The sun., 1897-12-26


to do TO earn oven living for his family.
One day his wife received presont q 5000
from brother In Massachusetts. Ashamed,
failure Williams resolved to get far away from
his old.time friends BY coming to California,
and to work as he had never done before for his
family, and at the same time bury himself, as
he now Expresses It, from the world. There
were no railroads in southern California in
those days, and the only towns OF any size wero
San Diego. with 1,200 population aud Los An
gees, with 5000 population about 160 miles
500 miles north north. afforded the only % connection
with tho outside world. Mr.. Williams and his
family came down tho coast from San Francis.
were eight persons in the family and. after sell
ing their household goods at Humboldt and pay
family In an adobe house at Los Angeles, Mr..
Williams went TO see what he could do, lie
tho superb country seat Of Lucky" Baldwin,
twenty miles to the eastward. There he saw
with With water % on tho soil Of this region. region OS%v few
weeks were spent in hunting ,up tract of I'm
clio SANS free homestead land adjacent to somo
and found the kind of soil he wanted near tho
Santa Ana River, between the sites where the
beautiful towns of Cotton and Riverside have
il Is a long story full of amusing, pi.ifnl and
curious details, the story of how Mr.. Williams
in the mdst Of SF0 dese Wien the Pei ronsh 1Sr
board shanty had been finished for their habi;
tation, S, and when they had bought horse and
which a large family had to begin life in
lonely, valley. For months all the family slept
thrown over il, and ate from boards laid across
i,hO sSWh0rsSs There here. was 1S white ,
cecd. II at all. He took up a quarter section Of
land under the Homestead law, and with his
of 1t to apricots. One who has never broken
virgin soil and pulverized It 10 tit 1t for fruit
trees cannot the months of most
incessant cultivation to be done. People who
the Williams familys struggle for success, say
1t was pitiful to sec Mr.. Williams, his wife
and daughters, day after day in the boiling sum
mer sun, hauling water from the Santa Ana
pouring buckotful in a shallow hole about the
ginning Of irrigation on the 81 OOO, 900 scale as
practiced In southern Cali itorna twenty four
years sf later. The family gained a livelihood in
mcscal. Another daughter did dl essmaking
beef and mutton. while Mr.. Williams worked
with surveying party whenever an extra m an
In. four years the trees came into bearing
and in five years they were in full bearing. A
score Of families had moved into the neighbor-
were quite comfortable but when the frst
and second apricot. crops were gathered and
dried. after weeks of work, there was no market
nearer than Los Angeles--sOme fifty miles away
and that was very poor one in those ante
railroad days. So for weeks and months a
apricots There were baked, stcwed. desic.
Gated, preserved arricots and pies and puddings
Of aprSGts m made &;1, IL dozen S different ways
growing, against the advice of the incoming
American families. But he had watched the
pect. BY 1879 the settlement at Riverside had
grown and the new town of Pomona was start.
Ing Yso That l helped things with the pioneers IN
ran close by the Williams ranch That brought
Mr.. Williams sold a third of his property for
$4,000. Then he had n market for his april
cots. and got several Thousand dollars in one
trees came into bearing and he got $3 so n box
for the fruit on the trees In 1884 his in
than $1,000. He bought more land and sold
II year later at an advance Of $4,000. Then
he he, sold his home and the orchards about it
southern California began in 1885, when the
Santa Fe Railroad built into this region, and
nous profits in 1856 and 1887. In the lattos
year he moved to Ventura county, determined
to keep out Of the speculation in land that had
caused his failure in Iowa, and he bought n
ranch of 10000 acres. There at the age of II
years, he settled down for his remaining days.
in Ventura county. He i Keeps @ Watchfnl II" eye
over his business. attends to marketing Sc. 1000
and $1,000 worth of lima beans every summer
and fall, and is now busy in promoting beet
sugar plant in the neighborhood of his ranch.
The neighbors say he has acquired more than
old @a debp he esme to En
fornia with $500 in 1878 at the age of 56 years.
Every one admires his courageous battle for
prosperity in his advanced years, and he is
pointed out as shining. example of what a
man can do, when the majority Of people think
there is no use for further effort.
The man who projected and started the rail
road from Maricopa TO Phpnix used to like to
tell Of how he went to Arizona not only broke,
lung. He was Henry A: Boggs. He had been
u stock broker In New York. a silk importer, a
Gov. Reuben L. Fenton he had essayed poll. i.
tics He was a failure at all, and, when he
broke down in health, he came overland across
the continent, still determined 10 show his
more successful brothers and his children and
grandchildren what was in him. The Govern
reached the Territory. and, in order to keep
out OF doors and 10 earn Livelihood at the same
time. he % became be chairman in surveying
edge that subsequently led him to fortune.
When the surveying was over. he went down
to the Tombstone mines. and by his knowledge
of how to sell mining stock and draw up pros,
peettpseS; for caPitsstts he made several thou
building n railroad from Maricopa to Phoenix
The Southern Pacific was building across the
Territory from Yuma toward Ell Paso, and he
knew that line from Phoenix and the mines
there would be necessary as a feeder to the
Southern Pacific system.
WIN gang or cheap surveyors, Boggs
spent months in going over all the most feast
bio routes for a railroad north to Phpnix. II
was hard work and there were constant priva
tions on the alkal plains and among the noun
tain cahons. 1t is wonder Boggs did not
break down his naturally frail constitution by
his labor and hardships. But he was bound tC
succeed this time. Finally he made up hi.
mind as to the cheapest and easiest route that
railroad could take from MaricOpa to Phr-
nix, Then he called friendly and rich stock
holder to Arizona from New York and laid his
plans before hi n. The New Yorker saw how
sensible they were and furnished the capita
for securing rights Of way and certain neces
when the Southern Pacific Railroad Company
got ready to build to Phoenix 1t found that
Boggs had the best route and that he had to be
dealt with before the right of way was perfect
Then 1t was that Boggs and his partner go,
something like 100000 from Messrs. Hunting
ton, Stanford. and Crocker for what had cost
them about $4,000 and some enterprise.
If the men who have made fortunes at 60 ol
moro years of age by striking 1t rich in the gold
mines were named, very long list might bt
printed. In fact in the last few years the richest
finds in California and Arizona seem to have
been made by gray.haired men rather than by
the younger ones This is explained by the fact
that the old men give more attention to the de
tails of indications of gold-bearing ore wher
prospecting, while the young men are restless
eager, and hurry over a prospect The bonanZa