USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 43
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 43
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James and Martha Waters were the parents of eight children: Fred- erick ; James; Mrs. Martha Louise Kiplinger, whose husband is man- ager of the San Bernardino Opera House; Henrietta, whose husband,
ALFRED H. SMILEY
ALBERT K. SMILEY
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J. A. Cole, was once sheriff of San Bernardino County; Mrs. Catherine Miller ; Caroline Sophia, county librarian of San Bernardino; Mrs. Mil- dred Lawson ; and Miss Lela, of San Bernardino.
During the infancy of Frederick S. Waters his parents moved to Mariposa County, California, where his father became a sheep raiser. When the son was three years of age they made their home at Los Angles, and a short time afterward moved to Yucaipa Valley, where James Waters' old friend, John Brown, owned extensive land holdings. From him he purchased a large acreage and used it for a stock ranch. After twelve years he sold this land to William Stanifer & Dunlap, and then bought land in the modern city of San Bernardino, limited by the thoroughfares of First and Third streets and G to L streets. This he also used for stock farming purposes, and in addition had lease of a large tract at Chino and other lands for pastureage.
The original San Bernardino race track of ninety acres was formerly owned by a stock company in which James Waters was a stockholder. Later he and Amos Rowe bought out the other stockholders and event- ually Mr. Waters acquired Rowe's interests. This land was originally swamp, but is now entirely reclaimed and forty-five acres of it comprise the homestead and ranch of Frederick S. Waters.
Frederick S. Waters married Miss Mary Hambly, who was born in Canada in 1854 and died at the home place near Loma Linda in 1912. Six children were born to their marriage and are still living : Louise, born January 17, 1882, is the wife of William Munsel, of Long Beach. Jane, born October 30, 1885, is the wife of H. C. Fronde, of San Bernardino, and is the mother of a son and daughter. Marshall, born August 22, 1888, is unmarried. The fourth and fifth children, Cyrus F. and George, are twins, born September 14, 1892. Cyrus enlisted March 22, 1918, in the 319th Engineers, Company A, was trained at Camp Fremont, on April 15, 1918, was transferred to Ammunition Train of the 8th Division, was made corporal May 18th, and was ordered to Camp Mills for over- seas duty, but the signing of the armistice caused his company to be sent to Camp Lee, Virginia, and later were returned to The Presidio, where he received his honorable discharge February 28, 1919. His twin brother, George, also offered his services, but was rejected by the Medical Examining Board on account of poor eyes. The sixth and youngest of the family, Grace Waters, who was born August 18, 1896, is now Mrs. Alva Capper, of Loma Linda.
Frederick Waters out of his personal observation and experience is able to make some interesting contrasts between modern and pioneer conditions. He recalls the time when all supplies were hauled in by wagon from San Pedro, witnessed the passing of the Indian and the coming of the first railroad, and has seen transcontinental travel and com- munication move forward from ox trains to aeroplane, from pony ex- press to telephone and wireless. In his district and after he had reached manhood a shipment of oranges was limited to six boxes, whereas now citrus fruit goes out to the market in thousands of carloads.
SMILEY BROTHERS-Redlands and San Bernardino County owe a lasting debt to the constructive and esthetic achievements of the Smilev Brothers, and the world too has come to appreciate the manifold meas- ures of their contributions to the broader aspects of educational and humanitarian enterprise. This history on other pages has occasion to describe some of their undertakings, particularly the Smiley Library and Canon Crest Park, at Redlands, which are vital institutions in the de- velopment of this section of Southern California. The purpose of this
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article is to tell in brief the story of their lives and some of the facts that have made them national and international figures in the welfare of humanity.
Of the three brothers the only one now living is Daniel Smiley, who is a half-brother of the late Alfred H. and Albert K. Smiley, and while many years separated them in age all seemed to be animated with a common purpose in their working interests.
