Right: Dr. Keltia Davis Shugart

Keltia Davis Shugart

Keltia Davis Shugart, a doctor in Iowa, responded to John Wesley North’s solicitation of colonists for a new community in California. He was motivated by his desire to establish a home in a climate that would benefit his ailing wife, Martha.
Though not with the original expedition, he arrived shortly after and agreed with Dr. James. P. Greves and Ebeneezer G. Brown, also of Iowa, that the 8,600 acres of California Silk Center Association land the group was consideration was a good purchase for the Colony. When the Southern California Colony Association was incorporated on September 20, 1870, North was named president, Greves was named secretary, and Shugart was named treasurer.
He returned to Iowa and disposed of his interests there and arrived with his family at San Bernardino on December 7, 1870. Shugart contributed substantially to the building of the Colony and, despite his decision to retire from medical practice, the needs of the community caused him to take up his medical practice again.
He bought the second lot in the Colony after North, and his property was bounded by 9th and 10th streets and Mulberry and Lime streets. The first orange trees were planted on his land on March 1, 1871.