USA > California > Riverside County > History of Riverside County, California > Part 53
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JAMISON E. COOK
A native of Pennsylvania, Jamison E. Cook was born in Wash- ington county November 14, 1857, the son of Robert S. and Mary M. (Wilson) Cook, both natives of the same state, the father being a prominent farmer and business man of Washington county. He is now deceased, but the mother is still living, making her home in Arlington. Of a family of six children, Jamison E. is the only son living, besides whom there are two daughters, one in Arlington and the other in Darke county, Ohio. Jamison F. grew to manhood in Washington county, Pa., working on his father's farm. In the meantime he had completed a course in the common schools and followed this by attending academies at McDonald, Pa. After attending school for some time he took up the profession of teach- ing. On account of failing health he located in Colorado and there found work as a mechanic. In 1887 he came to the Pacific coast and located in Corona, taking charge of the engine of the Pacific Clay Manufacturing Company. Following this for about six years he was engaged in the grocery business in Corona, from there going to San Jacinto to take charge of the County Hospital when it was located in that town. After filling that position for about eighteen months he returned to Corona and worked in a grocery store for two years. During 1900 he purchased the land where he now re- sides and he took up his permanent residence there in 1901. This property consists of forty-one acres, and in addition to the home place Mr. Cook owns fifteen acres of fine land on Magnolia avenue. The land was undeveloped when bought by Mr. Cook, but he has made many improvements, building outbuildings and a house splen
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didly calculated to make a good home. The site of the house is especially fine, as it is located on the rise of land toward the foot- hills and commands a fine view. The fifteen-acre tract on Magnolia avenue is planted in alfalfa, with some oranges and walnuts and other fruits for family use. Besides his ranching enterprises Mr. Cook does some dairying. He owns some fine Jersey cows and fur- nishes cream to the Riverside Dairy Company.
In September, 1889, Mr. Cook was married, in Pasadena, to Miss Ida Simpson, who was born and reared in Allegheny county, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Cook are the parents of two children: Frank Earl, who is a young man and is helping carry on the work of his father's ranches, and Mary Eleanor. All his life Mr. Cook has been a stanch Republican. He has never aspired to hold public office, but he has attended every Republican convention which has been held in Riverside county since its organization. Being inter- ested in the educational facilities afforded the youth of the com- munity, he has served four years as school trustee. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Foresters. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cook are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Arlington.
JOHN L. ALLISON
Ever since that remote period when the passengers from the historic craft, Mayflower, debarked on the stormy ice-bound coast of Massachusetts the Allison family has been represented upon American soil and generation after generation has borne an hon- orable part in the task of developing from the wilderness a pro- ductive country capable of sustaining a vast population. New England, that cradle of great men in colonial history, remained the home of the various branches of the family until led by the lure of the west, they followed the tide of immigration and began to scatter throughout the entire country, bearing into other regions the sterling principles that had given weight to their citizenship in the far northeast. Some, however, remained near the shores of the Atlantic and the family still has a numerous and important repre- sentation east of the Hudson river.
Tracing the family history we find that the father of John L. was James Allison, born at Dublin, N. H., March 13, 1830, and educated in the schools of his locality. After having taught school during several winter terms he returned to the homestead to care for his parents in their declining years. March 9, 1854, he mar- ried Sarah Jane Darracott, who was born in Dublin, N. H., May 27.
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1837, and died there May 1, 1878. Afterward he was united in marriage with Bessie Maria Darracott, a sister of his first wife. She was born in Dublin April 29, 1839, and died in that village July 10, 1880. Her parents were William and Julia (Johnson) Darracott, the former a native of Shrewsbury, Rutland county, Vt., born February 17, 1804, and deceased in Dublin August 28, 1884.
With the civic, educational and religious life of his home town James Allison always has been intimately associated. Many estates were placed in his care for settlement and repeatedly he acted as guardian for minors. For twenty-eight years he served as trustee of the Appleton school fund and for a considerable period he was a member of the school board. His high standing is further evidenced by the fact that for years he served as agent to invest and care for the trust funds of the town of Dublin, having been first elected to that position in 1872. Since 1874 he has held a commission as justice of the peace. During 1873 and 1874 he represented his town in the state legislature and from 1870 to 1873, inclusive, he served as selectman, returning to the position at the close of his legisla- tive service and serving continuously until 1882. Later he filled the same position in 1885 and 1886. From the organization of the Republican party he was stanch in his allegiance to its principles. A Unitarian in religious views, he officiated as a deacon of the church at Dublin for many years and always has been prominent in its benefactions and maintenance. By the congregation he long was honored with the care and investment of the trust funds be- longing to the church.
Born at Dublin, N. H., August 3, 1864, John L. Allison attended the common schools and later learned the trade of a carpenter. For two years he followed the occupation at Sioux Falls, S. Dak. Re- turning to the east he settled at Winchendon, Worcester county, Mass., where for two years he was employed as a carpenter on the Murdock academy. Later he was employed at carpentering at Wor- cester, same state. Leaving that city he again sought the west and this time settled at Colorado Springs, Colo., where he engaged in the building business for thirteen years. During the year 1899 he came to California and settled at Riverside, where he had charge as foreman for Frank A. Noyes, after which he began as an inde- pendent contractor and builder and has erected numerous elegant homes in and near this city. In his work he exercises painstaking care as well as artistic skill and among those of his own craft he is recognized as an expert in his line. While living in the east he was united in marriage, November 1, 1886, in Marlborough, Cheshire county, N. H., with Miss Myrtie A. Pratt, by whom he has two chil- dren, Gertrude M., a graduate of the Riverside high school, and John Raymond, a student in the same institution. In political views he favors the princples of the Republican party. Fraternally he is 33
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connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has filled all the chairs in the subordinate lodge, and also a member of the other branches of this order, and has been helpful in its phil- anthropies.
WARREN D. SMALL
It has been the privilege of Mr. Small to reside in Southern California throughout the greater part of his life and there are few who surpass him in patriotic devotion to the locality that is the chosen home of his maturity. In this sunny climate he has found a material environment radically different from that of his native commonwealth, Maine, for Caribou, the village where he was born November 23, 1870, stands in the midst of pine-clad, storm- swept hills in Aroostook county not far distant from the boundary line of New Brunswick. To wrest a livelihood from the rough and rugged ground in the midst of climatic conditions so dreary and discouraging was a feat calling for men firm of purpose, inflexible of will and undismayed of heart. Indeed, the battle with stern nature developed these qualities in the people and thus it came that families identified with New England for successive generations became more and more like the country that produced them and in this respect the Small family was no exception to the rule.
A radical change was made in the removal from Maine to Southern California, where the father, Henry K., is now at the head of the Riverside mill conducted under the title of H. K. Small & Sons. Coming to the west in very early life Warren D. Small received his education principally in the city of Orange and in 1887 was graduated from the public school there, after which he clerked in the store owned by his father in that place. During the years 1890-91 he engaged in the general mercantile business at Olive, whence he removed to Murrietta, Riverside county, and from 1891 until 1899 engaged in ranching in that district. Upon his removal from that locality he settled on a ranch near Olive, but in 1902 he discontinued agricultural enterprises and came to Riverside, where he has resided ever since. As a stockholder with- H. K. Small & Sons he has been connected with the mill from the first and in the capacity of general manager he has made good, carrying forward its business with dispatch, energy and sagacity and winning recognition among the men of commerce in his home city.
Since becoming a citizen of Riverside, considerable attention has been given to public questions by Mr. Small, who keeps well
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posted in regard to movements for the development of the city and the welfare of its people, and while he gives his ballot in national issues to the Republican party, in local matters he deems the character of the candidate and the urgency of the proposed measure of greater importance than the question of party. In- deed, he is unusually broad in his outlook as well as keen in his analysis of public enterprises proposed for the people. Fraternally he holds membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and maintains a warm interest in the local lodge. His marriage took place at McPherson, Orange county, on Christmas Eve of 1891 and united him with Miss Lutie L. Powers, of that place. They are the parents of two sons, Guy R. and Howard K., the latter a pupil in the Riverside schools and the former a foreman in the Baker iron works of Los Angeles.
FRANK DUNHAM LEWIS
Riverside is justly proud of one of her most enterprising and progressive citizens, F. D. Lewis, whose aid in the development of the community can scarcely be over-estimated. He was born Feb- ruary 10, 1863, in Milwaukee, Wis., and four years later accom- panied his parents, John and Julia B. (Clark) Lewis, both natives of Oswego, N. Y., to Chicago, where he received his education. In 1878 Mr. Lewis took his family to Florida, where they resided four years, moving thence to Kansas City, Mo., in which city the son, Frank D., secured employment and was soon promoted to a position as foreman in a grain elevator. In 1885, having successfully passed the civil service examination, he went to Washington, D. C., where he served three years in the war department. While a resident of the capital city he attended sessions of the law school of the National University, was admitted to the bar in 1888, and came at once to California. In 1889 he was appointed United States special Indian agent, a travelling position with inspection duties, and two years later he located in Los Angeles, where he resumed his prac- tice, serving also as United States special attorney for Mission Indians, having received this appointment from the department of justice. In 1892 he moved to Riverside, where he maintained law offices for ten years, abandoning his profession in 1903 in order that he might devote his entire time to the culture of oranges and other fruits, a field in which he had long been interested.
Mr. Lewis was instrumental in developing West Riverside, having been one of the directors as well as manager and superin-
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tendent of the original corporation which secured water for that section. In 1909 and 1910 he sold his entire ranch holdings, cover- ing about two hundred acres in that district, and shortly thereafter joined others in buying from the English owners, the West River- side estate, a portion of the property being under development and comprising some fifteen hundred acres, six hundred of which are planted to citrus fruits. Mr. Lewis is vice-president of the company which controls this tract, improved sections of which are now being sold in small parcels, the remaining unimproved portion, which is also being set to citrus fruits, to be disposed of in like manner. He serves also as president of the Meeks & Daly Water Company and on the board of directors of the Agua-Mansa Water Company, his executive ability and thorough legal training rendering him fully competent to discharge his many technical duties. In 1903 he was chosen assemblyman of the Seventy-eighth district on the Repub- lican ticket, and has received many other evidences of the esteem in which he is held by his many friends and associates.
In 1894 Mr. Lewis was united in marriage to Miss Alice Emerson Bradbury, of Providence, R. I. Three sons ·have been born to them: John Clark, Howard Bradbury and Robert Emerson. Mr. Lewis is a member of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce and is a Past Exalted Ruler of Riverside Lodge No. 643, B. P. O. E.
WALTER E. KEITH
The personal efforts of a few capitalists in a search for land resulted in the settlement of Riverside, which was founded in 1870 by the Southern California Colony Association and laid out by C. C. Miller, a civil engineer connected with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad in Wisconsin. The town was settled chiefly by educated families from New England and Canada with a considerable acces- sion of English people. With the ensuing years the addition to the citizenship was constant and the colony started out with the high class of citizens it boasts to the present day. In 1876 Walter E. Keith was attracted to the county by reports he had heard concern- ing its productive soil and genial climate. Of New England birth, a descendant of a long line of ancestry identified with that section of the country from the colonial period, he is a son of Aberdeen and Mary H. Keith and a native of Brockton, Mass., where he was born April 2, 1852. As is the custom in that part of the country, he was given a thorough education in the public schools. On the comple-
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tion of the studies of the Brockton high school, from which he was graduated in 1867, he was sent to a business college and enjoyed a practical commercial training. At the expiration of six months he completed the course in bookkeeping. From that time until he came to California he engaged with the manufacturing firm of Keith & Packard as a bookkeeper.
Immediately after his arrival at Riverside in 1876 Mr. Keith bought twenty acres on Bandini avenue and this he set out in oranges. The country at that time was new and undeveloped. Rail- roads had not yet brought the people into touch with the general markets and opened up an outlet for their produce, but by the time the orange groves began to be productive facilities had been fur- nished for the marketing of the crops. Meanwhile the population was constantly increasing. Moral conditions were good, educational facilities were first-class, churches were numerous, and the city was regarded as a fine place for the rearing of children. From the first the people were prosperous and contented and eventually the district gained a reputation for large wealth. Prices of property greatly advanced and December 31, 1910, Mr. Keith sold his large grove at a handsome profit.
Meanwhile commercial enterprises had received an interested participation from Mr. Keith and in December of 1907 he had moved to Corona as a bookkeeper for the Corona Gas & Electric Light Company, of which he served as manager one year. This thriving village some distance to the west of Riverside has in him an ardent supporter and firm friend. Its progress has been pro- moted by his efforts and in its future prosperity he believes with whole-hearted earnestness. In its politics he bears no part what- ever, aside from supporting the candidates of the Republican party. Any movement, from whatever source emanating, receives his sup- port when once he is convinced of its contribution to the general welfare of the people. In fraternal matters, aside from belonging to the Woodmen of the World, he has been active in Masonry for many years and has maintained a warm interest in the work of Evergreen Lodge No. 259. F. & A. M., of which he is a prominent member, besides being identified with Riverside Chapter No. 67, R. A. M., and Riverside Commandery No. 28, K. T., and Al Malai- kah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. His religious views are in accord with the doctrines of the Universalist Church. While still making his home in the east he established domestic ties, being united in marriage to Miss Ianthe Merritt at Brockton, Mass., on Christmas Eve of 1871. Their union was blessed with one child, a daughter, Clara, who is now the wife of A. A. Caldwell and resides in Los Angeles.
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JOHN JENSEN.
The earliest recollections of Mr. Jensen are associated with the scenes familiar to his mature years, for he is a native of Riverside county and throughout all of his life has been identified with the ranching interests of the locality. Habits of close observation coupled with long residence have enabled him to acquire an intimate knowledge of the resources of the county and the opportunities it offers to men of determination and sagacious judgment. The neat little ranch which he owns and occupies reflects his thrifty ten- dencies and industrious disposition, while his cozy cottage indicates the refined tastes of the family. Worthily in his busy existence are reflected the qualities he inherited from his father, the genial and hearty old sea captain, Cornelius Jensen, as well as the splendid traits coming to him as a heritage from his mother, who as a gentle young Spanish maiden had been wooed and won by the impetuous Danish sailor.
In what is now Riverside county John Jensen was born May 5, 1872, being a younger brother of Jose and Henry Jensen, well- known ranchers of Riverside county and represented elsewhere in this volume. Like his older brothers, he was given good educa- tional advantages, but it was not his ambition to complete a college education and after the death of his father in 1886 he remained with his mother and aided in the cultivation of the land. Upon the division of the estate he was given twenty acres and here he built a neat farmhouse as well as other needed buildings, by his own labors converting the tract into a valuable place, whose beauty is enhanced by ornamental trees, while its returns are enhanced by the fruit trees he has planted.
The marriage of John Jensen took place in Riverside January 2, 1900, and united him with Miss Emily Crowder, who was born in Oregon, but has lived in California ever since the age of six years. In the schools of Riverside. she received a good education while at home she was carefully trained for domestic responsibilities. With skill and neatness she presides over the home, while to her only child, Viola, she gives the wise and affectionate care so important in the formation of character. Throughout the community Mr. and Mrs. Jensen are held in the highest respect and they are known and honored as industrious, progressive and loyal citizens. In political views, Mr. Jensen supports Democratic principles. Parti- sanship, however, does not receive special attention in his affairs, for he favors all movements for the general benefit of the county and commonwealth irrespective of political ties. When the Mod- ern Woodmen of America started a camp at Riverside he became
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a charter member on account of its insurance features as well as its pleasant social opportunities and up to the present he has retained an active membership in the local organization. The community known as West Riverside numbers him among its industrious men, progressive citizens and capable ranchers and accords him a stand- ing in keeping with his own sterling traits as well as his honored family name.
