USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 25
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 25
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So popular did the young clerk become at the tavern that Mr. Frank A. Miller, the owner, was very loath to part with him. Believing he was too good a man for such a position, Mr. Miller promoted him to the real estate office of White & Miller as clerk, and within eighteen months Mr. Tetley, with Mr. George F. Seger, bought out the old firm and formed the new one of Seger & Tetley. This association continued for three years, and then Mr. James Goodhue purchased Mr. Seger's interest and the new firm continued the business one year. Upon the retirement of Mr. Goodhue Mr. Frank A. Miller became Mr. Tetley's partner for a year, and then for ten years Mr. Tetley conducted the business alone. Branching out to include the raising of citrus nursery stock, Mr. Tetley took E. F. Kingman as an insurance partner, but within three years once more bought the business and handled it alone. During the period he was a realtor he handled many large properties and managed important deals so successfully that he was known as "Frank A. Tetley, the Half-Billion-Dollar Insurance Agent." As a real-estate agent he sold probably one-half of the business proper- ties on Main Street, and at different times owned, himself, a number of pieces.
In 1902 Mr. Tetley engaged in the nursery business with John W. B. Merriman, the firm being known as Tetley & Merriman, and later sold his insurance business to Mr. Pember Castleman. The nursery business prospered and an immense trade was built up. Later Mr. William A. Childs was taken into the firm, which became Tetley, Mer- riman & Childs, growers of orange and lemon nursery stock and own- ers of the Monte Vista nurseries, located at Riverside and Puente. The oranges grown on the Monte Vista Ranch won first prize at the Na- tional Orange Show in San Bernardino in 1913, and have always been noted for their superior excellence in every particular. The firm continued in existence for seven or eight years, when Mr. Merriman died, and Mr. Tetley in the re-organization became sole owner. In December, 1918, he added walnut trees to the nursery stock, and they, too, have become famous. The firm is now known as Frank A. Tetley & Son, the junior member being Frank A. Tetley, Jr. Glenn Blackman has a small interest in the firm, although his name does not appear.
In all Mr. Tetley has planted between 900 and 1000 acres to citrus and deciduous fruits and alfalfa, all of which he has developed and sold. Approximately he has planted in Riverside County 325 acres, in Los Angeles County 325 acres, in San Bernardino County 125 acres and in Imperial County 200 acres. He has put in his own wells and has developed six or seven pumping plants to supply water. About 100 acres still remain unsold. The Monte Vista Ranch, south of the State Citrus Experiment Station, is one of the most beautiful of its kind in the country. It comprises 200 acres of land, through which is a wind- ing driveway, making it resemble an English park. All kinds of roses and other flowers and Monterey pines add to the attractiveness of the place. It has seven building sites, five of which have been improved with residences. The profusion of oranges, lemons and grape fruit make of the tract a veritable paradise.
Mr. Tetley was a pioneer in the Imperial Valley, where he owned a dairy ranch and had 200 acres of alfalfa and four acres of oranges. He also owns the Marine Heights Ranch at Puente, consisting of seventy acres of oranges, lemons and grape fruit. An authority on orange culture, Mr. Tetley states that in the thirty- four years he has resided in Riverside he has seen ice every year except three, and that the idea that oranges can only be grown in a frostless section is an
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erroneous one. In a certain district he developed citrus groves that during the big freeze of 1913 left only three trees out of the 4000 planted, and that, after having been replanted, this district is today one of the best in the state, some of the acreage having sold as high as $4000 per acre.
When Mr. Tetley first came to Riverside the people were convinced that there was not enough water to cover the land, and that the proj- ect of pumping water from a well or the canal was not practicable. A few men were convinced that this could be done successfully, and one of the pioneers in the business was Mr. Harry W. Hammond, now business manager of the Riverside Daily Press, who developed one of the first producing wells to be pumped for practical irrigation. It was located seven miles west of Corona. Such remarkable results followed this first supply of water artificially obtained that other developments of an adequate water supply through wells and turbine pumps followed until, as Mr. Tetley aptly says, it now looks as though there were not enough land for the water. Mr. Tetley is partly if not wholly responsible for the project of switching the water from the Meeks & Daly Canal into the Gage Canal, which brought about 1200 acres of the choicest orange land under water and into production on Arlington Heights. The water was being used in the vicinity of Colton, California, and as he had a nursery on Arlington Heights Mr. Tetley conceived the idea of transferring the water as described. He bought up a lot of the Meeks & Daly water, but could not handle it alone. He enlisted the help of Mr. W. Grant Fraser, who, acting in behalf of an English company, bought 250 inches, which, together with that owned by Mr. Tetley, constituted the control. With the installation of pumps the project was brought to complete fruition.
It was Mr. Tetley's knowledge of water development and of water rights, and more particularly the transferring of such rights from lower to higher levels in Riverside and vincinity, that proved one of the potent factors in securing the location of the State Farm School at Riverside. It is recalled that Mr. George Roeding, a member of the Board of Regents of the University of California and chairman of the agricultural activities of that body, stated on one of his visits to Riverside that unless water could be secured from the artesian basin in the San Bernardino Valley he would not favor locating the Farm School in Riverside. This seemed like an insurmountable difficulty. Senator S. C. Evans put the matter up to Mr. Tetley, who immediately attacked the problem. He found a solution by purchasing land and wells on Palm Avenue in San Bernardino County and installing large pumping plants there and exchanging with the Gage Canal Company some of the water thus produced for carrying capacity in the Gage Canal. He next arranged to purchase from the estate of the late Ambrose Hunt in the San Bernardino Valley all of the Hunt land and water rights. Through a combination effected with the widow, Mable E. Hunt, involving a part of these water rights, Mr. Tetley was able to furnish the State of California with the remaining one-third of the artesian flow from the Hunt tract, the other two-thirds being owned by the City of Riverside, and to convey to the state carrying capacity for this water in the Gage Canal. Mr. Tetley states that no less than fourteen distinct transactions and more than $100,000.00 in total con- siderations were involved in this transfer.
While he has been eminently successful in the above mentioned lines, Mr. Tetley has also made his influence felt in banking circles, and for the past twenty years has exerted himself in the development
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of the finances of the city and county. He was one of the organizers of the Union Savings Bank, which later was consolidated into the Riverside Savings Bank. To Mr. Tetley and the late C. E. Rumsey is due the credit for keeping the Union Savings Bank alive following the disastrous failure of the Orange Growers Bank. At present Mr. Tetley is a director of the Citizens National Bank, the Citizens Bank of Arlington, and is director and vice-president of the Security Savings Bank of Riverside. While he helped to organize the First National Bank of Calexico, he later sold his interest in that institution.
Recognizing the desirability of securing for Riverside business buildings of a character to fitly represent the importance and dignity of its interests, he erected the Tetley Block, on Main Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets, the east half of the Victoria Block on Seventh Street between Main and Orange Street and occupied the same as an office for about five years. At one time he owned the stores now occupied by the Franzen Hardware Company and the north half of the Woolworth five and ten cent store and the Branch building adjoining the Odd Fellows Building on the South, between Ninth and Tenth streets. He also owned a tenth interest in the Rubidoux Building at Seventh and Main streets. He is the owner of the Tetley Hotel at Eight and Lime streets, which he rebuilt in 1912. It is now under lease to Mr. J. D. Goehringer. This building is a four-story brick structure with a ground area of 146x180 feet. It is well equipped and modern, and comfortable in every respect.
Mr. Tetley is a member of the Monte Vista Fruit Association, the Kiwanis Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Pioneer Club, and the Los Angeles Athletic Club. In politics a republican, he has repre- sented his party as a delegate to county conventions and served on the Republican County Central Committee. At the present time he is a member of the Board of Public Utilities of Riverside. While not a member of any religious body, he attends the Episcopal Church. He has contributed freely to the building up of the city. He had an important part in raising the bonus which made possible the building of the Glenwood Mission Inn, and subscribed liberally to the funds raised for the Y. M. C. A. Building and the First Congregational Church, to say nothing of generous gifts to other religious and civic enterprises.
In June of 1885 Mr. Tetley married Marion Davison Oddy, a native of England and a daughter of John Davison Oddy, who belonged to an old English family. Mr. and Mrs. Tetley have three children, namely : Gordon O., who is engaged in the real-estate and insurance business at Riverside; Frances, who is his secretary and office girl ; and Frank A., who while attending the Boys' Polytechnic High School at Riverside, is assisting his father in the nursery business.
Mr. Tetley is a man who has a strong hold upon the hearts and confidence of the people of Riverside. He is admired for his manly qualities, his political sagacity, his knowledge of business, and for his fidelity to every trust imposed upon him. He is full of pride for his city, his state and his nation, and believes that the indomitable spirit of the Southwest will prevail and that this is the garden spot of the entire country. To his multiplicity of interests he brings a ripened judgment, mental vigor, a large heart and unfailing kindness. He represents the Southwest with hospitality, grace and tact in all his public acts, and his work will never be forgotten by the people whom he has led to such unexampled prosperity.
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MRS. BERTIE MAE BUSTER-The ability to stand firmly on one's own resources and to depend entirely on one's own capacities is a con- tributing factor to the happiness and self respect of any individual. The necessity of calling upon others for support is something that is distasteful to any man or woman who has even a spark of independ- ent spirit, and when such a person has worked out his own in- dependence, surmounting difficulties in so doing, the success is all the sweeter. In the building up and development of the Anderson House, the only hotel in the City of Colton, Mrs. Bertie Mae Buster has accomplished the achievement referred to. Through her own spirit, resource and enterprise she has won her way to a position of substantiality, where she can not only consider herself with a pardon- able degree of pride, but can command the esteem and respect of her fellow-citizens.
Mrs. Buster was born October 30, 1886, at Macon City, Missouri, a daughter of Alonzo A. and Isabella Robbins. On both sides of the family she is descended from old and honored families of this country, and can trace both the paternal and maternal lines back to participants in the War of the Revolution. It may be that she inherits her spirit of independence from these distant ancestors, who felt firmly that they were able to govern themselves and to arrange their own lives. After attending the public schools she entered the University of Missouri at Columbus, from which she was duly graduated. She had been married at the early age of seventeen years, and less than three years later, April 6, 1906, the day of the great San Francisco earthquake and fire, came to California. Finding herself thrown on her own resources, she rose brilliantly to the occasion, and as manager of the Anderson House, the only hotel at Colton, has built this house up from a very inferior establishment to one of the largest and most finely appointed inland hotels in Southern California. This house is now a general favorite with the traveling public, who find the cuisine excellent, all comforts extended and a homelike air that is so often lacking in the larger hostelries. Mrs. Buster is a courteous and oblig- ing hostess, always at the service of her guests.
Mrs. Buster, while an excellent manager and possessed of splendid business qualities, is by no means a "new woman" in the general acceptance of that term. She does not allow herself to be bothered about politics, and her chief interests are her hotel, her religion, which is that of the Presbyterian Church, and her only child, a charming and attractive daughter, Dorothy, who is twelve years of age.
WILLIAM M. ROBERTS-Among the citizens of Redlands in whose careers are joined the California of the early pioneer days and the times of modern civilization, one who has passed through the entire range of experiences and has won his way to success and position through his sheer, indomitable spirit and perserverance is William M. Roberts, now the possessor of extensive interests. Mr. Roberts was born at San Bernardino, California, April 25, 1858, a son of Berry and Frances (Thomas) Roberts.
Berry Roberts was born September 18, 1836, in Conway County, Arkansas, a son of Jesse and Mary (Aplin) Roberts. The youngest in the family, he was still an infant when his father, an Arkansas farmer, died, and he resided in Arkansas until he was something more than fifteen years of age, when, with his mother and others, he started across the plains, driving four yoke of oxen. This party started for the West April 10, 1852, and arrived in Mariposa County, Cali- Vol. 11-12
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fornia, October 1. His mother later removed to Texas, where her death occurred. She was a native of Tennessee. After mining for five years Berry Roberts moved to San Bernardino County, in Decem- ber, 1857, and located on a ranch, embarking in the cattle business in San Timoteo Canon, Riverside County. On his ranch of two hundred acres he was one of the breeders of fine livestock in this section, and was one of the men to introduce good blooded stock into the state. While he started life in a new community without means, at a time when money was scarce, this hardy old frontiersman made a success of his undertakings and through hard and earnest effort be- came not only the owner of a good ranch, but also the possessor of the esteem and respect of those who appreciated the strength of his character and the many qualities of heart and mind which were included in his makeup. His death occurred at the home of his. son William M. at Redlands. In Mariposa County Berry Roberts married Miss Frances Thomas, a native of Missouri, and they became the parents of twelve children: William M., Ozrow, Mary, Ella, Emma Beach, Nettie, Berry Lee, Sterling, Ida, Early, Archie Milton and Edward.
William M. Roberts attended the public school in San Timoteo Canon, and when about seventeen years of age left home to make his own way in the world. . He was first employed by the civil engineers who were surveying the right-of-way for the Southern Pacific Railway from Beaumont to the junction of the Salt and Gila rivers, Arizona. This was desert work and hardships were countless, but young Roberts was made of strong fibre and stuck to the job, later being made track-walker for the railroad in the same locality, a position which he held for two years. Subsequently he secured employment with Judson & Brown at Redlands, then engaged in the construction of the first canal for Redlands, and superintended the building of the reservoir now located on Roosevelt Avenue. By this time Mr. Roberts had saved $1,200, and this he invested in eight horses and two wagons, with which he began freighting across the desert to points in Arizona, a business in which he was engaged for two years. His next work was the construction of the old rock ditch from Crafton through the ranch of M. H. Craft, and in 1885 he homesteaded one hundred sixty acres at the mouth of Mill Creek Canon. He filed on the water, and, developing his ranch, had a thirty-five-acre orchard as well as prop- erty which grew alfalfa and general crops, but which he was compelled to sell in 1907. Mr. Roberts became involved in law suits over the water rights with the Edison Electric Company, and, although he carried the case to the highest tribunal and finally won his fight in eight years, the litigation cost him such a sum in the courts that he was forced to dispose of this valuable tract. Mr. Roberts lived at Green Spot for several years and later on Eleventh Street, Redlands, for five years, but later bought forty acres on Victoria Avenue, near Loma Linda, which has been his home for years. He also owns other city properties and is a man of substantial means. During his career he has worked hard and faithfully and the prosperity that has come to him has been entirely of his own making. During the early days he operated pack trains extensively to the various mountain resorts, including Seven Oaks and Bear Valley, continuing in that line for seven consecutive years. It was his custom to carry building material, doors, windows, sash, etc .. on pack burros, and also heavy kitchen ranges, which were packed in pieces and assembled at Clark's. While this was hard work, it was a profitable task, bringing in a profit of
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$1,500, which was a paying venture during a year's work in those days. Mr. Roberts has a number of good business, civic and fraternal connections, and is looked upon as a man of sound integrity and of public-spirited citizenship.
At the age of eighteen years Mr. Roberts married Miss Kate F. Hanner, a native of Mexico, who died at Redlands, leaving three children : Ethel, now the wife of W. W. Newman, of Holbrook, Arizona, with one son, Theodore; Grace, who is the wife of Raynor Hubbell, of Louisville, Kentucky ; and Roy C., who married, November 20, 1916, Izella Bennett, and has one child, Leonard Lewis, born in 1917. William M. Roberts' second marriage was with Miss Gertrude Dennis, of Kansas, and they had three sons: Walter Arthur, William Harold and Oscar Ralph. Walter Arthur Roberts was born September 14, 1891, in Mill Creek Canon, and he was educated at the Green Spot school. In 1908, at the age of seventeen years, he enlisted in the United States Navy as an apprentice seaman aboard the U. S. S. Pennsylvania, under Admiral Robley D. Evans, in command of the fleet in its voage around the world. He advanced to able-bodied seaman, then to third-class fireman, to first-class fireman, and at the end of four years' service was acting oiler (now steam engineer). His captain was Charles F. Pond, now a retired admiral. Mr. Roberts was honorably discharged at San Pedro March 8, 1912, and returned to his California home. At Blackfoot, Idaho, September 17, 1917, he enlisted in the 347th Machine Gun Battalion, and after training at Camp Lewis left for overseas June 26, 1918, and arrived in France just one month later. His battalion was sent at once to the front and got into action September 13, 1918, in the St. Mihiel offensive. Later he was in the Meuse and Argonne defensive, where his brigade, the 181st, was in a continuous fight for nineteen days and nights with no relief. After six days relief the brigade was sent to the Belgium front lines, twenty-three kilometers from Ypres (at Rolers), and this offensive was pressed until the armistice was effected, at which time his corps was at Aaudenard on the River Schildt. He was then com- missioned officer of Signal Corps 347, Machine Gun Battalion. His was a hazardous undertaking, and he was wounded four times, on one occasion being sent to the hospital, where he remained from November 3 to 9, then hurrying back to his corps. He received his honorable discharge at Fort D. A. Russell, Cheyenne, Wyoming, May 8, 1919. Mr. Roberts is by profession a steam engineer, the vocation which he learned in the United States Navy.
William Harold Roberts was born at Redlands, California, April 28, 1894, and was educated at the Green Spot School. For service during the World war he enlisted in the Regular Army, joining Company G, Third Ammunition Train, and was trained at Camp Pike, Arkansas. He went overseas in May, 1918, and took part in five heavy engagements. including the Marne, Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel and Argonne Forest. While his services were of an extraordinarily dangerous and important character, consisting of bringing up ammunition at night under shell- fire, with no lights and no guiding roads, he escaped wounds, and after serving with the Army of Occupation in Germany was honorably dis- charged in October, 1919. In 1920 he re-enlisted for three years, and is again with the Army of Occupation, near Coblenz, Germany.
Oscar Ralph Roberts was born at Redlands, California, September 12, 1898, and was educated at the Green Spot School. He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1913, serving his term of service aboard the U. S. S. Raleigh, a torpedo-boat destroyer. He received his honorable
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discharge about the time the United States entered the World war, and was not called to the colors, being placed in Class C because of his former service. He is now a passenger conductor on a railroad running out of Redlands. On June 28, 1919, he married Miss Anna Swanson, of Yucaipa, this state, and they have one son, Ralph Oscar, born Jan- uary 12, 1921.
William M. Roberts married for his third wife Miss Amelia Van- deventer. His fourth wife bore the maiden name of Miss Pearl Davis, and after her death he married Mrs. Fannie Jamison. The present Mrs. Roberts bore the maiden name of Miss Flora Ida Stevens, and was both at Porter, Wisconsin, February 6, 1882, a daughter of Albert S. and Ida Stevens. In 1891 she married Charles E. Garnett, and they had one child; Ethel Alice, born March 6, 1910, at Wausau, Wisconsin. In 1914 they moved to California, where Mr. Garnett died later in the year. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Roberts occurred December 8, 1916.
JOHN SUVERKRUP, a well known and highly esteemed business man of San Bernardino, has long been indentified with the city, for he is one of the pioneers to whom so much is owing for their early work in the development of the city and state. He is also a pioneer business man and now owns and conducts a lumber business which is second to none in the county. He has always maintained a keen interest in civic move- ments of worth, and has contributed much to the progress of his home city.
Mr. Suverkrup is well known throughout the district, and his honor- able business methods and personality have made him many friends. Square dealing has been the keynote of his life, and he fully merits his prosperity and high standing. He was born in Schleswig-Holstein, near Kiel, Germany, April 26, 1851. the son of Frederick and Dorothy (Bowk) Suverkrup, both of whom were born in the same place as their son, and both of whom died at their birthplace.
Mr. Suverkrup was educated in the public schools of his native place and was then apprenticed to a flour miller and learned the milling trade. He worked at this until he was twenty years old and then, in 1871, came to the United States, landing in New York. Here he worked in a sugar refinery for two years, at which time he determined to come West. This he did, locating in San Francisco in 1873. He worked there in a grist mill for six months and then went to Sacramento, where he purchased a partnership in a grocery store, and was there for a year and six months when he sold out. He came then to San Bernardino.
Upon his arrival he at once rented a ranch, on which he started a dairy, which he conducted with success for nine years. In 1884 he bought a ranch, but later sold it.
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