USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume II > Part 54
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Mr. Mulholland is a close student of all that pertains to his profession and is associated with the principal national and international engineer- ing societies. Among the organizations of which he is a member may be mentioned the American Society of Civil Engineers, Engineers and Archi- tects Association of Southern California; the National Association of Stationary Engineers, of which he is an honorary member, and the Seismo- logical Society of America.
Socially this favored son is very popular and is a member of the leading clubs, among which are the California, Sunset and Celtic Clubs. Civic organizations have also claimed his support and he is associated with a number of political and pro- gressive organizations whose work lies along the lines of social betterment and city government re- form. He is non-partisan in politics, placing men above party. He has been favorably mentioned on several occasions for positions of confidence within the gift of the people, but these he has
declined to accept, the duties of his professional work claiming his time and attention to the exclu- sion of all civic service.
The marriage of Mr. Mulholland united him with Miss Lillie Ferguson, who was born in Port Huron, Mich., but later became a resident of Los Angeles, Cal., and it was in this city that her marriage occurred in 1890. Mrs. Mulholland passed away April 28, 1915, at the age of forty- seven years, leaving five children, as follows: Rosa, Perry, Lucile. Thomas and Ruth.
JOSEPH H. SPIRES. As one of the most valued members of the Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, Joseph H. Spires figured con- spicuously in civic movements of large import, and in his active career in Los Angeles the accomplishment of many splendid improve- ments toward which his efforts have been directed mark him as an indefatigable worker for a better Los Angeles. In the business life of Michigan, where his business interests first lay, his influence was felt especially along political and social lines, but in Los Angeles his natural faculties for procuring results worth while and his skill and wise judgment were particularly spent, and here there are several avenues of his accomplishment which stand as monuments to his untiring zeal, optimism and in- defatigable will.
Mr. Spires was born near Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, August 9, 1853, and when a small boy accompanied his parents to Buffalo, N. Y., where his elementary education was received. At the age of eighteen he went to Grand Rapids, Mich., to enter his first employment as hotel clerk. Subsequently he managed the Cutler House in Grand Haven, Mich., and also conducted a summer resort hotel on Lake Michigan. He engaged in the manufacture of lumber and shingles at Silver Lake for a time, and at the opening of the Michigan Soldiers' Home assumed charge of the Commissary Department with such aptness and systematic conduct of affairs that at the time of relinquish- ing the department to the authorities he re- ceived the approbation of all for the splendid order established. While a resident of Michi- gan he was manager of the Park Place Hotel
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at Traverse City for a time, until he resigned to come to California.
The year 1885 marked Mr. Spires' arrival in Los Angeles, and his first venture was the con- duct of a small hotel for a season. He after- wards associated himself with the Pacific Elec- tric Railway Company and secured for them the right-of-ways to Pasadena and to Santa Monica. As part payment for his services he received seven acres of land near what is now the Harvard military school. He acquired large mining interests in Mexico and was also in- terested in the development of water in the Antelope valley. He helped to organize the Yucca Manufacturing Company, which manu- factured novelties from the yucca tree, and brought the first carload of yucca from the desert to Los Angeles. He was one of the organizers and a director of the Santa Monica Brick Company ; organized and was president and a stockholder of the Western Fuel Gas and Power Company of Redondo; and the Rancho Sausal Redondo, and had real estate holdings in Nevada.
One of Mr. Spires' especial feats was his effort to have Hill street widened, and after two years of earnest, unceasing toil, interviewing people each day, laboring with antagonists and fighting to procure what he knew would better conditions, he was rewarded in the end by see- ing the fulfillment of his desires. He also established a small water system in the western part of Los Angeles, furnished a number of families with water and finally sold out to a local water company. Interested in the park development of the city, he gave much of his time to that interest. That his life was a busy one may readily be seen, and while he was engrossed with business cares he did not allow his interest in civic affairs to flag, but kept up with all movements for the uplift of the people and the development of his adopted city by active membership in the Chamber of Com- merce. On the committee for the location of manufacturing sites in the industrial center he served a long time. He was a member of the Civic Club and of the Automobile Club of Southern California. A great reader, especially fond of history, he was a well informed, scholarly man.
While residing in Michigan Mr. Spires was united in marriage with Miss Mary Harrison,
who was a native of that state and survives him. Always sharing in his cherished hopes, beautiful ideas and loyal love for Los Angeles, she has made it her object in life to carry out his plans so far as she is able. His death, which occurred in Los Angeles January 3, 1913, robbed the city of Los Angeles of one of her most useful workers, the state of California of one of her most loyal patriots, and their citizens of one of their closest and most generous friends.
UNION OIL COMPANY OF CALIFOR- NIA. The story of the inception, magnificent growth, development and expansion of the small oil interests that have since their original forma- tion become the great Union Oil Company of Cali- fornia, capitalized for $50,000,000, of which $31,- 000,000 has been issued and is outstanding, is especially interesting to the people of Santa Paula because of the historical fact that the big interests were developed and merged in this city under the personal direction of Thomas R. Bard, W. L. Hardison and Lyman Stewart, notably successful oil operators of the Pacific coast. Thomas R. Bard was president for the first four years, being succeeded by Mr. Stewart, who continued as pres- ident until succeeded by his son, William Lyman Stewart, in 1914.
The story as told by oil men familiar with the situation reads like a romance of industrial his- tory and achievements. Mr. Stewart arrived in California on April 7, 1883, and finding the pros- pects very encouraging in the Santa Paula coun- try, wired his old partner, the late W. L. Hardi- son, to come to the Golden State, and he arrived in Los Angeles on May 7 of the same year. John Irwin, who was for many years superintendent of field work for the Union Oil Company, arrived here on May 10, 1883, and Alex Waldie, who was secretary of the Hardison & Stewart and Sespe Oil Companies, now a retired capitalist of Santa Paula, arrived about October 1 of the same year.
Mr. Stewart and Mr. Hardison obtained leases from the Pacific Coast Oil Company in the Pico Canyon district, near Newhall, in Santa Paula Canyon on the Smith farm, and in Adams canyon on the Ex-Mission rancho, and for some time operated under the firm name of Hardison & Stewart, later incorporated under the title of the
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Hardison & Stewart Oil Company, with a capital- ization of $1,000,000. At the beginning of their operations the company imported thirty-five oil well men from the east, and started six wells, five in the Pico district, and one on the Smith farm, all of which were failures. The company spent $135,000 before obtaining a paying well, and with prolonged conflict over titles, and the early experience of Mr. Stewart and his asso- ciates was anything but encouraging. These men, however, were pioneers, men of caliber who had faith in the future of the oil industry and who knew no such word as fail, except temporarily.
Some time later Stewart & Hardison purchased from the Pacific Coast Oil Company the oil rights of the Ex-Mission rancho, where, up to the pres- ent time, some fifty or sixty wells have been drilled, some of which proved to be very profit- able. The largest, No. 16 in Adams canyon, flowed about one thousand barrels a day for a short time. No. 13 in the same canyon produced for two or three years about two hundred barrels per day. Neither of these wells is now producing, and very few of the entire number are being operated at the present time.
Later the Sespe Oil Company was organized, in which Hon. Thomas R. Bard, ex-United States Senator from California. and Dan McFarland were associated with Hardison & Stewart, and still later the Torrey Canyon Oil Company was organized, in which Mr. Bard and Dolbeer & Car- son joined forces with the Hardison & Stewart Oil Company.
To unify these interests the Union Oil Com- pany was incorporated October 17, 1890, with a capitalization of $5,000,000, and exchanged its stock for the properties of the three above-named companies. These three holding companies were later disincorporated and the Union stock held by them was distributed to their respective stock- holders. A few years later the capitalization of the Union Oil Company was increased to $10,- 000,000, and later still to $50,000,000, of which $34,092,200 has been issued and is outstanding.
The Union Oil Company, while pursuing gen- erally a conservative course, has been somewhat aggressive, and has sought to keep fairly in the front of the industry. It now has pipe lines which connect all the important oil fields with tidewater, and has a fleet of fifteen vessels which is distributing oil from California fields as far south as Chile, as far north as Cape Nome, and
as far west as the Hawaiian Islands ; and through its pipe line across the Isthmus of Panama it has supplied the United States Government with the oil fuel used for its great work on the Panama Canal.
