Among the older settlers and well-known residents of Riverside is the subject of this sketch. Mr. Puls came to Riverside in 1876, seeking a home, and in the same year purchased a ten-acre tract on Bandini Avenue, about one-half mile west of Brockton Avenue, and commenced his horticultural pursuits. In 1878 he purchased five acres adjoining his original tract. His was the first house built in this locality, and he may well be called a pioneer of that section of the colony. He has each year added to his improvements; taking up many of the deciduous trees first planted and replaced them with citrus fruits. He has now orange groves and vineyards that he has just reasons to be proud of. His eight acres of orange trees are some of the first in the colony, and these trees that are in bearing are remarkably prolific in yield. In 1889 the orange crop on five acres of his orchard sold on the trees for K, 262. Four acres of his land are in Bartlett pears that give satisfactory return. Two acres are devoted to raisin grapes. Mr. Puls is not devoting all his attention to his home place, for he is the owner of a thirty-acre tract one-half mile west of the North Cucamonga Railroad Station. He is rapidly improving this land, and is raising a nursery stock, which will be sufficient to plant the whole acreage in choice budded fruit, and has a fine vineyard of fifteen acres on the place that give a large yield of raisin grapes. Mr. Puls has been identified with the growth and building up of Riverside, and in addition to his horticultural industries was from 1876 to 1883 engaged as a carpenter and builder. Mr. Puls is a native of Prussia born in 1846. In 1851 his parents, Gotleib and Yetta Puls, immigrated to the United States and located in Chicago. There he received his education and learned his trade, being apprenticed at the age of seventeen years. He worked as a journeyman in Chicago until 1871, and then spent about two years at Little Rock, Arkansas. Re-turning to Illinois he located at Evanston, near Chicago, and was there engaged as a builder until he came to Riverside.
In 1875 he married Miss Mary Eliza Huse, a native of Maine; she is a daughter of Abel W. Huse, now a resident of Riverside. From the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Puls there is one child, Winnie Inez, who was born in Riverside. Mr. Puls has ever taken a deep interest in the prosperity and progress of this place. He is a director and member of the Board of Trade, and prominent in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a member of the lodge and encampment, and a charter member of the last named. In politics he is a stanch Republican.
