USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 40
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 40
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MARY ELIZABETH (KNOX) ROUSE-One of the most distinctive features of the twentieth century has been the opening of almost all doors to women, which once were closed in their faces, so that today the sex is well represented in practically every profession and line of business. This advance was not secured easily, for many were prejudiced against a woman in any kind of work outside the home or the schoolroom, but once the opening wedge was entered it was not long until the forceful women who were aggressive enough to take the lead proved that not only were they capable of performing any duties hitherto assigned to men, but that in many instances they were more efficient, and fully as trustworthy, so that today a number of the employers prefer them to men. Women are also proving themselves worthy aspirants for public office, and are receiving election and appointments to some of the most responsible of them. The West has taken the lead in the recognition of women's worth in the business world, as it has in so many other ways,
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and San Bernardino, like other California cities, has some very remarkable instances of women in office. One of these alert, experienced and wide- awake women in public affairs who is making a splendid record and giving her city expert service is Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Knox) Rouse, auditor of the San Bernardino municipal water department, deputy city clerk and deputy city treasurer, and one of the most highly specialized accountants in the county.
Mrs. Rouse was born in Illinois, September 11, 1891, a daughter of Joseph Knox, a native of Baden-Baden, Germany, whose father was of German birth and his mother of Scotch. Joseph Knox came to the United States when he was sixteen years of age, with his brothers and sisters, and they located in Sangamon County, Illinois, where in the process of time they became landowners, Joseph Knox owning a valuable farm near Springfield. Later in life he sold his farm and became a resident of Springfield. During the war between the United States and Spain he enlisted and served until he was honorably discharged after the termination of the war. Mrs. Rouse's mother came of Irish and English ancestry.
Growing up in her native county, Mrs. Rouse attended the pubilc schools and a convent, and then acquired a business training in a com- mercial college. Coming to California, she spent one year in a stock- broker's office at Los Angeles and another year as an executive in a motion picture exchange business in the same city, and then, in 1911, came to San Bernardino. In 1914 her connection with the municipality began when she took a position as stenographer in the municipal water department. So capable did she prove to be that she was rapidly advanced to be cashier, then secretary and, finally, auditor. At one time she also was a copyist and deputy county recorder. Her present duties include acting as secretary for the Board of Water Commissioners, and, as above stated, she is deputy city clerk and deputy city treasurer, and she is a registered notary public.
On July 4, 1911, Mary Elizabeth Knox was married at San Bernardino to George H. Rouse, of Michigan, who died May 8, 1915. Mrs. Rouse is a Catholic, and has held minor offices with Catholic societies.
HENRY F. WEGNORI, the present building and plumbing inspector for the City of San Bernardino, is one of the most enterprising citizens of San Bernardino County, and has been the incumbent of his present office ever since the adoption of the new charter. As he is also a builder and general contractor, he understands his duties thoroughly and has a practi- cal knowledge of all the problems which arise for his settlement, including those relating to the state housing department, which is under his charge.
Mr. Wegnori is of French descent, his grandfather, H. F. Wegnori, having been a native of Lyons, France. He immigrated to New Orleans, Louisiana, when a young man, and for some years was a captain on a Mississippi River steamboat. His son John Wegnori, father of Henry F. Wegnori, was born in New Orleans, and he, too, was a Mississippi River captain, but later was sent by a company of boatbuilders to Geneva, Switzerland, to build and operate a pleasure boat on Lake Geneva. His wife, Annie Walther, was born in New Orleans, and there she died. Their children were four in number, and Henry F. was the youngest. He was only three years old when he was taken to Geneva, Switzerland, his birth having taken place in New Orleans November 1, 1846.
From 1849 to 1864 Henry F. Wegnori continued to live at Geneva, where his father operated the pleasure boat until his death in 1865, and the lad attended the schools of that city, and in addition to the regular studies he took up French, German and Italian, becoming very proficient
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in these languages, learning to speak, read and write them fluently. At the same time lie learned the carpenter and cabinetmaking trades.
In 1864 he returned to the United States, and worked at his trade at New Orleans. In 1866 he left his birthplace, having satisfied his natural desire to see it, and went to Omaha, Nebraska, and worked as a bridge builder for the Union Pacific road to Ogden, Utah, and went through to California in 1869, when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific came together. He had the satisfaction of being present when the historic golden spike was driven at Promontary Point, Utah, which event marked a great epoch in railroad construction history.
Still looking for a permanent place of residence, in 1869 Mr. Wegnori left Ogden for San Francisco, California, and worked at his trade for a time, but left it for Virginia City, Nevada, where he alternated mining during the winter and building and contracting in the summer. At the expiration of five years he made another change, going to Truckee, California, and was foreman of a planing mill until 1886.
Mr. Wegnori went to France in 1870 and joined the French army as a civil engineer in the Sudan war. In 1872 he, with the rest of the French army, was forced to lay down his arms to the Prussians. He retreated with the French army from Metz. When the World war started he urged his adopted son, John U. Wegnori, to give his services. The young man joined the Canadian army and fought in the same battlefields as did his father. When the United States entered the war John Wegnori was transferred to the army of his own country. He was wounded in action.
During all of his travels Mr. Wegnori, while interested in the different places in which he stopped, was not entirely satisfied, and it was not until 1886, when he reached San Bernardino, that he found conditions to suit him, and he has since made this city his home. For the first three years he was foreman of the West Coast Lumber Company, but since then has been extensively interested in building and contracting, and has executed some of the most important contracts in and about San Bernardino. Among other buildings which stand as a monument to his skill and reliabil- ity may be mentioned the Harbison and Levy buildings.
His marriage to Miss Hattie Dill, a native of Ohio, occurred in Los Angeles, California. They own a beautiful residence at San Bernardino, one of the finest in the city. His long retention in his present office is proof positive of his proficiency in his calling and his honesty in serving the people of his home city. In politics Mr. Wegnori is a republican. Fraternally he maintains membership with the Masons, Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
IVAN LEWIS FINKELBERG, M. D .- Before the establishment of in- stitutions in which the ambitious young man could secure a practical knowledge at first hand of the treatment of disease it was not until a medical practitioner had been engaged in the calling he had adopted for his life work a number of years that he was admitted to be a dependable man. Now, however, the physician and surgeon enters upon his practice more fully qualified than was his predecessor of half a century ago at the close of his career, and youth in this learned calling is now an addi- tional characteristic to be added to the sum total in his favor. Dr. Ivan Lewis Finkelberg, of San Bernardino, is recognized as one of the most brilliant young medical men of this part of Southern California, and is making a remarkable record in his profession. His advent into Southern California is of recent date, but already he has won the place in his
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community to which his talents entitle him, and has formed connections which are very valuable.
Doctor Finkelberg was born in Chicago, Illinois. November 18, 1891. After completing the high school course in his native city he further con- tinued his studies at the Young Men's Christian Association, and was graduated therefrom with honors. He was a successful participant in all the athletic sports and events during the time he was a student, both of the high school and association, was frequently the victor in the various games, and made good in his studies as he did in sports. A close student, Doctor Finkelberg has associated himself with the scientific Research Society, of which he is a valued and active member. His fraternal affilia- tions are with the Knights of Pythias and the college fraternity Zeta Mu Phi. During his senior year he was a member of the entertainment committee at College, and in that capacity made many friendships. Following the completion of his classical education the young man became a student of Loyola University School of Medicine, and was graduated therefrom in 1919 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. During his junior year in this school the Scrap Book contained an interesting sketch of him and a striking portrait.
Since coming to California Dr. Finkelberg has made it his pleasure to acquaint himself with the conditions in San Bernardino, and is prepared to give his unqualified support to those measures which will bring about reforms, especially in sanitation, and to maintain the many excellent public improvements already installed. Having decided to make this his per- manent home, he is anxious to keep everything in prime condition.
