USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 24
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 24
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During 1918 and 1919 Mr. Herrick worked for the United States Government as a real-estate expert on a Board of Claims at Camp Fremont, Palo Alto, California. He also appraised the ground where March Aviation Field is now situated, and had the Realty Board make a second appraisment, and from these the valuation was de- termined and the purchase made by the Government.
He is a member of the First Congregational Church of Riverside, and active in that body. A republican, he takes a deep interest in local elections.
In 1901 Mr. Herrick erected his comfortable residence at 1437 Lemon Street. On August 24, 1899, he was united in marriage with Margaret Stuart, of Park Ridge, which is a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, Mrs. Herrick was born in Chicago, and is a daughter of the late Colonel O. Stuart. Mrs. Stuart survives her husband and is now residing in Riverside. Colonel Stuart was colonel of the Ninetieth Illinois Volun- teer Infantry, and was one of the few men who had the doubtful pleas- ure of reading his own obituary. At Missionery Ridge he was shot through the abdomen, and the bullet dropped into one of his boots. He was reported dead, and his wife secured a permit from General Grant to recover his body and take it home which permit Mrs. Stuart still preserves. Not only was this report, fortunately, untrue but Colonel Stuart recovered and later marched with Sherman to the sea. After the war he was in the employ of the United States Government at Chicago, Illinois, until his death.
Mr. and Mrs. Herrick have one son, Stuart H. Herrick, who was educated at the Claremont School for Boys at Claremont, California, and the Riverside High School. He was connected with the Corn Exchange National Bank of Chicago for several months and is now associate manager of the Herrick Estates, Incorporated.
Mr. Herrick is an only son, but he has a sister, Lida, who is the wife of. J. Lansing Lane, of Santa Cruz where he has large property interests. Mrs. Lane is a graduate of Mills Seminary, and was iden- tified with the social life of Riverside during its early period, and was very popular. Mr. and Mrs. Lane have a son, Derick, and a daughter, Elizabeth. Derick Lane was in active service during the World war, as a member of the aviation branch in France, and was on the transport Tuscania which was sunk near the coast of Scotland.
Mr. Herrick has never lost his interest in the subjects to which in early life he devoted so much thought. He has a broad outlook on life, and is a capable business man and a great booster for River- side and its citrus industry.
GEORGE TYLER BIGELOW, of Riverside, is a native Californian, though for a number of years he lived in the East and practiced law.
He was born at San Francisco February 19, 1882, son of George Tyler and Elizabeth V. (Waters) Bigelow. Until he was eight years of age he was in a private school at San Francisco, and from 1890 to 1898 had the advantage of private schools at Detroit, Michigan. Mr. Bigelow is an A. B. graduate of the University of Wisconsin with the class of 1903, and in 1906 received his law degree from Harvard University. On the conclusion of his education he practiced law in Boston and later in Oklahoma, and in 1910 removed to Riverside, where he bought an orange grove and up to 1916 devoted himself to orange culture. In 1917 he was made secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, and in 1918 became special agent of the Southern Sierra Power Company and is now assistant general agent of that corpora-
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tion. He was campaign manager of all Liberty Loan drives and all other drives for Riverside City and County.
Mr. Bigelow has served as a director and was president in 1920 of the Chamber of Commerce. He organized the Rotary Club in 1920 and was its first president. He has been a director of the Present Day Club for three years and is a member of the Elks Lodge.
February 27, 1908, at Madison, Wisconsin, he married Miss Ada M. Welsh, daughter of George W. and Mary S. (Carpenter) Welsh. Mr. and Mrs. Bigelow have two children, Mary E., born in Madison, Wisconsin, and Eunice M., born in Riverside, California.
JUDGE E. G. BROWN, well remembered and loved, E. G. Brown, bet- ter known to everyone in Riverside as Judge Brown, was one of the most determined and foresighted of that original colony which fifty years ago set in motion the activities that redeemed waste places in Southern California and transformed them into the foundations of the present City of Riverside and of Riverside County.
He possessed the sturdiness of a native son of the Pine Tree State of Maine, having been born in Franklin County of that common- wealth in 1821, and reared on a farm. He graduated in 1842 from the Wesleyan Seminary at Readfield. For several years following he clerked in mercantile houses at Rochester and Elmira, New York, and for three years did a successful independent business at Elmira. His next stage of progress took him half way to the final goal of his career. At Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he became one of the pioneer business men, engaging in the warehouse and grain business under the firm name of S. C. Bearer & Company. This interest he sold in the fall of 1863 and at Belle Plaine, Iowa, started a general mercantile business and continued it successfully until he came to California.
It was as one of the original promoters of the Riverside Colony Association that Judge Brown came to California and with late Dr. Greves visited the Riverside site in June, 1870. They were among the first members of the association on the ground. At once Mr. Brown insisted the association purchase the land. His views were not shared by other influential members of the association. Unable to persuade Judge North, president of the company, to complete the transaction, Judge Brown returned to Iowa and began the organization of another company for the express and well advertised purpose of buying the Riverside land. Doubtless he would have persisted in his new course, though essentially it was a strategic move, and effected its purpose, since the original company put an end to delays and in September of the same year closed the deal and secured the land. Judge Brown had correctly estimated the temper and good judgment of his associates, and as soon as they accepted what he had persistently urged he abandoned his new company project and settling up all his affairs in Iowa in May, 1871, returned with his family to Riverside and thus joined actively in the colony project at the very beginning.
Judge Brown located on Government land in sections 13 and 14, getting a hundred and four acres half a mile north and east of the town site on Colton avenue, now La Cadena Drive. While not pos- sessed of large financial resources, he had the invaluable pioneer traits of courage and perseverance. Though just turned fifty, he set about his task of making a home in the West with all the vigor and enthu- siasm of a younger man. His first task was the building of a cabin 12x16 feet. He cleared the ground and put out a great variety of trees, vines, shrubs and plants. This was purely experimental on
E. G. BROWN
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his part, since neither he nor anyone else knew what would grow and be of service and what would not. A small nursery for citrus fruits was another feature of his early enterprise. From the first he pros- pered, his orange grove grew rapidly and was soon a source of revenue. He added to his home until he had a beautiful ornamental residence known as "The Anchorage." His horticultural as well as other under- takings seemed destined to invariable success, and his home and ranch came to be known as one of the show places of the district.
A general esteem was paid him by every resident of Riverside not only for his enterprise but for his upright character. He got out of life what he put in it, loyalty, faith, energy, belief in his God and his fellowman. His time and money were used to further the upbuilding of Riverside and he lived to enjoy many years in the city he helped found. He was a member and for many years senior warden of the Episcopal Church, and in politics a republican. While he avoided public office, he consented to serve as justice of the peace through appointment, and afterward was elected and reelected, continuing in that office until 1880.
In 1850 he married Miss Sarah Van Wickle, a native of New York, whose family, of Holland-Dutch ancestry, was planted in New York at an early period in the European settlement of the continent. Mrs. Brown was a young woman of Eastern education, social ideals and ac- customed to the comforts of Eastern life, yet she bravely and cheerfully accepted the tasks and responsibilities of pioneering both in Iowa and in California. Judge and Mrs. Brown had three children: Sara C .; Lyman V. W., of Riverside ; and Catherine, who died at Belle Plaine, Iowa, in 1872, the wife of S. S. Sweet.
To the adventuresome spirit of Judge Brown, Riverside today owes an unforgettable debt. As long as the town endures and her history is known, so long will his name, his memory and influence be esteemed by its inhabitants. Beyond any other heritage his children appreciate what he was and what he stood for, a character unsullied by mean- ness, and constantly expressive of kindness and consideration for others. He was a strong man who seized the hour of opportunity.
GEORGE ROBERT FREEMAN has been practicing law in Southern Cali- fornia the greater part of thirty years. His home is at Corona, where he has directed a large and important practice, involving participation in the city's affairs as city attorney.
Mr. Freeman was born at Galesville, Wisconsin, March 18, 1867, son of George Young and Ann (Stroud) Freeman. His father was a native of New York State and of Knickerbocker stock, the family having been identified with the dedication of the famous Trinity Church. The great-great-grandfather of the Corona lawyer received a grant of land from King George of England. Ann Stroud was of Pennsylvania Quaker and Dutch stock and a member of the family for whom the town of Stroudsburg in Pennsylvania was named. George Y. Freeman and wife moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, during the fifties, and were among the first to establish their homes in the new town of Galesville in 1858. George Y. Freeman was a brilliant and talented lawyer and one of the leading democrats in the State of Wisconsin. President Cleveland appointed him a commissioner of contested land cases under Secretary Vilas in the General Land Office in Washington, D. C., where he rendered efficient service. For a number of years he was district attorney of Trempealeau County, and was once democratic candidate for Congress. While the Chicago
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& Northwestern Railway was being constructed through Wisconsin he used all his influence to bring the route to Galesville, and during the construction and afterwards was attorney for the Northwestern Rail- way Company. His three sons all became prominent in professional affairs. Charles E. Freeman is a Presbyterian minister at Galesville, Wisconsin. His twin brother, E. W. Freeman, was one of the success- ful lawyers of Los Angeles, where he died in September, 1919.
George R. Freeman was educated in the public schools and college at Galesville, Wisconsin, and began the study of law with his father in 1888. In 1889 he entered the law department of Columbia Univer- sity at Washington, D. C., and while there attended lectures delivered by Chief Justice Fuller and Justice John M. Harlan of the Supreme Court and by other distinguished jurists. During 1891-92 he con- tinued his studies in the Chicago Law College, graduating in 1892.
Mr. Freeman came to California soon after graduating and until 1894 he was deputy county clerk of San Bernardino County under George Hisom. He was an associate deputy with Frank W. Richard- son, present state treasurer of California. About the time Corona was established he moved to that community and formed a partnership with his brother E. W. Freeman. In 1896, at the death of his mother, he returned to Galesville, Wisconsin, and took up his father's law practice. In 1899, his brother Edwin having moved to Los Angeles, he returned to Corona and took over the practice established by Edwin Freeman there. He has served for about twenty years as city attorney for Corona, and in addition has a large general practice before all the courts and is attorney for a number of local corporations in the state. He is vice president of the El Cerrito Ranch Company of Corona, has been a director in the Corona National Bank and stockholder in the three banks at Corona. Judge Freeman was a member of the Public Library Board at Corona when the present library building was constructed. In 1910 he was elected on the republican ticket to represent Riverside County in the State Legislature of 1911. Recently, in 1921, when the Legislature provided for an additional judge of the Superior Court of Riverside County, Mr. Freeman was selected by Governor Stephens for this judicial honor. He is now residing in Riverside and serving efficiently as a judge of the Superior Court.
As a boy in Wisconsin Judge Freeman attended a military school under the supervision of the War Department and had as his instructor the famous Lieutenant John L. Clem, "the drummer boy of Chick- amauga." Judge Freeman is identified with the fraternal organizations of the Masons, Odd Fellows and Fraternal Brotherhood, and is a member of the Corona Country Club. At Chicago, Illinois, in 1896 he married Miss Mabel A. Miller, formerly of Auburn, New York. Her parents were Andrew C. and Elizabeth Miller. Her father was the inventor employed by the D. M. Osborn & Company manufacturing establishment of Auburn, New York. Mr. Miller perfected the original knotting device used in the first twine binder harvesting machinery. Judge and Mrs. Freeman have two sons, Edwin R., born November 18, 1898, graduated from Stanford University June 20, 1921. Lorraine M., born August 9, 1900, attended as a sophomore in Stanford Univer- sity but is now attending the Riverside Junior College of Riverside. County. Both are graduates of the Corona High School.
BON O. ADAMS, M. D .- While a graduate in medicine, Dr. Adams throughout most of his experience of twenty years has been primarily
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a surgeon, and his practice at Riverside is limited to that field. Ile has been a resident of Riverside only five or six years, but his reputa- tion as a surgeon is well established throughout this part of the state.
Dr. Adams comes of a family of physicians. Both his father and mother were graduates in medicine and both of their fathers were practicing old time physicians. Bon O. Adams was born at Marion, Kansas, September 17, 1872. His father was Dr. G. D. Adams, who for many years had an extensive general medical practice in Indiana. His mother was Dr. Mary Elizabeth (Lowe) Adams. Both were born in Ohio, and traced their geneological records through the American Revolution to England.
Dr. Bon O. Adams was educated in the grammar and high schools of Eaton, Indiana, his parents having located there when he was four years of age. In 1898 he graduated Bachelor of Science from the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and received his M. D. degree in 1901 from the Medical College of Indiana. In the meantime, partly as a means to an end, he had been an active teacher and educator, and was superintendent of the schools of Eaton, Indiana, before he received either of his degrees. Like all thoroughgoing surgeons, Dr. Adams has kept in close touch with the great surgical centers. For several years he made it a rule to spend at least a month each year either in the Mayo Brothers Hospital at Rochester, Minnesota, or the Murphy clinics in Chicago.
Dr. Adams after graduating remained in Indianapolis as an interne in the City Hospital during 1901-02. During 1902-03 he was on the staff of the Homestake Gold Mining Company's hospital in South Dakota. From 1912 to 1916 he had charge of the surgical service of the Minnequa Hospital for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company at Pueblo, Colorado.
After fifteen years of heavy labor in his profession Dr. Adams took a well deserved vacation in 1916, and with headquarters at San Diego spent the larger part of a year looking over California for an ideal home locality. His investigations were thorough, and the fact that they finally led to the choice of Riverside is a significant testimonial to the unique beauties and attractions of this city. Nothing in his subsequent experience has caused Dr. Adams ever to regret or question the wisdom of his choice.
A month after America declared war on Germany Dr. Adams volunteered for service in the Medical Corps and received a captain's commission and was on duty at The Presidio at San Francisco. He is a member of the American Legion. Professionally he has the honor of being a regular elected Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, is a member and a past president of the Riverside County Medical Association, former president of the Pueblo Medical Society of Colorado, and a member of the California State and American Medical Associations. He was president of the Present Day Club of Riverside in 1920-21, is a director of the Chamber of Commerce, is a Knight Templar Mason at Riverside, also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of El Jebel Shrine of Denver, Colorado. Dr. Adams is a member of the Official Board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church.
In October, 1902, at Topeka, Kansas, he married Miss Jean An- drews, a native of Wisconsin. Their two children are Donald, of the class of 1922 in the Riverside High School, and Betty, attending grammar school. Besides keeping up his high school work Donald is employed by the Southern Sierra Power Company. His present
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plans are such that he will be the first in four generations of the family to depart from the practice of medicine and surgery. He is preparing for a career as an electro-hydraulic engineer, and from high school will enroll in Stanford University.
FREDERICK B. BLANNIN-While his activities have been those of a commercial artist, Frederick B. Blannin by much of his work has earned the unstinted praise of critics who appreciate the best per- formances in painting as a fine art. Mr. Blannin has lived in Southern California for many years, and is at the head of an organization complete in personnel and facilities for handling every class of com- mercial painting.
He was born at Manchester, England, October 13, 1871. His father, Josephus Robert Hugh Blannin, was a native of England and a mathematician and school master. His mother, Mary (Hale) Blannin, was of French-English descent.
Reared and educated in the schools and colleges of Manchester, Frederick B. Blannin when fifteen left his native country and went to Manitoba, Canada, in 1886. He worked at farming and also learned architecture in Winnipeg, where he remained a year and a half. He also acquired his early training as a painter at Winnipeg, and followed his trade in that city for three years.
His first location on coming to the United States was at Min- neapolis, where he was a painter three years. In 1892 he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and in 1897 to Los Angeles. He also spent several years at Girard, Kansas, and in 1900 located at Riverside.
He was at first associated with Howard Manchester, and for fifteen years handled the fine painting and commercial art work for Joe W. Cornwell. He also conducted a shop of his own three months, until Boyer and Godfrey bought him out, and he remained with that firm. He was also in Los Angeles again for a year, working for Ed Her- wick. In November, 1919, Mr. Blannin and his son bought out the art business of Mr. Cornwell.
