USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 50
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 50
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Andrew Difani married Miss Alice R. Robinson, a native of England, who is a daughter of Joseph Robinson, now deceased, but for years a business man of Alexis, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Difani became the parents of the following children : Leo Andrew, a native of Wildomar, California ; Leonard Joseph and Corrine Beatrice, who are natives of Riverside. The birth of Leo Andrew Difani occurred May 11, 1891, and he attended the grammar and high schools of the city, and . was connected with
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Brainerd & Company of Riverside, selling the Buick automobiles, before going into business with his father. During the World war he enlisted, and was assigned to the chemical warfare section and stationed at San Francisco, where he was made a sergeant, and was discharged as such after the signing of the armistice. Corrine Beatrice Difani, the only daughter, was graduated from the Riverside High School with the class of 1918. She completed her studies at Columbia University, New York City. At present she is connected with the office force of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. Leonard J. Difani, was born August 19, 1894. After attending the Riverside schools he matriculated in the University of Southern California, and had been a student of that institution for three and one-half years when war was declared. He enlisted for service in the navy, and attended the Officers Training Camp at San Pedro and San Francisco. Receiving his commission as an ensign, he was assigned to duty on the U. S. S. Brutus, where he remained until the conclusion of hostilities, when he was honorably discharged, and, returning to the University, took the examination for the bar and was admitted to practice. He followed his profession for two months in the office of Carnaham & Clark in Los Angeles, and then returned to Riverside, to go into partnership with his father. Leonard J. Difani married December 25, 1919, Miss Ruth Elizabeth Stephens, a native of Iowa and a daughter of W. E. Stephens, a realtor of Riverside, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. They have a daughter, Elinor Elizabeth, who was born January 1, 1921. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, and his wife, who attended the Washington State Univer- sity at Seattle, is a member of Delta Gamma Sorority.
Mrs. Andrew Difani is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she is a constant worker, and she also belongs to the Ladies of the Maccabees and the Independent Order of Foresters. Mr. Difani has been too busy a man to take any active part in politics, has never sought office, but is interested in the advancement of his home city, of which he is exceedingly proud. Fraternally he maintains membership with the Woodmen of the World. By his own honesty and hard work and his determination to establish a reputation for quality and service he has won a place in his community of which he may well be proud. He and his wife have reared their children to be desirable additions to the county, and his sons, both in war and peace, are proving their right to be · considered fine types of young American manhood.
DONACIANO TREVINO, M. D .- One of the distinguished physicians and surgeons of Southern California, Dr. Trevino graduated from Harvard Medical College more than thirty years ago, his professional work has been done in Old Mexico, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and for several years past in San Bernardino, where he is one of the most popular citizens.
Dr. Trevino was born October 20, 1866, in the City of Matamoras, state of Tamaulipas, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. His parents, now deceased, were Juan N. Trevino and Clara (Roderiguez) Trevino, the former a native of Matamoras and the latter of Reynosa in Tamaulipas. Juan Trevino represented a prominent family in Northern Mexico, was a civil engineer by profession, a thorough scholar, and held the rank of colonel in the Mexican Army during the Diaz administration.
Dr. Trevino graduated with the A. B. degree from St. John's Literary Institute at Matamoras in 1882. He then came to the United States and primarily as a means of learning the English language attended St. Joseph College at Bardstown, Kentucky, from which he graduated
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with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1884. From there he entered Harvard Medical College at Boston, and after four years graduated M. D. in 1888.
Dr. Trevino at once returned to Mexico and for two years practiced in the City of Mexico, was engaged in professional work two years at Monterey, the capital of the State of Nuevo Leon, and then returned to Mexico City and was appointed traveling physician for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. In 1896 Dr. Trevino went to Boston, Massachusetts, and took a post graduate course in the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons. After two years he went to La Paz on the Gulf Coast of Lower California, where he met and on April 16, 1898, married Senorita Francisca Romero. She was born at La Paz. Her father, Captain Ignacio Romero, a native of Tapic, Mexico, was private secretary to the Jefe Politico of his state and also chief of police and a captain in the army. The mother of Mrs. Trevino was Nicolasa (Gonzales) Romero, a native of Mazatlan, State of Sinaloa.
On leaving La Paz Dr. Trevino came to California and located at San Francisco, where he practiced medicine and conducted a drug store until the great fire of 1906. That calamity destroyed his property, and when he made a new start it was in Los Angeles, where he practiced medicine and was also in the drug business with a store on North Spring Street one year and then on San Fernando Street, where he had as a partner C. M: Vozza. While in Los Angeles he was also editor of the Mexican Standard, a Spanish language newspaper published daily.
After two years in Los Angeles Dr. Trevino disposed of his interests and practice and came to San Bernardino, where he has become well established with a large professional clientele and his offices are at 402 Third Street. Dr. Trevino is a member of the American Druids and the Catholic Church, and for one year held the rank of lieutenant in the National Guards of Mexico.
He and Mrs. Trevino became the parents of eight children, six living : Ignacio Juan, a San Bernardino merchant; Edmond, who died January 13, 1921, at the age of nineteen ; Miss Clara, Erasmo and Rosa, students in the San Bernardino schools ; Santiago ; James : Hortensia and Andrew, who died in infancy at Los Angeles. Ignacio Juan Trevino enlisted in the aviation corps at Marsh Field and was commissioned as military police. During this period of service he had some exciting times. On one trip with four prisoners from the Marsh Field to put to work on some property ten miles distant he was violently attacked but succeeded in putting two of them out of commission before he was put 'hors de combat.' He is an artist to his finger tips, and has drawn some pictures which show much merit.
ANTOINE PELLISSIER-A native of France, a citizen of the United States for over a quarter of a century, purely and simply a Californian and an American to his finger tips, Antoine Pellissier has undertaken and carried out enterprises linked with the vital welfare and commercial prosperity of Southern California. His home for many years has been at Riverside.
He was born in the French Alps May 2, 1869, son of Marin and Appoline (Garnier) Pellissier, also natives of France, now deceased. His father was a citizen of considerable prominence in his home com- munity, serving at one time as mayor of Ancelles. Antoine Pellissier acquired a common school education in France. When only sixteen years of age he came to the United States, reaching Los Angeles in 1885. The two chief directions his enterprise has taken in Southern
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California has been dairying and the growing of wine grapes. For twelve years he was identified with the dairy industry at Los Angeles. Then for three years he was actively identified with the famous district of Cucamonga, where he purchased and set out six hundred and forty acres of grapes. His extensive personal holdings were combined with the Italian Vineyard Company, and at that time he also purchased and set out a hundred and fifty acres in grapes at Monte Vista. The latter tract he subsequently sold, and also his dairying business at Los Angeles, but is still one of the stockholders in the Italian Vineyard Company.
When Mr. Pellissier moved to Riverside in 1903 he began growing livestock. In 1905 he bought part of the Bandini Donation claim and erected a winery with a capacity of a hundred thousand gallons. He directed the wine manufacture at this plant until 1916-17. Mr. Pellissier's first landed interests at Riverside comprised twenty-eight acres. He is now owner of five hundred acres, and through all the years has continued his interests as a cattle raiser. He also conducts a dairy of seventy-five head, is interested in the Riverside Dairy Com- pany and is a member of the Southern California Milk Producers Association. Some years ago he bought five hundred acres of land on the Mexican side of the Imperial Valley and established a stock ranch and vineyard. A hundred and twenty-five acres of this tract were planted in grapes, and this vineyard has since been combined with the El Progresso Company, in which he is a large stockholder.
With a commendable love for the land that gave him birth, Mr. Pellissier was generous not only with his means but offered his personal services in the World war. Too old for active duty as a soldier, he was selected as an interpreter between the American and French armies, and had ten months of this service. He was in Camp de Souge. an artillery camp, as interpreter, and was also one of the French agents of encouragement. He remained with the armies abroad until the signing of the armistice.
June 20, 1900. Mr. Pellissier married Miss Emily Grand, a native of Los Angeles. She died in August, 1917, the mother of two children : Ernest, a student in the Riverside High School, who graduated in 1921. and Florence, who attends school at Los Angeles. While in France on October 1, 1919. Mr. Pellissier married Miss Elise Aubert, also a native of France. They have one child, Elise.
CHARLES L. MECHAM-Hardly any fact in the history of the San Bernardino Valley since pioneer times can be said to lie outside the per- sonal experience and witness of Charles L. Mecham, one of the oldest residents and for half a century or more intimately associated with the development and growth of the Southland, and, like all California pioneers. was called upon to endure many hardships in early days.
Although his brother was one of the original locaters of the famous Silver King mine that made Calico famous, it was the result of Charles Mecham's prospecting that caused the excitement that made the town, which has of late vears been made the setting of numerous romantic stories. This town has never been wholly deserted, as there have always been one or two men whose faith in the place has been unshaken and thev have waited many years and are still waiting for "Calico to come back." Charles Mecham has written the story of the camp (published elsewhere in this work ) and he is the logical historian of the place, as all the happen- ings were within the scope of his personal recollection. It is a resurrec- tion of the desert life of the pioneers, when the unbroken silence was shattered by the hordes of men searching for treasure; feverish days
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of activity under a pitiless sun ; and then once more the silence, a deserted, ghostly mining camp, a memory and a regret.
The pioneer father of this pioneer son was Lafayette Mecham, a mem- ber of a family of rugged pioneers of old New England. Lafayette Mecham was born at Hopkinton, St. Lawrence County, New York, Sep- tember 20, 1829, son of Stephen and Dolly (Ransom) Mecham, whose families were among the first to settle in the Champlain Valley of Ver- mont. Stephen Mecham was a hunter and trapper in the Adirondack Mountains. In 1838 he moved out to Illinois and lived at Springfield, where the family were well acquainted with Abraham Lincoln. Lafayette Mecham after spending ten or twelve years of his youth at the Illinois cap- ital started for California in 1849 by way of the North Platte, wintered in Utah, and early in 1850 arrived in Southern California. He was at San Bernardino, San Francisco, also at Salt Lake, and in 1854 located in Los Angeles and bought thirty-six acres about a mile southwest of the present Los Angeles Post Office. This he used for agriculture and also cultivated deciduous fruits and grapes for six years. This was followed by a peddling expedition through Arizona. While on this trip his home in Los Angeles was burned, so he sold his land and in 1863 removed to San Bernardino, thus beginning a half century of residence in that city. On coming to San Bernardino he took a Government contract to carry mail between that point and Los Angeles, and his regular stage brought the first daily mail facilities into the valley. He is also credited with bringing the first pepper tree to San Bernardino, was an extensive bee keeper and acquired a large ranch near the city. Shortly after the discovery of gold in Lytle Creek he went to that point and for two years conducted a butcher shop. He also kept a store for two years at Camp Cady, a Government post in the Mojave desert. He also took up land at the Fishpond, six miles east of Barstow, and kept a station four or five years. The activities coincided with the period when the Indians were frequently on the war path, so that a shot gun and rifle were his constant companions even when he went outside for a pail of water. For a time he was also located at Fort Mojave, where he conducted a quartz mill and did business as a dealer in horses. His homestead ranch of a hundred sixty acres was located at Verdamont, and that was his permanent home for some thirty- five or forty years, until his death July 24, 1914, at the age of eighty-four. While in Utah, March 20, 1852, he married Miss Letitia Yeager, a native of Indiana, who accompanied him across the plains and shared in all his experiences until her death in 1900, nearly fifty years later. The children of this pioneer couple besides Charles L. were : William Edwin, a rancher at Verdemont ; George Franklin, a well borer and rancher of San Bernardino; Ransom Marshall, a painter at San Bernardino; Stephen Clarence, a Santa Fe Railway employe; Isaac Augustus, who is in business at Santa Ana ; Lida Ann and Denver, now deceased. All but one of these children were born in California.
Charles L. Mecham was born in Los Angeles in 1856, but acquired much of his early education in the public schools of San Bernardino. His personal desire and family conditions put him into the serious activi- ties of life at the age of seventeen and in early years he followed various occupations at San Bernardino, principally digging artesian wells, team- ing. farming and mining.
His brother George Franklin Mecham, George Yeager and Tom Warden were the discoverers of the famous Silver King mine at Calico, but as the highest assay they received was eight dollars in silver to the ton-the discovery did not occasion much of a stir. In June, 1881. Charles Mecham while prospecting the ledge found the native silver and
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the green horn silver which put Calico on the map, and many millions were subsequently taken from the mine. He gave his own time to mining there for two years and then returned to San Bernardino, and about that time he bought two acres situated on what is now Base Line and E streets. He paid five hundred dollars for the two acres, though a hundred dollars of this was a bonus, since the owner desired to sell only one acre. This property today is worth between six thousand and eight thousand dollars per acre. Mr. Mecham built his home here at 1196 E Street, and while this has been his permanent residence he also farmed the land of his father at Verdemont, and has made a model dry farm of his portion of the estate. It is claimed that he raises the best potatoes in the country, wholly without irrigation.
Mr. Mecham is a member and vice chairman of the San Bernardino Pioneer Society, is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, belongs to the First Presbyterian Church and has been quite active in the democratic party as a member of the City and County Central Com- mittees.
At Los Angeles September 29, 1886, he married Miss Eliza Ann Wixom. She was born at San Bernardino, daughter of Reuben Wixom, a pioneer farmer and teamster in this locality. Mrs. Mecham died in 1908, and is survived by one daughter, Lillie Fay. She is the wife of Dwight Bryant, of San Bernardino, a Santa Fe Railway employe. Mr. and Mrs. Bryant have two children, Frances and Katherine.
JOHN D. ELDRIDGE became a resident of San Bernardino twenty years ago as one of the shop men of the Santa Fe Company. When he left the railroad service he became a factor in local business affairs, and his relations have brought him in constant contact with the public and have gained him a high degree of popularity and esteem. He is a republican in politics and has frequently aided his friends in campaigns and worked for the better government of the city in which he takes such pride. A case of the office seeking the man occurred when on June 1, 1921, Mayor McNabb, expressing officially the general esteem in which Mr. Eldgridge is held, appointed him to the office of chief of police.
Mr. Eldridge was born at Centralia, Illinois, April 18, 1868, son of Louis and Sarah J. (Doane) Eldridge. His father, who was of English descent, was born in Massachusetts, of New England ancestry, and died in 1874. The mother was born at Monterey, New York, daugh- ter of a farmer. and one of her uncles was Dr. J. B. Doane, a noted physician of Chicago.
John D. Eldridge grew up on a farm in Southern Illinois, attended district schools in that state, and in 1881, at the age of thirteen, went to Topeka, Kansas, where his early work was in the line of dairying and farming. For three years he was employed in the shops of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company at Kansas City, Kansas. Then returning to Topeka, he was in the milk business and in farm work, but finally settled down to employment in the Topeka shops of the Santa Fe Railroad Company. About 1896 Mr. Eldridge paid his first visit to Southern California, and his oft repeated desires to identify himself permanently with the state led to his transfer in 1902 from Topeka to the San Bernardino shops. He remained with the company just a year, and then opened a restaurant at 1013 Third Street, near the Santa Fe Depot. Mr. Eldridge conducted a popular and successful restaurant until December. 1919, and in that line of business he gained a constantly in- creasing following of loyal friends. When he sold the restaurant he and Mrs. Eldridge entered the real estate field, and the firm is now known
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as J. D. Eldridge & Son, with offices at 470 Court Street. The firm handles general real estate and insurance, and has been a medium in effecting a number of notable transactions in Southern California property. While performing his duties as chief of police Mr. Eldridge's son had active charge of the business.
The San Bernardino police department has thirteen employes, including three desk sergeants, one plain clothes man, one license inspector and eight patrolmen. Some of these have been in the service a great many years, and in the spirit and efficiency of the personnel there is not a more reliable force in the state. Mr. Eldridge held the office of chief for two months and during that time held the record of efficiency in the collection of fines and business license tax. While he made a splendid record in the office of chief and work in all police departments were in harmony, he came to the conclusion that he would be more content in other lines of work and sent in his resignation so as to again engage in the real estate business. In regretfullly accepting the resignation the City Council took occasion to pay a high tribute to the ability of Chief Eldridge.
Mr. Eldridge is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the San Bernardino Better City Club. Fraternally he is affiliated with Phoenix Lodge No. 178, Free and Accepted Masons, Scottish Rite Consistory No. 3, Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Los Angeles, the Eastern Star and for thirty-one years has been a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Topeka.
October 14, 1891, at Topeka, Mr. Eldridge married Miss Blanche M. Fleischer. She is a native Kansan. Her father, Frederick W. Fleischer, was one of the earliest pioneers of the Sunflower State, going into the territory in 1849. He served in the Home Guard during the Civil war, geing called out for active duty. In after years he became a prominent fruit grower in that state, and his old orchard property is still continued by two of his sons. Mr. and Mrs. Eldridge have three children.
The oldest, Clarence E., in active charge of the real estate and insurance business, is a Scottish Rite Mason, and by marriage to Miss Anna Jamieson has a son, Louis.
The second son, Louis Emery Eldridge, is an ex-service man, with two years of soldier duty to his credit. He trained at Camps Kearney and Lewis, and in the course of training it was discovered that he was an electrician and automobile mechanic, and because of these qualifications he was sent to Augusta, Georgia, where he was attached to the aerial service as a mechanic. At Camp Greene he was promoted to coporal, and during the year he spent in France was promoted to sergeant. He is now a contractor and builder at San Bernardino, is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and married Miss Lillian Lander of that city.
The youngest of the family is Thelma B., wife of Percy C. Jones, and both are in business at Fresno, Mr. Jones having charge of the Neil, White Company Shoe Store and Mrs. Jones has charge of the glove department of another store at Fresno.
CHARLES C. ARNOLD was for many years a busy lawyer at the Chicago bar. While he came out to Riverside to enjoy the California comforts that his working years had earned, he could hardly be called a retired citizen, since he has entered largely into the life of the community, has been honored by being selected to fill important positions here, and his associates have learned to appreciate him as an executive with wide experience and exceptional judgment. He takes keen delight in the interesting occupation of an orange grower, and posseses what is con- sidered one of the most beautiful and picturesque homes in the county.
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His house is located on Victoria Hill. It is a true California type with wide verandas, commanding a view of the valley, though the house itself is almost hidden with vines, foliage and flowers. Set back in seclusion from the public thoroughfare it is aproached by a winding drive, and is surrounded on all sides with citrus growth and ornamental trees.
Charles C. Arnold was born in Franklin County, New York, December 22, 1858, and is a descendant of William Arnold, who came from England in 1640 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. Later the Arnolds moved to Warwick, Rhode Island, and before the Revolution the great-grandfather of Charles C. Arnold moved to Vermont. One of the numerous branches of the original Arnolds in America was represented by Benedict Arnold. Christopher C. Arnold, father of the Riverside lawyer and orange grower, was born in Vermont, and gave his active life to agriculture. He served with a New York Cavalry regiment in the Civil war. His wife was Emily L. Tenny, a native of Vermont and of English and Revolutionary stock. His grandfather was frequently called out to serve with the Minute Men in repelling British invasions of the district around Lake Champlain.
Charles C. Arnold attended public schools at Malone, New York, and is an alumnus of Hamilton College at Clinton, New York. He graduated A. B. with the class of 1885. While in college he joined the New York National Guard, and had five years of service to his credit with that organization. After leaving college Mr. Arnold went West and was principal of a school at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, for three years. While teaching he studied law and when admitted to practice he gave up teaching altogether.
Mr. Arnold was a practicing lawyer at the Chicago bar from 1888 until 1913, a period of twenty-five years. He did a general practice, with a clientele that associated him with many prominent interests in that city. For more than twenty years of this time he had his home in the north shore suburb of Winnetka, where he and Mrs. Arnold were influential in promoting many of the movements and interests that made that one of the finest home communities around Chicago. He was a member of the Library Board, attorney for the Board of Education, and for many years city attorney. He frequently attended state and county republican conventions as a delegate and was also for years president of the Winnetka Republican Club.
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