USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume II > Part 31
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Mrs. McDonald is known as a generous and philanthropic woman and her good works are legion. She is a prominent member of the English Lutheran Church on West Thirty-sixth place, and is also well known in Odd Fellow circles and a popular member of the Rebekahs.
JOHN F. McELHENEY. To be remembered by a host of friends as always kind, considerate and thoughtful-by an even larger number of general and business acquaintances for the same kindness, consideration and thoughtfulness in this less personal field, and to rank among the busi- ness men of a great city as a man of sterling worth, integrity of character and stanch business principles, is no mean record to leave behind on crossing the "Great Divide." And it is such a record that remains with all who knew John F. McElheney, either as friend, acquaintance or business associate during the long years of his residence in Los Angeles.
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Although born in New York state, Mr. Mc- Elheney passed the greater part of his life on the Pacific coast, and most of that time in Los An- geles. He was born in New York City, August 18, 1864, the son of James and Alice McElheney. The father gave up his life for his country, he having enlisted in the Civil war, and thereafter the mother continued to live in New York, where the son later received his education in the public schools. When about sixteen years of age Mr. McElheney came to San Francisco with the family and, apprenticing himself to a printer, devoted his energies to the mastery of the trade. For five years he remained in the Bay city, and then came south to Los Angeles.
While San Francisco had, to the mind of the sixteen-year-old lad, been really a city of dreams, to the young man Los Angeles was the realization of these dreams, and here he determined to re- main. Eventually he established himself in busi- ness, organizing the McElheney Printing Com- pany, which is at present one of the best known printing houses in the city. Beginning in a small way, this enterprise grew and flourished under the able management of Mr. McElheney, who contin- ued as the active head of the establishment up to the time of his death. As a result he has left a monument of stability and prosperity which is well worthy the splendid business record of its founder.
Although quiet and conservative in manner, Mr. McElheney was nevertheless closely associated with the life of the city in many ways, and his influence was felt wherever he was to be found. He was a charter member of the Knights of Columbus in Los Angeles, and was an important factor in the organization of the order here, and also in its prosperity and growth, especially dur- ing those first vital years, when the society was young. He served in numerous capacities. at one time being deputy grand knight. He was a life- long believer in the Catholic faith and a communi- cant at St. Vincent's church. Fraternally he was a member of Los Angeles Lodge No. 99, B. P. O. E., in which he had many friends and admirers.
During the year 1909 Mr. McElheney returned to New York City for a brief visit and while there was married to Miss Ave Maria Martin, on Sep- tember 15, in St. Patrick's Cathedral. Mrs. Mc- Elheney was the daughter of Walter and Mar- garet Martin. Following his marriage in New York Mr. McElheney returned to Los Angeles
with his bride and established a pleasant home. Here his children, John and Alice, were born, and here, together with their mother, they still reside. In the death of John McElheney, which occurred February 13, 1913. Los Angeles lost one of her stanchest and most loyal citizens.
JAMES H. BLANCHARD. A man well known in legal circles and an active citizen in Los Angeles for almost thirty-five years is James H. Blanchard, who has watched the city's growth from a straggling village, until today it can make the boast of being the metropolis of the Pacific coast. A native of Michigan, he was born in Niles in December, 1847, a son of Jonathan and Matilda (Ingraham) Blanchard, the latter horn in New York. The father was a descendant of New England ancestors, and he himself was born in the East, his parents then living in Vermont. Until attaining mature years his life was as- sociated with scenes and events surrounding his birthplace, but subsequently he removed to New York state, still later going to Michigan. It was in the latter state that his marriage with Miss Ingraham occurred, and there the parents rounded out their lives, the father passing away in 1864 and the mother surviving until 1889. From the latter state the father answered the summons for able-bodied men in the defense of the cause of the north, enlisting as a member of the Twenty-sixth Michigan Infantry, and was appointed chaplain of the regiment.
Of the two sons comprising the parental family Harlow L. makes his home in Santa Monica, while James H. is the attorney of Los Angeles previously mentioned. From the common schools in the vicinity of his Michigan home he passed to the high school, his training there fitting him for entry into the University of Michigan, graduating from the literary department in 1870, and from the law department in 1872. It was with this preparation that he came to Los Angeles the fol- lowing year and opened a law office. Substantial growth in any line of endeavor is often apt to be slow, and for that very reason when the object sought has been gained it is cherished all the more for the labor and patience expended. This has been the experience of Mr. Blanchard, for the large practice which he controls today represents the labor and study of years. As a recompense
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he has the satisfaction of claiming as his clients many of the well-known and influential business men of Los Angeles. His office is in the Temple block.
It was some time after his location in Los Angeles that Mr. Blanchard met the lady who was to become his wife, his marriage with Miss Lucy U. Shackelford occurring in this city in 1884. She is of southern parentage and was born in Virginia. Mr. Blanchard is esteemed for his many admirable and exemplary traits of character. his unfailing good nature and general interest in all that tends to benefit his home city. The pos- session of these qualities shows nowhere more prominently than in the work connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is a member, and as a member of the visiting commit- tee of the City Hospital.
ABRAM EHLE POMEROY. To Abram Ehle Pomeroy, as well as to his father, Charles Watrous Pomeroy, California owes much, A. E. Pomeroy being a prominent capitalist of the city of Los Angeles, actively interested in the develop- ment of the new towns in this section of the state, in railroad enterprises and in corporations which have made possible the erection of thou- sands of new buildings in Los Angeles, while the father was a conspicuous figure in connection with the earlier development of the state.
On both sides of the family Mr. Pomeroy is descended from New England forbears who were active in the history of our country in colonial days, the yet earlier ancestors of the family hav- ing been connected with the Normans in Eng- land. Born in Clinton, Lenawee county, Mich., October 2, 1838, Abram Ehle Pomeroy was one of a family of eight children, his father being Charles Watrous Pomeroy, a native of New York state, where he was born in 1833, and his mother Permelia (Valentine) Pomeroy, who was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., December 9, 1815, and died at San Jose, Cal., July 20, 1877. The father was a pioneer settler in Michigan while that state was yet a territory, being a captain in the Black Hawk war in that part of the country, and was later a pioneer also in California, where the family removed in 1850, settling in Santa Clara county while Abram Ehle Pomeroy was but a boy. The son's education was received in
the public schools of San Jose, Cal., and in the University of the Pacific, where he was graduated in 1863 with the degre of B. A. While completing his education, Mr. Pomeroy was also gaining ex- perience in the newspaper world at the office of the Courier, published at Shasta, Cal., where he rose from the office of "printer's devil" to that of a compositor. Almost immediately upon his graduation from the university, Mr. Pomeroy was appointed to the position of deputy county clerk of Santa Clara county, and later to that of county clerk, which office he filled for four years, thus being engaged with the affairs of this office for a period of eight years in all. In the busi- ness world, he established himself in the grocery and hardware business in San Jose, the county- seat of Santa Clara county, a town in the up- building of which his father had been one of the most active workers, holding the offices there of councilman, member of the board of education and treasurer of the county, and well known in the promotion of railroad interests. Until 1881 A. E. Pomeroy continued to be known among the prominent business men of San Jose, in which year he removed to Los Angeles, where he has since made his home and risen to distinction in real estate operations, in the developing and open- ing up of new territory and the laying out of new towns, both inland and beach cities, among which may be mentioned such flourishing and attractive towns at Long Beach, Alhambra, Gardena, Her- mosa, Burbank, San Jacinto and San Bernardino. In his influential position as a substantial capitalist of the city, Mr. Pomeroy is enabled to promote the interest of numerous financial institutions in Southern California, and he is especially well known in connection with the work of the State Mutual Building & Loan Association of Los An- geles, which has aided materially in the upbuild- ing of this city, extending loans that have been instrumental in the erecting of a vast number of new buildings. Of the State Mutual Building & Loan Association of Los Angeles, Mr. Pomeroy is vice-president, being also trustee and secretary of the University of Southern California and a charter member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the California Club. For nine years he was president of the board of trustees of the California State Normal School at Los An- geles, also having served as president of the board of education of this city. Fraternally he is a Mason, having attained to the thirty-second de-
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gree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, while in his political interests he is a member of the Republican party. Both he and his wife are members and generous supporters of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church.
A mere boy at the time of the removal of his family to California in the pioneer days, the life interests of Mr. Pomeroy have been wrapped up in the welfare and progress of his adopted home, where he may almost be called a "native son," since his education was received here, and all his business and other interests center here, and the names of both himself and his father, who died at the home of his son in Los Angeles in 1908, hold a high place among the loyal promoters of the interests of California.
CHARLES WATROUS POMEROY. To trace one's pedigree back to a knight of William the Conqueror while that ruler was yet in his ducal domain in Normandy is a remarkable dis- tinction for an American of today, and lends to a present-day American family somewhat of the glamor attaching to the old families of Great Britain whose ancestors were kings and who have dwelt proudly among escutcheons and retainers in baronial halls such as Sir Walter Scott loves to describe. The family of Pomeroy, now an extensive one in this coun- try, can claim for itself this honor, being de- scended from one of the knights of the Norman Conqueror, who fought at the Battle of Hastings which marked the downfall of the old Saxon rule in England, and whose family, like those of all the Normans, held itself superior to the cruder Saxons whom they had conquered. The first emigration of the Pomeroy family from England was in the time of Queen Elizabeth's reign when one of this name left for Ireland, where his de- scendant a couple of centuries later was given the titles of baron and viscount. The American branch of the family is descended from two broth- ers, Eltweed and Eldad, who came from Eng- land in 1630 and settled in Dorchester, Mass., removing about ten years later to Windsor, Conn., where their descendants were among the early settlers of the cities of Somers and Suffield, as well as of Northampton, Mass.
The family of Charles Watrous Pomeroy, now deceased, one of the pioneers of California and
among the most active spirits in the upbuilding of the city of San Jose, Cal., is in direct descent from Eltweed Pomeroy, one of the brothers who came from England to Massachusetts in the seventeenth century. Another worthy ancestor of the family after its coming to this country was Charles Pom- eroy of the fifth generation, born April 22, 1749, who served as a sergeant in the Revolutionary war, having enlisted July 8, 1775, and was present at the siege of Boston in the regiment of Col. Thomas Webb, his home being at Colchester, Conn., whence he went to Saybrook, Conn., while engaged in business as a merchant, his death oc- curring in the year 1785.
Charles Watrous Pomeroy of the seventh gener- ation, was born April 18, 1808, at Minden, Mont- gomery county, N. Y., where he was married Sep- tember 18, 1833, to Permelia Valentine, who was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., December 9, 1815, the daughter of John Valentine, of New Eng- land parentage, and died at San Jose, Cal., July 20, 1877. Mr. Pomeroy's life was one of con- stant service in the new lands in the western part of our country. While Michigan was a ter- ritory, he was a captain in the Black Hawk war in that section of the country. In January, 1850, he came to California, where he became perhaps the best known of the pioneers of the state, being one of those most actively engaged in the build- ing up of the city of San Jose, where he lived until 1896, being a councilman there for eight years and a member of the board of education for ten years, also holding the position of treasurer of Santa Clara county wherein the city of San Jose is located, and being known as the oldest Odd Fellow in the state, having joined that order upon first coming to California. He was also a member of the Republican party and a staunch upholder of its principles from its inception until the time of his death. Among the most worthy pioneers of this state, Mr. Pomeroy's name deserves a high place, and to him is due the credit for much of the railroad activity which took place in the section of the state where he resided, he being prominently associated with the establishment of the old Sacramento and Shingle Springs Railroad which was the nucleus about which grew up the great Central Pacific Railroad system. In this primitive work, which was, however, at that time one of great importance and significance, Mr. Pomeroy was associated with the late Theodore
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P. Judah, well known in the construction of the first overland railroad, and the difficulty and ex- pense entailed by railroad building in those early days are shown by the fact that the rails for the work had to be brought across the Isthmus of Panama and then inland by ox teams.
By his first wife, Mr. Pomeroy was the father of eight children, namely: Henry, born August 24, 1835, at Clinton, Lenawee county, Mich., who died May 3, 1837, at Mishawaka, Ind .; Abram Ehle, born October 2, 1838, at Clinton, Mich., and now residing at Los Angeles, Cal., where he has been active in the development of numerous flourishing towns in Southern Cali- fornia, including several of the beach cities ; Ed- gar, born October 21, 1841, on Cripe Farm, near Mishawaka, Ind., now residing at San Jose, Cal .; Charles Henry, born October 24, 1843, at Misha- waka, Ind., died July 27, 1867, at San Jose, Cal., having been Secretary of the Supreme Court of the State of California, and Assistant Adjutant General of California; George, born March 11, 1846, at Mishawaka, Ind., now residing in Los Angeles ; Mary, born November 16, 1848, at La- porte, Ind., and died August 14, 1853, in Shasta county, Cal .; Harriet Eliza, born January 19, 1854, and died June 16, 1866, at San Jose; John Valentine, born April 10, 1858, at San Jose, and died there January 18, 1860. The second marriage of Mr. Pomeroy was with Mary Valentine Smith at San Francisco, October 18, 1886, who died at San Jose October 10, 1888. Mr. Pomeroy him- self died at the home of his son Abram Ehle Pomeroy, in Los Angeles, May 11, 1908, at the age of ninety-nine years, where he had gone to pass the remaining years of his life after retire- ment in 1896 from his official position in the bank of San Jose. Old age brought a peaceful deatlı while he was sitting in his chair, and his remains were taken to San Jose, his old home town, for interment. To his son, Abram Ehle Pomeroy, as well as to himself, California owes much, the son being a prominent capitalist of the city of Los Angeles, actively interested in the development of the new towns in that section of the state, in railroad enterprises and in corpora- tions which have made possible the erection of thousands of new buildings in Los Angeles, while the father was a conspicuous figure in connection with the earlier development of the state.
GEORGE FINLEY BOVARD. The migra- tion of a family from one country to another and from that land to a third in the old days of persecution provides an interesting historical background for a family of the present day. Such is the ancestral history of Dr. George Finley Bovard, at one time a Methodist preacher, now president of the University of Southern Califor- nia. The name of Dr. Bovard is easily traced back to France, whence the massacre of St. Bar- tholomew drove the Huguenots to take refuge in Ireland, and there on the Emerald Isle George Bovard, the grandfather of Dr. Bovard, was born, and thence he came in young manhood to make for himself a pioneer home in the wild forests of America, where his son James was born. While very young, James Bovard settled near Alpha, Ind., creating for himself a profitable farm from the dense forest lands. During the Civil war he was ardent in upholding Union principles, and served as a member of Company K, One Hundred and Twentieth Indiana Infantry, being assigned to the Twenty-third Army Corps and sent to take part in various engagements in the south. At the close of the war James Bovard returned to his life upon the farm and his large family who became well known in later years for the bril- liancy of their intellectual attainments. The wife of James Bovard was Sarah Young, the daughter of Abner Young of Pennsylvania, a pioneer farmer near Cincinnati. The only daughter of the family, Mrs. Maria J. Griffith of Abingdon, Ill., died in 1911. Eight of their eleven sons are still living and all have engaged in intellectual pursuits and have been a source of pride to their parents. Freeman D. Bovard, a graduate of Depauw University, Greencastle, Ind., was vice- president of the University of Southern Cali- fornia for five years, and is at present one of the general secretaries of the Board of Home Mis- sions and Church Extension, with headquarters in Philadelphia. Rev. Marion McK. Bovard, also a graduate of Depauw University, was active in the founding of the University of Southern Cali- fornia, where he held the office of president until his death in 1891; William, a graduate of the University of Southern California, now holds the position of general secretary of the Methodist Brotherhood and superintendent of the Adult Bible work of the Sunday School Board, with headquarters in Chicago; Rev. Melville Y., edu- cated at Moore's Hill, Ind., is pastor of the First
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Methodist Episcopal Church at Rutherford, N. J .; Rev. Charles L. is president of Montana Wesleyan University, Helena, Mont .; Abner C. is engaged in newspaper work in Kansas City, Mo .; Ulysses Grant is in the banking business at Dupont, Ind .; and Morton Ellsworth is engaged in farming near Abingdon, Ill.
