San Bernardino County
Biographies
JOHN CALVIN CHRISTY,
one of the leading members of the San Bernardino Bar, and Court Commissioner of the County, was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1839. He was educated in his native State, attending college from 1855 to 1859. Coming west to Illinois, in 1859, he located in the southern part of the State, known as Egypt, read law during 1859–'60 and in the spring of 1861 was admitted to the bar. He soon afterward entered the army as a member of Company B, Eighteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served nearly four years, two years of the time as a scout and sharpshooter. He participated in eleven hard-fought battles. Then, being mustered out of service, he returned to Pennsylvania, and commenced the practice of law, having been married December 13, 1864, to Miss Patterson, whose childhood's home was just eighty rods from his own, and who had been his playmate and associate from infancy.
His health being somewhat impaired, Mr. Christy moved to Washington, Iowa, and a few months later to Wooster, Ohio, and practiced his profession about two years in that place, then removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he entered into a law partnership with Hon. James A. Caldwell, an eminent lawyer and a distinguished figure in the history of that State. In October, 1886, Mr. Christy came to California, and settled in San Bernardino. A few months after engaging practice here he was appointed Court Commissioner of San Bernardino County, which office he still fills with ability. The function of his office is to hear and decide by the code such civil cases as require an accounting, and are referred to him by the Superior Courts. He is also authorized to perform all duties of a notary public. In addition to his official labors he enjoys a prosperous private law practice. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Christy was noted in earlier days for his physical prowess and as an expert in the art of hunting and fishing, he is an affable and companionable gentleman, and a worthy representative of the old Quaker stock from which he is descended. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Pennsylvania, his father having been born in Beaver County, in 1800, and died in Armstrong County, at the ripe age of eighty-seven. His widow still lives upon the old homestead.
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.- 535-536
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOHN J. WHITNEY,
proprietor of the City Planing Mill and lumber yard, and
one of the principal manufacturers in San Bernardino County, was a native of
Elmira, New York. and was born in 1843. He inherited a talent for mechanics from
his father, and being a contractor and practical builder and the owner and
operator of a large planing mill in
Elmira, afforded him ample means of exercising and developing his innate
tendencies. In 1862, in his nineteenth year, he enlisted in the army as a member
of the Fifth New York Heavy Artillery; served till the close of the war, and,
participated in many a hotly contested battle, and received three slight gunshot
wounds. After returning home he turned his attention to lumber milling and
building, and during the ten years he conducted it did one of the largest
contracting and building businesses in Elmira. Late in 1881 he came to
California, partly for his health and partly on account of the superior business
inducements offered him. Reaching Riverside the last of December, he worked a
few days for wages, then took the contract to build the large Riverside
Pavilion. Subsequently he located in San Bernardino and was connected with W. J.
Linville, on D street, in a planing mill. In July, 1886, he and another
gentleman leased the City Mill, situated on F street between Fourth and Fifth
streets. At the end of a month his partner sold out to Mr. H. H. Linville, and
two weeks later the mill was destroyed by fire, thus ending the partnership. The
mill was rebuilt by W. G. Wright, and Mr. Whitney leased the job department in
January, 1887, and in July of that year he bought the property. On April 13,
1889, the mill was again burned, with a loss of part of the machinery. Releasing
the ground for a term of years Mr. Whitney rebuilt the mill and fitted it up
with the latest improvements in machinery for all kinds of house-building work,
and also erected a large store house, which he keeps well filled with sash and
moldings (of his own manufacture), doors, glass and other building material. He
has invested in the buildings, machinery and manufactured stock over $8,000. He
also opened a lumber yard in 1888 in the rear of the mill between Fourth and
Fifth and F and E streets, in which he carries a general assortment of lumber
for house building. Being a thorough master of every branch and detail of his
business, Mr. Whitney is enabled to carry it on at the minimum of expense and to
understand and satisfy the wants of his customers in every case; hence he has a
satisfactory and prosperous business.
He owns a fine homestead of fifteen acres on the Base Line, north of the city, which is occupied with a bearing vineyard and orchard; also has a joint interest in fifty acres of land about eight miles west of San Bernardino, twenty acres of which is planted to raisin grapes and thirty to orange trees. He also owns a 135-acre tract of land seven miles from the city, which is to be planted to a raisin vineyard.
Mr. Whitney married Miss Burdick, near Elmira, New York. They have had eight children four of whom are deceased. In October, 1882 he returned to Elmira and brought his family here, after having tested California and its climate six months—a step which he never regretted. Mr. Whitney is a lover of music and has been a vocal leader in a church choir and on public occasions in San Bernardino for a number of years.
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.- 536-537
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
CHARLES CAMMILLUS COOLEY
is a Southern Californian by birth, a son of George and Ellen Cooley, well-known pioneers in this county. He was born March 5, 1861. His first real-estate purchase was thirty acres in Washington district, which he improved and lives on at present. He is a young and enterprising farmer and bids fair to honor himself and his calling. October 31, 1886, he was married to Miss Nettie Crandel, of Warm creek district, a daughter of Milen Crandel, one of the first settlers in this county.
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.- 537
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler