USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 54
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 54
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JEROME L. RICHARDSON, who has been police court judge since Jan- ary 1, 1918, has made a fine record which has attracted much favorable comment and is the youngest judge ever on the Riverside bench, being first appointed when twenty-five years of age. He is an ernest and high minded young attorney, and in his official duties has also disclosed a warmth of heart and a personality that have frequently redeemed the harsher features of the ordinary police court. In his eagerness to reclaim people brought before him he has confined his attention not only to juveniles but to mature men and women. Frequently he has been able to recognize and stimulate the potential good in his subjects, though when the time comes to enforce the law he does it fearlessly and has not hesi- tated to impose the limit penalty. Evidently a dominating principle in the life of Judge Richardson is to play square in both business and personal affairs. He has a great pride in the city which he has selected for his home, and has been actively identified with all public movements for the general welfare.
His breadth of sympathy is no doubt in part a product of his own individual experience. When he was thirteen his father died, leaving a family without a fortune. Jerome Richardson from the proceeds of day labor took care of his mother and three brothers, and was largely instrumental in providing educational opportunities for the brothers. He kept up his own studies in the evening after work, and in that manner passed the examinations of the grammar and high schools, and his admis- sion to the California bar was due to many years of night study after arriving in Riverside.
Jerome L. Richardson was born at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, August 16, 1892, son of Edward L. and Agnes M. (Timmons) Richardson. His family is of Revolutionary stock and English descent. His father was a native of Indiana, was at one time master mechanic for the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad and later owned a machine shop in Kentucky Judge Richardson's mother was born in Kentucky. Her grandfather was
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a captain in the Revolutionary army and is buried at Dixon, Kentucky, where for distinguished services a special monument was erected over his grave by the authorities. Captain Timmons had a store and conducted a large tobacco plantation owning a hundred and ten slaves, but finally, becoming convinced of the iniquity of slavery, he freed them, though all but four remained around their old master. The father of Mrs. Richard- son was a soldier in the Northern Army during the Civil war, while two of his brothers fought on the Confederate side.
When his father's death imposed upon him the necessity of becoming head of the family Jerome Richardson became a milwright in Hopkins- ville, and followed that trade for six years. At the age of nineteen he married and brought his bride to California in 1911. While making his living by work in a grocery store, he studied nights for five years under the guidance of Miguel Estudillo, and took the bar examination October 16, 1917. Of the seven applicants in the class three passed, Judge Richardson taking the highest honors.
He began private practice in partnership with Loyal C. Kelley and O. K. Morton, but on January 1, 1918, was appointed Judge of the Riverside Police Court, beginning his official duties on the 5th of January. In January, 1920, he was reappointed. Judge Richardson is a republican, and for several years has been an influential factor in city and county affairs. He was a member of the Finance Committee of the last Repub- lican County Central Committee. During the war he gave his energies to all public movements, taking part in the Red Cross drives, and was one of the "Four Minute" speakers for the Liberty Loans and served as a member of the Legal Advisory Committee for the Exemption Board. While in Kentucky he served in the National Guard during the night rider trouble of 1908 and 1909. He is now scout master of the boy scouts. He is Secretary of the Riverside County Bar Association. the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Present Day Club.
June 7, 1911, at Nashville, Tennessee, Judge Richardson marrie 1 Eulia Banks Burrus. She was born in Kentucky, daughter of J. L. and Elizabeth Burrus, and represents an old Kentucky family of planters and slave owners, who during the Civil war were actively identified with the Confederate cause.
Three brothers of Judge Richardson are all residents of Riverside County. They are: James Edward, a ticket agent for the Southern Pacific and the Pacific Electric Railways at Riverside; George S., agent for the Pacific Electric at Corona; and Richard Richardson, assistant freight agent of the Pacific Electric Railroad at Riverside.
FRED L. HALL-One of the show places in Riverside County is the noted stock ranch of the Hall family in the Perris Valley near Perris. Registered livestock has been a specialty of the Halls for over half a century. The Halls were for many years and until recently identi- fied with the livestock industry in the State of Minnesota. They have done much to prove the adaptability of Southern California to the same industry.
The active head of the stock farm near Perris is Fred L. Hall, but his father, L. S. Hall, is senior partner, actual founder of the business, and still, in a measure, the final authority to whom are referred all im- portant questions involving superior judgment as to livestock. L. S. Hall is a native of New Hampshire and was a pioneer in Minnesota. He went there when Minnesota was a territory, and when the Civil war came on he enlisted at Rochester in Company F of the First Minnesota Volun-
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teers. This regiment was with the Second Corps, Second Division and Second Brigade, and made a splendid record ot arduous service both in une indian country and in the central theater of the war. He was in service until discharged at Fort Snelling in August, 1865. Through all the years since the war he has been a rancher and stockman, and for many years had extensive landed interests in Faribault and Markham counties, Minnesota. Nothwithstanding the hardships he endured in the war and the active life he has lived since he is still a fine figure of a man, rugged and efficient, and takes a keen interest in the conduct of the farm. Un- doubtedly he is one of the best informed men in regard to fine livestock in California. L. S. Hall married Susan Northup, a native of Wis- consin. She is still living at the home at Perris.
Fred L. Hall was born in Markham County, Minnesota, September 16, 1874. He was educated in the public schools and is a graduate of the Agricultural Department of the University of Minnesota with the class of 1898. He immediately turned his technical education to good account on the ranch of his father in Markham and Faribault counties. In 1912 he came to California to occupy the one hundred and forty-four acres in the Perris Valley which had been purchased by his father the preceding year. L. S. Hall acquired his first registered stock as early as 1868. Some of the descendants of this stock are still on the Perris ranch. When the family came to California they brought ten head of the old herd with them. The Hall stock ranch at Perris at this writing has eighty- eight pure bred Shorthorn cattle, thirty head of pure bred Percheron horses, and seventy-five Berkshire hogs. An interesting department of animal husbandry is also the poultry business conducted by Mrs. Hall. She has been very successful with a flock of white Wyandottes. One of the Percheron mares owned by the Halls has produced colts that have been sold for three thousand dollars, and three of these colts are still on the ranch. One of them, a four year old, weighs two thousand pounds, has been raised wholly on barley and alfalfa hay, chiefly alfalfa, with never a feed of grain, and is a black beauty free from blemish, perfect in all of its points and build. The Halls have had horses, hogs and cat- tle in the show ring at all the fairs, frequently exhibiting between thirty- five and forty animals, and have innumerable ribbons and trophies. In one year seventy-six ribbons were awarded the Hall stock.
With the exception of the first year Fred L. Hall has since its organization been a director of the Southern California Fair Association. While primarily interested in pure bred stock, he is also one of the ranchers of Southern California who has taken up the growing of long staple cotton and is president of the local Cotton Growers Association, which has a gin at Perris. In 1920 he had twenty acres planted to cot- ton, with a fair crop, and with still better prospects for 1921. He is a director of the Perris Chamber of Commerce and is also director of the Farm Bureau. A republican, he has had no time from his busy personal affairs to devote to politics.
June 20, 1907, in Minnesota, he married Miss Winnifred Matthews, a native of that state. Her father, W. T. Matthews, was a Minnesota pioneer and she represents an old American family of Revolutionary stock and English descent. Mrs. Hall was for ten years a teacher in Minnesota, and throughout that time missed only one day from her duties. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have two children : Harwood, born in 1914, and Nulah, born in 1915.
JOHN BENNETT HANNA-By reason of his early advent in California when a young boy, John Bennett Hanna, public administrator and ex-
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ex-officio coroner of San Bernardino County, is classed fittingly with the pioneers. With the exception of several years spent in Colorado Mr Hanna has lived continuously in California, most of the time in the county he has efficiently served and is now so serving. He is a typical Californian, and his energies and actions have always been for the wel- fare of his some county.
