USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 26
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 26
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He commenced his real life work by buying an interest with John Hook in two sections of timber land in 1887, and the following year. with Mr. Hook, he started in the retail lumber business in San Bernardino. In about 1910 he bought his partner's interest and since then has con- ducted the business by himself, building up a big trade and firmly estab- lishing himself as an able, conscientious business man.
Mr. Suverkrup was united in marriage in 1884 with Emma Willianı- son, a daughter of William Williamson, of San Francisco. They have three children : Herbert, who is married and has one child and is employed by his father; Edwin and Fred. Mr. Suverkrup is a member of the Fraternal Aid Society and of the San Bernardino Chamber of Commerce. In politics he is affiliated with the republican party.
DAN RATHBUN
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DAN RATHBUN-To write a history of San Bernardino County would be impossible without using the name of Dan Rathbun, for his name is associated with it from early pioneer days and memories of the county's growth brings to all old inhabitants thoughts of his virile personality. The details of his life from early boyhood belong to the history of San Bernardino and the record of his fearless, adventurous pioneering, his plucky, unyielding struggle with adversity, his final triumph, should prove a shining beacon to all posterity. The time to which his boyhood belonged is to this generation already history and will soon be too remote for reminiscence, but however swift the march of events the name of Dan Rathbun will remain long in the memory of his friends, for his sterling qualities of character left an indelible impress upon all with whom he came in contact.
By a very narrow margin San Bernardino secured him for its own, and it reads like a romance, for the disarrangement of cherished plans led him to his future wife and a permanent home. The treachery of one he trusted changed his destiny and left him penniless in a strange wild land, but he had the fighting heart and red blood in his youthful veins and he made failure change to success. It was a hard school for a boy, but he had the priceless gifts of energy and endurance and he graduated from the University of Difficulties a victor with the diploma of success. He has passed beyond the vale, but his memory lives and will be as a benediction to bless the many who loved him.
Dan Rathbun was born in Otianda, New York, May 13, 1830, and the genealogy shows that he descended from very fine old families on both the paternal and maternal sides dating back in America to Revolutionary days. He was educated in the schools of his birth place, but when he reached the age of twenty-one he went to Ohio, remaining there about two years. At the end of that time he with two other boys in Ohio decided to go out to California. Accordingly they hired a man to take them to Sacramento, but on the way he decided he preferred taking the Southern route. He told the boys he would pay their fares from Southern California to Sacramento if they would agree to change their route to oblige him. They agreed to do this, and all went well until they reached San Bernardino, when the man had another change of heart and refused to give them their fares to Sacramento. He would go on but they must remain there, stranded.
While the boys were sitting on a wagon tongue, whittling and dejectedly discussing the situation, George Garner, father of Mr. Rathbun's future wife, overheard their conversation and asked them what was the difficulty. When he heard their story he took the mat- ter up with other citizens and a meeting was held in the church to see if any way could be found to make the man carry out his contract with the boys. They could do nothing, however, as the man was utterly worthless. Mr. Garner took the boys home with him and fed and lodged them for a few days.
Mr. Rathbun was not idle long, for he secured employment in a small dairy owned by George Day and located next to the home of Mr. Garner. He remained on this place for some time and then went with Mr. Day to a homestead the latter possessed on Lytle Creek. Here he stayed for two years and then commenced driving stage, taking down the first stage ever driven to Los Angeles. He continued in this employment until 1856, not only driving stage, but also carrying mail to Utah. He was married in this year.
From 1857 he worked for seven years on seven acres of land on Lytle Creek which had been given to his wife by her father. This
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piece was then sold and thirty acres purchased, which was later in- creased to one hundred and ten acres. The freighting business next claimed his attention and he remained in it for twelve years and bought and sold cattle in Utah. He made the long, arduous trips to Utah, Montana, and other distant places year in and year out, but he had a phenomenal capacity for pegging away, and he drove over the weary trails for twelve long years, when he secured promotion to the position of superintendent of construction for the Union Pacific in Utah, which was the first line built into that state. While he was still freighting he had moved his family from Lytle Creek to a ranch he had purchased on City Creek, near San Bernardino. He engaged actively on. this after leaving the railroad position, raising fine stock and farm products. Many of his cows and horses took prizes in the Los Angeles shows.
Mr. Rathbun's next move was into the City of San Bernardino, where he commenced a successful business life by opening a grocery store with Oscar Newberg as a partner. He conducted this for some time, and then he opened another store, this time with Smith Hale. While he was engaged in mercantile business Mrs. Rathbun was suc- cessfully running the ranch.
Mr. Rathbun was first, last and all the time a booster for San Bernardino, for he dearly loved and appreciated his chosen home. He erected business buildings, among them the St. Charles Hotel, and he was always active in the most ambitious efforts for the im- . provement of the city or county. He was also one of the builders of the Arrowhead Road and the motor road to Redlands. He was never enamoured with political honors although he served one term as a supervisor. He was a republican and a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Rathbun married September 4, 1856 to Miss Sarah Ann Garner, born in Adams County, Illinois, April 2, 1837, a daughter of George and Elizabeth (Hedrick) Garner. Her father was a native of North Carolina, a pioneer of California, coming here in 1851. He was a rancher and stock raiser nearly all his life.
George Garner came across the plains from Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1850, and encountered many hardships during the trip. There were many deaths from smallpox and cholera in the wagon train which he had joined, and the going was very slow. When part of the trip was accomplished, he said he would rather take the chance of having his family killed by Indians, than sickness, and with ten other teams started on ahead of the main train. Terrific storms were encountered along the Platte River, and there was constant danger from the Indi- ans, but they did not molest the little caravan, as they were given to understand that it was afflicted with smallpox. Mr. Garner took the first thresher into Salt Lake City, and became quite a favorite with Brigham Young, who would not let him continue the trip to California. He later sold his thresher, which made him possessor of an extra team and because Jefferson Hunt wanted the use of the animals Mr. Garner was permitted to make the trip across the desert with his family. Mrs. Rathbun was fourteen years of age when she arrived in Cal- ifornia, and she says that the trip across the desert was an enjoyable one for her, as she was at an age that the novelty of the situation appealed to her. Mrs. Rathbun was one of the six children, namely : Henry, a rancher who died in San Bernardino County; Elizabeth Jane, who married Sanford Atwood, of Iowa, and is now living in San Bernardino; Frank, a rancher and stock raiser who died in San Ber-
SARAH A. RATHBUN
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nardino County, Sarah Ann who married Dan Rathbun; Andrew Jackson, a rancher and stock raiser in Utah; Freeman, a rancher and stock raiser who died in San Bernardino County.
Mr. and Mrs. Dan Rathbun were the parents of eight children, four of whom are living. Ann Elizabeth died at the age of two months ; Dan is deceased ; Sabrina became the wife of Homer Whitlock, who is now dead, and she lives in Los Angeles; George, of San Bernardino, who is the father of one daughter, Georgiana, who is married and has two children; Minnie, who married Will Talmadge and is now dead ; William Fay is also deceased; Frank is living in San Bernar- dino; Gertrude is the wife of John McPhereson, of Los Angeles, who has one child, Sarah.
ROBERT EDSON LEE, of San Bernardino, is one of the city's most prominent osteopaths and is very thoroughly equipped for the practice of his profession. In the field of osteopathy more than any other school of the healing art the demand for the latest results of research and tenets of the profession is most stringent. Dr. Lee has a thorough knowledge of his branch of work, and it is his aim to keep abreast with all developments in osteopathy. He has built up a large clientele, which is constantly increasing.
Dr. Lee is a Westerner, having been born in Pomeroy, Garfield County, Washington. He is the son of Andrew E. and Mollie B. (Orffutt) Lee, his father having been a farmer until fifteen years ago, when he retired. He was a native of Wisconsin and his wife of Kentucky. Both are living. They were the parents of three children: Dr. R. E. Lee ; Mary Ellen, wife of H. B. Frazier, of San Francisco; and Dr. Andrew B., practicing osteopathy in Redlands.
Dr. Lee was educated in the public and high schools of Pomeroy and afterward was for two years employed as a bookkeeper. At the end of that time he entered the Los Angeles College of Osteopathy and graduated in June, 1912. In September of the same year he located in San Bernardino, where he has practiced continuously. Being satisfied with nothing less than the best, he supplemented his osteopathical and medical education by a post-graduate course in the San Francisco Col- lege of Medicine and also a post-graduate course in the Osteopathic College of Physicians and Surgeons of Los Angeles. The practice he has established is a speaking tribute to his knowledge and skill.
Dr. Lee married in June, 1913, Grace Houston, a daughter of Frank Houston, of Missouri. They have one child, Robert Edson, Jr.
Dr. Lee was president of the San Bernardino Valley Osteopathic Association for 1918-19-20, and filled the position ably. He is a member of the San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, B. P. O. E. and of the Rotary Club. In politics he is a republican, and he is affiliated with the First Christian Church.
RICHARD H. WILLIAMSON. A visit from North Dakota, where he was a substantial and prosperous business man, gave Richard H. William- son an impression of Riverside and love for a Riverside girl that soon resulted in a permanent transfer of all his interests and affections to this locality. Mr. Williamson is operating a profitable ranch for poultry and dairy purposes, and has a host of friends in the community.
He was born in Ontario, Canada, July 28, 1880. His father, Joseph Williamson, was a native of Ireland and at the age of eighteen moved to Canada and connected himself with pioneer phases in the development of the land and the farms in Ontario. He began when it was necessary
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to deforest the land in order to put in a crop. All the early hardships of the pioneer were encountered by him, but he persevered and eventu- ally became one of the substantial farmers of that section. One of his sons is still living on his old homestead of a hundred acres, Joseph Williamson married Mary Donaghy, who was born in Quebec, Canada, daughter of an Irishman who went there as a pioneer.
Richard H. Williamson acquired a public school education, in the schools of Ontario, Canada, also attended the Woodsteck College at Woodstock, Ontario, and as a young man he came to the United States and took up a homestead in North Dakota. He remained with it for ten years, improving it as a farm, and when he sold that property he invested his funds in a telephone company and took charge of the exchange at Mohall, North Dakota.
While his brother, William Williamson, now a retired farmer living at Long Beach, was a resident of Riverside, Richard Williamson visited him and fell in love with the country as well as with one of the daughters of the city. He lost no time in returning to North Dakota and dis- posing of his interests there, and in the following year located at River- side and bought his present place at 462 East Date Street. Here he has had some interesting success in the poultry business. In 1918 he added dairying, and now has a herd of registered Jerseys.
Mr. Williamson is a democrat. He has not been active in politics in California, as his private affairs keep him busy. He is one of the regular worshipers in the First Baptist Church and was one of the guarantors for the 1921 season of the Riverside Chautauqua.
Mr. Williamson married at Riverside in 1910 Miss Mary M. Fabb. She was born in the State of Maine and came to Riverside with her parents when she was a girl. The greater part of her school life was spent in Riverside, attending grammar grades and high school. Mrs. Williamson's parents, Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Fabb, were old residents of Riverside. Mr. and Mrs. Williamson have a daughter, Marcia Adelaide, a student in the Riverside public schools.
CLINTON H. LEWIS is one of the citizens of extensive interests in Riverside County, a man of affairs, has lived here for a third of a century, and his individual success has been turned in many ways to the advantage of the public.
Mr. Lewis was born in Eastern Ohio, at Lewis's Mills in Belmont County, April 18, 1863. The old farm on which he was born and reared has been in the hands of the Lewis family for a hundred and ten years. This branch of the Lewis family is of Welsh descent, and its members were numbered among the early settlers of Massachusetts. The grandfather of Clinton H. Lewis was a Quaker in religion, and was the founder of the farm and mills in Belmont County. He acquired and developed two hundred acres of land. When the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the pioneer railway line west of the Alleghenies, was con- structed through that portion of Ohio he was instrumental in getting the right of way for the railroad located through Lewis Mills. At one time he also held the position of county commissioner, and was a citizen of fine integrity and great influence. Thomas E. Lewis, father of Clinton H., was born in Eastern Ohio and followed in his father's footsteps as a miller and farmer. His only brother was a soldier in the Civil war.
Clinton H. Lewis attended the public schools and finished his edu- cation in Mount Union College at Alliance, Ohio. August 22, 1887, when twenty-four years of age, he left home with a boy friend and started
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for California. On the first of September, 1887, he reached the home of his uncle and aunt at Carpenteria and on the 8th of the same month went to Wildomar and bought a merchandise store from William Collier. Mr. Lewis was a merchant and postmaster for thirteen years, selling out and in 1901 transferred his interests and home to Riverside. For the past twenty years he has been engaged to a greater or less extent in the real estate business and practically all the time alone. He has bought and sold property on his own account in addition to performing the general service of a real estate agent, and has been responsible for some of the large deals recorded in this vicinity. He owns large inter- ests in the city and county of Riverside. He was formerly vice president of the Elsinore Bank.
Mr. Lewis was one of the organizers of the Riverside County Fair. He and J. F. Backstrand raised sixty-five hundred dollars and started the Fair in 1912. It has had a splendid and record growth each successive year, and while the essential features of the old time County Fair have been maintained, it has other improvements and attractions besides. It is one of the big events for Southern California, with magnificent displays of fruit, stock, special events and concessions. In the year 1920, eighty thousand visitors paid admission through the gates. The paid attendance for 1921 was about 92,000. Mr. Lewis was president of the Fair in 1917-18 and in 1921.
He has been a member of the Republican County Central Committee, is a member of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce and is interested in the advancement and growth of the city and county.
September 17, 1890, Mr. Lewis married Miss Emma Kinney, also a native of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have a son and daughter. The son, Walter Kinney Lewis, graduated from the law department of Stan- ford University in 1916, and during the war was in the navy with the commission of ensign, on duty at San Francisco most of the time. He is now connected with the advertising firm of the Foster and Kleiser Company at San Francisco. The daughter, Miss Georgia B. Lewis, is also a graduate of Stanford University, and in 1921 graduated from the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts. Following this she spent five months in Europe continuing her art work in Paris.
ALBERT GLENN KENDALL-The chairman of the Board of Super- visors of San Bernardino County, Albert Glenn Kendall, is one of the strong men of the state and well and favorably known to every citizen of the city and county. He is of the type of men some one has named "The noblest work of God, a self-made man." One often feels like changing that term to the noblest work of the man himself. Left fatherless when four years of age, he was without the guidance of his mother, and at a very young age started out to play the game of life singlehanded. He certainly must have thought the cards had been stacked against him at the outset, but he went on playing the game with the self-confidence which has always characterized him, and one by one solved the problems presented, gaining an education by most arduous methods and a wealth of experience in all lines, which has not only benefited him but his fellow citizens.
Mr. Kendall was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, April 2, 1849, the son of William and Matilda (Bickford) Kendall, the father a native of Vermont, who moved to Wisconsin in early days and was a farmer by occupation until his death. The mother was also a native of Vermont and in about 1891 she passed away in California. Mrs. Kendall and her eight children, two of whom were younger than
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Albert, returned to Vermont after the death of the father, where the children were placed among friends. When Albert was fourteen years of age, he ran away from home, and has since worked out his own destiny.
Without relatives or friends to aid him he worked out on farms and in winters he attended the district schools, determined to secure all the education they could give. When he was eighteen years old he decided to come out West and did so, locating at Omaha, Nebraska, where he worked as a clerk in a drygoods store. After a time the proprietor sold out, or rather traded the entire stock in the store for cattle which he put on the range, and young Kendall went with him, herding cattle and afterward assisted in the butchering of the ani- mals. His next work was as a train boy on the railroad. In 1871 he made his real start in life, going with his brother to the Loup River, where he took up a homestead and proved up on it, by purchase after- ward acquiring about one thousand acres of land. In 1873 he was elected county clerk of Howard County, and he held that office until 1880.
In the meantime, in 1875, he was member of the Constitutional Convention, representing not only Howard County, but also Merrick County, of which he was the youngest member. A remarkable inci- dent of that election was that in his entire home county he had only three votes cast against him, which speaks volumes for his record as a citizen there.
In 1919 he received an invitation from the State Bar Association of Nebraska to be present at their annual convention and banquet, the four or five surviving members of the State Constitutional Con- vention to be the guests of honor. Since that time two of the mem- bers of the Constitutional Convention have passed away, and but two or three survivors remain out of the original eighty.
In 1880 Mr. Kendall was elected commissioner of public land and buildings of the state, and had charge of all the public lands and buildings of the state for four years. In January, 1885, he returned to his former home, St. Paul, Nebraska, to fill the position of cashier of the new bank there, the St. Paul National Bank. In the fall of 1887 he resigned this position and came out to the real West, California, locat- ing at Ontario. He purchased a ten-acre orange grove and proceeded to enjoy life, but not for long, for in four years, in 1891, he was elected tax collector for the county, then re-elected and was after- ward county assessor for eight years.
Mr. Kendall helped to organize the San Bernardino County Sav- ings Bank and was the cashier and active manager for many years. About this time the great tariff fight was coming on in Congress, and the California Citrus Protective League was organized to help protect the citrus interests. Mr. Kendall was elected its secretary and manager. They had to have a man of exceptional gifts to repre- sent them, so of course Mr. Kendall was sent to Washington, D. C. Of his work in that capacity much was said and much was printed, all of a most commendatory and appreciative strain. His work there resulted in the greatest of benefits to the citrus industry at large.
He was then elected president of the Farmer's Exchange Bank and Savings Bank of San Bernardino, and he occupied these positions for eight years, when he resigned. He is now chairman of the Board of Directors of the Farmers Exchange National Bank.
In 1918 they got him back into public service again by electing him supervisor to fill the unexpired term of Mark B. Shaw. He was
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elected in the fall of 1920 as supervisor for the Fifth District including the city of San Bernardino, without opposition, and succeeded J. B. Glover as chairman of the board.
It would be difficult to name a more popular and prominent man in the county than Albert Glenn Kendall is in all circles-official, political, professional, fraternal or social. His successes in the East have been followed by greater ones in the West. He is a real Calif- fornian, loving his city, county and state with quiet devotion but never overlooking an opportunity to further the interests of one and all.
He married in 1877, Fannie R. (Morse) Kendall, a daughter of Samuel Morse, of South Newfane, Vermont. They had three chil- dren: Beulah, wife of S. G. Reed, of Nehalem, Oregon, who has three daughters-Marian E., wife of George D. Brackett, of Marys- ville, California, who has two boys; Georgiana V., deceased wife of Clinton E. Miller of Los Angeles, but she died in January, 1919, leaving four boys. Mr. Kendall is a member of San Bernardino Lodge No. 348, A. F. and A. M .; of Keystone Chapter No. 56, R. A. M .; of St. Bernard Commandery No. 23, of which he was eminent commander for two terms; and a member of Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. His other fraternal affiliation is as a member of San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, B. P. O. E. Mr. Kendall supports the republican party in politics. In the World War he was very active, working unceasingly. He was made chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee, which accomplished much during the war.
JOHN B. SMITH is the enterprising proprietor of the Arlington Times, and has given that old established journal in Riverside County a new vitality and influence. His success here is what might be expected of a newspaper man who has followed that profession almost steadily since boyhood.
Mr. Smith was born at Clarksburg, West Virginia, March 17, 1873, son of James H. and Martha (Darnold) Smith, both natives of Virginia, the former of English and the latter of Scotch descent. James H. Smith, though representing a southern family, was a Union soldier during the Civil war. For seventeen years he was city treasurer of Clarksburg.
John B. Smith was educated in the grammar and high schools of Clarksburg, and soon afterward began his apprenticeship in the office of the Clarksburg Telegram. He learned the newspaper business there and for ten years was business manager of the Telegram.
After leaving West Virginia and prior to coming to California, Mr. Smith had an extensive experience as a newspaper man on the Gulf coast. He was for three years business manager of the Gulfport Daily Herald in Mississippi, then for six months was connected with the Daily Post of Mobile, Alabama, and for fourteen months had charge of a weekly paper at Greenwood, Mississippi. On starting for the Far West Mr. Smith stopped at Columbus, New Mexico, where he leased a news- paper from the owner, who expected to be called to the colors. Failing to pass the medical examination he resumed the business and after four months Mr. Smith returned the lease.
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