USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 29
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 29
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After the war was over he returned to Iowa and farmed there until the year 1869, and that winter he started West by stage, his goal, the Puget Sound country. But fate took a hand, for the stage could not get through owing to the high water in the Willamette River, so he stopped at Eugene, Oregon, where he lived for some years. In 1874 he moved opposite Astoria, Oregon, and ran a sawmill for three years. But in 1877 the health of his wife began to fail and he decided to come to South-
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ern California and he did so, locating in San Bernardino. But it was too late to help her much, and she passed on in the following year.
Mr. Guernsey at first went to work in the lumbering business, but very soon purchased the plant. He also established the first box factory in the district. He made the first 20,000 boxes for orange shipments in the state. He has been burned out several times, but it is unnecessary to state that he has always rebuilt and started over again.
Mr. Guernsey married October 3, 1876, Theisa McFarland, a daughter of John McFarland. They had two sons: Peter B., married and living at Hermosa Beach, where he has served as mayor; and Roy T., a millwright living in San Bernardino, married and has one child, a son.
Mrs. Guernsey died in 1878, and he married Linna Bailey, a daughter of John Bailey, of Pennsylvania. They have one daughter, Ruth L. Guernsey.
Mr. Guernsey is a republican in politics but has never desired any public office. He is a member of the Methodist Church. He was a charter member of the Woodmen of the World Camp in San Bernardino and was also a charter member of the National Union.
HENRY GOODCELL, JR., attorney of San Bernardino, is a son of one of the real pioneers of the city, a man who suffered many unexpected and adverse strokes of fortune but, inflexible in purpose, made his own hour of opportunity. His sterling qualities were transmitted to his descendants.
Henry Goodcell, Jr., was born in Dover, England, November 23, 1848, the son of Henry and Harriet (Birch) Goodcell. Henry Goodcell, Sr., was born September 26, 1823, at Nonengton, a county parish about ten miles north of Dover. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a sea captain, serving before the mast and afterward for six years was mate.
In 1853 he came to the United States, locating in Utah. In England he had accepted the Mormon faith from Mormon missionaries, but when he arrived in Utah he found the practices were not in conformity with what he had been led to believe, so he refused to join the church here. He started farming in Utah, and of course had a hard time. The first two years his crops failed, but the third year was a little better, and by the most rigid economy he was enabled to save enough produce to trade for a team of horses, and in 1857, with a train of ten wagons, started for California.
He reached San Bernardino in May, 1857, and purchased and improved a farm, but ill luck still followed him and floods destroyed all of his im- provements in 1861. Other misfortunes followed, and it seemed none of his ventures were to be successful. One son, Hiram, was accidentally killed. But he never lost his grip and, undismayed, he stuck to his guns and eventually developed a fine property. In 1867 he established a brick yard and built up a large business.
In 1847 he married Miss Harriet Birch, and their children were: Henry, Jr .; Harriet, deceased; Hiram, deceased; Mary, the widow of Edward H. Dunford, of San Bernardino; William and Margaret, both deceased.
Henry Goodcell, Jr., came with his parents to San Bernardino and attended the public school, and also the private school of J. C. P. Allsop. In 1866 he started teaching in the public schools, and then attended the State Normal School of San Jose, whence he was graduated in the spring of 1873, the first Normal School graduate from San Bernardino County.
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In the fall of 1873 he was elected county school superintendent, and held the position for two years, at the same time acting as principal of the San Bernardino city schools.
During this time he had been studying law, and he was admitted to the bar in 1875. Ile formed a partnership with A. B. Paris and also served as clerk of the County Court, was assistant in the district attorney's office one year and later was appointed district attorney, serving the remainder of the term. In the meantime his partnership with Mr. Paris was dissolved, but was resumed and continued until 1888. He afterward was in partnership with F. A. Leonard until 1896, when he moved to Oakland, California. In 1901 he returned to San Bernardino, and has since been in practice here. His practice is entirely civil.
He married in 1875 Minnie A. Bennett, of El Dorado County, Cali- fornia, a schoolmate at the Normal School. She died in 1886, leaving three sons: Roscoe A., of Los Angeles, secretary of the educational department of the Y. W. C. A .; Rex B., superior judge of San Bernardino County ; Fred, who was news editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, and until recently, editor of the Salt Lake Telegram. In 1889 Mr. Goodcell married Mary H. Bennett, a sister of his former wife, and also a teacher by profession.
Mr. Goodcell is attorney for several water companies and specializes in irrigation law. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of San Bernardino Lodge 836, B. P. O. E.
He is affiliated with the Unitarian Church. In politics he is a repub- lican,
REX B. GOODCELL. According to the firm belief of every Californian, whether adopted or born here, Judge Rex B. Goodcell, of San Bernardino, could not have asked for a life commenced under happier auspices. A native son, born in the city, he has always made his home here. His father and his grandfather were both pioneers of the early days. What more could a man ask? Many might say that it is inherited talents which so admirably qualify him for his position on the bench, for his father and grandfather ranked with the finest minds. His father occupied a prominent position as an attorney from his first appearance as such, and today is second to none in the profession. Thoroughly grounded in the law, Judge Goodcell by constant study of legal lore, participation in liti- gation where intricate questions were involved, won swift recognition in the profession where promotion is slowly gained, so hardly won.
Rex B. Goodcell was born in San Bernardino, September 15, 1880, the son of Henry Goodcell, Jr., and Minnie A. (Bennett) Goodcell. He at- tended the public school and then started his study of the law in his father's office and was admitted to the bar October 15, 1901. He went to Oakland, California, and practiced there until 1903, when he returned to his birthplace and practiced, forming a partnership with his father and continuing in this until December, 1908. He next entered the district attorney's office as deputy under W. E. Byrne.
In 1910 he was elected district attorney, and served until January, 1915, when he returned to practice with his father. In 1918 he was elected superior judge of San Bernardino County for the six year term, and is now occupying that position to the satisfaction of everyone. He is con- ceded to be fair, impartial and wise in his decisions, his findings always according to the law and the evidence.
Judge Goodcell took a prominent part in political affairs on behalf of the republican party, serving on the County and State Central com- mittees and campaigning in all the western states for the party.
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Judge Goodcell is a most genial character, diffusing the gospel of kindliness as well as the eternal principles of justice. He has hosts of friends and is popular with all "classes and conditions" of men. His bouyant optimism is a characteristic and as a campaigner he is noted. Clean cut, he carries conviction and has the faculty of fusing the thought of others to his own. He was twice head of the San Bernardino Chamber of Commerce and materially assisted in building up the membership from 300 to more than 1,000.
He was married January 10, 1905, to Helen Harmon Knappe, also a native of San Bernardino and a daughter of Dexter and Fannie Knappe. They have one child, Rex Harmon Goodcell.
In 1916 Judge Goodcell was elected grand worthy president of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. His other fraternal associations are as a member of San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, B. P. O. E .; Knights of Pythias; San Bernardino Parlor No. 110, Native Sons of the Golden West, Phoenix Lodge No. 178, A. F. and A. M .; Los Angeles Consistory No. 3, A. and A. S. R.
MICHAEL A. MURPHY, who now resides in a most attractive home on his fine orange ranch in the Highgrove district of Riverside County, has been a resident of California nearly half a century, has been con- cerned with enterprises of broad scope and importance, has done his part in the advancement of the civic and material development of the state, and has been a citizen of prominence and influence. That there are many interesting incidents in his long and vigorous career as one of the world's constructive workers needs no further voucher than the data that shall appear in this all to brief review, which, it is hoped, may offer a consistent tribute to a man of thought and action, a citizen of sterling worth and a constructive genius of much initiative ability. Mr. Murphy is a big man and has proved himself capable of achieving big things.
Michael A. Murphy was born at Waukegan, now one of the beauti- ful suburbs of the City of Chicago, Illinois, on the 15th of April, 1847, and is a son of John and Bridget (Rogers) Murphy, both of whom were born in Ireland, though their acquaintanceship was formed and their marriage solemnized in Chicago. John Murphy was a pioneer of the present great metropolis at the foot of Lake Michigan. He made his appearance in Chicago in the year 1829, when the future city was little more than a frontier trading post, and he obtained a tract of land and engaged in farm enterprise in Waukegan, where he reared his children, of whom Michael A. was the seventh in order of birth. John Murphy was a man of fine mental equipment, righteous and sincere in all of the relations of life, and was long an influential figure in the community which represented his home and the stage of his productive activities. He was nearly ninety years of age at the time of his death, his wife having preceded him to the life eternal, and she likewise having attained to advanced age. Both were devout communicants of the Catholic Church.
Michael A. Murphy was afforded the advantage of the common schools of Illinois and also those of the College of St. Mary's of the Lake, after leaving which he completed a course and was graduated in the Eastern national Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1866 he became bookkeeper for John McEwen, who was then one of the leading contractors and builders in the City of Chicago and he continued in this service until the great Chicago fire of 1871, the fiftieth anniversary of which is being celebrated in elaborate memorial
Warmurphy
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ceremonials in the great metropolis at the time this sketch is in prep- aration, in the autumn of 1921. Mr. Murphy gained from personal experience full comprehension of the havoc wrought by the historic fire, and did his part in the material and business rehabilitation of the city. He formed a partnership with Owen Laubach and they con- ducted a successful hardwood-lumber business in Chicago during the early reconstruction period, about two years having represented the duration of this partnership alliance in Chicago. In 1873 Mr. Murphy sold his interest in the business and went to Silver City, New Mexico, where he became a pioneer in the silver-mining industry and where he erected the first reverberatory smelting works established in that territory. It was necessary to use sandstone instead of fire brick in the construction of these great smelting furnaces, but the material proved unequal to the heat test and Mr. Murphy lost the money which he had put into the project. His financial resources were thus reduced to the minimum, and in the autumn of 1874 he came to San Diego, California, and found employment as a miner. For three months he worked in the Ready Relief Mine at Julian, San Diego County, whence he went to San Bernardino, and finally he made his way to Los Angeles, where he entered the employ of Perry, Woodworth & Com- pany and was assigned to the tallying of lumber at San Pedro. Later he became a salesman in the lumber yards of the firm, and on the 10th of October, 1875, he was sent by the concern to Colton, San Bernardino county, to open the first redwood and Oregon pine lumber yards in the county. Upon the death of Wallace Woodworth in 1882 Mr. Perry, the surviving principal of the firm, incorporated the W. H. Perry Lumber & Mill Company, of which Mr. Murphy became a stockholder, his association with the company having thus continued until its corporate charter was resigned many years later, in 1903.
In 1886 Mr. Murphy effected the organization and incorporation of the Pioneer Lumber & Mill Company, of which he became presi- dent and general manager, this company having conducted substantial operations in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and also in a part of Los Angeles County. Mr. Murphy continued as the executive head of this company until its charter of incorporation was resigned likewise in the year 1903.
During all of these years of constructive activity Mr. Murphy was extensively engaged also in real-estate and agricultural operations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and he thus made large and valuable contribution to the civic and industrial advancement of this section of the state. In 1896 he purchased a substantial block of the California Portland Cement Company at Colton, reorganized the con- pany and assumed charge of the business. He was the first man in California to manufacture Portland cement and place it on the market in a commercial way. In this enterprise he had to face the vigorous commercial opposition of strong and well established companies that were importing foreign cements, the only kind used in California up to that time. Mr. Murphy instituted a vigorous and well ordered campaign, and his enterprise was made successful from the start, the cement products of the company finding sale throughout all parts of Southern California. In 1900 Mr. Murphy sold his interest in this large and prosperous business and allied himself with the Treadwells, of the Treadwell Associated Mining Company of Alaska, and their associates, W. J. Bartnett and J. Delzell Brown, in the California Safe Deposit & Trust Company of San Francisco, in the project of erecting a large cement manufacturing plant on the Telsa Coal Company's land
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in Alameda County. After a careful and diligent survey of the proper- ties Mr. Murphy discovered that the requisite materials were not present in sufficient volume to justify the establishing of a cement plant, but found on the lands very large deposits of kaolin and clays well adapted for the manufacture of architectural terra cotta, fire brick, face brick, sewer pipe, etc. As a result of the investigation the Carne- gie Brick & Pottery Company was organized and incorporated with a capital stock of $2,500,000. The plant was erected and its operation was continued successfully during a period of five years, with Mr. Murphy as president and general manager of the company. During the year of the great earthquake and fire in San Francisco, and also during the following year, the factory of this company, the largest on the Pacific Coast at that time, did a business of $1,250,000 a year. While San Francisco was still burning Mr. Murphy was called upon by the relief committee to construct barracks and refugee houses for sufferers who were homeless. He proceeded at once, under the instructions of General Funston and Major McIvor, to commandeer all the lumber that was still to be had and all vessels arriving in port, and with 5000 carpenters, teamsters and laborers completed in eleven days the barracks to house 23,000 homeless in Golden Gate Park, and for which he was complimented both by General Funston and Major Mclvor for the magnificent manner with which he accomplished this work.
During the period of successful commercial activity on the part of the Carnegie Brick & Pottery Company, the managers of the Cali- fornia Safe Deposit & Trust Company were likewise interested principals in the Carnegie Company, and were successful in bringing the Western Pacific Railroad to the Coast and selling all of the terminals and rails of the Alameda & San Joaquin Railroad, which gave the Western Pacific entrance to Oakland and Alameda estuary, and thence to San Francisco. Mr. Murphy became largely interested as a stockholder in the banking institution mentioned, and in 1906-7, through manipu- lations that are now a part of California financial history and that con- stitute a dark chapter in that history, the bank was looted of the assets of all depositors, its failure in 1907 entailing a gigantic loss, fully $16,000,000. In this crash Mr. Murphy lost the major portion of his fortune.
In 1911 Mr. Murphy returned to Los Angeles, where he had long maintained a home and where he still owns his fine residence property on Figuerora Street. He continued to reside in Los Angeles until 1916, when he returned to his orange grove in Riverside County, in the Highgrove section, where he is now living in semi-retirement, con- tent to live quietly after the rush and manifold cares of former years of splendid activity, and taking satisfaction in having his home in the section of California which he had previously helped to develop and build. His idyllic orchard estate at Highgrove comprises sixty acres, all planted to navel oranges, and the products of the place he ships through the Alta Cresta packing house.
While a resident of Colton Mr. Murphy was a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of that place and served as city trustee from its incorporation until he took up his residence in San Francisco. In earlier years of residence at Riverside he was one of the organizers of the Riverside Highland Water Company and he served as president of the same until his removal to San Francisco.
The political allegiance of Mr. Murphy was given to the democratic party, and he was active in its councils and campaign work, served as a member of county and state central committees and repeatedly was
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a delegate to county and state conventions of the party in California until the first election of Grover Cleveland to the presidency, when he transferred his allegiance to the republican party, in the ranks of which he has since continued to be aligned. He was one of the first directors of the Southern California Hospital for the Insane, and re- tained this office eight years, under the administrations of Governors Waterman and Markham. Mr. Murphy as a young man became a lieutenant in the San Bernardino cavalry regiment of the California National Guard, unattached, and later he was commissioned a major by Governor Stoneman. It is worthy of record that Mr. Murphy raised, on the Agua Mansa stock farm, near the cement plant at Colton, some of the fastest standard-bred horses ever produced in California, he having been president of the cement company at this time.
In Solano County, on the 15th of April, 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Murphy with Miss Elizabeth A. Young, who was born and reared in California, a daughter of Dr. Edmund Young, who was a leading physician in the City of Oakland.
WILLIAM HALE REED, of San Bernardino, has been an integral part of the civic and social life of the city for a number of years, both com- mercially and professionally. While the World war was going on he was one of the most active workers in every way, giving time and money and neglecting his own affairs for the great cause. As a business man he is well known not only here but over the state and in the East, and he is without doubt the best known and most popular notary public in San Bernardino County.
Mr. Reed was born in the town of Crystal Lake, Illinois, May 8, 1878, the son of Eliphaz and Mary Jennie (Rinehart) Reed. His father was a native of Illinois and his mother of Pennsylvania. His father was a farmer while in the East, but he retired in 1900 and came to San Bernardino. After a life full of activity he was not contented to live in idleness, so he entered the employ of the Sante Fe, retiring in 1915. With his wife he is now living in San Bernardino, enjoying life.
William Hale Reed was educated in the public schools until eleven years of age and then at Alma, Harlan County, Illinois, where he com- pleted his education in the grade and High School. Upon the completion of his studies he went into the grain business and for four years and a half continued in it in Alma, Greeley Center, David City and other places.
In the spring of 1901 he came to San Bernardino, where his parents were living. For a short time he was employed by the Santa Fe Rail- road Company, but he soon went into the hardware and plumbing business under the name of W. G. Ross & Company. In 1908 he sold out and started in the real estate business, in which he has continued ever since. In addition to this he also handles insurance and acts as resident agent for non-resident owners. He is also a notary public, probably the best known in the county.
Mr. Reed is secretary and treasurer of the National Farm Loan Asso- ciation. He was one of the framers of the city charter of San Bernardino.
He assisted in organizing the San Bernardino Realty Board, and was one of the most active members in that organization, serving as its first president in 1920-21.
During the war he was very active in every way and was the official registrar for all the laboring men that were sent from the district. He gave most liberally of both time and money to all activities and now holds a certificate of honor for his work in the liberty loan campaigns. Mr. Reed married June 12, 1912, Annie L. Williams, of Virginia, a daughter
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of Washington Bailey Williams, a pioneer of that state. During the Civil war Mr. Williams was a soldier in the Confederate Army. He and one daughter, Mrs. Alice Martha Hayes, are residing at Bristol, Tennessee.
Mr. Reed is a member of San Bernardino Lodge, No. 290, I. O. O. F. He is a democrat in his politics, and while living in Greeley, Nebraska, was appointed city clerk. Mr. Reed is affiliated with the Christian Science Church.
GEORGE W. HOLBROOK. One of San Bernardino's progressive business men and live wire real estate men is George W. Holbrook. While he handles more than his share almost of the real estate business in the city, he does not by any means confine his attention to either city or county, but has built up a clientele all over the state.
Mr. Holbrook is essentially a self-made man, one of the class honored by all for his attainments and for the success he has made unaided. When he was a mere boy he left the home farm to make his own way, in too often a way which invites disaster, with no trade or accomplishment, as he was too young to have achieved either, yet he manfully set to work to make a man of himself. And he is one man who can be proud of the job he made of it. It is true that the child of hard circumstances usually is sensitive to a fault, few have that happy combination and will power which enables them to graduate with honors from the school of difficulties and, above all, gives them the "understanding mind." Mr. Holbrook possesses these qualities, hence his success.
When he first began to work he had, of course, to take any jobs such as a young boy could fill, but he tackled any and everything and always got away with it. He had to try many vocations before he found his rightful niche, as he had no one to advise him or aid him, to tell him the require- ments and rewards of the various trades and professions. So he naturally drifted from one thing to another, finding final anchorage in beautiful San Bernardino.
Mr. Holbrook was born in Warren County, Iowa, September 20, 1873, the son of George W. and Jennie ( Young) Holbrook, his father a native of Appanoose County, Iowa, and his mother a native of Ohio, who came to Iowa before the Civil war. She died in 1907. George Holbrook, Sr., was an abolitionist and went through most of the Civil war. He enlisted when he was only seventeen years of age and he fought until he was taken prisoner at the end of three years. He was taken at Marks Mills, Arkansas, and was sent to Tyler, Texas, and there confined in a log prison. He was exchanged a short time before the close of the war. He is still living on the home farm in Iowa. They were the parents of nine chil- dren, only one of whom is dead.
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