The firm determination to do right as he saw it, never deviating from a course once laid out, his successful administration of the offices to which he has been elected has been a matter for congratulation by the voters of San Bernardino County and repeatedly they have shown their sincere appreciation by means of the ballot box every time he has been a candidate for justice of the peace. He has the sunshine of the genial nature which draws around a man a circle of warm friends who can value a worthwhile man. In fraternal circles his standing is shown by the records and in civic and social circles he is equally appreciated.
Mr. Hanna was born in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, August 25, 1856, the son of Robert and Tacie Rebecca ( McDonald) Hanna, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. Robert Hanna died October 28, 1868, and his wife is now living in Colton, California, aged eighty-four. Mr. Hanna had been a timber man and real estate operator all his life.
John B. Hanna attended the public and private schools of Clinton County, Pennsylvania, and in 1874, came to California, landing in San Francisco. He then attended the public schools of San Jose, the Uni- versity of the Pacific and after that was for a brief period employed as a clerk in San Jose. The Leadville, Colorado, mining excitement broke out at this time, and Mr. Hanna went there, prospecting and at the same time reading law. In the latter he was so successful that he was admitted to practice in that state in 1882. He commenced the practice of law at Leadville, and after a short time he was married and two years later he returned to California, locating first in San Jose.
Very soon afterward he made a trip to Banning with his stepfather for the purpose of seeing the country. At that time there were very few people in Banning, and he had about concluded to go north to Seattle, but was prevailed upon to stay in Banning and purchase a half interest in a general store in that town, which was the only one between Colton and Yuma, Arizona. While there he combined store keeping with the duties of postmaster, Wells Fargo Company agent and also ticket agent. He remained there seven years and then sold out.
In the meantime his folks had moved to Colton, and he went there and entered the grocery business, and this he conducted for ten years and then sold out. He had been admitted to practice law in California also, in 1882, and in that year was elected justice of the peace in Colton for a two year term. He entered this office with the fixed purpose of putting a stop to the graft that had been going on in these offices all over the state, a graft whereby the justices were receiving enormous returns for comparatively little service. Instead of charging five dollars per case and saddling big expenses on the taxpayers, Judge Hanna put in a modest bill for about sixty dollars per month, stating that that was all the serv- ice was worth. The next year the Legislature placed all the offices on a salary basis. In 1898 he was re-elected and altogether was re-elected seven times.
In 1919 Judge Hanna was invited by the Board of Supervisors to ac- cept his present office of public administrator and ex-officio coroner. This office he is now filling with the same singleness of purpose and efficiency that distinguished his occupancy of the office of justice of the peace. In 1893-1919 he was elected one of the freeholders to draft the
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county charter. He is a director of the Colton Fruit Exchange, and has been for over twenty years. Judge Hanna is also greatly interested in orange growing and owns an orange grove in Colton.
He married September 25, 1882, Frances A. Creal, of Saratoga, New York, a member of an old New York family dating back to Revolution- ary days. They have three children : Wilson Creal Hanna, chief chemist of the California Portland Cement Company of Colton, married Blanche Beal of Clarinda, Iowa, and they have two daughters, Tacie Madge and Evanelle Beal Hanna. Tacie May, at home and a teacher in dramatics and expression at San Bernardino Polytechnic High School, is a well known writer of plays and has a brilliant future. Mary Hanna is the wife of George W. Campbell, of Los Angeles, who is with the circula- tion department of the Los Angeles Times. They have three children, Frances Louise, John F. and George Washington Campbell, Jr.
Judge Hanna is a member of Ashler Lodge No. 306, A. F. and A. M., of Colton; of Keystone Chapter No. 56, R. A. M., of San Bernardino ; of St. Bernard Commandery No. 23, K. T., of San Bernardino ; and also a member of Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Los Angeles. He is a member of Independent Order of Foresters and for ten years was the high counselor for Southern California. In 1915 he was the grand chaplain of the Masonic Grand Lodge of California. Judge Hanna is an honorary member of the San Bernardino Society of California Pioneers. Politically he is a republican, and in religious faith affiliates with the Methodist Church.
FREDERICK THOMAS HARRIS, architect of San Bernardino, has not only the distinction of being at the head of his profession in the city but also of being a son of a pioneer and a native son himself of San Bernardino. While he has at times absented himself from his birthplace, he has always returned and he is now a permanent resident. He has built many fine public buildings in California which stand as monuments to his archi- tectural skill, which is as well founded as the laws of gravitation.
Mr. Harris was born in San Bernardino September 27th, 1875, the son of Benjamin B. and Betty Edwards (Clark) Harris. He was a native of King William Courthouse, Virginia, while his wife was a native of Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee. He was admitted to the bar. but in 1849 came to California, by the way of Yuma and Warner's ranch. His party outfitted in Missouri and came over the long, hard overland trail with the other gold seekers. He located first in Los Angeles, but only stayed there two weeks, going on to Sacramento, a hotbed of mining excitement.
An interesting incident is noted during his short stay in Los Angeles, as he narrated it afterwards, in view of the importance of the oil industry in and around Los Angeles. He remembered very well seeing oil oozing from the ground where he had his horse staked near the plaza. In these days of experience and excitement in the oil game there would be a wild rush there on such a report. Then it was not even considered, for men were after gold, which was more desirable than oil those days.
Mr. Harris went from Sacramento to the mines in Tuolumne County. where he followed mining with varied success. Not caring to follow that business, he returned to Sacramento and started practicing law. He was an able attorney. a master of the law, its theory and practice, and his success was a foregone conclusion. In addition to this he was very highly educated in other lines, notably literature and the languages. He soon huilt up a large clientele, but when the Civil war came on in 1861 as a loval son of the South he returned at once to Virginia and enlisted in a Virginia regiment, serving throughout the war.
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At the close of the war he organized and started successfully the Nash- ville University at Nashville, Tennessee. In this he occupied the chair 01 languages. But very soon the golden memories of Califorma lured him back to her, and in 18/0 he located in San Bernardino, where he resumed the practice of law, which he continued until his death on August 5, 1897. He was one of the city's most loyal citizens and served her at all times ably and faithfullly. He was a democrat. He was district attorney from 1880 to 1890. He also served the city as city attorney without pay and was also city clerk without remuneration. He was a man of quick sym- pathy, wise tolerance and a mind of penetrating keenness. He made warm friends, whom he held in ever-growing attachment because of his unusual intellectual gifts and his high character. He passed into eternity loved by his family and friends and respected and honored by the city he had served so well. His wife died in 1917, and to them were born seven children : William Temple, now in Calixico; Lucy Ellen, wife of G. W. Gross, of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Frederick Thomas; Reuben W., who died at the age of seven; Emma, wife of Prof. I. D. Perry, of the Los Angeles High School; Owen Overton, of Portland, Oregon, and Katherine Ellen, widow of H. G. Peck, of Santa Monica.
Frederick T. Harris was educated in the public schools of San Ber- nardino and then went to Los Angeles, where he served three years ap- prenticeship with McCarthy & Mendel, architects. He then returned to San Bernardino, and soon afterward opened an office in Redlands, where he remained for twelve years. At the end of that time he moved to El Centro, where he practiced his profession for four years. While there he purchased 160 acres of land and cultivated and stocked it. In 1917 he sold out and returned to San Bernardino.
Mr. Harris opened an office and started the practice of his profession in his place of birth and has built up an ever growing clientele. Among the public buildings he has erected are the following: The Mckinley Building in Redlands, the Lugenia Building in Redlands, the High School Building in El Centro, the Mt. Vernon Avenue School Building in San Bernardino, the Metcalf Building, also in San Bernardino, and the Upland School Building.
Mr. Harris was married in 1901 to May Hamilton, a daughter of Col. J. I. Hamilton, of Los Angeles. They have one son, Harwell H., a gradu- ate of the High School. Mr. Harris is in politics a democrat. Frater- nally he is affiliated with Redlands Lodge No. 300, A. F. and A. M .; Redlands Chapter, R. A. M. ; with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, N. S. G. W., and Redlands Lodge, B. P. O. E. He is also a member of the Southern California Chapter of Architects.
HENRY WILLIAM MILLS has been a resident of San Bernardino for nearly twenty years, and in the intelligent and sympathetic exercise of his profession in that period of time has established himself in the front rank among the successful and prominent surgeons of Southern Cali- fornia.
A native of England, he received his medical education in that country. In no country are the requirements higher, and a man has to work hard for his diploma no matter how gifted he may be. By the time he is deemed ready to practice his profession he certainly has the mental equipment. Dr. Mills, after his graduation, successfully practiced in England four years, but he is a true Californian and devoted to his home town. In the World war he served America faithfully and well, giving up his practice, home and family to go overseas, and in the Base Hospital, where he was stationed, no surgeon made higher record for efficiency and skill according to the reports. He would probably deny
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this, for he still retains much of the conservatism, not to say modesty, of his early youth.
Dr. Mills has added to his professional interests by the hospitals he has so successfully established. In fraternal and social circles no man stands higher than Dr. Mills, and in civic affairs he is an important factor. His medical affiliations alone would establish his standing as a surgeon of the highest ability and training and the estimation in which he is held by the medical world.
Dr. Mills was born in Hereford, England, on December 5, 1872, the son of William Hathorn and Eliza Husting Mills, his father being a native of Orton, Waterville, near Peterborough, and his mother of Cambridgeshire. Both are now living in San Bernardino, California. William H. Mills was a graduate of Cambridge University and is a clergyman of the Church of England, a man of high intellectual attain- ments. He is not only very talented and a profound thinker, but he is also a poet of reputation and has written several poetical works.
Dr. Mills was educated primarily in King Edward the Sixth school at Louth, Lincolnshire, England. His medical education was secured at the Edinborough University and at St. Thomas Hospital, London, Eng- land. After his graduation and hospital experience he practiced in Gloucestershire, England, until February, 1903, when he came to San Bernardino. He has been in active practice in Los Angeles and San Bernardino ever since excepting during his war service. He specializes in surgery, and has attained a state wide reputation as a master surgeon. He does not "rest on his laurels," but keeps abreast of the modern methods and the latest advancements in his profession, continually adding to his store of knowledge, not alone through books and reports, but by his association with important responsibilities and with men of similar prominence whose researches lend vitality and interest to the ever ad- vancing tenets of the profession. In fact Dr. Mills is, in his profession as in all things, thoroughly imbued with the progressive spirit of the times.
In 1905 Dr. Mills established the Marlboro Hospital of San Ber- nardino, and in 1908 established the Ramona Hospital also, and, until returning from France after the World war, also conducted a training school for nurses. Dr. Mills was commissioned a captain in the Medical Corps in March, 1918, and was sent to Camp Kearney. On July 1st he went to France and was stationed in Base Hospital No. 35 (subsequently at Savenay). After the armistice was signed he was transferred to England on December 22nd. He was stationed at Liverpool and on April 8th he returned to the United States on the Saxonia as consulting surgeon. He lost no time in returning to San Bernardino, and upon reaching home at once commenced practice. Dr. Mills had one brother killed on the vessel "Artist," Captain G. M. G. Mills. This boat was torpedoed and sunk off the south coast of Ireland and every officer on her and all but six of the men were drowned.
Dr. Mills is the father of four children: Gladys Nana Desirée, now in England was employed by the British Admiralty during the war ; Eulalia Melvill, at the Santa Barbara Girls School, Santa Barbara ; John Melvill, George Melvill. Dr. Mills is a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 178, A. F. and A. M., of San Bernardino, and of Keystone Chapter No. 56, R. A. M., of San Bernardino. He is also a member of St. Bernard Commandery No. 23, K. T., and is a past eminent commander. His other Masonic affiliation is with the Consistory of Los Angeles. Another fraternal organization he enjoys is San Bernardino Lodge No. 856, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the San
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Bernardino County Medical Association and of the California State Medical Association. He is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, of the Royal College of Physicians of London, England, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In politics he is staunchly a republican. He is a member of the Episcopal Church.
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