Orange County CA

Gabrielino Indians

The Gabrielino Indians, named after the San Gabriel Mission in Los Angeles County, were also known as Kizh, Playsanos, Tobikhars, and Tumangamalum. Their closest relatives were the Fernandeno, and both groups were part of the California branch of the Shoshonean Division of the Uto-Aztecan stock. The Gabrielino inhabited the drainage area of the San Gabriel River, the Los Angeles region, and southward into Orange County, including Santa Catalina Island and likely San Clemente Island. They established numerous villages, such as Ahau near the Los Angeles River, Akura near San Gabriel Mission, and Pimu on Santa Catalina Island. In 1770, their population, including the Fernandeno and Nicoleno, was estimated at around 5,000, but by 1922 were nearly extinct.

Biography of Hon. William H. Spurgeon

The Honorable William H. Spurgeon founder of the city of Santa Ana, and the principal factor of its subsequent growth, is a native of Henry County, Kentucky, born October 10, 1829, his parents being Granville and Levina (Sibley) Spurgeon, the latter a native of Virginia, the former of Kentucky. The Spurgeons, of English origin, chose for their first location in this country, North Carolina. From those of the family who afterward removed to Kentucky, our subject springs. When he was but a year old, the family removed to Indiana, and ten years later they settled in Clark County, northeast Missouri. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of P. T. Adams

P. T. Adams of Tustin, was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, November, 1834. His father, Peter Adams, was a native of North Carolina, and moved to Texas in 1833, back to Tennessee again, and in 1839 to Texas the second time, where his children were brought up. The subject of this sketch passed his youth herding cattle, much of the time on horseback. He served during the war in the Confederate army, two years in James M. McCord’s regiment, and then until the close of the war, in General Bankhead’s brigade. Politically Mr. Adams is a Democrat, well informed upon … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Harlan Fairbanks

Harlan Fairbanks of Tustin, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1840. For twenty two years he was engaged in the drug business, and in 1861 he entered the army in the Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; was acting Sergeant; was wounded at the battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, and discharged for disability at Philadelphia, in 1862. In 1886 he became a citizen of California, where he has since been eminently successful in the real-estate business. In 1889 he built a drug store at the corner of D and Fourth streets in Tustin, having bought out C. W. Smith & Co. of … Read more

Courtney, Pinkney L. – Obituary

Mrs. B.T. Long received word Thursday evening of the death of her father, P. L. Courtney at Payette, Idaho and left for that place Friday. M. O. Courtney of Lostine accompanied her. P. L. Courtney was one of the earliest settlers of the valley and lived here until recent years when he was compelled to try a different climate to relieve asthma from which he was a sufferer. He spent the past year in California from there going to Payette only two weeks ago and on the trip contracted the influenza to which he succumbed. Pinkney L. Courtney was born … Read more

Biography of Carey R. Smith

Carey R. Smith President of the Savings Bank of Santa Ana, was born in Strykersville, New York, in 1843. His father, Rev. Dexter P. Smith, D. D. was a native of New York State, and his mother, nee Hannah J. Borland, was a native of Vermont. They moved to Iowa in 1845. Carey was educated at the State University of Iowa, graduating in the normal department in 1860. He then taught school until 1861, when he entered the army, in Company F, First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, and served three years, most of the time on detached service, his health failing. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of H. A. McKee

H. A. McKee of Santa Ana, was born in Friendship, Allegany County, New York. At the age of seventeen years he entered the army, enlisting in the Twenty-third New York Volunteer Infantry, and served two years; then for several years he was engaged in the live-stock business in Kansas, and for a few years in merchandising at Wichita; married in Junction City, Kansas, in 1869, to Miss Jennie Paxton, a native of the Buckeye State. She has been a school-teacher; taught her first term in her native State and subsequently in West Virginia, Illinois, Kansas and Texas. Mr. McKee moved … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Dr. R. F. Burgess

Dr. R. F. Burgess of Santa Ana, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1834, and when he was quite young the family removed to New York State, and three years afterward to Michigan, locating in Washtenaw County, where they remained about twelve years. The father died in Montcalm County, that State, when the subject of this sketch was seventeen years of age, and the latter therefore had to look after the welfare of the family. He served three years in Company A, Twenty-first Michigan Infantry, during the last war, going out as a wagoner and having charge of an ordnance … Read more

Bishop, Myrtle W. Mrs. – Obituary

Myrtle W. Bishop, 92, was born on Feb. 16, 1917 in St. Augustine, Fla., and passed away peacefully at her home in Laguna Niguel, Calif. on June 6, 2009 after a very short illness. She and her husband, Ernest W. “Red” Bishop, who predeceased her in 1992 after 57 years of marriage, moved to Inglewood, Calif., in 1941. During World War II she was employed as a riveter at North American Aviation. She subsequently worked as a seamstress at Virtue Brothers Mfg. in Inglewood, Calif. In 1964, she and her husband moved to Laguna Niguel as one of its first … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Henry Yount

