Riverside County
Biographies
JOSEPH S. LONG
Joseph S. Long,
the popular and efficient mayor of Riverside,
has given to the city a progressive and businesslike administration. He was born in Evanston,
Illinois, May 17, 1892, the son of Joseph
Burnett Long, who was born in Jefferson,
New York, May 18, 1863. Joseph Long, the paternal grandfather of
Mayor Long, was also a native of the Empire state and a farmer by
occupation. During the war between the states he served with the heavy artillery in
the Army of the Potomac. Joseph Burnett Long, father of J. S. Long,
attended a preparatory school and military college in Walton,
New York, continued his studies at Wesleyan University and subsequently graduated
from the Denver Theological Seminary.
Ordained a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he afterward
served as pastor of various churches in Wyoming
and Colorado and for a ten-year period
beginning in 1907 filled a pastorate at Perris, Riverside County, California. He next occupied the pulpit of the
Congregational Church at Nogales, Arizona, for three years and later served as pastor in Modoc County
and in San Francisco. He discontinued the active work of his holy
calling in 1925 and is now living retired in a pleasant home in Riverside. It was in 1890 that he married Miss Cora
Esther Sheldon, a native of McHenry
County, Illinois, and
a daughter of Hervey Sheldon, a prominent citizen of that community. Rev. and Mrs. Long became the parents of two
children: Joseph S., of this review; and Mrs. Esther Hentschke, whose husband
is an instructor in the high school at Eagle Rock, California.
Joseph S. Long
acquired his education in schools of Colorado,
Arizona and California
and also attended Pomona
College. After putting aside his textbooks he was
identified with the Southern Sierras Power Company at Perris, California,
and other points. He served on the
Mexican border with the California National Guard in 1916 and subsequently
enlisted in the regular army, going overseas with the Thirteenth Field
Artillery, Fourth Division. He was sent
to an artillery school and afterward served for fourteen months on the
Aisne-Marne and Meuse-Argonne fronts.
Following his return to Riverside, California, in 1920, he married Elizabeth Grace Hight, of
Orange County, this state, daughter of John P.
and Tennessee Hight. John Platte Hight
reached California
in 1849, when three months old, and died in 1929 at the age of eighty. At the time of his death he was the youngest
‘49er of California. Mr. Hight practiced law for years and had a
wide acquaintance with early-day Californians.
Mr. and Mrs. Long are the parents of two children, Joseph S., Jr., and
Kathryn, both in school.
Elected mayor of Riverside to fill the
unexpired term of E. M. Dighton, Mr. Long was reelected to the office on the
19th of November, 1929, and is making a highly commendable record therein. He is a Knights Templar Mason and a worthy
exemplar of the teachings and purposes of the craft. His name is also on the membership rolls of
the Congregational Church, the Exchange Club, the Victoria Country Club and the
Community Players. He is the past
commander of Riverside Post of the American Legion and also belongs to the
Forty and Eight. Mr. Long is a man of
fine physique and of cordial disposition who enjoys deserved popularity among
all classes of people.
Transcribed
by Bill Simpkins.
Source: California
of the South Vol. II, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 123-124, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Bill Simpkins.
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