Orange County
Biographies
LEWIS J. CARSON,
the worthy assistant in the postoffice of San Diego, and the superintendent of carriers, was born at Merrimac Iron Works, Phelps County, Missouri, June 10, 1864, being the youngest in a family of five children. His father was in the iron business, formerly at Pilot Knob, Missouri. In 1877 they moved to Phillipsburg, Montana, and in 1879 returned to Missouri. Lewis received his preliminary education in common schools, and in 1883 entered the School of Mines, at Raleigh, Missouri, a branch of Columbia University. After sixteen months of study he went to Butte, Montana, as assistant assayer of the Lexington Mining Company. In 1887 he went to his home in Missouri, and on March 15, of the same year, started for San Diego, and on the 27th of March entered the employ of the Government as letter carrier at San Diego, and October 1, 1888, for efficient service was promoted to superintendent of carriers, which position he now (December, 1889) holds. He is unmarried and lives with his mother and two brothers.
He is a member of the A. O. U. W. lodge No. 216, at Salem, Missouri.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 895
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
H. T. HEWITT
is San Jacinto's pioneer merchant. He was born in
Litchfield, Connecticut, January 21, 1829. His father, Elijah W. Hewitt, was a
native of Connecticut. His grandfather, Elijah Hewitt, came to America from the
north of England. His maternal grandfather, George Prescott, was also from the
north of England. His mother,
Lucretia (Prescott) Hewitt, was a native of Connecticut. She was married to Mr.
Hewitt in 1824, and had eleven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was
the second. He was educated in Connecticut, and in the academy at Auburn, New
York, of which Professor Hopkins was president. At the close of his studies he
learned the carpenter's, and afterward the millwright's trade, both of which
were of great service to him in after life. In 1851 he came to San Francisco;
from there he went to Sacramento, and from there to the mines, where he stayed
for five years. He then served a campaign with Walker in Nicaragua in 1856; then
he settled in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, where he did an extensive business for
twenty years as contractor, builder, and manufacturer of lumber. He was also a
dealer in planing-mills and every kind of building material. His health having
become impaired, he sold out, and June 20, 1878, came to San Diego County, and
after traveling all through Lower California and San Diego County, he settled in
San Jacinto. Here he bought an undivided interest in 1,500 acres of land, and
subsequently purchased 3,000 acres more, and commenced raising cattle and opened
a store. The building was adobe, 20x32, on the corner of First and Hewitt
streets, the back of which and also the upstairs he used as a dwelling. The next
year he built an addition, also of adobe, and opened a hotel. The goods for the
store were brought by wagon from Los Angeles. The San Jacinto Land Company was
formed. They platted 15,000 acres in town and farm lots, and then the settlers
began to file in. His cattle raising business increased, as well as his store
business, and five years after his arrival in the place he commenced the
construction of his large brick block for the Palma Hotel and stores, two
stories high and 164 feet front by 128 feet deep. The whole block is filled and
run under his personal supervision. His stores are filled with all kinds of
merchandise in all lines of goods, including undertakers' goods. It is
undoubtedly the largest stock of general merchandise in the county. He has two
large warehouses, and does a grain-buying and shipping business. He does a very
extensive business, his trade extending out thirty miles. He has twenty-five men
in his employ. He was one of the organizers of the State Bank, but is not
connected with the institution now. He has a large livery stable, where he keeps
in the vicinity of forty horses, and is sowing 2,000 acres of grain. He still
retains 200 acres of choice valley land, and has 300 acres of timbered land in
the mountains. He is a man of large business capacity, and has been a great
factor in his town; and while he has been wonderfully successful himself, he has
been very helpful to others.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 895-896
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
MRS. JULIA J. STEWART
was born in Philadelphia in 1830, her parents being John R. and Hannah E. (Howell) Vodges. The former was a native of Philadelphia, a prominent lawyer and a trustee of Jefferson Medical College. He and General Israel Vodges were cousins. The mother was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1794, and died at the advanced age of eighty-nine years.
Julia, the subject of this sketch, was educated in Philadelphia, and was a constant resident of that city until she moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1884. She removed to Spring valley, San Diego County, that same year, and bought the ranch on which she now resides. It consisted of 320 acres. The property has a fine residence on it, and has been improved since 1870. Mrs. Stewart has made many improvements in the way of fine ranch buildings and running water-pipes over it. On the place there are 900 orange trees, 200 olive, 300 lemon, and nearly every other variety of fruit, all in bearing; also many ornamental shrubs and flowers. The ranch is one of the oldest and best known places in the valley; the railroad runs near it, and Spring Valley station is within half a mile of it. Mrs. Stewart has donated a school-house site, and a nice school-house is in process of erection.
Mrs. Stewart has been twice married, first to William B. Duncan, grandson of General Duncan, a general of the war of 1812. They had one daughter by this union—Julia, born in 1855 in Philadelphia, who married George Wharton, had two children, and afterward died. The children, Edith and Helen, are now with their grandmother. In 1861 the subject of this notice was married to Rev. Dr. Stewart, a native of Dublin, Ireland. When quite young he was taken by his parents to Jamaica, West Indies. He was pastor of a church in Jamaica, Newark and Philadelphia. During the war he was Chaplain with Harlan's Cavalry. By this union there were three daughters, viz.: Mary, born in 1862, and married in 1879 to Frederick Phillips, of Philadelphia; Hannah Vodges, born in 1865, and married in 1887 to her cousin, W., B. Prentice, who was born of American parents while abroad. He went to Washington Territory and took up 160 acres of government land, remained one year, then went to Los Angeles and engaged in the dry-goods business for himself. They make their home with Mrs. Stewart at Spring Valley. The other daughter, Mildred Maud, was born in 1868. Having poor health, she was the cause of the family coming to California. She died in Los Angeles in 1885. Mrs. Stewart has engaged quite heavily in San Diego property, and among the rest owns the Buckingham, on the corner of D and Second streets.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 896
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler