USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 39
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 39
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Samuel G. Mathews attended the public schools of Missouri and the Macon City, Missouri, College. His business experiences were many and varied, including the working for a time in the lead mines at Joplin, Missouri, and later farming in the vicinity of Chillicothe. In 1891 he came to Riverside, and was first occupied with orange culture, having had charge for some years of the grove of J. F. Humphrey. About 1898 Mr. Mathews bought his present tract of forty acres, and here he has very successfully raised alfalfa. He is also the owner of some very valuable property at Arlington Station, Riverside. When he began raising alfalfa it took considerable courage to embark in what was still an experimental venture. However, he is a man who likes to strike out for himself, and from the start he has been successful. He feels that the time is not far distant when Riverside will be as far-famed for alfalfa as it now is for oranges, roses and beautiful scenery, and when
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he makes that statement he knows he is saying a good deal, but in it he is able to give expression to his faith in this crop and the suitability of Riverside climate for its proper cultivation.
He is a republican, and has taken an active part in politics, repre- senting his party at city, county and state conventions and serving on the Central Committees. He has never, however, sought political prefer- ment.
On August 30, 1884, Mr. Mathews married at Chillicothe Miss Mar- garet Watson Andrews, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of David Andrews, a native of New York. She, too, comes of Revolutionary stock, of Scotch descent. Mrs. Mathews is eligible to the Daughters of the American Revolution, and has several nieces who belong to that organization. She was a school teacher in Indiana and Missouri prior to her marriage, and has taught to some extent since then, having been connected with the schools of Riverside County for twenty years, and at different periods taught in the Riverside district for seven years. For five years she was principal of the Wineville School, and for the last five years has been principal of the Morena School. There are few educators of Southern California who are more highly esteemed, and she is recognized as one of the finest teachers in the state. Mrs. Mathews maintains membership with the Southern California Teachers' Associa- tion ; with the Woman's Benefit Association; with the Maccabees, and with the Woman's Relief Corps.
Mr. and Mrs. Mathews have two children, Grace and William Mc- Kinley Mathews. The daughter was also an educator prior to her mar- riage to N. F. Ward, of Wooster, Massachusetts, superintendent of the Compton & Knowles Loom Works. Mrs. Ward was educated in the Riverside public schools and the Normal School of Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Ward have one daughter, Polly.
William McKinley Mathews is shipping clerk for the Channel Com- mercial Company of Riverside. During the World war he enlisted in Company M, but was discharged on account of his heart. Registering in the draft, he presented himself for examination, but again failed to pass. He married Lola Nunns, a native of Missouri, and a daughter of William C. Nunns. William McKinley Mathews has a daughter, Bar- bara Jane. The family all attend the Arlington Methodist Episcopal Church.
JAMES CUNNISON has been an active business man at San Bernardino for twenty years, coming here as a young man, and has earned a successful place in business and an enviable reputation as a citizen.
He was born at Ft. Wayne, Indiana, November 30, 1882, and represents families of old American tradition and English ancestry. His father, James Cunnison, was born in Indiana, spent his life as a farmer in that state, and died in January, 1920. He was a thirty-second degree Mason. His mother, Mary (Dalman) Cunnison, was also born in Indiana, and died in the same month and year as her husband. They had a family of five children, all living ; Alexander, an Indiana farmer: Margaret, wife of L. F. Koons. a retired farmer of Indiana : William. a business man at Riverside California; Frank. present recorder of Allen County, Indiana ; and James.
James Cunnison attended the grammar and high schools of Fort Wayne and the International Business College of that city, and in 1901, at the age of nineteen, he secured his first engagement at San Bernardino, as cashier of the Wells, Fargo & Company Express. Four years later he became associated with the Ingersoll & Esler
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Company, wholesale liquors, and was with that business for eleven years. Then followed a two year period during which he took a well earned vacation, enjoying extensive travel over the country.
In 1919 Mr. Cunnison became secretary of the Hanford Iron Works, one of the prominent industries of San Bernardino, and has since held that position. He is also financially interested in the company and is a director.
He has been a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles since 1910, was secretary for ten years, and was largely instrumental in increasing the membership from about three hundred to over six hundred, the membership figure at the present writing. He is a charter member and secretary of the Rotary Club, and has held that office since its inception. He is affiliated with San Bernardino Lodge No. 348, Free and Accepted Masons, and a life member of San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Prominent in fraternal affairs, he was secretary during the World war of the Fraternal Patriotic Congress, which undertook and carried out an extensive program for the raising and handling of funds for patriotic purposes.
Mr. Cunnison served in 1918 as auditor for the City Water Commission during the administration of Mayor Catick. He is a repub- lican in politics.
In August, 1905, at Riverside, he married Miss Anna Shelberg, a native of North Dakota and daughter of Charles Shelberg. They have two children, Helen and Fred, both students in the public schools of San Bernardino.
WILLIAM B. STEWART-The labors of many men, money and time have been required to develop San Bernardino County as a great horticultural district. It is no disparagement of the usefulness and the valuable con- tributions made by the aggregate workers to point out an individual case where enterprise, capital and management have effected on a large scale what many small growers and home builders have done individually.
William B. Stewart came to the Ontario and Upland district over thirty-four years ago. He and his two brothers have instituted and carried on some of the most important large scale development in this section of Southern California. Mr. Stewart, an honored resident of Upland, is vice-president of the Stewart Citrus Association, a private organization formed for the handling of the fruit products of the Stewart groves and ranches. William Boyd Stewart was born in Penn- sylvania, at Cherrytree, in Venango County, July 30, 1860, son of Wil- liam Reynolds Stewart and Jane (Irwin) Stewart, natives of the same state. His father was of Scotch-English and his mother of pure Scotch ancestry. The Stewarts were a pioneer family in Pennsylvania. Wil- liam R. Stewart had a farm of forty-five acres in Venango County, and also operated a tannery, a vocation in which he was preceded by his father. William R. Stewart was born July 29, 1811. After the death of his wife he removed to Kingsville, Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he lived until his death at the age of sixty-seven. He married Jane M. Irwin, who was born at Milton, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. August 3, 1819, and died April 5, 1865. Her ancestors were Scotch people who went to Pennsylvania in Colonial times. For many genera- tions the first born son in this family was given the name Richard. Her father, Richard Irwin, who was born at West Fallowfield, Chester County, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1785, was known in Venango County as "Richard at the Mill." As a miller he was following the ancestral
IrStewart
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vocation. He built the first grist mill at Cherrytree, and about 1835 erected a new and larger mill, standing on Cherrytree Run, just below the village. The wheels for this mill were made by his brothers, Ninian, William and James Irwin. Richard Irwin, who died at Cherrytree, Sep- tember 25, 1857, was one of the most influential men in the development of his community, erecting several houses on his land, and being devoted to the welfare of the locality. He was a whig in politics and a Pres- byterian. William R. and Jane M. Stewart were the parents of seven children, their son Elijah dying at the age of fifteen on April 17, 1863, while the three sons and one daughter still survive. 1. Eva, the widow of James A. Lawson, died January 25, 1922. 3. Lydia, who became the wife of James A. Lawson of Pasadena, California, died June 7, 1918. 2. Nancy J., the widow of John Dorland MacFarland of Los Angeles, California, is the surviving daughter.
The youngest of these children, William B. Stewart, was about five years of age when his mother died, and he thereafter spent his boyhood in Ashtabula County, Ohio, attending public school at Kingsville. At eighteen, following the death of his father, he removed to Bureau County, Illinois, and lived with his uncle, James B. Stewart, one and one- half years. He then returned to Western Pennsylvania and was iden- tified with oil operations and production in that state for about seven years.
Mr. Stewart arrived at Ontario, California, October 15, 1887, was afterward in Santa Paula until June 6, 1888, when he located in the Ontario colony of San Bernardino County. He and his brothers became influential members in the corporation known as the Ontario Land & Improvement Company, did much to further its important development, and when the lands of the colony were sold acquired jointly about six hundred acres. This property they have extended by subsequent purchases, though also selling portions, and today the Stew- arts are in point of acreage ownership and volume of production the largest citrus fruit growers in the Ontario colony. The Stewart Citrus Association was organized in 1901 to handle exclusively the output of the Stewart ranches, the owners of which are Milton Stewart of Pasa- dena, Lyman Stewart of Los Angeles, William B. Stewart of Upland and the estate of their sister, Mrs. Eva S. Lawson. The association erected a large and modern packing house at Upland, and while allied with the California Fruit Growers' Association, they ship direct to Eastern markets. While a private corporation, the association has been a stimulating factor in the many sided developments of the country in general.
Besides his interest in this association, W. B. Stewart owns a number of valuable properties of his own in the district, including a beautiful little homestead of ten acres in Upland, and he also manages the ten- acre orange orchard in Ontario owned by his wife. Mr. Stewart for many years has been a voter and stanch advocate of prohibition, and he and Mrs. Stewart are liberal members of the Presbyterian Church. The beautiful church edifice at Upland of that denomination is in no small degree a monument to the persistent labors and liberality of Mrs. Stewart. For thirteen years she condutced a Bible class among the Korean colony at Upland, and the people of that race have affec- tionately known her as "Mother Stewart." Mr. and Mrs. Stewart kept their home at their orange grove until October 4, 1911, when they moved into their beautiful modern home at Upland, at the southeast corner of First Avenue and D Street.
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August 13, 1891, Mr. Stewart married Miss Mary E. Smith of Santa Paula, California, daughter of Parks B. and Mary Elizabeth (Garner) Smith. Mrs. Stewart was born at Mexico, Missouri, January 13, 1872, and was educated there in the public schools. She went to Indian Creek, Pennsylvania, with her parents when she was fourteen years old and completed her education in the public schools of that place. She came with her parents to Santa Paula, California, when she was sixteen years old. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of three children. The oldest, Milton Reynolds Stewart, born May 14, 1892, at Santa Paula, California, was educated in the Chaffey High School at Ontario, joined the army, but was discharged at Camp Lewis on account of defective eyesight. He now lives at the old homestead ranch at West Sixth Street, Ontario. He married Miss Leona C. Cook, a native of Iowa, and they have a son, William Milton, born March 1, 1920, and a daughter, Mary Leona, born April 11, 1922, who was named after her two grandmothers.
The second son, Harold Smith Stewart, born at Upland, August 24, 1894, married, April 8, 1918, Miss Mabel Hardwick, a native of Indiana. They have one child, Walter Eugene, born April 2, 1921, named after the oldest known ancestor of the Stewart family, whose name appears in an old Bible record with the year 1648. Harold S. Stewart enlisted at Los Angeles May 31, 1917, for the infantry, was trained three months at Arcadia, then at Camp Kearney, and was assigned to Headquarters Company of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Engineers. He left Camp Kearney July 26, 1917, sailed for overseas August 8th and was on over- seas duty ten and a half months. Altogether he was in the service twenty-five months, receiving his honorable discharge as sergeant, first class, at The Presidio, July 11, 1919, and is now a resident of Los Angeles. He was educated in the Chaffey Union High School, spent two years in Pomona College and graduated in 1917 from Stanford Univer- sity, where he specialized in geology.
The only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart is Agnes Louise, born July 3, 1900, living with her parents.
WILLIAM JOHN CAMPBELL has had a highly successful experience as a building contractor, a business he has followed forty years, and is head of the Campbell Construction Company, with home offices in Ontario, but widely known throughout Southern California for its business relations.
Mr. Campbell was born at New Sharon, Iowa, September 12, 1857, son of John and Mary ( Mitchell) Campbell. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania, and in 1849 removed to the new state of Iowa. Both parents reached a great age, the father dying at the age of ninety-four and the mother at ninety-two. William J. Campbell acquired his early education in the public schools of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and as a youth learned mechanical trades and subsequently engaged in the general contracting business, which he has now followed for forty years. He moved to Kansas in 1881, and from there in 1910 came to California. Twelve years ago he organized the Campbell Construction Company, now one of the largest concerns of its kind in Southern California. This company gives employment to sixty men continuously. Mr. Campbell recently purchased a large tract of land in the heart of the City of Ontario, where he intends to erect an apartment building.
Mr. Campbell while a resident of Axtel, Kansas, held the office of mayor for several years. He is a republican, and in Masonry is a
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past master of his Lodge, a member of the Chapter, Council, Knight Templar Commandery and Eastern Star. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is an active and honored figure in the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Congregational Church.
At Axtel, Kansas, March 17, 1892, he married Miss Luella Petre. She was born in Kansas and was only a child when her father died. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have two children: John Byron, born March 19, 1893, and Lois born August 22, 1898. The son, John, had two years of service in the World
I war. He was overseas with the 20th Engineer Corps, and was discharged as a corporal. He is secretary and treasurer, of the Campbell Construction Company. He is a member of the American Legion, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. After attending public and high schools at Axtel, Kansas, John B. Campbell took up the study of architecture, and also studied in France. Lois Campbell was educated in the Chaffey High School, Pomona College at Clare- mont and in the University of California.
JOSEPH MORT-A resident of Southern California more than thirty years, the Rialto community in particular has a grateful memory of his presence here, the work he instituted, the friendships he made and the kindly influence he exercised among all who knew him.
Joseph Mort was an honored Union soldier. He was born in Ohio, May 23, 1843, son of Conrad and Sarah (Hynes) Mort, natives of the same state. He was the third son in their family of seven children. When Joseph Mort was an infant his parents removed to Iowa and took up land in Van Buren County. Joseph Mort acquired a common school education there, and at the age of nineteen enlisted in the Federal army in 1862. He served in the infantry under General Heron and was with the Federal forces until the conclusion of the war. He was in the siege of Vicksburg, and there was slightly wounded in the left shoulder. Subsequently he was captured, and for ten months he was confined at Tyler, Texas, and Shreveport, Louisiana. During the confinement his chief diet was a pint of corn- meal each day. The meal was hand ground, and the small end of the cob was mixed with the grain. After his exchange he returned to service.
Following the war Mr. Mort married in Iowa Miss Elizabeth Miller, on October 3, 1865. Mrs. Mort, an interesting pioneer woman, is still living at her home at Rialto, 221 North Olive Street. She was born July 6, 1843, in Van Buren County in what was then Iowa Territory. Her parents, Daniel and Margaret Elizabeth (Jackson) Miller, were among the earliest settlers in that section of Iowa, moving from Ohio in 1841. They made the journey with wagon and team, and took up Government land in Van Buren County, where they spent the rest of their days, Mrs. Mort's mother dying in 1861 and her father in 1891. She was one of their ten children.
Following his marriage Mr. Mort engaged in farming in Iowa. In October, 1887, he came to California, his family following him the next year. He located in the vincinity of Rialto, where he worked for the company developing this section in planting citrus trees and also assisted in setting out the ornamental trees along Riverside Avenue. He helped plant nearly all the early orchards in this vicinity. On account of injuries received while a prisoner of war Joseph Mort became totallly blind in 1901, and he lived for
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twenty years in darkness, though active in mind and enjoying his friends and the many interests that bound him to life. He died at Rialto March 1, 1921.
To Mr. and Mrs. Mort were born seven children: Della, born in Iowa October 17, 1866, married Edward Varnard and has two children, Elsie and Belle. Clyde Everett, born in Iowa July 27, 1870, married Frances Uren, daughter of a Methodist minister, T. S. Uren, and they have two children, Mildred and Leonard. Alpha Mort, born in Iowa May 25, 1872, died at the age of two weeks and five days. Ottis Hynes, born in Iowa May 26, 1873, enlisted and served for six months in the Spanish-American war, and he and his wife, Gertrude, have two sons, Russell and Francis, both of whom enlisted in the navy in 1920. Eddy Willis, named for Bishop Eddy, was born in Harvey County, Kansas, March 24, 1875, married Mamie Ely, and their four children are Evelyn Mort, Raymond, Delbert and Edwin. Thomas Glenn Mort, born in Iowa in 1878, married Caroline Humiston, of Iowa, and their children are Phyllis, Helen, Kenneth and Winnifred. Leonard Worth Mort, the youngest child, was born in Graham County, Kansas, February 28, 1881, and became an expert in all phases of the citrus fruit industry. A group of Mexican citrus growers sent for him to act as their adviser in field operations, and while thus employed he was drowned in a flood caused by a cloudburst on August 28, 1909. He married Ina Lyman.
Mr. and Mrs. Mort were birthright Methodists, and all their lives have been devout members of that faith. Mr. Mort served as a member of the Official Board of his church. He always maintained the hospitality of the home, and delighted in entertaining his friends. He was a worker for clean politics and for efficient government at all times. For some years after coming to California he owned an orange grove, and after selling this he bought five acres which are still owned by Mrs. Mort. When Mr. Mort came to this part of California there was not a building except the old adobe near Base Line in which he lived for a time. Later he built on West Rialto on his own land. In those days it was a difficult task to drive from West Rialto to San Bernardino to market. In dry weather the sand filled the air and cut the faces, and there were practically no roads through the sand and brush. During wet weather the streets in San Bernardino were so deep in mud that a vehicle had to be stopped every now and then to rest the horses. Very few windbreaks had been planted in the Rialto district when the Mort family reached here. The first water ditch from the mountains was constructed after Mr. Mort came here, and he helped do some of that work. Much of the early construction work with which he was identified remains to bear fruit and benefit to the present generation.
WILLOUGHBY MCKINLEY, whose attractive home is at 340 North Riverside Avenue, in the beautiful little City of Rialto, is one of the pioneer orange-growers of this district and has played an active part in the civic and industrial development of this community.
Mr. Mckinley was born in Wayne County, Iowa, November 30, 1875, and is a son of John R. and Hannah( Davis) Mckinley, who were born in Ohio and who became pioneer settlers in Iowa, where the father took up Government land and reclaimed the same to cultivation, he having developed one of the fine farm estates of Iowa, where he became the owner of several hundred acres. He and his wife endured the full tension of trials and hardships incidental
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to the pioneer era, but with the passing years substantial prosperity rewarded them. They continued their residence in the Hawkeye State until the spring of 1894, when they came to California and established their residence at Rialto, where Mr. Mckinley had pur- chased in the preceding year a tract of twenty acres of land. On this tract he planted and developed one of the first orange groves in the district, and here he continued his residence until his death, September 11, 1917, his wife having died in 1898. They were numbered among the honored pioneers of the community and well merited the unqualified esteem in which they were held.
Willoughby Mckinley passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the old Iowa homestead farm which was the place of his birth, and he supplemented the discipline of the public schools by attending the Iowa State Normal School at Humeston. He has been actively identified with productive enterprise along agricultural and horticultural lines throughout his entire career, was eighteen years of age at the time of the family removal to San Bernardino County, and thus had the satisfaction of aiding his father in the development of the pioneer orange grove at Rialto. He is the owner of valuable real estate in this section of the county, and in all of the relations of life is well upholding the prestige of the family name. Mr. Mckinley recalls the packing of the first carload of oranges shipped out from Rialto. The packing was done in an old shed, the bushes were trimmed by hand, and the fruit when packed was hauled by wagon to the railroad car.
On January 16, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mckinley and Miss Anna Klophenstein, who likewise was born in Wayne County, Iowa. She was the daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Hacke- thom) Klophenstein, the father a native of France, born near Paris, and the mother was born in Ohio. The father came to the United States when nineteen years old, locating in Iowa, where he was a farmer. He came to Ontario, California, in the autumn of 1900, and afterward lived retired. He died there May 30, 1907. The mother came to Rialto, where she died February 7, 1920. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Mckinley are: Randolph, born January 27, 1910; and Pauline, born June 27, 1916.
DWIGHT W. WEBSTER is not only the owner of one of the fine orange groves that mark the Fontana district as one of the garden spots and prosperous industrial centers of San Bernardino County, but he is also engineer of the West Rialto Water Company, in which he is a stockholder and of which his wife is secretary.
Mr. Webster was born on a farm in Leon, Monroe County. Wisconsin, and is a son of Peter and Laura (Tower) Webster, he having been seventh in order of birth in a family of eight children. He was reared and educated in his native state and continued his active associations with farm industry until 1901, when he came to California, where he remained one year. He then returned to Wis- consin, but in 1904 he came again to California, where he established his residence at Pasadena and where he was engaged in a teaming business until 1908. He then purchased tract No. 399 in the Fontana district of San Bernardino County, a property for which he paid $4,200. Here he now has twenty acres of full-bearing fruit besides owning twenty shares of the stock of the West Rialto Water Company. of which mutual corporation he is engineer, as previously stated. The improvements of his fine little property are of the best, including a mod- Vol. 111 -- 18
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