Iowa

Biographical Sketch of Reuben L. Dewitt

Reuben L. Dewitt, of San Bernardino, was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, October 19, 1815, the son of John and Jane (Potter) DeWitt, natives of Indiana and New York respectively. His grandmother, Elizabeth Sheridan, was an aunt of the late General Sheridan. He was left an orphan at the age of fourteen years. For several years he traveled around in different counties of Illinois and Iowa. In 1851 he crossed the plains to Salt Lake City, where he spent two years, and from there came to San Bernardino County, where he has lived ever since. His first purchase of real … Read more

Biography of Matthew Cleghorn

Matthew Cleghorn, a farmer of San Bernardino County, was born in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1829, a son of Rev. Lorenzo D. Cleghorn, who was a native of Virginia and a minister of the Christian Church. His mother, Mary (McLain) Cleghorn, was of Scotch parentage. They had five children, of whom our subject was the second. He left home at the age of twelve years and subsequently entered the Mexican War. He enlisted in the Sixteenth Kentucky Volunteers, but was afterward attached to the Eleventh. He carried the express for eight months from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico … Read more

Biography Of Thomas Benton Murdock

In 1841 Thomas Benton Murdock was born in the mountains of Virginia. He was one of the five children who lived to maturity of Thomas Murdock and Katherine Pierrepont. On the mother’s side came the pride of the Pierrepont; from the father’s the insurgent instincts of the Irish Murdocks who left Ireland after the Irish rebellion failed in 1798. Though reared in the mountains among the most simple people and most primitive surroundings, the Murdocks who have been known in Kansas for half a century have proved soldiers of the militant democracy. They have been fighters who led naturally, by … Read more

Biography of Henry A. Westbrook

Henry A. Westbrook is one of Riverside’s earlier settlers and ranks as one of her most successful businessmen and horticulturists. Mr. Westbrook dates his birth in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1848. His father, Benjamin Westbrook, was a native of New Jersey, who in his young manhood located in Pennsylvania and there married Miss Lucy L Nichols, a native of that State. He was a carpenter and builder by occupation. Mr. Westbrook was reared in his native village until eight years old, and then placed on a farm until the age of seventeen, during which time he obtained such an … Read more

Biography of Amos W. Bemis

Amos W. Bemis, living two and one-half miles west of San Bernardino, on Fifth Street, is one of the early and successful pioneers of this county. He was born in Jefferson County, New York, and is a son of Alvin Bemis, who with his family removed to Ohio when Amos was eight years of age. In 1844 he removed to Lee County, Iowa, where he died in 1847. The family lived in Lee County three years after Mr. Bemis’ death, and in 1851 the mother, seven sons and three daughters, started for California. Amos being the eldest the others naturally … Read more

Biography of Milton Canterbury, M. D.

Milton Canterbury, M. D., of Redlands, was born in Greenup County, Kentucky. His father, Reuben Canterbury, a farmer, was born in North Carolina. The name originated in Kent County, England, from the estate of a man by that name, and for whom the city of Canterbury was named. Reuben Canterbury married Miss Elizabeth Lycaas, a native of Kentucky. The union was blessed with thirteen children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eighth. He first attended the common schools of his native county and afterward attended a short time the college at Marietta, Ohio. From there he went … Read more

Biography of Alva A. Warren

Alva A. Warren, a citizen of Colton, was born in Oakland County, Michigan, July 21, 1836. His father, Z. J. Warren, a pioneer of Oakland County, Michigan, was born in New Jersey, August 31, 1801, and was for thirty years a teacher in the public schools. He also took a leading part in political matters, and held some important public offices. He moved from Michigan to Indiana, and front there to Illinois; then to Missouri; then to Iowa, and in 1852 he crossed the plains to California by ox team. He stopped in Nevada and Utah for seven years and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Abner McCrary

Abner McCrary is a native of Union County, Illinois, born in 1835. His parents, John and Mary (Kellar) McCrary, natives of North Carolina and South Carolina respectively, moved to Hancock County in 1844. Next they moved to Wash vine, Iowa, and in 1846 to Council Bluffs, where they remained five years. In 1851 he moved to Utah, where he remained two years, and June 5, 1854, came to California, and bought forty acres of land three miles northeast of San Bernardino, where he now lives. Mr. McCrary has dealt some in buying and selling land, and has today a fine … Read more

Biography of Danford Atwood

Danford Atwood was born in Connecticut in 1823. His parents were Mormons and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, at an early day, and from thence to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where in 1850 Mr. Atwood married Miss Jane Garner, of Hancock County, Illinois. She was the daughter of George and Elizabeth (Hedrick) Garner, natives respectively of North Carolina and Indiana. They had six children. Mrs. Garner died in Illinois at the age of thirty-two, and Mr. Garner married Lydia Hill. In 1836 he went to Council Bluffs, where he remained nearly two years, and then came to California, in 1852, by ox … Read more

Biographical Sketch of John Bottoms

John Bottoms was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1812, and came to America in 1840; he landed at New Orleans, and from there went to Nauvoo, Illinois, where he was a member of the Mormon Church. He remained there until 1845, when he went to Cincinnati and worked in a bucket factory for about three years. In 1848 he went to Council Bluffs and remained there until 1852. He then went to Salt Lake City and remained there until 1858, when he came to California. During this time he had had prolonged trouble with the Mormons and concluded to stand … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Hiram C. Keller

Hiram C. Keller, one of the successful and enterprising farmers near the Base Line, was born at Pisgah, Iowa, in 1849. His father, Nathan Keller, was born in North Carolina and resided in Pennsylvania, and had a family of ten children. He died in Pisgah, Iowa, while crossing the plains to Salt Lake. The subject of this sketch was married in 1873 to Miss Sadie Sparkes, the daughter of George W. Sparkes, one of the pioneers of this valley, and a well and favorably known citizen. Mr. and Mrs. Keller have an interesting little family, consisting of Nettie, Drusilla, Cassie … Read more

Biography of George Lord

George Lord, President of the Society of California Pioneers of San Bernardino County, and a representative of the best type of “Forty-niners,” is a native of New York City, and was born June 27, 1800, and consequently was eighty-nine years old his last birthday. His father, George Lord, was a sea captain, who died of yellow fever at quarantine in New York harbor, having contracted the disease in the West Indies, whence his vessel had just returned. The subject of this memoir being left self-dependent went to enlist in mercentile pursuits. Stopping for a time in Louisville, Kentucky, he was … Read more

Biography of Ebenezer Griffin Brown

Ebenezer Griffin Brown (“Judge Brown,” as he is familiarly known) is one of Riverside’s well-known pioneers. He was one of the original members of the Southern California Colony Association, and with the late Dr. Greves visited the lands now occupied by the city June, 1870, the first members of the association on the grounds. From the very first he was the strongest advocate in demanding the purchase by the association of these lands. His persistency was of little avail at first, but he was in earnest, and when Judge North, the president of the company, refused to act in accordance … Read more

Biography of Joseph Camp Thorn

Joseph Camp Thorn, residing four miles east of San Bernardino on the Base Line, is one of the pioneers of this county. He was born in New York, January 2, 1839, the son of Joseph and Lorana (Camp) Thorn. When the subject of this sketch was three years of age his father moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. The next year he removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the following year he moved to Salt Lake. Our subject was then eight years old and he drove an ox team all the way from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake. Mr. Thorn lived at … Read more

Biography of Joseph Thorn

Joseph Thorn, deceased, was a pioneer of 1854. He was born in New York State, December 22, 1811. His parents were Richard and Mary Ann (Armstrong) Thorn, the former a native of New York, the latter of England. Mr. Thorn was a blacksmith by trade. He was married at Niles, New York, June 19, 1836, to Lorana Camp, daughter of Jonah and Barbara (Keith) Camp, from near New Haven, Connecticut. About seven years after his marriage he moved with his wife and four children to Hancock County, Illinois, where he lived five years. He then moved to Council Bluffs and … Read more

Biography of Adoniram Judson Twogood

Adoniram Judson Twogood is one of the original founders and members of the Southern California Colony Association, and among the pioneer settlers in Riverside. Mr. Twogood is a native of Onondaga County, New York, dating his birth in 1831. He was reared to farm labor and educated in the public schools. In 1855 he emigrated to the great West and located in Benton County, Iowa. He was among the pioneers of that county, and was prominent in developing its agricultural and other resources. He engaged in farming until the war of the Rebellion roused his patriotism and he abandoned his … Read more

Biography of William Jesse Curtis

William Jesse Curtis, attorney at law in San Bernardino, is the oldest son of Hon. I. C. Curtis and Mrs. Lucy M. Curtis. His father was for many years a prominent member of the bar of Marion County, Iowa, and represented that county for several terms in the State Legislature. His mother is the daughter of Jesse L. Holman, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana, and a sister of Hon. William S. Holman, now a distinguished member of Congress from that State. Mr. Curtis was born at Aurora, Indiana, on the 2d day … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Miss Anna L. Fuller

Miss Anna L. Fuller, of Azusa, is the daughter of Harrison Fuller, of Azusa, Los Angeles County. She is a native of Maryland, from whence her parents moved to Iowa, and from thence to California in 1883. Miss Fuller took an interest in music from earliest childhood, and studied it whilst yet in her teens, under excellent teachers in Philadelphia and New York. She was first soprano at St. Stephen’s church in Philadelphia, three years, which position she resigned in 1886, to go abroad to study music. In Florence, Italy, she studied under Vannucini; in London, under Randegger (oratorio), and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of E. K. Henderson

E. K. Henderson, a young and enterprising horticulturist on Base Line, five miles east of San Bernardino, was born in Benton County, Iowa, August 18, 1858. His father, Robert H. Henderson, of Indiana, was for fourteen years successfully engaged in farming in Iowa. In 1875 he came to California and first bought ten acres of land in Riverside and put it out in fruit. It cost him $100 per acre, and after eight years be sold it for $9,600. He had one of the best vineyards in the State, which at three years from planting netted him $341 per acre. … Read more

Dayen, Lorna Lee Alexander Mrs. – Obituary

Richland, Oregon Lorna Lee Dayen, 74, of Richland, died June 28, 2004, at Sunnyside Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Clackamas. Her memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the First Church of the Nazarene, 1250 Hughes Lane. Pastor Lennie Spooner will officiate. There will be a reception afterward in the church fellowship hall. Lorna was born on Feb. 24, 1930, at Albia, Iowa, to Earl and Helen Canning Alexander. Lorna was very special to all who knew her. She shared the love and grace that God had given her with everyone she knew. Her love for the Lord and … Read more