History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 53

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 53

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In Paso Robles occurred the marriage of Herbert C. Sutton and Miss Bessie Moncks, a native of Salem, Mass. They have two children, a son, Ernest Walter, and a daughter. Elizabeth Alice. Mr. Sutton is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and in 1916 was vice-president of the Upper Salinas Valley Fair Association. He was made a Mason in Paso Robles Lodge No. 286, F. & A. M., and is Senior Warden of the lodge. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Sutton belongs to the Christian Church. In politics he is a Republican.

MARY VIGNETTE LEHNER .- Since January 1, 1907, the office of superintendent of schools of Santa Barbara county has been filled most satis- factorily by Miss Mary Vignette Lehner, who was selected solely on her merits as a teacher with progressive ideas. She was not a candidate for the office, nor did she know that her name had been mentioned at the county con- vention held by the Democratic committeemen until notified of her selection by some of the members, and she accepted only with the understanding that she need not "do politics"-further proof of her fitness for the position. Dur- ing her incumbency the office has been most economically conducted; great advancement has been made by all the schools in the county, all of which have been placed on a strictly business basis and raised to a higher standard of efficiency. She works hand in hand with the trustees and teachers, and is greatly admired by the pupils of all ages. On assuming the duties of the position, Miss Lehner at once began systematizing the detail work of the fice She established rules, and insisted on their enforcement. The efficiency of her administration is evidenced by her re-election for a third terin.

Mary V. Lehner was born in Galena, Ill., a daughter of Samuel and Mar- garetha (Burke) Lehner, of German-Swiss descent. Her education was re- weived in the public schools of Santa Barbara, where she graduated from the Ing: school in 1888. Her public schooling was supplemented by three uni- ersity extension courses under Prof. Morse Stephens of the University of california, and summer school work there from time to time. She taught I first school in the Ballard district in 1889, where she remained four u . This was followed by one year as principal of the Goleta school, after c'mw ) the taught in the grammar schools of Santa Barbara, and then as of my of history in the sixth and seventh grades, and of Batavia work in the hurd md fourth grades one year. She taught two years in the eighth grade, wer wilhel she was principal of the Webster and Garfield schools of that city. The seven is supervisor of drawing in all the grades of the city schools for tmugh- until her election to her present office, when she carried the county is a good ingority over her opponent. She is a member of the Woman's Tolem Sont Barbara and the Time-to-Time Club of Los Angeles. She helados w the church of Christ, Scientist. In politics Miss Lehner is a ofit, heugh in her school work she recognizes no party line.

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MRS. LELIA PENWELL STILL .- Mrs. Lelia Penwell Still, of An- nette, is a cultured and eminently practical woman. She was born at Placer- ville, Eldorado county. Her father was Samuel A. Penwell, who was born in Ohio in 1832. He graduated from an Ohio college and started, at the age of eighteen, in 1850, to cross the plains to California. Arriving on the Coast, he mined for a short time, and then took up teaching. While thus employed he married Miss Lelia Lane, a native of Illinois, who was also a teacher, and who had come to California with her friends, when nineteen years of age, crossing the plains in 1866. After his marriage, Mr. Penwell taught school and also served as county superintendent of schools in Eldorado county. He then came to Oakland and to Berkeley ; and as secretary of the Berkeley Land Improvement Co. he laid out West Berkeley, now a part of the university city. Still later. he served as justice of the peace; but his health failing him, he came to live with Mrs. Still, at whose home he died, in 1914, in his eighty-second year. Her mother died at Oakland, in 1872, in her twenty-ninth year. Of their four children, three grew to maturity : Lelia E. (Penwell) Still ; Mrs. Grace Burdick, of Ohio; and Mrs. Mary Rose- brugh. of New York.

As a child Mrs. Still was educated in the Berkeley public schools, and after graduating from the high school of that city, she taught school at La Panza in 1887, and then at Annette. On August 26, 1896, she was married at Berkeley to E. M. Still, a native of Blue River, Neb., who was born in May, 1863, while his parents were crossing the plains. He was a son of Dr. Thomas A. Still, of La Panza, and a brother of A. A. Still, of Annette. E. M. Still was associated with his brothers, A. A. and William Still, as a pioneer sheepman of Annette, until 1895, when they dissolved partnership. The low price of sheep in the year 1893 caused such a loss that it practically deprived them of their holdings. Thereupon Mr. Still returned to the old homestead at Annette, and established there his headquarters, farming until ill health forced him to give up. In October, 1915, he died.

For the last twelve years Mrs. Still has operated the ranch, raising grain and stock, on a farm comprising nineteen hundred acres, well adapted for wheat and barley. She raises Durham and Holstein cattle, her brand being a connected L-P. She leases out some of her land, and the tenant sows about three hundred fifty acres a year to grain, while she puts in about four hun- dred acres. In the fall of 1916, she was fortunate in getting $2.6712 per cen- tal for her wheat, that being then the highest price known here since the Civil War. Mrs. Still attributes no small degree of her success to the able assist- ance of her ranch manager, Percy J. Catling, who is a close observer of agri- cultural conditions. Mr. Catling is a native of England, but has been a resi- dent of the vicinity of Annette since 1894. The ranch is watered by springs affording an ample supply for the stock in different fields ; and from a spring, water is piped to the house and barns.

Three children are the joy and the promise of Mrs. Still's life: Grace, who is attending the San Luis Obispo Polytechnic ; Ernest, who is in the Syra- cuse, N. Y., high school, majoring in chemistry ; and Ellen, who is in the first year of the high school at home. A trustee of the Annette school dis- trict, Mrs. Still has been clerk of the board for over six years. In politics, she is a Republican. Mrs. Still is a member of the Episcopal Church.

SYK LETS BRISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

HON. JONATHAN VINTON WEBSTER .- It is an old saying that a Laod man never dies, and there is another sentiment, equally interesting and trite, that no energy or power in the universe is ever lost. Both aphorisms fre ulmirably illustrated in the life of Jonathan Vinton Webster, the far- -urile diti en, o long one of the most prominent men in his county and a Willbe: now recognized as having been far ahead of his times. A native of Lotte Bounty, Tennessee, where he was born in July, 1830, Jonathan was the spaud -. n hot Jonathan Webster. a colonel in the War of 1812, who was later A topart of the state legislature. The father was Joel H. Webster, a Ten- nes Olucator, and the mother was Lucretia Smith, the daughter of a black- mille of coffee county. While Jonathan was yet a child his father died. The'l f was reared on a farm and educated at the local public schools. When a prom man he came to Missouri, and then to Arkansas, and from that state, in 18333. with nineteen other young men, he set out for California. There were dis teams and wagons to haul the provisions, but there was no motor- power to carry the passengers, and so the young fellows walked all the way. Arriving in California, young Webster mined for a while, after which be bought some redwood land near Oakland and made shingles and shakes, and in that way got his start. He attended college at Alameda, paying his way: and when he had completed his education, he became editor of the California Patron, published in San Francisco, and in its day the leading farm journal of the state. He also took a part in the directorship of the Grange Bank at Oakland, and in addition handled more or less real estate. He purchased a farm at Fruitvale, where he built a residence, set out a cherry orchard, and raised other fruits and stock.

His health becoming poor, however, he sought a change of climate, and this led him to come to San Luis Obispo County, where, with Messrs. Phillips, Cressy. Ambrose and Adams, he bought the Huer-Huero ranch, which was soon subdivided to suit the wants of incoming settlers. Mr. Webster kept his home ranch, improved it and farmed there, selling his lands and interests in Alameda.

In 1882, he moved to Creston from Oakland, where he continued farm- ing and stock-raising, and built a large, beautiful residence in the style of Southern architecture, with a wide porch running around it. For a while he also engaged in the nursery business here. What particularly interested him. however, was all that pertained to the building up of the locality around him, to attain which he was willing to help along all worthy movements. He was an organizer, for example, of the Citizens Bank of Paso Robles, and became one of its directors, and at one time he was president of the State Grange. lle was a prominent Populist, and rose to such distinction in that party's rocks What he was their candidate for governor when James Budd was Meeted Fle was supervisor of the county for two terms, and in the admin- Hanno a La that office evinced clear-sighted and advanced views. These pronje! , politics, sociological conditions, and even to farming : and Maytake to anything that would really improve the condition of Hey Specifically illustrated a few years ago when he advo- IFA The lo tesise, and put forth the contention that California never je -would until it had great thoroughfares stretching from ofllamo! the interior valleys. Ilis most extreme step, per- cao Listite ownership of public utilities, and not merely lim mmmicipal as well.

