San Bernardino County CA

Biography of Isaac Newton Hoag

Isaac Newton Hoag, a prominent citizen of Redlands, was born in Macedon, Wayne County, New York, March 3, 1822. His paternal ancestors belonged to the Society of Friends for generations back, and had uniformly been farmers. He lived and worked on a farm until he was eighteen years of age and had the advantages of a very primitive common school education. His father died when he was eighteen years of age, and one year later the Macedon Academy was organized, and Isaac was one of the first students at this institution. From this time until 1849 he taught school winters … Read more

Biography of Frank B. DeVine

No history of Riverside purporting to record her growth and prosperity can lay claim to real value and interest that does not award the merit to her mercantile enterprises, and the men who have conducted them. Most prominent in this record would be the names of Boyd & DeVine, commission merchants and jobbers, whose establishment is located on the corner of Eighth Street and Pachappa Avenue. This is one of the most important wholesale and commission houses in the city, dealing extensively in groceries, grain, honey, etc. They are also large fruit and raisin packers, placing their products on the … Read more

Biography of Ottley Papineau

Ottley Papineau, is a manufacturer and dealer in harness, saddles, buggy robes, etc., and also proprietor of one of the leading business establishments of Riverside. His products are well known in the county and his trademark “O. P.” is a sufficient guarantee for first-class material and workmanship. The subject of this sketch is a native of England, dating his birth in London, in 1846. The first ten years of his life was spent in that city and at Canterbury in attending school. In 1856 he went to Australia and joined his father, who had preceded him to that country in … Read more

Biography of Seneca LaRue

Seneca LaRue, one of the horticulturists of the Riverside colony, came to Riverside in 1876 and located on Arlington avenue, where he purchased a claim of forty acres of Government land for which he eventually secured a patent. Immediately upon his purchase he commenced his horticultural pursuits, first planting a vineyard and some deciduous fruits as well as oranges, but later his experience led him to uproot the deciduous trees and replace them with citrus fruits. His orange grove is about twenty-two acres in extent; fifteen acres, being above the canal, is not irrigable. The older trees are seedlings, but … 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

Biography of James Boyd

James Boyd, a pioneer of Riverside, came to the colony in 1872, all his worldly goods consisting of a farm team of four horses, four cows, a lot of chickens and a few household effects, and eight dollars in cash; but he had a reserve capital of health, energy, intelligence, and a determination to succeed. He secured a squatter’s claim to seventy-three acres of Iand about two miles north of Riverside, and later an adjoining tract of eighty acres, upon which he camped with his family, his only shelter being a shanty 10 x 10, devoid of protection from the … 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

Biographical Sketch of Israel Beal

Israel Beal was born thirty-five miles west of Richmond, Virginia, April 10, 1849. His parents, Oliver and Elvira (Myes) Beal, were both natives of Virginia. His father died during the war, and his mother is still living, at a good old age, having reared a family of eleven children, nine of whom are still living. The subject of this sketch came to California via the Panama route in 1865, and worked for a mining company in Kern County for three years. He then went to Nevada and Arizona and mined, and then came back to California and worked for M. … Read more

Biography of D. P. Chapman

Among the well-known and representative orange groves in the Riverside colony tract is the five acres owned by the above-named gentleman. This grove is located on the west side of Cypress Avenue, north of Bandini Avenue, about one mile south of the business center of Riverside. About four acres of his land is in oranges, seedling and Washington Navel trees twelve years of age, and other budded trees of Washington Navel, Mediterranean Sweet and St. Michael varieties, varying in age from one to six years. He has one acre in vineyard, which produced in 1888 over $200 worth of fruit. … Read more

Biography of Hon. James Alexander Gibson

Hon. James Alexander Gibson, a member of the Supreme Court Commission of the State of California, was born August 21, 1852, in the city of Boston, and is a worthy representative of the best mental product of the Athens of America, and an honor to the bar of Southern California. His father, Thomas Gibson, was of Scotch-Irish descent, and a machinist by trade. He left his native land when a youth to accept a clerkship with his uncle at St. John, New Brunswick, then a prominent merchant there, where he remained for some time before coming to the United States. … Read more

Biography of George H. Crafts

George H. Crafts, a rancher near Redlands, was born in New York City in 1844, and came to California with his father in 1861. His father, Myron H. Crafts, was born in Whately, Massachusetts, in 1816, and established the first temperance grocery in New York City. He also had a large meat-curing house there, but was burnt out in 1844, and then went to Jackson, Michigan, where he started a soap and candle factory. He next went to Windsor, where he farmed for a while, and then went to Detroit and accepted a position as cashier in C. & A. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Lyman Nelson Bedford, D. D. S.

Lyman Nelson Bedford, D. D. S., a leading dentist of Southern California, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1851. He began the study of dentistry with his eldest brother, Dr. E. Bedford, in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1876, was graduated at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1885. He practiced in Sioux City until 1886, when at the request of his brother, Dr. A. D. Bedford, he came to California and located in San Bernardino, since which time he has carried on an active and lucrative professional business. Dr. Bedford’s specialty is in fine operative dentistry, and the … Read more

City Officials of Riverside, San Bernardino, California

The following are the present officers of the city: Board of Trustees E. W. Holmes, president M. Hoover, W. P. Russell, W. A. Hayt, H. E. Allatt Library Trustees Rev. Dr. George H. Deere, Prof. N. C. Twining, E. W. Holmes, A. S. White, C. J. Gill. Board of Health E. W. Holmes, president C. C. Sherman, secretary W. J. McIntyre, Bradford Morse, J. W. Johnson City Clerk and Assessor, Ad. S. Alkire Marshal, Bradford Morse Treasurer, J. M. Drake Recorder, W. W. Noland City Attorney, W. J. McIntyre Superintendent of Streets, C. W. Finch City Engineer, J. W. Johnson … Read more

Biography of Wellsford E. West

Among the horticultural industries well worthy of mention is that of Mr. West, conducted upon a twenty-acre tract, located on the west side of Magnolia avenue, between Jackson and Van Buren, about six miles south of Riverside. Mr. West came to this place in 1884, and in July of the next year purchased his present home, and entered upon horticultural pursuits. The place was planted with trees and vines and partially improved in buildings. He commenced a thorough cultivation and fertilization, and added to that a vigorous pruning systematically applied, that has produced wonderful results, and today his groves and … Read more

Officials of the County of San Bernardino

State Senator, W. W. Bowers, of San Diego; Assemblyman, E. W. Holmes, of Riverside; Judges of the Superior Court, C. W. C. Rowell and John L. Campbell; Sheriff, E. C. Seymour; County Clerk, George L. Filson; Recorder, A. S. Davidson; Auditor, W. L. G. Soule; Treasurer, W. H. Beattie; Tax Collector, R. H. Stetson; District Attorney, Henry Connor; School Superintendent, H. C. Brooke; Surveyor, W. C. Chamblin; Coroner, C. C. Wainwright; Public Administrator, James E. Mack; Court Commissioner, J. C. Christy; Supervisors, J. A. Johnson, Thomas Holmes, G. W. Garcelon, George Cooley, W. H. Glass; Board of Education, J. E. … Read more

Biography of Captain Joseph S. Garcia

Captain Joseph S. Garcia. -There is no man in Ontario who is better known or more respected than Captain Joseph S. Garcia. He is a California pioneer of the days of 1849, and has for the past twenty years been identified with the agricultural and horticultural interests of Cucamonga, Etiwanda and Ontario. No history of San Bernardino County would be complete without a more than passing mention of Captain Garcia. He was born on the island of Fayal in 1823. His parents were subjects of Portugal and natives of that island. His youth was spent in acquiring an education until … Read more

Biography of Alfred Piddington

Alfred Piddington was born in Warwickshire, England, in 1829. He is the son of George and Elizabeth (Fifield) Piddington, both natives of England. Mr. Piddington was at a very early age (when twelve years old) apprenticed to a trade, and was almost entirely deprived of the advantages of a schooling, but he schooled himself to a certain extent. His early life was one of severe toil and he became a man in thought and action at an age that more favored youths devote to boyish occupations. In 1859 he immigrated to Toronto. There he commenced work as a bookbinder, a … Read more

Biography of William B. Sawyer, M. D.

William B. Sawyer, M. D., occupies a prominent position in the medical circles of Riverside, and has for many years been well known in the business and social circles of the city. Dr. Sawyer is a native of New England, born in Hampshire County, Massachusetts in 1854. His father, Edmund H. Sawyer, was a descendant of an old colonial family whose first advent in the New world was in the days of the Puritans; he was a manufacturer and prominent citizen of Hampshire County, a member of the Assembly and Senate of his State, at the head of banking institutions, … Read more

Biography of Peter J. Filano

Peter J. Filano, residing three miles south of San Bernardino, is one of the oldest and most prosperous pioneers in the valley. He was born in the southern part of France, November 4, 1820, the oldest of a family of three children. When a young man he went to Africa, and for nine years engaged in the slave trade on the east and west coasts. In 1845 he sailed from Maca to China and took slaves, then from China to Salem, Massachusetts. He followed the sea for fifteen years. In 1848 he sailed from New York to New Orleans, and … Read more

Biography of John A. Simms

John A. Simms, one of the early settlers of the Riverside colony, ranks among the leading horticulturists and nursery men of Southern California. He came to Riverside in 1875, without capital other than young and vigorous manhood, energetic disposition and industrious habits. Having been reared in agricultural pursuits, he sought work among the orchardists and found employment with Mr. P. S. Russell, one of the pioneer nurserymen of the city. He was employed with him for the next three years, and during that time became skilled in the business, and in 1878 established a nursery in Brockton square, upon a … Read more