USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 29
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 29
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the law governing municipalities and involved in municipal legal questions. He is much sought as a counselor upon such subjects and as an attorney in matters involving such questions.
That Mr. Swing has made a success is evidenced by the fact that he stands at the top of his profession and is conceded to be one of the foremost lawyers in the southern part of his native state. The reason for that success is largely due to the energy exerted in behalf of and his loyalty to his clients. It is said of Mr. Swing that he never takes a case that cannot conscientiously and sincerely advocate to the court, or in which he does not believe his client to be in the right. As a result of such action he has gained and retains the confidence and respect of the courts and of his fellow attorneys.
Aside from following his profession Mr. Swing has taken a great interest in the citrus industry and its development, and in civic affairs, and has done much toward the development of a proper civic spirit in his home community. Being a native of San Bernardino, one of the principal objects of Mr. Swing has been to bring the financial, civic and moral standing of his home city to the highest possible standard.
While Mr. Swing has been honored with a few public positions he has never actually entered politics, but has contented himself with the exercising of the electoral franchise in an effort to secure the election of honest, competent and capable men and woman to office, and in an effort to adopt such public policies as he deemed best for his community and state.
Mr. Swing's prominence in public affairs, combined with his ability as a lawyer and his dependability as a man, have made him one of the best-known figures in San Bernardino County, and won for him the approval of all with whom he is brought into contact.
W. H. BACKUS. There are many who struggled and won, held an important place in the annals of Riverside, did much to advance and put it in the position it now occupies who are in a great measure for- gotten except by their contemporaries who lived, achieved and won. Among those none are more worthy of mention than W. H. Backus. Mr. Backus came to Riverside from Ohio in 1882 with his father, Orrin Backus. Like so many others of the earlier settlers of River- side, he came here for his health, having been engaged in clerical work in his Eastern home. Here, again like so many others, his puritan ancestry showed in his activity in colony lines. He was a descendant in a direct line from John Alden of Mayflower fame, who has been better known than any of his compatriots on account of his fame in the courting by proxy of Priscilla on behalf of Miles Standish and marrying the lady himself. Mr. Backus, however. did his own courting and brought his wife along with him. He and his father bought 13 acres on what was known at that time as the Government tract, and proceeded to improve it by planting to raisin grapes and oranges. Mr. Backus, the elder, did not survive for very many years, but lived with his son and family until he died.
From the very first Mr. Backus was a success, having good taste in the arrangement of his fruit at all the fairs and exhibitions from the time he had any for exhibition. His vineyard came into full vigor about the time Riverside was at the height of her fame in raisin production and much the largest producer of raisins in the state. His raisins carried off at all the fairs and exhibits in Riverside and Los Angeles most of the blue ribbons and first premiums. It seems
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strange at this late day to look back and find that Riverside took such a large part in raisin development in the state, and to know that River- side does not now produce a single pound of raisins in a commercial way. In addition to being a leading exhibitor of fruit he was fre- quently one of the committee on judging fruit and awarding premiums. Southern California in the early days was the only place in which fruit fairs were held in the state, with the exception of the State Fair at Sacramento.
The first fair at which Mr. Backus obtained distinction was at Los Angeles at the Twenty-eighth District Fair in Hazards Pavilion, February 10-19, 1890, where he took five first premiums, one second and one fourth, in addition to which he took $137.50 in money. This seemed quite a transition in the short space of nine years from book- keeper in a bank in Cleveland to a fruit ranch in Riverside, California. The reverses experienced in the raisin business on account of meager returns for fruit from middlemen, coupled with the greater returns promised from oranges, drove Mr. Backus, as it did everybody else, from the raisin business to that of orange growing. His proximity to the two original Navel trees gave him excellent opportunity for obtaining first class trees, which in a measure accounted for the success he made as a grower and his exhibition of first class fruit.
At all the fairs in California and at New Orleans, when Riverside established her reputation as grower of the finest fruit in the world, Mr. Backus was at all times ready with his exhibit (and on one occasion he was about the sole exhibitor), he always came out ahead. His family has now preserved in a scrap book about fifty blue ribbons and records of his success at fairs.
In his later years he was very much handicapped by ill health and unable to devote the time and attention his grove required, and be- tween that, public street improvements and the demand for building lots the grove has vanished and what now remains of it is devoted to alfalfa.
Mr. Backus died in 1919, but his family, consisting of wife and two daughters, still occupy the comfortable home. One son occupies a grove in the northern portion of Riverside.
In addition to being a successful horticulturist Mr. Backus had a "fad" for the study of the natural history of the rattlesnake (Crotalus Durissus), and probably knew about as much of the rattlesnake and left about as good a selection of photographs, rattles, etc., as any amateur in the country.
DAVID HIRAM RODDICK is the son of an honored pioneer of the High- land district of San Bernardino County, and while educated for a profes- sion he has found more congenial work in the fundamental industry of this section, citrus fruit growing.
He was born at South Highland July 19, 1890, son of Samuel Donald and Ellen (Hume) Roddick. His parents were born in Picton County, Nova Scotia, where Samuel Roddick followed farming. In 1887 he brought his family to South Highland, and without capital to secure a stake in the country he resorted to ranch labor for Cunningham & Stone for twelve years. Out of his savings he purchased fifteen acres, and attempted to grow fruit without irrigation. He started the entire tract to peaches and also erected a dryer. There followed a succession of dry years and failure of water, which destroyed the orchard and the land reverted to the desert. With a faith in the ultimate destiny of the country that knew no permanent obstacle he bought in 1906 a thirteen and a half
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acre producing grove on Highland Avenue from the banker, Ed Roberts. The purchase price was $21,000, and he gave Mr. Roberts notes in pay- ment. These notes were all discharged in four years. A stimulating example of industry and persistence was that set by Samuel D. Roddick. He frequently worked ten hours a day digging cactus at $1.50 a day, and all the children old enough aided him in paying off the debt. Later he bought ten acres on Atlantic Avenue, and that was his home at the time of his death on March 17, 1916. He was a pioneer in Highland, came here when the country was largely undeveloped, and his extreme energy and economy brought him a generous estate. No road was too hard and no day too long, and he steadily went his way and succeeded in establishing himself and family financially and also in the estimation of the com- munity. His widow survives. They reared six children to maturity : James Robert, the oldest, now a druggist at Muskogee, Oklahoma ; Wil- liam Henry, an orange grower at Highland; Mrs. Will Painter, wife of a San Bernardino dairyman; George Melville, a clerk at Highland; David Hiram, and Howard Russell, who had an interesting record of service in the World war. He volunteered at the first call in the Ambulance Corps as an ambulance driver with the Medical Corps, was trained at Fort Riley, Kansas, was overseas eighteen months, and was in the thick of danger along the battlefront for a hundred days at Chateau Thierry, the Argonne, St. Mihiel, and finally proceeded with the Army of Occupation to Coblenz. He escaped unwounded.
David Hiram Roddick acquired a good education, his father having passed the critical affairs in his financial affairs by the time he was pre- pared for school. He graduated from the San Bernardino High School and in 1913 received a degree as a pharmacist from the University of Southern California. Instead of following his profession he took up orange growing and in 1917 bought sixteen acres on Boulder Avenue in Highland, this tract being planted to Valencias, Navels and also the grape fruit. It is a high class ranch with a modern home.
Mr. Roddick married Miss Lida Garrett, of Los Angeles. She was born in Colorado in 1894, but is a graduate of the Long Beach High School. She is retiring president of the Highland Woman's Club. Mr. Roddick is chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias. They have one son, Keith Garrett Roddick, born March 21, 1921. The family are members of the Highland Congregational Church.
HERBERT POPPETT .- In his hard working career in San Bernardino County Herbert Poppett has gone over a span of nearly forty years, and while he is still active and by no means aged, he has an abundance of prosperity permitting him to take life leisurely.
Mr. Poppett and his parents were natives of England. He was born in Shropshire July 14, 1865, son of John and Martha Poppett and was the third of their four sons and three daughters. As a boy he had little oppor- tunity to attend school, a deficiency supplied in later years by reading, study and observation. At the age of twelve he began making his own living, and while working out in service in England his compensation consisted of board, clothes and $30.00 a year.
In 1881, at the age of sixteen, he came to America, traveled by emigrant train from New York to San Francisco in twenty days, and thence to San Bernardino, where he joined his uncle, Robert Poppett. His first employ- ment here was with a threshing machine. The following spring he found work out on the desert, but in 1885 returned to the valley. For about ten years he depended upon the earnings of his manual toil, but in 1893 bought from James Fleming and Tyler Brothers ten acres of unimproved
Mm Lindubing
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land on LaPraix Street in Highland. He did all the work of a pioneer on this tract, cultivating it and setting it to citrus fruits. This is the site of his modern home overlooking the valley and with a full view of the mountains on the north. Subsequently, as his prosperity justified it, he bought two other ten-acre tracts at Harlem Springs. When Mr. Poppett came into the valley only a beginning had been made of citrus culture. His present home and grove was then used as an ox pasture. Mr. Poppett knew nearly all the first settlers, most of whom have now passed away.
He married Miss Eva McReynolds, a native of Missouri. Five chil- dren have been born to their union. The oldest, Stanley Llewelyn Poppett, is a graduate of the San Bernardino High School, was in the United States Navy during the World war until the signing of the armistice, and is now a clerk in the offices of the Santa Fe Railroad at San Bernardino. The second child, Frances Willard, born in April, 1899, is a graduate of the San Bernardino High School, a young woman of exceptional talents, and was married June 19, 1921, to Leo Mccrary, of Redlands. The third child, Herbert Milton, born in 1902, graduated in 1921 from the San Bernardino High School and is now engaged in the grocery business under the name of Hooker & Poppett in Highland. The two youngest children are John Roy Poppett, born in 1909, who will graduate from the high school in 1926, and Frederick Robert Poppett, born in 1911, a student in the grammar school.
Mr. Poppett in his life has exemplified some of the best traits of Americanism. He has been reliable, thrifty, industrious, has improved his holdings from wild, unproductive waste lands to abundant fruiting, has a family about him of well educated, useful young citizens, and while he has worked hard he has enjoyed living and living right and is one of the county's best citizens.
WILLIAM LINDENBERG .- His life in Redlands and his association with its development for a period of time covering nearly forty years surely entitles William Lindenberg to rank with the early pioneers of that county. When he passed away the city lost one of its best citizens, one who had from the first a vital interest in its material growth and adornment, one who sought to maintain the high character of its citizenship and who left visible monuments of his love for the beautiful in which the esthetic and the practical were so deftly blended. Land which was covered with greasewood and sage brush under his careful supervision gave way to orange groves, fruit orchards and beautiful drives, and today tourists share with the citizens much that his work, supervision and care gave to Redlands.
Mr. Lindenberg was a pioneer orange grower in his district and also was considered an authority on all citrus fruits. He not only developed, but he saved from extinction many groves, and his advice was always followed and he was sought by not only the new growers, but those of long experience.
It was not alone as a grower that Mr. Lindenberg will be long remem- bered by the generation which was his in the city of his adoption, for he was one of the most public spirited citizens Redlands has ever known. In the early days level headed, broad minded men were needed, men who had the vision to see what the future held if they were only wise enough and courageous enough to grasp the opportunity. He was consulted on many of the early problems of the city, and his advice was accepted always, the result being success in all such undertakings. His honest, upright principles and charities made him early known as a worth-while citizen, and in his long life he stood out as one of Redland's most dependable,
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reliable and prominent men. He is today cited as an example of what a man may become if he is blessed with the perseverance, intellect, moral courage and hearty will possessed by Mr. Lindenberg, but unfortunately, such men are rare. He passed into eternity loved by his family and friends, respected and honored by the city he had served so long, so freely and so well.
William Lindenberg was born in Hildesheim, Germany, January 21, 1845, and attended school there until he reached the age of fourteen, when a combination of circumstances ended his education as far as a school room went. He was, however, helped by his friends and people, and he suc- ceeded in securing a good practical education through study and travel.
He decided to come to America when nineteen years old, and he reached America in 1864, joining an older brother who was living in St. Louis Missouri, Frederick Lindenberg. He lived in the East until 1876, when he came to California, locating in Los Angeles, but a year later he made San Bernardino a temporary home. He engaged at first in farming, but he moved to the Lugonia District, Redlands, in 1880, where he purchased twenty acres of land, determined to make it his permanent home. This land was partially set to deciduous fruit and the remainder he at once planted to oranges.
To him also is given the credit for the planting of many of the orange groves of this rarely productive section. He also worked as a recon- structionist, for he later bought groves which had been neglected and rull down, and no matter how bad a condition they were in, by his excellent constant care he always brought them up to normal and then he sold them. He also superintended the planting and care of a 100-acre trati on San Bernardino Avenue.
After a period of time Mr. Lindenberg moved to the Williams Tract. leaving flourishing groves of oranges on the Lugonia tract. As soon as he moved he set out a grove and then built a modern residence, where he lived for ten years. He then purchased a lot on The Terrace, a beautiful residential district of Redlands, and he put it in fine condition, building a beautiful home and in 1903 he occupied it with his family. The grounds are most artistic and beautiful. Here he lived until his death on December 13, 1913. Financial success had rewarded him.
Mr. Lindenberg was a member of the Congregational Church. In Mis- souri he married on February 6, 1873, Elvira McCollough, who was of Scotch descent. They had three children: Christine, a graduate of the Redlands High School and an accomplished musician; Henry, who died at the age of eighteen, and Beatrice, who was also educated in Redlands.
DENVER CHAFFEE, one of the successful orange growers of San Bern- ardino County, has a well improved orange grove at Bloomington, where he is also a director of the Citizens Land & Water Company, his modern and attractive residence being at the corner of Slover and Linden avenues.
The consistency of the personal or Christian name of Mr. Chaffee becomes apparent when it is stated that he was born at Denver, Colorado, March 22, 1876, prior to the admission of that state to the Union. He is a scion of the staunchest of American stock, his ancestors having established residence in this country in the early colonial period and representatives of the line having been found as patriot soldiers in every war in which the nation has been involved. Mr. Chaffee is eligible for affiliation with the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, John Medberry, his great-grandfather, having served under General Washington and having been with his
FAMILY OF DENVER CHAFFEE John M., Mrs. Chaffee, Dorotha I .. Robert D., Richard F., Denver Chaffee
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great commander in the historic crossing of the Delaware River in an open boat, on a Christmas night. George and Charles A. Chaffee, uncles of Denver Chaffee, were gallant soldiers of the Union in the Civil war, George having been a sharpshooter in his regiment, and both were held captives in infamous old Andersonville Prison.
Mr. Chaffee is a son of John M. and Charlotte (Culver) Chaffee, the former of whom was born in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1830, and the latter was born at Athens, Athens County, Ohio, September 6, 1834, her death having occurred at Ontario, California, April 4, 1914, and her husband having passed the closing period of his life in the home of his son Denver, at Bloomington, where his death occurred February 29, 1920.
John M. Chaffee became a pioneer settler in Iowa, developed one of the fine farm estates of Pope County, that state, and was one of the most honored and influential citizens of the county, as a member of whose board of supervisors he did much to enable the county to free itself from debt. He was a staunch republican in politics and in the Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity he received the thirty- second degree and was also a member of the Shrine. Mr. Chaffee passed two years in traveling about the western states with teanı and wagon, and in 1903 he established his home at Ontario, Cali- fornia, and both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives in San Bernardino County. Fannie, (Mrs. McClain) eldest of their four children, is resident of Des Moines, Iowa; Ira resides at Alham- bra, California; Jennie M. died in 1921, in the City of Los Angeles; and Denver, of this sketch, is the youngest of the four.
After having received the advantages of the public schools of lowa, Denver Chaffee there pursued a higher course of study, in Drake University, at Des Moines. At the age of twenty-one years he returned to his native state, Colorado, and for eight years he was in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, first as fireman and thereafter as engineer. He resigned his position as engineer to become a melter in the United States mint at Denver, where he was employed four years. While on a furlough from the mint he entered the temporary employ of Sterns, Rogers & Company, of Denver, and while thus engaged he met with an injury that led, upon his physician's orders, to his coming to California. Here he made permanent settlement in the autunni of 1911. He purchased twenty acres of land in the Bloomington district, and here he has developed and improved his fine home and orange grove, the latter receiving his personal supervision.
At Denver, Colorado, on the 8th of June, 1901, Mr. Chaffee wedded Miss Cora M. Cunningham, who was born at Trenton, Missouri, January 16, 1876, a daughter of Samuel B. and Anna (Roberts) Cun- ningham, likewise natives of Missouri. Mrs. Chaffee was but four years of age at the time of her mother's death, her father having been at the time a contractor and builder in the city of Denver and having later become a farmer in Weld County, Colorado. Mrs. Chaffee attended Denver University, and prior to her marriage was for five years a successful teacher in the schools of Denver. Mr. and Mrs. Chaffee have four children : Dorothy Lucile, who was born in Denver, February 7, 1903, was graduated in the San Bernardino High School in 1920, attended the Junior College at Riverside one year and in 1922 is a student of art and domestic science in the State Agricultural College of Oregon. John Matthew, born at Denver on tlie 8th of December, 1906, is a member of the class of 1924 in the
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Colton High School. Robert Denver, born at Denver, July 28, 1910, is attending public schools at Bloomington. Richard Franklin, born at San Bernardino, January 12, 1915, is likewise attending the home schools. Mrs. Chaffee was for three years president of the Parents- Teachers Association of Bloomington and is now president of the Woman's Club of this place. Mr. Chaffee is a stalwart republican and while he has had no desire for public office his civic loyalty has been shown in his effective service as a member of the Board of Education at Bloomington, of which he has been secretary since 1919.
GRANT HOLCOMB .- In the history of San Bernardino County pub- lished herewith several references are made to that California pioneer Wil- liam F. Holcomb, discoverer of Holcomb Valley, a spot in the San Bernar- dino Mountains now known for its picturesque character and setting. A grandson of that pioneer gold miner is Grant Holcomb, a prominent young attorney and citizen of San Bernardino.
William F. Holcomb crossed the plains to California in 1849. He was a fine type of the frontiersman, one accustomed to the hardships of a lonely mountain in the lonely desert and pursuing fortune for the sake of the adventure rather than the money itself. When he uncovered the placer gold deposits in the valley that now bears his name he did more than anything else to attract people to San Bernardino County. Within six months after his discovery there were 2,000 men in the valley. This valley lies in the adjacent mountains, just north of Bear Valley, now the great summer resort of Southern California. William F. Holcomb in his adven- tures as a hunter and miner prospected over nearly all the country from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Arizona. He was one of the discoverers of the famous Vulture Mine in Arizona, from which more than $8,000,000 were taken. He sold a third interest in this property for $1,000, and afterward, in telling the experience, he referred with a quiet humor rather than any bitterness to the fact that he was cheated out of half the amount of the sale. His partner at the time was Dick Gird, discoverer of the mines at Tombstone, Arizona. William F. Holcomb after the discovery of gold in Holcomb Valley worked successfully at mining for several years. He was then elected county clerk, treasurer and assessor. This office he filled for several terms. He was a type of official who was not hampered by traditions or precedents, and he was guided first of all by the necessity of getting the thing done required by his official duty. Among other duties he had to levy and collect the personal tax. He levied a tax on the Santa Fe personal property. When the railroad refused to pay, this man of action secured some logging chains and, accompanied by a number of deputy sheriffs, went to the Santa Fe depot and proceeded to make an attachment. The most available property was a locomotive stand- ing on the main track in front of the depot. The wheels were secured with the chains and he placed padlocks on them and then left the deputies in charge until the law should be complied with. This summary action naturally caused great excitement among railroad officials, and there was a tremendous buzzing of telegraph wires until the necessary orders could be complied with for paying off the tax. This incident was in a manner characteristic of the West, and especially of the upright and straightfor- ward character of William F. Holcomb.
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