Selected Biographies of Highland Pioneers

These Biographies are excerpts from:

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties: With Selected Biography of Actors and Witnesses of the Period of Growth and Achievement...
By John Brown, James Boyd

Published by The Western Historical Association, 1922
Item notes: v. 3
Original from the New York Public Library
Digitized Jan 23, 2008 by books.google.com
1528 pages

Biographies of Highland Pioneers

Click to go to:

• CAPT. ALFRED MARCY APLIN
•ANDREW J. CRAM
•WILLIAM H. CRAM
•JAMES S. EDWARDS
•RUFUS E. LONGMIRE
•WILLIAM H. RODDICK
•MRS. ELIZABETH F. VAN LEUVEN

CAPT. ALFRED MARCY APLIN

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By John Brown, James Boyd
Page1095 - 1098

CAPT. ALFRED MARCY APLIN. — There could be no historical subject of greater interest than that involved in the reclamation, development and improvement of the former desert regions of Southern California into what is now a well connected landscape of citrus groves. Hardly anyone had a more important and practical part in that development, particularly in the districts around Highland, than the late Capt. Alfred Marcy Aplin. Captain Aplin, who received his title as a Union officer of the Civil war, was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, October 14, 1837. While completing a college course he answered Lincoln's first call for volunteers, served a three months' enlistment and then re-enlisted and was with the fighting forces of the North until the final surrender. He was once captured, and for seven days endured confinement in the Belle Isle Prison near Richmond, Virginia. He was in some of the most noted battles of the war, and at Missionary Ridge his captain, Cahil, was killed as he stood looking over Mr. Aplin's shoulder reading a newspaper. This newspaper had been slipped to them by a negro as they lay secreted in the brush, and Confederate sharpshooters had located them by means of the paper. Captain Aplin was an aide to General Thomas in the battles of Chicka- mauga and Stone River, and at the close of the war he participated in the Grand Review at Washington. He went in as a private, was twice promoted for bravery, and retired with the rank of captain. For many years he was a member of the G. A. R. Post at San Bernardino.

In Ohio in 1865 Captain Aplin married Miss Mary Elizabeth Winn, of Athens, that state. She was born in Albany, Ohio, November 14, 1842. When he left Ohio, Captain Aplin lived for two years at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and from there moved to Chetopah, Kansas. With that town as his headquarters he carried on an extensive business as a cattleman, running his herds over a large territory in Kansas and Indian Territory.

Captain Aplin came to California in 1875. He had a temporary residence on Base Line, and for the first three months worked in the mountains at the Little Bear Sawmill owned by Talmadge. In the meantime he was looking about for a permanent location, and in 1875 homesteaded a quarter section in East Highland, what is now known as the Smith Ranch.

Almost immediately he became instrumental in developing an irrigation water system, and also planted much of his land to deciduous fruit. One association of those early times was with F. E. Brown, the well known pioneer and founder of Redlands. They established a plant at the north end of Orange Street, and for two seasons bought and evaporated fruit. Captain Aplin designed and constructed the first commercial evaporator at Redlands, a plant which people came miles to see. He operated this plant on Lugonia Avenue near the Beal place in 1878-79. He also invented, though he never patented, a knife for the cutting of clingstone peaches. The design was subsequently adopted and largely manufactured in the East. While associated with Mr. Brown he was also instrumental in bringing water to the higher mesas in Redlands. He was a pioneer in the building of the Congregational Church at Highland, and was active in its choir.

About 1880 he bought eighty acres of railroad land, a portion of which is still owned by Mrs. Mary E. Aplin of East Highland. This he improved, setting out one of the first Naval orange groves in the district. He had observed the influence of frost on the sunflowers on lower and higher land, and was one of the first to advocate the higher mesa as the best location for citrus fruit, a policy and plan since generally followed and approved. He recommended and promoted the first two higher line water ditches from Santa Ana, partly as a means of saving wasteage due to the loss through the sand and also to serve the higher foothill lands. He was partially responsible for the present high line known as the North Fork Ditch or Canal. His first attempt to construct this was met by ridicule, and a number of his neighbors declared the ditch ran uphill and refused to work, taking their teams and going home. It was only after a convincing talk with the aid of a surveyor that they returned and helped him complete the work. Captain Aplin with John Weeks and John Cram made the first filing on the waters of Plunge Creek, and Captain Aplin built the Plunge Creek Ditch without the air of a surveyor, using a home made level. This was about 1883-84. He also contracted and laid the first paving in the North Fork Ditch, employing two hundred Chinese at a dollar and a quarter a day of ten hours.

Captain Aplin's signature was attached to the contract with the North Fork and Bear Valley Water companies, wherein the Bear Valley Water Company was permitted to divert to the compounding dam certain tributaries of North Fork, agreeing to maintain the North Fork ditches and deliver 600 inches of water to it in the months of June, July and August, thus settling a difficult problem of water rights in the district. Captain Aplin was also consulted by the founders of the Bear Valley Dam as to the feasibility of such a construction, and he guided the parties to the site on which the present dam is located.

He was one of the first men from the Highland district to make practical use of investments in the great Imperial Valley. The eighty acres he owned there he improved by planting grapes, deciduous fruits, and experimenting in other lines. In 1908 Captain Aplin moved from East Highland to a modern home he built in East Hollywood. He remained there four years, and then removed to San Francisco, where the death of this honored pioneer occurred February 28, 1918. Captain Aplin had many solid works to his credit in business affairs, and he was always known as a man of the highest character. He had come to California a thousand dollars in debt, and he paid that off in eight years. Eventually he achieved a fortune, and was thoroughly admired for the qualities of his citizenship.

Captain and Mrs. Aplin had six children, the first three having been born in Iowa. The oldest, Benjamin, died at the age of twenty-eight. The second, Myrtle Alfreda Aplin, M.D., graduated from the Cooper Medical College of San Francisco, and was one of the first two women out of thirty of her sex who competed in examination, to be selected and appointed by the Governor for executive responsibilities in the State Hospitals. For seven years she was physician in charge of the women's department at the Napa Hospital for the Insane, resigning to devote herself to her invalid mother.

The third child Dr. Guy E. Aplin, who graduated in medicine in Chicago, practiced for a number of years in St. Louis, and after returning to California practiced at Santa Paula, and later at Calpella had a successful experience as a pear orchardist. Later he was manager for the Phoebe Hearst home ranch, and is now a prominent orange grower on the place his father planted at Highland. He married Pearl Burr, who was reared and educated in the East.

The fourth child of the family was Donald Graham Aplin, who was born at Chetopah, Kansas, graduated from Pomona College and California University, receiving the degree Bachelor of Science in mine engineering and chemistry in 1899. He taught in the chemistry department at Berkeley for a year, then spent a year with the Borax Company, and was with the Dean and Jones Mining Company and the Virginia Dale Mines and for a number of years performed the arduous duties incident to work on the desert and in the mountains. He was a pioneer in the Imperial Valley, improving farm land there, and was horticultural commissioner and president of the Imperial Water Company. He finally resigned to return to Highland and take charge of his father's place. After eight years he bought ten acres at the corner of Boulder and Pacific avenues, where he owns one of the best groves in Highland, and he also acquired twenty-five acres nearby, which he set out to citrus fruits. In 1908 he married Miss Laura Corwin, member of a pioneer family of Southern California. She was educated in the Redlands High School and in Longmire's Business College at San Bernardino. Their three children are: John Alfred, born in 1909; Florence, born in 1913, and Esther, born in 1918.

The fifth child of Captain Aplin was Alfred Porter, who was born at East Highland and was drowned in the North Fork Canal at the age of two years. The youngest of the family, Ethel Grace, also a native of Highland, is a graduate of the preparatory school of Pomona College and received her M. D. degree from Ward's Medical College at San Francisco. She was married to Frank Lynn, an electrician, who was accidentally electrocuted in San Francisco. Mrs. Lynn is a leader in the socialist party in California and was a candidate on that ticket for secretary of state, receiving 40,000 votes. She possesses great talent in literary lines as well as in sociological problems, and was author of a book entitled "Adventures of a Woman Hobo."

TOP

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By John Brown, James Boyd P 1345-1346

ANDREW J. CRAM was born and is still living at the old Cram homestead at the end of Orange Street at East Highland. This is a property that has been in the possession of one faintly since pioneer days. Its handling well illustrates the processes of development through which this country has gone in its transformation from a wild desert to a wide stretching orange grove.

Mr. Cram was born there August 6, 1867, son of Lewis F. and Sarah Ann Cram, being the oldest of their seven children, six sons and one daughter. His father was born in New York State in 1834. His mother was born in 1847 in Quincy, Illinois, and is still living at the old home. The parents came overland with ox teams, .making a number of stops en route, and their first location in California was at the Chino Ranch, where they engaged in farming. Later "Lewis Cram homesteaded a hundred and sixty acres on section 3 in what is now known as East Highland. He and his brothers, together with one of the Van Leuvens, also filed on water rights from the Santa Ana River. This right is still referred to as the Cram and Van Leuvens right. The water was conveyed to their lands through an open ditch. These were the first settlers on the bench land. They planted vineyards and deciduous fruit orchards on the bottoms and did dry farming on the upper ground. All of this tract was cleared and improved by these pioneers. Eighty acres of the old homestead is still owned by Mrs. Lewis Cram, and nearly the entire tract is covered with orange groves. Lewis Cram spent a busy and effective life in this community and died at Highland . February 27, 1915.

Andrew J. Cram out of his personal recollections can recount practically every stage in the development of the community. As a boy he attended school in what is still known as the Cram district, a name given to it because of the many Cram children who have been pupils there. The schoolhouse he knew was a little building 16x24 feet, rudely constructed, merely with framing timbers and boards on the outside and without ceiling. Subsequently, as needed, additions were made until the schoolhouse was 75 feet long.

The first experimental growing of oranges on the Cram homestead was the setting out of two acres of seedlings. The fruit of these trees Andrew J. Cram and his brothers gathered and packed in the orchard, in absence of packing houses. The oranges were graded and packed in paper lined boxes two feet square and eight inches deep. The oranges were not wrapped individually then. These boxes were hauled by wagon to the nearest railroad station at Colton. Colton was also the site of the one cannery in this section, and all deciduous fruits were hauled there. The oranges produced by the first grove on the Cram estate were shipped through in A. 1. condition, and were sold so as to bring the grower between three and a half and five dollars a box. In the extension of the fruit interests on the Cram homestead vines and peach trees were planted and oranges in blocks of six and eight acres, until all is now a citrus grove, one of the largest and most productive in the entire county.

Andrew J. Cram is the father of four children: Maggie, wife of Mel- vin Roddick, of Highland, and the mother of three children, Mildred, Virginia and James ; Mollie, wife of George Hamilton, an orange grower at East Highland, and they have two sons, Arthur and Neiland ; Mrs. Mabel Burright, of San Jose, and Florence, wife of Arthur Cook, a prosperous cattleman in Colorado.

Mr. Cram takes the liveliest satisfaction in the transformation he has witnessed of the wild cattle range into a superbly improved district where modern improvements and citrus groves give land value between three and four thousand dollars an acre. He has done his part well and effectively in that transformation, and is now enjoying life in his comfortable home in East Highland with his mother.

TOP

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By John Brown, James Boyd
Page1484 - 1485

WILLIAM H. CRAM is one of the most successful orange growers in the Highland District of San Bernardino County. To that subject he has given practically a life of study and work. As a boy he picked oranges from one of the pioneer plantings in this locality.

Much of the pioneer history of the district now known as Highland is associated with the activities of the Cram family. Lewis F. and Sarah Ann ( Wakefield ) Cram, parents of William H. Cram, were California pioneers who came over the plains with ox teams and founded the home which is still occupied by their descendants at Highland. Some further details in the history of the family are given on other pages of this publication.

William H. Cram was born at the old Cram homestead at East Highlands April 22, 1869. He attended the old board schoolhouse nearby, and when only a boy he gathered oranges from a seedling plantation set out by his father, and helped pack them for market. Mr. Cram by way of reminiscence states that the first groves here were set out in the lowlands. Observation showed that sunflowers growing on the low ground were killed by frost in early winter, while those higher up on the bench land remained green all winter long and had to be dug up in spring to permit plowing. This observation gave a real practical hint for the Crams and others to plant their trees on the land which experience has proved have been most favorable for orange culture. The Crams were experimenting with this industry when there was practically no outside authority or experts to consult with, and every step had to be proved by the event of results, frequently requiring years. William H. Cram has been more than successful as a citrus fruit grower. He owns sixty acres, one of the largest and best orchards in the county.

In 1891 he married Miss Lottie D. Davis, of a prominent and influential pioneer family. She was born in 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Cram have four children. Clara graduated from the Redlands High School, from Stanford University, where she specialized in English preparatory to teaching, and is now the wife of Ervil Campbell, a native of California and likewise a graduate of Stanford University. He is a graduate civil engineer, and is now an engineer in the Government service in the oil industry, with home at Bakersfield. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have one) daughter. The second of the family, Arthur David Cram, graduated from the Redlands High School, spent one year in Stanford University and three years in Redlands University, and is now one of the successful young orange growers at East Highland. He married Miss Margaret Diels, a native of Nebraska, and they have a son. The third of the family, William H. Cram, Jr., is a high school graduate, spent a year at Stanford and two years at Redlands University, and was enlisted in the Aviation Corps during the World war. He was trained in America and also abroad in England, was overseas in service thirteen months, holding the rank of sergeant, and returned to America after the armistice. He and his brother are both members of the Elks Lodge at Redlands. The fourth of the family, Mildred Cram, is attending the Redlands High School and has gifts both in vocal and instrumental music.

Mr. William H. Cram is affiliated with Redlands Lodge No. 583 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He lives in one of the beautiful homes at East Highlands on Water Street, and he still gives his active personal supervision to his groves, which are kept in perfect condition and their fruits are evidence of the correctness of his methods, many of which have been evolved from his personal experience and study.

TOP

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By John Brown, James Boyd
Page1394 - 1396

JAMES S. EDWARDS, recognized as one of the representative and influential business men of Redlands and San Bernardino County, was born at Plymouth, Illinois, on the 14th of April, 1857, his father having been one of the substantial farmers of that locality. After profiting by the advantages of the public schools Mr. Edwards continued his studies at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, and the Missouri State Normal School at Kirksville, Missouri.

In April, 1881, as a young man of ambition and purposeful outlook, he came to Riverside, California, and found employment in the work of an orange grove. In the following November, shortly after a plat of Redlands had been filed, he came to the new district and became one of the first buyers of property here, In 1882 he made minor plantings and other improvements on his land, and two years later he here initiated his nursery industry, by planting seed and starting the growing of nursery stock. The citrus-fruit industry of the Redlands district was then in its infancy, but a period of specially rapid development ensued and Mr. Edwards supplied a very appreciable part of the early nursery stock of the district. Under his careful and vigorous management the business became an important and prosperous one. In 1887 Mr. Edwards became associated in business with Wilbur N. Chamblin. Besides extending their nurseries, they built a warehouse (now belonging to Cope Commercial Company) and engaged in the shipping of fruit for the growers in a cooperative way and also in the handling of grain and hay. About the same time, the firm purchased about 500 acres of land in the East Highlands section of the Redlands district. In '91 their interests were segregated. Mr. Chamblin taking the warehouse and the mercantile business, Mr. Edwards taking the land and nursery stock. In 1893 Mr. Edwards began planting this tract of land to oranges and the entire area is now covered by orange groves. The property is now operated under corporate control, Mr. Edwards having effected, in 1893, the organization and incorporation of the East Highlands Orange Company. Of this corporation he is the general manager, and Robert Roddick is the efficient foreman. Here has been developed one of the best groves of navel oranges in California. The early selection of the land as the stage of such enterprise has proved a very wise action, for the district is comparatively free from damage by frost and the soil and general climatic conditions wonderfully to the successful propagation of navel oranges of the finest type.

Mr. Edwards helped to organize also the Goldbuckle Association, which owns and operates one of California's most complete and successful fruit-packing plants. In connection with the modern packing house, which is of large capacity, the association maintains its own ice-manufacturing plant, which supplies all ice required in connection with the business. Mr. Edwards is president of this association and C. S. Hunt is manager. Mr. Edwards is a director of the California Fruit Exchange, and Fruit Growers Supply Company, and is in every sense one of the leading representatives of the citrus-fruit industry in the state. He and his associates in the Goldbuckle Association have given careful study and consideration and conducted divers experiments in perfecting the service of what is conceded to be one of the most satisfactory and efficient fruit packing and shipping agencies in the state all growers being assured the maximum excellence of service through the medium of the Goldbuckle Association.

In August, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Edwards to Mrs. Alice Pratt, a native of the state of New York and a woman of exceptional culture. Mrs. Edwards, a talented musician, is a zealous member of the Congregational Church, and is known as an earnest worker in behalf of the unfortunate and helpless, as well as for the general uplifting of humanity. Of the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards the eldest is Ruth, who was born November 19, 1888, who was graduated in Pomona College, and whose marriage to Paul R. Jennings occurred June 19, 1893, their home being in the city of San Diego. Paul L. Edwards, who was born September 24, 1891, is a graduate of the University of California, after leaving which institution he entered the Government service, in the department of commerce and labor. He was first sent to Brazil, and thereafter became commercial attache of the American embassy at The Hague, Holland, where he continued in service until the spring of 1920. During the period of the World war he served as representative of the Netherlands on the war trade board. Since his return to the United States he has remained in the service of the Government and he was stationed in the national capital until the spring of 1921. For nine months he was in various European countries and is now commercial attaché at Constantinople. Russell W. Edwards, the third child, was born July 18, 1897, and was graduated in the Redlands High School. Though not twenty-one years of age at the time when the nation became involved in the World war, he promptly enlisted in the coast artillery, and he was in the training camp at the time of the signing of the historic armistice which brought a technical close to the war. He is now assistant superintendent of the Goldbuckle Association and proves an able coadjutor of his father in directing the large business of this organization. May 2, 1918, recorded his marriage to Miss Marjorie Reynolds, of Redlands.

James S. Edwards had little capital save energy, ambition and resolute purpose when he initiated his independent business career in southern California. He applied himself unremittingly in the developing and up building of his nursery business. He is distinctively one of the representative pioneers of the Redlands district and has contributed loyally and in generous measure to its development and progress. Mr. Edwards has been a most energetic and vigilant worker in behalf of prohibition, and he has been nominee of the Prohibition party for various high state and Federal offices. He was one of the original board of directors of the First National Bank of Redlands. He has vied with his wife in earnest and effective service in the Congregational Church of Redlands, and for a number of years was superintendent of its Sunday School.

TOP

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By John Brown, James Boyd
P 1260-1261

RUFUS E. LONGMIRE. Those who now come to San Bernardino County can have no real idea of the conditions prevailing when the pioneers, among whom were Rufus E. Longmire and his family, located amid what was then practically a sterile wilderness. Irrigation was practically unknown in its present high state of development, dirt ditches being the only means of watering the soil, and the walls of these frequently broke through, resulting in a loss of the moisture so sorely needed. Citrus culture was then in its infancy, and had to be carefully studied and experimented upon. The results were so doubtful that it took one with great faith in the locality and industry to dare to risk all in these experimentations, but because there were these brave souls, willing to work and endure, this region has been made into one of the finest and most productive portions of the Golden State.

Rufus E. Longmire, for so many years connected with the citrus industry of San Bernardino County, and for a long period an honored resident of Highland, was born in Tennessee in 1843, and died at Highland, California, February 15, 1919. In 1868 he married Miss Mary E. Shanlever, who was born in Tennessee in 1844, and they settled on a farm in the vicinity of Clinton, Anderson County, Tennessee, and made it their home until 1882, and there their five daughters and two sons were born. In that year a brother of Mr. Longmire returned from the West with such glowing accounts of California and its possibilities and opportunities that these hard-working and watchful parents decided to make the long trip to the Land of Promise, being willing to endure much in the hope of obtaining advantages for their offspring. Therefore, filled with hope for the future and imbued with the determination to succeed no matter what the hardships might be, Rufus E. Longmire and his devoted wife set out for California. They arrived at East Highland in the fall of 1882, and rented land from the Van Leuven ranch, and lived on it for five years. At that time the region was but little improved, and father, mother and children had to work very hard to get a foothold in the new home. Scattered citrus orchards and grapes were to be found, but there was no concerted movement toward the establishment of a sound industry. However, the Longmire family were united in a harmonious whole and worked with a definite object in view, that of owning their home, and this they were able to bring about after five years of unremitting toil and the closest of economy. Mr. Longmire bought ten acres on Base Line, now known as the Parsons place, and this he and his family set to orange trees. Theirs was one of the early orchards of this region, and they lived on the place until the orchard was well grown, and then sold to advantage and bought ten acres on Highland Avenue, at Boulder Avenue. Once more they set out the trees that had been raised on the Base Line property, where he had maintained a nursery with profit. The second orchard flourished and was sold, again at a handsome profit, in 1912, following which Mr. Longmire retired from active participation in business, bought a comfortable home at Highland, where the remainder of his life was spent, and here Mrs. Longmire is still residing. She also owns a grove at Rialto, California. They came to San Bernardino County poor people, with their way in life still to make, and when Mr. Longmire retired they were possessed of ample means, and Mrs. Longmire is surrounded today with not only the comforts of life, but also many of the luxuries, all of which have been earned through the toil and good management of the Longmire family.

When the Longmires came to California the eldest child was fourteen years of age, she being Ida, who was born in October, 1868. She married Charles Hidden in 1892, and they have two children: Lloyd, who was born January 21, 1894, is a veteran of the World war, having served as an enlisted man in the artillery ; and Gertrude, who is with her parents. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Longmire, Lassie, was born April 3, 1870, and died August 18, 1889. Mattie, the third child, was born August 13, 1871, and she was married to John P. Coy, inspector of horticulture, and they became the parents of three children: Clifford, who was born December 1, 1898, is a veteran of the World war, in which he served in the aviation branch; Blanche, who was born November 17, 1899; and John, who was born May 9, 1916. Charles, who was born May 30, 1873, lives at Santa Ana, California, and is a real-estate man. He is married and has two children: Lucille, who was born April 1, 1904; and Rufus, who was born February 14, 1907. Kitty, the fifth child in the Longmire family, was born December 1, 1874. She was married to Frank Cram, a prominent citrus grower of Highland, and they have two children: Fred, who was born July 1, 1896, was in the aviation service during the World war ; and Mary Elizabeth, who was born May 27, 1900. Maggie, the sixth child in the Longmire family, was born April 25, 1877, and died February 9, 18%. James Longmire, the youngest in the family, was born February 9, 1878. He lives at Highland, is married, and has two children : Donald, who was born January 30, 1916; and Merritt, who was born February 16, 1921. His eldest child, Gerald, who was born November 11, 1914, died in infancy. Mrs. Longmire is very proud of her children and grandchildren, as she has every reason to be, for they are fine people. The sons and daughters are numbered among the substantial residents of the several communities in which they are located, and the grandchildren are showing forth in their lives the results of careful training and the good stock from which they have sprung. When their country had need of them the young men went forth to battle for it, and made records as soldiers which will be cherished by future generations.

TOP

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By John Brown, James Boyd
P 1346-1347

WILLIAM H. RODDICK — As a child, youth and man William H. Roddick of Highland has been through every phase of pioneer development of his section of California, from a sage brush wilderness to an almost undeviating prospect of orange groves and flourishing plantations. Mr. Roddick was born in Nova Scotia in 1880, son of Samuel Donald and Ellen Hume Roddick. His parents were also natives of Nova Scotia, and farmers there. In 1887 they came to California, and without capital the father earned a living for his family by day and month work on the ranch of Cunningham and Stone at South Highland for about twelve years. William H. Roddick was then seven years of age. Altogether he had a very brief acquaintance with schools, and his education has been a thoroughly practical one. He early learned to imitate his father's habit of hard and intensive work, and did what he could to assist the family. As a boy he worked out, frequently picking fruit for a few cents a day and clothing himself and going to school. His father eventually bought a tract of land and planted it to deciduous fruits, but lack of water made the proposition a failure. His father about ten years before his death, which occurred in 1916, bought a thirteen and a half acre orange grove on Highland Avenue, and this proved the stepping stone to solid success for the family. William H. Roddick has been thoroughly schooled in ranching and fruit growing and is an authority on citrus culture.

In 1916 he and his brother David bought forty acres of the Linville estate, and they still own this as partners. It is one of the highly productive citrus fruit orchards in the country. Three years later William Roddick as an individual bought twenty-three acres of the Coy estate on Pacific and Central streets, and later ten acres on Boulder Street, where he has erected his modern home overlooking the Santa Ana River Valley, with view of the mountains to the north and east. All this land Mr. Roddick remembers as a sage brush desert, without railroad, and only here and there a scattered orange plantation.

On New Year's Day, 1914, he married Miss Susie Jane Skelton, member of a prominent Redlands family. She was born in Nebraska. Mrs. Roddick is a member of the Congregational Church and one of the leaders in local society. They have two interesting children : Frances Rose, born April 26, 1915; and Walter Samuel, born May 22, 1917.

Mr. Roddick's success has not been of an ordinary character. As a boy he worked long hours, and energy and good management have carried him from stage to stage until he enjoys a goodly share of the substantial wealth of this country and at the same time has aided in the development that makes real wealth.

TOP

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By John Brown, James Boyd
P 1103 1106

MRS. ELIZABETH F. VAN LEUVEN, whose childhood memories touch pioneer life in both Utah and California, has been a resident of the latter state since 1858, and is now one of the venerable and revered pioneer women of San Bernardino County, where she maintains her home in the beautiful Mission district of Redlands. Her gracious personality and the experiences that have been hers in connection with the development and progress of this favored section of the state render it specially gratifying to pay to her in this publication a merited tribute.

Mrs. Van Leuven was born in the State of Illinois, on the 17th of March, 1846, and is a daughter of William J. and Rachel Robinson. The father was born in Missouri, in 1818, was there reared to adult age, and he was a farmer by vocation during the period of his youth and early manhood. He became a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints and when, at the outbreak of the Mexican war, the Government of the United States made requisition upon the Mormon Church for 500 men to serve as soldiers in the coming conflict Mr. Robinson was one of those who entered service. He became a member of what was known as the Mormon Battalion. This command was furnished wagons and teams and assigned to the transporting of arms, equipment and supplies to the stage of conflict. In the early summer of 1846 the militant caravan set forth from Jefferson County, Misouri, on the long and perilous overland journey through the wilderness to Mexico. The men traveled on foot and through to be transported to the front. The march was continued to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and thence through the desert country, with countless obstacles to be overcome in passing through the arid districts of the Southwest. Thus was achieved by these hard men a feat of endurance well nigh unprecedented in history.

The men of this party, as official records show, did much to further the success of the United States in the war with Mexico, and their record was one of loyal and arduous service. The members of the Mormon Battalion were mustered out while in Mexico. Some of them returned to Missouri by the same route that they had come, and Mr. Robinson and a number of other members of the command returned by wagon train through Mexico to Yuma, Arizona, thence to Wilmington, California, and onward through Salt Lake City, Utah, and he finally arrived at his home in Missouri in 1848. In May, 1852, in company with his wife and their five children, he became associated in the forming of a wagon train of many ox and mule teams, the train being divided into units of ten wagons each, with a captain assigned in charge of each of these divisions. Mr. Robinson was made captain of his unit. The members of the party were followers of Brigham Young, and they set forth to form a new Mormon colony, it having been the hope of the Latter Day Saints that after the annexation of territory at the close of the Mexican war they would be given a refuge and home in California. The immigrant train proceeded on its hazardous westward journey and suffered greatly by the scourge of cholera which marked the year 1852, many members of the party having died of the dread disease, including Mr. Robinson, who died July 17, 1852, while the company was in the immediate vicinity of the Platte River, one of his daughters having died six days previously. The bereaved wife and mother, with her four young children, continued her weary and desolate journey, and the daughter Elizabeth, of this sketch, who was then six years old, well recalls the passing of the party through Echo Canyon, she having been greatly alarmed by the echoes, which she thought to be persons mocking the party. The memorable journey and its incidents left vivid impressions on her childish mind, and her reminiscences of this remarkable pioneer experience of the western wilds are most graphic and interesting.

The travel-worn caravan arrived at Salt Lake City about the first of September, 1852, and Mrs. Robinson and her children there remained until 1858, when they became members of another wagon train and set forth for California. Mrs. Robinson later contracted a second marriage. Philomon M., the eldest of the Robinson children, was born in Missouri, as were the other four children, and he accompanied his mother on the journey to California; Elizabeth F., to whom this review is dedicated, was the next in order of birth ; Louise was the daughter who died en route to Utah ; and the two younger children, Emma and William H., accompanied their mother to California. Mrs. Robinson established the family home at San Bernardino, and here she later married William Pugh, there having been three children of this union— Melvin, Cardnell and Eleanor.

Elizabeth Robinson was reared to adult age amid the pioneer influences and conditions that obtained in San Bernardino County, and her educational advantages were those of the locality and period. On the 14th of January. 1863, she became the wife of Anson Van Leuven, a California pioneer of 1852. In 1854 Benjamin Van Leuven, father of Anson, likewise came to California, and here he purchased eighty acres of land in the Mormon settlement in San Bernardino County. After his marriage Anson Van Leuven settled on this land, and the property, now finely improved, is still her home at the present time. It is needless to say that the old home is endeared to her by many hallowed memories and associations. Leuven ranch in the early days were dried, and grapes were manufactured into wine. These products were sold and shipped out by wagon freight, as was also the grain raised for market. There was nothing sybaritic in the conditions that were in evidence here in the early days, and Mrs. Van Leuven states that she wore simple calico dresses which she made by hand, as did she all other clothes used by herself and her children. She was the mother of three children before she ever saw a sewing machine, and it can thus be understood that she acquired skill with the needle as a matter of virtual necessity. In her possession to-day, as a prized relic, is a surrey that gave long and effective service, this vehicle having been manufactured in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1849, and Nathan Meek having used the same in making the overland trip to California. Mr. Van Leuven purchased the vehicle in 1863, and it continued as the family carriage for many years — until, in fact, it gave place to the modern automobile. In coming to California Mr. Van Leuven crossed the plains with an ox team, and a somewhat attenuated heifer, which he purchased, was hauled on a wagon the entire distance from Bitter Springs. This animal played well its part in the family entourage and lived to the age of thirty-four years.

Mr. Van Leuven served as sheriff of San Bernardino County from 1858 to 1861, and it will be understood by the students of early history of California that his duties were of strenuous and often hazardous order, as horse and cattle thieves and other outlaws were active in pursuit of their nefarious work. The large cattle and horse ranch known as the San Jose Ranch was the site of the present fine little city of Pomona, and ran its cattle in the bottom lands of the Mojave River. Thieves stole a large number of horses from this ranch, and they were tracked through Cajon Pass. The owner of the ranch, in riding about and looking after his cattle, recognized his stolen horses in the distance. He notified Sheriff Van Leuven, who took up the trail, recovered the horses and captured four of the six thieves. After their conviction he alone took charge of them on the trip to the state prison, the sheriff and his prisoners having gone to San Pedro on horseback and having thence continued up the coast by steamer. The ranch owner, fearing an attempt would be made to rescue the prisoners, brought sixteen men to guard them on the trip to Los Angeles, but Sheriff Van Leuven declined this aid and proceeded alone with his prisoners. The sheriff traced the men by the track of the defective hoof of a horse which one of the number was riding, he having recognized this peculiar deformity as being that of a horse stolen from the San Jose Ranch, and on this occasion he manifested much finesse, as did he on many other occasions. His "vigorous administration rid the district and county of many lawless and desperate characters, for rarely did a guilty man escape him. He served as a deputy United States marshal during the period of the Civil War, and was one of the prominent and influential men of his county. In 1863 he was elected to represent San Bernardino County in the Legislature, and as a member of the Lower House he made an excellent record of service in the General Assembly of 1864. He was a stalwart republican, a man of inviolable integrity, marked loyalty and much pro- Honest and upright in all of the relations of life, Mr. Van Leuven left a benignant and enduring impress upon the community in which he lived and wrought, and he was one of the honored pioneer citizens of San Bernardino County at the time of his death, in 18%.

Mr. and Mrs. Van Leuven became the parents of five children, all born in the old home place in San Bernardino County. Myron Franklin, eldest of the number, was born November 25, 1863, and he resides with his widowed mother on the old home place, his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Hughes, being deceased. Sarah, the second child, was born June 8, 1865, and her death occurred in 1882. Byron, who was born April 2, 1869, is a bachelor and remains with his mother on the home ranch. Henry, born April 21, 1871, is a prominent business man of Redlands. He married Miss Lucy M. luch, of Redlands, and they have one son, William H., born November 12, 1914. Maude, born March 2, 1883, is the wife of C. J. Boone, who is a successful orange-grower, residing on part of the old homestead near Redlands. Mr. and Mrs. Boone have three children, Carroll Jackson, William Bruce and Richard Lewis. Mrs. Boone is an active and influential member of the Parent-Teachers' Association of Redlands, and is earnest in work for community betterment, besides being popular in the social life of the locality which has represented her home from the time of her birth.

Mrs. Elizabeth F. Van Leuven has witnessed the marvelous development of San Bernardino County, much of which was a desert waste when her family here established their pioneer home, and she has taken her part in the march of progress, has lived to enjoy the gracious rewards of former years of endeavor, and is one of the well known pioneer women of the county, with secure place in the affectionate regard of all who have come within the compass of her gracious and kindly influence.

TOP

HighlandHistory.org