History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 1

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
Publication date: 1923
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 840

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CALIFORNIANA

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1223 90161 0460

REFERENCE BOOK

Not to be taken from the Library

HISTORY OF

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

JOHN STEVEN McGROARTY EDITOR

Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors

With Selected Biography of Actors and Witnesses in the Period of the County's Greatest Growth and Achievement

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME II

THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1923

*979.493 M178h 2

813953 REFERENCE COPYRIGHT, 1923 BY THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from San Francisco Public Library

https://archive.org/details/historyoflosange02mcgr

NORMAN BRIDGE, M. D., A. M. The words "physician, teacher and business man" furnish a very superficial index to the life and service of Dr. Norman Bridge, who for nearly thirty years has been equally well known as a citizen both in Southern California and Chicago. From a boyhood of close friendship with the hard toil and meager advantages of a pioneer farm in Illinois, Doctor Bridge has exemplified a positive rather than a conventional relationship with his environment, and at many times and under many conditions has been a leader battling against adverse odds for the enlightened principles and the higher ideals of professional, civic and business advancement.

While he has been too busy to give a conscious recognition to the fact, Doctor Bridge has in many ways repaid the debt of ancestry. On the Cambridge Common at Harvard College stands a bronze statue of Deacon John Bridge, from whom Doctor Bridge represents the seventh generation in direct line of descent. The statue represents his ancestor in the garb of a Puritan, and one of the inscriptions on the monument reads: "This Puritan helped to establish here church, school and representative govern- ment, and thus to plant a Christian Commonwealth." The tendencies and exertions of Doctor Bridge in his own generation have been as noteworthy as those of Deacon John, who settled at Cambridge in 1632. Doctor Bridge's great-grandfather, Ebenezer Bridge, was a colonel in Washing- ton's army in the Revolution.

Doctor Bridge was born on a small farm among the Vermont hills, a few miles from the Village of Windsor, December 30, 1844, son of James Madison and Nancy Ann (Bagley) Bridge. After years of struggle in wringing a meager living from the rocky and unpromising farms in Ver- mont, James M. Bridge took his family West in 1856, and established them on a farm of unbroken prairie without buildings or fence, at Malta, in DeKalb County. The father moved to Iowa where he died, honored and respected in his community, in 1879, and the widowed mother survived until 1903. Doctor Bridge's only brother, Edward, was a soldier in the Fifty-fifth Illinois Infantry, was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh, and after being in a dozen battles died of disease.

Much of Doctor Bridge's later interest in education was inspired by his own early lack of advantages. He attended more or less regularly the Country district schools in Northern Illinois, also the high schools in DeKalb and Sycamore, but never attended an academic department of a university or college. During the winter of 1862-63 he taught a term of country school. During 1864-65 he worked as a clerk in the postoffice at Sycamore and as a fire insurance agent in Grundy County. Some of his early experiences were similar to those of his contemporary, O. N. Carter, long distinguished as a Supreme Court justice of Illinois.

Doctor Bridge began the study of medicine in 1865, attending the Medical Department of the University of Michigan in 1866-67, and the Northwestern University in 1867-68. He was graduated in the latter year, and in 1878 was awarded the Ad Eundem degree in medicine from Rush Medical College, and in 1889 was honored by Lake Forest College with the A. M. degree. In the intervals of his studies he worked on his father's farm.

It is significant that Doctor Bridge has given almost as many years to

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

the service of teaching as he has to private practice. In fact he began teaching medicine from the time of his graduation, at first at Northwestern University, then in the Woman's Medical College, and in 1873 became identified with Rush Medical College. He was Professor of Clinical Medi- cine, then Professor of Medicine, and since 1901 Emeritus Professor of Medicine in Rush Medical College of the University of Chicago. For about twenty years he was attending physician at the County and the Presbyterian hospitals of Chicago.

The service he rendered in Rush Medical College deserves more than passing mention. His first position in the college was received as the result of a concourse or contest in lecturing before the faculty and students-a method that has fortunately not since been in vogue. The college of that day was unconnected with any university, and like nearly all the medical colleges of the country, its trustees were mostly members of its faculty, only two courses of lectures were required for graduation, and the conditions of admission were cheap indeed. He joined his then younger colleagues in working for higher standards, long and more thorough courses, more laboratory work and connection with the university. He was one of those most influential in securing the affiliation of the Rush Medical College with the University of Chicago, giving the college a standardization of courses and facilities that make it rank today as one of the leading centers of medical education in the world.

Accompanied by his wife, Doctor Bridge has several times' visited Europe, his two earliest trips being made in 1889 and in 1896. In those journeys abroad he spent much time in attending clinics and observing methods in the hospitals of Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Geneva, Strassburg, Heidelberg, and Erlangen. Doctor Bridge is a man of thorough literary tastes and his skill with the pen has lent charm not only to his secular writings, but to his contributions to medical journals. He is author of forty-six papers on medicine and cognate subjects in medical journals and books and is also author of several individual books: "The Penalties of Taste and Other Essays," published 1898; "The Rewards of Taste and Other Essays," 1902; "Lectures on Tuberculosis," 1903; "House Health," 1907 ; and "Fragments and Addresses," 1913.

A breakdown in health in 1890 was the cause of his leaving Chicago, and in January, 1891, he established a home in California. From 1891 to 1894 his home was at Sierra Madre, at Pasadena until 1910, and then at Los Angeles. However, he still calls Chicago home, and resides when at that city at the Blackstone. By 1893 he had so far recovered his health as to resume work a few weeks each autumn at the College and Presbyterian Hospital at Chicago. He continued his college lectures there until 1905. Since that date he has resigned so far as possible his professional work, and has given his time to his growing business interests. He has been associated with E. A. Doheny and Charles A. Canfield in the oil and gas industry and has served as an official in several companies in Mexico, California, including the Mexican Petroleum Company the Huasteca Petroleum Company and the Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company.

From 1881 to 1894 Doctor Bridge was a member of the Chicago Board of Education, and during 1882-83 was president of the board. From 1886 to 1890 he was republican election commissioner of Chicago. He was a republican in politics but was appointed to the school board by the first Mayor Harrison, a democrat. The only effective office he has ever held was when chosen one of the board of freeholders of the City of Pasadena in 1900, to frame a new charter for the city.

May 21, 1874, Doctor Bridge married Mae Manford, daughter of Rev. Erasmus and Hannah (Bryant) Manford. The only child born to them died in infancy.

Doctor Bridge is a member of the Association of American Physicians. is corresponding member of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, a member and one year president of the American Climatological

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Association, a member of the Los Angeles Academy of Sciences, the various medical associations, and belongs to the Union League and the University Club of Chicago, and the California, University and Sunset clubs of Los Angeles.

During the late war Doctor Bridge was called upon by the National Government to assume one of the more delicate responsibilities arising out of the conflict. He was made chairman of the National Alien Enemy Relief Committee, and in that capacity spent most of his time in Washington and New York. This committee had to deal with the cases of destitution that resulted from the interning of ailen enemies. Many families were thus deprived of means of support. Provisions for such cases was made by the German Empire and also the Austrian Empire, and it was the duty of Doctor Bridge's committee to see that funds thus supplied were properly distributed to the bona fide cases, and in such manner that the distribution would not serve to the benefit of the enemy countries. Doctor Bridge thus became chairman of a committee made up of twenty members, three of whom were from the Pacific Coast.

DR. JOHN WILLIS BAER, of Pasadena, is a man of such versatile gifts and talents that he has held with the greatest credit such varied positions as educator, banker, journalist and church official, and in many ways has proved one of the most useful citizens of the County of Los Angeles.

Dr. Baer was born on a farm near Rochester, Minnesota, March 2, 1861, son of Anthony and Lucy May (House) Baer. His mother was born in New York State. His father, a native of Hungary, came to this country as an immigrant on a sailing vessel, landing without money, experi- ence or knowledge of American ways, and yet he became a very successful merchant at Cleveland, Ohio, and lived to the age of eighty-six.

Dr. John Willis Baer acquired his education in public schools, attended the Cleveland Academy at Cleveland, Ohio, and in token of his services to church and the cause of education he was awarded the degree of LL. D. by the College of Wooster, Ohio, in 1906 and the degree of Litt. D. by Prince- ton University in 1916.

Doctor Baer for a time was salesman for a boot and shoe house in Rochester, Minnesota, did newspaper work at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from 1879 to 1881, and subsequently became connected with a prominent Min- neapolis elevator business, the firm of Van Dusen & Company, in their establishment at Rochester.

In 1890 Dr. Baer became international secretary of the World's Chris- tian Endeavor Movement, with headquarters in Boston, and is now honorary secretary of that organization.

In 1901 he became associate secretary of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. He has been accorded the very highest honors awarded a layman in the Presbyterian Church. He was vice moderator of the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh General Assembly of the church. In 1919 he was the first layman ever chosen moderator, and served in that capacity in the One Hundred Thirty-first General Assembly of the church of St. Louis. He is an elder in the Pasa- dena Presbyterian Church. From 1906 to 1916 Doctor Baer was president of Occidental College at Los Angeles.

Since leaving this institution he has been active as a banker. In 1916 he was made vice-president of the Union National and the Union Trust & Savings Banks of Pasadena. In 1920 he became president, and since the merger of these banks of Pasadena with the Pacific-Southwest Trust & Savings Bank he has been vice-president and managing director of what is known as the Pasadena branches of the Pacific-Southwest Trust & Savings Bank. He is therefore one of the important executive officers in a group of financial institutions with aggregate resources of approximately one hundred thirty-three million dollars. Dr. Baer is also a director of the Pacific Southwest Trust and the First National Bank of Los Angeles and is a director of the Federal Reserve Bank at San Francisco.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

During the World war he served as chairman of Los Angeles County for sales of Treasury Certificates and as vice-chairman of the Los Angeles County Liberty Loan Association. He is a republican in politics, is a member of the California, Sunset and University Clubs of Los Angeles, the Twilight, Annandale, Flintridge, San Gabriel and University clubs of Pasadena, and the Bohemia Club of San Francisco.

July 22, 1884, Dr. Baer married Lora B. Van Dusen, daughter of G. W. Van Dusen, a prominent grain and elevator man of Rochester and Minne- apolis. The three children of their marriage are : George Van Dusen, who married Cremora Agnew; Francis Shaw, who married Georgianna Drum- mond ; and Mildred, wife of R. D. Davis, Jr.

FRANCIS SHAW BAER, a prominent young investment banker of Los Angeles and Pasadena, is a son of the distinguished Pasadena citizen, John Willis Baer, whose career has been described in the preceding sketch.

The son was born at Medford, Massachusetts, March 9, 1893, but was reared and educated principally in California, and graduated A. B. from Occidental College in 1914, while his father was president of that institu- tion. Since leaving college "Mr. Baer has been engaged in the investment securities business. Until recently he was the senior member and president of the firm Baer-Brown-Parsons Company, investment securities, with offices in Pasadena and Los Angeles. Mr. Baer is now associated with the First Securities Company, bond department, at Los Angeles.

He is a republican, is a member of the Flintridge Golf Club in Los Angeles, the Athletic Club, and is a Presbyterian. On May 31, 1918, at Pasadena, he married Georgianna Drummond, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harrison I. Drummond. They have one daughter, Mary Drummond Baer. . During the World war Mr. Baer served as a lieutenant, junior grade, in the Naval Reserve.

HENRY L. MUSICK. A resident of California all of his life, the late Henry L. Musick, one of the leading lumber and oil men of the state, who died at his Pasadena home July 7, 1912, is remembered as one of his community's reliable and honored citizens. Prompt and true to every engagement, he was at all times unswerving in his loyalty to the right, and few men have gained a higher reputation for ability and keenness of discernment. His rise to distinction was the result of his own efforts, and his career was one that redounded to his credit and placed his name high in the estimation of his fellow-men.

Mr. Musick was born in Lake County, California, January 5, 1862, and spent his boyhood on a farm which extended into Lake, Napa and Yolo counties, in the meantime securing a good, practical educational training. In 1881 the Musick family moved to Fresno County, and Mr. Musick, with his father, James J. Musick, and brothers engaged in the lumber business. The Musick mills were among the best known in California until their destruction by fire in 1893, at which time Henry L. Musick merged his interests with the Fresno Flume and Lumber Company, one of the largest lumber concerns in California. For a time he was secretary and treasurer of this company, and retained his interest therein up to the time of his death. After locating at Pasadena he became largely interested in the oil industry.

Mr. Musick had been a resident of Pasadena from the time that his health had commenced to fail. Although an invalid, he had taken an active interest in the civic and business affairs of Pasadena, and was ranked among the city's most progressive and influential citizens. Only a short time before his death he had completed a handsome home in this section, taking a deep interest in every detail of the grounds and building and personally superintending the carrying out of plans. He was especially interested in those features of his home which would afford pleasure to the young people who had made his home a center of social life. Tennis courts, a plunge, gardens, pergolas and other details of the beautiful gardens were his delight, although he could not hope to live to enjoy them

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

as could others. During his long illness his patience and unselfishness were the constant marvel and wonder of his friends and family. His influence in the community was such as to make his death a cause for deep sorrow in a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.

In 1888 Mr. Musick was united in marriage with Miss Viola L. Ayers, of Fresno, California, and they became the parents of one son, Elvon, who is now trust counsel for the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles, but makes his residence at Pasadena.

JAMES WILLIAM TUCKER. Prominently identified with the leading financiers of Southern California, James William Tucker, president of the Western Savings Bank of Long Beach, has won his present distinction through his own astuteness and personal efforts, and has every reason to be proud of the standing of his bank and his position among his associates. He was born in the city of New York, June 11, 1855, and is the son of Thomas and Jane (Norris) Tucker, both of whom were natives of England. Thomas Tucker was brought to the United States by his parents when he was five years old, they making the trip on a sailing vessel which took a month to cross the Atlantic ocean. As soon as he reached his majority Thomas Tucker became a naturalized citizen of the United States. First a whig, he cast his vote for Henry Clay for the presidency, and then, when the republican party was organized, he espoused its principles, and con- tinued faithful to it until his death.

James William Tucker was reared by careful parents, and was sent to the public schools of his native city, and is a high-school graduate. After completing his high-school course, he studied stenography, and for a time was a court reporter. His first permanent position was with the Western Union Telegraph Company, as clerk in the office of the superintendent, Broadway and Dey streets, New York City.

In the spring of 1901 Mr. Tucker came to California and located at Long Beach, which impressed him as being the finest place on earth. For the past twenty-one years he has continued to reside at Long Beach, and has had no reason to change his first conviction with regard to its desir- ability. In February, 1902, Mr. Tucker was made assistant cashier of the newly-organized Long Beach Savings Bank, and was later made its cashier, but left that institution, after years of faithful service, to become president of the Western Savings Bank, in January, 1920. This bank, organized the first of 1920, outgrew its original quarters at 125 East First street, and a bank building was erected, of which it is the sole occupant, at 128- 30-32 East First street. This bank, which has been occupied since July 29, 1922, is one of the most conveniently-arranged bank buildings at Long Beach. The front is of white tile, the woodwork is of mahogany, and the architect and contractor were Long Beach men, as the institution is a local organization. It has a fully equipped safe deposit department, enlarged escrow department, and a department devoted exclusively to women for the convenient transaction of their business affairs. The banking room is spacious, easily accessible, nicely arranged, with an abundance of daylight to reflect the beauty and permanence of the furnish- ing and magnificence of the new quarters of this solid and reliable institu- tion. The capital and surplus of the Western Savings Bank, according to the last statement made, by the bank, May 19, 1923, is $375,000; its deposits are over $3,600,000, and its resources, including loans and dis- counts, bonds, U. S. government bonds and securities, bank premises, furniture and fixtures, safe and vault, and cash and sight exchange, are over $4,000,000. Associated with Mr. Tucker in the bank are: C. A. Wiley, vice president ; George L. Craig, vice president ; A. L. Parmley, cashier ; G. M. Foote, assistant cashier ; Charles C. Auge, assistant cashier ; W. F. Herman, assistant cashier ; and Judge Ralph H. Clock, counsel. The board of directors is composed of the following: James W. Tucker, president ; C. A. Wiley, capitalist ; George L. Craig, capitalist ; Judge Ralph H. Clock, attorney; A. C. Malone, capitalist ; James G. Craig, president Long Beach

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Shipping Company ; C. H. Tucker, president Mutual Building and Loan Association ; J, C. Farnham, manager "Silverwoods"; and A. L. Parmley, cashier.

On February 21, 1882 Mr. Tucker was married, by Rev. J. H. Eccleston of Trinity Parish, Newark, New Jersey, to Carrie Isabel Vail, daughter of Dr. Merit H. Cash Vail, a retired physician, but at that time publisher and editor of the Morning Register of Newark, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker have three children, namely: Charles H., who married Clara Mor- gan ; Margery Corbett, who married Duane Hartzel Jaques ; and James W., Junior, who married Mary Kennedy. Mr. Tucker is a member of Saint Luke's Episcopal Church of Long Beach, of which he was vestryman and warden for past fifteen years, and in which he is sincerely interested. One of the older residents of Long Beach, Mr. Tucker, is largely responsible for much of the remarkable progress which has been made during his connection with it, and his interest never flags, nor is his enthusiasm dimmed, in it and its advancement, and he can always be depended upon to give a most generous and effective aid to all public-spirited undertakings of merit.

JOSEPH F. SARTORI is president and one of the founders of the Security Trust and Savings Bank, which with nearly four millions of capital and surplus, and with total resources of nearly sixty millions, has been for more than a decade the largest depository of money in the South- west, and one of the notably large banks of the United States. The growth of the bank has been contemporaneous with the growth and development of Los Angeles and Southern California.

Joseph F. Sartori was born at Cedar Falls, Iowa, Christmas day, 1858, son of Joseph and Theresa (Wangler) Sartori. This young man grew up in Eastern Iowa at a time when that part of the country was advancing in a period of very rapid but. none the less substantial growth. He was liberally educated in Iowa, Cornell College and abroad, studied law at Ann Arbor, and practiced for a time in the office of Leslie M. Shaw, who later became a leading lawyer-banker of Iowa, and secretary of the treasury of the United States. From 1882 to 1887 Mr. Sartori practiced law with Congressman I. S. Struble as a partner. In June, 1886, at Le Mars, Iowa, he married Miss Margaret Rishel.

In March, 1887, Mr. and Mrs. Sartori arrived in Southern California, seeking a home in the then Village of Monrovia. He brought to the new environment a sound knowledge of real values, and an appreciation of the great future which the very obvious advantages and resources of Southern . California offered. He joined heartily in the general upbuilding movement. Monrovia needed a bank, so the First National Bank of Monrovia was organized, with Mr. Sartori as cashier, of which institution he is still a vice president. In 1889 the superior advantages of Los Angeles had impressed themselves upon him, and he removed to this city, and was the principal factor in the founding of the Security Savings Bank, of which he became cashier. In 1895 he became its president.

Mr. Sartori has been a member of the legislative committee of the California Bankers' Association since its inception, and has a prominent part in the drafting of the California Bank Act. In the year 1914 he was president of the Savings Bank Section of the American Bankers' Associa- tion, and since 1913 has been a member of the Currency Commission of that association.

Mr. Sartori is a director of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. He is president of the Los Angeles Country Club, a former president of the California Club, and a member of the Jonathan, Midwick, Crags and Los Angeles Athletic clubs.

MAX J. BAEHR. While a man of world wide experience, Max J. Baehr established his home at Long Beach a number of years ago, and has gradu- ally disposed of some of his more distant interests in order to enter fully into the life and affairs of this wonderful Southern California city.

J. F. Sartori

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Mr. Baehr was for over eighteen years in the United States consular service, making a splendid record under Presidents Mckinley, Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson. His service was in Germany and Cuba. He was appointed consular-general to Peru and the Argentine Republic. Max Joseph Baehr was born at Zweibrücken, Bavaria, August 2, 1858, a son of Blasius and and Josephine (Forstmaier) Baehr. He was reared in his native land to the age of twenty, acquiring his education in parochial and Latin schools at Zweibrücken.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 1

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944 Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Number of Pages: 840

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
Publication date: 1923
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 840