History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 107

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1070

USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches > Part 107

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

X native of Santa Barbara county, Will Oakley was born on June 24, INSny on Santa Ynez. Ile attended the public schools of this county, and work. i mummercial course in the Lompoc high school, after which he began woirlime of his father's ranch, learning his lessons in the different branches o Farmmy from a competent instructor. He later went to the Harris ranch,

953

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

and still later was employed by a creamery company in Guadalupe, when he was eighteen years of age. In 1909 he embarked in the dairy and cattle business on part of the Todos Santos rancho, and during the next three years got together about two hundred fifty head of cattle, when he found that he would need more land on which to range them. He then leased what is known as the Shaw ranch, from the Barron heirs in France, in 1912, and now has about five hundred head of cattle, one hundred twenty-five head of milch-cows, and thirty head of horses with which to carry on the work on six hundred acres of plow land, on which he raises large crops of grain and beans. In this enterprise he has the co-operation of his partner, Mrs. Sophia Bonetti; and they work in harmony, which insures success.

On July 21. 1909, while living in Guadalupe, Mr. Oakley married Miss Leslie Bonetti, who was born and reared in that town. Her father, Albert Bonetti, was a native of Someo, canton Ticino, Switzerland, and left there, when a boy of fifteen, to come to California to make his fortune. He did succeed, by good, hard work and business judgment. He was married here to Sophia Guerra, a daughter of Bonifacio Guerra, a native of Marin county. Three children blessed their union: Leslie, now Mrs. Oakley: Albert, an employee of the Bank of Italy in San Francisco, who married May Hill, of Oakland ; and Valento, of Guadalupe. Mr. Bonetti died in Guadalupe at the age of forty-five. Mrs. Bonetti is a most able woman, and assists her son-in- law with her sound advice and encouragement. Her grandmother, Annun ciato (Betante ) Guerra, came to America, and makes her home with Mrs. Bonetti. She is hale and hearty at the age of seventy-seven.

Mr. and Mrs. Oakley have one child, a son, Albert William. They are both very popular in their social set and have an ever widening circle of friends. Mr. Oakley holds membership in the Odd Fellows and Elks lodges of Santa Barbara. He is a man of high ideals, progressive, enterprising and public-spirited, and year by year is becoming more firmly established in the business circles of the county where his entire life has been passed.

BENJAMIN PIERRE DELEISSEGUES. The subject of this review has the distinction of being a son of a native son of California, and it is no more than natural that he should be interested in the welfare of his state. Ilis grandfather, Oliver Deleissegue, was captain of a French trading vessel and was shipwrecked off the coast of Monterey some time in the late thirties. He came ashore, and was so well received by the inhabitants of the town that he decided to remain, and in due time was united in marriage with a Spanish girl, a member of the Boronda family, oneof the prominent Spanish families in California history. The Deleissegues all spell their name with a final "s," but the captain's certificate had it "Delvissegue " Oliver De segue and his wife had a number of children, one of white Albert Delle segues, was born in Monterey in 1847. Albert Delersegue received from education for that period. He became a farmer and a business plan and lived a busy and useful life ; and he is now making his home at Mpeine. assisting his son-in law in his mercantil busines He was married to Rebecca Hames, who was born in Oakland, in December, 1854, u member of a pioneer family. Her father, Benjamin Franklin Hames, was a native of New York, a civil engineer and millwright of much ability, as well as an expert accountant. Iler mother was Carmen Laing, born at Valp. rai. Chile, of English parentage. 49

954

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

Benjamin Pierre Deleissegues was born in San Luis Obispo, April 11, 1880, and grew to manhood there. He received his education in the public schools. After graduating from the grammar school, he went to work, as his parents were in moderate circumstances, and the children had to become self-supporting as soon as possible. He started in to learn the drug business in the Greenleaf Pharmacy in San Luis Obispo; but after eighteen months, finding the pay unsatisfactory, he became associated with the agricultural department of the Union Sugar Co., at Betteravia, as stationary engineer, and ran the pumping plant there. In 1912 he went to the oil-field district, where he was engaged as a well pumper, and later as a tool dresser, for a period of two years. He then went to Arizona and raised one crop of cotton near Yuma ; but the call of his native state was too strong, and in June, 1915, he returned to California, and was employed in the oil fields until 1916, when he and his brother Oliver began farming in Los Alamos valley, where they have one hundred fifty acres of the Careaga estate. There they make a specialty of growing beans; and it is predicted that these young men will carve out their own future and win success, for they have family tradition to maintain and take pride in, being "to the manor born."

Mr. Deleissegues is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and of San Luis Obispo Lodge, No. 322, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

CLARENCE J. HOBSON .- \ stirring event in the Spanish-American War is recalled by the name of Clarence J. Hobson, who is a distant relative of Richard Pearson IIobson, the hero of the "Merrimac," at Santiago Harbor. Mr. Hobson is chief engineer of the Harris water station at Orby, seven miles south of Orcutt, for the Union Oil Co., and is also postmaster at Orby. Born in Ballard valley, Santa Barbara county, he was the first white child born there of American parents. His father was the late J. J. Hobson, who came to California in the early fifties, crossing the plains with teams and wagons, and later went back to Illinois, where he married Miss Alberta Bender. After their marriage, he returned with his wife to California, and settled in Ballard valley.

Ilaving attended the public schools of his district, Clarence was appren- ticed to the iron works in Santa Barbara, and learned the trade of a mechanical engineer, and especially whatever has to do with steam, gas and other machinery. He later opened a blacksmith's shop at Los Alamos ; but through the arduous labor of shoeing the heavy horses brought to his forge, he injured himself permanently, so that today he still suffers from the effects.

While in business in that little town, Clarence Hobson married Miss Rena Mankins, who died at Los Angeles, leaving one child, Manola.

Mr. Ilobson remarried, choosing for his helpmate Miss Vera Jessee, the daughter of John and Mary (McHenry) Jessee. Her father was a civil engineer of San Jose, and a member of a family identified with the famous Bear l'lag party. One child, C. J. Hobson, Jr., has blessed this union.

In recognition of the exceptional mechanical genius of Mr. Hobson, he was appointed, in September, 1º10, chief engineer of the Harris water station, owned by the Union Oil Co. What a responsibility was thus committed to him may be judged from the fact that all the water used for drilling, steam, mechanical and domestic purposes on the numerous leases and at the pump- ing stations of the great Union Oil Co., in both the Orcutt and the Lompoc fields, comes from there. The water is pumped from great wells at the Harris

955

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

station, and is forced through underground water mains to two great tanks located upon the most highly elevated grounds. The first is at the Newlove lease in the Santa Maria field, from which are supplied all the compressor works, refineries, pipe-line stations, steam engines and private houses, as well as stock tanks, on all the Union Oil Co.'s leases in the wide Santa Maria field, besides the city of Orcutt, the water gravitating to the different places where it is needed. The second is at Lompoc, and this supplies all of the Union Oil Co.'s engines, drills, pumping plants, refineries, compressors, leases. houses, etc., in the Lompoc oil field-a tremendous amount of water. As it is most important that the water should be furnished in sufficient quantities. it will be seen that this veteran mechanic has in charge a position of con- siderable responsibility.

A patriotic citizen, whose devotion to his country has never been ques- tioned, Mr. Hobson serves as postmaster at Orby, being the third postmaster appointed to that post office since its establishment in 1908. Courteous and attentive to the wants of the public, and well informed as to the postal needs of his district, Mr. Hobson has given efficient and satisfactory service here.

THOMAS JENSEN .- What heroic persistence may accomplish in the great struggle of life, is shown in the case of Thomas Jensen, who, leaving his home in the Old World to push off to the New and a more promising out- look, toiled until he was enabled at last to realize his ambition. Born at Orra, Denmark, three miles from the German boundary, on March 30. 1861, he was the son of Jens Hanson, a farmer and sailor, who served for three years in the great war, beginning in 1848, that raged between Germany and Denmark, and then, wounded and crippled for life, returned home, his future darkened by the awful experience he had undergone. Five uncles of Thomas, brothers of his mother, also fought throughout the Danish-German war a few years later, and each returned alive and unharmed. His mother was .Anna Maria Thompson, a native of Jutland. Both parents died when nearly eighty years of age, and within a year of each other. Besides Thomas, there was another son. Hans Jensen, who lives on the oldl home pack in Denmark.

Having attended the public school in his native district, and been prop- erly confirmed in the Lutheran Church. Thomas Jensen was married in ISSS. at Orra, to Miss Dorthia Maria Nilsen ; and the following year, leaving hus wife and infant baby, he sailed for the United States. He had two cousins at Nipomo, Cal, and they were the means of directing his attention to the Golden State.

Ile left Denmark November 14, 1889, and sailed from Hamburg on the Hamburg- American liner "Suabia," and landel in New York at old Castle Garden. Eventually, he reached San Francisco; but when he got as far as San Luis Obispo, he found himself permiless, and threatened with the heves sity of carrying, at least for a while, in the old Mission town He met a fellow-countryman, however, and borrowed three dollars from him, and will that money he was able to complete hi journey to Vipomer It is needless to say that he went to work at once, and that the first three de Hats he would spare from his slender earnings he remitted to the friend who had seen him through. Arriving on December 17 at Nipomo, he began work for his cousin. Jacob Hanson, and continued for a long time to work for Min by to month. Then he engaged for a while with a nursery at Nipomo, and so gut still further ahead.

956

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

At the end of four years he had saved enough money to be able to send for his wife and two children, who joined him at Nipomo in 1894. He rented a farm near that town, which he ran for four years. In 1898, he came down to the C'areagas and rented a part of their ranch, and this he continued to hold for the next six years. When he bought his ranch of four hundred eighty-two acres, a part of the historic old estate, he secured what had been won by Sullivan and Roach, attorneys-at-law in San Francisco. He stocked it with cattle and set to work to raise beans and hay. Today he has forty head of cattle, twelve work horses, and eight other horses for the saddle and the buggy. In busy seasons he gives employment to several men besides himself.

Five years ago he built an up-to-date bungalow surrounded by a group of fruit trees and English walnuts, and a yielding vineyard, and here he shares the home comfort with his wife and seven children. A daughter, Anna Maria, married Fred Lang, a fireman on the Pacific Coast Railway, residing at Los Olivos, and they have one child, Alfred. Neils, James, Mattie, Chris- tina, Charles and Mary live at home. In politics, Mr. Jensen votes for principle, and tests the candidate by what, in his opinion, the candidate represents.

HARRY JOHN SANBORN .- So much hard, steady and patient work, and work without dependence on "pull" or favor of any sort, is nowadays required for one to become a master driller and to rise with the expansion of the vast oil interests, that all the more credit is due to such brawny machinists and engineers as Harry John Sanborn, who has risen entirely by his own merit until now he fills the responsible position of rotary driller at well No. 13, of the Pan-American Petroleum Investment Co., near Los Alamos. Born at Manitowoc, Wis., September 22, 1881, he was but three and a half years old when, on the death of his mother, he was adopted by the family of Wellington Sanborn, a rancher at Hortonville, in that state, who still owns a fine farm of a hundred sixty acres there. By the Sanborns he was received as their own child. He attended the public grammar school, and later he profited by a year at the local high school.

Feeling that he ought to strike out for himself, he left home at the age of twenty-six and went in for railroading. He got a job as locomotive fireman on a freight train of the C. & N. W. railroad, running between Green Bay and Milwaukee, but during the great panic of 1907, which brought busi- ness practically to a standstill, and with it the railroad trains, he was among thousands of others who were laid off from work. Just at that time, however, Frank Kellogg, a friend of his school days, wrote him from Batson, Tex., telling him that there was plenty of work to do there in the oil fields, and invited him to come and join him. He went there and began in the oil busi- ness in that field, first as a roustabout and then in work at pumping.

In August, 1908, Mr. Sanborn came to California. Going to Taft, he secured work on a lease of the Standard Oil Co. as helper to a rotary drilling crew. He also worked at Sherman and Whittier in this state. In 1910, he was back in Taft as a driller for the Miocene; and later he was engaged as driller to the W. D. Head Drilling Co. at Taft.

For the seasons of 1910-11-12, he contracted as a driller for Brand & Stephens, a Fullerton firm. There he made the acquaintance of John Golespy, a veteran rotary driller, who now has the morning tour at well No. 13 of the

937

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

corporation, and who is widely known through the state for the expen knowledge of the drilling of oil wells; and in October, 1916, both he and Golespy came to the Pan-American Petroleum Investment Corporation.

On May 20, 1912, at Bakersfield, Mr. Sanborn was married to Miss Pearl Dexter, a daughter of Franklin Dexter, one of the highly respected citizens of Clintonville. Wis., where she was a great favorite in social circles. (nt child, Lucille, now four years of age, has come to bless the home of this estimable couple.

CLEVELAND J. WILKINSON .-. \ San Luis Obispo boy who, through the most valuable practical experience gained by his own efforts, is creating an enviable record and reputation as a careful and expert rotary driller, is Cleveland, or Cleve, J. Wilkinson, now in charge of a crew putting in well No. 6.for the Pan-American Petroleum Investment Corporation. Ilis father, who is still living in retirement at Arroyo Grande, an old gentleman of eighty years, and a well-known and honored settler of San Luis Obispo County, is the rancher, John M. Wilkinson, a native Kentuckian, who crossed the plains from Missouri, probably in 1850, and who settled as a farmer and stock-raiser in the Santa Maria valley about 1869. His mother, on the other hand, was a native daughter, born at Napa, and christened Hetty A. Stubblefield ; she is still living at Bakersfield.

Besides the subject of our sketch, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson had nine children : Abbie married Esmeralda Reys, a rancher in the Cuyama val- ley ; Jesse married Nora Jobe, and has a ranch not far from his brother : Louvina is the wife of J. 11. Jones, a farmer near Maricopa; Ida is the wife of S. Roger, a bookkeeper for the Union Oil Co., residing on the Newton lease, in the Santa Maria field: Ira married Miss Clara Green, and resides with her in Alberta, Canada ; Jeanie is the wife of Bell Wright, a barber at Goldfield, Nev. ; May is at home: and Ruth and Johnnie are attending the local school.

Born at Huasna, San Luis Obispo County, on Christmas Day. 1886. Cleveland J. Wilkinson grew up on his father's ranch in Kern county, and early became noted as a rider skilled in the breaking in of saddle horses. Ile began working and riding for the lion. J. I. Wagy, proprietor of the Or ma ranch, in the mountains west of Maricopa, and then engaged himself as a rider and stockman for Fuller Bros., at Los Angeles. As a result of his cow-punching experience and his proficiency when in the saddle. Mr. Wilkin son was offered a lucrative position with a film company making moving pictures, but he had the good sense to reject the offer and ter stick to more practical and permanent occupations.

He quit riding, and struck into the oil fields as a ronsabout at Samty Maria, and soon made up his mind that he would stay with the ed lumines until he mastered it. He went to work on the New Pennsylvania, and then went to the Union in the Santa Maria field. He was nest employed in the Radium Oil Co. in the same district ; and there he learned to ffe a driller with standard tools.

About this time he learned of rotary drilling; and being while he enough to see that it would prove the device of the future. He went to the Fullerton field to learn the rotary drilling process. There he worked for the Patterson Oil Co., then for the Stram Oil Co. later for the field Petroleum Oil Co., and finally for the St. Helena Oil Con whose serenthe

958

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

became expert as a rotary driller. In 1916, he went to Taft to drill for the K. T. & O. Co. On concluding his engagement with them, he yielded to the attraction of better money and entered the service of Maxwell & Mc- Donald, of the same place. This put him on record as having started the first rotary rig at Taft. He was then transferred to the Palmer Annex of the same firm of contract drillers, and there gave the same satisfactory service.

In October, 1916, Mr. Wilkinson took up his present responsible posi- tion with the P. A. P. I. Corporation, setting to work energetically on wells No. 1 and No. 6. In the case of the former, the well was drilled to a depth of 2,448 feet, or where the water is shut off by cementing. Well No. 6 was started on the 29th of December, 1916, and such excellent progress has been made that by February 3, of the present year, a depth of 2,250 feet had been reached by the drill.

On November 12, 1910, Mr. Wilkinson married Miss Lena Earl Lathrop, a popular girl of Arroyo Grande. He built a house on the lease where he is at present employed ; and here he and his wife are enjoying the quiet and contentment of California life. He is active in the circles of the Moose, a member of the lodge at Santa Maria, No. 719; and he takes a live interest in politics, indorsing the principles of the Democratic party.

JOHN H. HARRISON .-. \ Texas boy who, while retaining his personal integrity and manhood, has proven his full capacity for aggressive and expert workmanship, and has established an excellent record as a successful rotary driller, being now engaged by the great Pan-American Petroleum Investment Corporation, is John H. Harrison, commonly and widely known among the boys in the oil fields as Bob Harrison, the driller. Born at Waelder, Gonzales county, Tex., September 22, 1879, Bob is the son of W. E. Harrison, a South Carolinan by birth, who is now conducting, as he has been for years, a well- known hardware store at Waelder. His mother, who died when he was thirteen years old, was a native of Texas, and was known as Miss Annie Exzena before her marriage. There are four brothers and three sisters of John H: Harrison still living, all of whom except one reside in Texas. Ed Harrison being in charge of R. E. MeKee's drillers at the Palmer Union.

Educated at the Texas public schools, Bob Harrison first felt the call to the oil field with the coming of the Spindle-Top boom; and unable to resist the temptation, he turned aside from the carpenter's trade, to which he had first given himself, and joined his brother, Julius, now a stockholder of a petroleum company at Sour Lake, Tex., who had preceded him into the oil game and urged him to follow. He started building rigs, and continued in that work for a year and a half. After that, convinced that he was on the right path, he took up oil-field work at Spindle Top, and later at Sour Lake, Tex., and then removed to Batson, returning in five or six months. His next step led him to Jennings, La .; and there he had his first experience as a driller, entering the service of the Crowley Oil & Mineral Co., and continuing with them for seven years.

In the spring of 1910, Mr. Ilarrison came to California, and to Taft, and took up drilling for the Honolulu Oil Co., under the superintendency of John Pollard. He left that concern a year and a half later to engage with the Standard Short Line, removing still later to the Fullerton field, where he drilled for a year. Then he came to the Palmer Annex in the Santa Maria

959

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

field, and after that entered upon his present engagement with the P. A. P. I. Corporation. As a rotary driller he has been exceedingly successful. 1le started to drill well No. 7 on January 13, 1917, and by February 3 reached at depth of 1,420 feet.

In the southern metropolis of Los Angeles. John Harrison was married to Miss Alice Egert, a winsome and highly esteemed daughter of that city : and with her he lives in his own cosy house on the company's lease.

MRS. S. R. STOMBS .- Whoever is familiar with the hard, exhausting work and varying ups and downs of such toilers as the laborers in the great oil fields at Coalinga and Los Alamos, will not wonder at the part played daily in their lives by the excellent boarding house conducted by the mistress of all California boarding-house keepers, Mrs. S. R. Stombs, who, serving the community of the Pan- American Petroleum Investment Corporation, provides for sixty or more boarders, prepares over two hundred meals, and both quickens and satisfies the appetites of each and every guest, sending every mother's son away not only well-fed and contented, but with memories of the day, perhaps long ago, when he was a favored diner at home. Only the best of everything is placed upon Mrs. Stombs' groaning table : all is arranged with cleanliness and taste, and with every consideration for the boarder's comfort.

Born at Boston, Mass., Mrs. Stombs in maidenhood was Miss Sophia Wood, and came as a child with her parents to California. She attended the public schools at San Francisco, and in that metropolitan city she was mar- ried to Thomas A. Stombs, becoming the mother of three children : Sadie. Mrs. A. D. Wood, of Pasadena : Roy T. Stombs, who is in the employ of m ice company at Los Angeles; and Jessie, Mrs. Emmet Wilson, who lives at Electra, Tex. On account of poor health, Mr. Stombs lives at Los Angeles.

For seven years Mrs. Stombs managed a boarding-house at Coalinga, where she had the first eating-house on the American property ; and it was only in the fall of 1914 that she set up her present eating-house, for which she personally buys everything and personally superintends the preparation and the cooking of the meals.

MARION COX .- One who, by long application and the hardest and most persistent labor, has risen to his present position as a driller in the Santa Maria valley, using standard tools, is Joseph Marion Cox, popularly known as Marion Cox. lle was born on June 9, 1883. in the Santa Maria valley, where his father was for many years an honored and leading pioneer_ before he removed to Los Alamos, the place of his present residence This father, James M. Cox, came as a child from Ukiah, Mendocino county, with his parents, Henry and Mary (Yarnell) Cox, both of whom come tro Missouri to California in 1852. Marion's mother, who is also living at Los Alamos, was Miss Elizabeth Garrett before her marriage.

Seven children, besides the subject of our sketch, were beauty. fr al Mrs. James M. Cox. Cynthia Lee became the wife wi \ \\ fn tool-dresser; Mamie Frances is the wife of George How and, of rancher of 1 Alamos: Effic is the wife of William Bailes, ale unster re ilus on the lease : Annie L. married Laurence Franklin, n rancher in the Imperial Valley- Inez is still at home ; Henry T. is a rider on the Zaca ranch and is well known as a former moving picture rider with the "Flying \" perple bi Salita B. r. bara : and Martha is the wife of Barnard Davis, of the Lights Garage

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 107

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837- Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1070

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1070