San Bernardino County
Biographies
DR. B. F. WATROUS.
No man in
Redlands is more worthy of mention in a work of this kind than is B. F. Watrous,
M. D. He came to Redlands with $350, with which he bought a team and went to
work. He had previously contracted for ten acres of land for $1,000, and had
paid $250 down. He began improving it the second year and put up a $400 house.
He afterward bought ten acres more for $1,500 and borrowed money for the first
payment. In five years be had bought and paid for thirty-one acres in Redlands
and twenty in San Diego County. Since then he has bought and sold in this and
also in San Diego County, and is recognized as one of Redlands most
enterprising and prosperous citizens. He was born in Cortland County, New York.
He received his literary education at Homer Academy and his medical education at
the Pennsylvania University, from which latter institution he was graduated in
1870. He at once commenced the practice of medicine in Ithaca, where he remained
six years; he then went to Rochester, where he remained two years. Then he went
to Broadhead, Wisconsin, and from that place came to California. Dr. Watrous was
Second Sergeant in the Seventy-sixth Regiment New York Volunteers, and rendered
his country good service at the battles of Fredericksburg, South Mountain,
Antietam, Bull Run and the Wilderness. Since coming to California he has given
up his profession, and has given his entire time and attention to horticulture
and to making a home in the beautiful, healthful and enterprising city of
Redlands.
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.- 551-552
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
GEORGE H. CRAFTS,
a rancher near Redlands, was born in New York city in 1844, and came to California with his father in 1861. His father, Myron H. Crafts, was born in Whately, Massachusetts, in 1816, and established the first temperance grocery in New York city. He also had a large meat-curing house there, but was burnt out in 1844, and then went to Jackson, Michigan, where he started a soap and candle factory. He next went to Windsor, where he farmed for a while, and then went to Detroit and accepted a position as cashier in C. & A. Ives' bank. From there he came to California and purchased 480 acres of land in what is known now as Crafton,
most beautiful and productive country, four miles east of Redlands. Here, for a number of years, he engaged extensively in raising grain and hogs, and later gave considerable attention to fruit culture. At his death he owned 1,840 acres of land in a tract, which was named Grafton, for him. He was one of the true pioneers, and was widely and favorably known. At one time he was elected County Judge by the Republican party, but the opposite party, having things somewhat in their own hands, never made him out a certificate. He never contested the matter, and so never served. He died September, 1886, aged seventy years. The subject of this sketch entered the army, enlisting in Company D, Eighth California. Volunteers, and served nine months. He then went to Arizona and worked for the Government two years in the quartermaster's department and then went to Cornell University, taking the course through the sophomore year, when he came back to California and married Miss Joanna Craig, daughter of Dr. William Craig, and has been a horticulturist ever since. He owns a fine ranch of 700 acres, three miles east of Redlands, on which he has recently erected a neat and commodious brick residence. Mr. and Mrs. Crafts have two children, Herbert and Mary. Mr. Crafts is identified with the I. O. O. F., the G. A. R., and the K. of P.
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.- 552
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ISRAEL BEAL
was born thirty-five miles west of Richmond, Virginia, April 10, 1849. His parents, Oliver and Elvira (Myes) Beal, were both natives of Virginia. His father died during the war, and his mother is still living, at a good old age, having reared a family of eleven children, nine of whom are still living. The subject of this sketch came to California via the Panama route in 1865, and worked for a mining company in Kern County for three years. He then went to Nevada and Arizona and mined, and then came back to California and worked for M. H. Crafts two years, and afterward rented land for two years. In 1877 he bought twenty acres in. Lugonia; next he purchased seventeen and one-half adjoining this, and then ten acres in Redlands. The Redlands property has since been traded for twenty acres adjoining the original purchase. Mr. Beal has built a good house, improved his land and is one of the leading horticulturists in his neighborhood.
In December, 1870, he was married to Miss Martha Embers, a native of California, and has had seven children: Oliver, Anna, who died in childhood; Newton, Harry, Clarence, who died in infancy; Charles A. and Morris. Mr. and Mrs. Beal are both members of the Congregational Church. Mr. Beal is an industrious man and a good citizen. He has made a good home and reared a respectable family, and although he was born a slave and the color of his skin is dark, no man in Redlands is more worthy of respect than Israel Beal.
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.- 552-553
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler