USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 62
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume II > Part 62
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While all of the growers recognize the marvelous and beneficent results of Mr. Powell's labors, they do not hesitate to accord to Mr. Reed due praise for his efforts to get governmental intervention. Among the prominent men who have rendered due credit to Mr. Reed are Mr. Woodward, manager of the Southern California Fruit Ex- change; E. A. Chase, who was associated with Mr. Powell in much of his work; and Secretary-of-Agriculture Wilson.
Having secured the services of Mr. Powell, Mr. Reed then turned his attention to obtaining assistance from the state department, and for five years, at horticultural clubs, farmers' institutes and through the press, urged the importance of awakening the interest of the California state officials. Finally the request, seconded by E. W. Holmes, E. L. Koethen of Riverside, and others was granted, and a citrus experiment station was established at Riverside, and an appro- priation of $20,000 secured. Experimental work was commenced, and has been since continued, and further appropriations have been granted by the Legislature as required.
Mr. Reed was a man who never rested upon what he had accom- plished, but as soon as he gained one point, exerted himself to secure another, so, when he had brought about improvements in handling the product, took up a new feature of the industry. He had found that even in the better orange orchards a considerable percentage of the trees persistently produced inferior fruit, and this he took up with Mr. Powell, who finally sent A. D. Shamel, an expert in plant breeding problems, from Washington, and through his investigations the value of citrus groves was increased about one-fourth. It was Mr. Reed who first advocated the importance of protecting citrus groves from frost damage, and he was chairman of the committee which made the first experiments along this line, the results of which attracted the attention of the whole country. In fact, during all of his residence at Riverside Mr. Reed was constantly active in pro- moting various measures for the development and improvement of the citrus-growing industry, and it is safe to declare that its present importance is largely due to his persistent and intelligent efforts.
Having from the first day he reached Riverside been impressed to a profound degree with its magnificent possibilities, Mr. Reed early took up the matter of beautifying its streets, and for many years worked, almost single-handed, to carry out the project. The "city-beautiful campaigns." now so universal, had not then been pro- mulgated, and it was difficult to awaken general public interest in the subject, but finally Mr. Reed succeeded in having the matter taken up by the Riverside Chamber of Commerce, which made him chairman of the committee on tree-planting, which office he held without remuneration. The $1,000 raised by this body for trees was of course entirely inadequate, and Mr. Reed repeatedly petitioned the City Council to take over all of the tree planting and create the office of tree warden, who should have supervision of all of the work. Finally the council agreed to do this if he would consent to serve
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as warden. In spite of the work entailed, so anxious was he to carry out his project that he consented and held it for seven years, finally resigning from it in 1911. During that period he planted about 15,000 trees on the streets of Riverside. This was the first city of the West, if not of the country, to adopt municipal control of the street trees. Since then the majority of the cities of Southern California have adopted this plan, to the greater beautifying of their streets.
The Riverside Chamber of Commerce, in recognition of Mr. Reed's remarkably efficient service as tree warden, on the occasion of his retiring from office passed these resolutions :
"Be it resolved, therefore, that the Riverside Chamber of Com- merce record upon its minutes a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Reed for his faithful performance of every duty, congratulating him, as well, upon the fame he has won for Riverside, and pledging the Chamber's continued support to the work to which Mr. Reed has given so unre- servedly of his thought and energy during the past seven years.
"By order of the executive committee, September 14, 1911. "H. F. Grout, President, "H. M. May, secretary."
Mr. Reed probably had more pride in and took greater satisfaction from the influence he was permitted to exert in favor of intelligent, systematic beautifying of California cities, especially the parts where the masses of the people live, than in any other of his efforts during his extended life. His son, Frederick Morris Reed, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Present Day Club, and he, too, takes great pride in the city and is a consistent booster of everything for the still further improvement of Riverside and this region.
Frederick Morris Reed attended the Mansfield, Ohio, public schools, and in 1876 moved with his parents to Nebraska, where, with a short interval of school-teaching, he followed farming until 1890. In the latter year he accompanied his father to California. They went first to Santa Barbara, where they bought a horse and buck- board, and started out to look over the country for a place for a permanent home. The entire region was delightful, but as it was desirable for the elder men to keep in the open, they kept on their trip until they reached Riverside. When they topped the divide between Riverside and West Riverside, and the panorama of the bright green valley, which is now Riverside, burst upon their enrap- tured vision John H. Reed cried :
"This is the place for me," and he might well have added, "And I am the man for the place," had he not been too modest to ever lay claim to the credit which was due him.
Almost immediately the first investment in land followed, and Frederick M. Reed was his father's able and enthusiastic assistant in the transforming of their property into the profitable and beautiful place it is today. At the death of the elder man, the younger one con- tinued the cultivation of the valuable grove. He has become well known as an orange grower, and is vice president and one of the directors of the Monte Vista Citrus Association. A republican, he has taken a very active part in city and county politics, serving on both the city and county central committees of his party, and has repeatedly represented it in the city and county conventions. Mr. Reed is unmarried.
Possessed of a fine tenor voice, Mr. Reed has the distinction of singing in a choir the longest of any singer at Riverside. He is a member of the Congregational Church, and has sung in its choir for
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twenty-six years, and in this connection and that of the singing society known as the Cantadores Club, of which he is also a member, he has given great pleasure to thousands by means of his beautiful voice and knowledge of music. His life is a full one, and he is recognized as one of the finest representatives of the best type of California.
N. H. NORTON is proprietor of the Mission Garage, which was estab- lished by C. D. McNeal and is one of the oldest garage and automobile sales agencies at Corona. Mr. Norton purchased the business in 1919. He has a sales territory of half of Riverside County, and is agent and distributor in this section for the Studebaker cars and the Cletrac tractors.
Nicholas Huston Norton was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, October 14, 1888. He acquired a public school education in Tennessee, and left home at the age of seventeen. Since then he has pursued an active career in many localities of the West, and has been progressively successful. For a time he lived on a farm in Kansas, then went to Spokane, Washington, was connected with the engineering department of the Lewiston & Idaho Railway, learned the carpenter's trade at San Francisco, engaged in the contracting business at Bakersfield, then did work during the preparation for the San Diego Exposition and contracted in the Imperial Valley. In 1915 he purchased the Imperial Valley Motor Company for the sale of Studebaker cars, but sold that business and in 1919 came to Corona and took charge of his present business. On December 28, 1921, F. E. Snide- cor and Mr. Norton purchased the Mission Garage at 212-214-216 East Sixth Street, Corona, and are remodeling it. It is a fireproof building and contains a repair department with all new equipment and up-to-date facili- ties, also a storage room for sixty cars, and handles a fine line of acces- sories, automobile parts, tires and tubes. The building contains 9,000 square feet of floor space, while the second floor has twenty-eight rooms with hot and cold water and employment is given ten people. The firm are exclusive agents for the Ajax and Coast Tire Companies.
Mr. Norton is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He married Amanda Marquardt, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They have three chil- dren, Nicholas Marquardt, John Pershing and Virginia.
THOMAS OCTAVIO ANDREWS, apiarist, former president of the Cali- fornia State Bee Keepers Association, a recognized authority on honey production in California and owner of one of the largest bee ranches in the state, Thomas Octavio Andrews has lived a life of remarkable activity and changing circumstances and experiences.
He was born at St. Thomas, Canada, August 3, 1845, and was only three and one-half years of age when his father died, while his mother passed away January 25, 1855. His father was a Baptist minister, highly educated, commanded seven languages, including Greek and Latin, and usually preached in the pioneer communities of western Canada in Eng- lish, French or Welsh.
Thomas Octavio Andrews had a brief public school education, and as an orphan boy served an apprenticeship of three years in the woolen mills at Aylmer, Canada, and for another period of three years worked in mills at Waterloo.
While the Civil war was still in progress between the North and the South he went to Michigan, and on August 7, 1863, enlisted in the First Michigan Cavalry, under the command of General Custer. He was in service until the close of hostilities, and participated in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, second battle of Winchester,
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Cedar Creek and in some of the final campaigns of the war. October 19, 1863, at Buckland Mills, he was wounded in the hip, and his horse was killed while under him. At Cold Harbor during the first day he lost the sight of his right eye, a wound that caused his transfer to the Veterans Reserve Corps, though later by petition he was returned to his old com- pany.
After the war this veteran soldier returned to Michigan, and from that state moved to northwestern Missouri and from 1870 to 1873 was a farmer in Andrew County of that state. In 1873, a hard times year, he started for California, and reached the city of Redding with only a dollar in his pocket. The following months he worked in the mines of Siskiyou and Shasta counties, but left California toward the end of 1874 for Ashland, Oregon, where he resumed his old trade in a woolen mill. He remained in that locality for eight years, and was promoted to mill superintendent. For a year he was sawyer on an Indian reservation, then did contract furnishing of supplies for Fort Klamath, and for two years engaged in stock raising. Following this he bought an interest in the Ashland Woolen Mills, where he had previously been employed, and for two years sold the product of those mills as a traveling salesman. He was the old type of traveling salesman who carried his samples in a case on the back of the horse he rode, and most of his customers were a hundred miles or more from a railroad. While in Oregon Mr. Andrews helped establish a woolen mill at Salem, and for two years he was owner of the Capital City Nursery, which is still a going concern.
Nearly thirty years measures the period of his residence in Southern California. For a short time he was in the furniture business at Santa Ana, and in March, 1894, bought a bee ranch, and has been one of the prominent bee ranchers of the state ever since. His ranch for many years was located on the Riverside County line, but in 1905 he sold his land to the Alta Vista Club, and it is now the Club grounds. In 1901 he removed his family to their present home at the corner of Tenth and Vincentia Avenue in Corona, and is now associated in the bee business with his son, L. L. Andrews. They have over thirteen hundred stands, constituting probably the largest apiary in Riverside County.
Out of his long study and experience in this industry he has developed a prosperous business and also achieved prominence in the profession all over the Pacific Coast. For over twelve years he has been bee inspector, served two years as president of the State Bee Keepers Association, and is president of the corporation that owns the Western Honey Bee Publica- tion, the official publication of the State Bee Keepers Association.
Mr. Andrews was also president of the Citizens Bank of Corona for seven years, is still vice president, and is a director of both the Citizens and the First National Banks. He has been a member of the Masonic Order for fifty years, and is now an honorary member of Ashland Lodge No. 23 in Oregon, this lodge having honored him in this manner twenty- five years ago. He is also affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen of Oregon and is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Mr. Andrews married Elizabeth Lachner, who was born at Hawks- ville, Waterloo County, Ontario. She was educated in public schools and in both English and German languages.
WILLIAM S. SHEPARDSON. The name Shepardson has been promi- nently and favorably known in San Bernardino city and county for a number of years. William S. Shepardson is one of the prominent bankers of San Bernardino, and has been active in local financial and other affairs for the past five years.
Vol. 11-28
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He was born at Marblerock, Floyd County, Iowa, May 17, 1872, son of Jared and Julia D. (Bucklen) Shepardson, now deceased, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of New York State, both of old Amer- ican ancestry. Jared Shepardson was a banker, connected with several financial institutions in Iowa, and he served several times in the State Legislature of that state, where he was known as a citizen of wealth and well deserved influence. He began coming to California as early as 1887, and after retiring from business he lived for several years at Colton, and in 1907 settled permanently at San Bernardino, where he died July 1, 1918.
William S. Shepardson was educated in the grammar and high schools of Iowa, attended the Baptist University of Los Angeles, and as a youth became interested in banking under his father at Marblerock, Iowa. Mr. Shepardson kept his home and most of his interests at Marblerock until 1915, when, after visiting the expositions of San Diego and San Fran- cisco, he located permanently in the state. In December, 1916, he helped organize the American National Bank of San Bernardino, with a capital of a hundred thousand dollars. He has been vice president and one of the directors of this institution at Third and F streets since its inception. R. D. McCook is president and W. O. Harris, cashier. Mr. Shepardson is also vice president and one of the directors of the San Bernardino Valley Bank. He is financially interested in several horticultural projects in the county.
