Orange County
Biographies
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 to Texas in 1874, and for a period
of fifteen years was successfully engaged in the rearing of sheep. In 1888 he
came to California and bought a residence near Santa Ana, where he is now
enjoying life and expects to spend the remainder of his days. At present he is a
partner in a grocery store on Main street, the firm name being McKee and
Brackett.
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, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time.... - Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.
page 875
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben
P. T. ADAMS,
of Tustin, was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, November, 1834.
His father, Peter Adams, was a native of North Carolina, and moved to Texas in
1833, back to Tennessee again, and in 1839 to Texas the second time, where his
children were brought up. The subject of this sketch passed his youth herding
cattle, much of the time on horseback. He served during the war in the
Confederate army, two years in James C. McCord’s regiment, and then until the
close of the war, in General Bankhead’s brigade. Politically Mr. Adams is a
Democrat, well informed upon questions of political economy, local, State and
national. He has built a neat and comfortable residence on his fine fruit ranch
near Tustin, and is giving his whole attention to the cultivation and
improvement of his orange orchards.
He was married in Texas, October 24, 1865, to Miss Elizabeth H. Dows, from Iowa.
Her father, Dr. E.M. Dows, came to California as early as 1850, but returned. He
died in California in 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Adams have five children: Henry M. and
Annie D., now Mrs. J. E. Gowen; Coode, Edmund L. and Lela Frances.
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, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time.... - Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.
page 875
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben
S. W. PREBLE ,
of Tustin, is a pioneer of 1849. He was born in York, Maine, in 1826. Educated at Gorham Academy, clerked for a short time in a carpet store in Philadelphia, then followed the mercantile business upon his own account for nearly three years at Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, when the gold excitement broke out, and he sold out, and March 15, 1849, left his native land for California, and after a voyage of four months arrived in San Francisco, July 15 following. For nearly three years he was engaged in mining, and was quite successful. In the spring of 1852 he returned to his native land, and in the winter of 1853 was married to Miss Abbie L. Wilson, of Well, Maine, and in March 1853, returned with his wife to California and located in Tomales, Marin County. There he followed agriculture for about eight years, when he moved to San Francisco, and in company with two other gentlemen built a wharf and engaged in the wood and hay business about two years. He then moved to San Mateo County and engaged in agricultural pursuits for about ten years, and in the fall of 1876 moved to his present home in Tustin, where he purchased twenty acres of unimproved land, which he has converted into one of the finest and most productive fruit ranches in Southern California, realizing from the sale of the oranges alone between $3,000 and $4,000 per annum. He is connected with some of the leading enterprises of Orange County, also with the Bank of Tustin, the Granger’s Bank at San Francisco, and is vice president of the First National bank of Santa Ana. As a business man his ability is recognized, and as a citizen his worth is acknowledged by all who know him. His residence exhibits a high order of taste.
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, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time.... - Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.
page 875-876
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben
HARLAN FAIRBANKS,
of Tustin, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1840. For
twenty two years he was engaged in the drug business, and in 1861 he entered the
army in the Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; was acting Sergeant; was
wounded at the battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, and discharged for disability at
Philadelphia, in 1862. In 1886 he became a citizen of California, where he has
since been eminently successful in the real-estate business. In 1889 he built a
drug store at the corner of F and Fourth streets in Tustin, having bought out C.
S. Smith & Co,. from Santa Ana. He was a charter member of the G. A. G. Post,
No. 10, of Worcester, Massachusetts; he now affiliates with Sedgwick Post, at
Santa Ana. He was also one of the charter members of Tustin Lodge, No. 231, I.
O. O. F.
In 1868 he married Miss Almira L. Lee, from Elmira, New York.
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, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time.... - Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.
page 876
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben