USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 27
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Ten children were born of the union of Sidney S. and Rebecca J. Chapman. Frank M., born January 1, 1849, when a mere boy enlisted at the last call for volunteers, joining Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Illinois Volun- teer Infantry, and remained until the close of the war. Later he entered Bennett Medical College in Chicago and graduated in 1877. On Septem- ber 9, 1886, he married Wilhelmina Zillen, by whom he had four children, Frank M., Jr., Grant, Grace and Clarke. He was appointed lieutenant colonel of the National Guard of California by Governor Gage, re-appointed by Governors Par- dee and Gillett. His death occurred in Covina, March 18, 1909. Emma E., born October 24, 1850, married L. W. B. Johnson December 18, 1873, and died in Illinois in 1888, leaving two children, Doc Amos and Bessie. Charles C. was born July 2, 1853 ( see his personal sketch). Eliza H., born February 21, 1855, died September 13, 1860. David E., born February 6, 1857, died October 27, same year. C. Columbus, born August 23, 1858, at Bardolph, Ill., married Anna E. Clough, lives in Los Angeles and has two sons, Sidney and Clough. William D., born February 4, 1861, died December 30, same year. Samuel James is the subject of this review. Dolla E., born August 14, 1864, married Will C. Harris, a prominent architect and builder of Los Angeles. Louella, born May 22, 1870, at Vermont, Ill., is the wife of J. Charles Thamer of Placentia. Mrs. Rebecca J. Chapman passed away in Chicago
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January 2, 1874. On December 30, 1875, S. S. development of that religious organization. He Chapman was again married, his wife being Ann is a Knight Templar, Thirty-second Degree Mason and a Shriner, and is a Republican in politics. Eliza Clarke, a sister of his first wife, and who with her three children, Ira, Earl and Nina, re- sides in Los Angeles.
The marriage of Samuel James Chapman in Chicago on April 12, 1888, united him with Anna E. Stover, who was born December 29, 1867, in Ladoga, Ind., a daughter of Abram H. and Mar- garet (Alcock) Stover. The latter was born near Verners Bridge, County Armagh, Ireland, July 10, 1841, and her marriage to Mr. Stover occurred May 16, 1861. He was born March 15, 1836, in Montgomery county, Ind., and is descend- ed from a family long identified with America, dating back to 1680, when the progenitor came from Saxony, Germany, and settled in Pennsyl- vania. Dr. George Stover, born in Franklin county, Pa., in 1732, is the first of whom there is any authentic record. In 1757 Dr. Stover mar- ried Hannah Price, whose father had been forced to flee from Berlin, Prussia, to the United States on account of political persecution. One of the sons of Dr. Stover, also named George, was born in Pennsylvania in 1785 and was taken by his parents to Virginia, where in 1810 he married Anna Rader, who was born there in 1790. In 1832 George Stover moved with his wife and ten children to a farm near Ladoga, Ind., where two more children were born, the youngest being Abram H., who was named for an uncle who was the originator of the term Hoosier as applied to the inhabitants and the state of Indiana. Abram H. remained on the farm with his parents until he was twenty-one, then took up the trade of carpenter, which he followed for years. He joined the Christian Church in 1863 and his wife in 1859. For a number of years they lived in Chicago, but in 1902 located in Los Angeles, where they now reside. They had three children, William N., who was born August 15, 1862, and died May 27, 1885; George Alcock, born May 30, 1866; and Anna Elizabeth, who married S. J. Chapman.
Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Chapman two children were born, Florence Stover, who was born July 16, 1889, and died April 30, 1894, and George Arthur, born January 13, 1891, now com- pleting his last year in the University of Southern California. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman are members of the Christian Church, which he joined in early manhood and ever since has been active in the
PAUL SHOUP. Some there are on whose steps Destiny waits to gently lead along paths of ease. Others pluck success from that master arbiter, Fate, by sheer force of their own forceful personalities and to the latter class belongs Paul Shoup, president of the Pacific Electric Railway Company, the Peninsular Railway Company, the Fresno Traction Company, the Stockton Electric Railroad Company, the Visalia Electric Railroad Company, the San Jose Railroads ; and vice-presi- dent of the Clark Oil Company, the Newport Beach Company, the Los Angeles Pacific Land Company, and the Pacific Electric Land Com- pany. At the time of becoming the executive head of practically all the interurban lines of Southern California, which took place with his promotion from vice-president to the office of president of the Pacific Electric lines, the South- ern Pacific electric properties in the San Joaquin valley and the San Jose and Peninsular lines, he was credited with being the youngest railway president in the United States. Almost phenome- nal has been his rise from a minor capacity in the mechanical department of the Santa Fe at San Bernardino to the general supervision of one of the most important electric systems in the country. Only great ability could have forged its way to the front with such marvelous speed ; only tireless energy could have surmounted obstacles neither few nor small. Necessarily such a man must be intensely vigorous in mind and body, with a pro- digious activity that makes him a power to be reckoned with in every department of business. Necessarily there must be something stern in purpose, something tenacious in will power and much quickness of mental assimilation in such an executive, and these qualities give a brief word picture of the Pacific Electric's president.
Activities so far reaching and aspirations so comprehensive mark Mr. Shoup as a true son of California. San Bernardino is his native city (born in 1874), his parents, Timothy and Sarah S. (Sumner) Shoup, having lived there for many years, and in its schools he was prepared for the responsibilities of business life. To a large ex- tent, however, he is self-educated and in the
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school of experience has learned lessons far more important than those to be gleaned from the most modern text-books. When he entered the rail- road service in 1891 he was an inexperienced youth of about seventeen years. In 1896 he was transferred from San Bernardino to San Fran- cisco to take the position of clerk in the Southern Pacific offices. That he made good is shown by his rapid advancement. From 1899 to 1904 he engaged as a district freight and passenger agent, and in the latter year he was appointed assistant general freight agent of the Harriman lines at Portland, Ore. The following year he was made assistant general passenger agent of the Southern Pacific system at San Francisco and a few years later was put in charge of the electric lines of the Southern Pacific. In 1911 he was elected vice- president of the Pacific Electric Railway Com- pany. After having been virtually in control in Southern California as managing director of the Pacific Electric, he was chosen president of the company August 1, 1912. A program of exten- sion and improvement marked the inauguration of his duties. Important changes indicate the expansion of the company's lines into territory not previously covered by its network of radiating tracks. Withal there has been an incessant de- mand upon his time in the management of the lines in operation.
Mr. Shoup is a member of the Jonathan, Cali- fornia, Knickerbocker and Los Angeles Athletic Clubs in Los Angeles, besides being associated with the Transportation and Bohemian Clubs of San Francisco. He is still a young man, and great as has been his success in the past, his future holds promise of still greater progress and triumph.
HUGH W. BRYSON. As general manager and one of the directors of the F. O. Engstrum Company, contractors, of Los Angeles, and also as the builder and owner of the Bryson and Ram- part apartments, in the Wilshire district, Hugh W. Bryson is one of the best known men in the city, and also one of the most progressive and energetic men in Southern California. He is possessed of splendid executive ability, and his success in the handling of large interests and large numbers of men is very marked. He is also a pioneer in many lines of investment, the erection of the Bryson and the Rampart apartments being
one of his ventures into a new field, these being the finest apartment houses west of Chicago, and far ahead of anything in Los Angeles at that time. That they met with the approval of the citizens and traveling public is attested by their popularity and also by the fact that property in their vicinity increased from four hundred to six hundred per cent. on account of their erection. Other pioneer ventures have been made along other lines in a business way, and have always met with the great- est of success, Mr. Bryson being possessed of a rare and valuable gift of foresight and judgment.
A native of Tennessee, Mr. Bryson was born in Memphis, August 31, 1868, his father being Davis Bryson and his mother formerly Miss Katie Wyatt. The son attended grammar and high schools in Memphis, graduating from the latter at the age of seventeen years, and following this with a business course. He then accepted a posi- tion as clerk with Sledge & Norfleet, cotton brokers, remaining in their employ for four years. He then spent five years in the banking business in various capacities, later engaging in the real estate business as a partner in the firm of George H. Glascock & Co., remaining in this connection for five years, and then disposing of his interests to come to California. He located at once in Los Angeles and became the manager for the F. O. Engstrum Company, general contractors, and met with splendid success in his work. His position with the company was such that in 1904 he was offered and purchased a one-third interest in the company, and since that time has been general manager and director. He is also presi- dent of the Concrete Appliances Company.
The F. O. Engstrum Company was established a quarter of a century ago, and is the largest con- struction firm west of Chicago. Its operations cover all of Southern California, and more than two thousand men are constantly employed by it, a large number of these having been with the company for fifteen years continuously. The organization is thoroughly systematized for build- ing construction, including re-enforced concrete, steel, brick, plaster, plumbing, steam fitting, drawn metal, ornamental and structural iron, staff, stucco, painting, and electrical work. They operate the largest planing mill in the city, with headquarters at Fifth and Seaton streets, where their plant is also located, with lumber yards, and all other departments. They are the world's pioneers in the use of the modern gravity "G. Y."
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system for delivering concrete, which system has revolutionized concrete construction. There is probably no other firm that has so many employes who own their own homes and are possessed with bank accounts and have become active factors in the life of the city.
Mr. Bryson is widely interested in various en- terprises other than the Engstrum Company, and his work as a pioneer in the erection and as owner of high class apartment houses in Los Angeles entitles him to great credit, for the venture was a large one, involving as it did the investment of large sums of money. He is a member of several of the most exclusive clubs of the city, including the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Union League and also the Orange County Country Club. He is also a member of the Y. M. C. A. and an ardent supporter of the work of this organization.
The marriage of Mr. Bryson and Miss Blanche Engstrum was solemnized in Los Angeles, June 1, 1904. Of their union have been born two daughters, Elizabeth and Frances, both of whom are attending private schools in the city.
GEORGE A. TRUE. Influential among the early settlers of the La Verne district of the San Gabriel valley was the late George A. True, who for many years was one of the most suc- cessful lemon growers of Lordsburg, Cal., a town situated thirty-three miles east of the city of Los Angeles in one of the prosperous citrus districts of Southern California. Mr. True, who was a native of Boston, removed with his parents when he was but seven years of age to La Salle county, Ill., where he was reared and educated. Arriving at man's estate he made his home for a time at Waltham, Ill., and later was engaged in farming for a number of years. He was supervisor of La Salle county for several years and served for many years as township treasurer, taking an active part in many other ways in the public affairs of his community and receiving many evidences of the esteem in which he was held by his fellow- citizens. It was in 1887 that Mr. True came to California and bought a ten-acre tract in February of that year located in the La Verne district at Lordsburg. Later he purchased an additional ten acres, both being parts of the old Kellar tract. The land when he bought it
was planted to fruit-peaches, prunes, apricots and wine grapes predominating. These were later removed and orange and lemon trees planted in their stead. Water was developed on the property by the driving of wells, and other improvements were made. Mr. True was one of the charter members of the Deciduous Association of North Pomona, Cal., a nearby town also widely interested in the raising of citrus fruits, and was treasurer and stockholder of the same, and also of the Citrus Association.
By his marriage with Miss Eliza Stevenson of New Jersey in May, 1857, Mr. True became the father of two children, William S. and Mrs. Angie T. Hartshorn. After the death of Mr. True in July, 1898, and that of his wife in 1902, the Lordsburg home was left to the daughter, Mrs. Hartshorn, who now manages the estate with the aid of her son, Albion True Hartshorn. It is a very valuable and beautiful home, ideally situated in the foothills overlooking the fruitful San Gabriel valley.
A. C. OLSEN. Prominent among the poultry- men of Los Angeles county may be mentioned A. C. Olsen, of Gardena, who is one of the founders of the Poultrymen's Co-operative Association of Los Angeles County, of which organization he has always been a director. Mr. Olsen is a native of Denmark, born March 16, 1871. When he was a lad of eleven years he came to the United States with his parents and located on a farm in eastern Nebraska, where he grew to young manhood and received his education. Later he followed farm- ing, but gave it up temporarily in 1898 to respond to the call for volunteers for the Spanish-Ameri- can war. He was attached to the Third Nebraska Regiment, under Col. William Jennings Bryan, under whom for three months he did garrison duty at Havana, Cuba.
It was in 1901 that Mr. Olsen first came to Cali- fornia, locating for a time at Santa Monica, where he was in the employ of the United Electric Gas and Power Company, now the Edison Elec- tric Company. Later he engaged in the feed and fuel business at the same place, but disposed of his interests in 1909 and came to Gardena, where he has since engaged in the chicken busi- ness with success. On six acres of land which he
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purchased he established himself in the poultry business on a very modest scale, and now has two thousand laying hens of the White Leghorn variety. He uses the Schofield incubators, and has a capacity of two thousand eggs. His chickens are housed in long pens sixty and eighty feet in length and sixteen feet in width, there being six houses in all. His hens are netting him an aver- age of about $1.25 per year. Mr. Olsen has made a careful study of every phase of the poultry in- dustry and is an acknowledged authority on the subject. He has developed his home place along general lines, having a beautiful walnut grove thereon, and a well which produces a flow of fifteen inches of water, and his own pumping plant.
Mr. Olsen takes an active interest in all the local and municipal affairs of Gardena and is one of the most progressive citizens of that thriving little city. He is a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, and a prominent Mason, his mem- bership being in the Gardena Lodge, while the Odd Fellows of Santa Monica, Lodge No. 369, I. O. O. F., claim his membership in that order.
JAMES R. BROOKS. The youngest son of Thomas Brooks, a native of England, who came to California about the year 1855, James R. Brooks is a member of a pioneer family char- acterized by thrift, industry, great orderliness, friendliness and mechanical ability, traits which a new section of the country is glad to welcome among its settlers. The father, Thomas Brooks, was a paragon of industry, efficiency and practical ability, worthy qualities which were inherited by his sons and daughters who are now well known residents of Los Angeles. Coming from his native country, England, in early manhood, Thomas Brooks, after residing a number of years in St. Louis, and also a short time in New Orleans, crossed the plains to California with his family, settling in Grass Valley, Nevada county, where he became engineer for the celebrated gold mining company known as the Rocky Bar Mill, where he attended to the steam stationary engines and ran all the stamps and crushers. Upon coming to Los Angeles county, Thomas Brooks became a sheep rancher, being the first to buy and improve a ranch on the Los Feliz road. In 1877 he lost thousands of sheep by drought on rented land
near Wilmington, Cal., in the lagoon country and about Griffith Park, localities where in those early days the Brooks children herded their father's sheep, an industry which was practically ruined by the severe drought. After purchasing his seventy-five acre ranch on the Los Feliz road, the father devoted it mainly to horticulture and market gardening, also establishing a blacksmith shop on his property, where he did a great deal of difficult and fine mechanical work, some of which, including steel tools such as gauges, etc., are still in existence and are as perfect as any of the highest grade of tools manufactured today. While running this blacksmith shop, the father did most of the blacksmith and engine work for the original Water Company at East Los Angeles, a district then called East Los Angeles, but now a part of the city proper and located in the northern section.
The Brooks family were wholesouled people of refinement and high moral aspirations, and figured prominently in the school, church and social af- fairs of the pioneer days in Los Angeles county. The father, Thomas Brooks, died in 1909, at the age of eighty-four years, the burial taking place at Evergreen cemetery, Los Angeles. James R. Brooks, the youngest son, was one of a family of twelve children by the second wife, six of whom grew to maturity. James R. Brooks was born at his father's ranch on August 2, 1875, and received a good common school education, also taking up the study of the violin. When eighteen years of age James Brooks suffered a severe accident, his spine being injured by a fall from a tree, so that for months his life was despaired of. Slowly re- covering, it was found that he was permanently crippled, his only means of locomotion thereafter being by an invalid's roller chair. Mr. Brooks began to do some light work along mechanical lines, having learned something of the black- smith's trade from his father, and as he grew stronger undertook various kinds of mechanical work, which seemed to be second nature to him. Also resuming his study of the violin, he became a good player and now gives lessons to a number of pupils. Employing his time with the making of cabinets and tools of various kinds, filing saws, etc., Mr. Brooks was one day advised by his sister, with whom he lives, to construct a violin, and following her suggestion he succeeded in making a fairly good instrument. Since that time he has secured very fine tools and material im-
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ported from Europe, and has made thirty violins, some of which have sold for the high price of $100, and many violinists who are expert judges have given highest praise to the instruments made by him. In all, Mr. Brooks has made thirty-four stringed instruments, among which are violins, violas and ukeleles, having had to study out the art largely for himself, through reading every authentic work published on the subject, and by the study of the construction, dimensions, etc., of one of the violins of the celebrated Joseph Guarnerius, secured for him through the kindness of a friend, this having served as the model for all the later instruments constructed by Mr. Brooks. In addition to this work, he also repairs violins and stringed instruments.
