History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 88

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 88

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Mr. Kelsea continued in business as a well-known and successful con- tractor and builder in Boston until 1874, when he decided to join the great stream of pioneers still making for the Pacific Coast. Accordingly, the young couple sailed for and crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and having arrived in San Francisco proceeded by water to Santa Barbara. From that coast town, they came by stage to Los Angeles, and there Mr. Kelsea entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co., taking charge of a construction gang at work building bridges and buildings. During this time he superintended the putting up of tanks and stations from Los Angeles to Mojave, and also under- took much the same work on the Yuma division. Finally, he resigned and left the service of the railroad company.

Joined by his family in 1876, Mr. Kelsea soon afterward took up his residence in the new town of Compton, where he contributed much toward founding the place and directing the lines of its expansion. First he bought twenty-eight acres of attractive ranch land, and later another forty acres, and in the meantime resumed his work as a contractor and builder in Compton and Los Angeles, erecting in the former place the Fast Side schools, two

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grammar schools, the high school and the Enterprise school, as well as the farm house on the famous Dominguez ranch. At that time and for several years, the community was much molested by the depredations of horse and cattle thieves; and when the nuisance became unbearable, Henry Kelsea, in the true spirit of a veteran soldier, organized a vigilance committee, and within three or four years made the horse and cattle thief a terror of the past. The members of the committee were sworn to secrecy : they went forth into the brush with masks over their faces, and neither communicating their identity to another nor asking for the name of those alert and watchful at their side; they found the lair of the thieves and, at some personal risk and with no little display of bravery, they scattered . and overawed the thieves who had been so long intimidating the colonist farmer. In 1907, Mr. Kelsea and family removed to Alhambra, where he built a residence and continued to operate as a contractor and builder.

In the spring of 1914 this sturdy pioneer took possession of his present place, the Hill Crest ranch, four miles to the south of Creston, where he purchased four hundred sixty acres for a stock ranch. He set out a fine orchard, built a spacious, comfortable residence, and made numerous im- provements such as gratify the ambition and pride of any first-class rancher. In time, he constructed three sets of houses and out-buildings on the ranch. and in these adjoining dwellings live his children, who assist in the manage- ment of the ranch, a considerable part of which is given to grain as well as to stock. Mr. Kelsea has made several tours of investigation, including a journey to Central America and one to Alaska, as well as a trip to Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico.

Five children have blessed the union of Miss Wilkins and Henry Kelsca : Fred, who married Miss Sarah Lothrop, is a carpenter at Long Beach ; Frank is a machinist at Los Angeles; Harry is a contractor in the same city ; and Chester, and Gertrude, now Mrs. Liston, are on the ranch.

A Republican in matters of national politics, but decidedly non-partisan in local issues, Mr. Kelsea has contributed generously of his time as school trustee ; while Mrs. Kelsea has been very active in promoting the best inter- ests of the Parent Teachers Association.

GEORGE WEIR. One need not wonder at the reputation of George Weir, the mechanic and engineer, for fine work, which has contributed so much to his personal popularity, for he belongs to one of the most service- able and honorable of all ancient handworker guilds, that of the sturdy black- smith. Born at St. Louis on June 30, 1875, he is the son of Peter Weir, a native of Germany, who settled as a farmer some thirteen miles from the chief city of Missouri, and who, in the fall of 1883, brought his family to Estrella. California, following here his brother, John Weir, a settler in the year 1864. 1 soon as possible, Peter Weir homesteaded and improved one hundred ty enty acres, which now, in his retirement at the age of eighty-seven. he rents to his son, Henry. George's mother, who was Frl. Catherine Stroh In fore her marriage, and was also a native of Germany, died in 1891.

One of seven boys, four of whom are now living, George Weir was Modlit to in St. Louis until he was nine years okl, attending the public -le da there as well as in Estrella ; and as a boy he learned both the black- with Trade and how to run a thresher. Until his nineteenth year, too, he helped his father ; but a dry year having rendered agriculture unprofitable.

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he quit the farm and went to San Francisco, entering the machine shops of the California Street Railway. When the car strike of 1907 broke out, how- ever, he left that city and removed to San Leandro, where he engaged with the Best Harvester Co., and after two years he pushed on to Bakersfield. Still later, he was with the Standard Oil Co. in the Kern River field, and in Midway was their engineer and machinist. Then, for nearly two years, he was the machinist in charge of the Bakersfield garage.

With a clear and valuable record for conscientious, painstaking service, George Weir resigned the last-mentioned engagement to accept a post with the Producers Transportation Co., going to the Junction for four months as fireman and then putting in two years as engineer at Antelope, from which place, in 1913, he came to Creston Station, where he was engineer in charge. The well-being of three engines, aggregating thirteen hundred h. p., together with pumps capable of handling 2,324 barrels an hour, and over a million barrels a month, was entrusted to his intelligence, experience and care. On February 9, 1917, he was promoted to be foreman in charge of the tank farm at San Luis Obispo for the same company.

While at Bakersfield, Mr. Weir was married, on June 12, 1910, to Miss Eda Van Harreveld, a native of Haarlem, Holland. She is a daughter of Bertlemes Phillips and Catherine (Weller) Van Harreveld : the mother died some years ago and the father is a business man in Haarlem. Of their six children, four are in California, Mrs. Weir being the second oklest and having come to the Coast in 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Weir have one child, a son, Louis. Mr. Weir was made a Mason in San Miguel Lodge No. 285, F. & A. M., and is a member of San Luis Obispo chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and of the Woodmen of the World. In national politics, Mr. Weir is a Republican. Ile gladly gives of his time and means to aid all worthy movements promoted for the benefit of the people of the county.

JACKSON RODKEY MATNEY. Two old, prosperous families, with all the interesting history usually found in annals of such successful pioneers. are represented in Mr. and Mrs. Jackson Rodkey Matney, whom fortune made esteemed residents of Creston, whereas Mr. Matney's grandfather, Carl Matney, crossed the plains from the East to Oregon. There J. R. Matney's father, Carl Sumner Matney, was born. He came to Modoc county, Cal., a young man, and grew up in the stock business. In 1881, Carl S. Matney re- moved to Tulare county, but after six years came to San Luis Obispo. Even then he was not ready to settle down ; for a while he farmed west of Tem- pleton, in the Ascencion district, but then removed to Santa Maria, where he bought a farm and commenced the raising of beans. Succeeding in the ex- periment, he leased other lands and expanded his business steadily until. in 1911, he died. Carl S. Matney's wife, who had been Miss Terrah Patterson, was a native daughter of California, and died in November, 1915. Her father. Joseph Patterson, crossed the plains to California as a pioneer and was an early settler and stockman.

The second eldest of six children, and one who was taken about a good deal in his childhood and youth. Jackson R. Matney attended school more or less irregularly until he was fourteen, when he had to push out for himself. Then he began to work on a ranch, where he learned to raise stock and grain. After a while, he rented some land at Creston, including a part of the Ambrose ranch and the Commercial Bank lands ; and having farmed that for a year,

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he took the Eddy place of nine hundred acres, which he operated for four years, farming it to grain and stock.

In 1916. Mr. Matney leased the place he now manages, adding since then the Mosher farm of 1,850 acres, and using the whole for general farming and stock-raising. lle has chosen for his brand, now well known, the rather original design of a 7 and an L. so joined as one symbol that it almost resem- bles the letter Z. For the raising of his wheat and barley, he keeps one big team more than busy.

Many conples go to historic old San Luis Obispo to be joined in holy wedlock, and so it was with Jackson Rodkey Matney, when he married Miss Blenda Hansen, a native of San Luis Obispo County, and the daughter of Lars O. S. Hansen, a pioneer residing at that county seat. One child-Jack- son Elsworth Matney-has resulted from this marriage.

A good citizen of Republican political tenets, Mr. Matney is serving the public well as school trustee of the Iron Springs district.

CLYDE WORDEN .- A young native son who is making his mark, and one, by the way, who is likely to stick, is Clyde Worden, who has the distinction of being the first child born-December 18, 1893-in the town of Shandon. His father is Solomon Truman Worden, a native of Adrian, Mich., with a Civil War record such as any one might be proud of, who vis- ited Northern California, then came to this county, and finally located near San Luis Obispo. The first settler at Shandon, he built there the first house -afterward known at the Ilotel Shandon-although, in his later years, he has removed to the Southland, and now resides in Long Beach. Mrs. Wor- den, who was known before marriage as Miss Clara Skellenger, has been twice joined in wedlock. She was first wedded to a Mr. Allen, and then to Mr. Worden.

Clyde Worden, the youngest of three children, attended the public schools at Shandon, where he grew up until, at the age of nineteen, he entered the employ of the Producers Transportation Co., a concern always on the look- out for bright young men, and then particularly desirons of the best material for aid in constructing their great pipe-line. With pick and shovel he began at the bottom, and walked the line, for two years, between the four stations and the Junction, looking for leaks, and digging into the ground, calking and lommering the pipe where trouble was detected and the source discovered. Ile then became fireman, first at Antelope, then at Coalinga, and finally at Middle Water. For a time his labors were interrupted when an accident mearly cost him his life.

\ bursting boiler missed his body by only four or five feet, but the shock -w bruised and incapacitated him that he was laid up in the hospital for a hub, and was then compelled to take a three months' vacation to fully recu- When he returned to work, it was to serve as gauger at Port San Wir Ater which he washed the boilers, for three months, at Santa Margarita of offer the get used again to the business. Finally he was fireman at the Tos friet wal once again at Antelope. The third of November, 1916, saw one Deferred to Creston, where he holds the same position. Ile is also wouldvifig engineering.

AMTEn Luis Obispo Clyde Worden was married to Miss Pearl Waite, cappy Of the Bigle district, and a daughter of A. W. and Emma (Hopper) wins bank respected residents there.

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JOHN WORK .- A resident of California for the past thirty-six years and of his present place for thirty years, and a pioneer who has both wit- nessed the wonderful transformations wrought in the development of the Golden State, and has become a part of the miracle, John Work was born at Littleness, in the Shetland Islands, in 1861, the son of Thomas Work, who was also born there, as were his forefathers for generations. Grandfather Captain Thomas Work was a seafaring man, and for years master of a whaler, until he settled down on land at the age of sixty-five. He died when ninety- nine years old.

Thomas Work also followed the sea, but as a fisherman, and in addition he was a farmer. When he married, he chose Agnes Robertson, another native of that section, for his wife, a young woman who came from the mainland. The mother died when John was fifteen years old, and Thomas Work finally came to California and spent his last days with the subject of our sketch, dying in his sixty-seventh year. Ile was prominent in the Bap- tist Church, and served as a local preacher, and he was therefore much inter- ested in spreading the gospel to all men.

Mr. and Mrs. Work had five children. The eldest was John, of this review. Then came Janet, later Mrs. Garrick, in San Francisco: Mary, who died in Monterey ; Agnes, Mrs. Atkins, who resides near Watsonville; and Thomas A., who lives in Pacific Grove, where he is a prominent builder and real estate operator. Thomas A. Work is president of the First National Bank of Monterey.

John Work was brought up in the Shetland Islands, and was educated in the private schools of his home region. In 1878, when he was seventeen years old, he came to the United States and proceeded to Detroit, where he had two aunts living : and soon after he was in the employ of Pingree & Smith, shoe manufacturers, following which he came to Estabrook Park, in Colorado.

That was in 1880, and after a four months' stay there, he removed west to California, arriving in the spring of 1881. He first located in Monterey. where he was employed on a ranch, of which he became, in time, foreman. This was the ranch that supplied Monterey and Pacific Grove residents with milk, and Mr. Work was kept busy enough to meet all demands and main- tain the high standard he had set for his dairy products.

About 1887, or during the great California boom, Mr. Work came to the vicinity of San Miguel, and just in time to 'witness the development of the railroad there. Ile purchased his first one hundred sixty acres, buying a possession right and paying therefor one thousand dollars. Ile selected the place because it had a good spring, pre empting and proving up, and be gan to farm and raise stock. Ile broke up the land, and soon had a hundred twenty-five acres under the plow. The progress made at the start wis slow enough, and in looking back it seemed to the ambitious ranchman alnost impossible to accomplish anything worth while with wheat selling at sixty- five cents per cental, steers at fifteen dollars per head, hogs at less than three cents per pound, and work-horses at twenty five dollars each. He saw the necessity for larger areas of land to range his stock, and to permit him to rest the land two or three years between crops.

Ilaving come to his conclusions and decided on a more extensive pro- gram, Mr. Work began purchasing land as soon as his means would permit.

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buying quarter sections adjoining whenever one was for sale; and now he In - Ticmit 5.60 Waeres in a body, which he has fenced into fields of about a thousand acres cach. Here, by the aid of a system of summer fallowing, he 1. ran-wig @vedl crops.

The Work ranch is located in the old Independence precinct of the Ranclomo Canon, where over thirty families originally made their home. In grain ralating they sow about seven hundred acres a year, and operate with Three big teams, using a combined harvester to gather the crop. They have barns in the different fields for hay and for sheltering the stock during the work season, thus accommodating the horses without the necessity of making trips to and from work. He is also engaged extensively in raising cattle of the Durham and Hereford strain, carrying about three hundred head on the place. He built a comfortable and commodious residence, and the yard is overshadowed by a majestic oak, one of the largest in these parts.

Mr. Work is philanthropic, enterprising and public-spirited, and ever ready to help those who have been less fortunate. He is also a stockholder in the First National Bank of Monterey, and is president of Mission Ware- house Co. in San Miguel that built the large iron warehouse there for the storing of hay.

In Ranchito Canon occurred the marriage of John Work and Mattie Jones, who was born in Canton, Mo., the daughter of John T. Jones. He settled in this vicinity about thirty years ago, was a pioneer farmer, and died here. His widow, Mrs. Ilanna, resides at Vineyard Canon. Mr. and Mrs. Work have four children living : Agnes is engaged in the millinery busi- ness in Winters ; Robert, who is a graduate of Heald's Business College of San Jose, is now operating the ranch : Belle, a graduate of Heald's Business Col- lege, is Mr. Work's bookkeeper, and Alice is a senior at the Paso Robles high school.

Popular in social circles, Mr. Work is particularly so among the Masons, having been made a member of that order in San Miguel Lodge, No. 285, 1. & A. M. Ile is also a member, with his wife and two eldest daughters. vi the Order of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Work and the children are members of the Christian Church. In matters of national politics, Mr. Work is an ordent Republican.

JOHN J. RYAN .- Whoever has enjoyed the comfortable hospitality of the Creston House, and realized how much its successful management re- Ments the attraction and prosperity of the town, must have felt that the well- Moown hostelry has always reflected the progressive and sterling character 00 its proprietor. John J. Ryan, also engaged in the raising of cattle and Join-w. Born near Kilmeedy, County Limerick, Ireland, June 12, 1882. the wc a farmer, he attended the public schools of his locality, and at the age al costteen went to london, where he secured work as a baggage-man on the Lamb& North Western Railway. After six months of that service, he put w @ do with a contractor who transformed the street railways, equipping Them Both electric instead of horse-power.

Wiedie Concluded another year there as check-man in control of the Informe madrids, John Ryan came to Canada in 1903, and went to work in Colori bor bali a year's farming. Ile then started for Oregon, but on ac- 001 6 Berry nows at Salt Lake City he changed his course and his des- Boaf wd 001 made for California, arriving in San Francisco in October, 1904.

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For six months he was with a cement contractor; but having a consin, M. 11. Ambrose, residing in Creston-whom, by the way, he ran across acci- dentally in the northern metropolis, by noting his name on a hotel register - Mr. Ryan came to Creston, where he has since made his home. He began to work at driving big teams for John McDonald, and after a year started in farming for himself on the Ambrose ranch.

At the end of twelve months, Mr. Ryan married, at the old Mission church in San Luis Obispo, Miss Mary Ann O'Donovan, a native Californian and a daughter of the pioneer, Patrick O'Donovan, whose interesting history is found elsewhere in this work. She grew up at Creston. After his mar- riage, Mr. Ryan still continued farming, on a different part of the Ambrose ranch, managing from four hundred to six hundred acres, a part of which was devoted to stock-raising. So successful was he that he maintained two big teams ; but tiring of farming, at least for a time, he sold his outfit and, in October, 1915, ventured into the hotel business, buying out the Schlegel Hotel, and making of it the favorite Creston hotel and livery. About the same period, he became interested in other enterprises, continuing to raise stock, for which he leased a range, placing there a hundred head or more of cattle, horses and hogs, bearing his registered brand, the separate letters, J R.

Five children, Mary, Isabelle, Patrick, John and Joseph, give unbounded happiness to Mr. and Mrs. Ryan, and attend with them the Saint Rose Cath olic church at Paso Robles. Mr. Ryan is a member of the Knights of Colum- bus at San Luis Obispo. In politics he is a Democrat

ALFRED AUGUSTE DUBOST .- Somewhere else in our remarkable collection of biographical studies appears the interesting story of Auguste Dubost, the pioneer who made good despite the heavy odds once against him ; but nowhere in that story will be found a single fact of which that gentle- man is more proud than he is of the success of his son, Alfred Auguste Dubost, the well-known merchant and popular postmaster of Adelaida, who was born in that favored place on December 4, 1882, the oklest of three children. Spending his boyhood and youth at home and in attendance at the public school and at St. Mary's College, in Oakland, he helped his father on the ranch, and then clerked in the store at Adelaida, as well as at Cayucos, dur- ing the three years when the Dubosts owned that establishment.

In 1910, Alfred began farming on his own account, taking his father's ranch, for a while, and then bought ont the merchants, MeKeon Bros. As a result, he has since continued the general merchandise business at Adelaida, where, since 1910, he has also been postmaster ; in which office he is ably assisted, as in the management of his store, by his energetic wife. On the farm that he controls, he raises grain, hay and choice cattle, and in the main has met with satisfactory returns.

In Paso Robles Alfred Dubost was married to Miss Alexanderine Lejuez, a native of Cherbourg, France, from which country, in 1911, she came to California ; and two children, Frankie and Raymond, have blessed this mar- riage.

A loyal citizen and an enthusiastic native son, with Republican prefer ences in matters pertaining to national politics, Mr. Dubost has for six years been a member of the Republican County Central Committee, often doing in that field and under that banner yeoman service making for better govern- ment and greater business prosperity.

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HANS I. JESPERSEN .- How an enterprising man, with confidence both in himself and in the community in which he cast his fortune, found it possible, by studying that community's needs, to rise to commercial and financial leadership, is shown in the interesting story of Hans I. Jespersen, a native of Kirkeby, Schleswig, Denmark, where he was born in August, 1863. llis father was Christian Hansen Jespersen, a native of that district, and a ship's carpenter, who had married there Anna Botella Iversen, also a native of Schleswig. About 1867, they came to the United States and to Watson- ville, California, where they engaged in grain and stock-raising; but in 1871 or '72 they located in San Luis Obispo County. There Mr. Jespersen bought a farm of eighty-five acres in Los Osos Valley, four miles from San Luis Obispo, and to this he added until he has about four hundred acres there all good farming land-which he rents out, while he lives retired in San Luis Obispo.

Of five boys and two girls, six of whom are living, Hans was the oldest child. He was brought up in California, attending the public school at Los Osos and at Laguna. From a lad he was initiated into the vigorous work of the farm, and learned in particular, while he rode the range, how to care for stock. Until his seventeenth year he remained at home, when he began to work out on other farms. Some of his first ranch work was in dairying. and for thirteen years he conducted a dairy, supervising the milking of forty cows, and doing things more or less by the old-fashioned methods of the time. lle had a milk business at San Luis Obispo, and supplied it from the same dairy. All went well until 1898, when the lack of feed was so great that he had to quit the business.

Thereupon he started again in farming near Edna, and devoted himself to the raising of grain and stock. In 1904, he came to Creston, and leased a part of the Sacramento ranch. There he ran about a thousand acres, and for three years put in about four hundred acres a year to grain. He then bought A ranch near Creston, and conducted his own place of a hundred seventy deres, managing a dairy and raising stock. He leased six hundred forty acres. and planted that to grain.

In 1913, he sold the place, and straightway formed a partnership with Gustav A. Fast, with whom he farmed on Estrella ranch. Together they operated 1,240 acres, and raised nearly six hundred acres of wheat and barley a year. This necessitated the use of three large teams ; but they were emal to the demands and continued there until the 1st of September, 1916. They then bought the old Russell place at Cholame, which included about three hundred thirty acres, at the same time that they leased another nine- "Ten hundred acres adjoining, where they raised cattle, horses and hogs. They made a specialty of Percheron draft horses, and became interested in the cownership of the stallion Nelaton. Seeing the need of a general merchandise Ure and blacksmith shop, Messrs. Jespersen & Fast opened their well-known -on, in which Mr. Jespersen, who is postmaster, has the post office. They Me e a hotel and a feed store there.

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History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 88

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