Noted throughout the Valley as the man who first used the fumigating method in the preservation of orange groves, John B. Camp of La Verne deserves mention as one of the early citrus growers of this section and the inventor of the baboon tent used to fumigate the trees and save them from the insect pests which at one time threatened to destroy the orange industry here. Born on a farm in Tennessee on June 24, 1844, Mr. Camp came of a family who were opposed to slavery, and when the Civil War broke out, he espoused the cause of the Union. He was conscripted into the Confederate Army and hid in the woods for a year to avoid serving in their ranks. During this time he had many thrilling experiences with Confederate soldiers. He was finally captured and bayonetted, but made his escape and helped five other prisoners to escape also. He made his way from near Chattanooga for 300 miles through the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky, finally reaching the Union Army near Lexington, Ky. He then made his way to the home of a brother in Illinois, who sent him to school for four years at the University of Chicago. He was a student there at the time that Lincoln was assassinated and was one of the procession of 75,000 that marched through the streets of Chicago.
He then returned to Tennessee and engaged in the mercantile business, and during his residence there he was married to Miss Mary D. Bridges, daughter of Col. George Bridges of the United States Army. Later they moved to Kansas, where he engaged in stock farming, but was driven out by the grasshoppers, losing all that he had accumulated. Coming to California in 1874, Mr. Camp came down the Valley on the first passenger train operated by the Southern Pacific, in 1875. He lived in Riverside for five years, being engaged in the nursery business. In 1880 Mrs. Camp passed away, and Mr. Camp took his three little motherless children back to Tennessee to his people. In 1881 he returned to Riverside, and well remembers in December of that year seeing snow eleven inches deep all over the Riverside plain, and improvised sleighs being driven through the streets of that city.
In 1882, Mr. Camp purchased thirty acres on San Antonio Avenue, Pomona, improving the property to grapes and deciduous and citrus fruits. He sank nine wells in the Loop and Meserve Tract and was one of the starters of the Citizens Water Company. He still owns 160 acres on Brown's Flat, north of Claremont. A man of education and breadth of interests, Mr. Camp during his residence in Pomona took a keen interest in its upbuilding and assisted whenever possible in its further development. He has the honor of making the first effort to give the people of California, and also of the whole country, the right of the initiative, the referendum and the recall. In 1892 he was president of the Los Angeles County Farmers Alliance, and induced that organization to petition the Legislature to incorporate such a measure in the constitution. Such a bill passed the Assembly, but did not reach the Senate. Fraternally, Mr. Camp has been for many years a Mason, being a member of the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter and the Council, all of Pomona. One son, Orin, lives to carry on the family name.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 10/07/08, Pages 520-521
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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