PROMINENT among Redlands pioneer or\u00adange growers is Fred H. Clock, who has been cultivating citrus trees since the day in 1895 that he arrived with his wife, father, mother and three brothers from Latimer, Iowa. The father purchased one of the dis\u00adtrict’s first orange groves which the family has owned ever since. At first the young men ran the grove together, but later Fred Clock bought his own 20 acres of citrus trees.<\/p>\n
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Along with the development of the citrus industry Mr. Clock has played an important role in the growth of the city’s educational system, serving as a member’ of the school board for the thirty years prior to his retire\u00adment in 1937. During that period nearly every present school building was erected. In his first year of service 45 students were given their diplomas – in his last year 240 were graduated.<\/p>\n
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It was in 1908 that Mr. Clock was first elected to the Redlands school board, but had previously served as a member of the Crafton group. Lincoln school and the administration building of the high school are the only two remaining structures to remind him of those early days. A third landmark was destroyed recently when the McKinley school was torn down to make room for a modern educa\u00adtional plant.<\/p>\n
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Born in Franklin County, Iowa, in 1867, Mr. Clock spent his\u00a0 early days in a typical farm district school and still believes a farm is the finest place in the world to grow up. He graduated from the high school along with ten or twelve others, in Hampton, Iowa, and attended Northwestern university for a year when he went into business with his father and brother in a general store in Lati\u00admer, which he continued for twelve years prior to their coming to Redlands.<\/p>\n
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