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Gc 979.402 L882b 1470894
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01717 2435
Greater . Los Angeles & Southern California Portraits. · Personal· Memoranda
ROBERT J. BURDETTE EDITOR
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO LOS ANGELES
NEW YORK 1910
1470894
PREFACE
N harmony with the original purpose and plan, this volume is "An historical record of Greater Los Angeles and Southern Cali- fornia"-combining in one volume the human interest always present in portraits together with the instructive facts of biography. It is with more than ordinary satisfaction that the pub- lishers send this book forth for public apprecia- tion, since they believe that in general scope and in details it more than fulfills the promises made in the prospectus. None will question that the book is a permanent contribution to the history of Los Angeles and Southern California. The fact that the men whose lives form the biographical basis of the work are foremost representatives of city, state and nation makes the facts and illustrations herein contained a historical monument which will be prized even more by later generations than by the present. As regards this element of the book's value, it is only necessary to suggest how much we would value a similar collection of portraits of the men who made the history of our nation one hun- dred years ago. I
So much may be said of the salient purposes and contents of the work. Of the mechanical and artistic execution, the most cursory examination will prove its superiority and excellence. The majority of the portraits are recent, the photo-
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78-01
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IV
PREFACE
graphs having been taken expressly for reproduc- tion in this volume, a process to which both en- graver and printer have lent their highest skill. Durability and elegance have been constant ideals in the making of the volume, a permanent and handsome dress being considered a proper adorn- ment to worthy contents. Utmost care has been employed to secure accuracy in the personal rec- ords, typewritten copies and prints of the matter intended for publication having been submitted at least once to the persons concerned, and unusual diligence has been exercised in every detail.
THE PUBLISHERS.
INDEX
PAGE
Albright, Harrison
292
Alexander, George
289
Austin, John C. W Avakian, John C. 123
269
Avery, M. N. 181
Backus, John J 146
Baker, C. H.
142
Bartlett, William S.
265
Behymer, Lynden E.
60
Bennett, James S
164
Benton, Arthur B.
266
Bledsoe, Benjamin F
212
Blinn, Lewis W.
271
Bowen, Clarence W.
238
Brougher, J. Whitcomb
216
Brown, Harrington
84
Browning, Charles C.
253
Bullard, Rose T.
252
Burcham, Rose La Monte
230
Burck, Lawrence B
150
Burdette, Clara B
34
Burdette, Robert J
33
Cave, Daniel
69
Clark, Percy H.
62
Claypole, Edith J. 128
Cobb, Edward S.
156
Coil, Ernest B.
157
Collier, Frank C
83
Cook, James F
52
Coulston, J. B.
216
Cowles, Josiah E
100
Craig, John F
188
Craig, John
190
Craig, William T.
122
Cronemiller, William F
42
Crow, George M 82
Currier, A. T. 183
V
vi
INDEX
Davis, George R. 286
Dixon, Charles E. 203
Dockweiler, Isidore B 102
Dollard, Robert
127
Doolittle, Herbert E 270
Dougall, John P
58
Dozier, Melville 148
Drake, Charles R. 70
108
Duque, Thomas L.
59
Dyer, Isaac T
290
Easton, E. E 168
Eddie, Guy
206
Elder, Charles A
205
Elliott, John M
277
Ellis, H. Bert.
257
Estudillo, Miguel
210
Farish, Oscar E 147
Ferris, Dick
10-1
Finch, George W.
48
Finkle, F. C ..
56
Fleming, Edward J
197
Ford, Lewis E
113
Forman, Charles
165
Foshay, James A.
149
Frank, Herman W
132
Fredericks, J. D.
115
Fries, Amos A.
237
Garrett, Frank
47
Garvey, Richard
187
Gates, Lee C.
245
Gibson, William S.
51
Gillette, Grant G.
176
Glass, Joseph S.
224
Goodhue, Arthur M.
280
Goodwin, Vernon
94
Gould, Will D
88
Green, Mary J.
67
Guthrie, Charles B
144
Hagan, Ralph
116
Haley, A. L 178
Drake, James C.
vii
INDEX
Halsey, A. E.
39
Hamilton, N. H
124
Hamlin, Homer
126
Hammel, William A
192
Hart, George E
232
Hauser, Julius
248
Hawe, Patrick
141
Hellman, Irving H
220
Hellman, Marco H
218
Hewitt, Leslie R.
207
Hill, Robert G ..
272
Holliday, William H.
186
Hopkins, Ed. W.
258
Horton, Rufus W. L
80
Hubbard, Charles L.
68
Hunt, John N ..
251
Huntington, Henry E
276
Hutton, George H
120
Isaacs, Edward K. 110
James, Frank 288
90
Jess, Stoddard 273
96
Jordon, M. Evangeline.
66
Kennedy, William 256
Kenney, Elizabeth L. 247
Keppel, Mark
86
Kerckhoff, William G
162
Koebig, A. H.
136
Krudop, D. Tonjes.
180
Lanterman, Jacob L 264
Lee, Bradner W
285
Leeds, Charles T
14
Lewis, Samuel T
287
Lindley, Walter
64
Ling, Robert A.
213
Lobingier, Andrew S.
95
Loder, Arthur E 191
Longyear, William D. 262
Lowe, Thaddeus S. C. 173
Lundy, E. A. 75
Jarrett, Ben S.
Jevne, H.
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INDEX
MacLaughlin, James B
291
Maginnis, Almon P
259
Manning, Charles D 228
Marsh, Norman F
278
Marsh, Robert
76
Marshall, Edwin J
236
Martin, William A
45
Mathews, William B.
222
Mayberry, Edward L
98
McAleer, Owen
214
McClure, Frank D
154
McCoy, James D
63
Meek, William
79
Merrill, Samuel I.
263
Mesmer, Joseph
55
Meyers, Marion M.
208
Miller, John B.
194
Monk, Edward R.
50
Monnette, Mervin J.
294
Montgomery, Charles S.
118
Montgomery, Ernest A
38
Moody, Joseph D.
229
Moore, Ernest C.
134
Morgan, Octavius
226
Morton, William O
217
Mudd, Seeley W.
54
Mulholland, William
140
Mullen, Arthur B
40
Munk, J. A.
46
Norris, John R.
114
Norton, John H
72
Noyes, Charles J
135
Oster, Frank F 193
Pease, Niles
209
Pease, Sherman
235
Pendleton, Cornelius W
204
Pierce, Fred E
281
Pillsbury, George E
267
Pomeroy, Abram Ę
284
Potter, E. L.
36
Powers, Luther M.
182
Pratt, Frank F 223
Pruitt, Drew
172
ix
INDEX
Radford, Joseph D
254
Roberts, E. D. 202
Rowan, Fred S ..
161
Rowan, Phillip D
160
Rowan, Robert A 158
Sargent, Edwin W
170
Scattergood, E. F
87
Schenck, Paul W ..
169
Schneider, Jacob M.
196
Scott, Joseph
275
Security Savings Bank.
260
Schuyler, James D
283
Shaw, Ashby A.
74
Shaw, Victor E
175
Shenk, John W. 250
Smith, Gertrude G. 138
Smith, P. H. 139
Smith, Sydney
184
Smith, Virginia T
200
Sparks, C. Randall
112
Story, Francis Q
214
Story, Walter P
221
Taft, Stephen H. 130
Tisdale, William M 231
Toll, Charles H. 152
53
Trueworthy, John W.
Walls, J. A. 227
Welbourn, O. C.
49
Wheatly, Wilkes
198
Whitmore, Samuel J.
92
Whittington, John W
274
Wiesendanger, Theodore
106
Woodruff, George H. 166
Woolwine, William D. 282
Works, John D. 174
Wyman, Francis O 268
Young, Frank W 242
Young, R. B 240
FOREWORD F Burd te
You sit on the western piazza and watch the sun go down. You linger long, held by the after-glow that tints the heavens like the heart of a shell. A crescent of silver gleams in the purpling skies. A star shines out below the young moon. In orderly splendor the glittering constellations flame out in their march across the fields of night. Shadows of pine and palm whisper softly under the kisses of the fragrant winds. Incense of rose and helio- trope mingle with the odor of the orange-trees. The silence and star-shine and perfume is prayer and praise. Your soul worships at the shrine of perfect nature. An unseen chalice of melody is tilted somewhere in the upper darkness-a ripple of music, clear and sweet, spilled from its heart of rapture, runs down through the shadows and fra- grance-a mocking bird is singing his hymn to the night. Your soul overflows with a sense of beauty, and joy, and peace. It is not a "Midsummer Night's Dream." Such a scene could not be pre- sented "In a wood near Athens." It is a Mid- winter Night in Southern California. An ordi- nary, commonplace calendar night, one of many such that "quickly dream away the time." With such a winter season, and a summer time that fits it perfectly, small wonder it is that every land under the sun sends its worshiping pilgrims hither. The wonder is, that so many men stay away.
"Climate" is California's principal asset. Our eastern friends tell us the State deserves no credit for that. No. Nor does New Orleans deserve the credit of creating the Gulf of Mexico. Nor did St. Louis invent the Mississippi river. Chicago did not dam up Lake Michigan; she only built the
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drainage canal, which is different. There is even on old tradition that the famous Harbor was there before Boston was located, which is impossible. All these great natural advantages antedated by many ages the great cities which have grown up because of them, despite the shrewd observation of the thoughtful man who had been impressed by the fact that Providence had wisely ordained that all the great rivers should flow past the large cities. We reluctantly admit that neither the '49ers nor the Native Sons made the "glorious climate of California." Men didn't make the climate. But they made the state. Men make cities, not because of natural advantages, but in spite of natural dis- advantages. Else had the east wind prevented any Boston; the swamp had vetoed Chicago; the morass had prohibited New Orleans, and the grim specter of the "Great American Desert" had forever iso- lated California.
It was destined to be a land wherein fact should read like romance, and all the fiction born of Cali- fornia genius should read tamely, beside the quiet wonders of its history. Its very name sprang from romantic dreams, for "it is taken from an old Spanish romance, called Sergas de Esplandian (Exploits of Esplandian), by Ordonez de Mon- talvo, translator of Amadis de Gaul, printed about 1510. California was a mythical island on the right hand of the Indies, very near the Terrestrial paradise, peopled with Amazons and Griffins." (Charles F. Lummis.) God was very good to Cal- ifornia, then, at her christening, giving to her a name that was characteristically descriptive, espe- cially as to geographical location, before some closet geographer should name it "North" Some- thing, because there was a portion of the earth to the south of it, or "New" Something, because there was already in existence a country so utterly
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unlike it that the most distorted imagination could detect no suggestion of similarity between them. "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches." Happy California! That the day of her christening should have come in the time of orig- inality in nomenclature, before the growing world had fallen upon the evil days of naming towns and states by the simple, time-saving and brain-sparing use of carbon sheets and multiple copying presses. Christened at the fount of romance, Cold Fact smiled at the appositeness of name and descrip- tion, and adopted the dream-child for his own. So he gave to her a dower of valleys in which never a flake of snow flutters down from the high- est clouds, and looking down upon them, moun- tains that wear white crown of winter all the months through all the summer years. Deserts lower than the sea, and a mountain higher than the clouds-Death Valley, the lowest depression, and Mt. Whitney, the highest elevation in the United States. He clothed his daughter of Ro- mance with nothing but truthful superlatives. He gave her the scantiest, sourest, most unpalatable wild fruits of her own, and made her the most bountiful step-mother of all the fruits the earth can bear. He famished her with deserts, barren and desolate, and said to her, "Here, not in the mines of gold, is your wealth." And in one year the harvest of her gold mines was a paltry $16,- 989,044, while the golden harvest of her farms and gardens was $131,690,606, more than seven times as much as all her gold that year could buy. He taught her how to waste her rivers from their torrent beds, and scatter them over the land in irrigating ditches, so that the shallow river a child could ford became a stream of fertility, an oasis of blossom and fruit and shrub twenty miles wide. On every page of her unfolding history and grow-
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ing greatness, he wrote down paradoxes that her writers of fiction hesitated to use, so that the guile- less tenderfoot believed in "Colonel Jack Haz- ard," and "Truthful James," and "Bill Nye," in refined and rigidly moral gamblers, in pure- minded harlots and generous stage robbers with university degrees, but shook their heads and said, "Oh, California stories!" with pitying toleration, such as one uses when speaking of the heathen in his blindness, when told of the "Big Trees" and the Yo Semite, and eight crops of peas in one year from the same field. Even the meditative and unromantic cow, contemplatively chewing her cud of alfalfa under the great branches of the live oak, looked down with placid contempt on the strenuous efforts of the gold mines to produce sixteen millions of dollars, while in the same period, in her quiet simple life in the meadows she added twelve million dollars to the wealth of her state in milk, butter and cheese, a rivalry which is enough to make the old "49ers" turn over in their graves. The gold is only useful to buy more cows, and improved agricultural machinery. Los An- geles county is not famous for its gold mines- although one may stand on the street and buy mines as they come along, for she owns mines in nearly every district in California, Nevada, Ari- zona and Mexico-but it has nearly seven thousand farms, and the transmutation of farm products into minted gold is just as sure as the mining process, and requires far less blue print and pro- moter's eloquence.
But the climate doesn't deserve exclusive credit for all this. The climate was here in all its per- fection of beauty and gentleness in 1781. And doubtless the cattle enjoyed it. For the popula- tion of California then consisted of the two classes into which the discerning cow-boy still divides the
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denizens of the earth-"cows and humans," put- ting the cows first, of course, as the more valu- able and more intelligent. Los Angeles county, and all California round about it-it was all the one-was a great pasture, and the horned herds that roamed over it would have hard work to se- cure "honorable mention" and useful death in the "scalawag" class in any reputable stock yards of today-long bodied, longer legged, and still longer horned; fleet of foot and scant of beef-the milk- less kine of Pharaoh. The only product of any value they yielded was their hide and tallow. When that was taken off, and out, there was noth- ing left. The people lived the simple life. The "first families" of Los Angeles, the founders to whose illustrious memory we have neglected to rear a lofty monument, are not represented by their descendants among the aristocratic loung- ers in the California Club, nor are they corralling the passing lion in the Friday Morning, or study- ing civic righteousness in Ebell. "Our Glorious Founders" were a polyglot lot, which Mr. Venus would have classified as "human warriors." There were eleven families. Not a man of them could read or write. Two Spaniards there were. and both of these had Indian wives. And one of the proud Castilians, Jose de Lara, of aristocratic name, was very shortly deported from the colony for general uselessness to himself and the com- munity. The historians tell us, however, that Jose's Castilian stock was somewhat adulterated. But Antonio Felix Villavalencio was warranted "absolutely pure." He had an Indian helpmeet ; Jose Navarro, Basilio Rosas, an Indian, had mu- lato wives; so had Manuel Camaro and Jose Mo- reno, themselves mulattos, also Luis Quintero, a negro; Jose Vanegas, Alejandro Rosas, and Pablo Rodriguez, were Indians, with Indian wives. Thus
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laden with humble souls and aristocratic names our Mayflower came into port September 4th, 1781. and with religious ceremonies, consisting of a mass and a salvo of musketry, our step-fathers formally founded the Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles, on the banks of the Rio de Por- ciuncula, which changed its name to Los Angeles when it went dry. The city never having passed through that process of regeneration retains its original name unto this day. It takes an earth- quake of the century class to convert a Califor- nia city of the first class to prohibition, and Los Angeles is not in the earthquake belt. Our fore- fathers possessed the true Los Angelan spirit. They built first an irrigating ditch and then they laid out town lots and acreage property, deported three of their number, one white man and two ne- groes, for general worthlessness, wisely and thrift- ily confiscating their property for the common good. The remaining colonists-twenty-eight all told, including the children-went to work, erected public buildings and a church, and began to do business. All of Los Angeles was in that little (acorn?). They weren't a people to worry-that folly that comes with the higher civilization-and they watched themselves grow. In nine years the population had increased to 141; multiplied itself by five in nine years-a record-breaking challenge for succeeding generations. The city thus early established the habit of growing; which is to this day emphasized by prophetic and optimistic real estate "pobladores." The padres were teaching the Mission Indians the arts of agriculture and architecture, and the useful trades. Los Angeles emerged from its pole huts and erected palatial structures of adobe, one story high and absolutely fire-proof. In 1800 the population was 315, the herds of horses and cattle numbered 12,500 head;
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wheat was $1.66 per bushel and the crop was over 8,000 bushels. "Dollar wheat" didn't get into politics that year. They paid their taxes in grain. They had a mail from Mexico once a month, but as not more than half a dozen of the citizens could read or write, there was no complaint when one or two mails missed. In 1818 two Americans be- came citizens of Los Angeles, Joseph Chapman of Massachusetts, and a negro named Fisher. Things moved with symptoms of "hustle." Chapman built the first mill in Southern California, and the gods of things that are to be began to grind their grist. Three years after that American mill be- gan its tic-tac, Mexico achieved her independence. In 1822 the flag of the Empire of Mexico floated over Los Angeles and the Spanish power in Amer- ica had begun the march that led to the bottom of the sea. Three years of imperial sway, and the banner of the Republic of Mexico supplanted the imperial standard, the rapid change of flags flut- tering by like the decorations of coming Fiestas. Los Angeles was an agricultural community. Its manufactories at this time consisted exclusively of distilleries and wineries. These were very suc- cessful, as an election in 1826 was declared void by the governor on the ground that "the candidates were vagabonds, drunkards, and worse." Graft is not a modern disease in the body politic. Our fathers also ate wild grapes. Some time in 1820 Los Angeles was discovered by Boston, and a thriv- ing trade in hide and tallow was established, the Boston ships bringing out assorted cargoes. The blessings of Boston baked beans did not reach the land until later, for the canning industry still slumbered in the brain of inventive man. But the Los Angelans had a base-born, sable-hued bean of their own, upon which, knowing nothing superior, they thrived happily. The American invasion
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continued. About 1829 the precursor of all the signs that dot the landscape and hide the vacant lots and crown the cornices of the highest build- ings, appeared-"Rice and Temple." And they were New England Yankees. Los Angeles was marching on the way of its destiny, and new com- ers were already dropping the "Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de" from their letterheads. Tem- ple & Rice introduced three or four new and dis- tinct pronunciations of the rest of the name, which are still most successfully imitated, with intricate variations, by their 350,000 successors.
If ignorance is bliss, the people were happy. But they were not unmindful of the blessings of education. In 1817 an old soldier, Maximo Pina, opened a school and taught the children enough in two years to last them through the next decade. Two years of school in forty-six would not make scholars of a community. Indeed, it would barely qualify them for writing dialect stories and "best selling books." They felt that, and in 1827 Luci- ano Valdez was employed at a salary of $15 per month, to teach the young idea how and whom to shoot. He struck for $30 in his second year and resigned. Fifteen dollars was the value placed upon a schoolmaster until after the American "as- similation," even in the flush times of '49. In 1850 the salary was suddenly increased to $60 per month and house rent, and the schoolmaster took his place among the plutocrats.
But during all the dearth of public schools it must be remembered that the padres were teach- ers at the Missions. They taught along polytech- nic lines and largely on the Dotheboys hall sys- tem. When the neophyte learned to spell hide, he was sent out to tan one. And at irregular but very short intervals his own was properly tanned by the good padres on general principles. He, and
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the public school teacher as well, were instructors after the fashion of Saxe's "Pedagogue"-"Ye youngster's pate to stimulate, He beat ye other end." The teachers in the public schools, up to 1850, were, as a rule, old soldiers, selected because of their physical strength and good fighting quali- ties.
With the expulsion of the Spanish power came the downfall of the Missions. The country was beginning to fill up with people-that is, here and there was a family or a man who wanted to "lo- cate." The Missions, established under Spanish rule, had a land monopoly that would make the Standard Oil hide its diminished head when the subject of monopolies was introduced. From San Francisco to San Diego they held about all the land that was worth holding, and no settler could obtain a grant of land for his homestead, save with the consent of the nearest padres. The ranches owned by the Mission San Gabriel contained about 1,500,000 acres. And this immense tract of land never supported a population of more than 1,800 neophytes. Naturally, people on the outside clam- ored for a new division of the earth. The Mexi- can Congress decreed the secularization of the Missions and the distribution of their property in August, 1833. The great Mission holdings were divided into smaller ranches and passed into the hands of actual settlers. From that time the coun- try improved in wealth and population more rap- idly than ever before. In 1836 California expe- perienced a throb of the Fourth of July and de- clared itself "a free and sovereign state," with Juan Bautista Alvarado cast for the part of George Washington and twenty-five American hunters and trappers, under command of a Ten- nessean named Graham, playing the French allies. Los Angeles remained loyal to the mother coun-
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try, and in the battles which followed, her heroes displayed stanch loyalty and good sprinting quali- ties, which latter on several occasions saved their lives. The "war" ended, rather confusedly, in the triumph of the revolutionists, the appointment of Alvarado as governor, the allegiance of Califor- nia to the Home Government, and the downfall of independence. There is nothing on earth that re- sembles the conduct and results of the early wars in California, save the present water-rights laws. Whoever understands the one can solve the other. At 4 o'clock on the afternoon of August 13th, 1846, "manifest destiny" knocked at the gates of Los Angeles. Fremont and Stockton entered the city with 500 real soldiers and no proclamation, Cali- fornia was benevolently assimilated, and Joshua had added to his rightful inheritance by the simple act of "putting down his foot." Los Angeles be- longed to "us," and the first "native son" in a land older than the pyramids got himself ready to be born and organize a "parlor." The men who were to make California, however, had got born some time before, and were on their way to introduce the strenuous life.
At the time of the capture of Los Angeles the white population of California was about 5,000, of whom less than 500 were Americans. Two years later a man found a grain of gold in the mud of a tail-race, and within a year thereafter that tiny magnet had drawn 42,000 people from the eastern states and all over the world to the new gold field, and California was "discovered." In ten years the population had grown to nearly 100,000. In 1860 it was 379,994. Today it is more than one and one-half millions, and the greater part of the increase has been in the south. Los Angeles, which came into the Union in 1851 with a popu- lation of 1,610, is now the 30th city in the United
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AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
States, numbering 238,000 souls. In 1850 Los An- geles county included the present counties of San Bernardino, Orange and about half of Kern, and the officially recorded population was 3,530. In the rush of '49, Los Angeles county profited a lit- tle with the rest of the territory, but the develop- ment of the mines in the south, with other develop- ments, followed that date. And in 1906 the value of "the gold that grows on trees" in Southern Cali- fornia citrus groves, is estimated at $30,000,000. Hides, once the great staple of the country, South- ern California, added but a petty paltry $150,000 to her wealth. The value of the steer saves his hide in these days of prosperity, while "humans" pay more for a pair of boots or a suitcase than the whole hide is worth. Such is the difference between hide and leather. The area of the "pueblo" has grown to be 44 square miles, and with an eye to the annexation of the entire county. Nearly 200 churches minister to the spiritual needs of the people, while the processional and migratory "religions" which howl on the streets and camp for a night on the vacant lots-of which there are very few left in Los Angeles-defy the activity of the statistician. The Salvation Army and the Val- unteers of America have homes commodious, at- tractive and in every way most excellently ap- pointed. The public school system of the state stands in the first rank in the Union, the census of 1900 showing five State Normal Schools, 120 High Schools, 7,119 kindergartens, primary and grammar schools; with a total of 7,706 teachers, 372,352 pupils, and $19,135,722 value of school property; two great free universities and an en- rollment of one college student to every 419 of total population-a larger proportion than is reached in any other state.
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