USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 42
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 42
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Mr. Stalder has had a rather prominent and leading part in the democratic politics in this section of California, though his business affairs has precluded him from seeking office. He was a member of the Democratic County Central Committee in San Bernardino County, and was a leader in the movement for the creation of River- side out of original San Bernardino County. For a number of years he was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Present Day Club.
In October, 1892, Mr. Stalder married Miss Mary E. Yount, a native daughter of California, her birthplace being Riverside. Her father was Caleb Yount. Her uncle was founder of Yountville, known in the days of the frontier as a great trapper and hunter, and at one time owned a large part of the Napa Valley. Mr. and Mrs. Stalder have six children : Edna, wife of Glenn Starrit, an automobile dealer at Riverside; Carlisle who is in the tractor business at Riverside; Leah, wife of Ernest L. Yeager of Riverside: Miss Ona, who grad- uated in 1921 from University of Southern California in Los Angeles ; Marvin, a member of the class of 1922 at the Riverside High School ; and Kenneth, in the Riverside Grammar School.
SYDNEY GORDON STALDER is a son of the prominent Riverside capital- ist and business man, Arnold J. Stalder. Sydney G. Stalder has given his time and energies since leaving University to the garage business, and is one of the active executives in the famous Glenwood Mission Garage at Riverside.
He was born at Wineville, California, January 11, 1893, and re- ceived his education in the grammar and high schools of Riverside. He was graduated from Stanford University with the class of 1913, and soon afterward was made secretary of the Glenwood Mission Garage, in which his father had bought a half interest about that time. This garage has the largest floor space of any similar establishment in the world and does an immense business. It is a $500,000 corporation, having been incorporated in 1918 with C. A. Dundas as president, A. J. Stalder, vice president, S. G. Stalder, secretary, and F. E. Bennet, treasurer.
On November 11, 1914, Sidney G. Stalder married Elizabeth Frances Seaton, a native of Pennsylvania. Her father was the late George H. Seaton, formerly prominent in the lumber business at Riverside. Mr. Stalder is a member of the Universalist Church and Mrs. Stalder, of the Presbyterian Church, and both are active in social circles in Riverside. They have two children, Sydney Louise, born February 11, 1916, and Donald Seaton, born February 2, 1919.
CHRISTIAN C. BRINKMANN-The Rubidoux Studio at 714 Main Street is the oldest and most distinctive of the photographic studios of Riverside. Its prestige has been greatly enhanced since it came under the active direction and control of Christian C. Brinkmann, a photographer of wide experience both in America and abroad.
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Mr. Brinkmann was born in Hanover, Germany, August 30, 1869,. His father was a carpenter by trade. The son Christian completed his work in the common schools and high school of Germany, and in 1888, as a young man of nineteen, became an apprentice in the photographic art at Hanover. He first came to the United States in 1891, and was at Chicago until after the World's Fair. He then returned to Germany, and for several years was an instructor in photography in the Art School of Hanover.
In 1905 Mr. Brinkmann took charge of a large studio at Mexico City. President Diaz and all the notables of Mexico of that day had sittings in his studio, and he enjoyed a very profitable business and extensive clientele there for five years.
In 1910, Mr. Brinkmann decided to come to California, and after a few days in Los Angeles reached Riverside. He then bought the studio of Charles Heath, and this has since been the Rubidoux Studio, to which he has given a complete equipment of modern appliances and has made it representative of the best scientific knowledge and discoveries of the art. He does landscape and enlargement work. The oldest studio in Riverside and one of the oldest in Southern California, located in the same place for over thirty years, Mr. Brinkmann has added greatly to its prestige and is a thorough artist in everything he does.
Mr. Brinkman is a republican voter. In Hanover, Germany, November 16, 1897, he married Elizabeth Heimsoth, a native of Berlin, daughter of Heinrich Heimsoth. They have three children : Heinrich, Edith, wife of Glenn D. Watkins, of Los Angeles, and Gerhard, born in 1916.
His son Heinrich Brinkmann is a young man of very brilliant attain- ments. When he came to Riverside in 1910 he did not have the command of a word of English, yet he entered the eighth grade and five years later graduated from the high school, class of 1915. After a year of em- ployment at Tetley's Hotel he entered Stanford University, graduating in 1920. He was a member of the Student Military organization through- out the World war. In his university career he exhibited remarkable talent in mathematics, and during his senior year was an assistant in the University and was on the regular staff of instructors of Stanford University. He is now an instructor of mathematics at Harvard Uni- versity.
EDGAR ROBERT SKELLEY, a retired business man of Riverside, was one of the pioneer fruit packers of California, and for a long period of years was indentified with organizations that still exist under other names and continue a large part of the packing and canning industry on the Coast.
Mr. Skelley was born in Dewitt, Missouri, October 13, 1846. His father, Robert Skelley, who died in 1848, was for the greater part of his life identified with farming at Beamsville, Ontario. The mother of Edgar R. Skelley was Sarah (Corwin) Skelley, of Irish and English ancestry.
Edgar R. Skelley grew up in Canada, where he attended grammar and high school. As a boy he served in the Canadian Militia during the Fenian troubles. While living in the East he had some experience in strawberry culture, and also in the mercantile business.
Mr. Skelley came to California in the spring of 1882, locating in San Bernardino County, at Lugonia, near Redlands, where he purchsed and conducted a fruit ranch of sixty acres, oranges and deciduous fruits. In December, 1884, he engaged in the fruit shipping business with WV. M. Griffin, of San Francisco, already well known in Riverside, under
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the firm name of Griffin & Skelley Company, fruit packers and shippers. In Angust, 1895, Mr. Skelley retired from the company, though permitting the firm to continue the use of his name. This company by its substantial shipments became well known all over the United States. A few years ago a number of packing companies, including the Griffin-Skelley Com- pany, joined together as the California Packing Corporation, with branches all over California. This corporation now controls a large part of the fruit, raisin and canning industry.
On his retirement from business Mr. Skelley sold a large part of his fruit ranches, retaining about twenty acres on the east side of Riverside. He personally planted the orange trees on this land. This grove is now con- ducted by his son. Mr. Skelley has never been active in politics. He is a member of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce, and is devoted to every good interest of his community. He is a member of the Episcopal Church.
In 1880, in Canada, he married Marie Louise Romaine, a native of Canada and daughter of Francis and Anne (Chisholm) Romaine. Her mother was born in Inverness, Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Skelley have had three sons, only one of whom is now living. This son, Robert Douglas, conducts the ranch on the east side, is a mining engineer by profession and a graduate of Harvard University. He married Miss Constance Beveridge, of Fresno, and has three children, Jane, Robert and Kathleen.
CASSIUS C. POND, pioneer grower and real estate man of Riverside, has a genuine aptitude for both occupations, as he has proved by his work in them. His first work here showed him the splendid promise held forth in each of them and he went into both lines with a fixity of purpose which had won him success. He is an example also of efficient citizenship, large minded, with liberal views, and he is closely identified with all progressive movements.
Mr. Pond had the advantage of coming to Riverside in his early man- hood, coming from Indiana, where he was born March 8, 1857. He is the son of T. H. Pond, also a native of Indiana, who was a farmer and tanner. He was English ancestry, the family dating back in this country to the Revolution. His grandfather was a pioneer of Indiana and traveled much with George W. Campbell, the Evangelist singer, also taking an important part in that state and doing active part in church work. While he was a religious worker, he also possessed fighting blood, for when he was only twelve years of age he ran away from home to take part in the War of 1812, but, of course, he was sent home. He died in Indiana.
C. C. Pond was educated in the public schools of his native state and then engaged in farming, staying with it until he was thirty years old, when he came to California, reaching Riverside in the spring of 1887. He first had charge of the water for the Riverside Water Company from the old Arlington Drive at the head of Magnolia Avenue to the head of Temecula Wash. He remained in this for seven and a half years, leaving it to go into general ranching. He planted an orange grove at Arlington, living there sixteen years, at one time being extensively engaged in agricultural pursuits. When he went to Arlington there were only two houses there. Later on the lure of Riverside brought him into town and he sold his property there, engaging in the real estate business here and following that business ever since. Mr. Pond will probably never give up his love of ranching though, for he is always engaged in it in some manner. Just now he has about thirty-five acres in oranges. He was at first engaged in the real estate business with J. A. King, but afterwards the firm was composed of his son and himself. In 1916, when the Realty
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Exchange was organized, J. S. Wagner was taken in as a partner. Mr. Pond has probably handled as much real estate as any other dealer in the country, and he knows the real estate of this district from Alpha to Omega. For a number of years he dealt extensively in San Bernardino property and for three or four years also operated around the town of Bloomington and Rialto, practically selling the first named town. He has never taken an active part in politics and has never sought political preferment. He is a member of the Riverside Pioneer Society.
Mr. Pond married in 1879 Ina L. Miller, a daughter of John Miller, of Indiana. They have the following children: Edward E. Pond, who is head of the Fairbanks, Morse Machinery Works of Los Angeles ; B. H. Pond, born in Riverside, November 6, 1888, on the birthday of Benjamin Harrison, and associated with his father in business ; Miss Wilna F. Pond, a native of Riverside and secretary of the Fisk Rubber Tire Company of Riverside; Claude C. Pond, a native of Riverside, engaged in the automobile business in Los Angeles ; and Dorris, a native of Riverside, wife of Franklin Kent, of Long Beach, California.
WILLIAM AND FRED COPLEY-The two brothers, William and Fred Copley, contractors in plumbing, heating and sheet metal work, are numbered among the most dependable and successful business men of Riverside, and this enviable position has been gained through individual merit and reliable methods. They came to the United States from Canada in the late '80s, locating at Riverside, and while they have de- voted themselves in large measure to their business, they have been ready and effective supporters of those measures which have for their object the betterment of the community. At the same time they have evinced a willingness to lend a helping hand to those less fortunate than they, and have always been a constructive element at Riverside.
Their father, Robert Copley, was born in England, but in young man- hood came to Canada, where he worked as a carpenter, at one time being employed in the bridge construction work between London, Ontario, Canada, and Niagara Falls, New York, and lived to see the original structure of wood replaced by the present magnificent structure of steel. In 1888 he came from Ontario,Canada, to Riverside, California, following his elder son, who had settled in this city in 1887. Here he continued to work at his trade until his death in 1897, at the age of sixty-three years. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary May, and she too was born in England. Mrs. Copley survives her husband, being now eighty-four years old, and resides at Riverside.
William Copley was born at Paris, Ontario, Canada, November 22, 1860. After completing his studies in the public schools of his native place he began to learn the sheet metal business, completing his apprentice- ship at London, Ontario, where he continued to work at his trade until 1887. In the latter year he located at Riverside, and for a year was in the employ of Alfred Woods, leaving him to go with A. Fleck & Ormand. For the subsequent thirteen years he was employed by the latter firm, and then, in 1901, he entered into a partnership with his brother, Fred Copley, under the name of Copley Brothers. The firm has done a large business in the city and vicinity as contractors of plumbing, heating and sheet metal work, at one time giving steady employment to fourteen men. Success attended the brothers from the beginning, and they have become men of means. Having accumulated a fair portion of this world's goods, they decided to voluntarily cut down their business so as to be able to secure some leisure for the proper enjoyment of life. They erected and own a two-story brick business block at 957 Main Street, and purchased
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William Copley
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the two-story brick block they occupy at the corner of Tenth and Main streets. They own and conduct a eucalyptus grove at Bloomington, California, a grain ranch in the Ferris Valley, and an orange grove on Victoria Avenue, Riverside, besides their own homes.
On March 24, 1898, William Copley married Miss Jessie Rouse, a native of Michigan and a daughter of Frank Rouse. One of her brothers is C. A. Rouse, of San Bernardino, and he has served as sheriff of San Bernardino County. Mrs. Copley comes from an old American family of Rochester, New York, of French descent on her father's side and of Welsh-English on her mother's side. She is a member of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Copley belongs to the Business Men's Association and the Odd Fellows, but finds his greatest happiness in his home.
Fred Copley was born at Paris, Ontario, Canada, September 9, 1870, and completed his studies in the Riverside public schools. After he left school he began his apprenticeship to the plumbing trade with Patton & McLeod, and worked as a journeyman for some years before he formed his present partnership with his brother. Fraternally he is a past patriarch and a trustee of the Odd Fellows; secretary of the Foresters, and is past commander of the Knights of the Maccabees.
During the late war both brothers gave liberally to all of the war funds, and subscribed to their full limit to the bond issues. Politically both are democrats, but neither have been active or sought public honors.
On May 11, 1893, Fred Copley was united in marriage with Miss Katie Buckley, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of H. D. Buckley, now a resident of Riverside.
The brothers have three sisters and a brother, namely : Dr. Harry Copley, a practicing dentist of Joliet, Illinois; Mary, wife of Harry Bickle, who conducts an orange grove and chicken ranch on Victoria Avenue; Elizabeth, wife of J. R. White, an orange grower residing at Twelfth and Orange streets, Riverside ; and Emma, who is a resident of Prescott, Arizona, all of whom are highly regarded in their several com- munities.
HOMER STEPHENSON, a retired orange grower at Riverside, has all the marks and experiences of a true American pioneer. He was a soldier of the war that cemented the union of states. He was a pioneer in Kansas, where he farmed and ranched for over twenty years. Nearly thirty years ago he came to Southern California, and until recently had the congenial and profitable employment of an orange grower.
Mr. Stephenson was born at Kinsman, Trumbull County, Ohio, in the Western Reserve, March 27, 1844, a son of Decatur and Phoebe M. ( Webb) Stephenson, the former a native of New York State and the latter of Connecticut. Phoebe Webb's father was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Decatur Stephenson was a farmer by occupation, and, though well advanced in years, volunteered his services during the Civil war in Company D of the 6th Ohio Cavalry. He was with that command while his son Homer was in Company B of the 105th Ohio Infantry. Father and son met for the first time after peace had been declared at a place called Manchester, near Richmond, Virginia, as they were marching to Washington, where, following the Grand Review, they were again united.
Homer Stephenson acquired his early education in the public schools of Ohio. He was seventeen when the war broke out, and in August, 1862, enlisted and was in almost constant fighting and campaigning until the close of the war. He was under Generals Rosecrans, Thomas, Slocum and Sherman and was in the March from Atlanta to the sea. Of all the
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many battles in which he participated the one that stands out in his memory as the severest ordeal was the sanguinary engagement at Perry- ville, Kentucky, in the fall of 1862, when twenty-three per cent of the command to which he was attached were either killed or wounded in a comparatively few minutes. He was in the almost daily fighting of the Atlanta compaign for four months, until reaching Jonesboro, after which his regiment was with the Federal troops that pursued Hood almost to Chattanooga. At one time he was with the Union soldiers pursuing Gen- eral Morgan and his raiders, Morgan being mounted while the Union troops were on foot. Morgan tried to capture the brigade in which Mr. Stephenson was a member at Milton Hill near Murfreesboro, but failed after three charges. The surrender at Appomattox occurred while Mr. Stephenson was in North Carolina while marching through North and South Carolina and Virginia to Washington.
When the war was over he took steps to round out his education, and for three years studied at the Normal Institute at Orwell in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Then, returning to Trumbull County, he taught school and in 1869 moved to Illinois and taught for a year near Aurora.
It was in 1871 that Mr. Stephenson moved to Sedgwick County, Kan- sas, not far from Wichita, where he was identified with some of the first farming development in what had hitherto been a cattle range. He took up a homestead claim of a hundred and sixty acres, and he also taught school for five years in a pioneer Kansas schoolhouse. He soon added to his homestead, by purchase, two hundred and forty acres of railroad land, and engaged in stock raising on an extensive scale, feeding his farm products to his stock. He was instrumental in having his father and mother come to Kansas. There were countless hardships and adversi- ties that beset such Kansas pioneers as Mr. Stephenson, but he persisted in the struggle and came through the hard years, developing a fine farm of between four hundred and five hunderd acres, raising horses, cattle and hogs. He was on the site of Newton, Kansas, and saw the first lumber hauled in there to start building.
Mr. Stephenson in 1893 rented his Kansas farm in order to take a vacation. He intended to return and continue farming. A few months in California turned all his enthusiasms to the Golden State, and he determined no longer to endure the hard winters and blizzards of the Middle West. Selling his Kansas property, he has since kept all his capital employed in Riverside County. Only a few years ago the house and barn on his farm in Kansas was destroyed by a cyclone and nothing was left of the big twelve room house excepting the flooring.
Mr. Stephenson in 1893 bought a five acre orange grove on Indianapolis Avenue. Later he added ten acres more, but eventually traded this and bought a grove near Highgrove. This was the scene of his labors as an orange grower until recently, when he turned over the fifteen and a half acres of oranges to the management of his son Morgan. While managing his grove Mr. Stephenson shipped his fruit sometimes independently but chiefly through the Le Mesa Packing House and the Highgrove Exchange.
Mr. Stephenson is a past commander and the present chaplain of Riverside Post No. 118, Grand Army of the Republic. He is a member of the Official Board of the First Methodist Church and is a republican voter. May 18, 1876, in Harvey County, Kansas, he married Miss Dora Morgan, a native of Ohio, and of Revolutionary stock and English ancestry. Her father Monforth Morgan, was a Kansas pioneer. Mrs. Stephenson's mother was Rebecca Kelly (Mulford) Morgan, a native of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson became the parents of ten
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children, eight of whom are living. Stella is the wife of W. W. Ayers, of Highgrove, and they are the parents of four children : Decatur E., con- nected with the Riverside cement plant, married Pearl Andrews, of River- side, and they have a family of seven daughters and one son. At the present writing Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson have altogether a group of twenty-two grandchildren. The third of their children, Laura A., is the wife of Clifford Stocking, of Santa Cruz, and is the mother of four sons. Homer Bruce Stephenson, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and now taking a special course in bee culture at Ontario, was a captain in the constabulary in the Philippines after the Spanish-American war, was a major during the Mexico border troubles along the Rio Grande in Texas, and in the recent war served at Camp Fremont and Camp Kearney. He married Miss Madge Spencer, of Berkeley. Morgan Stephenson, who now has the active management of the Stephenson orange groves at Highgrove, married Corol Crane, of Riverside, and they have a family of two daughters and one son. Lillian is the wife of Frank Boileau, of Pomona, and is the mother of a son and daughter. Beulah has a daughter by her marriage to Harry Bartee, now resident of Long Beach, who enlisted from Riverside and as a musician was with the American Expedi- tionary Forces in France. The youngest of the family, Gladys M., is a member of the class of 1922 in the Junior College at Riverside.
FRANK C. NYE, native of Iowa, was for several years prominent in the theatrical business in Southern California, but is best known as a realtor, being proprietor of the Frank C. Nye Company, an organiza- tion specializing in the handling of residence property.
Mr. Nye was born at Marion, Linn County, Iowa, on March 19, 1886. His father, Charles L. Nye, was born in Minnesota, but later removed to Iowa, where for many years he was engaged in the mercantile business. After spending several winters in Southern California, in about 1903 the family removed to the state to live permanently.
Frank C. Nye was educated in the public schools at Marion, Iowa, graduating from the Marion High School in 1903. For several winters he attended the Belmont Military School at Belmont California, graduating from there in 1904. In 1905 he completed his preparatory schooling at the Riverside High Scool, entering the Leland Stanford University with the class of 1909, where he was a member of the Theta Delta Chi Fra- ternity.
In 1908 he entered business in Riverside, taking over the management of the Loring Opera House Company. Through this association he entered the theatrical business, first leasing the Loring Theatre in Riverside, which was operated under his management for several years. Retaining the management of this theatre, Mr. Nye removed to Santa Barbara, where he had secured a lease on the Potter Theatre in that city, later taking over the lease of the Santa Barbara Opera House as well. In 1912 Mr. Nye secured an interest in the Wyatt Theatre at Redlands, but disposed of his theatrical holdings before taking the active manage- ment of this theatre.
His first active association with the real estate business was in San Francisco and Oakland, but since 1914 he has been located at Riverside. He was a member of the Nye & Knight Company, which on consolidating with the Mead Realty Company became known as the Riverside Realty Company, Incorporated. Early in 1921 Mr. Nye severed his connections with this Company in order to form a company operating under his own name, to specialize exclusively in the handling of residence properties. Mr. Nye has for the past four years been a director of the California
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