It is natural that earnest devotion to the interests of California should characterize Julian F. Cumberland for the long span of forty-two years has elapsed since he first came to the Golden State, and though his stay was then but for a year he was, like thousands of others, drawn back to its borders, and now for a period of thirty-four years he has been continuously identified with the growth of Pomona Valley and one of the most important factors in the development of the La Verne section. Here he has led a useful, contented and prosperous existence, exhibiting in the management of his extensive interests a capability and energy equalled by few. Mr. Cumberland was born on September 18, 1835, near Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio, a town that has become historically famous through its association with the earliest days of the temperance movement known as the "Woman's Crusade." Here a little band of courageous Christian women led by the widow of Judge Thompson, emboldened by their consecrated ideals, began this crusade, praying in and before the saloons amid the jeers and scoffs of the passers-by, but from this little band there developed the world-wide organization known as the Women's Christian Temperance Union, a movement that has gained momentum until now their cherished ideal of a saloonless America is to be realized.
Mr. Cumberland's father, William Cumberland, was born in Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in 1821, and when ten years of age he removed with his parents to Ohio and settled on a new farm eighteen miles south of Hillsboro. It was timber land and they cleared and improved it, William sharing in this arduous pioneer life. Julian's mother before her marriage was Mary O. Cornetet, born near Buffalo, N.Y., of French parents, who came from France to Buffalo, N.Y. She came with her parents to Mowrystown, Highland County, Ohio, when that section was sparsely settled, and they became pioneer settlers of that region; Grandfather Thomas Cumberland, born in Delaware, died on the original Cumberland place in Highland County, Ohio. Great-grandfather Cumberland came from England, of old Presbyterian stock. William Cumberland and his wife owned the old Cumberland farm and reared their family there and there he passed away on the old home farm in 1871, esteemed and honored in the community that he had done a great part in developing. The mother passed away in 1907 at the age of seventy-nine years.
Mr. and Mrs. Cumberland were the parents of two children, but Julian, the subject of this review, alone grew to maturity. He was reared on the home farm in Ohio, and here was inculcated in him those lessons of thrift and industry that have played no small part in the marked success of his mature years. He received his education in the public schools of his locality and at the early age of eighteen he obtained a certificate to teach. He took a school in the adjoining district and taught there until he was twenty-one years of age. When he took his first school he was engaged at the sum of $35 per month, but so well were the directors pleased with his work that they paid him $40, which was considered a very good salary in those days. When he became of age the desire to see more of the world led him to make a trip to California, and he arrived in Los Angeles on May 12, 1877, coming through from Omaha on a combination passenger and freight train, a journey that required nine days. Los Angeles at that time bore little semblance to its present metropolitan appearance, being then a town of less than 10,000 population. Mr. Cumberland went to work on a ranch near Westminster, where he received $20 a month and board, but after remaining about a year he returned to Ohio and resumed teaching.
After his return to his native place he was married to Miss Clara E. Huggins, born on the adjoining farm to his father's place, and she was the daughter of Silas W. and Zenah C. (McFaddin) Huggins, who like the Cumberlands, were pioneer farmers of that section of Ohio. The Hugginses formerly were from North Carolina, of English descent, while the McFadden family came from Virginia to Ohio, and were Scotch-Irish, and were abolitionists, as were the members of the families on all sides. After several years' residence in Ohio, Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Cumberland decided to try a complete change of climate, as both of them were in poor health. Accordingly they set out for California, arriving in Los Angeles August 1, 1885. Six days later Mr. Cumberland came to Pomona and on October 24 he purchased eighty acres on the Base Line Road and Emerald Avenue, then called Gubser Road, which he later had changed by petition to Emerald Avenue. In 1887 he bought eighty acres more, but later he had much trouble about the title to the land. He and others had bought this land from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and had made improvements, but four or five years later the United States Government decided that the Southern Pacific had obtained this land fraudulently, so the settlers had no title. However they remained, and the United States Government a few years later decided that the settlers were innocent purchasers and issued them a patent direct.
Mr. Cumberland meanwhile had set out a considerable acreage in deciduous trees—twenty-six acres of prunes, three acres of apricots, three acres of pears, seven acres of Sultana raisins, eight acres of peaches and one acre of apples. When they came into bearing, however, he found that there was no profitable market for the fruit and he was obliged to sell prunes at one and three-fourths cents a pound and Bartlett pears for $6.00 a ton, delivered six miles away. He then grubbed up the orchard and set out his first citrus trees in 1897. For the first three years he watered his orchard with a tank, but about 1900 Uncle Dick Wallace sunk the first well in this locality near the Base Line Road and obtained water for his place. He also bought twenty acres and sunk a second well on Williams Avenue, and in his generous way made the offer to put it into a company at cost so others could be benefited. The neighbors accepted the offer, and with Mr. Cumberland and others formed the La Verne Land and Water Company, and put in a pumping plant. The company was organized in 1900, and Dick Wallace was president and Mr. Cumberland was secretary, and continued as such for many years. He then set out more and more acreage each year until he had sixty-five acres in oranges and fifteen in lemons, now full bearing. He was the prime mover and called the first meeting for the organization of the La Verne Orange Growers Association. The ranchers of his district had been taking their fruit to North Pomona for some time, but as they ran the plant on the Sabbath Day, which was not in accord with Mr. Cumberland's principles, he called a meeting, which resulted in the formation of the above association. Mr. Cumberland was made a director and vice-president from the start, and he continued to hold these offices until he sold his ranch in 1918.
Mr. Cumberland also bought a fifteen-acre orange orchard near his ranch for $8,400, kept it for twenty months, taking off two crops, and sold it for $20,500; he also bought eleven acres on Foothill Boulevard and Garey Avenue and set it to oranges and in less than two years sold it for $11,000. The same year he purchased a tract of between twelve and thirteen acres between La Verne and San Dimas for $1,000, which he set to orchard, and when it reached the price of $1,000 an acre he disposed of it. All of this time he was improving his own ranch as well as rearing and educating his six children, sending them to Occidental College in Los Angeles. He also purchased a tract of 214 acres between Elmo and Pond, in Kern County, installed a pumping plant and devoted it to alfalfa and grain raising, and this ranch he still owns. Later he purchased sixty acres more near McFarland, Kern County, which he sold to his son-in-law, Phillip A. Lee. He also has a desert claim of 320 acres near Blythe. In 1902 he moved to Highland Park, Los Angeles, purchasing his present home at 131 West Avenue 51, where he resided to educate his children. In 1913 he moved back to the ranch, where he lived until 1918, when he sold the ranch and moved back to his Highland Park home, from which place he looks after his extensive interests.
Mr. and Mrs. Cumberland are the parents of six children: Edna D., a graduate of Occidental College, is the wife of Rev. W.E. Roberts, who was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Sioux Falls, S.D., for eight years, but now pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Champaign, Ill.; Genevieve M., a graduate of Occidental College, is the wife of Phillip A. Lee, a farmer at McFarland; Esther C., graduated at Occidental College and from Stanford University with the degree of M.D., then served as interne at the Women and Children's Hospital at Syracuse, N.Y., for one year, where she met and married R.P. Kratz, who is now production manager of the Edison Electric Company at Ontario, where they reside; William Wilson graduated at Occidental College with the A.B. degree, then obtained the M.A. degree at Columbia University, and that of Ph.D. at Princeton at the age of twenty-six. He was statistician for the War Trade Board at the Peace Conference in Paris. He is now stationed at Constantinople, studying the economic situation for the Peace Conference; Homer Eugene is at home; Roger Craig served in the United States Army and was commissioned a second lieutenant at Camp Taylor, Ky.; he is a graduate of Occidental College and is now attending McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
Politically Mr. and Mrs. Cumberland are stanch Republicans, coming from families who have always been strong adherents of the principles of that party, their fathers' homes having been stations on the "underground railway" during the days of slavery, before the Civil War. Always interested in the cause of education, Mr. Cumberland was one of the organizers of the La Verne district school and a trustee for many years. He was also an organizer of the First National Bank of La Verne and served continuously as a director until he sold out and resigned. In religious matters Mr. and Mrs. Cumberland have always been very active members of the Presbyterian Church. They joined the Pomona church when they first came to the Valley in 1885, when there were only twenty-five members, and Mr. Cumberland was superintendent of the Sunday School for four years. During his former residence in Los Angeles he was an elder of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church and he taught the adult Sunday School class, which reached a membership of eighty.
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 10/03/08, Pages 480-486
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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