USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 62
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 62
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located in the Douglas Building at Los Angeles, but soon rented quarters on the ground floor at 454 South Broadway, and still later removed to 304 Grant Building, where he now has a suite of three rooms. He and Ben White were the first to inaugurate the Exchange business in the Los Angeles real estate market, a plan that has been widely adopted elsewhere.
On February 11, 1901, Mr. Stockwell married Miss Bertha C. Greenleaf, daughter of William and Rosalie P. Greenleaf. Mrs. Stockwell is an accomplished musician, particularly as a pianist. Her father was a native of Iowa and her mother was born in the city of Berlin and was brought to America when a child by her uncle.
The spirit that has prompted him to accept chances all his life has, with the enlarged resources of success, enabled Mr. Stockwell to engage in many diverse fields. He has mining interests, partic- ularly in the State Range Mountains of Inyo County, claims he has developed and where the Stockwell Gold Mining Company of which he is president, general manager and chief stockholder operates a thirty ton Lane mill and complete modern cyanide plant.
Mr. Stockwell in 1915 purchased a controlling interest and took over the management of the Consumers Salt Company with plant at Saltus in San Bernardino County. In that vicinity there is about six thousand acres underlaid with a solid body of salt eight to nine feet deep. The company had four and a half miles of railroad fully equipped with two locomotives, oil and salt cars, and there is a modern three-story mill building with a capacity of five hundred tons of salt daily. Mr. Stockwell operated this plant four years, put it on a profitable financial basis, and then leased it for twenty years to John Smith of Los Angeles. In 1917 Mr. Stockwell's investigations discovered calcium chloride on this property. He then organized the Calcium-Chloride Syndicate, established a refining plant at 2436 Hunter Street in Los Angeles, the first calcium chloride plant west of Michigan. He operated this for two years in a very successful way, and then leased it likewise to John Smith, who now operates both the salt and chloride plants. These two industries are among the most prosperous of San Bernardino County.
Mr. Stockwell was one of the early investors who put their re- sources behind the developments in Imperial County. He has owned many tracts of land there, and is still a large holder of farm lands. In' 1912 he put on sale the townsite of Alamorio where he built an electric light plant, creamery, ice plant, general merchandise store with thirty-five thousand dollars worth of stock, was one of the founders of the Methodist Church and the Church of the Nazarine. contributing substantially to the maintenance of these institutions, and was instrumental in securing the establishment of yards of the E. K. Wood Lumber Company. He kept in intimate touch with this town for four years, after which he sold out his interests. He had organized the Chamber of Commerce and its first meetings were held in his home. At that point he sank one of the first wells in the valley, developing an artesian flow of water with valuable mineral qualties and installed a bath house. This well is visited annually by hundreds of people who seek the benefits of the use of the water. Mr. Stockwell is regarded as an authority on investments in the valley. At the time of the well remembered floods he maintained and continued his investments at a time when others were getting out as fast as possible. He put on one of the first subdivisions of
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Tropico, running a special train on the Salt Lake Railway, and selling the entire tract at auction. He also put on the market Stockwell's subdivision at Corona in Riverside County. He owns sixty acres of citrus groves at Corona, Pomona and Ontario and at different times has been interested in retail business enterprises, including the old Hollywood confectionery store on Broadway at Los Angeles, a large millinery store, and has been interested in a number of hotels. Recently he purchased thirty-one acres at Lynwood, the half way city between Long Beach and Los Angeles, and is planning its subdivision and development.
Besides this ample evidence of his financial prosperity and his growing prominence as a citizen, Mr. Stockwell is the picture of rugged health and energy, all of which he credits to Southern Cali- fornia climate, though doubtless his personal persistence and de- termination have been equally important.
J. GORDON SMITH as a young man accepted the opportunities of his inheritance and has made a success of more than passing note in the horticultural and business affairs of the Redlands District.
Reared in Southern California since childhood, he was born in Glas- gow, Scotland, December 7, 1873, being five years old when the family came to this country. His parents were James and Constance (Stein) Smith, both natives of Scotland. James Smith and a brother owned a large furniture manufacturing plant in Glasgow. It was a prosperous business, but James Smith was for years a sufferer from asthma, and the rugged Scotch climate not agreeing with him he came to Pasadena early in 1879, returning with his family in September of that year, and built a home in Pasadena in 1880. He at once launched into the furni- ture business both as a manufacturer and retailer, under the name James Smith & Sons, with store at the corner of Fair Oaks and Green streets. Subsequently he built the four story Arcade Building which he occu- pied. This building adjoins the First National Bank at Fair Oaks and Colorado streets, and subsequently the fourth story was removed and it is now the Hotel Central, owned by the youngest daughter of James Smith. James Smith had other business interests. He bought sixty acres now in the heart of Pasadena, lying between Orange Grove Avenue and Fair Oaks and extending north and south between Palmetto and Alvarado streets. This he made an extensive plantation of orange and deciduous fruits, but it is now completely built over. He undertook the work of subdividing this tract, selling one ten acre homestead to E. R. Hull, but most of it in lots at advantageous prices. His estate still owns twelve acres of the original sixty, this portion being on Pasadena Avenue between Waverly and Bellview. Some of the prominent streets were laid out by the Smiths, such as Bellview, Gordon Terrace, Waverly, Pasadena Avenue, Palmetto. About the time he ended this subdivision work James Smith sold his furniture business to his son, F. H. Smith, who continued it at the old stand, but is now a business man of San Francisco. Subsequently James Smith was in the crockery business, be- ing interested in the Pacific Crockery & Creamery Company at Los Angeles and he also operated a retail store at Pasadena. At the time of his death he owned eleven hundred and sixty acres of ranch land in the Perris Valley of Riverside County, land which with other holdings was divided among his children, and a large portion of which is being farmed by J. Gordon Smith. James Smith with his wife and daughter visited Scotland, where his old asthmatic trouble quickly returned, and while at London on his way home he died December 14, 1910.
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He and his wife had eight children. The oldest, Sidney A. Smith, is a San Bernardino business man. Francis H. has already been men- tioned as the successor of his father's business at Pasadena and now in San Francisco. Wilfred S. is ranching at Perris, California. J. Gordon is the fourth in age. Alfred Dore Smith lives at Laguna Beach, Cali- fornia. Lewis F. is a rancher at Perris. Constance Agnes died in infancy. The youngest is Clara Agnes, of Pasadena.
J. Gordon Smith was liberally educated, attending the public schools of Pasadena, Parker's Academy and Throop University. On leaving school he determined that his career should be one that took him out of doors. He had from early boyhood enjoyed the sports and occupa- tions of his father's farm, and on August 18, 1897, he rode a bicycle all the way from Pasadena to Redlands to enter upon his duties as manager of his father's ranch lying along California Street. In this location his home and interests have continued, and he inherited the property from his father. His older brother was then on the ranch, but being home- sick was preparing to vacate, and Gordon stepped into his place. He has shown the qualities of his Scotch character in the successful wav he has handled his ranch and orange and .deciduous fruit crops, and has kept his business going in bad years as well as good.
October 9, 1906, he married Miss Rhoda Wilson, youngest daughter of Joseph Wilson and descended from one of the most interesting of the pioneer families of San Bernardino County. Some of the experiences of the Wilson family are related on other pages of this publication Mrs. Smith was born on the old Mission Road afterward known as Old San Bernardino, now West Redlands, April 15, 1878.
THEODORE L. EVENS had achieved a competence through his business career in the East before coming to California. For a time he was in- terested in orange growing, but he is now practically retired, having sold his groves. His home is at 417 Magnolia Avenue in Riverside.
Mr. Evens was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 26 1859, son of George W. Evens, a native of Pittsburgh. His mother wa- born in New York. George W. Evens spent all his active career in the meat business at Pittsburgh. Theodore L. Evens acquired a public school education in that city and learned the meat business from his father. On leaving Pennsylvania he went to Jowa, and for twenty-two years was in business as a retail meat dealer in Des Moines. Mr. Evens came to Riverside in 1909, and he bought a valuable orange grove 011 Magnolia Avenue, but has since sold this property. He is a republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
October 16, 1894, he married Miss Maria B. Thompson, daughter of David Thompson, of Pittsburgh, where she was born and reared and educated in the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Evens have one son, Al- bert W., now of Cranbrook, Canada. They also have a grandchild. Leona May.
ARCHIE MILTON ROBERTS .- A member of that class of workers whose practical education, ready perception and great capacity for pains- taking industry have advanced them to positions of agricultural and business substantiality formerly occupied only by men many years their seniors. Archie Milton Roberts, while representing the vigorous and resourceful present of the Pacific Coast, gives promise of participating in its more enlightened future, more especially of Highland, where he is the owner of a large and productive alfalfa and potato ranch. Vol. 111 2%
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Mr. Roberts was born July 3, 1882, in San Timoteo Canon, Cali- fornia, the youngest son of Berry and Frances (Thomas) Roberts. Berry Roberts was born in Conway County, Arkansas, September 18, 1836, the youngest of the children of Jesse and Mary (Aplin) Roberts. He was still an infant when his father died, and at the age of fifteen years started across the plains with his mother and others, driving four yoke of oxen. The party started April 10, 1852, and arrived at their. destination in Mariposa County, California, October 1 of that year. His mother, a native of Tennessee, later went to Texas, where her death occurred. Berry Roberts began his California career as a miner, but after five years of this work moved to San Bernardino County and took up ranching, in December, 1857, taking up cattle raising in the San Timoteo Canon of Riverside County. He was one of the men to introduce fine live stock in this section, and was one of the first breeders of such stock in the state. He sarted life in a new country, without means, when money was scarce, but through persistence and capable effort made a success of his ventures, and at the time of his death, which occurred at Redlands, at the home of his son, William M. Roberts, he was possessed of a good ranch and of the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens. In Mariposa County, California, Berry Roberts married Miss Frances Thomas, a native of Missouri, and they became the parents of twelve children: William M., Ozrow, Mary, Ella, Emma Beach, Nettie, Berry Lee, Sterling, Ida, Early, Archie Milton and Edward.
Archie Milton Roberts was educated at the El Caseo school and all his early training was along the line of ranching. During his father's later years, with his brothers Sterling and Early, and his sister Ida, he managed the elder man's property, and Archie M. Roberts continued' to be so engaged until his own marriage, at which time he set up house- keeping for himself. He married December 20, 1906, Miss Marie Charles, and at that time purchased six acres of land at Colton. This he later sold and bought ten acres on South Waterman Street, and within one year's time disposed of this property at a satisfying advance. In 1914 he bought his present home of twenty acres at the corner of City Creek Road and Pepper Avenue, Highland, and to this has since added an additional twenty acres. His forty-acre tract is now improved in the most modern style. He has a complete irrigating system, having sunk six wells, to which are attached pipe lines, his home is of the most modern architecture, and his ranch throughout is equipped in the most complete style. Mr. Roberts is engaged in general farming, his special crops being alfalfa and potatoes, which he grows in commercial quanti- ties. His success has been won through enterprise and industry, coupled with a natural ability and capacity for good management. Mr. Roberts is a member of the Native Sons and has a number of social, business and civic connections that bring him into close and constant touch with the life of the community.
Mrs. Roberts was born March 1, 1879. at Havre, France, a daughter of William and Mary Charles, whom she accompanied to the United States when five years of age. She has one brother, Julius. Mr. Charles, who was a member of the police force in his native land for fourteen years, first settled at Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he followed manu- facturing for four years, as he did also for a time at South Bend, Indi- ana. In 1889 he came to Cucamonga, California, where he engaged in ranching, and finally purchased a ranch on City Creek Road, which is now owned by his son. He passed away on this property December 9, 1915, his wife having died at San Bernardino in 1902. Mrs. Roberts
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is a woman of intelligence and numerous gifts and graces, as well as a high school graduate and a graduate of the Longmire Business College of San Bernardino, this state. She and her husband are the parents of three children: Milton, born November 3, 1907; Myrtle, born Febru- ary 27, 1909; and Francis, born December 18, 1912. The children are all being given excellent educational advantages.
CHARLES E. GAINES, present street superintendent of Riverside, is a civil and construction engineer with many years of successful experi- ence in the building and rebuilding of railroads and other public works. He was identified with railroad building in a number of southern states, and finally, during a three months' leave of absence, came to California and became so enamored of the charms of the Golden State that he never resumed his work in the East, and it may be stated has never had cause to regret the decision that made him a factor in the affairs of Southern California.
Mr. Gaines was born in Lewis County, Kentucky, June 28, 1878. His father, Thomas Moore Gaines, was also a native of Kentucky, of Maryland and Virginia stock. The Gaines family was one of sixty-eight that crossed the mountains by wagon train and were the first to colonize in Bracken County, Kentucky, each family taking up a section of land in that wilderness region. Gaines is an English name, and members of the family were in the Revolution. Thomas Moore Gaines is also a resident of California, living in San Diego County, where he is a super- visor in the Indian service and has been identified with the Indian service in the West for twenty years. While in the East he was prominent in the York and Scottish Rite bodies of Masonry, and for nineteen years was high priest of the Chapter. His wife was Mary Florence Wells. She is a native of Kentucky and is also living in San Diego County. She is of English-Welsh descent and of Revolutionary stock. Her father, Jacob Wells, was a provost marshal in the Union Army during the Civil war and assisted in heading off Morgan's raid through Southern Ohio.
Charles E. Gaines acquired a public school education, graduated from high school at Vanceburg, Kentucky, in 1896, and also attended the Jones & Kelley Business College at Lexington, Kentucky. During vacations he had his first experience working with a crew under Mr. Prather, who was under Chief Engineer A. E. Childs on the Collis P. Huntington di- vision of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. He continued the same work for two or three years after graduating. For one year he was with the Kinnekenic & Freestone branch of this railroad that penetrated what is known as the Boone-Furness and Herald and Johnson tracts in Northeastern Kentucky, where were originated great volumes of ton- nage of iron ore, glass sands and freestone for bridges. At that time Mr. M. E. Ingalls was president of the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Big Four. Mr. Gaines was employed on the Big Four system under Chief Engineer G. W. Kittredge, and also for the purchasing agent, George Tozzer. Following that he was under C. W. Cheers, general superin- tendent of construction, in the reconstruction of the Chattanooga, Rome & Southern Railway. Then followed a period of employment with the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic Railroad, working jointly for George Dale Wadley and Alexander Gorman, general superintendent of con- struction. This work involved the joining up of several smaller lines and extending the system from 139 miles to 740 miles from Brunswick, Georgia, to Birmingham, Alabama, with a "Y" into Atlanta. In this
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work Mr. Gaines had charge of much of the grading and roadbed construction and also the building of bridges.
The three months leave of absence which he spent in California came in 1908. After going as far as San Francisco he returned to Los Angeles and soon afterward sent in his resignation to the Southern Company and joined the Pacific Electric Railway Company. This cor- poration employed him in straightening out and making a complete record of the rights of way, and he served as right of way agent and then in charge of all the company's paving and street construction in the various towns served by the system. Altogether he was for eight years with the Pacific Electric. For two years he was in the contract- ing and paving business, building roads in Los Angeles, Ventura, Kern and Kings Counties. In Mono County he built the dam at Grant Lake for the Southern Sie. ra Power Company. During the period of the World war he was with the D. C. Jackman interests, his time being divided between the Ray Plant in Arizona and the Chino plant in New Mexico.
Mr. Gaines came to Riverside and in September, 1920, was appointed street superintendent, and he is now employing his broad experience and abilities in this important responsibility. On coming to Riverside he also bought a four acre navel orange grove at the end of Grove Street. Besides looking after his oranges he has embarked rather ex- tensively in the poultry business. At the present time his plant con- tains a flock of eight hundred pullets, and he plans additions that will bring it up to a normal average of five thousand. He also has an apiary of 117 stands, and this he also plans to increase steadily.
Mr. Gaines is a member of the County Farm Bureau. He is a past senior deacon of Lodge No. 305 F. & A. M. at Waycross, Georgia, is a member of Lodge No. 672, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Pasadena, California, is an independent in politics, and while in Georgia served as a member of the County Central Committees of Ware and Glynn counties. He and his wife are members of the Chris- tian Church at Alhambra. December 12, 1899, Mr. Gaines married Edith Van Norman, who was born in Los Angeles County, California. Her father, Joseph M. Van Norman, was a pioneer Texas cattleman. Mrs. Gaines represents an old southern family of Holland Dutch an- cestry, and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the Confederacy. They have one daughter, Ysabel.
LOUIS R. HILL, general superintendent and chief engineer of the San Bernardino plant of the Southern California Ice Company, is one of the experienced and skilled men of his profession and a citizen who is held in the highest esteem because of his professional and personal qualifications. He is a native son, having been born at Santa Barbara, California, February 6, 1876, a son of the late Dr. R. W. Hill, for many years a prominent practicing physician of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Born in Vermont, of Revolutionary stock and Eng- lish ancestry, he came to California about 1870, located in Santa Bar- bara, and was there married to Mary Carmel Guitterez, a native of Santa Barbara. Her mother, Sarah Guitterez was also born in Cali- fornia and was a daughter of Benigo Guitterez, who owned the first drug store of Santa Barbara, and continued to conduct it until his death, or during a period of fifty-six years. He was also the owner of the historical Rincon ranch, which marks the dividing line between Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Benigo Guitterez, came to California in the early '40s from Valparaiso, Chili. Mrs. Hill survives and lives
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at Ventura City, California. She and her husband had twelve chil- dren, those other than Louis R. Hill being as follows: Emmet, who resides on the Rincon ranch; Ruby, who is deceased; Benjamin, who is deceased; Edward, who is with the Southern Counties Gas Company at Ocean Park, California ; Carmelita, who is the wife of Douglas Rhodes, of Los Angeles, California ; Jesse, who is the wife of Andrew Claussen, of Santa Barbara; Grace, who conducts a millinery store at Ventura ; Abner, who is a resident of Ventura; Newton, who is studying phar- macy in the University of Southern California ; Esolina, who is the wife of Bert West, of Ventura; and James, who is engaged in farming in the vicinity of Portland, Oregon.
Louis R. Hill received his educational training in the public schools of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, after graduating from the Ventura High School he at once turned his attention to stationary en- gineering, working at that calling for five years at Santa Barbara and going from there to the famous Yellow Aster Mine at Randsburg, where he worked as an engineer for one year. Returning to Santa Barbara, he spent a short time in that city, but left it for Los Angeles, and became an engineer for the Southern California Ice Company. After a year he was transferred by the company to San Bernardino, in 1906, and since then has been general superintendent and chief en- gineer of the company's plant here.
Fraternally Mr. Hill maintains membership with the San Bernardino Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a re- publican, but has never been active in politics and has never sought public preferment.
In 1895 Mr. Hill married at Santa Barbara Miss Alice Henry, a native of California, and a daughter of Jacob Henry, now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Hill have two daughters, namely : Irene, who is the wife of Earl Douglas of San Bernardino, and an employe of the Walk Over Shoe Company ; and Miss Margaret, who is at home with her parents. The Hills are all members of the Catholic Church. The duties and responsibilities of Mr. Hill's position are so heavy as to necessitate his devoting practically all of his time and attention to them, but he is in- terested in the progress made by his city and county, and anxious to have a proper amount of public inprovement done in order that this locality maintain its prestige of being one of the most desirable parts of the Golden State.
LINCOLN SHERRARD .- One of the most interesting old timers of Red- lands is Lincoln Sherrard, who for thirty years has been identified with business as a blacksmith in this locality. He is a typical western man, born and spent all his life on the Pacific Coast, and has had a variety of experiences and hardships that enables him to appreciate all the won- derful progress made in this section of California since he came here.
Mr. Sherrard was born on a ranch in a log cabin at Canyonville, Oregon, December 28, 1861, son of William Douglas and Sarah Jane (Denning) Sherrard. His father was a native of Ohio and his mother of Indiana. They crossed the plains in the early days to Oregon over the Lewis & Clark trail, traveling with wagons and oxteams. The journey was made in 1853, and was beset with difficulties and hazards such as no journey outside of the Arctic regions could parallel at the present time. Once they tried a short cut and missed the old trail up Snake River Val- ley, and for three days they had to live on snails and roots. William D. Sherrard was for many years a miner, also did freighting in Oregon, and
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