USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 46
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 46
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lie returned to California, his native state, the trip having been made with team and wagon. He was engaged in tarm enterprise in Santa Barbara County six years, and he passed the ensuing four years at Parowan, Utah, where he served as postmaster and county registration officer, under appointment by President Grover Cleveland. He again availed himself of team and wagon in making the return trip to Cali- fornia, and at this time he settled in San Bernardino County. He en- tered the service of the Santa Fe Railroad. He supplied transportation to the chief engineer and his assistants in the making of the hrst and the final surveys of the right of way of this railroad from San Ber- nardino to Los Angeles, this having been in the year 1886. He next took up a homestead claim in the Alessandro valley, a property which he mortgaged and which he lost as the result of a great drought that caused failure of all crops in this section. With his financial resources reduced to the minimum, he removed to Merced County, but the family there suffered from malaria, with the result that he returned to San Ber- nardino County, where he purchased a partially improved tract of orange land, at Bloomington. He has since developed this property into one of the fine orange groves of this district and with the passing years substantial prosperity has attended his well ordered efforts.
As a youth in Salt Lake City Mr. Lyman learned the printer's trade, and was employed on early newspapers in that city.
On November 23, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lyman to Miss Zuie Rowley, who was born and reared in England, her father having been converted to Mormonism, but her mother having refused to follow his example, with the result that the parents were divorced, the father having contracted a second marriage, in England, and having come to Salt Lake City and passed the remainder of his life in Utah. He sent for his daughter Zuie, who joined him in Salt Lake City and who later became the wife of Lorenzo S. Lyman. Mary E., eldest of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Lyman, was born in Utah, October 2, 1875, and she is now the wife of Emil Anderson, of Bloomington, California, their two children being Charles and Robert. Cornelius, the second child, was born at Santa Barbara, California, in April, 1877 and he served in the Spanish-American war in the Seventh Regiment California Volun- teer Infantry. He is married and has four children : Dorothy, employed in a bank at Fresno; Chester, in service in the United States Navy ; and Celenia and Vivian, at the parental home. Rosa, the third child, was born in Santa Barbara, in 1878, is the wife of William Moore, of Ar- mada, Riverside County, and their one child, Walter, is secretary to one of the high officials of the Santa Fe Railroad. Nora, who was born at Santa Barbara in 1880, is the wife of William Stone, of San Ber- nardino County, and they have three children: Marion, Edwin and Lyman. Ina, the fifth child, was born at Parowan, Utah. is the widow of Worth Mort and is in charge of a dormitory at Leland Stanford, Jr., University. Amasa Henry, who resides at Los Angeles, is married and has two daughters, Pamela and Amasetta Henrietta. Mrs. Zuie (Rowley) Lyman died in 1889, and in 1892, Mr. Lyman married Alpha A. Easton, who was born in Tuscola, Illinois. Of the two children of this union the elder is Arthur, who was born in September, 1898, and who is, in 1922, a junior in the University of California. He left his studies to enter the United States Navy when the nation became involved in the World war, he having enlisted in April, 1917, and having received his honorable discharge in July, 1919. As a member of the signal corps he saw fourteen months of service in the North Sea, on the battleship "New York," under Admiral Rodman, and incidentally he saw
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the surrendered German fleet on its last voyage, an ignoble end in an English port. Ella Lucile, the younger child, was born in September, 1903, and is a sophomore in the Junior College at Riverside.
FRANCIS J. CONWAY. In every community there are certain men whose work is marked by its constructive character, and whose popularity is unquestioned. Because of their evident sincerity and honesty their connection with any movement gives it solidity, and as they are public- spirited, they may be depended upon to do what is necessary to advance their home section. Such a man is Francis J. Conway, one of the prosperous orange growers of Riverside, and one of the most depend- able citizens of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Not only has he acquired a well-earned reputation for his horticultural efforts, but also for his skill as a painter, and he follows both lines of endeavor.
Francis J. Conway was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, October 21, 1854, a son of Francis J. and Elizabeth (Smith ) Conway. The father, who was born in Ireland, died in 1855. By occupation he was a shoe merchant. The mother, born in England, is also deceased. Francis J. Conway was educated in the public schools of Ontario, and as a young man learned the trade of a painter, serving his apprentice- ship at Oshawa, Ontario. He worked there and at many other places in Canada and the United States, and then, in 1885, came to California, arriving at Los Angeles May 5th of that year. For a couple of years after coming to the Golden State he followed his trade, and still takes contracts for painting when an especially careful job is required. After settling permanently at Riverside, in August, 1888, he bought two acres of land at 903 Pennsylvania Avenue, and has resided in the same house ever since. Subsequently he bought an orange grove of five acres, and later another one of ten acres, but has disposed of both of them. He has been a member of the Alta Cresta Fruit Exchange since its organ- ization, and has never sold his fruit on the outside. While he votes the republican ticket, he is not active in politics, and he has never sought public honors, although did he desire to come before his fellow citizens as a candidate would likely receive a generous support on account of his great personal popularity. He belongs to the Fraternal Aid Union, and while in Canada was tenor horn in the band of the Thirty-fourth Battalion, Canadian Volunteers.
On July 11, 1881, Mr. Conway was married at Oshawa, Ontario, to Edith E. Billings, a native of Ontario, and a daughter of George W. Billings, a mechanic, and musician of repute. Mr. and Mrs. Conway have four children, namely : George, who is an engineer for the South- ern Pacific Railroad, married Morna Main, a daughter of M. P. Main an orchardist of Riverside, has one child, Enid; Edith Estella, who is the wife of Charles W. Bennett, a merchant of San Bernardino, has three children, Murial. Francis and Robert; Pauline, who is the wife of P. L. Kyes of Riverside, has four children, Doris. Eleanor, Pauline and Perry ; and Ernest Lawrence, who is in the shoe business with his brother-in-law, at San Bernardino. Not only have Mr. and Mrs. Con- way made a success of their own lives, butt they have reared their children to become responsible and desirable adjuncts to their several communities, and have in this way, as in many others, contributed val- uable assets to their country, and have fully earned the appreciation they receive from all who know them, and place at their true value their excellent qualities.
GEORGE WASHINGTON SMITH of Wineville has individually owned some properties in Southern California, but the chief claim to considering
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him in this publication rests upon his demonstrated abilities in construc- tive lines of achievement and the efficient superintendence and manage- ment of large agricultural and horticultural enterprises. He is now superintendent ot the Stearns & Sons ranch at Wineville, where he resides.
Mr. Smith was born in Platte County, Missouri, near Kansas City July 4, 1871, son of George B. and Jane R. (Cole) Smith, natives of Indiana. He was one of ten children, three of whom died in infancy and one in childhood. The other six are all living in California. lda L. is Mrs. L. S. Wilson of West Riverside; Alice L. is Mrs. B. R. Smith of Pomona; Mrs. Kate E. Foster lives at Arlington; Mrs. Lizzie P. Wilson is a resident of Guasti; and J. L. Smith lives at Riverside and married a daughter of the pioneer Daly family, their marriage being celebrated in the old adobe at Rubidoux.
George B. Smith was a blacksmith by trade and arrived in California on Christmas Day of 1878 with his family. He settled in West Riverside but three years later bought twelve acres of land from Mrs. Anna B. Cunningham and improved this, finally selling it in 1907 to George W. Smith, a son, who continued its improvement and development, planting it to alfalfa and fruit and building on it a modern home. In 1910 George W. Smith sold this property to the Portland Cement Company, whose plant was on adjoining ground. George B. Smith died in 1909, having survived his wife several years.
George Washington Smith has lived in California since he was seven years of age and he acquired his education in this State. After selling his property in 1910 he did dry farming on leased land for three years. He then developed some land of his own, and also took part in the construction work on the new canal at West Riverside from the cement plant to Pedley. He became interested in the business of preparing adjacent ground for the planting of orchards. The excavation was done by contract and the planting of trees by day labor. After selling his own land Mr. Smith took a vacation, traveling all over the northwestern part of the United States looking for a suitable location, but in 1911 he returned to California and became general superintendent for the Fontana Company, handling the big job of planting a thousand acres to citrus fruits. He remained with the Fontana Company six and a half years, and during that time he developed five thousand acres. He also improved ten acres of his own and built his home on Cypress Avenue on the west side of the Fontana tract. This private property he disposed of for Los Angeles income property and then came to Wineville and accepted a position with the Charles Stearns & Sons as general superintendent of their ranch. He has the entire responsibility of two thousand acres. He has been with Stearns & Sons since January 1, 1919. When the prohibition law became effective Stearns & Sons proceeded to destroy their vineyard of wine grapes, and Mr. Smith had to superintendent this great task. He removed the vines at the rate of 160 acres in eight days, destroying 800 acres of vineyard and replanting it during the first season with 12,000 apricots and 73,000 peach trees. At the present time the Stearns ranch com- prises 800 acres of vineyard, 800 acres of apricots and peaches, while the rest of the 2,000 acres tract is in farm land. It is stocked with 400 head of hogs. There is a modern cannery covering two and a half acres and every part of the equipment is thoroughly modern. Mr. Smith was selected as manager of this big property because of his demonstrated record of efficiency and capability in the handling of large affairs and as a capable executive of men.
4. Jan.
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In 1896 Mr. Smith married Addie Suits, who was born in Indiana in 1872 and was reared and educated in that state. She was of Holland ancestry. Mrs. Smith died at Fontana in the fall of 1914. In May, 1916, Mr. Smith married Mrs. Nannie B. Levett of Los Angeles, whose maiden name was Nannie B. Stewart. She lived during her early childhood at Fort Scott, Kansas. Mr. Smith is a republican. He is a thorough Californian, in love with the country and its people and its opportunities. As a youth he was fond of riding over the ranges and frequently he joined a party of young people who went on horseback from West Riverside to Rincon, a distance of sixteen miles, and then danced until daylight.
JOSEPH B. GILL, Many of the most prominent men in public life in the state of California have achieved most enviable reputations in their eastern homes, in politics, finance, as merchant princes and kindred pursuits, and having accomplished much come out to "God's Country" to rest and enjoy the Southland. Few of them are inclined to take up again the former occupations of the east, but when they do get back into the harness they usually take up the burden just where they laid it down, resume the same old business, or go into citrus culture.
Joseph B. Gill, banker and financier of San Bernardino, made his fortune and his reputation in the East, but more of the latter than the former, and his forte was politics and the controlling motive was the protection of the poorer classes and the easing of their heavy bur- dens. In the state of Illinois he, for years, was the driving wheel in politics and statesmanship and his burning zeal for service, his es- pousal of the cause of the so-called lower classes made him a power to be reckoned with. With him it was noblesse oblige and all his actions were based on enduring justice and right, and he went down underneath superfluities to bedrock. The press at that time was warmly commendatory and although he was himself the owner and editor of a widely circulated newspaper the members of the craft were with him almost to a man without regard for petty jealousies and party bitterness.
Mr. Gill could think for the commonwealth, the proletariat, and he came to be their Moses, leading them out of the morass in which they were all but submerged. The youngest Lieutenant Governor Illinois ever had, and acting Governor for years, a lawyer by educa- tion, Mr. Gill from the first showed all the qualities for triumphant leadership, and he was soon tested in the fires of experience. He was, however, accredited by his friends, constituents and the press, with so many brilliant and unusual qualities and talents it seems as though he possessed more gifts than any one man should have. Throughout his public life he was never accused of misconduct, un- truth, "wobbling," cowardice. lack of initiative or nerve. Although he was the champion of the poor and oppressed he soon won golden opinion from all classes, and always those who favored good gov- ernment were solidly behind him.
Mr. Gill undoubtedly inherited many of the talents of his father and ancestors for he can trace his genealogy back to pre-Revolution- ary days. His father was John M. Gill, Jr., his grandfather also John, and his great-grandfather John. The family was founded in America by the members who settled in Virginia among the first there. The grandfather, John Gill, was brought to Illinois by his parents from his birthplace in Virginia, while a small boy. His wife
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was Nancy, who was American from pre-Revolutionary days, but of German ancestry. The Gills were of English and Irish ancestry. They had eight children, of whom John Gill was the fifth. They lo- cated in Illinois near De Soto, pioneers of that district, in 1813. The couple lived there all their lives, reared their family and died in 1885.
John M. Gill, father of Joseph B. Gill, was born in Murphysboro, Illinois, November 23, 1833. He received all the education possible in those times, and assisted his father on the home farm. He mar- ried Nancy J. Wright, daughter of Washington Wright of William- son county. They had two children, Joseph B. and one deceased. In 1855 Mr. Gill began business in the merchandising line and in 1859 removed from De Soto to Williamson County, where he en- gaged in farming and dealing in tobacco and other produce of the farms. In 1863 he returned to De Soto where he resided until 1868.
In that year he located in Murphysboro, Illinois. He resumed his mercantile pursuits but fire swept away his store and he decided to take up milling. He soon became one of the prominent men of that district, always a staunch democrat. In 1876 he was elected Mayor of Murphysboro and filled the office two terms, establishing a record for the able discharge of his duties and the rare judgment he displayed in many situations pertinent to those times. He was also a director of the public schools for many years. He was a Ma- son for twenty years.
He founded the town of Gillsburg on the narrow gauge railroad on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, about eight miles northwest of Murphysboro, a thriving, busy place. He was noted as a business man of finest principles, square and honest, and of strict integrity. He died on February 27, 1886.
Joseph B. Gill spent his youth chiefly in De Soto and Murphys- boro. He was educated in the public schools and in the Christian Brothers' College in St. Louis and graduated in the classical course of the Southern Illinois Normal School at Carbondale in 1884. He took the law course for two years in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was graduated an LL.D. in July, 1886, and was later admitted to the bar, passing an examination before both the Circuit and the Superior Courts. He never practiced law but his training in that profession has been invaluable to him.
He returned home after graduation and engaged in the field of journalism by purchasing an interest in the Murphysboro Independ- ent which he conducted and edited until January 1, 1893.
From the first he was in politics, being a strong democrat and he was warmly welcomed by that party, becoming a power at once. In 1888 he was elected to the Legislature and re-elected in 1890. Mr. Gill was opposed to corporate greed and an advocate of the laboring classes, working for every measure which tended to their better- ment. Among the measures he espoused was the Gross Weight Bill, the Weekly Pay Bill and the Anti-Truck Store Bill and he was one of the men who pushed the Arbitration Bill to success.
The people who were almost without any representation or friends in the Legislature was the class Mr. Gill went in to aid, without any thought or desire for reward, yet soon after the Legis- lature adjourned this class united in a body to demand that Mr. Gill be placed on the state ticket. They wanted him for Governor, and this the other class did not want and accordingly they tried to side - track him but they could not keep him off the ticket and on the first
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ballot, in April, 1892, Mr. Gill was nominated for office of Lieutenant Governor by the democrats in State Convention.
The usual tactics were employed all through the campaign but Mr. Gill had the entire confidence of the people who not only gave him their admiration without reserve but backed it up with their votes and worked for his success, and in this as in all else, Mr. Gill proved that failure could not be attached to his name, for his friends and beneficiaries elected him in triumph, he receiving the highest number of votes of any man on the ticket, excepting only the candi- date for State Treasurer. But one remarkable thing was that many of the voters in the highest walks of life voted and worked for Mr. Gill, standing in this with the working people.
The thing worked much like the case of Theodore Roosevelt, for while Governor Altgeld did not die, he was so ill he could not attend to the duties of his office and had to go south at once. Mr. Gill as acting Governor assumed the reins of governinent, the first demo- crat to hold that office and occupy the Gubernatorial chair in over thirty-five years.
From the start he looked zealously after the rights of the con- mon people and believing that money owned by the state had been carefully hidden away he started out to unearth it. He set the At- torney General on the scent by having him start suits against ex- state officials going back over many years. As may be imagined this was hot shot for the politicians and many financiers, while to his people it gave unqualified joy. On this issue the press of the state and the men of high place, as well of the common class, alike congratulated themselves upon their Governor, as he really was.
Mr. Gill, with implacable purpose, enforced every law and acted in the strictest accordance with the platform upon which he was elected and the people knew they had a Governor with whom their rights were paramount. In February, 1894, as Governor Altgeld was still absent in search of health, Mr. Gill again occupied the chair of the chief executive and again proved his love for his fellow men by his service for them. His youth was not a drawback, rather an asset and it seemed to draw him still closer to the very heart of the people. His is the rare case where press, fellow officials and people united in appreciation of a Governor and when he left the state, ow- ing to ill health, it was declared that the keystone of the arch of government "by the people, for the people and of the people" had been taken away.
Mr. Gill had already secured the annexment of the weekly pay bill for the miners, and for this and other reasons while he was act- ing Governor his influence was so great that single handed he averted a strike, while insistent demands were being made to call out the militia. This strike occurred in the coal mines in the northern part of Illinois, and involved several companies and seven thousand miners. A large part of these miners gathered at Toluca, Marshall County, and demanded what they considered their rights. They were armed and in a very ugly mood. One of the big mine owners, Charles J. Devlin, also Sheriff of the county, fearing the destruction of property, sent repeated telegrams demanding the State Militia and holding acting Governor Gill responsible for any bloodshed and destruction that might follow if he did not send the militia. Governor Gill refused to do so, and he said that if the companies would fur- nish the miners free transportation out of the state he would go to the strikers personally. This program was agreed upon and Gov-
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ernor Gill accompanied by the Assistant Adjutant General made the trip, being met at Joliet by President Crawford of the United Mine Workers. On arriving at Toluca, a consultation was held with Dev- lin who agreed to furnish transportation if Mr. Gill could get the strikers to proceed to their homes. Mr. Gill and Mr. Crawford both addressed the miners and within three hours after they arrived the strikers were on the train enroute home. All over the state the press regarded this as a remarkable performance and was unanimous in praise of Governor Gill's tact and promptness.
Mr. Gill was on the way to the highest honors within the gift of the people but he refused steadfastly to be a candidate for any elec- tion or re-election, but the succeeding administration appointed him a member of the State Board of Arbitration, the highest honor a democrat could hold in the state at that time, but after his appoint- ment by Governor Tanner, his health compelled him to resign after a few months. But Illinois' loss was California's gain for he came here to make his home. The only drawback to his coming was that he announced before and after coming here, that he was through with politics, for good and all, and men like Mr. Gill are needed always. It is because men of his calibre soon get enough of politics, of trying to stem the tide of graft and similar evils that the other kind have too often to be elected.
Mr. Gill was elected the first president of the Board of Trade of San Bernardino after locating there in 1897, and was re-elected. He was made Chairman of the Highway Commission that spent the $1,750,000 bond issue of San Bernardino County, and everyone knows how efficiently that was done. He was active in the campaign for good roads, being a committee chairman on each occasion. He is president, 1922 23, of the National Orange Show. Mr. Gill is a member of San Bernardino Lodge No. 836, B. P. O. E., and was one of the first trustees.
Mr. Gill was in the lumber business under the name of the Gill- Norman Lumber Company and had three yards: one in San Bern- ardino, one in Riverside and one in Redlands. He sold out his in- terests after being engaged in it for twelve years and then retired from all business for ten years. But his high character, his record and his aptitude for finance soon brought him out of retirement and in 1920 he had to give up his life of ease and accept the presidency of the San Bernardino National Bank and of the San Bernardino County Savings Bank. He is now also a director of the First Na- tional Bank of Rialto, and is Vice-President of the Ocean Park Bank of Ocean Park, California. He was a director, of the American Na- tional Bank of San Bernardino but resigned when he accepted the presidency of the other two banks of the city.
On April 27, 1920, Mr. Gill married Thelma Smith of Murphys- boro, Illinois, daughter of Edward Smith and member of one of the oldest and most respected families of Murphysboro. Mrs. Gill is a member of the Christian Church and has already made many beloved friends in her new home in San Bernardino, friendships that are in fact a tribute to her high character and unusual social qualities.
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