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 91
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
THOMAS W. DUCKWORTH, ESQ., of San Bernardino, was born at Morgantown, N.
C., December 20, 1860. He is the son of Walter and Elizabeth Gates Duckworth. His father was a planter in North Carolina, where he at- tended the public schools and later Rutherford College. In 1885 he went to Kansas and was there employed on a cattle ranch, where he remained nearly two years. Mr. Duckworth came to San Bernardino in 1887. His first two years in California were devoted to house and general painting business, after which he entered the law office of Harris & Gregg, where for three years he pursued the regular course of study preparatory to admission to the bar. He was licensed on the 4th day of April, 1893, to practice in the Supreme Court of the State of California, and started in business for himself, occupying an office with George B. Cole. He was ap- pointed deputy district attorney of San Bernardino county, with J. W. Curtis, and on January 1, 1899, comenced his duties in that office, which position he now occupies. Mr. Duckworth is a prominent member of Token Lodge, I. O. O. F., has held all the important offices, and has been chosen five times as grand repre- . T. W. DUCKWORTH sentative of his lodge. H eis a member of the Method- ist Episcopal church South, of this city.
HENRY W. NISBET, of San Bernardino, was born in Milledgeville, Ga., May 10, 1865, the son of Edwin A. and Henrietta Waters Nisbet. He is of illustrious Southern ancestry on the maternal side, and on the paternal side numbers an uncle, Eugennus Nisbet, justice of the supreme court of Georgia. His father, E. A. Nis- bet, brought his family to California in 1867, and was one of the proprietors of "The Guardian," an early newspaper published in San Bernardino county.
Henry W. Nisbet is a self-made man, beginning his battle with the world when but thirteen years of age as boy in a grocery store, then as elevator boy in San Francisco for two years, and following the last. obtained a position in the Anglo-American Bank of San Francisco, where he continued three years. Re- turning to San Bernardino, he entered the office of Byron Waters in 1884 and began the study of law. In 1886 he was admitted to practice by the supreme court ; in 1887 was appointed assistant district attorney under Col. Paris-the only political office he has ever held.
Mr. Nisbet married Miss Naomi Farley, of Iowa, September, 1896. They have one child, Henry W. Nisbet, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Nisbet attend the Presbyte- rian church, of which Mrs. Nisbet is a member.
JOHN E. LIGHT, ESQ., of Redlands, was born in Iowa, January 16, 1866. He is the son of John and Phoebe W. Miller Light. His father came to Cali- formia early in the fifties and engaged in gold mining, but at the end of two years returned to Iowa. He received his early education in the public schools of HENRY W. NISBET Cresco, Iowa, where he took a High School course ; and later attended the Law Department of the State University of Iowa. In order to continue his law studies he entered a law office and while so engaged taught school winters, until admitted to the bar. After admission to practice he removed to Montana, where he lived four
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
years, coming thence to San Bernardino county in 1804. He was admitted to practice in San Bernardino county in 1895, and opened a law office, but one year later became interested in the Pioneer Abstract Company of San Bernardino county, and after the arrival of his brother-in-law, J. L. Mack, the company was reorganized, Mr. Light be- coming president and Mr. Mack secretary and treasurer; the stock of said company being largely in their control.
Mr. Light married Miss Susie Mack in 1890. They are the parents of one child -- Robert Mack Light. Mrs. Light is a graduate of the Iowa State Normal School at Cedar Falls, Iowa, and at date of marriage was principal of the High School at Lyons, Iowa. After their removal to Montana, Mrs. Light was elected county superintendent of schools for Custer county, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Light are members of the M. E. church, Red- lands. Mr. Light is a member of the Y. M. C. A., also a Knight of Pythias.
JAMES HUTCHINGS, of San Bernardino, was born in Ray county, Missouri, March 4, 1863. He was a son of Hovey and Eliza Kincaid Hutchings, the father of Scotch, the mother of English descent. The father twice married and raised a family of eleven chil - dren, of which James is the youngest.
In 1865, the family crossed the plains with ox-team and located at El Monte, Cal. The mother died and the children of the last marriage returned to the old Missouri home. There James Hutchings grew to manhood, and obtained a common school education. At the age of nineteen he engaged in teaching and followed that occupation three years. He then came to California and settled in Inyo county, where in 1886-87 he studied law. In 1890, he was admitted to practice at the bar of Inyo county. After practicing two years he came to San Bernardino and formed a partnership with R. E. Bledsoe, Esq., which continued two years. Since the termination of this partnership, Mr. Hutchings has made a specialty of water litigation, and has been retained as counsel in some of the most important cases of that character brought in the courts of San Bernardino county. He is a prominent member of the local Republican party. In 1896, Mr. Hutchings married Miss Florence, daughter of Dr. H. H. Guth- rie, of San Bernardino. They are the parents of two children, Florence M. and James K.
JESSE WILLIAM CURTIS, junior member of the jaw firm of Curtis & Curtis, is a native son of the Golden West, having been born in the City of San 'Bernardino. on the 18th day of July, 1865. He at - tended the public schools of this city until he was seventeen years of age, when he entered the Univer- JAMES HUTCHINGS sity of Southern California, at Los Angeles, and was graduated therefrom in 1887. He then commenced the study of law in the office of Curtis & Otis, and in the fall of 1889 entered the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and graduated in 1891. Returning to San Bernardino he commenced the practice of law with his father (W. J. Curtis) and F. F. Oster, under the firm name of Curtis, Oster & Curtis. This partnership continued until January 1, 1897, when Mr. Oster retired from the firm to assume the duties of Superior Judge, to which office he was elected Novem- ber 3, 1896. Mr. Curtis then entered into a co-partnership with his father, under the firm name of Curtis & Curtis.
On June 25, 1892, Mr. Curtis was married to Miss Ida Seymour, daughter of ex-Sen . ator E. C. Seymour, and two children have brought additional happiness to their home.
Mr. Curtis was elected district attorney in 10oo. and served one term. He is a mem- ber of the order of Native Sons, an active worker in the Baptist church, and one of the most prominent and reliable young lawyers of the San Bernardino bar.
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
FRANK C. PRESCOTT, of Redlands, was born at Ottawa, Lasalle county, Illinois, November 15, 1859, and attended the public schools of that city. In 1876 he entered the telegraph business. His uncle, George B. Prescott, was the first general electrician of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and one of the earliest of writers on the subejct of telegraphy, his works being on numerous branches of the science and running into many editions. In the telegraph business, General Prescott occupied many important positions. He was manager of the San Diego office of the Western Union in 1887, chief operator of the Oakland office front 1878 to 1882, when the relaying business handled there priod to the laying of the cables across the Bay made a large force necessary. During the stirring times of the Geronimo campaign in Arizona he was manager of the Tombstone office and there formed the acquaintance of General Lawton. This acquaintance ripened into a life- long friendship, which in after years was useful to the one-time telegrapher in military activities.
Fifteen years of telegraphy, some of them spent in working the heaviest overland press wires out of San Francisco and Los Angeles, were broken by one year, 1883-4, in the newspaper business, as editor of the Santa Barbara Daily Independent.
The law, however, which from the beginning had been his ambition as a profession, claimed his best efforts and had been his study during all the years of telegraphy and journalism. At the April term, 1888, of the Supreme Court of California, at Los Angeles, he was admitted to practice law. He at once entered the office of John D. Bicknell, where he remained a year. Later he entered into a law partnership with Hon. R. B. Carpenter. Upon leaving Los Angeles in 1892, General Prescott settled at Redlands. He was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Ninth Judicial Circuit July 1, 1889, and in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of California on September 16, 1901. He has participated in some of the heaviest litigation in San: Bernardino county, and particularly in suits growing out of the orange industry. Since Jannary, 1903, as a member of the firm of Prescott & Morris his office has been in San. Bernardino. Prior to starting for the Philippines, he was city attorney of Redlands.
General Prescott has been an active Republican all his life, and has done yeoman' service in every campaign. In 1895 he was the law clerk of the judiciary committee of, the assembly in the legislature of the state of California. The duties of this position: brought him into touch with the greater part of the more technical points in law-making. In November, 1902, he was elected assemblyman of the Seventy-sixth assembly district, representing San Bernardino county. As legislator he was a member of the most import- ant committees, including Ways and Means, Judiciary, Military, and State Hospitals, also chairman of the Committee on State Library. In November, 1904, he was renominated by acclamation for the same office by the Republican party. He served as Speaker of the House during the XXXVIth Assembly.
General Prescott began his military career as a private in the Oakland Light Cavalry, unattached, N. G. C., in 1878. He assisted in the formation and was the First Lieutenant of the Redlands Guard, an independent company, which was mustered into the National Guard as Company G, Ninth Infantry, June 3, 1893. In 1898, when the Seventh Regiment went to San Francisco and was mustered into the United States Volunteers, Major Pres- cott's battalion won especial notice for its fine discipline and drilling. Although the Sev- enth Regiment was not taken to the Philippines, Major Prescott secured a commission as Captain in the Fyrto-third Infantry, U. S. V., and saw active service during the Philippine insurrection. He was then recommended for promotion as Major of volunteers by brevet for meritorious services, both military and civil. While in the Philippines his legal abili- tes were recognized, he was apponted Provost Judge of the Island of Samar, and was called upon to render legal services in a number of instances. He was detailed on the staff
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
of General Hughes, and made supervisor of internal revenue for the Department of the Visayas. A fuller account of General Prescott's services and those of his regiment in act- ive field work in the Philippines as well as of the Seventh Regiment, will be found in the military history of the county.
In the fall of 1903, Major Prescott was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in command of the First Brigade, N. G. C., by Governor Pardee, which rank he still holds.
1854.
FRANK A. LEONARD, of San Bernardino, was born in Watertown, Wis., December 7, He was the son of Ira E. and Maria Shephard Leonard. He has one brother, W. E. Leonard, a San Bernardino mer- chant; one, a minister of the gospel in the state of New York, and a sister living in Aspen, Colo. When he was seven years of age his par- ents removed to Boulder, Colo., and there his school days were passed and he attended the State University, Io- cated in that city. Following this he attended the St. Louis Law School and graduated from that institution in 1886. Immediately afterward he began the practice of law in Socorro, N. M., where he remained three years. then came to San Bernardino ' in July, 1889. The following Novem- ber he formed a partnership with H. W. Goodcell, which continued until July, 1896, when Mr. Goodcell removed to Oakland, Cal. Mr. Goodcell has since returned to San Bernardino and the partnership has been renewed. Mr. Leonard was admitted to practice in all the courts of the state in 1890, and has been very sucessful in his profession.
FRANK A. LEONARD
September 17, 1891, he married Miss Fannie E. Sawyer, of Boulder. Colo. They are the parents of three children-James, Marion and Albert. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard are members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Leonard is a member of the order of Woodmen of the World.
ZEBULON BROWNLOW STUART, now of Los Angeles, was born in Atlanta, Ga., September 13, 1862. His parents were both Virginians, his father, Wm. H. Stuart, of Scotch ancestry, and his mother, Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Scates. His father has for many years been employed in the offices of the Santa Fe system at Topeka, Kans. Zebulon B. Stuart spent his boyhood on a farm in Indiana. working for his "keep" and attending the district school at times. He also attended Spiceland Academy, Ind., for a time, but did not grad- uate on account of poor health. In 1882 he went to Topeka, Kans., and secured employment in the engineering department of the Santa Fe Railway Co. and here learned the profession of engineering and surveying. In 1885 he came to California and entered the employment of the Southern California Railway as an engineer and surveyor. He was elected county sur- veyor of San Bernardino county in 1886 and served one term. In 1889 he was elected as- sessor of the city of San Bernardino. In 1893 Mr. Stuart was admitted to practice law by the Supreme Court of California, and since that time has been successfully engaged in that profession. He is now located in Los Angeles, and besides his law practice is extensively engaged in mining.
October 31, 1885, he was married to Mary M. Burton, daughter of William and Harriet Burton, who was born in San Bernardino, August 12, 1868. They have one son, Walter Stanton Stuart.
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
CRAMER B. MORRIS, E'sq., was born in Manhattan, Kansas, August 20, 1873. He was the son of John Milton Morris and Helen A. Morris. His early education was begun in San Bernardino, and later he attended the State University at Seattle, Wash .; graduating from the Law Department of the University of Mich- igan, in 1892. Since January, 1893, Mr. Cramer lias practiced law in San Bernardino. Mr. Cramer is a member of the order of Woodmen of the World.