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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

Mr. Webster was a many-sided man a fact evidenced by his ability Ne a writer. He penned one or two dramas, and wrote a couple of true Cali- fornia stories, as well as poems. One of these tales was called "The Ilermit's Home," but nearly the whole edition of this, as well as others of his writings. was destroyed in the great San Francisco fire. He even had two books under way when he died, the one being entitled "The King's Last Consort," and the other, "The Message from Stellar World." At one time he served in the State Senate from Alameda county, and in 1879 he was a member of the state constitutional convention.

Jonathan Webster was twice married. Ilis first wife was Sarah 1. Howard, by whom he had four children, three of whom are living: \\. 11. Webster, of Hawthorne, Nev .; E. C. Webster, of Oakland; and Nellie, How Mrs. Clark, of Los Angeles, to each of whom Mr. Webster gave the best edu- cational advantages possible. His second marriage occurred in San Luis Obispo in 1908, when he was joined to Mrs. Rosa E. (Scott) Keyser, a native of Wilson county, Kansas, and a daughter of Johnston Scott of Iowa. Her grandfather was a Dr. Scott, of Scotland, who was a graduate in medi- cine from that country and became a practicing physician in Iowa, after which he returned to Scotland, where he died. Her father, naturally a thor- ough mechanic, became a machinist and an engineer, as well as a farmer. and was one of the few early ranchmen, in Wilson county, who had a black- smith shop and machine shop. He also ran one of the first threshing machines in Kansas. In 1883 he came with his family to California, stopped for a time in Santa Cruz county and then moved to San Luis Obispo County and located at Creston in 1885, where he worked as machinist and engineer. Her mother was Elizabeth Brown, a native of Missouri and a granddaughter of a pioneer of that state who traced his ancestry back to Plymouth Rock and the landing of the Pilgrims. She died when Mrs. Webster was twelve years old. In a family of nine children, eight of whom are still living, Mrs. Webster was the fifth in order of birth, and with most of the others she was educated in the public schools in Kansas ; at Seattle, Wash. ; and at San Jose, California.

By her first marriage with A. Keyser, Mrs. Webster became the mother of three children. Augustus Keyser, who assists her with the ranch and is a clever mechanic; Elza, a blacksmith at Chino; and Oscar, who died at the age of seventeen. By her marriage with Mr. Webster she was blessed with one child, Jonathan Vinton Webster, Jr.

In October, 1912, after a life of singular usefulness. Mr. Webster was stricken with paralysis, although he retained his mental faculties and his speech and was able to walk again. The second affliction seized him on April 29, 1913; and on May 2, he passed away. In later years Mr. Webster became an active member of the Progressive Republican party. He was a charter member of Brooklyn Lodge, F. & A. M. of Oakland, served the lodge as its second Master and become prominent in Masonic circles of the state, and he was therefore buried with all Masonic honors, being laid beside los mother in Mountain View Cemetery. Since the death of her husband. Mrs Webster resides on the home ranch, and she never tires of singing the praises of the man whom state and county also were pleased to honor She too, is a Republican and strives to do her public duty at all times. 25

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

AUGUSTE DUBOST .- Both Robinson Crusoe and the Napoleons of mance might well be excused if, on meeting Auguste Dubost, and learning the very interesting story of his life, they had felt a sudden call to look to their laurels; for the well-known resident of Adelaida, when thrown upon his own resources, showed no little ingenuity in adjusting himself to fate, and when finally given a chance to invest his native tact, brain and muscle, produced for himself a competence which would be a credit to almost any man. Born in Cherbourg, Normandy, France, on August 4. 1848, Auguste Dubost was the son of Jean Dubost, a contractor and builder, who later took to farming and continued to till the soil until his death. His mother was Annie ( Etasse) Dubost, a native of the same town, in which she also died. Two children, a boy and a girl, were born to this worthy couple, but Auguste is the only one of the family now living. He was reared in his native place, attended school there, and learned the trade of a wheelwright ; and when the Franco-Prussian War commenced, he joined the Army of the Loire, and served as a corporal under General Chanzy, receiving the Legion of Honor medal as a reward for distinguished service in battle. He was wounded in the right hand through the bursting of a shell.

In 1872, young Dubost emigrated to the United States, locating at St. Louis, where he worked at his trade, afterwards establishing himself in a blacksmith's shop at Kahoka. Four years later he took a trip to the Black Hills, but in a short time he went to Cheyenne. The same year he reached San Francisco, and a few months later took passage on a sailing vessel for the Sandwich Islands. There, for five years, he labored as a smith, but at the beginning of the eighties returned to France by way of San Francisco and New York.

On July 12, 1880, Mr. Dubost was married in the old town of Cherbourg To Miss Pauline Duquesne, who was born near his birthplace, the daughter Louis and Jane ( Rouxel) Duquesne. They were farmers, and the parents (f -IN children, among whom she was the youngest and is now the only one om America.

Six months after their marriage, Mr. Dubost and his bride sailed for Wwwlulu, where he once more hung up his sign as a blacksmith. In 1882 however, he came back to California, and almost immediately located at Adelaida, where he began farming, having bought out a claimant and pre- onpted a hundred sixty acres in the heart of the district. He paid six hun- dred dollars for the right of possession, and then purchased a colt; and by These two transactions he almost exhausted his means. He put up a black- mul-hop, however, the first of its kind in Adelaida, and was busy from the lin Unit wasmuch as people around him had no money and were unable jug De las work, he often received nothing for all the labor, and is still Advo cac instances, to be paid. In one case, he received a colt in wrap other claim. Under these conditions, he decided to quit the forge,

Damer han pois two colts but no harness, and to help himself under Them all We toatehit a raw hide, which had been hanging up for five or isten and eggs work to make the gear. There was some difference be- Les tb me (fractal and the manipulation of leather, but he per- NE Tin The - wartent and in time had an outfit, substantial and practical, 311 Dubost then went to Cayucos, and there called

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upon W. Watson, who kept the local store; but when he asked him for credit to the extent of two sacks of flour, the latter's reply was anything but inspiriting. "I have flour enough, and to sell," said Watson, "but not exactly at that price." So Mr. Dubost returned home without the flour, a sadder and a wiser man. He hated to meet his waiting wife, but when he did so he pluckily told her that he had no intention to allow her to starve: he would get together the few turkeys and chickens he had bought with the ranch, and while she was disposing of the same to neighbors, he would go back to the Islands where he had left a whole lot of friends and a position was await- ing him.

But something better was reserved for so doughty a man, and the next day he had an experience that turned the tide of his depressing affairs. While Auguste was tinkering at the blacksmith shop, a man named Ed Smith passed that way ; and looking in, he asked the young Frenchman how he liked the country. "To the Devil with it!" said Dubost, and added a few words of indignant explanation. Ed replied that the country was good enough, and that just such fellows as Auguste should remain in it, conclud- ing his statement with the encouragement that he was going to Cayucos next day and would see to it that the storekeeper Watson afforded the would-be rancher all the credit that he needed. Dubost was scarcely in the mood to entertain the prospect of relief, but his more sensible wife, who had been reared on a farm in sunny France, advised him to avail himself of Ed's back- ing, saying that she would like to try the experiment for a year at least. The industrious couple, as a result, set to work day and night, and while by no means rich at the end of the first year, they did have something definite to show for their effort and sacrifice. The real reward and inner satisfaction came within less than a decade; for in 1901 Dubost bought out the very store in Cayucos where, to his embarrassment and pain, he had once been refused a few shillings of credit, paying for the stock and building no less than six- teen thousand five hundred dollars.

In 1889, Auguste Dubost started the first store at Adelaida, soon bring ing the post office within the establishment. Hle resigned office as post- master in 1904. Meanwhile he had homesteaded and improved a hundred sixty acres in Cholame valley, which he sold in 1914. In 1897 he bought out the claimant of the old Sunderland mine which had been abandoned. It had been opened up originally about 1872. In the early days a Frenchman owned and operated the mine, and it is stated that he sold the mine for fifteen thousand or twenty thousand dollars and, having a snug fortune, set out for France to enjoy the rest of his days with his old friends However. on not reaching France, his friends traced him from California to New York City ; and there all clue to his whereabouts disappeared, although it was sup- posed at the time he was accompanied by an acquaintance On obtaining possession of the quicksilver mine. Mr. Dubost opened it up and with charge- teristic enterprise he built two retorts, and so handled the paying ore that it showed good returns. He operated the Dubost mine successfully until 1900. when he sold it to the Klau Company for a very neat sum. He next bought a store in Cayucos, which he managed for a year; but in the fall of 1902 he returned to Adelaida and engaged in farming and stock-raising, which he has continued ever since. He makes his headquarters at the Bellevue Ranch, about five miles west of Adelaida, amid some four thousand two hundred

HIF

OTUSPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

acre wsdl tu kee farm land ; while he also owns a couple of ranches at Addialla, embracing six hundred acres devoted to grain and stock, in the mar gotwem of Which he is assisted by his son, Frank. Two other children Mesnl the wni wy of this deserving couple : Nathalie, who died at the age of twoit -vypi ool Alfred. the merchant at Adelaida, who is also postmaster at that this

In 1903. Mir. and Mrs. Dubost made a trip to France, and a few years Later tiwy repeated the delightful experience. In 1911, Mrs. Dubost also Teturne .. lone to her native country on a brief trip, on account of business matters connected with the Duquesne estate. While in Honolulu, Mr. Dubost was made a Mason ; and he is also a member of the Odd Fellows. A Demo- crit in plintes, he has refused local office. His son, Frank, is school trustee of the Sunderland district.

All in all, Auguste Dubost and his excellent wife have lived and toiled In such a manner as to entitle them to both the respect and the good-will of Their neighbors, which is assuredly theirs. The writer of this article had the pleasure of visiting the Dubost home, at Bellevue ranch, and saw where the Tpose and farm buildings nestle beautifully in the foothills of the Santa Inea mountains, on a ridge sloping gently to the north, giving a picturesque Bien of the surrounding country of Adelaida which induced the owner to give n the name of Bellevue.

Mr. and Mrs. Dubost are very entertaining and kind-hearted; their place is apparently surrounded with a charm, and fortunate is the individual who has the privilege of enjoying their hospitality.

CALVIN R. DRUMM .- An employee of the county of Santa Barbara m the fifth supervisoral district, Calvin R. Drumm, of Orcutt, is engaged in the care of waste oil in the Orcutt field, in the Santa Maria valley. This oil is used for road purposes, and its salvage is a considerable factor in the furtherance of public economy. Calvin R. Drumm was born near Indepen- dence. Jackson county, Mo., December 30, 1848, a son of Benjamin H. and Jane M. (Smith) Drumm, both natives of Kentucky, who farmed in Missouri, and later became pioneers of California, crossing the plains with ox teams in 1852. and settling in Sonoma county, where the following nine years were spent in mising grain and stock. In 1861, the father went to Texas, but returned to waliforma, after four years, through Mexico, coming back to Sonoma county, wut farming there three years. The next six years were spent in Monterey wapi!\ ; ano in 1874 the family became residents of the Santa Maria valley, wwwcita Barbara county, where the father died at the age of eighty-four and Www culver at eighty-two years.

CAT. R Drumm followed the movements of his parents from place w wie atl gave what aid he could from year to year until he struck out Tor loqueli He received but a common school education ; but the principles al Inilu 1: stol thrift were inherited from his parents, and he took advantage nl naponquiwie that came his way to get a start in life. He has lived in the Nor mie bill at two years of age, has undergone hardships and disap- Tarne ang ; olay respected by all who know him. He has been engaged in Jimuns qui! tak raising for years, and is now employed by the board nl -0 6 for me dipy Orcutt oil fields in pumping the waste oil into tanks; After making. Over thirteen thousand pounds were thus Ho ol during The year 1915.

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

Mr. Drumm was married on December 9, 1876, to Miss Mary Nori: Le children were born to them. Louis S. is with the Orcutt Mercantile Company: Susie B. is the wife of Wyatt Wiley of Fillmore ; Grace is now Mrs. Brown ) Santa Paula : Evalina is married to Walter Hughes of Fullerton : Albert 1 .. is a teamster in Orcutt ; Henry and Eugene are with the Orcutt Mercantile Com- pany ; and Ellen, Bennie and Edith reside in Orcutt with their mother.

MR. AND MRS. MYRON H. BROOKS .- The life which this narrative sketches began in Lebanon, Linn county, Ore., May 30, 1855, and closed in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County, April 29, 1914. Within these years is a record of much accomplished for the benefit of his fellow men, many improvements introduced of lasting value to his locality, and substantial inter- ests established that left his family in comfortable circumstances at his death. Myron H. Brooks was a westerner by birth and from boyhood was in accord with western methods. His father, Rev. Joshua Brooks, was born in Huron county, O., and from there went to Iowa and later to Texas; from which state, in 1850, he crossed the plains and mountains to Linn county, Ore., remaining there for some years and then coming to California and locating in Sutter county. In 1881, he came to San Luis Obispo County. In 1890 he died near Modesto, aged seventy years. He was a Baptist preacher and was ordained at the Ecclesiastical Council of the Baptist Church at Nicolaus. Sutter county, California, in August, 1867. He married Mary Hackley, who was born in Indiana, a daughter of George Hackley, who moved from Ken- tucky to Indiana and thence, with ox-teams, to Oregon.

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History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 53

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