USA > California > San Bernardino County > Ingersoll's century annals of San Bernadino County, 1769-1904 : prefaced with a brief history of the state of California : supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and portraits of many of its representative people > Part 74
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Antonio Martinez grew up at Agua Mansa and still owns the place purchased by his father. Since 1888 he has conducted a general merchandise store at Agua Mansa. February 22nd, 1879, he married Filomena Bustamante, daughter of Miguel Bustamante, an old resident of Agua Mansa. They have had five sons and three daughters, Beatrice, Mrs. Antonio E. Spinoza ; Carlota, Hortencia, Antonio, Eloy, Delmar, Guido and Louis. Señor Martinez is a past president of the La Sociedad U. P. B. M.
MOSES MARTIN, deceased, was born in the town of New Lisbon, Grafton county, New Hampshire, June Ist, 1812, the son of Moses Martin. While he was still a boy the family removed to Pennsylvania, where he grew to manhood. He went west to Missouri and later returned to Illinois. For years he traveled extensively in the United States and visited England. Here he married in 1846 Emma Smith, a native of London. They came to the United States in 1848, and traveled overland to California, arriving in 1850 by way of Salt Lake, his wife following him from Salt Lake with their two daughters in 1852. They lived in Northern California until 1855, then located in San Bernardino in 1857 and pur- chased ten acres at the corner of Fifth and A streets. Here Mr. Martin resided until his
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death, May 5, 1900. He was the father of eight children, only three of whom are now living, Constance, Mrs. A. D. Rowell; Charles and Adolphus.
ALFRED WILLIAM BENSON, of the Yucaipe valley, was born in Salt Lake, Utah, January 19th, 1852, the son of Alfred Benson. The family came to San Bernardino in the spring of 1854, and Alfred W. grew up in the San Bernardino valley and engaged in digging and boring wells, an occupation which he followed for seventeen years. He has thus dug many of the numerous wells of the valley. About 1881 he located in the Yucaipe valley where he now has a ranch of 240 acres, 90 acres of which is set to apples, apricots and vineyard. The land is cienega land and in developing water, relics of Indian occupation have been found, notably a granite bowl, twelve inches in diameter and four inches deep, found twelve feet beneath the surface.
Mr. Benson in 1878 married Miss Ida, the daughter of Danford and Jane Atwood, of San Bernardino. They have a daughter and two sons, all living at home.
GEORGE ARNOLD ATWOOD, of San Bernardino, was born in Iowa, December 5th, 1853. He was the son of Danford and J'ane Garner Atwood, one a native of Connecticut, the other of Illinois. The family came to California by the Utah route, passing through Mountain Meadows, just after the terrible massatre there, and arriving in San Bernardino November, 1860. His father purchased a ranch three miles east of San Bernardino and there resided until his death in December, 1893. The surviving children are: Emeline, widow of Clement Kirkpatrick; Ernestine, Mrs. Janney, of Barstow ; George Arnold; Lydia Ann, Mrs. Wm. Bamford, Covina; Emma Jane, Mrs. John Shay of San Bernardino; Ida, Mrs. A. W. Benson, Yucaipe ; Sarah, Mrs. George Holliday, Highland; Lizzie, Mrs. Jnd Rush, Los Angeles.
George A. Atwood's school days were spent in San Bernardino and although he has traveled much in this state and in the west, San Bernardino has always been his home. In 1873-4, he worked in the mines of Utah and Nevada. In 1882 he went to Utah and bought a large band of cattle. His principal occupation for the past sixteen or eighteen years has been the care and management of a five thousand acre grain ranch in the Yucaipe valley, eighteen miles east of San Bernardino. He has also been engaged in many interests in various parts of the county. In 1888 he was appointed by Gov. Markham, director of the Eighth Agricultural District, and served as such for four years. In January, 1886, Mr. Atwod married Miss Alice R. Frederick, a native of Ohio, who had come to San Bernardino in 1884. They have one son, Leon Arnold Atwood. Mr. Atwood is a prominent I. O. O. F., having filled all the offices in his lodge and served as a member of the Grand Lodge for nine years. Mrs. Atwod is a prominent Rebekah.
JOHN D. CLARK, of San Bernardino, was born in Springville, Utah, September 27th, I854. He is the only child of Davis Clark and Priscilla Singleton Clark. His father is a rancher, now living in Utah. Mr. Clark came to San Bernardino with his parents in 1859, and his whole life, except two years, since then, has been passed in this county. He received his education in the public school of San Bernardino, and in a private school under the tuition of T. J. Wilson. He worked on a farm until 1883, when he went into the cattle business on the desert side of the mountain, and continued in that business until the summer of 1900. Mr. Clark is the owner of a ranch of fifty-eight acres of land. Five acres of this is in deciduous fruit, five in oranges and the balance hay and pasture land.
Mr. Clark married Miss Mary I. Haws of San Bernardino, January 11th, 1880. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Clark, and both taken away. A son, Francis, died in early infancy ; Eva, at the age of sixteen years.
Mr. Clark is a member of Token Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Phoenix Lodge F. A. M. In politics he is a republican, and was elected on the board of county supervisors November, 1900.
JAMES A COBURN, of San Bernardino, was born in Los Angeles, March 18th, 1852, the son of James M. and Lucinda Coburn. His parents crossed the plains in 1850, coming by way of Salt Lake and locating first in Los Angeles, where they remained until 1854. They then came to San Bernardino and settled one-half mile from Bunker Hill. His father always followed the occupation of rancher. Besides James A. Coburn, he had three daughters, Mrs. Harry Trendenick, of Colton; Mrs. J. C. Blake, now dead; and Mrs. Joe Nicholson. Of a family of half brothers, Henry and George Kinyon still reside where J. M. Coburn first settled. James A. Coburn passed his school days in San Bernardino valley and, with the exception of eight years in the railroad business, has always been engaged in ranching. November 18tl1, 1874, Mr. Coburn married Miss Eupahama Brown. They have a family of five children, Ada A., James K., Lovina A., Jesse and Clarence. The family attend the Presbyterian church.
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SILAS C. COX, of San Bernardino, was born in Fayette county, Alabama, 1843. His family moved to Nauvoo, Ill., while he was an infant and from there went to Salt Lake where they remained two years. In the spring of 1850 the family came to California and in 1852 located in San Bernardino. Silas C. Cox grew up in this vicinity following various
SILAS C. COX
MRS. SILAS C. COX
frontier occupations, mining, herding cattle, running a train of pack animals into Holcomb valley during the palmy days of that mining district, etc. In 1862 he removed to Salt Lake and for a number of years followed the business of freighting between various points in
S. C. COX, Sr.
MRS. S. C. COX
Utah, with trips to Montana, Idaho and Oregon. In 1867 he returned to San Bernardino and engaged in freighting to Arizona and other points until 1871, when he took up a government claim and became a farmer.
In 1861 he married Miss Chloe Ann Dotson, and they had a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters. Mrs. Cox was the daughter of James Madison Dotson, who left Council Bluffs with his family for Salt Lake in May, 1850. They left Utah in Novem-
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ber, 1850, and reached Salt Springs, in what is now San Bernardino county, on Christmas day, 1850, and New Years day the party reached First Point, on the Mojave river. They arrived in Sycamore Grove, June 18th, 1851.
EDWARD POOLE, of San Bernardino, was born in Manchester, England, July 22nd, 1827, the son of Daniel Poole, a member of a well-to-do family and a shoemaker by trade. The family came to America in 1842 and located in Hancock county, Ill., but the father re- turned to England in 1844 and there died.
In 1851, he crossed the plains to Salt Lake City and remained there until 1856, when he came to San Bernardino. He brought with him some stock which he traded for sixty acres of land on the Santa Ana river bottoms. The flood of 1862 destroyed his property and left him financially ruined. He is now the owner of 100 acres adjoining the Hunt and Cooley tract.
Mr. Poole married Ann Wiltshire, a native of England. They have a family of eleven children, all married. Clara, the widow of Henry Peak. lives in San Bernardino; W. R. lives in Highland; Charles and Fred in Colton; Walter, Los Angeles; Lizzie is the wife of Hyrum Rabel; Nellie, the wife of Burt Fuller, Santa Ana.
JOSEPH H. BESSANT, was born in Utah, December 19th, 1853, the son of Isaac Bes- sant and Mary Ann Thomas Bessant. The family came to San Bernardino in 1857 and settled on a ranch south of the town. There were six children in the family, five boys and one girl; Stephen lives at Yucaipe; James, John, Joseph H. and Hiram reside on Base Line. Sarah, is Mrs. George M. Cooley.
Joseph H. Bessant received a common school education at the Warm Creek District school. He has followed the occupation of farmer all his life and with his brother Hiram, owns a forty acre ranch on Base Line. September 9th, 1888, he married Miss Louisa Mott, a native of England, who came to San Bernardino in 1887.
WILLIAM A. DOWNEY, of Halleck, is a native of Provo, Utah, born in 1852, the son of Alvah and Elizabeth Hawes Downey. His father was a native of Illinois. He came to San Bernardino in 1854 and for ten years was a freighter, driving mule teams between San Bernardino and Salt Lake. Later he opened a blacksmith shop in San Bernardino and finally located on a farm near Harlem Springs. Mrs. Downey died in 1871 at San Bernardino.
William A. attended the public schools in this county and became a farmer and stock raiser, acquiring large interests on the Mojave river. He has 1280 acres of pasture, alfalfa and fruit land, and is associated with Ephriam Boren, W. H. Robinson, James B. Bledsoe in flowing wells and cattle range in southeast corner of Kern county. They have about 600 head of cattle. Mr. Downey now owns the old Captain A. G. Lane place, one of the first to be occupied in the Mojave river country. There are 1100 acres and it is used principally as pasture. Fruits, especially apples and pears do well. Mr. Downey married, in 1872, Miss Marietta, daughter of Beverly Boren. They have three children living.
JOSEPH ANDREWS, of Colton, was born at Cornwall, England, November 15, 1841. He was the son of Nicholas and Margaret Andrews. While quite young his father died, and with a sister he came to America and located in the copper region of Michigan, where he found employment in the copper mines and remained there until 1870, when he went to Vermont, and remained three years, after which he returned to Michigan and was employed in Calumet and Hecla mines until 18Sr. From 1881-2 he had charge of the Naiad Queen mine in New Mexico. He came to California in 1887, in the employ of Wells- Fargo and later was employed by the Southern Pacific at Colton. In 1891, he settled on his orchard property, which was one of the oldest groves in the place and since that time has devoted himself to horticulture and ranching.
Mr. Andrews married in 1865, Miss Jane George, a native of England, then residing at the Cliff Mine, Mich. They are the parents of ten living children, Mary, Lottie, Mar- garet, Jennie, George. Jay, Samuel, Frank, Delia and Esther.
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GENERAL BIOGRAPHIES.
The HON. TRUMAN REEVES was born Angust 17th, 1840, at Chardon, Geauga county Ohio. His parents were of English ancestry. He lived on his father's farm until 1857, when he entered the shop of Julius King, Warren, Ohio, to learn the trade of watch-
maker and jeweler. He worked at this until the opening of the war. Then he responded to the first call for troops and served for three years with the Sixth Ohio Cavalry, doing valiant service. At the battle of Cold Har- bor, on May 28th, 1864, his left arm was so shattered by a bullet that he lost it and was confined to the hospital for seven months. He entered the army as a private and was discharged as brevet first lieutenant.
In March, 1865, he was appointed postmaster at Orwell, O., then his home, and held the position for three years. He was then elected county recorder of Ashtabula county, which office he held for six years.
His health being impaired, he de- cided to remove to California and in 1874 came to San Bernardino and en- tered into partnership with N. B. Hale in the jewelry business. Al- though deprived of his arm, Mr. Reeves invented and constructed an ingenious device which enabled him to perform with deftness and dispatcii, the most difficult watch work. For fourteen years he conducted the jew- elry business in this city.
In 1883, he purchased ten acres of land in Lugonia, which he set to orange trees and where he has his HON. TRUMAN REEVES home. In 1882, Mr. Reeves was elected to the State General Assembly and served two terms. In 1890, he was elected county treasurer and the duties of tax collector were added to that office. He held this office continuously until 1898, when he was elected State Treasurer on the Republi- can ticket and has since been re-elected twice.
Mr. Reeves was married to Miss Marian E. McConkey, of Oberlin, O., in 1867. Two children were born to this marriage-Clarence H. and Clara B. Reeves.
Clarence H. Reeves was born in Jefferson, Ashtabula county, Ohio, in 1870. He went to South China in 1891, as superintendent of mission work under the Christian Alliance. He opened up the Province of Yantze, being the pioneer in this district, and the youngest super- intendent in the field. In 1897, he was stricken with malignant small pox and died. He was buried at Homan, China, the spot where he first inaugurated his work. He left a widow, who is now in mission work at their old home in China.
JOHN ANDRESON, JR., was born in San Bernardino Jannary 7th, 1873. He is the son of John and Emma Knapp Andreson. He was educated in the private schools of his city and graduated from Sturges Academy. His first employment was with a party of sur- veyors on the Belt Line. He then entered the Farmer's Exchange Bank as book-keeper and has been in their employ since; he is now assistant cashier of the bank. Mr. Andreson is a "Native Son," and has been an active member of that organization for a number of years,
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filling many offices in the San Bernardino Parlor and serving as treasurer at present. Hc is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, Masonic orders and of the Elks.
April 17th, 1900, Mr. Andreson was married to Miss Minnie E. Riley, of San Ber- nardino.
EDWARD L. DUNHAM, of San Bernardino, was born in Watertown, Canada, June 2nd, 1846, the son of Hiram and Elizabeth Dunham. His father was a blacksmith and later removed to Sterling, Iowa, where he followed his trade. He then located at Bennington, Kansas, where both parents died.
Edward L. Dunham spent his early years on a farm. When seventeen, he joined the 24th Iowa Infantry and served under Gen. N. P. Banks and later under Gen. Sherman, making the famous march to the sea. After the fall of Richmond, he returned to Boone, Iowa, where he clerked in a store. He then engaged in the hotel business at Missouri Valley Junction, where he owned two hotels and likewise owned the St. Elmo Hotel at Sioux City, Iowa. In 1870 he went to Salt Lake and was connected with Oscar Young, a son of Brigham Young, in mining operations; also owned and ran the Planters Hotel and Anaheim Hotel.
Mr. Dunham came to California in 1876 and for four years operated the historic Pico House in Los Angeles-in the days when the Pico House was the "first-class" hotel of the city. Later he operated the Cosmopolitan, which he named the St. Elmo, and he was the first manager of the Nadeau Hotel, con- ducting it in its palmy days when it was the "swell" tourist hotel of Los Angeles. He also owned and carried on at differ- ent times, the Redondo Beach Hotel and the Rivera, at Long Beach. While living in Los Angeles, Col. Dunham acquired and improved 160 acres in La Canada valley and established a public house there, which he still owns. He also owned for a time a half interest in the EDWARD L. DUNHAM White Sulphur Springs, Napa county. Mr. Dunham is now the popular host of the Stewart Hotel, San Bernardino, and with W. E. Hadley, he owns the Hotel Palms, Los Angeles. Col. Dunham is one of the best known and most successful hotel men in Southern California.
FRED ALVIDSON, of Chino, was born January 19th, 1859, in the town of Norkjoping, Sweden. He came to America in 1881 with $500 cash to start life in the new world. among entire strangers. He went first to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he found employment and later went to Minneapolis, where for nine years he held a good position at good wages. He came to California in 1894-to Pasadena-and later in the same year came to Chino. Herc he has raised beets and barley, cattle and poultry. He now owns two tracts of land, ten acres in one piece and twenty in the other and is one of the thrifty ranchers of this thrifty community.
He was married in Los Angeles in Febraruy. 1804, to Miss Amelia Matson, also a native of Sweden. They have four children, Hildah, Clarence, Emma and Milton.
ALFRED M. APLIN, of East Highland, was born in Norwich, Ohio, October 14th, 1837, the son of Benjamin Aplin, who was one of the pioneers of that section of the state, a farmer and a wholesale shoe merchant. In 1865 the family went west to Iowa and located in Scott county for five years then removed to Chetopah, Kansas, where Mr. Aplin was interested in the stock business.
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
In 1875 Mr. Aplin came to California and at once located at East Highland, here he took up a homestead and later purchased railroad land. He now owns twenty acres, mostly in oranges. He has seen the citrus fruit business develop and has been most successful himself in raising citrus fruits. He was one of the first to engage in drying fruit on an extensive scale.
Mr. Aplin was married to Miss M. E. Winn, in Athens county, Ohio, she being a native of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Aplin have four children : Guy E. Aplin, M. D., graduated from Chaffey College and from Halinemann Medical College, Kansas City, now practicing ; Myrtle A., physician at the Napa State Hospital ; Donald G., graduate of Claremont and of Berkeley, now engaged in mining at Slate Range, Cal .; Ethel, student of Medicine at Medical College of State University, San Francisco.
ISAAC BENJAMIN, of San Bernardino, was born in Newark, N. J., April 19th, 1857. He is the son of S. C. and Augusta Rosenbach Benjamin. His school days were passed in Los Angeles ; from 1874 to 1876 he attended the U. of C., at Berkeley. He read law for a time after leaving Ber- keley and taught school for one year. In 1879, he took . up the study of stenography in San Francisco. He came to San Bernardino and was appointed official reporter of Department No. 1, of the Superior Court of San Ber- nardino county, January 5th, 1880, and has held the office continuously to the present time. He has served under all the judges presiding over Department One of the Superior Court, and also did the reportorial work in Department Two for a time after this court was created, in 1887.
In June, 1886, he married Miss Eda Brunn, daughter of I. R. Brunn, of San Bernardino. They are the par- ents of three sons, A. B., A. A. and M. B. Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin is a member of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith.
VICTOR GUSTAFSON is a native of Sweden, born near Stockholm, July 16th, 1865. His father, Gustav Larson, was a farmer. Victor had three brothers, who also emigrated to America-Louis, John and Charles. The latter returned to Sweden in 1897, and the two for- mer live at Los Alamitos. Victor remained on his father's farm until he arrived at manhood, during which ISAAC BENJAMIN time he learned the trade of stone cutting. Coming to California in 1888, he pursued his trade for a short time at Santa Barbara, removing to Chino in 1891. He first embarked in the culture of sugar beets, but subsequently purchased land and engaged in the raising of alfalfa. He is known as a thrifty, public- spirited and progressive citizen, and has an attractive and comfortable home near Chino. On February 26th, 1896. he married Miss Laura Hein, of Anaheim. She died in 1903. She was known as a noble and pions woman, and her loss was greatly deplored by a wide circle of friends.
Mr. Gustafson is a member of the school board of the Chino district and officiates as clerk of the board.
J. W. ROBERTS, the late president of the San Bernardino National Bank and of the First National Bank of Colton, was born in North Wales, July 22nd, 1835. In 1841, the family came to America and settled on a farm in Lewis county, New York. In 1854, J. W. Roberts started westward and settled in Columbia county, Wis. Here he engaged in the general merchandise business, also acting as express agent and making his office a general exchange and banking institution for the country about him. He later became interested in the flour milling business and purchased an interest in the Danville Flour Mills, selling out his interests in Columbia county. He established headquarters in Philadelphia, in connec- tion with H. H. Mears & Co., for the handling of his flour and they built up a very heavy business in shipping flour and grain to Europe, as well as American points. In 1873 Mr. Roberts entered into partnership with I. A. Steele, and for eighteen years they carried on a large wholesale flour business in Pittsburg, Pa. In 1886 Mr. Roberts came to California and took the presidency of the First National Bank of Colton. In 1891, Mr. Roberts assumed the
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
presidency of the San Bernardino National Bank, at the same time buying a controlling interest in the business. He retained this position and built up the standing and the business of the institution, until it is one of the most solid and reliable enterprises of the city.
In 1860, Rr. Roberts married Eliza Williams of Cambria Wis., a native of England. Of this union, two children, Mrs. J. W. Davis, of Colton, and Edward Davis Roberts. In 1867, Mrs. Roberts died in 1883, Mr. Roberts married Winifred Evans, a native of New York. Of this union, two sons, Walter and Richard were born. Mr. Roberts died in San Bernardino January 19th, 1903.
EDWARD DAVID ROBERTS, of San Bernardino, was born in Cambria, Columbia county, Wisconsin, July 18th, 1864, the son of John W. and Eliza Williams Roberts. Mr. Roberts spent his youth in his native state and after completing the common schools took a course in a commercial college in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Upon completing his training he entered the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad, being employed in Chicago and in Milwaukee until he came to California in 1885. He engaged in banking at Colton with his father and brother-in-law, J. W. Davis, establishing the First National Bank of Colton. While living in Colton Mr. Roberts served as city trustee. In 1892, Mr. Roberts became interested with his father in the San Bernardino National Bank, of which he is now president. He is a member of the Masonic order, Knights Templar and Elks, and is promi- nently identified with the business life of the city.
Mr. Roberts was married in 1889 to Miss Maude Adams. They have two daughters, Louise Eliza and Maud Marie.
WILLIAM CURTIS, was born at Pontiac, Oakland county, Mich., April Ist, 1826, the son of Jeremiah and Ruth Stratton Curtis. the father a native of Connecticut and the mother of Pennsylvania, and of Irish parentage. Mr. Curtis grew up on the frontier, farming, hunting and trapping in Michi- gan, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Texas. He resided in Texas for a number of years and served as sheriff of Ban- dera county for six years. In 1861 he started from San Antonio, Texas, with an ox team and drove to California, where he located at San Bernardino and has since that time resided in this vicinity. He has engaged at different times in farming, mining and horticulture. Mr. Curtis was mar- ried in Fredericksburg, Texas, to Henrietta Raseg, August 15th, 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis have had a large family, of whom, Henrietta A., Mrs. John Furney; Mary A., Mrs. H. H. Cole; George W., Eli, Jeremiah, Newell, Robert, all live in this vicinity. On August 15th, 1900, the family united in celebrating the golden wedding anniversary of the honored head of the family, all the children, grand-children and great grand-children, except one, being present on this occasion.
ROBERT T. CURTIS, secretary of the Horticultural Commission of San Bernardino County, was born at Old San Bernardino, August 2nd, 1871. He was the son of William and Mary Raseg Curtis. His father owns a ranch WILLIAM CURTIS near Redlands, where he has raised a family of eight children. With one exception. these children are all living and make their homes within the county. Robert T. Cur- tis grew to manhood on his father's ranch in Mission district, and there attended the district school. He also attended what was known as Sturgis Academy, on Fourth street, San Bernardino, and closed his school days by taking a commercial course at that institution. After leaving school he took up ranching as a business, and still owns ten acres of orange grove, two and one-half miles from Redlands, in this county. May Ist, 1897, he was appointed secretary of the County Horticultural Commission; his early training and experience in the business of raising citrus fruits for the eastern markets, especially fitting him for the work devolving upon this commission, that of seeking out the enemies of these crops and devising means of eliminating them. On October 15th, 1893, he married Ella May Strever. They have one child, a boy; Robert Strever Curtis. Mr. Curtis is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of Redlands.
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