Prof. Charles Russell Paine, of Redlands, is a native of Massachusetts, born in Barnstable September 9, 1839, a son of John and Lucy (Crowell) Paine. He is one of a family of six children. He was graduated at Amherst College, and has taught in Maine, Rhode Island, Ohio, Indiana and California. He came to this latter State in 1870 and taught school in Riverside. He also taught the first school in Colton. In 1873 he established a private school in San Bernardino and in 1876 was elected County Superintendent of Schools. He subsequently served as principal of the city schools two terms.
Prof. Paine and his father-in-law, Dr. Craig, came to California to raise fruit in Riverside. They drove from Los Angeles and took up eighty acres of barren land, on which they built rude houses, and then went back to Los Angeles for their families, and theirs were the first families to live on the lower plain. The Professor tells an amusing incident which occurred just as they were crossing the Santa Ana river, how that his brother-in-law, Scipio Craig, now editor of the Citrograph, fell out of the wagon into the water. Also, how later he and Scipio had raised a crop of corn on the island in the river, and when it was almost ready to gather the Mexican cattle invaded the corn and barley, and they could only go in with wagons and haul off as much as they could, and let the cattle destroy the rest. The Professor can tell many interesting stories of pioneer life, which, could they all be written, would make in themselves a whole volume. In 1877 he purchased 186 acres located in Crafton, and has since given his attention to his large fruit interests. He was married in 1863 at Muncie, Indiana, to Miss Mary E. Craig, a daughter of Dr. Craig, who is well known here.