Merced County
Biographies
CLYDE E. BRIDEGROOM
A representative dairyman of the Fairview Precinct in Merced County, who has made his own way in the world and has reached his present place in the esteem of his fellow men, is Clyde E. Bridegroom, residing about seven miles southwest of Turlock. Mr. Bridegroom was born at Mt. Carmel, Wabash County, Ill., December 28, 1885, the son of William E. Bridegroom, the present mayor of Turlock, Stanislaus County. The latter was born in Winamac, Ind., and became a railroad man, running on freight and later on passenger trains as a conductor, first with the "Big Four," then with the Wabash, and later was with the Texas Pacific in Texas. He had married in Indiana, Miss Mary Gill, born in that State; and she bore her husband four children who are now living.
Clyde E. attended the public schools in Illinois and after completing his courses at the age of sixteen he took to farming on 192 acres owned by his father at Reinard, Ill. The lure of California called to the young farmer in Illinois and on October 3, 1905, he arrived in Los Angeles to see if he could not better his condition, he being the first member of his family to come this far West. After the usual sight-seeing in the southland, Mr. Bridegroom found employment in the factory owned by the Southern California Lumber & Box Company, and a few months later he went to Bakersfield, where he was fortunate to become a foreman for the Kern County Land Company on their 120,000-acre Poso Ranch and he remained in that position for the ensuing seven years. His next field of endeavor was with the American Oilfields Company, at Taft, as foreman of the Transportation Department for two years. In 1906 he had made a visit to Turlock, Cal., and at that time purchased a few lots in the new and growing community. In 1912 he came back to that city, but in the meantime had traded his lots for twenty acres of land south of the city, upon which he built a house and made improvements, and it is here that he still makes his home. Through general ranching and dairying he has succeeded and now owns 120 acres of fine land upon which he runs a dairy of seventy cows, having every modern convenience obtainable to make his barns and equipment sanitary and convenient.
Much of the success that has accompanied the efforts of Mr. Bridegroom he attributes to his wife, whom he married in Modesto and who was in maidenhood, Miss Ethel Marie Kirkwood, born in Ukiah, Cal., the daughter of William Edward Kirkwood, who came to Mendocino County from Iowa when he was eleven years of age. Of this happy union have been born four children: William Radcliffe, Bethel Beatrice, Robina Bernice and Kirkwood Clyde. Mr. Bridegroom is essentially a "home-man" as he finds his greatest happiness in the bosom of his interesting family. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and are Republicans in politics. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bridegroom are highly esteemed by their ever-widening circle of friends and well-wishers.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 673-674
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
PAUL D. BLOOM
Among the younger generation of dairymen and ranchers in Merced County, Paul D. Bloom has won a name and place for himself. He was born in Davis County, Iowa, March 16, 1891, a son of John and Laura A. (Royer) Bloom. John Bloom was born in Sweden, near Stockholm, and was reared on a farm. He left his native land, lived in Iowa, where he married; in 1900 he came to California, eventually locating in San Jose, where he passed his last days, dying at the age of sixty-six years. He had been engaged in the hotel business in San Jose. Mrs. Bloom still makes that city her home.
Paul D. Bloom grew to manhood in San Jose and was educated in the public schools, after which he started out to make his own way in the world when he was twenty. His first employment was with the Standard Oil Company at San Jose in the sales department. He was there until he came to Merced County, in 1918. Here he located on the ranch owned by his father-in-law, Jasper Parnell, having at first forty acres, but now operates 160 acres devoted to dairying and raising alfalfa on shares.
On July 16, 1913, occurred the marriage of Paul. D. Bloom and Miss Julia Stella Parnell, who was born in Stockton, the daughter of Jasper and Cassie Parnell, mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Bloom have three children: Cedric, Mildred and Donald. Politically Mr. Bloom is a Democrat. Fraternally he is a member of the Odd Fellows at Newman.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 674
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
CHARLES WILSON O'DONNEL
C. L. O’DONNEL
It is a significant tribute to the merits of Merced County, that a man of such wide experience as Charles W. O'Donnel should choose to settle here and invest his money. He is a citizen of whom any community might well be proud and the people of Merced County have accorded him a place in the foremost ranks of its representative citizens and business men. His material worth is represented by two fine ranches, one of sixty-five acres near Arena devoted to alfalfa, dairying and fruit; another of forty acres in the Jordan-Atwater section, in which there are ten acres of Thompson Seedless grapes, twelve acres of Malagas, fourteen acres of Elberta peaches, and four acres of alfalfa. He has concrete pipes for irrigating and an abundance of pure water from his own wells for domestic, stock and irrigating purposes which are operated by means of two Fairbanks-Morse gasoline pumping engines. The two farms are very fertile and valuable.
Mr. O'Donnel was born at Parker's Landing, in Butler County, Pa., on November 6, 1876. His father, L. D. O'Donnel, was born in 1847 and married to Edith Black in Venango County; he was well known as one of the first contract-drillers in the Venango County oil fields of Pennsylvania and was in the oil game until his retirement, in 1896, to his farm in Venango County. He drilled the first oil well that was drilled by contract in the United States, it being the discovery well at Scrub Grass, Pa., and drilled on what is now the right-of-way of the Pennsylvania Railroad, now known as the Allegheny Valley Railroad, between Oil City and Pittsburgh. Mr. O'Donnel is still living in Pennsylvania. His wife died there in 1914 at the age of fifty-nine. There were three children, the others being Edward, of Sharon, Pa., an inspector of the Carnegie Steel Works at Farrell, Pa.; and Daisy, Mrs. J. C. Reynolds, whose husband is a concrete contractor at Franklin, Pa.
The second child, Charles Wilson O'Donnel grew up in Pennsylvania. His education, begun in the common schools, was topped off by a commercial course after which, at the age of sixteen, he started in business with his father; and when his father retired, he took possession of the five strings of tools in the Rosenburg field in Pennsylvania. He has drilled in nearly every oil State of the Union. He came to California in 1910 and drilled at Taft for the K. T. & O. Co., which is subsidiary to the Southern Pacific Railway. In 1913 he left California and went to Electra, Texas, where he brought in thirty wells. When he left Breckenridge, Texas, in 1910, and came to California Mr. O'Donnel purchased his first ranch in the Jordan-Atwater tract in Merced County, but continued drilling until 1918. He
standardized and brought in the first oil well at Burnett, Texas, where he kept six strings of tools at work.
Mr. O'Donnel was married in Franklin, Pa., in 1908, to Miss Edna Levier, born in Venango County, Pa., the eleventh child of the twelve born to John Levier and his wife. Mrs. O'Donnel died in 1918.
On December 15, 1924, Charles L. O'Donnel, who is the oldest son of Edward O'Donnel, of Sharon, Pa., purchased an undivided half interest in the 105 acres of land owned by our subject at Arena and will give his time and best efforts to developing the property into fruits, and to the development of a market from Arena to Sharon, Pa., for California fruits. Charles L. O'Donnel was born at Pittsburgh, Pa., on June 27, 1897, and for ten years was connected with the Carnegie Steel Company, at Sharon. He was also for two years with the Pennsylvania Railway Company. His wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Moriarity, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, is a proficient stenographer, was secretary to the secretary of the Sharon, Pa., Chamber of Commerce, and like her husband, has a wide acquaintance and is well posted as to the market conditions and requirements for fruit of the people in the Pittsburgh section of Pennsylvania. 400 carloads of California grapes and other green fruits were marketed at Sharon during 1924. Mr. and Mrs. C. L. O'Donnel have one son. Their advent in Arena is very welcome, particularly as it initiates a new era for Arena as a fruit shipping center.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 675-676
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler