Among the valiant men who serve the country faithfully in the capacity of United States forest rangers, is numbered Samuel B. Clifton, a Southerner by birth. He was born in his native state of Alabama, March 6, 1859, in Cherokee County, and at the age of fourteen, in 1873, accompanied his parents when they removed to Conway, Ark. His father was a stock raiser and butcher, and Samuel B. was associated with him in this occupation until 1886, when he came to Pomona Valley, Cal. In those early days the present site of the thriving city of San Dimas was a waving field of grain, and in the thirty-three years of Mr. Clifton's residence in the Valley he has witnessed many changes equally great. In early days he did day work on the ranches in the Valley, which in those days were devoted principally to grain farming, there being only a few oranges trees in the Valley. He next engaged in the important industry of water development in the Valley, and worked at tunneling for water for the La Verne Land and Water Company. He worked on the Edgemont Ranch, and also for L.M. Wicks in water development, constructing pipe lines, etc. In 1901 he entered the United States Government service as forest ranger, the position he now occupies. His territory includes the San Dimas, Live Oak and Palm Canyons, and his duties are to prevent forest fires, fight fires, prevent cutting of timber, and to prevent people from leaving camp fires burning. These are his summer duties. In the winter he has charge of a crew of men engaged in making trails and fire breaks. He has built a fire break from San Dimas Canyon to San Antonio Canyon nine miles long and fifty-two feet wide, and in all has built fifty miles of trails and fire breaks. The whole mountain district which he serves is a network of trails, which makes it an easy task to get the fire fighters quickly to the blaze. He has a fine record in his district, where no large fires have ever occurred and many small fires have been quickly extinguished. He has also played an important part in the development of the orange industry in the Valley. He purchased a ten-acre unimproved piece of land at the mouth of San Dimas Canyon, cleared the land, developed a supply of water for irrigation purposes, planted the property to Navel oranges, and in ten years' time sold the place for a good profit. He next bought eight and one-half acres of unimproved land at the mouth of Live Oak Canyon, which he similarly developed and disposed of in nine years' time. He was married in Arkansas in 1879 to Kate E. Pettit, born in Missouri, of whom he was bereaved March 3, 1915. Of the seven children she bore him, four are living: Audrey, who presides gracefully over her father's home; Bessie, the wife of Robert Estep of San Dimas; Charlotte, the wife of V. Fugate of El Segundo, Cal.; and Ross, who is in the employ of Hamburger's Department Store in Los Angeles. Self-made in the widest use of the term, he is a man of broad ideas, liberal and progressive, and enjoys a wide popularity in a community which owes much to him for the furtherance of its development.
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 8/26/08, Pages 282-283
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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