While he is the busy executive of a firm handling all classes of com- mercial sign work, Mr. Blannin in former years executed many notable pieces that have measured up to all the standards of real art. His subjects have been chiefly landscapes, marine, animal and still life, and a number of his pictures were sold at good prices. He painted the handsome mural friezes reproducing the old California Missions and surroundings. These friezes are the chief decorative effects in the Underwood's Mission Confectionery. Thousands of visitors have expressed their appreciation of this work, and no less an authority that John S. McGroarty, author of the Mission Play, has commended Mr. Blannin for the fidelity of his execution. He also did much painting for the Riverside Fair. The first year he exhibited his paint- ings he took three first and four second prizes.
Mr. Blannin while living in Canada served three years as a member of the 90th Scotch Regiment at Winnipeg. He was in service while the troops on both sides of the international boundary were cam- paigning against Sitting Bull. As an American citizen he is an active republican. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, has filled all the chairs in the Independent Order of Foresters and for four years was chief ranger, and is a member of the Fraternal Brother- hood.
At Los Angeles in 1896 Mr. Blannin married Miss Carrie E. Morgan. She was born at Girard, Kansas. Her father, James
Frank . Detly
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Morgan, was a Union soldier, was a farmer in Kansas, and also held the office of police judge. Mr. and Mrs. Blannin have two children. The daughter, Josephine, is the wife of Frank Smitheram, of Santa Barbara. The son, Laurel de Berg Blannin, left the Riverside High School three months before graduation to enlist in the Hospital Corps on July 2, 1918, and was a pharmacist mate, second class, making four round trips in the transport service. He was honorably discharged September 19, 1919. He is a member of the American Legion. After returning home he engaged in business with his father, and the firm is know as F. B. Blannin & Son.
FRANK A. TETLEY, well known as one of the most representative men of Riverside and a capitalist of many interests, is responsible for much of the development of this part of the state. His reputation is based not only on his extensive realty operations, but on his success- ful experiments in the growing of citrus fruits and the expansion of the fruit-growing industry in Los Angeles County and the Imperial Val- ley. His activities have not been confined to these lines by any manner of means. His genius for water development and the securing and exchanging of water rights has earned for him the sobriquet "water wizard." He has invested generously of his time and money in numerous enterprises of Riverside city and county, and his connection with any concern has been sufficient to make it acceptable to the pub- lic, for his good judgment and foresight are universally recognized.
Frank A. Tetley was born at Moscow, Russia, June 20, 1866, a son of Joseph and Nancy Alice Tetley, both natives of Bradford, England, members of old English families prominent in manufacturing circles. Joseph Tetley was extensively engaged in business as a wool merchant at Bradford, England, and Moscow, Russia, and was the foreign buyer of wools and camels hair for the large carpet firm of John Crossley & Son of Halifax, England, which was at the time probably the largest concern manufacturing carpets in the world. The Tetley warehouses at Bradford were on the site now occupied by the Great Northern Railroad Depot. When his son Frank A. was but two years old Joseph Tetley came to the United States, closing out his wool business and taking up the management of the Hotel Springside, which was in those days a very fine and popular summer resort for New York and Brooklyn people. He carried on the hotel business there for about twenty years, when he retired, passing the remaining years of his life at Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Frank A. Tetley attended the public schools of Pittsfield, and when he was fourteen years old entered the office of the Pittsfield Journal as "printer's devil." Before leaving the employ of the Journal he became known as one of the fastest compositors in the business. At the age of sixteen years Mr. Tetley entered the Chickering Business College at Pittsfield, and secured his diploma in six weeks, breaking all previous records in mathematics for the rapidity in which he completed the regular course. He assisted his father in the hotel business for a time, and then, in 1887, came to California. His decision to locate at Riverside was made after meeting Frank W. Richardson, father of the late Frank W. Richardson, Jr., then manager of the Glenwood Tavern, whose story of the beauty of the place and perfection of the climate so fascinated the young man that he could not be content in his old home. Upon his arrival he secured the position of bookkeeper at the tavern, and held it very acceptably for three years, also discharg- ing the duties of clerk.
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