San Bernardino County
Biographies
ABNER McCRARY
is a native of Union County, Illinois, born in 1835. His parents, John and Mary (Kellar) McCrary, natives of North Carolina and South Carolina respectively, moved to Hancock County in 1844. Next they moved to Washville, Iowa, and in 1846 to Council Bluffs, where they remained five years. In 1851 he moved to Utah, where he remained two years, and June 5, 1854, came to California, and bought forty acres of land three miles northeast of San Bernardino, where he now lives. Mr. McCrary has dealt some in buying and selling land, and has to-day a fine farm devoted to general farm products, fruit and vegetables. He is one of the pioneers who have borne the burden and heat of the day. He walked every step of the way from Utah to this county, not shirking a single duty on the way, and he has carried out these principles every day of his life since; he is an earnest worker and an honest citizen. In 1859 he married Miss Emma Lane, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, daughter of David and Lucinda Lane, both born in 1805. Mr. Lane died in Indiana, and Mrs. Lane still lives, at a ripe old age. She is well preserved, physically and mentally. Mr. and Mrs. McCrary have reared five children: Emeline, now Mrs. B. J. Robertson; Laura, wife of J. M. Jones; Mary L., wife of E. M. Cooley; Abner, who married Miss Catherine Van Lennen, and Martha, now Mrs. John Burrows.
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.- 560
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOHN COOLEY
was born in Utah, in March, 1857, while his parents were on
their way to California. His father, George Cooley, is widely and favorably
known throughout this
county. He arrived in this valley May 11, 1857, and kept a night school for a
long time. The subject of this sketch is an entirely self-made man, his
education being such as he could pick up, as it were, on the way; but by
personal observation and extensive reading he has surpassed many who have had
the best educational advantages. As a business man he has been eminently
successful. He was engaged in the dairy business for eleven years and then sold
out to Governor Waterman. He had leased 500 acres, and carried everything that
there was any profit in. Four years ago he retired from the dairy business,
having made in the time he
followed it more clear money perhaps than any other man in the county. During the whole period of eleven years he lost only seventy days. After his retirement he took a pleasure trip to the Sandwich Islands, where he remained three months. His popularity and ability as a citizen is shown by the fact that he was deputy sheriff under John A. Cole in 1887–'88. He belongs to the Democratic party. In March, 1882, he bought ninety-five acres of land between Third and Sixth streets, just east of the city of San Bernardino, and has recently sold thirty acres of it, at $450 per acre. On the part retained he has built a fine residence, where he, with his family, is extracting as much pleasure from life, perhaps, as any man living.
November 3, 1877, he was married to Miss Julia Miller, of San Bernardino. Her father, Joshua Miller, was a native of Tennessee and came to California in 1861. Her mother, Elizabeth (Anderson) Miller, was a native of Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Cooley have an interesting family of five children, viz.: Edna, Georgia, John A., Marcus and Albert M.
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.- 560-561
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler