USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 23
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 23
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
The second child, Mary P. Montgomery, was born at Taunton, Massa- chusetts, October 10, 1880, was educated in the public schools and gradu- ated A. B. in 1902 from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. During 1912 she attended Redlands University and received the Bachelor of Music degree and was a teacher in the music department of the local university from 1912 until February, 1915. April 8, 1915, she became the wife of Dr. Frank H. Folkins, of Redlands. Doctor Folkins was born at Center Point, Iowa, May 8, 1884, and studied medicine in the Iowa State Uni- versity, receiving his degree in 1910. On account of a breakdown in health he came to California and located at Redlands in the spring of 1911, and in November of that year resumed active practice. In the fall of 1914 he was appointed city physician of Redlands, and gave most of his time to the duties of that office for four years. In the spring of 1920, after a special course in San Francisco, he began confining his work to X-Ray diagnosis and examination. Doctor and Mrs. Folkins have two children: Richard Wilson, born March 12, 1917, and Hugh Montgomery, born August 20, 1920.
FRIEND IVES LOMBRA, chief of the fire department of Colton and head of the flourishing transfer business he established at Colton, is one of the best examples of the self-made man San Bernardino furnishes. Dur- ing the years he has lived at Colton he has not only acquired large means, but has also won and retained the full confidence of his fellow citizens, who recognize his many excellent characteristics and are proud of the record he has made both in office and as a business man.
The birth of Mr. Lombra occurred at Wallingford, Connecticut, Octo- ber 23, 1881. He is a son of George W. and Ella E. Lombra. George W. Lombra was one of the original workers in the famous old box factory owned by Charles Parker, where the sanding of coffee mills and similar products was first done by machinery. In those early times the workers were afforded no protection from the injurious effects of their trade, and George W. Lombra died at the age of forty-four years from the effects
1202
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
of constant breathing of this fine sand dust. The grandfather of George W. Lombra was the original owner by a grant from the French Govern- ment of the land on which the City of Montreal, Canada, now stands. On his maternal side Chief Lombra, is descended from a passenger of the historic Mayflower. His grandmother's brother, Ben Robinson, was a flag-bearer in the Union Army during the war between the states, and his brother, Charles Robinson, was captured and for three years confined in Andersonville Prison.
Mr. Lombra's educational training was received in his native town of Wallingford, and was completed with a business course in the same place. Deciding then to branch out for himself, he left home and started out on what was then the long trip to California, arriving at Colton September 12, 1909, practically without funds, but possessed of ambition and the deter- mination to conquer circumstances. Immediately securing employment, he went to work and did so well and was so economical that within a year he was able to establish himself in business as a teamster. From time to time he has expanded his business and developed it into one of the leading transfer companies in this part of the county. While he has not striven for political honors he is a zealous republican. He is now serving his second term as chief of the fire department of Colton, and is one of the best men to hold this office. For a number of years he has been a promin- ent Odd Fellow, inheriting his interest in that order, as his grandfather was a charter member of Meridian Lodge No. 33, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, one of the earliest lodges of Connecticut.
After coming to Colton Mr. Lombra married Miss Carrie E. Tillen, a member of one of the old families of the North and one prominent in the Union cause during the war between the North and the South. Mr. and Mrs. Lombra are very fine people, popular with a wide circle, and he is recognized as worthy the full confidence of his fellow townsmen.
JOHN BATISTE LAFOURCADE owns and conducts one of the largest vineyards in Southern California controlled by an individual. The Lafourcade Packing House is three miles east of Cucamonga, on Foot- hill Boulevard, and his extensive vineyards are in the Etiwanda dis- trict. This brief article can barely suggest the superhuman energy, patience, courage and resourcefulness that enabled Mr. Lafourcade to achieve his place of preeminence among Southern California vine- yardists.
He was born April 26, 1871, at Lahontan in Southern France, son of John and Jeanne (Minvelle) Lafourcade. His parents were natives of Southern France, his father born in 1840 and his mother in 1843, and his father was a grape grower and wine maker. John Batiste Lafourcade had the advantage of school only one year between the ages of nine and ten. He grew up in a vineyard, learned its work as rapidly as his strength developed, and he became well qualified in every branch of viticulture when a boy. When he left France to come to America he carried with him the highest credentials as to character and industry. He sailed from Bordeaux August 26, 1888, and after a tedious voyage landed at New Orleans and thence came direct to Pomona, California. For five years Mr. Lafourcade was at Puente as a vaquero, teamster and in other forms of hard labor. This was fol- lowed by a year of employment in the Brookside winery near Red- lands.
Out of this season of hard labor his thrift had enabled him to save about twelve hundred dollars, which he deposited in the American National Bank of Pomona. In the meantime the Nesbit Brothers had
F.B. Lafourcade
1203
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
cleared land and planted a large acreage at Etiwanda to prunes, peaches and apricots. It was an enterprise that came to disaster and the firm failed, owing the bank at Pomona about twelve thousand dollars. The bank held the land as security, though this security was regarded as practically worthless.
It was at this juncture that Mr. Lafourcade investigated the prop- osition, and succeeded in making arrangements with the bank to at- tempt to restore the property to usefulness. The contract was that he was to receive no salary, and depend on results for his compensa- tion. He moved into an old house, living among the Chinamen who were working on the land, and he himself worked like a slave for a year. In this time he had spent all his accumulated twelve hundred dollars of savings, and had to acknowledge that the orchard was hope- less. The only encouraging result of his year's labor was his discov- ery that the soil was much like that of his native Southern France, well adapted for vines. With this knowledge he went to the bank and after explaining how he had spent the savings of his years and could promise no results along the lines of the original proposition, he said if he could be given a contract of sale with the privilege of destroying the deciduous trees and planting grapes in their stead he could promise a thriving industry and one that would show profit in time. The president of the American National Bank of Pomona ac- cepted the proposition. Mr. Lafourcade assumed the heavy obliga- tion, used the old trees for fence posts, to wire the rabbits out of his vineyards, and he was also accorded the privilege of a checking ac- count for bare expenses. This credit was granted wholly on his good name and the confidence inspired by him in the banking offi- cials. Having this contract Mr. Lafourcade toiled long hours, fought the north winds and drifting sand, and for the first two years there was an unprecedented rainfall. There was no irrigation, and he even hauled domestic water the first two years. People thought him in- sane and ignorant when he planted grape cuttings in the bare desert sand without water. His first purchase contract covered a hundred and fifty acres, and for this he went in debt thirteen thousand dollars at five per cent, the understanding being that he was to be allowed to draw checks if he was able to show satisfactory results. For six- teen years Mr. Lafourcade carried on the struggle involved in im- proving the land and getting his vineyard into bearing. On Decem- ber 23, 1891, his loan was called. At that time the debt stood at twenty-one thousand dollars. In the meantime he had increased his holdings to three hundred acres. He insured his life for fifteen thou- sand dollars, and with this and his real estate was able to effect a loan of twenty-one thousand dollars to pay off the bank in full. He thus saved the institution a heavy loss and at last was on his feet financially. Since then prosperity has come with undiminished regu- larity and mounting in volume until he is one of the foremost indi- vidual grape growers in California, having 780 acres, with 110 acres in wine grapes and the rest in raisin and table grapes. In 1918 he constructed. a modern dehydrating plant with modern raisin storage and packing house, and also has a complete winery with a capacity of forty-five thousand gallons annually. Mr. Lafourcade was the first in this district to sink a deep water well. This well is 630 feet deep and the water list is 360 feet. It has an ample flow to provide suffi- cient irrigation for his entire acreage, from 80 to 100 inches out of the well.
1204
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
On June 2, 1902, Mr. Lafourcade married Miss Josephine Lastiry, who was born in Southern Spain, of pure Castilian stock, in June 24, 1881. She came to America a short time before her marriage and lived at West Riverside. Mr. and Mrs. Lafourcade have a fine fam- ily of seven children: Emma, born August 24, 1905; Francisco and John Batiste, twins, born August 8, 1908; Marie Louise, born No- vember 6, 1909; Josephine, born December 16, 1910; Pierre, born September 4, 1914; and Marguerite, born May 18, 1919. The family are devout Catholics and Mr. Lafourcade is a republican voter.
The vineyards and manufacturing plant owned by Mr. Lafourcade speaks for themselves as one of California's prominent industries. But the chief factors in making these possible were the strenuous energy, the absolute honesty and integrity of Mr. Lafourcade himself.
NORMAN S. HAWES .- This veteran soldier of the Union has been identified with the citizenship of Riverside more than thirty years, and the business which he founded here is still continued by one of his sons.
Mr. Hawes was born at Reading, Hillsdale County, Michigan, October 28, 1842. His family name was written in the record of births as Hause, and it is said that when he was a boy of about fifteen he proposed to his father that they change the spelling to Hawes, which was done, though his uncles and other members of the family still continue the old spelling.
The record of the Hause family runs back to William Hause, who was born February 24, 1750. He married Martha Wood, who was born May 4, 1753, and died September 8, 1818. Of their fourteen children William Hause, Jr., was born November 22, 1781, and died January 2, 1825. April 7, 1804, he married Esther Sanford, who was born Septem- ber 22, 1785. They were the parents of ten children. Of these Jesse J. Hause was born June 23, 1808, and married Sally Swarthout, who was born September 2, 1807. Heman C. Hause, a brother of Jesse J. Hause, was the father of the old soldier and Riverside resident. Heman C. Hause was born May 13, 1813, and died August 11, 1872. On November 26, 1832, he married Maria Elvira Bacon, who died May 20, 1852. The second wife of Heman Hause was Adaline L. Holt.
Norman S. Hawes was the fifth in a family of seven children. His brother Edward R. was a Union soldier and died in the service. Another brother, Andrew J., enlisted in the Eleventh Michigan, but was rejected on account of age, and subsequently enlisted in the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry and served until discharged on account of disability. He finally joined Battery D of the First Michigan Light Artillery, and was in service until the close of the war.
Norman S. Hawes received his education in the schools of Litchfield. Michigan, and the country schools of Branch County, and was identified with the work of his father's farm until he joined the army in September. 1861. His military service is compiled from the official account drawn up by the Soldiers and Sailors Historical and Benevolent Society. He was a member of the famous First Regiment, Michigan Light Artillery Battery D, under command of Capt. Josiah W. Church and known as Church's Battery. Norman Hawes enlisted September 17, 1861, from Branch County to serve three years. He was mustered in at White Pigeon, Michigan, September 17th as a private in Battery D, commanded successively by Capt. William W. Andrews, Capt. Alonza F. Bidwell and Capt. Josiah W. Church. This battery was organized in White Pigeon and mustered in September 17th and attached to the Fourteenth Army Corps. It was on duty at Camp Robinson and Louisville. Ken- tucky, until January, 1862, and then went by boat down the Ohio and up
1205
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
the Cumberland to Spring Hill, south of Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Hawes was taken ill and sent home on a discharged furlough, but rejoined his battery after the battle of Stone River in the concluding days of the year 1862. The battery was then ordered to Triune, where it remained several months, until the advance of Rosecrans on Chattanooga. The first engagement on his return was at Hoover's Gap and then at Win- chester, Tennessee, where the regiment remained a few weeks. Then cross- ing the Tennessee River at Stevenson, Alabama, it advanced over Lookout Mountain down into the Chickamauga Valley. In September, 1863, the battery was assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division. It reached Growers Ford on the Chickamauga September 18th and participated in the great battle of that name on the following day, rendering conspicuous serv- ice, no battery in that memorable battle being handled more skillfully or doing greater execution. The battery occupied Fort Negley at Chattanooga. In November following the battery assisted in shelling the enemy on Lookout Mountain when General Hooker was advancing across the face of the mountain, and also participated in the assault on Missionary Ridge November 25th. From March until December, following the battery was at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and then was sent back to Nashville, Tennes- see, where they remained in camp during the winter. The following spring they marched to Murfreesboro and occupied Fort Rosecrans dur- ing the remainder of the war.
Norman S. Hawes was in all the engagements of his battery excepting the time he was in the hospital and at home and was always at his post of duty and achieved a gallant record for meritorious service and soldierly conduct. He left the battery at Columbia, Tennessee, and was in the hospital, later at Nashville, and was furloughed home and after recovering reported at Detroit and rejoined the battery at Murfreesboro. At Louis- ville, while in drill, he was injured when a team fell on him, causing injury to neck and spine which has ever since affected him. For a time he was a nurse in the smallpox hospital at Louisville. His certificate of hon- orable discharge was dated at Nashville, September 17, 1864.
After leaving the army Mr. Hawes returned to Butler, Michigan, and helped his uncle complete a school building. A teacher being needed for the school, he took the examination and, passing the highest marks of all the applicants, was given the school and at the end of the year was com- plimented by the board for having the most orderly and best attended school in the district. Following that he took a high school teacher's course at Coldwater, and following that was given a school in Quincy Township of Branch County. His pupils stood high in the usual branches and he was especially commended for his classes in singing and debating. He taught another term at Butler and then went on the road as a sales- man selling sewing machines, and had a store at Hillsdale, Michigan. Later he went on the road for the firm of Whitney & Currier of Toledo, Ohio, selling organs and pianos. That was his business for fifteen years, and in 1888 Mr. Hawes came to Riverside and opened an establishment of his own in the Tetley Hotel Block, selling pianos and other musical instruments, sewing machines and bicycles. He prospered, and with in- creasing business moved his quarters to the Frederick Block, and continued there until he retired, since which time the business has been conducted by his son, H. W. Hawes.
Mr. Hawes is an honored member of Riverside Post No. 118, Depart- ment of California and Nevada, Grand Army of the Republic, and was elected senior vice commander of his post for 1915 and commander in 1916. He is affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Fraternal Aid Association.
1206
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
In Branch County, Michigan, April 2, 1866, Mr. Hawes married Miss Sarah A. Dickerson. Her father, Alonzo Dickerson, and her brothers, Joseph and Melvin M. Dickerson, were also Union soldiers in Michigan regiments. Mrs. Hawes was an invalid for many years of her life, passing away December 19, 1920. She was born May 31, 1849. Mr. and Mrs. Hawes had four children. The oldest, Flora Winifred, was born March 6, 1867, and died November 5, 1888. Harry Wilford Hawes, successor to his father's business, was born December 20, 1868, and on November 1, 1900, married Minnie L. Stratton, born September 28, 1872. Their three chil- dren are named Ethel Winifred, born February 5, 1902; Lillian Josephine. born March 6, 1905, and Harold Wilford, born January 13, 1910.
The second son of Mr. Hawes is Frederick Norman, who was born April 17, 1872. February 1, 1898, he married Alice Belle Hersey, who was born July 27, 1875. They are the parents of a son, James Hersey Hawes, born October 24, 1908.
The youngest son, Roy Currier Hawes, was born January 8, 1877, and on May 19, 1900, married Annabel Allen, who was born January 28, 1877. Their four children were: Wilford Allen, born March 31, 1901, and died August 25th of the same year ; Roland Cyril, born October 4, 1908; Sarah Elizabeth, born December 4, 1911, and Norman Worth Hawes, born November 1, 1914.
PRESSBURY W. LORD has been a Californian for nearly forty years. He was born at Quebec, Canada, May 23, 1863, being a son of Henry Lewis Lord and Mary Jane (Cross) Lord. His parents were also natives of Canada, his father being of English ancestry and his mother's people from the North of Ireland.
His early years were spent on his father's farm. He enjoyed the benefit of the good schools of the country, the latter two years being spent at Inverness Academy. At the age of twenty he and his brother, the late Loren C. Lord, came West to British Columbia, then to California, and for ten years they engaged in mining operations in Sierra County, California. Mr. Lord still has mining interests there. From Sierra County he moved to Los Angeles and then to Pasadena, where he was engaged in business for ten years. In 1902 he came to Riverside, where he was associated with William Elliott in the business of promoting the "Elliott Springs Mineral Water." The success of this enterprise led naturally to the establishment of the Riverside Soda Works, which he and his brother developed and operated, their products being distributed over all Southern California. The most famous of these beverages is the Rubidoux brand of Ginger Ale. He is now retired from active business, but still retains an interest in the business at Riverside. Mr. Lord is a republican. He has worked conscientiously and whole-heartedly in the in- terests of his party and good government. In November, 1918, he was elected to represent the Fourth Ward in the City Council, which office he filled satisfactorily and he has been re-elected for another term.
On May 28, 1902, Mr. Lord was united in marriage with Rebecca M. Muir, a native of Nova Scotia and a daughter of Capt. John and Mary Muir. The older daughter, Phyllis Arline, is a graduate of Pomona College at Claremont, and is teaching art in Pasadena. Miss Lilla Dale, the younger daughter, is at home with her parents. She is engaged in secretarial work with the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company.
On July 6, 1921, Phyllis Lord married Kenneth Morgan, engaged in electrical engineering with the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company of Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Pomona College, and his technical knowledge was acquired at the Massachusetts School of Technology.
1207
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
SAN BERNARDINO AERIE No. 506, FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES has been an institution of growing power and influence in the city for eighteen years. It was instituted October 16, 1903, with a charter membership of 131. The first meeting was held in Damron Hall at 541 Third Street, and of the officers chosen who are still members mention is made of Joseph Ingersoll, past worthy president, Harry Groves, worthy president, and R. B. Goodcell, trustee. The second meeting was held in Native Sons Hall, now occupied by Chocolate Palace. The Aerie prospered both finan- cially and numerically, and toward the end of 1908 they purchased the lease and furniture of the Elks Club, and on January 1, 1909, held their first meeting in the new Eagles Hall in the Home Telephone Building. The six years they occupied this home was a period of steady growth and prosperity, and in November, 1917, the Brunn property, ground and build- ing, was bought and on a portion of the ground the new building erected. It has the distinction of being the only fraternal building in the city financed without the sale of stock or shares to members. This building has the finest auditorium in the city. To satisfy the requirements of the immediate future plans have been made, with the clearing away of the indebtedness of the Aerie, to remove the old portion of the building and cover the entire site, 75 x 120 feet, with a two-story structure to be utilized altogether for fraternal purposes.
This Aerie has performed its functions as a fraternal institution, and through the privileges and advantages conferred its membership has had a steady increase. Of the charter list of 131, only 33 are now on the rolls, the greater part of the remainder having been called by death. The present membership is 685. During the World war forty-nine from this Aerie answered the call to the colors, though fortunately none made the supreme sacrifice. During the war the auditorium was always ready and free for patriotic movements. A familiar expression was "If you want any help, a place to meet, the use of dishes or tables, go to the Eagles." This Aerie bought $3,000 in Liberty Bonds, and at all times encouraged the members to do their best. During the influenza epidemic the Aerie lost twelve of its members, with nearly a hundred ill with that disease, but every dollar of sick and death benefit was promptly paid. The records show that since the Aerie was instituted over $20,000 have been expended in sick and funeral benefits. The Aerie motto is: "If I can't speak well of a man I wont speak ill of him." The aim is: "To make the world a better place for men and women to live in."
The present list of officers are: Junior past worthy president, Frank T. Bates; worthy president, Charles E. Showalter ; worthy vice president, Douglas Shaw; worthy chaplain, M. Firebaugh; treasurer, A. Mespelt since 1907; secretary, James Cunnison since 1912; inside guard, C. H. Cosner ; outside guard, John Molnar ; conductor, Lloyd E. Collins ; trustees, Harry A. Snyder, W. J. Hanford, James C. Amos; physician, Steele Forsythe. Our colors-Red-White-Blue.
CLIFFORD M. HUSTON is showing in a significant way his desire to make the bank of which he is the cashier a medium of effective serv- ice in the community, and under his careful and progressive adminis- tration the Citizens National Bank of Rialto, San Bernardino County, has had much to gain and nothing to lose.
Mr. Huston was born at Salem, Indiana, August 11, 1884, gained his early education in the public schools of the old Hoosier State and thereafter continued his studies in the Indiana State Normal School at Marion, he having depended on his own resources in meeting the expenses of his higher education. He continued his association with
Vol. 111-11
1208
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
farm enterprise in Indiana until he decided to come to California. Upon arriving in the City of Chicago he found that the railroad fare to California was much in excess of his available funds, and under these conditions he invested in a scalper's ticket to Denver, Colorado. His depleted finances made it essential for him to replenish the same without delay, and he found employment in a Denver hotel, where he received one dollar a day and his board. In this way he finally saved enough money to pay his railway fare to California, and in 1904 he arrived at Rialto, San Bernardino County, with a full supply of am- bition and determination but with his cash capital reduced to twenty- six cents, besides which he owed $200, which sum he had borrowed to enable him to complete his educational course in the normal school. At Rialto he first found employment in a fruit-packing house, and he soon won advancement to the position of foreman in this establish- ment, that of the California Citrus Union. After saving a sufficient sum to justify such action Mr. Huston purchased ten acres of unim- proved land at Rialto, together with water right, this property being situated on South Riverside Avenue. In 1913-14 he planted this tract to oranges, and, notwithstanding that he was in debt and that freezing weather killed many of his trees the first winter, he charac- teristically refused to be discouraged or to be deflected from the course to which he had set himself. He has shown in every stage of his progressive career that he has none of the attributes of a "quit- ter," and self-reliance, circumspection and determination have enabled him to win out. In the early days of his independent enterprise here he frequently drove a mule team by day and irrigated his orange grove at night, and to-day he is the owner of one of the finely im- proved citrus fruit groves of this section of the state. Mr. Huston was here prior to the opening of any bank, and he readily discerned the community need for such an institution. Though he was offered the position of manager of a packing house, he refused this proffer and upon the organization of the First National Bank of Rialto he was early selected as one of its office executives. He won promotion to the position of assistant cashier, and continued his efficient service with this institution for a period of twelve years. Thus fortified with thorough knowledge of the details of the banking business and from early experience realizing the large part a properly regulated bank could play in connection with industrial advancement and stability, through his familiarity with farm life in his vouth and his active identification with fruit culture in California he began to consult ways and means for establishing a bank that should be equipped to aid those who needed financial support, whether rich or poor and without reference to social caste. After a thorough survey of the situation he gained the co-operation of men whose standing was such as to justify their selection, and in November, 1920, the Citizens Na- tional Bank of Rialto opened its doors for business. He effected the organization and incorporation of this institution, and has been its cashier from the beginning. while he is making its politics conform to his ideas as to the proper functions which it should exercise in the community. The other executive officers of the bank are as here noted : Wilmot T. Smith, president; H. A. Brimmer, vice president : John Cox, vice president; and Lloyd A. Mills, assistant cashier. In addition to the president and vice presidents the directorate of the institution includes also J. T. Canaday, C. E. Mclaughlin, W. Mc- Kinley and W. A. Needham. The stockholders are seventy-five in number, and most of them are residents of the community in which
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.