JONATHAN TIBBET, a native son of the Golden West, was born on one of the first American ranches in the vicinity of old San Gabriel, had a strenuously active and successful commercial career both in California and Arizona, and from boyhood to the present time has been deeply interested in the problems and welfare of the Indians of Southern Calı- fornia, and regards perhaps as the greatest distinction of his life, even more than his material achievements, the official title and responsibilities he now enjoys as grand chief counselor of the Mission Indian Federa- tion, of which he was one of the founders.
He was born near the San Gabriel Mission January 5, 1856. His father, Jonathan Tibbet, was a native of Michigan. In 1848, accom- panied by his mother and older brother, he journeyed to California across the plains with an ox team. He was in Los Angeles County for a time, thence went to Hangtown, now known as Placerville. Two years of arduous labor in the mines gave him the money which he took back East to buy a farm long coveted by him and his wife. They settled down with the purpose of remaining there in peace and contentment the rest of their days. However, the lure of the Golden Coast was strong upon them, and after enduring the bleak climate of the East for one year they sold out and once more headed West, coming across the plains with some of the first herds of American cattle, sheep and horses ever brought to the coast. Jonathan Tibbet, Sr., bought the interests of the heirs to a Spanish grant of many thousands of acres near the San Gabriel Mission. This land he used for a stock ranch, breeding and sell- ing stock, and getting fabulous prices for some of his cows in 1853. With the aid of his Indian neighbors he went into the mountains above the present site of Monrovia, cut trees, hauled them down and whip- sawed all the lumber that went into the ranch house. In the dimension commodity there was not a timber less than 6x6 and the joists were
Jonathan Jibbet
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12x12. It was in this sturdy pioneer house than Jonathan Tibbet was born.
On the Tibbet lands at San Gabriel in the early days were seven Indian villages. All the servants in the Tibbets house were Indians. The regular pay for the Indians was twenty-five cents a day, but Jona- than Tibbet, Sr., gave them double that amount, and the result was that both father and son became "blood brothers" to the red men. Through this intimate contact Jonathan Tibbet, Jr., developed a full command of Indian language, learning to speak eleven of the old Indian dialects, and is as fluent with Spanish as a native. He not only learned the language but also the Indian point of view, and through the Indian ceremonies he was made chief a number of times and to the Indians is known as "Chief Buffalo Heart." Jonathan Tibbet, Sr., in addition to conducting his ranch bought and drove cattle north to the mines. There being no banks to transmit money, he had to carry it with him and many times was called upon to defend his money and his life from the high- waymen who infested the roads.
Later the United States Government sent out a commissioner to adjust the Spanish grant titles to California land, and the Tibbet's holdings were adjudged as a grazing permit and not as a grant. After litigation extending over several years Mr. Tibbet lost the grant with the excep- tion of the old home place. Subsequently this was sold, and he then bought acreage near Santa Monica, where he established his home and with his pioneer wife spent the declining years of his life. This place is now owned by his younger sister, Mrs. P. N. Arnold, who with her husband uses the ground as a lima bean plantation.
Jonathan Tibbet was educated in the public schools and in the Episco- pal College just above San Gabriel Mission. Boyhood experiences had inured him to the customs and duties of the frontier, and when only twelve years of age he stood guard with his father against an impend- ing Indian attack. His early activities were those of a stockman and trader and merchant in Arizona and elsewhere, and his business was centered in Arizona until 1891. In that year he came to Riverside, estab- lishing a broker's office for buying, developing and selling real estate and mines. In 1912, twenty years later, he abandoned this office, since he had sufficient business and personal property to demand his whole attention. Mr. Tibbet owns three ranches in Riverside County, two consisting of a hundred and sixty acres each and one of twenty acres. These are leased. He owns a bee ranch in the white sage country, where the finest honey is produced. His capital is also enlisted in commercial enterprises and banks, and he owns forty or more lots and a number of houses in Riverside, considerable acreage and city property in Los Angeles and the county, and has some valuable ground and his summer home in Orange County.
In an active life he has achieved large means and undoubted suc- cess, which good fortune he attributes in part to the steadfast habit of his life in never taking a drink of liquor, never winning or losing a cent in any kind of gambling game, and never signing a note.
Mr. Tibbet is a scholarly authority on local history. He has a won- derful collection of pioneer relics, Indian relics, souvenirs and curios, sufficient to make a respectable foundation for any museum. Included in this collection are many articles from the home of George and Martha Washington. He also has many knives, guns and pistols of bandits of the earlier day, including the knife of Joaquin Murrietta and the knife, spurs, bridle and quirt of Tiburcio Vasquez, a notable bandit. Mr. Tibbet took part in the hunt for the latter.
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During all the years of his active business career his interest in the Indian never waned. While in Arizona he spent many years as civilian Indian scout, Chief of Scouts and U. S. deputy marshal, and was respon- sible for saving many Indian lives on account of his friendly attitude. He has been Indian commissioner for the Riverside and San Bernardino Pioneer Society and also the Los Angeles Pioneer Society. Countless opportunities have been given him to understand the relations of the Indian to the white man, and the burdens and disabilities placed upon them, and he has keenly felt the injustice involved in the management of Indians and Indian affairs. After his return to California and settle- ment at Riverside his and his father's old Indian friends among the tribes sought him out, and through him they gave expression to their long cherished desires, which, when officially formulated in petition, called for-"Justice; to be free citizens of America; the friendly co-operation of the white races; to govern and develop themselves under the pro- tection of Congress; the right of arrest by warrant; the right of trial, and political and civil protection; the right to mingle with the white races, not as an inferior people, afraid of laws they do not understand, but with the proud knowledge that they are free, welcomed and pro- tected ; the restoration of their rights and privileges, not merely those God-given, but those vouchsafed and promised by the Government."
Mr. Tibbet helped these Mission Indians organize the Mis- sion Indian Federation, and he was in turn honored with election is grand chief counselor. He has never voted with the tribes, but has acted as counselor on ideas they advanced them- selves. Over fifty tribes are represented in the Federation, with a total membership of about twenty thousand. This is the greatest and strongest Indian organization in the country, and it is believed that the organization is permanent and will persist until at least the fundamental purposes are accomplished. Mr. Tibbet is the only white man permitted to be a member. Many proofs might be cited to show how the Indians are rapidly acquiring white civilization. Their love of country and the Government is shown by the fact that in the late war the Indians of the nation sent over seventeen thousand men into the armies, and con- tributed approximately twenty million dollars in money, indubitable proof of their loyalty and patriotism. Of the Mission Indians from pioneer times to the present they have been peaceful, home loving, and never engaged in any organized hostility to the white man. In fact, they supplied a large share of the essential labor not only in the old Spanish regime but after Americans took possession of the country, and, as noted above, Mr. Tibbet's father employed them in the mines as early as 1848. At each semi-annual convention of the Mission Indians they conduct their affairs in a business like manner, and an expert accountant is employed to go over their books, and a certified statement is filed with the county recorder to protect them against unjust criticism. The mem- bers of this Indian Federation almost altogether earn their living outside the Reservation, since conditions in the Reservation do not permit of productive work or business. At a large semi-annual convention of the Federation, when between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred delegates were present, the question was asked directly as to how many of the delegates present left their homes on the Reservation to secure em- ployment from their white friends. In reply every Indian delegate sig- nified that this was the case. Mr. Tibbet served as chief of the vigilantes for a number of years while a resident of Arizona. From the decision of the Judge Lynch Court there was no appeal.
Jonathan Tibbet is a member of Arrowhead Parlor No. 110, Native Sons of the Golden West, of Elsinore Lodge No. 289, F. and A.
