USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 19
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 19
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His father was General Henry Edward Whiffin, a native of Wales. General Whiffin. who retired from the army in 1881. was accountant general in the British service. He was on active duty through the Crimean war and the Indian Mutiny. General Whiffin married Jessie Cecelia Sceales, a native of Scotland, who is still living in England at the venerable age of eighty-five. Maxwell R. Whiffin has two brothers whose active lives have been largely given to the British military es- tablishment. They are Major General Henry Edward Whiffin and Colonel George Whiffin. Both were on the retired list when England entered the war with Germany, but immediately resumed service. Colonel George Whiffin had charge of the transportation of troops and munitions of the British Army over all the railroads of England. with twenty- five thousand men under his supervision. General Henry Edward Whif -
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fin was in charge of the engineering and road building of the allied armies in France.
Maxwell R. Whiffin was born at Edinburg, Scotland, September 9, 1871. He received his early education in the United Services Military College of Devonshire, at a place with many literary as well as historic associations, called Westward Ho. One of his classmates was Rudyard Kipling. He passed the examination for a lieutenancy in the army ir 1886. Army life not appealing to him, he soon afterward went to the East Indies and became an indigo planter. Not long afterward the Germans discovered a dye which brought practical bankruptcy to the indigo industry. He was in India through the Bengal uprising, and also when the cholera plague destroyed twenty per cent of the inhabitants.
In all the years until he came to Southern California Mr. Whiffin was possessed of an unconquerable desire to see more of the world, and his travels led him to Australia, New Zealand and Egypt, everywhere attended with interesting and sometimes weird incidents. He was in Ceylon in 1887, when he witnessed one of the great elephant drives of the British Government. He has seen one hundred and fifty bull ele- phants at work in the timber jungles. In the course of his travels he finally reached Manitoba, Canada, where he was in the cattle business as a buyer until 1900.
In that year he came to California. After a few months he joined a party of five bound for Cape Nome, Alaska. Among other hard- ships of that expedition was surviving a tidal wave. Through dangers and difficulties he was buoyed up with the vision of Riverside, a gem in perfect setting, the most ideal place he had ever seen in all his travels. Throughout his struggles in the frozen North there was in him a profound conviction that he would be able to return and make Riverside his home. His adventures and efforts there, in fact, pro- vided him with enough money to achieve this object. Reaching here, he made a payment on an orange orchard and eventually became owner of thirty acres of oranges in perfect bearing on Arlington Heights.
For twenty years Mr. Whiffin was in the service of the Arlington Heights Fruit Exchange, and in practically every capacity. For the last five years he was superintendent of the packing houses. In all these twenty years his superior official was Mr. William Grant Frazer, whose career is sketched elsewhere in this publication. Mr. Whiffin has a high admiration for Mr. Frazer, and states that he never heard him give utterance to an unkind word. After the change in manage- ment Mr. Whiffin accepted the position of general manager of the Minnehaha Orchard Company in Tulare County, California, the holdings of this company comprising eight hundred and fifty acres of citrus and farm land. Mr. Whiffin is still a large stockholder in that business. Ow- ing to the poor health of Mrs. Whiffin and her desire to be back in River- side. he resigned his work in Tulare and is now manager of the Riverside Packing House of the American Fruit Growers, Inc. Mrs. Whiffin has absolutely regained her health and is happy and contented since her return to Riverside.
Mr. Whiffin became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1905. His sentiments are wholly American. He is a republican in politics, thoroughly progressive, and was deeply interested in the suc- cess of all drives during the war period. What is for the good of River- side is certain to enlist his heartiest co-operation.
Besides his citrus and Tulare County interests Mr. Whiffin is a di- rector in the Keystone Drug Company. He owns a fine home at 245
Hugh a Bain
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Oakwood Place. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge at Visalia, he and Mrs. Whiffin are communicants of the All Saints Episcopal Church, and Mrs. Whiffin in addition to church and home interests undertook much work in the Red Cross during the war. . She is a member of the Parents-Teachers Association.
At Los Angeles, June 3, 1902, Mr. Whiffin married Miss Vyvyen Lovelock. She is a native of England. Her father, the late Samuel Lovelock, was a chartered accountant of London. The two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Whiffin, both natives of Riverside, are Maxine, a stu- dent in the Grant school, and Virginia, a student in the New Magnolia Avenne School.
HUGH A. BAIN. A Scotch engineer and business executive with a record of fifty years of active and strenuous participation in business and industry, Hugh Bain when he retired selected what many besides himself would regard as the most beautiful and attractive place in the world, Riverside, and the people of this community have come to know him as a man of genial and sympathetic interests with local affairs and a man of the highest distinction and attainments.
Mr. Bain, who resides at 1484 Orange Grove Avenue, was born at Nairn, near Edinburgh, Scotland, April 18, 1849. His father, Hugh Bain, Sr., was a Scotch capitalist with extensive business interests and in 1856 moved to Canada and for the rest of his life lived as a retired gentleman in Paisley County, Ontario.
Hugh A. Bain when sixteen years of age walked ten miles every day to teach school. Later he secured the horses to drive, and these were the first brought into Paisley. His home was the first house ever built in Paisley, and there were more Indians than white people as neighbors. The Indians were friendly, and one memory that stands out clearly with Mr. Bain was their offerings of cooked venison, which he says was the finest he ever had. It was no uncommon sight to see large herds of deer pass the school window.
After three or four years teaching at Paisley, Mr. Bain entered the Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario. During vacations he again taught and worked at other employment. While a student he was also at Brockville. After graduating from Queen's University he took a law course at McGill University in Montreal.
About that time occurred a reversal of family fortunes, and to support himself and contribute something to the family he went to New York City. He reached the metropolis with ten cents in his pocket, and lost no time in connecting himself with employment. His first salary in New York City was eight dollars a week. After some varied experiences he became connected with the Lewisohn Brothers, a firm for many years distinguished by the extent and magnitude of their capitalistic enter- prises. By his resourcefulness and energy Hugh Bain rapidly acquired the confidence of this firm, and for a number of years looked after their ranch interests and later other general interests.
Many of Mr. Bain's important achievements are associated with the Montana mineral district. He went to Butte as representative of Lewisohn Brothers. This firm contemplated the erection of smelters at Butte. Mr. Bain's investigations proved that the cost of coal as laid down in Butte made a general smelting project prohibitive. After con- sultations with the late J. J. Hill and others he commenced a systematic search for a location where conditions would be more favorable. Some of the property interests of Lewisohn Brothers were in the neighbor- hood of Great Falls, where coal could be recovered from the surface.
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Various chemical analysis showed this coal was suitable for gas, and the firm of Ledoux & Rickett of New York reported that a perfect gas production could be secured from the coal samples. Thereupon Mr. Bain determined to smelt by gas, although Mr. Klepetko said that it could not be done. Another reason for selection of Great Falls as a site for the smelter was the forty-foot drop in the river, which made possible great power development.
The smelter was blown in and ore was shipped from Butte for reduc- tion, the smelter expert selected by Mr. Bain being Frank Klepetko, well known in the mining world. After things were in order Mr. Bain went to England for the Lewisohn Brothers, to attend to some business with Baring Brothers. While there he received a telegram from Lewisohn to "stop all work and come back, as things were in bad shape." Respond- ing to the call and returning to Montana, he found that he had a big problem to solve through the inadequacy of the gas production. He finally solved it by putting the gas production on a level with the blast.
He found that the gas supply was ten or twelve feet above the numer- ous smelting furnaces. When first blown in the furnace would operate perfectly for a short time, and then the pipes would choke up with refuse under the high pressure. He devoted a long time to the problem, work- ing until one and two o'clock every morning and seriously undermining his health, but continuing his experiments and studies until he satisfied himself that the fault would be remedied by putting the gas supply on, or below the level of the blast. The wisdom of this plan was assailed on the ground that it would not relieve the situation and that the installa- tion had already cost a million dollars. Mr. Bain replied that the change would save the company $12,000,000, and ordered the first unit brought down to the level. This was done and the test showed perfect smelting. The remainder of the furnaces were soon changed and it has resulted in the successful operation of the big plant ever since. Like all radical departures from accepted and established forms the work at the Great Falls smelter was watched with intense interest by the scientific world, and its successful outcome wrote a new page in the history of ore reduc- tion.
Mr. Bain was the first to use electricity in the separation of gold, silver and copper from ores and superintended the installation of the first plant. Before this time, if under a certain percentage, it was sent to Europe for separation. This electrical process is now employed by all large mining companies in the United States.
Seeking recuperation, Mr. Bain went to New York, but though very ill at the time, A. S. Bigelow wired him that he must return with him and others to Montana on a trip of inspection. A special car was pro- vided and the plant inspected and approved, but as a result of the effort Mr. Bain was in bed for six months.
Thus in many essential respects Mr. Bain should be credited with the building of the gigantic smelters at Great Falls, Montana, for it was his work that made the successful operation of the plant possible and the separation of metals by electricity. His achievements in the recovery of copper and other metals from base ores give him high rank as a mining engineer. After his recovery from the strain of overwork, concluding with a long vacation in Bermuda, he engaged in general business for the Lewisohns until his retirement. Mr. Bain had been coming to California for twenty years, and deciding upon Riverside for his winter home, built the commodious and handsome place on Orange Grove Avenue which he still occupies. He goes away every summer, particularly to Rockland, Maine, where he still has interests.
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Mr. Bain has been in every state of the Union and most of the foreign countries. He is known as a philanthropist and has provided an endow- ment fund for the education of four children and has educated fifteen or twenty in the Staten Island Academy. He built the contagious wards in the Smith Infirmary, and has always been ready with his time and purse to assist those less fortunate than himself. Much of his time has been spent in travel, and he has crossed the Atlantic seventeen times. He is a life member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, is a director in the Riverside Hospital and a member of the Masonic Order. His wife was Miss Helen Snow, a native of Maine, daughter of Israel Snow, a shipbuilder of Rockland. Mrs. Bain is of Mayflower ancestry.
DAVID W. LEWIS has the worth while distinction of being the oldest title man in Riverside County, and is president and manager of the Riverside County Title and Guaranty Company. He came to Riverside over thirty years ago, and as an incident of his work, involving practi- cally the writing of the title history of this district, furnished much of the data favoring the formation of Riverside and San Bernardinc counties. One of the contentions set forth in behalf of Riverside was that this portion of the older county had not received its share of benefit from the taxation, though paying more than one-third of the total volume of taxes of San Bernardino County, of which it was then a part. Information supplied by Mr. Lewis had much to do with determining where the boundaries of the new county should run. From official records he supplied the data accounting for the jog made in the county line in order that that line might be kept a certain distance from the county seat.
David W. Lewis was born in the little village of Eaton, Indiana. November 24, 1864, in the locality where the first petroleum oil dis- coveries were made in the Indiana field. His father, Isaac Lewis, was of Welsh ancestry and of old American stock and was also born ir Indiana. He served as a member of Company C, 84th Indiana Infantry, during the Civil war, and the hardships and exposure of that struggle brought on his death two years after he returned home. The mother of David W. Lewis was Jaretta Babb, a native of Indiana and now living at Portland, in that state. Her father was David Babb, a merchant and farmer, and of German ancestry.
David W. Lewis supplemented his public school education with a college career in DePauw University at Greencastle, Indiana. He grad- uated Ph. B. in 1891, and subsequently received the Master of Arts degree.
Mr. Lewis, soon after coming to Riverside in 1891, took the post of manager of the Riverside Abstract & Title Company. He was with that company until 1894, and part of the time he was also correspondent for the Los Angeles Express in Riversire and San Bernardino counties. During 1894-95 he was director of searches for the Riverside Abstract Company, and from 1896 to 1901 was secretary of the Abstract & Title Guaranty Company of Santa Ana. From 1901 to 1911 he was manager of the Riverside Title & Trust Company, and part of the same time, from 1908 and continuing until 1913, was assistant secretary and then vice president of the People's Abstract & Trust Company of El Centro. This was the pioneer title company in the Imperial Valley. From 1914 to 1916 he was with the Title Insurance & Trust Company of Los Angeles, and in January, 1917, he and associates organized the Riverside County Title and Guaranty Company, of which he has been president and manager. This company was organized with a capital of
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a hundred thousand dollars, and its prestige and success from the be- ginning has been largely due to the fact that its president was able to give the company the benefit of his more than twenty-five years expe- rience in title work.
While he was with the Title Insurance & Trust Company of Los Angeles an attack was made on the title of the Yorba estate, covering property extending from east of Corona to Newport Beach and in- cluding other property in Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. In connection with Walter L. Koethean, a former resident of Riverside, Mr. Lewis wrote a resume of the title to those properties, and an opinion recommending that the claim be ignored. He also assisted the attorneys in furnishing the records in regard to some of the Yorba heirs from 1858 down. The decision of the Supreme Court was made in accordance with their recommendations as to the invalidity of the claim. While in Santa Ana Mr. Lewis helped straighten out one of the early Mexican claims. Mr. Lewis was also one of the leaders in ignoring the claim of the new Mexican colony to Riverside, a claim first presented in 1884. Most of these matters have since been adjusted. The company he was with furnished the abstract for the ground occupied by the Post Office building in Riverside. Incorporated in the abstract were the opinions of four different attorneys, which were required before the U. S. District Attorney would pass the claims of the Mexicans as being invalid. The opinions of William Collier, W. A. Purington and Judge J. G. North accompanied this abstract.
While in the Imperial Valley Mr. Lewis straightened out many titles. including the titles of the townsite of Seeley. None of the township or the government maps or the Imperial County survey agreed. He had a record survey made with cross references enabling the various de- scriptions to be harmonized.
From all this it is not difficult to understand the authoritative posi- tion Mr. Lewis enioys among the title men of Southern California. Besides the business of which he is president he is interested with others in a two hundred acre tract, highly suitable for deciduous fruits, known as Cabazon, near Banning. This property is now being developed. He is also interested in some oil development in this section.
Without seeking office Mr. Lewis has worked for the success of the republican party and is generally around the polls on election day. His support and encouragement can be readily depended upon when anything affecting the welfare of Riverside is concerned. One organiza- tion in which he has long been interested is the Sons of Veterans. He has been commander of the Riverside Post of this order four different times, has been identified with the order itself more than thirty years. and was a member of the Division Council of California and the Pacific one year and is a member of the Past Commanders Club of the Sons of Veterans of Southern California. In former years he was one of the directors of the Riverside Y. M. C. A., and is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church.
April 18, 1893. at Riverside. Mr. Lewis married Miss Edith M. Binks. She was born at San Jose, in the famous Santa Clara Valley of California. Her parents. Benjamin and Melissa Binks, the former a native of England. and the latter of Canada, were early settlers in the Golden State. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have four children. Gertrude, the oldest, is the wife of L. E. Bloodgood, in the insurance and real estate business at Santa Ana, and has two children, named L. E., Jr., and Ellison. Robert O. Lewis enlisted in the navy about the close of the war, and after his discharge entered the abstract business with
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his father. He married Miss Helen Lenardt, a native of Danville Illinois, and they have a daughter, Ruth. The third child, Clara Louise, is the wife of Brooks W. Lowentrout, with the Union Oil Company of Riverside, and has one son, Jack Lewis Lowentrout. The youngest of the family is Benjamin, a high school student, a young man of special talent whose studies are now concentrated on art in preparation for a career as a cartoonist.
Mrs. Edith Binks Lewis through her great-great-grandfather, Chris- tian Schell, is a member of the D. A. R. Her great-grandfather, during the Revolutionary war, was carried away to Canada by the Indians.
HENRY A. WESTBROOK is one of the few survivors of those who established themselves permanently at Riverside in the centennial year. He is from Iowa, the fountainhead of the early colonization in this part of Southern California. He has contributed effort and cash to the progressive development of the city. For many years he performed an essentially constructive service, since he was a contractor and builder. For a quarter of a century or more, though identified with banking and other enterprises, his principal time has been devoted to his twenty acre orange grove at 150 North Orange Street.
