USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches > Part 101
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After attending the public schools at Johnstown, Samuel started to learn the jeweler's trade in the establishment of his father, who was already some- what well-to-do; but finding it too tedious and confining, he pushed out, at the beckoning age of eighteen, and began to try his luck as a rig-builder in the oil fields at Lima, O. Two years later, learning of the oil prospects in California, he crossed the Rockies and settled at Bakersfield; from which place, with an enviable reputation as an expert rig-builder, he moved to the Santa Maria fields, where he established himself as a contractor. It was not until 1909 that he entered the service of the Western Union people, with whom he has been ever since. In all these years of unremitting toil, Mr. Chase has piled up experience as he has reared his rigs, until today it is safe to say he has built a million dollars' worth or more of derricks.
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Shortly after coming to the Santa Maria valley, that is, in the year 1900. Samuel Chase married Miss Sadie J. Lane, born in Bennett, Nebr., a daughter of Edward J. Lane, a plasterer residing on the Western Union lease, who had come from lowa and had spent some twelve years in Los Angeles, where she was, as she is today, a social favorite. One child, Dorothy Eileen, wel- comes him at eventide when he returns to his cosy home on the Union Oil Co.'s tract, no doubt also stimulating his interest in school affairs, for Mr. Chase has shown his good citizenship by acting for the past four years as a school trustee for the Careaga school district. Both employer and employe have learned to depend upon Samuel P. Chase ; nor does the stranger, apply- ing to him for guidance through the maze of the oil districts, want for courtesy or intelligent attention.
HERBERT W. GRAFFT .- A man who is making his influence felt in agricultural circles and leasing five hundred seventy acres of the Suey ranch, owned by the Newhall Land and Farming Co., is Herbert W. Grafft, of the Santa Maria valley. He was born in Hall county, Nebr., October 2, 1881. a son of James A. and Marietta (Foreman) Grafft, both natives of Jones county, Ia. The maternal grandfather, John Foreman, was the plaintiff against Robert Johnson in the celebrated "Jones county California case." which was in the courts for twenty-eight years, and cost both sides approxi- mately $1,500,000. It was fought from the Circuit court to the Iowa State Supreme court, and it broke Mr. Foreman. Mr. and Mrs. James Grafft are residing at Tranquility. They had thirteen children.
When but five years old, Ilerbert W. Grafft was taken by his parents to Iowa, where he attended school, and at the age of nine began to work on his grandfather's farm, plowing with a walking plow. In 1902 he came out to California and has worked at ranching ever since.
He is one of the most successful of the tenants on the Suey ranch, raises hay, grain and beans, and owns, besides, a threshing outfit operated by a 30-60 oil pull traction engine. Ile also has twenty four head of horses and retains one good man all the time; and during the threshing season he employs as many as fifty men. Prior to 1911, when he moved to his present place, he was leasing the Ramon Dana and the V. S. Runnels ranches at Nipomo, and was very successful; but he considers his present place more profitable.
On November 15, 1905, Mr. Grafft was married to Miss Daisy Runnels. daughter of V. S. Runnels of Nipomo, and they have three children Fugene. Florence and Vernon. Mr. Grafft is a member of Santa Maria Lodge, No. 90, Knights of Pythias; and in politics he supports the men that he considers best suited for the office regardless of party lines. lle is a man of striking appearance, active, progressive, and highly respected by all who know him.
JOHN L. HARRIS .- An energetic, ambitious and very promising young scientist, whose family name is associated in a pleasant way with the geog raphy and history of the State of California, is John 1 .. Harris, who was born on the Harris ranch, at Harris Station, in Santa Barbara county, the son of Lawrence Harris, a stockholder and director of the Union Sugar Co. His father now resides at Berkeley ; but on account of his many interests in oil and agricultural lands in Los Alamos valley, he considers Santa Barbara county his real home. Having attended the public school at Los Vamos. and finished a course at the Santa Maria high school, John matriculated. in the fall of 1902, at the University of California, where he pursued a general
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-cientific course with chemistry as his major subject, graduating in 1906. After his graduation he went back to the university for an additional year of graduate work in chemistry. In 1907 he went to Goldfield, Nev., and was there engaged as a miner and assayer for six months, after which he worked in the oil fields, beginning then and there the responsibility of looking after his father's interests.
While at the University of California, he was a member of the Mim Kaph Vim, a chemistry honor society that has since become a national organiza- von ; and his proficiency led to his coming, in March, 1909, to the laboratories of the Union Sugar Co. at Betteravia, as their assistant chemist. There he remained three years, leaving them only to take up similar work for the spreckels Sugar Co, at Salinas, and the Western Sugar Refining Co. at San Francisco. He was one of the assistant foremen of the Spreckels plant, and would doubtless have continued with them had not the Union Sugar Co., always seeking for the highest results and the best service, offered him such midlucements that, in 1914, he returned to their field as the immediate assistant to 31. M. Purkiss, chief agriculturist.
As an analytical chemist, with a fine knowledge of soil analysis and fertilization, and a special proficiency in the analyzing of the sugar beet and all its products, Mr. Harris has contributed largely to the promotion of wientific farming. A popular member, also, of the social circles in Santa Maria valley and in the north, in which he moves, he is especially active among the San Luis Obispo Elks.
MYRTON M. PURKISS .- What inspiration and power may often be found in early making a resolution as to one's ambition and conduct in life. and then sticking to the plan thus formed until the wished-for goal has been Tuckily reached, is shown in the interesting history of M. M. Purkiss, chief agriculturist of the Union Sugar Co. at Betteravia, and the person, in that splendidly-organized concern, next in power to Mr. J. W. Atkinson. Born i native son, at Willits, Mendocino county, December 6, 1887, the lad worked his way up from poverty, all the difficulties massing to impede his progress. but contributing to a more intense desire on his part to be satisfied with nothing short of definite and positive success. His father was John A. Pur- kiss, a most worthy early pioncer of Santa Barbara county, who built and ran the first flour mill at Los Alamos, dying in British Columbia at the age of fifty-nine. His mother, Etta Eames in maidenhood, who was as devoted to her children as she was to her husband, is still living at Santa Maria at the enjoyable age of sixty-two. The parents had five children, three of whom were torn from them in their tenderest years by the dread disease dipththeria. The other survivor is Vernon John, a plumber of Santa Maria.
While yet a mere lad of twelve, M. M. Purkiss began to work out for other people, getting up at four o'clock in the morning and seldom being per- mitted to go to bed before eight o'clock in the evening. His first employer was C. 11. Pearson, of Los Alamos, who gave him five dollars a month, and permitted him to go to school, at the same time that he was doing chores obonit the farm After a while he finished the grammar school, and then he warned fifteen dollars a month. He was ambitious, however, to obtain a better education ; and so he went to Santa Barbara, where he attended the high school for two years. At the same time he mastered a commercial course at Hoover's Business College in Santa Barbara. It was there that he
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made the resolution which so affected his after life: to connect himself. if possible, with some large corporation and to stay with that concern fip at least twenty years.
Finishing his schooling, he started to work for the Union Sugar Co. the first year that the factory was started. In the beginning, he was a mere helper, and carried the chain for the civil engineers; then he worked for a year as an assistant in the laboratory, and in 1901 he ran the company's hotel. The following year he went back to factory work; but having a desire to learn agriculture, he was placed on the Betteravia ranch and made agricul tural foreman under E. H. Nicholson, then chief agriculturist, who was farm ing from 8,000 to 10,000 acres of land. For four years he remained foreman : and when Mr. Nicholson resigned, in 1908, he was made chief agriculturist. Just what the responsibilities of such a position involved may be inferred from the returns of the 10,000 acres stretching from Lompoc valley to San Luis Obispo County : from fifteen to thirty five tons of sugar beets per acre are generally harvested. the beets containing quite 18 per cent. of suger, and the entire crop of a hundred thousand tons producing 16,000 tons of sugar. while the by-products are crude molasses and beet pulp.
In June, 1904, Mr. Purkiss was married to Miss Hulda A. Glines, daughter of C. R. Glines, the Santa Maria pioneer, whose interesting sketch is given in this volume : and two children, Albert C. and Cassius M., are the light and life of the Purkiss home, one of the prettiest residences on South Broadw w in Santa Maria, built in 1914. An active Republican, Mr. Purkiss has long been a member of Santa Barbara county central committee; so that in civil as well as in business affairs his advice and support are frequently sought. Hle is an active Mason in Hesperian Lodge No. 264, F. & A. M., at Santa Maria. and is also a Knight of Pythias and an Elk.
GEORGE W. MOORE .- \ native son of pioneer parents who came to this state in the early fifties, George W. Moore has shown his progressive spirit in many ways since he has attained manhood. As is natural with one who has spent almost his entire life in the state, he is interested in the growth and development of California, and more especially the Santa Maria .valley, where the most of his life has been passed. He was born in the his toric old town of Monterey, a son of George W. and Brohelia (ochran Moore, who hailed from Ohio, the former coming around the Horn and the latter crossing the plains to California, where afterwards they were married. From Monterey county the family came to Santa Barbara county and located at Lompoc, where the father carried on a general merchandise store for some years. Both parents are now deceased.
George W. attended the public schools of Monterey and Santa Barbara counties and lived in Lompoc from the age of ten to twenty-two. He was engaged in the mercantile business in Guadalupe when the advent of the railroad gave that town a boom, later going to Los Angeles ; and after that he spent four years in Centerville, South Dakota, engaged in the mercantile business.
It was while a merchant in that town that he met and later married Miss Mabel D. Lowry, the daughter of William f. Lowry, at banker of that place. Of this union two children have been born to brighten the family circle: William, a graduate of the Los Angeles high school and now an employe of the Union Sugar Co. at Betteravia, and Lila, now attending the
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Los Angeles high school while duly chaperoned by her mother. From Cen- terville Mr. Moore came back to California and was in business in Lompoc awhile, and then entered the employ of the Union Sugar Co. at Betteravia as storekeeper in the hardware department; and during the years he was so employed he gave good satisfaction.
Mr Moore, however, believes in working for himself; and seeing an opening in Santa Maria, he resigned from the Union Sugar Co. and with a partner opened a vulcanizing shop located on South Broadway, which also carries a supply of automobile accessories under the firm name of the Lewis Vulcanizing and Tire Co. Since their organization on January 1, 1917, the firm have enjoyed an increasing patronage, specializing in their branches of automobile work. Through their courteous treatment and prompt attention to details, they are paving the way for a merited success. Mr. Moore is a Blue Lodge Mason, and has passed the chairs in the Guadalupe lodge.
SEVERINO FERRARI .- From the green valleys and mountain slopes of snow-capped Switzerland, have come many of the recent settlers of Cali- fornia who have contributed so much, both by their industry and their knowledge of agricultural conditions such as are found here, to the rapid and marvelous development of this State; and worthy of honorable mention among these frugal and peaceful citizens is Severino Ferrari, the enterpris- ing dairyman of Betteravia. Born in the Canton of Ticino on July 30, 1868, he began work as a boy in a dairy ; and when he was only sixteen years old he came to California and found employment at the E. Morgante ranch near Guadalupe.
Mr. Ferrari married Miss Pia Righetti, also a native of Switzerland, which country he revisited in 1905.
One of those men who never stand still, but are always taking a front rank in the field they have chosen, Mr. Ferrari has worked along lines of scientific and sanitary dairying and now operates the Betteravia dairy on shares, and milks one hundred fifty or more cows owned and managed as a special interest of the Union Sugar Co .; and he supplies Betteravia with the highest grade of milk, cream and butter that can be found anywhere around.
Mr. Ferrari is industrious, naturally bright, a man of strict integrity and. personal honor, and a thoughtful citizen with a preference for the forms and principles of government advocated by the Republican party. He reflects the highest degree of credit both on his native country and on the land of his adoption. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrari are members of the Catholic Church.
WILLIAM McELLIGOTT .- The bustling town of Betteravia is the pleasant abode of a large number of men who were thrown upon their own resources at an early age, but whose natural abilities were strengthened rather than weakened by a harsh contact with the exacting world, thus helping them to gain in a large measure both the esteem of their associates and financial success. Such a self-made man is William McEffigott, chief engi- neer for the San Joaquin Light & Power Co., who was born in London, England, on August 15, 1872, of estimable and ambitious Irish parents, both of whom are deceased. His father had been a school teacher in the Old World, but crossed the ocean when William was only six years of age, and settled at Eldorado, Butler county, Kan., where he was employed in a lum- ber yard. Ile died at the age of forty-three years. On his death the widow, whose Christian name was Hanora, moved to Oklahoma, and resided there,
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near Tulsa, until she died. There were three children in the family, William being the oldest; a daughter, Hanora, died at the age of seventeen; and Maurice is an operating engineer in power house No. 3 of the San Joaquin Light & Power Co., at Northport.
When William reached Oklahoma in 1889 it was in the day of the ter- ritory's great boom, and he thus has a recollection not only of historic Lon- don, but of Kansas and Oklahoma, with their Indians and cowboys, and par- ticularly of the Cherokee Indians. Having attended school in Kansas, and undergone the rough-riding on the cattle ranges in the southwest, he migrated to Amarillo, Tex., where he remained from 1895 to 1906.
In 1904 he was married to Mrs. Addy Massey, a daughter of A. J. Busby, now of Fresno, and in 1906 they located in Fresno also. The San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation were looking for a live man about this time, and in Mr. McElligott they found one who has proven himself acceptable, popular and dependable. From 1910 to February, 1916, Mr. MeElligott had charge of the steam boilers and engines of the San Joaquin Light & Power Plant at Bakersfield, and in this latter year he was transferred to Betteravia, where he is responsible for the operation of the two thousand h. p. engines which furnish power and light to the sugar company, as well as to the Pinal- Dome Refinery.
A more skilful and thoroughgoing technician than William McElligott could scarcely be found in this thriving section of California, where so many men of trained technical ability naturally congregate : and no one warmed by his large-hearted personality, and knowing the obstacles he has overcome. will envy him his success.
RAMON W. GOODCHILD .- Two notable California families are joined in the union of Ramon W. Goodchild, the son of John Themas Good- child, and Miss Hortensia Ontiveros, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jose D. Ontiveros. What the forbears of the Goodchilds did is already set forth in the sketch of James Wilson Goodchild ; the Ontiveros, on the other hand. continue the splendid traditions of one of the earliest Spanish families now living in California, they having descended from intrepid soldiers sent out to Mexico, about two hundred fifty years ago, by the King of Spain. Even then distinguished for their hardihood, the Ontiveros are still a vigorous and long- lived family, some of the recent members attaining to over ninety years. Their men are striking for handsome figures, while the Ontiveros women are famed for their beauty.
The second son of John Thomas Goodchild, still an honored resident of the Santa Maria valley, and of Adela (Ontiveros) Goodchild, for many years deceased, Ramon was born on March 14, 1881, grew up on his father's ranch. and attended the Olive public school, of which, for the past three years, he has been clerk of the board of trustees. When only fifteen, he drove a six- horse team, and since then he has come rapidly forward in a knowledge . f ranch management and affairs.
December 14, 1907, Ramon Goodchild led his bride to the altar, the lady being a graduate of the same Olive public school, and for five years a student at the Sacred Heart Convent, Oakland. Both are devout Catholics, and attend the Foxen Canon church. Their wedding was celebrated with trud California hospitality. One child, Ramon William, has resulted from this union-a bright and sturdy lad, who will doubtless be heard from some day
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Through the death of her father, Mrs. Goodchild, an accomplished house- keeper, excellent wife and mother, and a most considerate hostess, inherited a fine ranch of two hundred twenty acres, which, added to her husband's prop- erty, constitutes a substantial estate.
A man of superb physique, Mr. Goodchild has seen considerable public service. For eight years he was constable in the Eighth Township of Santa Barbara county, but when re-elected to that office for a third term he refused to qualify. In appreciation of his fidelity to duty, however, he has since been appointed roadmaster of the Sisquoc district, and as supervisor of the fifteen miles or more of the highways under his care, he shows the same intelligent administration of a public trust. An independent voter, he casts his ballot for the best candidate.
BERT E. JESSEE .- The agreeable and obliging assistant cashier of the urmly-established Bank of Santa Maria, Bert E. Jessee, has spent his entire life in this productive valley, where he was born November 15, 1888, a son of Madison and Elizabeth (Earl) Jessee, and a grandson of Captain Jessee, who was captain under ex-Governor Lilburn H. Boggs when he was ordered to California from Missouri in 1846, to hold this territory for the Union. The maternal ancestor of Mr. Jessee was founder of the famous Harbin Springs in Lake county.
The education of Bert E. Jessee was received in the grammar and high school of Santa Maria, and he graduated from the latter in a commercial course. He then entered the Bank of Santa Maria as a clerk, and by steady application to business he has worked his way up during the past twelve years until he is now assistant cashier.
Mr. Jessee was married in 1911 to Miss Florence Bonetti, a daughter of J. B. Bonetti of Santa Maria, acting agent for the LeRoy estate containing several thousand acres of fine land in this valley. Mr. and Mrs. Jessee have one son, Albert W. Jessee.
Mr Jessee is a member of Santa Maria Lodge No. 90, Knights of Pythias. The family reside in their beautiful bungalow home at the corner of Cook and McClellan streets.
JAMES M. HUGHES .- A resident of Santa Barbara county since a lad of thirteen years, and one who does business on a large scale, for he has grown up with the great western state of California, is James M. Hughes, living two and one-half miles east of Santa Maria. He was born May 16, 1876, in Pottawatomie county, Kansas, and attended the district school there until he was about thirteen, when his parents, George and Rachel (Guthrie) Hughes, packed up their belongings and came to Santa Barbara county in 1888. They are both still living, in Santa Maria. The father was born in North Carolina and the mother in Missouri; and their eight children were born in the East, three dying in early childhood. The others are: John F., who married Carrie Tomer of San Luis Obispo County, lived in Santa Maria until his death in 1912, and left two children, Ruby and George ; and James M ., Homer E., Floyd Louis, and Harley .A., all of Santa Maria.
After coming to California, James did odd jobs and later began working on ranches by the month ; and he has kept busy at that vocation ever since. For years he leased four hundred acres of the Suey ranch and ran that besides his own one hundred twenty aeres. He also started in threshing beans, with a fine outfit operated by a Twin City tractor engine, 40-70 h. p.,
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and a Ventura bean thresher, 36-60 separator, taking fifty-two men, four- teen wagons and forty-five horses to properly carry on operations during the season. The daily average is 1,400 sacks, although he has threshed as high as 2,000 sacks. The investment represents an expenditure of $17,000. In 1916 Mr. Hughes farmed only his own land, formerly known as the Steling ranch of eighty acres, and the Wolf ranch of forty acres adjoining.
In 1899 Mr. Hughes was united in marriage with Miss Althea A. Mc- Henry, a native of Missouri, who came to California with her parents, Daniel and Nancy ( Rowe) McHenry, both of whom are now deceased. They had ten children, six of whom are now living. One sister, Mrs. Mary Susan Tapscott, died in 1916, leaving three sons and three daughters. One brother died at sixteen. The others are: Sarah, wife of Lyman Barnard of Lamar, Colo .; William Thomas, of Lompoc ; Louisa, wife of Andrew Chap- man, of Elk City, Kan. ; Luella, wife of Carl Moeller, of Lompoc : James, of Thayer, Kan. ; and Althea A., Mrs. Ilughes, who attended the grammar and high school of Santa Maria. She was graduated from the latter in the third class after the organization of the school, and was valedictorian of the class. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have three children, Gladys, Inez and Leo. Mr. Hughes is a Republican, and a public-spirited, self-made man.
JACOB P. HANSEN .- This much-respected rancher and public-spirited citizen of Santa Maria began life in California with an empty pocket, but willing hands, and now owns two fine ranches of seven hundred forty and two hundred forty acres respectively, lying along the Santa Maria river, and devoted to raising stock, grain, hay and beans, two hundred thirty-five acres being tillable land. The proprietor of these ranches, Jacob P., better known as "Jack" Hansen, was born in Jutland, Denmark, February 26, 1869. Ilis parents were Ilans M. and Lena M. (Jensen ) Hansen, both born and deceased in their native country. The former was a well-to-do farmer and was a soldier in the war between Denmark and Germany in 1848 49 50. The parents had eleven children, seven now living. One son, Peter, died in the Santa Maria valley, and a daughter, Mrs. Margarita Jensen, lives at Nipomo.
Jacob P. llansen, the other son, who is the subject of this review, was educated in the common schools, confirmed in the Lutheran Church and reared on the home farm. His brother, Peter, had come to California, and . the glowing tales he wrote home fired his younger brother with a desire to try his own fortunes in this land of opportunity. Hence he sailed from Bremer- haven, Germany. on the Bremen line, and landing in New York, proceeded at once to California, arriving at Nipomo on April 23, 1888, where he fomed his brother. When he started, he had only money enough to bring himn ochis destination, and it was necessary for him to go to work, accordingly he soll hor employment, and for eighteen months worked for $25,00 per month Then. with his brother Peter, he engaged in ranching on the Fugler ranch until the death of his brother in 1896, since which time he has carried on business on his own account, and has met with a decided success He employs twee men the year round and spends a great deal of his own time on his rahdie- One ranch lies thirteen and one half miles southeast of Santa Maria, mil the other is in Foxen cañon.
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