USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume II > Part 17
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With the rush in 1864 to the newly discovered gold fields of Havilah, Mr. Hammel sold his in- terest in the Bella Union and joined the tide of immigration flocking to the then county-seat of Kern county. There he put up a building and opened a hotel, which in memory of his former place of business he called the Bella Union. As- sociated with him in this enterprise as in many other important investments of his life was An- drew H. Denker, a native of Germany, who came to America in 1857 at the age of seventeen and in 1863 landed in San Francisco via the isthmus. The business at Havilah prospered for a time and the partners made money. Eventually, however, the inines ceased to pan out their former quota of gold, the excitement subsided and the miners sought other and richer fields of labor. It was then decided to close out the business. For that purpose Mr. Denker remained at Havilah, while in 1868 Mr. Hammel sought a new opening in
Los Angeles. The firm leased the United States hotel on the corner of Requena and Main streets, which they conducted until 1886. Their latest and most profitable ventures included the purchase of extensive ranching interests where Beverly Hills is now located. The Rodeo de Las Aguas rancho comprised over thirty-five hundred acres of valley and foothill land between Los Angeles and Santa Monica. For more than thirty years Henry H. Denker, a brother of Andrew H. Denker, had charge of the ranch for the partners, his excel- lent knowledge of the grain and stock business rendering his services valuable to the owners of the great tract.
Although averse to identification with public af- fairs and little interested in politics, Mr. Hammel held Los Angeles in the most loyal affection and as a member of the city council promoted many measures of importance. The Pioneer Society had his name enrolled on its membership list and in its circles he had many warm friends. Fra- ternally he was connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in Masonry had risen to the Knights Templars and Nobles of the Mys- tic Shrine. In 1870 he was united in marriage with Miss Marie Ruellan, who was born in Paris September 19, 1845, and had come from France to Los Angeles in 1868 via the Isthmus of Panama. On the death of Mrs. Hammel, August 21, 1913, the large estate that had been amassed by the wise and timely investments of the pioneer couple was bequeathed to their only child, Mathilde. In girlhood Miss Hammel became the wife of Eu- gene O. Mclaughlin and they reside at No. 2400 South Figueroa street. In their home, affec- tionately ministered to by members of the family and particularly interested in the welfare of her three grandchildren, Edward Henry, Cecile Ma- thilde and Hortense, Mrs. Hammel spent her last years. The ties of old friendship gave pleasure to her appreciative mind and in the French colony she remained an influential figure to the last. It was her privilege to have the frequent compan- ionship of her sister, Mrs. Louisa A. Denker, whose husband, Andrew H. Denker, passed away in 1892. While enjoying a visit with this sister at the beach Mrs. Hammel was seized with heart weakness and, although hurried by motor car to the Mclaughlin home, she passed away the following morning, notwithstanding the tireless efforts of the most skilled physicians to relieve her condition. The funeral service consisted of a
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solemn requiem at St. Vincent's Church, followed by interment beside the body of her mother at Calvary cemetery. Surviving her husband for twenty-three years, she had seen a new genera- tion come into the place of his activities and enter into the heritage of his labors; she had seen the great ranch lands he owned with Mr. Denker brought within the scope of twentieth-century de- velopment and crossed and re-crossed by the Pa- cific Electric system. Quietly but intelligently watching the many transformations made by in- coming multitudes of settlers, she witnessed the opening of the great era of development which Mr. Hammel years before with shrewd foresight had predicted and the foundation of which he had laid by his own wise and efficient labors, working in conjunction with other loyal and clear-visioned pioneers.
JAMES SETH CRAWFORD. Almost one- half century of civic fidelity identified the late James Seth Crawford with Los Angeles, where as a leading professional man, as an honored pioneer, as a contributor to progressive measures and as president of the board of education, he wielded an influence that even now is productive of benefit to the town of his adoption and that entitles his name to perpetuation in local annals. With his passing, April 14, 1912, three years after his re- tirement from the world of affairs, there was severed one of the strong pioneer ties that bound the Los Angeles of the past with the city of the present. A native of New York state, born March 4, 1837, and a son of Ira Crawford, he had re- ceived a meager education in Minnesota and in the great school of experience and hard work he had learned lessons invaluable to his later enter- prises. When only nineteen years of age he had come to the west in 1856 and had settled in San Francisco, where the first part of his professional career was passed, but after 1868 he became a permanent resident of Los Angeles, to which city business and pleasure had previously brought him with sufficient frequency to result in an intimate acquaintance with the place. Dr. Crawford was the first and for some years the only dentist in Los Angeles and was one of the prime movers in organizing the Southern California Odontological Society, of which he was elected the first vice- president.
When twenty-eight years of age Mr. Crawford was united in marriage with Miss Laura Benedict, daughter of Walter and Maria Benedict, of Los Angeles, and three years after their marriage the young couple established a home in this city, where Mrs. Crawford passed away in 1876. One of their daughters, Grace, died here when four- teen years of age; the other, Julia, is now the widow of O. A. Ivers. Along many lines of en- terprise Mr. Crawford was a pioneer, notably in the development of the oil industry, for even prior to 1890 he had entered into negotiations for the leasing of oil lands and for years afterward he maintained an active interest in the business. While for years immersed in business and pro- fessional affairs, it was not to the exclusion of 1ecreation, public matters or fraternal associa- tions. In politics he adhered to Democratic prin- ciples, being one of the best-posted men of his party in Los Angeles, and took an active part in Democratic councils. On the organization of the Recreation Gun Club he became one of its char- ter members and for years found this connection a source of pleasure in his rare vacations from business duties. At the time of his death he was one of the oldest Knights Templar members in Los Angeles, where for years he had been a leader in Masonry and an exponent of its philan- thropic principles of brotherhood and charity. The office of high priest he had filled with charac- teristic fidelity and frequently he had been elected a delegate to Masonic conventions in San Francisco. The solidity of his mental powers won for him the admiration of his associates in Masonry, in professional and business circles, and in the cultured society which he and his family adorned.
DANIEL HENDERSON MCKELLAR. Among the well known and highly respected pioneer families of the county may be named the family of Daniel Henderson Mckellar, of Downey and Los Angeles, for although it is more than twenty years since Mr. Mckellar passed away, his descendants still reside in this county and the old home place at Downey is still the family home. They are all well and favorably known, and the name is one that commands the highest respect.
Mr. McKellar was a native of North Carolina, but when a small boy his family removed to
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Augustus C. Chauvin
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Mississippi, where he was reared on a large plan- tation, and where there are still many descendants of the name. This plantation was in Kemper county and there as a young man Mr. Mckellar engaged successfully in farming for himself. Coming west in 1870, he was attracted to Downey from the fact that a large number of families from his part of the South had settled there. Purchasing one hundred acres of land, for a time he made a specialty of raising grain, but later gave his attention to fruit culture, raising a va- riety of fruits. He also invested heavily in lands throughout the county, and at one time was recognized as an extensive property owner. Among other tracts he owned forty acres at Duarte, besides another tract at San Dimas. He was a man of high principles and deep religious convictions, and a faithful member of the Metho- dist Church South, which he helped to organize and establish at Downey, and in which he and his family were loyal workers for many years, his daughters still being communicants. Always keenly interested in educational matters, he served for many years as a member of the public school board at Downey. He was progressive and wide- awake on all questions of public import and for many years was one of the leading men of the thriving little city where he made his home.
The marriage of Mr. Mckellar was solemnized in Mississippi, the bride being Miss Margaret Mc- Mahan, a native of Alabama. She bore her hus- band nine children, of whom two sons and two daughters are living: Sylvester A., Judith, Josephine and James W., all prominent in public affairs at Downey for many years. Josephine, now Mrs. T. A. McGee, is a member of the faculty of the public school at Downey. She commenced teaching in the old Gallatin school when she was a girl of eighteen years and has been prominent in educational affairs of the county since that time. She is a woman of rare charm and ability and her educational work takes first rank wherever she is known. Miss Mckellar (Judith) still resides on the home place, and is one of the leading women of the town. She has always taken a prominent part in social, religious and club affairs and in the various activities of the local women, and her ability as a leader, as well as her charm as a hostess, are universally recognized. James W., the youngest member of the family. was for many years in the furniture and under-
taking business in Downey ; he married Charlotte Davis, the daughter of ex-county supervisor Da- vis, of Los Angeles. They now make their home in the city, where Mr. Mckellar is in the under- taking business.
AUGUSTUS C. CHAUVIN. One of the early settlers of California, a man of sterling worth and high purpose, who aimed high and desired to accomplish much in life, was Augus- tus C. Chauvin, who came to this state in 1849, for the purpose of establishing a home for him- self amid new scenes and fresh opportunities and of making for himself a name and a place.
Crossing the continent in 1849, Mr. Chauvin settled near Placerville, in the northern part of California, in the days when that thriving section was at the height of its mining activ- ity. There Mr. Chauvin opened a grocery and general merchandise store, in which business he prospered well, becoming one of the best known merchants of the locality, as well as one of its most respected men. For nearly twenty years he was a part of the life of this mining district, but in 1868 he sold his interests and removed to Los Angeles. Here he engaged in the grocery business once more, opening a store on Main street, opposite the Temple Block, which was then the heart of the business dis- trict. In this enterprise, also, Mr. Chauvin prospered, his business ability and integrity bringing their own reward. On account of ill health he retired from active business in 1886, to pass the remainder of his life in quiet en- joyment of his well-deserved rest, in the land that was to him the most beautiful in the world. His death occurred June 25, 1897.
The early life of Mr. Chauvin was passed in Missouri. He was born in St. Charles, that state, August 26, 1824, being the son of Sylves- ter and Eulalie (Bélau) Chauvin, a descendant of one of the old French families of St. Louis, owning valuable property there. Augustus Chauvin was educated in St. Louis, at that time one of the most flourishing cities of the middle west, or the "far west" at is was then called, and the city through which the majority of the immigration flowed westward. The place was also the mecca of hunters, trappers and traders,
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as well as for Indian chiefs and councilmen. Scarcely a year passed without a great gather- ing of Indian braves from many western tribes. Scarcely had he finished school when Mr. Chau- vin, then sixteen years of age, joined a party bound for the Rocky Mountains on a hunting and trapping expedition, his journey being planned in the hope that he might thus recover his health. The life of excitement and danger was an ideal one to the adventuresome boy, and for nine years he followed it, being almost con- tinuously in the wilds of the mountains, al- though he never went into the enterprise from a business point of view. Hunting was his favorite form of recreation, he being an excel- lent shot, and every season found him in the hills for a brief vacation, with his dog and gun as his boon companions. Mr. Chauvin served with distinction during the Mexican war, being an officer under Gen. F. T. Dent, a brother-in- law of General Grant.
The marriage of Mr. Chauvin with Elizabeth Rose, daughter of John and Elender Rose, was solemnized at Eldorado, Cal., on October 13, 1857. Three children were born of this union : Mary Louise, who died at the age of twenty ; Minnie Virginia, who died at thirteen; and Laura Augusta, now Mrs. W. G. Hutchison. Mrs. Chauvin passed away February 28, 1915, mourned by relatives and the many friends made during her long residence in this city, she having come here in 1868. For years she had been a faithful member of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church. Her mother, Mrs. Elender Young, originally located La Ballona ranch, which property is still owned by her heirs.
Aside from his business interests Mr. Chau- vin was prominent in all matters of public in- terest and was an enthusiastic advocate of all progressive movements, a stanch Democrat and a factor in party life in Los Angeles. He was one of the organizers of the old Agricultural Park Association, his heirs still owning an in- terest in that corporation.
During his early residence in Los Angeles Mr. Chauvin purchased a number of pieces of realty which have since grown to an enormous value. Shortly after his arrival he secured a lot of one hundred and twenty feet on Spring
street near Fifth for $5 per front foot, where the family made their home. This property he held, having great faith in the future of the city which has grown up rapidly about his old home site so that it is now in the heart of the business district and is still in the possession of his heirs.
HON. AURELIUS W. HUTTON. To pre- sent in detail the salient facts in the career of Judge Hutton as attorney and jurist would be to record much of importance in the early his- tory of Los Angeles. When he arrived here April 5, 1869, he found a sleepy Spanish town of five thousand inhabitants, picturesque in scenic en- vironment and almost ideal in climate, but unam- bitious in spirit and calmly ignoring every oppor- tunity for advancement. The transcontinental railroad was then being completed and the young lawyer, firm in the belief of a great future for the city, made his plans for permanent residence by entering the office of Glassell & Chapman in the Temple block. It was the agreement that for the first month his only pay would be board and lodging, but the firm, appreciating his ability, tendered him $50 in lieu of the terms originally stipulated. From that time to the present he has maintained law offices in the Temple block, a most remarkable record when it is recalled that in these forty-five years the majority of the early office buildings have been replaced by modern struc- tures and the majority of the men then practicing law have passed from earth or retired from pro- fessional activities. At different times he has been associated with the following law partners : Judge Henry M. Smith, R. H. Chapman, Col. John F. Godfrey, Judge W. H. Clark, J. W. Swansvick and Olin Wellborn, while at this writing he is the senior partner in Hutton & Williams, the latter his nephew.
The Hutton family is of old southern lineage. Gen. Joseph Hutton, who was born in South Caro- lina in 1769, married Nancy Calhoun, a cousin of John C. Calhoun, secretary of war from 1817 to 1824 under President Monroe and vice-president of the United States under John Q. Adams and Andrew Jackson. Aquila D., son of General Hut- ton, was born in Abbeville district, South Caro- lina, April 8, 1805, and married Elizabeth H. Tutt, who was born in 1812 in Edgefield district in the same state. Six sons and two daughters were
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born of their union, but three of these died before their father, who was forty-seven at the time of his demise. Shortly afterward the mother died at the age of forty-two. Their daughter had married in 1853 David H. Williams, M. D., who became guardian of the orphan boys and gave them a welcome in his home. Aurelius Winfield, who was born in Greene county, Ala., July 23, 1847, received the utmost kindness and considera- tion from his sister and her husband and always has given them credit for much of his success in life. At the age of seven he was sent to the old Field school, his guardian paying tuition for him. At the age of ten, the old family estate having been sold, he was taken to Gainesville, Ala., eight miles from the old homestead. The property lie would have inherited from his parents was swept away by the Civil war and his own carefree ex- istence came to an end. At the age of sixteen he entered a military school at Tuscaloosa and with the Alabama corps cadets served at various points near the university until the close of the war. After the burning of the University of Alabama in April, 1865, by the Federal cavalry under Gen- eral Croxton, he marched with the cadets to Marion, Ala., and, hearing of the surrender of General Lee, returned home to find the negroes freed. the Confederate bonds worthless and him- self without property.
As a student in the law office of Bliss & Snede- cor, of Gainesville, Ala., Mr. Hutton took up the study of the law about January, 1866, his brother- in-law paying $100 for one year of special in- struction. Mr. Bliss, a native of New Hampshire, was an elderly man of great ability and had been a classmate and intimate friend of Franklin Pierce, afterward president of the United States. At one time he had been a partner of Hon. Joseph G. Baldwin, author of the book, "The Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi." Sub- sequently Mr. Baldwin became a chief justice of California. After eighteen months with Bliss & Snedecor, in the fall of 1867 Mr. Hutton entered the law department of the University of Vir- ginia, where, by taking the junior and senior courses in one year under the instruction of Prof. John B. Minor and others, he was able to grad- uate in the spring of 1868, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Law together with thirty-three other young men out of the senior class of seventy. The school was one of the most rigid and thor-
ough of its day and a diploma from its law de- partment was a most excellent letter of recom- mendation. On attaining the age of twenty-one Mr. Hutton was admitted to practice before the supreme court of Alabama and in the following year he was admitted to the bar in California, having left Alabama with the Travis family in February, 1869, and traveling via the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, thence to Los Angeles, where he has since enjoyed a professional promi- nence merited by his attainments.
February 24, 1874, Judge Hutton married Kate Irene Travis, who was born in Gainesville, Ala .. May 3, 1851. Her father, Amos Travis, was born in North Carolina about 1805 and came to Los Angeles in 1869, but returned to Alabama in 1885 and there died August 2, 1886. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Eliza Coleman, was born about 1820 and died in Alabama April 26, 1896. Three sons and seven daughters were born to the union of Judge and Mrs. Hutton. The eldest child, Kate, was married in 1896 to Raphael W. Kinsey and died April 11, 1897, leaving an infant son. The second child, Aure- lius W., Jr., died at the age of nineteen years April 13, 1895; he had given promise of making for himself a name in the field of electrical dis- coveries and inventions and their application. The seventh child, Irene, died May 22, 1895, at the age of eight years. The six living children are as follows: Mignonette ; William Bryan, named for a brother of the Judge, who as lieutenant of Company A, Fifth Alabama Battalion, was killed at Chancellorsville May 3, 1863; Helen, wife of P. G. Winnett, assistant manager at Bullock's, Los Angeles; Elizabeth, wife of Louis Adams; Travis Calhoun; and Eugenia, Mrs. Wilkinson.
Since September of 1871 Judge Hutton has been a member of Golden Rule Lodge No. 160, I. O. O. F., in which he has passed all the chairs. Other organizations of his membership are the Society of Los Angeles Pioneers, Los Angeles Bar Association, Los Angeles Chamber of Com- merce, Sam Davis Camp of United Confederate Veterans, in which latter order he was twice hon- ored with election as major-general of the Pa- cific division. As stockholder he was associated with the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, the corporation that purchased lands and laid out thereon the city of Pasadena. In December, 1872. he was elected city attorney of Los Angeles and
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re-elected two years later, being the first man to hold the office for two successive terms. As city at- torney in 1874 he drafted the first special charter for Los Angeles. The city had been incorporated under a general law and various special acts had been passed by the legislature. In 1876, acting with the city council, he revised the charter. There have been other charters since then, but each con- tinues many of the wise provisions of the charter of 1874. As city attorney he assisted in drafting the ordinance granting the first franchise for a street railway, and conducted the legal proceed- ings for the condemnation of lands donated by the city to the Southern Pacific Railway Company, in pursuance of the vote of the people for rights of way into the city. So far as can be learned, complaints, warrants and commitments had not been used in the municipal court prior to his service as city attorney, but after considerable effort he convinced the officials that the law re- quired such formalities.
The number of superior judges of Los An- geles county was increased from two to four in February, 1887, and a full meeting of the bar was held to select two attorneys for recommenda- tion to the governor. There were six applicants. On the first ballot, two being voted for at once, Mr. Hutton received a four-fifths vote and Governor Bartlett appointed him to one of the positions. On the distribution of the business of the courts there were assigned to Judge Hutton's department three-fourths of all the common law and equity cases tried without juries and nearly all the law and motion calendar. In his own department he never had a jury, but when pre- siding for other judges he tried a few cases with juries. In the celebrated issue between the South- ern Pacific Railroad and a Mr. Coble, with reference to overlapping land grants, Judge Hut- ton found for the defendant in a case involving one hundred and sixty acres, thus declaring the land grants forfeited and opening the lands to settlement. This was the first decision by any court of this important question. Subsequent cases were decided by Judges Ross and Sawyer in favor of the railroad company, but on appeal to the United States supreme court the law was laid down as by Judge Hutton, reversing the rulings of Judges Ross and Sawyer.
At the election of November, 1888, Harrison defeated Cleveland by nearly four thousand votes
in this county and not a Democrat was elected, Judge Hutton suffering defeat with others of his party. In August, 1889, there being a temporary vacancy in the office of United States district attorney, he was appointed by Judges Field and Ross attorney pro tem. and filled the place for one-half year. Later the government appointed him special counsel to assist the district attorney and judge in prosecuting smugglers on the Pacific coast. In January, 1891, the revolution in Chile broke out and one Trumbull purchased a cargo of ammunition and arms for the insurgents. These were put on board a vessel in San Fran- cisco and carried to a point near San Clemente Island, there transferred to the Itata, a vessel of the insurgents, and taken to Chile. The United States cruiser Charleston was sent after the ship and brought her back with the cargo. Prosecu- tion was instituted against Trumbull and the vessel for violation of the neutrality laws and Judge Hutton was employed in these cases as special counsel for the government. Later he was the solicitor for the United States Trust Com- pany of New York, the trustee for the holders of the first mortgage bonds of the western divi- sion of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company, in the several foreclosure suits in the United States circuit courts of Northern and Southern California. The value of the bonds thus involved was over $16,000,000. The property was sold and merged into the Santa Fe system.
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