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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http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

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William J. Tebo
 
      In the affairs of Chino and the Chino Valley during the last forty years
no one has played a more vigorous part than William J. Tebo, merchant, 
farmer, with constantly growing business interests, and at the same time
a strenuous law and order man who has proved himself indispensable to
the task of making this a clean and safe place in which to live. Mr. Tebo
was born at Dundas, Province of Ontario, Canada, June 20, 1865, son 
of George and Elizabeth (Strong) Tebo. His father was a native of 
Canada, where he spent his life as a farmer. He was left an orphan when
a child and was reared by friends until old enough to make his own way. 
He lived to the remarkable age of ninety-eight years, passing away 
August 27, 1921. His wife was born in England and came to Canada 
with her parents at the age of seventeen. William J. Tebo, one of a family
of four sons and four daughters, acquired a good education and in 1881, 
at the age of sixteen, left Canada and went to Plymouth County, Iowa. 
That was a prairie county and new, cattle raising being the principal
industry. He secured employment the first year working among the cattle
and constructing pole sheds covered with flax straw for protection from
the winter storms. The following summer he farmed and then rented land
and went on his own hook. He bought horses and tools, put in a crop, but 
later discovered that the horses he had bought were afflicted with a 
virulent disease, the glanders. The authorities took the animals, destroyed
them, buried the harness and burned his shed barns as the official means
to stamp out the disease. It was a heavy financial blow to Mr. Tebo. There
was one consolation, however, he had planted his corn crop on a high ridge 
of land. A frost had killed most of the corn in that section, but his being on the
high ground was uninjured, and he was able to sell the crop for seed corn at
a premium. In the fall of 1883 Mr. Tebo left Iowa and came to Sacramento,
California, working here one year. He then went back to Iowa, primarily to
testify in behalf of a friend, who, like himself, had bought diseased horses on
time. The seller had sued his friend for damages, but Mr. Tebo's testimony
established a defense that prevented the fraud. While in Iowa in 1884 Mr. 
Tebo married Miss Alice Hammond, a native of that state. Again for a 
season he tried farming there, and had a contract for breaking a large 
prairie. In that year Iowa became a prohibition state and was afflicted with
hard times. Mr. Tebo sold his teams, and two weeks later was on his way
to California. After one year in Yolo County, where he broke and shipped
horses to the Los Angeles market, Mr. Tebo, about 1886, moved south 
and bought a half interest in 120 acres of land east of and near Chino. At this
time this section was a splendid stock range, and land surveys were just 
being run and the surveyors were working on a plat of Chino townsite. Mr.
Tebo soon traded his land interests for Chino lots, and built one of the first 
houses in the town, at the corner of B and Sixth Streets. He has lived on 
this property for more than thirty-five years, and about ten years ago he built
one of the most modern homes of the town. There has been no interruption
to his work as a farmer in all these years. In 1891 work was started on the
construction of the sugar refinery, and for about a year he did much of the 
hauling of material for that purpose. In 1892 he opened a feed, grocery,
and general merchandise store, operating it two years, and selling to B. K.
Galbreath. Mr. Tebo is the father of four children. The oldest, Mabel, who was
born at Woodland, Yolo County, September 20, 1885, is a graduate of the 
Chino high school, is a graduate nurse, and followed that profession until her
marriage to William Cissna, who died leaving two children, Aletha and Robley.
She is now Mrs. Rolf Lindner. The second child, Ethel, who was born at Chino,
June 28, 1893, is a graduate of the Chino high school and the Los Angeles 
State Normal School, is a trained nurse, and is now the wife of Stanley Goode,
a graduate of law in Stanford University. Their two children are Betty and
William. The third child is Frederick A. Tebo, actively associated with his 
father in business. The fourth, Genevieve, who was born at Chino July 16,
1897, is a graduate of the Chino High School, and was married in 1919 to
Grover Breselin, who died in 1920. Frederick A. Tebo was born February 22,
1895, progressed with his education in the Chino High School, but on account
of poor health left school and, though much under age, with his parents' consent
joined Company D of the Pomona National Guard and was on border duty 
during the Mexican troubles. He was sent to the hospital and operated on for
appendicitis, was invalided home, and in the World War was rejected and
placed in Class 5. He was in the Edison Company's office at Chino, until it was
removed, and is now bearing some of the heavy burdens of his fathers'
business. They lease and farm 1,200 acres, growing alfalfa, grain and sugar
beets, operating one 75-horse power tractor and two smaller tractors, and all
other modern equipment. They also do an extensive trading business, needing
three heavy service trucks for transporting goods and commodities. They have
established a wholesale and retail feed, fuel, hay, and grain business under the
firm name of Fugate & Tebo at the corner of Seventh and D Streets in Chino. 
Frederick A. Tebo married Miss Elizabeth Beach, who was socially prominent at
Pomona. Mr. William J. Tebo delivered all the material for the construction of the
Edison high power line from Colton to Long Beach. In this and in many other ways 
he has kept in close touch with the progressive development of this section. He 
saw the valley when it was an immense stock range. Richard Gird owned an
enormous herd of Durham and Holstein cattle and over 350 blooded Percheron
horses which ranged all over the valley. There was no railroad, a trail going
through the brush to Pomona. Later came Gird's dummy line from Ontario, and 
still later, the present Southern Pacific road from Pomona to Ontario. Mr. Tebo
was a member of the first City Council of Chino, and is still on the council. Chino
in early times was noted for its saloons and brawls, and there were many
instances of murder and fights. He was appointed deputy sheriff and later elected
constable, has been in that office now for over twenty years and has made good
his resolve to clean up the community. Although he has never called for 
assistance, he has again and again encountered and overawed bad men. It has
been a hazardous duty and several times he has been shot at and was twice 
wounded by gunshot. He is known as the bad mans' nemesis of the Chino
Valley. Mr. Tebo was admitted to American citizenship in Judge Campbell's
Court at San Bernardino in 1890, and his citizenship has been of a positive
character and one accompanied by usefulness and loyalty in every sense.
 
Pages 1068 to 1070.
 
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, February 2010.