Mishap Fatal to O.A. Bergman
Horse Throws Widely Known Cattle Raiser
Funeral Saturday for Member of Prominent Mountain Area Family

“Orlando A. (Arlie) Bergman, 55, member of one of the best known pioneer families of Riverside County, was killed Wednesday morning when thrown from a horse at his Aguanga ranch.

“The accident occurred about 9:30 o’clock. Mr. Bergman was riding a mare he had purchased a few days earlier at the Los Angeles stockyards. The animal ran under a tree and knocked the rider to the ground about 100 yards from the house in which Mr. Bergman was born July 7, 1892. Witnessing the accident were Mrs. Theda Hayward, his sister, and Gene Kennedy and Frank Hodge, ranch employees.

Funeral Saturday

“Funeral services will be conducted at the Harford Chapel in Hemet at 11 o’clock tomorrow morning (Saturday) with the Rev. A. Ted Goodwin, pastor of the San Jacinto Union Church officiating.

“The veteran cattleman is survived by his widow, Annie E. Bergman; his mother, Mrs. Alice I. Bergman; four children, Ray, Carl, Esther, and Walter; a brother, Harry H. Bergman; his sister, Mrs. Theda Hayward, and one grandson, Donald, all of Aguanga.

“As a result of the tragedy, the marriage of Esther Bergman to Donald Trunnell, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Trunnell of Hemet, which was scheduled for this Friday evening, has been postponed indefinitely.

Grandson of Pioneer

“Mr. Bergman was the son of the late Henry Bergman and a grandson of Jacob Bergman … a native of Germany….

“After coming west and locating in what is now known as the Aguanga district, he made his home there while driving a stage coach on regular runs between Colton and Warner’s Hot Springs. He left his bride of a few months to join the California Volunteers to serve in the Civil War. After being wounded at Vicksburg and marching with Sherman to the sea, he returned to his Aguanga home where his son, Henry, had been born during his absence.

“Jacob Bergman died in 1894, and Henry and his family moved to the Bergman ranch where they operated a tavern.

“Arlie Bergman liked the ranch better than the other children. He took a job with the United States Forest Service at Warner’s Hot Springs, and it was while working with the Forest Service that he met Annie Mendenhall, who was home during a vacation from a San Diego high school. They were married at Escondido and homesteaded property in Lost Valley.

“Later Arlie went into business with his father, and they ran the ranch together while the other brother, Harry, bought a place five miles away. Henry Bergman died in 1930, leaving the ranch management to Arlie.” (The Hemet News, January 30, 1948)

“It was one of the largest funerals ever held in Hemet, testifying to the many friends which Arlie had,” Ruth Wentworth noted in her Aguanga-Oak Grove column in the Ramona Sentinel (February 6, 1948)

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