USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume II > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
The marriage of Joaquin Abascal in 1878 united him with Elizabeth Clark, a native of Con- nellsville, Pa., and a daughter of John and Mary (Andrews) Clark, the former a descendant of north of Ireland forbears. Ever since the death of Mr. Abascal, his widow has made her perma- nent home on Commonwealth avenue, Los An- geles. The only other surviving member of the
287
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
family is Mrs. McKenzie, of New York. To a large degree Mrs. Abascal has inherited the qual- ities that gave influence and forceful results to the life of her mother, the revered Mary Andrews Clark, who was born in 1814 and entered into eternal rest in 1905 at the venerable age of ninety- one. During the last twenty-four years of her life she had been familiar with the growth of Los Angeles, having come here in 1881 with her daughters, Mrs. James Newell, Mrs. T. F. Miller and Miss Anna Clark. From that time until her death she was a helpful agent in charities and progressive movements. The King's Daughters Day Nursery and the Presbyterian school for Spanish girls were largely benefited by her co- operation, and her interest in the Young Woman's Christian Association was so deep that in 1913 her son, ex-Senator William Andrews Clark, one of the leading industrial, mining and railroad pro- moters of the west, erected as a tribute to her memory a magnificent memorial home on Loma Drive in the Crown Hill section of Los Angeles and presented it to the Association to be used as a home for business women.
CHARLES V. BOQUIST. Coming to Cali- fornia in 1852, for many years Mr. Boquist en- gaged in the mining and livestock business throughout the Southwest, a pioneer and a man who knew the great Golden State from end to end and who loved her as his very own. Al- though for a number of years previous to his death, which occurred May 13, 1913, he had lived quietly in Los Angeles county, Mr. Boquist, in his younger days was a man of considerable dar- ing and the adventuresome life of the pioneer days in California was altogether to his liking. He came to San Francisco first in 1852, remaining in the city until the great gold discoveries the fol- lowing year called every free man to the mining camps, where he engaged in placer mining. The first stampede took him to Virginia City, he being one of the first men to reach that region. There he remained for a number of years, or while the excitement was at its height, amassing an appre- ciable fortune by his mining efforts. Later, tiring of mining, he removed to Petaluma, and later still to Ventura, where he engaged in the cattle and livery business, again meeting with much success in both ventures. The growth of Los Angeles
attracted his attention at a very early period and after disposing of his interests at Ventura he came to the Angel City in 1881. Thereafter he made his permanent home in Los Angeles county, save only for a few years which he spent in Arizona, whither he went in response to the lure of a mining excitement, remaining both to further his interests in the mines and to engage again in the livestock business.
The lure of home, however, proved too strong, and after a short time in Arizona Mr. Boquist re- turned to Los Angeles county never again to leave it, save for a brief business or pleasure trip. During his first residence here he organized the Los Angeles Transfer Company, which he man- aged and conducted for a number of years, dis- posing of his interests, however, when he went to Arizona. On his return to this city he practi- cally retired from active business, although he always kept in close touch with his personal busi- ness affairs, and took a keen interest in all that concerned the city or the general public welfare.
Mr. Boquist was a native of Sweden, having been born in Stockholm, in February, 1835. His boyhood was spent in his native city and his early education received in the public schools of Gefle. He married Miss Laura Brewster in Virginia City, Nev., in 1865, and throughout all his adventure- some wanderings she was his close companion and helpmeet. Of their union were born three daughters and a son, all of whom are still living and who make their homes in Los Angeles. They are: Mrs. W. W. Tritt, Mrs. C. G. Jepson, Mrs. W. K. Bowker, and Charles V. Boquist, Jr., who for a number of years has been connected with the City Engineer's office. Mrs. Boquist also sur- vives her husband, and makes her home in Ocean Park.
For many years Mr. Boquist was well known in Los Angeles and his friends and business asso- ciates remember him as a man of sterling worth and great integrity of character. His death, which occurred on the ranch of the California-Mexico Land and Cattle Company, at Calexico. Cal., was the result of apoplexy, and came quite unexpect- edly, he having been in good health and spirits, and his visit to the ranch, of which his son-in-law, W. K. Bowker, was superintendent, being for pleasure and recreation. He is remembered by many California pioneers with the highest es- teem, and his death removed one of the most
288
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
striking and picturesque figures the Southland has ever known.
In his associations with the early affairs of the state, Mr. Boquist acquired a wonderful fund of information and an endless supply of tales of in- terest regarding the life in Virginia City and other mining towns of the famous days of the gold rush that would have made a historical record of rare value had they been preserved. In his associations with the city of Los Angeles he always had the greatest faith in its future great- ness, and even the marvelous growth made by the city during his latter years refused to draw from him more than an appreciative "I told you so."
EMMA L. HAWKS. One of the most promi- nent women in the educational affairs of South- ern California for many years past is Miss Emma L. Hawks, now president of the Board of Trus- tees of the Bonita high school, but engaged prin- cipally in citrus culture on her splendid ranch at San Dimas. Miss Hawks was formerly connected with leading educational institutions for many years in Los Angeles, where she ranked high as an instructor. Since taking up her residence on her fruit ranch she has been especially successful in its care and management, having made a thor- ough and exhaustive study of horticulture, and has gained a state-wide reputation as a horti- culturist of more than ordinary ability.
Miss Hawks is a native of Rochester, N. Y. After her graduation from the Rochester Free Academy she attended Vassar College, grad- uating therefrom with honors. She is a member of the Phi-Beta-Kappa fraternity. In 1874 Miss Hawks came to Los Angeles, having accepted a position with the Los Angeles high school as teacher of English and science. After filling this position with great satisfaction for three years she returned to Rochester, N. Y., to accept a position with the Rochester Free Academy as pre- ceptress, which she occupied for a year. She then became vice-principal of the New Brunswick high school, at New Brunswick, N. J., remaining in this capacity for four years, when she was again called to Los Angeles, this time to accept the position of preceptress at the State Normal school. At the end of twelve years Miss Hawks resigned from the Normal faculty and came to San Dimas
to reside on her fruit ranch, which she had pur- chased some time before, and which was then just coming into bearing. Citrus fruits are her specialty, there being oranges in the Valencia, tangerine and Washington navel varieties, lem- ons and grape fruit. This ranch is one of the most productive in the citrus belt and as Miss Hawks gives her personal attention to its super- vision, the credit is largely due to her.
While a resident of Los Angeles Miss Hawks took a prominent part in local affairs, particu- larly in those of a social or an educational nature. Since coming to San Dimas to make her home she has added to the social and educational list a wide variety of commercial interests, for she has become a rancher in the truest sense of the word and has familiarized herself with the va- rious activities of the ranch life. She is a mem- ber of two water boards, the Frostless Belt Water Company and the Cienega Water Company, and a member of several citrus associations. In so- cial and educational lines Miss Hawks will always be a prominent factor in any community where she may choose to reside, and her opinion always bears great weight with those who know her. She is now a member of the board of directors of the Covina Wednesday Afternoon Club, a member of the Associate Collegiate Alumnae of Los An- geles, the Vassar College Club of Los Angeles, and of the College Woman's Club, also of Los Angeles.
EDGAR ROBINSON COFFMAN. De- scended from a long line of German ancestry, representatives of which had settled in Pennsyl- vania in an early day, Edgar Robinson Coffman is himself a native of Virginia, born December 24, 1837, near Fincastle, Botetourt county, where the family ranked among the prominent residents of the Old Dominion. His grandfather, Jacob Coffman, was a farmer and a large owner of land and slaves. His eldest son, Samuel A., who was a bugler in the Black Horse Cavalry Militia in Virginia, moved to Kansas in 1855 with his fam- ily and located in Jefferson county, where, under territorial rule, he served as a justice of the peace. He passed the remainder of his life in Kansas, living to be seventy-five. He married Mary, the daughter of Henry Stair, who was at one time a very influential citizen of Virginia and a descend-
An. Ttowill
291
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
ant of one of the best families. She was a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of her children nine reached the age of maturity. When Samuel A. Coffman moved with his fam- ily to Kansas his son Edgar R. was eighteen years of age. He helped his father with the clearing and improvement of the farm, and later took up a government claim himself, filing on one hundred and sixty acres. He was a lover of dogs and fond of hunting and one of his prized experiences was a buffalo hunt in 1859, when he and five com- panions joined forces with six other men of the plains and hunted buffalo for three weeks, killing thirty-two head. It was in 1861 that Mr. Coff- man eventually came to California with his brother. Charles A., crossing the plains with twenty-five head of mules for use in freighting in California and Nevada. At the end of three months out from Kansas they arrived at Marys- ville, Yuba county, and for nine years succeeding they engaged in freighting, making that city their headquarters. Following this Edgar R. Coffman engaged in farming in Yuba county for six years, from 1870 to 1876, raising principally grain. He owned a ranch of seven hundred and forty acres, but in 1876 he sold this and returned east. Later in the same year, however, he came again to Cali- fornia, locating this time in Los Angeles county, and purchasing the property comprising his pres- ent home place at Irwindale. Originally this tract numbered one hundred and five acres, but since that time Mr. Coffman has sold off portions of his acreage until he now has but thirty-seven acres left. For a time he engaged in the nursery business, but eventually he planted his property to oranges and for many years has been one of the leading orange growers of the region.
The home place is named Del Mae, in honor of Mr. Coffman's two daughters, Della and Mae. There are two sons also, and when they reached the age of maturity the father gave one-half and sold one-half of fifteen acres to each, and they are now both successful fruit growers located near their father. Each has since added more land adjoining to his ranch, and now each owns valuable property near Irwindale.
Mr. Coffman has taken a very prominent part in developing the resources of the San Gabriel valley, and has made his influence especially felt in the matter of the water supply. He was fore- most among the pioneers in water development in this locality, and was a charter member of the
Azusa Irrigating Company, and also a member of the committee of nine who governed the sys- tem. He is a member of the Irwindale Citrus As- sociation and of the Irwindale Land and Water Company. In his political preferment he is a Democrat, but he seldom follows party lines save in national elections, all local questions being de- cided according to their respective merits, irre- spective of party lines.
The marriage of Mr. Coffman and Miss Vir- ginia A. Treace was solemnized March 19, 1868. Mrs. Coffman is a native of Wisconsin, and came to California with her parents in 1853. She bore her husband seven children, two daughters and five sons. Of these Charles H. and Edgar T. are well-known fruit growers of Irwindale ; Della V. is the wife of E. E. Washburn ; and Etta Mae is the wife of T. H. Costenbader, of Los Angeles. Three sons died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Coff- man and two daughters are members of the Methodist church.
NATHAN WILSON STOWELL. The his- tory of the family of Nathan Wilson Stowell. a financier of Los Angeles, Cal., is closely inter- woven with the story of the settlement of New England and the war for American independence. The story of the family would not be complete. however, without some account of the ancestors of the Stowells in England, the descent being from Sir Adam de Coveston, who came to Eng- land at the time of the Norman Conquest. settling in Somersetshire. where he became the founder of an illustrious family. One of the most notable of the English Stowells was Sir John. a loyal cavalier and a member of the Long Parliament. whose descendants later settled in Ireland. where they had received grants of land from the British sovereign, and where they founded a family which is today both numerous and prosperous. The earliest member of the family in America was Samuel Stowell, who founded the American branch of the family. and whose son Israel was born in 1670. Isaac. the son of Israel, was born in 1707, and his son Thaddeus became the great- grandfather of Nathan Wilson Stowell. having been born in 1751 and having served in the Revo- lutionary war. His son Jesse was born in 1775. and married Mary Talbot. who was the daugh- ter of Nathaniel Talbot, of Roxbury, Mass., a
292
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
private and sergeant in the American army. Ab- ner, the son of Jesse and Mary Stowell, was born in 1805, and became the father of Nathan Wilson Stowell.
On his mother's side the ancestry of Mr. Stowell is no less interesting. His grandmother, Polly (Odiorne) Sanborn, was a descendant of John Odiorne, the settler of Odiorne's Point, N. H., the place where it is said that the first colonists in that state settled. John, the son of this John Odiorne, was born about the year 1675, and his son Nathaniel, the great-grandfather of Nathan Wilson Stowell, was well known as the com- mander of a privateer during the Revolution, a means instituted by the Colonists for preying upon British vessels and thus harassing the commerce of England, and in 1775 the records also show that Nathaniel Odiorne was also commander of the Twenty-first Company of New Hampshire militia. Since the Odiornes, from earliest times, were fisher folk who made yearly fish- ing excursions upon the Atlantic, it is not surprising that Captain Odiorne should have so signally distinguished himself on the sea in the aid of his country. On the last voy- age, however, of the Lee, the privateer of which he was commander, the vessel was lost, with all on board, the captain having with him one hundred and forty-four men. His daughter, Polly, became the wife of Abraham Sanborn, Jr., and their daughter, Eliza N., married Abner Stowell, they becoming the parents of Nathan W. Stowell.
The career of Nathan W. Stowell him- self, though taking place in a more peaceful pe- riod of the country's history, has been hardly less important and heroic than that of his ances- tors. Born in Claremont, N. H., on December 15, 1851, he received his early education in the pub- lic schools of his home town, later studying at the Stevens high school in Claremont, and at the Vaughan Union Academy. His first position was with the Whitney Water Wheel Works in Leominster, Mass., and there he acquired his first practical understanding of hydraulics which afterwards proved of paramount importance dur- ing his irrigation projects in the west.
The year 1874 saw Mr. Stowell's departure from New England for the newer country of the west. Arrived in Los Angeles, Cal., he was for four years engaged in the building construction business, and from the first met with eminent
success. Later he undertook the manufacture of irrigation pipes, under the name of the Stowell Cement Pipe Company, of which he was the sole proprietor, his interest in the reclaiming of arid lands thus finding its first practical expression in the manufacture of cement pipes for irrigation purposes. The perfection of irrigation devices became his heart work, his improvement in this line marking a radical advance over anything that had already been used, the patents taken out by him at that time being even at this day used almost exclusively in the manufacture of cement pipes. Among the larger irrigation projects successfully worked out by Mr. Stowell during this time are those of Rialto, Corona, Cucamonga, Ontario and East Whittier, all California towns. The greatest irrigation task of his career was the irrigation problem in the Imperial Valley, the procuring of funds for carrying out this project devolving upon Mr. Stowell, a task even more monumental than that of laying the irrigation system, as opposition was met with at every step. Undaunted even by the report of the United States government engi- neers, which declared the Imperial lands would be valueless for cultivation purposes even after the introduction of irrigation, Mr. Stowell suc- ceeded in carrying out his project with success, and had the satisfaction of seeing the former sandy wastes transformed into fertile lands. The largest irrigation project in our country, and one of the largest in the world, was this construction of an irrigation system to supply water to five hundred thousand acres of land in the Imperial Valley of Southern California and also to three hundred thousand acres in Lower California, but by July, 1901, forty-eight miles of lateral canals had been built, through which sufficient water ran to irrigate one hundred thousand acres of land, the work having been undertaken by the Cali- fornia Development Company, organized with a capital of $1,250,000, Mr. Stowell being the vice- president and financial manager, the work of overseeing the construction being entrusted to George Chaffey. The offices of this company were in the Stowell building on Spring street, Los Angeles, now known as the Germain building. and built by Mr. Stowell in 1889, at which time it was the first large modern office building south of Second street, a locality then considered almost without the business limits. In 1902 Mr. Stowell resigned his offices as vice-president and manager of the company which was engaged in the irriga-
293
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
tion of the Imperial Valley, and left the interests of the business in the hands of his successors. The calamities which have followed the project in later years were the result of faulty engineering, and the fact that the original headgates still remain attests the value of the work done by Mr. Stowell and his co-workers.
Since his retirement from Imperial Valley in- terests, Mr. Stowell has continued his association with irrigation projects, making a complete study of the subjects from all standpoints, and traveling in Asia Minor, Egypt and India, where are situ- ated some of the most stupendous systems for water supply.
The interests of Mr. Stowell are broad. For years he has operated in real estate, being an in- vestor in Los Angeles property. Besides having built the building now known as the Germain building, he erected in 1913. a twelve-story hotel building, known as Hotel Stowell, with a frontage on Spring street of sixty feet, between Fourth and Fifth streets, at a cost of $400,000. Besides his activities in real estate, Mr. Stowell holds the office of vice-president of the Pacific Sewer Pipe Company, a firm doing a vast amount of business in Los Angeles, having bought out and still oper- ating six other plants, of one of which, the Corona Pressed Brick and Terra Cotta Company, organ- ized in 1903, he himself was president.
Mr. Stowell is a charter member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Socially he is a member of the Municipal League and of the Gamut and Annandale Country clubs. Politically he is a Progressive in principles, and his relig- ious interests are with the Protestant church.
JAMES FOWLER BANNING. Having come to California from his home in Missouri when he was a young man of only twenty years (1853) James Fowler Banning was one of the truest types of California pioneers, and he is remembered with reverent affection by his many friends and neighbors in Monrovia, where he made his home for many years, and where his widow still resides. Born in Macon county, Mo., May 31, 1833, his boyhood was spent in his native county and his education was received in the public schools of his district. The lure of the gold excitement in California proved a magnet which drew him across the plains in a "prairie
schooner" in 1853, searching for fame and for- tune. For some time he mined in the northern part of the state and later was located in the mines of Nevada. In 1862 and 1863 he was lo- cated on Lake Tahoe, where he kept a hotel and where also he built the first steamer that operated on the lake. This was at first used for carrying wood, but was later transformed into a passenger boat. In 1863 he took up a tract of government land consisting of three hundred and twenty acres near Carson, Nev., on the east side of the Carson river. For twelve years he resided there, engag- ing in farming on an extensive scale and meeting with great success.
It was in 1876 that Mr. Banning and his family came to Southern California, making the long journey overland with teams and wagons. From San Bernardino they drove to Duarte, where they purchased a twenty-one acre tract of land. This they planted to orange trees and also vineyard, and made a specialty of fruit and grape culture. Mr. Banning was deeply interested in the devel- opment of the country and from the first took an active part in the affairs of the community. As one of the organizers of the water system he helped to build it and get it under way. Wells were dug and water supplied from the San Ga- briel river, the system providing both for domes- tic purposes and for irrigation.
It was on June 24, 1876, that Mr. Banning purchased the Duarte ranch and in just ten years to a day, June 24, 1886, he sold the property. For a time he and Mrs. Banning traveled, but in the fall of that same year they purchased prop- erty in Monrovia and began the erection of their new home. This was located on East Walnut street, and here Mrs. Banning still resides. They also purchased other city property, including many town lots and a five-acre tract in the south- ern part of town. Later a friend purchased an- other tract of five acres adjoining this, and to- gether they laid out the Live Oak cemetery, which they conducted for a number of years, improv- ing and beautifying the grounds by the planting of lawn and trees. Later Mr. Banning disposed of his interests, and in partnership with Joseph Combs built the Combs & Banning block on Myr- tle avenue, which is still the property of his widow.
During his residence in Monrovia Mr. Banning was always a prominent figure in local affairs. On the Democratic ticket he was elected post-
294
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
master at Monrovia, filling the office for four years during the second administration of Presi- dent Cleveland, and he also served as city treasurer for another four years. For many years he was a member of the town board of trustees and for a part of this time was chairman (mayor) of the board. His death occurred at the family residence January 15, 1906, and his loss was severely felt by the city and by his many friends.
The marriage of Mr. Banning took place in Carson City, Nev., December 25, 1861, uniting him with Miss Mary Ann Proctor, the daughter of James and Letise (Clayton) Proctor, and a native of Hancock county, Ill. She removed with her parents to Iowa when she was a small child, later moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, still later to Nevada, and finally to California. During all the years of her married life she was a close com- panion to her husband and since his death she has continued the management of her interests. She is well known in Monrovia, where she occupies a high place in the esteem of her fellow citizens. One of the keenest interests of Mrs. Banning is her church work, she being a prominent member of the Christian church in Monrovia.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.