USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 52
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 52
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As a young man he acted as assistant engineer of the Gage canal system under C. C. Miller, and was really a technical expert in irri- gation and hydraulic engineering. In the development of his land he incorporated Hall's Addition Water Company, became its president, and laid pipe lines from the reservoir two and a half miles to his addition, passing all the principal avenues and providing a sufficient supply for both irrigation and domestic purposes. After expending sixty thousand dollars on this system he sold to the Artesia Water Company at the actual cost of installation.
In June, 1887, was incorporated Hall's Addition Railroad Company, with Mr. Hall as president and general manager. This company built and equipped a mile and a half of street railway from Tenth and Main to the center of the Hall tract. The cars were operated by mule power. This car line he consolidated with the Riverside Arlington Railway, and became a director in the latter. He also organized and was sole proprietor of Hall's Addition Nursery Company, which supplied horti- cultural and ornamental stocks over a wide territory.
Hall's Addition he made one of the most beautiful residential sec- tions of the city, and all who recognize its limits appreciate the wonder- ful work done there by its originator.
His enterprise extended in other directions. At Corona he developed and placed on the market a large acreage of alfalfa land, and its develop- ment led appreciably to the present prosperity and growth of Corona. Near Arch Beach he was interested in land as far as San Juan Point. During his lifetime his home place was noted for the wonderful quality of the oranges produced in his groves. He was a republican and pro- hibitionist, and worked ardently for prohibition. He was a member of
Prinsthey Hall
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the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, and his life was a complete exemplification of the doctrines of his faith. He was also affiliated with Evergreen Lodge No. 259, F. and A. M., Riverside Chapter No. 67, R. A. M., and Riverside Commandery No. 28, K. T. He was highly esteemed as a Mason, and the resolutions passed by these bodies at the time of his death presented a straightforward record of the beauty of his character and his devotion to friendship and fraternal brotherhood. No resident of Riverside was more imbued with civic pride, and 'none was more frequently a leader in public movements that would tend to develop or improve the city.
July 29, 1890, Mr. Hall married Miss Agnes Overton, who was born at Avoca, Wisconsin. Mr. Hall gave Mrs. Hall as a wedding gift beautiful Rockledge, which has been her home ever since. For many years she has been a consistent member of the Church of Christ, Scientist.
Many of the oldest friends and business associates of Priestley Hall were his brothers in Riverside Commandery No. 28 of the Knights Templars, and the formal In Memorium drafted by this Commandery and entered into its records as a tribute of respect contains some dis- criminating references to him as a man and citizen that may be appropri- ately used in the conclusion of this brief article :
"Of a deeply religious nature with none of the asperities of sect. Kindly, generous, with a large sense of charity toward the failings of others, it seemed impossible for him to view his fellow men from any narrow standpoint. Few men worked more assiduously in business, yet his success was marked by a greater standard than money.
"His was of a retiring nature, never ostentatiously or offensively ad- vancing any of the views he held so decidedly on all important measures concerning the community, maintaining them in his gentle way, often with greater effect than loud and apparent persistence would have done. Public life, other than a strict attention to the duties of a private citizen, had no attraction for him. His home to him was the ideal spot on earth and his love of birds and flowers was one of his marked characteristics.
"All of our Commandery who knew him, all his neighbors and business associates, in speaking of him will always have in mind his uncommon amiability and genial smile and word, and after character is considered, what higher word of praise can be uttered."
WILLIAM C. MOORE has been a merchant and business man of River- side nearly thirty years. His life career has been one of somewhat strenuous experience, leading him all the way from a ranch in the Dako- tas through range riding and mining in Nevada until he reached the more peaceful scenes of Southern California, where he has successfully solved the problems of a business career.
Mr. Moore is one of the founders and executive officers of that widely known mercantile service known as the Alpha Beta Stores, one of the most systematic and successful organizations of the kind in South- ern California.
Mr. Moore was born at Battle Creek, Michigan, June 27, 1868. The family is of Irish descent and was established at old Lowell, Massa- chusetts, several generations ago. His father, J. H. Moore, was a native of Massachusetts but spent his early life in Michigan and when the Civil war came on enlisted at Battle Creek and became a lieutenant in the Seventh Michigan Infantry. He was in many engagements and battles, was once wounded in the knee, but after several months home on fur- lough recovered in time to rejoin his command.
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When William C. Moore was about twelve or thirteen years of age the family moved to Dakota Territory, in what is now South Dakota, where his father pre-empted land about ninety miles from Aberdeen. For eight years Mr. Moore had a training in the mental and physical resourcefulness required of all those who contended with the hardships of the frontier. He gained a thorough knowledge of ranching, and in 1888, at the age of twenty, when he started out to make his own living and way in the world his travels led him to Tuscarora, Elko County, Nevada, where he secured employment on the Spanish Ranch owned by the Altube Brothers. This enormous ranch was probably a hundred miles square, extending from Tuscarora to the Snake River in Idaho. The Altube brothers had between forty thousand and fifty thousand head of cattle, and on the northern part of the property conducted an extensive sheep ranch. William Moore had a full share of range riding, though part of the time he had charge of the marketing for the firm from Tus- carora. He also did some mining in Nevada, and leaving there in 1892 came to Southern California. With B. E. Wheeler he bought some un- improved land near San Bernardino. This land they planted to lemons, apricots and peaches, and Mr. Moore retained his interest in the property until 1899. On first coming to California he also did some work in Ar- rowhead Tunnel No. 3.
Mr. Moore has been a resident of Riverside since June, 1893. For two years he was employed by Obar Brothers in the Boston Meat Market and later for one year in the Pioneer Meat Market. He then engaged in business for himself in partnership with Dick Roberts, under the firm name of Moore & Roberts, but after a year bought out Mr. Roberts, who is now located in Glendale. Mr. Moore's long experience makes him an expert in handling every phase of the livestock and meat industry, and even now much of his time is devoted to the buying and selling of cattle in Utah and Arizona, and up to about the time America entered the war with Germany he was a cattle feeder in the Imperial Valley.
Mr. Moore conducts his business alone at Riverside and in 1917 he became one of the organizers of the Alpha Beta Stores. This company operates a chain of ten stores, two at Pomona, two at Santa Ana, Hunt- ington Beach, Claremont, Ontario, Monrovia and Orange. The members of the firm are all related by family ties and comprise : A. C. Gerrard, president ; W. C. Moore, vice president; L. J. Bentley, H. A. Gerrard, A. W. Gerrard. W. J. McJenney and G. F. Bentley. These stores are purveyors of meats, groceries, fruits and vegetables, and every Alpha Beta Store is known to its patrons as a model of arrangement as well as a source of the best quality of goods. One feature of the business, from which the stores derive their name, is an alphabetical arrangement of the stock, so that patrons as well as employes can direct themselves to any article desired.
Besides this store business Mr. Moore conducts a ten-acre orange orchard located at West Riverside. He was a charter member and a director for a number of years in the Union Title and Abstract Company, and is still financially interested in its successor, the Riverside Abstract Company. He was formerly vice president of the Cresmer Manufac- turing Company of Riverside, and a charter member of the National Bank of Riverside, but sold his interest in both these corporations. He was a stockholder in the City Hospital Association, but donated his stock to the New Community Hospital. Mr. Moore is a director in the Y. M. C. A., is one of the organizers and a director of the Business Men's As- sociation, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Masons, Knights of Pythias, and Ancient Order of United Workmen. In politics he has
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been aligned with the republican party, though identified with the progres- sive party during its existence, and took a place on the County Central Committee when the party was organized. The family are members of the Christian Church.
At Riverside October 28, 1896, Mr. Moore married Miss Mary Gerrard. She was born at Godrich, Canada, daughter of Alex Gerrard, now a resident of Santa Ana. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have two daughters : Miss Ethel Norine Moore and Miss Gladys Naomi Moore, a senior in the Riverside High School. Miss Ethel Norine is a graduate of high school, spent one year in Junior College, and was formerly employed in the Citizens Bank and the Ford & Chandler Automobile Agency, but left Riverside to go to Honolulu, where she has been for some time cashier of the Bishop Insurance Agency.
PERCY A. POWELL came to Riverside in 1909, and has for the past seven years given all his time to his work as agent of the Equitable As- surance Association. He is one of the most highly qualified men in his profession in California. This has been demonstrated by the splendid record he has made at Riverside in building up and maintaining an unusually large volume of insurance for the Equitable. During the year 1920 he was third in production in the City of Riverside alone and in 1921 was second, and in recognition of the efficiency of his record the company in January, 1921, enlarged his responsibilities by making him district manager of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. He is now extending the agency representation of this old and standard insurance company so that all the principal towns of the two counties will be repre- sented by agencies, about twenty all told.
Mr. Powell was born March 12. 1885, and represents an old family on the Pacific Coast. His grandfather was a native of England and came around the Horn to Oregon, settling at Salem. He owned most of the townsite but sold it before Salem became a city. Sherman J. Powell, father of Percy A., was born in Oregon and moved to Los Angeles in 1880. He was engaged in the piano business and founded the Southern California Music Company, one of the largest concerns of its kind in the West. He sold out his business after twenty years and is now living retired at Riverside. He married Rose Hartwell, a native of Michigan, of English descent and of Revolutionary stock.
Percy A. Powell was educated in the public schools of Los Angeles, took a business college course in that city in 1906, and for three years was in the piano business with the Southern California Music Company while his father was an officer in that organization.
On coming to Riverside in 1909 Mr. Powell entered the general insur- ance business, and a year or so later became local representative of the Equitable Assurance Association and since 1914 has given his entire time to the association. As director of the Riverside agency for city and county he was one of the fifty out of the thousands of agents of the Equitable whose special efficiency in production earned them one of the gold buttons awarded by the company.
During the war Mr. Powell made his business and private affairs sub- sidiary to the demands of the Government. His special contribution to patriotic activities was in charge of the American Protective League for Riverside County, and he was an officer in the Red Cross. September 1, 1910, at Denver, Colorado, he married Miss Margaret S. Saurs, who was born in that state, daughter of Paul J. Saurs. They have one daugh- ter, Jane Powell.
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EDWARD M. DOYLE has been a resident of Southern California since 1884 and is one of Riverside's most successful business men and public spirited leaders in every movement affecting the progress of the community. In a business way his interests have been concentrated for many years in the management and operation of laundry plants, and he is one of the executive officials of the Southern Service Com- pany, operating about a score of high class laundry establishments in practically all the important cities of Southern California.
Mr. Doyle was born at Cleveland, Ohio, January 29, 1872, son of P. W. and Helen (Mix) Doyle. His father was born in Ireland, at the age of two years was taken to Canada, and when twenty-two moved to Ohio. He was a contractor and builder, and for many years was a man of extensive interests in Southern California. He died in 1918. The mother of Edward M. Doyle was born in Germany, and was six months old when her family went to Cleveland, Ohio. She died in October, 1920.
Edward M. Doyle was twelve years of age when his parents moved to Pomona, California, in 1884. He finished his education in the grammar and high schools and for a time was in the nursery business at Pomona. At Pomona he gained his first active experience in the laundry business, where he was a wagon driver three years. For two years he was an employe of the Coronado Hotel, spent three years with the Acme Laundry at Los Angeles, and then at San Ber- nardino, with other associates, he promoted the San Bernardino Laundry Company. He had an active part in its management for four years, following which he came to Riverside and acquired a financial interest and acted as manager of the Riverside Steam Laun- dry. This is one of the large group of laundry plants that have since been consolidated with the Southern Service Company, which was incorporated under the laws of California, in September, 1919, with capital of two million dollars. The president of the company is J. Lee Cathcard, the vice president and general manager is Fred White, of Pomona, the secretary is Thomas Brown Rigge, of San Diego, and Mr. Doyle is one of the directors and treasurer. He is also manager of the Riverside Laundry. The individual plants now owned by the South- ern Service Company include the Santa Fe and San Bernardino Laundry at San Bernardino; the Ontario Laundry at Ontario, the Pomona Sanitary and the Munger Laundry Companies at Pomona, the Covina Laundry at Covina, the Monrovia Laundry at Monrovia, the Long Beach, the Seaside and Model Laundries at Long Beach, the Electric Laundry, the Munger Laundry Company, the Excelsior Laundry, the Peerless Laundry and the New Way Laundry at San Diego, the Marine Laundry at Wilmington, and the company also has an interest in the Pacific Laundry at San Pedro.
Mr. Doyle was formerly a director and is still one of the principle stockholders of the Citrus Belt Milling Company, dealing in feed, fuel and merchandise, with main offices in Pomona and branches in several towns in that district. He is administrator for the P. W. Doyle and Helen Doyle Company estate, owning extensive orange interests in Pomona.
He has to his credit a record of seven years service with the Ninth Regiment of the National Guard of California at Pomona, and was a member of the Ninth Regiment Band four years. His business and every other interest were made subordinate to his patriotic engage- ments during the World war. He was a team captain and committee- man for all the Liberty Loan drives and an active member of the
MAbillingsley
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Red Cross. Mr. Doyle is a director of the Community Hospital of Riverside, a director in the Southern California Fair Association, was a member of the Board of Public Utilities at Riverside from 1916 to 1921, was chairman of the Membership Council of the Chamber of Commerce for 1921, and belongs to the Present Day Club, Rotary Club, Y. M. C. A. and is district deputy and a past grand knight of the Knights of Columbus, also affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Doyle is chairman of the Building Committee of the St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church. In politics he is one of the republican leaders, was once nominated for county supervisor on a non-partisan ticket but his extensive business affairs caused him to refuse a number of civic and political honors.
July 4, 1895, Mr. Doyle married Miss Ora Brown, who was born in Ohio, her father, Sanford Brown, being a contractor at San Diego. Their two children are Melvin, a graduate of Stanford University, and now a student at Harvard, and Olive, in the senior class of the University of California.
WILLIAM HOLLAND BILLINGSLEY-Unselfishness brings its own re- ward in business as well as social life. The Golden Rule is the best measure for a man's life, and when he uses it in his transactions with his fellow men he may be sure of not only giving them an honest service, but of securing for himself the benefits which can only come of fair dealing and upright living. The dishonest, unscrupulous man may seem to prosper for a time, but his success is only transitory. Eventually there arrives a day of reckoning, when all of his wrong doing comes up to confront him and disfigure his character forever after. Men of the present day are coming to realize that what is known as the Rotary methods are the most ennobling and inspiring, and those who govern their actions by them are the ones who not only attain to a material prosperity, but also win a firm hold upon the confidence, respect and esteem of their fellow citizens. William Holland Billingsley, retail cigar and tobacco merchant of San Bernardino, is one of the most sincere believers in the Rotary spirit, and his enthusiasm with reference to this form of education is convincing and inspiring.
William Holland Billingsley was born in Logan County, Ohio, Febru- ary 9, 1881, a son of Samuel Y. and Martha Jane (Nason) Billingsley, the former of whom was born in Logan County, Ohio, February 20, 1832, and the latter in Clark County, Ohio, September 13, 1832. Growing up at Springfield, Ohio, William H. Billingsley attended its common schools, and in September, 1898, entered the cigar business as a clerk in a retail store at Springfield, Ohio. Here he remained until 1902, when he went to Denver, Colorado, and continued in the same line of business as a salesman. Leaving Denver in 1903 for San Francisco, California, he was a salesman for M. A. Guest & Company, now the General Cigar Company, and was educated by them according to their ideas of salesman- ship. These ideas embraced the Rotary spirit, service at all times, not self but others, and that kind of education, together with experience, according to Mr. Billingsley's firm conviction, leads a man to the right side of life, and he has proven this to be emphatically true in his own case. In July, 1913, he came to San Bernardino and established his present business at the northeast corner of Third and East streets.
On October 1, 1901, Mr. Billingsley married at Springfield, Ohio, and his wife died September 8, 1920, leaving one daughter, Francis Billingsley, who was born August 2, 1912, at Los Angeles, California.
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On June 1, 1921, Mr. Billingsley married Martha A. Beyrow at Santa Barbara, California. She is a daughter of Ferdinand and Anna Beyrow, of Pomona, California. Mr. Billingsley is a republican. Fraternally he belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Rotary Club of San Bernardino, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Living up, as he does, to high ideals, Mr. Billingsley set an excellent example for others, and is particularly zealous in behalf of the Rotary Club of his city, in which he is a dominating factor. Such men as he do much to raise the standard of citizenship and awaken men to the necessity of asking of their business associates fair and upright treatment, and in turn render the same kind of service.
LEE NAFZGAR is city engineer of Riverside, a thoroughly qualified young man in the engineering profession, whose time and work have been given to the municipal engineering problems of this section practically ever since he left school.
Mr. Nafzgar was born in Wyandotte County, Ohio, April 27, 1886, son of L. F. and Alice J. (Crumrine) Nafzgar, natives of Ohio, now living at Newport Beach, California. Both parents represent old American families of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. These families were represented in the Revolutionary war and one ancestor came over at the time of the Mayflower. L. F. Nafzgar's father was a Union soldier during the Civil war.
The family moved to California in 1898, when Lee Nafzgar was twelve years of age. He finished his public school education in this state and through supplemental practical experience also took cor- respondence work in civil engineering. His first employment at the City of Riverside was as chain man and rod man with an engineering crew. He soon qualified for and took charge of the instrument and for ten or twelve years was in charge of field work. His time for fifteen years was largely devoted to engineering service with the city and in July, 1920, he was appointed city engineer to succeed Albert Braunschweiger. The duties of city engineer include inspection of buildings and plumbing, duties that were regularly assigned to the city engineer in 1918. The city engineer is also ex-officio member of the Board of Health and Planning Commission, and acts in an advisory capacity on all subdivision additions to city streets. Mr. Nafzgar at different times has also accepted commissions from private syndi- cates and parties for surveying work in Riverside County.
He is a member of the American Association of Engineers and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. September 12, 1920, at Riverside, he married Miss Caroline Kauffman, a native daughter of California. Her father, L. N. Kauffman, is an orange shipper.
FRED H. FREEMAN was one of Riverside's citizens who contributed to her upbuilding in more than one important line. He was one of the first of the practical horticulturists, and he developed several important orchards, giving them such careful and intelligent treat- ment that they were show places, rewarding him with financial inde- pendence. Later in life he was interested in the handling of real estate, where his practical foresight and business ability availed him much. A number of the buildings of the city were erected by him.
Mr. Freeman was a liberal supporter of any movement affecting the welfare of Riverside city or county, a man of progressive spirit and broad sympathies and a most loyal citizen, loving the city of
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his choice and advancing its interests in every way he could. His associates and friends will always recall him with appreciation and affection, for in his intercourse with his fellowmen he was always kind, considerate and courteous.
The life record of Mr. Freeman gives his birthplace as East Alstead, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, and the date of his birth as May 14, 1854. He was the son of Thuley and Clementine (Flanders) Freeman, his father tracing his line back through a long line of Ger- man ancestors, while his mother was a native of Newbury, Massachu- setts. Thuley Freeman followed the sea for thirty-six years, retiring after years of service as captain to a farm in New Hampshire, where he died at the age of sixty-four. His wife also came of a seafaring family, having six brothers who were sea captains, but her father was a surveyor and civil engineer. She passed away at the age of seventy-two.
They were the parents of six children: James, deceased ; Marcus, Agnes, deceased ; Samuel, Mrs. Carrie Herrington, and Fred H., the youngest and subject of this sketch.
Fred H. Freeman attended the public schools in East Alstead, graduating from the Marlow High School, while from a young boy he had charge of his father's farm. In 1875, when he was twenty- one, he left his home and located in Kansas City, where from a single team he built up a transfer, teaming and livery business without any help. When he sold out to come to the West he owned twenty transfer teams, three hacks and thirty buggies. His health com- menced to fail in 1890, and he was forced to sell out his business and seek a more healthful climatic environment. This led him to Cali- fornia and in 1891 he located in Riverside, where he speedily recuper- ated, regaining entirely his normal health.
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