USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 63
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 63
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his zest for adventure was fully imparted to his son. Mr. and Mrs. Sherrard spent their last days in Oregon. The father died December 19, 1908, and the mother in September, 1920.
Lincoln Sherrard, living in the sparsely settled region of the North- west, had little opportunity for schooling and was making his own way at the age of fourteen. He worked during the summer and earned money for the months winter terms of school when he was sixteen and seventeen. It was on February 26, 1883, that he arrived in California aboard a three masted schooner, the Emma Utter, old Captain Allen master. This boat was becalmed three days off Santa Barbara Islands, and Mr. Sherrard recalls how he expressed a wish to go swimming, an adventure which the captain refused, but compromised by allowing him to go over the side in a row boat. It was a voyage of fifteen days between Oregon and San Pedro. After visiting in Los Angeles Lincoln Sherrard returned to Oregon, but in 1885 came again to Santa Ana. The four hundred dol- lars he had saved was soon gone and he had to seek work and for a time earned a dollar a day in a vineyard. Soon afterward he began his apprenticeship with James Brown, blacksmith and fancy horse deal- er at Santa Ana. That business has been his active occupation ever since, and since May 29, 1892, the scene of his activities has been in Redlands. His first employment was given him by John MacIntosh, and later for five years he was in the shop of Jack McClain. He then went into business for himself. Mr. Sherrard was twenty-one years of age before he saw a locomotive engine. During his early life in Oregon there were two years when he drove stage through mud and rain in the Coos Bay country. It was a mail stage, and when roads were im- passable he carried the mail by horseback. During his life in California he has been a grateful witness of the transformation which has changed Redlands from a district run over by sheep herders into a pleasant land- scape of orchards and homes.
July 4, 1892, Mr. Sherrard married Susan Adele White, who was born in McCoverty, Iowa, and came to Santa Ana when ten years old. Their first child, Fern Izzeta, was born February 13, 1893, and died in April, 1897. The second child, Calvin, was born July 4, 1896, and died in October, 1899. The oldest of the living children is Lincoln Noel, born July 27, 1898. He was educated at Redlands and was a member of the State Militia, and while in his junior year of high school enlisted in the famous 40th Division. He was trained at Camp Kearney, was under Major General Strong and was orderly to the General. For two months he was in the command of General Gulich, who planned the bar- rage in the Argonne Forest. Later he was returned to General Strong's command, and as orderly had duties that required much travel over France, Germany and England. After the signing of the armistice he returned, and is now a shoe salesman at Santa Ana, California.
The fourth child of Mr. Sherrard is Orville Guynne, born Febru- ary 5, 1901, graduated from the Redlands High School in 1919, played on the high school football team and has spent one year in Redlands University. The youngest child, Imogene Adelle, was born May 9, 1904, and is attending high school.
WILLIAM H. CRAM is one of the most successful orange growers in the Highland District of San Bernardino County. To that subject he has given practically a life of study and work. As a boy he picked oranges from one of the pioneer plantings in this locality.
Much of the pioneer history of the district now known as Highland is associated with the activities of the Cram family. Lewis F. and Sarah
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Ann ( Wakefield ) Cram, parents of William H. Cram, were California pioneers who came over the plains with ox teams and founded the home which is still occupied by their descendants at Highland. Some further details in the history of the family are given on other pages of this publication.
William H. Cram was born at the old Cram homestead at East High- lands April 22, 1869. He attended the old board schoolhouse nearby, and when only a boy he gathered oranges from a seedling plantation set out by his father, and helped pack them for market. Mr. Cram by way of reminiscence states that the first groves here were set out in the lowlands. Observation showed that sunflowers growing on the low ground were killed by frost in early winter, while those higher up on the bench land remained green all winter long and had to be dug up in spring to permit plowing. This observation gave a real practical hint for the Crams and others to plant their trees on the land which experi- ence has proved have been most favorable for orange culture. The Crams were experimenting with this industry when there was prac- tically no outside authority or experts to consult with, and every step had to be proved by the event of results, frequently requiring years. William H. Cram has been more than successful as a citrus fruit grower. He owns sixty acres, one of the largest and best orchards in the county.
In 1891 he married Miss Lottie D. Davis, of a prominent and influ- ential pioneer family. She was born in 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Cram have four children. Clara graduated from the Redlands High School, from Stanford University, where she specialized in English preparatory to teaching, and is now the wife of Ervil Campbell, a native of California and likewise a graduate of Stanford University. He is a graduate civil engineer, and is now an engineer in the Government service in the oil industry, with home at Bakersfield. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have one daughter. The second of the family, Arthur David Cram, graduated from the Redlands High School, spent one year in Stanford University and three years in Redlands University, and is now one of the successful young orange growers at East Highland. He married Miss Margaret Diels, a native of Nebraska, and they have a son. The third of the family, William H. Cram, Jr., is a high school graduate, spent a year at Stanford and two years at Redlands University, and was enlisted in the Aviation Corps during the World war. He was trained in America and also abroad in England, was overseas in service thirteen months, holding the rank of sergeant, and returned to America after the armistice. He and his brother are both members of the Elks Lodge at Redlands. The fourth of the family, Mildred Cram, is attending the Redlands High School and has gifts both in vocal and instrumental music.
Mr. William H. Cram is affiliated with Redlands Lodge No. 583 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He lives in one of the beautiful homes at East Highlands on Water Street, and he still gives his active personal supervision to his groves, which are kept in perfect condition and their fruits are evidence of the correctness of his methods, many of which have been evolved from his personal experience and study.
CHARLES YOST was a youth of fifteen years at the time of the family removal to California, and his experience has touched much of pioneer activity in the southern part of the state. He is now giving his attention to the management and further development of one of the fine fruit ranches of the Coachella Valley, and has proved one of the resourceful and progressive citizens identified with the civic and industrial advance-
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ment of Riverside County. His attractive home is situated some miles distant from Thermal, on rural mail route A.
Mr. Yost was born at Elden, Iowa, on the 4th of September, 1859, a date that indicates clearly that his parents were numbered among the pioneers of the Hawkeye State. He is a son of Isaac N. and Nettie (Hicks) Yost, both of whom were born and reared in Indiana. Isaac N. Yost became not only a pioneer exponent of farm industry in Iowa, but also found there much requisition for his services as a blacksmith, he being a skilled workman at the trade. In 1874 he came with his family to California and established his residence at Santa Ana, Orange County, where he engaged in the work of his trade and where he remained until his death, on the 5th of November, 1881. He was one of the honored citizens of that community, and after his death his widow continued to maintain her home at Santa Ana until she too passed away, on the 27th of December, 1920, she having been one of the revered pioneer women of Orange County.
Charles Yost gained his youthful education in the public schools of Iowa and California, and by practical apprenticeship in his father's shop he became an expert workman at the trades of blacksmithing and wagon- making. He assumed charge of the shop at Santa Ana at the time of his father's death, and he continued his active connection with the black- smith and wagonmaking business at Santa Ana until 1900, save for a period of one year passed in the northern part of the state. He found employment in the shop of L. Sherrard at Redlands, San Bernardino County, and about one year later he there formed a partnership with George M. Smallwood and established a blacksmith shop and wagon works at the corner of Fifth Street and Central Avenue, where they purchased land and erected a building for their use in the year 1901. The firm built up a substantial and prosperous business, and the partner- ship alliance continued until 1906, when Mr. Yost sold his interest to his partner, but in the following year he repurchased his former interest in the enterprise. In 1906 Mr. Yost purchased eighty acres of unim- proved desert land in the Coachella Valley, Riverside County, and here he has developed the requisite irrigation facilities and effected the im- provement of forty acres of the tract, which he is making the stage of vigorous and successful industry in the raising of date palms and other fruits, besides which he finds ready demand for the excellent vegetables which he raises according to the best standards of propagation. He is developing one of the many model places of the kind in the Coachella Valley, and is known as one of the most loyal and progressive citizens of this attractive section of the state. He continued to hold his inter- ests in the blacksmith and wagon shop at Redlands until 1915, when he sold the same.
Mr. Yost recalls that when as a boy he passed through the district of which Redlands is now the center the site of that city was marked only by the presence of herds of cattle and sheep, this being in 1874, the year of the arrival of the Yost family in Southern California. There were no railroads in this vicinity except a line from Los Angeles to San Pedro, and for other railway facilities it was necessary to go to San Francisco. The family came by boat to San Pedro and thence pro- ceeded by team and wagon to the destination at Santa Ana. Mr. Yost had the distinction of producing the first wagons manufactured in South- ern California, and he remembers that when the first "Old Hickory" wagon was shipped into this part of the state it became his privilege to describe to the purchaser the changes that must be made in the vehicle
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to make it available for practical service in this country. Schools were few and primitive, and conditions were in general those of a pioneer section. He recalls the hanging of a renegade horse thief near Santa Ana. The vigilantes who captured the man ran two wagons together, with the wagon-tongues raised and fastened together, and thus was im- provised the scaffold on which the renegade paid the penalty of his numerous malfactions. On another occasion the "committee" broke down the door of the Yost Shop, took a sledge-hammer and with the same proceeded to demolish the door to the jail at Santa Ana, the object being to take therefrom a Mexican who had murdered Charles McKelvey, super- intendent of the Modjeska ranch, the Mexican's enmity having been in- curred because through the instrumentality of his victim he had been compelled to pay a poll tax of two dollars. The lynch law worked its force in this instance, and the Mexican was hanged. In the '70s horse stealing was of frequent occurrence through this section of the state, but after 1880 the vigilance committees, with their generous use of rope, made the game a very unpopular pastime. In the early days the father of Mr. Yost was identified with gold-mining activities in Amador County, and the work of the vigilance committee in that section was vigorous and effective, doing away with the theft of gold from the unlocked cabins of the miners and making drastic methods supply the place of regularly constituted law proceedings, which were not available in the unorganized and isloated communities. In his personal career Mr. Yost has demon- strated the enduring value of earnest and honest and loyal communal spirit. He has reared and educated his fine family of children, has pro- vided well for his family, has kept pace with the march of development and progress and has won a competency sufficient to sustain him well as the shadows of his life begin to lengthen from the golden west. He takes pride in having done his part in the transforming of a new and unproductive district into one of the garden spots of the great State of California.
November 24, 1883, recorded the marriage of Mr. Yost and Miss Jane Phillips, of Downey, Los Angeles County, her parents having come from Missouri to California in an early day and her father having be- come a prosperous farmer in Los Angeles County. Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Yost four are living: Laurel J., who was born January 16, 1885, is the wife of P. E. Hicks, who is a civil engineer, their home being on Stillman Street, Redlands. They have two children, a son and a daughter. Kathryn F., who was born December 5, 1887, is the wife of Frederick Orth, a successful orange grower in San Bernar- dino County. Mr. and Mrs. Orth reside on Alahama Street, Redlands, and their attractive home is brightened by the presence of three fine sons. Beatrice is Mrs. Huckaby and resides on Wossh Street in the City of Redlands, her birth having occurred on the 9th of May, 1890. Leland J., born February 5, 1898, is identified with fruit growing enterprise in the Coachella Valley. He married Miss Crystal Sayer, of Tulare County.
REV. JOHN M. HEGARTY .- St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church at Riverside has been the central fact in the history of Catholicism in Riverside County, and it has been an institution with a steady growth of power and prosperity for upwards of a third of a century.
An article in the Riverside Enterprise, published in 1921, gave the main outline of the history of this parish. Thirty-five years ago the few Catholic families in Riverside regarded San Bernardino as their parish. The distance was too great for regular attendance, and consequently the pastor of the church at San Bernardino came over to the Riverside end of
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his parish and occasionally said mass for the convenience of the little flock. This missionary pastor was Father Stockman, now Monsignor Stockman. With the increase of the Catholic population at Riverside it was decided to erect a chapel for their convenience. This chapel was dedicated in 1888 to St. Francis de Sales by the Rt. Rev. Francis Mora, a Spanish bishop of the diocese. The plans for this chapel were obtained from Belgium, the country of Father Stockman's birth. This church is still standing and served the Catholic congregation until 1919.
October 15, 1893, Rev. John McCarthy, now Monsignor McCarthy of Pasadena, was appointed first resident pastor of St. Francis de Sales Church. During his administration a small parochial residence was built at the corner of Lima and Twelfth streets. It has been moved once and enlarged twice and is now standing at the corner of Thirteenth and Lime. After five years of labors Father McCarthy removed to Fresno and was succeeded at Riverside by Rev. M. Conneally, who took charge on October 13, 1898. The next pastor was Rev. S. F. Cain, who took up his duties January 13, 1905. His successor was Rev. Peter H. Mc- Nellis, who came February 11, 1911. Father McNellis was succeeded by the late Rev. Florian B. Hahn in 1913. Father Hahn died in the fall of 1915, and the parish then had as its acting rector Rev. Joseph Cox until August 25, 1917. At that date Rt. Rev. Monsignor P. Hartnett ap- pointed Rev. J. M. Hegarty as pastor.
The foundation for a new Francis de Sales Church was laid in 1914, and on the foundation the walls were raised about three feet, but from the death of Father Hahn in 1915 until September, 1918, no further work was done. The church as now used is only one-half the height intended in the original plan, and the total cost of the building and equipment has been about thirty thousand dollars. Under the present administration of the parish plans have been made for a two-story Mission style brick school building at Thirteenth and Mulberry, to cost forty thousand dol- lars. The present school facilities take care of the educational needs of the parish with an enrollment of 135. The school is under the charge of the Dominican Sisters of Galveston, Texas.
Rev. John M. Hegarty, pastor of the church at Riverside, was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, in January, 1883. He acquired his early education in the National schools, graduated A. B. in June, 1905, from St. Michael's College, and took his theological work in St. Patrick's Col- lege of County Carlow. He was ordained to the priesthood June 12, 1910, and was at once assigned to the American Mission and arrived in Los Angeles August 20, 1910. He was asistant at the Cathedral in Los Angeles for seven years, after which he took up his duties at Riverside. The parish has enjoyed great growth in every direction under its vigor- ous pastor. The church is thoroughly organized, including Altar Society, Holy Name Society for men and boys, Pastor's Aid Society, Young People's Social Club, St. Aloysius Society for boys and the Children of Mary.
FRANK STUTT .- The firm of Stutt Brothers at Redlands has the larg- est automobile sales agency in the two counties of San Bernardino and Riverside. The firm is composed of Frank Stutt and his half-brother, Robert Leith. They are men of exceptional enterprise, and their record is an inspiriting example of what energy will accomplish in Southern California or anywhere else for that matter. They have been associated not only on terms of relationship but as business partners and close friends. They began with neither capital nor credit, and the score of
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their personal influence and abilities developed the great business now known as Stutt Brothers.
Frank Stutt was born at Toronto, Canada, July 25, 1873, and came to Los Angeles in 1895. He was educated in Canada. His first employ- ment at Los Angeles was in a grocery store, later he was clerk in a de- partment store at Riverside, and for about a year conducted a grocery. Selling out, he moved to Redlands and bought an oil gasoline route and supply station. He served the retail trade of the city and surrounding country, supplying homes and pumping plants. Mr. Stutt delivered the first load of gasoline at the Canyon Crest pumping plant,, and stood by while the Smiley Brothers started the plant, pumping the first water that marked the beginning of the transformation of a desert of hills and canyons into the beautiful park known as Smiley's Heights. Mr. Stutt was in the oil and gasoline business about a year, and then became associated with his half brother under the name Stutt Brothers. They opened a small store and shop on Citrus Avenue for repairing and selling bicycles and sewing machines. Their chief capital consisted of a monkey wrench and screw driver. By degrees they added to their line, extending to a general supply of sporting goods and novelties. They brought this business to a prosperous condition and finally sold for seventeen thousand dollars.
Perhaps their most interesting experiences have been as automobile dealers. For several years they operated the Casa Luna Garage, and they have the distinction of selling the first one-cylinder Olds car in this community, and later sold the Reo one cylinder. Both these cars sold for eight hundred and fifty dollars. In 1914 Stutt Brothers signed a contract with Dodge Brothers for the local sales agency. At that time they had never seen a picture of a Dodge car, and in fact no cars of that name had marketed. Stutt Brothers secured the agency for the counties of San Bernardino and Riverside. It was a contraction purely of faith, since they banked on Dodge Brothers as manufacturers of ability, competent to put out a car of great merit. They took orders for forty-eight cars before the first Dodge was delivered in December, 1914. Their extensive business has grown rapidily with passing years and is now directed from their home sales office at the corner of Citrus Avenue and Fourth Street in Redlands, but with branches in San Bernardino and Riverside and agencies in all the leading towns of these counties. The present handsome sales rooms, service station and office at Redlands furnishes an interesting and striking contrast, one which the writer personally appreciates, with the orginal little bicycle repair shop.
Mr. Frank Stutt married in Canada Miss Mary Elizabeth Odell, a native of England. They have a son, Herbert, born January 8, 1900, a graduate of the Redlands High School, a student in Claremont College. and now employed by E. A. Featherstone & Company of Los Angeles. Frank Stutt is a member of Redlands Lodge No. 583, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Redlands Lodge No. 186, Knights of Pythias, is a member of the University Club, the Automobile Club of America and the Chamber of Commerce, and is an enthusiastic worker for everything that means additional benefit to Redlands and Southern California.
His partner and associate, Robert Leith, was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1883, and joined his half-brother in California two years after Mr. Stutt came here. They have since been associated in business and other affairs. Mr. Leith returned to Canada to marry Miss Carrie Redpath, and brought his bride to Redlands.
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WILLIS EDWIN LEONARD, builder and real estate man of San Bernardino, is a very signal example of what a man can accomplish who makes his work of paramount importance and who is temperamentally gaited to do things on a big scale. It is claimed that every man has some project that to him is of cardinal importance. Mr. Leonard's inter- est has been in building, for which he has a singular aptitude and in which he has made a signal success. He has been a builder of homes, houses which are the homes of hundreds of happy families, many of them architecturally beautiful within and without but, whether large or small, built upon honor and contributions to the progress of the city and to the happiness of its inhabitants.
In his building Mr. Leonard is master of every detail, and he is meticulously careful that there shall be no slip-shod methods of loose ends and and his business policy has always been against the too prevalent idea that whatever is profitable is right. Builders of homes which can be placed within reach of families promote the welfare not only of the people interested, but are vital factors in the upbuilding of the city at large. A city of homes is a city which will grow and expand, for a man who owns a home, or who is buying one, is always interested in anything and everything which affects his city and takes an active part in its affairs, where renters and apartment house dwellers have no interest whatever in municipal affairs.
Mr. Leonard was born in Waterton, Wisconsin, January 27, 1863, the son of Ira E. and Maria (Shepherd) Leonard. Ira E. Leonard was probably the most popular and prominent man of his home city in Missouri. He was an attorney and was born and educated in New York state, moving to Waterton, Wisconsin, in 1862. Sometime later he moved to Missouri, where he was Judge of the District Court during the stirring Ku Klux troubles. So successful was his administration of .his office that he was nominated for Supreme Judge of Missouri. While he re- ceived the largest vote of his ticket he was defeated because he was a Republican. While in Missouri, where he moved in 1866, he was also attorney for the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad. His health failing he decided to go to Colorado, resigning his offices and settling in Boulder. He practiced there for some time but finally he decided to try the climate of New Mexico and selected Socorro in that state for a home. Here he practiced until his death in 1889. His wife was also a native of New York and she recently died in San Bernardino at the age of 90. While Judge Leonard was in Boulder, Colorado, he was one of the Regents of the State University.
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