USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 22
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 22
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February 11, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Loubet and Miss Isabelle Arroues, who was born in the town of Eysus, Province of Basse Pyrennes, France, on the 7th of June, 1883, and who came in 1903 to the United States and joined her brothers at Los Angeles, where her marriage was later solemnized. Mr. and Mrs. Loubet have four children, whose names and dates of birth are here recorded : John Louis, November 13, 1904; Bernard, January 18, 1906; and Marie and Antoinette, twins, September 4, 1912.
OSCAR FORD is not only one of the representative contractors engaged in business in the City of Riverside, but has also been a progressive and influential figure in civic affairs in the city and county. He gave a long period of effective service as a member of the City Council, and his administration as mayor of Riverside was marked by results that have proved of permanent value.
Mr. Ford was born at Winterset, Iowa, on the 17th of September, 1856, a date that clearly indicates that his parents were pioneers of the Hawkeye State. His father, Jimmerson T. Ford, was born in Virginia, but was reared and educated at Warsaw, Indiana. He became one of the pros- perous exponents of farm industry in Iowa, served as justice of the peace
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and was a popular and influential citizen of his community. The lineage of the Ford family traces back to Welsh origin, and representatives of the name were patriot soldiers in the War of the American Revolution. Mrs. Lucretia (Calkins) Ford, mother of Oscar Ford, was born in the State of New York and was a child at the time of the family removal to Indiana, her father, Daniel Calkins, having there become a prosperous farmer. The Calkins family is of English stock, and members of the family came to America in the Colonial days, besides which it is a matter of record that representatives of this family likewise fought for national inde- pendence in the Revolutionary war.
Oscar Ford was reared on the home farm in Iowa, early gained practical experience in connection with its activities, and his youthful education was gained in the public schools of the locality, which he attended principally during the winter months. He left the parental home of the 6th of December, 1875, and until the following March was employed as a carpenter for the Southern Pacific Railroad, with head- quarters at Cabazon, Riverside County, California. He then found em- ployment in the brick yard of the Sheldon Brick Company at Riverside during the summer, and in 1877 he was employed by P. S. Russell, the pioneer nurseryman, with whom he remained three years. While thus engaged he purchased ten acres of land north of Riverside and planted a citrus orchard on the tract. After leaving the employ of Mr. Russell he not only gave attention to his own orchard, but also to those of other residents of this locality, and after retaining his original orchard about three years he sold the same and purchased twenty acres on Central Avenue. This he planted to raisen grapes. Later he bought ten acres on Monroe Street and planted the same to orange and apricots. He became the owner also of ten acres on Center and Sedgwick streets, this tract being developed with an orange grove. He bought and sold much land in and about Riverside, and at all times had in his charge from 10 to 150 acres for Eastern owners. He has developed many acres of orchard and vineyard, has shipped large quantities of fruit to Eastern markets and has made valuable contribution to the industrial development of this favored section of California. Mr. Ford had a large amount of nursery stock at the time of the historic freeze of 1890, in which he met with heavy losses. His technical and executive powers came into effective play in the management of the properties of the Worthley & Strong Fruit Company and the Spurance Fruit Company, as well as during his service as local manager for the Producers Fruit Company.
About the year 1904 Mr. Ford turned his attention to the water- development enterprise in the district beyond Wineville, where he secured 770 acres of land, 300 acres of which he planted to alfalfa. Later he disposed of this entire property, upon which he had made excellent im- provements, including the development of an effective system of irrigation.
A stalwart in the camp of the republican party, Mr. Ford has been active and influential in political affairs in the City and County of Riverside. He served on both the city committee and the county committee of his party, has attended many party conventions and has been prominent in the councils and campaign activities of his party in this section of the state. About the year 1900 Mr. Ford was elected a member of the board of trustees of Riverside, before the present city charter was adopted. He was a member of the council at the time the present charter was obtained, and his entire service in connection with municipal office in Riverside covered a period of fully fourteen years, his continuous re-elections sig- nalizing his secure place in popular confidence and esteem. In November,
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1913, he was elected mayor of Riverside, his assumption of office having occurred on the 5th of the following January and his four years' adminis- tration having been marked by progressive and constructive policies that worked greatly to the advantage of the city and its people.
Mr. Ford was a member of the City Council at the time when the local electric-light department was in its infancy and under the direct control of the council. The original bond issue of $40,000 was wholely inadequate for the purpose for which it was intended, and thus it was utilized in the construction of a pole electric line to Santa Ana Canyon, where H. H. Sin- clair was installing a power plant. A contract was made with Sinclair to provide Riverside with power for twenty-five years, at the rate of three dollars per horse power a month. This arrangement was thought to be favorable for the city until it was discovered to provide for measurement of power on the peak of the load, even if only for a few moments, meant the carrying the heaviest load on the basis of measurement for the entire twenty-four hours. Under these conditions was carried through another $40,000 bond issue, by which a steam power plant was provided and the city enabled to keep the peak-load rate down. The light department of the city was in debt to the general fund in the amount of $32,000, but soon after the installation of the steam plant the department began to show profits in operation, with the result that it was enabled to pay its debt to the general fund, which amount was utilized in road building. The revenue from the electric-light department is now about $350,000 annually.
Mr. Ford has been since 1907 engaged in road building, and is one of the leading contractors in this line in this section of the state. He has constructed many of the important paved highways of this part of Cali- fornia, including the Box Springs Road from Riverside to Perris ; 5 miles of road from Corona to the San Bernardino County line; 812 miles of road leading from Santa Ana toward Newport Beach; 5 miles of road from Garden Grove to Westminster; 5 miles from Olive, in Orange County, leading to the Riverside County line, up the Santa Ana Canyon ; 81/2 miles in Mint Canyon, Los Angeles County.
Mr. Ford was one of the organizers of La Mesa Orange Packing Association, and in a reminiscent way it may be stated that in 1880 he was a member of the vigilant committee which took matters in hand when horse stealing became all too prevalent in Riverside County, Dr. John Hall having been president of the organization.
Mr. Ford is a member of the Riverside Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he and his wife are active members of the First Christian Church in their home city.
At St. Joseph, Missouri, on the 6th of June, 1889, Mr. Ford wedded Miss Jennie Hunt, who was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, a daughter of Henry Hunt, who served as postmaster and city clerk of that place, the Hunt family being of Revolutionary American stock and of English origin. Mrs. Ford is a member of the Woman's Club of Riverside and is a popular figure in the representative social activities of the city. In the concluding paragraph of this review is given brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Ford.
Albert Hunt Ford, a graduate of the University of Southern California, is engaged in the practice of law at Riverside and is serving as deputy district attorney. Robert O. Ford, who is, in 1921, taking a course in electrical engineering in the University of California, enlisted in Company M of the California National Guard at Riverside, two weeks before the United States became involved in the World war, he having been at the time a student in Junior College. He was later sent with his command to
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France, where he served with the Fifth Division of the American Expedi- tionary Forces until the close of hostilities. He was connected with the telephone detachment of the headquarters company and was in active service in this capacity both in the Argonne and St. Mihiel sectors, besides having been with the boys when they made the splendid crossing of the Meuse River. Genevieve, the only daughter, is the wife of Malcolm C. Ross, a florist in the City of Los Angeles, and they have one daughter. Warren H. Ford, the youngest of the children, is a graduate of the River- side High School and remains at the parental home.
J. WESLEY SHRIMP is one of the fortunate young business men of California whose destiny it has been to grow up and find his interests and activities in the fair City of Riverside. He is one of the officials of Riverside's great industry, the Cresmer Manufacturing Company, and has been liberal with his time and helpful co-operation in several phases of the city's advancement and welfare.
He was born at Elsinore, California, July 12, 1890, and the following year his parents moved to Riverside, where his widowed mother is still living. His father, Lawrence C. Shrimp, who was of an old English American family of Revolutionary stock, was born in Kentucky and was a carpenter by trade, moving to California in 1885 and living at Elsinore for the first six years.
J. Wesley Shrimp had his first conscious recollections of the City of Riverside when it was comparatively new and in the earlier period of its development. The first home in which he lived was a little house whose site is now occupied by the Riverside Milling & Fuel Company. He attended the grammar and high schools, spent one year in Zinn's Business College and on leaving school his first regular employment was with the firm of Godfrey & Stewart and later with the Miller Planing Mill. In 1908 he entered the service of the Cresmer Manufacturing Company and since January, 1917, has been secretary and treasurer of that industry, which is described in more detail on other pages.
Mr. Shrimp is also manager of the Riverside Military Band, a notable organization in the life of the city, also taken up in an appropriate place elsewhere. He has been manager of the band for seventeen years, and is drummer and trap man in the organization.
· Mr. Shrimp has copper mining interests in Riverside County, near Blythe, and is secretary and treasurer of a company that has been organ- ized to develop this property. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World and in politics is a republican. He and his family attend the First Christian Church.
July 15, 1912, Mr. Shrimp married Miss Grace Carr, who was born at Grand Terrace, California, daughter of E. G. Carr, the first zonjero of the old canal. Mr. and Mrs. Shrimp have one daughter, Dorothy Louise.
A. G. ARMSTRONG, superintendent of the Santa Fe shops at San Bernardino, is a veteran in the mechanical service of the Santa Fe Com- pany, with which he has spent nearly twenty years. His home for the greater part of the time since 1906 has been at San Bernardino, where he enjoys high standing in business and social circles alike. He made the choice of railroading as a career when a boy, beginning as an apprentice machinist, and his personal energy, fidelity and experience have taken him up the scale of promotion to that of superintendent.
Mr. Armstrong was born at Negaunee, Michigan, November 4, 1872, son of John N. and Susan (Eckels) Armstrong, now deceased, his father
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of Scotch ancestry and a native of Canada, while his mother was of an English family and born in Wisconsin. John N. Armstrong was an ex- perienced mining man and conducted many explorations in the mineral regions of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. He opened up one of the iron mines on the famous' Vermilion Range above Duluth, Minnesota.
A. G. Armstrong attended grammar and high schools in Wisconsin, was a student in the University of Wisconsin, and began his railroad work as a machinist apprentice to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company at Brainerd, Minnesota. He was in their service for eleven years as an apprentice machinist and material inspector, and he represented the North- ern Pacific as inspector of the new power building of the Baldwin Loco- motive Works at Philadelphia.
Leaving Brainerd and the service of the Northern Pacific in January, 1903, Mr. Armstrong removed to Topeka, Kansas, where he was in the shops of the Santa Fe as a machinist until the following July, when he was selected and sent to the Baldwin Locomotive Works, representing the Santa Fe Company during the construction of between 300 and 400 locomotives.
When Mr. Armstrong first came to San Bernardino in 1906 it was in the capacity of erecting foreman. In March of the following year he was made general foreman. In December, 1911, he was promoted to division foreman, with headquarters at Los Angeles, where he remained until July, 1913, when he was promoted to master mechanic of the Arizona Division, with headquarters at Needles, California. In March, 1917, he returned to San Bernardino as master mechanic of the Los Angeles Divi- sion and on April 1, 1918, was made shop superintendent at San Ber- nardino. He has general supervision of a large force, there having been 1900 car and locomotive employes under his jurisdiction in October, 1920.
Mr. Armstrong is a director of the San Bernardino Valley Bank. He is a republican and is affiliated with the Elks Lodge. At Brainerd, Minne- sota, July 26, 1898, he married Miss Mary Ellen Howe. She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, daughter of the late J. J. Howe, and is of Eng- lish-Irish descent. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have two sons, John, a mem- ber of the class of 1923, and Jerome, of the class of 1924, in the San Bernardino High School.
CHARLES PRICE HUMPHRIES-One of the best known citizens of the Ontario community is Charles Price Humphries. His friends know him as a man of ample prosperity, with a long record of success as a fruit rancher. A few know that when he came to California many years ago he possessed practically no capital beyond his individual enterprise and energy.
He was born February 12, 1865, at Strathroy, Ontario, Canada, son of Samuel and Caroline (Bowen) Humphries. His maternal grand- father, Arthur William Bowen, was a major in the English Army, and for his services the English Government gave him extended conces- sions in and near Hamilton, Ontario. Charles Price Humphries was reared and educated in Strathroy, and at the age of sixteen became a clerk in a mercantile store at Wyoming, Ontario. A few years later he came to California and at San Jose during 1884-85 worked on a ranch to learn the fruit growing business. Subsequently he was at San Mateo and for two years had charge of the famous trotting stal- lion, Guy Wilkes, which held the Pacific Coast trotting record for a number of years, until it was taken away by another celebrated horse, Stamboul. Mr. Humphries was not inclined to follow racing as a permanent business, and finally, with perhaps a hundred dollars in
Mrs C. P. Humphries C.P. Hamplipies
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capital, he started in a small way the growing of deciduous fruit, go- ing to Cucamonga in January, 1887, and purchasing five acres of land at two hundred dollars an acre. In March, 1894, he moved to On- tario, where he has had his home for over a quarter of a century and where from the first he engaged in the deciduous fruit business on an extensive scale. Mr. Humphries now has thirty-seven acres planted to peaches and apricots. He was among the first to make a commer- cial success of deciduous fruits in the Ontario district, and he was the very first man of that section to market direct the product of his orchard. For his first peaches he received six dollars a ton and cight dollars a ton for his apricots. The crop of 1920 he sold at a hundred dollars a ton for the peaches and ninety dollars for the apricots.
Through many years of determined work and accumulating inter- ests Mr. Humphries is now comfortably prosperous, and has an in- come sufficient for his needs from his bonds of the Edison Electric Company and other companies and the rental of property he owns in Los Angeles and Glendale. While his extensive fruit orchards are a business that he could play with provided his inclinations ran to radical experiments. For several years he was a director in the Cucamonga Water Company. Mr. Humphries is a republican, is a past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and past chief patriarch of the Encampment, and was secretary and in 1919 was president of the Pioneer Society of Ontario. He is a member of the Methodist Church. His fruit ranch is a mile east of Ontario.
At San Bernardino November 23, 1887, Mr. Humphries married Mary Richards, daughter of George and Lydia (Powell) Richards. Mr. and Mrs. Humphries have three children: Leland Richard mar- ried Olive M. Wilcox, and they have two children, Billie and Donald Wilbur; Arthur Emerson married Helen Whitcher, and their two children are Arthur Wilbur and Ruth. The only daughter, Grace Winifred, is a teacher in the schools of Honolulu. Mrs. Humphries' father, a native of England, came to Canada at the age of four years with his parents, and was educated in Canada. Later he was inter- ested in the oil business at Petrolia, Ontario, Canada. Both her par- ents are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Humphries visited their daugh- ter in the Hawaiian Islands in the winter of 1920 and 1921, and while there he took an active interest in the working of the oldest Lodge of Odd Fellows west of the Rocky Mountains. An American ship captain established this lodge in 1847. Its charter called for the es- tablishment of a lodge in Oregon. The captain of the vessel sailed out of his course, and while in the Hawaiian Islands gathered enough members from his crew to establish a lodge under the charter.
JOSHUA CLINTON DRAPER .- In the passing of Joshua Clinton Draper, November 6, 1918. San Bernardino lost a citizen who was a valuable factor in both the business and social life of the city. He will be long remembered not alone by his friends, but by his business associates, for he was one of the few men who seem to radiate good will and kindness, and he made life brighter and happier for all with whom he came in contact. To know him was to be his friend, and his friendships he kept inviolate. No one, either in the professional or business circles, had more real. sincere friends than Mr. Draper.
In business he stood very high and his reputation for uprightness and integrity was second to none. The traveling men were all his friends also, for he had a keen sense of humor and the rare gift of being able to appreciate a joke when it was on himself. They also knew that he lived
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up to his high ideal of honor, and also that he was always willing to lend a helping hand to any one who needed it.
Mr. Draper was born in Middletown, New York, September 6, 1880, the son of Edward Holt Draper, of New York, and May (Taylor) Draper, also a native of New York. His father was a stock dealer who came to San Bernardino and entered into the garage business with his son, Joshua Clinton Draper. He died in San Bernardino in 1916, his wife having passed on in Arizona in 1907.
Joshua Clinton Draper was educated in the public schools of San Bernardino, graduating from its high school in 1899. He at once started to learn the machinist trade in the Santa Fe Shops, and in the fall of 1906, in October, he started the garage business, which he conducted until his death in November, 1918. He had the Ford agency also for the city, being the first agent here for the Ford car.
Since his death Mrs. Draper has carried on the garage business and has given it her personal supervision. She certainly has qualified as a business woman, as is shown by the success that has attended her management.
Mr. Draper married in 1906 Miss Mabel Murray, a daughter of F. A. Murray, of Reno, Nevada, and Delia (Dolan) Murray. They became the parents of one child, Murray Draper, born in 1907, a student in the San Bernardino High School, class of 1924.
Mr. Draper was a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 178, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; of San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and of San Bernardino Aerie, Fraternal Order of Eagles. In politics he was a republican, and he was affiliated with the Episcopal Church.
J. F. MONTGOMERY, who was born September 6, 1843, at Middleboro, Massachusetts, and died at his home in Redlands June 5, 1918, was a suc- cessful New England business man and manufacturer, and one of many of the conservative and substantial element of the Eastern monied men who early realized the possibilities of the magnificent development that has taken place in Southern California and did not hesitate to put their means and personal energy into the development work. Mr. Montgomery was a careful and shrewd investor in Redlands property, and his activities and influence serve to make his name well remembered on the list of pioneers.
He was liberally educated, took a civil engineering course in the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology, was an engineer in early life and later was a stove and range manufacturer at Taunton, Massachusetts. This business gave him a secure financial position in the East.
He paid his first visit to Redlands with a party of Eastern people about 1890. The women members of the party remained in Redlands, while the men traveled by burros to Bear Valley to inspect the site of the dam. Mr. Montgomery was one of the early investors in the original Bear Valley project, which, while not a financial success, opened the way for the much greater work that has since taken place in the way of irrigation and power development. Mr. Montgomery again came to California in 1899 as a tourist, and then purchased his first orange grove, consisting of five acres, bounded by Pacific, Cedar, Monterey and Crescent streets in Red- lands. The property is still owned by his children. Subsequently his son came out and selected a property in Redlands, and Mr. Montgomery dur- ing the winter of 1902-03 bought and occupied his home on West High- land Avenue and later erected the splendid residence now occupied by his
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daughter, Mrs. Folkins and family. These were only a few of the for- tunate investments Mr. Montgomery made in California. He eventually disposed of his manufacturing interests in the East and concentrated all his holdings in California. He was an enthusiastic worker for a greater Redlands of the future, and his faith in the country, and his intimate and not exaggerated descriptions were the means of influencing many of his old time neighbors in the East to follow him. January 27, 1875, at Taun- ton, Massachusetts, Mr. Montgomery married Miss Isadore L. Phillips, and they remained residents of that city for a quarter of a century. Mrs. Montgomery was born August 20, 1852, at Taunton, and died at Red- lands April 29, 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery had three children, two of whom survive.
The son, Hugh Montgomery, who was born January 4, 1879, at Taun- ton, Massachusetts, was educated in the Chauncey Hall School for Boys at Boston, and came to California in 1901, selecting the site of the beautiful Montgomery homestead, and after informing his father the latter wired him to purchase the property. Hugh Montgomery married Miss Pearl Washburn May 6, 1908. She is a member of a prominent Redlands family. They have two children : John Francis, born April 23, 1915, and Barbara, born June 20, 1917. Mr. Hugh Montgomery lives on Palm Avenue and owns individually some splendid citrus groves in this district and is also active manager for the joint holdings of himself and sister, comprising thirty-five acres of orange groves and a 400-acre fruit and grain ranch at Banning.
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