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 50
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When he sold his drug store at Los Angeles, he removed to Walnut, where he bought an orange ranch; since that time he has given all his attention to that interesting branch of California agri- culture, encouraged by a success not always favoring everyone. In 1915 the Pomona Packing Company was formed by Mr. Thatcher, in which he acts as general manager, and it now employs, during the season, about forty people. It ships its own brands, the Belfry and the Abbey; and the quality for which they always stand has made these brands in constant demand-a demand, too, that increases each year.
In Pomona, in May, 1900, Mr. Thatcher was married to Miss Inez Fay Quinn, a charming lady reared by Senator A. T. Currier, the daughter of Michael Quinn, who served for about forty years as justice of the peace at El Monte and lived for fifty years in the house where he died. Mr. and Mrs. Thatcher have one child, named Currier. Mr. Thatcher is a Republican, but a broad-minded one, and ready especially to cast partisanship aside when called on to support local movements. He belongs to the Masons, the Blue Lodge and the Royal Arch Chapter, and Pomona Lodge No. 789, B. P. O. Elks, and is fond of outdoor life, spending his vacations at Laguna Beach. Mr. Thatcher has seen the development of this Valley since first locating here in 1891, and with the exception of five years in Ventura County has lived here during all those years.
E. J. LEVENGOOD
Known as one of the best judges of horses now living in the Pomona Valley, as well as a rancher of more than the ordinary ability, E. J. Levengood has been identified with the best interests of this section of the state since his arrival here in 1898. He was born in Jackson, Mich., October 2, 1866, received a good school education and struck out for himself in 1889, when he came to California. He worked for a time in San Francisco, then went to the San Joaquin Valley and later to Yolo County, and during this time he became familiar with the various sections of the state. In 1898 he came to the Pomona Valley, bought a team of horses and drove across the country into Arizona, where for the following eight years he followed teaming to and from the mines.
In 1906 he decided to come back to California, and he brought with him a band of 125 wild horses, which he sold in the Pomona Valley. For the following fifteen years Mr. Levengood furnished many of the horses that took part in the chariot races at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, also drove some of the chariots and won his share of prizes. He has been engaged in buying and selling horses in this immediate section of the state for many years, and there is no better judge of horseflesh in this section than he.
Det.n Load
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In connection with his interests here Mr. Levengood has also engaged in raising grain and alfalfa near Blythe, in the Palo Verde Valley, and in this line of endeavor he has also made a success. He leased some 320 acres of land near Pomona and upon it raised crops of wheat and barley, and has thus demonstrated his ability as a rancher as well as a judge of horses.
Mr. Levengood was united in marriage with Mrs. Mary Eliza- beth (Lamb) Hamner, born in Salt Lake City, the daughter of William Lamb, who became a pioneer of Pomona Valley. By her first husband, William Hamner, there were two children: Jessie, Mrs. O. H. Kuehne, and Anson R., both of Pomona. Mrs. Levengood shares with her husband the good will and esteem of a wide circle of friends in this part of Los Angeles County. Mr. Levengood is a life member of the Elks Lodge at Flagstaff, Ariz.
JOHN A. McLEOD
Although it will be five years February 25, 1920, since John A. McLeod passed to the Great Beyond, his memory still lives in the minds and hearts of many warm personal friends. He was born at Acton, Ontario, Canada, October 3, 1839, and after growing to man- hood's estate became a prominent farmer in Acton section, Ontario, Canada, where he was interested in a stock and dairy farm. Some time later he followed the same occupation in Walkerton, Canada, and in 1889 removed to California, where he worked for a time on the Bullock Ranch at El Monte. He then purchased a five-acre orange grove in the Packard Orange Grove Tract at Pomona and developed this young orchard into a good producing grove. He took great interest in orange culture. He had the misfortune to lose his life companion many years ago, and having no children willed the Pomona orange grove to his sister, Flora McCannel, who makes her home on the place, of which she has taken excellent care and which yields a handsome income. John McLeod was a public-spirited and pro- gressive citizen and had many warm friends.
Mrs. Flora McCannel was born at Acton, Ontario, Canada. She was Miss Flora McLeod before her marriage, and is of Scotch descent. She married John McCannel, a native of Scotland who came to Ontario, Canada, at the age of eighteen. He followed the occupa- tion of farming in Canada, and later removed to Wyoming, where he was interested in the cattle business. He died in Wyoming many years ago. Mrs. McCannel was a widow when she came to Pomona in 1902. She is the mother of four children, namely, Euphine, Mrs. Margaret Windsor, Mrs. Mamie Whitehead and Annie McCan- nel, who died in 1914. She has also three grandchildren. In her church associations she is a member of the Christadelphian Church, as
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was also her brother, John A. McLeod. Mrs. McCannel is a woman of energy and industry, thoroughly qualified to assume the manage- ment of the homestead and conserve its best interests.
HARRY S. PRATT
An orange grower of California who has attained unusual success not only in that difficult field, but also in previous studies and ventures requiring knowledge, experience and pronounced native ability, is Harry S. Pratt, proprietor of the La Encina Ranch, on Mountain Avenue, and also a ranch on East Cucamonga Avenue, east of San Antonio, where he makes his home. He was born at Cambridge, Middlesex County, Mass., on August 22, 1867, and educated in the Cambridge public schools and the Bryant & Stratton Business College at Boston, where he especially fitted himself for the responsibilities of life. His father was Francis L. Pratt, a native of Massachusetts, and he married Miss Mary A. Brown, who was born in New Hampshire, and, in accord with the traditions of their English and New England ancestry, they gave the lad every educational advantage. While still in Boston, Harry Pratt spent three years with the Ivers & Pond Piano Company, in their factory, and there very thoroughly learned the piano business, specializing in the tuning of high-class musical instruments. This gravitation toward the study of the piano was in keeping with his early fondness for music and the example and influence of his father. Besides having been the incumbent of a city office in Cambridge for over a quarter of a century, and a leader in civic affairs, Francis Pratt was long well known as a singer of more than ordinary ability, and gave great pleasure to public audiences with his fine bass voice.
On account of his health, Harry S. Pratt came west to California at the age of twenty, and during the same great year of the boom entered the employ of the Bartlett Bros. Piano Company, now the Bartlett Music Company. At the end of three years' service there, he moved to Pomona, on April 30, 1890, and for years followed piano tuning in the Valley. In November, 1899, he bought out the piano business of W. B. Ross, formerly the Bassett Music House, the first to start in Pomona, and only after fifteen years of undisputed success as the proprietor of the Pratt Music House did he dispose of the valuable property.
As long ago as 1890, Mr. Pratt bought his first grove of seven acres of oranges in the Kingsley Tract, known as the Meade place, but, selling the same, he now owns two fine orange groves of ten acres each, one on Mountain and the other on East Cucamonga Avenue, fine producers of both Navels and Valencias. So well has he cared for these that during a period of six years they averaged 6,000 field boxes, while for the past two years 7,000 boxes have been taken from
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there. His home ranch, the grounds and house of which he is greatly improving, is a grove of choice acres on East Cucamonga Avenue, and there two-thirds of the acreage is devoted to Navels and one-third to Valencias. For years Mr. Pratt was secretary and director of the Claremont Citrus Association, and through that organization, as well as the El Camino Citrus Association of Claremont, he still packs his fruit.
Mr. Pratt was married to Mrs. Virginia ( Broadwell) Embree, a native of Springfield, Ill., a daughter of Judge N. M. Broadwell, who was born in New Jersey. He came to Illinois and studied law in the office of Abraham Lincoln and was afterwards a law partner of Shelby M. Cullom and William Springer. He married Virginia Iles, also a native of Springfield, whose father, Washington Iles, came from Kentucky to Sangamon County, entered land and obtained a patent in 1825. The parchment deed, signed by President John Quincy Adams, is now in the possession of Mrs. Pratt. His brother, Maj. Elijah Iles, located the city of Springfield and built the first store. Mrs. Pratt has a daughter, Elinore Embree, by her first marriage. A son of Mr. Pratt by a former marriage, Lowell Clark Pratt, was in the recent World War as a member of the One Hundred Sixtieth United States Infantry, and saw seven months of service in France, and he is at present a student in Columbia College, New York City, class of 1920.
In national politics Mr. Pratt is a Republican, thereby pleasantly continuing the bias of his father, who was an ardent abolitionist, a soldier in Company C, Forty-third Massachusetts Regiment, in the Civil War, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Harry Pratt has a summer home in Bear Valley on Big Bear Lake, and there he hies himself away whenever in need of stimulating fishing and hunting. .
JERRY N. LEWIS
A very progressive citrus rancher who participates in the pros- perity of the Pomona Valley he himself has helped to create is Jerry N. Lewis, who was born in Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa, on October 12, 1859, and attended the country schools of his district while he grew up and learned to farm. When a young man, he located in De Kalb County, Mo., and there continued farming, and then he removed to Monte Vista, Colo., where he was in the livery business and was also rural mail carrier under the pioneer Star Route.
In 1897 Mr. Lewis came to California and Pomona, and, like many others, he commenced work here by picking and packing oranges. This day-laboring in the citrus field made him familiar with conditions and problems and fortunately prepared him for enterprises of his own in the same direction.
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In 1910 he bought his present orange grove on North Alexander Avenue, a fine tract of eight acres, with which he has proven a success- ful grower. He has given the trees the best of care, while applying the latest scientific methods of treatment, and the average production of the grove runs from 4,500 to 6,600 boxes yearly. His place was formerly the old Rose Ranch, and had twenty-year-old trees, and his Navel and Valencia oranges are of the best. Indeed, whatever be the secret of his methods, Mr. Lewis is able to secure results far beyond those of even longer experience and operating under even more favor- able conditions. Considering the enviable position to which he has attained, it is natural to find him a member of the Claremont Citrus Association and the Del Monte Water Company.
When Mr. Lewis was married at Monte Vista, Colo., in April, 1896, he chose for his wife Miss Laura Greesley, a native of Ne- braska and the daughter of P. J. and Isabell Greesley; and husband and wife attend the First Methodist Church. He belongs to the Woodmen of the World, and also to the Knights of Pythias of Pomona.
ABRAHAM H. VEJAR
Few early Californian names are associated more agreeably with the sway of the Spaniard on the Pacific or with the Spanish-American contribution to the development of the Golden State than that of the family of Abraham H. Vejar, who was born at Pomona in 1877, and . reared on the ranch of Ramon Vejar, his father, more detailed refer- ence to whom is elsewhere made in this historical work. As a boy he worked on the home ranch and attended the public schools of La Verne, playing around on land that was long part of the great family estate, and helping to prepare land that he was unaware, at that time, he would some day own.
Now Mr. Vejar has eleven acres, a part of the old home ranch, and this he has developed into a walnut orchard, principally budded walnuts. They are all doing finely, and help to make the little ranch a "show place" of the neighborhood.
Mr. Vejar also owns a walnut grove of six acres, three acres of which are eleven-year-old trees, and gives his orchard such good care that they yielded in 1918 two tons of nuts, while the other three acres are in new trees. Having the advantage, perhaps, of much that is worth knowing to the citrus and other ranchers handed down in the Vejar family as so much certified tradition, Mr. Vejar has been able easier to arrive at the best results, and in many cases has succeeded where others round about are still experimenting.
Not long ago Mr. Vejar erected a fine, modern California bunga- low on his home property, and there, after the manner of his princely progenitors, he offers an old-time hospitality to friend and stranger
A.S. Forbes.
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alike. In Pomona, he married Miss Nellie Salzar, a native daughter born in San Bernardino and educated in the convent in Los Angeles ; her death occurred in 1914. Mr. Vejar is a member of the Roman Catholic Church and also of the Knights of Columbus.
It would be strange if one so happily connected through family ties with the historic past could not tell many a yarn worth the hearing ; and, when in talkative mood, Mr. Vejar has many good anecdotes of pioneer days. He likes to tell especially of the old horse races, held in Spadra when he was a small boy; they were for half a mile, straight- away, and when the race was over, the whole crowd usually rode down to Pomona, where they all talked over the happy recollection of the past races, the satisfactory outcome of the present race, and the good luck of the races yet to come.
