The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-01-03

once in a while went that way in the
years of the Williams family's STRUGGLE
for success, say it was pitiful to see Mr.
Williams, his wife and daughters, day
after day in the boiling summer sun,
hauling water from the Santa Ana river
in barrel on wheels and laboriously
pouring a bucketful in shallow mole
about the roots of each apricot tree.
That was the beginning of irrigation on
the million dollar scale as practiced IN
southern California twenty-four years
later The family gained livelihood
in all sorts of ways. One of the girls
taught school to the Mexicans down the
valley toward Temescal. Another
daughter did dressmaking at times for
the Mexcans, who paid in corn, beef
and mutton, while Mr.. Williams worked
with a surveying party whenever an
extra man was wanted,
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 neighborhood by that
time, and the Williams family We're
quite comfortable. But when the first
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 chief
article Of diet on the family table was
apricots. There were baked, stewed,
desiccated, preserved apricots and pies
and nuddines of apricots made in doz-
-IIM 'Iy sIIqMueeW 'sG9M lueIeLIp ue
liams had gone into orange growing,
gainst the advice of the incoming
American families. But he had
watched the climate for five years and
he knew what to expect. BY 1897 the
settlement at Riverside had grown and
the new town of Pomona was starting.
That helped things with the pioneers.
In 1882 the Southern Pacific railroad
was built from Los Angeles toward New
Orleans and it ran close by the Will
liams ranch That brought several
| thousand people into the valley.
Mr.. Williams sold third of his prop
| erty for four thousand dollars. Then he
had a market for his apricots, and got
several thousand dollars in one year for
| his WELD. Al few years later his orange
trees came into bearing and he got
So. so a box fol-. the fruit on the trees.
| 4
| oranges was more than $1,000. He
| bought more land and sold it year
later AT an advance Of 5000. Then he
sold his home and the orchards about
| it for more than 100000. The famous
boom of southern California began in
| 1886, when the Santa Fe railroad built
into this region, and Mr. Williams
bought and sold land at enormous pro-
| fits in 1885 and 1887, In the latter year
he moved to Ventura county, deter
mined to keep out of the speculation IN
land that had caused his failure In
/ Iowa, and he bought a ranch OF ter
4 thousand acres. There, at the age q
seventy-one years, he settled down fol
| the remaining days. He Is one OF the
most extensive bean growers IN ventura
county, He keeps Q. Watchful eye ovel
his business, attend to marketing w.
/ 900 and $1,000 worth of lima beans every
\ summer and fall, and Is now busy II
| promoting a beet-sugar plant in tht
neighborhood of his ranch. The neigh
! bors say he has acquired more thar
$3.50 900 worth of property, besides pay
ing many old Iowa debts, since ne came
to California with $500 in 1873 at the ag'
VI MY -SiA y SOL % i4NS , oitS eNeia''ii ~
his courageous battle for prosperity II
his advanced years, and he Is pointed
out as a shining example or what
man can do, when the majority OF PEG
pie think there Is no use for further eff
fort.
The man who projected and started
the railroad from Maricopa to Phoeni,
1sed to like To fell of how he went tt
Artzona NOT only broke. but more thai
fiftv wears Of aye and with but one lung
He was Henry A. Boggs. He had beel
n stock broker in New York. a silk i'm
porter steamboat manager. Unde
a the patronage Of Governor Reuben e
Irentnn. he had essayed notifies. He wa
faiIure at all and when he brok
down m health. he came overland
across the continent. still determined t,
show his more successful brothers ant
his children and grandchildren VIVA
was in him, The government wa
making q survey Of Arizona when h
reached tbe territory. and. in order Il
keen ont of doors and to earn liyeli
hood at the same time. he became :
cbairman in a surveying gang at fort,
dollars month That gave hin
lSnowledee that subsequently, led him t
fort,,ne when the surveying wa
over he went down TO the Tombston
mines and nv his knowledge of how t
coll mining stock and draw IN prospec
tuses for "a nita1ists he made severa
/