John Arthur HAMNER

Birth:

16 Jan 1892

Corona, Riverside, California

Death:

20 Jul 1974

Riverside, Riverside, California

Burial:

24 Jul 1974

Corona, Riverside, California

Marriage:

26 Nov 1912

Corona, Riverside, California

Father:

John Thomas HAMNER

Mother:

Martha Ann CRAW

Sources:

New.familysearch.org, Dec 2010
Ancestral File v4.19 - nil
Pedigree Resource File - nil
Ancestral World Tree - nil

Notes:

Information obtained from handwritten pedigree chart from Charles K. Bird
grandson of John Arthur Hamner on 1-20-2000.

JOHN ARTHUR HAMNER, HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Written in 1962)

I, John Arthur Hamner, was born in Corona, California, January 16, 1892. My parents were John Thomas Hamner and Martha Ann Hamner, who were married in Corona, California. My father was born in Northport, Alabama, and my mother in San Bernardino, California. My father came to California at the age of 20 years. My mother's folks came from Virginia in
1850, so I am an old-line Californian. My mother's folks came to California by covered wagon in 1850 and settled in San Bernardino.

My father bought a ranch three miles east of Corona on Magnolia Avenue. I was three years old when I became a farmer. My two brothers, Ben and Emmett, and sister, Ellen, were born there. The ranch was not large, 40 acres partly cleared and surrounded by sagebrush and washes. Papa had good teams, so was able to clear and level the land for irrigation. After 3 or 4 years he bought 120 acres of brush land adjoining the first 40 so we had 160 acres. We continued to buy more land and develop it until we were farming as much as two thousand acres, raising hay, grain, cattle, hogs, and both horses and mules for market, they being the only power we had on ranches at that time. I sure did enjoy myself helping my folks develop this wonderful ranch. This story sounds pretty nice, but without the wonderful mother I had and the help of her to my father, this would have been a different story. She was the one that carried all of us through all the most trying times. Many Christmases would not have been very happy had it not been for her. She was the backbone of the family and farm; also the entire community--the one who always gave of herself--a wonderful wife, mother, and friend to all.

My school began with me riding a horse to Corona. After a short time winter came, so I stayed with my Aunt Lula and Uncle Charles Main in town during the week, my folks getting me every Friday night and taking me home over weekends. I did this during first, second, third and fourth grade. Then a small new school was built in Alvord with 14 pupils, one teacher teaching through the eighth grade. I went there until the last half of the eighth grade, then went to Corona again, staying with my aunt and uncle until I finished high school, this being my education.

My wife, Zilpha Ellen Davis, and I met in Corona High School. She graduated one year ahead of me. After I finished school, she and I were married, thus starting our new life, and wonderful family, consisting of two boys and four girls.

I started to work running engines pumping water and taking care of its delivery to many users in the La Sierra District for agricultural use. There our first child, Margaret, was born. After one year we moved to Corona. There I worked in a gent's store. One year later we moved on our first farm. There we started farming with 100 baby chicks and some hens and a cow. Next I began buying baby calves hoping to have a dairy some day. After two years, we were milking 26 cows and still raising calves. We grew our pasture and hay for them.

In 1916, my Uncle Charles Main and I became partners. We sold the first farm and bought a larger one (155 acres), put both herds of cows and calves together, and delivered retail milk to Corona. Four years later, I sold my half interest to my uncle and moved to Riverside. There I worked for an implement and truck company for two years, then quit my job and bought a 15-acre walnut grove and 1200 head of sheep. Then I sold our house in Riverside and built a new one on the walnut grove in Arlington. We did very good with grove and sheep. Not long after we had our grove and sheep I built a cement pipe yard and made concrete pipe and other cement products. Then started contracting pipeline and other cement products.
We had done very well in all of our investments. Then came the "bump" of 1929-30. This was our first set-back since we started our family life, and the first test we had to meet. I did not know how to handle myself. I did a pretty poor job; had it not been for my wife and family, I don't believe I would have made it, they made the difference. They were able to give me courage. Before the "bump", I had moved all the sheep to Imperial Valley; having made my friends there., I started buying hay and grain for dairymen and feed mills in Los Angeles, then built a feed yard in the City of Imperial (Central Valley Feed). I had a partner there, which did not turn out good, so left this company after three years. Went to work on government jobs during wartime-sewer, water, and street work. My experience in the pipe yard and contracting cement work came in handy then to help me. After the war was over, I helped my father take care of his property until he passed away. My mother left us four years earlier, which was a shock to all our family, £or she was only seventy-six.

Our children are all married, and most of them live near us. We have fourteen grandchildren and one great grandchild.
We are having fun now helping them where ever we can and enjoying their children.

Zilpha Ellen DAVIS

Birth:

15 May 1890

Brazil, Clay, Indiana

Death:

8 Sep 1976

Arlington, Riverside, California

Burial:

11 Sep 1976

Corona, Riverside, California

Father:

Edward DAVIS

Mother:

Clara Florence CARTER

Notes:

Obtained information from pedigree chart handwritten by Charles K. Bird
grandson of Zilpha Ellen Davis on 1-20-2000

ZILPHA ELLEN HAMNER, HER AUTOBIOGRAPHY ( Written in 1962)

I, Zilpha Ellen Davis, was born in Brazil, Indiana (Clay Co.). Our home was out in the country about four miles west of town. My father's land was covered with timber. He had to clear off the area where he built our home. It was a six-room house, one bedroom, with living room, kitchen and dining area in one room. The three rooms upstairs were finished later as our family grew.

My sister, Estelle, was born April 16, 1893, and four years later my brother, Stanley, was born May 26, 1897. We went to a one room brick school, with a big pot-bellied coal stove in the middle of the room. We had desks large enough for two pupils and one teacher taught all eight grades. This school was located on the National Road that was built from Baltimore to St. Louis by the Government and was made of gravel. Now it is a big macadam highway.

My father, Edward Davis, was born in Vigo County, Indiana, on November 25, 1863. His father's name was Joseph Davis and his mother's name was Mary. Joseph Davis was born in Vigo County also, on March 14, 1837, and died in 1880. He was a Civil War Veteran.

My father's mother was born in Clermont County, Ohio, January 25, 1838, and died October 24, 1917; her parents' names were James and Margaret Herron. Margaret's maiden name was Archer.

My mother was born October 15, 1865, in Clay County, Indiana, to Lucius and Barbara Carter. My mother (Clara) was the oldest of seven children and I was my grandparents' oldest grandchild.

The Carter family originally came from Virginia, and my great grandfather's father was in the Revolutionary War and served under General Washington.

Some of the family moved to Ohio in later years. Great Grandfather Joseph Carter married a Miss Ellen Fugate of Mason, Ohio. Then, after nine of their ten children were born there, they moved in the fall of 1850 to Clay County, Indiana and made their home.

My father finally got his land cleared of timber and farmed 80 to 100 acres in wheat, corn, red clover, and Timothy hay. We raised our own chickens, cattle, and hogs, had our own fruit trees.

On Sunday we always tried to go to Sunday school and Church, unless someone was ill or the weather too severe in the winter months. I joined the Methodist Church when I was about 12 years old and am still a member. Most of the families near us were related to us, so when we were children we played with our cousins. In the summer we would go wading in the brooks and wild flower hunting. In the fall, we would pick hickory nuts and hazel nuts and would go bob-sled riding in the winter, when we had snow. It seemed our winters in Indiana were colder and had more snow than they do now.

We came to Corona, California in the fall of 1905 on account of my brother's health. He had pneumonia every winter, so our doctor advised a warmer climate. We rented our farm and then two years later sold it and bought 10 acres on Main Street about a mile and a half south of Corona and built a home on the corner of it and planted the balance in Navel oranges and lemons.

My father's brother, Frank Davis, and family already lived here in Riverside, and my mother had a cousin and his family here too, so we didn't quite feel we had no one in a new country.

