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 46
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On reaching Pomona, in 1909, Mr. Baker became cashier of the Savings Bank; but, having acquired three orange groves, he soon resigned to look after his ranches. These valuable properties consist of five acres in the Kingsley Tract, ten acres on San José Avenue and eight acres on his home place, at the corner of East Holt and Alex- ander Avenue, and they have been brought to that state of high devel- opment where they evidence the success of the grower.
Among positions of trust to which Mr. Baker has been called may be mentioned a directorship in the Claremont Citrus Association, another in the Kingsley Tract Water Company, and still another in the Pomona Ranch Water Company. And he is now serving his second term as a member of the Pomona Board of Education, favoring the best possible equipment for the public schools.
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Mr. Baker was married at Toledo, Iowa, on August 22, 1889, to Miss Edith Rebok, and they have three children: Mrs. Geneve Pul- paneck of Los Angeles; Irma, a teacher of domestic science in the Garey Avenue School; and a son, Herman R., who is a dental student at the University of Southern California. The family attend the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Baker is a Knight Templar and a Mason, holding membership in Pomona and in the Shrine at Los Angeles.
JOSÉ H. VEJAR
A native son of California, José H. Vejar was born on what is now Park Avenue, Pomona, January 11, 1857. His father, Ramon Vejar, was born in San Gabriel, December 24, 1830, while his grand- father, Ricardo Vejar, was born in San Diego. He became a rancher and with two partners, Ygnacio Palomares and Luis Arenas, purchased the San José Grant and divided it into three parts, he taking the part where Spadra is, while Palomares had what is now Pomona and Arenas took what is now Azusa. Ricardo Vejar was an extensive cattleman and a man of prominence and influence in his day. He died at Spadra, aged eighty-two years.
Mr. Vejar's great-grandfather, Salvadore Vejar, came from Spain to Mexico, but very soon afterwards came to California, and helped to build San Gabriel Mission, and also the Los Angeles Mis- sion. He was both a carpenter and blacksmith by trade, and he was selected to teach his trade to the Indians at the Missions; he owned a farm on what is now San Pedro Street, Los Angeles.
Ramon Vejar was raised to the cattle business, and became the owner of a ranch of two hundred seventy-eight acres on the Lordsburg Road, a part of the Palomares Estate, where he still resides. His wife, Teresa Palomares, was born in Los Angeles, a daughter of Ygnacio Palomares, who was also born in Los Angeles, and was part owner of the San José Rancho. He died in Pomona. Mrs. Ramon Vejar died in 1919, aged seventy-eight years.
José is the oldest of a family of nine boys and three girls born to his parents. He lived on the ranch with his grandfather Vejar until he died, when José was only eight years of age, after which he lived with his uncle, Francisco Palomares. He learned to ride the range and care for, as well as to rope and brand cattle. He attended school at Spadra and later in Pomona. In 1871, when his father moved to his present ranch on the Lordsburg Road, José assisted on the home farm until he was married, at the age of thirty-five, the ceremony occurring at Yorba, Orange County, when he was united with Miss Vincente Yorba, the daughter of Marcus Yorba. Her grandfather, Bernardo Yorba, was a large landowner, his holdings comprising three ranches, extending from what is now Corona to Whittier.
Dy arbethust
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José Vejar engaged in farming near Yorba, where he still owns 408 acres, as well as nineteen acres adjoining Yorba, the latter being set to oranges and walnuts. While still operating the Yorba ranch, he resides on his ranch on the Lordsburg Road, near La Verne. He was bereaved of his wife in September, 1900. Of this union were born six children: Froilan died at the age of eighteen years; Lorando; Bea- trice, Mrs. De Soto; Ramona ; Teresa and Sophia. Since the discovery of the oil gusher at Yorba in March, 1919, he has leased his land to two different oil companies. As gushers have been obtained on adjoining farms, he also stands a splendid chance of obtaining val- uable wells. Politically, he is a stalwart Republican.
DANIEL G. ARBUTHNOT
A native of Iowa who has contributed largely to the business life of Pomona Valley during his many years of residence here is Daniel G. Arbuthnot, who was born in Benton County, Iowa, on No- vember 1, 1880, and was seven years old when he came to Cali- fornia with his parents. He was fortunate in coming direct to Po- mona ; and here he attended both the grammar and the high school, after which, for a year, he studied at the University of Southern California.
Leaving the academic halls, Daniel assisted his father for a while on the home ranch, and then, at the age of eighteen, commenced to pack oranges with J. D. McClenny of Pomona. He took up the various occupations in the fruit-packing industry, and became foreman of the Moffitt Fruit Packing Company at Rialto. Then, for two and a half years was foreman of the California Citrus Union of Pomona, and after that was in a similar capacity for the Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange.
In the fall of 1909, Mr. Arbuthnot came to La Verne and helped organize the La Verne Orange and Lemon Growers Associ- ation, one of the most effective cooperative associations in the state; and he has been secretary and manager of the same ever since. Under his excellent guidance and inspiration, the establishment has become the largest plant of the kind in the Pomona Valley, and his pride in its growth, during the ten years of its existence, is very natural.
At the time of its formation there was no packing association at La Verne, and the fruit grown in that vicinity was packed by the San Dimas and Indian Hill Association plants. In a single decade, the La Verne Association has grown from an output of 225 cars for the first year to 1,500 cars during the year 1919. In the fall of 1914, also, a lemon plant was built, and in 1919, 200 cars of lemons were shipped as the La Verne crop.
In the fall of 1914, the capacity of the orange house was doubled, and a precooling and ice manufacturing plant was erected and
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equipped. Here the fruit, after being packed, is put in the precooling house and cooled, and afterward loaded on the cars, which are iced. Under this method the fruit is carried to its final destination without additional icing. The business has increased so rapidly that the stock- holders have found it necessary to erect another orange house, and to increase the size of the lemon house, which will be ready for the 1919-20 pack.
Concerning the recent progress of this useful cog in the wheel of California's industrial and commercial development, the newspapers have published an item of exceptional interest. "Next week," said one of the journals, "the offices of the La Verne Orange Growers Asso- ciation will be moved into the new administration building which is nearing completion, the work having been progressing satisfactorily since the middle of December. The new administration building will contain four handsome office rooms with a large directors' room in connection. The mission style has been followed in the architecture, the building being constructed of brick, plastered over. In the interior the woodwork is of mahogany. Besides this structure, the association has just finished a lemon storage building, the dimensions of which are 72 by 120 feet. It is especially arranged for the storage of lemons, with particular attention being given to ventilation. There are two floors to the structure, giving ample space for holding a large quantity of fruit. D. G. Arbuthnot, manager of the La Verne Association, is highly pleased with the new building."
The officers of this wide-awake association are: President, D. C. Crookshank ; vice-president, B. A. Woodford; secretary and manager, D. G. Arbuthnot; directors, V. W. Baker, Claremont; J. C. Gaff, Pomona; and W. S. Romick, R. L. Davis and J. T. Tittsworth of La Verne. September 1, a new district exchange was formed, known as the La Verne Fruit Exchange, having under its control the sale of oranges and lemons in the La Verne district, and Mr Arbuthnot was chosen secretary and manager of the new exchange, a position he is filling with his usual ability. It was also deemed advisable to separate the orange and lemon interests and the La Verne Lemon Association was formed. J. D. Van Duyene was made manager of the Orange Association to succeed Mr. Arbuthnot, and J. W. LaMont was se- lected manager of the Lemon Association. Mr. B. A. Woodford, who for many years was the successful manager of the California Fruit Growers Association, is president of the La Verne District Exchange, having all his citrus holdings in the La Verne district.
At Pomona, on December 10, 1903, Mr. Arbuthnot was married to Miss Margaret McNaughton, a native of Scotland, where she spent the earlier years of her life, by whom he has had three children : Melvin, Margaret and Raymond. The family attend the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church of Pomona, and Mr. Arbuthnot is a member of the Knights of Pythias. As a prominent orange grower
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he has owned several groves in the La Verne district; in partnership with Dana C. King, orange sales manager for the California Fruit Exchange, he has recently purchased a grove of 160 acres, eighty acres of which is highly improved, the remainder being valuable foot- hill land which offers facilities for many beautiful building sites. It is located above the Base Line Road north of La Verne and was for- merly owned by J. F. Cumberland, who personally planted the entire grove, and who is now living retired at Highland Park, Los Angeles. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Arbuthnot has personally contributed to the development of the section along the lines of its natural destiny.
LOUIS B. TULLER
A family distinguished for its interesting and enviable association with stirring American history, and its relation, in successive genera- tions, to the development, on high lines, of the American bar, is that of Louis B. Tuller, a native of Worthington, Franklin County, Ohio, where he was born on November 14, 1848. His father was Homer Tuller, a native of Connecticut and a descendant of Holland-Ameri- cans who came from The Netherlands as early as 1639 and settled in New York, after which they removed to Connecticut; so that, as an old colonial family, they took an active and very honorable part in both the American Revolution and previous wars. Homer Tuller married Miss Eliza Kilbourn, also a representative of a colonial family, whose name has more than once figured in the most honorable manner in the early history of America.
Reared and educated in Franklin County, where he eventually became justice of the peace and member of the city council at Worth- ington, Mr. Tuller was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan, and was admitted to the bar to practice in that state. His boyhood and youth were spent on a farm, and when he went to Pratt County, Kans., in 1883 (where he remained for fifteen years, excepting two years when he was in the banking business at Springfield, Mo.), he became a land-owner, as well as a banker. He was also assistant county register of Pratt County, and later, during the winter of 1888-89, docket clerk of the state senate of Kansas.
In 1889 Mr. Tuller moved west to California and took up his residence at Pomona, where he located on a ranch of ten acres, with walnut and orange groves, on Artesia Street. It was partly improved; but he set out new walnut groves and otherwise improved the property, so that he succeeded in bringing it to a very high state of cultivation and production. As a matter of fact, he really bought the ranch before coming here, and that invested interest drew him, as it has many others, to try the locality as a home-place.
While at Iuka, Kans., on June 1, 1885, Mr. Tuller was married to Miss Lula Kimple, a native of lowa, and the daughter of Adam
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Kimple, a lieutenant in the Civil War, by whom he has had two chil- dren-a son, Walter K. Tuller, and a daughter, Louisa, now Mrs. F. H. Pinska of Berkeley. Mrs. Tuller is a member of the Congrega- tional Church and the Ebell Club of Pomona, while Mr. Tuller belongs to the Unitarian Church of that city.
Walter Tuller, now junior member of the law firm of O'Melveny, Milliken & Tuller of Los Angeles, is one of the brightest young men who ever came out of Pomona Valley. He was graduated from the Pomona High School and the University of California, where he pursued the requisite courses in the department of law, and was admitted to the bar of California just before graduation, having finished a four years' course in three and a half years. He has han- dled some of the important cases of the firm with, success, especially the famous case of the California Development Company of Imperial County, which he won. He was at one time secretary of the Southern California Chapter of the Society of Colonial Wars, and is a member of the Sons of the Revolution, and he had the distinctive honor of being professor in the Southwestern Law College of Los Angeles. He also contributed articles to the North American Review and the American Law Review before he was twenty-four years of age. He married Miss Mary Shepard of Fullerton, Cal., and they have three children.
While in the University of California, Mr. Tuller was captain of the university football team, and a member of the university rowing crew; and when the war with Germany broke out, he volunteered and was one of the few who received a commission as major at the First Officers' Training School at the Presidio at San Francisco, graduating at the head of the list of competitors. He also graduated from the Staff College and Line Officers' Training School in France, and became a major in the Three Hundred Sixty-second United States Infantry, just before the armistice was signed.
His sister, Mrs. Pinska, was graduated from Occidental College and later received a teaching degree at the University of Southern California, and she taught school for four years at the Chino High School. She has one son, and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
MORRIS RANDOLPH WEINEKE
Pomona Valley has been more than fortunate in the number of capable men who have chosen this locality for their home. The history of the Valley is a record of commercial, industrial and educational achievements, and it is without doubt due to the caliber of the men and women who have labored toward the results recorded. Among these worthy builders may be mentioned Morris Randolph Weineke, horti- culturist and city trustee of Claremont, to which office he has been unanimously elected.
Ernest Brooks
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A native of New York City, Mr. Weineke first saw the light of day November 13, 1868, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Snedledg) Weineke, both parents being now deceased. His father was a commis- sion merchant in that metropolis and Morris R. received his education in the schools of New York City, and on finishing his studies was with his father in the commission business.
At the age of twenty years, Mr. Weineke left home and came to San Diego, Cal., in 1888, and in 1894 settled in Claremont, in the em- ploy of the Pomona Land and Water Company. He now spends his time, in addition to his public duties, in orange growing, having his own acreage, to the development of which he gives the best and most modern methods to be had. Since 1910 he has served as a trustee of Claremont and is now the oldest member of the board in years of service. A man of keen and broad vision, in politics he puts man above party, and is a most ready worker toward the further progress of this thriving section of the orange belt.
ERNEST BROOKS
A very successful fruit grower who has well demonstrated that to make a success as a rancher in California, one must not only be a good student of agriculture in general, but must thoroughly under- stand California conditions, is Ernest Brooks, vice-president of the El Camino Citrus Association. He was born at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, on January 14, 1864, and is the fifth oldest in a family of seven children born to Thomas Robert and Margaret Harper (Simmonds) Brooks, who were also born on Prince Edward Island, of English parents. Thomas R. Brooks was a college man and was an educator until he retired to Attleboro, Mass., where he and his wife passed the remainder of their days.
Ernest Brooks was educated in the schools of Charlottetown. When he was sixteen he came to Boston and there began paddling his own canoe. Becoming interested in the great West, he came to the Rocky Mountain region in 1884. Arriving in Denver he was steadily employed until he was twenty-one years of age. In 1886, hav- ing a desire to own a farm, he homesteaded 160 acres near Cherry Creek, ten miles south of Denver, and he also took up a timber claim of 160 acres. It was raw land, there was no doubt of that; but he set to work resolutely and won for himself the honorable distinction of pioneer by improving the holding and bringing it to a good state of cultivation, and made a success of stock raising and dairying.
After sixteen years in Colorado, Mr. Brooks came to Pomona Valley in the spring of 1900, and here he has been an orange grower ever since. He has owned several groves in the Valley and developed them. Before coming here he passed a short time in the northern
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part of the state and visited many localities, but found no such ideal spot as his present home site on East Cucamonga Avenue, where he has eighteen acres in one of the best groves in the Valley. So produc- tive is his holding that in 1912 he took 10,000 boxes of oranges from his trees.
Mr. Brooks has been particularly successful in buying, improving and selling orange groves; and he and others have developed a good well, with a first-class pumping plant on Harrison Avenue, which they use for irrigation purposes., His own grove is under the Loop and Meserve irrigation system. Prominent in all the affairs of the com- munity, Mr. Brooks now occupies the important post of vice-president of the El Camino Citrus Association. He is also a director of the First National Bank of Claremont, and before the consolidation of the two Claremont banks was one of the organizers and directors of the Claremont National Bank.
At Claremont on September 19, 1905, occurred Mr. Brooks' marriage. His wife was in maidenhood Miss Helen Tuttle, who was born at Alpena, Mich., the daughter of Judge Jonathan B. and Sarah (Ross) Tuttle. Judge Tuttle was a captain in the One Hundred Second United States Colored Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War. After the war he was a practicing attorney, serving ten years on the bench, after which he practiced law in Detroit until he retired, spend- ing his last years in California. His widow survives him and makes her home in Claremont. The Tuttle family traces its ancestry back to Wiltshire, England, to William Tuttle, who migrated to Connecticut in 1635, of whom Mrs. Brooks is a lineal descendant, as well as of Jotham Tuttle, who served in the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Brooks received her education in the public schools of Alpena, Mich., and at the University of Michigan. Coming to Los Angeles County in 1894, she met Mr. Brooks, the acquaintance resulting in their mar- riage.
Mr. and Mrs. Brooks are the parents of two children, Ernest A. and Kenneth, and the family attend the Congregational Church in Claremont. Fraternally, Mr. Brooks is a member of the Fraternal Aid and the Woodmen of the World.
JUSTUS REIMERS
A resident of Pomona Valley since a lad of eleven years, Justus Reimers received his schooling and his experience within the con- fines of the Valley and can truthfully be called a representative pro- duct of the environment he was fortunate enough to be reared in. Born in Nemaha County, Neb., August 19, 1881, he is a son of Reimer and Sarah (Anderson) Reimers, of German and Scotch-Irish extraction, respectively. They were engaged in farming in Nebraska, and in 1892 came to California and settled on a ranch near Pomona.
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Here the mother passed on in 1915, the father still, at the ripe old age of eighty-eight years, making his home with his son Justus.
Justus Reimers was the youngest of six boys born to his parents, only three of whom are now living. He received his education in the Chino and Pomona public schools, and finished with a course at Wil- liams Business College. He then worked for a time in the mercantile business, with Midgley Bros., for two years. Having been bred from a family who followed agricultural pursuits, however, he felt the call of the land, and soon started ranching on his own account. Starting with nothing, he accumulated from 300 to 400 acres in grain and alfalfa lands, and then turned to citrus cultivation, meeting with the same success. In this way he developed several ranches, bringing them to a high state of cultivation from the barren soil, and has proven himself a worthy citizen of the Valley; public spirited and enterpris- ing, he is ready at all times to do his share toward promoting the best interests of his home section, which he has seen develop wonderfully during his own development, and with unlimited possibilities for fur- ther upbuilding. In addition to his citrus cultivation, Mr. Reimers is interested in the real estate and brokerage business.
The marriage of Justus Reimers, on December 31, 1903, united him with Miss Florence M. Deay, a native of Kansas, but reared in Pomona, and two children have been born to them: Reggidene Es- ther in Claremont High, and Donald Herbert. Fraternally Mr. Reimers is a member of Pomona Lodge No. 107, K. of P. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce in Claremont, and interests himself in civic affairs and in any project which will better conditions. For recreation he indulges in outdoor sports, being especially fond of fishing and hunting.
WILLIAM A. FOX
One of the highly esteemed and successful men in the community in which he resides is William A. Fox, who was born in Du Page County, Ill., July 1, 1864. After completing his education in the public and high schools of his native state he supplemented this with a busi- ness college course, and was afterwards in the accounting department of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad for one year. He was with the Aetna Powder Company of Chicago for fifteen years, and came to Pomona in 1902, where he purchased a fourteen-acre orange orchard at the corner of San Antonio and Foot Hill Boulevard, which he still owns. Besides this very productive orange grove, he is also the owner of two other orange orchards. For fifteen years he has been director and stockholder in the Indian Hill Citrus Association, and is president of the North Palomares Mutual Irrigation Company, and
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director of the Growers Fumigation & Supply Company, and also a director in the La Verne Land and Water Company, and one of the founders of the La Verne Water Association.
His marriage united him with Luella T. Fox, a native of Iowa. Their only son, Paul N., who was chemist for the mechanical depart- ment of Los Angeles County, enlisted in the war and soon after died, on October 30, 1918, of pneumonia. Ernestine died, aged four years, in January, 1903. In his church associations Mr. Fox is a member of the Trinity Methodist Church at Pomona.
WILLIAM ARTHUR JOHNSTONE
A man of versatile abilities, William Arthur Johnstone is well informed concerning the possibilities of the commonwealth of his adoption and eager to develop its vast. resources. Throughout the state he is well known in many avenues of activity where his splendid character and broad intelligence have left an indelible impress for good.
A study of the Johnstone genealogy indicates that James Arthur Johnstone, a native of Ontario, Canada, was of Scotch ancestry. He learned the occupation of a horticulturist, and as early as 1862 came via Panama to San Francisco; he spent some time in Santa Clara County, later going to Virginia City, Nev., and in about 1865 returned overland to Ontario. About this time he established family ties, being united with Elzina S. Way, and the young couple engaged in horti- culture, making a specialty of raising apples and berries. This was Mr. Johnstone's special hobby, and he had a splendid orchard. In 1880 he removed to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he engaged in farm- ing as well as in the mercantile business. Two years later, in 1882, he located land on what is now a part of the site of Brandon, Manitoba, being one of the original locators of the town; he laid out a subdivision of 160 acres called "Johnstone Estate," and besides his real-estate interests was an extensive stock dealer. In 1890 he returned to Cali- fornia, purchasing 120 acres of raw land at San Dimas, and this he improved to oranges and lemons. He has also developed 300 acres at Wood Lake, Tulare County, setting it to oranges and olives. Mr. Johnstone was always very prominent and active in the various cooperative fruit associations formed in his districts, for a time being president of the board of directors of one of the local organizations. He now resides on Paloma Street, Altadena, his wife having passed away at San Dimas in 1904.
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