San Bernardino County
Biographies
LEWIS DECK,
of Redlands, is a native of the " Keystone" State. His
father, Henry Deck, was one of the pioneers of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, and
had a family of nine children, of whom our subject is the oldest. He left home
at the age of fifteen, and went to New York, and from there by the Panama route
to California, in 1857. He had the measles while on board the vessel, and when
he got on land had not money enough to buy his dinner. He first worked in the
vegetable gardens at Marysville, for $20 a month. After this he mined in both
quartz and placer mines from 1862 to 1883, all along the coast, but principally
in Nevada, and some in Mexico.
No man in Southern California,
perhaps, has had a more varied experience, nor can they give a fuller history of
early mining days than he. He made and lost many fortunes, but in 1883 gave up
mining and turned his attention to horticulture. He is a true pioneer and has an
extended knowledge of the world.
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.- 600
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
AMOS W. BEMIS,
living two and one-half miles west of San Bernardino, on
Fifth street, is one of the early and successful pioneers of this county. He was
born in Jefferson County, New York, and is a son of Alvin Bemis, who with his
family removed to Ohio when Amos was eight years of age. In 1844 he removed to
Lee County, Iowa, where he died in 1847. The family lived in Lee County three
years after Mr. Bemis' death, and in 1851 the mother, seven sons and three
daughters, started for California. Amos being the eldest the others naturally
looked to him, and on his shoulders rested the greater responsibility. They
spent two winters in Ogden, Utah. In 1853 he
married Miss Julia McCullough, a native of New York State. Her father, Levi
McCullough, moved from Erie County, New York, to Michigan, in 1836. He was
therefore a pioneer of that State, and was a citizen of Jackson when it could
boast of one store, one mill and a few small houses. In 1846 he left there for
Iowa.
At this time the Mexican war came on and he entered the service as a volunteer
and served until the close. He then joined his family in Iowa, and almost
immediately set out for Ogden, Utah, arriving there in 1852, and there it was
that Mr. Bemis met and married his daughter. They started across the plains
March 20, 1853,
and June 5, of the same year, they arrived in San Bernardino County. He first
bought ten acres of land; he now owns a fine farm of 200 acres. For twenty-five
years he engaged in stock-raising, but recently he gives more attention to
general farming. He has built an excellent residence on Fifth street, and has a
fine orchard of semi-tropical fruits; he began operations here by camping out
one entire summer. The City of San Bernardino was then only a miserable
little fort. They had some tough times at the start, and with bears and Indians
all around life was uncertain. Two of his brothers thus met their death; Samuel
Bemis, his older brother, was killed by the bears while searching for a younger
brother, Nephi Bemis, who had been killed by the Indians. Could those of the
present day who come to this magnificent country, with its fruitful fields and
pleasant groves and commodious residences, know but one-half the dangers and
privations, labors and hardships endured by the pioneers, surely they would more
fully appreciate their advantages and show more respect, as well as give more
glory to the frontiersman who had the nerve and push to develop so thoroughly
the resources of the country.
Mr. Bemis has been eminently successful, and his excellent wife has been a close sympathizer to rejoice with him in prosperity, and to labor, cheer and comfort him when Fortune hid her face. They have brought up seven children, namely: Frances, now Mrs. Milo Brooks; Amos Henry, Levi, Irvine, Wilson, George and Loran.
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.- 600-601
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler