Orange County
Biographies
WILLIAM B. WALL, M.D. ,
Santa Ana, the first Treasurer of Orange
County, was born near Danville, Virginia, in 1890 [date ?]. His literary
education he received at the common schools in Mississippi, and his medical
education at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, where he graduated in
1853. He further attended lectures in New Orleans in 1854, and began the
practice of his profession in Mississippi, where he built up a fine patronage;
but on the breaking out of the war he entered the Confederate army, in the
Twenty-third Mississippi Volunteer Infantry, and was Surgeon for the regiment.
He was elected First Lieutenant, and subsequently Captain, and served as Surgeon
until the close of the war, when he was surrendered under General Joseph E.
Johnston.
He then followed his profession in Mississippi until 1875, when he came to
California and bought land near Tustin, on which he planted orange trees and
vines, and until the blight struck the grape and the scale the orange, Dr. Wall
had the finest vineyard and orchard in Southern California. The neatness of his
grounds and the fine quality of his fruits gave evidence of a horticulturist
possessing superior knowledge and ability. Dr. Wall was elected County Treasurer
at the first election in August, 1889, on the non-partisan ticket. He has held
also other official relations. Politically he is an orthodox Democrat, and
socially he is a Freemason, and religiously a zealous member of the Baptist
Church. He is also secretary of the Orange County Medical Association.
He was first married in 1844 and had one daughter. In 1873 he married Mrs. Julia
F. Norman, from North Carolina, and by this marriage there are two children -
William and Pearl.
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
MADISON H. BEAR,
a farmer and dairyman near Newport, was born
in Rockingham, County ,Virginia, December 6, 1841, the fifth child in a family
of eight children of David and Maria (Anderson) Bear. Was educated in
Harrisonburg and also worked upon his father’s farm until he was twenty-seven
years of age, when he married Miss Cornelia Firebaugh, of Rockbridge County,
Virginia, and a daughter of John and Ella (McCutchen) Firebaugh. Mr. Bear then
bough 120 acres of land four miles west of Harrisonburg and managed a farm there
four years; selling out then, he came, in November, 1873, to California, rented
land two years and then purchased the tract which he now occupies, half a mile
east of Newport. For some years past he has been very successful in the dairy
business.
Politically he is an earnest and intelligent supporter of the Democratic party.
He served as soldier in the Confederate army, was captured in the Wilderness May
10, 1864, and held as a prisoner at Fort Delaware until the close of the war. He
is a member of the Presbyterian Church, in which for fourteen years he has held
the office of elder. He has the following named children: Ernest C., Lena K.,
Irene E. and David A.
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 860
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben
WILLIAM A. FIREBAUGH,
farmer and stock-raiser near Newport, was born
in Rockbridge County, Virginia, November 24, 1848, a son of David and Margaret
(Hull) Firebaugh, both of Virginia. William, the fourth in a family of eight
children, received but a limited education. In 1870 he went to Cedar County,
Virginia, and began business for himself by renting land for two years. In 1872
he came to California and bought land, which he subsequently improved and
finally sold, when he bought a ranch a half mile southwest of Newport, and here
he has been successfully engaged in general farming and stock-raising to the
present time.
July 25, 1877, is the date of Mr. Firebaugh’s marriage to Fanny Jamison, of
Texas, and the daughter of J. B. and Jane (Ware) Jamison. Mr. Jamison was a
pioneer who crossed the plains from Missouri to California by ox teams and
followed farming a number of years at El Monte. Mr. and Mrs. Firebaugh have five
children; Larine, Gertrude, Lee, James and Roy.
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 860
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben
MARQUIS L. SELLS,
a farmer near Westminster, was born in Wyandot County, Ohio. September 6, 1845. His parents, John and Mary (McKissen) Sells , were natives respectively of Ohio and Virginia, and had five children, three of whom are still living. John Sells was a well-known attorney in Wyandot County for a number of years, and died November 19, 1886. Marquis worked on the railroad as a trackman, and subsequently attended school at New Hagerstown and Harlem Springs. Then he taught school for some ten years in Ohio and Missouri, and in May, 1871, he came to California with two brothers and his mother. He first rented land in Santa Barbara County and afterward came to what is now Orange County, purchasing a fine ranch one mile south of Westminster; where he successfully engaged as stock-raiser and general farmer.
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 861
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben