he firm of Dike & Hoge is one that is becoming firmly established as a factor in real estate transactions in Redlands. Very frequently real estate dealers are short-lived in a business sense, but the young men composing this firm have given proof of the qualities that insure a more permanent standing and will doubtless continue to do, as during the season just past, a fair proportion of the real estate business in this city which, at the present time, promises to be larger in the immediate future than for several years last past.

A.N. Dike was born March 11, 1870, at Cleveland, Ohio, and came to California with his parents ten years later. He was educated at the grammar schools and the Woodbury Business College, Los Angeles, and lived for several years in Los Angeles and in San Diego county. Before coming to Redlands, January 27, 1891, Mr. Dike had been a bookkeeper and had done other clerical work. After coming here he was a horticulturist for two years and then engaged in the sale of real estate. After three years of experience in this business he formed his present partnership with C. H. Hoge, a year ago last August, and since that date the business transacted by them in this line has steadily grown. Mr. Dike is also a partner with J. H. Twigg in the business conducted under the name of Bush's Bakery.

C.H. Hoge, the second member of this firm, is a native of Texas, and was born in Hunt county, of that state, October 31, 1866. He lived there until 23 years of age, and then came to Arizona and thence to California. In the fall of 1891 Mr. Hoge came to Redlands and acquired his first knowledge of real estate values by an intimate acquaintance with ranching, as conducted in Southern California, for three years. In the winter of '93 to '94 he commenced acting as an agent for the sale of real estate and has since continued in this business with a preservation and tenacity of purpose that were bound to succeed.

Dike & Hoge have their own carriages, both double and single rigs, and, during a great part of the year, are constantly enjoying the society of recent arrivals from the East, while impressing upon them the advantages of Redlands as a place of residence. Redlands has a total area of about 11,000 acres, of which fully 10,000 acres are capable of the highest cultivation. About 8,500 acres are already planted, leaving a balance of 2,500 acres which awaits the perfection of horticultural development possible here. Today portions of this land, improved and unimproved, can be purchased at lower prices than will obtain in the future. Messrs. Dike & Hoge have on their list everything that is for sale in Redlands or in its adjacent territory, having recently made absolutely complete lists from the latest abstracts of title. Anyone desirous of living here must be fastidious indeed if he cannot be suited from the varied assortment of choice properties which they have to offer. There office is at No. 304 Orange street, in the Baker Block. Uniformly courteous and affable, enterprising and energetic, these two young men are best defined by the expressive western term "rustlers." They would carve a way to success against far greater obstacles than those which stand in their way in the progressive city of Redlands.

(Source: Illustrated Redlands, 1897, p. 72.)