History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 85

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 85

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Finished with his books and slates, Thaddeus was apprenticed to a wagon- maker; and as early as 1857, when he was but twenty-four years of age, he underwent the rough experience of a voyage by way of Panama, and reached San Francisco, then a very different and far more insignificant place than the majority of readers of these notes ever found it. Pushing on after a while to Sacramento, and then to Nevada, he maintained carriage and wagon shops until the pesky Indians drove him out from the latter State. Once more plying his trade in Sacramento, he remained there until the promising settle- ment at Cambria induced him to transfer his establishment, and a few years later, that is in 1875, he came to Paso Robles, where he bought forty acres from Blackburn and built another shop, for which he engaged an extra black- smith from San Francisco.

During the development that marked progressive Paso Robles, and there- by astonished the outside world, he soon subdivided a good part of his land and built himself a handsome residence, at the corner of Oak and Twenty-third streets, where he has enjoyed life since his active participation in business. Twice was Thaddeus Sherman married, his second wife dying only four years ago ; and but one of two children is still living to comfort him, Wilbur J. having passed away.

Is a Mason, he was a charter member of San Simeon Lodge, F. & A. M., o Cambria, and he also helped to start Paso Robles Lodge, No. 286, F. & A. M., I mig as its first Master. A Democrat, he has always displayed a live Messa In the problems and duties of good citizenship. After a life of strenu- ch mi's and sober living, it is sad to experience what has befallen Mr Sbdpuan in his later years. A second stroke of paralysis has afflicted him, lant sta do not your his geniality nor chill his enthusiasm as one who can PLI IFt of having owned and platted over forty acres, and who has Auch omtum m and confidence in the future of Paso Robles.

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WILLIAM THOMAS COLBECK .- It was a lucky day in 1892 when William Thomas Colbeck came to California, and a still luckier day in 1915 when he settled in San Luis Obispo County, for he is one of those ranch- men whom any district is glad to attract, and San Luis Obispo County and Templeton have proven the regions of all the world in which he would willingly cast his lines. His father. Thomas Colbeck, a native of England, was an expert stone mason and bricklayer, who contributed his labor and skill to the completion of many buildings between New York and Chicago, and who finally settled in Ohio, where he married Miss Mary Potter.

At Athens, O., on February 11, 1883, William Thomas was born, the third eldest of six children, all of whom are living. His father then moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he worked at his trade, and in the early nineties migrated still farther west until he reached California and Fillmore, Ventura county, where he cut building stone in the brownstone quarries for San Francisco and Los Angeles, abandoning that work when he saw the opportunity of setting himself up as a cement-work contractor and a builder of bridges for the railroad and the county. He next improved a farm at Sespe, and now owns one hundred fifty acres with a fine orchard.

William Colbeck was educated near Filmore, and as a lad he worked as a box maker in a packing-house, where he made four hundred boxes a day. He next went into the Imperial Valley and raised a cotton crop; and in 1915 he came to San Luis Obispo County as manager of a part of the old Wight- man Ranch, now owned by O. E. Brown. Here he operates four hundred fourteen acres devoted to stock and to fruit-raising, and also has charge of some forty acres of orchard planted to fine quality apples and pears.

Mr. Colbeck is a keen observer of politics, and a believer especially in Democratic doctrine. Mr. Colbeck enjoys the pleasures of domestic life, having married at San Luis Obispo, on October 6, 1916, Mrs. Anna (Olds) Ness, a native of Kansas, who by a former marriage has three children- Howard, Callie and Erdie.

JOHN TAYLOR .- The name of John Taylor is inseparably interwoven with the history of the coast section of San Luis Obispo County, to which Peter Taylor, keen and far-seeing in judgment, a brother of John, came in 1863, or soon after. He was followed by James and John, and later by their father, also named John Taylor, who was born in Perthshire, Scotland, a weaver by trade, as was his father, Peter Taylor, who was a soldier in the Welsh army and a ranking officer at the Battle of Waterloo. John Taylor, Sr .. married Janet Crerar in Scotland and they had six children. Peter died in San Luis Obispo County ; Lillis became Mrs. Russell of Cambria ; James served in the Civil War and died in San Luis Obispo County : Ellen is Mrs. Whitaker of Cambria ; John is the subject of this review ; and Janette died in New York. The mother died in Scotland, leaving her husband with six small children. In 1851 he brought his family to America and settled in Delaware county, N. Y., where he farmed and raised stock until the fall of 1869, when he sold out and came to California, living in this county until his death in January, 1882, aged seventy years. He was a strong Presbyterian.

John Taylor of this review was born in Blockford, Perthshire, Scotland. and received his education there and in New York, whither his father had emigrated in 1851. IIe was reared on the home farm in Colchester, and in the fall of 1868 came to California with his brother James. Taking the

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steamer "Alaska" to Aspinwall and crossing the isthmus, they boarded the "Sacramento" for San Francisco; and on arriving there, proceeded to San Luis Obispo County to join their brother, Peter Taylor, who was living on Santa Rosa creek.

Some time later, with his brother James and S. L. Whitaker, John engaged in the stock business at the head of Villa creek until the partnership was dissolved. He and his brother James then bought a ranch near Cambria, began dairying and ranching, and continned together until James passed away. They had outside interests and for years were engaged in Inmbering, owning land covered with pine timber, which they logged and sold to sawmills. They hauled the timber to the mills with oxen and horses, and they also sold wood. They owned several ranches which were devoted to dairying and farming. and after the death of James the property was divided among the heirs and the partnership dissolved.

John Taylor is the owner of the Ocean ranch of three hundred acres, and also a ranch of 1,000 acres south of Cambria, which are leased for dairying. He still contracts for wood, supplying the mines on the coast. For many years he has made his home in Cambria and is known all over the county, for he has participated in all upbuilding movements hereabouts, and has won his success by hard work and square dealing.

HERMAN ANDERSON .- Not only among those sturdy citizens of his own nationality in his district does Herman Anderson stand high and wield an enviable influence, but he is also esteemed among and sought by his neighbors and friends of other national extraction. From quaint Middle Sweden, near Skara, he came, having been born there on February 12, 1873, the second youngest of ten children. His father was Sven Anderson, a farmer, who died in Sweden ten years ago, and his mother was Maria Anderson, who died in 1882. As a lad, Ilerman had about as much fun on the Swedish farm as he did at the public school, and yet when the call came in 1894 to leave his native land, and to come to the New World, he followed the duty that pointed the way to his future fortune, although his father was a thrifty and well-to-do farmer in Sweden and able to give his son a start there.

On the 4th of May he arrived at Templeton, traveling on the first train to come through the Santa Margarita tunnel, and for a year or so he worked for his brother. J. S. Anderson, farming, pressing hay and threshing. The next summer he ran a hay-baler at Hollister, and for several seasons he worked in the orchards and dairies near San Jose. In 1904, he bought his first piece of land, seventy-five acres, in the Oakdale school district, and went n for grain raising, at which he continued for five years. Since that time he has leased the place.

About 1909 he bought his present ranch of eighty-one acres, and after- added another forty-four acres adjoining ; and onto this land he moved Mven years ago. This property he has improved until he has a splendid 8001 Wertile ranch of one hundred twenty-five acres, which he has operated my dlo raising of wheat, barley and hay, the land being splendidly watered 0 00 00s and springs.

100 .001 affairs, Mr. Anderson is a Progressive Republican; while in Thede Los pertain to his religious experience he follows the customs and cal of the Swedish Lutheran Church, being affiliated as a member with that wwcomeation at Templeton.

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A. AUGUST ZIMMERMAN .- The history of the development of Cali- fornia from a primitive and unsettled state to one of the foremost and most civilized commonwealths in the nation, is the record of thousands who have bravely battled, as pioneers blazing the way, with adverse conditions and the inevitable, one man perhaps in a hundred winning out because, despite the most discouraging failures and losses, he continued to peg away in the effort to reach the goal. Such a man is A. August Zimmerman, the well-traveled and highly intelligent shoemaker, who has been a resident of California since 1886, and a citizen working for the upbuilding of Paso Robles since 1908. His birthplace was the old town of Magdeburg, Germany, where his family had lived for several generations. His grandfather Zimmerman came to Germany from France, and his father was Andrew Zimmerman, a native of the Fatherland, who was a foreman in a large smelting works, and was acci- dentally killed when a mass of the ore fell upon him. His mother's maiden name was Louise Heinecke, and her parents for generations were farming folk. She brought up a family of nine children, making of them "e-f-1 men and women ; and in 1887, having well performed her duty, she passed to her eternal reward.

The youngest child in the family, and the only one in California, August was brought up in Magdeburg, and attended the public schools there. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker and for four years learned the shoemaking trade; and having worked in a real German work- shop, it is fair to assume that he learned the trade well.

When eighteen, he concluded to come to America, being influenced no doubt by the fact that he already had a brother, Andrew, who was living in Cleveland, O. To Cleveland, then, he traveled, and in 1878 began to work there at his trade. But being full of ambition, he did something more than make or repair shoes ; he studied English, and learned to read, write and speak our rather confusing language. Then he went to St. Louis, and next to Texas, where he visited nearly every county in the state. He ran a shoe shop at Fort Worth, Richmond and Denton.

When the news of the great boom in California, in 1886, reached him in the Lone Star. State, young Zimmerman packed up his belongings and hurried off to Los Angeles. He opened there another shoe shop, but, like thousands of others, he turned aside to deal in a little real estate, overreached himself, and lost all he had.

In 1888, Mr. Zimmerman went north to Seattle and opened a shop there, but he was soon burned out, and again he lost all that he had acquired. Then he engaged in prospecting for mining, returned to Portland, went to Butte City, and finally to Salt Lake, where he started another shop. In the spring of 1890 he returned cast to Chicago, but he soon found it too cold there, and came back to balmier California. He fitted up another shop at Oakland, and there, on Washington street, he managed a very successful business for ten long years. In 1900, he went to Denver, and for seven years he had a shop in that city.

Yielding to his longing for the Coast, he traveled westward again to San Francisco, and in 1908, suffering terribly from rheumatism, he came to Paso Robles, where he both took the mud baths and drank the healing waters. In a short time he was so much improved that he concluded to remain ; and deciding to cast in his lot with the town, he again began business in the

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very place where he is now located. He liked the town, and bought a lot and business house on Park street between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets. lle improved the shop, and gave such satisfaction to his patrons that his business has continued to grow ever since. He uses electric power to run the sewing and finishing machines, and in every way has an up-to-date equip- ment.

Mr. Zimmerman has probably traveled more than twenty thousand miles in his migrations. The places he has visited since he left Berlin, Germany, April 7, 1882, are: Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Louis; Cairo, Ill. ; Marshall, Tex .; Little Rock, New Orleans, Houston, Richmond, Dallas, Ft. Worth; Weatherford and Denton, Tex. ; San Francisco, Los Angeles ; Seattle, Tacoma, Mt. Vernon and Slaughter, Wash. ; Cascade Mountains ; Vancouver and Vic- toria, B. C .: Portland ; Pocatello, Idaho; Butte City, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, Kansas City ; San Antonio and Alpine, Tex .; Oak- land, Fresno, and through the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys by team and wagon, as well as the Santa Clara valley, visiting the principal cities. Ile made a second trip into Washington and British Columbia, Utah and Colorado, and included many of the cities not visited before: Port Angeles, Wash., where he had a shop; Leadville, Cripple Creek, Victor. Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Canyon City, Colo .; Cheyenne, Wyo .; Galveston, Okla- homa City; Ely, Nev., and Covina, Cal., coming to Paso Robles in 1º08.

Since then he has traveled over all of the central coast counties, and he is therefore very familiar with the Pacific Coast region.

While in Denver, Mr. Zimmerman was married to Miss Mary Schuman, who was born near Moscow, Russia, of German parentage, and who is now the mother of one child, Otto. The family are now living in the handsome Zimmerman residence.

A well-read man accustomed to reflect upon the events of the day and the problems of daily life, including those having to do with politics, Mr. Zimmerman is an independent thinker and voter, and endeavors every time to vote for the right man.

HALVER PETERSON .- Colorado is a wonderful commonwealth, but when it comes to a showdown with California, then Halver Peterson, at least, will go for the Golden State every time, as he did in the late eighties, after he had tried out the Centennial State and knew just what he was doing. Born on the 3rd of February, 1861, at Dalene, Sweden, Halver was the son of Peter A. Peterson, a farmer, who died in his native town, and of Brita Erickson ) Peterson. Four of the children born grew to maturity, although only two are now living -Halver alone being in America. He had the usual farm and public school experience of a Swedish lad, and at the age of nineteen. like thousands of others, came to the United States.

In 1880, he was in Boone county, Iowa, where he worked for the C. & N. W R R. for eight years the last two as foreman. His wife's health prompt- him to leave the State, he removed to San Luis Valley, Colo., where he Imatwy .cad d. improved the land, and sold what he had.

In Then came to California, and on May 6, 1889, took up his residence at By Byldes, from which place he went to Templeton, where he started in Wir wwwy of the Southern Pacific Railroad, with which company he con- (mui Lfor three years. In the fall of 1890 he bought forty acres of the place bemwww.na, and a year and a half later located on it, making many im-

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provements, among which were the building of a residence, the clearing of the land, and the planting of an orchard. Ten years later he bought the fifty-three acres adjoining, and since then has added enough to make a round ninety-five acres of land which he devotes to the raising of grain, horses and cattle. He also has a small dairy, the cream being shipped to San Luis Obispo.

While in Iowa, Halver Peterson married Miss Christene Olson, a native of Dalene, Sweden, by whom he has had six children. These are Bessie, now Mrs. Campbell in Berkeley ; Christene, who was married to Albert Lovgren, of Los Angeles ; Ellen, who became Mrs. Vogue, of Berkeley; Edna, better known as Mrs. Essig of the same city ; Harold, who helps about the farm, and Clarence, who is clerking in Paso Robles. Mr. Peterson is a Republican in politics. For seven years he has been clerk of the school board of Bethel; and for six years he has been a deacon of the Swedish Lutheran Church at Templeton, where he is also a trustee and treasurer.

JOHN J. FORD .- If Paso Robles is blessed in any one particular respect, it is in the considerable number of professional men of ability who, ignoring the attractions of larger and more developed communities, have cast in their lot where the future lies smiling before them. Especially well represented here is the profession of the architect, and among those who well sustain the artistic ideal is John J. Ford, the contractor and builder, who has also made for himself some name as a horticulturist. Mr. Ford's native heath is old Hereford, in England, where, on the 12th of February, 1865, he first saw the light of day. His father was John Ford, also a contractor and builder. Com- mencing with the public schools, John J. next attended Harley House College in the East End of London, after which he went to the Hulm Cliff College in Derbyshire, where he graduated in 1886. Under the valuable instruction of his father he learned the carpenter's trade, and with the same veteran as a guide he worked for several years in England as a contractor. He also studied architecture in an office in Hereford. At the same time he took a course in the science and art of building and construction at the Hereford Science School; and being thus equipped he set sail, in April, 1888, for America, making his first stopping place at San Francisco.

There, for a year and a half, he was in the employ of others in archi- tectural work, and then he became a foreman of building for Ransom & Cushing, and superintended part of the construction of the Museum and the Girls' Dormitory, or Roble Hall, at Stanford University. He also had charge of the erection of public and private buildings in many places in the adjoining bay cities. He was next with Wetmore and John Bashford, for whom he worked as foreman ; but the big fire having destroyed what he possessed, he turned aside from the exercise of his professional talent, bought a ten-acre almond ranch at Acampo, in San Joaquin county, and for some years went in for horticulture.

In 1909, he sold out and moved to Paso Robles, and there secured thir- teen acres of land west of the town on which he experimented with a variety of orchards. Within three years he sokl that property, and moved to Long Beach to engage in contracting and building, but by 1915 he had traded some of his estate for two hundred thirty acres in the Encinal district, six miles west of Paso Robles, convinced that in respect to elevation, soil and rainfall he at last possessed the finest acreage for fruit culture. Hle soon had twenty -

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six acres of pears and fifteen acres of almonds, and is preparing to set out still larger areas.

All this profitable diversion in experiments with the soil has not turned Mr. Ford aside permanently from the main work of his life, that of a master architect and builder, and he is still conducting his business as a contractor. He has lately superintended the building of the new grammar school at Paso Robles, and built the new school at Klau, as well as his own elegant residence, in which he resides with his family.