Mr. Shepardson is a member of the Elks Lodge of San Bernardino and as a voter is affiliated with the republican party. At Chicago, July 9, 1898, he married Miss Sarah V. Stoliker, a native of Canada, and daugh- ter of James Stoliker, a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Shepardson have three children: Julia V. is the wife of Herbert C. Parker, secretary of the Parker Iron Works of San Bernardino, and they have a daughter, Eliza- beth Julia Parker. The two younger children are Miss Elizabeth, mem- ber of the class of 1923 of the San Bernardino High School ; and Jared B., in grammar school.
Mr. and Mrs. Shepardson are members of the First Congregational Church. They erected a most attractive home at 487 Seventeenth Street, in which he and Mrs. Shepardson have expressed with resulting great harmony their selective choice of several different styles and parts of architecture. Mr. Shepardson recently completed another handsome house adjoining, to be occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Parker.
HENRY A. PULS-The life of a citizen like Henry A. Puls, who has been a resident of Riverside since May, 1886, is involved in so many important interests that the history of material development might readily be written from the standpoint of one personality. Mr. Puls through his activities and influence has been a real contributor to the growth of Riverside, not only in a constructive and material way, but in the upbuilding of its schools and civic welfare.
He was born in Germany, October 24, 1846, and came to the United States when one year old, his parents Gottlieb and Henrietta (Snyder) Puls, settling in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were natives of Germany and lived in Chicago for a number of years, until the death of the mother in 1853. Later Gottlieb Puls moved to Sheboy- gan, Wisconsin, and spent the rest of his life on a farm. He was the father of five children: William, who remained at Sheboygan; Mrs. Minnie Scholl, now eighty-five years of age and living in Chicago; Mrs. Hannah Clahorst, of Wisconsin; August, a contractor at She- boygan ; and Henry A.
H. a. Pulz
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The public school education of Henry A. Puls was acquired in Chicago. When about fifteen years of age he began learning the cabinet maker's trade. After a short time his employer was drafted into the army, and not long afterward he realized that better oppor- tunities were offered in the general building line than as a cabinet maker. In 1862 he went to the Lake Superior copper region, and for two years had an experience as a clerk and teamster there. On return- ing to Chicago he worked as a carpenter, and gradually got into the contracting and building business. In 1871 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, was in busines there as a contractor for a time, and on returning to Chicago established himself in business in the suburban city of Evanston.
At Evanston in October, 1875, Mr. Puls married Miss Mary E. Huse. She was born in Farmington, Maine, daughter of Abel W. Huse, a farmer of that state. Her brother, Curtis F. Huse, became a well known resident of Los Angeles, and is outside superintendent for the University of Southern California.
In May, 1876, Mr. Puls came ont to California, spending a short time in Los Angeles with his wife's relatives and then coming to Riverside. Riverside then was not accessible by railroad, and he rode into the town by stage from Colton. The magnificent possibilities of the valley made an immediate appeal to him. He was soon one of the busiest men of the little city, and as a contractor and builder he pursued his business under many difficulties in early days. River- side had no lumber yard, and all the lumber used by him in his build- ing operations came from the San Bernardino Mountains, being hauled by horses over a poor road. The Santa Ana River was unbridged. and many fine teams were stuck in mid stream. Mr. Puls continued in the contracting business until recent years, when he retired in order to look after his personal affairs. He erected many of the fine homes of Riverside in former years, also built the First Methodist Church, which has been remodeled several times, and the Brockton Square School House, which has since been moved. He prosecuted his busi- ness with commendable energy, and has long possessed ample means to permit a pleasant retirement. Although seventy-five years of age, he recently made an extended trip throughout the United States, visiting every state in the Union.
Soon after coming to Riverside Mr. Puls bought fifteen acres of sage brush land on Grand and Bandini avenues, and in time trans- formed it into a magnificent orange grove. He planted the trees with his own hands on ten acres, and developed the rest to alfalfa. He was one of the promoters and president of the Alvitrez Irrigation Company, owning the first water system in the valley, the ditches of which supplied his own grove. This water system when Mr. Puls sold out recently was absorbed by the Evans interests. He was also one of the directors of the Sunset Water Company. In 1883 Mr. Puls bought forty acres in the famous Cucamonga district, which he planted first in grapes and then in oranges. He sold the last twenty acres of this tract in 1920. He also owns twenty-five acres at Armada in the Moreno Valley, which was planted to apricots, oranges and grapes and served by water from Bear Valley. When the use of this water was cut off Mr. Puls sold the property.
Associated with Judge Campbell, Major Miller and others from San Francisco, Mr. Puls gave an early impulse to the horticultural activities in the Palm Valley near Palm Springs. They acquired their land in that locality in 1890, planted it, and initiated the development
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of what is now one of the largest producing fruit sections in Southern California. Mr. Puls and his associates went to a great deal of expense in that development work, having to build a branch railroad through the property. It was development work of the kind that only men of courage as well as money would undertake, but its results have greatly extended the area of profitable cultivation in Riverside County. At one time Mr. Puls had a hundred and fifty acres of oranges in this county. He was one of the organizers of the Riverside Orange Grow- ers Association and the Pachappa Association, the interests of both organizations now being continued as the Riverside Orange Growers Association. Mr. Puls has owned extensive property interest in River- side, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, owns some centrally located property on Long Beach, and on one piece of Long Beach property he has erected a two-story business block with eight stores on the ground floor and living rooms on the second.
Mr. Puls has been a deservedly popular citizen in Riverside. He is the oldest member of Riverside Lodge No. 282, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a past chancellor commander, and is also a past patriarch of the Encampment and a member of the Rebekahs. He gave his first presidential ballot to General Grant in 1868, and has been prominently identified with the republican interests ever since, having served on the county and city committees and attended county conventions.
Mr. Puls was deprived of the companionship of his good wife by death in April, 1910. He has a daughter, Winnie Inez, who is the wife of Albert O. Knoll, a successful mason contractor at Riverside. Mr. Knoll spent his boyhood at Olive, Orange County, and has been a resident of Riverside since 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Knoll have three children, all attending school at Riverside, named Vernon, Glenn and Marion.
CHARLES L. CRONK, cashier of the San Bernardino Valley Bank, has been identified with banking affairs in Southern California since he left school, and is one of the younger men who furnish a large share of the personal resources, energy and enthusiasm that keep progress marching to a lively measure in this part of the state.
Mr. Cronk was born at Canton, McPherson County, Kansas, October 13, 1890, son of Franklin J. and Emeretta (Ogden) Cronk. The mother, now deceased, was born in Iowa, of Revolutionary stock and English de- scent. The Cronk family originated in seven brothers who came from Holland in the early sixteen hundreds. Franklin J. Cronk, now engaged in the dry goods business at Lamando Park, California, was born in New York State, and during his active life was a farmer and merchant. He was a Kansas pioneer, his first home in the Sunflower State being a sod house, with his most numerous neighbors rattlesnakes. He endured all the hardships of the early settlers and eventually achieved the competence which he has enjoyed in Southern California.
Charles L. Cronk began his education in the public schools of Eldorado, Kansas. He was thirteen when his parents came to California in 1903, and he finished his schooling at Long Beach. In 1909 he became mes- senger boy for the Exchange National Bank of Long Beach, at wages of twenty-five dollars a month. For three years he was with that institution and was promoted to bookkeeper. Leaving there, he became bookkeeper for the First National Bank of Long Beach, and when he resigned in 1919 he was assistant cashier.
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Mr. Cronk came to San Bernardino in 1919 to take charge of the old Savings Bank of San Bernardino. This institution was incorporated in 1889. In December, 1920, it was reorganized and the name changed to the San Bernardino Valley Bank. As reorganized it does a general bank- ing service and was incorporated with an authorized capital of a hundred thousand dollars, eighty-five thousand dollars paid in, and a recent state- ment showed total resources of eight hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars. The officers are J. C. Smith, president ; W. S. Shepardson, vice president ; Charles L. Cronk, cashier ; while the other directors are : A. G. Armstrong, J. C. Love, J. E. Rich, H. R. Scott, H. C. McAllister and Ellen Smith. The assistant cashier is C. H. Shorey.
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