USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 13
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The marriage of Mr. Brown took place in this city in 1882, uniting him with Miss Minnie Glassell, whose mother was a daughter of Dr. Toland, a very distinguished surgeon and the founder of the Toland Medical College. Fol- lowing their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Brown traveled for a year through the eastern states and Canada before returning to Los Angeles and establishing their home here. Of this union there have been born five children, of whom Adelaide J. and Lucie T. were graduated
from Marlborough College and are now promi- nent members of the younger social set, while Harrington, Jr., and A. Glassell are attending the University of California.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Brown are widely known throughout the city and county and are highly esteemed by their friends and acquaintances. Mr. Brown is a member of the Baptist Church, while his wife and children are communicants of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Brown is also prominent in fraternal circles, being a member of several of the most prominent and best known orders in the city, and socially he is con- nected with the most exclusive clubs. In his participation in municipal affairs he is enrolled as a member of various social and municipal organizations whose object is for the social betterment and general uplift of the city and for the general public welfare. He is always to be found enlisted on the side of progress and civic improvement and is accredited as one of the most worthy citizens of the city, county and state.
WILLIAM M. MARTIN. Prominent among the orange and lemon growers of San Dimas may he mentioned William M. Martin, who, though a native of Prince Edward Island, Canada, has been a resident of the United States since 1873, when as a young man he migrated to this country to establish a permanent home. He is descended from a sturdy line of Scotch ancestry, his for- bears coming to Canada in 1803 from their native Scotch heath. Mr. Martin went first to Virginia City, Nev., where he remained for seven years, for the most of this time working for the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Later he went to Park City, Utah, where for several years he was engaged as a millwright.
It was in 1888 that Mr. Martin came to Cali- fornia, and for a time was employed as a rancher at Lordsburg. In 1891 he purchased his present place at San Dimas, consisting of twenty acres that had previously been a barley field. At first he planted deciduous fruits, peaches and apricots taking precedence, and later these were replaced by oranges, Washington Navels and Valencias being chosen, and still later lemons were added to the groves. There are three acres of lemons at the present time, they being especially fine trees and good producers. Mr. Martin also owned
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another property of twenty acres which he year) as follows: 1910, $24,000; 1911, $49,000; developed into a producing orange ranch and sold 1912, $85,000; 1913, $88,000; 1914, $144,000. at a handsome profit.
The marriage of Mr. Martin occurred in 1883, at Prince Edward Island, uniting him with Miss Mary Ann McLean, like himself a native of that island. They have one daughter, Marion Ruth, now the wife of J. C. Bowen of South Pasadena, and the mother of one child, a son. Mr. Martin is well known in San Dimas and vicinity, and takes an active part in local affairs. He is a member of the San Dimas Orange Association and of the San Dimas Lemon Association. He is also a member of the United Workmen, and attends the Union church in San Dimas.
RIVERA STATE BANK. One of the most prosperous and reliable banking institutions of the county is the Rivera State Bank, located at Rivera, and organized during the summer of 1910. The most prominent and influential men of the community are interested in the welfare of this bank, and it is managed on the strictest and most progressive modern lines. The growth in the volume of business that passes through its doors is very great, rising from $24,000 in 1910 to $144,000 in 1914. It has paid a yearly dividend of 8 per cent. since 1912, and there is every reason to believe that this will soon be increased. The bank occupies its own brick building, which was erected at a cost of $5000, with an additional $2500 for fixtures.
It was on May 10, 1910, that the new bank was organized, and on August 10 of that year the doors were opened for business, the following men being the organizers: Frank A. Coffman, L. W. Houghton, G. W. Goodell, Osburn Burke, E. S. Johnson, George E. Triggs and H. L. Mont- gomery. The capital stock was $25,000, with a surplus up to $2000, and undivided profits of $25,000. The present officers are: Frank A. Coffman, president ; L. W. Houghton, vice-presi- dent; G. W. Goodell, secretary; Frank H. Ties- koetter, treasurer and cashier, while the additional directors include T. E. Newlin, E. J. Johnson, Osburn Burke and George F. Triggs. There are some four hundred depositors and forty stock- holders. The increase in deposits has been steady, although the greatest increase was in 1913 and 1914. This has been (taking October 6 of each
The cashier of this thriving institution is one of the very popular men of Rivera who has won a high place in the regard of his fellow citizens, and it is a known fact that he has done much for the prosperity of the bank. A native of Nebraska, Mr. Tieskoetter was born in Platte county Janu- ary 31, 1881, and was reared in that locality. He received his education in the common and high schools of Humphrey, that state, and later learned telegraphy, becoming an operator on the line of the Union Pacific Railway at the age of twenty years. Soon after this he entered the employ of the Ottis & Murphy Bank of Hum- phrey, Neb., starting at the bottom and working his way steadily upward. He remained in this connection for eleven years, and during the last six years of this time was cashier. In 1911 he came to California and soon thereafter became cashier of the Rivera State Bank, which position he has since filled, with much credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the directors and patrons of the bank.
The marriage of Mr. Tieskoetter was solemn- ized in Humphrey, Neb., uniting him with Miss Elizabeth A. Steffes, of that place. They have become the parents of a son, Millard. Both Mr. and Mrs. Tieskoetter are well known socially in Rivera, where they have many warm friends.
ERNEST JAMESON LICKLEY. As su- perintendent of compulsory education and even- ing schools in Los Angeles, Ernest Jameson Lickley has been closely identified with the educa- tional interests of the city for a number of years, and is one of the leading educators in the state today. He is a native of New York state, born at Carmel, April 22, 1880, the son of Owen Glendower and Emma (Smalley) Lickley, both of his parents being directly descended from Revolutionary ancestry. He received his educa- tion in the public schools of Putnam county, N. Y., the high school at Carmel, N. Y., from which he graduated in June, 1900, and later he entered the Jamaica State Normal School, at Jamaica, N. Y., graduating in February, 1903. Subse- quently he matriculated at the University of Southern California in the College of Law, graduating in June, 1906, with the degree of
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LL.B., and taking the degree of LL.M. in June, 1909. Mr. Lickley taught one year in New York City before coming to California in 1903, and on his arrival here was made vice-principal of one of the grade schools of the city. He has been very successful in his educational work, and is well known throughout the city and county as a man of ability and accomplishments.
Aside from his connection with the public schools of the city Mr. Lickley has also taken an active part in many other interests, being especially active in humanitarian and philan- thropic work. He is the president of the Council of Social Agencies, vice-president of the Los Angeles Humane Society, and one of the directors of the Florence Crittenton Home. In his political associations he is a Prohibitionist and one of the most active workers for the cause of temperance, bringing to bear on this great subject the power of his splendid training and judgment. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church in this city and is one of the elders of that organization, here again giving of his best efforts for a worthy cause.
The marriage of Mr. Lickley and Miss Maude Genevieve Finch took place in New York July 7, 1903. Mrs. Lickley is the daughter of the Rev. James Byron Finch, D. D. Her family is an old and honored one in America, her forbears having settled in Freehold, Long Island, N. Y., in 1638. Since then they have been closely identi- fied with the political and social life of the state.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Lickley have many warm personal friends in Los Angeles and take an active part in the social and religions life of the city, as well as in educational affairs. Mr. Lickley is a member of several social and fraternal or- ganizations, including the Masons, being a Knight Templar and a Shriner, and a member of the Sierra Madre Club.
OWEN E. THOMAS. Born and brought up on a California ranch, a portion of the old Dominguez Ranch in Los Angeles county, Owen E. Thomas may truly be called a "native son" of this state. His father was James and his mother Adelaide (Jenkins) Thomas, the daughter of Isaac Jenkins, one of the forty-niners who crossed the plains to California at the time of the discovery of gold which brought such an influx
of gold-seekers from many parts of the world in those early days when travel, even in one's own country, was an occasion of inconvenience and discomfort. From the eastern states the gold- hunters came by slow ox-wagons in such num- bers that their processions stretched for long dis- tances across the plains; others made the jour- ney by sailing-vessel around Cape Horn; and others still went by boat to the Isthmus of Pan- ama, which they crossed on mule-back to continue their journey by boat up the coast of Mexico and California.
Born August 17, 1883, Owen E. Thomas grew up in Compton and since eight years of age he has lived on the same ranch of three hundred and fifty acres near Compton which he now him- self rents. His family put the first plow into the land, which was then barren and grown up with willow trees, and it lends a certain sense of reality to those pioneer days in California when we see preserved in museums today the rusted spurs and bits then in use and the iron plow points used by the settlers at a time when wooden plows were employed upon the ranches.
Starting with a capital of only $800, Mr. Thomas has made good, and now employs twelve men to manage the thirty-five head of horses and mules, the caterpillar traction engine and the two gas engines and silos of ninety-six tons capacity each in nse upon his ranch. Where once lay un- cultivated fields half covered with willows he has now established one of the largest and best equipped Holstein dairies in the county, begin- ning in 1906 with forty-four head of the best breed of Holstein cows. With that as a start he has sold one hundred and ten head and now owns one hundred and sixty head of stock and a full-blooded bull of high grade stock. There is an average of ninety cows milked on the ranch, the milk all being sold to the Los Angeles Cream- ery Company. Mr. Thomas also farms seven hundred acres in the Redondo section on which he raises barley, oats and corn. He is a man who does things on a large scale, and has at one time farmed over twelve hundred acres of land, and made a record in beet raising, one piece of land producing thirty tons of sugar beets to the acre, his average beet production being as high as fif- teen tons to the acre yearly. Mr. Thomas has proved himself one of the most successful farmers in this part of the state and can boast a fine water system and pumping plant on his ranch.
F. W. Chase.
And Theorie Record Co
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The wife of Mr. Thomas, who was Miss Nellie Erkel before marriage, belongs to one of the pioneer families of Wilmington, Cal., and also of San Francisco. Fraternally Mr. Thomas is asso- ciated with the Masons, the Fraternal Brother- hood and the Woodmen of the World.
FRANK WHITEFIELD CHASE. In a city that is still in the making and whose nascent growth marks its essential modernity, to find a man identified with the same business for two decades is somewhat of a rarity and it is customary to allude to such as pioneers. One of the early promoters of a line of business necessary to all growing centers of industry, Mr. Chase maintained an intimate connection with the towel supply enterprise from the time of his arrival in Los Angeles in 1887 until his death, June 3, 1911. During that long pe- riod of remarkable growth in the population of the city, his own commercial interests kept pace with local advancement and for nineteen years he served as general manager and presi- dent of the City Towel Supply Company, one of the early and successful organizations in that line of industry. An upbuilder whether from the standpoint of personal activities or civic de- velopment, patriotic in spirit and progressive in thought, he formed a type of the citizenship that has made the name of Los Angeles great and its influence world-wide. While in the very midst of his activities, with plans for en- larged enterprises in the future, well and robust up to the very morning of his passing, the end came suddenly from heart trouble and a life of value to the interests of the city abruptly terminated.
Brooklyn, N. Y., was the native city of Mr. Chase and July 12, 1853, the date of his birth, his parents having been Stephen Whitefield and Betsy Parsons (Mereen) Chase. At the age of nine years he accompanied the family in removal from his native city to the state of Minnesota and there he completed his educa- tion in a commercial college of Minneapolis. In 1887 he came to the Pacific coast and settled in Los Angeles, where he engaged in the towel business for twenty-three years, or until his death. While still a resident of Minnesota he was married at St. Paul, December 7, 1879, to
Miss Nellie Ritter, daughter of William H. and Emily J. Ritter. Six children were born of their union, of whom Alice died in infancy and Myrtle passed away at the age of five. Those living are: Guy R., who married Clara Steven- son ; Vivian E .; Muriel, who is a teacher of music ; and Gladys, a high-school student. The two sons now carry on the City Towel Supply Com- pany's business. In politics Mr. Chase was of Democratic sentiments with a decided leaning toward Prohibition principles. In the Fraternal Brotherhood, the Knights of Pythias, the Order of Maccabees, also the Knights and Ladies of Security, he was esteemed for the energy dis- played in the prosecution of every cause for the advancement of civic welfare and humanitarian principles. Of sympathetic temperament and large-hearted charity, he gave generously but unostentatiously to the needy and suffering. Only shortly before his death, when told by the driver of one of his wagons that his wife was at death's door, but might possibly be saved if he had $100, he handed him a check for $250, stating that he could return the money whenever his circumstances permitted the pay- ment of the loan. Fond of outdoor life, he became a prime mover in the organization of the Los Angeles Motorboat Club and took much interest in the pretty launch G. R. C., which he kept at San Pedro. Such men as he, quiet but forceful, shrewd but kindly, and con- servative but progressive, form the very heart of the citizenship and have been potent factors in the general welfare.
PERRY WORDEN, PH. D .. Among the inany littérateurs drawn to California, and active, as a result, in setting forth her attractions to the world, is Dr. Perry Worden, the author, critic and lecturer, best known perhaps, both here and abroad, for his sympathetic presentation of Old World life and culture, and his consistent efforts, during the past fifteen or twenty years, to strengthen somewhat the ties between Europe and America, and particularly such bonds as should always exist between the closely-related peoples of England, Germany and the United States. A wide traveler from boyhood in his own country, beginning with camping and canoeing in the great wildernesses, Dr. Worden,-who was one of the
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first Americans, with Joseph Pennell, the artist, to use a bicycle on extensive tours through Europe,-spent more than nine years in foreign travel and residence, enjoying exceptional oppor- tunities for pioneer research in fields he has since made his own, and lecturing, in turn, for many of the most notable institutions and societies. He has thus acquired a first-hand experience invalu- able to the writer and speaker ; while as a gradu- ate and post-graduate of Columbia University, and a post-graduate of various foreign universi- ties,-one of which, the University of Halle, Ger- many, conferred upon him, in 1900, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,-he has brought to all of his work the assurance of both scholarship and well-balanced maturity. Coming to California first in 1910, with numerous publications already to his credit, Dr. Worden spent successive seasons at Santa Monica and other quiet resorts along the coast, and in the leading cities of the state. gather- ing a large amount of literary and historical ma- terial concerning California, the most of which is nowhere available in any of the public libraries, and finally took up his residence at a cosy and picturesque retreat in Altadena, poetically dubbed by him Bergruhe, or "Mountain Rest;" and there, amid an orange grove and other beauties of Nature, he is busy with the fruits of his years of research. Though not a Native Son,-having had, as parents, Amos Warren and Mary Worden, members of an old, historic Hudson River fam- ily,-Dr. Worden is favorably known in the West for at least one poem, "The Fathers," which happily joins both the Pilgrim and the early Spanish priest, and includes the laudatory lines : Not less, but with another light,
The Mission Fathers lifted night
From off the Peaceful Coast ; And with what pious zeal they burned Till wilderness to garden turned,
He knows who hath for Eden yearned, And here may Eden boast !
During his residence, also, in Los Angeles, where he has appeared before many representative clubs and educational institutions with such lec- tures as "Weimar: The Homes and Haunts of Goethe and Schiller," "England and Germany from an American Standpoint," and "Los An- geles of Yesterday," Dr. Worden has, from time to time, assisted, in an advisory capacity, Maurice H. and Marco R. Newmark, the editors of Harris Newmark's comprehensive and instructive Auto-
biography, "Sixty Years in Southern California : 1853-1913."
EDWIN L. BARNARD. The title of "the pepper king" is that by which Edwin L. Barnard has been known in Southern California, where, as the head of the firm of Barnard & Oreb, he has been one of the founders and proprietors of the Santa Monica pepper ranch, the largest of its kind in the world. Within the last seven years he has also earned for himself the title of "the bean king," since he has gone extensively into the raising of lima beans, farming fifteen hundred acres to lima beans on the O'Neal ranch, near Oceanside, San Diego county, and over eight hundred acres on a ranch near Palms, in Los Angeles county, in partnership with his brother, F. E. Barnard, of Los Angeles.
His father was A. D. Barnard, who was born in Maine and came to California as a young man in 1852, traveling by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and engaging successfully in mining for a time after coming to California. He spent several years in Corvallis, Ore., in a prosperous merchan- dising business, and returned to California in 1868, when he settled in Ventura, where he en- gaged in the lumber and real estate business until the time of his death in 1895, at the age of sixty- four years. His wife, Sarah E. (Lehman) Bar- nard, a native of Ohio, continues to make her home in Ventura.
The son Edwin was therefore only six years of age when he came with his family from Oregon and settled in Ventura, where he received his education in the public schools and at Heald's Business College in San Francisco. Experience gained in assisting his father on the ranch proved valuable, and later on he continued farming on his own account in Ventura county, becoming successful in the raising of peppers. His part- nership with Frank Oreb was formed in 1901, he then coming to Los Angeles county and locating near Santa Monica, where he purchased the ranch whereon he and his partner continued their pepper raising with great financial success, raising also lima beans, though their specialty was chili peppers, having everything of the best for the convenience of their agricultural pursuits, richly productive land and every kind of modern ap- pliance necessary in their work, the land, of one
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hundred and eighty-five acres, being worth ap- proximately $1,000 per acre. Later Mr. Barnard, as before said, extended his interests to the rais- ing of lima beans on an extensive scale which has proved a most prosperous undertaking.
In political interests Mr. Barnard is a Republi- can, fraternally belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and his religious lean- ings are with the Presbyterian church, though he is not a member of any denomination. His mar- riage in February, 1890, united him with Miss Hattie Mandeville of Chico, Cal., and they are the parents of one son, Austin Mandeville Barnard.
KARL K. KENNEDY. The genealogy of Karl K. Kennedy, vice-president of the Fifty As- sociates of California, is traced back over three hundred years. He comes of Scotch and Irish ancestry, and an early member of the family is said to have been James Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrews during the reign of James II of Eng- land, a great-great-grand-uncle of Mr. Kennedy having been Lord North, Prime Minister of Eng- land during George III's reign, the husband of Lord North's sister being a prominent Scotchman of that day, and the great-great-grandfather of the present Mr. Kennedy. The birth of Karl K. Kennedy occurred in Des Moines, Iowa, January 1, 1876, his parents being Josiah Forest and Mary Catherine (Reigart) Kennedy. His early educa- tion was received in the grammar and high schools of Des Moines, his graduation from the latter being with the class of 1895. Three years at the University of Tennessee completed his education, and in 1898 he commenced his business career as assistant secretary of the State Board of Medical Examiners of which his father was secretary. After a year and a half, Mr. Kennedy resigned and in 1900 went to Phoenix, Ariz., where for a short period he was employed by the Valley Bank of Phoenix. His first visit to Los Angeles was in 1901, after which he spent two years in the insurance business in Des Moines, his home city, and traveled extensively through the West, making his headquarters at Portland, Ore. One of the most important business enterprises in the state of Washington, the Occidental Oyster Com- pany, at Bay Center, Wash., was founded by Mr. Kennedy in 1903, and he still holds an interest in
the business, though other duties have caused him to give up the active management.
It was in 1906 that Mr. Kennedy left the north- ern part of the coast and formed the Occidental Life Insurance Company at Los Angeles, which, though having a rather discouraging beginning on account of the fire at San Francisco, is now one of California's best established insurance com- panies. Mr. Kennedy was chosen the first secre- tary, director and superintendent of agents for this concern, and Hon. Edward H. Conger, for- merly American Minister to China, was its first president. In less than a year, however, Mr. Kennedy resigned his interests in the company in order to enter the brokerage business, making a specialty therein of Mexican lands, and visiting wild regions of the western coast of Mexico be- fore the railroad had been constructed there, ex- periencing some thrilling encounters with Yaqui Indians and native robbers in the mountains. On his return to the United States in 1908 he formed the Walker-Heck Oil Company, and devoted his attention to oil operation in California and mining at Goldfield, Nev., for a period of about three years, in 1911 resigning these interests to aid in the formation of the Pyramid Investment Com- pany, of which he was a director, the company being organized for the erecting and selling of homes in Los Angeles. Besides these business interests, Mr. Kennedy in 1911 became secretary and director of the Pierce-Kennedy Company, which later sold out to the Fifty Associates of California. He is also a director of the Lancas- ter Land and Loan Company, and a member of the harbor committee of the Chamber of Com- merce.
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