Mr. Westbrook was born at LeRaysville, Bradford County, Penn- sylvania, June 20, 1848, son of Benjamin A. and Lucy (Nichols) West- brook. On both sides his family has been in America since Colonial days. His father was a native of New Jersey and of a Connecticut family of English descent, while his mother was born in Pennsylvania of Scotch ancestry. Henry A. Westbrook had a public school educa- tion. He lived and worked on a farm until he was seventeen. His father was also a contractor and builder, and after learning the car- penter's trade Henry Westbrook was associated with his father in the construction of houses for three years. It is not his fault that he had no military experience, since during the Civil war he tried to enlist, being rejected by the examiners because of his youth.
For a year or so Mr. Westbrook followed his trade in Northern Illi- nois, at Freeport. and at Lanark and Mount Carroll in Carroll County In September, 1869, he went to Clinton, Iowa, and thence to Belle Plaine, where he was in the contracting and building business until the great fire in Chicago in October, 1871. He reached Chicago ten days later, while the ruins were still smouldering, and for two years his time and energies were devoted to the tremendous task of rebuilding that city. While in Chicago he contracted tuberculosis. His physician gave him but a short time to live. In May, 1873, he returned to Belle Plaine, Iowa, and on the 10th of April, 1876. arrived at Riverside. Messrs. Waite, Twogood, Rowe and others from Belle Plaine were among the first settlers from Riverside, and it was through them that he heard of the manv attractions of the locality. Chief among the benefits conferred upon him personally was a complete recovery from tubercu- losis, but many other things as well have contributed to the complete satisfaction he has enjoyed during his forty-five years of residence in this garden spot of the world. His father-in-law, Robert McDowell. had started to build the house at 150 North Orange Street, and Mr Westbrook completed it and has lived in that one place ever since. The first year he largely rested, working around the home, and then actively resumed the contracting and building business. His first contract was the house on Fourteenth street now occupied by S. L. Herrick. Mr. Westbrook was a building contractor here until 1893, since which year he has looked after his private interests. A number of the pio-
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neer structures of Riverside bear testimony to his enterprise. These include the Evans business building, the Evans residence on Magnolia Avenue, the old Y. M. C. A., now part of the Glenwood Mission Inn, the Frederick building on Main Street across from the Inn, the Hayt and Masters buildings on Main Street, the J. S. Sims residence on Orange Street, remodeling the National Bank of Riverside from a one to a two story building, the one story brick building adjoining and its re- modeling to two stories, the George Cunningham block where the Gaylor Rouse store now is, and several frame blocks on Main Street that have since been burned. Four of these buildings were on Eighth and Main, owned by H. M. Beers.
The twenty-acre tract of land he took on North Orange Street was partially replanted, but he has since replanted all of it, and his con- tinnous management of the grove since 1893 has resulted in many profitable crops. Mr. Westbrook was a stockholder and organizer of the National Bank of Riverside, and remained a director and vice president until 1920. When this bank was projected it was the inten- tion of Los Angeles men to control the stock. The plan was upset by Mr. Westbrook, who placed all the capital among Riverside men. He is also a stockholder in the Citizens National Bank. For many years he has been a director in the Riverside Water Company and has been a director in the Riverside Heights Orange Growers Association since its organization, and is also a director of the Fruit Growers Exchange.
These facts indicate the substantial nature of his association with Riverside. At the same time he has throughout enjoyed the highest degree of civic esteem and is one of Riverside's most popular citizens. He has been interested in local elections as a republican, but has never sought office.
January 4, 1871, at Belle Plaine, Iowa, Mr. Westbrook married Miss Jane Elizabeth McDowell. She was born in Ohio. Her first American ancestors were two brothers from Scotland, one settling ir. Pennsylvania and the other in Tennessee. Her grandfather was at Valley Forge with Washington. Her father, Robert McDowell, was a lumberman, farmer, and an extensive land owner and dealer in Iowa. Mrs. Westbrook is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Their two daughters are Lucy Ada and Lova Elda. Lucy Ada is the wife of George E. Morris, of Riverside. Lova Elda is the widow of Alexander Nielson, and has a daughter, Margaret Elizabeth. Alexander Nielson was a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and at the time of his death was asso- ciated with the Bank of Italy at Los Angeles.
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