USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 28
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 28
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Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Allen are the parents of Leola, wife of Lionel L. Jackson, superintendent of street railways at Eureka, Cali- fornia. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have two daughters, Frances and Dorothy. Legare Allen, Jr., the only son, is connected with the Santa Fe Railway Company. By his marriage to Orphie Sedgwick he has two children.
GEORGE M. HANCOCK -- While the natural resources of any city play an important part in its development and prosperity, very little can be accomplished without the constructive labors of enterprising and progressive men in all lines of endeavor, who through their personal efforts build up flourishing concerns that give prestige to the com- munity and financial standing to its institutions. It was not until more recent years that San Bernardino took its place among the important municipalities of the Golden State, although it is one of the old cities of the Coast, and its wonderful natural advantages have existed since a period long ante-dating the advent of the white man in this hemisphere. It was left for the aggressive business men of the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century to give to San Bernardino the impetus which has resulted so marvelously, and while they received a large material reward, they also deserve the credit for altruistic efforts as well. One of these men who had, and still has, strong faith in this part of the state and is doing his full part in maintaining the prestige already gained, is George M. Hancock member of the firm of Hancock & Wade, pro- prietors of the Home Furnishing Company, one of the largest and best furniture houses in Southern California.
George M. Hancock was born at Albany, Kentucky, September 10, 1868, a son of Benjamin and Rachel (Wynn) Hancock, both being members of old honored Kentucky families, of Revolutionary stock and distinguished ancestry, reaching back into the annals of England and Wales. Both parents are now deceased.
Benjamin Hancock was a Federal soldier, serving with the Thir- teenth Kentucky Cavalry during the war between the states. By occupation he was a miller, and built the first flour mill to be operated by steam in Clinton County. He was prominent in his community, and served as magistrate in Clinton County, Kentucky. His father, Ben Hancock, established the family in Kentucky, where he was a pioneer, coming to the state from Virginia, and he belonged to the same branch of the Hancock family as did John Hancock, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. George M. Hancock is very proud of his connection with this famous leader for American independence, and has tried to live up to the standards raised by his illustrious relative.
George M. Hancock was educated in the public schools of Ken- tucky, and was reared on his father's plantation. His first work was that of assisting his father in the mill, and later he went into a mercan- tile business at Albany, Kentucky. At the age of nineteen years he left home, and, going to Joplin, Missouri, went into the furniture business with his uncle, J. C. Hancock, this association being main- tained for twelve years. In 1903 Mr. Hancock sold his interests, came to San Bernardino, and opened a similar establishment in this city to the one at Joplin, the stand being on D Street, and he had E. L. Ward as his partner. The firm was known as Ward & Hancock, and continued for three and one-half years, and then Mr. Hancock founded the Home Furnishing Company, with Grant McIntyre as his partner,
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who was later bought out by Charles Wade, the firm of Hancock & Wade having continued for the past decade. In May, 1916, removal was made to the present location on F Street, where they had erected a substantial two story building solely for store purposes. It occupies a ground area of 48 x 130 feet, and is one of the largest furniture stores in this part of the state. Business has steadily increased, and the firm are in a flourishing condition.
Mr. Hancock belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of San Bernardino; is a trustee of the Knights of Pythias of San Bernardino; is past dictator of the Loyal Order of Moose; was banker of the Modern Woodmen of America for sixteen years, and is very much interested in fraternal matters. A consistent member of the Christian Church, he has served as treasurer of the local congre- gation for six years. While he votes the republican ticket and is interested in the success of his party, he is not active in politics.
On November 22, 1895, Mr. Hancock married, at Bentonville, Arkansas, Miss Minnie Crowell, a native of Arkansas and a daughter of H. C. Crowell, a merchant of Bentonville. The Crowell family is an old one of America, of Pennsylvania-Dutch stock. Mr. and Mrs. Hancock have two children, namely: Pansy and Eugene. Pansy is the wife of W. J. Ham, an employe of the Santa Fe Railroad Company at San Bernardino. Eugene is with his father in the furniture business. He married Miss Josephine Arner, of Rialto, California. During the World war Eugene Hancock volunteered for service, and was placed in Company K which went from San Bernardino. He was trained at Camp Kearney, and was sent overseas to France with the Fortieth Division. After the signing of the armistice he was returned home and honorably discharged. He belongs to the local post of the American Legion, and is a fine young man, who stands very well in his community.
George M. Hancock possesses the characteristics which result in successful business operation. His funiture house has been a success from the start because he has known how to so conduct it as to meet the requirements of his trade as to quality and price, and at the same time to render a service that is second to none in the city. He also is possessed of social qualities which make him a welcome guest in the best circles and win for him warm friendships which are only terminated by death. Both he and Mrs. Hancock are very hospitable and entertain considerably as well as accept numerous invitations to the different functions of their set. Their children are a credit to them and their rearing, and they all occupy the place in their com- munity to which their abilities and standing entitle them.
J. MORGAN. DAVISON is a progressive citizen and business man who has been an influential figure in connection with the development of the Arlington district of Riverside County, where he is the owner of a finely improved property and has developed an extensive en- terprise in the raising of poultry in a commercial way, and where he also raises grain, peaches and walnuts.
Mr. Davison was born in Clayton Township, Woodford County, Illinois, on the 24th of October, 1864, and is a son of P. H. and Jane Caroline (File) Davison, both natives of the State of New York and both representatives of sterling families that gave patriot soldiers to the nation in the War of the Revolution: the File family. of Holland Dutch origin, having early been established in Rensselaer County, New York. The lineage of the Davison family traces back to staunch Scotch origin.
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J. Milton Davison, grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, was given, in 1838, a commission as lieutenant of riffemen in the State Militia of New York, and this commission, bearing the signature of Governor William L. Marcey, is now in the possession of the grandson. J. Morgan Davison, who likewise treasures a woodcut picture published many years ago in Frank Leslie's Weekly and showing Mr. Davison's great-great-grandfather in the paternal line, who was a fife major both in the Revolution and in the War of 1812, and who is depicted, with a drum- mer beside him, as playing "Yankee Doodle" while standing on the breast- works on the morning of the battle of Bunker Hill.
P. H. Davison became a prosperous farmer in Woodford County, Illinois, and there served twenty years as treasurer of Clayton Township, besides which he held for some time the office of county treasurer. He was an honored and influential citizen who was active in both political and religious activities in his community. Both he and his wife continued their residence in Illinois until the time of their deaths.
J. Morgan Davison gained his youthful education in the public schools of his native county and in the Illinois Wesleyan University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1887 and with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Thereafter he was his father's assistant in the office of county treasurer, and while thus engaged he took the required examination and obtained admission to the Illinois bar. He has, however, never found it expedient to engage in the active practice of the law. In 1891 he went to Kansas City, Missouri, and there he continued to be actively engaged in the mercantile business until 1910, when he came to Riverside, California, and purchased twenty acres of land in the beautiful suburban district of Arlington, where he has continued to reside and where he has developed a valuable property. Here he conducts an exten- sive commercial poultry ranch, with special preference given to the White Leghorn type of poultry, of which he has at the time of this writing. in 1921, about 3,000 on his ranch. He is a leader in the poultry industry in this section of the state, and in his enterprise has achieved distinctive success and prestige. In the autumn of 1916 he was one of the organizers of the Poultry Producers' Association of Southern California, of which he has served continuously as a director and which has proved a valuable co- operative marketing organization working in conjunction with the Cali- fornia Market Association. The Poultry Producers' Association owns a well equipped warehouse in the City of Los Angeles, where the eggs are collected and where an efficient manager has supervision of the sale of the products. In 1912 Mr. Davison became one of the organizers of the Poultrymen's Co-operative Milling Association, of which he has served continuously as secretary and treasurer, as well as a director, and to the affairs of which he gives the major part of his time and attention. The directorate of this organization is largely interlocking with that of the pre- viously mentioned Poultry Producers' Association, and the warehouses of the two, in Los Angeles, adjoin each other.
