San Bernardino County
Biographies
HENRY WOZENCRAFT,
of Wozencraft & Co., compilers of abstracts of title, San Bernardino. Among the oldest and most reliable companies in the abstract business and searcher of records in San Bernandino County, is Wozencraft & Co. This company has been established about twelve years and has a complete set of hooks, maps and the finest property indexes in Southern California. Henry Wozencraft, the senior member of the firm, is an old resident of San Bernardino County, having lived there for the past twenty years, which makes him thoroughly acquainted with the real-estate business and topography of the country. This firm also have the most competent hands that can be employed to assist them in their work. Their abstracts are written up by typewriters in the office and are very neat. They have also under employ William P. Cave, one of the finest draughtsmen in the State, which affords them to make mapping and draughting a specialty. This firm's office is in the Andreson block, situated on the corner of Third and E streets, city of San Bernardino.
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.- 495-496
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOHN CALVIN DIXON,
proprietor of the C. O. D. Grocery, San Bernardino, was
born in 1840, in Reynoldsburg, Franklin County, Ohio, and there spent the first
eighteen years of his life. In 1858 he moved with his father's family to Jasper
County, Iowa, and there his father, who was a brick-mason by trade, and had also
been a farmer, engaged in
the grocery business, with John as assistant in the store. Upon the breaking out
of the war of the Rebellion he promptly responded to his country's call for
volunteers and enlisted as a member of the Fifth Iowa Infantry and served three
years and one month, chiefly under Generals Grant and Sherman. At the battle of
Iuka he was severely wounded, being shot through both thighs by a rifle ball. He
was discharged just before the fall of Atlanta. Returning home, he remained in
Iowa about ten
years, part of the time engaged in merchandising and the rest in farming. Tiring
of the vigorous winters of the Hawkeye State, Mr. Dixon concluded to seek a
milder climate, and in 1874 came to California and located in San Bernardino
County; and his admiration for this grand country and salubrious climate
increases with each successive year of his residence here. He bought and settled
on a ranch a mile and a half northeast of the center of the city, and devoted
his attention to agriculture, especially to growing alfalfa. His place comprised
forty-six acres, for which he paid $100 per acre. In 1887 he subdivided it and
sold it at prices ranging from $400 to $1,000 per acre. After spending a season
in the East, Mr. Dixon, in 1888, opened his present grocery store on D street,
between Third and Fourth streets. He carries a fine stock of choice staple and
fancy groceries, which he sells to cash customers at a small profit, and does a
prosperous business. Mr. Dixon owns two large tracts of choice citrus and
vineyard land in the popular and growing sections denominated East Riverside,
which is worth $100 an acre. He expects to subdivide and improve it in parcels
for his children.
Mr. Dixon married Miss Helm in Iowa, though she was a native of Indiana. They have a family of one son and three daughters, all born in Iowa except the youngest daughter.
In politics, Mr. Dixon is an active and outspoken Republican, who is always ready to give the reasons for the faith that is in him when occasion requires, but never parades his opinions when uncalled for. He is a gentleman of decided convictions, and extraordinary force of character, a stanch friend and an uncompromising foe.
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.- 496
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
GEORGE MILLS COOLEY,
the eldest of fourteen living children, nine sons and five
daughters of George and Ellen Tolputt Cooley, was born in Utah in 1856, and
crossed the plains an infant in his mother's arms, drawn by ox teams, to
California. His parents are both natives of the county of Kent, England, and
were married on shipboard while crossing
the Atlantic to the United States. They settled in the San Bernardino valley,
south of the city, and the subject of this memoir grew up to manhood on the
beautiful ranch where they now reside, and where he mastered the arts of
agriculture. Deciding to enter mercantile life, he educated himself therefor in
Heald's Business College, San Francisco, and began his hardware business in
1874, as clerk in the store which he now owns, for Ruffen & Biays, whom he
bought out in 1885, and has since been sole proprietor. This is the oldest
hardware house in the county, having been established by John Ruffen nearly
twenty-five years ago. Since coming in possession of the business, Mr. Cooley
has increased it several fold by his energy and the close application of his
thorough knowledge of the hardware trade. He is not only master of the business
but also personally superintends every department, and herein lies his
phenomenal success. His stock embraces everything in the line of shelf and
general hardware, stoves, piping and plumbers' goods, all of which he buys from
manufacturers direct and in large quantities, thus reducing the cost to the
minimum, and giving his customers the benefit in low prices. Among the special
departments developed in his extensive and steadily growing business is
scientific plumbing, for which he has created an enviable reputation throughout
San Bernardino County. He makes all his own estimates and supervises the work in
this branch, in which he employs from four to twelve skilled mechanics, and does
the bulk of the work in this line in this portion of Southern California.
Roofing and all kinds of job work also receives special attention, and form a
prominent feature of the business. Within the past two or three years Mr. Cooley
has given considerable attention to building on his own account, and has erected
and owns six dwellings on Sixth and D streets, where he has two acres of land in
that popular quarter of the city. He entered into competition with twenty-nine
other pipe dealers to sell to the city of San Bernardino pipe for its new
water-works, which will be put into the streets this coming summer. Mr. Cooley
was successful, and secured the contract for the entire city system, defeating
all competitors by from $4,000 to $14,000. Mr. Cooley married Miss Bessant, a
native Californian, and daughter of a pioneer who crossed the plains in the same
train with his parents. Their family consists of a daughter and two sons.
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.- 496-497
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler