Two thoroughly wide-awake and progressive business men, representative in every way of the Pomona spirit, who are well and favorably known throughout the Valley, to which they came when they were just attaining manhood, are Fred E. and Frank E. Ellsworth, pioneer building contractors, natives of Greene County, Wis., where they were born on August 29, 1862. Their father, Lorenzo Ellsworth, who came from New York, followed a mercantile business at Rochester and later moved to Wisconsin, where he located near Monroe, in Greene County, and took up farming. In 1870, he moved to Goodhue County, Minn., about twenty-five miles from St. Paul, and in 1887, the time of the great boom in realty in California, he pushed still further West, to La Verne, in the Pomona Valley. The smiling acres and other favorable conditions incidental, brought him prosperity; and he was able to retire as the years passed by. He died at Pomona, in 1907, at the age of ninety-two, while his wife lived to be eighty-five years old. She had been Miss Sarah Jane Taft. They had five children: Emma, who became Mrs. Hartman Loomis of Minnesota; Minnie, the wife of Eri Loomis, also of that commonwealth; Fred E. and Frank E., the subjects of whom we now write; and Ida May, afterwards Mrs. A.E. Barnes of Pomona.
As boys, back in Wisconsin, Fred and Frank followed farming, getting a first-class preparation in agricultural work before, in 1883, they came further West, to La Verne, then Lordsburg, and became pioneers in the undeveloped Pomona Valley. Their uncle, J.A. Packard, had preceded them here, and had bought 170 acres of raw land, to the north of Lordsburg, now known as the Evergreen Ranch, and they set to work with a will to develop the place. At first, grapes and deciduous fruit were raised, and later these were dug out and oranges planted. They brought the place to a high state of cultivation, and Fred was for twelve years foreman of the ranch. When they left, they had 100 acres planted to oranges, and now all of the acreage is devoted to the cultivation of that fruit, and the place is one of the most productive in the Valley.
For a year, Fred was foreman of the Indian Hill Packing Plant, and then the two brothers engaged in the fruit and grocery business in Pomona, until 1909, when they entered upon contracting and building, in which they are now engaged. They have uniformly done fine work, and among the notable places built by them in the Valley may be mentioned the home of C.R. Clark, three houses for Harry H. Denny, the F.D. Baker residence, a residence costing $4,000 in Pasadena and a modern bungalow at Altadena. In Delano they built five houses for the Fred L. Baker Company of Los Angeles, and they also constructed three other residences there for Mr. Northey. Together, the Messrs. Ellsworth own an orange grove of ten acres, all of seven-year-old trees, in the Monte Vista Tract, east of San Bernardino Avenue—choice property, reflecting the good judgment of the purchasers and developers.
Both of the brothers have been married. Fred became the husband of Miss Sophia Herring, a native of Minnesota, at Claremont, on May 17, 1887, and she is now treasurer of the home missionary society of the Methodist Church, in which organization he has been active for many years. He is now affiliated with the Trinity Methodist Church, has been treasurer of the Sunday School since the church was organized and is now chief usher. At La Verne, Frank married Miss Stella Barnes, who died in the spring of 1919, the mother of two children, Paul and Ruth, and honored and beloved by all who knew her. Both Fred and Frank Ellsworth belong to the Fraternal Aid, and they are also Odd Fellows.
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 10/06/08, Pages 515-516
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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