USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 27
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 27
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In 1913 John B. Odell came to Riverside and purchased the old Colson place of 15 acres at 429 Indiana Avenue, and has so im- proved it that it is now one of the show places of the city. The house originally was of the Scotch style of architecture, but he had added many improvements, including pergolas, and the whole is covered by a profusion of beautiful flowers and vines. He erected a large fountain and a sunken fountain for water lilies and gold fish in the grounds. The exquisite beds of flowers stretch away into groves of deciduous and citrus trees, which include walnuts, grape fruit and six or seven varities of oranges. It is an ideal home, and here Mr. Odell now spends a great deal of his time, further beautifying his property. While he has passed the age of three score years and ten, he is as active as a young man, and finds pleasure in operating a tractor, or doing any of the other kinds of work inseparably con- nected with the culture of oranges.
Mr. Odell was a director of the Peoples Trust & Savings Bank, of which his son, John Clayton Odell, was president, and when that institution become insolvent Mr. Odell and other members of his family voluntarily crippled themselves financially by putting up large securities so as to safeguard the depositors from loss, which honorable conduct gained him the approval of his fellow citizens in no un- measured degree. Mr. Odell is one of the directors and was president of the Loring Opera House Company, which owns the Loring Block at the corner of Main and Seventh streets. He is also the owner of a 10 acre grove at Corona, California. During his younger years he was a member of the Odd Fellows.
On October 25, 1871, Mr. Odell married at Galesburg, Illinois, Miss Flora Lee, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of Joel Lee, who came of Revolutionary stock and English descent, and was born in New York State. Mr. and Mrs. Odell have three children, namely : John Clayton Odell, who married Deidre Flemming, a native of Iowa, and a daughter of John Flemming, a lumber dealer of McGregor, Iowa. They have two children, namely: Geoffrey, who is a business
Wstewart Button
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man of Los Angeles ; and Gertrude, who is a student of the Riverside public schools. Rosemary, the second child of John B. Odell and his wife, married Carl A. Ross, an attorney of South Bend, Indiana, and they have three children, namely : Jane, Helen and Betsy, all of whom are attending school at South Bend, Indiana. Florence, the youngest of the Odell family, is the widow of Gilbert Hamilton Hoxie, and is living at El Mirasol, Santa Barbara, California. She has one son, Hamilton Hoxie, who is attending Thacher's School in the Ojai Valley, class of 1921. Following the completion of his studies in that institution he will matriculate at Yale University.
Mrs. Odell was a member of the executive board of the war Council of Defense during the World war. She is much interested in current matters, and is a member of the Wednesday Club. Having joined the Presbyterian Church at Chicago, she still retains her mem- bership with that congregation. Both Mr. and Mrs. Odell stand very high in social circles at Riverside. Their lavish hospitality at their beautiful home is proverbial. At the same time their charities are numerous, and their names are held in grateful remembrance by the many who have benefited by their generosity. In all matters of public moment Mr. Odell has always shown a commendable interest, and he takes a deep pride in the progress of the city, and has great faith in its continued and increased prosperity.
W. S. BUTTON-California seems to have a call for easterners and Riverside especially seems to draw its share of business men, not only men wishing to retire, but also young men with ability and activity to push ahead and build from the ground floor up, and connect themselves on a large scale with the industries and activities most adapted to this part of the country.
One who is noteworthy in this connection is W. Stewart Button, distributor for Chevrolet automobiles in Riverside County and also con- nected with the Riverside Sheet Metal Works, and other growing interests. He is also a public spirited man.
W. Stewart Button was born in Teeswater, Ontario, Canada, on Janu- ary 11, 1884, son of William Button, native of Canada. A complete sketch of the "Button" family is given elsewhere in this book. Living for a number of years in his native province he received a public school and high school education, attending the Collegiate Institute at Clinton, Ontario, took a business course at Chatham, Ontario, and also attended college at Toronto. He also took an active part in sports and played on the different teams in his home town and at high school and college, helping to hold the "cup" for the full time while at high school. After completing his studies he engaged in the lumber business with his father for five years in Toronto, Canada, and New York and Pennsylvania States, manufacturing lumber and mangle rollers, which they exported to Europe. He was also engaged in the hardware business for a short time in Shelburne, Canada, but his activities were transferred to the Canadian West and great prairie provinces and for a time was in the real estate business at Edmonton, Alberta.
He spent one winter in California, and going back to the Canadian West again soon found that he could not forget the California climate and came back to stay after his marriage, bringing his wife with him.
On arriving at Riverside in December, 1912, Mr. Button became interested with his brother and father in the sheet metal business, their specialties being the manufacture of "orchard heaters" ovens and can- teens. During eight months in 1914-15 this firm manufactured 155,000
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orchard heaters, and W: Stewart Button having full management of the factory. He also possesses the inventive faculties, and his ingenuity has resulted in several profitable devices. A special mouthpiece oni canteens was patented by him which is being put on the market today, also a patent on a "spring cushion skate." For nine months he was at Buffalo, New York, manufacturing this spring cushion skate, finally selling his patent rights.
In 1916 he returned to Riverside and he and his brother took the agency for the Chevrolet automobile in Riverside County, W. Stewart Button having managership of the business.
In 1919 the Scripps-Booth was added to the agency. They were the second firm to handle the Chevrolet car in Riverside County and have distributed nearly seven hundred cars here; for this business Mr. Button built a fine garage and show room at 1045 Main Street.
Mr. Button was one of the first in this section to become interested in the date growing industry and helped to organize, first. the Thermal Date Company and finally re-organized into the Arabia Date Company. Incorporated, and was secretary and treasurer of both companies. The company bought 110 acres in Coachella Valley and set out forty acres in dates and in time will have full acreage set out in dates. These dates started to bear lightly in 1921, in a couple of years will be bearing heavily.
Mr. Button is also interested in business property in the City of Edmonton, Canada. Mr. Button is a Mason and a member of the River- side Chapter. He also served as a member of the Home Guard. He is also a member and an official of the board of the First Methodist Church.
December 4, 1912, Mr. Button married Miss Sadie Montgomery, a native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and daughter of Alexander Mont- gomery. The Montgomery family was identified with the pioneer period in both eastern and western provinces of Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Button have four children : William Bruce, Ruth Elizabeth, Phyllis Irene, and Stewart Dever Button.
JOHN HARVEY ELLIS .- It is not given to every man to succeed in handling real estate and insurance, for all do not possess those character- istics so essential to success. To begin with, the operator in these lines must be a real salesman, and be absolutely convinced of the desirability of the investments he presents to others. In other words, he must first "sell himself." To do this he must possess the essential qualities of hon- esty, singleness of purpose and sincerity, be clear and logical in his presen- tation of facts, and understand human nature to such an extent that he is able to recognize the right moment to make a sale. Such a man, naturally, would become prosperous in any line he cared to enter, for these qualities make for success anywhere, but when he does devote himself to developing property interests and safeguarding men and their holdings through legiti- mate insurance he is rendering a service not easily over-estimated, and proving his worth to his community as a good citizen. John Harvey Ellis is one of the best qualified men in the business to be found at Riverside or in this part of California. During his long career as a realtor he has dem- onstrated his peculiar fitness for his work, and has to his credit some of the most constructive developments of any man in his line.
John Harvey Ellis was born at Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio, October 13, 1862, a son of James William and Ann F. (Neer) Ellis, both of whom are now deceased. James William Ellis was born in Virginia, a son of Abraham Ellis, grandson of Jacob Ellis, and great-grandson of Johan Jacob Alles, as the name was then spelled, a native of Alsace-
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Lorraine, France. Jacob Ellis, or Alles, was a fifer from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, during the American Revolution, and served in the Sixth Battalion. Later the family was established in Virginia. Although born in the Old Dominion, James William Ellis remained firm in his allegiance to the Union when war was declared between the North and the South, and enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served as a non-commissioned officer. He was with the Army of Virginia and participated in the engagement at Wilson Creek and others in Virginia, and was a brave soldier and efficient officer. Returning home, he resumed his peaceful occupaton of farming. His wife was born in Champaign County, Ohio, and she belonged to an old American family established in this country prior to the American Revolu- tion by ancestors from Holland.
Growing up on his father's farm, John Harvey Ellis acquired his educational training in the public schools of his locality, so firmly ground- ing himself in the fundamentals that he had no difficulty when he left the farm in securing the necessary certificate for teaching school in Allen and Harper counties of that state. Leaving the educational field, Mr. Ellis went to Attica, Kansas, where he pre-empted and proved up a quarter section of land, and then for two years was employed in a mercantile establishment. Following that experience he went to Stevens County, Kansas, where he took up a homestead, and opened a real estate office at Woodsdale, a town founded by Col. Sam Woods. During his residence at Woodsdale he passed through some very exciting times, for this was before the permanent establishment of law and order in Southwestern Kansas, and warring municipalities, as well as individuals, settled their disputes with firearms rather than through the slower processes of the courts.
Leaving Woodsdale, Mr. Ellis went to Pueblo, Colorado, and there continued his realty operations in conjunction with the firm of Hard & McClees, the junior member of which, N. C. McClees, later became secre- tary of state for Colorado. After about eighteen months Mr. Ellis was employed by the Henkel-Duke Mercantile Company, wholesale grocers, with which he remained for six years. He then went with the Iron City Manufacturing Company, machinery manufacturers of Pueblo, and his connection with it lasted for eighteen months. Resigning his position, Mr. Ellis then returned East to Toledo, Ohio, and for two years was with the Toledo Moulding Company, manufacturers of picture frames and jobbers in art goods.
California next attracted him, and on Christmas Day, 1899, he arrived at Corona, this state, and remained in that city for six months. In the meanwhile he bought a small ranch at Arlington, to which he moved in June, 1900. Arlington is within the city limits of Riverside, and from 1900 Mr. Ellis has been a resident of this municipality. For eleven and one-half years he was accountant for the Riverside Fruit Exchange, and then, in June, 1912, he went into the real-estate business for himself, first having Frank D. Troth as his partner. Two years later he bought out Mr. Troth and took his son, Ralph C. Ellis, into the business. Later, upon the retirement of the younger man, he continued alone until he sold his business to W. J. Russell, of Canadaigua, New York, in August, 1919. On March 1, 1920, he bought back the business, and took W. J. Batten- field as his partner. On December 1, 1920, Mr. Battenfield sold his inter- est to J. G. Smith, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, who on April 1, 1921, sold his interest to Mr. Ellis.
Mr. Ellis has always been active as a republican, and for several years has been a member of the County Central Committee of his party, and has
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several times served as a delegate to the county conventions. For some years he has been engaged in orange growing, and has a fine grove of them on his home place at 401 Grand Avenue. In addition to all of his other business interests he is a director of the Riverside Water Company.
On May 30, 1890, Mr. Ellis married in Southwestern Kansas Miss Mary S. Plantz, a native of Wood County, Ohio, and a daughter of the late Joseph Franklin Plantz, a native of Ohio who spent his declining years at Riverside. During the war between th states he served as a Union soldier. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary Carmelia Smart. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis became the parents of two children, Ralph Clifford Ellis, born.April 15, 1891, at Pueblo, Colorado, and Ruth Genevieve Ellis. The son is a statistician with the rating department of the Pacific Tele- phone and Telegraph Company in San Francisco, California. He married Miss Ada Cone, a native of California, and they have one son, Robert Clifford, who was born in August, 1918. The daughter was born on the ranch in Arlington, August 28, 1903, and is now a student of the River- side High School.
Mr. and Mrs. Ellis are members of the First Christian Church of Riverside, of which Mr. Ellis has been a deacon since 1900, and for ten or twelve years he served the church as treasurer. At present he is chair- man of the Board of Trustees. A Mason, he is a past worshipful master of Evergreen Lodge No. 259, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; is a member of Riverside Chapter No. 67, Royal Arch Masons, and Riverside Commandery No. 28, Knights Templar, and also of the Southern Cali- fornia Past Masters' Association and of the Eastern Star. He belongs to Riverside Lodge No. 282, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; to the Woodmen of the World; Sons of Veterans of the Civil war, and of the Sons of the American Revolution. In every relation of life Mr. Ellis has proven his capabilities, and made a success of his undertakings. His interest in Riverside is deep and lasting, and finds practical expression in an earnest and sincere devotion to the best movements for the advance- ment of the municipality. He is a great believer in constructive effort, and knows through experience in different sections of the country how much can be accomplished through concerted effort on the part of the most representative people. Through the medium of his business he has been able to stimulate interest on the part of outsiders, as well as of his fellow citizens, in different local projects, and has brought here a large amount of additional capital which has been profitably invested. Such men are necessary to the proper expansion of any locality, and much of the present prosperity of Riverside may be justly attributed to Mr. Ellis and his associates in their public-spirited attempts to make of it one of the most desirable and flourishing cities of the Golden State.
KATE MCINTYRE BOYD (Mrs. W. E. Beale) .- According to ancient accounts the Boyd family has been one that was always doing things. When there was nothing doing in a public way they seem (as was the custom of the time) to have put the time in very diligently in private quarrels among neighboring factions. This by way of keeping their hands in. Fighting was in those times a gentlemanly occupation, and about the only one in which they could amuse and divert themselves. Kilmar- nock, in other words the cell of St. Marnock, was the headquarters of the Boyd family. Like all others of their time they had to have their castle, named Dean Castle, to which they could retire as a protection from their enemies when besieged. Tradition does not say how those mighty lords were supported, but as feudalism was the existing condition the serf fur- nished the living while the lord exercised his lordly privilege of fighting
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with his neighbors when he had nothing else to do and of leading the serf when danger threatened the nation.
The first authentic account of the Boyds dates back to 1205, in which Dominus Robertus de Boyd (in other words Lord Robert Boyd) appears as a witness to a contract between Bryce de Eglingstoun on the one part and the village of Irvine.
The name was said to have been given to the first Boyd because of his fair complexion, the word Boidh in the Celtic language signifying fair or yellow. Be that as it may, the Boyds have never been blonds, but have always been fair or yellow, and a black Boyd even to this day is as rare as a white blackbird.
The first authentic account of the Boyds as fighters is at the battle of Largs in Ayrshire in 1263, where Haco or Aco, King of Norway, with a numerous army, was put to flight. Sir Robert Boyd, as he is sometimes called, was a person of singular bravery and nobly distinguished himself and was rewarded by Alexander the Third with "grants of several lands in Cunningham" in Ayrshire. Tradition maintains that Sir Robert, with the aid of the party he commanded at that engagement, threw into con- fusion and finally defeated a strong detachment of Norwegians at a place called Goldberry Hill. The words Gold Berry, which sometimes appear on the lower scroll of the prints of the Kilmarnock coat of arms, were probably adopted in commemoration of this feat of Sir Robert. As a curiosity a few words descriptive of the battle of Largs may be inserted here in this year of Our Lord 1921.
"Acho King of Norroway landit at air (Ayr) wt 160 schipps and twen- tie thousand men of warre and ye caus of his cuming was because Macbethe had promissit to his predessores some yles (isles) qlk ye had not gotten viz Boote, arrane wt ye tus cumbrais having tane arrane and Boote he come to the lairges in Cunynghame qr Alexr foirfather to the first Stewart yt was King, discomfeit ym and slue 16000 of his men. He Acho died throw sorrow yr war slain of ye Scots 5000."
Before the century was out the English had overrun Scotland and com- pelled the nobles to swear fealty to England. The Boyds again took a leading part under Wallace and Robert Bruce in driving the English out of Scotland. In Kilmarnock there is a monument in commemoration of the killing of a Lord Soulis, an Englishman, but whether it is in commemora- tion of Lord Soulis or of the Boyd who killed him tradition seems to be rather doubtful. Tradition has it, however, that the particular party this Lord Soulis commanded was discovered lurking in the vicinity of the Dean Castle.
This intelligence being communicated to the particular Lord Boyd in question, he immediately armed himself with his trusty cross bow and went in search of his quarry. On discovery "With deadly aim he drew his cross bow and its arrow instantly pierced the heart of the ill-fated Soulis." This was long before we ever heard of Paddy's gun that would shoot round corners or of the noted gun reported to have carried seventy-five miles to Paris doing destruction there, and before we heard of guns that would hit objects invisible to the naked eye, and prior to the time, some- what, when at Gallipoli the British fleet fired over the hill causing a hasty change of anchorage of men of war to prevent destruction.
The Boyds were active all down through the history of Scotland, some- times in near relation to Royalty, latterly as Earls of Kilmarnock and Earls of Arran. They overflowed to Ireland and made themselves so much at home there that some thought they had originated there.
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But "Farewell! A long farewell to all my greatness" was pronounced by great men before now, and it too came to the noble (?) family of Boyd, for the last Earl got on the side of Prince Charles the "Pretender" to the English throne in his conflict with King George, got caught and was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered at the Tower of London in 1746, along with some others for high treason, the last executions at the Tower until in recent German war times.
It's a "far cry" from the twelfth century to Riverside and a great change, but it may partly answer the question that may be raised in modern parlance "Why is Boyd." It will at least show that the Boyds have been in the habit of doing things. The writer has no family tree tracing descent from any nobility, but wishes to say that all that he knows about his ancestors is that they were millers in Rowallan Mill for five generations and that he was born within three miles of Dean Castle and has been doing things himself ever since he was able, and this may be rather a long introduction to the history of a native daughter of Riverside, and that she came to her inheritance of hard labor legitimately. Hers is not an isolated case, but is introduced because it is more familiar than some others just as noteworthy. Miss Kate Boyd has united within her the two branches of the Scotch nationality. While her father was pure Low- land away back from time immemorial, her mother was just as much High- land from as far back and belonged with the "Clan Donnochie."
Modern methods of travel and intercommunication between various races has produced a strange intermixture of races until the native born American can hardly say to what race he belongs. About all he can say is "I am an American," which means that he belongs to the race that can take the best of every race with which he comes in contact without any risk of carrying over the evil. Thus the American of today, pronounced the greatest people and nation on the face of the earth. Already the writer's grandchildren have the blood of five races coursing through their veins.
And so Miss Kate Boyd came to Riverside with all that lineage behind her. Bareheaded and barefooted and almost naked in the summertime, she passed her childhood eating fruit and living simply and naturally until school age, when a walk of two miles to school gave her some physical exercise while training the mental. Nothing extraordinary occurred during school years. There was generally some outing during the sum- mer vacation-to the mountains, the seashore or some distant part-all by wagon and team, for the auto was as yet a thing of the future. Health physically and mentally were thus maintained and no difficulty was encoun- tered in passing through the various departments of school, finishing with the high school, with an after course in the State Normal, with a grammar grade certificate as a teacher. Teaching first at Palm Springs away out on the desert, with half her pupils pure Indian (who were so wild that they would run out of school and hide in the brush if a stranger came to visit the school), her success was assured from the start. Later on the schools of Riverside claimed her attention until marriage. Even after that she did not altogether retire from teaching, for the Grand Terrace School still retained her services. An orange grove on the terrace overlooking the Santa Ana River at a time when the marketing of oranges was far from being a settled problem showed her and her husband that the owner of an orange grove was not the millionaire he was reputed to be at that time in the development of the orange industry. A survey of the situation and the news from the new country in the basin of the Gulf of California below the sea level, the "terra caliente" of the Mexicans, the hot Colorado desert
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away off one hundred and fifty miles, the most unforbidden looking place imaginable and in reality with as bad a reputation as could possibly be from former explorers, claimed their attention, and away they went to the promising land by team overland.
Eighty acres of a homestead was more than they could handle alone, and mother and sister ( Mrs. Andrews) were called on to assist in founding and establishing the homestead. It cost money then, as now, to get estab- lished in the Imperial Valley. Imperial County and Valley were an after- thought, the "Colorado desert" was ample to describe it. There was first of all the little home to be established as a base of operations, and that could only be done in the cooler part of the year, as it was impossible to live there without shade or water with the temperature 130° or even 140° without any shade.
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