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 83
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years, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity. In 1847, he married Harriet A., daughter of James Bradford, Vermilion, Erie county, Ohio. They have three children living, Kate, wife of John W. Horton of Ontario; Ella Brown : James R., of Ontario. In 1897, Mr. and Mrs. Morse celebrated their golden wedding with all the ceremony and the good wishes which such an unsual and happy event demands.
ASBURY S. McPHERRON, of Redlands, was born in Knox county, Tennessee, September 19, 1843. He was a son of Wm. A. and Mary Ann Graves McPherron, both natives of Tennessee. His father, who was a farmer and a teacher, removed to Iowa in 1851, where he took an active part in the educational and political affairs of Mills county, until his death, in 1882.
Prof. McPherron, after a course in the public schools of Mills county, took a full college course in Tabor College, lowa, and later a Classical course at Oberlin College, Ohio, graduating from this institution in 1871. From the latter college he received the degree of Master of Arts.
In 1861, he enlisted in the 15th Iowa Infantry Volunteers and continued in the army until he was discharged for disability, in 1863. Except during his army service, Prof. Mc- Pherron has been almost constantly engaged in teaching, since his boyhood. He was prin- cipal of the Normal Department of Tabor College, Iowa, for seven years. From August, 1881, until 1885, he acted as principal of the Albuquerque Academy, at Albuquerque New Mexico. In 1885, he came to Los Angeles, where he taught for three years, then located in Redlands, where he has since resided. Since coming to this county, Prof. McPherron his been principal of the Highland schools two years and taught in the Redlands High School three years. In September, 1902, he was appointed County Superintendent of Schools in place of Miss Bahr, who resigned, and in 1903, he was elected to the position.
On locating in Redlands, he purchased land and now has a fifteen acre orange grove in bearing, so that he may also be counted as a horticulturist. Prof. McPherron is a member of the Congregational church, and of the G. A R., and takes an active interest in all ques- tions bearing on the public welfare.
In 1872, he married Mrs. Maria Cummings Gaston, a native of Ohio and a college classmate. Mrs. McPherron died March 23, 1898. On April 29, 1903, he married Miss Grace Childs, of Hudson, Michigan.
JOSEPH S. MARR, of Upland, was born in Canada, May 30, 1848. He is the son of Edwin H. Marr, a native of Pennsylvania. The Marr family is of Scotch descent: their ancestor, the first Earl of Marr, was a follower of Robert Bruce, last of the Scottish Kings. His mother, Hannah Coe Marr, was a native of Canada, of English and German descent. Her father, the Rev. William Coe was an itinerant preacher in Canada, serving years with- out material compensation, and enduring many privations and hardships in the cause of the gospel work. Edwin H. Marr died in July, 1900; his wife died the preceding Febru- ary. They had been married fifty-six years.
The family removed from Canada to Iowa in 1849. The crossing of the Missouri river was made on a ferry boat, with horse power. Joseph A. Marr was brought up on a farmi in lowa. He came from Plymouth, Iowa, to California, in May, 1889, and located in North Ontario, then known as Magnolia. He first engaged in hotel business and afterwards as a fruit grower. In 1873. Mr. Marr married Miss Sarah L. Hull, a native of Iowa, daughter of an Iowa pioneer. They are the parents of two children-a daughter, deceased, 1887,, and a son, Ralph H. Marr. The family are members of the M. E. church. He is a meni- ber of the A. O. U. W. of Ontario, and also the Fraternal Aid Association of Ontario.
CHARLES B. HAMILTON, of Colton, was born in Mead, Ohio, January 25, 1842, the son of Gideon and Hannah Huffman Hamilton. The Hamilton family are of Scotch descent, natives of the Firth of Forth. The great-grandfather Huffman was a Virginian- a soldier of the Revolution, serving under Washington and being present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. His grandfather, Joseph Huffman, was a soldier of the war of 1812 and was, for seventeen years, a judge on the bench of Belmont county, Ohio.
Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, Charles B. Hamilton responded to the first call for troops, enlisting in Company F. 15th Ohio Volunteers, assigned to the army of the Cumberland. With his regiment he took part in the battles of Shiloh, Stone River, Chicka- manga, Mission Ridge, and later in the battle of Franklin. He was with General Sher- man at the battle of Atlanta and there received two slight wounds. He took part in the "March to the Sea," and was discharged October 18, 1864, having served three years and eight months. He returned to Ohio but soon engaged in steamboating upon the Mississ- ippi river, with headquarters at New Orleans,and continued . this occupation until 1888
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when he came to California. He located at Colton, and opened a grocery store, also pur- chased land and planted an orange grove. He has since that time been intimately associated with the material development of the town. He is a director in the Terrace Water Com- pany, the Colton Fruit Exchange and the Building and Loan Association.
July 29, 1872, Mr. Hamilton married Miss Hattie Belle, daughter of William R. Rea- kirt, of Cincinnati, Ohio. They have four children, William, residing in San Francisco; Etta, Mrs. Charles Nugent, of Colton; Lillie, Mrs. Thomas Weed, of Riverside; Percy, residing at home. Mr. Hamilton is Past Grand Master of the I. O. O. F. and an active member of the G. A. R.
C. W. MAGILL, of Upland, was born in Clay county, Missouri, March 6, 1828, the son of David and Sarah Magill, the one a native of Kentucky, the other of Missouri. Mr. Magill was brought up on a farm in Clay county and remained in his native state, fol- lowing the occupation of stock raising and farming until 1855, when he removed to Kan- sas. In 1864, he again moved westward to Oregon and lived there until he came to Cali- fornia in 1895. He located first in Santa Barbara and then came to North Ontario where he is a fruit grower.
Mr. Magill married Miss Nancy E. Gregg, of Missouri, in 1848. Of six children only one is living-David Magill, of Izee, Oregon. Mr. and Mrs. Magill have thirteen grand- children. He served one year as teamster in the war with Mexico. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, "Amity" Lodge, No. 20, Oregon.
HENRY J. McNALLY, of Bloomington, was born at Dixon, Illinois, in 1884. His father Thomas McNally, was one of the pioneer farmers of that state. Henry McNally grew to manhood on his father's farm. His first work away from home was for the Chicago and Burlington Railway Company, and he was in their employ seven years. At the expiration of that time he removed to Clinton, Iowa, and there established a saw mill and engaged in the lumber business. In 1893, a corporation composed of Iowa capitalists, purchased three thousand acres of land for the purpose of establishing a town site, which they named Bloomington. In this operation it was necessary to employ a number of men, and Henry J. McNally was selected to act in the capacity of foreman. The managers of the Bloomington Land Company have been changed many times, but Mr. McNally still retains his position.
Mr. McNally married Miss Barbara Zinke, in 1889. They have two children, Henry and Nellie Christina. Mr. and Mrs. McNally occupy a comfortable home in the midst of an orchard of orange and deciduous fruit trees.
JOSEPH MORT, of Rialto, is a native of Harrison county, Ohio, where he was born in January, 1843. He is a veteran of the Civil War, having enlisted before the completion of his nineteenth year in the 19th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, serving with them until the close of the war. Mr. Mort participated in the battle of Paris Grove, Arkansas, where out of 400 men engaged on the Union side, 198 were killed or wounded. He was taken pris- oner at Sterling Farm, La., and confined in the rebel prison at Tyler, Texas, where the daily ration distributed was one pint of corn meal with an occasional allowance of wormy beef - a diet which produced a death rate of ten men per day. Mr. Mort also served in the siege of Vicksburg and at Spanish Fort, near Mobile. He is now blind as the result of his prison life, but is still glad that he was able to serve his country.
After the war, Mr. Mort married Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Miller, of Iowa. In 1874, they removed to Kansas and located in Harvey county. In 1888, they came to California and located permanently near Rialto. Mr. and Mrs. Mort have a family of five sons and one daughter, Clyde E., O. H., Edward E., T. Glenn, L. Worth and Delia, now Mrs. Barnard, of Rialto. .
JAMES W. MILLS of Ontario, was born in Yuba county, California, February 13, 1867. His father was Jas S. Mills, a native of Richmond, Virginia, who came to California by the overland route in 1852. After several years spent in mining, he returned east and married Miss Almira Guion, daughter of David Bonte Guion, of St. Louis, Missouri. They returned to California and settled in Yuba county, where Mr. Mills engaged in farming. Jas. W. Mills went from the High School in Marysville, California, and entered the State University as a special Agricultural student. In 1893, he was appointed Superintend- ent of the Chino Experimental station, which position he still holds.
In 1894, he was married to Miss Fannie Whitmore, born in Washington, Iowa, the daughter of F. B. Whitmore, of Sacramento. They have two sons, Harold L. and Frank S. As superintendent of the experimental station, Mr. Mills has charge of University
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Co-operative experimental work in Southern California. He is considered one of the best informed authorities on agricultural and horticultural subjects in this vicinity and has won the confidence of the farmers and fruit growers, with whom he is working.
W. P. McCAIN, of Chino, was born at St. Joe, Missouri, February 21, 1854, the only son of Nelson and Dovey McCain. His father, who was a pioneer of Buchanan county, Missouri, came to California in 1886, and located at Long Beach, where he still resides, now aged seventy-three. Mr. McCain was raised on a farm in Missouri but later learned the trade of harness maker. He has now returned to farming and is a successful fruit grower and dairyman on the Chino grant.
He married Miss Addas A., daughter of Howard M. Thompson, a well known citizen of Gallatin, Missouri. They have ten children-seven sons and three daughters.
CHARLES A. ROUSE, of San Bernardino, was born at Davenport, Iowa, January 21, 1862. He is the son of Franklin Rouse, a native of New York and since 1885 a resident of Riverside, and Margaret Davis, a native of Wales, who emigrated to America with her parents when a very small child, and died in 1881, leaving a family of five children of whom Charles A. Rouse is the youngest.
Charles A. Rouse learned the cooper's trade in his native city and followed that busi- ness after he came to California. Later, he was employed by the Southern Pacific Rail- way Co., in their transportation department at Colton, and he afterwards held a similar position with the Santa Fe Railway Co., in San Bernardino. In 1893, Mr. Rouse was nominated on the Independent Republican ticket for Sheriff of San Bernardino county and elected by a good majority. Mr. Ronse has for many years been known as an expert rifle and pistol shot.
November 27, 1885, Mr. Rouse married Miss Emma Brown, daughter of John Brown, Sr. (deceased), a well known and respected pioneer hunter and trapper of San Bernar- dino county. Their residence on D street is one of the attractive homes of the city
J. P. JONES, of Halleck, was born in Hart county, Kentucky, September 25, 1844, the son of Ezekiel Jones, a pioneer of Kentucky. He lived at home until 1867 when he removed to Missouri and remained five years. In 1876 he came to California and after a few months in San Luis Obispo county located in the vicinity of Santa Ana and engaged in farming. In 1881, he removed to Oro Grande and since that time has been occupied in mining and in stock raising. He has a fine ranch of 240 acres and also owns property in Oro Grande and in Los Angeles. He has been interested in many mining ventures and has developed some of the best mining properties in the neighborhood of Oro Grande.
Mr. Jones was married in 1868 to Margaret P. Welborn, of Monroe county, Ken- tucky. They have four living children, Virgil J., Vernone E., Inez Adele, and Mary Mar- gnerite.
HOWARD J. MARTIN, of Victor, was born in Greenfield, Franklin county, Mass- achusetts, March 1, 1849. In 1862, his family came to California and his step-father, S. P. Johnson, located in the mining district of El Dorado county, where he carried on a butchering business, supplying mining camps with meat packed to the camps on mules.
Howard J. Martin, possessed a talent for music and became a proficient musician. es- pecially on the violin. He has been a member of varions orchestras and played brass in- struments and drums in different bands. He came to Victor and in 1902 was elected Justice of Peace for that district. He was married in Nevada in 1870 and has one daughter, Mrs. Emma Rockenfield, of San Francisco.
SAMUEL M. LITTLE, of Del Rosa, was born on the Big Sandy river in Kentucky. His father, S. W. Little, was a native of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and a glassblower by trade. Later he operated trading boats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He was one of the founders of the town of Effingham, Illinois. About 1858, he located in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he engaged in the grain buying business. He came to California about 1884 and purchased 3,000 acres of land near the Cahuenga Pass, in Los Angeles county. Later he purchased a tract of 600 acres north of San Bernardino. Mr. Little is now eighty- five years of age and is still actively engaged in business. He is the vice-president of the Portland Cement Co., operating at Colton. Four of his children are now living, Mellie, Mrs. Dr. W. H. Thompson, of San Bernardino; Samnel M., San Bernardino; Lulu, Mrs. C. Shaffner, and Anna, Mrs. E. J. Curson, both of Los Angeles.
Samnel M. Little was engaged in the manufacture of iron water pipe, in Los An- geles, for abont eight years after coming to California. In 1897, he located at Del Rosa
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and later removed to the city of San Bernardino. He was married in 1881, at Lincoln, Ne- braska, to Miss Della, daughter of Charles Oshorn, a Quaker preacher and missionary. They have five children, Bessie, Mrs. William Haehl, of Del Rosa; Charles O., shipping clerk at Colton Cement Works; Marie, Samuel W., and Donna Dewey.
SYLVANUS THURMAN, of Bluff Lake, San Bernardino Mountains, was born April 5, 1850, in Taney county, Missouri, the son of Elisha R. and Eliza Philips Thurman, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Tennessee. The family came to California in 1860, and the father lived during his latter years near Downey. Los Angeles county, where he died in 1900 at the age of eighty-one.
Sylvanus came to this state with his family and lived for six years in Amador county and for three years in Jackson county, Oregon. He came to Los Angeles county at the age of nineteen and pursued farming and stock-raising. About 1882 he located at Red-
MR. AND MRS. SYLVANUS THURMAN
lands, being one of the first settlers there. He located land in the San Bernardino moun- tains twenty-six miles northeast of Redlands and two miles southeast of Bear Valley dam. This was timber land with a fine growth of pine, fir, tamarack, etc. He has estab- lished a resort known as Bluff Lake here and has accommodations for about forty guests. This is one of the most delightful of the mountain resorts, offering pure air and mountain water, picturesque scenery, hunting, fishing, etc. Mr. Thurman also has a fine property of 320 acres of fruit and grazing land near Crafton.
Mr. Thurman was married in Redlands, in 1892, to Abbie Pillsbury, a native of Hamp- stead, New Hampshire. She is a graduate of Mt. Holyoke Seminary.
L. S. SCOTT, editor of the Times-Index, San Bernardino, is a native of Indiana, and a life-long and successful newspaper man. He began his career as "devil" in a news- paper office at Marion, Indiana, his first experience as publisher heing at West Milton, Ohio. He founded the National Printer-Journalist at Indianapolis and placed it on a firm foot-
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ing. After he sold it out it was moved to Chicago, and is still a standard publication and organ of the National Editorial Association. During 1890-91 he was superintendent of the government printing office at Guatamala, Central America. In 1892, he purchased the Signal at Crowley, Louisiana. This was a weekly publication, but Mr. Scott added a daily and later established the Rice Journal and Gulf Coast Farmer, selling the business in 1903 for $30,000. During this period he was for a time also owner of the Daily and Weekly Times at Jennings, Louisiana, and the Tribune at Rayne, Louisiana. He came to California and in 1904 purchased a controlling interest in the Times-Index, and is president of the corporation.
Hon. J. J. HANFORD, formerly president of the City Board of Trustees of San Ber- nardino, was born in New York City, June 12, 1845. He was the son of Peter Hanford. of English descent, born in Ireland, and Lucy Henny Hanford, also born in Ireland.
J. J. Hanford received his education in the public schools of New York City and served his apprenticeship as a moulder in the old Novelty Engine Works, at that time the largest of the kind in New York City, and probably the largest in America. During the Cival War this manufactory was engaged in constructing marine and monitor engines for the United States government. Mr. Hanford came direct from New York City to Los Angeles, California, in 1882. He engaged in land speculation which, however, was not productive of marked success, making and losing money as did many others in those days of fluctuating values. Subsequently he entered the employ of the late M. S. Baker, pro- prietor of the Baker Iron Works, corner of Second and Main streets, now the center of the city, the first foundry established in Los Angeles. In 1889, he went to San Diego, and there manufactured the ponderous machinery and heavy castings used in the construction of the San Diego Cable Railway; also of the iron work for the Keating Block, Klein Block and Fisher Opera House. February, 1892, Mr. Hanford removed to San Bernar- dino where he engaged in business for himself, beginning by securing contracts from the Santa Fe Railway Co. He secured a location for his present works in 1895, starting in September, of that year with a capacity for casting ten tons of iron per day.
Mr. Hanford was elected City Trustee April, 1899, and chosen president of the Board. He is a man of progressive ideas. He has made a good executive officer and may be al- ways found in the advance of reform movements.
Mr. Hanford has been twice married. His first wife was Sarah F. Beamis, who died in Brooklyn, New York, 1875. leaving one child, a son, W. J. Hanford,of San Bernardin ). In 1876 Mr. Hanford married Miss Joanna Gregg.
THOMAS PRADER, of Chino, is a native of Southeast Switzerland, and was born near the national line of Italy, April 21, 1863. He was reared to the occupation of cattle herder and passed his boyhood and youth in the highest and most picturesque regions of the Alpine mountain regions. His duties were of such a nature as to afford him time for study which he improved with his books and he has acquired a large fund of general and useful in- formation.
He came to California in 1889, spent some time in Antelope valley, and then came south to Pomona and Chino, where he owns a ten acre fruit ranch and is accounted a re- liable citizen.
WILLIAM P. MARTIN, of Rialto, was born at Princeton, Gibson county, Indiana, June 7. 1851. He was the son of Leroy and Nancy Hargrove Martin, both natives of Gib- son county. His father was a merchant and engaged in business at Rushville, Indiana. In 1865, the family removed to Henderson, Kentucky, where Mr. Martin conducted a gen- eral merchandise business until 1870 when he went to Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, and en- gaged in the cattle business. He lived there until he came to California. In 1883, he re- moved to California and settled on a fruit ranch at Eagle Rock valley. Los Angeles county where he died in 1887. aged 74. Mrs. Martin survives him and lives with her son, William, at Rialto.
William P. Martin received his education at the public schools of Gibson county, In- diana, and Henderson county, Kentucky, and at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana. He first clerked in his father's store and was engaged with him in the cattle business in Kansas. He was one of the organizers of the Cottonwoods Falls bank, a director, and from 1883 to 1887, its cashier. In 1883, he was elected County Treasurer of Chase Co. Kansas, and in 1885 was re-elected although he was a democrat, and the district was strongly republican. Mr. Martin came to California in 1888 and was among the first to buy prop- erty in the Rialto tract, purchasing 138 acres of the old Semi-Tropic Co. He also pur
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
chased a citrus grove of 20 acres. He was for a short time in the grocery business with Chas. Bohannon. He was one of the organizers of the Citizen's Water Co., of Rialto, and was its first president and its manager.
Mr. Martin married Miss Lorinda A. Kellogg in 1876. They have three children, Frank, a machinist employed by the San Bernardino Electric Light Co .; Mary and Wil- liam Martin. Mr. and Mrs. Martin attend the First Presbyterian church of San Bernar- dino and Mr. Martin is a member of Phelix Lodge, I. O. O. F., Strong, City, Kansas, and of the Knights and Ladies of Security, Cottonwood Falls.
FRANK B. MARTIN, of San Bernardino, was born at Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, August 5, 1877. He is the son of W. P. and Lorinda (Kellogg) Martin. The family came from Cottonwood Falls to San Bernardino county October 13, 1892, and located at Rialto, where the father has charge of the Bloomington Water System, and is the owner of several large fruit orchards in that section of the country.
Frank P. Martin received a common school education and later attended Howard's Business College in San Francisco, graduating from that institution. He was first em- ployed in connection with his father's business on the stock ranch. Since coming to Cal- ifornia he has at times attended to the orchard business of his father, while the latter made extended business trips east.
In 1896, Mr. Martin crossed the Pacific Ocean and visited Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. Returning to San Francisco he made another ocean voyage to Cook's Inlet, Alaska, coming back to San Francisco in 1897. A few months later he engaged with Wilcox & Rose of Colton, as plumber and gas engine man. From there he came to his present position in San Bernardino, with the San Bernardino Electric and Gas Co., in charge of the city lighting plant.
Jannary I, 1900, Mr. Martin married Miss Grace Knapp, of Los Angeles. Mr. Martin is a member of the San Bernardino Fire Department, having joined the organization as "call man." He is a member of the First Presbyterian church of this city, and also of the Knights and Ladies of Security.
W. B. POZELL, of San Bernardino, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 25, 1870. He is the son of Frederick Pohzehl, a farmer, and Fredericka Guenther Pohzehl. His father died January 15, 1904, and his mother now resides with her son .His parents had a family of three children ; one a daughter, Ida, married M. D. Hamburg who is now em- ployed by the Gill Lumber Co.,and Lucy J. is the wife of H. C. Hamer, of Highland.
W. B. Pozell attended school at North Branch, Minnesota, where his father owned a farm. The family came to California in 1888 and located in San Bernardino and the young man was employed for a time in the old mill at 4th and B streets, then operated by Thomas Smart. Later he engaged in ranching and then in a truck and transfer business. In 1898, he started the Santa Fe City Omnibus line and in 1899 put on the Rabel Springs Omnibus. Later he went into the carriage and implement business and he is now employed in the horse clipping business.
J. P. ADOLPH PETSCH writes of himself: "I was born in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany, August 12, 1852, and was educated in the public schools and in a business col- lege. When in 1866 the Free city of. Frankfurt lost its independence and was annexed by the kingdom of Prussia I felt, boy as I was, that government without the consent of the governed, was an outrage to which I could not submit. In 1869, rather than bow to the newly imposed degredation of military service. I left, as a political exile, the home in which iny family had been prominent for six hundred years.
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