My sister, brother, and I graduated from Corona High School and it was while I was still going to school that I met my husband John Hamner. We really had fun during our school days going to football games and school parties. I graduated from high school in 1910 and two years later we were married, November 26, 1912. Our first home was a little four-room house located on a piece of property just in front of where the Seventh Day Adventist College now stands and that is where our oldest daughter, Margaret, was born the following year. Only about four or five families were living there at that time where now there is a big Adventist Church, stores, and the Loma Linda Food Plant.

We lived there at this place about a year, and then moved to Corona to a farm about 2 miles east of town and started raising young dairy heifers. In about 3 years we were milking about 30 cows, raised our own chickens and turkeys. During the Christmas season of December 28, 1914, our second child, Martha, was born, and in the summer of July 4, 1916, we had a baby son, John D. Hamner. All were born at home, no hospital babies. We raised our three children the hard way. I had a wood cook stove, coal oil lamps, and no washing machine, and heated my irons on the stove. Maybe everything is too easy for the good of the, country now. Our next move was back not far from where we first went to housekeeping. My husband went into partnership with his uncle and we moved our cows with his, built a new dairy barn and a duplex for his and our families. Soon after we were all located there, the
First World War broke out and in the fall of 1918, the flu epidemic was so bad, John's two brothers, Ben and Emmett, passed away just a week apart, which was pretty hard for his family. It was hard to get help on the farm and in the dairy while the War was on. He and his uncle had to work awfully hard. After a while things didn't go so good with him and his uncle, so we finally sold our interest to his uncle and moved to Riverside. We bought a home there and John worked for an implement company for about three years.

In 1921, we bought 15 acres on Magnolia Avenue about 1 mile west of Arlington with 8-year-old English walnut trees on it. In the year 1920 (November 13) while we were still living in Riverside, our fourth baby, Florence was born. Then two years later, we built a new home on our fifteen acres and moved in when Florence was two years old.

I think the following year after we built our new house, we bought about 1200 head of sheep from some French people who lived near us, and we pastured them on the hills south of us where the Metropolitan Water District built a big lake, Lake Mathews, which now furnishes Los Angeles and a lot of the territory near us with water.

We stayed in the sheep business until the year 1935, and then sold out, for pasture was so hard to get. Too many people were taking up the pasture land.

On April 7, 1925, we had another son, Ben, born to us, another helper for John; then our last baby, a girl, Rosemary, was born on July 16, 1929. We could always remember that year, for we had such a hard time keeping what we had bought. The year before John went up to Utah (Provo and Spanish Fork) and bought some more sheep. We had over 2,000 head then and finally had to move them to Imperial Valley in 1933. The prices of everything kept going down, so we had to sell the sheep and John got a job with a man in the cattle business, feeding cattle for a while.

War broke out in Europe. John came home and worked for the government helping build housing projects, Navy and Air Bases for this great country was afraid we might get into this war, and we surely did.

Our daughter Florence's husband, Dudley Sleeper, was the first of our family called into Service. Margaret's husband wasn't called, for they had one daughter and Kingsley Bird worked for a utility company so wasn't called. Martha's husband, Richard Drake, joined the Navy and was stationed on a repair ship outside Pearl Harbour. Our son, John, wasn't called. He had two children and was farming. We needed farmer to raise food for the soldiers.
Our youngest son, Ben, was in his senior year at high school and was called into the Navy before school was out. He was stationed on a sub-chaser and was sent overseas and was in the Normandy Invasion. We were so glad when the war was over and so thankful we didn't lose any of our family.

Rosemary finished her high school and went to Woodbury's Business College in Los Angeles and graduated from there two years later. Her first job was with the General Steamship Company. Later she passed a Civil Service exam and then worked in the 15th Air Force Headquarters at March Air Force Base until she was married November 29, 1952. She married a Serviceman, too. He is Staff Sergeant John Clayton, stationed at March Air Force Base. Major Dudley L. Sleeper is now serving another year's tour in Korea. They both hope to stay in the Service for retirement.

Our daughter, Margaret, graduated from Riverside Business College and Martha graduated from UCLA and is a teacher. Florence went to Santa Barbara Nurses School.
We now have fourteen grandchildren--seven boys and seven girls-- one great-grandson, and have had a very happy life together. We hope to celebrate our 50th Anniversary in 1962.

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Notes:

Family Group Record prepared by Kingsley Bird, husband of Margaret Hamner.
Margaret Hamner Bird was 12 when she went with Grandma Mattie Ann Craw Hamner back to Alabama to visit. ( She would get so homesick it would literally make her sick). She would visit Northport, Alabama, to visit Aunt Jessie and Uncle Jake. It felt like home at their house. One of their daughters was into Girl Scouts. Her name was Susie Anders.

Autobiography of Margaret Ellen Bird

This is the story of my life with as many of the interesting events retold as I can remember. I was the first child born to John A. Hamner and Zilpha Ellen Hamner on June 25th, 1913. I was born in our family home located in la Sierra, Calif. And I am told I was the second child born in this community. The Stadler family also lived nearby and their daughter, Lucille, was born a year before I was. My father worked on the W. J. Hole Ranch doing farming. We moved from this home to what was called the Water Company Ranch near Corona and my sister, Martha, was born there when I was one and half years old. She was born on December 28, 1914 and John, my older brother was born on the red letter day in history, the 4th of July, 1916.

Autobiography of Margaret Ellen Bird

During the time we lived on this ranch my father had dairy cows and did farming on the land. My mother was a very busy lady with three young children to take care of, as we didn't have the modern conveniences we have to help mothers nowadays. She did her washing on a board and heated water outside in a big boiler. She also had lots of chickens to take care of, so she never lacked something to do. My mother has always been a beautiful seamstress and made all our clothes, even our coats when we were little girls. I don't remember how long we lived at this ranch but it was while we were still very young that we moved to a dairy ranch that my Uncle Charlie and Aunt Lula Main owned. This was what was called Alvord. It isn't a community but more of a locality. My father went into business with him and they milked quite a herd of dairy cows. The home we lived in was a large place with living quarters on two sides with a court or patio in the center. There was a large kitchen and dining room for the ranch workers to eat in and we had our own dining room.
It was while we lived here that I began the first grade at Alvord School, which at that time was a little country school with eight grades. Some grades held classes together as we didn't have many teachers. My Aunt Lula Main was the Principal of this school until she retired, when she was past sixty-five years old. We enjoyed living here, as most children would as there were hundreds of acres of land all around us. We had horses, chickens and cows and everything you would find on a farm to play with. We lived here for a few years, when my father decided he wanted to make a change and it was at this time that we moved to Riverside.
We lived on Highland Place, off Brocton Avenue in a frame house with lots of nice neighbors near us. This was something of a change for us as we had always lived on a ranch before with very few people nearby. By the time we moved here we went to the Magnolia School and walked to school with our friends, Clifford and Ruth Rome, Helen Heiser, and Esther, Martin and Gladys Williamson. We had a new little sister born to us while we were living in Riverside. Florence was born November 13, 1920 and it was fun having a baby sister to play with. While we lived here my father was a salesman for an implement company and liked his work but still wanted to do something along the ranching occupation. We lived in Riverside for a few years when father decided to go into the sheep business.
During my early years my Grandmother and Grandfather Hamner were separated and when we decided to move from Riverside, she decided to move too. It was at this time that my father bought a fifteen acre walnut grove that was interest with peach trees. We built a large new home on the corner of this land and my Grandmother built a new home for herself next door to us. This was to be our home for many years as it was built for a large family and in a good location.
We were all very happy in this home as it was what most children would want. We were able to have a saddle horse, cows, sheep (as pets) a dog and chickens. We even had pigs that my brother used to feed to sell. After moving here, we again, went to the Alvord School but we had to walk to catch a bus as we lived quite a distance from the school.
We also had many happy experiences with a grandmother we loved living next door to us. As youngsters we used to take turns staying all night with her and felt it was a real treat when it was our turn. And as I grew older there were many times we would stay up late at night talking over my problems or she would tell me of the many interesting experiences she had when she was a girl.

