USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches > Part 82
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118
-- - 1 1 1
!
1 İ 1 - - --
773
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
Merle H., in San Jose, and Harold J., in San Jose. Myrtle I., a twin, died at two years of age.
Brought up on the home farm and attending the public school in this county, working from a lad in the stock and farming business, Walter W. Rhyne learned to drive eight and ten-horse teams in the fields, and helped at home until he was twenty-two. He was then married in San Luis Obispo to Isabel Reynolds, a daughter of Dwight Reynolds (whose inter esting sketch appears elsewhere), and they have four children. These are Ruth Juanita, Mildred Isabel, Walter Maxwell, and Carol May. After his marriage Mr. Rhyne followed ranching two years there, and then leased on the Huer-Huero for five years, afterwards running his father's place until 1910, when he leased six hundred forty acres of the Huntington ranch, where he is engaged in grain farming. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Alliance Warehouse Association at Paso Robles, and was school trustee two terms in Dry Creek district, and clerk during the entire time. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church in Paso Robles. Mr. Rhyne is a successful rancher and grain raiser and is making a place for himself in the business world of San Luis Obispo County.
WILLIAM ALFRED MILLER .- A native son well known in Santa Margarita is William Alfred Miller, who was born about a mile and a half from San Luis Obispo, on January 3, 1862. 1le is a son of David Smith Miller, an easterner, who came to California in the great rush of 1849 across the plains ; and who, having mined a little, early settled in San Luis Obispo County, for a while running a stage between Cambria and the county seat. Then he served as deputy under Sheriff Norcross, but found it unpleasant and resigned to engage in sheep raising. In one way or another he lost most of the sheep and the goats he had invested in, and when he took to horse- raising he experienced the discouragement of having horse after horse stolen from him. Next he took a homestead of one hundred sixty acres on Miller Hill. As was natural for one of his industry, he greatly improved the land, setting out orchards and woods, and adding to his property until his death in 1904. This sad event was brought about through an accident which oc- curred to him as he was returning from a trip to his old home in the east. In Oakland he was run down by a train, and died at the age of seventy- three. The mother was Prudenciana Ortega, of the well-known Santa Bar- bara family of Ortega and Ruiz, and died in 1863.
William was the elder of two children, and is the only one living ; and as a result of his losing his mother when he was but a year old, he was brought up by Mrs. Hill, an aunt, in Atascadero until he was three years of age, after which he lived with Mrs. Barnes at Aptos, in Santa Cruz county, for seven years. He then removed to Jolon, where he attended the public school, and was soon back in San Antonio and then at school in Cambria. Finally, he finished his instruction in San Luis Obispo, going to work for the summer at delivering water. \ livery stable in San Luis Obispo next employed him, and after that he did some ranch work with a header at Pozo, finishing which, he learned the barber's trade under Lawrence Gaxiola in San Luis Obispo. Probably on account of his father he located on Miller Hill, and improved a fitty-acre holding, and about the same time, in 1890, he started the barber shop now so well known in Santa Margarita. which is in charge of his son. Mr. Miller bought a building and remodeled it.
774
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
making two stores. In one he has the barber shop, and in the other he serves short orders and ice cream, and has a line of confectionery, cigars and tobae- cos. He owns two residences here and other desirable property elsewhere. Mr. Miller is a Republican in national politics, has been for many years a member of the N. S. G. W., and is a charter member of San Luis Obispo parlor. He was married in San Luis Obispo to Miss Guadalupe Mendozer, who was born in San Luis Obispo County, where she lived until her marriage. She passed away in 1912. Two sons who are the particular satisfaction of their father are: Fred. who maintains the electric block signal system for the section of the Southern Pacific, having its headquarters at Santa Margarita ; and David W., who is a barber and the leader of the local band. Fred has three children Mabel. Beatrice and the baby : and David has two-Alfred and Agnes.
JOHN T. JARDINE .- California has been good to John T. Jardine, as his friends are glad to know. and as a result and a reward for his industry of years, he enjoys today a comfortable competency, which enables him to be independent and permits him and his wife to extend a generous hospitality. Ile was born in Lexington, Ky., on November 18, 1868, and came to San Luis Obispo County, Cal .. in 1874.
Settling in Paso Robles, he attended the public schools, remaining at home until he was twenty-one, when he began the raising of grain. He ranched for four years on a thousand acres of land of the Santa Ysabel, and for eight or ten years cultivated another thousand acres of the Estrella ranch, using eight-horse teams and a combined harvester. In the meantime he bought a part of this present ranch of three hundred twenty acres on Estrella Plains, continuing the management of both farms.
Finally he gave up renting land, in order to run his own farm, to which he added a new purchase of three hundred twenty acres, which is now well improved with good buildings. He raises wheat and barley and has harvested some large crops. Another ranch of six hundred forty acres southwest of Shandon also belongs to him, and is devoted to grain-raising, nearly all the Tand being under cultivation.
In Paso Robles, he was married to Miss Nellie Abbey, a native of Homeland, and three children, Flora, Florence and Mary, blessed their home. For the past seven years he has served as a trustee of the Estrella school ha ffnet. and is a member of the knights of Pythias of Paso Robles; while with His wife he is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood.
THOMAS PETERSEN .- One of the most substantial citizens in the Wwwwhy f Templeton, a man of retiring disposition and unostentatious in Member de well as one whose word is as good as his bond. Thomas Petersen Win Touro in Schleswig, near Tondern, in 1851. He was reared on the home Gtth amy Atenidol the grammar and high schools in his native country. In How to California and for three years was engaged in farming in the de la rose Alles, and in 1874 came to Monterey county and leased land, on 0 01 v& 1 In raising grain. He began with four hundred acres and les odther four hundred acres, and for thirteen years was very A Tal raiser
DE POS de Peter en located in San Luis Obispo County and bought ho per tut TUR y ME font hundred fifteen acres, one and one-quarter miles from Om aug. Le Lile land and broke it, and put it in grain. He bought .00 . LaLaifit now has four hundred fifty-five acres, and has made of
1
-- -
Mro antonio Williams
ar D
Mr .
777
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
the entire ranch a fine homestead. All the buildings on the place he himself has erected, and otherwise he has made valuable improvements. Besides his ranch, Mr. Petersen owns the largest brick business building in Templeton, which he rents out.
Mr. Petersen was united in marriage in Monterey with Miss Ida Hansen, a native of Schleswig, Germany, and they became the parents of two chil- dren, Martin, a respected rancher of this vicinity, and Christene, who is at home. Mrs. Petersen died at their home, leaving her husband, son and daughter, as well as a host of warm friends and neighbors, to mourn her loss. Ar. Petersen is a Lutheran. He is a self-made man in every sense of the word, and is kind-hearted and public-spirited to a large degree.
JOHN PERARI WILLIAMS AND ANTONIO WILLIAMS .- An- other pioneer family whose influence has been felt in San Luis Obispo County is that represented by Antonio Williams, who has the distinction of being a native son of the county, having been born in San Simeon, February 22, 1872. His father, John Perari Williams, a pioneer of California in 1859. was born at Madara, on the boundary line of Portugal, April 11, 1839. When he was twenty years of age he started alone for the New World, coming direct to California and locating in Santa Cruz; and being willing to engage in any employment that would yield him a living, he went to work on a sailing vessel that plied between Santa Cruz and Monterey. He had been reared on a farm, but he readily accustomed himself to his new occupation.
Coming to San Simeon, he engaged, for about six years, in the whaling trade, while that industry was at its height. Seeking employment on land again, he worked for a dairy concern for a short time, and then rented land near San Simeon, the present site of the llearst ranch, and there he followed general farming and stock-raising with good success until 1883. He next moved to Rocky Butte and purchased seven hundred acres adapted to grazing; and there also he followed stock-raising. Disposing of this prop- erty in 1891, he went to the San Jropo section above San Simeon, and con- tinued the same business there for five years, removing thence to Santa Rosa creek, and in 1900 to Cambria, where he resided with his family until his death, September 18, 1907, aged sixty-eight years.
He was married in Santa Cruz, Cal., in 1859, to Florina Silva, born in 1842, on Fial island, under the jurisdiction of Portugal. She came with her sisters to the United States and located in Santa Cruz, and now makes her home with her son Antonio. Of this marriage sixteen children were born.
Antonio Williams, the sixth in order of birth of the sixteen children born to his parents, attended school in San Simeon for two seasons, and then went to work to help out with the support of the family. Ile was employed on the dairy ranch of F. Smith four years, and then drove a team on the Hearst ranch for the following six years. At the time of his marriage, in 1899, and for two years thereafter, he worked for wages and so got a start ; then he rented two hundred eighty acres of the Baker ranch near Cambria and began raising beans and grain, remaining on this place until 1905.
Having prospered, he decided to branch ont, and leased three hundred acres on the Van Gordon ranch, purchased sixty cows and engaged in the dairy business, with pronounced success. At the expiration of his lease, in 1910, he sold his stock and bought one hundred forty acres of improved land, 38
778
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
his present place in the eastern part of Cambria, now the home place, when he is meeting with success in general farming. He Has improved the place bath a fine barn and dairy house, and has a good residence. ile has installed a pumping plant and is raising alfalfa. Besides this he leases near lo and is doing well in raising beans.
on December 2, 1899, Antonio Williams was united in marriage with BIO - Rosa Machado, born in San Luis Obispo, November 9, 1881. They luce Three children, Edward, Antonio and John. Mrs. Williams' father. Domingo Machado, was born in the Azores islands, came to the United States and located in San Luis Obispo County in 1873, where, the following year. he was united in marriage to Rosa Lima. He engaged in farming soon Miter at Laguna and later in Los Osos valley, and followed that vocation until his death, August 9, 1915. The mother is living on the ranch in Los Osos. Of their nine children, Mrs. Williams is the fourth in order of birth.
Mr. Williams is a Republican, and the family attend the Catholic church. He is considered one of the successful men of Cambria section, where he is highly respected.
ALBERT RALPH HORSTMAN .- A wide-awake, active business man, ever ready to take advantage of favorable opportunities for advancing his financial interests. A. R. Horstman is prominently identified with the important industries of San Luis Obispo County, being proprietor of the Templeton Meat Market. A native of lowa, he was born in Reinbeck, October 4, 1879, a son of William and Amelia (Petersen) Horstman, natives of Schleswig- Holstein and Bremen, Germany, respectively.
William Horstman was educated in his native land and at the age of twenty two years came to America to carve out a fortune and a future. He Mated in lowa, where he began the improvement of a farm and engaged in raising hogs on a large scale. The country was open at that time, and he had plenty of grass on the range for his hogs and raised plenty of corn. He later engaged in the grain business and at one time had seven elevators along the railroad, and built up a business that was the largest in his section of Iowa. The last elevator he built was seven stories high and equipped with a sixty- three horsepower engine. He had a double row of corn cribs several hundred feet long with every facility for loading and unloading. He prospered with m- business and accumulated a competency. He turned the business over to in two ofilest sons, but after two years sold out.
1 1886, le made a trip to California and, stopping at Templeton, pur- Post about eight hundred acres in that vicinity : and in 1887 he brought The family here to settle. He built a comfortable home in the town and Trongel in the general merchandise business and opened a bank. He also LaMot Ther luis ranches, putting out a prune orchard of fifty acres ; and on os lave property he had fifteen acres in orchard in the Thompson addition, Wvers ko bode ught additional property. He gave up the banking business odbor ve lus merchandise business for sixteen years with good success Die tisa wolfe- col business, he retired and located in Los Angeles, where Tar mens to the cindyment of a well-earned rest, and in his seventy-eighth the con Hearts, and keeps abreast of the times, as he did when a
Woffon frostman and his wife ten children were born: Adolph, poru secretary of fle 100 , Club of San Francisco : Minnie, Mrs. William
- 1 :
-- ---
-
1
1
779
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
Grelek of Los Angeles ; Charles, engaged in the insurance business in Oakland : Lena, who married Mr. Perkins and died in Los Angeles, 1915; Gussie and Mollie (twins), Mrs. Skinner of National City and Mrs. Eddy of Los Angeles ; William, who resides in Fresno, salesman for Toledo Scale Co. ; Albert R., the subject of this review : Louise. Mrs. Johns of Orondo, Wash .; Elsie, at home, a graduate M.D. of the Los Angeles Medical College, who is engaged in the practice of her profession.
.A. R. Horstman was reared in lowa until eight years of age, when he came to California with his parents and settled in Templeton; and here he received his schooling, taking a business course at night school. He learned the carpenter's trade and followed it for a time. In 1906, he went to Richmond and engaged in contracting and building, but returned to Templeton in 1908 and took up his present line of work, learning the trade under Eddy Brothers. For a time he had charge of their slaughter house and the buying of cattle, and he soon became an expert. In 1912 he succeeded them in business and still has charge of his butchering and buying and has made a wonderful suc- cess of his work. He has a thirteen-acre prune orchard one-half mile west of town.
In Cayucos, Mr. Horstman was united in marriage with Miss Rose Herman, a native of Ohio, who came to California when a small child, with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Horstman have one child, a daughter Dorothy. Besides his business interests, Mr. Horstman gives of his time and means to aid those enterprises that are promoted to advance the best interests of the people and build up the county. He is chief of the local fire department, and a member of the Fraternal Brotherhool, and of the Templeton Board of Trade. Ile is a Republican in national politics, while locally he supports the men best qualified for office regardless of party.
REV. THOMAS McPHERSON BULEY .- In no city of California, per- haps, is the pulpit better represented than in Paso Robles, by the Rev. Thomas McPherson Buley, the well-known pastor of the Congregational Church, a man of much native ability, culture and refinement, who has always stood for the moral uplift of the community. His father, the Rev. Thomas M. Buley, was also a minister, born in Kent, England, educated in London, hav- ing come, after his ordination, to Toronto, Canada, where he was for forty years a local pastor of the okl Wesleyan Methodist Church. A man of deep religious feeling, honest and earnest in endeavor, he left behind him an excel- lent record at his death in that city. His wife, the mother of our subject, whose maiden name was Caroline Braund, was born at Bideford, Devonshire, England. and now lives in Los Angeles. This interesting couple had six children, four of whom are still living; one, named Amos, has been for some time associated with Mr. Miley in successful oil operations, in Los Angeles, as manager of the States Consolidated Oil Co.
Born in Toronto on October 7, 1873, the third child in the family, Thomas Mc Pherson Buley completed a course at the public schools and entered the Toronto Collegiate Institute, where he was graduated in 1892. From a lad he had desired to be a preacher, always reading and studying to that end: and having made a great sensation with a sermon preached to two thousand people in the old Toronto Church in Queen's street, when he was but sixteen years old, he was received on missionary probation and appointed to six mission churches in the North. Each Saturday and Sunday, therefore, found
780
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
him in the pulpit, while on Monday he was back in studious application to his college duties. After completing the collegiate course, he served for two years as pastor at Orillia, Canada ; then for one year at Cooksville; and then as assistant pastor at the Tabernacle in Toronto, under Dr. Chown.
Afflicted with ill health, he came to Los Angeles in September, 1902. Ilis health improving in California, he engaged in city mission work in Los .Angeles, also devoting much time to assisting the Rev. Ryland at Trinity Auditorium. In January, 1906, he accepted a call to the New Orleans district of Louisiana, and there, at Covington, he worked hard for two years to build up the church. He was transferred for three years to the Methodist Church South, at Plaquemine, during which time he was statistical secretary of the Louisiana Conference. Returning once more to California for his health, and being unable to subscribe to the methods of appointment of pastors in the conference of the Methodist Church-which in the United States has a sys- tem different from that in Canada, where pastors are called by various con- gregations, and remain as long as it is pleasant-he entered the Congrega- tional Church and organized under their banner a congregation at Venice.
Later he was called to Calexico as pastor of the Congregational Church there, and after eighteen months, that is, in September, 1912, he removed to Paso Robles and was installed as pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church, which was organized as a congregation twenty-six years ago, and which celebrated the dedication of its church eight years later.
In the spring of 1902, at Harris, Ja., on April 2, Rev. Thomas M. Buley was married to Miss Cora .\. Young, who was born at Center Junction, Jones county, la., the daughter of David D. Young, a native of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Buley's mother was Miss Elvira A. MeDole, a New Yorker, whose ancestry is traced back to England, Scotland and Holland, whence they came to the renowned Sleepy Hollow, made famous by Washington Irving ; while her maternal grandmother was a Miss Almira Storrs, a member of the same family as that of the Rev. Dr. Richard Storrs, the cultured and eloquent preacher of Syracuse and New York City, with whom she traces her family back to Plymouth Rock and the "Mayflower." Mrs. Buley is a woman of excep- tional refinement and culture. She laid the foundation of her education in study at Highland Park College, Des Moines, of which she is a graduate; and she afterwards pursued a course in graduate work at the Northern Illinois Normal School, at Dixon. Mrs. Buley's father moved with his father to Jackson county, la., and participated in the early settlement of that sec- non ; then he lived at Andrew, the old county seat (the county seat was afterwards removed to Maquoketa ) : and still later he changed his residence to Thes county, la., where he busied himself as a farmer and dairyman until he WIE to los Angeles. In that city, in June, 1905, he died. Ilis wife, now past Hoffe years of age and in the full enjoyment of her mental faculties and Maar theilth, resides with Mrs. Buley. Mrs. Buley is one of two children alergick up out of a family of five.
of Rs. and Mrs. Buley have two children, Horace M. and Chester MI .. Em wooly . 11 ticons, and gifted with much native ability. The family mento m wh lautfful home at Sixteenth and Locust streets, Paso Robles. dieg deker, repesully in the field of psychology, and also a very literary tem salat Der de prest eighteen years has devoted himself to a life work soon Te apjei i print, the Rev. Mr. Buley is not only well-read and interesting as
1
1 -- -
--
781
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
a conversationalist, but as a speaker and a preacher he is clear, decisive and emphatic. His sermons, the product of much thought and preparation, are replete with liberal views, modified by the truth as he finds it, and are models of excellence.
At Spirit Lake, Ia., the Rev. Mr. Buley was made a member of Silver Lake Lodge, F. & A. M .: and at Harris, Ia., he joined the Odd Fellows. In each place where the pastor and his wife have lived they have been among the most popular members of the local society.
GEORGE F. BELL .- Few names are more inseparably associated with the history of the city of Paso Robles and northern San Luis Obispo County than that of George F. Bell, who, as merchant and farmer, has proved the value of his citizenship and the integrity of his character. He is best known in Paso Robles as owner and proprietor of "The Bells," the largest commercial establishment in the county. He came to this vicinity on February 20, 1886, before the railroad was completed to Templeton from the north. When the sale of lots was held in Paso Robles, Mr. Bell purchased one on Pine street, , between Twelfth and Thirteenth, and in October, 1886, took up his residence here. He erected a frame building, 18x31 in size, which he opened for busi- ness in December; and for the following ten years he conducted a general merchandise business. This increased to the extent that he felt justified in moving ; and having purchased a mercantile business on Twelfth street, he removed his stock to the new location, and a few years later bought a lot on the same street and erected a store building and again moved his stock of goods.
When the Granger Union Stores became bankrupt, Mr. Bell bought the grocery and dry goods stocks, leased the rooms occupied by that concern on Thirteenth and Pine streets and continued business from that place. Later he bought out Doyle's stock of hardware and plumbing, and now has one of the largest stores in the entire county ; and "Bell's" is a household word throughout the Paso Robles section. He built a store building suitable for his needs, and has his plumbing establishment in a building in the rear of the lot. The former horse delivery system has been supplanted by auto- mobiles, and an increasing business is being carried on under the personal supervision of Mr. Bell. For the past twenty years he has been engaged in farming and stockraising, and has owned various ranches, and he is now owner of one in the Isabella, and another in the Adelaida district, both bringing profit to their owner.
The early life of George F. Bell did not indicate the career he finally selected, for where he was born at Milton, on Lake Champlain, Vt., on December 11, 1844, there was little promise for a future. His father, Samuel B. Bell, was a farmer and a manufacturer of cutters, but he moved in 1854 to Lacy. DeKalb county, 111., became a farmer there, broke the wild prairie with ox-teams, and nine years later bought horses and started across the plains for the western country. Arriving in Carson City, Nev., he engaged in teaming for about ten years. While living in Illinois he had been ordained for the ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church and always preached; and after he stopped teaming, he gave his whole time to the ministry. 1Ic met an accidental death while hanling wood, dying aged forty-four years. He married Pauline Doud, a daughter of George Doud, a well-to-do farmer, near Poultney, Vt. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Bell spent
782
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
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.