San Diego County
Biographies
AMOS L. CREIDER
is a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, born January
22, 1844. His father, Jacob Creider, was a member of the Dunkard Church. His
grandfather, also a Jacob Creider, was from Germany and a pioneer in this
country in the time of Benjamin Franklin. Their home was within a few miles of
President James Buchanan, and has become a very rich, improved country, in
everything that pertains to agriculture, and is noted for its fine residences.
Mr. Creider's mother, Anna (Longnecker) Creider, was from Buffalo, New York.
There were ten children in the family, only five of whom are living. His
brothers are in West Virginia, and his
sister is married to Mr. F. Janvenant, who is in the banking business in
Nebraska. Mr. Creider was raised on a farm, and gathered his education in brief
terms of winter schools, having to work the greater part of the year. In 1864
the family moved to Miami County, Indiana, and only two weeks after their
arrival there his
father sickened and died in his forty-fifth year. His request to his son Amos
was that he should take care of the family. This duty devolved upon him at
twenty years of age. In 1865 he was married to Miss Olive A. Beckner, born in
1848, and daughter of Dr. J. F. Beckner, of Peru, Indiana. They have nine
children, viz, : Annie B., Rosa, John, Jennie K., Olive, Amos, Oney, Gracie and
Florence. In 1866 he moved into Newton County and bought a raw prairie farm of
120 acres, and improved it to a high state of cultivation. Owing to exposure and
overwork he became sick with the rheumatism and fever and was advised to go
south. In 1871 he sold his farm and removed to Huntington, West Virginia, the
terminus of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. During the twelve years he was there
he had the pleasure of seeing the town grow from nothing to a city of 10,000. He
was elected the first Republican Mayor of the city. Being afflicted with throat
trouble, he was advised to try the climate of southern California, and on May 4,
1887, he came to San Jacinto and bought twenty acres of land just north of the
present city limits. He has built the main part of the residence and a new barn.
At a cost of $500 he has dug a seven-inch artesian well, 210 feet deep, on the
highest part of his ground, and has water under pressure all over his grounds.
When allowed to flow it makes a river of excellent water. He is fast improving
the property by planting trees, shrubs and vines, and it will soon be a very
fine fruit-bearing ranch. The soil is particularly rich. Mr. Creider, from
twenty-four tomato plants, from May until November, gathered and sold $50 worth
of splendid tomatoes. He has a ranch of 320 acres on Menifee plains, on which he
intends to make improvements. His throat difficulty is very much relieved, and
he has all the prospects of a long and prosperous life before him. Mr. and Mrs.
Creider are enjoying the comforts of their pleasant home with their interesting
family, and have the confidence and esteem of all who know them.
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.- 180-181
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOHNSON WATTS McCLAIN,
of San Diego, was born at Versailles, Ripley County, Indiana, January 16, 1826. At the age of six years he moved with his parents to Boone County, Kentucky, the subject being the sixth in a family of eleven children, only three of whom survive, one brother living in Kansas City and one still in Kentucky. J. W. McClain lived in Boone County but two years and then moved to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, remaining until 1838, when he again moved to the Bayou, southern part of Indiana, where his parents both died, leaving him at the age of fifteen years. In 1841 be returned to Lawrenceburg, and for six years worked on a farm and traded on the Mississippi river in all kinds of farm produce and groceries. In May, 1847, he enlisted at Lawrenceburg, in Company C, Fourth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Gorman in command, Captain Baldridge in command of the company, for the Mexican war. They were ordered to Camp Meir on the Rio Grande, and drilled there five weeks, and were then ordered to Brazos Island at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and then forwarded to Vera Cruz and started on the march to the city of Mexico; but at the city of Puebla, in October, the regiment was stationed and remained in Puebla until the end of the war. In January, 1848, Mr. McClain was discharged from the sick list. Returning, he stopped at Henderson, Kentucky, where he was very ill for several weeks. In July, 1848, he returned to Lawrenceburg and farmed and traded until 1852, when he started for California with a party of fifteen. They bought mule teams and came across by the old emigrant route by St. Joe, Laramie, north of Salt Lake by Sublette's Cut-off, and arrived at Hangtown, now Placerville, El Dorado County, July 15, 1852. They were two and a half months on the road, having a very pleasant trip. They followed mining in Greenwood valley, the same county, until 1853. He then spent one year on Mosquito creek, northern part of Yuba County, and in 1854 he went into Sierra County, where he followed surface mining until 1859. He then moved to Butte County and worked at surface mining until 1867, but the result of all his mining was only a living, as he went in with $150 and came out with a like amount. In June, 1867, he moved to Solano County, and started a blacksmith shop, hiring a workman and continuing until October 1, 1869, when he sold out and went to San Francisco, and then to San Diego, landing on Horton's wharf, October 16, 1869. It being the time of the great El Paso boom, lodging and board were very expensive and he immediately bought a lot in Sherman's addition and in one week put up a house 14 x 16 feet, and moved in. He then worked for wages until 1887, clerking a little but working mainly with the county and city surveyors. In 1887 he was obliged to give up active business on account of severe bronchial trouble.
Mr. McClain was married in Plumas County, California, October 16, 1856, to Miss Lydia Staples, a native of New Hampshire. His wife died in 1883, leaving no children. He has been a member of the order of Odd Fellows since 1862, and is now a member of the San Diego Pioneers.
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.- 181-182
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler