USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 58
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 58
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Aside from his profession Dr. Howe has had other important inter- ests since coming to Riverside County. In earlier years he was financially interested in several orange growing projects, the great industry that has been the basis of many of the stupendous fortunes accumulated in this part of California. He was a practical orange grower himself, buying twenty acres of land in Highgrove, which he devoted to orange orchards. With pleasure and profit he watched his trees grow to maturity, but as other and more pressing interests demanded his attention he later disposed of his orange groves. His connection with allied interests ex- panded, however, and he was one of the original stockholders of the Orange Growers Bank at Riverside, later became a member of the Board of Directors, and subsequently went into the bank as vice president and assistant cashier and became well and favorably known in financial circles.
At South Weymouth, Massachusetts, Dr. Howe married Miss Mary E. Doble, who was born in that state and is a daughter of S. R. Doble, of old New England ancestry. Dr. and Mrs. Howe have one daughter, Marjorie, who is the wife of Harry A. Encell, a practicing attorney of Oakland, California, and formerly attorney for a railroad commission. Mr. and Mrs. Encell have three children: Mary A., John Howe and Virginia, all natives of California and now in school, the youngest at- tending a kindergarten class.
In political life Dr. Howe has strong convictions and has always had the courage to maintain them. A republican by inheritance and from choice, he has heartily upheld the principles of his party and has accepted political honors only when he believed his influence would be beneficial and with this understanding has served on many occasions as a delegate to conventions. Official life has never appealed to him, however, as his time has been too largely taken up with personal interests, but in 1919 he accepted appointment as history clerk of the California State Legisla- ture. He served through one legislative term, and with such a degree of efficiency that the legislative body in appreciation introduced a com- plimentary resolution in relation to it.
For many years Dr. Howe has maintained close relations with scien- tific bodies of a professional nature, and during active practice was tendered positions of honor in different organizations of dental surgery. He belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Riverside, but otherwise is not interested in fraternal life. Both he and Mrs. Howe are, however, enthusiastic golfers, and with a wide circle of friends may often be found enjoying this recreation on the links of the Victoria Golf Club.
Vol. 11-26
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MICHAEL HAITSCH, of the "Quality Mill Company" firm, has been a contributing factor to the success which the firm now enjoys. He thoroughly understands the business, and so is able to properly supervise all work done, the work they have done in their home city being an evi- dence of the excellence of their workmanship.
Mr. Haitsch was born in Austria-Hungary, November 23, 1883, the son of Martin Haitsch, aso a native of Austria-Hungary, by occupation a farmer, and he died in 1892. Mr. Haitsch was educated in his native place and learned the trade of cabinet maker in Kesmark. He has worked at his trade since he was eleven and a half years old.
Mr. Haitsch came to the United States in 1906, landing in New York and going from there to Danbury, Connecticut, where he worked at his trade for a year and a half. He then returned to New York, where he remained for six months, working another six months in Philadelphia and then locating in Cleveland, where he lived for six years.
He left Cleveland for San Bernardino, locating here in February, 1913. He worked at his trade by himself until July 4, 1916, when he formed a partnership with Nicholas B. Perry, under the firm name of "The Quality Mills Company," which has grown to a fine business and which he is still conducting, having purchased his partner's interest in 1921.
Mr. Haitsch married in 1917 Evelyn Louisa Schwarz, a native of Germany, who came to the United States when only five years of age.
Mr. Haitsch is a member of the German Lutheran Church and other organizations.
THE QUALITY MILL COMPANY was organized by N. B. Perry and Michael Haitsch in July, 1916, as a copartnership, located at 231 E Street. Their intention was to do a general contracting business, together with building, and they have succeeded in building up a firm that is one of the leading institutions of the country. It has been successful from the very inception, and now does practically all the building mill work in San Ber- nardino, both for their own contracting work and for outside firms and contractors. In 1921 Mr. Haitsch bought his partner's interest and now conducts the business alone.
He is an experienced, practical man in every department of the busi- ness, and gives his personal supervision to all work. All necessary work on a building is done by the mill, and wood turning of all kinds is a specialty. Among some of the contracts completed may be mentioned : The Mt. Vernon School. The California State Bank, The City Hall Water Department. The Southern California Edison Company, The William Gutherie residence.
T. JAY WILKINS-In the comparatively few years of his residence in San Bernardino J. Jay Wilkins has done more to impress his in- dividuality upon the community than many men who have made it their home for a long term of years. He has in a rather short space of time created a firm confidence in himself as an astute business man, for his many enterprises have all reached a successful fruition and, in addition, he has demonstrated that in civic and political affairs he has all the qualities which make for real leadership.
Mr. Wilkins can certainly take unto himself truthfully the term "self-made," for he has been the builder of his own fortunes ever since he started out in life for himself, sans all opportunity save such as he created himself. San Bernardino is the scene of his real life work, for while he essayed different lines of activities before coming
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to California they were just the A B C fitting him for a real career in his permanent home. He is a present and growing influence in the city and county, and the future certainly holds golden promise for him. Mr. Wilkins is getting out of life what he puts into it, which probably accounts for his great personal popularity and warm friend- ships.
He was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, May 1, 1873, the son of Edward and Anna (Mooney) Wilkins. His father was a native of Albany, New York, who moved to St. Louis in the early days and afterward went to Kansas and located at Leavenworth. He was a stone mason and carpenter, and he died in 1890, aged seventy-three. His wife was a native of St. Louis, and she died in 1878, so Mr. Wilkins was made motherless when a small boy. He was educated in the public schools of Leavenworth, and followed the newspaper business for a time, and then for five years was in the wholesale cigar business in Leavenworth under the firm name of J. J. Wilkins & Company. He then entered the life insurance business for the Equitable Life of New York in the State of Kansas. He was with them for five years, and then was appointed state manager for the Colorado National Life Insurance Company at Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1907-1908. Going to Kansas City, he remained there one year and then, in 1909, came to California for the Golden State Life Insurance Company. He assisted in organizing the agency force, and on the completion of this he became associated with the Los Angeles Times for a period, but subsequently opened a real estate and insurance office in San Bernardino.
What really brought him to San Bernardino was the organization of the first Woodrow Wilson Club in the United States. Always a great ad - mirer of President Wilson, Mr. Wilkins believed that greater honors awaited him in the future than the New Jersey governorship. On the night of Mr. Wilson's election as governor of New Jersey Mr. Wilkins wired him that the club was organized, and Mr. Wilson replied that this was the first club to so honor him. Mr. Wilkins has always taken an active part in politics, but invariably refused to even consider any office for himself. He was tendered such offices many times. Mr. Wilkins organized the San Bernardino Country Club, taking in 385 acres in the northeastern part of the city, the old Severance Homestead tract, and a clubhouse Golf Course and all other amusements have been installed. Mr. Wilkins also organized the first Wilsonian Club in the state, and the following from the Arrowhead of March 10, 1921, is here inserted.
"SAN BERNARDINO, March 10 (Special)-The first Wilsonian Club in the United States has been organized for the purpose of per- petuating the ideals, teachings and accomplishments of that great Amer- ican, Woodrow Wilson. It was decided to organize the club on the early morning of November 3rd, 1920, when fifteen of the faithful Democrats remained at the bulletin boards all night long hoping for some ray of victory for their party. When there was no more hopes the party adjourned from Democratic Headquarters to the office of J. J. Wilkins, Chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, where he and Captain Earl Harkins struck off a temporary charter, dedicating it to WOODROW WILSON, as Charter No. 1, WILSONIAN CLUB OF AMERICA. The charter as drawn up at that time reads :
"'We the undersigned, who have stuck to the good ship Democracy until there was no hopes for victory in 1920, dedicate anew our loyalty to the Democratic party and especially to the ideals and teachings of our
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great leader, Woodrow Wilson, and pledge our best efforts, that the Great Democratic Party will again attain to State and National success within two years.
"'To the end of such attainment we herewith subscribe our names to this document, that the ideals and principles of Woodrow Wilson will live and grow down the ages that are to come.'
"A meeting of the Club was again held on March 4 (inaugural day), 1921, and amid rejoicing and reassertion to the policies of Woodrow Wilson the Club decided that success for the Great Democratic Party is already appearing on the 1924 horizon, and for this reason it was de- cided that the Club should become active and remain active for the next four years. President Wilkins appointed the following members as a committee on constitution and by-laws : Judge J. W. Curtis, J. A. Hadaller, T. W. Duckworth, Ben Harrison, Byron Waters, C. L. Allison and Earl Harkins. It was decided to lease a suite of club rooms for permanent use, to maintain a library and social quarters in connection with the political features of the organization, the rooms of the Club to be open to members, their friends and visitors at all times. It was also voted that an annual banquet is to be held each and every year on December 28th, which is Woodrow Wilson's birthday ; the first banquet to be held December 28, 1921, and to invite Judge Benjamin F. Bledsoe of Los Angeles to act as toastmaster and to invite other outside Democrats as speakers. Hon. William F. McAdoo was voted an honorary member of the Club. The next meeting will be called by the President and the report of the Constitution and By-laws Committee will be received and acted upon and other standing and special committees will be appointed. "'He Kept Us Out of Work' is a slogan, says President Wilkins, that will more than likely be used in the 1922-24 campaign."
Mr. Wilkins organized his real estate business absolutely without capital, and when he opened up for business he was entirely without funds. His acquaintances predicted an ignominious failure, but their predictions were not verified for, on the contary, he has scored an un- qualified success and is now recognized as one of the most prominent" men in his line in the whole Southland. He has in his employ in the San Bernardino office five salesmen, and he also conducts an office in the Grant Building in Los Angeles, where other salesmen are employed. He owns property in six states, owns two ranches in San Bernardino County, one in the Coachella Valley and, in addition, city property.
In 1916 Mr. Wilkins was prevailed upon to run for the Legislature on the democratic ticket, where the normal republican majority was ordi- narily between 3000 and 4000. As a tribute to his personality and his individual popularity it may be mentioned that he was only defeated by 1500 votes. He carried the City of San Bernardino, the first time it was ever done by a democrat running for this office.
In 1897 he married Lucia May Barnet, of Columbia, Missouri They have one son, Charles Thornton Wilkins, now in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mr. Wilkins is a member of Hiram Lodge No. 68, A. F. and A. M., of Leavenworth, Kansas. He is a past master, having served for two terms, and he was the youngest Mason ever elected master of a lodge in Kansas, and was the first to succeed himself as master ' for over twenty years. He is a member of the San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is agent for the New York Life Insurance Company. He is chairman of the Democratic County Central Commit- tee, member of the Democratic State Central Committee and a member of its execution committee.
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ELLWIN H. S. KNAPP, manager of the San Jacinto Packing Company, is one of the reliable and experienced business men and good citizens of Riverside, whose connections with the San Jacinto Packing House gives it added prestige and affords him ample scope for the exercise of his undoubted abilities commercially. He was born at Owatonna, Steel County, Minnesota, February 22, 1883, a son of Hiram A. and Lovica (Carringer) Knapp. The Knapps were for several generations back all Christian Ministers. The grandfather of Hiram was also a Christian Minister and lived to be one hundred years old lacking six days. Hiram A. Knapp, a native of Vermont, is now residing at Riverside, having retired from his former business of contract- ing in masonry, in which he acquired ample means. He belongs to an old American family of Revolutionary stock, of English descent. Representatives of the Knapp family came across seas to Canada at a very early date, and from thence immigrated to the United States, settling in Vermont prior to the American Revolution. Mrs. Knapp, who was born in Pennsylvania, is now deceased. Her family was a Pennsylvania- Dutch one, and she was born in the Keystone State. In it her grand- parents lived to an advanced age. Her grandfather Jacob Carringer, served in the War of 1812. They then settled in Mercer County. His son William Carringer married Irene Churchill who traced her lineage back to the Mayflower. The Churchills were of English ex- traction. The great-grandfather of Mrs. Knapp served in the Revolu- tionary war and later settled in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.
