San Bernardino California

Lanyon, Joseph “Bud” – Obituary

Joseph “Bud” Lanyon, 70, of San Bernardino County, Calif., and a former Baker City resident, died April 7, 2003, at Community Hospital of San Bernardino. His graveside service will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Mount Hope Cemetery. Pastor Monte Loyd of the Baker Valley Christian Assembly will officiate. Military rites will be conducted by the Oregon Army National Guard. Bud was born on Aug. 17, 1932, at Baker City. He was a son of Joseph and Blance Hickerson Lanyon. He was raised and attended school in Baker City. He entered the U.S. Air Force in 1951 and was honorably … 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 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

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 James W. Waters

James W. Waters, deceased, a noted mountaineer, trapper, hunter, and guide of the Rocky Mountains, was born near Brainard’s Bridge, in Rensselaer County, New York, June 20, 1813. In 1835 he started out, a young man twenty-two years of age, with his rifle in hand, bound for the Rocky Mountains and the great West, to begin his career. For nine years he hunted and trapped from the head waters of the Columbia and Yellowstone rivers along the mountain ranges as far south as Texas, accompanied by such noted hunters as Kit Carson, the Sublettes, Major Fitzpatrick, the celebrated Bents, Old … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Reginald E. Mcdonald, M. D.

Reginald E. Mcdonald, M. D., has been in the active practice of medicine in San Bernardino since 1884. He is a native of the city of Toronto, Canada, born in 1856, and obtained his literary education in Victoria University and Upper Canada College. He spent one year studying for his profession in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Toronto, and three years in the California Medical College at San Francisco, and was graduated at the latter in 1883. Before coming to California, Dr. McDonald spent a year and a half, 1881-’82, on North Georgian Bay, as surgeon for a … Read more

Biography of John Henry Stewart

John Henry Stewart, one of the most prominent citizens of San Bernardino, was born of Scotch parents in Williamstown, Massachusetts, April 28, 1823. His father, Samuel Stewart, removed his family to Oswego County, New York, when John Henry was but two years old, and his childhood and youth were passed there. At an early age he learned the trade of house carpentering and joining, which he followed for many years. Being the oldest in a family of eight children and his father not enjoying good health, a large share of the support of the family fell on his shoulders,-a burden … Read more

Biography of William A. Harris

William A. Harris, attorney-at-law and a member of the firm of Harris & Gregg, was born in 1854, in Tennessee. He was educated in the schools of that State; studied law in Memphis with Colonel George Gantt and W. W. McDowell, both distinguished members of the Tennessee bar, and was admitted to practice at the remarkably early age of nineteen. On attaining his majority, after two years of practice in his own state, he came to California, and located in San Bernardino in 1875, and has practiced his profession here ever since, excepting two years spent in Leadville, Colorado, where … Read more

Biography of Edwin Chidsey Seymour

Edwin Chidsey Seymour, Sheriff of San Bernardino County, was born in Otsego County, New York, in 1845. His father, also a native of the Empire State, was a cabinet-maker by trade, and moved to northern Pennsylvania when Edwin was a lad of seven years. Here he grew up to manhood and learned the trade of cabinet-maker with his father. Upon the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he responded to his country’s call, entering the army as a member of the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania Infantry, and remained four years and nearly three months, chiefly in the Army of the … 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 Hon. William A. Conn

Hon. William A. Conn, of San Bernardino, is one of those strong individualities in the pioneer history of California, who by his force of character and intellect stamped his impress upon the early civilization of the Golden State. Though a number of the first years of his residence on the Pacific coast were passed in the northern part of the State, at San Francisco, yet for a third of a century Southern California has had the benefits of his public-spirited patriotism, his business attainments and his generous philanthropy. Mr. Conn was born in 1814, on the West India Islands, where … Read more

Biographical Sketch of David Meacham

David Meacham was born in Genesee County, New York, May 3, 1835, and was reared at Geneseo, learning the carpenter’s trade. In 1858 he came to California, crossing the plains with General Harney, shortly after the Mountain Meadow Massacre. He helped to gather up the bones of the murdered emigrants, and assisted in building the monument erected by the Government on the scene. Arriving in California, he located at Bloomfield, Sonoma County, where he followed his trade five years. In 1863 he came to San Bernardino, and here followed the building trade. He rode to Riverside on the first load … Read more

Biography of Richard H. Stetson

Richard H. Stetson, Tax Collector of San Bernardino County, was born in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1856. His father, James H. Stetson, was a direct descendant of Cornet Stetson, who settled on the place where he was born in 1634. His mother was Miss Phebe C. Nickerson, great-granddaughter of Sir Thomas Nickerson, and was born and reared at Chatham, on Cape Cod. Richard enjoyed the educational advantages of the schools of Boston. On reaching manhood he came direct to California, locating in San Bernardino in March 1877. He was employed as clerk in the office of a lumber … Read more

Biography of Hon. John Lloyd Campbell

Hon. John Lloyd Campbell, Judge of the Superior Court in and for San Bernardino County, was born in Equality, Gallatin County, Illinois, in 1855. His father, Hon. John Lewis Campbell, was connected with the banking business in Shawnee town, and with iron and salt manufacture in Southern Illinois for many years. In 1857 he moved to Sioux City, Iowa, and was there elected County Judge. When the war of the Rebellion broke out, he moved back to Illinois and enlisted in the Third Illinois Cavalry, of which he was made Major. In 1863, while placing his pickets near Jackson, Mississippi, … Read more

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 George W. Prescott

George W. Prescott, of San Bernardino, Master Mechanic of the Southern California Railroad, and one of the most expert mechanical engineers in this country, was born in New Hampshire fifty-one years ago. At the early age of seven years he was left without father or mother, and at thirteen he left his native State and started out to fight the battle of life alone and unaided. Going west as far as Ohio, he spent the next-five years in the old city of Chillicothe, where, following the natural bent of his mind, he studied the business of machinist, and when just … Read more

Biography of John J. Whitney

John J. Whitney, proprietor of the City Planning Mill and lumberyard, and one of the principal manufacturers in San Bernardino County, was a native of Elmira, New York, and was born in 1843. He inherited a talent for mechanics from his father, and being a contractor and practical builder and the owner and operator of a large planning mill in Elmira, afforded him ample means of exercising and developing his innate tendencies. In 1862, in his nineteenth year, he enlisted in the army as a member of the Fifth New York Heavy Artillery; served till the close of the war, … Read more

Biography of John Brown, Sr.

John Brown, Sr., was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1817, and when but a boy came to St. Louis, Missouri, with his parents, where they died. He began rafting on the Mississippi and then went to New Orleans, and thence by ship to Galveston, suffering a shipwreck on his route. He returned to Fort Leavenworth by the Red River route. Was at the battle of San Jacinto, and first saw Santa Ana when taken prisoner. Remained two years at Fort Leavenworth; and then went to the Rocky Mountains and for fourteen years hunted and trapped from the headwaters of the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Amos Stiles

Amos Stiles, retired, San Bernardino, was born in Kennebec, Maine, in 1823. His father, Israel Stiles, a farmer, moved to the northern part of New Brunswick. In 1843 the subject of this sketch went to Ohio, where he remained four years, and then returned to New Brunswick, where he remained until 1819. He was married in Nova Scotia, in 1849, to Miss Rebecca O’Brien, and soon after his marriage he moved to Utah, where he lived four years. In 1860 he left with teams for California, and arrived in San Bernardino in December of the same year. Here he bought … 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