The home life of the violin maker with his brother and sister upon a portion of the old home ranch is of the happiest. The brother William, a horticulturist of note, attends to the outside work, and the sister Emma is the housekeeper, the remaining fifty-five acres of their father's property also being cared for by them. Much of the land they rent to Japanese market gardeners, the soil being rich and well irrigated and finely adapted to market gardening and fruit culture, the estate being located on good roads and in prox- imity to the Los Angeles markets.
It is families such as these which America is proud to welcome to her shores and which, by industry, thrift and natural ability, add immeas- urably to the welfare and progress of the new sections of our country where, as pioneer settlers, they make their homes and rear their families.
EDWARD WILLIAM LEWIS. Of Welsh descent, Edward William Lewis, now a prosper- ous farmer of Compton, Cal., was born in Bloss- burg, Tioga county, Pa., May 1, 1845. The greater part of his youth, however, was spent in Wisconsin, for when a small boy his family re- moved to Iowa county, Wis., where the son grew up on the farm until the age of twenty-one, at which time he moved to Saunders county, Neb. For twenty-two years he remained in Nebraska, raising cattle, hogs and corn and becoming one of the leading farmers in his district. In 1893 he sold his property of one hundred and twenty acres
at $45 an acre, and removed to Southern Cali- fornia in the spring of the next year, settling near Compton in Los Angeles county. Here he in- vested in sixty-two acres of land, twelve acres of which he soon sold, however, making $25 per acre on the sale. When the boulevard was put through his land in 1911 he lost two acres, and he is now the owner of a fine ranch of forty-eight acres, improved with residence, barns, pumping plant and well, there being a twelve-inch well of flowing water. Here he raised alfalfa and green barley, and later installed a fine dairy of thirty-two cows of Jersey and Holstein breeds, after selling which he now devotes his attention to raising sugar beets which net him about $40 per acre, clear, each year. He has nine head of horses and mules upon his place, and is the proud owner of a fine bay driving mare, four years old, of Young, Hall and Hamble- tonian breed. He also owns fifty acres of well improved land two miles southeast of Downey.
A keen interest is felt by Mr. Lewis in the welfare of his district and he has long taken an active part in the management of school matters in the vicinity, for the past fifteen years having been a member of the Lugo District School Board, a part of which time he served also as president of the board. He believes in securing the best of teachers, and was the first to advance the wages of the teachers to $100 and $85 per month, respectively. His political interests are with the Republicans, and in this capacity he serves as a member of the County Central Com- mittee, and was a delegate to the convention that nominated Governor Gage for governor of Cali- fornia. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to the subordinate York Lodge of Watts, and also to the Council No. 11 and Sigma Chapter No. 57 of Los Angeles.
The wife of Mr. Lewis was a descendant of the family of the late President Mckinley, Mary Cadman of Nebraska, whose mother was a Miss McKinley, cousin of the late president, who, with his father, was a frequent visitor at the Lewis home in Nebraska, in which state the death of Mrs. Lewis occurred. Mr. Lewis is the father of five children: Celia, now the wife of Joseph McGinty ; Joseph, who is in charge of the Downey ranch and past master of the Watts Lodge of Masons; Edward, who makes his home with his father ; Mary, now Mrs. Fletcher ; and William, who is deceased.
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GEORGE F. EISENMAYER. The president of the Pacific Mineral Products Company is George F. Eisenmayer, a man whose wide ex- perience and research work along the line of mineralogy render him peculiarly adapted to the leadership of a company such as this which he lias organized. Mr. Eisenmayer's native place is Summerfield, St. Clair county, Ill., where he was born April 5, 1868, his parents being Philip Henry and Emma E. (Wise) Eisenmayer. The public schools provided his early education until he had reached the age of fifteen, after which he con- tinued his studies at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., where he was graduated in 1886, having made a special study of mechanical en- gineering.
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