Ellwin H. S. Knapp was educated in the schools of Riverside, his parents having come here soon after his birth, so that he has spent prac- tically all of his life in the city, although he spent eighteen months in Mexico. After being graduated from the Riverside High School he went to Canania, Sonora, Mexico, and was there engaged in a mercantile venture for a year and a half, but then returned to Riverside. For six years he was bookkeeper for the San Jacinto Packing House at Arling- ton, and was then made manager of the company and has held that posi- tion ever since. This packing house is affiliated with the California Fruit Growers' Exchange, and handles fruit from 1,000 acres of citrus land, shipping in a normal year from 350 to 400 cars of oranges and lemons. Between seventy-five and 100 growers ship through the association.
Mr. Knapp is otherwise interested, and owns twelve acres of land planted to navel oranges, from which he derives both profit and pleasure. He is a director of the Riverside-Arlington Heights Fruit Exchange, and of the Exchange By-Products Company of Corona, which latter concern is spoken of at length elsewhere in this work. Formerly he was a director of the California Fruit Grower's Association, and of the Fruit Growers' Supply Company. Fraternally he is a member of the Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World. While he always votes the repub- lican ticket, he has never entered actively into politics. The Baptist Church affords him an expression for his religious views, and he has long been a consistent member of the local congregation.
On September 7, 1910, Mr. Knapp married at Riverside Miss Pearl Taylor, a native of Michigan and a daughter of the late Benjamin Taylor. Mr. and Mrs. Knapp have one child, Beverly. While his time and atten- tion have been well occupied with business cares, Mr. Knapp has not neglected his civic duties, but has always taken a deep and intelligent interest in the welfare of Riverside and Arlington, and many of the movements of importance in them have received his support. Person- ally he is an alert, efficient and competent young man, well fitted to effectively carry out the duties of his present important position.
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GLEN D. WIGHT is superintendent of schools for Corona. He is a graduate of the University of California and has made teaching his life profession.
Mr. Wight was born at Riverside, California, November 16, 1890. Ilis father, Sion L. Wight, was born at Andover, Ohio, in 1866, and as a young man was in the contracting business at Fulton, South Dakota, where he met Miss Emma Downs, a native of Iowa. They were married at Los Angeles in 1886, and S. L. Wight was for many years a success- ful building contractor in that city. He was elected and served three consecutive terms of two years each as chief of the Riverside Fire De- partment. He died in 1904, a highly esteemed public servant of Riverside. The mother survived him until 1918. Of their six children the oldest was fourteen years old when the father died. As a family they have possessed ambitions and talents that they have used effectively toward the preparation for lives of usefulness. All but the youngest of the children have been through college, and he is in high school. The brothers of Glen D. Wight are: Carl Raymond, aged twenty-nine, a foreman for the Carpenter Contracting Company ; Fred Hartley, twenty- two years old and studying for the ministry; and Gail Benjamin who was drowned September 5, 1921. The two daughters are Miss Veva and Miss Lela May Wight.
Glen D. Wight graduated from the Riverside High School and then entered the University of California at Berkeley, where he was gradu- ated in 1912. For about two years after leaving university he was em- ployed in the statistical department of the State Industrial Accident Commission. In 1914 he took up his vocation as a teacher, and spent one year in the grammar schools at Murrietta, Riverside County. For three years he was principal of the West Riverside School, and then joined the Corona public schools, being a teacher the first year, principal one year, and since then has been superintendent. He is one of the leaders in community affairs, especially all things connected with the education of youth. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Country Club and the Congregational Church.
PERLE THOMAS GLASS has been a resident of Corona since 1894, and for a number of years has been associated with the hardware business of Glass Brothers, a business established by their father in the pioneer times of this city.
Perle Thomas Glass was born at Hiawatha, Kansas, February 11, 1882. His father moved the family to Corona in 1894, and in the fol- lowing year established a hardware store. The father was a native of Ohio, and served as a Union soldier during the Civil war. He was active in business as a hardware merchant at Corona until his death in 1908, and since then the business has been conducted by Perle T. and Howard L. Glass. The original store was at 518 Main Street, where the father had a floor space 25x30 feet. The present home of the business is at 120-122 East Sixth Street, with one floor affording space 50x140 feet and two floors 40x50 feet. This is a general hardware store and carries a thoroughly up-to-date stock.
The mother of the Glass brothers was Miss Mary A. McBurney, a native of Ohio, who died at Corona in 1912. Of her eleven children three are living, the daughter being Mrs. Margaret Thacker, a teacher in the public schools at Arlington.
Perle Thomas Glass acquired a public school education in the East and in California, attended business college, and he also took a technical course in electrical wiring at Los Angeles. He wired the first house
Wilbur . W. ayers,
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for electricity in Hollywood in 1897. He also assisted in wiring the first moving picture house in Los Angeles, located in the second floor of the building at Seventh and Broadway. Mr. Glass recalls that the picture machine was placed on the floor back of the chairs.
For a number of years he was an employe of the New Port Wharf and Lumber Company, and had charge of the yards from 1900 to 1905. This company had contracts for the drying and shipping of Redwood shingles to eastern points. These shingles came from Humboldt County, and were unloaded at New Port until the wharf went out, after which they were unloaded at San Diego and shipped to the drying yards lo- cated at "Porky Spur," near Corona. Mr. Glass has an interesting enlarged photograph of twenty-two hundred cars of shingles that were in the drying process there for six months. Later they were shipped to Oklahoma and thirty-one other states east, the farthest shipment being to Bath, Maine. Mr. Glass was in charge of this immense store of shingles during the unloading, drying and shipping. The shingles were piled on both sides of the track for a distance of a mile and a quarter, the piles being twenty bunches high and twenty bunches wide, with a passageway of two feet between the piles. One pile would load four cars. These shingles went through the drying yard at a cost of one cent per bundle, including the cost of unloading, loading and rent. The low wages paid for labor at the time made that possible. Many of the con- tracts for shipment of these shingles, Mr. Glass recalls, required a car- load per day for thirty days. Mr. Glass is the oldest active member of the Corona fire department, having been in the service continuously for twenty-two years, joining it two years after it was organized. He married at Los Angeles in 1908 Miss Lena E. Dickey, a native of Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the Los Angeles Normal School, was a teacher four years at Garden Grove, and is an active member of the Corona Woman's Improvement Club. Mr. and Mrs. Glass have two children : Evelyn Virginia, born in 1910; and Ruth Eleanor, born in 1916. Two other members of their family are a nephew and niece of Mr. Glass, Philip O., aged fourteen, and Catherine Glass, aged sixteen, who were children when their father died.
WILBUR W. AYERS-The people of this day and age are prone to bewail the undeniable fact that this is an age of commercialism, that the money changers again throng the temple undisturbed, that the materialists are in the majority. They assert that the people have lost all desire for the finer, the worth-while things of life, that art of any kind has no opportunity to express itself, either by brush or words; and drawing the deadly comparison they predict that the world is about due for another overthrow, particularly that part known as America. They claim, with much truth, that the penny-a-liners, the cubists, the ultra- futurists, and the weird verse libre addicts fill the public eye, gain the public ear. Mournfully they quote "without vision the people perish" and ask "where are the poets and the painters to be found in these decadent days? Where are the gifted of the Gods to take the place of this rabble?"
While they are right in many of their premises and deductions, they are not wholly so, for there are poets and painters, and, while sadly few, when they write or paint the giddy world stops to listen and to look. Very rare indeed is the man or woman reading true poetry who is not enthralled, and the man who can crystallize his dreams in verse is set apart in the honor and regard of his fellowmen.
Even without the name at the head of this sketch thousands of Cali- fornians and others in reading what has been said would have mentally
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anticipated that one eminently fitted and deserving of such a place in the hall of fame is Wilbur W. Ayers of Highgrove, Riverside County. As a poet his work has been done quietly in the intervals of a busy commercial career, but the products of his pen have been widely published in magazines on the coast and elsewhere. On important occasions in Southern California he is regularly importuned to "tune his lyre," and his responses have never failed to charm. Mr. Ayres thoroughly enjoys the work of creating beautiful word and verse forms, but is duly modest of his achievements, and recognizes that he is "of the earth earthy" and possessed only with the vision, the passion for all beauty and the added gift of power of expression and that illusive "spark of heavenly fire" which makes the true poet.
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