USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 32
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 32
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
F. Arthur Cortner was born in Tennessee January 26, 1881. He was educated in that state, and in 1903 graduated from the Myers College of Embalming at Cincinnati. In 1911 he married Miss Katherine Fox, of Colton, California. Her parents were California pioneers, her father being the first planter and packer of oranges in the Colton district, and continued the business of packing and shipping fruits from this section for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Cortner have three children : Arthur, Jr., born May 28, 1912; Anna Belle, born September 30, 1914; Gayle, born October 22, 1916.
Guy Cortner, youngest of the three brothers, and as yet unmarried, was born March 7, 1883, at Wartrace, Tennessee, and was reared and educated there. He arrived in Redlands in November, 1904. He is also a member of the firm Sering & Cortner, furniture merchants at Redlands.
J. J. SUESS .- In everything he has done since coming to Redlands J. J. Suess has manifested the talents of a constructive business man, and has done much to supply and anticipate the needs of the community for com- mercial undertakings involving the vital necessities of life.
Mr. Suess, one of San Bernardino County's esteemed and successful business men, was born near Zurich, Switzerland, August 22, 1862. When he was five years of age his parents, John J. and Susan ( Ulrich) Suess, left their home in Switzerland and came to America, settling at Fort Madison, Iowa, where his father for several years engaged in a manufacturing business. While there J. J. Suess attended common schools, and during his education acquired a knowledge of English, Ger- man and Spanish. From Fort Madison the family moved to Guide Rock, Nebraska, and a few years later both parents died there, leaving a family
1265
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
of nine children. J. J. Suess was next to the oldest. The children man- aged to keep together and look after the home farm.
J. J. Suess at the age of nineteen set out to make his own fortune in the world and came to California. His first home was in Ventura County, where he did farming for several years and then became manager of a general merchandise store at Nordhoff. On November 1, 1891, Mr. Suess began his thirty years of residence in Redlands. At that time he bought a half interest from J. W. Lewis in the Star Grocery, at the corner of Orange and State streets. January 1, 1893, he became sole proprietor, and has been active head and owner of that business ever since. It is the largest, best equipped and most successful store of its kind in Redlands, and the business has grown and prospered from year to year through the constant care and effective management of Mr. Suess. He has striven to make the business service adequate to all the needs of the community. In 1905 he added a modern bakery, supplying goods both wholesale and retail, the bakery product being shipped to many surrounding cities. In 1910, over the store, he opened a model cafeteria, which for years has been the favorite eating place in the Redlands business center, but it is now on the ground floor and a part of the store. Mr. Suess has exercised constant care to furnish the highest class and best prepared food. The cafeteria has a seating capacity of 125. The next important extension of his busi- ness activities was the organization in 1914 of the Imperial Valley Baking Company. At El Centro this company constructed one of the most modern and complete machine bakeries in the state. Mr. Suess is presi- dent of the company, and the business is entirely wholesale, supplying the bakery products for a large section of Southern California, including Imperial and adjoining counties. Mr. Suess is also president of the El Casco Land Company, owning the property formerly known as the Singleton Ranch. This is a very extensive tract, and under the present ownership and management is producing general crops and livestock. These lands and other business ventures are, through the careful business methods of Mr. Suess, constantly adding to the general benefit of the community. He is a republican in politics, and was mayor of Redlands for two terms, from 1904 to 1908.
On December 29, 1889, Mr. Suess married Miss Mattie E. Dewey, a native of Pennsylvania. She died in 1903, the mother of two children. Donald E. Suess, born August 30, 1895, attended Redlands High School and Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts, and acquired a thorough business training under his father. He is now with Reid Murdock and Company, wholesale grocers of Chicago. During the World war he enlisted in the army with the Grizzlies at Camp Kearney. The Medical Department ordered his release from this branch, but, determined to dis- charge his patriotic duties, he enlisted in the navy, and was on duty at Goat Island until after the signing of the armistice. The second child of Mr. Suess is Dorothy Deney Suess, born November 1, 1898, a graduate of the Redlands High School. She attended the Marlboro School for Girls at Los Angeles, also the University of California and the University at Redlands, and is a graduate of the Munson School for Secretaries, and is now doing an important work as secretary for the County Highway Commission of San Bernardino County. She is one of Redlands' favorite daughters.
On March 15, 1905, Mr. Suess married Miss Nellie Westland, who was born at Grand Ledge, Michigan. She was well known socially and in edu- cational affairs at Redlands before her marriage, having been principal of one of the grammar schools of Redlands. She is a graduate of the Michigan State Normal School at Ypsilanti. She is of Scotch-Irish ances-
1266
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
try, and her grandmother was one of the first graduates of Oberlin College in Ohio, and her grandfather, Rev. E. T. Branch, was a Congregational minister who did missionary work for his denomination in Michigan while it was still a territory. Mrs. Suess is a member of the Congregational Church, belongs to the Contemporaneous Club, concluded in December, 1920, a two-year term as president of the Southern District of Federated Women's Clubs, and has been very active in civic and social betterment, having been a worker in the Red Cross during the war period and always deeply interested in the welfare and progress of the schools. She was an active leader in the movement for the creation and improvement of Sylvan Park, and was appointed secretary of the Park Commission. Mrs. Suess is a republican in politics.
Mr. Suess is a Mason, a member of Al Malaikah Temple and Shrine, also a member of Redlands Lodge of Elks and the Woodmen of the World, and belongs to the Rotary Club. In his years of industry he has made himself a strong factor in the commercial and civic integrity of Southern California. His success has been the result of energies and character pro- ceeding from himself, since he started life with no capital in a material way.
J. OLIVER PERCIVAL is a young business man who has made ex- traordinary use of his time and talents since leaving school. At Hemet he has carried on and developed an extensive ice manufacturing and associated industry, and is justly accorded a place of prominence among the business leaders of that community.
Mr. Percival was born at Santa Monica, California, September 1, 1892, son of J. Phil and Delia C. Percival, now residents of Los Angeles. His father is president of the Percival Iron Company of Los Angeles. Phil Percival in his early years was celebrated as a champion bicycle rider.
J. Oliver Percival attended public school at Los Angeles, graduating from high school in 1910, and in the same year started his independ- ent career, locating at Hemet. The business to which he has given his energies and which in time has profited by his connection is the Valley Ice & Laundry Company. He became president, secretary and treasurer of the company some years ago and is now its principal owner. This industry was started as a very modest plant, but is now one of the largest of the kind in Riverside County, serving a patronage for many miles adjacent to Hemet.
Mr. Percival is also president of the Hemet Chamber of Com- merce and one of its directors, and he is also director of the First National Bank of Hemet. He is a republican in politics and a Mason and Shriner, also a member of the Knights of Pythias.
On April 4, 1915, he married Miss Eva Oldaker at Riverside. Her parents have been residents of San Bernardino County for over thirty years. Her father, George Oldaker, in San Bernardino is connected with the Santa Fe Railway. Mr. and Mrs. Percival have two children. Oliver Cary, born November 21, 1916, and Patricia, born November 23, 1919.
JAMES A. COLE was one of the most honored pioneer citizens of San Bernardino County, where he established his home in the year 1859, and with his strong and earnest manhood he proved a force in connection with the early stages of development and progress in this favored section of the state. He was a resident of old San Bernardino at the time of his death, July 27, 1888, and his character and achievement were such as to
Atenciónal
1267
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
make imperative a tribute to his memory in connection with the compilation of the history of San Bernardino County.
James Alfred Cole was born at Kirtland, Trumbull County, Ohio, March 8, 1831, and was reared and educated in the old Buckeye State, his parents having there been pioneer settlers in the district known as the Western Reserve. As a young man he married May Elizabeth Kelly, who was born at Quincy, Illinois, May 31, 1833, and whose death occurred at Oakland, California, on the 15th of March, 1915, their marriage having been solemnized at Springville, Utah Territory, on the 17th of July, 1852. From Ohio James A. Cole went to Illinois and became a member of the Mormon colony at Nauvoo, and as a member of the Latter Day Saints he was with this colony at the time of its historic hegira from Nauvoo to Utah, in which territory was established the church headquarters at Salt Lake City. He continued his residence in Utah until 1859, on October 16th of which year, accompanied by his family, he set forth with other members of the Mormon Church to form a new colony in California. The company proceeded by wagon train over the weary intervening distance, and deferred departure until a detachment of Government troops became available to serve as protection against attack by Indians. The colonists arrived in San Bernardino County on the 23d of December, 1859. The long overland journey having been initiated on the 16th of the preceding October. On arrival at their destination the company encamped on what is now Third Street in the City of San Bernardino, the colonists having first settled in old San Bernardino, near the old Mission. This selection of location was made by reason of the fact that here they could make use of water which the Indians had previously brought in for irrigation purposes. The colonists widened the primitive ditches constructed by the Indians and increased materially the area of irrigated land. Mr. Cole, who had severed his connection with the Mormon Church, remained at San Ber- nardino until the 1st of February, 1860, when he removed to a tract of thirty acres in old San Bernardino. With the passing years he added to this original holding until he was the owner of approximately 700 acres, the same extending a distance of two miles north and south. He became the owner also of what is now known as Loma Linda. This site was platted into town lots and the original name of the village was Mound City. With the construction of the Southern Pacific Railway line through this section, in 1875, Colton was made a division point, and Mound City passed into obscurity, the land reverting to farm use. Mr. Cole was a man of much physical strength and prowess in the earlier period of his residence in California, and he gained distinct prestige as a wrestler, with never a defeat in the local matches. He enjoyed this sturdy sport but did not countenance what are now designated as boxing (fighting) contests.
On his land Mr. Cole planted a number of orange trees and other fruit trees, but he gave the greater part of his attention to the raising of live stock, grain and forage crops. His place being situated at the mouth of San Gorgonia Pass, through which passed the long trains of freight wagons en route to Arizona, he kept a station and supplied forage for the freighting teams. In this way he found profitable market for most of his farm produce, as often his farm would be the stopping place for fully 200 head of horses and mules over night. From 1860 to 1868 he operated a line of freighting wagons of his own in the hauling of supplies to Prescott, Arizona. Mr. Cole was a man of vision and progressiveness, and was one of the first of the pioneers to bring blooded live stock into this part of California, his early importations having had enduring influence in improv- ing the grades of stock raised here. He imported the first Percheron Norman stallion into San Bernardino County, and brought also a Cleveland
1268
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
bay stallion, a riding and driving type, besides which he brought here the first Berkshire hogs, and introduced the first reaping machine and header to be used in San Bernardino County. The harvester was manufactured by Cyrus McCormick of Chicago, and it attracted wide attention when placed in operation by Mr. Cole, persons having come for miles to see the new machine. Mr. Cole served as school trustee and was a leader in com- munity advancement in many other ways. Both he and his wife con- tinued their membership in the Church of Latter Day Saints until their deaths. Of their ten children one died in infancy; Susannah Matilda was born at Sprinville, Utah, July 29, 1853; James Calvin was there born September 3, 1854; Hugh Henry, February 3, 1856; and John Albert, April 13, 1858. All of the other children were born at Old San Bernar- dino: Mary Jane, June 21, 1860; Arthur Edgar, December 27, 1861; Joseph Morrison, July 23, 1865; Alfred Ira, July 13, 1867; and Walter Dayton, April 15, 1880. Of the children only four are now living : Hugh Henry, Arthur Edgar, Joseph Morrison and Walter Dayton. Hugh Henry married Miss Mary Curtis, a member of a prominent pioneer family of San Bernardino County, and they have one son and three daughters. Arthur Edgar Cole received the advantages of the public schools and a business college in Los Angeles, where in 1882 he took a special course in penmanship. As a penman he has few superiors, even to the present day, notwithstanding the fact that he has done a large amount of hard and rough farm work that naturally might impair his skill in this line. He has kept himself in practice and has gained high reputation and has held official positions that have brought his talent into effective play. He has served as deputy county clerk and deputy county auditor and recorder, and in 1887 he was deputy tax collector of San Bernardino County. After the deatlı of his father he resumed active association with farm enterprise on his inherited portion of the old homestead. Here he raises oranges and other fruits, with special attention given to the raising of Bartlett pears. Some of the trees on his farm were planted by him and his father more than half a century ago. September 21, 1892, Arthur E. Cole wedded Miss Elmira Doell, who was born near Rocky Ridge, Ottawa County, Ohio, March 8, 1864, and who died at Ontario, California, March 25, 1921, she having come to this state in 1892. She is survived by two children: Anna Louise, who was born August 30, 1893, and who is now the wife of George P. Hinchman, a printer residing at Ontario, California, their mar- riage having occurred in October, 1918; and Arthur Edgar, Jr., who was reared and educated in San Bernardino County. At Los Angeles, on the 17th of July, 1920, he enlisted in the United States Navy, and he has sailed on various vessels and on many seas while in training for service as a marine engineer of the navy. Joseph Morrison Cole is a rancher of Red- lands, and Walter Dayton Cole is a well known attorney of Oakland, California.
MRS. WINNIE WATJE .- A stimulating example of what a determined woman can do when left largely to her own resources is furnished by Mrs Winnie Watje of Redlands. Her husband died while in the midst of developing an orange grove, and Mrs. Watje immediately took charge, and has achieved a success remarkable in itself and one that makes her a recognized authority and leader among the citrus fruit growers of this district.
Mrs. Watje was born in Germany, near the Holland border, March 26, 1879, daughter of Chris and Henrietta Kahl. Her parents were farm laborers in Germany, her father frequently receiving only ten cents for a day's labor. Three of the daughters and one of the older sons managed
1269
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
to save enough to get them to America, where they struggled along for three or four years before they saved enough to send for their parents and younger children.
Mrs. Watje was thirteen when she came to America. Her parents settled in Iowa, and Mrs. Watje had a few terms of the common schools in that state.
In 1897 she was married to William Watje, an Iowa farmer and also a native of Germany, who had come to America with his parents when nine years old. Mrs. Watje has three children: Barney, born July 4, 1903, now studying mechanics; Adele, born August 31, 1905, attending the Redlands High School and planning a career as a professional nurse; and Wilburt, born September 21, 1908. These children were all born in Iowa. In 1909 the family moved to Redlands, where William Watje bought ten acres of Valencia oranges on Alabama Street, and with the assistance of the family began the business of fruit growing. He died in 1913, leaving Mrs. Watje with the responsibility of her family and the care of the orchard. That was the year of the great freeze. Mrs. Watje had closely studied practical methods of caring for orange groves, and she wisely carried out her ideas in that crisis. Immediately after the freeze she purchased large quantities of blood fertilizer, and made an application to the groves and a second one in the fall. The result was that in six weeks the trees had apparently recovered their normal vitality, and the crop for that season totaled 7,634 boxes, netting $6,300, whereas other growers who had not fertilized secured either a light yield or none at all. The results continued even in the second year, when other groves were extremely affected. In 1918 Mrs. Watje harvested 8,000 boxes of oranges, for which she received almost $16,000. She now has a fifteen acre grove and gives it her personal supervision.
This is a wonderful achievement, showing what a live woman can accomplish in the fruit industry, but the story is not complete without some reference to the early environment and conditions under which Mrs. Watje and the other members of the family lived before they came to America, the land of opportunity. Mrs. Watje was one of nine children. Her father was a farm laborer in Germany, and after they all came to America the boys worked on rented land and the girls went out to work in private families, and all their earnings were pooled so as to enable them to buy land. Mrs. Watje when only eleven years of age in the old country worked out during the six weeks school vacation, did heavy house work and also assisted in the fields in the cutting and hauling and threshing of grain. Her task was to cut the bundles as fed into a horse driven thresh- ing machine, and she was so small she had to stand on a box. For this six weeks labor she received one dollar and enough gingham for an apron. At other times she cared for the children of rich people, but was never allowed to eat at table with her employers, and she cooked many meals, while the only food allowed her was a dish of soup. When she reached Iowa she at once went out to work, and found herself handicapped by her lack of knowledge of English. For the first week she received fifty cents. Her mother at home spun and made all clothes by hand, working late at night, and from this labor eventually her fingers became deformed and worn. Mrs. Watje generously assisted in providing for her parents. Her mother is now deceased, and her father, seventy-five years old, lives in Mrs. Watje's California home. In the old country the family ate the coarsest of food, and yet were hardy and rarely sick. Her grandfather was a tailor and sat and sewed by hand nearly all his life, yet lived to the age of ninety, was never seriously ill and never wore glasses. Frequently when Mrs. Watje's father was absent from home at work the rest of the
1270
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
family would sit in the dark at night waiting until her grandfather could come home with his wages to buy food and oil for light. Six weeks at a time the family fare consisted of buttermilk, rye bread and syrup.
When the family came to this country they not only improved their material conditions but readily adapted themselves to American ways and became enthusiastic citizens. Mrs. Watje has deserved every degree of her generous prosperity. She has educated her family and during the World war was not only a liberal buyer of bonds, but an energetic worker in the local Red Cross.
ALLEN BREAK is a man whose energy, ability and personal efforts have enabled him to so take advantage of opportunities offered in Southern California as to advance himself from a position of financial obscurity to a plane of substantial independence. He is now one of the representative citizens of the Bryn Mawr district of San Bernardino County, and it is pleasing to accord him recognition in this work.
Mr. Break was born in Elgin County, Province of Ontario, Canada, on the 30th of November, 1871, and is a son of John and Mary Break, the father having been a" farmer by vocation. The lineage of the Break family traces back to Swiss origin, and in Switzerland the spelling of the name was Brech. John Break, the founder of the American branch of the family, came to this country in the year 1751 and established his home in Pennsylvania, where he died at the early age of thirty-two years. His brave and resourceful young widow, with her two fatherless children, emigrated to Ontario, Canada, where she purchased 200 acres of heavily timbered land, at $2.00 an acre, and instituted its reclamation. This prop- erty was retained in possession of the Break family more than 100 years, and portions of it have been sold in recent years for a price as high as $125 an acre. The soil was of excellent constituency, and this is shown in the fact that a black-walnut tree planted on the old homestead grew to such gigantic proportions as to overshadow and cause the death of the apple trees in thirteen rows adjacent to it. This tree was planted by a member of the Break family and when it was recently felled and sawed into lumber the lumber was divided among the surviving representatives of the family. The parents of the subject of this review continued their residence in Ontario until 1920, when they came to California, where they now reside near the home of their son Allen, who is one of their family of five children and of whom he is the eldest; Catherine, born February 2, 1873, is the wife of William Call, and they reside in the State of Wyoming; David, born December 27, 1879, resides at Florence, Kansas; Rose, born January 22, 1882, resides at Redlands, California; and Estelle, born October 1, 1891, is the wife of Donald Donson, foreman of the fruit-packing house of the Redlands Orange Growers Association at Redlands.
In the public schools of his native province Allen Break continued his studies until he had completed the work of the seventh grade at Kitchener. Thereafter he continued his association with farm industry in Ontario until the spring of 1892, when he came West and found employment as a farm hand in Kansas, at a stipend of eighteen dollars a month and his board. He worked literally "from the rising of the sun until the going down of the same," and he continued his alliance with farm enterprise in the Sunflower State four years, within which in 1894 he married Miss Cynthia Clausen, who was born in Denmark, September 23, 1876, and who was eighteen months old when her parents came to America and established their home in Kansas, where they passed the remainder of their lives, as sterling pioneers of that commonwealth.
In January, 1897, Mr. Break came to California, in company with his wife and their eldest child, then an infant, and upon the arrival of the
1271
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTIES
family at Pomona the tangible possessions of Mr. Break were summed up in forty dollars and the two trunks in which the personal belongings of the family had been transported. He obtained employment with the Cali- fornia Fruit Growers Exchange at Pomona, and continued this connection seven years, within which he was advanced to the position of manager of the packing house. This experience has proved of great value to him in his independent operations in connection with the raising of citrus fruits. Upon leaving Pomona Mr. Break came to Redlands Junction and engaged in the buying and packing of oranges in an independent way. He also purchased a tract of twenty acres, of which eight acres had been planted to citrus trees, which were bearing fruit. On the remainder of the tract he planted orange trees of the Navel and Valencia types. In undertaking this enterprise he assumed an appreciable indebtedness, but his energy and good management enabled him eventually not only to free himself from debt but also to develop one of the fine fruit ranches of this section. He now owns and operates a high-grade orange grove of ninety-seven acres. Mr. Break has been notably prospered in his speculative enterprise in the buying, packing and shipping of California fruit, and is one of the leading independent packers and dealers of San Bernardino County. His interests are such that he is a very busy man, and he may well take pride in being one of the world's productive workers who have "made good." He now does his marketing almost exclusively through the excellent medium of the Mutual Orange Distributors of Redlands, an admirable organization that has developed the best of direct trade relations in all sections of the United States, as well as principal Canadian markets. Mr. Break has prospered where many other men have failed. He has had unlimited confidence in the resources of Southern California, and he attributes his success mainly to his conservative policies and careful methods.
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.