Santa Ana California

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

Biographical Sketch of W. W. Halesworth

W. W. Halesworth, has been a resident of Santa Ana since March, 1872, enjoying signal success in business affairs. At first he was employed in Los Angeles city, and in the fall of 1873 purchased twenty acres of land where the city of Santa Ana now stands, which he devoted to grapevines and fruit-trees, until in 1884 he began to cut it up into city lots. ” Halesworth’s Addition” is bounded on the north by Washington avenue, east by West street, south by Hales-worth street, and west by Ross Street. The second addition which bears his name is bounded on … Read more

Biographical Sketch of R. Q. Wickham

R. Q. Wickham, the first County Clerk of the new county of Orange, was born in a Hancock County, Ohio, January 31, 1855. He is by trade a printer, and by profession a teacher, and followed said avocations alternately in Iowa, Dakota and Nebraska, from 1872 to 1887, when he came to California and engaged in the real-estate business at Santa Ana, and resided at Garden Grove. When the movement was revived for the organization of a new county, he joined in with zeal and pushed the matter along. He was appointed by Governor Waterman one of the commissioners on … 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

Biography of J. H. Moesser

J. H. Moesser, one of the early pioneers of Southern California, who was a wanderer for many years over several States of the Union, began life in the city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, February 21, 1835. His father, Frederick H. Moesser, was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, town of Altheim, Germany, and was a dry-goods merchant, baker and butcher, at different times. He moved with his family a wife and two children-to Ohio, where he remained a few years; then he moved to Missouri and subsequently to Nauvoo, Illinois. He died at Warsaw, Illinois, in 1853. His mother, Magdalena (Gundel before marriage) Moesser, … Read more

Cerato, Mildred Elva – Obituary

Joseph, Oregon Mildred Elva Cerato, 88, of College Place, Wash., died Dec. 11, 2003, on her birthday at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Walla Walla, Wash. She was born on Dec. 11, 1915 in Santa Ana, Calif. to George W. and Mary Ella (Pearce) Todd. In 1937, she married John A. Cerato and the couple lived and raised a family in California. After her husband died, Mrs. Cerato moved to Joseph in 1992 to be near her daughter. She was an active member of the Joseph Baptist Church, doing mission work, serving for a time as president of the women’s … Read more

Biographical Sketch of A. R. Dresser

A. R. Dresser one of the pioneers of Santa Ana, and a successful businessman, was born in De Kalb County, Illinois, in 1839. For his parentage see sketch of William Dresser. He started out life for himself at the age of twenty-one as a farmer. In 1861 he came to California, located first in Sutter County, where he “held down a squatter’s claim” until 1870, when he Came to Southern California and located in Santa Ana, where he has since resided; and here he devotes his attention mostly to agricultural pursuits. His first purchase was that of 140 acres in … 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

Biography of George Ridgeley Broadbere

George Ridgeley Broadbere editor of the Santa Ana Free Press, was born in New York city and educated at Cambridge University, England. He began the newspaper business as war correspondent while serving in the naval brigade in the Zulu war in Africa, and while there he was severely wounded. In China he did war correspondence for the London Daily News. Returning to America, he was employed on the New Orleans Picayune as reporter and traveling correspondent in Louisiana and Texas; next he was a traveling agent and correspondent for the States of the great southwest for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat; … Read more

Biographical Sketch of J. E. Sharp

J. E. Sharp a retired capitalist of Santa Ana, was born in East Tennessee, November 17, 1809, a son of Joseph and Sarah (Lamb) Sharp, who had but two children: the subject of this sketch and a boy named Prophet, who died in 1850. The parents died in 1828, the father one day and the mother the next. In 1830 Mr. Sharp went to Illinois, where for several years he followed farming in Madison County; after this he went into the mercantile business at Bunker Hill, Illinois, and subsequently he moved to Litchfield, that State. In 1864 he came to … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Josiah Ross

Josiah Ross, one of the first settlers of Santa Ana, was born in Clinton County, Indiana, in 1844. His parents were Jacob and Elizabeth (Thompson) Ross, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. For a number of years the subject of this sketch has been a quiet but successful tiller of the soil on his fine farm one mile west of Santa Ana. Most of his attention has been given to horticulture, and his well kept orchards show many varieties of deciduous and semi-tropical fruits. He has not cared to take an active part in political matters, but … Read more

Walker, Harriet Hortense Ward Mrs. – Obituary

Harriet Walker, 98, died on April 11, 2006, at Arcadia, Calif. With the help of Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home, Harriet is now resting next to her parents at Cloverdale Cemetery in Boise. Harriet Hortense Walker, or “Aunt Horty” as she was affectionately known, was born at home in Nampa, Idaho, on Aug. 8, 1908, to Kate Share Ward and Henry B. Ward. She lost her hearing at the age of 9 months, the result of scarlet fever and whooping cough. At age 7, Harriet and her mother boarded a train at Nampa on their way to the Idaho State … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Jacob Ross

Jacob Ross, deceased, formerly a resident of Santa Ana, was literally the first pioneer in this place, coining here when the land was owned by the Spaniards, and buying some 2,500 acres of the Santa Ana de Santiago rancho. He also bought other lands near where the city of Santa Ana now stands, and improved a farm one mile west of the city, where Mrs. Ross now lives. He crossed the plains to this coast with wagons in 1865, and many were the hardships he endured. In the early days here his crops had to be guarded both day and … Read more