USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 45
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 45
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has since developed a prosperous fruit-growing and dairy business. He has a fine farm of about thirty-five acres, with a well developed orange grove of five acres. He is president of the Highgrove Chamber of Commerce, is a republican in politics, and holds membership in the Present Day Club of Riverside and the local Farm Bureau. At Bloomington, San Bernardino County, on the 11th of October, 1911, Harrison O. Webber wedded Miss Virginia O'Hanlon, who was born in the State of Iowa, a daughter of Peter O'Hanlon. Mary Bambrick Webber, younger daughter of the subject of this memoir, is the wife of William Hugh Strong, who has been for nearly twenty years advertising manager of a leading department store in the City of San Diego. Mr. and Mrs. Strong have three children: Jean Harri- son, Katherine Ogilvie and Austin Webber. Frank Granville Webber, youngest of the surviving children of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Webber, was for four years prominently identified with local fruit associations as manager and inspector, and he is now manager of the fine Sunshine Ranch of 42,000 acres near San Fernando, Los Angeles County. He was formerly manager of the Bloomington Fruit Associa- tion and also of the San Fernando Lemon Association. He married Miss Helen Teggert, who was born in the City of Belfast, Ireland, and they have one daughter, Marjorie Isabelle.
Mrs. Sophia (Ogilvie) Webber, a woman of gracious presence and distinctive talent, has made her life count in constructive service in behalf of humanity. Prior to her marriage she has given long and effective service as a teacher in the schools of Nova Scotia, and three of her sisters likewise were successful teachers. She was reared in the strict Presbyterian faith of the Scotch, but in later years has been an earnest and zealous member of the Baptist Church. The Ogilvie and two other families in Nova Scotia owned a tract of land three miles wide and six miles long, and the school-house was in the center of this large tract. The Ogilvie home was at one end of the tract, and Mrs. Webber recalls that she was thus compelled to walk the three long miles daily to attend school, stormy weather having not been looked upon as a reason for absence of the pupils.
For many years after coming to California Mrs. Webber was active and influential in the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was for six years president of the county organization of this union in Riverside County, and was a state vice president of the union for two years. Under her personal supervision was effected the organization of most of the unions in Riverside County. Mrs. Webber has been active also in the work of the Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society of the Baptist Church, and to this service she has given much of her time in later years. She was for fifteen years president of the Santa Ana Valley Association of this missionary society. She conducted a mission for Mexicans at Highgrove, and at Spanishtown she established and conducted a Mexican Sunday School, in which she had ninety-four pupils. At the time of this writing, in the autumn of 1921, Mrs. Webber is making plans for the reviving of both the mission and the Sunday school. She has always been a close student of social conditions and as ardent advocate of a single stan- dard of sex morality, Mr. Webber having been in full sympathy with her views and her work and the home life having been of ideal order, for which reason Mrs. Webber is sustained and comforted by hallowed memories since the death of her honored husband.
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WILLIAM E. STEPHENS, whose qualifications as a real estate man are derived from many years of active experience on the Pacific Coast, also has to his credit a record as a practical farmer and merchant. He is now associated with W. J. Powell in the Liberty Realty Company of Riverside.
Mr. Stephens was born near Fayette City, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1866, and is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, his people having been in America since Colonial times. His father was Nathaniel Stephens, a Pennsylvania farmer. William E. Stephens attended public schools in his native county, took a business course in the Ohio Northern University at Ada, and soon afterward removed to Iowa where he lived on a farm three years and for ten years was a merchant. He was in the abstract and real estate busi- ness at Davenport, Washington, and from there removed to Spokane, where he conducted a successful real estate business for fifteen years. Mr. Stephens has been a resident of Riverside since 1916, and his high standing in local realty circles is indicated by the fact that he is president of the Riverside Realty Board. In 1919 he and William J. Powell estab- lished the Liberty Realty Company, an organization complete in every way and competent for the extensive business they perform in general real estate.
Mr. Stephens during his career has been active politically as a republican. While at Churdan, Iowa, he was a member of the City Council and city treasurer one year. At Davenport, Washington, he served two terms on the City Council, and in 1911, while a resident of Spokane, was elected a member of the Legislature and was chairman of the Spokane Delegation. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Riverside Lodge of Elks and Neighbors of Woodcraft. He is a member of the Lions Club of Riverside.
July 22, 1887, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Mr. Stephens married Minerva Patterson, who was born in that state, daughter of William G. Patterson, a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens have three children : Ewing, the oldest, is a graduate of the University of Washington and a successful attorney now practicing at Lewistown, Idaho. Eleanor is librarian of the Public Library at North Yakima, Washington. Ruth, the youngest, is the wife of Leonard Difinia, an attorney by profession, but now in the truck and tractor business at Riverside.
WILLIAM J. POWELL. The name of William J. Powell has been identi- fied with the business and civic interests of Riverside city and county for thirty years. He has been a rancher, merchant, and in more recent years has achieved success in the real estate business.
He was born in Kentucky January 13, 1870, and is of old American and Revolutionary stock of Weish ancestry. His father is W. R. Powell, a Kentucky farmer still living in that state. William J. Powell acquired a public school education, and his vacation periods were given to his father's farm until he came to California in January, 1890. In the River- side vicinity he was engaged in ranching, but later became a jewelry mer- chant at Riverside, a business he continued twelve or fourteen years, until selling out in 1915. Since then he has been handling real estate, both city and outside property, and his long residence has given him a thorough familiarity with land values that is an indispensable asset to his successful work. In 1919 he formed a partnership with William E. Stephens, under the firm name of the Liberty Realty Company.
Mr. Powell is also a director of the International Petrol Company, an organization now drilling three miles southwest of Chino on a lease in one of the most promising oil districts.
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The International Petroleum Company has recently leased 320 acres of land in Pecos County, Texas, south of the so-called Miracle well of the Grant Oil Corporation. This Miracle well came in with 5,000 barrels at 96 feet.
Mr. Powell is a member of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce, is a republican in politics and affiliated with the local lodges of the Elks, Odd Fellows and Fraternal Brotherhood.
On August 1, 1899, he married Miss Eva Oldendorf, daughter of the late John H. Oldendorf, of Riverside.
GEORGE W. PRIOR has been a resident of Riverside County more than twenty years, and up to ten years ago was active in business affairs and since then has been called upon to serve the municipality as city auditor.
Mr. Prior was born at. Princeton, Kansas, March 29, 1871, son of Elijah Prior. He is a man of education and of versatile gifts and attain- ments, and before coming to California was a successful teacher. He attended public schools at Windom, Kansas, graduated from the com- mercial department of Southwestern College at Winfield, that state, and for seven years was identified with school work in McPherson and Rice counties. For a time he was principal of schools at Conway.
For two years before coming to California Mr. Prior was in the lumber business at Windom, Kansas. In the spring of 1899 he located at Hemet in Riverside County, and for two years was connected with the Hemet Land & Water Company. His home has been at Riverside since 1901, and for a number of years he was in the lumber business with different companies. He was elected city clerk in the fall of 1911, holding that office until August, 1912, when he was appointed city auditor to succeed C. R. Stibbens. Since then by election and re-election he has been at this post of duty for nine years.
Mr. Prior is well known at Riverside and elsewhere for his leader- ship in musical affairs. Since coming to Riverside he has given his talent first to the First Methodist Episcopal Church and then to Grace Methodist Church, and is a member and director of the choir of Grace Church While at Hemet he was superintendent of the Sunday School, and became head of the Sunday School work of his church after coming to Riverside. While at Hemet Mr. Prior served as a member of the School Board and for many years has been a director of the Y. M. C. A. He is a republican in politics and a member of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce, Present Day Club, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen of America and Junior Order United American Mechanics.
At Windom, Kansas, May 26, 1894, Mr. Prior married Miss M. Gertrude Moss, a native of Missouri, daughter of the late Andrew Moss. She represents an old Kentucky family of Revolutionary stock. Mr. Prior's son, G. Earl, was in service in the navy three years and three months, being acting paymaster on the U. S. S. Saturn. After being honorably discharged from the navy he was in business with his uncle, Clarence E. Prior, at Riverside, but has returned to the University of Southern California, from which he enlisted in his junior year. August 18, 1918, G. Earl Prior married Ethel May Stevens, daughter of Percy H. Stevens, of Riverside.
JOHN J. (POP) HANFORD-No name can be mentioned in San Ber- nardino which will call forth such a flood of reminiscences, such a wealth of stories and political and business tales as that of John J. Hanford, popularly know as "Pop" Hanford. He is the one man who has stamped his dominant personality upon the history of his home
IS Harford
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city in more than one way, for he was not only a keen, forceful, resourceful, square business man, but he was also an aggressive politician with a true American set of principles and with no such word as "compromise" in his vocabulary. He was a man with red blood in his veins, a born fighter when he knew he was in the right, never afraid to tackle the big things of life whether it was a business, political, civic or national problem which confronted him. One always knew where to find him, standing "four square to all the winds that blow."
Like all big men he naturally encountered strenuous opposition at times, but in the course of time Mr. Hanford was vindicated for many reforms for which he fought, and many innovations he advanced for the good of party, city or county have since been found to be of paramount importance. The enemies he made made them- selves, for he was entirely free from personal bitterness and even in the hottest campaigns he insisted upon fair play, and he never lost his grip on anything by "wobbling." He seemed to meet every critical situation with an inspiration, and he was one of the most prominent and potential political leaders in the state. He never allowed the personal equation to warp his sound judgment on any matter, little or big, and it was his singleness of aim, solidarity of purpose, his personal popularity, his enthusiasm and optimism, his dynamic vital- ity, that made him a man among men, but one with an interest in his fellow men. He was generosity personified, and he gave freely to all worthy causes, not only money and sympathy but his time as well. His love of country and his partriotism was strong and deep; always eager to serve, he was one of the most active figures in the late World war, and he was just as successful in aiding the United States as he was in other things.
Great in mind, heart and sympathies, a loyal friend, a kind and thoughtful neighbor, a loving and tender husband and father, the world is better for his having lived in it. His passing into the Eternal Silences caused deep and poignant grief, and so long as this generation shall live he will be lovingly remembered. His name and his life work will be a part of the history of the state of California for all time to come.
John J. Hanford was born June 12, 1845, in the City of New York, State of New York. He lived the life of the boys of that time until he was sixteen years old, when he apprenticed himself to learn the iron molders trade, which he did thoroughly. All branches of the trade, including green sand, dry sand and loam molding, and also brass . molding, he mastered, learning the loam molding from Scotch molders from the Clyde. He was soon at the top and rated as one of the best molders in the trade, but he left the work to go into politics.
In the early part of the eighties he came out to California and located in Los Angeles for a time, then went up to the Antelope Valley, where he first took up a homestead and later purchased 640 acres more. He only remained a year and returned to Los Angeles. Here he again took up molding, and made the first mortar bed ever made in Southern California, at the Baker Iron Works, then located on the north-west corner of Second and Main streets. In those days that was considered a "Big Casting," and the Mayor and all the local celebrities were invited to see the castings poured. In 1899, when the Baker Iron Works moved their shops to what was then Buena Vista Street, now North Broadway, Mr. Hanford went with them, but two of his fellow workmen, Tonkin and Vanderclute, went to Coronado and started the
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Coronado Foundry and Machine Shop. They bid on and were awarded the contract to make the big sheave wheels for the San Diego cable railway, and Mr. Tonkin came for Mr. Hanford to go to Coronado to superintend the building of the patterns and the molding of the cast- ings. This he did, and he also made the big face plate to finish them on. The company had secured the contract to make the grey iron castings for the California Southern Railroad while he was in their employ, but afterwards lost it.
Soon after Mr. Hanford left them and returned to Los Angeles, where he went to work for the Union Iron Works, then located on the south side of First Street, west of Almeda. When Mr. Hanford learned that the California Southern Railway was still looking for some one to start a foundry in San Bernardino to make their work, he immediately went there and secured the contract from G. W. Prescott, then master mechanic of the road. This was in February, 1892, and was the inception of the "Hanford Iron Works," and it was located in what was known as "The Henderson Foundry Building," on the west side of Warm Creek and on the north side of First Street.
As soon as he reached San Bernardino Mr. Hanford entered the political arena and soon was the leader of the local force. Of course those he deposed were not very friendly at first, but always his friends outnumbered them 1000 to 1. He first made the run for trustee from the First Ward and was, of course, at once made chairman of the board. He was re-elected a number of times, and from first to last the campaign was always a red hot one, enlivened as only he could stir things up. Pop Hanford was at first a staunch democrat, and he toured the state with W. J. Bryan during the 16 to 1 campaign. When Theodore Roosevelt was the republican nominee for president the first time he was won over to his standard after long studying of the facts and, knowing that "only fools never change their minds," "Pop" became a Roosevelt republican and continued in that party until he passed on.
Mr. Hanford was always warm in the support of anything which would advance San Bernardino, and he was eager to secure the Car- negie Public Library for the city, refusing to be turned down by the board, which was placing the libraries, and finally succeeding in getting an appropriation. When he did get it it did not meet with his approval, not being as large as he thought it should be. He at once got busy and, with the late Fred Perris, prevailed upon E. P. Ripley, then president of the Santa Fe Railway and a great friend of Mr. Carnegie, to intercede for them, to try and get them a larger appropri- ation. He urged the fact that San Bernardino was to be the second largest place on the Santa Fe system for their shops, and Mr. Ripley undertook the mission and succeeded in securing a larger appro- priation.
Among the other positions held by Mr. Hanford was that of mayor, he being the second one to hold the office. During his adminis- tration as president of the Board of City Trustees he became interested in the League of California Municipalities, and was at once selected as vice president and later as the president of the League.
Mr. Hanford had an intuitive sense of affairs and keenness of per- ception and could think for the commonwealth, see the possibilities the future held. He advocated the purchase of the Hubbard water rights in Lytle Creek and the installation of the present water system. He made an active campaign to purchase the right, buy the pipe and lay it.
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Mr. Hanford was one of the Freeholders who framed the present City Charter, and he advocated then many things which were turned down then but which have since been found to be of the greatest impor- tance to the city and its advancement.
Mr. Hanford passed away on November 12, 1917, in the St. Joseph's Hospital in San Diego, after an operation for hernia. He was so full of life, vitality and the joy of living that even now it seems impossible he is not in his accustomed place, one of the best loved sons of the Southland.
He left a widow, Joan E. Hanford, and one son, W. J. Hanford.
WILLIAM J. HANFORD-Like his honored father, J. J. Hanford, William J. Hanford believed in a life of action and preparation for a worth while career, so at an early age he commenced to work, his natural inclination being toward railroad interest at that time, but he discovered his real life work when he joined his father in the Iron Works. He is carrying on the work which his father founded and is making a success of it in every way, progressing with the times and. as demanded by circumstances, shaping the conduct of the Hanford Iron Works. It is an institution so well founded, so well managed, that it is bound to grow and expand still more, and no one could be better qualified to guide its course than William J. Hanford, son of the founder, for he worked many years with his father and he will use the knowl- edge thus gained to add to the growth and permanence of the works.
He was born in the City of Brooklyn, New York, on July 1, 1870, and was one of three sons of J. J. and Joan Hanford. His two brothers died in infancy. When his parents came to California he accompanied them, a young boy. His first work was with the Western Union Tele- graph Company in Los Angeles as a messenger boy in 1885. He remained there a year and then went to the Southern Pacific Railway as call boy and messenger in 1886. He commenced his railroad work by firing a switch engine October 1, 1887. He was fireman on an engine for the Coronado Railway from July 15, 1890, to September 15, 1891.
During the winter of 1891-1892 he went East and fired for the E. T. N. R. Railroad, going as far as Chicago. From September 10, 1892, to November 15, 1893, he was fireman for the San Diego, Cuyamaca & Eastern Railway. He commenced firing for the California Southern April 21, 1894, but he lost out in the A. R. U. strike June 29, 1894. He commenced working with his father during 1895, and he has been with the Hanford Iron Works ever since.
When his father, J. J. Hanford, passed away his mother, Joan E. Hanford, and himself conducted the business successfully until it was decided to incorporate, and P. J. Dubbell came into the company as the third director of it. When Mrs. Hanford decided to dispose of her holdings in the Hanford Iron Works her son, W. J. Hanford, took over her shares and disposed of part of them to several of the present stockholders, narrated in the story of the works. William J. Hanford is now president and manager of the Hanford Iron Works, and he holds a large majority of stock in the company.
On August 17, 1889, he married Florence B. Steel, of Los Angeles.
THIE HANFORD IRON WORKS, one of the foremost institutions of San Bernardino, was founded by the late J. J. Hanford, and he started it to make iron grey castings for the California Southern Railroad Com- pany, having secured the contract to do all this work for them. He had a partner, also a molder, Joseph Bierce, and they began in the old Henderson Foundry Building located on the west side of Warm Creek,
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north side of First Street. In addition to themselves they had one workman, William Hackney.
Like everything with which Mr. Hanford was connected, it was an instant success, growing rapidly in every line. Early in 1893 Mr. Hanford bought his partner's interest, and from that time until he passed on he was the sole owner and proprietor of the Hanford Iron Works. So rapidly did the volume of business increase that it out- grew the quarters in which it was started, and Mr. Hanford erected the foundry on its present site in the spring of 1895. In 1904 he erected the machine and pattern shop in front of the foundry on its present site in a space he had left for that purpose.
In 1910 the Hanford Iron Works secured a patent for driving a nail on a slant, and proceeded to build and manufacture an orange box making machine. This is, of course, a side issue with the Works, as the foundry has nearly all the time had all it could handle producing the castings for the Santa Fe Railway Company and the other business it has secured, much of it coming from Arizona and Nevada. Another instance of "when a man makes a better article than others the world will make a trail to his door."
After the passing of Mr. Hanford on November 12, 1917, the business was conducted by his widow, Joan E. Hanford, and his son, William J. Hanford. On May 28, 1918, the Hanford Iron Works was incorporated under the laws of the State of California, with Joan E. Hanford as president, William J. Hanford as vice president and P. J. Dubbell as secretary. The next year, April, 1919, Joan E. Hanford disposed of her interests, William J. Hanford securing the most of them, the remainder being bought up by James Cunnison, S. E. Bagley, P. J. Dubbell, Clinton Draper, Cora Draper, Ralph Ochs, E. E. Katz, M. D. Katz and Gladys Parsons Katz. P. J. Dubbell passed away in June, 1919, and his interests in the works were purchased by James Cunnison, S. E. Bagley, Ralph Ochs and William Woods.
The officers of the company now are : William J. Hanford, presi- dent ; S. E. Bagley, vice president ; James Cunnison, secretary.
At the annual meeting of the Hanford Iron Works Company held in January, 1920, the company voted to erect an addition to the plant to be devoted exclusively to the manufacture of steel castings. At present the Hanford Iron Works employs fifty-two men, the average pay roll being seven thousand dollars.
The Hanford Iron Works enjoys the distinction of being the second oldest foundry making castings for the Santa Fe Railroad in point of years of continuous service.
PAUL E. SIMONDS, M. D. While his residence in Riverside has not covered a long term of years, Dr. Paul E. Simonds has by his skill. acquired a reputation and high standing for his handling of the various cases under his care. He has built up a large clientele, which is always on the increase, founded on his skill in diagnosis and accuracy of treat- ment, for he is not only the trained, educated physician but the rarer type, the natural exponent of the healing art, possessing the quickness of perception and intuition which puts them in a class by themselves.
Dr. Simonds was born in Detroit, Michigan. October 12, 1876, his father being John H. Simonds, a native of New York State and a prominent organist and musician who is living now in Ventura County, engaged in Church and Sunday school work.
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