JOHN J. FORBES
The able financial secretary of Pomona College, John J. Forbes, is also a prominent land developer in the Claremont district. He was born at Waukesha, Wis., March 20, 1869, and after leaving college as a young man entered the employ of one of the largest house furnishing and decorating establishments in the Middle West, at Milwaukee, Wis. Starting in at the bottom round of the ladder he learned all branches of the business, and later, when a dry goods com- pany absorbed the institution he resigned his position and started a business of his own under the firm name of Maxwell, Forbes and Still- man Company, of Milwaukee. The firm, which is still in existence, is now known as the Maxwell-Ray Company. With his partners Mr. Forbes built up the finest and most exclusive business of its kind in the Middle West. They made furniture to order, planned, designed, made interior decorations, etc., and took contracts for the complete interior work of many public buildings, hotels, private residences, clubs, etc. Their establishment compared favorably with the largest and most artistic establishments in the country. They dealt in choice Oriental rugs, and furnishings that appeal to the high class of trade to which they catered. Mr. Forbes came to California in 1903 and located at Laguna Beach. Voluntarily he raised the funds and super- intended the erection of the Marine Laboratory building at that place for Pomona College, and turned it over to the college free from ir- debtedness. Locating at Claremont in the fall of the same year, he has been closely allied with Pomona College and as financial secre- tary of the college has had charge of the expansion work. He had charge of the million dollar campaign, raising that amount as an en- dowment for the college. Since then he has brought forward another campaign, which is nearing the second million dollar mark. His busi- ness experience, keen judgment and quickness of decision have been very helpful in solving financial problems and intricate matters in the
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management and growth of the college. He had charge of the inte- rior furnishings of the Bridges Hall of Music and of Holmes Hall, selecting the furnishings and designing the decorations. His ability along this line is evidenced in these beautiful buildings. Besides his work for the college he has taken up land development north of Clare- mont. He is general manager of Claremont Heights Development Company, the Claremont Heights Irrigation Company and the San Antonio Mesa Land Company, being the principal stockholder in the latter company. These various companies have developed from unim- proved land many lemon and orange groves of from twenty to eighty acres, sinking wells, installing pumping plants, establishing irrigation systems, planting citrus trees and caring for the groves, and have thus played a very important part in the development of this section, most of the lands having been planted to lemons. Mr. Forbes has two sons, Kenneth B. and Gordon J.
It is to men of Mr. Forbes' caliber and stamp that much credit is due for the wonderful growth, development and expansion of the Pomona Valley. As a citizen he is progressive and a friend of all that elevates and uplifts humanity. Upright, enterprising, enthusi- astic and optimistic he is a man the community may justly be proud of and his example is well worthy of emulation.
MISS MINERVA C. FLEMING
Pomona is fortunate in having Miss Minerva C. Fleming as teacher of music in the public schools of the city. Miss Fleming's enthusiasm for this joy-giving and refining art is reflected in her pupils, who are not only taught the rudiments of music, but in whom is inculcated a love for and an appreciative understanding of the art.
Miss Fleming is the descendant of an old Scotch family, her father and mother having been born in Scotland. She, however, is a native of Kilsyth, Ontario, Canada, and was reared in that northern land and received her education in the Canadian grammar and high schools. She graduated in musie and physical culture from the Detroit Conservatory of Music and Thomas Normal Training School in De- troit. She taught music and physical culture for six and a half years at Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, both in the public schools and the Normal Training School. She took post-graduate courses in the To- ronto Normal and the Thomas Normal at Detroit and also in the University of California at Berkeley. She came to Pomona January, 1908, and at once began teaching physical culture and music in the Pomona schools, where she has successfully taught for the past twelve years. Her work, which at first included physical culture, is now de- voted wholly to music, choir work and assembly singing. For the past ten years she has led the children's chorus in the Memorial Day exer- cises at Pomona, and is the possessor of a beautiful silk flag, given her
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by the G. A. R. She is especially adapted for a leader and trainer of chorus singing, and while living in Canada led a chorus consisting of 2,000 voices.
Miss Fleming affiliates with the First Christian Church at Po- mona, and is also a member of the church choir, and fraternally she is a member of the Order of Eastern Star. She makes her home on her five-acre orange and lemon ranch on North Dudley Avenue, which she purchased soon after coming to Pomona.
