USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 15
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 15
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 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
In 1915 Dr. Gardner was appointed health officer, which position he is now ably filling. He is also building up a lucrative and growing prac- tice and is well known as a most competent physician.
He is the son of George J. and Anna (Yount) Gardner. George J. Gardner who was a nephew of Jonas Osborn, was a native of New York and came out to San Bernardino in 1870, lured hither by the golden stories of the great successes in the mining fields. He located in the Tecopa mining district, where he made quite a success in mining and in addition conducted a general merchandise store in Tecopa, the mining ventures being backed by the large capital of Jonas Osborn. He remained in that place for nine vears, at the end of that time return- ing to New York. In that state he was a farmer. and he followed that occupation until his death in 1885. Dr. Gardner's mother, a native of Nebraska, was a daughter of Joseph Yount, one of the early pioneers of California, who came to the state in 1876.
Joseph Yount served as a soldier in the Mexican war and made the trip to San Francisco before the gold discoveries, returning home via
1146
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
Cape Horn. He joined the rush during the gold excitement of 1849 and again came to California, where he remained two years, being fortunate in his gold mining and acquiring a respectable stake. During his first visit to San Francisco after the Mexican war he suffered many priva- tions, even wrapping his bare feet with gunny sacks to protect them from the cobble stones with which the streets were paved.
In 1862 he brought his family across the plains, being a unit of a thirty wagon train of which he was elected captain. He went to Eastern Oregon, near LeGrande, and was among the first settlers of the Grande Ronde Valley. They remained there for thirteen years and in 1876 started a drove of cattle to Arizona. Miss Yount driving a team all the way. As they learned that it was a year of drought in Arizona, Mr. Yount bought a five thousand acre ranch in the Pahrump Valley in Lincoln County, Nevada, which was given the name of the Manse and became a famous freighting station between California and Nevada. He put the five thousand acres all under cultivation. The land is now owned by the Mormon Church.
Miss Yount married George J. Gardner August 27, 1877. and pio- neered once again in the Tecopa Mining District. Mrs. Gardner is still living and is in San Bernardino with her son. She is the third of ten children, in their order being: Laura. Maud, Joanna, William, Thomas. Samuel, LeRoy. Fannie. John and Nellie.
Dr. Gardner has one brother living. Carl Leroy Gardner, a farmer in the State of New York, and one brother deceased. Joseph Adolphus Gardner.
On August 12. 1915. Dr. Gardner was united in marriage with Miss Ernestine Herbert, a daughter of Dr. G. H. Herbert, of Salt Lake City. Mrs. Gardner comes from pioneer Utah stock. her people crossing the plains to the Mormon stronghold in 1857. Her grandfather was Joseph Prothers, a civil engineer of distinction who was chief engineer for the Union Pacific during its construction across the country. He was the engineer who built the road from Omaha to Salt Lake, including the famous Echo Canyon Grade. Dr. and Mrs. Gardner have three children : Mary Anna and Nellie Barbara, students. and Frank Herbert. Mrs. Herbert spends the winters in San Bernardino with her daughter.
Dr. Gardner is a member of the San Bernardino County Medical Society. He is a member of San Bernardino Lodge. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks : of San Bernardino Parlor 110. Native Sons of the Golden West, and of the San Bernardino Castle No. 27, Knights of Pythias. He is a republican in politics.
NORMAN DOUGLAS ALLEN came to San Bernardino County thirty-four years ago. He was then a young man of twenty-six, was married, and brought his wife and several children to the West. Mr. Allen as a youth had learned to cope with circumstances that combined poverty and privation. He has always been a worker, dependent upon his industry and self reliance, and that industry he has effectively used in some of the real substantial development of the country around Ontario and Upland.
Mr. Allen was born in Parma, Jackson County, Michigan, August 4, 1861, son of Norman and Ellen (Thompson) Allen. His father was a native of Massachusetts and his mother of Michigan. When he was six years old his mother died, and six years later he was left an orphan by the death of his father. His father had been married three times, and Norman was one of the three sons of the last mar- riage. When Norman Allen was a small child his father moved out
1147
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
to Kansas and homesteaded. He was an educated man, taught school on the prairies of Kansas, and had studied law, though he never prac- ticed that profession. For two years he was justice of the peace and supervisor. He died in Kansas.
Norman Douglas Allen after the death of his father lived with his uncle, Almon Allen, and had limited educational advantages, and when he married, at the age of twenty-two, provided for his family and home by farming and farm work. After he had been married some four years he came to California, reaching Ontario the last day of December, 1887. This country had made little progress in develop- ment up to that time. Mr. Allen engaged in such work as a new country provides, and he leveled and planted many acres of orchard, cared for orchards for other owners, and also helped construct some of the country's highways. For a time he had charge of the city's rock crusher. Twenty-four years ago he bought the land where he now lives, and on which he erected a cheap house. This was replaced eleven years ago with a modern and artistic home. Mr. Allen in his career has been energetic, honest and a thoroughly reliable type of the pioneer. He has reared a family of children that is a credit to him and the community. He has never aspired to public office, and his greatest enthusiasm is for the wild life of the mountains. When duties permit he has sought sport and recreation in the hunting of deer, and is familiar with all their haunts.
On August 4, 1883, Mr. Allen married Lena Scheurer, a native of Illinois. Ten children have been born to their union: Walter C .. born in Kansas September 4, 1884, is a successful business man at Upland, owning a transfer and trading outfit. He is married and has four living children. George L., born September 11, 1885, also in Kansas, is manager of the Los Angeles Linen Supply Company. He is married and has four sons and one daughter. Herman, born in Kansas November 8, 1887, died at Upland July 28, 1908. Ella, born November 15, 1889, in California, is the wife of Hugh McLean, a prosperous show merchant at Upland, and they have three children. Fred M., born June 25, 1891, is a box maker at Ontario. He is married and has two children. Mrs. Eva M. Sachs, born October 8, 1895, is the wife of a carpenter and contractor, and they have one son. Norman M., born May 15, 1897, was trained at Camp Kearney, San Diego, with Company A of the 16th Ammunition Train, but did not get overseas. He is married and has a daughter and lives at Ontario. Howard C., born August 12, 1899, was in the selective service and had orders to proceed to Texas the day the armistice was signed. He is married. The two younger children are Christina, born April 23, 1902, now attending the Chaffey High School, and Edna May, born August 20, 1904, also in high school.
THOMAS JEFFERSON CROMER has been one of the real builders in San Bernardino County. His home has been in the Upland district for about thirty years. His work at the beginning was for others, since he lost his first investment, and he planted, tended and capably managed what for many years has been recognized as one of the very fine groves and orchards around Upland. This was his material contribution to the developing community, and at the same time he has been progressive and public spirited wherever the larger needs of the community enlisted his support.
Mr. Cromer was born in Madison County, Indiana, April 29, 1853, son of Frederick and Martha ( Noggle) Cromer. His father was a car- penter by trade, but the greater part of his active life was devoted to
1148
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
farming. In the fall of 1856 the family migrated to Iowa, then a new state. They made this move in a prairie schooner drawn by a four horse team, crossing the Mississippi River on a ferry boat. They moved into a frontier and sparsely settled district, having a small house for the shelter of the family, while the horses had to remain outdoors the first winter. Frederick Cromer secured 500 acres of the new land in that section, and in subsequent years his earnest labors brought him a com- petence. He was both a farmer and stock raiser. In 1874, after the death of his wife, he returned with his family to Indiana, but in 1879 came back to Iowa and settled at Colfax, six miles from his old home. In 1883 Frederick Cromer left his Iowa home and came to Pomona, Cali- fornia, where he purchased land and became a horticulturist. He con- tinued to live at Pomona, a highly respected citizen, until his death. He was buried on his eighty-ninth birthday. The mother of Thomas Jefferson Cromer died at the age of thirty-eight in Iowa, leaving a family of ten children, Thomas J. being next to the oldest.
Mr. Cromer has his first recollections of the frontier conditions of the old homestead in Iowa. He appreciated the difficult task his father and mother had set themselves in building a home there. One of his early memory pictures is of a lighted candle in the window of the rude Iowa home, his mother mending clothes by the light inside, while the projecting rays through the window enabled his father to chop wood for fuel. It was his father's habit to utilize all the daylight and part of the night hours in winter to get out wood and do other work that would permit him to work full time during the busy summer seasons. Thomas Jefferson Cromer took a share in these activities as soon as his strength permitted, and he was plowing in the fields or working in the harvest all the summer seasons and in the timber during the winters. He had little opportunity for schooling, though private study and reading have given him a fair equipment. As a youth in the winter he would get into his frozen boots, wearing no socks, and go into the timber, work all day, frequently when the thermometer stood 30° below zero, and, as he recalls that strenuous life, he feels that it had its pleasant side, since he had the constitution to adapt himself to the environment and enjoyed the vigor and stimulus of sustained labor. From the time Mr. Cromer was eighteen years of age he spent one year in Maryland, near Hagerstown, with his grandfather and grandmother Cromer. He then went to Delaware County, Indiana, with an uncle, working on farms, spent one year in Marion County, Indiana, near Indianapolis, on a farm, in the spring of 1874 returned to the old home in Iowa, but went back to Indiana with his father and worked the farm for several years. In the spring of 1880 he returned to Colfax, Iowa.
On March 30, 1882, Mr. Cromer married Miss Jennie Kelsey, daughter of William Kelsey, a native of Indiana, whose parents were born in Belfast, Ireland. Her mother, Jane (Thompson) Kelsey, was born in Illinois. Jennie Kelsey was born in Lisbon, Iowa, August 18, 1863.
After his marriage Mr. Cromer bought 160 acre farm ten miles from Newton, Jasper County, Iowa, and developed and operated that Iowa farm five years. He then sold out and in December, 1887, arrived in California, spending the first seven years at Pomona. He invested the proceeds of his Iowa property, but when the boom of the eighties col- lapsed he lost his invested funds completely and then did ranch work as a means of support. In May, 1894, Mr. Cromer moved to North Ontario, now Upland, and contracted to buy ten acres on Eleventh Street in the Mountain View tract. He had no money to pay down, but had the energy
1149
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
and courage that supplied part of the indispensable capital. The land had been leveled, and he at once dug the holes and set out the orange trees. While tending and watching his grove develop he worked for others, doing orchard work, and finally he was able to build a home on his tract. Then, in 1919, after having taken approximately as much money from the suc- cessive sales of fruit, he sold his ten acre orchard and home for $30,000. After this sale he bought his present home, a modern and attractive resi- dence at the corner of Laurel and Tenth streets in Upland, commanding a beautiful view of the mountains. About the same time he bought twenty acres on Sixteenth Street, just west of Mountain Avenue. This tract contained seven and a half acres of Washington navel oranges and the remainder in lemon trees eight years old. This is a handsome grove and he still owns it. Mr. Cromer is one of the popular old timers of Upland, and his honesty, industry, and friendliness have earned him the esteem he enjoys.
Mr. Cromer is justly proud of the attainments and character of his only son, Ray Frederick Cromer, who was born at Pomona December 29, 1891. He showed studious inclinations during his youth and made good use of the opportunities his father could give him. He went through the grammar school, graduated from the Chaffey Union High School, received his B. A. degree at Pomona Collge in 1917, and during the following year remained out of school trying and hoping to get into the active army service. He was twice rejected, being greatly under weight, When the draft came he passed the inspection and was put on the reserve list in the chemical warfare division, but was never called out, to his lasting disap- pointment. After the war he resumed his studies in the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in chemistry. For two years he was head of the Science Department and teacher of chemistry at Brawley in the Imperial Valley, and then became instructor in chemistry and physics in the Fremont High School of Oakland. While there he was selected as head of the Radio Club, an organization doing work after school hours for advancement and study of the radio. He began these duties August 21, 1921. At Upland Ray F. Cromer married, on June 16, 1918, Miss Marie Cooley, a native of South Dakota, but reared in Upland, and is a graduate of the Chaffey Union High School. She was employed as stenographer and teller in the First National Bank of Upland prior to her marriage. They now reside at Oakland.
A. J. WILLIAMS has been one of the most industrious citizens of the Ontario community for over twenty years. His industry has brought him the comfort and prosperity which he and his family now enjoy on their little ranch home at 517 Vesta Street.
Mr. Williams was born in Nemaha County, Kansas, December 17, 1880, a son of James Ezra and Marietta (Shiffer) Williams. His parents were both born in Pennsylvania and in the same year, 1845. His father was born the 10th of May, and died at Ontario, California, September 28, 1914. They were married in 1868. James Ezra Williams at the age of fifteen became a locomotive fireman, and was soon promoted to engine- man, and had a run on the Lehigh Valley Railroad until he entered the Union Army during the Civil war. He enlisted in the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, but when it was discovered that he was a locomotive engineer he was assigned special duty with the military railroad service and con- tinued until the end of the war. In March, 1868, soon after his marriage, he removed to Missouri, where he farmed three years, and then went to Northeastern Kansas and bought a large farm in Nemaha County, where for thirty-five years he remained actively engaged in farming and as a
1150
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
dealer and shipper of livestock. He was a man of great energy, reliable, an expert judge of values, and for many years was one of the leading shippers out of that section to eastern markets. In 1905 he left Kansas and came to Ontario, California, where he bought an orange grove and was also a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Ontario. He was the father of five children: Harry; Mrs. Gertrude E. S. Randel; Kate, Mrs. J. H. Mills ; A. J. Williams, and Miss Lida Williams.
A. J. Williams was reared and educated in Nemeha County, Kansas, attended public schools there, and finished in the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan. He then returned to his father's stock farm, and did all the work of general farming and stock raising.
November 21, 1900, he married Miss Kittie Mabel de Jeaan, who was born in Iowa April 20, 1884, daughter of Bird and Addie (Hotch- kiss) de Jeaan, the former a native of Madison, Wisconsin, and the latter of Fayette County, Iowa. Bird de Jeaan was a Baptist minister. Mrs. Williams' grandfather, Martin T. de Jeaan, was an early settler of Ontario, coming here in 1892, when the district was practically undeveloped, and bought land and set out a deciduous orchard. Later he removed some of the early plantings and set to oranges. This orange grove is now the home of A. J. Williams. Martin de Jeaan is still living, but his wife died in Ontario in 1905. Martin de Jeaan was carrier for the first United States mail from Ontario to North Ontario, and continued in that service for a number of years.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Williams removed to Ontario and, being without capital, he sought employment at any honorable occupation that would furnish his family with a living. He picked and did other work in the fruit orchards, worked at dry ranching, with fumigating crews, was employed in the Chino sugar refinery, but eventually engaged in the retail meat business and has been in the service of several firms at Ontario, being now connected with the San Antonio Meat Company. He is also a director in the Security State Bank of Ontario. He owns his modern home and the orange grove which he bought from his wife's grandfather. He and his family are members of the Nazarene Church.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams have six children: Grace, born April 10, 1902, now a senior in the Chaffey Junior College; Maye, born October 27, 1905, also in high school; Hazel, born October 31, 1907, a high school girl; James A., born October 13, 1912; Jean, born April 7, 1915, and Lawrence Andrew, born January 14, 1918, known in the family circle as Bobby Williams. These children were all born at Ontario.
GUS KNIGHT-The career of Gus Knight, one of the best-known men of San Bernardino County, reads like a romance, and yet in this case, as in so many others, "truth is stranger than fiction." Coming into this region when it was a desert wilderness, Mr. Knight not only has passed through all of the stages of its development, but has brought about many of them, and to his courage, energy, foresight and splen- did business management is directly due the establishment and expan- sion of Knight's Camp in Bear Valley, one of the best and most re- nowned American mountain resorts, to which people come from all over the civilized world.
Mr. Knight is a native son of the county, having been born at San Bernardino May 4, 1861, the family home being on the present site of the Santa Fe depot. He is a son of Augustus (known as Gus) Knight, who was born in Maine, in 1831, and Elizabeth Knight, who was born in England in 1835, and when she was fourteen years old her parents brought her to the United States. In 1860 Augustus
Just light
1151
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
Knight and his wife were married at San Bernardino, to which place he had journeyed from Maine in an ox cart, encountering Indians by the way and passed through a number of exciting incidents. He stopped for a time in Humboldt County, California, and was there engaged in prospecting, for this was in 1852, when the gold excitement was at its height and men came West in search of the precious metal, not then realizing that the great state held many other riches aside from that lure which was to give it its name of "Golden." From Humboldt County he traveled down the coast to the San Bernardino Valley. His wife crossed the plains by way of Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1852, her parents with their ox team forming part of an immigrant train. While he was prospecting he discovered the Temescal tin mine in Temescal Canyon, and this has been operated off and on ever since. He was also interested in timbering, and conducted this line of busi- ness for several years in the Mill Seeley Flats, and built the first saw-mill to manufacture shingles at B and Fourth streets, San Ber- nardino, operating it in partnership with Doctor Dickey, and they floated the shingle logs down to the mill. Another venture of his from 1862 to 1864 was the operating of a stage line to Arizona, but he then abandoned it, as there was not sufficient patronage to justify the expense and risk of attack from the numerous hostile. Indians. In 1874 he built a hotel at Gold Mountain, and conducted it for two years, and was also engaged in the stock business and desert freight- ing, continuing the last two occupations until his death. He and his wife had two children, his namesake son and a daughter, Belle, who was the younger of the two. She was born July 26, 1863, and is now the wife of J. R. Metcalf, an orange grower and business man of San Bernardino.
Educated in the public and private schools of San Bernardino, Gus Knight rapidly acquired a working knowledge of the fundamentals, and when only thirteen years old began to be self-supporting as an associate with his father in the cattle business in Bear Valley, and from that early age has been identified with the development of this region. In 1888 he and John Metcalf built the first hotel, which be- came the widely-famed Pine Knot Hotel, and he soon brought out his partner and conducted it alone until 1910, when he sold it to Charles Henry. In the meanwhile, through his enterprise and fore- sight, he built a splendid and enduring monument to himself and his times, a mountain resort of world-rennown. In 1902 he started what he named Knight's Camp in Bear Valley, erecting cabins, and improving the buildings later on, developing the various features, until it attained to remarkable proportions and fame, and this, too, he sold, in 1919, retaining only some selected lots and his mountain home. Mr. Knight made other investments, in 1897 purchasing fifteen acres on Base Line, and this he set to orange trees, and in 1920 he built his beautiful modern home overlooking the Line Valley, with the San Bernardino Mountains at his very door. This is one of the most beautiful spots in the entire country, and Mr. Knight takes great pleasure in the wonderful landscape spread out before him.
Mr. Knight has been married twice, his first wife having been Miss Nancy C. Henry. By this marriage he has two children, namely : James H. Knight, who is a resident of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, is married and has one son, Freemont ; and Charles H., who is a resident of Big Bear, where he owns and operates a garage and auto- mobile business. He also is married, and has two children, Thomas and Charlotte. In 1913 Mr. Knight married Mary C. Workman, a
1152
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
daughter of Joseph Workman, a pioneer of Los Angeles. Mrs. Knight's grandfather, William Workman, founded the first bank of Los Angeles, known as the Workman & Temple Bank. It was located in the Temple Block, Los Angeles.
Out of Mr. Knight's development of his hotel and camp grew another industry that he carried on for years, and that was road building, and his efforts in this line have made it possible for thousands of people to view in comfort the grandeurs of this wonder- ful mountain country, and brought to it many of tourists who other- wise would have been deterred on account of the hardships. While he has reaped a fortune from his various projects, he has earned all he has and deserves more than most men his prosperity and the plaudits of his fellow citizens, for he has bestowed upon others through his developments and through his public spirit much more than he has secured for himself.
DR. HOLLIS J. FOSTER was one of the brilliant, interesting and vigorous personalities in the early history of the Cucamonga community of San Bernardino County. On account of his health he practiced medicine very little after coming to California, but he used his capital and business judg- ment in a way to advance the best interests of this section, and developed some of the land that is now contained in one of the greatest fruit growing districts in Southern California.
He was born at Norwich, Vermont, July 3, 1843, and had many of the fine characteristics of the old New England stock. He acquired his early education in Vermont and later graduated from the Eclectic Medical Insti- tute at Cincinnati, Ohio. For several years he enjoyed an extensive professional practice in several Middle West communities, but when his health failed he came to California and first settled on a ranch near Santa Ana, but six years later sold that and moved to Cucamonga. Here he bought forty acres on the old San Bernardino Road, including a portion of the old Orchard ranch. While developing this property he also owned and operated a drug store in Cucamonga, and was owner of that business when he died March 23, 1906.
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.