El Monte from the Pioneer Days

As a well-known and highly respected rancher and dairyman, William A. Reeves, a native son of California, was also among the successful men of this community. He was born near el Monte, January 7, 1862, his parents, Samuel and Lydia (Cleminson) Reeves, being natives respectively of Kentucky and Missouri. They were the first Americans married […]

Honored and esteemed among the citizens of El Monte from the early nineties until his death in 1924, was Dr. Elgar A. Reed, prominent physician and public benefactor. Dr. Reed was born December 13, 1865, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the son of Garrett and Elizabeth (Waller) Reed, natives of Ohio. The father was a

A pioneer of El Monte, Richard Quinn engaged in the management of a small ranch of eighteen acres, just south of town. He was born in Ireland, June 12, 1829, a son of Daniel and Jane (Lomasney) Quinn, both natives of Ireland, where they both died, the father at the age of sixty and the

Pleasantly remembered by many of El Monte citizens is the name of M.F. Quinn, who in the early days would frequently crowd a load of the town’s children into his spring wagon and proudly drive with them to a circus in Los Angeles, or on May Day would decorate the old lumber wagon with roses

Joseph Prouty was a successful pioneer, both as a prospector and rancher in the days of ’49, first near the spot where gold was first discovered in California, (Sutters Creek) and later as a rancher near El Monte. He was born February 9, 1831 near Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, his parents being Anson and Carol

George H. Peck, who was well known among the settlers of El Monte district in the late sixties, and for some thirty years following, was born in Burlington, Vermont, March 4, 1819.  A graduate of the University of Vermont, and a law student, Mr. Peck after a few years of extended travel by land and

George H. Peck, Jr., son of George H. Peck, Sr., whose biography is found elsewhere in this volume, was born in San Francisco, October 15, 1856.  With a brother, John H., in 1868 he came to El Monte and started improvements on his father’s ranch, northeast of the city.  Leaving his father when about nineteen

One of the most enterprising and progressive ranchers of El Monte and vicinity in the early nineties and later, was Michael Osmund, a native of Farsund, Sweden. Mr. Osmund was educated in the common schools of Norway, after which he went to sea, finally locating permanently in America, where he first engaged as a lumberman.  Later

Born in a covered wagon train while enroute to California in the year 1853, Perry Olmsted is listed among El Monte’s early settlers.  With but meager records of his people, it is stated that Mr. Olmsted’s parents came from Pennsylvania, locating first upon their arrival in California in the northern part of the State.  In

Prominent in El Monte for many years as a druggist and practicing physician, and later as a successful farmer and dealer in dairy stock, Dr. B.B. Mings came to California first in 1887, returning after a short stay to his native state, only to be induced after several years, by his wife (a native daughter