California Biographies, San Bernardino County and Riverside County

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties 
By: John Brown, Jr., Editor for San Bernardino County 
And James Boyd, Editor for Riverside County 
With selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period 
of growth and achievement.
Volume III, the Western Historical Association, 1922, 
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

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CHARLES E. GAINES 
 
 
            Charles E. Gaines, present street superintendent of Riverside, is a civil
and construction engineer with many years of successful experience in the 
building and re-building of railroads and other public works. He was identified 
with railroad building in a number of southern states, and finally, during a three
months' leave of absence, came to California and became so enamored of the
charms of the Golden State that he never resumed his work in the east, and it 
may be stated has never had cause to regret the decision that made him a factor
in the affairs of Southern California. Mr. Gaines was born in Lewis County, 
Kentucky, June 28, 1878. His father, Thomas Moore Gaines, was also a native 
of Kentucky, of Maryland and Virginia stock.The Gaines family was one of sixty-
eight that crossed the mountains by wagon train and were the first to colonize in 
Bracken County, Kentucky, each family taking up a section of land in the wilder-
ness region. Gaines is an English name, and members of the family were in the 
revolution. Thomas Moore Gaines is also a resident of California, living in San 
Diego County, where he is a supervisor in the Indian service and has been iden-
tified with the Indian service in the West for twenty years. While in the east he was
prominent in the York and Scottish Rite bodies of Masonry, and for nineteen years
was high priest of the Chapter. His wife was Mary Florence Wells. She is a native
of Kentucky and is also living in San Diego County. She is of English-Welsh 
descent and of Revolutionary stock. Her father, Jacob Wells, was a provost 
marshal in the Union Army during the Civil War and assisted in heading off 
Morgan's raid through Southern Ohio. Charles E. Gaines acquired a public school
education, graduated from high school at Vanceburg, Kentucky, in 1896, and also
attended the Jones & Kelley Business College at Lexington, Kentucky. During 
vacations he had his first experience working with a crew under Mr. Prather, who 
was under Chief Engineer A. E. Childs on the Collis P. Huntington division of the
Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. He continued the same work for two or three years
after graduating. For one year he was with the Kinnekenic & Freestone branch
of this railroad that penetrated what is known as the Boone-Furness and Herald 
and Johnson tracts in Northeastern Kentucky, where were originated great 
volumes of tonnage of iron ore, glass sands, and freestone for bridges. At that 
time Mr. M. E. Ingalls was president of the Chesapeake & Ohio and the  Big Four.
Mr. Gaines was employed on the Big Four System under Chief Engineer G. W.
Kittredge, and also for the purchasing agent, George Tozzer. Following that he 
was under C. W. Cheers, general superintendent of construction, in the recon-
struction of the Chattanooga, Rome, & Southern Railway. Then followed a 
period of employment with the Atlanta, Birmingham, & Atlantic Railroad, working
jointly for George Dale Wadley and Alexander Gorman, general superintendent 
of construction. This work involved the joining up of several smaller lines and
extending the system from 139 miles to 740 miles from Brunswick, Georgia to
Birmingham, Alabama, with a "Y" into Atlanta. In this work Mr. Gaines had charge
of much of the grading and roadbed construction and also the building of bridges.
The three months leave of absence which he spent in California came in 1908. 
After going as far as San Francisco he returned to Los Angeles and soon after-
ward sent in his resignation to the Southern Company and joined the Pacific 
Electric Railway Company. This corporation employed him in straightening out 
and making a complete record of the rights of way, and he served as right of way
agent and then in charge of all the company's paving and street construction in 
the various towns served by the system. Altogether he was for eight years with
the Pacific Electric. For two years he was in the contracting and paving business,
building roads in Los Angeles, Ventura, Kern and King Counties. In Mono County
he built the dam at Grant Lake for the Southern Sierra Power Company. During 
the period of the World War he was with the D. C. Jackman interests, his time 
being divided between the Ray Plant in Arizona and the Chino plant in New 
Mexico. Mr. Gaines came to Riverside and in September, 1920, was appointed
street superintendent , and he is now employing his broad experience and
abilities in this important responsibility. On coming to Riverside he also bought a 
four acre navel orange grove at the end of Grove Street. Besides looking after his
oranges he has embarked rather extensively in the poultry business. At the present
time his plant contains a flock of eight hundred pullets, and he plans additions that
will bring it up to a natural average of five thousand. He also has an apiary of 117
stands, and this he also plans to increase steadily. Mr. Gaines is a member of the
County Farm Bureau. He is a past senior deacon of Lodge No. 305 F. & A. M. at
Waycross, Georgia, is a member of Lodge No. 672, Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, at Pasadena, California, is an independent in politics, and while 
in Georgia served as a member of the County Central Committees of Ware and
Glenn Counties. He and his wife are members of the Christian Church at Alhambra.
December 1899, Mr. Gaines married Edith Van Norman, who was born in Los 
Angeles County, California. His father, Joseph M. Van Norman was a pioneer
Texas cattleman. Mrs. Gaines represents an old southern family of Holland-
Dutch ancestry, and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and 
the Daughters of the Confederacy. They have one daughter, Ysabel.
 
 
Pages 1481 to 1482.
 
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, February 2010.