USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 16
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 16
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On leaving Alabama in 1892 Mr. Porter removed to Brooklyn, New York, to become an associate of Dr. Lyman Abbott in Plymouth Church. For a time he had charge of the Bethel Mission and later of the May- flower Mission of that church, and then was associated with Dr. Abbott in the pastorate of Plymouth Church itself. Almost daily for nearly eight years he was co-worker with that distinguished American preacher and thinker.
Following a severe accident on Brooklyn Bridge in 1900 Mr. Porter resigned from Plymouth Church and spent the following three years recuperating on a farm at Southington, Connecticut. Following that came a period of interesting and constructive service at Montclair, New Jersey, where he was associate pastor for Dr. Amory Bradford in the pastorate of the First Congregational Church, and then organized the Watchung Avenue Congregational Church of Montclair, and was its pastor six years.
At that time, on account of the sudden and successive losses by death of his mother, father, wife and sister, Mr. Porter came to California with his small son, Horace Shepard Porter. For short periods he lived in Redlands and in Pasadena, and in May, 1909, came to Riverside to accept the pastorate of the First Congregational Church. The present handsome church edifice was erected during his pastorate, which con- tinued for eight years. He resigned soon after America entered the war to become the organizer and chairman of the Red Cross for Riverside County. He made a campaign through the county and organized Red Cross branches in practically every town, including Blythe in the extreme eastern end of the county. A portion of this work was performed during the famous hot spell of June, 1917. While he was in some of the Central and Eastern territory the mercury went as high as 127 degrees, with a fierce sandstorm blowing at the same time. In spite of such adverse climatic conditions several of the Red Cross Chapters were organized amidst the greatest public enthusiasm. One of the incidents of this campaign should be told, partly as an episode of war times and also as illustrating the determined and resourceful character of Mr. Porter. His meeting in one of the central towns was interrupted by a band of "I. W. W.'s" who cursed the country, the flag, and damned the President for letting the country get into the war. These intruders declared pub- licly at the meeting that if any attempt was made to "plant them in Europe" they would see to it that a number of American citizens were first "planted under American soil." On another occasion the "I. W. W.'s" attempted to break up Mr. Porter's meeting, saying they did not propose to have any Red Cross in the town. Mr. Porter bethought himself of a telegram he had in his pocket from Secretary Tumulty saying that President Wilson requested that all county chairmen of the Red Cross push the work of organization with the utmost expedition. Reading this telegram to the audience, Mr. Porter declared that the meeting was called by the President of the United States and that any attempt to break it up would be dealt with by the United States Government. The "I. W. W.'s" promptly withdrew in a body, and the Red Cross was formally organized.
It was in the fall of 1917 that Mr. Porter was elected mayor of Riverside. On taking office January 1, 1918, he resigned as chairman
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of the Red Cross of Riverside County. He was re-elected for a second term as mayor in November, 1920.
Mayor Porter is a republican. He has been deeply interested in civic administration from the time of his pastoral duties in Brooklyn, where he came to admire and appreciate the high-minded attitude and the practical idealism of Dr. Abbott, whose splendid Americanism might safely be copied at any and all times. While in Brooklyn his experience with the masses of the city poor gave Mr. Porter a clear vision of the relationship between civic government and the interests of the people. While there he organized the Brooklyn Civic Association for the study of civic affairs of Brooklyn. A large part of his active interest in politics has been directed to city administration.
He was also one of the founders of the famous "Get Together Club" of New York City, a club very similar to the Present Day Club of River- side. This consisted of men of New York and Brooklyn who were inter- ested in social questions. Their interests led them on one occasion to hold a great meeting in "Little Hungary," in one of the great popular saloons of the metropolis, where they debated the temperance question with the saloon men themselves. While at Montclair, New Jersey, Mr. Porter was an active member of the Civic Society. At the close of the Spanish- American war he was one of the organizers of the Cuban Industrial Relief Commission and went to Cuba to help relieve the "Reconcentrado Population" which, it will be recalled by those familiar with the history of that time, was the agricultural people of Cuba whom Governor Weyler had impounded and reduced to starvation.
During his ministerial work in Alabama Mr. Porter was appointed by President Clark of the National Christian Endeavor Society as state superintendent of the society, and he organized the first Christian Endeavor in Alabama and its first State Convention at Montgomery. At one time he was a trustee of Marysville College in Tennessee. He was a member of the Boys Military organization in Marietta, belongs to the Phi Gamma Delta college society, the Knights of Pythias in Alabama and the Masons in Brooklyn.
At Brooklyn in 1894 Mr. Porter married Miss Elizabeth Shepard, a native of that city. Her father was Dr. Charles H. Shepard, a well known Brooklyn physician. Miss Shepard was an active member of Plymouth Church while Mr. Porter was its associate pastor. She died at Montclair, New Jersey, in 1907. Their one child, Horace Shepard Porter, is now a student in the University of California. At Riverside December 29, 1910, Mr. Porter married Miss Maude Chapman, daughter of D. P. Chapman. Miss Chapman was an active member of the First Congregational Church of Riverside while Mr. Porter was pastor and for many years preceding.
During his two terms as mayor Mr. Porter has devoted his entire time to the administration of his office. In addition to the many general interests centering in such an office his work has been in close association with the departments of police, streets, parks and trees, legislative and executive work as presiding officer of the City Council, the administra- tion of city franchises and ordinances, the presidency of the Board of Health, and the presidency of the Board of Public Utilities. The Board of Public Utilities is the administrative head of the departments of municipally owned water and electric light and power.
For thirty years interested in public ownership of public utilities, Mr. Porter has been specially interested in problems of public owner- ship of water and hydro-electric power for the City of Riverside, and as closely allied with the problems of such public ownership for the
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State of California, including all cities, towns and farm districts. As his term draws to a close in the winter of 1921-1922, Mr. Porter's special interest has been in helping to formulate and place before the people of the State the celebrated Amendment known as "California's Water and Power Act." For Mr. Porter holds as an absolute conviction that pub- lic ownership of public utilities is sound public policy, and the only right solution for the people. And this especially in California, where, as it lies in the public domain of the great mountains and river systems, the public owns these utilities in their sources, and the people ought also to own and control these utilities in their daily service to the people both in the cities and in the farming districts.
Mr. Porter believes that the greatest single thing that can be achieved for the people of California is that the people shall own these utilities and have the benefit of them at cost of production. This the mayor con- tends will immensely minister to the prosperity and the happiness of the people of California.
Mr. Porter has an abiding faith that the people of California will appreciate this great opportunity and stand for the great principles in- volved, notwithstanding the powerful interests that are arrayed against public ownership of public utilities.
FRANK P. WILSON. The genial and efficient sheriff of Riverside County, Frank P. Wilson, has safeguarded the citizens for more than thirty years, and his has been an administration of the office that has demanded and received recognition, just as his filling of other offices of similar nature was recognized. At the polls his victory is assured before the election, and no higher endorsement could be given.
It takes a man of peculiar ability to fill such offices, and an officer of the law fitted to hold such an office is almost as rare as a "blue moon." Mr. Wilson has the seventh sense, intuition, and an instinctive recognition of evil doers. He is just, gives every man his chance, but any breakers of the law find the Sheriff as inflexible as iron, the mailed fist very much in evidence. In the pursuit of criminals he is as untiring as a blood- hound, and they are prone to remember this, as the records of the county will show. Outside of his office he is a different man, genial, popular and takes a living, kind interest in his fellow men. It would be difficult to name a citizen of the county who is better liked and an official more highly respected and honored.
Mr. Wilson was born in Barry County, Michigan, August 16, 1860, his father being the late James Wilson, and his mother, Hannah K. Wil- son. James Wilson was a native of Barry County also and a farmer by occupation. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in 1861 as a private in Company I, Second Regiment, Missouri Cavalry. He was in many battles and actively engaged until he was killed by Morgan's Guerillas in 1862 near Memphis, Missouri. His widow took her family and went to Sterling, Illinois, to live among relatives in 1863.
Frank P. Wilson went to school and remained until graduated, when he took an additional course in the Sterling Business College for a year. He then spent three years on the farm near his boyhood home. He decided to come out West, to California, and did so, settling in River- side November 19, 1886. For a period of two years he engaged in car- pentry work and then was elected constable and also served as deputy sheriff of San Bernardino County before the formation of Riverside County. He served in this office for five years, and so efficient was his work that he was elected chief of police. This office he filled to the satisfaction of everyone, for twelve years, his courage, impartiality and Vol. 11-8
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fitness for the office giving him the position of Sheriff in 1906 and he took charge of the office January 7, 1907. The first term ended in 1910, but he was re-elected and has held it ever since, this being his fourth term. While he is a strong republican and active in the service of his party, serving it in county conventions as a delegate and as a member of the Central Committee, politics have played no part in the continued tenure of the office. It is the man, not the party.
Mr. Wilson joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows January 9, 1882, and has been through the chairs in the Subordinate Lodge, No. 282, and also in the Encampment. His other fraternal relations are as a member of the Riverside Lodge No. 643, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Evergreen Lodge No. 259, F. and A. M., and the Sons of Veterans.
He is also a director in the National Bank of Riverside.
Mr. Wilson married in Sterling, Illinois, December 19, 1883, to Miss Lydia Bressler. They became the parents of two children. Maude is the wife of A. W. Reynolds, an employe of the Gaylor Rouse Depart- ment Store of Riverside and they have one child, Robert, eleven years of age and attending school. James F. Wilson the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, was born in 1890, and died June 17, 1918.
James F. Wilson was a graduate of the Riverside High School and attended the local business college. He was employed by the National Bank of Riverside for two years and a half and then for the same length of time by the Security Investment Company of Riverside. It was while he was at work at the latter institution that the World war broke out, and he did not wait for the draft but enlisted in the regular army in June 1917. He was in the general infantry service at Fort McDowell and was one of the two sent from his company to the Reserve Officers Train- ing Camp at Camp Lewis. He was there about three months, being a sergeant, when he was taken ill and came home to Riverside on a furlough of a few days. He returned to Fort McDowell and was there ten days; then was taken seriously ill with meningitis and taken to San Francisco. His father brought him back to Riverside, but he passed on in thirty days, to be remembered and honored as one of the brave boys of America who gave his life for his country, a hero and a patriot just as much as though he had died in the trenches. He gave to the utmost- his young life.
WILLIAM GRANT FRASER-To name some of the outstanding fea- tures of constructive development and financial institutions of Riverside is to name the large affairs with which William Grant Fraser has been closely and actively identified since coming to this section of Southern California thirty years ago.
Known to many as a banker, Mr. Fraser brought to California a wide and thorough experience in banking affairs gained during his residence in Canada. He was born near Inverness, Scotland, November 4, 1862. His father, Hugh Fraser, was a life-long resident of Scotland, a farmer by occupation, and a man of prominence in his community. He died at the advanced age of eighty-four. During his early life in Scotland William Grant Fraser attended the grammar and high schools of Inver- ness, and also had some of the routine duties of the home farm. Leaving Scotland, he went to Canada in 1882, and acquired his first experi- ence in the banking business at New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. He was connected with several branches of the bank, and finally was in the head offices of the Bank of Nova Scotia at Halifax.
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When Mr. Fraser came to California in 1887 he acted as cashier of the bank at Elsinore until his removal to Riverside in 1890. Since then, while for many years actively identified with banking, perhaps the most interest- ing part of his career has been in development and constructive lines. He helped plant the first citrus trees on Arlington Heights. About January, 1891, he became a factor in the affairs of the Riverside Trust Company, Ltd., which had acquired from the late Matthew Gage the Gage canal system together with the Arlington Heights land, consisting of about five thousand acres and another tract of about three thousand acres in the San Bernardino valley. For a number of years he was accountant for the Riverside Trust Company, Ltd., later was made assistant manager, and in 1900 became general manager of the company's business in California. From that office he retired, after nineteen years, on October 1, 1919. January 1, 1920, Mr. Fraser was elected president of the Security Savings Bank and vice president of the Citizens National Bank, after having been a director in both institutions for a number of years.
Mr. Fraser has been president of the Arlington Heights Fruit Ex- change since its organization about eighteen years ago. The Riverside Fruit Exchange and the Arlington Heights Fruit Exchange recently con- solidated, under the new title of the Riverside-Arlington Heights Fruit Exchange, of which Mr. Fraser is still President. Since 1900 he has been president of the Gage Canal Company. For many years he was a director and one of the vice presidents of the California Fruit Growers Exchange and Fruit Growers Supply Company, resigning from that board after he severed his connection with the Riverside Orange Company, Ltd., which was the successor of the Riverside Trust Company, Ltd., and the Arlington Heights Fruit Company. Mr. Fraser is a director of the Riverside County Building and Loan Association.
These brief facts suggest the highly important role he has played in Riverside County for many years. In politics he is a republican, but has had no active part aside from voting. In 1919 he was elected a mem- ber of the Board of Education of Riverside City. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Pioneer Society, and is a trustee of the Calvary Presbyterian Church.
November 21, 1893, Mr. Fraser married Miss Helen Maxwell. She is a native Canadian. Her father, Frank B. Maxwell, had been for thirty years manager of the Cook Brothers lumber interests at Toronto. Their two daughters were both born at Riverside. Miss Frances Maxwell Fraser is a graduate of the Riverside schools, is an A. B. graduate from Vassar College and Columbia University, and is now teacher of history and mathematics in the Westover School for Girls at Middlebury, Con- necticut. Miss Ruth Barbara Fraser. the younger daughter, is a graduate of the Riverside schools, of Vassar College with the class of 1920 and is now taking post graduate scientific studies at Columbia University.
JOHN T. JARVIS, a well known and well liked citizen of Riverside, is one of the up to date, live wires of real estate dealers, handling only the very best class of lands. He is equally well known as a citizen who is always to be found ready to join any movement tending toward civic improvement, public spirited to a high degree and wide-awake always to be the best interests of his adopted home. He almost ranks with the pioneers, and to pursue an account of his successful life is to be helped in a practical way, for Mr. Jarvis commenced life without means or position, and the brilliant success he has gained financially, civically and socially has been attained only by his own energy, in- dustry and wise judgment. There is not a better judge of real estate in the state than Mr. Jarvis, hence his clientele.
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Mr. Jarvis was born March 10, 1847, in Ontario, Canada, and he is a descendant of old families prominent in many ways. He is the son of Jonathan and Eliza (Allen) Jarvis. The education he acquired inside the four walls of schoolhouses was very meager, comprising the period of his life from the age of six to thirteen, and then, owing to untoward circumstances, he had to engage in the battle of life, a battle that even at that age he had determined would be a victory for John T. Jarvis.
He commenced that fight and his business career as an errand boy in a grocery store, and it was not long before he was behind the counter and very soon after that promotion he was appointed manager of the store. He remained in that position until 1869, when he decided that the future he intended to gain did not lie along mercantile lines. So he resigned and at once went into the dairy business with his father. They had a good business from the inception, adding the making of fine cheeses, but it was a case of hard manual labor and no rest day or night, and this in a climate which certainly left much to be desired. So with his customary quick decisiveness he disposed of his interests and sought the ideal home and came to California and, of course, to Riverside County.
Once here he wasted no time in preliminaries but got right down to the business of raising oranges, also running a nursery. Highly suc- cessful, he knew that he still had not attained his life work, and this he found when, in 1887, he left that business to engage in real estate, and here he found himself. Successful from the first, he found a further outlet for his energies in handling also life, fire and accident insurance for a time. But these he was forced to give up to devote his entire attention, as he is now doing, to high-grade real estate, in which he is in Class A. Mr. Jarvis is a republican in politics. In his fraternal rela- tions he is a member of the Odd Fellows, which he joined in 1884. He is also a Mason and a member of the Commandery.
He was assessor four years, 1895-99.
He organized the Peoples Abstract Company in 1895 and brought it through to success, being its president for ten or twelve years. The com- pany was later sold to the Riverside Title Company.
He organized the Royal Steam Laundry, was its president for ten years and at the present writing is its vice-president.
He was the means of organizing the Citizens Bank, securing the sub- scriptions for it, but never accepting any official position, although he was a stockholder for many years.
At one time Mr. Jarvis was the largest realty operator in the city. being connected with a syndicate that dealt largely in San Diego lands and handled the 32,000 acre Lankersham ranch in the Cajon Valley.
In the early days he ran a drygoods store under the name of J. T. Jarvis & Company, but sold out to Gaylor Rouse and for a time the two were partners. The Jarvis store was the foundation of the present big Rouse Department Store of Riverside.
When he first came to Riverside, Mr. Jarvis planted and handled more orchards than any other man in the valley. He was one of the leaders in the raisin industry and packed and sold many thousand boxes.
He also handled and dried apricots and peaches for a Chicago firm, buying much of the fruit in this valley and elsewhere.
He also handled a large part of the orange crop for several years, including much of the Riverside crop in 1885 and 1886.
He also bought and shipped honey.
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He was with the Griffin & Skelley Company as one of the partners and buyer for the firm.
He handled the San Bernardino and Highlands crop before Redlands was planted.
Mr. Jarvis planted and cased for several hundred acres of outside orange groves and at one time, with others, had 700 acres.
One year he and his brother dried apricots from 142 acres he owned, 80 acres of which were on California Avenue, between Adams and Monroe, and the remainder in ten and 20-acre pieces in that neighbor- hood.
He was one of the eight or ten Imperial County men who brought in the domestic water to Riverside in 1887-8. Mr. Jarvis has always lent a helping hand to others, etc., and there are many men in the city today who owe their start to his interest and help.
Mr. Jarvis married in May, 1869, Miss Matilda A. Dundas in Ontario, Canada. She is a daughter of Robert and Harriett Ann Dundas, the former a native of the north of Ireland and the latter a native of New York state. They are the parents of eight children: John, a mining man ; Lelia, wife of M. O. Pann, of Riverside; Constance, William and four children who are deceased. Mr. Jarvis and his family are members of the Episcopal Church.
HUGH H. CRAIG, formerly judge of the Superior Court at River- side, came to California with the reputation of an able lawyer and man of power in his native city in Iowa, and during his connections with the bench and bar of Riverside has justified the expectations entertained by his older friends and associates.
Judge Craig was born in the river town of Keokuk, Iowa, October 1, 1874, son of John H. and Alice (Read) Craig.
John H. Craig was one of the best known lawyers of the Middle West from 1857 until his death. His father was a member of the early Penn- sylvania Legislature, and was Scotch Irish descent. Judge Craig's mother was of English descent.
Hugh H. Craig graduated from the Keokuk High School at the age of seventeen. Soon afterward he entered Parsons College at Fairfield, Iowa, graduating in 1896. An invaluable experience giving him active contact with men and affairs and broadening his mental horizon was his early service after leaving college as a newspaper man. For three years he was connected with the Keokuk Daily Gate City, which twenty-five years ago was paper of wide influence and much power in the central states. He began as a reporter, but eventually was city editor, and appar- ently had a big career before him in the newspaper field, since he had displayed unusual talents in news getting, diplomacy and as a versatile writer both in the editorial and reportorial fields. About that time, how- ever, he decided that he had a real "flair" for the law and gave up journalism to study with his cousin, John E. Craig, a brilliant lawyer of prominence and high standing. Under such direction he made careful preparation for his new vocation, and was admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of Iowa. His undisputed talents and technical and theo- retical knowledge caused his progress to be rapid. The experience of his early years of practice matured him into the successful lawyer and rising man of power. From the time of his admission he practiced at Keokuk seven years, and while there was also city attorney for three years. The people of his native city came to regard him as a man of most unusual abilities and in many ways proved their faith in his judgment and charac- ter. While at Keokuk Judge Craig showed an active public spirit in
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