We were all very happy in this home as it was what most children would want. We were able to have a saddle horse, cows, sheep (as pets) a dog and chickens. We even had pigs that my brother used to feed to sell. After moving here, we again, went to the Alvord School but we had to walk to catch a bus as we lived quite a distance from the school.
We also had many happy experiences with a grandmother we loved living next door to us. As youngsters we used to take turns staying all night with her and felt it was a real treat when it was our turn. And as I grew older there were many times we would stay up late at night talking over my problems or she would tell me of the many interesting experiences she had when she was a girl.
It was while we lived here that we had another brother born to our family; Ben was born April 7, 1915 and, of course, we loved him like all the rest of the family. He was a very happy baby and we played with him like a doll. He loved having fun too. Rosemary, my youngest sister was also born here. She was born July 16, 1929 and was such a cute baby. We were all older by this time and she was taken care of by all of us.
After we lived here for a few years my father had the peach trees removed and left only the walnut trees and they were huge trees. He also had several thousand head of sheep out in the hills near Arlington. As children we often went to the sheep camps with mother and daddy. We would sometimes have a meal with the sheepherders, who usually were Basques or French men. During the sheep sheering time, we often went to see them sheer the sheep and fill those huge sacks with wool weighing around three hundred pounds. All these outings are interesting things we have done together as a family. I can remember several times a lot of our relatives getting together and taking a picnic lunch with us to go to watch the sheep sheering. It was always done in the hills with lots of green grass all around and shade trees so it made a picturesque place for a picnic.
Another exciting experience of my life was during the summer just before my twelfth birthday. My mother and father bought my ticket to go on a wonderful trip to Alabama and other parts o the country to visit some of our relatives. I made this trip with my Grandmother Hamner and it was one of the happiest times of my life. We saw so many new sights and parts of the country that was invaluable to me. We had such fun together as she was such a good traveler and liked to do things for fun. We went on the train and were gone for six weeks, while we were in Alabama, our relatives, the Faucetts, took us on a trip to Atlanta, Georgia which we enjoyed very much.
I also remember the nice visits we often had with my Grandmother and Grandfather Davis, who were my mother's parents. My grandma would usually have good things for us to eat when we came to visit them and while we were youngsters, we often had Christmas dinner with them and lots of other relatives.
I went through the eighth grade at Alvord and when I was ready for the ninth grade, Chemawa Junior High School was completed, so I was in the first graduating class at Chemawa. I took a College Prep Course thinking that I would continue my education. I was on the Honor Roll in Junior High and most of my years in Polytechnic High School in Riverside while I attend it. I liked school quite well but studied very hard for my grades. During these years I made many new friends and cherished some old ones I had known since grammar school days. One of these friends was Emery Sloat, who lived near us and I became quite fond of him and he of me. He was two years ahead of me in school so the year he was a senior in High School, I was a sophomore. When he graduated he went to Riverside Junior College and I was still in High School but we saw each other quite often.
As the years went on I graduated from Poly High School in 1932 and had planned to go on to school but I wasn't too well and my mother and father thought it best for me not to go to school for a year. After that year was up, I went to Business College for a year and the following fall I entered Junior College taking business courses. It was while I was going to Junior College that Emery and I saw a lot of each other. We went to dances, parties, sports events and outings together. It was at a birthday party at his home that I met a good friend of his Kingsley Bird. These two young fellows were very good trackmen and had been on the Junior College track team together while in school.
The following summer, I began to see quite a lot of Kingsley and we became good friends. We enjoyed each others company and had lots of fun when we were together. Emery went to the University of California at Berkeley the next fall and it was during his absence that Kingsley and I became very fond of each other. During Christmas vacations and summer time I went with Emery but I also began to realize how important Kingsley was to me. He was such an understanding person and he had all the fine qualities I had hoped to find in the person I would marry someday.
It was after we had been going together for a year that we became engaged secretly and I had a lovely announcement party in July, announcing our coming marriage in August 29, 1930. We were both working downtown, he was employed by the Southern California Gas Company and I was working for the California Electric Power Company. Se we made lots of plans for our new home together and looked forward to our marriage day.
We had a lovely wedding at the home of my parents performed by Bishop Joel G. Sedgwick, who was the Bishop at that time of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Riverside. We had many relatives of both families and close friends. We left on a wonderful honeymoon to the Grand Canyon and we had such fun together. When we returned our first home was on Eleventh Street, in an apartment owned by the Fairchilds. We lived there for a year and during that time I went back to work temporarily for California Electric then we moved to a duplex on Fourth Street. We made another move before we purchased a lot on the corner of Ninth and Pepper streets. We began plans for our own home and it was completed just before Christmas in 1939. We had a lovely old couple by the name of Charles and Effie Wagner for our neighbors and they were very thoughtful of us.
We were very busy in our new home getting our landscaping done in our yard, which we did ourselves. We both loved our home, and were so proud of it. The following April 10, 1940 we had a lovely daughter born to us, whom we named Virginia Ellen. She was a beautiful baby and no parents could have been more proud of her than we were. She looked so much like her daddy and was a real joy to both of us.

After we lived here for a few years my father had the peach trees removed and left only the walnut trees and they were huge trees. He also had several thousand head of sheep out in the hills near Arlington. As children we often went to the sheep camps with mother and daddy. We would sometimes have a meal with the sheepherders, who usually were Basques or French men. During the sheep sheering time, we often went to see them sheer the sheep and fill those huge sacks with wool weighing around three hundred pounds. All these outings are interesting things we have done together as a family. I can remember several times a lot of our relatives getting together and taking a picnic lunch with us to go to watch the sheep sheering. It was always done in the hills with lots of green grass all around and shade trees so it made a picturesque place for a picnic.
Another exciting experience of my life was during the summer just before my twelfth birthday. My mother and father bought my ticket to go on a wonderful trip to Alabama and other parts o the country to visit some of our relatives. I made this trip with my Grandmother Hamner and it was one of the happiest times of my life. We saw so many new sights and parts of the country that was invaluable to me. We had such fun together as she was such a good traveler and liked to do things for fun. We went on the train and were gone for six weeks, while we were in Alabama, our relatives, the Faucetts, took us on a trip to Atlanta, Georgia which we enjoyed very much.
I also remember the nice visits we often had with my Grandmother and Grandfather Davis, who were my mother's parents. My grandma would usually have good things for us to eat when we came to visit them and while we were youngsters, we often had Christmas dinner with them and lots of other relatives.
I went through the eighth grade at Alvord and when I was ready for the ninth grade, Chemawa Junior High School was completed, so I was in the first graduating class at Chemawa. I took a College Prep Course thinking that I would continue my education. I was on the Honor Roll in Junior High and most of my years in Polytechnic High School in Riverside while I attend it. I liked school quite well but studied very hard for my grades. During these years I made many new friends and cherished some old ones I had known since grammar school days. One of these friends was Emery Sloat, who lived near us and I became quite fond of him and he of me. He was two years ahead of me in school so the year he was a senior in High School, I was a sophomore. When he graduated he went to Riverside Junior College and I was still in High School but we saw each other quite often.
As the years went on I graduated from Poly High School in 1932 and had planned to go on to school but I wasn't too well and my mother and father thought it best for me not to go to school for a year. After that year was up, I went to Business College for a year and the following fall I entered Junior College taking business courses. It was while I was going to Junior College that Emery and I saw a lot of each other. We went to dances, parties, sports events and outings together. It was at a birthday party at his home that I met a good friend of his Kingsley Bird. These two young fellows were very good trackme

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John Arthur Hamner - Zilpha Ellen Davis

John Arthur Hamner was born at Corona, Riverside, California 16 Jan 1892. His parents were John Thomas Hamner and Martha Ann Craw.

He married Zilpha Ellen Davis 26 Nov 1912 at Corona, Riverside, California . Zilpha Ellen Davis was born at Brazil, Clay, Indiana 15 May 1890 daughter of Edward Davis and Clara Florence Carter .

They were the parents of 6 children:
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John Arthur Hamner died 20 Jul 1974 at Riverside, Riverside, California .

Zilpha Ellen Davis died 8 Sep 1976 at Arlington, Riverside, California .