USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Los Angeles from the mountains to the sea : with selected biography of actors and witnesses to the period of growth and achievement, Volume III > Part 1
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Gc 979.402 L882m v.3 1131984
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01115 5709
LOS ANGELES FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
JOHN STEVEN McGROARTY
-
WITH SELECTED BIOGRAPHY OF ACTORS AND WITNESSES OF THE PERIOD OF GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME III
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1921
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1131984
John & Mott
LOS ANGELES From the Mountains to the Sea
JOHN GRIFFIN MOTT. As a lawyer, orator and man of affairs, the name of John Griffin Mott has a well deserved significance in California. A native of Los Angeles, a man of liberal education, inheriting his gift of eloquence from a pioneer Californian, he has in many ways been successfully identified with the professional and civic affairs of his native city for the past twenty years.
He was born at Los Angeles August 3, 1874, son of Thomas and Ascension (Sepulveda) Mott. His father crossed the plains to California in 1849. He was then twenty years of age, being a native of New York state. After some experiences as a miner and merchant, he came to Los Angeles in 1852, and thenceforward was active as a business inan, a city and county official and one of the leaders in many of the movements affecting the welfare and development of the southern half of the state. He married a daughter of one of the oldest and most prominent land-owning Spanish families of Southern California.
John Griffin Mott received his primary education in St. Vincent's College of Los Angeles, and from there was sent east to Notre Dame University in Indiana, where he was graduated Bachelor of Letters and Bachelor of Laws in 1896. The following year he spent in the Catholic University of America at Washington, and was granted the degree Master of Laws. The rector of the university at that time was Bishop Conaty, later head of the Diocese of Los Angeles.
Since the conclusion of his studies in the East, Mr. Mott has been absorbed in an important and growing practice as a lawyer. After about four years he formed a partnership with R. J. Dillon, under the firm name of Mott & Dillon. Mr. Mott has made a specialty of corporation and probate law, and many of the notable cases in the courts of Southern California have involved him as an attorney.
His professional and individual work relating to the larger public life and affairs of the state deserves some mention. He was active in the movement for consolidating Los Angeles and the seaport of San Pedro, and was one of the leaders of the campaign for selling bonds to finance the great Owens River Aqueduct, one of the greatest engineer- ing enterprises of the time. He was also the attorney who gave his personal attention to the matter of securing Federal approval for the site of the Federal Building in Los Angeles. He presented that matter before the Congressional committees and at the White House itself, and it was largely his arguments that induced President Roosevelt to sign the bill for the proposed site.
Mr. Mott has long been a recognized leader in the republican party of California. Here his ability as an orator has been of special service. He has appeared in most of the local and state campaigns, and his reputation as an orator is by no means confined to his native state.
He is a member of the American Bar, Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County Bar Associations, is past exalted ruler of the Los Angeles Order of Elks, a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, the Knights of Columbus, the Crags Country Club, Sons of the Revolution and California Club. February 23, 1905, he married Miss Lila Jean Fair- child.
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CUMNOCK SCHOOL. The Cumnock School of Los Angeles, including a junior department, an academy and a school of expression, is dis- tinctive as being the oldest school of expression in Southern California.
It was established in the fall of 1894 by Mrs. Merrill Moore Grigg. Mrs. Grigg was a graduate of the School of Oratory of Northwestern University, of which Dr. Robert McLean Cumnock was director, and for several years had been his first assistant. It was that association that led her to name the school in his honor. From a beginning made in modest circumstances and in small quarters, the school has, from time to time, been compelled to enlarge its accommodations and teaching force. In 1902 a new building was erected, its exterior features being a replica of the famous Shakespeare House at Stratford-on-Avon. The second department of the institution, a preparatory school, known as the Cumnock Academy, was established in 1904 by Mrs. Kate Tupper Galpin. She lived only two years after founding the academy, but her successors have held to the same ideals and to the same standards which she pro- posed and exemplified. The academy either prepares for the university or affords a general cultural course. The junior school enrolls pupils of the primary and grammar grade ages.
The death of the founder of the school, Mrs. Grigg, occurred in January, 1915. The director at present is Miss Helen Augusta Brooks.
In 1916 the school moved to its present quarters in the west central part of the city of Los Angeles, fronting on Vermont Avenue. The high elevation affords a sweeping view of mountain and city, with a glimpse of the distant sea ; the ample grounds give space for outdoor class rooms or for playgrounds; the nearness of the fine residence district of the city helps to create an atmosphere of refinement.
In the spring of 1917, after an investigation on the part of the examiner of colleges of the University of California, the Committee on Credentials of the State University granted credit for credit to students in Cumnock School of Expression wherever the work was parallel to that in the State University, at that time, forty-eight units being granted.
In January, 1918, after investigation on the part of the State Board of Education, students having completed the fourth year of the work of th' Expression School were granted the right to the secondary cer- tificate in Oral and Dramatic Expression.
The purpose of the Cumnock School is to develop character through the awakening and the training of the latent powers of expression in the individual student. While in the professional school, students are trained with the specific end of becoming readers or teachers of expres- sion, it is the purpose in all departments to keep in view the real relation to life.
CAPTAIN THOMAS DAVIS, whose work as a military instructor and educator has brought him inuch prominence in Southern California, has been a student of military technique for over a quarter of a century, served as an officer in the Spanish-American war, and for the past ten years has given all his time to military training and instruction.
Captain Davis was born at Lebanon, Virginia, June 29, 1873, a son of John Lynch and Mary J. (Alderson) Davis. He attended grammar and high schools until 1888, then entering the preparatory department of the University of Tenn ssee, where he was graduated in 1893. After leaving university and until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he was connected with his father's wholesale shoe business.
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Captain Davis became a member of the National Guard of Tennes- see in 1890, serving as senior captain of the Battalion of Cadets at the university in the two years 1890-92. June 29, 1898, he was commis- sioned first lieutenant of the Sixth United States Volunteer Infantry, was promoted to regimental adjutant of the same regiment December 1, 1898, and was commissioned a captain in that regiment January 7, 1899. During the war he was in the Porto Rico campaign.
For three years, 1907-10, Captain Davis was superintendent and commandant of cadets with the El Paso Military Institute. In 1910 he selected San Diego as the location for a proposed school which he founded and which was known as the San Diego Army and Navy Academy. He was superintendent and commandant of this academy four years, 1910 to 1914, and since that date has been its superintendent. He was persuaded by some influential residents of Pasadena to establish a branch school at Pasadena, and on October 8, 1917, opened what is known as the Pasadena Army and Navy Academy, occupying a beautiful building and grounds of the old Annandale Country Club. During 1917-18 the enrollment was thirty-eight, and during 1918-19 sixty-two. These institutions are among the best of their kind, and America is now as never before in a position to appreciate the value of just such service as Captain Davis has rendered during his residence on the coast.
In 1907 he served as president of the Board of Directors of the Y. M. C. A. at Bristol, Tennessee. He is a Phi Gamma® Delta, a Methodist and a democrat. January 27, 1903, at Bristol, Tennessee, Captain Davis married Miss Bessie Taylor. They have two children: Marinita, attending public school at Pacific Beach, and Charles Andrew Murray Davis, who is six years old.
MRS. JESSIE BENTON FREMONT. It is doubtful if the great common- wealth of California would today hold the commanding position it does had it not been for the energies and courageous enterprise of General John C. Fremont, known to history as the "Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains." Associated with him in much of his exploration work and constantly aiding him with her sympathetic understanding of his aims and purposes was his devoted and remarkable wife, Mrs. Jessie Benton Fre- mont. These two hold a unique place in the hearts of Californians, as well as those of the whole country, and no tribute paid to their memory can be too great for their desserts.
Jessie Benton Fremont was born on Cherry Creek Plantation, Vir- ginia, in 1824, a daughter of Thomas H. and Elizabeth (McDowell) Benton, and came of a distinguished family, her father having rendered his country a remarkable service both as a soldier during the War of 1812, a newspaper owner and publisher, and as United States senator from Missouri, holding this important office for a period of thirty years. His death occurred at Washington, D. C., in 1858. His father was a heavy landowner in Virginia and a man of great influence in his com- munity.
Jessie Benton was her father's companion, and learned from her father to take a much broader view of events than was usual with women of her generation. It was but natural that the acquaintance between her and the dashing young lieutenant, John C. Fremont, should ripen into love, which resulted in their marriage on October 19, 1841, at Wash- ington, D. C. During the following year Lieutenant Fremont, stim11- lated by his young wife's faith in him, began his exploration of the Rocky Mountains, and opened up the South Pass, through which so
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many found their way to the coast in after days. In 1845 he cleared the northern part of California of Mexican troops, and then, pushing ahead, practically covered all the territory now included in the states of Oregon, Nevada and Utah. In 1846 he was made a lieutenant-colonel, and military commandant and civil governor of the Territory of Cali- fornia, and the year following bought the Mariposa estate in California, upon which he located in 1849. His adventurous spirit, however, could not rest content, and in 1853 he undertook a fifth expedition across the continent. With the organization of the republican party, John C. Fre- mont, then the popular idol, was its first presidential candidate, but although receiving a large vote, was not elected on account of the strength of the long-established democratic party. A strong Union man, with the outbreak of the Civil war he offered his services and was commis- sioned a major-general and placed in command of the Western Army. During 1878-81 he served as Governor of Arizona. The death of this distinguished American occurred in New York City, July 13, 1890.
In order that Mrs. Fremont might accompany him in his explora- tions, General Fremont had a carriage especially built for her, and shipped to California around "the Horn," and it was the first vehicle of this kind in the state. It was so constructed that it could be converted into a bed, obviating the necessity for her sleeping in the open. Miss Elizabeth Benton Fremont remembers distinctly traveling in this carriage with her mother, and the pleasurable excitement of sleeping in the carriage bed in any spot where night overtook them.
In the late eighties, the women of California, appreciating the qualities of Mrs. Fremont, and wishing to pay to her an appropriate tribute, presented her with a residence in Los Angeles, where she died on December 27, 1902, at the age of seventy-eight years. She was a lady of charming personality and during her long and eventful life par- ticipated in so much of national importance that her outlook was one of infinite vision. Her intellectual gifts were remarkable, and as early as 1863 she published "Story of the Guard," a chronicle of the war. In 1886 she wrote and published a sketch of her father, which was affixed to the memoirs published by her husband. Her book, "Souvenirs of My Time" and "The Will and the Way Stories," appeared later. At the time of her demise she was busily engaged in preparing her auto- biography. After her death her ashes were sent to New York and were interred beside those of her beloved husband on the banks of the Hudson River.
On November 16, 1912, ground was broken, with appropriate cere- monies, for the erection of the Southwest Monument, the first spadeful of dirt being dug by Miss Elizabeth Benton Fremont. An inspiring feature of the day was the raising by Miss Fremont and General Chaffee of the same flag General Fremont had unfurled on the crest of the Rocky Mountains, August 16, 1842.
The only daughter of the late General Fremont was Miss Elizabeth Fremont, who died at her home, 1179 Thirtieth Street, in Los Angeles, May 28, 1919, at the age of seventy-six. She was a well loved and venerated character in California, with an unusually refined, cultivated mind, and she did full justice to the prestige of her family and left sweet memories in the hearts of her friends. Her only brother, and now the only surviving member of the family, is Major F. P. Fremont of Cleve- land, Ohio.
Ledurand R. Brewery.
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EDWARD R. YOUNG. The name Young has been well known in legal circles in Southern California over thirty years. Edward R. Young, a member of the Public Service Commission of Los Angeles, is the active lawyer of the family since his father retired a few years ago.
He is a son of William Young, who was born in Edinburgh, Scot- land, December 14, 1840, and has had a varied and active career. He attended public schools in Scotland, and in 1854 came to the United States. He lived in New York City until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted in a cavalry regiment and saw three and a half years of hard fighting. After the war he went to Dakota Territory, took up a claim and was a cattleman for several years. What he was able to save in the cattle business he took with him to Chicago and finished his education. He then traveled for a railroad supply house, and at Marshall- town, Iowa, he studied law and was admitted to the bar and acquired a good practice. In 1888 he moved to Los Angeles, and for upwards of thirty years was engaged in a comfortable practice, and he also filled the office of township justice for twelve years. Since 1915 he has been retired. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, was one of the organizers and is a past master of South Gate Lodge, F. and A. M. Politically he is a stanch republican. William Young married in New York state, in 1870, Charlotte Gifford. Their five children are: William H., in the real estate business at Los Angeles; Mrs. Edwin Cramer, of Los Angeles; Edward R., George G., teller in the First National Bank of Los Angeles, and Miss Charlotte, a kindergarten teacher.
Edward R. Young was born at Marshalltown, Iowa, September 10, 1876, and has lived in Southern California since he was twelve years of age. He finished his high school education in Los Angeles, and at the age of eighteen graduated from the State Normal. For five years he taught, the last two years being principal of the Washington Street School at Los Angeles. He gave up his work as an educator to enter the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he graduated LL. B. in 1902. Since then he has been busy building up a reputation and clientage as a Los Angeles attorney. He practiced for several years with Judge J. W. Mckinley, former attorney for the Southern Pacific Railroad. During 1907-11 he served as first assistant city attorney of Los Angeles, and since that time has been handling an individual law practice. He was appointed by Mayor Woodman member of the Public Service Commission in July, 1918, to fill a vacancy, and was reappointed in February, 1919. Mr. Young is a member of the Los Angeles Bar Association, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Chamber of Commerce, Municipal League, and is a repub- lican. May 1, 1907, he married Miss Belle Wiley. They have two children, Gloria May and Barbara Belle, twins, born in 1916.
CAPTAIN AUGUST E. LEWIS, who was first an active civilian worker and then a private and officer in the National Army organization during the great war, is one of Los Angeles' younger business men, and head of the stock and bond house of A. E. Lewis & Co.
He was born in New York City, March 7, 1889, a son of Eugene and Amanda (Heiter) Lewis. His education was very carefully looked after and was very liberal in character. Up to the age of ten he attended Craigie Private School, in New York City, was then in the Hackley School at Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson to the senior year, and at the age of fourteen began preparing for college in the Irving School at New
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York City. When sixteen he entered Harvard University and graduated with the A. B. degree in 1910. Mr. Lewis then returned to New York City, and in order to learn the stock and bond business took a place at a nominal salary with the well-known Wall Street firm of Newbourg & Company. Later he became a bond salesman, and in 1912 joined H. P. Goldschmidt & Company in their bond department. In 1912 Mr. Lewis came to Los Angeles and was bond salesman for Torrance, Marshall & Company until 1915. At that date he engaged in the stock and bond business on his own account as A. E. Lewis & Co. He practically abandoned his business throughout the period of the war. In the early months he was manager of the industrial organization of the Liberty Loan campaign, but resigned in 1917, when he enlisted in the Aviation Section, United States Signal-Officers' Reserve Corps, as a first-class private. In June, 1918, he was transferred to the Construction Division of the United States Quartermaster's Department, with the rank of second lieutenant, stationed at Camp Humphreys for two months; he was then transferred to Camp Meade as first lieutenant, and August 24, 1918, was ordered to Washington on General Marshall's staff, chief of the Construction Division. He was sent to Camp Joseph E. Johnston at Jacksonville, Florida, on special work with the rank of captain, and was released and received his honorable discharge from the army in January, 1919, at once returning to Los Angeles and reopening his stock and bond offices, where his former patronage and much new business have found him.
Mr. Lewis is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Jona- than Club and is a republican. July 14, 1918, he married, at Washington, Miss Mary Kennedy.
JOHN EDW. SULLIVAN, secretary and treasurer of the Western Wholesale Drug Company, has been identified with one line of business since he began earning his living as a boy in Los Angeles: He has thus proved the old rule that concentration of effort along one direction, ac- companied with the proper amount of ability, is certain to win the goal of business success.
Mr. Sullivan was born at San Francisco, April 19, 1874, son of Philip H. and Catherine P. (Crowley) Sullivan. As a boy in San Fran- cisco he attended public school until June, 1887, when his mother re- moved to Los Angeles. Soon afterward, at the age of fourteen, he went to work for J. T. Sheward, a retail dry goods and department store owner. He spent one year with Mr. Sheward as cash boy at two dollars and a half a week. He then changed jobs, and while he probably did not recognize it at the time, he was thereby opening for himself the field where his energies and abilities have found their best scope and opportunity. His next employer was Adolph Eckstein, a retail druggist, whose store was located at Third and Fort Streets, now Third and Broadway, where the Bradbury Building stands. He was with Mr. Eck- stein two years, and then became order clerk with Charles L. Ruggles in the wholesale drug business. A year later he went as order clerk with the F. W. Braun Drug Company, and for twelve years was with that well-known house, being promoted until he was assistant manager of the sundries department. Mr. Sullivan was one of the original stock- holders in the Western Wholesale Drug Company, and on leaving the Braun Company became secretary and treasurer and has been one of the main factors in building up the present business.
Mr. Sullivan is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West,
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the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Brentwood Country Club, the South- ern California Auto Club, and is a republican and a member of the Catholic Church.
October 4, 1904, at Los Angeles, he married Miss Evelyn Dowker. They have two children: Elizabeth Jane, born in 1906, a student in the Hollywood School for Girls; and John Richard, born in 1908, attending grammar school.
AL LEVY. This is a name which more than anything else suggests to thousands of Californians and thousands in others states and countries good eating and refreshment. Al Levy is the veteran restauranteur of California, having been in some phase of the business for over forty years.
He was born in Liverpool, England, April 25, 1860, son of Bernard and Rose (Ansell) Levy. His father was an expert watchmaker and jeweler in Liverpool.
Al Levy attended a private school at Dublin, Ireland, and at the age of fifteen set out for San Francisco, being on the voyage six months. He found his first employment in a restaurant at the California Market, where he remained eight years. He then opened a restaurant of his own on Kearny Street, between Bush and Pine streets, and was in that location until 1886. In that year he moved to Los Angeles. The be- ginning of his career in this city was humble enough. For two years he conducted a coffee parlor in a basement two doors south of the old Pico House, on North Main Street. At that time he conceived the oyster cocktail. He sold his goods from a wagon, handling nothing but oyster cocktails, for a year and a half. He found this feature of his business a profitable one, and then opened a permanent stand at Fifth and Spring Streets, where the Alexandria Hotel is now located. In 1893 he moved to Third and Main Streets, where he continued selling the cocktails, and gradually added a general service of oysters and fish and developed a general restaurant. Eventually a building was erected for his special purposes at the corner of Third and Main Streets, at a cost of a hundred thirty thousand dollars. It was the most elaborately equipped building of its kind on the Pacific Coast, and the general service maintained by Levy's was on a par with the material furnishings and equipment. That was the home of Levy's until 1912, when Mr. Levy opened a restaurant on Seventh Street, between Spring and Main Streets. Then, in 1914, he opened the cafe he now owns at 743 South Spring Street. There has been no diminution in the quality of his service and his management during all these years, and today Levy's Cafe is con- sidered the finest on the coast. During 1914-15 he also operated a beautiful cafe on the Exposition Grounds at San Diego, known to thou- sands of visitors there as the "Christabel."
Mr. Levy is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and was the ninety- ninth member on the roll of Elks Lodge No. 99. At San Francisco, April 8, 1885, he married Miss Ray Levy. They have two children : Bob B., born in San Francisco December 25, 1885, was educated in the grammar and high schools, and is now his father's assistant in the cafe business and is also head of the Levy Costume Company. The daughter, Martha B., was born at Los Angeles October 7, 1890, is Mrs. William Ziedell of Los Angeles.
WILLIAM TALTON CRAIG. One of California's native sons, follow- ing the same profession which his father honored many years, William
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Talton Craig has been a prominent figure in the Los Angeles bar for over a quarter of a century. His name has been equally identified with a number of important movements and organizations in this city.
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