George Finley Bovard, one of the sons of this large family, was born on the Indiana farm, August 8, 1856, receiving his early education in country schools and supplementing it with a course at the State Normal School at Paoli, Ind., and at Depauw University, Greencastle, Ind., during which latter course he also taught school until the close application to books undermined his health, and he joined his brothers in California in 1879. Arrived in California, he was licensed to preach, and his first sermon was given at a camp meeting near the town of Compton. In the autumn of the same year he was appointed to the position of supply pastor in the Methodist Epis- copal church at San Bernardino, and for a year served as a missionary in Arizona with headquar- ters at Phoenix, then a very small and crude town. There he organized a Methodist church on the corner of Second and Washington streets on a lot which the church later sold for fifty times the original price when they removed to Second and Monroe streets, where the present handsome structure stands. Returning to Los Angeles in 1881, Mr. Bovard, like his brothers, devoted him- self to university instruction, teaching classes in history and English while also pursuing his own studies and preaching every Sunday. His con- stant efforts were crowned by the bestowal of the degrees of A. B. and A. M., after which he pre- sided as elder of the Pasadena and Los Angeles districts and as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Orange, Cal., and the Boyle Heights church, Los Angeles, also acting as superinten- dent of the Methodist Episcopal missions in Arizona for seven years and as delegate to the general conferences of the Methodist Episcopal church held respectively in Chicago in 1900 and in Los Angeles in 1904.
Since the year 1903 Dr. Bovard has been presi- dent of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, an institution which includes nine colleges and a preparatory school, and of which his brother, Rev. Marion Bovard, was the first president and his brothers Freeman and Marion among the organizers, so that the name of Bovard
has been from the first to the present time closely associated with the progress of the university.
The marriage of Dr. Bovard with Miss Emma J. Bradley, daughter of Cyrus H. Bradley, one of the pioneers of California and a merchant in the early days of Los Angeles, was solemnized in Los Angeles, October 1, 1884, and they are the parents of three children, Warren B., Edna G. and Gladys F. Dr. Bovard is a Republican in principles, and is identified with the Archeological Institute of the Southwest, the Los Angeles Academy of Science, the American Historical Association, the International Geographical Association, the Torrey Botanical Club of New York, and the Historical Society of Southern California. In 1896 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Willamette Uni- versity; in 1910 Syracuse University of New York conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and in 1913 the Senate of the Philological Society of London conferred upon him the degree of Fellow of the Society of Philology.
WILLIAM ROBERT MERGELL. It was not in the midst of the most inviting business conditions that Mr. Mergell came to Los Angeles, for a reaction had started from the boom of 1887, a financial stringency was retarding the growth of the city and a general atmosphere of depression prevailed. Yet to the careful observer (and such was he) many things indicated a quick return to normal activities and a future growth of great proportions. A new city charter was adopted about this time and brought with it a complete change in the membership of the city council. Progressive municipal action became the theme of civic authorities. The inhabitants, numbering about fifty thousand, soon began to recover from the most discouraging incidents of the depression of 1889. As expansion became the watchword of the day, so too the business under the supervision of Mr. Mergell began to broaden and now the Dromgold Sign Company (at first a very small institution) is a large and prosperous concern, whose advancement was mainly due to the efforts of Mr. Mergell as secretary and manager. The company has made a specialty of decorative paint- ing and sign writing, in which arts he was a specialist, surpassed by few men of his generation or locality.
Coward -Schmidt
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William Robert Mergell was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., on New Year's day of 1847, a son of Charles S. and Josephine Mergell, and died in Los Angeles, November 18, 1912, at the age of about sixty-five years. On leaving the public schools of Brooklyn he had served an apprentice- ship to the trade of cabinetmaker. Afterward he took up decorative painting and sign writing. Finding this more interesting than his former trade, he gave to it the entire attention of his mature years, following the occupation in Brook- iyn until 1867, then in Omaha, Neb .. for twenty years, and in San Diego from 1887 to 1889, after which he was identified with the same business in Los Angeles continuously until his death. His identification with the one line of work covered a period of about one-half century. In every com- munity of his residence he stood foremost among inen of his craft. It was his ambition to do the very best work possible and to use artistic taste as well as neatness in the filling of orders. As a result he was regarded as a master of his trade and rose to success through efficiency and skill. The only fraternal order to which he allied him- self was the Tent of the Maccabees and among the Knights he was always popular. While still living in Brooklyn, N. Y., he there married. June 22, 1864, Miss Sophia F. Harraden, daughter of Edward B. and Fannie Harraden. Twelve chil- dren were born of their union, one dying un- named in infancy and three, Fannie, Mabel and William, later in life. The four daughters and four sons now living are named as follows : Alice ; Josephine; Sophia ; Florence; Charles F., man- ager of the Central Decorating Company in Los Angeles ; J. Edward, who is engaged in the paint- ing business ; Roy, connected with a produce busi- ness, also in Los Angeles; and George, now of Washington, D. C., who is employed as an elec- trician with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
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