USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume II > Part 3
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While his practice has involved most of his time Dr. Haynes has been active in the political life of his city and adopted state, his accom- plishments being worthy of emulation by all sin- cere citizens. He has worked steadily and earn- estly to secure legislation which he deemed neces- sary to the welfare of the people, being the first to agitate the question of the adoption of Initia- tive, Referendum and Recall provisions for the city of Los Angeles, and it was largely through his untiring efforts, in spite of vicissitudes and the most strenuous discouragements, that in 1903 they became a part of the city charter. The in- corporation of the "Recall" provisions was especially his individual work. That his work has been far-reaching in its ultimate influence on gov- ernment generally is evidenced by the fact that since the adoption of these measures by Los An- geles, they have likewise been adopted by more than five hundred cities and by five states.
Immediately after the adoption of these direct legislation provisions by the city, Dr. Haynes set to work to secure the passage of the same meas- ures for the state. This was the inception of eight years of unremitting effort, unselfish giving of his time and attention, but they were eventually adopted at the election held October 10, 1911, by the striking majority of four to one. Another local measure fostered by Dr. Haynes was a safety fender ordinance, which he drew up and by means of an Initiative petition, forced through an unwilling street-railway-bossed council, com- pelling the Los Angeles Street Railway Company to equip their cars with efficient fenders.
It will readily be seen by the many interested readers of his biography that the life object of Dr. Haynes has been the saving of lives,-in the prevention of accident, the medical care and the
provision to guard against disease. The wider, more general, study of how the loss of life in large numbers may best be prevented has been his chief object. He believes that the fatalities in the coal mines of the United States, where four men are killed per one thousand workers em- ployed per annum, as compared with one to two per thousand in the mines of Europe which are naturally more dangerous than American mines, show a condition of affairs that must not con- tinue. After an inspection of European mines and conferences with European experts there, some of whom had made exhaustive, personal examination of American mines, he became convinced that the methods enforced by European governments to prevent accidents if adopted here would reduce mortality at least seventy-five per cent. He is now bending every effort to bring about Federal control over mining safety regulations in the case of all mines selling coal outside of the state in which it is produced. This would be supple- mentary to the present system of state control, which has proven itself inadequate to safeguard the miners' lives. In order to avoid opposition existing among many friends of the coal miners against a Federal commission, Dr. Haynes has consented to relinquish his original desire for a Federal commission, and in the bill recently in- troduced into the United States Senate at his request, it is provided that the control of safety regulations in the case of mines doing an inter- state business shall be placed in the hands of the Secretary of the Interior.
Numerous organizations have the advantage of Dr. Haynes' membership, his interest in them being based on the fact that their objects are the betterment of the world and the upliftment of humanity. Among medical associations he be- longs to the American Medical Association and to the California State, Southern California, and the Los Angeles County, Medical Societies. Among national civic organizations he is a mem- ber of the National Civil Service Reform League, Society for the Study and Prevention of Tuber- culosis, National Municipal League, the Conserva- tion Association, the Inter-collegiate Society, Henry George Lecture Association, National Economic League, American Economic Associa- tion and American Association for Labor Legis- lation. He is a member of the California Society of Colonial Wars, the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Commonwealth
Phineas Raming
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Club of San Francisco. Among social clubs he is a member of the Los Angeles Country Club, The Annandale Golf Club, The Bolsa Chica Gun Club, the University, California, Sunset, Gamut, Severance and Celtic. Among local civic organ- izations he is a member of the City Club, Munici- pal League, Chamber of Commerce, Public Wel- fare League, Juvenile Improvement Association, Humane Society and others.
Dr. Haynes has been often urged by citizens of all classes to permit the use of his name as a candidate for public office. He has, however, in all cases uniformly refused, with the exception that he has consented to serve as a member of the Civil Service commission of the city, and in 1900, 1910 and again in 1912, he has served on freeholders' and revision boards to frame and re- vise the city's charter. He was in 1910 appointed special mining commissioner for the state of Cali- fornia by Governor Gillett to study conditions in European coal mines, and in 1912 he was ap- pointed by Governor Johnson special commis- sioner to investigate conditions in American mines. In the same year he received appoint- ment as member of the state board of charities and corrections.
The marriage of Dr. Haynes and Miss Dora Fellows, of WilkesBarre, Pa., occurred in that city in 1882. A woman of strength of character and rare, sweet nature, of high mind and gener- osity, she has endeared herself to all who know her and has proved a capable and splendid help- meet to her husband in all his activities. A genial nature and genuine sympathy have com- bined to make the Doctor a characteristic phy- sician above all things, retaining always the gent- ler qualities of manhood, yet withal firm and steadfast in his purpose, liberal-minded, broad and optimistic.
GEN. PHINEAS BANNING. During the colonial epoch of American history one Phineas Banning crossed the ocean from England and established himself in Delaware, where he be- came identified with a small group of settlers engaged in tilling the soil of what is now Kent county. The prestige of his association with public affairs descended to his son John, a mer- chant of Dover, distinguished as a member of the council of safety during the Revolutionary
war. When it became necessary to select a president for the new republic he was chosen a member of the first electoral college and was one of three from Delaware casting the elec- toral vote that made George Washington the first president. Scarcely less noteworthy, al- though along different lines, were the activities of John A., son of the Revolutionary patriot, and a man of scholarly attainments, one of the early graduates of Princeton College and a lifelong resident of Delaware, where his talents, although bringing no moneyed recompense, gave him considerable prominence.
In the family of John A. and Elizabeth (Low- ber) Banning, the ninth among the eleven chil- dren was Phineas, who became one of the noted pioneers of California and the founder of Wilmington. While the family was one of distinction in Delaware, where he was born in Newcastle county September 19, 1831, there was a lack of money and of opportunity, so that at the age of twelve years, with fifty cents as his entire capital, he left home to make his way in the world. Of what the future was to bring him in adventure and experience he had little thought as he trudged along the highway to Philadelphia, where he had an older brother, William, then starting out as a lawyer in the great city. At first he earned his board by working in the law office of his brother, but later he found work in a wholesale establish- ment. In 1851 at the age of twenty he sailed for the Isthmus of Panama and thence pursued his way on an ocean vessel that cast anchor in the harbor of San Diego. During November of 1852 he embarked in the freighting business between Los Angeles and San Pedro. His subsequent history is in part a history of the growth of Los Angeles and the development of its harbor interests. The village of Wilming- ton, which he founded, was named in honor of the city of that name in Delaware. For some years he was manager of the Los Angeles & Wilmington Railroad. By service as brigadier- general of the First Brigade, California State Militia, he earned the title by which he was known throughout the latter part of his life. In politics he voted the Republican ticket, but did not mingle actively in public affairs.
The early efforts made in behalf of the San Pedro harbor had as their sponsor General Ban- 'ning, who twice went to Washington to secure
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
the necessary appropriations for the harbor from congress. It was not his privilege to wit- ness the ultimate development of the harbor (for he died in San Francisco March 8, 1885), but he realized years ago the vital importance of San Pedro to the city of Los Angeles and the imperative necessity of controlling and directing its shipping business. Besides at- tending to other interests he bought and im- proved six hundred acres near Wilmington, where with the aid of steam pumps, large reser- voirs and the largest well in the county, he furnished an abundance of water for Wilming- ton and San Pedro as well as for the vessels that anchored in the harbor. Other enterprises equally important as the development of an adequate water supply felt the impetus of his indomitable energy and sagacious judgment. A disposition of remarkable generosity made him popular in all circles, but prevented an early accumulation of a fortune, although he was able, by the increase in valuations of his large investments, to leave valuable possessions to his family at his death.
General Banning was twice married, his first marriage uniting him with Rebecca Stanford, by whom he had eight children, three of whom are living. His second marriage, February 14, 1870, was to Mary E. Hollister, daughter of one of California's pioneers, and of this union three daughters were born, two of whom are living. Mrs. Mary Banning, the widow of the late General Banning, resides on South Com- monwealth avenue, Los Angeles.
NEHEMIAH BLACKSTOCK. Nehemialı Blackstock, soldier, counselor and banker, Los Angeles, Cal., was born near Asheville, N. C., September 29, 1846. He is descended from an old Scotch-Irish Southern family, being the son of James G. Blackstock, M. D., and Elizabeth Ann (Ball) Blackstock. He married Abbie Smith at Newport, Tenn., September 25, 1868, and to them were born ten children, eight of whom are now living.
Mr. Blackstock received his education in pri- vate schools in his native state prior to the Civil war and at the conclusion of that struggle, in which he served the Confederacy, studied under a private tutor, from 1865 to 1868. Besides tak-
ing a general literary course he also read for the law. Upon the completion of his education he followed the vocation of schoolmaster, teaching a country school near Newport, Tenn., during the seasons of 1868 and 1869. In the latter year he was admitted to the bar of Tennessee and to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1870 he moved to Warrens- burg, Mo., where he had a warm friend in Gen. Francis M. Cockrell, afterwards United States senator and member of the Isthmian Canal board, and it was upon the motion of this famous Mis- sourian that Mr. Blackstock was admitted to the bar of that state.
Mr. Blackstock practiced in the state and fed- eral courts of Missouri for three and a half years, and in 1875 moved to Los Angeles, and he has made his home here and in Ventura ever since. He remained in the city only a brief time at first, moving to Ventura county, Cal., shortly after the organization of that county. He practiced law successfully in Ventura for about thirty years, and there, in 1897, he was elected state railroad commissioner and served four years. His ad- ministration was one of the most important in the history of the commission, that body having to deal with various important policies, including the fixing of passenger, freight and oil rates on the railroads of the state. These measures were the subject of extensive litigation, but ultimately were upheld and form the basis of numerous latter-day reforms in the transportation methods and charges prevailing in California.
Governor Pardee, in the year 1905, chose Mr. Blackstock for the office of state banking com- missioner, to fill the unexpired term of Guy B. Barham, and he at that time changed his resi- dence from Ventura to Los Angeles. So satis- factorily did he discharge the duties of the office that he was reappointed for the full term of four years. He held the office for about two and a half years more, or until resigning to enter the banking business. He became associated with the Merchants' Bank and Trust Company of Los Angeles as vice-president and trust officer. On April 1, 1910, he resigned as trust officer, but con- tinued as director and vice-president until said bank was sold to the Hellman interests.
In the early part of 1911 Mr. Blackstock organ- ized the International Indemnity Company, an indemnity, bonding and burglary insurance com- pany, which has its headquarters in Los Angeles.
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He holds the office of president and chief counsel of the company and continues a general legal practice.
Mr. Blackstock's military career was quite as brilliant as has been his later work in the realms of law and finance. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the Twenty-sixth North Caro- lina Cavalry and before it went into active service he transferred to the First South Carolina Regu- lar Artillery and served with that regiment until the close of the war. He was with his command in all of its battles, these including numerous en- gagements in the vicinity of Charleston. He sur- rendered with Johnston's army at Greensboro, N. C., and marched home, two hundred miles, on foot, but immediately joined a company of rangers, remnants of his old regiment, under command of Lieutenant Simpson. They started overland to join E. Kirby Smith in Louisiana, intending, with a large force of ex-Confederates, to tender their services to Maximilian in Mexico, but before reaching Louisiana news came of the surrender of General Smith and his forces. Also receiving unfavorable news from Mexico, the company was disbanded and he returned home to Columbus, N. C. Soon afterward he crossed into Tennessee, where he began the study of law.
Mr. Blackstock is a Republican in politics. He is a prominent Mason, a member of the Los An- geles Bar Association and of the National Geo- graphic Society. His principal club is the Union League.
JONATHAN SAYRE SLAUSON. Few names have been more prominently identified with the general development and npbuilding of South- ern California, and of Los Angeles in particular, along progressive, humanitarian lines, than that of Jonathan Sayre Slauson, pioneer, and for more than thirty years a resident of Los Angeles, and during all that time an active participant in all her affairs of importance, exerting a constant and lasting influence for good on the financial, political and moral life of the community. In his death, which occurred December 28, 1905, the city, county and state lost one of the most thoroughly splendid characters that ever devoted brain and strength to the common welfare, and the inter- vening years have scarcely dimmed the loving re- membrance in which he is held by friend and busi- ness associate.
A history of the commercial development of Los Angeles could not possibly be written withont much space devoted to the achievements of this splendid man. He came to this city to make his home in 1874, and from then until his death he continued to reside here. His interests in real estate and improvement enterprises were almost without limit, and scarcely a great undertaking was promoted for many years but that his power and influence were somewhere felt in its behalf. A native of New York state, he was born in West Town, Orange county, December 11, 1829, the son of David H. and Elizabeth ( Sayre) Slanson, both natives of Connecticut, and his early life was spent in his native village. His father was at that time engaged in farming, and the boyhood days on the farm, with their multitude of daily tasks, early inculcated a spirit of industry that made for success in after life. The family was descended from a long line of old English ancestry, Hamp- shire, England, being for many years their home. From there three brothers immigrated to America during the Colonial days and assumed places of importance in the life of that period. All served with distinction during the Revolution, two perish- ing in the cause of liberty. The remaining brother located in Connecticut, where he married and where his children were born. Breaking away from the family traditions, David H. Slauson re- moved to Orange county, N. Y., where he in turn became known as a successful and prosperous farmer, rearing his family and performing the duties of citizenship.
It was here that the childhood of Jonathan Sayre Slauson was spent and where his early education was received. It was thought in that time and location that a boy should acquire by the time he was sixteen all the education that he needed for his life work, but young Slauson was ambitious, and later entering a law office in Mid- dletown, N. Y. (where his mother had removed after her husband's death), studied law for a few years. In 1854, about three years after his matric- ulation, he graduated from the New York State Law School at Poughkeepsie. The following year he located in New York, opening an office for the practice of his profession, and met with almost instant recognition among the legal fra- ternity. Failing health, however, made it neces- sary for him to make a change of location and occupation, and in 1864 he determined to come west, locating eventually at Austin, Nev., where
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he became actively interested in mining indus- tries. During the four years he remained there he acquired much prominence and three times was honored by being elected mayor of the munici- pality. During the last year of his residence there he engaged in the practice of law, being associated with the Hon. C. E. De Long, until the time of the latter's appointment as minister to Japan by President Grant in the fall of 1868.
It was in 1868 that Mr. Slauson finally reached the coast, locating in San Francisco in the latter part of that year, and remaining in the Bay city for six years. In 1874 he came to Los Angeles, and from that time until his death was a promi- nent factor in the affairs of the southern part of the state. His first great work in Los Angeles was the organization and establishment of the old Los Angeles County Bank, to the affairs of which he devoted ten years of his time, and when, in 1885, he sold his interests to John E. Plater, the institution was recognized as the soundest in the state. He was a director of the railroad and wharf built at Santa Monica nearly forty years ago, and aided materially in its upbuilding, Sen- ator John P. Jones being the prime factor in the enterprise. Still another activity was represented by the establishment of the first street railway in Los Angeles.
The principal interest of Mr. Slauson, however, centered in real estate, and one of his most im- portant investments was his purchase, just prior to 1885, of the old Azusa ranch, comprising some fifty-eight hundred acres of choice foothill land lying about twenty-three miles east of the city. Later he also purchased the San Jose ranch, ad- joining the Azusa property, making in all a total of thirteen thousand six hundred acres, the mar- ket value of which was then only nominal. The Azusa ranch, with the exception of some five hundred acres, was sold to J. D. Bicknell, I. W. Hellman and others, Mr. Slauson retaining a heavy interest. He then organized the Azusa Land and Water Company for the development of this vast tract, becoming himself the president and manager of the undertaking. The town of Azusa was put on the market on April 1, 1887, having been previously laid out in eighty blocks of from twenty-four to fifty lots each, and the following year the Santa Fe Railroad was com- pleted, this giving renewed impetus to the under- taking which was so dear to the heart of its founder. This same year the San Jose tract was
also disposed of, and Mr. Slauson began to give time and energy to the development of his own tract of five hundred acres, planting it to orange and lemon trees, and eventually making of it one of the handsomest and most productive groves in the citrus belt, as well as one of the most at- tractive. He established his own private packing and shipping plant, and in many ways added to the general development of the community. As- sociated with him in this enterprise were his chil- dren, the company being known as the Foot-Hill Citrus Company, while in addition Mr. Slauson owned much valuable realty in the city of Los Angeles, and also another valuable tract of two hundred and fifty acres in the foot hills of the citrus belt, which he also had planted to oranges and lemons.
While his private undertakings were so exten- sive, they did not occupy the attention of this worthy citizen to the exclusion of his interest in public affairs, and his record in this line leaves nothing to be desired. He was one of the organ- izers of the local Chamber of Commerce, being at all times active in its undertakings, and having served as its president in its early days, also making the speech incidental to the laying of the corner stone, in March, 1904, when the present building was dedicated. He served efficiently as a director of the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany, also on several of Mr. Huntington's electric lines, and otherwise aided in the development of the railroads in and about the city. In his interest in charitable, philanthropic and religious work Mr. Slauson was untiring. A few of the institu- tions that owe their origin and success to him are the Boys' Home, at Garvanza, which he aided in establishing together with the matron, Mrs. Watson; the Los Angeles orphan asylum, which he helped to organize, both he and his son-in-law, H. L. MacNeil, giving $1000 each, and raising a sum of $19,000 toward the purchase of the build- ing, which was presented to the organization free of indebtedness. The Young Men's Christian Association was also one of his active interests and he gave freely toward its good works. The gathering of the fund for the erection of the monument in honor of the men who perished dur- ing the Spanish-American war, and which now stands in Central Park, was also his work. In his religious work Mr. Slauson covered a wide scope and did good that cannot possibly be estimated. When he came to Los Angeles in
BCHubbell
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
1874 there were but five weak Protestant churches between San Jose and the Mexican line, and up to 1887 there were but five churches in this county that he had not helped to establish. Although himself a loyal member of the Presbyterian church from early manhood, he gave freely to all denominations of his hope, courage, and material sustenance, and during the years from 1875 to 1887 he had expended more than $45,000 of his own private fortune in aiding and upbuilding the cause of Protestant Christianity in California. He did not stop with such help, however, but gave as freely of his affection and sympathy, starting many a falterer on the straight and upward path. His work among the fallen was so well known that he was often referred to as "Sergeant Nellie Truelove's best private."
In his social life Mr. Slauson was known as a delightful companion, and a true friend. He was popular with a wide circle of friends and acquain- tances for his genial disposition, his frank sin- cerity, and his warm-hearted love for humanity. His marriage occurred in 1858, uniting him with Miss Sarahı R. Bloom. Of this union were born three children, two daughters and a son, all of whom are well and favorably known in Los An- geles, the daughters, Mrs. Kate S. Vosburg and Mrs. H. L. McNeil, being both prominent socially, while the son, James Slauson, is equally well known. 1204189
JUDGE STEPHEN CHARLES HUB- BELL. As one of the men whose names are linked indissolubly with the early history of Los Angeles, and whose ability and strength, judgment and resources have been freely ex- pended for the welfare of their fair city since first they came to reside within her confines, Judge Stephen Charles Hubbell will be honored and respected by all true sons and daughters of the Angel City so long as he may live, and rever- ently remembered when he shall at last have passed into the great beyond, for in the annals of the city there has been no more loyal sup- porter of her fair name than he, none more devoted to her welfare, nor more prominently and practically connected with her develop- ment and upbuilding. He was one of the organ- izers of the first street railway company, and its first president ; he was a member of the first park commission, and for many years
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