USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 20
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 20
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CAPTAIN JOHN T. LAWLER-A Southerner by birth and ancestry, one of the bravest and most intrepid soldiers and officers of the Confederacy. Captain John T. Lawler was always distinguished by the charm, address and perfect courtesy of the old Southern gentleman. He lived for many years at Riverside, where he was a prominent orange grower, and was equally active in church, fraternal and social circles. It was ill health brought on by hazardous undertakings and exposure during the war that caused him to come West, and ever afterward he was a loyal son of California and exemplified the generous nature of the old soldier who buries the dead past. It was perhaps typical of his tolerant spirit that he even voted with the republican party after coming to Riverside.
The death of this gallant soldier, March 4, 1910, was an occasion for mourning among his many friends. Captain Lawler is survived by his
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widow, Mrs. Jennie B. Lawler, who occupies her old home at 472 Fourteenth Street.
When the war broke out between the North and the South Captain Lawler was living in Memphis, Tennessee. He at once joined the first cavalry regiment raised for action in the Confederate Army. Because Colonel Jackson for some reason failed to report it, the regiment was organized as the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry. Captain Lawler helped recruit Company A of the regiment, and was second sergeant, then orderly sergeant, and on the reorganization in 1862 was made second lieutenant, later rising from second lieutenant to the captaincy of a com- pany. On account of his brilliant personal record he was promoted in 1864 to major of the Fifth Mississippi Cavalry, but he declined the pro- motion and refused to leave the men with whom he had shared so many dangers on field of battle. The Seventh Tennessee was the crack regiment in General Forrest's Cavalry. While the regiment arrived too late to take part in the battle of Belmont, it afterward shared in the experiences of such battles as Lockridge Mill, Bolivar, Medon Station where Captain Lawler sustained a flesh wound, Briton's Lane, the fol- lowing day, where he was again wounded, Davis Bridge, second battle of Corinth, and Holly Springs, where he received the surrender of Colonel Murphy. Then followed a period of detailed duty watching the enemy at Memphis, and Captain Lawler took part in skirmishes at Matthew's Ferry on the Tallahatchie River, Walnut Lake, where with a very small company he kept in check a large force of the enemy and saved the Confederate wagon train of General Chalmers from capture At this time Captain Lawler was four times wounded while gallantly leading his devoted men into action. Toward the close of that phase of his duty he was captured by the Federals. Any one of his wounds was regarded as fatal, and for that reason he was paroled by Major General Sweeney of Sherman's Army Corps. Summoning all his resolu- tion Captain Lawler refused to die and after a nine months' fight was able to rejoin his regiment. His parole paper is still in the possessior of Mrs. Lawler. After reporting for duty he was in the battles of Athens, Sulphur Springs, Trestle, fighting all along the line of the rail- road from Pulaski, Tennessee, and October 30, 1864, at Paris Landing, was ordered by General Chambers to attack the steamer J. W. Cheese- man, which he did and compelled its surrender. During the last months of the war Captain Lawler was with Generals Head and Forrest in the constant fighting through Central and Southern Alabama. Part of the command pushed on to Selma under General Forrest, where they fought the entire column of Wilson's cavalry. At the end Captain Lawler surrendered with his regiment and came out of the army one of the best liked, most popular and daring of the South's gallant friends. He always led his men, put himself in the most dangerous place, and it was little less than a miracle that he escaped alive. The four serious wounds he received in one day came while leading his men against the breastworks of Colliersville, Tennessee, in October, 1862.
The war over, Captain Lawler returned to Memphis and resumed his business career, first as a druggist, then in the grocery business, and later as a cotton commission merchant. He steadily prospered, but in time his health failed completely. In 1886 he sought recovery at Col- orado Springs, but in the spring of 1887 came to California and bought a ten acre orange grove at Riverside. This property he later sold. He then occupied with Mrs. Lawler a beautiful home on Fourteenth Street a home which for years has been an attractive center for the large group of their admiring friends. Captain Lawler also owned a seven acre
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orange grove on Cypress Avenue. Though not fond of politics or public life, he served five years on the City Council in Riverside. Orange cul- ture was a subject that enlisted his greatest enthusiasm, and he was busy in his grove from the time he came to Riverside until shortly before his death.
Captain Lawler was very actively identified with the First Baptist Church of Riverside, was church collector, then assistant treasurer and for eleven years was head of its Finance Committee. The loyalty and service he gave to this church is happily expressed in a memorial of sympathy sent to Mrs. Lawler after his death and still greatly prized by her. Mr. Lawler was a member of the United Confederate Veterans Association in Tennessee and was affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Captain Lawler married at Memphis one of the South's most charming daughters, Miss Jennie B. Taylor. Her father, Colonel Washington Taylor, represented an old Southern family and at one time was a cotton operator on a large scale at Memphis. At the time of her marriage Mrs. Lawler was living near Memphis, Tennessee. She shared with Captain Lawler in church and social activities of Riverside, and during the World war was one of the busiest members of the local Red Cross.
MIGUEL ESTUDILLO-Descended from a long line of illustrious families brilliantly prominent from the earliest period of the life of our . Golden State, Miguel Estudillo can surely claim to have been "born in the Purple," a Native Son of Native Sons.
No man could ask for his life to commence under more auspicious circumstances, and that he has been worthy of his heritage is proven by the record of his life, in which he has honorably represented his ances- tors and has rewritten the names in the annals of the state and also in those of the nation. He has won political preferment because it was his due, not only for his forensic brilliancy but for the spirit born of honest purpose with which he always worked for the greatest good to the greatest number, seldom meeting with defeat, but when he did calmly marshalling all his energies for the success he ultimately won.
Miguel Estudillo was born in San Bernardino, September 20, 1870, the son of Jose A. Estudillo and Adelaide (Rubidoux) Estudillo. He was graduated from the public schools of San Diego and then entered Santa Clara College from which he graduated in 1890. He went to San Diego from there, but a little later returned to the family home. He served as deputy court clerk of San Diego County, which position he held until 1893. Here he was appointed clerk of the Board of County Supervisors, which position he held until 1895. at all spare moments diligently preparing for his career in the law. He was admitted to the bar and immediately opened an office and commenced his highly suc- cessful practice in the City of Los Angeles. In 1899 an important case which had to be fought in the courts of Mexico took him to the City of Mexico, and there he remained for nearly three years, when he returned to Riverside and his profession, to neither of which had his devotion ever lessened.
But the public needed him and on November 8. 1904. he was elected to the Assembly of the State from the Seventy-eighth District, where he began his work for the city of his adoption and for his state. In 1905 he secured an appropriation of $35,000 for the establishment of an Agri- cultural Experiment Station at the foot of Mt. Roubidoux. At this ses- sion the bill was passed transferring the great Yosemite Park to the United States Government after a stormy session in which Mr. Estudillo
Miguel Estadillo
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was a predominant figure, having always favored the bill. By his skill in handling this bill he attracted the attention of the prominent solons and also much special personal attention. Of the latter he was greatly. pleased by the letters from the famous John Muir, who presented him with copies of his two works, "Mountains of California" and "Our National Parks."
In 1907 Mr. Estudillo was accorded the position of chairman of the ways and means committee of the Assembly, and in the same year was also made chairman of the California delegation to the Fifteenth Irriga- tion Congress at Sacramento. He also went as a delegate to the National Irrigation Congress at Boise City, Idaho, from Southern California. He was an ardent supporter of the Roosevelt-Pinchot Conservation policies, and won out in his fight with the Hon. W. R. King of Oregon, in which a resolution endorsing these policies was presented.
November 3, 1908, Mr. Estudillo was honored by the people with an election to the State Senate. Here he made his famous fight for local option, but though the bill was for the nonce defeated, he was not defeated and in 1911 again took up the fight, this time the Wyllie local option measure, and he carried it through to success. The papers were very laudatory and the official organ of the Anti-Saloon party said among many other things: "We may, however, without invidious comparison, mention the name of Senator Miguel Estudillo, of Riverside County, who had charge of the measure in the Upper House. * *
* Senator Estudillo introduced the local option bill in the Senate two years ago
and did yoeman work in behalf of the measure. *
*
* It was not only fitting but fortunate that the Wyllie Bill, after its approval by the Assembly, was in charge of the Riverside Senator. *
* *; without giving offence to those who opposed the measure, Senator Estudillo met and answered every argument against it, and, with unyielding tenacity. refused to accept amendments which were intended to impair its efficiency.
* *
* The subsequent career of the bill was thick-set with peril and it required skillful management, unfaltering fidelity, courage and deter- mination to carry the measure safely through and win for it success." And all these qualities Mr. Estudillo had, and has today.
In 1909 Senator Estudillo was chairman of the committee on election laws of the Senate, which recommended, by minority report, the passage of the direct primary law, creating a revolution in state politics and forever destroying machine rule. In 1911 this passed the Legislature. In 1911 Mr. Estudillo was appointed a member of the holdover com- mittee, which investigated the notorious school book trust of the state, and as a result of the findings of the committee the trust became a thing of the past.
In 1911 Senator Estudillo secured another appropriation for his county, this time to establish the laboratory and make improvements at the Mt. Rubidoux Experimental Station. In his public life the Senator has always been a power to be carefully considered, and, withal, a most interesting figure of no slight distinction.
Mr. Estudillo was admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, and is one of the three attorneys of this district who are members of the National Bar Association of the United States. The other two are Judge H. H. Craig and H. L. Thompson.
In Riverside, the city of his adoption, Mr. Estudillo is an honored citizen, always proving himself worthy of recognition, a true Californian. The grandson of Don Louis Rubidoux has many interesting documents relating to him, letters, books and pamphlets. Many books have been written of the proud old Don, a recent one being "The Story of the Rubidoux Rancho." A few years ago Mr. Estudillo received letters
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from a man named Hardy, at that time over eighty years of age. He had been a close companion of Don Louis and a teacher for him, receiving for the latter fifteen dollars per month and his board and room, the state also giving him fifty dollars per month. He wanted to marry one of Don Louis' daughters, and while the Don was willing, her mother was not, as, being English, he would take her away from her home and country. She later married a rancher. Mr. Hardy had money when he came to California, but lost it in mining for gold. He went to Aus- tralia later, having been with Don Louis from 1856 to 1862. The Rubidoux name, as everyone knows, is a part of the history of California.
On the paternal side Mr. Estudillo is also linked with the history of California, for his grandfather, Don Jose A. Estudillo, was revenue col- lector and treasurer of San Diego County in 1823-30. In 1835 he was a member of the Territorial Legislative Deputation, the law-making body of California at that time. He was urged to accept the governorship of California at this time, but would not do so. In 1840 he was for two years justice of the Supreme Tribunal, and in the last year of this serv- ice he was granted the San Jacinto Rancho from the Mexican Govern- ment, grateful for his loyal, able service.
In 1843 he was appointed administrator of the Mission San Luis Rey and two years later he was made judge of the Mission. In Septem- ber, 1849, Brigadier General Riley, of the United States Army, appointed Don Jose judge of the First Instance for the District of San Diego. Later he was elected assessor of San Diego, the first to hold that office under the American regime. Don Jose's ancestors were all fighting men, military to the core, a quality which has been transmitted down through the years to his descendants. His father, the great-grandfather of Miguel Estudillo, was a captain in the Spanish Army. He passed away in 1853, leaving his son, also Don Jose A. Estudillo, to carry on the name. His life work has been along the lines of a land owner principally. His wife. the mother of Miguel Estudillo, was a daughter of Don Louis Rubidoux, of whom extended notice will be found elsewhere in these volumes. One of Mr. Estudillo's uncles was state treasurer of Cali- fornia from 1876 to 1880, having proved his fitness for the office by the way he filled the office of treasurer of San Diego County for twelve years.
Miguel Estudillo had had a great deal of military experience in State military affairs as captain of Company M, Seventh Regiment, California National Guards, so when the World War broke out he organized the Home Guards. Of this he was elected captain and received his com- mission from the governor of the state. He also organized the River- side Rifle Club, which is still in existence. He was appointed by Presi- dent Wilson a member of the Legal Advisory Board of the Selective Service System, his associates being W. A. Purington (now deceased) and Judge Hugh H. Craig. Before the United States entered the war Mr. Estudillo organized the Riverside Red Cross Ambulance Corps, col- lected $1,600 from the citizens and, at a largely attended public meeting held in the park, he presented the money to Hewitt Roblee, a son of Dr. Roblee, for the purpose of buying an ambulance for service in France. An up-to-the-minute vehicle was secured and did much serv- ice overseas. As a mark of appreciation for the part he had played in securing the ambulance, a picture of it in service, together with the ambulance plate, was sent to Mr. Estudillo after the signing of the armistice. During the war Mr. Estudillo spared neither his time nor his finances and energies to be of service. He was at work early and late on the various war activities, without financial consideration, eager
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to do any service required of him, exemplifying in its truest, finest form that which we know under the name of "true patriotism."
In addition to his other activities Mr. Estudillo has been city attorney since 1918. As an attorney his splendid professional talent is never questioned and his wide knowledge and fine intellectual powers are in constant demand. He has also the rare gift of oratory, a magnetic and forceful speaker and can always "put across" any argument he is pre- senting. And he enthusiastically supports any and all things which are for the good of his city, county or state, is a valuable factor in all move- ments which are progressive and he is sure and resourceful in his han- dling of civic problems.
Socially Mr. Estudillo is well known and fraternally he is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the Victoria Club of Riverside and of the Jonathan Club and the Union League Club of Los Angeles. Politically he is proud of his allegiance to the republican party.
On February 22, 1903, Mr. Estudillo wedded Miss Minerva Cook, who is a direct descendant of James Cook, who came over in the May- flower and settled in Winchester, New Hampshire, where she was born. Mr. and Mrs. Estudillo have two sons, Reginald and Francis.
HAROLD N. DUNBAR-The Riverside community for years has been sensible of the fine quality of public service and public spirited activity of both Mr. and Mrs. Harold N. Dunbar. Mrs. Dunbar in particular might be regarded as a pioneer in that form of community work which involves the participation of all local citizens in social entertainment and city progress, a plan and idea that in recent years have taken hold of nearly every progressive town and city in the country. Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar were responsible for the first outdoor Christmas celebration in Southern California. This celebration has been observed for five consecutive years in White Park at Riverside.
Mr. Dunbar, who gave a quarter of a century to public service in Riverside, as assistant postmaster, then as superintendent of parks and later as city treasurer, was born at Brockton, Massachusetts, December 13, 1859, son of Heman and Mary (Howard) Dunbar, both natives of Massachusetts and now deceased. His father was of Scotch and his mother of English descent. Heman Dunbar was a non-com- missioned officer in the Union Army during the Civil war.
Harold N. Dunbar acquired a public school education at Brockton, and was only fifteen years of age when he left New England for the Pacific Coast. He reached California in 1874, and for the first two years was employed in a drug store at Gilroy in Santa Clara County. He then became secretary and assistant manager of the San Joaquin and Kings River Canal and Irrigation Company for the great land owning and ranching firm of Miller & Lux. Subsequently he took charge of one of this firm's stores in Merced County, and remained in business there for sixteen or seventeen years. For two years he was also engaged in ranching in Merced County and for three years was manager for the Carnell-Hopkins real estate firm in San Francisco.
Mr. Dunbar moved to Riverside in 1890 to become assistant post- master under his brother, F. M. Dunbar. He remained in that office until 1906 under Postmasters Dunbar, H. M. Streeter, Frank Abbott and George D. Cunningham. After leaving the postoffice he was for six or seven years superintendent of parks in Riverside, and he was first appointed city treasurer by the council to fill an unexpired term.
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In the fall of 1919 he was elected to that office, beginning his four year term in January, 1920. Mrs. Dunbar is his chief deputy.
Mr. Dunbar is a Knight Templar Mason, being affiliated with Pacific Commandery No. 3 of Sonora, California. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club, is a republican in politics, and he and Mrs. Dunbar are members of the Pioneer Society, the Historical Society and the City Home League. Mr. Dunbar owns a nursery on Prospect Avenue and Penrose Street, where plants and shrubs are propagated, the specialty being the Carob tree. In this work he is assisted by his son Fred J.