As a staunch and vigorous advocate of the principles of the democratic party Mr. Davison has been active and influential in local political affairs. He has served since 1913 as a member of the Board of Education of the Riverside city school district, which includes Arlington, and has been president of the board since 1915. Within his connection with educational affairs in this important district several modern school buildings have been erected in the same.
Mr. Davison is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He has been long and actively identified with the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, and
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has been president of its local organization in Riverside since 1912, besides which he has served since 1918 as a director of the California State Board of the Young Men's Christian Association. He is one of the influ- ential members of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, of which he has served as president, and held similar office in the Arlington Poultry Asso- ciation, of which he was one of the organizers and which has been a resourceful factor in the building up of the poultry industry in Riverside and Arlington, the association having recently been merged with the Riverside County Farm Bureau. While a resident of Kansas City, Mr. Davison was one of the organizers of the Mercantile National Bank of that city, of which he became a director. At Riverside he is a member of the Present Day Club, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the First Baptist Church of this city. For a number of years he was moderator of the Santa Ana Valley Baptist Association, and during the year 1916 he was president of the California Baptist Convention. He has been active in the various departments of church work and has given effective and prolonged service as Sunday School superintendent.
At Eureka, Illinois, on the 12th of June, 1890, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Davison with Miss Annie S. Murray, who was born and reared in that state and whose father, John M. Murray, was a representa- tive grain dealer at Eureka. Mr. and Mrs. Davison have four children. Bertha, eldest of the number, is the wife of H. H. House, chemist for the Exchange Byproducts Company at Corona, Riverside County, and they have two children-Gordon Davison and William Murray. John Murray Davison, who has active charge of his father's poultry ranch at Arling- ton, was graduated from the Riverside High School and was a college sophomore at the time when the nation became involved in the World war. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and went into active service with the American Expeditionary Forces overseas, his service with the allied Army of Occupation in Germany having continued for a protracted period after the signing of the historic armistice. P. H. Davison, the younger son, is associated in the management of the poultry ranch at Arlington. He is a graduate of the Riverside High School and of the Junior College in that city. When America entered the World war he became a member of the Coast Artillery and was stationed at The Presidio, San Francisco. After the receiving of his honorable discharge he entered the University of California, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1921 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Miss Martha Ellen Davison, the younger daughter, was graduated from the high school at Riverside, where she is, in 1921, a student in the Junior College.
LOUIS M. CoY, M. D .- A native of San Bernardino County, a young physician and surgeon whose qualifications and experience have met every test of service, Dr. Coy until recently was superintendent of the County Hospital, and did much to make this institution realize the reputation it now enjoys as one of the best conducted in California.
He was born at Highland, in San Bernardino County, January 6, 1890. His father, Louis I. Coy, always known as L. I. Coy, was a native of Illinois and his great-grandfather's wife was a Peirce, a direct de- scendant of the Captain Peirce who was the pilot of the Mayflower in her second voyage. L. I. Coy came to California in 1887, and was a pioneer orange grower at Highland until his death. He was serving his third term as tax collector of the county when he was accidentally killed in December, 1908. L. I. Coy married Mary J. McFarland, who was born in Kansas and is now living in San Diego. Her father was a native of Ireland.
L'May.
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The first twenty-five years of his life Dr. Coy was getting the preparation and training for his chosen profession. He graduated from the San Bernardino High School in 1908, and for a year and a half attended Pomona College. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of Southern California in 1915. Practically his entire professional career has been in con- nection with hospital duties. He was an interne at the old County Hospital and was then assistant superintendent, later superintendent. When America entered the war he resigned as superintendent to accept active duty in the Medical Corps. He enlisted in the orthopedic section of the Medical Corps and was assigned to the base hospital at Camp Kearney, where he was in service from March, 1918, until June 11, 1919. He received his honorable discharge as a lieutenant of the Medical Corps, and at once resumed his former duties as superintendent of the County Hospital. On July 1, 1921, Dr. Coy severed his connection with the hospital and has since been engaged in private practice.
Dr. Coy is a member of the County, California State and American Medical Associations. He has filled various offices in the Native Sons of the Golden West, and is now second vice president. His fraternities are the Phi Chi and Elks. His public service has been limited to the important duties he performed as county hospital superintendent. He votes as a republican. He and his wife are members of the First Congregational Church.
June 15, 1915, Dr. Coy married Miss Arline Donaldson, who was born in San Jose. Her father, M. V. Donaldson, is one of the promi- nent newspaper men of California, was for several years, until 1910, city editor of the San Bernardino Sun, and is now engaged in publicity work in charge of the advertising for the Clarkadota fig plantations and several other companies. Dr. and Mrs. Coy have one son, Louis Peirce Coy.
HANS H. PAULSON was an infant at the time of his parents' immi- gration to America from their native Denmark, and he was a youth of eighteen at the time of the family removal to California, and here, through his own ability and well ordered efforts, he has won substantial success and developed a prosperous ranch enterprise in Riverside County. While he honors the sturdy traditions and customs of his native land, he has known no other country than the United States and stands representative of the deepest and most loyal Americanism.
Mr. Paulson was born in Denmark on the 27th of July, 1872, and in the same year his parents came with their children to the United States. He is a son of John and Hancine Paulson, both representatives of sterling old Danish ancestry. John Paulson was born in October, 1839, received the advantages of excellent schools in his native land, and prior to leaving Denmark he had been for some time the incumbent of a position in a military school. His desire to afford to his children better advantages than were promised in his native land led him to sever the ties which bound him to the fair Norseland, and after arriving in the United States he made his way to Iowa, where he purchased a tract of land near Waterloo and instituted the reclamation and development of a farm. His energy and good management brought to him a goodly measure of success within the passing years, and he gained in the Hawk- eye State the financial independence for which he had hoped when he set forth for this land of promise. In 1890 Mr. Paulson sold his prop- erty in Iowa and came with his family to California. He acquired a small tract of land near Riverside, and in caring for his orange grove
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and gardens he found ample demand for his time and attention, besides finding his fruit-growing and horticultural activities a medium of financial profit. He remained in his pleasant suburban home until his death in 1902, and his venerable widow still survives him.
Hans H. Paulson passed the period of his childhood and carly youth on the old home farm in Iowa. He came to California with his parents, and shortly afterwards began to work by the day on ranches in this district of the state, and for thirteen years he was employed by the firm of Pattie & Letts, in connection with the care of their many citrus- fruit groves in Riverside County. Notwithstanding the fact that his wages were far from being large, Mr. Paulson was frugal and economical and gradually added to his savings until he was able to purchase a tract of land at the corner of North Monroe and Colorado streets, Riverside, where he has developed a fine property and won substantial success in the growing of grain and alfalfa and the conducting of a dairy business with a herd of fine cows. He has made excellent improvements on his place, and here has one of the attractive homes of the beautiful Riverside district. The gum and pepper trees which he planted about his house have grown to splendid proportions and add materially to the beauty of the home.
In politics Mr. Paulson maintains an independent attitude, and he has ever shown loyal interest in community affairs of a public order. He served eight years as deputy assessor of Riverside County, under the administration of W. F. Montague. He has indentified himself actively with the local Farm Bureau and its work, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Brotherhood, and both he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Lutheran Church.
At Riverside, on the 8th of January, 1894, Mr. Paulson wedded Miss Ellen Ringsburg, and of their four children three are living: Paul A., who was born in 1897, is now employed as a tractor operator in River- side County ; Walter, born in 1899, is employed in the shops of the Santa Fe Railroad Company at San Bernardino; and Mildred is a student in the public schools of Riverside. Dorothy, who was born in 1903, died at the age of nine years.
HENRY A. GUERNSEY. The life story of Henry A. Guernsey is a most unusual one and full of interest, for he assisted in making history of the United States when he was a young boy. The account of his life in the East reads like romance, and he served his country well and long and he took up the burdens of life as a child, becoming acquainted with the painful problems of existence at an age when boys usually are play- ing marbles. But he had a definite object in view and was determined to make his life a success, and he never lost sight of his objective all through the stress and storms of his early boyhood. He made a success of his first position, of his fighting in the wars, not only in material things but in the higher success not measured by figures. And since his resi- dence in San Bernardino Mr. Guernsey has achieved a like success, financially and in all ways. He has met with losses but has never suffered atrophy of that strong will power of his, and he seems to make each disaster the stepping stone to greater success.
As the pioneer box manufacturer of the state, as one of the pioneer lumbermen, in his forty-three years of life in San Bernardino, Mr. Guern- sey has shown himself a man of dauntless purpose and energy, with a quiet determination to do his part in the business and civic affairs of his home city. No man stands higher in the opinion of his associates, for his unalterable principles of rectitude were early established with .
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them and in his social relations he is known as a most trustworthy friend. in fact, an all around 100 per cent man.
Mr. Guernsey was born in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, June 19, 1844, the son of a native of Pennsylvania. His father was killed in a railroad accident and was superintendent at the time of his death. Henry A. Guernsey had attended school only two years at that time. His older brother was a baggageman on the railroad, and lived at home with his mother. The wife of an engineer on the railroad was a very finely edu- cated woman and a great friend of Mrs. Guernsey and she persuaded her to allow Henry to become an inmate of her home, where she could give him an education. This was finally agreed to and the boy thus secured an education.
By way of recreation the engineer used to take Henry on round trips on the engine. He was then, as always, a keen observer and he soon learned to run the engine as well as the engineer. The latter was killed in an accident; the road was very short of engineers; and, accordingly, they had to have some. So Mr. Guernsey was given a position as one, but in a peculiar way. The fireman was the ostensible engineer, in charge of the engine, with half the pay of an engineer, but the boy ran the engine and received the pay of a fireman. He was far too young to be listed as an engineer, so he had to be camouflaged this way.
He remained in this position until 1857, when he moved with his mother to Mitchell County, lowa, and located on a claim of 160 acres which Mrs. Guernsey had purchased. Hard work and lots of it con- fronted the boy, but he was not even then afraid to tackle the seemingly impossible, and he soon had fifty acres, which had been broken on the ranch, put into corn. This was all hand work, sowed by hand, with no machinery of any kind. The next year he ploughed this land and hand sowed it to grain. It was a big job for a young boy. He kept right on improving the place, but in 1861 the Sioux Indian troubles broke out and he, with many others, droppd all work to participate, as they were all enlisted in the state service. They went north to fight the Indians, and Mr. Guernsey had to leave 100 acres of grain in shock when he answered the call to arms.
As history records, the Indians were all either killed or captured and of the latter every one was hanged. After this the expedition returned home, but as Mr. Guernsey was also enlisted in the national service he was at once sent to the South as a member of Company K, 27th Iowa Regiment, under Captain C. T. Granger. He saw active service until the end of the war and he was at Fort Donalson at the time of capture and in many of the need battles of the Civil war. His company belonged to the Smith Guerillas of the 16th Army Corps, and was kept for rein- forcements, and as they were always in demand he served under many of the famous generals of the war. He was wounded four times by bullets and once by a bayonet wound through his leg. It is almost need- less to say that a little thing like that did not stop him, for he never applied for relief or to go to the hospital but just kept right on fighting. That is the keynote to his character, the fearless mind and the fighting heart, the fidelity to duty no matter what the cost to himself.
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