USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Pomona Valley, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the valley who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 35
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living while he was developing his place he did teaming, hauling freight from the Santa Fe Railroad to Texas and Indian Territories. After living on his claim two years he moved into the new town of Montezuma, into which he had hauled the first load of lumber, and there he established a small general store, which he conducted one year; but the hot winds ruined the corn crop that year and Mr. Chain went under, with the other hard-working folks who had ventured all they had. While living here he participated in the county-seat war between the towns of Cimarron and Ingalls.
Having to begin all over again, Mr. Chain went to Topeka, where he worked for the street railway a couple of years, then returned to Alliance, Stark County, Ohio, where for eleven years he followed the trade of carpenter, which he had learned in his younger days. For seven years of that time he was with the wrecking crew, and also in the car-building department of the Pennsylvania Railroad. On account of leading such a strenuous life and the rigorous climate of the East, in November, 1902, Mr. Chain and family came to Pomona, Cal. He arrived here with limited capital, but went to work as a carpenter, operating in Long Beach, San Pedro, Huntington Beach and Pomona, working on many of the fine residences in those localities. He later became a contracting builder in Pomona, following that calling for many years, during which time he erected many of the fine homes here. In 1905 he bought ten acres of land on West Fifth Street, which had been set to grapes, walnuts and fruit. He erected a comfortable home and greatly improved the property, so that in 1918 his walnut trees produced three tons of nuts, and he had six tons of peaches from 300 trees.
In 1914 Mr. Chain became foreman of the Pomona city schools, and has had charge of the janitors, buildings and grounds. Since assuming the position he has systematized the duties of the office and thereby saves time and labor in carrying out his ideas. He has been especially interested in beautifying the different school grounds and is particular in seeing that the buildings are kept in good repair, for a "stitch in time saves nine." His work is dignified by responsibility and his many friends are pleased that he gaves perfect satisfaction.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Chain : Clodine J. is the wife of Henry Ingram, an attorney in Gridley, Cal. She was born October 30, 1885, in Jefferson County, Kans., and is the mother of two children, Phyllis Dean and Mary Elizabeth; Opal M. is the wife of A. T. Richardson, part owner of the Pomona Progress. She was born August 24, 1887, in the sod house in Kansas, and has one son, Charles T .; Harold S. was born in Alliance, Ohio, March 2, 1899, and is a salesman for Smart & Final. Mr. and Mrs. Chain are members of the First Christian Church. Mr. Chain belongs to Po- mona Lodge No. 246, I. O. O. F., and he and Mrs. Chain are members of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.
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HARRY RANDOLPH WHITE
A descendant of an old pioneer family of the state, and himself a native son of California, Harry Randolph White was born at Court- land, Sacramento County, January 2, 1864, a son of Caleb E. White, whose life story is given on another page of the history. As a young man he was on the range with his father, doing his share toward the development of the state, and also sharing in the hardships of agri- cultural life in those days of more primitive methods and surroundings.
Leaving the range, he later found employment in a grocery store, and was next manager of a large wholesale fruit house in Los Angeles. On the death of his father, September 2, 1902, he assumed the care of the home place in Pomona, and his early training has stood him in good stead, for he has made a most efficient and thorough horticulturist, having learned the fruit industry from the ground up in the school of experience. He makes his home on the old ranch and keeps it in splendid condition. His mother's death occurred December 12, 1910.
The marriage of Mr. White, which occurred in 1897, united him with Miss Mary Blaney, a native of England, and four children have been born to them: Rebecca A .; Helen May; Irene M., and Mar- guerite. Mr. White is a Republican in politics, and gives his support to all movements tending toward the advancement of his district, with a patriotic interest in the commonwealth as a whole and particularly in his own community. He was one of the charter members of the Moose Lodge in Pomona.
EVERETT HASKELL WELCH
One of the representative citizens of Pomona and active in the life of the community for the past twenty-eight years, Everett H. Welch is a native of La Salle, La Salle County, Ill., born October 4, 1858. At the age of eleven, he moved with his parents to Gales- burg, Ill. His father, William Wallace Welch, was a doctor, and served throughout the Civil War in the Fifty-third Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, except for a time when he was medical director of the Army, Department of Tennessee. Everett H. studied medicine with him for four years. He decided, however, to take up railroad- ing, and in 1881 started in with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway as night operator at Abingdon, Ill. Later he was agent and operator at Cromwell, Iowa, for two years. For seven years he was agent and operator for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway at Brown, Clinton County, Iowa.
