History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 48

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

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15, 1917, Captain Cass passed away peacefully, after a long and useful line being over ninety-two years old.

ABRAM A. STILL .- How delighted you would be if all through life you would have only to press your little finger gently on the latch or fastening of a door or window and it would fly open for you, and you could pass through doorway and gateway without troubling to close anything behind you, and would know that the door or gate would shut and fasten of its own accord! Or, imagine that you were running that automobile you have long dreamed about, and that you were placed in a position where using the reverse accidentally meant going over the grade with your car: Would it not be some satisfaction to have yourself safeguarded against the application of the wrong lever and so avoid the possibility of your smashing up body and machine? Inventions to provide such conveniences and safeguards are the product of the fertile brain of Abram A. Still, one of the oldest settlers in the region around Annette, Kern county, who came here a pioneer farmer in 1872. His grandfather was the Reverend Abram Still, a Methodist who preached in Kansas and Missouri for fifty years. llis father, Thomas C. Still, born in Tennessee in 1833, and reared in Kansas and Missouri, was a physi- cian who often had to blaze his own trail to the house of a patient, and who studied medicine before the great Civil War. In 1863 he brought his wife and three children across the plains with oxen and horses : the next year he pre-empted a claim near Mt. Diablo, and while there he taught school. Ile then moved to Sebastopol, Sonoma county, and found employment in a saw mill; and while there he met with a painful accident to the fingers of his right hand, which were saved by having his wife wrap them together with pine oil. In 1867 he came to San Luis Obispo and resumed his practice, and in 1872 located in what is now Annette, then called Palo Prieto. In 1879 he removed to La Panza, a lively town in the time of the mining excite ment, and, retiring from medicine, took up farming and stock-raising. 1 brother of Thomas C. Still was Dr. A. T. Still, of Kirksville, Missouri, the originator of the School of Osteopathy, a new science studied by Abram's father and practiced more or less at home. Abram's mother was Martha 1. Still, a native of old Virvinia, who suffered forty-five years from an annual hemorrhage of the lungs, brought about through exposure in a peculiar way. She had just had measles, and was left alone ; and to keep a mule from killing a calf, she arose from her bed and went down barefoot into the field and led the calf away. A congestion set her back, and the doctor returned only in time to save her life. As a result she had, each year after that awful night. a recurrence of the hemorrhage. At sixty-five years of age, this kind old lady died at La Panza.

Abram Still was born in Centropolis, Kan., on December 13, 1858, and when but five years of age came across the plains, wintering at Honey Lake in Lassen county. Four years later he came to San Luis Obispo, where, for a year and a half, he attended school. He also settled here. and in 1882 started in the sheep business, having by 1893 some six thousand head. When the Cleveland administration placed wool on the free list, Mr. Still lost all he had, and started over again at one dollar a day, herding sheep for Miller & Lux.

He homesteaded a hundred eighty acres, his present place at Annette which he devoted to the raising of grain. Success smiling upon him once

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h 1cho routen Bater after parcel of land, and in 1914 raised ten thousand tack- of vltav and barley-his banner year-all of which he hauled to Paso RNOTES Tre jowe rume three big teams, using a combined harvester, and oper- ites from ne thousand to twelve hundred acres a year, sowing from six Indlrol vs seven hundred to grain.

Vbramy Still married Miss Minnie Wolf, who was born in Holland and was raised in San Francisco. For twenty-two years Abram Still was post- mister of Annette, and recently his gifted wife has succeeded him in this office. His experience as a postmaster, when he saw how the public trooped through his gateway and left the gate open, prompted him to invent the con- trivance already alluded to, and this was followed by the safety device for Wicking the reverse position of the automobile, while all forward positions are in nse-a great boon to the automobilist.

AMADOR NEVADA RUDE,-A native son of California and a man well known throughout his section of the county by reason of his prominence in political matters, .A. N. Rude was born at Volcano, Amador county, Cali- tornia. November 12, 1856. His father was Thomas G. Rude, a native of llardin county, Ky., who had removed to Knox county, 111., where he married Mary Louisa Metcalf. She was a native of Allegany county, New York state, came with her parents to Illinois, and was orphaned when but twelve years old. When sixteen, she married; and about five or six years later, with her husband, she started across the plains. The party set out in 1852 with ox teams, and took six months to make the trip; and Mr. Rude and his wife met with many thrilling experiences during that long and danger- wous journey. They had their teams stolen by the Indians, suffered hard- ships that to the young men and women of today would seem unendur- able, and were glad when at last they knew they were in California. They stopped at Hangtown, now Placerville, and there Mr. Rude engaged in min- ing. From there he went to Volcano, and thence to San Francisco. He was by trade a bricklayer, and worked in that city on the construction of the old Palace Hotel, the old hall of records and other buildings then in Course of construction; and for a time he was in the employ of Claus Spreckels. His next move was in 1860, to Rincon valley, in Sonoma county, where he took up government land and improved a home, doing general farming and stock-raising, and in the meantime following his trade to make both ends meet. He sold his ranch in 1878, and about October 15 of that vear arrived in San Luis Obispo County, where he lived until his death, in 1882, when he was dragged by a horse and killed. His widow passed way on July 2, 1911. Besides the subject of our sketch, their children were: William, who runs the Paso Robles feed yard; Arabella, later Mrs. Mc- Shughton, who died in San Jose : Paulina, who was born and died during the Wip across the plains; Grayson, who died in Lake county, Ore., in 1878; V1 Roy. now of San Jose ; and George, of Imperial county.

Amador N. Rude was reared on the farm in Rincon valley and attended the public schools there, later studying in Santa Rosa at the Pacific Meth- difet College. He remained at home assisting with the farm work until ISis, when he and his mother came south to Santa Barbara county to visit Inother lying there. So well pleased were they with the appearance of the country, its conditions and its prospects, that they returned home And moured the father to sell out and come south to live. The trip was

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made overland, as the railroad did not extend at that time any further ilore the coast than Soledad. They camped back of Paso Robles and were tob by Patsey Dunn, the storekeeper, that there was some government land to be had on Estrella plains, whereupon Mr. Rude went to look at it and de- cided he would remain there. He bought a quarter section of H. Il. Barton and started to improve it by erecting buildings and breaking the land; and the first year he seeded seventy-five acres to grain. When he had his house finished, he gave a dance and house-warming on January 1, 1879, and people came from forty miles around to attend, and enjoy the festivities. An interesting incident occurred during the dance. The grain that season was badly in need of rain, for up to that time there had been barely enough moisture to sprout it, and about midnight the set for the supper dance had just formed when the patter of drops on the new shakes was heard. The set was broken up and all rushed outside to see and feel the welcome rain, which proved to be but a passing shower. His crop was short. and he went to work in the Santa Maria valley with his teams; and when he returned home he brought seed back with him, and has ever since raised grain and stock. He took up a homestead timber claim in Sunflower valley. Kern county, afterwards known as Devil's Den country, but later sold it.

In 1881 he bought one hundred sixty acres of railroad land from Joseph Moody, making him three hundred twenty acres in one body, which he farmed to grain. Mr. Rude wore out two headers, and then bought a combined harvester. He deeded the old homestead to his mother to make sure that she would have the comforts of life if anything should happen to him. How- ever, as was right on her part, she deeded it back to him six years before she died. After her death, there was an effort made by his brother William and his attorney to set aside the deed. The resulting contest caused Mr. Rude considerable annoyance and expense ; but he won his case. He rents two hundred sixty acres of land to his nephew, and reserves sixty acres for his own use. He has a fine vineyard of six acres and an orchard of four acres, and has sold a great deal of fruit from his orchard at times. He cares for the fruit himself. For a time he had a dairy, but he soon dis- posed of it, for his other interests paid him a handsome profit and he was well satisfied.

In his philanthropic way he has reared and educated several children. He and his mother brought up a niece and nephew-Dettie Rude, now Mrs. Lima of Kern county, in the vicinity of Maricopa : and William 11. Rude. who is renting land from his uncle. He also reared two sons of his cousin. Mrs. Etta Coulter, who died in 1897 : Forest, then aged five, and Alroy N., aged two years. They remained with him until they were grown, and went through the grammar school. The former lives in San Luis Obispo, and the latter is a grain farmer on the Estrella.

For a number of years Mr. Rude was an active member of Paso Robles Parlor, N. S. G. W. He was prominently connected with the Farmers' \1 liance, served as trustee of the Estrella school district for twenty years, and was clerk part of the time. He was formerly a Populist and was a candidate for the Assembly on that ticket in 1894, and was also a member of the County Central Committee and was well known politically. Of late years he has been in accord with the principles of the Socialist party. He is well read and abreast of the times, has a retentive memory, and is an interesting conver-

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timidhat The Toffevers in the doctrines advanced by the New Thought Alliance. He's limitat and willingly lends a helping hand to the unfortunate, has a Umdie, etwabih manner and has drawn about him a large circle of friends. Dominate Pred is he who has the opportunity of his hospitality.

A. B. BIGLER .- The bench and bar of Central California have many -Me representatives, who stand high in their profession because of deep study by the best authorities on law ; and among them none has a higher rank than A B. Bigler of Santa Maria. His record is that of a skilled lawyer and an aide business man. His fine legal ability places him in the front rank of his profession, not only in Santa Maria, but in the whole of Santa Barbara county. He is noted for his lucid and practical expositions, and for the skill and justice with which he disposes of the many important cases which have come to him for defense. A man of extended experience in various walks of hife, he is also a financier of no mean ability, and a politician whose disinter- usted devotion to the public welfare has never been questioned.

A. B. Bigler was born in Clearfield, Penn., April 10, 1870, the oldest of three sons and two daughters of William D. and Alice (Barrett) Bigler, both motives of Clearfield county and coming from old Pennsylvania-Dutch stock. The grandfather, William Bigler, was governor of Pennsylvania from 1852 to 1856, and served in the United States Senate from 1856 to 1862, being a per- sonal friend of President Buchanan. On the maternal side, grandfather George R. Barrett was district judge in Pennsylvania. On the paternal side his great-uncle, John Bigler, brother of Governor William Bigler, was a California pioneer of 1849, and a noted lawyer, and became the second gover- wor of this state after it was admitted to the Union. His own father, William D. Bigler, was a prominent attorney and served, during Grover Cleveland's -cound administration, as assistant United States treasurer at the sub- treasury in Philadelphia : and while the father was in that position, his son, 1 B. Bigler, served as vault clerk.

Mr. Bigler was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania and at- willled Peekskill Military Academy from 1886 to 1889, after which he matricu- laned at La Fayette College, taking the civil engineering course. Not liking There, he went to Princeton and pursued that course for the junior and -0 more years, leaving there in 1892 with rank of senior. Ile then entered de sudley of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in the engineering depart- very and remained with them until the panic of 1893, when he was laid off. Tren 1894 to 1898, he served under his father as vault clerk in the sub- wat in Philadelphia.

In 1898 Mr. Bigler visited California in the interest of the Producers and winters' Of Company, in which he and other Pennsylvanians were inter- tell at dealinga, remaining one year, when he assisted in putting down some Parkfield, Monterey county. During this time he had studied law. inte reMular examination before the Supreme Court of California, and WE Xoxogey 31. 1899, was admitted to practice. Going to Bakersfield. he open or do. e with a partner, as the firm of Bigler & Platz ; and after about leer sen, Je me to Santa Maria and at once began to build up a clientele. Vale lo os seusni ed as the leading attorney in the valley. He is attorney The Final Dame Oil Company, and, while engaging in general practice, ontheir operation law. He is also deputy district attorney for Santa I ihre woning. laving received the appointment on January 1, 1914.

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Mr. Bigler was united in marriage in 1901, in San Jose, with Miss Harriet Wilcox, a native of that city; and they are the parents of three children : William; A. B., Jr .; and John. Mr. Bigler is a consistent Democrat. He belongs to the old school of lawyers with whom scholarship, legal lore, integrity and honor are the guiding principles.

THOMAS WHITELEY .- The life which this narrative sketches began in England in 1824 and closed in Arroyo Grande, Cal., in 1899, and within these years is a record of much accomplished for the benefit of his fellow citizens. Thomas Whiteley was a shoemaker and followed that trade in his native country until the early fifties, when he came to the United States and, locating in Taunton, Mass., conducted a large shoe store until 1860. Leaving Taunton, he came by the way of the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco and there engaged in the shoe business.

After the breaking out of the war, he sold out, and in 1862 returned East and enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment for three months. At the expiration of his term of enlistment he re-enlisted, and for six months was detailed as a recruiting officer. He returned to California in 1863, via Panama, and again engaged in the shoe business, in San Francisco, selling out in 1868, and locating in San Luis Obispo, where he opened the first shoe store and repair shop in the town, located on Higuera street.

In 1874, he settled in Arroyo Grande and opened a shoe shop. He pur- chased a tract of land in the town, thus giving his name to Whiteley street. He farmed for a time, and passed away at his home.

He married Margaret Ann Longshire, a native of Manchester, England, born in 1829; and of this union three children are living: Mrs. Priscilla Ganoung of Arroyo Grande ; Thomas Whiteley of San Francisco ; and Walter, located on Carissa plains in San Luis Obispo County. Mrs. Whiteley died in Arroyo Grande in 1902. Mr. Whiteley was a member of the Grand Army post of Arroyo. Grande and was a prominent man in the upbuilding of the city.

MRS. PRISCILLA GANOUNG .- A native of Manchester, England. Mrs. Ganoung was born January 19, 1847, a daughter of Thomas and Mar garet Ann (Longshire) Whiteley, who brought her to the United States when she was a girl of eight. She was reared in San Luis Obispo County, and on February 14, 1871, was united in marriage with Edward F. Ganoung. who was born June 22, 1837, in the state of Michigan.

He crossed the plains to California in 1860, stopped for a time in San Bernardino county, and from there the same year came on to San Luis Obispo County, where he leased land and engaged in farming, until he was able to buy land of his own on the Huasna. For years he successfully farmed and raised stock ; and he finally bought a small tract of twenty two acres in the Oak Park district near Arroyo Grande, and followed bean raising until his death, July 15, 1911.

Of the six children born from the union of Mr. and Mrs. Ganoung, three are now living-Albert, Oliver and William 11. During the many years of his residence here, Mr. Ganoung was a well to do man. For years he wars affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Since his death his widow has made her home in Arroyo Grande. Her home is graced by con tentment and hospitality, and her neighbors and friends throughout the county find in her a cheerful hostess on every occasion.

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JOHN FRANCIS WRIGHT .- A native son who is at the head of large attar-, John Francis Wright was born in Adelaida. San Luis Obispo County. July 20, 1876, the son of John and Sarah (Burden) Wright, who were born in low and Sebastopol, California, respectively. His father crossed the plains with his parents, when a lad. The grandfather was also named John, and brought his family to California, locating first at Santa Cruz, and after- wards in the Adelaida country, San Luis Obispo County, where he resided until he retired. He then returned to Santa Cruz, where he died. His maternal grandfather, Alfred Burden, crossed the plains to California in 1849, and was in San Francisco when lots sold on Market street for fifty dollars each. After mining for a while, he engaged in ranching in Sonoma county, and later was an early settler of San Luis Obispo County, where he died.

John F. Wright's father was a stockman in Santa Cruz county until 1808, when he came to San Luis Obispo County. Here he was married, and became a prominent stockman and rancher in the Adelaida country. He was for many years road overseer. He is now a horticulturist in San Fernando valley, at present a part of Los Angeles city. The six children of John and Sarah (Burden) Wright are as follows: Annie, wife of Charles J. Taylor, sheriff of San Luis Obispo County ; Hallie ( Mrs. J. W. Lemen), of Adelaida ; John F., of this review : Bertha (Mrs. Ray D. Pelton), of San Diego ; Myrtle (Mrs. Jno. Lynch), of Madera ; and Gertrude, who resides with her parents.

John Francis received his education in the public schools in Adelaida. From a boy he assisted on the ranch and made himself generally useful, learning grain- and stock-growing, until nineteen years of age. He then served three years as a fireman in the boiler room at the Betteravia Sugar Factory. After that he spent one year with the Risdon Iron Works in San Fran- cisco, and then for a short time held a position with the Union Oil Co. He then removed to the San Fernando valley, where he was employed at ranch- ing. In 1900 we find him in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he put in three years prospecting and mining, making good strikes, but losing again while hunting for more of the yellow metal.

On his return to the San Fernando valley, he began grain farming on a large scale with Messrs. Hubbard and Wright as partners. Two years later he bought them out, and continued the business alone. Believing in the use of the latest and most modern machinery, he was the first to use a cater- pillar for farming in the San Fernando valley, where he operated 3,000 acres, sowing all to grain each year, and using, besides the caterpillar, six to eight big teams to get in the crop, as well as two combined harvesters for gath- ering the grain. Ile was successful, raising big crops of hay and grain. One year alone he raised 3,200 tons of hay, besides a large amount of grain. After four successful seasons, he sold the entire plant and purchased a ranch of the hundred forty acres at Madera, devoted to raising alfalfa and fruits, vad ewing a full-bearing peach orchard of thirty-five acres.

Ur Wright was married in San Fernando, being united with Miss Ella Low, ellio was born in Iowa, a daughter of J. W. Grove ; and they have one Sh nos John.

In 1016 he returned to San Luis Obispo County and associated himself with In naher in-law. J. W. Grove, and his sons under the firm name of 11 Wod11 & Co., leasing the greater part of the grain land of the Sacra-

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mento ranch and also a part of the Estrella ranch, which he operates by the use of two caterpillars and four to eight horse teams; and on the 10,000 acres he leases, he is doing 4,500 acres of summer fallowing for this season

Fraternally, he is a member of the Arroyo Grande Lodge of Odd Fellow -. as well as the Encampment in San Luis Obispo. Always interested in the cause of education, he served as school trusted in Los Angeles county. and was a member of the board during the building of the Zelzah school- house. Mr. Wright is alive to the great opportunities in San Luis Obispo County, and is very optimistic for its future development and greatness.

JOHN THOMAS GOODCHILD. By common consent. the best posted pioneer in all the Santa Maria valley is John Thomas Goodchild, who was born at East Tilbury, England, February 12, 1846, the second son and child of the Rev. William George Goodchild, a vicar of the Church of England. near what was once historic Tilbury Fort, where Queen Elizabeth assembled her troops to resist a possible Spanish invasion, which was prevented by the sinking of the Spanish Armada. His grandfather was Thomas Goodchild. also a clergyman, while his great-grandfather was a lawyer descended from a line of notable London merchants. The mother of John Thomas was Faith (Shilleto) Goodchild, of Dutch extraction ; and to this worthy couple were born ten children-seven boys and three girls.

As might be expected, John Thomas was educated at private schools and confirmed in the Church of England; and a precious and interesting souvenir of his boyhood days is a drawing-book filled by his childish industry. which has recently been sent to him from the old country. In 1860, however. at the age of fifteen, he left school and went to work on his father's farm of two hundred or more choice acres. The oldest brother, William George. had gone to Australia, and the management of the farm devolved largely upon him; and for six or seven years he continued at home, the mainstay of the family.

November 27, 1867, he left his home with his face set toward the New World, and a few days later sailed from Liverpool on the "Old Virginia" of the National Line, arriving in New York after a sixteen days' voyage. lle then went by steamer to Colon, or Aspinwyall, and on Christmas day crossed the Isthmus of Panama bound for California. The train was so slow that he was able to pluck wild flowers along the way, and these he later sent back to English friends. From Panama he continued north on the water to San Fran cisco, and the day he entered the Golden Gate, in the early part of January. 1868, the city was white with snow. The picture thus presented was so very different from what he had anticipated through his reading about California. that he was not a little disappointed ; but he soon forgot his astonishment and regret in the pleasure of again meeting his father, who was returning from a tour of the world, made by way of Australia, where he visited his eldest son ; and when they had seen all the sights of the coast town, he accom- panied his father to Salinas, from which point he left for Niagara Falls and Quebec. Little did he think that their farewell to each other was their last Once out at sea, the reverend and revered parent was taken ill and died, and there his body was committed to the deep.

When his father left for the East, John Thomas remained for about at year and a half on a ranch where Salinas City now stands, when with lif- brother, the late Cecil Ray Goodchild, he set out to drive a herd of seventeen 23

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History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 48

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