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Based upon text originally authored by Richard F. Hathaway
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Jesse Elwood Hathaway as a young man. |
Jesse was the son of Jacob and Ester (Bovée) Hathaway (married December 31, 1869) and was born on March 13, 1872. He was born in a sod house near Wichita, Kansas. His father, who had been a Sergeant in the Second Michigan Engineering Corps of the Northern Army, and his mother had moved west to settle a 160 acre parcel of land, probably as a result of the Homestead Act of 1862, which required a $10.00 filing fee and 5-years of working the claimed land.
When Jesse was three years old, his father and his father’s brother had gone with the wagon to get supplies. During their return trip they drove by the brother’s household and left him off, whereupon Jesse’s father continued on toward his own home. When the wagon and team finally arrived that evening at sundown, there lay his father, dead in the wagon. It has been speculated by one family historian that hostile Indians killed him, but, if so, the hostiles would have probably taken the horses. After burying Jesse’s father, his mother took Jesse, his two sisters, Nettie and Lilly, and his older brother, Richard, to Michigan.
Once back in Michigan, Ester was required to do housework and laundry for her father, Mr. Bovée, and his hired help. Jesse’s grandfather would climb upstairs each morning while making a thumping noise (maybe with a cane) and then pound on the door saying, “brats get up and get to work.” At some point Ester’s father made her put Jesse and his brother, Richard, out in a home. Jesse ended up in Old Lady Bennett’s home at four years of age. He had to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and feed the pigs and help with the housework. His brother, Richard, was taken out of the home by some people at Clayton, Michigan, to help to do chores.
While at Old Lady Bennett’s home, Jesse slept in the cold attic with a straw tick for a mattress and an old Buffalo robe. When it snowed he would awaken to find powdered snow on top of his bed. The children at the home were often hungry, and were not allowed milk even though they had to milk many cows. The butter was put into firkins (a small wooden keg) and sold, and the milk was for the pigs — none for the children. However, the children somewhat circumvented this prohibition by slipping down into the cellar at night, when Old Lady Bennett was sound asleep, and poke a straw down under the cream layer and draw up milk from the milk pans. They could remove only about 3/8 of an inch from a pan, otherwise the cream line would give them away if it was lowered too much. Jesse lost two front teeth sneaking down for milk, falling down the cellar stairs one night.
At the age of six he was taken by a preacher named Brockway, to drive his carriage, tend his stable, milk his cows, till and clear fields by hauling stones in a stone boat. At the age of eight years Jesse ran away and went to work for a Doctor Ely, gathering herbs and preparing them for medicines. Then he got a job as bellboy at the Oliver House, a large Hotel in Elkhart, Indiana. Still, reportedly, he had little, if any, spending money, because it was expected that the money made by children went to their parents. Jesse's formal education ended at third-grade, but he continued reading a great deal, figured well and had good script.
Amongst some of his early accomplishments, Jesse built and patented the Hotel Calling Clock, calling the patrons to breakfast. He built and patented the first pontoon boat; he sold the patent for $5.00, and he invented the first gear-driven egg beater. Later on he built and patented a crude oil generator for gas engines, and yet later a pressure boring and tapping machine to connect lines under pressure.
An example of Jesse's natural ingenuity is exemplified when he tried to get work in a Michigan foundry. No help was needed at the time, but the foreman explained to Jesse that if he could get some large brass cylinders (which the foreman was unable to cut up) down to a size that would fit into the smelter, Jesse would be compensated. So, Jesse proceeded to make some large wooden plugs, which he used to securely plug one end of each cylinder. He then filled the cylinders with water and pounded another wooden plug into the remaining open end, keeping the water tightly sealed within each cylinder. An overnight freeze finished the job, breaking the cylinders into pieces to be easily handled and smelted.
At some point Jesse developed tuberculosis and underwent the so-called “gold cure,” but the cure was not effective, his doctor advising Jesse to go west to California where the climate would be more favorable to his bronchial condition. Jesse started west by train, getting odd jobs along the way. Jesse recalled to a granddaughter that traveling salesmen would often give him parts of their ticket strips, and Jesse would use these to gradually make his way across the country. In 1884 he arrived in Los Angeles, California, with little or no money and no job. He would crawl into an abandoned old house and sleep in the bathtub at night, living on five cents per day, which he earned by washing dishes. He finally got a job as apprentice millwright, studied and became a journeyman.
In 1890 he journeyed to Fulton Wells (now Santa Fe Springs—about 14-miles east of downtown Los Angeles) to put in the first pump in the Los Nietos Valley (an E. K Green Pump and a Holiday windmill). The equipment was installed on the Hawkins place, which had been purchased from Mr. Hawkins by a banker from Minneapolis, Minnesota, named W. A. Nimmock, who bought the ranch for his young wife for the raising of race horses and fancy cows. During the installation process Jesse lived above in the well tower, adjusting and keeping the windmill and pump working smoothly. During this time Jesse met and got to know the Koontz family, and, in turn, Lola Mary McCarric, who was working as a U.S. mail carrier in Fulton Wells at fifteen cents per day. Jesse and Lola struck up a friendship and corresponded for some twelve years before being married in 1902.
In the meantime, Jesse Hathaway went on to become well known as a top millwright and engineer. Some of his many accomplishments are as follows:
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Lola Mary McCarric as a young woman. |
Lola McCarric, and her younger sister, Claudia, arrived in Fulton Wells in 1889, when their father brought them from Farmington, Washington, to be raised by the children’s maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles, who had settled in the area years earlier. Lola was the daughter of Franklin McCarric and Sarah Isabelle Koontz. Franklin McCarric was a surveyor by profession and a Scotchman from Bangor, Maine, who had been a soldier in the Northern Army. Sarah Koontz was born in September of 1853, on Vancouver Island, Oregon, and was the fourth child of Martin and Maryann Koontz.
Martin and Maryann Koontz were married at Dahlonega, Iowa, northeast of nearby present day Ottumwa, in Wapello County. Their first child, Ellen Caroline Koontz, was born at Dahlonega in 1848. They had two more children in Iowa before joining other members of the Koontz family (who had more or less settled in the Dahlonega, Iowa, area in 1844) to make the trek to Oregon in 1852. Once in Oregon they temporarily settled on Hayden Island, near present day Portland. Later they moved to the Willamette Valley (Linn County) and finally settled at The Dalles (Wasco County), where their last and twelfth child, George Albert Koontz, was born in 1871.
About 1874 the Koontz family decided to move to Arizona. They went south as far as the turn-off for Independence, California, but then changed their destination after talking with travelers who were going north told them of sickness among livestock in Arizona. The family stopped by the side of the trail and after much discussion decided to go on to California. They lived in Independence, California, long enough to plant an orchard, but then, for some reason, decided to move on south, camping near what is now La Canada, before moving on to Anaheim where they stayed under the huge old Morton Fig Tree, and finally settled in Iron Sulfur Springs and purchased a corner acre of land. Here they bought the stage stop (to San Diego) from Phinneas Banning and established a general store. Iron Sulfur Springs later became known as Fulton Wells, and still later the name was changed again to Santa Fe Springs.
It is speculated that Sarah Koontz and Franklin McCarric were married sometime just before the Koontz family headed their wagons south in 1874. How and why they met is unknown, but it is likely that, as a surveyor, Franklin had been traveling around the Oregon Washington Territory when their paths crossed. Sarah is the only Koontz child who did not travel south with the family, staying in Oregon for awhile, but then moving with Franklin to Farmington, Washington. What is known from letters between Sarah and the rest of the Koontz family is that she and family members hoped and planned for her to rejoin the family in Southern California.
Farmington, Washington, was a small settlement situated next to the Idaho border. Getting there from Oregon is said to have had its hardships and travel was slow. By the time they reached the Potlatch forests near Farmington an early winter was setting in. Franklin purchased some timberland, built “half sodies,” half log cabin and half sod hut, which were hurriedly constructed to try and ward off the oncoming severe winter’s winds and snow. Lola was born in this rural setting on August 1, 1876.
Franklin McCarric and his wife, Sarah, settled in Farmington, where three more children were born. During this time the Koontz family had been constantly writing to the McCarric family, urging them to come to Iron Sulfur Springs, soon to be Fulton Wells. Sarah was in the process of writing a letter to her brother, William Koontz, who had established a general store, stating that they were going to move there, but this letter was never finished. An epidemic killed Sarah, son Franklin and the baby. Lola and Claudia fell seriously ill, but recovered. Grief stricken, Franklin was going to give away Lola and Claudia. When the Koontz family learned of this they insisted that McCarric bring Lola and Claudia to them.
In 1889, Franklin McCarric started the journey south to Southern California with his two surviving children, Lola and Claudia. Going south he would have intersected and probably traveled part of the old Oregon Trail toward the Oregon Coast, taking along oxen and horses, selling them when he reached Coos Bay, Oregon. From this point they took passage on a Coos Bay Steamer to Anaheim Landing, Seal Beach, California, where they traveled inland to meet up with the already established Koontz family in Fulton Wells, California.
Jesse returned to Santa Fe Springs for his bride Lola Mary McCarric. Lola had taken the train back and forth from Fulton Wells to attend Los Angeles High School, and attending Woodbury Business College, while working at Coulter’s Department Store in Los Angeles California. Jesse and Lola were married at the Santa Fe Springs little church on February 14, 1902, afterwards returning to Los Angeles where they lived in a modest house that Jesse had built on North Grand Avenue. They lived there for a period of about three years after their marriage.
Jesse continued to work long hours, being called upon to lay out city water systems, pumping plants and all types of engineering and water developments. In the little gold mining town of Julian, (in the Julian Mining District, San Diego County), inland from the city of San Diego, California, he helped to install dewatering equipment for the mines. Jesse and Lola Hathaway lived in Julian for at least one brief period of time. The installation of the heavy dewatering pumps and equipment for even a single mine would have required weeks of effort. During their stay Lola rode the stage coach to San Diego to shop for herself and other ladies in the Julian community.
In 1904, as his health failed, Dr. Houghton, of the Los Angeles City Health Department, said, “Jesse, you will have to quit, and go to the country.” Fortunately, in 1900, he had made a down payment to a Mrs. Brown for 40-acres of land in the Fulton Wells area. So in 1905 he and Lola (after losing their first baby and carrying him in a wooden box by horse and buggy for burial in the Little Lake Cemetery at Fulton Wells) purchased a large Fish Brothers wagon from Mr. Foy, and a team and a set of harness from Brydon Brothers, put all their belongings in the wagon and moved from Los Angeles to their Fulton Wells (now Santa Fe Springs) property. Thus began the Hathaway Ranch. On the ranch was a three room straight up and down board shack, later nicknamed “the box.” This was formerly the house of Mr. Houghton, shown on maps of 1867. Not long after moving to the ranch this simple structure was jacked up and each evening it was moved a little more toward a new location near Little Lake Road (now Florence Avenue). The family continued to live in the house during this slow moving process. Circa 1932 the modest old house, which had been enlarged since its first move, was jacked up again and moved toward Little Lake Road in order to make room for the construction of a new and imposing two-story Mediterranean style concrete block ranch house. The family lived in the old structure while it was jacked up and resting on beams. But once the new ranch house was completed and occupied the old home was demolished and the doors, frames and wood recycled elsewhere.
The new ranch house was under construction and the first story nearly finished when the disastrous March, 1933, Long Beach earthquake struck. Although towns from Long Beach to Artesia were severely damaged, there was little or no damage to the partially built, steel reinforced house and construction was completed. This house, with its Spanish tiled roof and distinctive tower, is to be a part of the Hathaway Ranch Museum. The flat-belt drive--once steam powered--machine shop that Jesse created is open to museum visitors, as is the small dairy barn and other farm areas and buildings.
