in contracting to do teaming during the building of the great Shoshone dam, hauling all the coal for the engineers, and handling the same as a broker. This work required sixteen four-horse teams. Two years later, when the work had advanced that far, he took the contract to haul all the cement, and then used fifty four-horse teams, hanling all the cement and the coal. This had to be hauled over a mountain, and it took five years to complete the dam. On the completion of his contracts, Mr. Dennis sold his stock and in 1910 came west to sunnier California.

Locating at Orange, he soon afterwards bought his present ranch of thirteen acres on East Chapman Avenne along Santiago Creek. It was partly set out to orange trees, and the remaining three and a half acres he himself set out, mostly in Valencias and the balance in Navels, and this he cares for himself. He is one of the original members of the McPherson Heights Citrus Association, and is also a director in the same and he belongs to the Commercial Club.

Two children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Dennis. Marie June is a graduate of the University of Southern California and now doing post-graduate work, and Jean is a graduate of the Orange Union high school and a freshman in the Univer- sity of California. The family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Dennis was a school trustee of the Craig district for four years, and during this time they built the Intermediate school on North Glassell Street, and he was president of the board the entire four years. He was a Mason in Cody, Wyo., and is now a member of the Orange Grove Lodge No. 293, at Orange. With Mrs. Dennis, he is also a member of Scepter Chapter No. 163, O. E. S., where Mrs. Dennis is a past matron.

MRS. METTE HANSEN .- One of Orange County's capable, progressive women, who deserves much credit for her devotion and ability as a mother and business woman, is Mrs. Mette Hansen, widow of the later Charles Hansen. A hard-working, self-made man, conservative in his business relations and yet progressive to a high degree, he struggled long as a pioneer, and started the ranching that has since his death been made a success, thanks to his devoted wife. One of two sons of Hans Hansen, he was born near Varde, Denmark. He came to the United States and spent a short time in the East and then came to California, where he had a brother, Peter Hansen, living in the Placentia district, Orange County; there he purchased some land to the northwest of that town. After a while, he went back to Denmark for a visit; but the lure of Cali- fornia made his stay there short, and the same year he again trod the soil of the Golden State. He did not come alone, however, for he brought with him Miss Mette Nielsen, the daughter of Niels Andreasen, a farmer of Varde, Denmark, whom he married, on their arrival at Placentia in 1877, and they began housekeeping on his ranch of fifty- three acres.

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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 97

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