Los Angeles
County
Biographies
MRS. CLARA
WILSON GRIES
The late Clara Wilson Gries had been a resident of Los Angeles for over a quarter of a century prior to her death and was well known and highly respected by all with whom she came in contact. Mrs. Gries was descended from English, Scotch, Irish and American stock and from families who helped make history for our nation. Some of the lives and deeds of her forebears are set forth in a book entitled “Our Folks and Your Folks” written by Mrs. Gries and her sister, Florence Collins Porter. The book is dedicated to their brother, Charles Prescott Collins, pioneer oil man of Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, and traces the linage back several centuries to the American progenitors with minute detail.
Clara Wilson Gries was born in Caribou, Aroostook county, Maine, March 15, 1849, the eldest daughter of Samuel Wilson and Dorcas (Hardison) Collins. Mr. Collins was the fifth child of William and Sarah (Dickey) Collins, and was born in Bangor province of Massachusetts (now Bangor, Maine) September 6, 1811, and his wife was born in China, Maine, March 7, 1827, and died September 10, 1919. She was a daughter of Ivory and Dorcas (Abbott) Hardison. Samuel Collins had a remarkable memory for he could recall when the British soldiers made the noted raid on Bangor, although he was but three years of age at the time. His mother hid a calf in a bedroom of their home to save it from the soldiers. A the age of eighteen he set out for himself and in due time made a comfortable fortune. He was known by his close friends as “Honest Sam Collins.” He was a member of the state of Maine house of representatives in 1856 and in 1860 was elected to the state senate. He was a democrat in a strong republican district and he always took an important part in state and national affairs. He had married Miss Hardison in 1847 and they became the parents of thirteen children, five of whom grew to years of maturity, viz: Mrs. Clara Wilson Gries, Mrs. Florence Collins Porter, Charles Prescott Collins, Mrs. Edith M. Oak, and Herschel Douglas Collins. The father died February 15, 1899, and during the funeral service every business house in the city closed out of respect to his memory.
Clara Wilson Gries was united in marriage April 4, 1869, to Milton Dana Teague, a native of Turner, Maine, born in 1848, the eldest child of Judah Dana and Frances Evaline Teague, and of this union there were three children, Zoa Evelyn, Charles Collins and Madge N. In 1881 Mr. Teague and family removed to Salina, Kansas, where for many years he was cashier and manager of the First National Bank. In April, 1892, because of failing health, he came to California and located in Santa Paula, where he engaged in the citrus industry, then in its infancy. He became owner of considerable land in that vicinity and died there in 1893.
His son, Charles Collins Teague, who had assisted in the planting and cultivating of the first orchards, carried forward the work of his sire and finally became manager of the great Limoneira Ranch, comprising over two thousand acres of lemons and two hundred fifty acres of walnuts, in which his mother also had an interest. C. C. Teague is recognized as one of the foremost experts in the citrus and walnut industry, and is president of the Limoneira Company of Santa Paula; he is also part owner of the California Orchard Company at King City, California, which comprises some sixteen hundred acres of deciduous fruits; he is also an officer in the Salinas Land Company, which owns and operates five thousand acres of land. He was drafted by Herbert Hoover, then president of the United States, to represent California on the Federal Farm Board and in this capacity achieved recognition throughout the nation as an important member of the board.
Four years after the death of her husband, Milton Dana Teague, the widow, married Jacob K. Gries, of Nordhoff, California. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, July 16, 1830, and came to California in 1852, and located in Ventura county in 1859, where he died in 1903. He was a stanch republican and recognized as a leader of men and very prominent in the early history of Ventura county. Clara Wilson Gries moved to Los Angeles after the death of her husband. During the early part of the World war she was traveling in Europe and witnessed the mobilization of the German armies, also those of England and France, and was one of the first women to reach the United States when hostilities began. When she was eighty years of age she took an auto trip through the east, visiting Maine and other sections of the country, a trip covering some thirteen hundred miles. She was accompanied by her daughter, Mrs. Vale, and a grand-daughter, Evelyn Ross, and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Alletta E. Wilson. Mrs. Gries was a member of the Ebell Club, the Los Angeles Colony of the National Society of New England Women. Politically she was a republican and stanch in her support of the measures of that party. She held membership in the First Unitarian Church.
Zoa Evelyn Teague married Frank Meredith Vale in Santa Paula in 1897. He was born in Illinois, resided in Salina, Kansas, about twelve years ans then located in Santa Paula, California, where he was connected with the Limoneira company for a time. After coming to Los Angeles he became connected with the Herald Publishing Company for four years and was secretary and business manager. He then engaged in the oil business and dealt in real estate very successfully. Mr. and Mrs. Vale had two children, Marion Teague Vale, born in Los Angeles, July 21, 1901, and Frances Teague Vale, born June 19, 1903. Marion married May 1, 1924, Reginald B. Olds, connected with the Olds Manufacturing Company making musical instruments, and Frances became the wife of John E. Fishburn, Jr., in August, 1924, and they have two children, John Eugene III and Carol.
Charles Collins Teague married Miss Harriet McKevett in November, 1897. She was the oldest daughter of Charles H. and Alice (Stowell) McKevett, and she became the mother of three children, Alice, born August 4, 1898, married John Henry Cox of Santa Paula May 12, 1929; Milton, born September 17, 1902, married Alfrida Francois Pico January 21, 1925, and they have three children, Alfrida Catherine, born November 8, 1925; Lorea Elise, born December 5, 1929, and Andrea, aged about three years; Madge Nowland Teague was born October 3, 1879, and married Dr. Moses H. Ross in 1904. He was the oldest son of Moses N. and Mary Emma (Hodge) Ross, and was born in Evansville, Indiana, March 5, 1879, graduated from Rush Medical College, served an interneship in the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and in 1901 was appointed to the United States Marine Hospital and stationed in Cairo, Illinois, until sent to Los Angeles. In 1905 he resigned to enter private practice and has built up a very successful practice in both surgery and medicine. He held the rank of captain during the World war and was stationed at Camp Fremont, at Palo Alto. He and his wife had a daughter, Evalyne Teague Ross. Mr. Vale passed away April 15, 1922.
Transcribed
by: Jeanne Taylor.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 649-652,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Jeanne Taylor.
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