GEORGE R. MOORE
An orange and lemon grower who has attained to prominence although he came to California late in life, and who, with his wife and children, is known to be delighted with Pomona Valley and among those most confident for its bright future, is George R. Moore, who lives on Weber street, near Laurel. His life has been full of happiness and success for himself and others. He was born on July 9, 1850, notable in history as the date of the death of Zachary Taylor, presi- dent of the United States. His birthplace was at Faversham, Eng., in Kent County, so famous for its hops and its beautiful landscape, some twenty miles from Gadshill, the residence of Charles Dickens. His father was Robert Moore, a hardware merchant in Faversham, who married Martha Hawks, both born in England. George R. had been associated with his father in business for twenty-one years, then took over the establishment and ran it himself.
Attracted, however, to the far balmier semi-tropical climate of the Pacific Slope, Mr. Moore came to the United States in 1908, and in October arrived in Pomona, where he bought some ranches and straightway began to improve them. His home place, a most desirable tract of two and three-fourths acres, is an orange grove, and he also owns two other ranches in the Packard Tract, one of ten and the other of eight and a half acres, devoted to the culture of the same fruit, as well as walnut trees, of which he has 106, and a fine peach orchard. Many of the lemon trees he budded, with great success, to Valencia oranges ; part of his groves were in a run-down condition, and these he has greatly improved, and he has also taken out some of the old orange trees and planted new ones.
Mr. Moore was married at Faversham, England, to Miss Mary Ann Wooley, a native of Devington, England, and by her he has had six children. Reginald, now deceased, served in the Boer War on the medical staff, and his brother, Robert G. Moore, was also in that South African campaign as an East Kent yeoman. The other children are Frank H., Mildred, Horace and George Moore. The latter served in the great World War. At its beginning, he was stationed at Valparaiso, in South America, as an operator for the Western
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Cable Company, and he volunteered before conscription. He served three years, was eighteen months in the trenches in France and Belgium and was badly wounded in the foot and leg. He belonged to the Royal West Kent Tenth Battalion, and was signalman in both the "Royal Regiment" and the "Queen's Own." The family attend the Nazarene Church.
Mr. Moore, with two of his sons, is a citizen of the United States, but so long as he was in England, he was a strong Liberal and with his wife belonged to the East Kent Liberal Association. He was promi- nent in his party, and had a personal acquaintance with Lloyd George, Premier Asquith, Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Rosebery and other noted Englishmen of that political faith. In many ways, therefore, Mr. Moore, who is a gifted conversationalist, is an interesting and enter- taining man, and such a citizen as would do honor to any community.
EDWARD B. JERDE
The rapid and also substantial growth of Pomona is undoubtedly owing to the caliber of the men who elected to make this locality their home, and were willing to do all in their power to bring about the future prosperity of this garden spot of nature. Among these, Edward B. Jerde has played a prominent part in building operations in the Valley, and truly deserves much credit for his enterprising public spirit and loyalty to the best interests of the community.
Born in Freeborn County, Minn., January 22, 1878, when five years old he was taken to Brookings, S. D., and there was educated in the public schools, later taking a two-year course at the State Uni- versity, specializing in architecture and engineering. Since the age of sixteen years Mr. Jerde has been in contracting and building work, and for four years followed contracting in Brookings, and for two years in Huron, S. D. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, in 1898, he enlisted in Company K, Brookings, S. D., but was taken sick and did not see service.
Since taking up his residence here Mr. Jerde has erected over one hundred houses in the Valley. Among the buildings which show the structural qualities for which his work is noted are the following : The J. W. Hollister, H. L. Hart, L. P. Orth and A. R. Curry resi- dences ; Opera Garage; Auditorium of the Kauffman School, in Po- mona; the Orange Packing House at Riverside; bank building at Puente; E. W. Stewart residence at Chino; Frank Wheeler residence, Claremont; College Heights Orange and Lemon Association ware- house, Claremont; Pomona College gymnasium; the Michael and Leon Johnson residences, on Foothill Boulevard. Mr. Jerde also built five houses as an investment of his own, and, as may be imagined, had no difficulty in disposing of same, his name being a guarantee for good workmanship and material. As can readily be seen, he has been
Engarde
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