Alfred H. and Albert K. Smiley were twin brothers with such a close resemblance in form, feature and manner, that it was often difficult to distinguish one from the other. They were born at Vassalboro, Maine, on March 17, 1828, sons of Daniel and Phoebe (Howland) Smiley. Both attained to venerable age. Alfred H. Smiley died in 1903 at the age of seventy-five, and Albert K. on December 2, 1912, at the age of eighty-four. They were educated in the academy in their native town, in the Friends' School of Providence, Rhode Island, and in Haverford College, Philadelphia, where they were graduated A. B. in 1849 and A. M. in 1859. Albert K. Smiley received the honorary A. M. degree from Brown University in 1875, and the degree LL.D. from Haverford in 1906. They were actively engaged in educational work for thirty years, first in Haverford College where they had charge of the English Department for three years. They founded jointly and were principals of the English and Classical Academy of Philadelphia from 1853 to 1857. Alfred Smiley then became principal and general superintendent of schools at Oskaloosa, Iowa. Albert K. Smiley was the principal of the Oak Grove Seminary at Vassalboro, Maine, in 1858-59, and from 1860 to 1879 was principal of the Friends' Boarding School, now the Moses Brown School at Providence, Rhode Island. His twin brother became associated with him in the management of this school and they made it one of the most famous of New England preparatory institutions.
In 1869 Albert K. Smiley visited Lake Mohonk, New York, and was so well pleased with the beauty and picturesqueness of the spot that he decided to establish a summer home for himself and develop a summer resort. He at once purchased the lake, together with 300 acres of land, and eventually he made the estate one of the splendid resorts of the Union. By successive acquirements he increased the area of this estate to 3,500 acres, and eventually to 5,500 acres, and built a summer resort hotel in 1870. The tract extends along the crests of the mountains for a distance of about six miles with an average width of nearly one mile. Over and through this idyllic preserve he constructed about forty miles of private roads and twenty-five miles of trails and paths and opened the property to the public. For the first ten years the property was managed by Alfred H. Smiley, who in 1875 had purchased Minne- waska, a twin lake, with more than 2,500 acres of land, seven miles dis- tant, on the top of another spur of the mountain where he built two fine hotels with accommodations for 450 guests. He conducted these resorts on the same moral and social plane as did his brother Albert K. the . Mohonk resort. It would appear that these two brothers were as nearly alike in disposition and aims in life as they were in appearance.
While busy with this large undertaking Albert K. Smiley did not abate his interest and influence in connection with educational affairs. From 1875 until his death he was a trustee of Brown University, was one of the original trustees of Bryn Mawr College, and was President of the Board of Trustees of the New York State Normal School at New Paltz from its establishment in 1884. He was a member of many socie- ties and organizations.
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In 1889 while in California the brothers became so impressed with the beautiful scenery and surroundings of Redlands that they purchased for a winter home 200 acres of the heights south of the town, through which tract they caused to be constructed a beautiful series of roads, both for driving and walking, and on the summit and along the north- ern declivities started a thousand or more species of rare plants and flowers of such varieties as flourish in this semi-tropical climate. Each of the brothers erected a beautiful and substantial residence on the crest of the hill. This property called the Canon Crest Park, commonly known as Smiley Heights, was thrown open to the public and the park ha: become famous throughout the land, being visited by thousands of East- ern tourists annually.
A sixteen acre tract which he acquired in the heart of Redlands, Albert K. Smiley also laid out for park purposes, and a portion of this is the site of the A. K. Smiley Public Library Building, an institution reflecting the liberality of all the Smiley Brothers and fully described elsewhere in this publication. In 1896 Alfred H. Smiley laid out a beautiful summer resort known as Fredalba Park, near the summit of the mountain range north of Redlands at an elevation of 5,500 feet. Here his liberality and splendid initiative made possible the development of another of the many fine resorts for which Southern California is celebrated.
Albert K. Smiley's career was not confined to local, educational and business interests. On the contrary, he had a national reputation as a friend of the Indian and the Negro, and as one of the foremost champions of international peace, in which last connection it was not given him to live to see the havoc of death and disaster wrought by the late World war, a conflict that could not but have intensified his intense desire to further that peace and good will of which the world stands more deeply in need at the present time than ever before in the annals of history. It has been in the sessions of the Lake Mohonk Indian Conference that practically all reforms in the treatment of the Indians have originated. In 1879 President Hayes appointed Mr. Smiley a member of the Na- tional Board of Indian Commissioners, and it was due to Mr. Smiley's earnest desire to co-ordinate and harmonize conflicting religious and civic agencies dealing with the Indians that resulted in his calling upon prom- inent friends of the Indians to meet at Lake Mohonk House in October. 1883, to spend four days in discussing Indian problems and endeavoring to unite all Indian workers on a common platform. He invited the Board of Indian Commissioners, all secretaries of religious societies. the National Senate and House Committees on Indian Affairs, army officers having dealings with the Indians, all prominent members of the Indian Bureau, the Indian Rights Association, Woman's National Indian As- sociation, heads of Indian Schools. editors of leading papers, and prom- inent men all over the country. Thus originated the annual conferences at Lake Mohonk. The results of these gatherings have been revolution- ary. Congress has learned to heed and follow the advice of the little band which assembles every October on this mountain-top in Ulster County, New York, and no future historian will be able to write the history of our country without assigning a noble chapter to the Lake Mohonk Indian Conference. For the Indian cause Mr. Smilley con- tributed some thousands of dollars annually, and he served in various capacities in connection with the care of the Indians.
In the spring of 1889 Congress passed a law creating a commission of three men who were to select reservations for the Mission Indians of Southern California. The Secretary of the Interior appointed Mr.
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Smiley chairman of this commission, and within the ensuing two years about forty reservations were selected, with the result that 3,000 Indians who were being despoiled of their rightful possessions were placed upon suitable lands, secured to them for a permanent home. Mr. Smiley, as representative of the Board of Indian Commissioners, in 1895, inves- tigated and demonstrated the iniquity of the proposed government meas- ure of uniting the two bands of Indians in Western Nevada, the proposed plan having been one that would have cost the government at least half a million dollars and deprive 2,000 Indians of their guaranteed rights- all in the interest of a railroad corporation. In all other matters touch- ing the welfare of the Indians Mr. Smiley continued his unflagging interest until the close of his long and useful life, and his activities were wide and varied, including his service as chairman of the committee ap- pointed to investigate the whole Indian Bureau and suggest changes in its practical workings.
In the years 1890 and 1891, following somewhat the same general plan as that of the Indian conference, Mr. Smiley invited to Mohonk, as his guests, 200 or more philanthropists of this country. particularly those from the South, for a discussion with the object of uniting the North and the South in some concerted plan for the benefit of the Negro race. President Hayes presided at both of these conferences.
In June, 1895, Mr. Smiley invited to Mohonk many statesmen and prominent citizens for a conference in the interest of international arbi- tration, this being, so far as is known, the first American conference on this subject. Similar conferences for this purpose have been held annually at Mohonk.
Alfred H. Smiley married Rachel M. Swan in 1854, and of this union were born six children. July 8, 1857, Albert K. Smiley married Eliza P. Cornell, of New York. They had one child who died at the age of eight years. On the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1907, a large number of guests of the Lake Mohonk Mountain House presented to Mr. and Mrs. Smiley as a testimonial of their esteem an entrance gateway and lodge costing over nineteen thousand dollars, located at the main entrance of the Lake Mohonk estate.
Associated with these brothers in many of their enterprises and since their death continuing many lines of their noble enterprise is Daniel Smiley, who was born at Vassalboro, Maine, November 29, 1855, son of Daniel and Dorcus Burnham (Hanson) Smiley. He graduated from Haverford College in 1878, was instructor in Greek and Latin at William Penn Charter School of Philadelphia for three years, and in 1881 joined Albert K. Smiley in the management of the property of Lake Mohonk, and in 1912 succeeded to the ownership of the Lake Mohonk estate and also the Canon Crest Park at Redlands. Redlands is his winter home and quite recently he provided for the conception of a new wing to the public library.
Daniel Smiley has been associated in the management from the beginning in 1882 and now is in full charge of the conference of In- ternational Arbitration and the conference of friends of the Indians and other dependent peoples held at Lake Mohonk each year. Since 1912 he has been a member of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners. He is a trustee of Vassar College, Haverford College, is President of the Board of the State Normal School at New Paltz, New York, is a trustee of the University of Redlands. He has been a member of the executive commitee of the National Peace Conference and is a member of a number of other organizations.
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June 18, 1881, he married Miss Effie F. Newell of Kennebeck County, Maine. They have four children. Albert K., manager of the Mohonk Hotel, married Mabel Craven of Westchester, Pennsylvania, and their three children are Daniel Smiley, Jr., Albert K. Smiley, Jr., and Anna Craven Smiley. Hugh the second son, also associated with the management of the hotel at Mohonk, married Hester Squier of Greenwich, Connecticut, and their two children are Virginia LeBeau and Hugh, Jr. Francis, the third son, also in the management of the hotel, married Rachel Orcutt of Boston and has a daughter Rachel. The only daughter of Daniel Smiley is Ruth. She was married by James M. Taylor, president of Vassar College on February 21, 1914, at Smiley Heights to Thomas Sanborn, who is manager of the Redlands estate including the Canyon Crest Park. Mr. and Mrs. Sanborn have four children : Christine, Daniel Smiley, Thomas and Ruth.
ANDREW J. CRAM was born and is still living at the old Cram home- stead at the end of Orange Street at East Highland. This is a property that has been in the possession of one family since pioneer days. Its handling well illustrates the processes of development through which this country has gone in its transformation from a wild desert to a wide stretching orange grove.
Mr. Cram was born there August 6, 1867, son of Lewis F. and Sarah Ann Cram, being the oldest of their seven children, six sons and one daughter. His father was born in New York State in 1834. His mother was born in 1847 in Quincy, Illinois, and is still living at the old home. The parents came overland with ox teams, making a number of stops en route, and their first location in California was at the Chino Ranch, where they engaged in farming. Later Lewis Cram homesteaded a hundred and sixty acres on section 3 in what is now known as East Highland. He and his brothers, together with one of the Van Leuvens, also filed on water rights from the Santa Ana River. This right is still referred to as the Cram and Van Leuvens right. The water was con- veyed to their lands through an open ditch. These were the first settlers on the bench land. They planted vineyards and deciduous fruit orchards on the bottoms and did dry farming on the upper ground. All of this tract was cleared and improved by these pioneers.
Eighty acres of the old homestead is still owned by Mrs. Lewis Cram, and nearly the entire tract is covered with orange groves. Lewis Cram spent a busy and effective life in this community and died at Highland February 27, 1915.
Andrew J. Cram out of his personal recollections can recount prac- tically every stage in the development of the community. As a boy he attended school in what is still known as the Cram district, a name given to it because of the many Cram children who have been pupils there. The schoolhouse he knew was a little building 16x24 feet, rudely con- structed, merely with framing timbers and boards on the outside and without ceiling. Subsequently, as needed, additions were made until the schoolhouse was 75 feet long.
The first experimental growing of oranges on the Cram homestead was the setting out of two acres of seedlings. The fruit of these trees Andrew J. Cram and his brothers gathered and packed in the orchard, in absence of packing houses. The oranges were graded and packed in paper lined boxes two feet square and eight inches deep. The oranges were not wrapped individually then. These boxes were hauled bv wagon to the nearest railroad station at Colton. Colton was also the site of the only cannery in this section, and all deciduous fruits were hauled there.
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The oranges produced by the first grove on the Cram estate were shipped through in A. 1. condition, and were sold so as to bring the grower be- tween three and a half and five dollars a box. In the extension of the fruit interests on the Cram homestead vines and peach trees were planted and oranges in blocks of six and eight acres, until all is now a citrus grove, one of the largest and most productive in the entire county.
Andrew J. Cram is the father of four children: Maggie, wife of Mel- vin Roddick, of Highland, and the mother of three children, Mildred, Virginia and James ; Mollie, wife of George Hamilton, an orange grower at East Highland, and they have two sons, Arthur and Neiland; Mrs. Mabel Burright, of San Jose, and Florence, wife of Arthur Cook, a prosperous cattleman in Colorado.
Mr. Cram takes the liveliest satisfaction in the transformation he has witnessed of the wild cattle range into a superbly improved district where modern improvements and citrus groves give land value between three and four thousand dollars an acre. He has done his part well and effec- tively in that transformation, and is now enjoying life in his comfortable home in East Highland with his mother.
WILLIAM H. RODDICK-As a child, youth and man William H. Rod- dick of Highland has been through every phase of pioneer develop- ment of his section of California, from a sage brush wilderness to an almost undeviating prospect of orange groves and flourishing plan- tations.
Mr. Roddick was born in Nova Scotia in 1880, son of Samuel Donald and Ellen Hume Roddick. His parents were also natives of Nova Scotia, and farmers there. In 1887 they came to California, and without capital the father earned a living for his family by day and month work on the ranch of Cunningham and Stone at South Highland for about twelve years. William H. Roddick was then seven years of age. Altogether he had a very brief acquaintance with schools, and his education has been a thoroughly practical one. He early learned to imitate his father's habit of hard and inten- sive work, and did what he could to assist the family. As a boy he worked out, frequently picking fruit for a few cents a day and clothing himself and going to school. His father eventually bought a tract of land and planted it to deciduous fruits, but lack of water made the proposition a failure. His father about ten years before his death, which occurred in 1916, bought a thirteen and a half acre orange grove on Highland Avenue, and this proved the stepping stone to solid success for the family. William H. Roddick has been thoroughly schooled in ranching and fruit growing and is an authority on citrus culture.
In 1916 he and his brother David bought forty acres of the Linville estate, and they still own this as partners. It is one of the highly productive citrus fruit orchards in the country. Three years later William Roddick as an individual bought twenty-three acres of the Coy estate on Pacific and Central streets, and later ten acres on Boulder Street, where he has erected his modern home overlooking the Santa Ana River Valley, with view of the mountains to the north and east. All this land Mr. Roddick remembers as a sage brush desert, without railroad, and only here and there a scattered orange plantation.
On New Year's Day, 1914, he married Miss Susie Jane Skelton, member of a prominent Redlands family. She was born in Nebraska. Mrs. Roddick is a member of the Congregational Church and one of
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the leaders in local society. They have two interesting children: Frances Rose, born April 26, 1915; and Walter Samuel, born May 22, 1917.
Mr. Roddick's success has not been of an ordinary character. As a boy he worked long hours, and energy and good management have carried him from stage to stage until he enjoys a goodly share of the substantial wealth of this country and at the same time has aided in the development that makes real wealth.
MRS. GEORGIE J. HOAG, widow of Isaac Newton Hoag, is a venerable and loved woman of Redlands, San Bernardino County, who has a specially high claim upon pioneer distinction in California, to which state she came in 1851 to join her widowed mother, who had come here in the preceding year, so that her experience has compassed virtually the entire period of marvelous development and progress in this state, while her husband was one of the adventurous aronauts who came to California in 1849. Mrs. Hoag was born in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 31st of March, 1832, and is a daughter of Joseph G. and Mary Knight (Riggs) Jennings, the
former of whom was born in England and the latter in the State of Maine. The father was still a young man at the time of his death, which occurred in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1850 the widowed mother came to California, she having made the voyage around Cape Horn on a sailing vessel and having become one of the earliest pioneer women of San Francisco. Mrs. Hoag acquired the major part of her youthful education in the City of Portland Maine, where she was graduated in a school for young women. In 1851 her mother sent her funds with which to defray the expense of the journey to California, the mother having come here in 1850, as previously noted. Mrs. Hoag gave the money away instead of applying it to the designated purpose, and her mother then sent an additional sum of $700 to the eastern agents of the Adams Express Company, who secured transportation and became responsible for the safe delivery of the daughter in to the mother's charge at Sacramento. Mrs. Hoag was thus "personally conducted" by Messrs. Niblo and Parvue, who were at that time leading officials of the Adams Express Company and who traveled in direct charge of the express company's shipments, including Mrs. Hoag. The journey was made by steamboat to the Isthmus of Panama, and the first stop was made at the Island of Jamaica, where Mr. Parvue took his winsome "shipment," the future Mrs. Hoag, ashore to visit the barracks and to view other points of interest. Mrs. Hoag recalls the trip across the Isthmus of Panama as one of surpassing interest. The party passed up the Chagres River in a canoe rowed by natives, the tropical forests being so dense that the trees on the river banks were at times almost within touch of the passengers on the little fleet of canoes, while vines frequently extended across the full width of the stream, from tree to tree. Birds of resplendant colors vied in attraction with the tropical foliage, and monkeys chattered their curiosity and protest as the voyage proceeded. Upon leaving the river the company found further transportation by riding mules, and all of the women in the party sat astride, wearing bloomers to add to their stately dignity. Mrs. Hoag rode an express company mule. Mr. Parvue riding in front and Mr. Niblo behind as protection to Mrs. Hoag. The trail was narrow and innumerable difficulties were faced in making progress along its course, Mrs. Hoag having her full share of incidental
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