Among other community activities in which she has been a leader at Riverside Mrs. Dunbar assisted in organizing the Red Cross during the war and devoted to that cause most of her time. She helped organize and became secretary of the Spanish Art Society, for nine years was a director of the Riverside Humane Society, and was a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
Mrs. Dunbar before her marriage was Miss M. B. Boye. They were married June 10, 1885, in San Francisco, where she was born. Her father, O. H. Boye, was a San Francisco business man and with his wife came to California when they were young people. They were of French and German ancestry. Following is a brief record of the six children of Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar: Miss Ethel C., formerly connected with the Riverside Post Office, now employed in the San Francisco Post Office; Fred J., his father's partner in the nursery business ; Mabel, wife of Edwin M. Daugherty, a Los Angeles business man, their two children being Virginia and Richard; Miss Gladys D., associated with her uncle in the Boye Photographic Studio of San Francisco; Miss Marion H., a teacher at Oakland, California; and Miss Dorothy, a student in the Junior College of Riverside. Fred J. Dunbar for a number of years was a traveling salesman for the Eastern & Western Lumber Company of Portland, Oregon. When America entered the war with Germany he enlisted with the Forestry Division of the 21st Engineers Corps and was in France until the . signing of the armistice.
PHILIP MONROE SAVAGE-Early in life Dr. Philip Monroe Savage determined to make his life work the healing of his fellowmen, and to secure the best education obtainable in order to realize his cherished ambition. He is a native son of California and his mother is a native daughter, and his primary education was gained in his home state. He has had more educational advantages than falls to the lot of the majority of surgeons, and it has been supplemented by wide and varied experiences, by long contact with and training by the masters of surgery in both the West and East. He is the natural surgeon whose work is a pleasure and his great aim in life to skillfully alleviate the suffering of humanity. By every means open to the wide-awake surgeon he keeps in touch with every improvement, every new method and discovery in the line of his work, and so today he ministers with undisputed skill to the surgical necessities of the community which regard him with confidence based upon his successful work in the city of his adoption and the surrounding country. No surgeon stands higher both with the profession and the people.
Dr. Savage enlisted early in the World war, and worked long months. in the camps, but at the last moment illness, contracted in the line of duty, held him hospital bound until the war was over. He
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served his country as truly as though he had worked overseas throughout the war.
Dr. Savage has a keen interest in everything relating to his home city, and is always to the fore when anything comes up which will be for her good, and is a dependable factor in all civic matters. In banking, fraternal and social circles he holds the same high position he does in his profession.
Dr. Savage was born in Tulare, Tulare County, July 17, 1880, the son of Philip and Flora (Darby) Savage, his father a native of Texas and his mother of California. His father came to California when a young man and located in Yolo County, where he followed the occu- pation of a wheat farmer. He died in 1913 in Sanger, Fresno County. His wife is now living in Berkeley, California. Her father at one time owned the old Arrowhead Hotel. They were the parents of twelve children, of whom six are now living: Genevieve, wife of George P. Manchester, of Berkeley; Geraldine, wife of Charles Kavanaugh, of Napa ; Dr. Philip M., of San Bernardino, the subject of this sketch ; Lucille, wife of I. J. Maxon, of Berkeley ; William, a physician and specialist of San Bernardino; Harold, an attorney in Fresno.
Dr. Philip M. Savage was educated in the public and high school of Tulare, and then, after a preliminary course in the University of California, he attended the Cooper Medical College in San Francisco and was graduated with the class of 1907. Where many would consider this the close of their medical education, it was the beginning for him, and he went East and took a post graduate course in the Chicago School of Surgical Technique. From there he went to the famous Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota. He now devotes him- self exclusively to surgery.
Dr. Savage was one of the organizers and is a director of the American National Bank of San Bernardino. He makes his home on the beautiful place he owns, an orange grove of twenty-three acres in East Highland. He was elected president of the Young Men's Christian Association, in 1921, upon the retirement of Judge Curtis.
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