The company has refineries at Oleum (on San Francisco Bay), at Bakersfield, Port Harford, Fullerton and Santa Paula. It controls something over 200,000 acres of oil territory in the principal fields of the state. It has on its pay rolls the names of over 2,000 employes, and the monthly pay roll amounts to about $200,000, more than $2,400,000 per year. The company has paid in cash dividends to its stockholders to date $13,451,- 806.55. The present officers of the company are :
Directors: Lyman Stewart, W. L. Stewart, Alex. Sclater, E. W. Clark, Giles Kellogg, John Garrigues, R. D. Matthews, W. W. Orcutt, W. R. Staats, F. C. Bolt and A. P. Johnson.
Officers : Chairman of the board, Lyman Stew- art; president, W. L. Stewart ; vice-president, Alex. Sclater ; vice-president, E. W. Clark; sec- retary, Giles Kellogg : treasurer, John Garrigues ; comptroller, R. D. Matthews ; assistant secretary, John McPeak; assistant secretary, New York City, Fillmore Condit; assistant secretary and stock transfer agent, Oleum, Cal., E. J. Brown; assistant treasurer, R. J. Keown ; assistant comp- troller. R. S. Mill.
SIMON CONRADI. A career marked by stirring adventures in every part of the world brought the element of romance into the life of this late beloved citizen of Los Angeles. Withal that his travels had been wide and his knowledge of the world extensive, no place became so deeply interwoven with his affections as this western metropolis, nor, in his estimation, did any sur- pass it in opportunities offered or expectations fulfilled. The most ardent devotion to his chosen city did not, however, preclude a patriotic recol- lection of his own native land and frequent tours were made with their chief purpose that of revis- iting Switzerland and enjoying again the scenic beauties of the Alpine regions. It was in the can- ton of Grisons, near the foothills of the Alps, that his birth occurred on New Year's day of 1834, in the home of Simon and Ursula ( Polin) Conradi, natives of Switzerland, the former a civil engineer of high talents and considerable
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prominence. The standing of the family was high and the son received better advantages than fell to lads of the more humble classes. In addition to attending college at Zurich in his native land he was sent to Germany to receive the advantages of the college there, where he made a great advance in the classics and the languages. From early life it seemed a matter of ease for him to gain linguistic skill. Eventually he mastered twelve languages so that he was able to speak all of them with ease and this familiarity with modern tongues added delight to his travels around the world. After leaving college he took a military course, graduating from the military schools of Thun and Coire, both in Switzerland.
During the customary service in the Swiss army Mr. Conradi was commissioned lieutenant, resigning, however, when the Crimean war broke out, at which time he took a commission as lieu- tenant in the British army and participated in the campaign against Turkey. Nor was he less in- terested in the Civil war, and the bullet that he received in his leg he carried with him through- out the remainder of his life. He had been in America four years when the war began, having landed in New York City during 1857. A brief period of employment as clerk in a wholesale house of the eastern metropolis was followed by a trip to Dubuque, Iowa, whence in 1858 he went to St. Louis and a year later removed to New Orleans to take charge of a business enterprise. At the opening of the war he was manager of a factory engaged in the manufacture of swords for Confederate officers. During the war he served as a captain under General "Stonewall" Jack- son and as a scout under various commanders, enduring the privations of that war and the hard- ships which fell upon the defeated and suffering south. Another evidence of his love of adven- ture appeared in his activities in Mexico during the reign of Maximilian, when he was impris- oned and undoubtedly would have been executed as a spy had it not been for the intervention of Diaz, whose interest in the prisoner sprang from Masonic credentials found on his person. There- after he was an ardent admirer and warm personal friend of the remarkable man who served with such energy as the first president of Mexico. Among Mr. Conradi's papers were found nu- merouts letters from former President Diaz, with whom he had maintained a continuous friendship. Following his career in Mexico Mr. Conradi came
back to the United States in 1866, locating in Houston, where he engaged in the jewelry busi- ness.
It was while making New Orleans his head- quarters that Captain Conradi married Miss Adele Chetourn, who was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and died in Los Angeles in 1906. The only child of their marriage, Clementine, was born in Texas and is now the wife of Champ S. Vance, third vice-president of the Los Angeles Gas Company. After twenty years of identification with the bus- iness interests of Houston, Tex., in May, 1888, Captain Conradi moved his stock of jewelry from that city to Los Angeles, where a previous visit in 1887 had given him such a favorable impression that he determined to become a permanent resi- dent. The alternate booms and depressions he had witnessed. The one did not unduly elate him, nor did the other have any effect upon his optimistic spirit. Throughout the changing con- ditions of the nascent west he continued success- fully at his post of business for almost twenty years, finally retiring after the death of his wife and on account of his own ill health. A trip abroad covering seven months, much of which time was spent in the mountainous resorts of his native country, fully restored his health and en- abled him to return to Los Angeles physically alert and energetic.
In 1855, while yet a young man in his native canton of Switzerland, the philanthropic activ- ities of Masonry so appealed to Captain Conradi that he entered the blue lodge. Two years later, in 1857, he emigrated to America, locating in New Orleans, where he at once affiliated with Concor- dia Lodge No. 3, and became active in the work of the fraternity. In Houston he became a member of Holland Lodge No. 1, afterwards was a charter member of Gray Lodge No. 329, of which he was treasurer, and to which he gave the furnishings of the lodge room. In Houston he also received the degrees of Royal Arch Chapter and of the Commandery of Knights Templar. In that city also he became a close friend and associate of former Commander P. C. Tucker, from whom he received the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. After coming to Los Angeles in 1888 Mr. Conradi continued his Masonic activ- ities, his time being given chiefly to the Scottish Rite. He found the Scottish Rite bodies here in a disaffected condition and proceeded to revive them, for which service he was made treasurer of
Deunis Sullivan
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all Scottish Rite bodies in the city, a position he held for twenty-two years, or until failing health made it advisable for him to relinquish the office. He was elected Wise Master of Robert Bruce Chapter No. 3, Rose Croix, and upon retiring from the office he was elected treasurer of all the bodies of the Scottish Rite in Los Angeles, as previously stated, and during the lifetime of In- spector Pierce he represented him as his deputy in Southern California. In 1888 he was elected Knight Commander of the Court of Honor by the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree, and in 1898 was coroneted an Inspector-General Hon- orary of the Thirty-third degree. In 1900, at the time the Court of Honor was organized, he was elected treasurer of that body, and the same year was made a member of the Royal Order of Scot- land. After being a member of Pentalpha Lodge No. 202 for twenty-two years, he demitted and joined Vallee de France Lodge No. 329, of which he was a member at the time of his death, also of Signet Chapter No. 57, R. A. M., Los Angeles Council No. 11, R. & S. M., Los Angeles Commandery No. 9, K. T., Al Malaikah Tem- ple, A. A. O. N. M. S., and of the Masonic Vet- eran Association of the Pacific Coast. Much credit for the prosperous growth of Scottish Free- masonry in Los Angeles is due to Mr. Conradi's untiring work and undiminished interest in the order, and it was a great pleasure for him to have lived and witnessed, as the oldest member in the service, the fruits of his labor of years ago.
In politics Mr. Conradi affiliated with the Dem- ocratic party, but was never active as a partisan. He was born into the Lutheran faith and all through his life he was a generous contributor to church benevolences. In Switzerland and Ger- many he gained expertness with the sword. Later practice developed his skill and even when he was well past sixty years of age he still was regarded as one of the crack swordsmen of the world. After the closing out of his jewelry interests and his return from abroad, having many valuable holdings in and near Los Angeles, he secured office room in one of the departments of the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank and there each day devoted a few hours to the transacting of business and the meeting of old friends. While thus engaged, October 29, 1913, he slipped on the marble stairway leading to the safety deposit vaults and suffered a severe injury, his recovery from which was made possible only by a rugged
constitution and a long-continued observance of the laws of health. This accident prevented hin from active participation in affairs of a public character in the city where for so many years he was a vital commercial factor and a potent ele- ment in permanent local advancement ; but it did not lessen his interest in this great western metrop- olis nor did it deprive him of the inestimable com- fort of the warm friendship exhibited by fellow- pioneers and by admirers in the younger genera- tion.
Mr. Conradi's death, which occurred March 13, 1915, was undoubtedly hastened by the accident above mentioned. As was fitting he was buried with Masonic honors, the impressive midnight ritual service being the last tribute of his com- rades. This service was performed in the Cathe- dral and marked the third instance of the kind in Los Angeles.
DENNIS SULLIVAN. One of the pioneers of Los Angeles, Dennis Sullivan had the dis- tinction of having homesteaded what is now a portion of Los Angeles, a district of beautiful homes, dotted with churches and schools, and with property constantly increasing in value by leaps and bounds. He came to California in 1870 and located on this large ranch near the city of that time. His home was well in the country and the only neighbors were a few scat- tering families of Mexican ranchers. He lived to see the city absorb his ranch and to find him- self and his property a part of the metropolis of the Pacific coast.
Mr. Sullivan was a native of Ireland, having been born in Bantry, county Cork, Ireland, December 25, 1832. He was the son of Timothy and Katherine (Harrington) Sullivan, both of whom are now deceased. When he was nine- teen he determined to seek his fortune in the land across the sea and accordingly came to America, locating first at Fall River, Mass., where he engaged in farming until 1870. As before stated, in that year he came to Cali- fornia on the first passenger train that came over the Union Pacific into San Francisco. From there he came to Los Angeles in March of the same year. Here he purchased a section of homestead land from the government and established thereon a home for himself and his
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family. The limits of this tract are today marked by city streets, extending from Ver- mont avenue to Normandie avenue on the east and west, and from Santa Monica boule- vard to Melrose avenue on the north and south. Much of this was sold in acreage and was platted and improved by the second purchaser, but the Sullivan estate still owns an appre- ciable amount of very valuable property in this district. When Mr. Sullivan first settled here there were practically no other ranchers in this district and he was the pioneer farmer in the Cahuenga valley. His family grew up on the ranch, which until 1912 was the scene of their home life.
The marriage of Mr. Sullivan took place in Fall River, Mass., March 5, 1859, uniting him with Miss Margaret Murphy, the daughter of Timothy and Ellen (O'Niel) Murphy, and a native of Castletown, Ireland, born February 3, 1843. She bore her husband nine children, three sons and six daughters, all of whom are well known in Los Angeles and vicinity.
Mr. Sullivan was a prominent member of the Catholic Church and an earnest supporter of the work of the church and of the cause. Some time before his death he made a gift to the church of the property where the Catholic Church in South Hollywood now stands.
Death came to Mr. Sullivan on October 25, 1908, at the ranch where he had lived since he homesteaded it during President Grant's ad- ministration. The old home place of this pio- neer and his family since 1870 is now the site of the new State Normal School.
LYMAN STEWART. A history of Los An- geles could not possibly be written without much space being devoted to the oil industry, which, through bringing a cheap fuel, resulted in the establishing of many manufacturing enterprises, and these in turn resulted in large additions to the city's population.
One of the factors in this oil industry was Lyman Stewart, formerly of Titusville, Pa., who made his first investment in an oil property early in December, 1859, about four months after the beginning of the industry through the striking of the famous Drake well near Titusville.
Mr. Stewart is a native of Pennsylvania, born
at Cherry Tree, Venango county, July 22, 1840. His parents, William R. and Jane M. Stewart, were natives of the same place. Mr. Stewart had only a common school education, which he re- ceived in Cherry Tree. His father was the pro- prietor of a small tannery, and insisted on his sons learning the same trade. This business was very distasteful to Mr. Stewart, and in March, 1859, he started out to make his way in the world by working on a farm. With his savings from that summer's work he made his first oil investment.
In September, 1862, Mr. Stewart enlisted in Company E, Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and served until the close of the war, being mustered out June 17, 1865. He then went to Eastman's Business College in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., for six months, returned in March, 1866, to Titusville, and commenced oil operations in connection with his brother, Milton Stewart, and others, at Pio- neer, Pa.
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