San Bernardino County and Riverside County, California Biographies

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

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SAMUEL C. PINE SR. 
 
          Samuel C. Pine Sr., was one of the most rugged of the early pioneers that 
came into the San Bernardino Valley, and the family he founded here has proved
typical of his virtues and hardy manhood. He was born in St. Lawrence County, 
New York, July 30, 1825, and died at his home at Rincon, January 16, 1897. His 
father, Joseph Pine, was a native of Boston, son of Captain Pine, who participated
in the battle of Lexington at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Joseph Pine
was a minister of the Congregational Church, and in 1883, moved to the Western
Reserve of Ohio, where his son, Samuel, grew to manhood. Samuel Pine in 1850
equipped an ox team in Illinois and started across the plains to Fort Bridges,
Wyoming. There for several years he remained operating a trading post. He then
went on to Salt Lake, became a member of the Mormon Church, though he paid
tithing and while in Salt Lake punctually attended church. In 1858 he left Salt Lake
bound for San Bernardino, California. As he was leaving the authorities at Salt
Lake demanded his best ox team, telling him the Lord needed it. However, the 
chief intention was to delay or restrain his leaving altogether. He had been frugal
and had saved money, and he at once bought another yoke of oxen and joined the
train. He first settled in the Yucaipa Valley, where he became a stock raiser. He 
and Frank Talmadge erected and operated  the first saw mill in the San Bernar-
dino Mountain, in Little Bear Valley. It was a water power mill. He moved to San
Bernardino, then to Lytle Creek in 1865, next to Jurupa, and in 1867 he purchased
a squatter's claim at Rincon, adjoining the Chino ranch. He had left the Little  Bear
Valley mill fearing Indian attacks, since the red men had already made hostile
demonstrations against the mill plant. At Rincon he acquired 148 acres. The title 
was not clear, and it required several years to get a Federal patent. He improved
the land, planting fruit and farming an extensive scale there until his death in 1897.
Samuel C. Pine was a western giant, six feet four and a quarter inches tall, spare,
large boned, weighing 235 pounds, and in pioneer days he never carried a pistol,
as was the custom, being confidant of settling all disputes with his bare hands,
though it is said he could not run. He was an expert hunter and a sure shot. He 
became noted in the Yucaipa Valley as having the best brand of cattle in the
district. He reared his family with the same honest, hardy principles, as himself, and 
his sons readily followed his example as pioneers, helping improve the wilderness
and bringing life into the barren desert. Mr. Pine married Jane Morrison, daughter
of John and Ellen Morrison, of Buffalo, New York. She died Thanksgiving Day of 
1913. The five sons of this union were all reared in San Bernardino County. The
oldest, Samuel, was born in Utah, December 26, 1856. Edward and Edwin, twins,
were born July 28, 1860, in Cottonwood Row at old San Bernardino. Myron was
born May 22, 1868, and Dudley was born at Rincon, June 2, 1872.
 
Pages 1073 to 1074.
 
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, February 2010.