Henry Yount of Tustin, was born in Platte County, Missouri, December 11, 1845, his parents being Henry and Deborah (Doherty) Yount, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Pennsylvania, who moved to Missouri in 1832, locating upon a farm, and there the senior Yount died in 1845, when his son Henry was but two weeks old. His mother subsequently married Abraham Van Vranken. May 5, 1865, Mr. Yount started for California with an ox team; and after arriving he followed farming the first year in Santa Clara County; then he was a wheat-raiser in San Joaquin County … 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

Biography of Robert Parker

Robert Parker vineyardist near Anaheim, was born in Beverly Township, 1 .. Wentworth County, Canada, March 18, 1838, the third in a family of thirteen children of Robert and Ann (Stalker) Parker. He was brought up to steady work on a farm, with but limited schooling. In 1868 he came to California by steamer, followed mining a short time and then bought a Government title to 500 acres of land in Mariposa County. In 1871 he bought fifty-five acres where he now lives, a mile and a half north of Anaheim, and for several years he prospered in grape culture, … Read more

Biography of F. E. Kellogg

F. E. Kellogg farmer and stock-raiser near Anaheim, was born in Morgan County, Illinois, April 31, 1822. His parents, Elisha and Elizabeth (Derrick) Kellogg, were natives respectively of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and of Scotch descent. They settled first in western New York, where most of the children were born. They emigrated to Morgan County, Illinois, in pioneer times, where Mr. Kellogg built the first house in the county. Elisha Kellogg was a prominent politician in his day, serving as county judge and sheriff of Genesee County, New York. He died in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, in 1844. The subject of … Read more

Biography of Richard Robinson

Richard Robinson, a prosperous farmer of Garden Grove, was born near Ottawa, Canada, in 1827. His parents, Isaac and Margaret (Moses) Robinson, were natives of Ireland, moving to Canada in 1821. The senior Robinson was a shoemaker by trade and also owned a large farm. He died in Canada in 1843, leaving a family of nine children. Richard, the third in the family, received a common-school education and entered business when very young, having to help in the maintenance of the family until 1852, when he started for California by way of Cape Horn on the bark Fanny Major. He … Read more

Biography of Sylvester Lyman

Sylvester Lyman deceased. American biography has always been considered to be of the greatest interest, far outranking in this regard the same study in any other country. The cause of this is the large proportion of self-made men in our population, men who have plucked the flowers of success from the thorns of difficulty. Mr. Lyman, the subject of this memoir, illustrates this fact. He was born at Westhampton, Blandford County, Massachusetts, February 26, 1826. At the age of fourteen years his father moved his family to Shiawassee County, Michigan, where Mr. Lyman assisted in the farm work for some … Read more

Biographical Sketch of B. F. Townsend

B. F. Townsend a prosperous farmer near Garden Grove, was born in Bowdoinham, Maine, in 1834, educated at the high school there, and in 1855 left home to take care of himself. For nine years he worked in a wholesale boot and shoe store in Massachusetts, and from there, January 13, 1864, he went to Chicago, Milwaukee, Sioux City and other places; then to Omaha, and to Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, where he worked on a farm until 1866, teaching school during the winter seasons. Then he went to Baxter Springs, Cherokee County, Kansas, engaging in the manufacture and sale … Read more

Biography of George W. Sponable

George W. Sponable horticulturist at Fullerton, was born in Eden, Seneca County, Ohio, November 3, 1825. His parents, Christopher and Sarah (Lawrence) Sponable, were natives respectively of New York and Vermont, and of German and English origin. George W., the third of his parents’ eleven children, started in business for himself in 1849, by coming to California. His father had moved in 1836 to McHenry County, Illinois, where he was an extensive farmer until his death in 1854. Mr. Sponable followed mining and lumbering in California from 1849 to 1855, and then returned to Illinois, where he followed farming until … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Illiam T. Richards

Illiam T. Richards formerly a cattle-dealer, but now retired and living at Orange, was born in the State of New York in 1833. His first employment in that State was as an agriculturist, and then he was a dairyman in Illinois, and later engaged in the dry-goods and clothing trade at Elgin, that State, for fifteen years. He came to California ten years ago, resided at San Gabriel three years and in Los Angeles one year; next he was en-gaged in the cattle business in Texas until three years ago, when he returned to California and purchased the place where … Read more

Taylor, Emma Augusta Abraham – Obituary

Funeral services for Mrs. Frank (Emma Augusta) Taylor, Sr., will be held Thursday, December 28, at the Evanson Funeral Home. A well-known resident of Ellensburg for more than 60 years, she died Sunday, December 24 [1967], at the Kittitas Valley Memorial Hospital. Born in West Bloomfield, Wisconsin, she was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Augusta Abraham. At the age of 6 months, her parents moved to Orange, California, where she was reared. She attended schools in Orange and Santa Rosa. She moved with the family to a ranch in the Teanaway valley just before the turn of … Read more

Biography of J. W. Towner

J. W. Towner the subject of this sketch, now Judge of the Superior Court of Orange County, is a native of Essex County, New York, born in 1823, in the town of Willsboro. When he was fifteen years old his father moved to St. Lawrence County, same State. His education was only that of the common school except one term, in 1841, at the Malone Academy, Franklin County. In 1844, he and an older brother went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained until 1854, when he went to West Union, Fayette County, Iowa, remaining there until August, 1861, when he … Read more