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Jesse and Lola Hathaway (center) and their
three sons |
On February 6, 1908, their second son, Jesse Elwood, was born, then on April 19, 1910, a son, Richard Franklin (Dick), was born; and then on June 17, 1912, a son Julian Ivan (Doc) was born. As youngsters, the children were clothed in hand-made attire fabricated out of Globe A1 flour sacks and alfalfa seed sacks.
Orchards were planted for apples, plums, peaches, oranges, lemons and walnuts. In 1913 there was the “Great Freeze,” which split the bark on many of the citrus trees, causing the considerable loss of citrus trees in the area. The orchard area included the upper marsh area of the Little Lake (earlier known as Laguna Chiquita). The ranch also raised seed for Aggeler and Musser Seed Company, and was noted for other agricultural “firsts” in the area.
Lola served on the Little Lake School Board for twenty-five years, and she was a life member of the PTA. And she also carried the mail from the Santa Fe Railroad Station to the Santa Fe Springs Post Office in a horse and buggy, as she had done as a girl long before her marriage. She was an avid and talented gardener and kept a variety of birds.
Jesse and Lola Hathaway’s prized dairy herd won Third Place for the State of California at the Chicago Milk Show.
In 1919, the discovery and development of oil on the Marius Meyer Ranch led to the development of the Santa Fe Springs oil field, which pressured all of the Koontz family to leave the area, except for Jesse and Lola Hathaway who lived on the fringe of the booming and noisy oil field. A problem of contamination of the fresh water aquifers as a result of oil production “waste water” became a serious issue. In 1926, Jesse and Lola went to work to get the oil companies together so as to try and work out a plan for waste water disposal, and Jesse did work it out. The other ranchers brought suit, but Jesse said, “Why not help all by sending the waste salt water to the ocean?” The oil companies agreed, and the Santa Fe Springs Waste Water Disposal Company was formed and a pipe line was laid to the Bixby Slough, Seal Beach, and thence to the ocean.
Jesse, Lola and their three sons continued farming and dairying. In 1929, two changes were made, one from farming to beef cattle, and the starting of the Hathaway Company (an independent family run oil company). Jesse Hathaway was its first President; his oldest son, J. Elwood, was Vice President; Julian I., his youngest son, was Vice President; and Richard F., his middle son, was Secretary-Treasurer. The Hathaway Company was incorporated in 1932. Jesse served as President until the company was well established, and then turned the Presidency over to J. Elwood, his oldest son, and gave more of his attention to general farming and ranching. The Hathaway Ranch Company was incorporated on May 16, 1941.
In 1934 and 1935 Jesse and his son, Richard (Dick), worked with Dr. Lee De Forest in testing and developing the application of Radio Diathermy to the treating of cattle for pneumonia and shipping fever.
In November of 1935, the Hathaway Ranch established a world record yield for the dress-out of beef cattle in carload lots; a yield of 69.3, which stood for many years. This high yield came after the development of a cattle mineral food supplement.
The Hathaway Ranch semi-automated feed lot operation was the first in the 17 western states, and it became the model for other feed lot operations in other states. Richard (Dick) Hathaway did some experimenting with Sulfa drugs on cattle.
The greatest loss of his lifetime occurred with the death of his wife and partner, Lola, on December 23, 1950. She was seventy-four years of age. However, he continued with his work, building a large plow for brush eradication and creating a large scale seeder for the Hathaway Ranch Company’s Rancho Temescal operation near the little town of Piru, California.
Jesse Hathaway passed away April 13, 1960, at the age of eighty-eight, thus putting to rest the career of one of California’s pioneers.
Contributors to this historical treatise include Richard F. Hathaway (deceased 1986--middle son of Jesse and Lola Hathaway), Jean Hathaway, Francine (Hathaway) Rippy, William Hathaway, Terry Hathaway, and Alice Platon (Koontz family history).
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