San Bernardino County
Biographies
ASHMAN P. COMBS
is one of the well‑known business men of Riverside. He is in the real-estate and insurance business, and has one of the best established agencies in Riverside, representing some of the strongest insurance companies issuing policies on the Pacific coast. Mr. Combs came to Riverside in 1876 and was first employed among the orange groves as a horticulturist in pruning, etc. In 1877 started a nursery business on Mulberry street between Seventh and Eighth streets. The next year he purchased a two and one-half acre block between Vine and Mulberry, and First and Second streets, and in the same year erected a cottage and planted his land to oranges. Mr. Combs has, since his arrival, been engaged in horticultural pursuits, in addition to his other business enterprises, and has been one of the most successful orange growers in the colony. His two and one-half acres between Mulberry and Lime and Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets is in budded orange trees, of Washington Navel and Mediterranean Sweet varieties. As illustrating what may be done in the orange culture in Riverside under intelligent care and cultivation, it is worthy to note that in 1887 these two and one-half acres gave a yield that sold for $1,800, an average of over $700 per acre. The trees at that time were nine or ten years old.
Mr. Combs is a native of Canada and dates his birth in Wentworth county, in 1829. His father, John Combs, was a native of Pennsylvania; his mother, Sarah (Cowell) Combs, was also from that State, and both were descended from old Colonial families. Mr. Combs was reared to farm life, receiving such an education as could be obtained in the public schools. At the age of eighteen years he learned the carpenter's trade, and when he reached his majority he engaged as a carpenter and builder and a farmer until 1871. In that year he entered into mercantile pursuits in Hamilton, Wentworth County, and conducted the same until he came to California in 1876. Mr. Combs is an enterprising and progressive citizen, and has always been a strong supporter of the public enterprises that have built up the city of Riverside. He was one of the incorporators of the Riverside and Arlington Railway. In his real-estate dealings he has done much to attract a desirable class of settlers to the colony. He is a consistent member of the Methodist Church and a steward in the society. Politically he is a Republican, but is a firm supporter of the Prohibition movement and has served as a delegate to the conventions of that party. He is a notary public, having been appointed to the office in April, 1889. He has a large circle of warm friends in Riverside, as well as in the county. In 1856 he was united in marriage to Miss Susan J. Inglehart, a native of the county in which Mr. Combs was born.
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.- 527-528
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
CHARLES C. WAINWRIGHT, M D.,
Coroner of San Bernardino County and City Health Officer, was born in Ohio, in
1851, and educated in Cincinnati. He came to California first in 1870, and spent
about three years in teaching school, after which he went back East and
completed his course in medicine, graduating at Cincinnati Medical College, May
9, 1876. He returned to California the same year and has practiced his
profession in the State ever since. He settled in San Bernardino in 1882, and in
1884 was elected
coroner on the Republican ticket; was re-elected in 1886, and again in 1888—a
most satisfactory indorsement of his efficiency as a public officer. During the
five years of his official service as coroner, Dr. Wainwright has held inquests
over a number of notable cases, of which the most celebrated and sensational,
perhaps, ever occurring in San Bernardino, was that of Katie Handorff Springer,
a bride of one week, who was murdered in a hotel at Colton in January, 1887, by
her husband. Springer first struck her in the eye with a hammer, and then cut
her throat with a pocket-knife! Subsequent investigation developed the fact that
he had purchased the hammer at a hardware store in Los Angeles, and had sawed
off the handle, so be could carry it unobserved in his short-overcoat pocket. He
was a saloon-keeper in Lodi, California. Miss Handorff was an estimable young
lady, highly respected in the community where she resided. They had been married
a week and from outward indications seemed happy. They came down from San
Francisco by the way of San Pedro and Los Angeles to Colton the day before the
homicide occurred. After killing his wife he placed some articles of her wearing
apparel in the middle of the room and attempted to set the building on fire, but
failed for some cause. He left the hotel at eleven o'clock that night and
visited a Chinese place, where he washed and combed his hair, using a hand glass
to arrange his toilet. He was seen and identified next morning at the Santa Fé
depot about four o'clock, after which no further trace or clue could be obtained
of him. The details of the horrible crime were published throughout the country;
large rewards were offered for his apprehension and arrest and a very vigilant
search was made, but every effort proved futile, though several persons were
arrested in various parts of the country, but all turned out to be cases of
mistaken identity. Thus the case remained wrapped in unfathomable mystery. On
the day President Harrison was elected, in November, 1888, Coroner Wainwright
was notified that the remains of a dead man had been found in a cañon on Little
mountain, about two miles north of San Bernardino, by two citizens while out
hunting: The next day Dr. Wainwright summoned a jury and the necessary
assistants, and proceeding to the place found the remains as reported. The body
had wasted away, but the clothing was intact and well preserved. A pistol lay by
the side of the skeleton, the rings worn on his fingers were unmolested, as was
the watch he carried, and the hand glass. With much labor and care the history
of these articles was traced one by one, the clothing was identified and other
facts developed, resulting in the positive identification of the dead man as the
wife-slayer Springer, who had committed suicide by shooting himself through the
brain in that lonely and unfrequented cañon twenty-two months before.
In addition to his official duties and a prosperous private medial practice. Dr. Wainwright has devoted considerable attention to mining matters; owns an interest in mines at Twenty-nine Palms, and also has a fourth interest in a gold mine of high-grade ore in Santa Clara County, California.
He married Miss Galleron, a native of California, of French parentage. They reside in their pretty home on the corner of Seventh and D 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.- 528-529
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler