USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 28
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 28
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First of all came levelling, at times not a small job, with every small shrub and larger desert brush a base for a hillock of drifted sand, and some large ones where the mesquite had been a base for the accumulations of years, each of these the home of the rattlesnake or his brother, the little "side winder," just as deadly. The coyote was but a very casual visitor, for as yet the jack rabbit was not.
The levelling, bordering, ditch building, putting in of supply ditches, measuring gates and bridges, not to speak of bringing the water sometimes quite a long ways to get it to the place ( for this was in the early days), all fell on the settler. More essential of all was the purchase of water stock, paying assessments for water, taxes, etc., and twenty-five dollars per acre was a moderate price before a homestead could be gotten and water put on every acre. While all this was going on by the husband, the wife was again teaching school for the two or three years required to put this work on the place, and a trip of twenty miles on horseback was necessary to get to school each week, week ends being spent on the new home.
When everything was ready for occupancy and the fenced alfalfa fields green and flourishing, a "string" of cows was the next thing, a carload of which the writer bought and took out to El Centro, arriving there with them on hand bright and early Monday morning, without the least idea as to where the new home was in the new and desert land. Fortune favored, for while making inquiries as to the location who should come along but Miss Kate herself on horseback on her way to commence her week's teaching, and all was well.
The "string" of cows was profitable, the cream checks large, and teach- ing was abandoned for the time being for milking cows and farm labor, and everything flourished for a few years, with an outing to the cooler coast regions in the hottest months. A brand new baby came to help make and gladden the home, but, alas, as has happened in some other cases, unfortunately on a visit to the cooler coast regions, when about two years old, the little toddler walked into the canal and it took toll of the life of the little one, although there were four watchers and a peremptory order never to let the little one out of sight. But she was a typical Califor- nian and loved the sunshine and the fresh air. It seemed that the thing that was dreaded most (the water) was the final enemy and the fate could not be averted. Well, there is the one consolation left by the time we get ready to pass over we will have so many treasures over there that we will be anxious to go home and possess them, and nothing that is good is ever lost, only the evil finally disappears.
Time works wonders in a new country, and more land was accumulated, renting was resorted to, a city life was chosen, a new home was built in Holtville, and the daily grind of the cows, Sunday, holidays and all, aban-
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doned. Not a day's respite could be had, for cows have to be milked and the new occupation taken up by the husband, and again the school teacher goes forth to the daily "delightful task," and cotton was king for a year or two with the same disaster that overtook the cantaloupe grower years before, but you can't keep down a new country and a young and vigorous people in possibly the richest county in California in resources and so a typical native daughter is at home in that land that is warm enough to mature the date palm and is still doing something to make the world better and more beautiful while passing through it.
Katie Boyd is now Mrs. W. E. Beale of Holtville, Imperial County, that warm place below sea level. After pioneering there almost from the first, teaching school, helping on the farm, etc., they have brought under cultivation nearly 200 acres on that originally dreary desert, which is now rented. They have built a comfortable home in Holtville, and while Mr. Beale attends to business in town Mrs. Beale is, after an interval, again teaching school.
JOHN RAYMOND GABBERT-Like so many men of power and influ- ence in Southern California, John Raymond Gabbert claims Iowa as his native state. Of that state he has no particular recollection, since he was brought to Southern California when a child of two years, and here he grew up and here he has played a useful part as a newspaper man. Many undertakings in Riverside and vicinity are credited to him because of his business as editor and publisher of the Riverside Enterprise.
John Raymond Gabbert was born in Iowa, June 5, 1881, and rep- resents an old American family. His great-great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary war and was at the surrender of Cornwallis. Mr. Gabbert's father is Thomas Gavin Gabbert. who has been a resident of Ventura County, California, for thirty-six years, and for the past twelve years has lived in Ventura City. His active career was spent largely as a farmer and for a number of years he was on the Limoneria Ranch. He now conducts a real estate busi- ness at Ventura and owns property in different parts of that county. He was elected and served as a member of the California Legislature in 1912-13, and has been on the Board of County Supervisors four- teen years, being chairman of the board five years, a position to which he was recently reelected. He was president of the Chamber of Com- merce when it initiated and sponsored the good roads program in Ven- tura County. Among leading men of affairs in Ventura County none is better known than Thomas G. Gabbert. He married Ella Peters. Her father, Anson Peters, who is now living at Pasadena, came around the Horn in 1849, his ship being wrecked on the South American coast. He was rescued and joined the pioneer gold seekers in Cali- fornia, and laid the basis of a substantial fortune in the gold mines. He afterward returned to Iowa, but in 1883 came back to California, lived four years at Saticoy, then at Fallbrook until 1912, and for the past six years his home has been at Pasadena and Glendora. Anson Peters was a Captain of Home Guards in Iowa during the Civil War. He is now ninety-four years of age.
John Raymond Gabbert was educated in the public schools of Ventura County, graduating from high school in 1899. The following four years he was with a newspaper published at Oxnard. He then entered the University of California and graduated Bachelor of Science from the College of Commerce in 1907. While at the university he was editor of the Daily Californian and also of the College Annual, Blue
Gabbert
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and Gold. The printing plant printing the Blue and Gold was destroyed by fire at the time of the big earthquake in 1906. The night before that calamity Mr. Gabbert returned to his office and took up a number of spoiled sheets and carried them home. These are all the University has preserved of that issue, and they are carefully kept at the uni- versity library. Mr. Gabbert was so loath to lose the annual that he ran in to fight fire with the Marines and was a volunteer in the fire fighting service for nearly a day, until completely exhausted. While at University Mr. Gabbert was a member of the junior honor society Winged Helmet, senior society Golden Bear, and also of the Skull and Keys Society. He is a member of the Chi Psi fraternity.
Immediately after leaving University Mr. Gabbert bought the Oxnard Courier, and during five years made that a very successful newspaper plant, changing it from a weekly to a city daily. He sold out in 1912, and coming to Riverside acquired a half interest in the Riverside Enterprise with an option on the other half. Later, with his father, he acquired this half, and is in full control of the editorial and business management. The Enterprise is published by the Mis- sion Publishing Company as a morning daily, and is one of the most successful and influential daily papers in this part of the state. As a supplement to the Riverside Enterprise Mr. Gabbert established the California Citograph in 1915. This paper is now published at Los Angeles, with Mr. Gabbert president of the publishing company.
Associated with one of his employes, Mr. Gabbert has invented a printer's chase called the Rousseau Chase. It reduces the margins on country dailies, thus saving white paper, and is being manufactured and sold by other concerns all over the United States, Manila and Canada.
As a newspaper man Mr. Gabbert has been much in politics and public affairs. He was for four years secretary of the County Republican Central Committee of Ventura County and has also served on the Riverside County Central Committee. He is representative for the Associated Press and California newspapers in Riverside, and was one of the two California editors representing the state's Republican newspapers sent to Marion, Ohio, to meet Senator Harding, president- elect, and wrote the news stories sent to all parts of the United States during that trip. Mr. Gabbert has contributed original ideas and has used his personal and newspaper power to insure the success of a number of movements in Riverside. He was the first to advocate work for the establishment of a Farm Bureau, and partly through his influence may be credited the location here of the Citrus Station and the proposed University Farm School. He is president of the Riverside Rotary Club. a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Business Men's Association, served as president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1917-18 and was the same year president of the Present Day Club. Fraternally he is affiliated with Riverside Lodge of Masons, Oxnard Royal Arch Chapter, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Riverside Elks.
At Oxnard June 25, 1908, Mr. Gabbert married Miss Elizabeth Gordon. She was born in New York. Her mother is Mrs. A. F. Gordon, of Caledonia, New York. Mrs. Gabbert is a descendant of Elder William Brewster of the Pilgrim Colony, and is eligible to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and Colonial Dames. She is active in the Presbyterian Riverside Church. Mr. and Mrs. Gabbert have two children : John Gordon and Jane Elizabeth. Vol. 111 -13
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ALBERT LEE TRELOAR. While it is certainly true that there are won- derful opportunities for advancement in Southern California, it is a well- established fact that here, as elsewhere, no real advancement comes with- out actual effort and earnest, purposeful labor, either of the brains or brawn, and oftentimes of both. The progress observed on every side did not come naturally, but is the outcome of the concerted as well as individual efforts of many. Each orange grove had to be planted, developed, and now requires constant and expert care. The beautiful roadways have been developed ; the thriving industrial plants have been built up from sometimes very small beginnings; and each enterprise has been worked up into a paying form or it would not exist today, for westerners are practical, and, while enjoying to the utmost the natural advantages, have no time or patience for anything that is not useful and worth-while in business. Therefore, here, as everywhere, when a man succeeds it means something. It is proof positive that he has had the grit, the determination and perse- verance to work hard and to use every resource to get ahead, and his victory over obstacles is another triumph for his community. Such a man is Albert Lee Treloar, owner of one of the valuable orange groves of High- land, who has passed through some trying experiences, but is now able to enjoy his good fortune, and to regard with pride the sum of his accom- plishments.
Albert Lee Treloar was born at Forest City, Sierra County, California, March 21, 1872, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Treloar. Samuel Treloar was a native of England, but when he was two years old his parents brought him to the United States, settling in Wisconsin. In 1848 Samuel Treloar, with his uncle, John Treloar, left Wisconsin for California, travel- ing across the country in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and arrived in the midst of the gold excitement, so proceeded at once to Sierra County. Samuel Treloar was a man of strong religious convictions, a temperance advocate, and a peacemaker, and his services were often called into requisi- tion in the rough and tempestuous days when the lawless element had the upper hand. Even during the long and dangerous trip overland he found his natural talents as a peacemaker of avail with the savage Indians, and managed to get his party through without trouble. In fact, he gained the friendship of the Indians, and upon one occasion, when by accident he nearly severed a finger, the savages displayed what in another race would have been termed Christian virtues, and doctored the injury with an oint- ment so healing that the finger regained its normal strength and scarcely a scar remained.
Samuel Treloar was engaged in mining for some years, but after his marriage at Forest City, California, in 1863, with Elizabeth Lee, of English parentage, but a native of Wisconsin, he returned to Wisconsin, and resided there for seven years. Returning to California, he settled sixteen miles from Forest City and went into the cattle business, in which he con- tinued until 1898, in that year moving to Santa Barbara, where he bought a ranch. Subsequently he sold this ranch and bought a home in Santa Barbara, where he died on Christmas Day, 1915. His widow survives him and lives in this beautiful home. He continued his interest in religious work all his life, and was a zealous church member and Sunday School superintendent. Possessing a well-trained voice, he was active in the choir, and always was glad to render any service within his power. Nine children were born to him and his wife, namely: Elizabeth, who is Mrs. Jeffry; Benjamin; Albert Lee; William; Carrie, who is Mrs. Martin; Forest ; Charles ; Stella, who is Mrs. Dane ; and Myrtle, who is Mrs. Ogam.
Until he reached his majority Albert Lee Treloar worked for his father, and was given a limited education. As soon as he was twenty-one he
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went out into the world for himself. He rented a farm in Carpenteria Valley, having hauled wood in order to earn the money to get a start, and began raising beans and other farm produce. For a time he speculated in farm land, buying and selling land in Kings and San Luis Obispo counties, and always worked hard. He and his father-in-law bought 2,040 acres of land at Paso Robles, and stocked it with 2,000 head of Angora goats, for which they paid $6.00 per head. The coyotes and wildcats so reduced this herd in numbers and condition that the remnant of 200 only brought $2.00 each in the Imperial Valley, and this disastrous venture practically wiped out his resources.
Mr. Treloar purchased 11 1/3 acres of citrus fruits on Baseline and Palm avenues in 1912, paying $20,000 for the property. The following year was the time of the big freeze that wholly destroyed his crop. He has since continued in citrus growing, in which he has been successful. This highly improved property has since continued to be his home. In 1915 he bought forty acres at Owensmouth, paying $450 per acre for it. He placed a $5,000 mortgage on it, erected a house, and set out the entire forty acres to walnut trees. In order to provide an adequate water supply he rented horses and tools and laid down an irrigation system. It took considerable nerve to carry through such an undertaking, and the first year he lost $1,500 in sugar beets, as well as his own labor. The second year he raised beans and sold them at 41/2 cents a pound; his beans sold for 10 cents the third year ; for 7 the fourth, and for 1214 cents the fifth year. In 1919 he sold this land at $750 per acre, not only clearing off all of his indebtedness, but making money, but he had to work sixteen hours a day to reach these desirable results. He is entirely a self-made man, coura- geous, resourceful and venturesome. His success proves that a man can accomplish much, but, as before stated, he must be willing to work, and work hard.
On July 4, 1908, Mr. Treloar married Bertha Foster, a daughter of William and Catherine Foster. Her mother, after the death of her first husband, took her four children and drove overland from Michigan to California, and was forced to stay in Nevada all winter on account of the heavy snows. Early spring found her on her way, but with very few supplies. She met a man with a flock of sheep, and, without asking him, she killed one, and although he remonstrated, she went on her way, feeling that her children were entitled to what she could provide for them. Sub- sequently, after her marriage to Mr. Foster, she walked and helped drive a band of goats from San Luis Obispo to the Imperial Valley, being at the time she performed this feat sixty-five years of age. Mrs. Treloar is a worthy daughter of a most remarkable mother, and a native Californian. She was educated in the public schools of Santa Maria, and traveled all over the state in a wagon with her parents, and early learned to make camp, fish and enjoy an outdoor life. She is equally at home in social circles, and yet knows how to manage her household expertly, and, like her husband, is not afraid of any kind of work. Mr. and Mrs. Foster became the parents of four children, of whom Mrs. Treloar was the young- est. There are three children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Treloar, namely: Herbert Simms, who was born at Carpinteria, California, De- cember 1, 1910; Zelda Alberta, who was also born at Carpinteria, January 11, 1912; and William Lee, who was born at Highland, June 4, 1914.
EARL F. VAN LUVEN, veteran orange grower of Colton, officially identified with fruit exchanges and other packing and marketing organiza- tions for nearly thirty years, is the father of two enterprising San Ber-
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nardino business men, Donald Earl and Jed S. Van Luven, proprietors of the San Bernardino Implement Company.
Earl F. Van Luven was born in Ontario, Canada, January 13, 1861, son of Zara and Martha (Potter) Van Luven. He acquired his early education in the common schools and a business college in Canada, and from his father, who was a successful merchant, gained a thorough and practical training. Earl Van Luven came out to California and located at Colton in 1888. He invested in property on the celebrated Colton Ter- race, where he made extensive plantings of citrus fruit. He now has one of the oldest and best producing groves in that noted district. From his own groves he has packed and shipped many thousands of carloads of oranges and lemons, and it would be difficult to refer to a man whose experience covers a longer period of time and a broader range of all the important phases of citrus growing and marketing. He has for many years been associated with the Southern California Fruit Exchange, the California Fruit Growers Exchange, of which he is a director, the San Bernardino County Fruit Exchange, of which for years he was secretary and manager, and he joined his individual effort and support to these various organiza- tions to solve the fruit marketing problems practically at their beginning, about 1893. He was a charter member of the Colton Fruit Exchange when it was organized, and until 1902 was its secretary. He resigned because of the pressure of other business interests, but continued as vice president and as a director.
In 1891 Earl F. Van Luven married Miss Helen Edith Shepardson, daughter of Jed B. and Julia (Bucklen) Shepardson. Her father was a well known banker at Marble Rock, Iowa, but for many years spent his winters in Colton. Jed B. Shepardson was a son of William and Hannah Shepardson, while Julia D. Bucklen was a daughter of Willard and Doris Bucklen. Mr. and Mrs. Earl Van Luven have two sons, Jed S. and Donald E.
Jed S. Van Luven was born at Santa Monica July 7, 1892, and acquired his early education in the schools of Colton, Los Angeles and San Bernardino. His principal business has been as a dealer in farm imple- ments, and the San Bernardino Implement Company, of which he is senior member, now conducts the largest retail establishment of the kind in this county. He is a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 178, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Native Sons of the Golden West. He is a republican in politics.
Jed Van Luven married at Corona Beulah Meacham, a native of San Bernardino and a daughter of R. M. Meacham, a pioneer of this city. They have two children, Jack and Barbara, the former attending kinder- garten.
Donald Earl Van Luven. the younger son, was born at Santa Monica, California. September 1, 1899. He graduated from the Colton High School in 1917, and attended the Oregon Agricultural College until 1919. He expects to return and complete his studies there in the near future. During the war he spent four months in a training camp in Oregon, being honorably discharged at the close of the war. He is a co-partner in the San Bernardino Implement Company, and is also owner of a small orange grove at Colton. He is a republican, a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, belongs to the college fra- ternity Kappa Theta Rho, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Colton.
C. C. MILLER was one of the earliest settlers under the management of Mr. Evans and the Riverside Land and Irrigating Company, and
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as engineer in the construction of what was known as the lower canal and the founder of the Glenwood Mission Inn and also engineer for the Gage Canal, he deserves more than a passing notice.
C. C. Miller was born in Oneida County, New York, in 1824, where his grandfather was one of the pioneer settlers. He received a good education in the public schools of his native state and in the higher lines of college work in Ohio, where he graduated from Cleveland University as a civil engineer in 1852, follownig that profession during the rest of his life.
He was engaged in railway work, among others the Chicago and Northwestern and Milwaukee and St. Paul, where he held high rank in his profession until the Civil war, when he enlisted for service and was commissioned as captain of Company M. Forty-ninth Volunteer Infantry, from Wisconsin. His regiment was assigned to duty in Missouri under General Dodge. His engineering skill soon became known and he was called into service as chief engineer of that district. He served until the close of the war and was honorably discharged in 1865, after which he returned to civil pursuits. He followed rail- road work, being chief engineer of the Wabash and Lake Superior Railroad.
Ill health on the part of his wife made necessary a change of climate, and in 1873 he located in Los Angeles. In June of that year he came to Riverside as chief engineer and superintendent of the El Sobrante de San Jacinto Rancho. When the Riverside Land & Irrigating Company built the lower canal he was engineer superin- tending construction, aided by his son-in-law, G. O. Newman.
He bought the block on which the Glenwood Mission Inn is now located and commenced to build a residence, which was to be a two- story adobe building. The writer put the first team work on the block, which was leveling, preparatory to building. Mr. Miller's son, Frank A., helped make the adobes or unburned clay bricks with which the building was constructed. It was also used as a hotel, in 1881 being sold to his son Frank A. Miller, who is now master of the Mission Inn as it now stands.
C. C. Miller was also the chief engineer in the construction of the Gage Canal and later on out at Blythe on the Colorado River in further irrigation and land surveying enterprises.
His was a busy life, and he died in February, 1890, full of years and honors.
His wife, who was a Miss Mary Clark, and who died in August, 1895, was sixty-six years of age, was a daughter of an Ohio physician. She was a woman of refinement, and she transmitted some of these qualities to her son Frank, now master of the Mission Inn.
RALPH EMERSON SWING-The subject of this sketch is one of the most astute and resourceful attorneys practicing at the San Bernardino bar. He is a native of California and was educated in the schools of his native state.
Mr. Swing entered upon the pratice of law in the year 1907, with his office in the City of San Bernardino, where he has ever since followed his profession. He has been connected with much of the important litigation growing out of the many complicated and in- tricate legal questions involved in the adjustment of water, property and mining rights necessarily arising from the development of the resources of Southern California. He is an admitted authority upon the law governing the questions above mentioned, as well as upon
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