CHARLES T. GIFFORD, of Redlands, was born at Rochester, N. Y., June 24, 1851, and spent his boyhood in that city, in Syracuse and in Buffalo. He was educated in the public schools and academy and at Cornell University. After leaving college Mr. Gifford clerked in various establishments and was in the Buffalo office of the Michigan Central road for three years. Afterward he was head clerk in the office of Felthausen & Whittet, steam fitters and deal- ers in plumbers' supplies.
In July. 1888, Mr. Gifford came to San Francisco and was employed by Geo. W. Meade, then in business in Fresno. He came to Redlands in 1889 and entered the office of Judson & Brown. A little later he went to New York City with an exhibit of citrus fruits, etc., from San Bernardino county. On his return to Cali- fornia he became "Mayor of Alessandro" and had charge of receiving and distributing the immense quan tities of iron and vitrified pipe used by the Bear Val- ley Irrigation Co., in constructing its lines to Moreno CRAMER B. MORRIS and Alessandro. In July, 1894, Mr. Gifford returned to Redlands for a permanent residence. In 1896 he was elected secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. At the same time he acted as deputy county clerk. Later Mr. Gifford engaged in the insurance and loan business with an office in the First National Bank building. He is a notary public. In 1902 he was elected Justice of the Peace for Redlands district. July 19, 1891, Mr. Gifford married Mrs. Emma Frances Hale.
PHYSICIANS.
WILLIAM R. FOX, M. D., late of Colton, was born in Bedford county, Penn., June 17, 1832. He was educated at the Witherspoon Institute, Butler, Penn., and studied medicine at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and at the Chicago Medical College, where he took his degree. He settled first in Channahon, Ill., and here was married to Miss Sarah A. Eames in 1859. Later he practiced medicine in Wilmington, Ill., from which place he came to California in 1869 and settled at San Leandro. There in 1872 his wife died. In 1873 he first came to San Bernardino and was so delighted with the climate and the country that he sold his home and fine practice in San Leandro and in the spring of 1874 came to San Ber- nardino with his family. He had recently married Miss Minnie A., daughter of H. M. Bene- dict, of Rochester, N. Y. He entered upon the practice of his profession and purchased & home in the town of San Bernardino. Soon afterward he was so impressed with the beauty of the location that he bought land on what is now known as Colton Terrace and joined with the company which purchased the Slover Mountain tract and started the town of Colton. He continued his practice in the town, driving back and forth until the distance traveled would] have more than encircled the globe. Dr. Fox at once identified himself with the Presbyterian1 church, then just organized in San Bernardino. When the church was formed in Colton he was the first elder and did much to maintain the good work. He was foremost in promoting all the enterprises of the new town, being one of the owners of the Union block and develop- ing orange groves to the. west of town. For several years he gave up his San Bernardino office, doing only consulting practice, with an office in Colton. A few years before his death
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.
he visited Europe in company with the president of the First National Bank of Colton, of which institution he was vice-president and a director.
On December 12, 1891, after a brief attack of pneumonia, he passed away, leaving a wife, one son and a daughter. He was buried in Hermosa cemetery, west of Colton.
DR. HENDERSON PITTMAN, coroner of San Bernardino county, was born in Henry county, Tenn., Dec. 25, 1840. His father, Thos. Pittman, was a native of Alabama and a cotton planter. Although holding his plantation in Tennessee, he was a pioneer by instinct and made numerous trips to the frontier in Texas. Tennessee and Arkansas. The Civil war dis- arranged his business affairs and freed his slaves, sixty in number. He located his fani- ily in Preble county, Ohio, about 1856. He died in East Tennessee in 1865.
The son attended the district schools in his neighborhood and farmed until 1878, when he went to Indiana and commenced reading medicine with Dr. N. F. Canady, and later attended lectures in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1879. 80-81. He graduated from Pulte Homeopath- ical Medical College in 1881. He practiced at Hagerstown, Ind., and Jamestown, N. D., until 1889, then went to Washington and in 1890 to Arizona, where he acted for a year as physician on a Colorado river Indian reservation. He practiced in Long Beach until 1893, since which time he has been located in San Bernardino county. In 1902 he was elected coroner on the Republican ticket by a large majority.
DR. HOELL TYLER, of Redlands, was born in Claremont, N. H., December 19, 1855. He graduated from Stephens High School in 1876 and from Dartmouth Medical College in 1880. The following year, after a civil service examination, he was appointed assistant phy sician in the New York City hospital for the DR. HENDERSON PITTMAN insane, on Blackwell's Island. In 1885 he was promoted to the position of first assistant phy- sician in this institution. In 1886 he accepted the position of first assistant physician in the lowa hospital for the insane, at Independence, where he remained one year. He was then appointed assistant medical superintendent of the same institution in which he began his prac- tice, and retained the position until forced to resign on account of failing health, in 1894.
After much travel in search of a favorable climate, he located at Mentone in 1895 and here found renewed strength. In 1898 he removed to Redlands and resumed the practice of his profession, which he still continues. In 1883 Dr. Tyler married Miss Helen A., daughter of Silas H. C. Newcomb, of Passborough, Nova Scotia,
DR. COSTON P. CLEMMONS, formerly of Highland, was a native of North Carolina, born in Davidson county, January 19, 1817. His father, Benton Clemmons, was a cousin of Thos. H. Benton and a native of England. He was extensively engaged in mercantile busi . ness. He married Martha Dillon, the daughter of a wealthy family and cousin of Dollie Payne, the wife of President James Madison. After marriage he freed a large number of slaves that came to him from the estate of his wife.
Dr. Clemmons grew up in North Carolina and attended school at Salem, Virginia, and in 1848 graduated from the surgical and medical department of the Louisville Medical Uni- versity. In 1849 he started from Pike county, Ill., as a physician with Captain Dinsmore's train of 100 wagons, and crossed the plains to California, where he mined on the Feather and American rivers. After a stay of two years he returned east to Pike county, and in 1858 set- tled at Carrollton, Ill., where for thirty years he practiced medicine and also carried on .. drug and grocery business. In 1888 he again came to California and located at Highland, where he died in May, 1890.
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
Dr. Clemmons was married December 16, 1851, to Miss Matilda, daughter of Hon. Sam- uel Thomas, an extensive farmer and land owner of Green county. He was a native of South Carolina and a pioneer of Illinois, also a veteran of the war of 1812.
Dr. and Mrs. Clemmons have five children-Emma, Mrs. Dr. Lindsay; Thomas B .; Mary (deceased), Charles (deceased), and Eliza.
DR. WILLIAM M. SMITH, late of Redlands, was born in Patterson, N. J., July 18, 1826, of English and Dutch descent. After obtaining an academic education, he taught school for a time and then began the study of medicine. He graduated from the Castleton Medical College in 1846. He practiced in New York state for a num- ber of years, then went to New York city for experience in hospital and dis- pensary work, after which he resumed his practice. In 1856 Dr. Smith was elected to the state assembly, re-elected in 1859, and sent as a delegate in 1860 . to the Republican national convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. In 1861 Dr. Smith or- ganized a company of volunteers, and in October of that year was commis- sioned surgeon of the Eighty-fifth New York volunteers, and was detailed as a member of the board of medical exam- iners at Washington during the follow- ing year. Dr. Smith participated in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Sav- age Station, Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, and afterward was in the engagements at Suffolk and Franklin, in Virginia, and Kingston, White Hall and Golds- burg, in North Carolina. He resigned his commission in 1863 and resumed his practice at Angelica, Allegheny county, N. Y. In December, 1872, Dr. Smith was appointed surgeon-general of the state of New York, with rank of DR. WILLIAM M. SMITH brigadier-general, on the staff of Gov- ernor Dix. In 1876 he was elected delegate from the Twenty-seventh congressional district to the Republican national conven- tion at Cincinnati.
March 24, 1880, Dr. Smith was commissioned health officer of the port of New York, which office he held until February 3, 1892. On his retirement from this office, after the longest term of service in its history, resolutions were adopted by the Chamber of Com- merce, the Board of Commissioners of Quarantine, the Maratime Association and the man- agers of ocean steamship lines, for "his intelligence, energy, courtesy and efficiency in having so discharged the onerous and responsible duties as not only to arrest at our port epidemic diseases from abroad, but for having so exercised his functions, practically autocratic, as to bear with the least hardship upon commercial interests." These resolutions also commend Dr. Smith for having adopted a system of vaccination for emigrants before arrival at our ports, thus preventing in nearly every case the development of disease in this country, and for his efforts to free commerce and navigation from burdensome and expensive quarantine meas- ures by the intelligent enforcement of rules calling for watchfulness and care, and for the observation of certain requirements at the port of departure and during the voyage by the officers and crews of vessels.
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