September 6, 1891, Mr. Welch came to Pomona. For a time he worked in Major Driffil's nursery and at setting out fruit trees on different ranches. June 5, 1892, he became station agent for the Santa Fe Railway at North Pomona, and has been agent and operator there since that date, a period of faithful service which speaks for
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itself. At that early date the postoffice was in the station, and Mr. Welch was assistant postmaster, besides his other duties. He has seen many change in this section of the Valley during his long residence here; has seen all the orange groves set out and brought to their present state of productiveness. When he became agent the Richards Orange Ranch was just coming into bearing and the next year they shipped nine cars of fruit, and this increased to 200 cars yearly, until the property was subdivided. A part of the railway station was at that time used for packing and storing the fruit, as this was before the days of the packing houses.
The marriage of Mr. Welch, in Dubuque, Iowa, December 25, 1884, united him with Florence R. Marugg, of French and Swiss descent; she was born in Menominee, Wis., January 25, 1868. Mr. and Mrs. Welch are the parents of three children, the two oldest born in Brown, Iowa, and the youngest at the family home in Pomona : Esther B., born October 23, 1885, is the wife of Charles V. Gillette of Pomona, and the mother of two sons; she is an active member of the Eastern Star in which she is a past district deputy, and she is a Daughter of the American Revolution. Edward Everett, born March 13, 1888, a graduate from Pomona High School, began in 1909 as telegraph operator with the Santa Fe at Hanford, and continued as an operator in various points on the Pacific Coast; from 1912 to 1914 he was radio operator in the United States Navy; and when the United States entered the war, he went into training at Camp Lewis, joined the Ninety-first Division, Three Hundred Sixteenth Field Signal Bat- talion, United States Army, served in France and Belgium and saw action in the Argonne, and other battles; he returned to the United States after the armistice was signed and was discharged at Camp Kearny, and is now with a reclamation surveying corps in the Sacra- mento Valley. The youngest son, Elwyn H., born June 28, 1895, was educated in the public schools of Pomona, and was graduated from Pomona College, June 17, 1918, with high honors, and during his last year in college was class president. He became a member of the Fortieth Division, attached to the One Hundred Fifty-seventh Field Hospital Corps, United States Army, which was later detached and operated independently of the Fortieth, being stationed at Mars Le Tours, France. He became a sergeant, was discharged at the Pre- sidio in San Francisco, and is now taking a medical course in the University of California at Berkeley.
Mr. Welch has been prominent in fraternal organizations in the city ; in the Masonic orders he is a past master of Pomona Lodge No. 246, F. & A. M .; past high priest, Pomona Chapter No. 76, R. A. M .; past commander of Southern California Commandery No. 37, K. T., and past worthy patron of Pomona Chapter No. 110, O. E. S. He is active in the Odd Fellows as well, is past noble grand and past D. D. G. M. of Pomona Lodge No. 246, I. O. O. F., and is a member
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of San Antonio Encampment No. 88. He also belongs to Heliotrope Lodge No. 183, Daughters of Rebekah. Mrs. Welch has also been an active worker in both the Eastern Star and the Rebekahs; she has been worthy matron of the Eastern Star and she is past noble grand and district deputy of the Rebekahs.
The Welch family has been represented in all of the wars of this country, and their ancestry is traced back to the early Colonial days. This loyal and patriotic family is representative of the community which has grown up around Pomona, and as such deserve all honor for their public and patriotic labors for the upbuilding of our great commonwealth.
ASA G. WHITING
Thirty-four years have rolled down time's corridor since Asa G. Whiting, in search of a climate for his health's sake, less rigorous than that of the old Pine Tree State, cast his lot in the Pomona Valley. There is certainly a great contrast between the climate of the state located in the extreme northeastern part of our Union and that of ยท Southern California, situated in the extreme southwestern part, and in the afternoon of life Mr. Whiting enjoys the unsurpassed climate of the Pomona Valley under the genial California sunshine, and is still an active man for his years.
He was born February 9th, 1843, at Skowhegan, Maine, his father and mother's natal state also. The Pacific Slope has been largely populated with sturdy New England people whose thrift and reliability give tone to our cosmopolitan population and whose enter- prise has added materially to the wealth of the State of California.
Mr. Whiting was educated in the country schools of his native state, attending school in his early years in a log cabin schoolhouse, and at the age of eighteen worked in the lumber woods at Norridge- wock, Maine, and in the saw mills, cutting timber and floating logs down the Kennebeck and Penobscot rivers. As a boy he learned the trade of stonecutter. Later he was engaged in railroad building in his native state and helped build the Somerset Railroad in Maine, the Ware River Railroad in Massachusetts and the Cayuga Lake Rail- road in New York State. He was a member of the State of Maine Grange many years, and also engaged in timber cruising in the woods of Maine. In those early days of his life he mined for gold in the Province of Quebec, Canada, on the Chandier River, and he wears a gold nugget as a watch charm which he dug in the early Sixties.
When Mr. Whiting came to California in 1885 the city of Mon- rovia had not been started, and not a brick had been laid in Pasadena. He settled in Pomona Valley and purchased twenty acres of fruit land which lay between Second and Fifth streets on the east, and
A. S. Whiting
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Reservoir Avenue and San Antonio Avenue on the south. He after- wards disposed of this property and bought ten acres west of Eleanor and north of Grand Avenue, his present place, and also ten acres east of his present ranch. He planted the land to apricot, orange and wal- nut trees, planting the orange trees from seed and afterward budding them. He has been raising apricots thirty years and in that time has had only two apricot crop failures. One year he produced eighty-one tons of green fruit from 578 apricot trees. He has a fine irrigation system on his ranch, which at the present time comprises seven and one-half acres and is one of the best looking and best kept ranches in the Valley.
He has a number of valuable relics and ancient pieces in his home which he brought from Maine, among them a grandfather's clock over 100 years old, the works of which are made entirely of wood; a chair over 100 years old; a history of Norridgewock and Canaan, Maine, printed in 1849, and an English dictionary printed in England in 1790.
His marriage united him with Mary Mosher in 1883, a native of Unity, Maine, whose parents were also born in the State of Maine. Mrs. Whiting is greatly interested in raising chickens, and has four pens of fine blooded white Leghorn and Anconas.
Mr. Whiting was president of the Irrigation Company of Po- mona for twelve years and was a charter member of the company. He and his good wife are highly respected by their friends and neigh- bors. In political affairs Mr. Whiting casts his vote for the best man, regardless of party affiliations.
FRANK OSCAR SLANKER
One of the few pioneers left, and second to none among those who are highly respected for their known public spirit, is Frank Oscar Slanker, the vigilant yet considerate constable, who was born at Read- ing, Burks County, Pa., on October 12, 1857. His father was Daniel A. Slanker, a stockman and breeder of high-grade, fancy horses, who owned a half-interest in Dan Rice's Circus. During the Civil War he served for three and a half years in Company A of the Seventh Illinois Cavalry Regiment, and he died in Clinton, Henry County, Mo., where he had a large farm after the war. Mrs. Slanker was Elizabeth Leonard before her marriage, and she also passed away, the mother of twelve children.
Frank was educated at the public schools of Paris and Clinton, Mo., and then he helped his father until his fourteenth year, when he left home. He went to Illinois and lived with acquaintances; and while there he attended school for another three years.
Shortly after that, in 1875, he came to California with a family named Webster, and settled at San Jacinto; but they died a few years
18
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later, and a year after that he returned to Illinois. He came back to California, however, and this time located at Compton; and with this closer acquaintance with the Southland, he began to associate himself more permanently with California.
In 1877-a long time ago in the history of Pomona Valley and its rather recent development-Mr. Slanker came to Pomona, and for a while he worked on a farm. With Mr. Burlingame and a set of well tools, he was for four years in charge of a crew drilling artesian wells, and so helped more extensively to introduce this great French device that has been of such service in irrigation. Then he learned the blacksmith trade and worked at that for six years, and afterwards he bought a shop and carried on the trade until 1886.
Fortunately for Pomona, as well as for himself, he was elected constable in 1886, and during the years when he has cared for the observance of law and the safety of the community, he has seen the town grow from a few shacks to its present size. He is a Repub- lican in politics, but he has many a friend who belongs to another political camp.
In Pomona, on April 12, 1885, Mr. Slanker was married to Miss Sadie Keller of Ohio, and by her he has had five children: Leria married Lloyd Clark, and has one son, Lloyd; Penelope, Mrs. Russell, has one daughter, Fern; Etta, Mrs. Ryan, has one son, Richard; George; and Richard. He belongs to the Elks and the Maccabees and the Fraternal Brotherhood and Fraternal Aid. He is fond of fishing and also hunting, and by these outdoor recreations keeps himself in excellent trim for his work.
CHARLES MIDGLEY
The descendant of a famous English family, and himself a well- read, interesting man, well posted on topics of the day and a fine conversationalist, Charles Midgley made many firm friends during his years of residence in Pomona, and his passing left a clean and active record on the book of life. A native of Vermont, he was born in Northfield, June 5, 1839, of English descent and, on his mother's side, a descendant of the Whitworth family of England. When a young man he went to Canada, later to Minnesota, and at the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Ninth Minnesota Infantry and served to the end of the war with distinction.
After the close of that great conflict, Mr. Midgley farmed for a time in Minnesota, then moved to Gadsden, Ala., and was in the lime and rock business there. In 1891 he came to Pomona, and here he bought ten acres of land near town and engaged in ranching, but soon after retired from active duties. He was a member of Vicksburg Post No. 61, G. A. R., of Pomona, and had hosts of friends in the community. His death occurred December 31, 1911.
Belle R. Shaw.
& D. Shaw. Thaus
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July 11, 1865, Mr. Midgley was united in marriage with Luella Tuttle, born in Moline, Ill., and who came to Minnesota at age of two years, when that state was a wilderness and infested by Indians, Minneapolis consisting of only a few houses, and while living on the east side, the present site of the State University was a part of his farm, and he donated the land for the site. Three sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Midgley : Arthur, who died in the East, leaving a wife and two children; Col. W. W. Midgley, who was well known in Pomona as a rancher and member of the Seventh Regiment, National Guard; he is now in the cattle business in Clarksdale, Ariz .; and Robert B. of Berkeley, Cal. A grandson, Roy Midgley, son of the late Arthur Midgley, served as a mechanic with the home forces during the late war. Mrs. Midgley is a member of the Eastern Star and she attends the Congregational Church.
EDWARD D. SHAW
A descendant of thoroughgoing American pioneer stock whose immediate forbears were among the first settlers of Pomona Valley, Edward D. Shaw carried on the work so nobly started by his ances- tors in different parts of the country, that of developing and upbuild- ing the communities in which they made their homes. Born in Glen- shaw, Pa., in 1860, he is a son of W. C. and Eliza Jane ( Matthews) Shaw, the father of Scotch-Irish extraction and the mother of English descent. She was a cultured and refined woman and was a teacher in a ladies' seminary at Cadiz, Ohio, previous to her marriage. The Shaw family were among the early settlers of Pittsburgh, Pa., being large property owners in that city, owning a garden on what is now Fifth Avenue, in the heart of the city of Pittsburgh. Afterwards the family settled in Glenshaw, which takes its name from the family, a place eight miles out from Pittsburgh.
W. C. Shaw was a miller and a very prominent man in the affairs of his vicinity. Several years after Mrs. Shaw's death, Mr. Shaw decided to come to California, and he arrived at Pomona in 1887. In 1889 he set out an orange grove at Harrison and Mountain ave- nues, but finally returned East and resided at his old home in Glen- shaw until his death.
The second of six chlidren born to his parents, Edward D. Shaw was educated in the public schools of Pittsburgh. After his school days were over he entered the office of the Lewis, Oliver & Phillips Com- pany, at Pittsburgh, iron and steel manufacturers, and then with the Charlotte Furnace Company at Scottdale, Pa., where he continued for four years, and here he learned the manufacture of iron. Going back to Pittsburgh he was with the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, where he learned the Bessemer process of manufacturing steel under Phin-
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neas Barnes, remaining there two years, after which he entered the employ of the Carnegie Steel Company as inspector of steel, and soon afterwards he was made superintendent of the Cold Drawn Steel De- partment for the Carnegie Steel Company at Beaver Falls, Pa. Re- signing his position, he went with the Panhandle system of the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company as assistant bridge inspector on those lines, where he spent four years traveling over their railroad system.
