USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 13
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 13
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On July 4, 1876, he married, in San Bernardino, Miss Mattie Ellen Hinman, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Nellie Hinman Brown, their only child, was born in San Bernardino, June 1, 1877, and on March 2, 1904, was married to Charles H. Wiggett. They have two children, Martha Eliza Wiggett, born in San Bernardino. July 13, 1905; and Charles Brown Wiggett born in Bellemont, Arizona, September 23, 1906.
The friends of John Brown, Jr., have always known him as an ardent patriot ; the American Flag floats over his home on all national, state or municipal holidays, and waves from pine to pine at all his mountain camps. With that veteran school teacher of precious memory, Henry C. Brooke, he raised the Star Spangled Banner over many of the school houses in the county, in the early '70s, thus beginning a custom that was afterwards adopted by the state, and calculated to inspire partriotism in the hearts of the rising generation.
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He is indebted to his father for starting him in his patriotic career. It was his father who rode on horseback to Fort Tejon and obtained a flag from his old friend, S. A. Bishop, and brought it to display at the first celebration of the 4th of July, in San Bernardino, in 1853. He was chairman of the Republican County Central Committee in 1860, and with his boys, John, Joseph and James, hauled wood to kindle fires to arouse the Americans to support Abraham Lincoln for President and to support the Union, and in 1864 displayed the same activity in supporting President Lincoln for the second term. In 1868 John cast his maiden vote for the candidate of the republican party, General U. S. Grant, and has remained loyal to that party believing that by so doing he was contributing to the highest welfare of the American people under one Flag, one constitution, with liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable.
He inherited from his father, the lure of the wild, the out of door, close contact with nature. The hunting and fishing grounds of the San Bernardino Range of Mountains are familiar to him. Eastward from Old Baldy, Job's Peak, Saw Pit Canyon, Strawberry Peak, Little Bear Valley, Little Green Valley, Big Bear Valley, Sugar Loaf Mountain, San Bernardino and towering Grayback, 11,600 feet into the sky, was the enchanted and inspiring region of many a joyful hour with his genial companions, Bill Holcomb, George Miller, Syd. Waite, Taney Woodward, Major Harris, E. A. Nisbet, Joe Brown, Richard Weir, William Stephen, Jap Corbett and Dave Wixom.
In the summer of 1882, he visited the Atlantic and Middle States with his wife and their little daughter Nellie-Bunker Hill, where his father's grandfather fell in the War of the Revolution, Plymouth Rock, Mt. Vernon and Washington Tomb, Independence Hall, Niagara Falls, Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated, and Fanueil Hall, the cradle of American Liberty.
On January 21, 1888, he was present at the old court house on Court Street, San Bernardino, with his father, and those veteran pioneers, James W. Waters, George Lord, Sydney P. Waite, William F. Holcomb, G. W. Suttenfield, Henry M. Willis, N. G. Gill, Tom Roberts, and De La M. Woodward, and aided in the organization of the San Bernardino Society of California Pioneers, which venerable body elected him as secretary, which responsible position he has filled to the present time (1922), a period of thirty-four years, with but one exception, when the members elected him as president, W. F. Hol- comb acting as secretary that year.
Solicitous of the comfort and entertainment of the children who attend the meetings with childish interest and curiosity, he does not forget greetings to the great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers who dignify the weekly assemblages of the Argonaut, where the declining years are made happier.
WILLIAM HARTLEY is the efficient and popular general manager of the West Ontario Citrus Association. The well equipped packing house is situated two and one-half miles west of the City of Ontario, San Ber- nardino County.
Mr. Hartley was born in the fair old City of Detroit, Michigan, on the 13th of February, 1886, and after his graduation from the high school he continued his studies in the Detroit Normal School. In 1907 he came to Southern California, and after having here been connected with the fruit industry a short time he went to the northern part of the state and became identified with mercantile enterprise. His preference for the southern
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part of the state and for outdoor occupation led him to return and to take the position of foreman of a fruit-packing house at Charter Oak, Los Angeles County, in the employ of the Du Quesne Fruit Company of that place. Upon coming to Narod, San Bernardino County, he be- came foreman in the packing house of the West Ontario Citrus Asso- ciation, of which J. K. Adams was then manager. After the death of Mr. Adams he was advanced to his present office, that of general manager of this important association, which was organized August 24, 1893, as a co-operative association made up of the leading citrus-fruit growers of this district. The progressive men who promoted the organization were Morris L. S. Dyar, W. E. Collins, Granger Hyer, C. E. Harwood and others. The original title of the organization was the Ontario Fruit Exchange and the first corps of officers were as here noted: President, W. E. Collins; vice president, L. S. Dyar; secretary, Granger Hyer ; treasurer, Ontario State Bank. On September 19, 1901, a reorganization was affected and the title changed to the West Ontario Citrus Association. This is one of the earliest of the mutual or co-operative fruit associations organized in the state, and its history has been one of consecutive progress and increasing efficiency of service. From the packing and shipping of a few carloads annually the business has expanded until the shipments for the season of 1920 aggregated 415 carloads of oranges. In that year the association doubled the capacity of its packing house and general equip- ment, and in 1921 additional storage capacity was provided by the erec- tion of new buildings. The season of 1921-22 recorded the estimated shipment of 550 carloads, the output being sold through the medium of the San Antonio Fruit Exchange at Pomona. Mr. Hartley has gained high reputation as an efficient and enterprising executive in this connection, and has done much to further the success of the association and its constituent members.
In 1917 Mr. Hartley married Miss Ruby Ogilvie, who was born in Idaho, but was at the time of her marriage a resident of Ontario, Cali- fornia. She was reared and educated in the State of Washington, and as a talented pianist was a successful teacher of music prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Hartley have one son, William, Jr., who was born August 1,1918.
Mr. Hartley is a son of Philip Henry and Janet (Lynch) Hartley, the former of whom was born in England and the latter in Scotland. The parents were young folk when they came to the United States and settled at Port Huron, Michigan, in which state they still maintain their home, the father being a painter and decorator by vocation. William Hartley of this review is the eldest in a family of four sons and two daughters, and through his own ability and efforts he has achieved success and prestige in the state of his adoption.
NELS J. SHOLANDER became one of the pioneers in the development of the new opulent Chino district of San Bernardino County and was an earnest, upright and loyal citizen who commanded high place in popular esteem. He was born and reared in Sweden, where he received good edu- cational advantages and where he gained his early experience in connec- tion with the practical affairs of life. He was born May 16, 1836, and he died at his home in Chino, California, in May, 1893. In 1861 he married Miss Carrie Svedling, who was born April 4, 1842, and they continued their residence in their native land until 1881, when, accompanied by their three children, they immigrated to the United States and established their home on a farm in Boone County, Iowa, where they remained seven years, successive periods of drouth having entailed no little hardship and having
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made the farm enterprise unsuccessful as a whole. Upon leaving Iowa the family came to San Bernardino County, California, and Mr. Sholander here purchased thirty-two acres of wild land on what is now South Euclid Avenue, in the Village of Chino. When he settled here the entire valley was a cattle range, and in improving his own property he did well his part in furthering the general development of the district. He made his original tract of land a valuable property, as is evident when it is stated that in 1921 his widow sold the same for $300 an acre. He acquired real estate also in the more central part of Chino, including the attractive residence property which now represents the home of his widow, at the corner of Seventh Street and Chino Avenue. Mr. Sholander gave every possible aid in the furtherance of the civic and material development and advance- ment of the community, and through his well ordered efforts he gained independence and definite prosperity. When they came to this country he and his wife had no knowledge of the English language, and Mrs. Sholander was somewhat more than fifty years of age before she acquired ready use of the language. She is now one of the venerable pioneer women of Chino, where her circle of friends is limited only by that of her acquaintances. Mrs. Sholander is an earnest member of the Baptist Church, as was also her husband, and his political allegiance was given to the republican party. Of the three children the first is Peter, who was born May 16, 1862, and who gained his early education in the schools of Sweden. After coming to the United States with his parents he con- tinued to be associated with his father in farm enterprise in Iowa until he was twenty-five years old. In 1887 he located in the City of Des Moines, that state, where he was variously employed for the ensuing four years. In 1889 he married Jennie Anderson, who was born in Sweden on the 5th of November, 1867, and who came to America with her parents in 1881. In 1891 Peter Sholander established his home at Chino, California, where for twenty years he was in the employ of the American Beet Sugar Company. In the meanwhile he bought twenty acres of land within the city limits of Chino, and this property, which he has effectively improved, is his present place of residence. His only child, Jesner, was born at Des Moines, Iowa, May 16, 1890, was educated in the public schools of Chino and early manifested special mechanical ability. Jesner Sholander has been employed as a mechanic in various beet-sugar factories and is now mechani- cal superintendent of the motor department of the Chino High School. On account of a defective ear he was denied service as a soldier when the nation became involved in the World war. In 1912 he married Mabel Caldwell, and their one child, Josephine, was born November 19, 1914. Anna Martha, second child of the honored subject of this memoir, was born June 20, 1867, and was seventeen years of age at the time of her death. Charles John was born May 6, 1875, and was about six years old when the family came to the United States. He attended Chaffey College, the Southern California University and Leland Stanford, Jr., University, and he became a successful teacher of biology in the University of Southern California. This talented young man died in September, 1901.
CHARLES RUEDY .- The thriving little City of Upland in San Ber- nardino County was formerly known as North Ontario. The first develop- ment and settlement were made there a little more than thirty years ago, and one of the first arrivals to identify himself permanently was Charles Ruedy. Mr. Ruedy came to California for the benefit of his wife's health, had been a successful business man in Southern Illinois for a number of years, invested some of his means in citrus groves at Upland, but for the most part has been a promoter, stockholder, investor and officially identified
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with some of the larger business organizations that represent the industrial activity of the community. Mr. Ruedy has been a real town builder, and has probably been responsible for as much constructive work in Upland as any other citizen.
He was born at Highland, Illinois, February 25, 1852. Highland is one of the interesting old communities of Southern Illinois, settled almost exclusively by people who came from Switzerland, and the population today is largely of Swiss descendants. His parents, Daniel and Mary (Marguth) Ruedy, were natives of Canton Granbuenden, Switzerland and settled in Illinois in the early forties. Daniel Ruedy was a farmer. Of his sixteen children three died in infancy and thirteen lived to maturity and were married.
Charles Ruedy had only a common school education, and his life to the age of twenty-one was devoted largely to assisting on the home farm. When he left home he clerked in a store a year and a half and soon after- ward married Miss Julia M. Landolt, also of Highland, where her parents were farmers. In 1874 Mr. Ruedy engaged in the mercantile business for himself, and for seventeen years conducted a general store.
About that time physicians advised that his wife must seek a drier climate, and for six months they traveled over the West and Southwest, visiting Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. They went back to Highland, and Mr. Ruedy wound up his affairs there, and about six months later returned to California.
It was in 1891 that he joined the little colony at Upland and at once began taking an active part in its affairs. He bought two orange groves of ten acres each, one in Ontario and the other north of Upland on Fourteenth Street, West, including what was known as Chaffee's boarding house, one of the first houses built in Upland. At this time Upland had no business houses, and most of the magnificent orange groves in that section were then waste land. Mr. Ruedy soon sold his groves, and in 1894 engaged in the feed and fuel business. He conducted this for seven years, and then sold out to a stock company, of which J. M. Hartley was manager. Mr. Ruedy early became interested in the dried fruit business, being one of the organizers of the North Ontario Packing Company, in which he became a director. This concern handles dried fruits and is one of the largest organizations of its kind in Southern California, with head- quarters in Los Angeles. Mr. Ruedy is one of the larger stockholders. He is president of the Citizens Land & Water Company, was one of the incorporators and for several years a director of the Citizens National Bank of Upland, is president of the Magnolia Mutual Building and Loan Association of Upland, and owns some of the principal business blocks of the city. He owns the entire northwest corner of Second Avenue and Ninth Street, where most of the business structures stand. He owns the packing house occupied by the G. A. Hanson Fruit Company. The old packing house was burned in 1915, entailing a heavy loss to Mr. Ruedy, but he rebuilt it with a fireproof plant. With a view to stimulating the com- mercial development of the town and affording additional employment to . its citizens he was one of the liberal investors in the shoe factory and foundry, both of which concerns were operated at a loss.
Mr. Ruedy is an attendant of the Presbyterian Church and has been a life-long republican. Mrs. Ruedy found health and strength under California skies and enjoyed life here until her death in November 17, 1917. For his second wife Mr. Ruedy married Maude A. Thomas. She was born in Princeton, Illinois, July 6, 1872, and she and a sister were left orphans at the age of six and seven years. They then came to
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California to live with an aunt and uncle near Sacramento, subsequently lived for a number of years near Marysville, and later at Livermore, where their aunt and uncle died.
Mr. Ruedy started life when he left the farm with practically no capital and with limited business experience. His industry, his care and skill in making investments have brought him financial independence and at the same time he has been one of the most substantial factors in the growth and upbuilding of Upland.
WALTER TAYLOR GARNER-The Garner family has been in San Ber- nardino County for thirty-five years. The homestead which represents the accumulated development and enterprise of the family throughout this period is located a mile and a half west of Wineville, on the Wineville-Ontario road. This is the property of Walter Taylor Garner, whose father originally acquired it and began the development which has contributed some of the most constructive factors in the prosperity of this section.
The late Richard Taylor Garner was born in England where he married Mary Ann Holmes. In 1876 they came to America and es- tablished their home at Hutchinson, Minnesota, where Richard T. Garner became a merchant. He lived there nine years, and while he was prospered the rigorous winters compelled him to leave and seek a more congenial climate in California. The family arrived in this state February 15, 1885. Besides the parents there were two children, Marion, who was born in England in 1871, and Walter Taylor Garner, who was born at Hutchinson, Minnesota, May 9, 1877.
When the family came to California they took a preemption of forty acres of Government land, then a sandy desert, and this forty acres is the nucleus of the present much larger holdings of Walter T. Garner. For several months the family had to haul water four miles for domestic use. A house was constructed and a well put down. Richard Taylor Garner had a full share of the English characteristic of bull dog tenacity, and never knew defeat. The county was new, there were no capable advisers, but he went ahead, clearing off the brush and setting out his land to vineyard and fruit trees, only to see his efforts nullified by hoards of rabbits and other pests. The first method of defense against the rabbits was constructing a fence of laths driven into the ground closely, but the jack rabbits would crowd between the sticks, and in the absence of baling wire or rope they re- sorted to the use of squaw vine, a long native vine, which when woven around the lath proved effective. Not long afterward chicken wire or woven fence became available. Posts were set at intervals, but the north winds blew weeds against the wire. This soon proved an obstacle to the drifting sand, so that in a single season the fence would be drifted under, and the protection against the invading pests had to be procured by hanging wire on top of the posts each fall. The rabbits would not destroy the grape vines in winter, but would eat the tender fruit and leaves in the spring and thus stop the vitality. All fruit trees had to be wrapped in burlap the entire year. Rabbits and range sheep would eat Indian corn as fast as planted, but Egyptian corn was immune from these pests. There was no market when the grapes came into bearing. Drying did not prove successful. Later Guasti & Stearns established their wineries and began contracting to pay for the grapes and while the sum was small it made available a real market and proved an important financial resource.
R.T. Garner.
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All these developments had been carried well along during the life time of the parents. The mother died in 1908 and the father in 1915. The daughter, Marion, was married in 189] to John Bright of Los Angeles, and she is the mother of a daughter, Bernice, born in 1894.
Walter T. Garner, who has never married, has always lived on the homestead and has done much to improve it and add to the acreage. He now has a hundred acres in fruit and vineyard. The first savings he acquired of four hundred dollars he invested in desert land, contracting for forty acres at twelve dollars an acre. He later bought more, and did the planting as he could finance it. Mr. Garner completed his educa- tion in a shack schoolhouse that was a long distance from the Garner home. The nearest post office when the family came here was Cuca- monga. The mail was brought to the old section house and the neigh- bors would take turns in calling for it at the railroad shanty. Mr. Gar- ner himself was old enough to appreciate the labors and adversities of the early years, and he did his share in battling the animal pests and in stopping the avalanche of sand and in securing water for irrigation pur- poses. He is one of the men who deserve lasting credit from all sub- sequent generations for what he has accomplished through hard expe- rience in learning the ways of the country and in proving the best methods of redeeming the land and securing therefrom the greatest volume of production. He is a member of the democratic party.
THOMAS E. KETCHESON has not been a passive witness of the march of events since he came to San Bernardino County and located in the Upland Colony. He has participated in the strenuous work, the long toil necessary to get the land into condition for planting, the care and cultiva- tion of the orchards, and it was out of the proceeds of labor that he bought and paid for this first land. Since then he has developed several valuable holdings, has achieved a competence, and at the same time has furnished his family a delightful home and supplied liberal educational opportunities for his children.
Mr. Ketcheson was born in Ontario, Canada, March 31, 1872, son of Samuel and Phoebe (McTaggart) Ketcheson, also natives and farmers of that province. Thomas was the third in a family of eight children.
As a youth in Canada he completed a public school course and also attended the Ontario Business College at Belleville, Canada. After leav- ing college he went back to the farm, and soon afterward went out to British Columbia and joined an uncle at Vancouver, with whom he farmed for five years. In 1893 Mr. Ketcheson came to California and joined his uncle, John Vermillion, who then owned a forty acre tract in North Ontario, now Upland, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets, east of Euclid Avenue. Part of this was set out to oranges and a portion was in vineyard, and at that time there were only a few scattering groves of orange trees in this entire district. Mr. Ketcheson worked for his uncle in looking after the grove until it was sold. The first purchase he made on his own account was two lots bought from the Harwood brothers. Still later he bought ten acres of wild land at the corner of Eleventh and San Antonio Avenue. Largely through his own labors he cleared and leveled this property, and in 1905 set it to Washington Navel oranges. Several years later, when the grove was fully developed, he sold the prop- erty for $22,000 dollars. His next investment was ten acres on Thirteenth, between Mountain and San Antonio avenues, and he also sold this at an advance. Mr. Ketcheson still owns an eight acre grove of nine year old lemon trees on Mountain Avenue. His residence, which he bought in 1912, had just been completed by P. E. Walline and stands at the south-
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east corner of Palm and West Tenth Street in Upland. This is a pic- turesque and valuable home and Mr. Ketcheson and family have thoroughly enjoyed its delightful comforts.
Mr. Ketcheson married on June 9, 1896, Miss Ella Washburn, a native of Indiana. Her parents moved when she was a child to Kansas, and in 1887 she came to California with an uncle. Mr. and Mrs. Ketcheson have three children. The oldest, Pauline, born at Upland June 20, 1899, graduated from the Chaffey Union High School, attended the University of Southern California at Los Angeles and is a graduate of the State Normal College at Santa Barbara, and has the character and intellectual gifts that make her an accomplished as well as a well educated woman. She is now the wife of Richard E. Elliott, and they have a son Richard, Jr., born August 1, 1921. Mr. Elliott was born at McAlester, Oklahoma, February 10, 1897, and had an unusual record of service in the World war. He enlisted at Hot Springs, Arkansas, January 31, 1918, joining the 533rd Engineers with the Fifth Army Corps. After a brief training at Washington, D. C., he embarked for overseas March 30th, landing in France the 6th of April, and was with the Engineers in some of the difficult and hazardous service that marked the advance of the Ameri- can Forces in several battles and campaigns, including Belleau Wood, Soissons and in one of the campaigns on the Marne. He remained over- seas seventeen months, but was never wounded or otherwise injured. He was mustered out January 7, 1920, at Fort Scott in San Francisco, and is now engaged in ranching at Upland.
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