In San Francisco Mr. Ford met and married Grace M. Ormsby, a native of Michigan, by whom he has had two children-Dorothy, now wedded and an occasional visitor from the East, and Albert E. Ford, of Paso Robles. Mr. Ford is an elder in the Christian Church, in which, as a leader in singing, he takes an active part in musical work, as he did also, years ago, in the quartette of the First Christian Church in San Francisco.

WILLIAM C. BAGBY .- Among the citizens of the section of San Luis Obispo County that is tributary to Paso Robles, possibly no name is better known than that of William C. Bagby, who has demonstrated his business ability by his association with large interests, and whose integrity and honesty of purpose have never been questioned. A native son of the county, he was born at Arroyo Grande, September 28, 1885, a son of John W. Bagby, a Mis- sourian who crossed the plains to California at an early day, mined for a time with indifferent success, and finally settled in Arroyo Grande in 1871, where he followed farming. Some time later he pre-empted and homesteaded land in the Adelaida section of the county and began raising cattle, increasing his bands year by year until he became one of the large stockmen of the county. As he prospered, he bought land until he became owner of two thousand acres.

Aside from his stock business, he was interested in mining as superin- tendent of the Klau mine, and during his incumbency in that position one hundred fifty men were employed, a Scott furnace of sixty-ton capacity was used and great quantities of quicksilver were retorted and sold. When the price of the mineral went down so that it did not pay longer to mine, the property was closed up and Mr. Bagby continued the cattle business and met with deserved success.

lle married Elizabeth Fowler, daughter of H. C. Fowler of Cayucos and a sister of Mrs. C. L. Gruwell, and five children were born to them. Wesley A. graduated from Chestnutwood Business College at Santa Cruz and from Heald's Business College in San Francisco, became an expert penman and bookkeeper, and later bought the Armstrong Business College at San Luis Obispo and conducted it for a time : but he applied himself so closely to the work that his health broke and he passed away. Another son is William C .: Maud is now Mrs. Ford Pearson of Monterey ; and two daughters are Mildred ind Alice. The father died in 1914.

William C. completed his grammar school studies and then entered Chest- attwood College at Santa Cruz, from which he was graduated, and in due tire Secured a clerkship with George Bell in Paso Robles. He was not 501fed with an indoor life and decided that he would make some kind of a ofmoney when opportunity offered. He found employment at the Klau mine

(6; addle \the Karl mine-soon acting as bookkeeper, and then as foreman. Witt hi father moved to Paso Robles, he took charge of the ranch and cattle

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business, and in 1909 bought the stock and leased the land and has been uni- formly successful ever since. For a brand he uses the XL established by his father, and as an ear mark, a swallow fork and under bit, which is known by all stockmen in the county.

In connection with his stock business Mr. Bagby purchased, with Ed Asebez, the Cambria market, and later A. B. Hitchcock became a member of the firm, when the company became owners of the Central Market in Paso Robles. Mr. Bagby turned his stock into the business, and the co-partnership is known as the Butte Cattle Co. They have leased the Taylor ranch near Klau and now run cattle on it. They have their own slaughter house, and manufacture their own sausage and cure their own hams and bacon. They have installed modern appliances in their plant and shops, having refrigerator counters in the Central Market, a cold storage plant and their own ice-making machinery, thereby creating the finest and most up-to-date plant in the county. Besides the four hundred forty acres that Mr. Bagby owns, the company lease 3,400 acres, on which five hundred head of cattle are kept. They raise cattle, sheep and hogs, and are large shippers to the markets in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Cruz.

On September 28, 1910, Mr. Bagby and Miss Alpha Pemberton were united in marriage in San Luis Obispo. She is a daughter of Charles and Maggie (Compher) Pemberton, the former born in Arizona and the latter near Cambria, Cal. Grandfather Compher was a pioneer of Cambria, where he was well known as a stock raiser, and also in the Adelaida district. Mr. Pemberton was a rancher in Adelaida and is now a resident of Paso Robles. Mr. and Mrs. Bagby have one child, a son named William Earl Bagby. In 1915 the family moved to a comfortable home in Paso Robles, where Mrs. Bagby is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 85

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