Orange County
Biographies
ALEX. GARDINER,
general farmer and fruit-raiser near Fullerton, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1838, the fourth son of William and Mary Gardiner, who came to America in 1855, in a sailing vessel, landing in New York; thence they immediately sailed to Charleston, South Carolina, and thence they proceeded to Knoxville, Tennessee, locating ten miles south of Knoxville at Rockford. William Gardiner was a cotton spinner by trade.
The subject of this sketch served five years as a machinist in Scotland, leaving school at the age of twelve years. In 1869 he came overland to California, starting from Knoxville, Tennessee, September 21, 1869, and arrived at Watsonville, this State, October 6. He hunted along the coast for a home, and December 6 found him in Los Angeles. Directly he purchased 160 acres two miles and a half northwest of Anaheim, where he has since resided; was one of the first settlers there, buying of the Los Angeles and San Bernardino Land Company. Out of a barren waste he has made a fruitful farm, and as a general agriculturist and horticulturist he has been successful.
Mrs. Gardiner, whose maiden name was Susan M. Reeder, was born in Blount County, Tennessee, and her parents, Majors and Jane (Williams) Reader, were natives of Virginia and had ten children. Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner were married in East Tennessee in 1864. Their children are: Jennie, wife of Otto des Granges, Jr.; Mary, Frank, John, James, Lilburn and Alex. W.
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.- 854-855
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
HON. ISAAC LYONS,
residing three miles northwest of Anaheim, was born in England in 1847, and came to San Francisco as a merchant in 1862. In 1868 he went to Prescott, Arizona, and in 1875 to Yuma, where he was engaged in the mercantile business for a number of years, with signal success. In 1887 he was elected to the Legislature from Yuma County by the Democratic party. Afterward he served two years as director of the Territorial penitentiary, his appointment to this position being received in March while he was yet in the Legislature. In 1883 he was elected treasurer of Yuma County for two years, and finally, in 1887, he came to California and bought his present place, where it is his intention to retire from active business life. He is still a zealous and able Democrat, and in his society relations he is a member of the Yuma Lodge, A. O. U. W. He was married in Arizona, in 1872, to Marcella Zegera, a native of Mexico, and their children are: Joseph, Eva, Louisa, Isabella and Edna.
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.- 855
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
J. B. STONE,
orchardist near Fullerton and a worthy citizen of the Golden State, began life in Pennsylvania, July 21, 1831, the ninth in a family of eleven children of his parents, Silas and Susanna (Ward) Stone, who were from Vermont, and moved from Michigan to Van Buren County, Iowa, in 1837. November 13, 1851, Mr. J. B. Stone started by a steamer for California, but came part of the way by sail vessel, landing in San Francisco March 8, 1852. After mining one year he began farming in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. After a time he came to Los Angeles County, and in 1868 bought land in what is now Orange County, being one of the first purchasers from the Los Angeles and San Bernardino Land Company. He took 200 acres of wild land on which there was not a tree or shrub, from the old Spanish adobe, Coyote, to Anaheim. He immediately went to work, built a house and began improvements, and, although for several years he had to encounter hard times, he now has fine walnut and orange groves where once the wild mustard waved in the breezes, and he now feels richly paid for all his patient labor and toil. He is a quiet, peaceable citizen, a good neighbor, non-partisan, but a Republican in his political sympathies.
Mr. Stone was married, March 6, 1855, in Sacramento, to Annie Smith, who was born in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William and Annie (Blackburn) Smith, natives of England. The children in Mr. Stone's family are Charles E., Emma A. (now Mrs. George Gray), Thomas R., Beatrice (wife of W. A. Barnes), Elnora and Roderick.
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.- 855
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler