USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 59
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
Some of his most graceful verse is in praise of California, Riverside and California wonders. Though not a Californian by birth, from her first smiling welcome, his first glimpse of her radiant loveliness, he has been heart and soul her son, from choice not by birth. He has brought her fresh glory and triumph, added another star to her celebrated literary firmament.
His poem on California has been given wide publicity-California by the Sea :-
On the east the grand Sierras Rear their snow-caps through the clouds ; On the west the mighty ocean Lies beneath its misty shrouds ; South the turbid Colorado Rushes through its canyons grand ;
North, the Siskiyou towers skyward Ever guarding this fair land.
Land of sunshine and of flowers, Land of gold and precious stone, Land of history and romance- Constant lure wherever known. Here the sandal-footed padres In the dim of long ago, Placed the cross on mission towers, Which today their hand work show.
Here the sturdy "Forty-niners," Sought and found the "Golden-Fleece," Here the golden wheat now ripens With a magic-like increase. Here the golden orange glistens In its bower of darkest green, And the golden poppy nestles Mid the hillside grassy sheen.
Here the rose in matchless beauty, Over fence and trellis climbs, And the songs of birds are mingled With the sweet-toned mission chimes. Land of beauty, love and gladness, How my heart goes out to thee, Naught can woo me from my sweetheart- California by the Sea.
1009
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
Many of his poems show a passion for ideals, many flame with the spirit of opposition to tyranny, many indicate a deep knowledge of the things of God, others show a new orientation. He can imprison the colors of the rainbow, the heart of a rose, the white lace of the waterfall, the music of the birds and of the spheres, and all the wonder and beauty of God's handiwork and weave them into a shimmering robe of poesy of graceful line, leaving a lesson for all men to read and love.
Mr. Ayers is a valued and honored member of many clubs and soci- eties, not alone because of his poetic gifts but because he is one of nature's noblemen, a true son of the Southland. One of his poems sung to the air of "Maryland, my Maryland," is sung at the Present Day Club-"Riverside, my Riverside." Two of the six stanzas are :
I know a city wondrous fair,
Where orange bloom perfumes the air, And birds are singing everywhere,
Riverside, my Riverside.
Above her towers Mount Rubidoux
Where Easter pilgrims ever go, While mission bells ring sweet and low In Riverside, blest Riverside.
At the Lincoln Day program in Corona and the unveiling of the Lincoln portrait Mr. Ayers' poem on Lincoln was an unusual feature, one verse of which is here given :
A hand reaches down through the mist of the years A hand that steadies, a hand that cheers,
A hand that relieves all our doubts and fears, 'Tis the hand of the martyred Lincoln.
His patriotism is deep and strong, typically Californian. His poems "After the War, What?" "The New Battle Hymn of the Repub- lic," "The West's Battle Cry," "What is the Cause?" "A Prayer for Peace," have been published everywhere for the message they carry. "America is now Awake" was a favorite. His poems on mother love touch the heart, from "To Mother Mine," "Mother of Men," to "Mother's Birthday." His poems on religion carry conviction to the soul. Very rarely he pens some humorous verse, and they are really that. His verses are published, some of them, in an artistic volume, "Some Dreams of a California Poet," and the public is waiting for the volumes of all his verse to be published and placed on the market.
One of the most symbolical of his poems, published recently and attended with wide publicity, is "The Potter and the Clay" which follows
The Potter wrought with patience and care Beautiful vessels of clay,
They were made for the King, and in their design They were fit for a King to display. But before they were used, these vessels rare Must be burned in the fire's fierce ray.
From the hardening fire some vessels came More beautiful than before,
But some were scarred and some were marred With flaws no hand could restore And these the potter would cast aside They were useful to him no more.
1010
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
The perfect vessels were given the King And they graced his palace fair, But the scarred and marred were ground to dust In the mill of the potter there, That out of the dust might be shaped again Forms that were passing fair.
The nations today are the vessels rare That the potter has sought to glean And the fires of God are testing them out Ere their beautiful shapes are seen, And some will come from the testing fire More perfect in form and sheen.
But some will fail in the testing time And their beauty will pass away And into the hopper they'll go again To be ground to original clay, That the potter may mould their shapes once more Fit for the King's display.
And the dust of the nation's ground again Will be wet with blood and tears And the shapes they form 'neath the potter's hand Will be filled with hopes and fears, For the testing time will come again In the passing of the years.
The potter is true and the King is wise And naught that is false shall endure And the vessels that grace his palace fair Must be faultless, clean and pure. It is only such that can stand the test Which to each remaineth sure.
His Americanism is in part the product of several generations of rugged contact with the frontier of American life. Mr. Ayers was born in Linn County, Kansas, September 25, 1874, son of William H. and Mary M. (Minnie Newell) Ayers. His father was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, în 1845, and his mother in Iowa in 1846. His grandfather, Dr. Samuel Ayers, moved with his family to Ohio, and in 1857 established a home in "bleeding Kansas," and in the days of border warfare was associated with members of the John Brown family. William H. Ayers during the Civil war was a member of Company M, Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry. He married in Linn County, and he and his wife lived there until they came West to Highgrove, California. Their children were: S. F., now at San Diego; Augusta, wife of J. W. Adams, of Los Angeles; Rollin H., a Methodist minister at Fort Collins; Wilbur W., and E. L., at Santa Ana.
W. W. Ayers acquired a public school education in Kansas, also attended normal school, and for a time taught in his native county. It was in 1897 he came West, first locating at Albany, Oregon, where he was employed in the Albany Woolen Mills. A year later he moved to San Francisco, where he was connected with a Great Ameri- can Tea Importing Company. Then, in 1898, he took charge of the
1011
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
Riverside branch of that business, and that was his active business connection for six years.
Following that he opened a merchandise store in Highgrove with his younger brother. Soon afterwards he was appointed postmaster, an office he filled seventeen years. The quarters of his first store were soon outgrown, and he erected a more adequate store building and the business has steadily increased in volume and patronage.
Mr. Ayers has associated himself with many of the movements and undertakings that have best expressed the community ideals of High- grove. He is an official of the Methodist Episcopal Church and for twelve years has been superintendent of the Sunday School. He is secretary and treasurer of the Highgrove Improvement Association, under whose auspices many of the civic enterprises have been launched and brought to successful issue. This association bought and paid for the community hall, where all community gatherings are held and which has been of great value in fostering community spirit. Mr. Ayers is a republican, and is affiliated with Riverside Lodge No. 282, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Ayers is very active in Red Cross work, also in church, and a member of the Woman's Relief Corps. .
December 25, 1898, he married Miss Stella Stephenson, a native of Sedgwick, Kansas. Her father was Homer Stephenson, one of the prominent citizens of Riverside County. Her mother was Adora A. (Morgan) Stephenson, a native of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Ayers have four children : Ronald W., who graduated from the electrical train- ing school at Mare Island as a second class electrician; Arthur M., who graduated in 1921 from the Riverside Polytechnic High School; W. Walter, a member of the class of 1924 at the Riverside High School; Newell Morgan, a grammar school boy.
FRANK ERNEST REDANS is one of the most popular men in Corona, is town marshal, and has been well satisfied to believe that all his inter- ests are permanently identified with this community.
Mr. Redans was formerly in the railway service, and his family presents perhaps a unique record of wholesale devotion to railroading. Mr. Redans was born September 6, 1881, at Buffalo, New York, son of Ernest J. and Emma (Kurtz) Redans. His mother was born at Attica, New York, while his father is a native of Portage, New York. The first and only position Ernest J. Redans ever held has been with the Erie Railway Company. He has been in the employ of that company fifty- three years, running back to a time when this was a narrow gauge rail- way. He is the oldest conductor on the Erie running out of Buffalo. When he was eight years of age he lost the sight of one eye, and it is believed that his is the only case in history where a man thus afflicted has qualified and rendered the highest efficiency of service as a railway conductor. He is a charter member of the Order of Railway Conduc- tors No. 2 and is a member of the Masonic Order. He and his wife have made four visits to Corona, and plan to locate there permanently and enjoy this as the home of their declining years.
Ernest J. Redans has six brothers, all of whom have been in the employ of the Erie Railway Company. Four of the seven are still with the company, two as conductors and two as engineers. Of the three who left the service one died, one retired and the other is now a stockman. The record extends itself still further by the statement that six out of the eight sons of these brothers are employed in railroad work, one being a superintendent for the Rock Island Company and the other a super- intendent with the Union Pacific.
1012
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
Frank Ernest Redans was educated in the public schools of Lock- port and Buffalo, and from high school attended St. John's Military Academy at Manlius, New York. After completing his education he immediately took up railroading, and his own services and experiences make up another chapter in the remarkable family history.
He was successively fireman, brakeman, switchman and in the detec- tive department. Once he had a narrow escape from death while riding in the cab. A warning cry from the fireman caused him to jump and he escaped, while the engineer and fireman were severely injured. Mr. Redans was with the Northern Pacific in Dakota four years. He left the railroad to work on a cattle ranch in Wyoming, but found that he could not break away permanently from his old vocation. Going back to Buffalo, he was put in charge of the railroad yards of the Lackawanna Steel Plant, remaining there a year, and then removed to West Newton, Pennsylvania, and was with the Boiler and Radiator Works for a year and a half. For another year he was inspector for the Standard Steel Car Company at Butler, Pennsylvania, and for five years was in detective service for the New York Central Railway at Buffalo.
About that time he was seized with the California Fever, and going to Los Angeles spent a year working under District Attorney Fredericks. This was in 1913. He than went back East and resumed his duties as detective on the New York Central. It required less than a year to convince him that his affections were permanently placed in California.
Mr. Redans began what he believes and hopes is his permanent resi- dence in Corona on June 15, 1915. He was a peace officer of the town three years and in 1918 was elected marshal, his present post of duty.
Mr. Redans is also a member of the Corona Board of Health. Fra- ternally he is affiliated with the Masons. Elks and Knights of Pythias. He married at Buffalo, New York. in 1905 Miss Bell Loreta Davis, a native of Tawas, Michigan. Mrs. Redans is a member of the Eastern Star, the Woman's Improvement Club of Corona and the Episcopal Church. Mr. Redans' mother is a member of the Eastern Star and of the Episcopal Church.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF CORONA .- The oldest bank in Corona and one of the older banking institutions of Riverside County is the Citizens Bank, which was organized in 1888. This bank is now owned by the stockholders of the First National Bank, and is operated exclu- sively as a savings bank.
The history of the First National Bank begins with August, 1905, when it was organized. Its president for many years was Mr. A. J. Ware, who, while not personally identified with the management, brought to its affairs the benefit of his conservative ideas and experience. When he retired from the presidency on account of other business in 1919 he was succeeded by Mr. C. A. Harding, one of the very active and promising young business men of Corona.
George E. Snidecor, who had been a merchant and banker in north- western states, took the post of vice president of the First National Bank in 1909 and cashier of the Citizens Bank, and is still connected with both of these institutions. His brother. F. E. Snidecor. in 1912 became assistant cashier of the First National Bank. and in 1913 was chosen cashier to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of G. P. McCorkle. The present officers of the Citizens Bank are T. C. Jameson, president : T. O. Andrews, vice president ; George E. Snidecor. cashier ; C. C. Harrington, assistant cashier, with R. L. Willets and L. I. Andrews, directors. The present officers of the First National Bank are George
1013
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
E. Snidecor, president ; Chester A. Harding, vice president ; F. E. Snide- cor, cashier; P. L. Hudson, assistant cashier ; while the directors are T. O. Andrews, D. W. Glenn, F. S. Johnson, J. W. Rowe, G. W. Water- bury and R. L. Willetts.
In 1912 the First National Bank. had capital and surplus of thirty thousand dollars, while the volume credited to those heads in 1921 is over one hundred thousand dollars The total resources in 1908 were a hundred twenty thousand dollars, and in 1921, eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The combined resources of the two banks now totai over a million dollars. On the old site has been erected a new and com- modious bank home, which has been occupied by the two banks since 1920. It is one of the handsome banking houses of Southern California, has complete modern furniture, fixtures and equipment, including elec- trically protected safe deposit vaults. There is a large directors room, and as many of the patrons are women a rest room is provided for them.
George E. Snidecor, president of the First National Bank, was born in Marshall County, Iowa, January 13, 1869, and the following year his parents, John N. and Millie C. (Clary ) Snidecor, moved to Cherokee County in that state and located near the village of Cherokee. He grew up there, graduating from high school in 1887, and later was a student for a year and a half in the Iowa State University. After leaving uni- versity Mr. Snidecor became associated with his father in the mercantile business at Washta, Iowa. He remained in Iowa until 1907, when he moved out to the State of Washington and for a year was cashier of the Ephrata Bank. He then came to Southern California, and since 1909 has been the active executive in the First National Bank of Corona.
Mr. Snidecor has recognized his responsibilities to the community as well as to his bank, and has worked energetically in behalf of city improvement. He is a staunch republican in politics, an active member end director of the Chamber of Commerce. and is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and the Congregational Church.
At Cherokee, Iowa, in October, 1893, he married Miss Jessie Ferrin. She died May 3, 1909. April 7. 1917. he married at Pasadena Miss Marion Kimmell, who was reared at Hemet. California.
Fred E. Snidecor. cashier of the First National Bank, was born at Cherokee. Iowa. March 1. 1884. graduated from high school there in 1899. and received the Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the Uni- versity of Iowa in 1905. He has had a banking experience covering most of the vears since he left university. While in the hanking business at Wilson Creek Washington he homesteaded a hundred sixty acres nearby. He was assistant cashier of the Citizens State Bank at Wilson Creek from 1906 to 1909 and from 1909 to 1911 was cashier of the Kalispell Valley Bank at Uck. Washington.
He came to Corona in 1912 and was assistant cashier until 1913, when he was promoted to cashier of the First National Bank. and is also one of its directors. He is a staunch republican. attends the Con- gregational Church. and is a member of the Corona Country Club. He held the chair of noble grand in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1908 and was master of Temescal Lodge of Masons at Corona in 1917 and 1918.
At Walla Walla. Washington, in December, 1909, Mr. Snidecor mar- ried Miss Adora B. Brewer, who was born at Seattle, Washington, but was reared and educated at Walla Walla, daughter of John F. and Adora B. Brewer. Mr. and Mrs. F. F. Snidecor have two children, Robert Brewer, born in 1915, and Dorothy Lnella, born in 1918.
1014
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
RYLAND A. NEWTON is proprietor of a very handsome and successful automobile, garage and sales agency at Corona, a business for which he is eminently well qualified and in which he has demonstrated his ability by a progressive record extending over a period of six years.
Mr. Newton was born at Wayne, Nebraska, May 3, 1894. His grandfather was a native of Canada and his father, Dennis E. Newton, was born in Iowa. His grandfather, Lawson Newton, lived in Corona for thirty-five years prior to his death, which occurred in 1914. The grandfather and pioneer selected a location near the railroad, but when the town of Corona was built up the development occurred some dis- tance from the railroad, so that his land did not derive the full benefit.
Ryland A. Newton attended grammar schools at Wayne, Nebraska, and completed his high school education in Corona. For two years he worked on a salary, and in 1915 bought out a garage business 623 Main Street, where he is still located. The previous year the gross business of this garage amounted to about six hundred dollars. Dur- ing his first year he did a business of ten thousand dollars, and in 1920 the volume of business rose to the gratifying figures of a hun- dred and ten thousand dollars, all of which demonstrates the quality of enterprise that is characteristic of Mr. Newton. He has the au- thorized Ford agency for Corona, and has a repair force working ex- clusively on Ford cars. During 1920 he bought the site of his business and erected a modern garage and sales room at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. The sales and repair department cover 6,750 square feet, and he also carries a full line of accessories.
Mr. Newton is a director of the Chamber of Commerce and a mem- ber of the Corona Country Club. Besides his automobile garage and sales agency he has other business and residence property, and his public spirited interests are completely identified with his home city. He and Mrs. Newton are members of the Methodist church.
June 30, 1914, he married Miss Estelle E. Davis, daughter of former Mayor Edward Davis of Corona. Mrs. Newton was educated in the grammar and high schools of Corona. They have two children : Donald Edward, born in 1916, and Robert Maurice Newton, born March 28, 1921.
DR. THOMAS L. LORBEER, osteopathic physician at Riverside, one of the foremost representatives of his profession in Southern California, started out to prepare himself in the regular school of medicine, but was definitely directed into osteopathy where his special talents have enabled him to handle many cases successfully that were the despair of other medical men.
Dr. Lorbeer is a native of Iowa, and was born December 29, 1877, on Eagle Retreat Farm in Humboldt County. This old Lorbeer farm adjoined that which was the home of the famous wrestler Frank Gotch. His father, John G. Lorbeer, was born in Hanover, Germany, and spent a long and useful life as an Iowa farmer. His death in April, 1919, at the age of eighty-six, was the result of a fall from a high tree. During Civil war times he helped organize and equip a company, and his brother was a soldier in that struggle. He was frequently honored in his home district in Iowa with places of trust, such as road supervisor. John G. Lorbeer married Emma Wicks, who was born at Stoves Square, New York, and is now living at Pomona, California, in her eighty-fifth year, still preserving good health. She represents a prominent American family, running back to 1636 and of English ancestry. Some of the Wicks name founded
Thomas L. Lorbeer.
1015
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
a town on Long Island, and they were the first to secede from the British Government and furnished ground for drilling of soldiers and themselves participated in the war for independence.
Dr. Thomas L. Lorbeer received most of his literary education at Wheaton, Illinois, where he attended public schools and one year was a pupil in Wheaton College. In 1898, on account of ill health, he came to California and spent one year on the ranch of his sister at LaVerne. From there he entered Pomona College and graduated A. B. with the class of 1903, having majored in science. For a num- ber of years Dr. Lorbeer has been giving prizes of ten and fifteen dollars to the Pomona College students in anatomy and physiology for the best written essays on "How to Keep Well."
A distinction that some of his old acquaintances at Riverside associate with him is that Dr. Lorbeer conducted the first moving picture entertainment in the town. He operated a moving picture theater here in 1902, and also in the following summer. He also gave illustrated songs and pictures and moving pictures under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. He did this as a means to earn the money for his medical education. It was his intention to enter Rush Medical College, and he started across the country with his show. In Okla- homa he was badly burned by an explosion of an ox-hydrogen tank. While suffering from this injury he went to an uncle at Eldorado, Kansas. His uncle advised him to take up osteopathy. Acting on this advice he sought out the founder of osteopathy, Dr. A. T. Still, at Kirksville, Missouri, and went to work for Dr. Still. The first night he spent there his sleeping quarters were the first class room ever used for osteopathic instruction. He possessed a thorough knowledge of chemistry as a groundwork for his studies, and in June, 1906, graduated from the American School of Osteopathy, passing the State Board of Osteopathic Examiners July 17, 1906. He is a member of the American Osteopathic Association.
The principle on which the theory of osteopathy is practiced is based on the knowledge that the body is built on mechanical lines- no machine made by man but has the mechanical concept contained within the human anatomical machine. The student of osteopathy is taught what the perfect human machine is, or should be, and then in practice, as he finds any deviation from the normal or perfect body machine, he endeavors by mechanical measures to adjust the struc- ture and make it more normal and perfect, thus establishing harmony within the mechanical body, thereby inducing more perfect harmoni- ous action of the chemical and mental processes of the body. Com- bind with mechanical adjustments, he endeavors by directing patients with exercise and wholesome diet to rebuild the machine into most perfect human form, so that our faculties of mind, heart and flesh may accomplish the purpose for which it was intended.
On returning to California Dr. Lorbeer practiced two years at Hemet and San Jacinto in Riverside County, and on July 7, 1908, bought Dr. Edward Mattock's practice in the Tetley Block at River- side. He has been in active practice in that city ever since, and for about ten years his offices have been in the Freeman Building. He has always practiced alone, and his work covers a wide range and some wonderful cures have been attributed to him, though he modestly asserts that they were in reality simple cases that yielded to the peculiar advantages of osteopathy.
Dr. Lorbeer is a member of the State and County Osteopathic Society, has been a member of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce,
1016
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.