In the spring of 1893 he again accepted a position with the Car- negie Steel Company as inspector in the field for the Bridge Company Department in the erection of the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad in Chicago, and immediately removed to the Western metropolis, taking up his duties with the same vim and energy that had made him so valuable in former positions. However, the strenuous life and severe climate of the East had told on Mr. Shaw and impaired his health, and he was advised to seek a milder climate, so in November, 1893, he came to Claremont and for eighteen months devoted his time to citrus culture. But the call of the bustling Eastern manufacturing centers was too much for him and the old desire for activity along those lines became so strong that he returned to Pennsylvania and re- entered the employ of the Panhandle at his old desk as assistant inspector of the southwest system of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and traveled over the system as inspector of bridge steel.
After six months of this work he found that he could not stand the climate, so in 1895 he returned to Claremont, since which time he has devoted himself to citrus culture. He purchased the ten-acre orange grove on Harrison and Mountain avenues which his father had set out in 1889 and began its care and development. He found the water supply inadequate for the growing orchards, so with others organized the Claremont Cooperative Water Company; they put down four wells and installed four pumping plants, so that they now have an ample supply of water to irrigate the area covered. This ten acres formed the nucleus of his present holdings. The first few years were hard, uphill work, but he persevered, aided by his faithful wife, and they eventually weathered the difficulties and made a suc- cess, so that about 1903 he purchased twenty acres one and one-half miles north of his place, also on Mountain Avenue. It was covered with sage brush and he cleared it, leveled it and set it to oranges, hav- ing raised the nursery stock on his own place, and the whole tract is now a bearing orchard of Navel and Valencia oranges and lemons.
In 1910 he bought forty acres on Upper Mills Avenue, a wilder- ness of sage brush. He brought water on it, cleared and improved it and now has twenty acres of it in a thriving orchard of Valencias and Marsh Seedless grapefruit, and is rapidly developing the balance. He is building a large, modern residence on the place and it is the consensus of opinion that it is one of the most sightly places in
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Claremont, commanding a magnificent view of the mountains and a beautiful view of the Valley. Mr. Shaw is president of. the Montclair Water Company that furnishes his and two other ranches with water.
The marriage of Mr. Shaw occurred at Glenshaw, Pa., October 8, 1889, uniting him with Miss Belle Richey Miller, also a native of Glenshaw, the daughter of John B. and Caroline (Richey) Miller, both born in Pennsylvania, and who were prominent agriculturists of Glenshaw. Mrs. Shaw received a good education in the schools of Alleghany City. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have three children: Marjorie, born in Chicago, graduated from Pomona College in the class of 1917 and is now the wife of Carlos S. Mundt of Alameda ; Courtney Miller and Edward Richey were both born on the Harrison Avenue ranch; the former, a graduate of the Claremont high school, is now attending the Oregon Agricultural College at Corvallis, Ore., and Edward attends the Claremont high school. The family are members of the Congregational Church at Claremont.
Mr. Shaw has seen this section grow from a few acres of orchard newly set out, to one of thousands of acres of full bearing citrus groves. In the early days there were no packing houses and oranges were packed on the depot platforms at the stations. Now there are large packing houses in every community. Mr. Shaw is a member of the College Heights Orange Growers Association. He is a Republi- can and a protectionist. Deeply interested in the development of the citrus industry in Southern California, he has proven himself a valu- able and enterprising citizen.
WILLIAM T. MARTIN
A noted apiarist who has had a very interesting and honorable part in the development of the Pomona Valley, is William T., pop- ularly called "Toots" Martin, of 362 East Third Street, Pomona. He was born in Red River County, Texas, on October 8, 1844, the son of William C. Martin, who was born in that same state when Texas was under Spanish rule. He married Miss Rebecca A. Miller, a native of Alabama, and in 1853 crossed the great plains to California, travel- ing with ox teams, and settled at El Monte, Los Angeles County.
William attended school in the El Monte school district, and afterward studied at the Sotoyome College at Healdsburg. Thus well equipped, he began to teach school at the age of eighteen, and he still has in his possession a teacher's certificate of grammar school grade. In 1865 he married Miss Nancy M. Thompson of Texas, and the daughter of Samuel S. Thompson, who located in Los Angeles County in 1852 and were thus among the early pioneers of the country.
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