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M., is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and is an honorary member of Los Angeles County Pioneers, and a member of San Bernardino and Riverside Pioneers. In 1892 at Riverside, he married Miss Emma H. Baumann, a native of Wisconsin. Her father, Gustave Baumann, was at one time a leading wholesale and retail meat packer and merchant at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
NAPOLEON BONAPART HALE, pioneer business man and citizen of San Bernardino, was often alluded to as San Bernardino's "grand old business man," for he possessed the sterling qualities, the progressive spirit, the efficient social citizenship entitling him to the loving appellation. For over forty years he was a potent factor in the business circles of his adopted home, and in all he spent over fifty years in the jewelry business and every year added to his reputation as one of the most highly respected residents of San Bernardino.
Mr. Hale had a rather eventful life in its commencement. He saw the pioneer days in the East and then in the West, for he was born in a tiny corner crossroads in what is now a part of the City of Milwaukee. In Montana it was all in the making and when he came to California this state was far from being a quiet, staid, settled commonwealth. San Bernardino was in embryo, and he lived to see a live, modern city replace the small country village, heartily entering into every enterprise tending to build up and advance the interests of San Bernardino. In his passing the city lost one of its most valued citizens, and those who knew and loved him, a staunch friend. He was a kind and loving father and husband, and if he had a fault it was his loyalty to his friends and neighbors. He went into Eternity loved by his family and friends and respected and honored by the city in which he had spent the most of his life.
Mr. Hale was born in Hale's Corners, near Milwaukee February 27, 1838, the place being named after his father, who had a ranch there and kept the hotel for many years, and a man of high repute. Mr. Hale was educated in the public schools of Hale's Corners, now a part of Milwaukee. From there he went to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he followed mining for a while and then came out West, locating in Helena, Montana. He followed mining there for some time, but decided to learn some good trade or profession. The jewlery business possessed the greatest attraction and he learned the business thoroughly under a Mr. Lewis in Helena. He pursued this occupation there for some time, but he went back to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he worked in the jewelry line for two years. He had married a native daughter of Grand Rapids, Miss French, and when her father returned to Grand Rapids he followed him back, although he liked what he had seen of the West. Soon afterwards Mr. French came out to California, and, of course, was delighted with it especially San Ber- nardino. He purchased land in the city, some of it at Mt. Vernon and Fifth streets. He then returned to Michigan, having decided to bring his family out here to live and to persuade his son-in-law, Mr. Hale, to locate in San Bernardino also. Mr. Hale agreed to this, and he came out with furniture, fruit trees, etc.
Mr. Hale at once, in 1874, bought out a man named Franklin, who had a jewelry store near the corner of Third and Arrowhead streets, and he at once embarked in business. In 1876 he sold to Truman Reavis a half interest in the business, and this partnership continued until 1884, when Mr. Hale sold out to his partner, Mr. Reavis. He soon opened another store, on D Street, south of the Opera House, and this business he continued until his death in March, 1915, on the 17th of the month, with the exception of the last three years of his life. Over thirty-one years he
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was in the jewelry business in the same location and ten years before that in his first location. In all he spent over fifty years of his life in the jewelry business.
Mr. Hale married Cicilia Adelia Frenchi, a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and they were the parents of four children : Willard H., born in Helena, February 27, 1868, was educated in the San Bernardino public schools and then entered the jewelry business in 1886, and continued in it until 1892. He is a republican in politics; Desdemona H. was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and died in 1905; Millard Guy was born in San Bernardino December 9, 1878; Edward Arthur was killed in a street car accident in 1907. Millard Guy was also educated in the public schools of San Bernardino, and then went into the jewelry business, which he has followed since 1895, making a success of it in every way. He married in 1903 Elsie A. Vaughan a native of Colton and a daughter of James Vaughan, of Colton. They have one child, Leanore C. Mr. Hale is a member of Arrowhead Parlor No. 110, Native Sons of the Golden West, and of San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a republican in politics.
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