USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches > Part 91
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EDWARD JOSEPH WICKSTROM .- As manager of the San Miguel Flouring Mill Co. at San Miguel, and one of the prominent citizens of the town, Ed. Wickstrom has made his influence felt for the good of his adopted home. He was born in Stromsburg, Neb., on May 15, 1880. the fifth oldest of ten children, and at the age of eight years he was brought to California. Here he was educated in the schools at Templeton, and from a lad rode after stock and helped his father with the farm work until he was twenty-one. Then he went to work on the Sacramento ranch, and in 1904 came to San Miguel and entered the employ of the Farmers Alliance Flour Mill, where he was apprenticed to learn the millers' trade. He continued with that mill until 1913, when he took charge and is now the miller and manager of the San Miguel Flouring Mill Co.
This is a full roller-process mill, with full-swing sifters and a capacity of one hundred barrels per day. The flour is made from local wheat, mostly of the blue-stem, and the "California's Best Flour" is the result. There is a barley mill with three tons capacity per hour, also a storage warehouse business which is very large. The flour is shipped to San Jose and inter- mediate local points.
Mr. Wickstrom was married August 19, 1908, in San Miguel, to Miss Nellie Iloughton, a native of this county, and they have one child, Letha Edwina. Mrs. Wickstrom is the daughter of Fred Houghton and grand daughter of Samuel Houghton, who crossed the plains in 1852, settled in Oakland and engaged in the butcher business until 1873, when he came to San Miguel and took up the stock business. He died in Oakland. ller father, Fred Houghton, was born in Oakland, came to San Miguel in 1873, married here Anna Kitchen, of Monterey county, and engaged in the stock business. He still resides here and is interested in horses.
The father of Ed. Wickstrom, Andrew F. Wickstrom, by trade a black- smith, was born in Sweden, came to Hlinvis, and then to Nebraska, where he farmed. In 1888 he bought a ranch in the Templeton section, farming four years. Then he homesteaded and engaged at his calling in Shandon, having about eight hundred acres, until he sold and located near San Miguel and raised grain. He later moved to Fresno, where he died in April. 1915, aged
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seventy seven lle married Sophia Linquist, and she resides in Fresno aml was the mother of ten children, eight of whom are living.
Ed. Wiekstrom was made a Mason in San Miguel Lodge No. 285. F. & A. M ... and is junior warden. He is a member of Nacimiento Lodge No. 340, 1. O. O. F., and is past grand, and with his wife is a member of the Rebekahs.
CHARLES L. NYBERG .- A man who is adding to the general beanty and natural wealth of the neighborhood is Charles L. Nyberg, a native of Vermland, Sweden, and the son of a carpenter and farmer who brought his family to Cokato, Wright county, Minn., where he plied his trade for seven or eight years. Charles came with his father and mother. His mother, before her marriage, was Elizabeth Peterson, of the same Swedish locality.
Six of the eight children are still living, and all are under the Stars and Stripes. Peter A. Nyberg is in Templeton as the manager of the grocery department of Charles Johnson : Oscar J. is a contractor and builder ; Emily, now Mrs. Charles Uhte, is a resident of San Francisco; Richard is a carpen- ter in that city ; while Fred H. is in Templeton.
Coming here in the late eighties, Charles Nyberg was educated in the Templeton public schools, and from a boy learned, under his father's in- struction, the carpenter's trade, as well as agriculture. He soon bought a ranch of two hundred twenty-five acres in the Willow Creek district, six miles from Templeton, and having cleared and otherwise improved it, he put a hundred acres under the plow and set aside the balance for orchards and stock-raising. He went in for an apple orchard, for example, of ten or twelve acres, and thereon he set out all varieties.
Having sold this desirable property, he afterwards bought sixty acres a mile west of Templeton, a tract which he soon improved, building there barns and stables, and sowing the tillable ground to grain. He also had an orchard of six acres, together with rose and flower gardens, and when he is not busy keeping his property in good condition, he is engaged in contracting and building in Templeton and vicinity.
A Democrat and a member of the County Central Committee, Mr. Ny- berg has also served as the Oakdale school district trustee, and being of a religious temperament he is a supporter of the church, choosing, as is per- fectly natural, the Swedish Lutheran as his spiritual incentive.
SHERMAN L. DOTY .- Not everybody can make a success at mining, and the more that one knows about the problems associated with discover- ing and securing the vast treasures deep in the earth, the more must one be convinced that, notwithstanding the occasional accidental stroke of luck, the really successful miners are and ever will be those who have a natural in- sight into what lies beneath their feet or above them on the mountain sides, or in other words, those who from carly years have shown a bent toward -nele adventurous work. Such a person to whom mining was always full of mirvest is Sherman 1. Doty, who has followed prospecting and locating ever after he began it, and who has been, in the face of untold difficulties, rea- costs -neces ful. \ native of whom San Luis Obispo County is proud, li os born on May 28, 1876, at Cambria, the son of Benjamin Doty, an farty Efter. Successful farmer and dairyman there.
Remol en a farm and started in the great world through the guidance At thepublic schools, Sherman took to mining, at first swinging a pick in
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the Cambria, the Hamilton and the Rigdon mines. In spare hours he found time to work on his own account, and while prospecting located a mine above the Cambria mine in the Pine mountain district.
On July 2, 1904, in Union county, Ore., he married Miss Lena Roberts, a native of that district, and a daughter of Lindsey and Carrie (Moore) Roberts, natives of Washington and Indiana, respectively. The father was a surveyor and later a local railroad agent ; but he is now proprietor of a hotel at Myrtle Point, Oregon. Three children resulted from this union- Marjorie, Glenn and Kenneth.
After Mr. and Mrs. Doty's marriage the couple removed to San Luis Obispo County; and since coming to the Klau Mine, Mrs. Doty has had charge of the boarding-house there, giving the wants of her patrons her personal attention. In politics Mr. Doty is a Democrat ; but his many Re- publican friends have never yet found a law interfering with their liking for him, and Sherman Doty, with his good wife, are well known and highly esteemed throughout the coast country.
PROF. JOSEPH A. REMBUSCH .- A leader in musical circles in the central coast counties, and a man of national reputation, Prof. Joseph A. Rem- busch, of Santa Maria, was born in Batesville, Ind., July 27, 1869, his father, Peter Rembusch, coming from Metz, France, after having been a cuirassier and fought under Napoleon. He married Frances Snyder, native of Peters- burg, and both Mr. and Mrs. Rembusch had French and German blood flowing through their veins. Peter Remibusch was a fine trombone and violin player, while his wife was a singer of note, who at times took leading roles in operatic performances. They came to America and settled in Indiana, and their nine children all had pronounced musical tastes and ability. Mrs. Rembusch died in 1883, and her husband passed away in 1898, aged eighty years.
Joseph A. Rembusch attended the public schools at Batesville and Shel- byville, Ind., and at a very early age showed signs of ability in music, joining local bands and orchestras. He was a student of the trombone, voice and har- mony for years, and later took up instrumentation and orchestration. Ile studied under such masters as Cooney, Schelschmidt, and Ernestenaufe of Indianapolis: Madame Millspaugh, and Filenberg of Montgomery. Ind .; voice under Prof. Curson of Indiana, and instrumentation under Walter Dahlby. of Des Moines, Ia. Mr. Rembusch was a director of the Indiana State Band, of sixty men, at Frankfort, Ind., for four years, after which, with a brother, he embarked in the music business at Zanesville, Ohio, where he also was director of the city band, and later had the leadership of the Mili tary band of Montgomery, Ala. While residing in that city, he filled an engagement as trombone soloist in the Bijon theater of the klaw & Erlanger circuit. He has played with the celebrated "Hi Henry Minstrels," and held other positions of importance.
As showing the esteem in which Mr. Rembusch was held in Zanesville, we quote the following from the Zanesville. Ohio, News, published when he moved to Montgomery, Ala .: "Since coming to Zanesville, about a year ago Mr. Rembusch has won a host of friends. He has the happy faculty of weaving a 'close chain of friendship with everybody with whom he comes in contact. What Zanesville loses, a sterling citizen, will be Montgomery's gain. Always pleasant, dependable and of good nature, he is honest, truth- 43
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( .. . in sortier a man that it is always a pleasure to meet. Ihe has played sertlestore of the best hands in the country and was at one time direco romane Leffes band at Loganport, and at another time director of the In band Sop Tand Winle in Zanesville, Mr. Rembusch gained an enviable pugapor a- ore alist, holding the position of director in the St. Thomas' Thanks for The sea- also a valuable member of the Weller Orchestra. No munkal eyeit was thought of in Zanesville without the name of Joseph A. Rombusch on the program. Mr. Rembusch is both an Eagle and an Elk. wto these organizations sadly regret his leaving."
Professor Rembusch came to Santa Maria. in May, 1907, to take the lead- ci løp of the Santa Maria Band, and remained in that position until he resigned. April 1, 1914. During the intervening years the band, under his management, became known far and wide as the Santa Maria Concert Band, one of the best in the state. In 1907, when the White Squadron appeared in Santa Barbara, Professor Rembusch was there with his band and took first rank for musical interpretation. Hle organized and was conductor of the Santa Maria Concert Orchestra, his concert work entitling him to a high place among the musicians of the state. Ile is one of the proprietors of the Gaiety Theater of Santa Maria, and plays the trombone in the orchestra. le is also an expert piano tuner, and has written a pamphlet, full of valuable suggestions, on the care and use of the piano, the subject being treated mainly from the point of sanitation.
Professor Rembusch was united in marriage, in Santa Maria. December 3. 1912, with Miss Catherine Adam, daughter of William Adam. a pioneer merchant of Guadalupe, who carried on the first store at that place. before Santa Maria was founded. Professor and Mrs. Rembusch erected a beau- tiful residence, bungalow style, at the corner of Cook and Mcclellan streets, Santa Maria, in which city they both are social favorites. He is popular in fraternal circles, and is a member of the Knights of Columbus and B. P. (). 1.11 - in San Luis Obispo, and the Moose and Eagles in Santa Maria.
LOUIS WOLF .- This native son of California has grown to manhood af San Luis Obispo County, in the northern section of which his interests are all centered. A son of Albert Wolf, of whom mention is elsewhere made in this work. Louis Wolf was born in San Francisco, on March 10. Isso, attended the public schools in the Union district. San Enis Obispo Manity. and graduated from the Paso Robles high school in 1895. From Mit time he assisted his father with the work on the home place until he was Duits one years old, when he became possessor of one hundred sixty acres poslech he built a home and began ranching for himself, renting adjoining 1004 0 cn aging in grain and stock raising. He is now owner of a fine tract more hundred twenty acres in Union district, ten miles cast of Paso Robles. df omprovedl, the part of it used for pasture well-studded with live oaks. modo a simple shade for his stock.
De penalty is Berkshire and Duroc hogs, of thoroughbred and regis The sire of his herd of Berkshire hogs, Premier Champion. coV x 500000 & the Fair in San Francisco in 1915. He has wells on his place Matte wopti pumping plant to supply water to the dwelling and barns, also well done gall separator. His cattle are of the Hereford strain. Besides for mar Lant, be leces other land, and is operating four hundred eighty
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acres. His ranch is located on Dry creek and he has a blacksmith shop thereon, doing his own work. He has a combined harvester for gathering his own crops, and does work with it for others in the locality.
Mr. Wolf was united in marriage in Plantation, Sonoma county, October 22, 1907, with Miss Anna Kase, born in that locality, a daughter of Herman and Louisa Kase, natives of Germany. Mr. Kase served in a cavalry regi- ment in the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870-71. Afterwards he traveled in for- eign countries for some time. With his wife he migrated to the Hawaiian Islands, and thence to California, and was engaged in farming and lumbering near Plantation, Sonoma county. Now he resides at Petaluma. Of their nine children, Mrs. Wolf is the third youngest, and the mother of four chil- dren-Harry, Lois, Edward and Ilerman.
Mr. Wolf has traveled quite extensively over the state, investigating soil. elimate and opportunities ; and after comparisons, he decided that this county offered the greatest advantages for investment. He is an advocate of using the latest methods in farming, and encourages the meeting together of men who are making the earth yield the largest increase, to discuss and compare views and thus accomplish through practical experience the greatest results. He is intensely interested in and encourages the farmers to take advantage of the rural credits and farm loans. He has always been ready to give of his time and means towards any object that has for its aim the forwarding of any movement for the upbuilding of the county and enhancing the com- fort of the people. He is a member of Union Farm Center of the San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau, and a director of same, and is also a member of the appraising board of this district for the Federal Loan Association. Mr. Wolf is a Republican in politics, is liberal, enterprising and has the respect of all who know and have dealings with him.
IVER IVERSEN .- The lure of the New World is great to thousands beyond the seas, but never so powerful as in those instances where someone near and dear has preceded the dreamer to the land of promise, and beckons him or her to follow. How one brave young Dane, pushing out from his native land, paved the way for others to follow, we shall learn in the story of the Iversens, among whom was Iver, the son of Hans Iversen, who was born at Ballum, Denmark, on January 22, 1859, was brought up in the Danish schools, and came to Monmouth, Hi., on June 20, 1876, an experienced farmer. Ile was also a stranger in a strange fand, for he was the first of a family to come to America.
For eighteen months he worked on a farm at ten dollars a month, and then he moved on to Omaha, where he was employed in a brick yard for three years. His next engagement was in Denver and vicinity, and there he entered the service of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, in the Gunnison country, where he worked on the top of Marshall Pass, at an altitude of 11,000 feet, until the construction was completed. Then he was back in a Denver brick-yard, and in the fall of 1880 came to San Francisco, where he busied himself in a restaurant and afterwards worked for the Clans Spreckels and the American sugar refineries. In 1882, he went to Butte, Mont., which was his headquarters till 1886, and while there he and four others contracted to build a ditch for the Anaconda Smelting Co. which occupied them for abont one year. Some rough work in the forest to get out eight hundred or more cords of wood followed, thoroughly testing the stuff that was in the man :
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for n ogantic chute had to be made down which the wood was shot a thon and bet to the valley below, where it was loaded on to wagons and drawn Di the furnaces.
On July 20, 1886, Iver came to San Luis Obispo County and Paso Robles. Where he was destined to join his father and other members of the family, and he bought his present place of one hundred sixty acres, raw and unin- fling enough, but which under his skilful plowing and subsequent culti- edDing, became as good a ranch as any of its kind around there. Ile engaged W gri in-raising, rented more land, and soon included a hundred sixty acres foining his farm and an equal amount of land across the road, making a ranch of four hundred eighty acres about eight miles east of Paso Robles. The raising of grain and wheat, on an extensive scale, has called for the most up-to-date means of harvesting the crops; but Iver has provided all this, although the last two years he has rented his ranch out to others. He also owns lots in Richmond and vicinity.
Iver Iversen was married in San Luis Obispo to Miss Marie Sophie Schmidt, who was born at Visby, Schleswig, a daughter of John Schmidt, the miller of Visby, who died in 1915, at the age of eighty-eight years. Their only child, Hayward J. Iversen, is attending Oakland Polytechnic school.
Mr. Iversen is a stockholder in the Farmers Alliance Business Associa- tion, being a member of the board of directors. He is also interested in the cause of education, and is serving as a member of the board of trustees of Union school district. He is a Democrat in political views and by religious preference a Lutheran, and altogether is one of the most progressive citizens of the community.
JOHN SENNETH .- Had John Senneth been less favorably equipped, when he started out in life, with the element of grit and the determination to master the ups and downs that might beset him on his way, he could not enjoy today, as one of the oldest settlers in the vicinity of Cholame, the material prosperity he has so richly deserved, nor boast, in his modest way, what he has attained. A son of California, born in San Francisco on Feb- ruary 19, 1865, he was the son of John Senneth, a native of Waterford, Ireland, who came to California in the fifties, sailing around Cape Horn. In the northern metropolis John Senneth worked as a warehouseman ; and there, when the subject of our sketch was eleven years old, he died. Mrs. Senneth, who preceded her husband to the spirit land two years be- ford. had been Miss Margaret Mahoney, a native of Cork, Ireland, and CVentually a resident of San Francisco.
Nine children were born of this union, but John Senneth is the only one it present living. He was brought up in old Sonoma, Sonoma Valley, Where he lived with Fred Keller on a farm, and attended the public school ; and He remained with Mr. Keller until he was twenty-one, when he pushed cut into the world for himself.
It was in 1886, therefore, that he came to San Luis Obispo County and Tests Homestead of a hundred sixty acres in the Cholame valley. about why mfl cast of Cholame. He cleared the land, made many improve- From fog a well fifty six feet deep, and built a house, barns and fence; des Nojif two horses and a plow, he turned the first furrow, putting WE wouter bis. He then went in for raising horses, rented lands adjoin- they mal trout to farm more extensively. As many as five hundred acres a
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year he has put out to grain and today he owns, among other property, a ranch of a hundred sixty acres at Parkfield, Monterey county, devoted to wheat, barley, horses and cattle. Ile has made a specialty of draft horses, and uses the brand known as the wish-bone.
On September 24, 1890, John Senneth was married at San Miguel to Miss Bridget Murphy, a native of Charleston, Prince Edward Island, and a daughter of Michael Murphy of the same place. He was a shipbuilder, working in the great shipping yard there, followed the sea as a seal fisher, and was later a farmer. Her mother had been Miss Catherine Fitzpatrick of St. John's, Newfoundland. She was married to Mr. Murphy while he was interested in the seal fisheries. Seven girls and three boys were born to Mr. and Mrs. Murphy, and Mrs. Senneth was the third youngest in the family. She came to California in 1876.
A citizen loyal to the standards of the Democratic party, and one who enjoys the confidence of his fellow-men, Jolin Senneth was for twelve years an inspector of elections. In social circles he is best known as a member of the Cholame club.
ALBERT ALLEN DUDLEY .- \ native son of California and one of the representative business men of Santa Maria, Albert A. Dudley was born at Petrolia, Humboldt county, November 8, 1880, a son of Jacob Allen and Ida Jane (Ellingwood) Dudley, natives of Iowa and California respectively. Jacob Allen Dudley was born in Mitchell county, Iowa, November 22. 1859, and when four years of age was brought to California by his parents, James Newton and Lucinda (Miner) Dudley. They settled in Marysville and a few years later moved to Petrolia, Humboldt county, where Mr. Dudley owned and operated a sawmill, and during the Indian troubles took part in subduing the Red Men. He met death by drowning in the Mattole river, April, 1885, while endeavoring to save his saw-logs from being carried out to sea ; his widow died in Eureka in May, 1913, aged seventy-five years.
After the death of his father, Jacob Allen Dudley conducted the saw- mill, and operated a threshing machine in that section of the county until his death, August 1, 1905. He was public spirited, and served for years as deputy sheriff and constable of Mattole township. Ile was married in Ferndale, November 21, 1879, Ida Jane Ellingwood becoming his wife. She was born in Santa Cruz, January 5, 1862, a daughter of Giles Warren and Alice Jane Ellingwood. Mr. Ellingwood passed away in Oakland, March 10, 1905, aged seventy-six, and his widow died in Eureka, November 1, 1908, at the age of seventy-two. Mrs. Ida Jane Dudley later became the wife of J. M. Woodgate in Portland, Ore., and now resides in Boise, Ida.
Albert A. Dudley, eldest of a family of twelve children, eleven of whom are living, attended the public schools at Petrolia, Ferndale and Port Kenyon in Humboldt county, and on November 16, 1898, at the age of eighteen, began working in a furniture store in Ferndale. While in this position he assisted with the undertaking department, and having shown an aptitude for that work, he resolved to make it his profession. For one year, from September, 1900 to September, 1901, in partnership with a cousin, A. M. Cuni- mings, Mr. Dudley engaged in the furniture business in Petrolia under the firm name of Dudley & Cummings. Ile later was employed by various furni ture dealers and undertakers in Arcata and in Healdsburg.
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On kagust 16. 1904, he came to Santa Maria from Arcata as a result of some correspondence with the firm of T. A. Jones & Son. He at once entered their employ and took charge of their undertaking department, besides doing upholstering, carpet laying and general work in the furniture store, which work is now being carried on by his brother, George Lewis Dudley, who Frais been with the firm since January, 1910. After coming here, Mr. Dudley took a correspondence course in embalming with the Cincinnati College of Embalming, graduating therefrom March 21. 1908. He remained with the firm until January 27, 1914, when he purchased the undertaking business, re- moving in March, 1915, into a commodious and up-to-date chapel erected for him by S. J. Jones, at 107 West Church street, according to plans proposed by Mr. Dudley. He has a combination auto-ambulance and hearse, as well as a touring car, his entire equipment being complete and modern in every detail.
At Windsor. California, June 21, 1903, occurred the marriage of Albert A. Dudley and Miss Eliza Ellen Hembree, daughter of Andrew Jackson and Mary (Goode) Hembree, natives of Oregon and England respectively. The grandfather, also named Andrew Jackson Hembree. met death in the Indian war in Oregon. To Mr. and Mrs. Dudley two children have been born : Russell Hembree, born at Arcata, April 9, 1904: and Verna Margaret, who was born May 17, 1911, in the home which he erected in the fall of 1909, at 413 South Lincoln street, of modern bungalow style of architecture, over which his wife presides with her usual gracious hospitality.
Mr. Dudley has taken a live interest in municipal affairs in Santa Maria, and is a member of the board of health. He is an active member of the AMember of Commerce and of several lodges. He is a member of Santa Vara Folge No. 90. K. of P .. of which he was Chancellor Commander in 1' 11. He was Master of Hesperian Lodge No. 264. F. & A. M .. in 1910: 1ligh Priest of Fidelity Chapter No. 96. R. A. M., 1915-16: and Worthy Patron of My pah Chapter No. 100. O. E. S., in 1913, of which Mrs. Dudley was Worthy wmiron in 1916. He was inspector of the Fiftieth Masonic District of Cali- Oria, 1911-12-13: and Chief Ranger, Court Sisquoc No. 9019. A. O. F., in Mr. Dudley has made a place for himself in the business and social ungles di Santa Maria, where he and wife are social favorites. Both are Attendants at the Santa Maria Christian Church.
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