Riverside’s connection to the Ferris Wheel

Where is George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.?

The final resting place for the inventor of one of the world’s best-known amusement rides — the Ferris Wheel — remains a mystery nearly 130 years following his 1896 death.

One of the more intriguing histories at Riverside’s Olivewood Memorial Park is the extended Ferris family of Ferris Wheel fame. The family has several members present at Olivewood, beginning with two separate Ferris plots located in Section F and with extended family elsewhere.

George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (aka, Ferris Jr.), was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on February 14, 1859. At age 34, his sky-high amusement ride — dubbed the Ferris Wheel — made its world premiere as the signature attraction at the 1893 Columbian Exposition (World’s Fair) in Chicago, where it was a celebrated success. Its diameter of 250 feet (about 20-25 stories tall) reportedly made it one of the largest mechanical structures of its time. However, Ferris Jr. apparently was not able to fully benefit much from its profits. Sadly, he would pass away only three years later from typhoid, reportedly penniless due to litigation and debt surrounding his Ferris Wheel.

By the early 1880s — about a decade prior to the Ferris Wheel — his parents, George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. (aka Ferris Sr.) and Martha Edgerton (Hyde) Ferris, arrived in Riverside after most-recently spending a handful of years in Carson City, Nevada. According to the 1880 Census, Ferris Sr. was already in Riverside, with his family apparently following shortly thereafter. By this time, however, Ferris Jr. was in his early 20s and no longer living with the family. In fact, he would graduate in 1881 with a degree in civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

By arriving in Riverside, Ferris Sr. had joined his nephew, Sylvanus Harvey Ferris, who first visited Riverside with Orson Thomas Johnson in 1879. Sylvanus, who was only 10 years younger than his uncle (Ferris Sr.), would soon secure property along Magnolia Avenue for himself, Johnson, and Ferris Sr.

Orson Johnson would finish building his home in 1881 at 7547 Magnolia Avenue (between Madison Avenue and where Ramona High School is today). It was one of Riverside’s Victorian-era, showpiece residences and its location near both the Casa Grande (1878) and Casa Blanca (1878) residences helped position Magnolia Avenue into the grand and opulent drive it was originally intended to be. (As a side note, Orson’s brother — Alexander Perry Johnson — also built a showpiece residence in 1881. However, it was located at 3579 Arlington Avenue near today’s Mt. Whitney Avenue. Sadly, both Johnson residences have long since been demolished — Orson’s in 1947 and Alexander’s in 1977.)

The Johnson and Ferris families were among several influential arrivals to Riverside from Galesburg, including Isaac V. Gilbert (co-founder of Riverside First National Bank) and T. H. B. Chamblin (founder of Riverside Fruit Growers Exchange that became the foundation for the highly successful California Fruit Growers Exchange — later known as Sunkist). Like Riverside, Galesburg had been established by ardent abolitionists (anti slavery). The Illinois town had been co-founded by its namesake, Rev. George Washington Gale (1789-1861), and his good friend Silvanus Ferris (1773-1861), the latter of whom named his last-born child (Ferris Sr.) after Gale. (Silvanus was the grandfather of Riverside’s Sylvanus.)

Following their arrival, both Ferris Sr. and his nephew Sylvanus played significant roles in Riverside’s expanding citrus industry, with Sylvanus helping to secure the Sante Fe railroad from Orange to Riverside. (Within 15 years, Riverside would become the wealthiest city per capita in the U.S. — per the 1895 Bradstreet Index — thanks to the riches from the navel orange industry.)

This civic-minded tradition of the Ferris family continued with Julia Caroline (Ferris) Moulton, who was the daughter of Sylvanus and would soon join him in Riverside. Julia married Ernest Smith Moulton, also from Galesburg and who would be heavily involved in many Riverside affairs, including banking and citrus. And later, Moulton’s daughter — Doris Sabra (Moulton) Bonnett — married William Henry Bonnett Sr., son of the prominent Edward Mortimer Bonnett Sr. (and which the E. M. Bonnett building on the southeast corner of Orange and University in downtown Riverside is named). Both Doris and William were active in Riverside civic affairs, with William serving on the Riverside City Council in the 1950s. All are present at Olivewood.

As for Ferris Jr., it’s unclear whether he was ever in Riverside, having graduated from Rensselaer around the time the remaining family arrived in 1881. Not long after graduating from Rensselaer, Ferris Jr. would start his engineering company in Pittsburgh, involving himself with various railroad projects and bridges. And about a decade later, would come the designing and building of the one and only original Ferris Wheel, which his parents traveled from Riverside to Chicago in order to witness in operation during the 1893 exposition.

However, both an older brother (Benjamin Hyde Ferris) and sister (Emma California “Callie” (Ferris) Barber) lived in Riverside for many years. Ben was a citrus grower and later involved in real estate. Emma — who later resided in Long Beach — married attorney Oscar T. Barber Sr., who died in Riverside in 1906. Ben and Emma would pass away within days of each other in December 1929. They, along with Oscar and Esther (10-year-old daughter of Emma and Oscar), and Maria M. Ferris (second wife of Benjamin) are located in the G. W. G. Ferris Sr. plot in Section F at Olivewood. However, only Ben and his parents (Ferris Sr. and Martha) have markers in the family plot.

Strangely, no one knows where the remains of Ferris Jr. are located. A March 8, 1898 article in the New York Times — 15 months after his November 22, 1896 passing — reported that his ashes were being held at a Pittsburgh mortuary awaiting funeral payment. In his 2009 book, Circles in the Sky – The Life and Times of George Ferris, author Richard G. Weingardt indicates the ashes were waiting to be claimed by surviving brothers Fred or Ben (and not the estranged wife of Ferris Jr.). However, no records have been found on whether a pickup or transfer was ever made.

Weingardt further relates:

The final resting place for George (W.G.) Ferris’s (Jr.) ashes still remains a mystery, although many have tried to determine their whereabouts. Searches have been made of cemeteries at Canton, Pittsburgh, Galesburg, Carson City and Riverside, but nothing has been found. This does not necessarily mean his remains are not located at one of those locations, only that exactly where
they are hidden has yet to be found.

Circles in the Sky – The Life and Times of George Ferris (Page 123)

Indeed, Olivewood does not have a record of Ferris Jr. being placed at the cemetery. However, as mentioned, the parents of Ferris Jr. — Ferris Sr. and Martha — are in the family plot at Olivewood. And knowing that Ferris Jr. and his parents passed away within a two-year period (Ferris Sr. in 1895, Ferris Jr. in 1896, and Martha in 1897), and that one (Ben) of two surviving brothers authorized to receive the ashes of Ferris Jr. was living in Riverside at the time (as was surviving sister Emma, plus several extended family members), it’s quite possible the ashes of Ferris Jr. managed to find their way to Riverside, only to eventually be misplaced — or possibly, secretly scattered within his parents’ family plot at Olivewood.

Unless some long lost or forgotten family-held info arises, chances are, we may never know for certain.

Related

• Olivewood Memorial Park
• Facebook – Olivewood Memorial Park
• Find A Grave – George Washington Gale Ferris Sr.
• Find A Grave – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.
• Find A Grave – Sylvanus Harvey Ferris
• Find A Grave – Julia Caroline (Ferris) Moulton
• Amazon – Circles in the Sky — The Life and Times of George Ferris

Previous

• RaincrossSquare.com – Then & Now: Olivewood Cemetery (Sept. 2013)

Sources: “Olivewood Memorial Park: Marking 125 Years — 1888-2013,” (Glenn Edward Freeman, historical overview for Olivewood Memorial Park, 2013), “Circles in the Sky — The Life and Times of George Ferris” (Richard G. Weingardt, 2009), “A Memoir of Silvanus Ferris — A Genealogy of His Descendants” (Charles Ferris Gettemy, 1935, via Ancestry.com), “History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties — Volume 3” (John Brown Jr. and James Boyd, 1922), “Riverside’s Invisible Past” (Joan H. Hall, 2010), “Riverside Community Book” (Arthur G. Paul, 1954), “A Colony for California” (Tom Patterson, 1996 edition), New York Times (NYT-18961123, NYT-18980308), Riverside Press-Enterprise (RDP-18930207, RDP-18930707, RDP-18930802, RDP-18930921, RDP-19061126), 1880 United States Census (via Ancestry.com), Olivewood Memorial Park burial records.