USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 2
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 2
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Mr. Moulton was born at Galesburg, Illinois, January 5, 1859, a son of Billings and Harriet (Smith) Moulton, natives of Massachusetts. The Moultons are of French descent, but the family was founded in this country long prior to the American Revolution, in which war repre- sentatives of it served with distinction.
Growing up in his native city, Ernest Smith Moulton attended its excellent public schools and Knox College, also of Galesburg. His work of a practical character began with this connection, already referred to, with the railroads of Illinois, and he remained with them until 1881, when he came to California. Immediately upon his arrival here he
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identified himself with the packing industry, first experimenting with raisins and later with oranges, and for seventeen years was very active in this line of business. At the time he withdrew from it he was the oldest orange packer in California. Mr. Moulton held many positions of trust in the orange associations, and was a member of the Citrus Protective League of Southern California.
Elected president of the First National Bank of Riverside, he held that position for five or six years, and during that time secured the erection of the present elegant bank building. Mr. Moulton had other interests, and was one of the directors of the Highland Water Com- pany. At one time he served as president of the Chamber of Com- merce, and was connected with the Business Men's Association. Instru- mental in forming the Bankers' Association of Riverside, he became prominent in the state and national associations, and served for a time as president of the State Board of Bankers, and that body made him one of the vice presidents of the National Association.
Mr. Moulton was one of the most progressive of men, his broad vision and outlook on life enabling him to see his duty and how to carry it out, especially with reference to civic matters. For many years he served as a school director, and was president of the board for a number of years, and during his occupancy of that office the Polytechnic High School was erected. At the time of his death he was a member of the Riverside Library Board. The Government experimental station at Riverside stands as a monument to his good sense and excellent judg- ment, and in this connection and others, he was closely allied with Frank Miller and others in advancing the interests of the city. It would be difficult to name any improvement of his day which did not receive his full support. Others which have followed later were conceived by him, and have been brought about because of the preliminary work he did in their behalf. He was a man whose hand and heart were open to the appeal of the unfortunate, but he also believed in the policy of providing work for those in need, rather than to make them paupers through indis- criminate alms-giving. With his wife to look into the merits of a case, he distributed his benevolences wisely and admirably, and was never happier than when he had assisted anyone to become self-supporting and self-respecting. A man of great popularity, he was active in the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and had attained to the Commandery and Shrine in the former order.
On November 14, 1883, Mr. Moulton was united in marriage at Riverside with Julia C. Ferris, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of Sylvanus H. and Sabra B. (Cline) Ferris. Mrs. Moulton came to River- side with her parents in 1881, and since her marriage has been very active in church and Y. W. C. A. work. She was one of the directors on the board of the old Riverside Hospital, and is a director of the new Community Hospital. For the past six or eight years she has been president of the Charity Tree, an organization of ladies banded together for the purpose of looking after local charities and filling the breach between public and private donations. She has devoted much time and effort to this work, which exemplifies the modern spirit of giving, and is one of the most constructive factors in the community work of today. A Presbyterian, she is very active in the work of the Magnolia Avenue Church of that denomination, with which Mr. Moulton was also con- nected, and which he served for a long time as a member of the board on Easter services.
Mr. and Mrs. Moulton had four sons and one daughter, and all of them with the exception of the second son have the proud distinction
Si Ho herris
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of being natives of the Golden State, and all of the boys are graduates of the California State University, while Doris is a graduate of Vassar. They are as follows: Arthur Ferris, Robert Harrison, Ernest Francis, Sylvanus Ferris, and Doris Sabra. Arthur F. Moulton is now engaged in the lumber business at Ukiah, Mendocino County, California. He married Chryssa Fraser, a niece of W. Grant Fraser of Riverside, and they have four daughters, namely : Frances, Joan Virginia, Doris Ann and Barbara Mills. Robert H. Moulton, of the R. H. Moulton Bond Company of Los Angeles, considered one of the finest bond houses in California, was at the time of the campaigns for the sale of Liberty Bonds, made Government manager for the district of Southern Cali- fornia, the youngest man to be so honored with such a heavy responsi- bility. He married Florence Wachter, of Los Angeles, and they have two sons, Donald Wachter and Robert H., Junior. Ernest Francis Moulton is also a partner with the bond house operated under the name of the R. H. Moulton Bond Company. He married Gladys Robb, of Riverside. Sylvanus Ferris Moulton went into the air service at the time of the World war, and was trained at San Antonio, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, following which he was stationed at Lake Charles, Louisiana. He is with his brother Arthur in the lumber business. His wife was Miss Olive Taylor, of Riverside, prior to her marriage. She is a daughter of a prominent Baptist clergyman who founded the Present Day Club of Riverside, and did much toward securing the betterment of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Moulton have one daughter, Carolyn. Miss Doris Sabra Moulton is a graduate of Vassar College, as well as of the State University. On April 9, 1921, she was married to William H. Bonnette, in business in Riverside.
Sylvanus H. Ferris was one of the pioneers of Riverside, and was a man of great prominence. He established his residence on Magnolia Avenue, and every bit of wood that went into the construction of the house was hauled from San Bernardino. His home was the center of much hospitality, which he offered to his Eastern friends, and he was instrumental in bringing more than one hundred people from Galesburg, Illinois, to Riverside. He came to this city in 1879. and later brought in trees from Illinois and New York, and scientifically studied and experimented with reference to the citrus fruit industry.
By birth Mr. Ferris was a New Yorker, as he was born in Herki- mer County, that state, January 14, 1828, and was given a public school and academic education. His parents went to Illinois at a very early day, and he grew up in that state. Before deciding definitely upon his occupation Mr. Ferris paid a visit to his uncle, Harvey H. Ferris, of Herkimer County, New York, who told him that Eastern lands would depreciate and Western lands would advance in price, and ad- vised him to return to Illinois. Following this advice he lived in Galesburg from 1862 to 1881, this town having been the family home from the time it was founded by his grandfather.
In 1879 Mr. Ferris came on a visit to California, accompanying O. T. Johnson of Galesburg, and then went on to Carson City, Nevada, where his uncle, G. W. G. Ferris, was then residing. This gentleman was the father of the man who later invented the Ferris Wheel, one of the attractions of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. Later the party came to Riverside and Sylvanus H. Ferris purchased a ranch on Magnolia Avenue, arranged for the purchase of an adjoining ranch for Mr. Johnson, and still another at the head of the avenue for his uncle, G. W. G. Ferris. He permanently settled at Riverside in 1881. and built his residence in 1882, which has since been one of the sub-
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stantial homes and still is on that avenue. His home ranch comprised forty-three acres, and on it he raised high-grade oranges. In addition Mr. Ferris owned orange properties at Tustin, Orange County, and at Etiwanda, San Bernardino County, California, a cottage at Lagona Beach, California, and a ranch in San Antonio Canyon, from which Ontario, by purchase, afterward acquired its water.
A very public-spirited man, Mr. Ferris worked hard to secure the Santa Fe Railroad from Orange to Riverside, and was a director and manager of the Newton Railroad from Riverside to San Bernardino, which is now owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. While he was active as a republican, he never sought political recognition. For many years he was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was instrumental in founding it on Magnolia Avenue.
In 1858 Mr. Ferris married Sabra Booth Cline, who became especially prominent in church and W. C. T. U. work, and helped to built up a better sentiment in this locality. She was a philanthropist and one to whom charitable impulses were a second nature. Her death occurred in 1919, when she was over ninety years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Ferris had four children, namely : Eva, who is the wife of W. S. Ray ; Robert O., who lives on the old homestead at Woodhull, Illinois ; Mrs. Julia Moulton, who is mentioned at length, and Mrs. Stella Bel- lows, who lives at Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to their own children Mr. and Mrs. Ferris reared two others, whom they took from the Home for the Friendless of New York City. One is Mrs. Della Shieff and the other is George F. Lozier, of Denver, Colorado, both of whom grew up a credit to their adopted parents and worthy of the love and care given them.
BENJAMIN H. FERRIS has been a resident of Riverside twenty-seven years, is still actively engaged in the real estate business, and he repre- sents a pioneer family and some of the pioneer enterprise of the great West.
Mr. Ferris was born at Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois, January 23, 1845. His father, George Washington Gale Ferris, was born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1818. He was a farmer in the East. In 1850 he made his first trip to California, coming across the plains. In 1864 he again started from the East, accompanied by his family, and with mule teams drove across country until he reached the Carson Valley of Nevada, where he settled and became an extensive rancher. He engaged in ranching there until 1880, when he removed to Riverside and lived with his nephew. S. H. Ferris. Here he employed his capital and the remaining years of his active life in orange culture. He owned twenty acres at the head of Magnolia Avenue and also five acres in Arlington. George W. G. Ferris was a fine type of pioneer character, strong, able in business, faithful in his engagements and of incorruptible integrity. For a number of years in Nevada he did the work of land- scape gardening on the State Capitol grounds. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church. His death occurred in April, 1896. His wife, Martha (Hyde) Ferris, came from Plattsburg, New York, where they were married. Their family consisted of five sons and five daughters. The youngest son was G. W. G. Ferris, Jr., an engineer who designed and built the famous Ferris Wheel at the Chicago World's Fair.
Benjamin H. Ferris was reared at Galesburg, Illinois, and attended the public schools and Knox College in that city. While still a school boy he drilled with a company in 1863 preparatory to service in the
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Civil war, but was never called to active duty. In 1864 he accompanied his parents across the plains, lived on the home ranch, and since Decem- ber 20, 1894, has been a resident of Riverside. He is thoroughly versed in the practical science of orange culture, and for thirteen years he had charge of the home grove. Since then he has given his principal time to the real estate business in Riverside. Mr. Ferris is a republican but has never sought any public office. He has been affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1871.
In Illinois in 1871 he married his first wife, and to that union were born six children. Those surviving are Charles L., a salesman for the Lewis Lye Company of Indianapolis, and Clementia, widow of John Shawler, of Youngstown, Illinois. In May, 1901, at Los Angeles, Mr. Ferris married Maria Margaret Blaney, a nattive of England. They are active members of the Magnolia Avenue Presbyterian Church.
HORACE E. HARRIS. While, during a residence of nearly thirty years. Horace E. Harris has been known in San Bernardino as a banker and capitalist, the high tide of his activities was reached before he sought Southern California as his home. and he has been satisfied to conserve his fortune and exercise his duties and privileges as a public spirited citizen, one keenly interested in every phase of the remarkable prog- ress and development of this section.
Few surviving veterans of the great Civil war can present a record of such arduous service as does Mr. Harris. He was born in Essex County, Vermont, August 6, 1842, but during his childhood the fam- ily moved to a farm near Colebrook, New Hampshire, where his par- ents spent the rest of their days and were a fine type of the rugged New England farmers. There Horace E. Harris grew up, attended district school. and was eighteen years of age when he left the farm and went to Augusta. Maine, to enlist as a soldier. He joined the Fifth Maine Battery of Mounted Artillery, and soon afterward re- ceived his baptism of fire and was in the service until wounded and incapacitated in the fall of 1864. though he was not formally released from the army until after the close of the war. His first battle was under General Pope at Cedar Mountain, that being followed by minor engagements at Rappahannock Station and at Thompson's Gap. In
the second battle of Bull Run he was shot in the neck and sent to the hospital. and this bullet has never been removed. After leaving the hospital he was in the sanguinary struggle at Chancellorsville. fol- lowing which came the three days battle of Gettysburg. From May until July he was under General Grant in the Wilderness campaign. Following that the corps of which he was a member was detached and sent to Washington, and arrived just in time to head off the threatened raid of General Earlv, whose advance guard had reached Fourteenth Street in the capital. Then followed the pursuit of Early's forces through Marvland. across Harper's Ferry into Virginia, engaging him at Opequan Creek, and thence up the Shenandoah Valley for eightv miles to Cedar Creek. There on the early morning of October 19. 1864. while the Union forces were in bed. a Confederate leader made a sudden attack. Mr. Harris heard a comrade call to him. "I've got it had " and the next minute Mr. Harris answered him with "So have I." He had been badly wounded in the lower part of his left leg. and at the time this was written his leg was being kept bandaged. Thus he was not a participant beyond the first few minutes in the famous battle of Cedar Creek. General Sheridan was then in Winchester and. as every American schoolboy knows, the Union forces were steadily
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driven back for six or seven miles while he was making his wild ride up the valley, reaching the disorganized forces about noon and by the power of his personality turning a retreat into an advance. As one of the wounded Mr. Harris was taken in an ambulance seven miles to the rear and laid alongside the road, from which point of vantage he saw General Sheridan galloping to the front. In the ambu- lance, recalls Mr. Harris, was a German who had been painfully wounded, and who divided the time about equally between groaning, cursing and drinking from a quart flask of whiskey. Mr. Harris con- fesses that he helped his comrade subdue the bottle. It was two days before his leg received proper attention. For a day and a half he was on a wagon making slow and painful progress to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. By train he was taken to the Baltimore Hospital, where he remained three months, and then sent to the Philadelphia Hospital. Here the surgeons decided his leg should be amputated, but he insisted it should not. He won this contention, and while the leg is not the best support in the world, Mr. Harris has a great deal of regard for that member since it has served him in a measure for some fifty-five years. While he was wounded in October, 1864, it was not until June, 1865, that he was sent home to Augusta, Maine.
After recovering somewhat from the wounds and hardships of war, Mr. Harris had some varied experiences in New England and in Canada. In 1871 he married Priscilla Parker at Coaticook, Quebec Province, where she was born. Mrs. Harris is the daughter of Alfred C. Parker of that place. They soon removed to Newell, Iowa, where they lived for thirteen years, and where he was first engaged in the banking business, purchasing the bank when he was twenty-eight years of age. Mrs. Harris' brother, S. A. Parker, was a partner.
On leaving Iowa, Mr. Harris came into the mining regions of the southwest. He located at Prescott, Arizona, and was associated with Governor F. A. Tritle in a gold mining venture until he went broke. Nothing daunted, he joined A. G. Hubbard and George W. Bowers in the development of the Harquahala gold mine. It was something of a close corporation, there being three shares, one issued to each partner, and Mr. Hubbard was president and Mr. Harris secretary. They erected a twenty-stamp mill, and after a run of twenty-six months declared a cash dividend of more than five hundred thousand dollars. The property was then sold to an English syndicate for a million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Two years later Mr. Hubbard bought back the mines for six thousand dollars, and after holding them for a time sold the property for forty thousand dollars.
Mr. Harris, having been fortunate in his Arizona mining ventures, left that territory and came direct to San Bernardino in 1893. A man of capital, he found opportunities for its investment and soon became associated with the San Bernardino National Bank and is still finan- cially interested in that institution, though really retired from all ac- tive business.
Mr. Harris has been a life-long republican, and his father pos- sessed the same fundamental principles of politics. Mr. Harris is a member of the Masonic Order and of the Congregational Church. Mr. and Mrs. Harris had a daughter, Pearl, who died at the age of thirty years. She was the wife of Ralph E. Swing, of San Ber- nardino. Her only child, Everett, now sixteen years of age, is a pupil in Stanford University. Judge Edwin Parker, deceased, was a brother of Mrs. Harris.
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EDWIN J. GILBERT .- Coming to California over thirty years ago, Ed- win J. Gilbert played no small part in the public and financial life of San Bernardino County, and to no man is the city and county more indebted for skillful and perfect handling of her public affairs. From his childhood he displayed an exceptional aptitude for finance, and he had a varied experience along various lines dealing with finances and figures, giving him an exceptional knowledge of values and finance. He passed away December 7, 1921.
He made a close study of his life work and his conservatism, with a mind like wax to receive impressions and like steel to retain them, his watchword was integrity and his work was not to be measured by figures. He was closely identified with the official life of the county, especially in finance and in assessments. He had progressive ideas and kept abreast of all the modern methods of handling and dealing with financial question and all lines of his offices, and he was gifted with practical foresight and an intuitive sense of values, com- bined with rare judgment. So it is no wonder that his fellow men, following his career, early learned that he was one man who would work for the good and advancement of the commonwealth and de- manded at the polls his election to various important offices. This appreciation of Mr. Gilbert was not confined to one circle of citizens, but it was a popular demand from all classes that he be placed in the offices. There were no loose ends about his offices, for he not only knew how to do things himself but also how to get work done.
Mr. Gilbert found recreation in the hard work pertaining to the assessorship and the intricacies of land and other values, and one thing his constituents know, his assessments were always strictly just to everyone, rich and poor alike.
Mr. Gilbert was born in Rockford, Illinois, June 18, 1848, the son of Milo and Margaret (Palmer) Gilbert, his father a native of Ver- mont and his mother of Cleveland, Ohio. Milo Gilbert moved to Illinois from Vermont about 1846, and located on a farm near Rock- ford. He did not confine his attention to farming, but did railroad contracting and was also a manufacturer and a merchant, and he achieved success in all lines. He was a representative and prominent man of that county. He came out to California in 1886 and located at Colton, where he lived, actively engaged in business and enjoying the Southland, until his death in Colton in 1906. His wife died in 1908.
Mr. Gilbert was educated in the east, leaving Rockford with his father at the age of six years and locating in Charles City, Iowa. Here he attended school, and was graduated from the high school. He attended the Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage for two years. He then started to work, his first step on the road to success being em- ployment by the C. M. & St. Paul Railroad, on the office force. Here he remained eight years, acquiring a thorough education in that line of work, and some knowledge of his work must have become known to outsiders, for he was then elected county treasurer of Floyd Coun- ty, Iowa. This position he held for two terms and then decided to farm awhile. He farmed in Floyd County for four years and then went to Colton, California, where his father had been located over two years. His first work in his new home was as a deputy for the county tax collector, and he followed this for eight years. Then he went into the assessor's office as chief deputy, and filled that position ably for two years.
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At this time he decided to go in business for himself, and accord- ingly opened offices in San Bernardino in 1909, making a specialty of public accounting, with that city as his headquarters. He was then, until 1913, the state inheritance tax appraiser, and from 1913 to 1914, a portion of each year, was president of the Board of Water Commis- sioners. By this time he had established such a high standing that he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors as county assessor, taking office the first Monday in January, 1915. He was, in fact, de- manded by the people for the office, and he held that office until 1919 on that appointment, but in 1919 was elected for the four year term, and this position he held up to the time of his death, to the mutual benefit and satisfaction of all concerned. Mr. Gilbert was identified with financial circles of the city by a directorship in the American National Bank of San Bernardino.
He married on May 4, 1870, Estelle Merrill, of Harmony, Maine, who died in May, 1914. They were the parents of three children : Lulu G., wife of Charles Miles, of Los Angeles, who has two children, Margery, wife of Dudley Strickland, of San Francisco, and who has three children ; and Miss Florence, who was at home with her father. Mr. Gilbert was a member of San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, and was a member of the Modern Woodmen of America from 1886. In politics he was always inde- pendent.
GEORGE A. FRENCH came to Riverside on a three months' vacation from his New York practice, but liked the Gem City so well that before his vacation expired he purchased a half section of land and remained here. For several years he lived out in the open, ranching, and is still interested in ranching and citrus fruit growing, though for nearly a quarter of a century the law and politics have absorbed almost entirely his energies. He is one of the influential republican leaders in Riverside County, has represented the party in caucas and primary and in state and county conventions under the old election laws, and is still a member of the County Central Committee.
While his early life was spent in New York City, Judge French represents a distinctive part of old New England, Vermont. The Frenches are of Welsh descent. During the Revolutionary period the family fur- nished supplies to the Continental Army in Vermont. His grandfather was a successful lawyer of that state, and for a number of years held the office of district attorney of Chittenden County.
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