USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 65
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 65
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prior to 1909 they were unknown in this part of the county. As Mr. Holmes wearily plodded over the mountain trail he not only had no conception of this method of transportation, but he would have re- garded anyone as hopelessly insane who would have predicted that passengers would be landed in the Valley from aeroplanes, and yet this happens so often as to now occasion no special comment. In fact Big Bear Valley has been redeemed from the wilderness and is fast taking on metropolitan features, although as long as the great mountains and wonderful lakes remain it will continue to be a health- giving resort, whose beauties beggar description. The same clean, wind-swept air blows over its spaces and fills the lungs of its peo- ple as that which refreshed the pioneer back in 1895, when he gazed with saddened eyes at the desolate scene at the old dam, and now, as then, carries with it a promise of health and encouragement.
GEORGE A. HERDEG, a resident of Riverside for over twenty years, is a practical orange grower and is local representative of the Agricultural Chemical Works. Mr. Herdeg is a splendid type of a business man, re- garding his business as essentially a public service, and he has worked untiringly to demonstrate the value and broaden the use of fertilizer as one of the indispensable elements in profitable citrus fruit production. He had to overcome a great deal of apathy and frequently downright preju- dice, since the average orange grower and agriculturist generally every- where declines to use fertilizer so long as it is possible to make a bare profit without it. Several cases have afforded striking testimony to the value of fertilizer application in and around Riverside, and fertilized groves have shown a capacity to resist or recover from the destructive freezes and other adversities that enter into the horticultural game. There have been other instances where worn out and profitless groves have been brought back to a high state of production through the scientific applica- tion of fertilizer.
George A. Herdeg graduated from the high school of his native city in 1882, and for several years was in the hardware business at Buffalo, New York. He is an old timer in Southern California, having been lo- cated at Pasadena in 1887. He became secretary for the California Commercial Company, and in 1899 removed to Riverside to become local agent for the Agricultural Chemical Works. During most of these years he has been directly interested in citrus growing on his own account. He and F. A. Speich are the owners of a grove of fourteen acres of oranges in the San Jacincto Land Company's tract at Arlington.
Mr. Herdeg is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Maccabees and Elks, and Rotary Club and is a republican. Some years ago he bought a beautiful home with large grounds at 872 West Tenth Street and with so many ties to connect him with Riverside he is readily en- thusiastic in every plan projected for its general welfare and improvement.
At Pasadena June 10, 1889, Mr. Herdeg married Miss Anna Lush. She was born in Wisconsin. They have three children: Helen L., is a graduate of the University of California and is a high school teacher ; Harold L., the only son is also a graduate of the University of California and is now a teacher of the Smith-Hughes System of Agriculture at the Citrus Union High School of Azusa and Glendora. During the World war he was a lieutenant in the Medical Corps and spent one year with the American Expeditionary forces in France. The youngest child, Mary C., is the wife of Richard Garstrang of Los Angeles.
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JAMES W. MEE is a native son of this section of California, and his career since early manhood has been identified with railroading. He is freight agent of the Pacific Electric at Riverside, and one of Riverside's most popular citizens.
He was born in San Bernardino August 1. 1882, member of an old and prominent pioneer family. His father, William H. Mee, was a native of England and left that country in 1850 and in 1852 came to California by ox team over the plains. He was a blacksmith by trade. He was member of a party of eleven families on the trip to California. The car- avan was raided by Indians, and he and his family escaped the general massacre that followed, due to the fact that the Indians feared small- pox, a disease with which the Mees were then stricken. William H. Mee arrived at San Bernardino in 1856, and lived in that city continu- ously until his death in 1911. For thirty-six years he was in business as a blacksmith, with shop at 436 D Street. He was well known in fraternal circles, being a member of a number of lodges. William H. Mee married Sarah J. West, who is still living, and has showed her devotion by life- long care to her children. She has two daughters, Lida and Addie. Lida is the wife of I. H. Curtis. Their son, Merritt B. Curtis, was born in San Bernardino, spent four years in the academic department of the University of California and three years in the law school, and is now a captain of the United States Marines on the Island of Haiti.
James W. Mee received his high school education in San Bernardino and afterward took a course in the Los Angeles Business College. Since 1905, with the exception of about a year, he has been railroading, chiefly as an agent for the Pacific Electric, and is president of the Pacific Elec- tric Agents Association. From August, 1914, to June, 1915, he conducted a commission warehouse at San Bernardino.
Mr. Mee is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Native Sons of the Golden West, the Woodmen of the World and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Business Men's Association of Riverside. He was a member of the Arrowhead Club of San Bernardino for five years, until that organization was disbanded with the death of its leading spirit, H. L. Dreso, president of the Farmers Exchange Bank.
W. D. ANDERSON at San Bernardino has built up one of the largest and most distinctive enterprises of its kind in Southern California, and his undoubted success has been a tribute to his remarkable energy and persistence in carrying out his plans in spite of lack of capital and early difficulties.
Mr. Anderson was born in Southern California in 1876. His father, John Y. Anderson, was a mining man, a California forty-niner, and after some years of experience and life in the northern part of the state moved to San Bernardino, where he was one of the pioneer settlers.
W. D. Anderson attended school at San Bernardino. He engaged in the machinery and contracting busines in 1900. He started with a notable absence of capital, but he understood the machinery business from pre- vious training, and has since been able to build up a seventy-five thousand dollar plant, consisting of machine shop, blacksmith shop, planing mill and other facilities, all of which does an extensive business and employs a large number of men. He is the largest dealer in the Southwest in second- handed machinery, including electric motors. He manufactures drilling and pumping machinery, and as a contractor he keeps in operation a large number of oil and water drilling outfits throughout the southwestern fields.
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Mr. Anderson is a republican, and a member of the Baptist Church. In 1906 he married Miss Maud Gentry. Her father has been a resident of San Bernardino for thirty years and was formerly a Missouri farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have one daughter, Pauline, born in 1909.
E. A. WEEGAR is a prominent Riverside business man, and has been in Southern California about fifteen years, throughout that time being identified with the hardware business.
His hardware establishment at Riverside was started in the spring of 1914, its first location being on Eighth Street, at the corner of Orange. It was removed to its present site, at 938 Main Street, in 1915. This is a store stocked with every class of merchantable hardware, also house furnishings, fishing tackle and plumbing goods, and the store has 4000 square feet of floor space.
Mr. Weegar was born at North Williamsburg, Ontario, Canada, Jan- uary 24, 1879. He acquired his early education in the public schools of Norwood, New York, and at the age of seventeen entered the employ of a hardware business there. With the substantial training acquired in the East he came to California in 1908 and entered the hardware business at Long Beach, and subsequently established a store in San Bernardino. Since locating at Riverside he has disposed of his business interests at Long Beach and San Bernardino. Mr. Weegar is affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
June 3, 1905, he married Miss Hannah McDonald, of Los Angeles, where she was born and educated. They have two children, Mary and Edwin A., Jr.
T. C. McDONALD, a prosperous orange grower at Rialto and a deputy sheriff in San Bernardino County, has spent the greater part of his life in frontier scenes and activities. He spent three years in the navy, in- cluding the period of the Spanish-American war. He grew up on the ranch and range in Kansas, and has been more or less identified with California for thirty years.
Mr. McDonald was born at Maquoketa, Iowa, December 3, 1869, son of R. H. and Jennie (Sweesy ) McDonald. His father was a farmer and stockman, and in 1872 took his family to the Kansas frontier, where they lived on a cattle ranch. T. C. McDonald was the second of four children, the oldest being Charles, and the two youngest were Lucia and Lulu, twins. T. C. McDonald had a common school education, and his earliest recollections were of a ranch in Western Kansas. In 1886, at the age of sixteen, he left home and came out to California, reaching San Bernardino with only fifty cents in money. He arrived in town in the morning, and in the afternoon had found employment on the range, for which his previous experience well qualified him. In 1887 he entered the service of the old cattle firm of Knight and Metcalf, and remained with them seven years. On leaving the cattle business in 1893 he be- came a stage driver over one of the first improved roads to Big Bear Lake. He drove stage for Copely & Hogstrat, and at this time Gus Knight's hotel was the only building in Bear Valley except the caretaker's cabin at the dam. During the great railway strike of 1894, when all train service was suspended, Mr. McDonald's stage was taken from the mountain service and for eight days he drove between San Bernardino and Los Angeles. At that time he was also deputized as a guard on passenger trains through the Cajon Pass. Following this experience he did some ranching at Santa Barbara, and in August, 1896, enlisted as an ordinary seaman in the United States Navy. He served three years and
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seven months, and was given an honorable discharge. He was first on the U. S. S. Philadelphia and later transferred to the Baltimore. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, after the Maine was blown up, the Baltimore was in harbor at Honolulu, where it took on 1400 tons of coal and sailed for Hong Kong. After nine days of fine weather the ship was hit by a typhoon and in eleven hours driven 600 miles out of its course. The Baltimore reached Yokohama out of coal, and after coaling it went to Hong Kong, arriving April 22, 1898. The Baltimore steamed directly into dry dock, where it was scraped and painted, and then trans- ferred forty tons of ammunition to a sister ship and took on 1200 tons of coal and 75 tons of provisions. The Baltimore steamed out of the harbor on April 24th, before the news had been officially communicated of the declaration of war against Spain. The Baltimore was part of Admiral Dewey's fleet and was in the battle of Manila Bay. Later Mr. McDonald was transferred to Dewey's flagship, the Olympia, and on re- turning to the United States the ship made a leisurely voyage through to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, he and his comrades having privilege of leaving at many of the most famous ports and cities of the world.
On being released from the navy Mr. McDonald went back to Kansas and in 1907 came to Rialto, California, and bought twenty acres in the city limits, located at the corner of Cactus and Merrill avenues. Here he has developed one of the profitable orange groves of this section. He still owns the larger part of the land, but the Pacific Electric Depot is located on a portion of his former holdings.
Mr. McDonald is a prominent republican in San Bernardino County and has held a number of offices of trust. He was elected a constable in 1918, also city marshal of Rialto, and is a deputy under Sheriff Walter Shay. His fellow citizens admire his sturdy fearlessness and courage and resourcefulness in every emergency. He is affiliated with San Bernardino Lodge No. 348, F. and A. M., and is a member of the Scottish Rite Con- sistory at Wichita, Kansas. In 1906 Mr. McDonald married Miss Vida Williams, a native of Alabama and a daughter of William and Ada Williams, of a prominent family of that state. Mrs. McDonald gradu- ated from high school in Kansas and is well known socially in Rialto.
FRANK HENRI OWEN, city recorder and justice of the peace at Colton, is one of the old newspaper men of Oregon and California, who, until recently was connected with some of the most aggressive newspaper work of his time, and still does considerable writing for different newspapers, for it is a recognized fact that once a newspaper man, always one. The lure of gold is nothing compared to that of printer's ink, as any of the craft will confess, and Mr. Owen is no exception to the rule. Although he has had considerable experience in office, he has never desired public honors or solicited any of them.
The birth of Frank Henri Owen took place at Salem, Oregon, in 1855, and he is a son of Milton P. and Rachel E. Owen, pioneers of Oregon, to which they came in 1853, crossing the plains from La Porte, Indiana.
Mr. Owen was reared at Salem, and there attended the public schools and later the University of Oregon. In 1870 he was apprenticed as a printer to Upton and Powell, and finished his trade there with B. M. Waite, state printer, working nights and attending school in the day- time. When he was only twenty years old he went to Lafayette, Yamhill
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County, Oregon, and bought the Lafayette Courier, having at that time the courage of ambition and the optimism of youth. After acquiring experience in this venture he went to Salinas, California, where he lived during 1874 and 1875 and was married. He then went to Visalia, and was foreman of the Visalia Delta, where he made the record on a Wash- ington hand press, printing sixteen quires and twenty papers in one hour, or 404 sheets. A "token" an hour, or 240 papers, was considered a good hour's work. As evidence of the progress in printing machinery and equipment since then it is interesting to note that when Mr. Owen began work at his trade at Salem there were but four power presses in Oregon, two of them being hand-power at Salem, one of these being the first power press brought to the state.
Returning to Oregon in 1877, Mr. Owen was made foreman of the Daily Evening Telegram, and for eleven years served in that capacity, and also as city editor. Having saved some money, he embarked in the pub- lishing business at Chehalis, county seat of Lewis County, in what was then Washington Territory, where he took a leading part in politics and was a member of the first republican convention at which candidates were nominated for the first set of state officers, which convention was held at Walla Walla.
In 1890 Mr. Owen moved to Aberdeen, Washington, and there joined the Washington State Militia, and entered the newspaper field of that region by buying the Aberdeen Bulletin. Leaving Washington, Mr. Owen came to California, and with his son Walter published the Winters Express at Winters, Yolo County, until 1907. Subsequently he and his son bought the Colton Courier, and published it from 1908 to 1921, when he sold out and assumed the duties of his present offices. All of his life he has taken an active and effective part in politics, always as a strong republican, but he has preferred newspaper work. For nine years he served Winters as postmaster, erecting in that town the first concrete building in the county for the postoffice and his printing office, and was appointed postmaster at Colton by President Taft, but only held that office for nine months, for the democratic Senate refused to confirm his appointment by a republican administration, as it did that of 3,000 other republican postmasters, and he was retired in favor of a democrat. For forty years Mr. Owen has been active as a member of the county and state central committees of his party. In 1890 he was raised in the Masonic fraternity. Originally he was a member of the Episcopal Church.
In 1875 Mr. Owen was united in marriage with Miss Flora Minnetta Hackett, at San Juan, San Benito County, California. The original Hacketts settled in Maine before its separation from Massachusetts. Mrs. Owen's mother was a member of the Thompson family that was estab- lished in Maine over 300 years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Owen have two sons, namely. Fred M., who married Gabrella Alexson, and Walter, who mar- ried Sallie Culton, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. H. C. Culton of Winters, California.
ELMER CUTTING, superintendent of the Riverside light department, is a man who has devoted himself to electrical work, particularly that con- nected with the installation and maintenance of electric light plants, and is recognized as one of the most expert men in his line in the Southwest. Mr. Cutting was born at Wooster, Massachusetts, August 18, 1864, a son of Elmer and Francisco (Fairbanks) Cutting, both of whom are now deceased. The father was born in Vermont and belonged to a family of Revolutionary stock and Scotch descent. The mother, also a native of
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Vermont, came of English descent, aud belonged to the Fairbanks family which erected the old Fairbanks homestead at Dedham, Massachusetts.
Educated in the public schools and Arms Academy at Shelburn Falls, Massachusetts, Elmer Cutting, the younger, proved a bright and ambitious pupil. He was reared on a farm, but two years after he had completed his schooling he went to Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1887 he left that city for San Francisco, California. On his way to the later city he stopped at Riverside, and was so pleased with the locality that he did not forget it, but returned to it in 1891, and secured a position with the city admin- istration. After occupying several positions in the different branches of the municipality he was engaged to assist in installing the municipal electric plant in 1896. When it was completed he held various positions with it, including that of station operator, general foreman and superin- tendent, and has held that latter position for the past nine years. This plant built the first long distance, high voltage transmission line in the United States, and Mr. Cutting had the distinction of being the first man to operate a high voltage sub-station in the country.
The people voted to sell $40,000 bonds to establish the distributing system at a time when Government ownership was being very strongly advocated. This was during the Mckinley-Bryan campaign, when the populist party took a prominent part in politics. It was probably on ac- count of the strong advocacy of Government ownership at that time that the city had no trouble in voting the bond issue. After the City Council took up the matter of building the distributing system it was found that the $40,000 was an inadequate amount to construct both the distributing system and the generating plant. As a result they had to go elsewhere for power.
About three years previous to that time a few Redlands business men in order to acquire an electrical current for the use of Redlands installed an electrical generating plant in Mill Creek Canyon, which was one of the first alternating plants to be installed on the Pacific Coast. In fact the work of generating an alternating current was so new that a standard of frequency had not been established, and for that reason the generators used were of the fifty-cycle type. Since these generators were of the fifty-cycle type, all other generating plants in Southern California, with the exception of a very few, have been built to conform to the Riverside standard. All over the country elsewhere the sixty-cycle type has been used as the standard.
In addition to his connection with this plant Mr. Cutting is otherwise interested and owns a fine peach and walnut grove at Riverside, from which he extracts profit and pleasure. In politics he is an independent, but has been too much engaged in his work to be active in public affairs. During the early years of his residence at Riverside he served for three years as county horticultural inspector, but aside from that has not held any office. . Fraternally he belongs to the Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World. For some time he has been an active member of the Present Day Club.
On June 18, 1897, Mr. Cutting married at Riverside Miss Lena Garner, a native of Kansas, and a daughter of the late Edward Garner of Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Cutting have three children, namely : Grace A., who is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley; Dorothy R., who is a graduate of the Riverside High School; and Elmer, who is a student of the Riverside High School. A hard-working, practical man, Mr. Cutting has rendered his section a service which cannot be easily overestimated, and much of the efficient working of the plant must be
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placed to his credit. His interest in his work is sincere, and he is recog- nized as one of the best-qualified men in electrical matters today. What he knows he has acquired first-hand, through his own experience. Hav- ing held the positions himself, he knows just what to expect from the men under him and therefore is able to conduct the work in a satisfactory manner to all parties concerned. His knowledge, in other words, is prac- tical, not theoretic, although no man has a clearer and more concise knowledge of the principles of his calling. Personally he is popular and is looked upon as one of the representative men of Riverside County.
WILLIAM EDWIN KNICKERBOCKER is one of the best-known men of Bear Valley, and one who has had supreme faith in its possibilities since his arrival here in 1902, and manifested it by investing heavily in its properties. He was born in Potter County, Pennsylvania, June 10, 1870, a son of Charles Henry and Susan Elizabeth ( Robbins) Knickerbocker, farming people.
Growing up in his native county, William Edwin Knickerbocker at- tended the district schools and continued to assist his father until he reached his majority, his work being confined to the woods. After he was twenty-one years old he began working for others, but continued in the timber until he came to California in 1901, arriving at San Bernardino on Christmas Day of that year. A young man who wasted but little time, he only stopped to have dinner, and then in the afternoon went to Vic- torville, where he joined a party that hired a four-horse stage and drove to Doble, his objective point, as he had a brother who was engaged there as mining engineer. Mr. Knickerbocker secured employment at Doble, and drove the freight team from the Doble mines to Victorville. Subsequently he engaged in logging in Holcomb Valley.
All of these experiences seemed to be but a preparation for his life in Bear Valley, which began June 29, 1902, when he secured employment with Gus Knight to build cabins in what is now Indian Lodge, and forty other cabins, the greater portion of which were near Bear Valley Dam. In addition to this work he added to his revenue by acting as caretaker of non-resident cabins, and for twelve years and one day he was care- taker at the dam, which required his constant attention summer and winter.
His faith in the future of the Valley led him to purchase various tracts of land, his first one being eighty-four acres of Doctor Allen, about seventeen years ago; adding to this fourteen acres of the Sanders tract about five or six years ago. He now owns one-fifth interest in Pine Knot Lodge; one-fourth interest in Barlow ranch at Baldwin Lake, to- gether with other real estate interests in the Valley. These purchases were largely made from influential citizens who became discouraged. He exhibited his faith in this locality in direct opposition to the bankers and investors of the vicinity.
Mr. Knickerbocker married at Redlands, September 22, 1903, Rose Anna Pollard, who was born in Pennsylvania, December 12, 1879. Six children were born of this union, five of whom are living. They are splendid specimens of mountain-reared young people, mentally and physic- ally fit. Their summers have been spent in the valley, and their attend- ance at school limited to the winter months, and yet all of them are rated at a high average in their grades. The eldest, Ellen G., was born in Bear Valley, June 16, 1905, has passed one year in the Redlands High School, and stands as one of the highest in both indoor and outdoor athletics. In the intermediate grade she was captain of the base ball team. The gymnasium was divided into four sections, each faction playing an
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