San Diego County
Biographies
F. T. LINDENBERGER,
orchardist, near Winchester, was born in Olive Green,
Ohio, November 16, 1853. His father, Solomon Lindenberger, was born in Delaware
County, Ohio, and was a pioneer of northwestern Ohio. His grandfather, John
Lindenberger, was a native of Providence, Rhode Island. John
Lindenberger's grandfather came to America from Germany before the Revolution.
Mr. Solomon Lindenberger was a soldier in the Union army, Company C,
Thirty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. When his time of service expired he
re-enlisted in the Sixty-eighth Indiana, and served to the close of the war. Mr.
Lindenberger's mother, Sarah B. (Stephens)
Lindenberger, was born in Knox County, Ohio, in 1838. They had four sons. The
subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of Williams County,
Ohio, and when eighteen years of age entered a printing office at Bryan, Ohio,
as an apprentice. Shortly after his apprenticeship he went to Toledo and entered
the
office of the Sunday Journal, and worked two years at the printer's case.
After this he was engaged as a reporter on one of the dailies, and acted in
nearly every department of a newspaper work for ten years. From there he went to
Detroit, Michigan, and opened an independent railroad ticket office agency,
making a specialty of excursion business. In 1887 he caught the California fever
and brought out a large excursion, and with it his own family, to visit and see
the country. He spent the winter with his family in Riverside, and in looking
over the country he was attracted to the Menifee valley, and purchased eighty
acres of land, section 36, range 5 south, and 3 west of the San Bernardino
meridian. It lies in an L, and at the foot of the hills, on the east side of the
valley, and slopes gently toward the west. On this spot Mr. Lindenberger is
making one of the most pleasing and attractive fruit farms and homes in southern
California. Seventeen acres are planted to olives, six to raisin grapes, and a
large number of deciduous fruit and ornamental trees. Mr. Lindenberger returned
to Detroit, Michigan, in April of 1888, and the following winter his brother, H.
H. Lindenberger, who is his business partner, came out with one of their
excursion parties, and purchased the adjoining eighty acres in the same section,
and had an equal number of trees and vines planted of the same character; so
they now have a solid grove of thirty-four acres of olives. Later, Lindenberger
Brothers purchased 160 acres more, and they now own the east half of section 36,
which they intend in time to cover with an olive grove, and to that end they
have erected a green-house for the purpose of rooting olive trees for these
grounds. They will make the growing of olives their leading specialty. Mr. F. T.
Lindenberger returned to California in October, 1889, with the intention of
making his home here and building up their property. They have already expended
between $8,000 and $10,000 in improvements, besides the house and barns, and
have a nice system of water pumped on the place. The water comes to within
fourteen or fifteen feet of the surface under all their grounds. They have
raised their trees without irrigation. The olive trees, when planted twenty
months ago, were only fifteen inches high; they have now grown to five feet.
They have three acres planted to orange trees. The grounds are artistically laid
out, and the trees planted with perfect regularity. The buildings are 300 feet
from the main road, and have broad avenues planted with ornamental trees,
shrubs, flowers, lawns and hedges. They intend to erect fine residences on the
property soon. H. H. Lindenberger attends to their eastern business, while F. T.
is on the ranch. They are also raising some fine specimens of Pekin ducks and
Plymouth Rock poultry; have constructed an incubating house and are now running
two large incubators. Mr. Lindenberger was married to Miss Edna C. Gregory, born
in Toledo, Ohio, November 28, 1854, and daughter of P. G. Gregory, of Huron,
Ohio. They were of Scotch ancestry, but quite remote. They have five children:
Agnes, born in Toledo in 1877; Alice, in Toledo, 1880; Mary, in Detroit, 1883;
Edwin F., in Detroit, in 1887, and Oliver S., in California in February, 1890.
Mr. and Mrs. Lindenberger are people of taste and intelligence, and are pleasant
people to meet. Mr. Lindenberger is evidently a man of successful business
ability. The "Garden of the World" is being occupied with such citizens as
these.
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.- 179-180
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
J. L. COPELAND,
one of San Diego's representative citizens, who with firm persistence and but a common-school education has advanced steadily in his profession, was born in Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana, August 14, 1860, his father being a native of New York, and his mother of Ohio. In 1869, they came to Sacramento, California, by the Central Pacific Railroad, where he learned the trade of printer. In 1873 they came to San Diego and his father purchased a farm in Sweetwater valley, where he remained at home for five years. He then went to Arizona and prospected in mining for two years, when he returned to San Diego in 1880, and entered the law office of Judge Lucy and began the study of his profession. He attended the Iowa Law School at Keokuk, Iowa, and by persistent study he accomplished the three-years course in nineteen months and graduated at the end of that time. He then returned to San Diego and entered the office of W. J. Hunsacker, who at that time, 1883, was District Attorney; he remained two years. In 1886, Mr. Copeland was honored with the nomination of district attorney and was elected for two years, and was re-elected in 1888; and this position he now fills.
In December, 1887, Mr. Copeland was married to Miss Helen Minor, a native of Indiana, but at that time residing in San Diego. They have no children. Mr. Copeland has been very active in politics, and is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge.
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
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler