San Bernardino County
Biographies
JOSEPH HOLMES,
one of the representative horticulturists of Ontario and progressive citizens of San Bernardino County, came to California in 1883 and located in the Ontario colony as one of its early settlers, and has ever since taken a leading part in building up his chosen section and advancing its interests. His home is on the corner of Fourth street and Campus avenue, where he has erected a substantial two-story residence, well furnished and fitted with modern conveniences. He has surrounded his home with ornamental trees and rich floral plants. His twenty-acre tract is located between Third and Fourth streets and east of Campus avenue. Upon this tract he has, for the past six years, been engaged in horticultural pursuits. He has now twelve acres in oranges, also a choice variety of lemons, and a family orchard of deciduous fruits. Seven acres are devoted to vineyard, producing raisin grapes of the Muscat variety. All of his trees and vines have a remarkably fine growth and attest the intelligent care bestowed upon them.
Mr. Holmes is a native of Trenton, New Jersey, and dates his birth November, 1819. His parents, Samuel and Hannah (Jackson) Holmes, were natives of England. His father came to the United States in 1816, and his mother in 1800. When Mr. Holmes was about six years old his parents located at Kensington, near Philadelphia, and there he was reared and schooled for the next ten years. In 1835 the family moved to Illinois and settled in Putnam County, and engaged in farming. The subject of this sketch remained with his parents, engaging in farming, until 1846. In that year he married Miss Avis F. Taber, who was born in Massachusetts May 21, 1825. Her parents, Benjamin and Merab (Folger) Taber, were also natives of that State. After his marriage Mr. Holmes started in life for himself and located in the town of Henry, Marshall County, where he followed the occupation of a farmer until 1868. He then moved to Lodi, Iroquois County, where he resided until he moved to his present residence. In whatever section Mr. Holmes has resided he has always gained the respect and esteem of the community, and has been called upon to fill positions of honor and trust. In his Illinois home he was twice elected as supervisor of his township, and was also twice elected as assessor and commissioner of roads. In Ontario he is a stockholder in the Ontario Water Company, and one of its former directors. He is now one of the regents of the Chaffey College. He has for years been a consistent member of the Swedenborgian church. In political matters he is a straightforward Republican and may always be found taking a deep interest in his party and allied with its best elements. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Holmes but five are living, viz.: Sarah T., now Mrs. Stephen P. Weaver; Mary, Joseph H., who married Miss Angelica Veder; Avie M. and Samuel J. Joseph A. Holmes is a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, where he is engaged in the milling business. The rest of the children are residents of Ontario.
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.- 575-576
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOHN BROWN, SR.,
was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1817, and when but a boy came to St. Louis, Missouri, with his parents, where they died. He began rafting on the Mississippi and then went to New Orleans, and thence by ship to Galveston, suffering a shipwreck on his route. He returned to Fort Leavenworth by the Red River route. Was at the battle of San Jacinto, and first saw Santa Ana when taken prisoner. Remained two years at Fort Leavenworth; and then went to the Rocky Mountains and for fourteen years hunted and trapped from the headwaters of the Columbia and Yellowstone, along the mountain streams southward so far as the Comanche country in northern Texas, in company with the following named mountaineers: James Waters, V. J. Herring, Kit Carson and others. Was engaged sometimes with the fur companies and at other times as a fur trapper among the Kiowas, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Apaches, Utes, Mandans, Reese River, Sioux, Crows, etc., and helped to build several forts. During this period of his life he had many encounters with bears and Indians, with hairbreadth escapes, which, if properly written, would make a book fully as interesting as Kit Carson's travels or Irving's Captain Booneville.
When the gold fever reached the mountaineers in 1849, Messrs. Brown, Waters, Lupton and White joined one of the emigrant trains bound for the source of the world's excitement, arriving at Sutter's Fort, September 1, 1849, and first beginning to mine on the Calaveras river. In November Mr. Brown moved to Monterey, California, and passed the winter; and with Messrs. Waters and Godey opened the St. John's hotel and livery stable at the Mission of San Juan. Was twice elected Justice of the Peace. His health becoming impaired he was advised by Dr. Ord and other physicians to go south. In April, 1852, he went to San Francisco, boarded the schooner " Lydia," Captain Haley commander, and after a week's voyage down the coast, landed with his family at San Pedro. After two weeks' search he decided on San Bernardino as his place of residence, arriving here in May, over thirty-five years ago. At this point there was then but a small fort erected as a protection against Indians. The town and valley furnished pasturage for thousands of cattle and horses owned by the Lugo family. North of town was one vast wheat-field. In 1853 Mr. Brown moved to the Yucipa ranch and began stock-raising. At that time Los Angeles County extended on the east to the Colorado river, and the site of Los Angeles, then but a village, was the county seat; and all business of a legal character had to be transacted there, sixty miles distant. Experiencing this great inconvenience, Mr. Brown was the first to propose a division of the county; and for this purpose recommended Captain Jefferson Hunt as a proper person to represent the people in the eastern section at the Legislature, which passed an act dividing Los Angeles County and organizing San Bernardino County. By said act Mr. Brown, Isaac Williams, H. G. Sherwood and David Seely were constituted a board to designate election precincts, appoint inspectors, receive returns and issue certificates of election. According to the act the election took place in June, 1853. The business of the county was done by a court of sessions, consisting of the county judge, Andrew Lytle and John Brown, justices of the peace.
In 1854 Mr. Brown discovered the first gold in Bear valley, and in 1856 moved to San Bernardino from Yucipa, where he had been a resident for some time. In 1861, seeing the difficulty of an outlet from his adopted town to southern Utah and Arizona Territory, he procured a charter from the Legislature for a right to construct a wagon road through the Cajon pass, now occupied by the Santa Fé railroad; and he soon had a way open for the traveling public, bound to the various mining camps north of the mountains, furnishing thereby a gateway to San Bernardino until the completion of the Santo Fé railroad. In 1862 he went to Fort Mojave and established a ferry across the Colorado and was instrumental in getting troops stationed at Cape Cady to protect the mail. When a donation was required to connect San Bernardino with the outside world, Mr. Brown headed the list with $100. Again, when $100,000 was required to build the Southern Pacific road to San Bernardino, he headed the list with $4,000, and asked for ninety-nine others to do the same; but as $25,000 was all that was subscribed, the road was located through Colton.
In 1875 he assisted in procuring mail service to Bear and Holcomb valleys; and during the winter of 1873–'74 he delivered the mail to those mining camps when the snow was two to three feet deep.
Mr. Brown has taken an active part in the political field. Ever since 1860 he has been a stanch Republican. In that year, in company with six others, he organized the Republican party in his section, under circumstances not the most flattering, and after a vigorous canvass carried the district for Lincoln. Since 1876 he has lived in comparative retirement, having raised and educated a large number of children, all of whom are highly esteemed citizens.
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.- 576-577
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler