San Bernardino County
Biographies
TRUMAN REEVES,
late proprietor of the oldest jewelry store in San Bernardino, and probably the only one-armed watch‑maker in the world, established the business in that city in 1874. In 1857, when a youth of sixteen years, he commenced learning the watch‑maker's and jeweler's trade with Julius King, in Warren, Ohio. He worked on his father's farm in Orwell, Ashtabula County, where he had moved with his parents from Chardon, Ohio, his birthplace, until he went to the trade. Upon the inception of the war of the Rebellion, his ardent patriotism impelled him to respond to the first call by President Lincoln for volunteers for three months' service, and at the expiration of his term of enlistment he re-entered the army for three years as a member of the Sixth Ohio Cavalry, in which he did valiant service, in recognition of which he rose by successive promotion to Second Lieutenant. At the battle of Cold Harbor, on May 28, 1864, his left arm was so badly shattered by a minie ball as to render amputation at the shoulder-joint necessary, and he spent seven months in the hospital. January 5, 1865, he was discharged from the service and returned home.
In March of that year, and without any effort or knowledge on his part until the commission was handed him, Mr. Reeves was appointed Postmaster at Orwell, Ohio; and after filling the office with exceptional efficiency and general satisfaction for nearly three years, he was elected Recorder of Ashtabula County in 1868, for the term of three years, at the expiration of which he was re-elected as his own successor, filling the position for six consecutive years. He declined another re-election. Retiring from the office with broken health, he accepted the advice of physicians and came to California in 1874, and settling in San Bernardino entered into partnership with N. B. Hale in the jewelry business, under the firm name of Hale & Reeves.
Mr. Reeves has always been an active and zealous Republican, and in 1882 was elected to the State General Assembly, being the only Republican elected in Southern California at that time, and beat his Democratic opponent by only about forty-five votes. In 1884 he was re-elected by over 400 majority, which was conclusive evidence of his popularity among his constituents. After suffering the loss of his arm Mr. Reeves' friends thought his days at the watchmaker's bench ended, but he determined otherwise, and possessing a genius for invention he invented and constructed an ingenious and novel device to take the place of the missing hand, which serves the place so thoroughly that he performs with deftness and dispatch the most difficult and delicate watch-work requiring the most expert workmen with two hands. In 1867 Mr. Reeves married Miss Marion E. McConkey, of Oberlin, Ohio. Two children, Clarence H. and Clara B. Reeves, comprise their family. In 1882 Mr. Reeves purchased ten acres of land in Redlands, and planted it to deciduous and citrus fruits, which are now in bearing, and on which the family now reside. Mr. Reeves is a member of Cornman Post. No. 57, G. A. R., and of the Congregational Church.
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.- 499-500
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOHN P. CLUM,
of San Bernardino, was born in Claverack, Columbia County, New York, in 1851, and his childhood and youth were passed on the banks of the historic Hudson. At the age of nineteen he graduated at the Hudson River Institute, and entered the freshman class of Rutger's College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. After completing the first year and creditably passing all the examinations, adverse fortune compelled him to leave college, and in 1871 he entered the meteorological service of the United States Government. Having taken a course in meteorology and signaling, he was ordered to Santa Fé, New Mexico, and there opened a station for meteorological observations in November, 1871. He was honored with the appointment as delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly, held at Baltimore in 1873, and at St. Louis in 1874. On February 26, 1874, he was appointed Indian Agent of the Apaches at San Carlos, Arizona, and discharged the difficult duties of the office with remarkable fidelity and efficiency, and to the great satisfaction of the citizens of Arizona and Colorado. February 26, 1876, Mr. Clum resigned the agency, but finally, at the urgent request of the department, withdrew his resignation in October following. He resigned again in March, 1877, and left the agency July 1,1877. In November, 1876, Mr. Clum was united in marriage, at Delaware, Ohio, with Miss Mary D. Ware, daughter of the late Hon. Thomas D. Ware, of Cincinnati, a refined and cultured lady, whose untimely death occurred in Tombstone, Arizona, after four years of a joyous wedded life. During his service as Indian Agent, Mr. Clum passed through many severe trials, hairbreadth escapes and thrilling adventures, one of the most exciting of which was the capture of the desperate and bloodthirsty savage, Chief Geronimo, the only time that wily old Indian ever was captured. This was effected at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, April 21, 1877, after having marched on foot 350 miles from San Carlos with 120 Indian police. His strategem outwitted Geronimo, and he was captured and placed in irons without the loss of a single life, and, together with several of his worst chiefs, was taken to San Carlos and put in confinement.
After severing his connection with the Indian Agency, Mr. Clum returned to Florence and studied law. He was admitted to practice in the District Court of Arizona at Pinal in 1877; but, preferring journalism to the law, he became editor and proprietor of the Tucson (Arizona) Citizen in November, 1877. He continued in that relation until February, 1880, when he sold it to R. C. Brown. in May of that year, he, in connection with Messrs. Sorin and Reppy, established the Tombstone Epitaph, and for two years continued the relation of joint owner and editor of this paper. In June, 1880, he was appointed Postmaster at Tombstone, Arizona Territory, and filled that office with ability and satisfaction. Early in January, 1881, he was elected Mayor of Tombstone, assuming the duties of the office January 12.
December 14, 1881, an attempt was made to assassinate him in the stage, en route from Tombstone to Tucson, by the lawless ruffians whom he gave no quarter in bringing to justice. In the latter part of 1882 Mr. Clum went to Washington and accepted a position in the office of the Chief Inspector of the Postoffice Department. In February, 1883, he was again married, his second wife being Miss Belle Atwood, daughter of the late Judge J. P. Atwood, of Madison, Wisconsin. This estimable lady presides over the destinies of his domestic affairs with happiest results. Mr. Clum remained in the department at Washington until January, 1885, when he was reappointed Postmaster at Tombstone. He resigned that office in August, and was elected Auditor and Recorder of Tombstone. In 1886 Mr. Clum removed to California, and settled in San Bernardino, where he has since been engaged in the real-estate and insurance business. Having taken an active interest in the progress of his chosen county, he has twice taken charge of horticultural and mineral exhibits of San Bernardino in the East, one held in Washington in March, 1889, and the Citrus Fair, held in New York in the winter of 1889–'90. All of these enterprises were triumphant successes.
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.- 500-501
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler