USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 52
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 52
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"The great Mission Vineyard was developed by the perseverance of one man and his chosen associate, on an earth surface that a few years ago was scoffed at and considered absolutely worthless. Sage- brush, wild, rough plants of the silent, barren places and parched dust were the offerings to man, and every foot of land reclaimed from the white plain was won by vigilant toil. That the man who has achieved a victory in the long-drawn-out battle with the desert pos- sessed indomitable courage and a never-say-die spirit is strikingly proved by the record of his life.
"Mr. Post was born on a farm near Rochester, New York, De- cember 25, 1840, and is a son of Morton A. and Mary (Wickware) Post, both natives of the old Empire State and both of New England ancestry. Morton A. Post was a substantial farmer in Monroe County, New York, and was ninety years of age at the time of his death, in 1895, his wife having died at the age of fifty-six years. Morton E .. of this review, was the fourth in order of birth in their family of three sons and two daughters.
"After his graduation in the high school at Medina, in Orleans County, New York, Morton E. Post came West and engaged in freighting from the Missouri River to various western points. As foreman of a wagon train he made many overland journeys across the plains and mountains. He finally engaged in the same line of enter- prise in an independent way, and in several years of operation he won considerable success. In the spring of 1864 Mr. Post followed the gold rush into Alder Gulch, Montana, from Denver, Colorado, and he left Alder Gulch with $75,000 in gold. This, it should be borne in mind,
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was in one of the most perilous parts of the plains, and the work was filled with hardships and dangers. Battles were fought with road agents and Indians, and in one encounter Mr. Post barely missed cap- ture by a band of nearly 100 redskins, who attacked his wagon train with fury, one of his men being killed and nine out of the thirteen being wounded. Late in 1866 Mr. Post opened a forwarding house in North Platte, Nebraska, then the terminus of the Union Pacific Rail- road. In 1867 he joined the rush to Wyoming, where he became a pioneer in the stock-raising industry and also a leading merchant. Prior to 1888 his fortune was estimated at more than $1,000,000. In that year a storm destroyed nearly fifteen million dollars' worth of property in Wyoming, and the catastrophe hit no one harder than it did Mr. Post, all of whose property was lost in the overwhelming crash. After passing a year in a tour of Europe he engaged in mining in Utah, where he met with varying success until he came to Califor- nia and acquired the property which stands to-day as a monument to his genius.
"For more than twelve years Mr. Post was a power in democratic politics in Wyoming. He served in the upper branch of the Territorial Legislature from 1878 to 1880, was elected a delegate from the terri- tory to Congress in 1881, and he thus served until 1885, when he de- clined the unanimous nomination proffered by his party.
"Other sections of the Southland have lured Mr. Post, and he has extensive interests all over Southern California. Of his handling of large and important holdings, landed and industrial, it is not neces- sary to give details in this brief sketch. He has been identified with development and progress in many counties in this section of the state, and his interposition has invariably inured to the benefit of the various communities. He has lived close to nature's heart, and na- ture has rewarded him by giving him the profit of requited toil. He has been a foremost figure in the development of both the vineyard and citrus-fruit industries in Southern California, as well as of the olive industry.
"Mr. Post resides at the Jonathan Club in the City of Los Angeles, and maintains a splendid country home on Havens Avenue, in the district of the Mission Vineyard. Here his many friends are often entertained with lavish hospitality. To be his guest is an honor that always brings pleasure and interest.
"It is more than worth while to talk with the man who created the wonderful Mission Vineyard, a man who has never known such a word as fail. Let him tell how it feels to lose the result of years of work, how it strikes one to lose a million dollars in a night, and then let him tell how it feels to take heart again and win a fortune greater than he knew before. Such things as these give strength and fortitude to mankind."
Mr. Post disposed of his vineyard and winery interests in 1919, at an enormous advance over the price which he originally paid for the property which he developed into the wonderful Mission Vineyard. He now has a luxurious home at 722 South Oxford Avenue, Los An- geles, and still holds the Jonathan Club as his favorite resort in the city. His has been a life of action and productiveness, he has done big things, and his own bigness of mind and heart has marked him as . a man among men and one worthy of the confidence and good will that are uniformly accorded to him by his fellow men. By his char- acter and achievement he has honored the great State of California, and this commonwealth in turn grants to him appreciation and honor.
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He has been an apostle of progress in the West since his young man- hood, and through him California has had much to gain and nothing to lose.
JONATHAN PETER CUTLER, a California pioneer whose enterprise was directed in a particularly fortunate way for the development of the famous district of Cucamonga, was a type of early settler whose mem- ory deserves to be cherished.
He was a native of Tennessee, but as a boy went to Iowa and in the early fifties joined an ox train crossing the plains to Carson City, Nevada. There he engaged in a supply business, handling hay, grain and provisions, obtaining most of his commodities in San Francisco and making numerous trips to the coast while in this business.
While at San Francisco he married Mary Gasting, a native of New York State, and in the early seventies he took his family to Ventura, where he was engaged in ranching until 1884. In that year he moved to the Jomosa tract, now known as Alta Loma, where he bought twen- ty acres of wild land. Like the rest of the region, it was rough, cov- ered with brush and stone, and with the aid of his sons he did the arduous work of clearing it. He provided it with water and also did the planting, setting out five acres to oranges and five acres to peaches. This orchard was subsequently sold, and was one of the first plats thoroughly improved in that region. It was located well north, on Hellman Avenue. Jonathan P. Cutler also bought with his son, Lewis, and developed ten acres on Olive Street from its wild condi- tion. Here he built and improved and set out an orange grove. After selling there he bought a home in Hollywood. While living there in comfortable retirement he met an accident when his horse ran away, resulting in his death.
Jonathan Peter Cutler was hardy, honest, hard working, achieved material prosperity, enjoyed rugged health in spite of his roughing experiences, and always entertained the honest respect of his fellow men.
He and his wife had four children : George W., now a successful business man at Douglas, Arizona; Lewis T., of Upland; Mary Gen- evieve, wife of R. W. Thornbury, of Hollywood; and Elsie J., wife of J. R. Tweedy, of Walnut Park, California.
Lewis T. Cutler was born April 6, 1871, at Santa Paula, California, and was about thirteen years of age when the family located at Cuca- monga. He attended school there, spent two years in school at Pasadena, and he and his brother did their share of the toil on their father's ranch. Later Lewis T. Cutler took up the business of driving water tunnels in the development of various irrigation systems, and has handled a great deal of tunnel construction and concrete work for the Arrowhead Reservoir Company. He entered the service of this company in 1892, and for eight years was in the engineering department. During that time the Little Bear Valley system was constructed. As noted above, he and his father bought a ten acre tract, and he paid for his five acres out of his wages. Since then his development work has made him one of the leading fruit growers in the Cucamonga District. However, as opportunity presented, he has frequently returned to tunnel work. In numerous instances he has taken tracts of wild land, improved and set them to fruit, and has also done much trading in real estate, both farm and city properties. Like his father he has been a hard worker, and has fully earned what he now enjoys.
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On March 20, 1905, at San Jose, he married Julia Johnson, who was born January 28, 1875, in Hadley, Massachusetts, daughter of Edward and Lucy ( Dane ) Johnson. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Cutler have three children: Howard, born October 15, 1906, who was educated at Cuca- monga and in the Chaffey Union High School; Lucy, born August 30, 1907, now a student in the Chaffey Union High School; and George, born May 3, 1909. All the children are natives of Cucamonga. After his marriage Lewis Cutler bought the noted old landmark, the old saloon and roadhouse and first store building in Cucamonga. In pioneer days this one room structure housed the post office, general store and saloon. It was remodeled under Mr. Cutler's ownership as a residence, and he and his family lived there until 1919, when he sold and has since occupied his present comfortable home on East Ninth Street in Upland.
CHARLES R. BUCKNELL .- The largest and finest home at Ontario is at the southwest corner of Laurel and G streets, a magnificent residence recently erected by Charles R. Bucknell for his permanent home. Mr. Bucknell has been a resident of Ontario for a number of years, and has had an interesting and successful role as a capitalist, dealer in real estate, and has done much in a constructive way for the development of this section. He achieved his prosperity as a highly successful Michigan farmer and land owner, and he still owns a large amount of valuable property in that state. He was born at Nottawa, St. Joseph County. Michigan, October 6 1841, son of John Henry Francis and Elizabeth (Bucknell) Bucknell. His parents were both natives of Somersetshire, England, but only distantly related. His father was born in 1815, and died in Michigan August 30, 1848, while his mother was born in 1820 and died in 1891. John H. F. Bucknell as a young man came to America, traveling by water as far as Toledo, Ohio, and thence overland to St. Joseph County, Michigan, where he bought eighty acres of Government land. This he improved and sold on payments and turned the price to reinvestment in 220 acres. He plunged heavily in debt, but he had the resourcefulness and the great energy that justified assuming such re- sponsibilities. Six years after coming to America he married, having known his wife during his boyhood in England. The three children of their marriage were: Julia, born March 10, 1839, and died in 1892; Charles R .; and George M., born October 8, 1843, still leading and pros- perous farmer in Southern Michigan.
Charles R. Bucknell was only seven years of age when his father died, leaving his widow and three children. Charles R. Bucknell at once left school for two years, took charge of the stock, and at the age of eleven had the full responsibility of the farm. His mother, however, was a remarkable business woman, and her efficient administration during the five years after her husband's death paid the debts and accumulated much property besides. Charles R. Bucknell and his mother continued to operate the home farm, and during her lifetime they accumulated eight large properties in Southern Michigan. Charles R. Bucknell, while denied early school advantages later made up for this deficiency, attending high school and getting a good education. His career in Michigan as a farmer proved a factor in the construction development of his section of the state. At one time he owned nine first-class farms, models of improve- ment and agricultural efficiency, and he still owns three farms respectively of 320 acres, 175 acres and 80 acres in his home county, and also 100 acres in an adjoining county.
During the early '60s Mr. Bucknell was called back to Devonshire. England, to settle and dispose of a large estate consisting of ground
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and two stores in Bristol. This busines required his residence in England for about two years. In the fall of 1864 he married there Miss Anna Coles, daughter of a rich English farmer and stockman who had sold cattle to Queen Victoria. Mr. Bucknell's brother-in-law was a perfect specimen of physical manhood, and from a crowd on a street was selected on this account to serve as one of Queen Victoria's bodyguard, and acted as special guard for two years to her majesty. He is now a successful dealer in musical instruments and an importer in New Zealand. Mr. and Mrs. Bucknell soon after their marriage returned to Michigan, and their three children were all born in that state and died there. Albert H. was born November 27, 1865, and died in 1898; Bell was born Sep- tember 26, 1867, and died in 1892; and George M., born June 30, 1872, was drowned at the age of thirteen. The mother of these children died in Michigan in 1891.
With his home broken up Mr. Bucknell during the past thirty years has traveled extensively, has crossed the Rockies to and from California twenty-nine times, and many years ago he selected Ontario as his permia- nent home. December 11, 1904, he married Miss Cynthia J. Miller who was born at Middlebury, Indiana, daughter of Lemuel and Sarah Catherine Miller, natives of Pennsylvania. Her father was a very prominent grain dealer and owner of some large flour mills in St. Joseph County, Michi- gan. Mrs. Bucknell had a finished education and has traveled extensively, spending three years in the Hawaiian Islands. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Bucknell are: Charles R., Jr., born at Ontario July 28, 1908; Alice Margaret, born October 28, 1910; and Roy Lawson, born July 17, 1913.
Mr. Bucknell bought his home property in Ontario in 1902, at 213 West G. Street, and subsequently bought the ground at the southwest corner of Laurel and G streets, where he has just completed his magnificent home. The architecture of this residence has attracted wide attention, and the principal building material is solid granite, a material Mr. Buck- nell was selecting over a period of seventeen years. The house comprises twenty-two rooms, and is a home of beauty and comfort within and without.
Since coming to California Mr. Bucknell has dealt extensively and with great profit in real estate and land, buying and selling many parcels over the southern half of the state. One of his early purchases was ten acres of vacant land at the corner of Western Avenue and Sunset Boule - vard in Hollywood. He paid eighteen hundred dollars for this tract in 1900, and in 1921 he sold it to a studio company for eighty thousand dollars. Mr. Bucknell and family are Presbyterians, and he was one of the founders of the church at Ontario and one of the heaviest contribu- tors to its maintenance. Mrs. Bucknell is deeply interested in educational and civic affairs, a member of the Current Events Club, an active pro- hibitionist and a member of the W. C. T. U.
CARL JOHN CARLSON has been identified as a business man and citizen at Riverside for the past ten years. The community in that time has come to know him as a man of most engaging personality, of thorough public spirit, and with an unselfish interest in the welfare of others that is a distinguishing qualification for his present duties as deputy regional scout executive for the 12th District under the National Council Boy Scouts of America.
Mr. Carlson was born in Sweden April 20, 1879, son of Andrew J. and Marie (Ingrid) Carlson. The family came to America in 1881. His father is now living in Brockton, Massachusetts. His mother died Febru-
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ary 10, 1922. Carl John is the oldest of nine children, all living. Three of his brothers are in Riverside, William Louis, Arthur C. and Oscar E.
Carl J. Carlson acquired his early education in the public schools of Brockton, Massachusetts, and on leaving that city came direct to Riverside in 1912. During the first two years he was in business as a grocery merchant, then for a year was deputy chief of police, and for four years was subscription manager of the Riverside Daily Press. In his public record he is gratefully remembered by Riverside people for the period of a little over two years he was chief of police. On October 1, 1920, he was made scout executive for Riverside County Council, Boy Scouts of America, and built up a strong organization in every part of the county. On March 1, 1922, he was transferred from the local work by the National Council to become deputy regional executive of the 12th District, consisting of the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and the Hawaiian Islands.
Mr. Carlson is a member of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce, is on the board of the Humane Society, is a republican in politics, one of the Official Board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church is a member of the Kiwanis Club and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Both he and Mrs. Carlson are accomplished musicians. He has contributed to local musical activities as a singer, while Mrs. Carlson is an expert pianist.
He married Leora H. Upp, a native of Havana, Illinois. and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. P. Upp. who live at Riverside with their daughter. Mrs. Carlson is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church and the Rebekahs. They have one daughter, Genevieve Ingrid Carlson, now five years old. Mr. Carlson by his first wife who died January 1, 1912. has a son, Bela Keith Carlson, now fifteen years of age, an Eagle Scout and a high school student.
MEYER L. SCHOENTHAL, the vigorous and popular manager of the Hammond Lumber Company at Blythe, Riverside County, claims the old Keystone State of the Union as the place of his nativity, his birth hav- ing occurred at Washington, Pennsylvania, on the twelfth of August, 1883. He is a son of Henry and Helen Schoenthal, his father having been a prominent merchant and manufacturer at Washington, Pennsylvania, for many years, with specially large interests in the manufacturing of glass, be- sides which he was influential in civic and political affairs in that section of Pennsylvania. He is now retired from active business, and he and his wife maintain their home in New York City. Of the three children the eldest is Miss Hilda Schoenthal, a woman of exceptional talent and fine professional attainments, she being at the present time an active mem- her of a leading firm of chemical-patent attorneys in the City of Washing- ton, D. C. Lee Schoenthal, the second of the children, was born and reared at Washington, Pennsylvania, and has become a prominent rep- resentative of the china and glass business, in which he is associated with the well known house of Gimbel Brothers of New York, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.
The public schools of his native city afforded Meyer L. Schoenthal his early education, and after leaving school he gained most valuable experience through his association with his father and older brother in the china and glass business and the manufacturing of glassware. With these lines of enterprise he continued his active connection at Washington, Pennsylvania, until 1907, when he was called to Belle- ville, Illinois, to assume charge of the promotion of a theater enter-
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prise. He remained there one year, and met with success in effecting the erection and equipment of a modern theater, and for the ensuing two years he represented New York manufacturers in the Middle West. In 1910 he married, and in the same year he and his wife established their home at Los Angeles, California, where he engaged in the general investment business and where he remained until August, 1916, when he came to Blythe, Riverside County, at the time of the completion of the railroad into this section of the county. Here he became manager of the Palo Verde Lumber & Trading Company, and it was, in a large measure, due to his progressive policies that the concern grew from one of modest order into one of major importance in its field of enterprise, the company having established well equipped headquarters both at Blythe and Ripley.
In April, 1921, the Hammond Lumber Company, the largest wholesale and retail lumber concern in the West, purchased the Palo Verde Lumber & Trading Company, together with the Dolge Lum- ber & Feed Company, and Mr. Schoenthal was retained as general manager of the consolidated yards. The Hammond Lumber Com- pany maintains complete stocks of lumber and other building ma- terial both at Blythe and Ripley and the trade of the concern extends throughout the entire Palo Verde Valley. The company handles lum- ber, sash and doors, wallboard, lime, cement and builders' hardware, and a fleet of automobile trucks makes prompt delivery assured on all orders from the wide territory covered. The yards and offices of the company are conceded to be the best in arrangement and service in Southern California, and Mr. Schoenthal has gained a secure place as one of the most vital and progressive business men of the younger generation in the beautiful Palo Verde Valley. He is an active mem- ber of the Blythe Chamber of Commerce, in the organization of which he was influential and of which he served three consecutive terms as president. He is a member also of the Associated Chambers of Com- merce of Riverside County, an organization formed primarily for the promotion of the civic and material advancement of Riverside Coun- ty, and his loyalty and public spirit are to be counted upon in connec- tion with every enterprise and measure projected for the benefit of this splendid valley. Mr. Schoenthal is affiliated with Blythe Lodge No. 473, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Riverside Chapter No. 67, Royal Arch Masons; and Blythe Lodge No. 340, Knights of Pythias. He assisted in the organization of El Solano Country Club, and continues as one of its popular members. He is a member also of the City Club of Los Angeles, the Aero Club of Southern Califor- nia, and of the local council of the Boy Scouts. He has had no desire for political activity or preferment, but is a staunch supporter of the cause of the republican party.
Mr. Schoenthal suffered the great loss of his first wife, who was before her marriage Miss Mary McKinnie, her death having occurred at Blythe on the 24th of December, 1918. She was the gracious and talented daughter of J. R. McKinnie, who was one of the empire builders of the West and prominently identified with large and im- portant enterprises in Colorado and California. He maintained his residence at Colorado Springs for a term of years and finally came to Los Angeles, California, where he is now living, retired.
At Los Angeles, California, on the 19th of October, 1921, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Schoenthal and Miss Carolyn S. Hol- gate, daughter of Thomas Holgate of Lawrence, Massachusetts. a prominent figure in the textile industry. Mrs. Schoenthal spent her
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. childhood in her native city, Lawrence, but came to California with her father in 1914, establishing a home at Riverside. Mr. Holgate has since returned to Massachusetts, where he has again associated him- self with one of the large manufacturies of that state. Mrs. Schoen- thal is an active member of the Women's Improvement Club of Blythe and is a popular figure in the best social life of the Palo Verde Val- ley and Riverside County.
R. T. CLYDE, who is the owner of one of the excellent farm prop- erties of the Yucaipa Valley in San Bernardino County, reclaimed and developed this property from a barren state and has the satisfaction of knowing that he has aided in the civic and industrial development of his native county. His attractive rural home is on rural mail route No. 2 from Yucaipa post office.
Mr. Clyde is a representative of one of the old and honored pioneer families of San Bernardino County, and in this county his birth oc- curred at the old pioneer homestead of the family near Base Line on the 20th of May, 1864. He is a son of Edward Prentice Clyde and Mary (Singleton) Clyde, the former of whom was born in New York, a member of a sterling pioneer family of that state, and the latter of whom was born in England, she having been a girl when her parents came to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. Edward P. Clyde was born in the year 1833, and was reared under the conditions that marked the pioneer days in New York. In early youth he be- came a member of a party of horsemen who made the overland trip from New York to Utah Territory, where he gained pioneer honors and where he remained several years. In 1852, when the early gold excitement was still at its height in California, Mr. Clyde compassed the journey across the plains and mountains to this state. He ar- rived in the spring of that year at San Bernardino, and for a time he worked for his board, not more remunerative occupation being avail- able. After crops were garnered, however, he found work in connec- tion with the threshing of grain, and this paid him better. In this county was solemnized his marriage with Miss Mary Singleton, who came to California from Utah, where she had lived for some time, she having crossed the plains in the early days, when her parents made the journey from Philadelphia to Utah with ox team.
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