San Bernardino California

Biography of John Andreson

John Andreson, prominent among the men whose business sagacity and enterprise have made San Bernardino an important railroad center, and one of the prettiest and most flourishing interior cities of California, was born in Schleswig-Holstein, near the border of Denmark, in 1834. He came to America, sailing around Cape Horn to the Peruvian Guano Islands, in 1850, and returned with the loaded vessel to London, England. While there he taw the grand pageant on the anniversary of the Queen’s birthday, and saw the Queen near Buckingham Palace. In 1852 he returned around Cape Horn to the Pacific coast, and, after … Read more

Turner, Zeek – Obituary

Richland, Oregon Zeek Turner, 91, of Richland died April 23, 2002, at the Boise Veterans Hospital. A Celebration of Life memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Richland Christian Church. Pastor Gordon Bond of the church will officiate. Disposition was by cremation at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Crematory. Zeek was born on Dec. 8, 1910, at Homer, La., to Zeban and Rosalee Turner. He was raised by his grandfather at Marshall, Texas. He was married to Margaret Clark around 1960. He served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946. After his discharge he and Margaret … Read more

Biography of Hon. Henry Montague Willis

Hon. Henry Montague Willis, San Bernardino, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, September 21. 1831. His ancestors were among the first English settlers of the colony of Virginia and Maryland prior to the Revolution. His father, Mr. Henry H. Willis, was a captain in the merchant marine, with whom the subject of this memoir made a number of voyages before he was twelve years of age, alternating between school and the sea. At the age of twelve he adopted a seafaring life, and during six years’ sailing the briny deep he visited the ports of the Mediterranean, England, France, Ireland, Rio … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William J. Guthrie

William J. Guthrie, one of San Bernardino’s brightest and most successful business men, was born in Detroit, Michigan, and was there brought up and educated, and started out in life as an employee in a mercantile agency, where he obtained a thorough knowledge of business customs and methods. His connection with that branch of business continued for years, during which time he rose from a reporter to joint partner in the McKillop Mercantile Agency. In 1878 he came to California and spent a year in the Ohio valley, Ventura County, when he was made superintendent of the Dunn Mercantile Agency … 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

Biography of Albert E. Phelan, M. D.

Albert E. Phelan, M. D., one of the leading physicians of San Bernardino County, and a representative of the progressive school of medicine, was born in Montreal thirty-two years ago; he was graduated at the University of Bishop’s College in that city in 1886, and the following year was graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Quebec, having had charge during the years 1886-’87 of the Western Hospital as house surgeon. He came to San Bernardino in September 1887, and immediately settled in practice, forming a partnership with Dr. C. G. Campbell, a prominent old physician of the … Read more

Biography of George W. Suttonfield

George W. Suttonfield was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, February 14, 1825. His father, Colonel William Suttonfield, a native of Virginia, was in the regular army, under General Harrison, in the Black Hawk war. He built the first house in Fort Wayne and lived there until his death, which occurred in 1841. His wife, Laura (Taylor) Suttonfield, was a native of Connecticut. They had six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth. He attended Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana, for four years, and in 1849 came to California. He started from Fort Smith, Arkansas, in April, … Read more

Biography of Prof. Charles Russell Paine

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 … Read more

Hartless, Evelynne Lee Sharp Mrs. – Obituary

Richland, Oregon Evelynne Lee Hartless, 66, of Richland, died May 18, 2002, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise. There will be a celebration of Evelynne’s life at 2 p.m. Saturday at the New Bridge Grange in New Bridge. There will be a reception afterward. The family has asked that this be a happy occasion and in honor of Evelynne’s request that those attending wear red, her favorite color. Evelynne was born on Oct. 21, 1935, to Randolph and Leora Martin Sharp in Baker City. She was raised in Eagle Valley and graduated from high school at Nampa, Idaho. She then … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Reuben J. Anderson

Reuben J. Anderson was born in Smithfield, Madison County, New York; he passed his youth and early manhood like most boys, and in the spring of 1853 came by water to California. He landed at San Francisco May 5, 1853, and followed mining for three years. He subsequently purchased 160 acres of land five miles from San Jose, and here farmed for two years. He then sold out and bought a place a mile west of Haywards, and remained on it until 1856, when he removed to San Bernardino County. He bought land near town, on which he kept stock. … Read more

Biography of George Jordan

George Jordan, proprietor of the largest jewelry house in San Bernardino County, has been in the business in California twenty-three years. Born in Germany forty-eight years ago, he immigrated to the United States when a youth of fifteen, and after stopping for a time in New York, went south into Georgia, where he remained during the late civil war. After the close of the conflict he returned to his native land and spent two years in business in Europe. Re-crossing the Atlantic, he came directly to the Pacific coast and opened a jewelry store in San Francisco, where he carried … Read more

Biography of Dr. S. C. Bogart

Dr. S. C. Bogart, one of the leading practitioners of dentistry in San Bernardino County, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in October 1852. His parents being what are termed Pennsylvania Germans, spoke and taught their children the language of the fatherland as the sole medium of communication in the family. His mother died in his childhood and he became self-supporting from the age of fifteen years. Soon after attaining his majority he went to Illinois and began the study of dentistry in Macomb; and after completing the study of the profession and a short time of practice in that … Read more

Biography of David H. Wixom

David H. Wixom, the tenth of a family of twelve children of Nathan J. and Betsy (Hadlock) Wixom, was born in 1848 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. In 1850 his parents started with their family, consisting then of ten children, to cross the plains to California. They loaded three ox teams and one horse team with their effects, and brought fifty cows, ten head of horses and a small flock of sheep over as far as Salt Lake, where they spent the winter, and there their eleventh child, Charles W. Wixom, was born. In the spring of 1852 they resumed their … Read more

Biography of Joseph C. Rich

Judge Joseph C. Rich, eldest son of Hon. Charles C. Rich, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this history, was born in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, January 16, 1841. His mother’s maiden name was Sarah D. Pea, good stock all around, his ancestors being of that hardy pioneer school who have subdued the wilds of the middle and western states and made possible the grandeur of those noble commonwealths. When but a boy of five years he, in connection with his parents and several thousand others, was driven from the city of his birth by mobocratic persecution, and commenced … Read more

Biography of Charles C. Rich

Pioneer of Utah, California and Idaho, Charles C. Rich figured prominently in the early development of these states, and took an active part in furthering the welfare and promoting the progress of the commonwealths. He was also a most able exponent of the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and with a colony of believers he founded the beautiful and thriving little city of Paris, the County of Bear Lake, Idaho, and the Mormon colonies of southeastern Idaho. A native of Kentucky, Mr. Rich was born in Campbell County, in 1809, and was of English … Read more

Biographical Sketch of John Suverkrup

John Suverkrup, senior partner of the firm of Suverkrup & Hook, manufacturers of and dealers in lumber at San Bernardino, has been sixteen years on the Pacific coast and twelve years in San Bernardino County. Prior to locating here he was engaged in the grocery business in Sacramento; and after settling in San Bernardino he for a time devoted his attention to farming. In 1887 he and his partner, John Hook, built the mill known as the Saverkrup & Hook Mill, on the mountains north of the city, which has a cutting capacity of 20,000 feet of lumber per day, … Read more

Biography of Alma Whitlock

Alma Whitlock, the pioneer dentist of Southern California, first commenced the practice of his profession in San Bernardino in 1857, and has been continuously in practice in the city ever since 1859. He was born in Missouri in 1831. His parents, who were both natives of New England, were brought up from childhood in Ohio. His mother, formerly Miss Abbot, was a relative of the Garfield family. They started for California across the plains from Tipton, Iowa, in the spring of 1850, and spent the winter of 1850-’51 in Utah, and resumed the journey on the following spring, reaching Hangtown, … 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

Biography of Colonel William R. Tolles

Colonel William R. Tolles, President of the San Bernardino Board of Trade and one of the most enterprising and public-spirited citizens of the county, was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut, in 1823. His father was one of the original settlers of the famous “Western Reserve” in northern Ohio, having moved there and settled in Geauga County in 1837; there William passed his youth, excepting five or six winters which he spent in the South for the benefit of his health. He was in Arkansas when the Legislature of that State declared its secession from the Union, and he was a … 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