California

Biography of Stewart Montgomery Wall

Stewart Montgomery Wall, a California pioneer of 1852, was born in Virginia in 1834, and moved with his parents to southwestern Missouri when a lad five years of age and there resided until he came to the Pacific Coast. During the gold excitement of 1850, his father, William Wall, came via Santa Fe and Yuma with his two oldest sons to California and spent a year in the mines up about Auburn in search of the coveted yellow dust. In 1851 the old gentleman returned to Missouri and the following spring started for the Golden State with the rest of … Read more

Biography of John Harrison

John Harrison, senior partner of the grocery firm of Harrison & Pace, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, November 21, 1845, and is the youngest of three sons of Parker and Mrs. Agnes Harrison, Nee McMurray. He was educated in New York City, and at an early age became associated with an elder brother in the grocery business. On March 4, 1880, he married Miss Emma M. Bangerter, a native of New York, who was born on the day Abraham Lincoln was first elected President, in November 1860. They came to California on their wedding tour and remained. Before coming … Read more

Biography of Charles J. Perkins

Charles J. Perkins, attorney-at-law and an active member of the Southern California bar, came to the State in 1883, and the following year located in practice in San Bernardino. He was born in the Empire State in 1856, but his father, F. J. Perkins, moved with his family from New York to Illinois in the fall of that year, and purchased a farm, on which they settled. In 1877 young Perkins started out in railroad business as an employee in the operating department of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. At that time train robberies on the western frontier were … Read more

Biography of Theron H. Palmer

Theron H. Palmer, architect and builder, and a worthy representative of the business men of Southern California, was born February 14, 1849, in Joliet, Illinois, to which place his parents emigrated from New York State several years previous. In his early childhood they removed to the young city of Chicago, where young Palmer attended school, and upon entering his teens started in to learn the drug business. Soon after the war of the Rebellion broke out, though considerably under the required age, fired by youthful patriotism, he attempted to enter the army, and was twice thwarted in his purposes by … Read more

Biography of John P. Clum

John P. Clum, of San Bernardino, was born in Claverack, Columbia County, New York, in 1851, and his childhood and youth were passed on the banks of the historic Hudson. At the age of nineteen he graduated at the Hudson River Institute, and entered the freshman class of Rutger’s College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. After completing the first year and creditably passing all the examinations, adverse fortune compelled him to leave college, and in 1871 he entered the meteorological service of the United States Government. Having taken a course in meteorology and signaling, he was ordered to Santa Fe, New … Read more

Biography of Truman Reeves

Truman Reeves, late proprietor of the oldest jewelry store in San Bernardino, and probably the only one-armed watchmaker in the world, established the business in that city in 1874. In 1857, when a youth of sixteen years, he commenced learning the watchmaker’s and jeweler’s trade with Julius King, in Warren, Ohio. He worked on his father’s farm in Orwell, Ashtabula County, where he had moved with his parents from Chardon, Ohio, his birthplace, until he went to the trade. Upon the inception of the war of the Rebellion, his ardent patriotism impelled him to respond to the first call by … Read more

Biography of Kelita Davis Shugart, M. D.

Kelita Davis Shugart, M. D. No history of Riverside can be considered complete without a more than passing mention of the pioneer of Riverside colony whose name heads this sketch. In 1869 Dr. Shugart was a resident of Belle Plain, Iowa, and at that time was desirous of establishing his residence in some portion of Southern California. Early the next year he associated himself with Judge North, Dr. Greves, Sanford Eastman, C. N. Felton, of San Francisco, and Captain Broadhurst and others, and formed the Southern California Colony Association. The object of the association was to purchase some desirable tract … Read more

Biography of George Mills Cooley

George Mills Cooley, the eldest of fourteen living children, nine sons and five daughters of George and Ellen Tolputt Cooley, was born in Utah in 1856, and crossed the plains an infant in his mother’s arms, drawn by ox teams, to California. His parents are both natives of the county of Kent, England, and were married on shipboard while crossing the Atlantic to the United States. They settled in the San Bernardino valley, south of the city, and the subject of this memoir grew up to man-hood on the beautiful ranch where they now reside, and where he mastered the … Read more

Biography of John Calvin Dixon

John Calvin Dixon, proprietor of the C. O. D. Grocery, San Bernardino, was born in 1840, in Reynoldsburg, Franklin County, Ohio, and there spent the first eighteen years of his life. In 1858 he moved with his father’s family to Jasper County, Iowa, and there his father, who was a brick-mason by trade, and had also been a farmer, engaged in the grocery business, with John as assistant in the store. Upon the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he promptly responded to his country’s call for volunteers and enlisted as a member of the Fifth Iowa Infantry … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Henry Wozencraft

Henry Wozencraft, of Wozencraft & Co., compilers of abstracts of title, San Bernardino. Among the oldest and most reliable companies in the abstract business and searcher of records in San Bernardino County, is Wozencraft & Co. This company has been established about twelve years and has a complete set of hooks, maps and the finest property indexes in Southern California. Henry Wozencraft, the senior member of the firm, is an old resident of San Bernardino County, having lived there for the past twenty years, which makes him thoroughly acquainted with the real-estate business and topography of the country. This firm … Read more

Biography of Joseph Benjamin Henderson

Joseph Benjamin Henderson is a native son, born in San Bernardino County, in 1856, and is the son of David Henderson, who emigrated with his family from Scotland and settled in San Bernardino County, in 1853, where he and his wife, also a native of Scotland, still reside. He learned the trade of stonemason in early life, and has divided his time between that and mining and farming as his chief occupations. Joseph served three years apprenticeship at the tinner’s trade, and worked at it as a journeyman in San Bernardino, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco over thirteen … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Samuel W. Garretson

Samuel W. Garretson, mechanical engineer and superintendent of gas and electric-light works for the Pacific Lighting Company of California, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1844. He served his apprenticeship to the machinist trade during the years 1861 to 1864. Like many patriotic young men who lived during the dark days of the Rebellion he shouldered his musket and volunteered his services to our Government, and served in the Twenty-first Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, in the Army of the Potomac. After completing his trade he went to sea and spent about ten years on the ocean as an … Read more

Biography of Professor David B. Sturges

Professor David B. Sturges is a classical scholar, educated in Michigan University, in which State he was born in 1839. In 1862, he went to Montana and there spent fourteen years, a portion of the time in teaching. He came to California in 1876, and has been engaged in educational work in the southern part of the state ever since. The courses of study in his academy and business college are being enlarged and improved each successive year, and a higher and broader standard of excellence in scholastic results is attained. Associated with him as instructors is an able corps … Read more

Biography of Illiam Francis Allison

Illiam Francis Allison was born September 7, 1847, in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, and, like many men who achieve success in business or distinction in public life, his early years were passed on a farm, where are instilled habits of industry, and the seeds of a sturdy, selfreliant manhood are sown which ripen into true grandeur of character. Young Allison’s inclination being rather toward mercantile pursuits than agricultural, he left the farm and took a course in Commercial College at Poughkeepsie, New York. Though not of legal age, he exemplified his patriotism by enlisting in the Union army, and it was the … Read more

Biography of John Hartley Smith

John Hartley Smith, the founder and president of the First National Bank of San Bernardino, and one of the most thorough business men and experienced bankers in Southern California, was born in Jackson County, Virginia, in 1835. He came to Ohio at the age of fifteen, and in 1853 he came to California and spent two years in the gold mines, chiefly in Mariposa County. He was quite successful, and in 1855 returned to Ohio with considerable money and a fund of experience which has proved of great value to him in his subsequent business career, as well as fraught … Read more

Biographical Sketch of H. L. Drew

Fourteen years previous to his association with the Farmers’ Exchange Bank, Mr. Drew had been engaged in the mercantile business in San Bernardino, and had also been extensively connected with mining interests. He was born in Michigan forty-nine years ago, where his early business life was devoted to lumbering and merchandising. On the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he entered the Union army as a private in the Third Michigan Cavalry, served three years and a half, and rose by successive promotions to the rank of Captain before resigning. Suffering from broken health, partly caused by exposure … Read more

Biography of Lewis Jacobs

Lewis Jacobs, President of the Bank of San Bernardino, and one of the oldest residents and most successful business men of Southern California, was born in Prussia, Europe, in 1831; immigrated to America at the age of twenty years, and a year later, in 1852, came to California, and to what is now San Bernardino County, then a part of Los Angeles County, before the town of San Bernardino was laid off. Being entirely dependent upon his own resources of brain and muscle, he started out to earn a living with a pack on his back, selling goods from door … Read more

Biographical Sketch of E. P. Clarke

E. P. Clarke is the senior member of the firm of Clarke Brothers, publishers of the Ontario Record, and is also the editor of the paper. He is a native of the State of Maine and reared and educated in that State, closing his educational career in Kent’s Hill (Maine) Seminary and the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, graduating at the latter institution with high honors in 1885. He then was engaged for some months on the United States geological survey in Maine and New Hampshire. In October 1885, he came to California and located at Ontario, and in December of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of A. F. Clarke

A. F. Clarke, of the firm of Clarke Brothers, proprietors of the Ontario Record, is a printer by trade, and to him is due much of the credit which has been gained by that journal for its typo-graphical beauty and neatness. He is a native of Maine, in which state he received his education and learned his trade. He came to California in 1883 and located at Pasadena, where he was connected with the Pasadena Union. In December 1885, he located at Ontario and assisted in establishing the Record. He is fully identified with Ontario and its progress and is … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Richard Gird

Richard Gird is the well-known owner of the Chino Ranch, San Bernardino County. The few facts obtained in regard to his life and successful career form an interesting chapter in this Memorial History. Mr. Gird was born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1836. His father, John Gird, was a native of New Jersey, a farmer by occupation, and to that calling he reared his son, giving him the benefits of such an education as could be procured in the common schools. The subject of this sketch was of studious habits and disposition, and made the best of his advantages. … Read more