USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches > Part 99
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AAndrew York was married a second time to Mrs. Hulda Mathews, who was born in Indiana : and she died in 1916. Through his second marriage, Mr. York had two children: Lulu, Mrs. O'Neil, who resides in Ascension district : and Silas, who is a partner of his brother, Walter York, on the York ranch. The five children of the first marriage of Andrew York are as follows: Elizabeth, Mrs. Ilazard, who resides on the Pecho; James, who lives in San Luis Obispo: Ida, Mrs. Nelson, of Healdsburg; Thomas, who is mining in Arizona ; and Walter, of this review.
Walter York was reared in this county and received his general educa- tion in the public schools. He then entered Chestnutwood Business Col- lege, from which he was graduated. From a lad he made himself generally useful at home, helping to clear the farm and set out orchards and vineyards. After he reached his majority, he continued in business with his father till 1911, when his brother Silas became his partner and they bought from their father the Ascension Winery. Later, they also bought a ranch of one hundred fifty acres adjoining, and set out more grapes. After their father's leath they purchased the home ranch of ninety acres, and they now have Wer eighty acres in vineyards, making a beautiful sight on the different hills werlooking the valley below. Besides their own vintage, they also buy golpes from other viticulturistes, the capacity of their plant being more than 100,000 pallons, the largest in the county.
In Santa Cruz, February 1, 1897, occurred the marriage of Mr. York with Mies lillie Peterson, a native of California, born near Cambria, the daughter of Capt. I roderick J. Peterson, whose interesting sketch appears on another
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page of this work. Mrs. York was educated at Pacific College. She pen several years in educational work, continuing in that profession up to the time of her marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. York have been born five children : Miles. attending San Luis Obispo High School; Wilfrid, attending Templeton High School; and Lillian, Roland and Sidney.
Always interested in building up the community, and particularly in the cause of education and good schools, Mr. York has served twelve years as a trustee of Ascension district, most of the time as clerk of the board. Ile is a believer in the principles of the Democratic party; and he and his wife are very hospitable and liberal, and are much esteemed by all who know them.
JAMES ROBERT ANDERSON .- Born in Sidney, Australia, in 1852. James Robert Anderson is the son of Andrew and Elizabeth Anderson, carly pioneers of California, who migrated to Australia from Scotland, their native land. In Australia, Andrew Anderson engaged in sheep-raising, in which he made a marked success, accumulating a cash capital of $100.000. In 1853, he embarked with his family on the "Julian," but was shipwrecked close to Kanaka Island, where a little daughter was lost. The survivors lived on the island for three months, subsisting on turtles and turtles' eggs. They were taken off by a vessel from San Francisco. When they were landed, the father was without a dollar, the $100,000 having been lost in the wreck. Ile went to work in San Francisco, but later moved to a farm near San Jose. Here he lived until he retired to Petaluma, where he and his wife both died. \t the time of his death, he was nearly ninety years of age.
Of the six children of his parents' family. James is the youngest. Hle was reared and educated in Santa Clara county, where he followed farming and horticulture until he removed to Hollister. There he began grain-grow- ing; but after three years of drought he gave it up and located in the Old river section, south of Bakersfield, Kern county, where he was engaged in raising alfalfa for six years, and then left on account of sickness. The doc- tors gave him up and said he could not live : but he determined to get well. and did. As soon as he was able, he removed to the Palouse and Walla Wałla country in Washington. While there, he went through the Indian troubles ; and he guided a party out of the country to safety, although they had some narrow escapes.
In 1876, he returned to California and located in San Luis Obispo County Purchasing a farm on Toro creek from Andrew York, he raised grain for three years. He then sold the place and, coming to the Ascension district in 1879, bought his present place of one hundred sixty-three and three fourths acres from a Mr. Dunn. He cleared the land and set out an orchard and vineyard of twenty acres. He has built a winery with a capacity of 10.000 barrels, and is making a success of farming and viticulture. His place e located on Anderson creek, about seven miles west of Templeton, at the foot of York Mountain, and lies in a beautiful and fertile section of the county.
Mr. Anderson was married in Bakersfield to Miss Lizzie Grav, born m California, a lady of charming personality, and an amiable wife and levins mother, of whom he was bereaved eighteen years ago. She left the him si children : Lizzie, Mrs. Hames, of Templeum. Maggie, Mrs Swan, of Cannes James, a farmer near l'empleton; Frank, a graduate of the Pacific Coast Business College, who is assisting his father on the home ranch , ( lyde, ele resides in Hollister ; and John, who is clerking in Bell's store, in Paso Robles
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Mr. Anderson is a member of the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ. Latter-Day Saints, of which denomination his father was a minister. He has traveled all over the Pacific Coast, and is well posted on its geography and its soil and climate. Being one of the oldest settlers in his vicinity, and having a retentive memory, he is a very entertaining conversationalist. Greatly interested in the cause of education, he has been for many years a trustee of schools in the Ascension district. In political affiliations he is a Democrat.
HORACE GREELEY ILIFF .- One and one-half miles north of Santa Maria. on the state highway, lie the ranch and comfortable bungalow owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. H. G. Iliff. The land was inherited by Mrs. lliff from her father, the late Capt. William Powell, a pioneer of the Santa Maria valley. In 1916, Mr. Iliff erected a modern residence on the property : and there, in peace and contentment. the family reside, surrounded by the comforts and many of the luxuries of life.
Mr. Iliff was born in Dawson, Richardson county, Nebr., fourteen miles from Fall City, on March 5, 1871, a son of John Wesley and Nancy ( Carroll) Iliff, who lived in Missouri for a time, and later bought land in Richardson county, Nebr., which the father farmed. John Iliff died at Auburn, Nebr .. on November 8, 1901, having reared a family of nine children. Two sons came to California, Horace G. and John W., who had a son employed in a hank in San Francisco for a number of years. The name of Iliff was brought to America from England about the time of the Revolutionary War: and two cousins, descended from the progenitor of the family, came west from Ohio, both named John Iliff. One of these settled in Colorado, making Denver his headquarters, and was commonly known as the "Cattle King of Colorado." The other John Iliff, born in Ohio in 1824, was the father of Horace Greeley Iliff.
The boyhood days of Horace G. Iliff were passed at the home in Ne- braska, attending the public schools during the winter months and working on the farm in summer, until he was fifteen. At the age of about twelve he could handle a team and plow, and thereafter made himself very useful about the farm; and after he was fifteen, he did a man's work. After the death of his parents, he made his home near Lincoln, Nebr., until he came to California, in 1894, to see his brother. John Wesley, who was living in Santa Barbara county, and who later went to Santa Cruz, where he died, leaving a widow and four children. It was the intention of Mr. Iliff to stay here but a few months: but he became so enamored of the climate and the possibilities of the state that he decided to remain. This decision he has never regretted, for here he has met with a greater degree of success than would likely have been his lot had he returned to the Middle West. He does nearly all the work on the ranch, and in 1916 harvested five hundred sacks of beans and one thousand sacks of potatoes.
In 1895, Mr. Hiff was united in marriage with Miss Ida M. Powell, a du ghter of the late Col. W. V. Powell, one of the pioneers of the Santa Maria wiley. Itt whom mention is made on another page of this work. Mrs. Iliff q- bert in Mendocino county, and was brought to this valley by her parents @fun ! child of six years. She has lived here ever since, witnessing with wperest the growth and development of this part of the county. Of the marriage with Mr. Hiff, five children have been born: Eva Mabel, Florence
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Fern, Lelia Tressa, Claudie Wesley (who died, aged nine), and Addison Powell.
Mr. Iliff is a Republican in politics. Fraternally, he belongs to the Red Men, acting as musician for the lodge in Santa Maria, where he is well and favorably known. Mrs. Iliff is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In her political belief, she supports the Prohibitionist doctrines. They both are industrious; enjoy farm life, aim to live and let live, and have an ever widening circle of friends throughout the valley.
EDWARD HENRY FRITZINGER .- Coming from a prominent old Pennsylvania family who were of good old Quaker stock, Edward Henry Fritzinger was born near Doylestown, Bucks county, Pa., April 28, 1850. The grandfather, Jacob Fritzinger, was descended from an old Pennsylvania family, and was a member of the Society of Friends. Edward's father was Thomas Fritzinger, born in Bucks county, who became a police officer in Philadelphia, where he died, as did also the mother. She was in maidenhood Hannah Hill, also a native of Bucks county. Of their four children, Edward is the only one living.
Mr. Fritzinger received a good education in the public schools of Phila- delphia, after which he was apprenticed as a tin and sheet-iron worker. On mastering his trade, he traveled as a journeyman through different Western states, arriving in San Francisco, Cal., in 1885. Ile continued at his trade there until 1888, and then located in San Luis Obispo County.
In Pleasant Valley, in 1889, Edward H. Fritzinger was united in mar- riage with Miss Mary Jane Sinclair, who was born near Point Rush, county Antrim, Ireland, the daughter of William and Jennie (Thompson ) Sinclair. who came of good old Scotch Covenanter stock. The family emigrated to Saratoga county, N. Y., where the parents died. Mary Sinclair, with her brother Daniel, then removed to Philadelphia, Pa., where lived an aunt, Mrs. Mary Dugan. Daniel Sinclair migrated to California, and located a home- stead in Pleasant Valley, where, in 1885, Mary J. Sinclair joined her brother and pre-empted eighty acres, later homesteading one hundred sixty acres adjoining. The young people had been acquainted with Mr. Fritzinger in Philadelphia, and this acquaintance culminated in his marriage with Miss Sinclair when he came to the valley.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Fritzinger improved their ranch of two hundred forty acres with substantial buildings and fences. They devote it to the raising of grain and stock, in which they have been very successful. Both are known for their kindliness and hospitality, and are loved and esteemed by all who know them. They are both charter members of the Presbyterian Church at Estrella, of which Mr. Fritzinger is a trustee and elder. Politically, he is an out-an-out Republican.
WILLIS DODD .- \ native son of the Pacific Coast, Willis Dodd was born near Spokane, Wash., on February 15, 1882. His father, John Dodd. was born in Kentucky ; and after his marriage to Amelia Springs, the young couple moved to Tennessee, and afterwards emigrated to California, coming on one of the first transcontinental trains. Homesteading one hundred sixty acres in Plato hills, he improved the land, filling the requirements of the law. and after proving up sold it and removed to Washington, where he engaged in farming until 1890, when he brought his family back to San lans Obispo County and made his home in Ranchita district until his death in 1895 The
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mother 1. w makes her home in San Miguel. Their three children are as follows: S. D., a farmer near San Miguel; Willis, of whom we write; and Emma, who resides with her mother.
Willis Dodd was reared in Ranchita district from the age of eight years. attending the local school. As a lad he learned to drive the big teams in the grain fields as well as to care for stock. For a few years he farmed in part- nership with his brother on the Proctor place of 1,120 acres. After his mar- riage he bought his brother's interest in the stock and implements, and con- tinued on the place for another year.
His marriage occurred in December, 1908, when he was united with Miss Amelia Jensen, a native of Kansas who came in 1891 to San Luis Obispo County with her parents, Peter and Hannah (Hansen) Jensen. Her parents were born in Denmark. They came to Kansas when they were young peo- ple, and were married there. In 1891 they located at the head of the Ranchita cañon, and in 1908 bought a farm near Ranchita schoolhouse, where Peter Jensen died on November 30, 1915. Ilis widow resides on the farm. Their four children are as follows: Anna, Mrs. Waugh; Amelia, Mrs. Dodd ; Clar- ence, who died in 1907, aged twenty-four years ; and Charles.
In 1909 Mr. Dodd purchased a ranch of one hundred sixty acres near Ranchita schoolhouse, which he operated together with other leased land until 1916. He then sold his ranch, and leased the old Kirkpatrick place of four hundred acres, with adjoining land to the extent of six hundred forty acres, where he is busily engaged in raising grain and stock. He sows about one half the land each season to grain, using a ten-horse team.
Mr. and Mrs. Dodd are the parents of two children, Clarence and Elmer. Mrs. Dodd is a thoroughly domestic woman, displaying much ability as a housewife, and is a great aid to her husband. They are both very hospitable, and are highly esteemed by all who know them. Fraternally, they are mem- bers of the Fraternal Brotherhood. In politics, Mr. Dodd believes the prin- ciples of the Republican party to be for the best interests of the greatest number of the people.
SWAN NELSON .- A man who achieved success and became prominent and influential in the vicinity of Paso Robles, Swan Nelson was born in Ignaberga, Skane, Sweden, June 24. 1844. He received his education in the local schools of his district, meanwhile assisting his father until he started out for himself He then found employment in building the railroad from Stockholm to Malmö, and in time became a foreman. In 1869 he came to America, locating in Platte county, Neb.
In 1870, at Galva, Mr. Nelson was married to Miss Bettsy Erickson, who was born in Ballingslof, Skane, Sweden, and who, on completing her studies in the public schools, took a course at the School of Domestic Science. After their marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson located a homestead of one hundred sixty acres near Genoa, Platte county, and later bought an adjoining tract it four dollars per acre. Their holdings comprised two hundred eighty acres, all rich, tillable bottom land, which they improved with substantial buildings. "Elde land they still kept, during all the years of their residence in California, Did the fall of 1916, when it was sold for one hundred twenty-five dollars an Tre, which shows the great rise of land values in that section.
10 1887, Mr. Nelson removed with his family to Templeton, San Luis Filipe County, where for two years they engaged in the restaurant business.
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Meantime he had purchased his ranch, on which he located, and made the improvements, building his residence and barns. He began with eighty acres, and as he prospered he purchased adjoining lands until he had about six hundred acres in the Linne section, which was all devoted to grain and stock- raising.
Mr. Nelson was very prominent in public affairs. He was a director in the Farmers Alliance Business Association until his death, on June 9. 1916. He was a prominent and active member of the Swedish Methodist Church in Paso Robles, in which he was a trustee.
Mrs. Nelson is the administratrix of the estate, and now resides in Paso Robles. Her son, Knute Nelson, is in charge of the ranch.
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson had seven children, three of whom are living : Nance Emil, a business man in Los Angeles ; Knute B., who is operating the home farm ; and Franz Otto, who is also a business man in Los Angeles. The children are all successful and very enterprising men. Mrs. Nelson is a member of the Swedish M. E. Church, of which she is a very helpful and liberal supporter.
RALPH E. McKAY .- Among the successful oil men of the various fields in California, possibly no one has won more distinction as a contract driller, or has had a wider experience, than has Ralph F. MeKay, of Santa Maria. whose operations have extended over a period of many years and into many states. As an employe of the Union Oil Co., he it was who first successfully shut off the water in the wells in the Lompoc fiells, and thereby changed the prospect of failure to one of the surest pumping propositions in the state. Mr. Mckay is proud of his Scotch ancestry. His father. A. B. MeKay, was born in Glasgow, and came with his father. Peter Mekay, to the United States when he was a lad of thirteen and settled with the family in Illinois. He was large for his age ; and at the time of the Civil War, fired with patriotic zeal, he enlisted for service in Co. 1, 53rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, serving in the same regiment with his father. Ile saw twenty-two months of active duty, was with Sherman on his march to the sea, and was honorably dis- charged at the close of the struggle, then being only sixteen years of age. The young veteran went back to Ottawa, Ill., took up the machinist's trade, in which he had started to serve an apprenticeship, and later married Cath- erine Denneny, a native of Canada, of Irish extraction, who had moved with her parents to Milwaukee, Wis., when she was a child, where she was reared and educated. There were four sons and four daughters in the family of Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Mckay, Ralph E. being the only one in California and the only one in the oil business. The parents live at Longton. Flk county, Kans.
Ralph E. Mckay was born in Pittsburg, Pa., and when eighteen months old was taken by his parents to Kansas. Later, the family moved to Alle- gheny county, Pa., where he was educated in the grammar and high schools in Pittsburg. He supplemented his education with a business course in a night school, working in the meantime in a jewelry store for one dollar and a half per week. This did not appeal to him; so he went into his father's machine shop at East Liberty, where he ran a steam hammer and drill press. helped in the blacksmith shop, and became acquainted with all branches of the trade. For a time he was in the mail service, and then went into the oil fields in Butler county, Pa., and finding work with a contractor by the hante
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15i Stouffer, began as a tool dresser when seventeen years of age. He soon began drilling, at which he has been very successful, and has since followed that kind of work.
The oil business has a fascination for him, and he has worked in many places and seen a great deal of the country. From Butler county he went to Monroe county, (., and then to Wood county, the same state. He then went to West Virginia and drilled in the Parkersburg, Grafton and other fields, and for various contractors. Ile worked in Kansas and Oklahoma, having several good wells to his credit in Chautauqua and Montgomery coun- ties, Kans. Then he put down some wells on the Cherokee and Osage Indian reservations. Mr. Mckay drilled five gas wells on the Osage side of the state line near Peru, Kans., for ex-Senator Shaw of New York. He worked in Florence, Colo., for the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., of Pueblo.
On December 9, 1907, he arrived in California, and has not had an idle day since, unless of his own choosing. He began drilling for the Salt Lake Oil Co. at Sherman, and eight months later went to work for the Union Oil Co. He drilled a well for oil and gas on the Jesus Maria ranch, known as the Burton well, 4,655 feet deep-a dry hole. He drilled Purisima No. 9, and here encountered water that threatened the field and brought to the fore the ingenuity of Mr. Mckay and the leading men of the Union Oil Co. ; and he successfully cemented a number of wells that are now among the steady producers of California. Two years and two months were spent with the Union Oil Co., in the Lompoc field, when he came to the Palmer Union Oil Co. and had charge of the tools for a time. Then he began taking con- tracts on his own account, and since that time has been successfully employed in the Santa Maria field.
On December 19, 1908, in Santa Maria, Mr. Mckay and Miss Margaret Hobson were united in marriage. They have two children, Ralph E., Jr., and Josephine Beverly Boyd Mckay. Mrs. McKay is a daughter of J. W. Hobson, a prosperous rancher and well-known pioneer of Santa Maria, now of Santa Margarita. His parents crossed the plains with ox teams from Kansas when he was a babe. Ile was stolen by Indians ; and when found, five days later, he was in the arms of an Indian squaw, who had become so attached to him that she was loath to let him go. Mr. Hobson is engaged in building a road from Atascadero to Morro, through a scenic section of San Luis Obispo County.
Mr. and Mrs. MeKay reside in Santa Maria, at 416 East Church street. They are interested in all forward movements for the upbuilding of the county und state, and have a wide acquaintance throughout this section. Mr. MeKay H a member of San Luis Obispo Lodge, No. 322, B. P. O. Elks.
SIDNEY MONTGOMERY BARR .- An employee of the California Na- tional Supply Co, since 1911, and the present manager of the branch at Sisquoc, having held that position since September, 1914, Sidney M. Barr has been Frank alive to the many opportunities offered by the oil business of the state. It is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Butler county, February 5, 1891, a Ein of lames Barr. His father was the owner of two large farms in that county, on one of which were four oil wells, two of them producing high- rgb forty gravity oil. His mother was Miss Nellie Cousins, a native of Penn Alama. By her marriage with Mr. Barr she had ten children, of whom cien on and two daughters are now living. One died after marriage,
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leaving two little girls. Mr. Barr died in 1903. Later, Mrs. Barr married O. J. Skinner, and now lives in Emporium, Pa. Of her children, mention may be made of John, a tool dresser for the West Coast Contracting and De veloping Co., at Casper, Wyo .; George A .. a salesman for Fairbanks Morse Co., at Taft: Florence, a saleslady in a Los Angeles cloak and suit house : I. II., an engineer for the Texas Oil Co., at Tulsa, Okla. ; C. C., a locomotive engineer with the L. S. & M. S., living in Cleveland, O. ; Eugene, an engineer with the P. & L. E., living in Pittsburg : Floyd, an electrician in Cleveland, () .: Mary, also in Cleveland ; and Sidney M., the subject of this review.
Sidney M Barr remained at home and went to school until he was fifteen years of age. When he was twelve, his father died, leaving him without the paternal guiding hand so necessary in a boy's career ; nevertheless, he went to Buffalo, N. Y., attended school there and at Niagara Falls, and graduated in the class of 1908. At once taking up the battle of life, Mr. Barr found employment in Buffalo for a time, and then went to Cleveland.
On November 27, 1910, he came to California, where he worked for his brother, George .A., for about one year, running a water station at Taft. Then he entered the employ of the California National Supply Co., in their branch at Taft, where he remained three years, giving good service, which was re- warded by promotion to manager of their branch in Sisquoc. Here he gives evidence of the qualities of a careful, considerate and successful business man. easily making and retaining friends, who predict for him a bright future.
KENCHO SALVADOR ONTIVEROS. Fortunate is the man who, like Kencho Salvador Ontiveros, the young rancher, having learned the secret of success in one field of activity, can apply the knowledge thus acquired when new and better opportunities for expansion and reward are presented. He inherited a fertile ranch from his father, the late Salvador Ontiveros : and believing that
"Ile who at the plow would thrive, Ilimself must either hold or drive,"
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