USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 35
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 35
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After her marriage Margaret Louise Field lived for seventeen years in the East, in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In 1910 she returned to California and in 1911 became the wife of John E. Strong. Mr. Strong was born in Nova Scotia in 1860, and came to California in December, 1886, and soon settled at Rincon. He has built up a prosperous ranching business. By a previous mar- riage he has a son, Clifford Strong, who was born on the Rincon ranch October 11, 1897, a graduate of the Corona High School. This son in 1918 enlisted in the Aviation Corps, was trained in American fields and was then sent to France, and was there ten months but never got into action. He had just finished his intensive training when the armistice was signed. He now lives with Mr. and Mrs. Strong on the home ranch.
ROLAND D. WEST-There were two distinctive sides to the life and character exemplified by the late Roland D. West of Rincon. He possessed the commendable industry and ambition to get ahead in the world, and after his marriage he showed the ability and the thrift to provide generously for those dependent upon him. In the second place, his public spirit and interest in the community welfare went hand in hand with the prosecution of his own affairs, and at his death he was esteemed as one of the most useful men who had lived in the Rincon community. His home, and where Mrs. West and her family still reside, is seven miles south of Chino, on the Rincon Road and near the Pioneer School House.
The late Mr. West was born March 13, 1864, in Kings County, Nova Scotia, son of William and Mary (Brown) West, a family of Canadian farmers. He acquired his education in Nova Scotia and at the age of twenty-one came to California, joining his uncle, D. R. Brown, of San Bernardino. He soon secured employment on a ranch on the Rincon, and in a few years purchased fifty acres from Charles Harwood, one of the early pioneers of Upland. This was dry ranch land. Mr. West steadily improved the land, built a modest home, provided water for irrigation, set out fruit and from time to time purchased other land until the estate now comprises 140 acres, practically all well developed. Besides farming his own land Mr. West leased many acres, and he had his investment at one time widely scattered, owning and operating farm acreage in the Winchester dis- tricts.
During the World war Mr. West showed his patriotic ardor by working in superhuman fashion to produce the highest possible pro- duction on his land, and it was the strain of this heavy undertaking that weakened him, so that on August 21, 1918, while he was surf bathing at Newport Beach, his heart failed and he died in the water. He was a charter member of Ontario Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was affiliated with the Congregational Church, and was largely instrumental in founding that church at Rincon. He made the
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first declaration of his intentions of becoming an American citizen on August 14, 1886, at San Bernardino, and on August 24, 1891, was admitted to citizenship by Judge John L. Crawford of the Superior Court of San Bernardino.
February 26, 1895, Mr. West married Miss Adaline Cavanagh, who was born in Ontario, Canada, May 22, 1875, daughter of William and Adaline (Streeter) Cavanagh, natives of the same country. Her parents with their eight children came to Ontario, California, in 1888, where her father died three years later. In the meantime he had bought the old Stuart ranch on the Rincon, where his sons continued farming operations for many years. Mrs. West's mother is living with her daughters at the age of eighty-two. Mrs. West attended the old Chaffey College of Ontario, and was married at the age of twenty. After their marriage they moved to the first tract that had been purchased by Mr. West, and which is her present home. Mr. and Mrs. West had three children. All were born on the Rincon ranch. William, born January 8, 1896, was educated in the Chino High School and the Los Angeles Junior College and was in read- iness to join the colors when his father's death compelled him to take up the productive work on the ranch and he was put on the re- serve list. He still continues as active ranch manager. The second child, Winifred Adaline, born March 16, 1903, is a graduate of the Chaffey High School now attending Chaffey Junior College with the class of June, 1922. She is specializing in vocal and instrumental music with a view to teaching those subjects. The third of the family, Corinne Elizabeth, born June 7, 1907, is a student in the Chaffey High School.
Mr. and Mrs. West started their married life with very modest capital, in a district that was comparatively undeveloped, and when they went to Ontario they had to drive through vast reaches of drift- ing sand, opening gates and passing through fenced lands. The late Mr. West was a life-long democrat, but above all other outside inter- ests the matter of community welfare was first to engage his attention.
WILLIAM CHURCHILL CLINE has been a resident in and around On- tario for thirty years or more. His business is construction work of a high character. As a youth he learned the stone and brick mason's trade, and his long experience and study has brought him a masterful authority in all branches of building construction, paving and road work, and the examples of his sturdy art and business energy can be found all over this section of the county.
Mr. Cline was born at Lockhaven, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1876, son of John Lloyd and Susan Maria (Churchill) Cline, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of New York State. There were three children : Ella, who was well educated, is Mrs. Ella Kouts and is now teaching in the schools at Fontana, California ; William Churchill, and Susie, who died at Pasadena as Mrs. Susie Groomer.
William Churchill Cline came to California with his grandfather and grandmother in 1889, when he was thirteen years of age. They located in 1890 at North Ontario, now Upland, where Mr. Cline finished his education in the old Chaffey College. His grandmother established and conducted a private sanitarium at 24th Street and Euclid Avenue, an institution well patronized in its day. His grand- father was the first postmaster of San Antonio Heights, an office that has long since been discontinued. He was a veteran of the Civil war.
Mr. Cline continued to live with his grandparents until about 1892, when his parents came out to California. Completing his education
ANDREW P. COLLINS
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in 1894, he worked for a year or so on the Stewart fruit ranch. His father and grandfather were very skilled stone and brick masons, and about 1895 Mr. Cline began an apprenticeship to learn these trades, and he also took up the new branch of cement construction. This has been his business now for a quarter of a centry. Many of the county's large works are monuments to his skill. Mr. Cline has devoted much time and study and has performed some notable work in cobble stone and native stone construction.
In 1900 he married Miss May Johns, who was born in Ottawa, Canada, daughter of J. C. Johns. Her father came to Ontario about thirty-five years ago, was a plumber by occupation and established the first hardware and plumbing business in the then new town of Ontario. He also did much business as a contractor, and laid much of the early water system of Ontario. Mrs. Cline was educated in the schools of Ontario. Three children have been born to their marriage: Ruth A., born December 12, 1900, is a graduate of the Chaffey Union High School and now a trusted employe of the Commercial Bank of Up- land ; Gilbert W., born February 7, 1902, is a graduate of the Chaffey High School, and John Ernest, born April 5, 1903, is attending high school. All the children were born at Ontario. Mr. Cline is affiliated with the Ontario Lodge of Elks, was one of the first sixteen charter members of Euclid Lodge No. 68, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the membership of which is now over one hundred, and he and his family are Presbyterians.
ALBERT N. COLLINS-The Collins family has had a prominent part in the agricultural and horticultural development of several localities adjacent to Riverside and the business of production and marketing of citrus crops has been notably stimulated by them. Albert N. Collins came to Riverside some years after his father and other members of the family and after a successful career as a merchant in St. Louis. He is now one of the prominent orange growers in this district.
Mr. Collins was born at Solomon, Kansas, December 13, 1872, son of Andrew Perry and Sarah Elizabeth (Blair) Collins. His father, who spent the last years of his life in Riverside, was a native of Seneca County, Ohio, of an old American family of French descent, while his wife was of English stock. He grew up in Ohio and his liberal education was acquired in the Ohio Wesleyan University. As a young man he assisted in raising the Twelfth Michigan Infantry, in which he was commissioned first lieutenant. He served in several battles along the Mississippi until captured. He was confined in Ander- sonville prison, escaping with another man from that notorious stockade. An account of their experiences in the swamps of the South was made by his companion the subject of a volume entitled "Beyond the Lines: or a Yankee Prisoner Loose in Dixie."
In the closing years of the war he served on the staff of Gen. C. C. Andrews.
After the war Andrew P. Collins removed to Solomon, Kansas, beginning at the grass roots in that frontier community. He acquired one of the largest farms in the region. In 1868 he married Miss Sarah E. Blair, who was a native of Iowa and is now living at Riverside. Andrew P. Collins for many years was a prominent Kansan. He served as county superintendent of schools of Saline County, sat four years in the Legislature, was for ten years a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and was one of the five Kansas Vol. 111 -- 16
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World's Fair Commissioners at Chicago in 1893 and had charge of the agricultural exhibit of his state. He took an active part in 1885 in the founding of the Kansas Wesleyan University at Salina and for years was president of the Board of Trustees. He was a leading layman of the Methodist Church in Kansas and was a delegate to the General Conference at New York in 1888.
Andrew P. Collins came to Riverside in 1903 and bought fifty acres of oranges above Highgrove. After trying to market his product for a couple of years he bought a packing house of his own, and made a notable success of this enterprise known as the Collins Fruit Company. With his son and others he was interested in the development of six hundred acres in the Morino Valley. The water had been developed, but about the time they were ready to put the land into cultivation a favorable opportunity for selling arose and they disposed of it. Andrew P. Collins was a booster for all things of interest to Riverside. He was a member of the Masonic order. His death occurred March 17, 1911, when he was seventy-four years of age.
Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Collins had three sons and three daughters. Oliver E., a practicing attorney at Colorado Springs, Colorado; Edith C., wife of John L. Bishop of Riverside; Albert N .; Frank N., manager of the Exchange Packing House of Highgrove; May C, wife of Clarence H. Matson, a prominent Los Angeles citizen, who shares in the credit for the development of the Los Angeles Harbor, was for years traffic manager of the harbor and is now connected with the foreign trade department of the Los Angeles Chamber of Com- merce ; and Ruth E., wife of M. C. Shaible of Salina, Kansas, auditor of the International Harvester Company.
Albert N. Collins was reared in Central Kansas, acquired a public school education, attended Kansas Wesleyan University at Salina and was graduated from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1895 with the degree Ph. G. For about thirteen years Mr. Collins was success- fully engaged in the drug business at St. Louis, at one time owning and conducting five stores. He disposed of those interests and in 1908 came to Riverside with the intention of joining his father in the development of six hundred acres in the Morino Valley. Shortly afterward that property was sold and he then became an associate of S. H. Herrick and his brother-in-law, John L. Bishop, in the develop- ment of a two hundred acre tract of oranges and lemons two miles east of Riverside. The company is known as the Lemona Heights Com- pany, and most of the time and energy of Mr. Collins has been bestowed upon this property. He is interested in other groves in Riverside and a peach orchard on the Colton Terrace, and is a property owner at Los An- geles and Santa Monica. For one year after coming to Riverside he con- ducted his father's packing house, and for a year or so it continued under the management of Mr. Bishop, but was finally sold.
Mr. Collins is a director of the Monte Vista Packing Association. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club and a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Collins married Miss Harriet M. Thompson. She was born in Iowa, daughter of Montgomery C. Thompson of an old American family. Mrs. Collins is one of the best educated women in River- side. She is a graduate of the Kansas Wesleyan University with the degree A. B. and A. M., and after graduation she remained on the University faculty of instruction as teacher of French and German. Mr. and Mrs. Collins have four children: A. N., Jr. (Noel), a sub-
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station operator on the Pacific Electric Railway; Margaret, member of the class of 1922, and Alice of the class of 1924 in the Riverside high school; and Donald Addison, a student in the Riverside grammar schools.
EDWARD J. JAQUET was born in Switzerland, possesses the Swiss talent for agriculture and horticulture, and as a pioneer of Southern California has done a great deal of actual and supervisory work in the planting, development and landscape beautification of Ontario and vicinity.
He was born in Canton Neuchatel, Switzerland, January 14, 1860. He was one of six children, had a common school education, and at the age of sixteen left his native land and went to Canada, settling at Kingston, Ontario. He worked on the farm there three years. Being homesick, he returned to Switzerland and remained a year. He then went back to Canada and six months later arrived at River- side, California, in 1882. At Riverside he entered the service of the Chaffey Brothers, who were then engaged in subdiving the colony of Etiwanda. Mr. Jaquet was with the Chaffeys, planting and irrigat- ing orange trees. In the meantime the Chaffeys had bought the site of Ontario, and in the spring of 1883 Mr. Jaquet moved to that colony, at Chaffey's Camp, located at what is now Fourteenth and Euclid Avenue. This land was then being prepared for settlers, and the foreman of the work was Andrew Rubio, a native Californian of Mexican stock. Mr. Jaquet worked with a man named Daniel Nicholl, a landscape gardener. During the year 1883 he helped grade part of Euclid Avenue, planted the ornamental trees along that thor- oughfare to Fourth Street, and the following year completed grading and tree planting on the avenue to Twenty-fourth street. This ex- pense was borne by the Chaffey Brothers, who were then transacting the sale of this land to individual buyers, Chaffey Brothers agreeing to plant and care for the developing young orange orchards at a charge of so much an acre for the service. Mr. Jaquet was put in charge of this special part of the work, superintending the planting and irrigating as well as the care of the young trees. In 1886 the Chaffeys left Ontario to do some pioneer work in Australia, and the following year Mr. Jaquet followed them and became their planting manager in Australia. He remained there five years, and when he left Australia he went back through the Suez Canal and the Mediter- ranean Sea, lived with his father in Switzerland for six months, and reached America in time to visit the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893. From Chicago he returned to California, and at Ontario was associated with the Lyman Stewart interests, orange growers, for six years. For three years he was ranch foreman for A. P. Griffith at Azusa. On returning to Ontario Mr. Jaquet was in the service of E. H. Richardson as foreman of planting and irrigation work in the new colony of Adelanto for five years, and during the last three years of this time had entire charge of the enterprise. He gave up that position on account of his wife's failing health and has since lived at Ontario, though he has done much outside work as adviser and special pruning expert.
On March 17, 1897, Mr. Jaquet married Rosie Gisin, who was born at Basel, Switzerland, in 1860, and in 1882, as a young woman, came to America. For a time she lived near Chicago and in 1883 came to California and secured work with the Chaffeys. She was first mar- ried in Los Angeles, and was a widow when she became the wife of
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Mr. Jaquet. Her daughter by her first husband, Pearl, is the wife of Hellman Cornelius, of Hollywood.
Mr. Jaquet in 1900 bought property on Euclid Avenue and 1e- tained it until recently. Ten years ago he bought two and a half acres of fine ground on East I Street, which he set to oranges seven years ago, and in July, 1921, he completed his modern bungalow home there. Mr. Jaquet is an old time member of Ontario Lodge, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He has been instrumental in the advance- ment of this colony's interests as a landscape artist, and his skill and industry have provided some of the most distinctive artistic beauties that adorn the natural advantages of this section.
THE ITALIAN VINEYARD COMPANY .- The world's largest vineyard is in San Bernardino County, situated at Guasti Station, three miles east of Ontario. It is a splendid example of daring enterprise and skillful executive management, and is an institution that has reflected benefits in countless ways on the county. In the first place, the vineyard occupies land that was long considered worthless desert, and is, therefore, a re- demption from the wilderness. As an industry it affords employment to a great amount of capital and labor, and in every sense it is a pro- ductive and creative enterprise.
This unique institution owes its existence to Secondo Guasti. Mr. Guasti was born in Italy in 1859, was reared and educated there, and about 1881 left his native land, first going to Panama, then to Guay- mas, Mexico, and finally to Los Angeles, where in 1883 he established and conducted a wholesale and retail wine business. He was in that business with his individual capital, his place being at the corner of Third and Alameda streets. As a Los Angeles business man he bought exten- sive quantities of grapes from growers, and had dealings with the pioneer vineyardists around Cucamonga, including Milliken and Haven. These transactions gave Mr. Guasti the original idea of organizing capital, buy - ing and developing a large acreage, and promoting a huge vineyard and winery.
The plans after being carefully formulated in Mr. Guasti's mind for a time were put into execution in 1900 by the organization of The Italian Vineyard Company. It was incorporated with a hundred thousand dollars stock. The first purchase included fifteen hundred acres of land known as the Cucamonga Desert. A more unpromising scene for pro- ductive horticulture could hardly be conceived. The land was covered with sage brush and sand dunes, and inhabited only by the horned toad. jack-rabbit and rattlesnake. Mr. Guasti as head of the company had this tract cleared and graded and set to vines. It is on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railway, surrounding the desert station of South Cuca- monga. The lands included in the great vineyard were purchased at from twenty-five to thirty dollars an acre. In 1901 the capital stock was raised to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and still later to five hundred thousand dollars. Successive land purchases were made and developed to vineyard. In 1904 the first stone and iron winery was constructed on these lands. The company now owns over four thousand acres, nearly all of it devoted to grape culture. The capacity of the winery was increased until it reached five million gallons, and was crush- ing from fifteen to twenty-five thousand tons of grapes each vintage. The wines produced by this company were sold throughout the United States, with branch houses at New York City, Chicago, New Orleans and Seattle, and in former years also had an immense export trade to
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foreign lands. The winery is known as the best equipped in California, and the company still does a modified business in the manufacture of wines for sacramental, medicinal and manufacturing purposes, and the com- pany also makes huge quantities of pure grape syrup marketed under their special brand.
It is an industry employing all the year around a hundred and fifty men, while during the vintage season from four hundred to four hun- dred and fifty are on the pay roll. Much of the labor is expert and skilled. The company has developed an ample water supply for irriga- tion purposes, the source of the supply being five large wells equipped with Pomona deep well pumps and Layne and Bowler pumps. Each well has a capacity of from ninety to a hundred and fifty miner's inches. From the wells the water is pumped to a number of cement reservoirs, one of which has a capacity of thirteen million gallons. From these reservoirs the water is distributed by concrete pipe lines, from eight to eighteen inches in diameter, and the system is such as to afford complete regulation and ample supply for every part of the vineyard.
While this vineyard is a remarkable tribute to the push and energy and foresight of Mr. Guasti and his associates, it also serves as an object lesson to indicate the wonderful potential resources of San Bernardino and other sections of Southern California, which may awake the genius of similar men to respond with enormous additions of productive wealth for the world. The main offices of the Italian Vineyard Company are at 1234 Palmetto Street in Los Angeles. The secretary of the company is J. A. Barlotti.
LOUIS RICHENBERGER, living on the old Rincon stage road, seven miles south of Chino, is a prosperous dairyman and farmer of this vicinity. Mr. Richenberger as a youth learned and became an expert cheese maker, acquiring that art in his native Switzerland. He came to California nearly forty years ago, and has lived in this state the greater part of the time since then.
He was born in Switzerland, January 17, 1858. His father was a Swiss cheese manufacturer. In the family were six children, the first three being sons, Louis the youngest. Louis Richenberger was reared and educated in Switzerland, and under his father acquired the art of making cheese. When he came to America in February, 1883, he was first attracted to the great dairy and cheese state of Wisconsin, but soon found the climate inhospitable and in the following December arrived at San Francisco, having made a tedious trip across the continent, a twelve days' journey due to delays on account of snow and other causes. In California Mr. Richenberger negotiated with Governor Stanford and established for him the first cheese factory in that part of the state. He operated it very successfully for a year and a half. Then leaving Cali- fornia, he went to Tombstone, Arizona, but soon removed to San Diego. Mr. Richenberger once owned two lots in San Diego now covered by the Coronado Hotel. He sold these lots for forty dollars each. From there he removed to Bakersfield, and was a cheese manufacturer there four years. Then followed a two months visit to his native land. Altogether Mr. Richenberger went back to Europe three times, and spent all his savings each time. For two years he was a cheese maker at Phoenix, Arizona, and in 1898 returned to California and has since been identified with San Bernardino County. He bought twelve and a half acres of land and established a large cheese plant and dairy business, purchasing quantities of milk from surrounding farmers and manufacturing two hundred pounds or more of cheese daily. His special product, the Rincon Cheese,
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acquired a great fame and a broadening market. He continued in the business for ten years, and then abandoned cheese making and since has incorporated his dairy farm and sold his milk wholesale. Mr. Richen- berger leases 380 acres and does farming on an extensive scale, operating two tractors and all other modern machinery.
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