P. JEROME BOLLINGER.
Well known throughout Riverside county as a man of energy and purpose, Mr. Bollinger has been closely identified with its business interests since 1903, when he engaged in the fertilizer business. He was born April 26, 1872, in Patton, Mo., a son of Moses Bollinger, whose birth occurred in the same place December 25, 1848. He was there successfully engaged in the sawmill and lumber business until October 1, 1885, when he located in Riverside. He purchased a ranch adjacent to this city and engaged in agri- cultural pursuits, in which he still retains an active interest.
P. J. Bollinger received his education in the public schools in his native town and in Riverside, continuing until the age of six- teen years, at which time he relinquished his studies to assist his father on the ranch. In 1893 he entered the Los Angeles School of Art and Design, where he put in a year of creditable work. Return- ing to Riverside he engaged in carpentering for several years. He joined Company M, Seventh Regiment, N. G. C., and at the breaking out of the Spanish-American war accompanied the regi- ment to San Francisco, being mustered into the United States' service and serving eight months during the war. After being mustered out of the United States' service in 1898 and returning to Riverside he re-enlisted in the National Guard and was ap- pointed sergeant. In 1900 he was commissioned first lieutenant and served in that capacity until he was elected captain of Company M, to succeed Fred M. Heath, holding this commission until May, 1911, when, on account of pressure of private business, he resigned. During his connection with the National Guard, Captain Bollinger devoted a great deal of his time to building up and maintaining an efficient company in his home city.
For several years Captain Bollinger was engaged in the nur- sery business, but he disposed of it in 1903, when he engaged in the fertilizing business and until 1910 continued independently in build- ing up a successful trade. In this year the General Fertilizer
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Association of Los Angeles was incorporated, Mr. Bollinger becom- ing a member of the company and was made manager of the River- side branch, with which he has since been associated and has devoted his entire time to building up a successful business.
In politics Captain Bollinger is a Republican and maintains an active interest in local politics and has also done much to aid in civic improvements. He is a member of Riverside Lodge No. 282, I. O. O. F., Sunnyside Lodge No. 112, K. of P., and Riverside Lodge No. 643, B. P. O. E., and the Spanish-American War Vet- erans. On July 12, 1910, occurred the marriage of Mr. Bollinger and Miss Agnes B. Flemming, who is a native of Ohio.
JUDGE GEORGE C. NEVINS.
As one of the most able and prominent citizens of Hemet, Judge Nevins has held many positions of trust and honor both in his home state and in Riverside county, where, on account of failing health he located in 1904. His superior education and long ex- perience qualified him for the offices which his new associates urged him to accept, which included the presidency of the school board and secretary of the Orange Growers' Association, which latter position he still holds, also the office of justice of the peace, to which he was elected in 1910.
Born June 3, 1852, in Kalamazoo, Mich., Judge Nevins was the eldest of a family of thirteen children, of whom nine sons and two daughters grew to maturity. One son, B. A., represented his county in the state legislature. The father of these children, Jacob N. Nevins, of Vermont, was a son of Alfred M. Nevins, one of the early pioneers of that state, and he received his education in the schools of his home section. He settled in Kalamazoo county, Mich., and improved a farm on Gull Prairie, Richland township. In 1850 he was married to Miss Augusta Brown, a native of Massachusetts, the daughter of George Brown, who at one time was a member of the Michigan legislature.
George C. Nevins spent his youth upon his father's farm, receiving his primary education in the common schools, and later entered the Michigan Agricultural College, graduating in the class of 1873. Passing the state examination, he engaged in educa- tional work and served six years as principal of the Ostego school, with eleven teachers under his supervision. For twenty years he was one of the most prominent educators in Michigan, serving various schools, including eight years in Cheboygan. Upon resign-
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