USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 36
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Mr. Holloway was married in Los Angeles in 1908 to Miss Elsie Dean, a native of Pennsyl- vania, and they have two children, Richard and Robert.
WILKINS POULTRY YARDS. Another of the successful poultry raisers of Los Angeles county is Mrs. Josie E. Wilkins, proprietor of the Wilkins Poultry Yards, located at No. 854 Rock Glen avenue, Eagle Rock, where she leases one acre of land. A native of Marysville, Cal., Mrs. Wilkins is the daughter of pioneer parents who crossed the plains to California in early days, and she has traveled much, having been twice to South America, besides having lived in Colorado. Her husband is a mining engineer. Mrs. Wilkins is a great believer in high grade stock in her poul- try yards, and pays high prices for her breeders. She started with a small number of high grade
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single comb White Leghorns and barred Plymouth Rocks, and is now breeding to establish her own variety-the Wilkins strain. Her poultry yards are finely appointed, many of the conveniences found therein being of her own invention. The brooder and incubator houses, which were planned by her, are equipped with everything modern for carrying on the growing business. She has had wonderful success in hatching, ninety per cent. being the highest average, the lowest being only seventy per cent. The feed used is her own pri- vate mash. She makes a specialty of baby chicks and eggs for setting, and it is her intention to increase the number of fowls in her yards to one thousand laying hens.
Mrs. Wilkins deserves great credit for the success she has made in her chosen line of work, she having made a thorough study of conditions attendant upon that business, with the result that she took three prizes at the 1915 Tropico and Glendale Poultry Show, these being for the pul- lets, hen and cock of her barred Plymouth Rock strain. A member of the Co-operative Poultry- men's Association and the California Poultry Breeders' Association, Mrs. Wilkins keeps in touch with all progressive ideas along the line of poultry raising, adapting them to her own needs, and adding to them by her own ingenuity and ability.
DEROCHER NURSERIES, INC. For gen- erations the family of Louis Derocher has been engaged in the nursery business in France, so it is very natural that he should follow this pursuit in California, a land which has done much to bring about his high degree of success. Born at Avon, Mass., April 11, 1880, Louis Joseph De- rocher, now the proprietor and manager of the Derocher Nurseries, located at No. 4332 Finley avenue, Hollywood, Cal., is of French descent, and the family returning to France soon after his birth, the boy grew up at Germain, in that country, until the age of eight years,. when he came to America to make his home here. The first success he met with in the nursery business was in Clarksville county, Texas, at the age of fourteen, making $10,000 in three years by raising cucumbers, but he later lost this money in bad investments, after which he became a soldier of fortune, and traveled throughout the country. He took a three years' course in landscape gardening
in New York state, and while there was employed by some of the prominent men of the country in laying out large estates, etc. Returning to Texas he was for a time engaged in ranching, going next to Canada, where he became an actor, first on the stage, then with the moving picture business, and it was with a company of the latter actors that Mr. Derocher first came to California with $10 in money and three trunks of clothes and the de- termination to start a nursery and thus retrieve the lost fortunes of his boyhood days in Texas. In August, 1913, he established his nursery in Los Angeles, and by the middle of October was able to make the first payment of $200 on a new lot, where the next month he erected a glass house 20x40 feet in dimensions. By the first of the next year his $10 had increased to $1,000, in February a partnership was formed, and in May and June of that year they decided upon and bought the present property of about three and one-half acres in Hollywood. By September the office buildings, greenhouses and pumping plant had been established, a change in the partnership had been made and Derocher's Inc., was incor- porated under the laws of California.
When he moved to the present location, Mr. Derocher had twenty thousand chrysanthemums, the sale of which paid two-thirds of the cost of his greenhouse which was 27x100 feet in dimen- sions, and now he has a fine office building, two glass houses, a mushroom cellar seven feet below the surface of the ground and unexcelled in Cali- fornia, a complete pumping plant and a printing establishment where his magazine and other print- ing is done. Mr. Derocher has been a hard worker, and for eighteen months worked from eighteen to twenty hours per day. He delivers lectures and writes articles on plant culture, and his maga- zine, The Knowledge of Plant Life, is issued every month by his own printing office. He be- lieves in helping others as well as himself, and has a school for mushroom growing, with a three months' course. At his place any poor boy or girl may learn the nursery business at small cost, his class of eleven pupils meeting every Tuesday evening. It will thus be seen that he runs the business on educational lines, and all his assistants have their own homes on the place, while he has three men who make a house to house canvass for his goods. Mr. Derocher is constantly im- proving his plant, at present having over forty thousand plants, among which are fifteen thousand
Henry K. Shields Francis C. Shields
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rose bushes of eighty-six varieties, and has de- veloped a new carnation and chrysanthemum, also selling all kinds of fruit trees and making a specialty of growing vegetables out of season. He has put in sixty lawns in the section of Holly- wood where he lives, and has over $5000 worth of landscape gardening contracts on hand. His plant and stock are valued at $12,000, and the business is incorporated for $25,000, paying ten per cent. interest.
HENRY K. SHIELDS. Much is always said by the man who is "down" about the lack of "opportunity" and his own "ill luck;" but to a certain other class of men every day seems to present an opportunity and every wind to blow a streak of perfectly good luck, while all that they touch appears to turn into gold. Such an one as this is Henry K. Shields, a prominent citizen of Monrovia since 1910, and for many years a resident of Los Angeles city and county. He is a selfmade man of the highest type, and his energy and industry, his clear-headed judg- ment and business sagacity have often been mistaken for a "Midas touch." He has pros- pered in everything to which he has turned his hand, and especially has this been true of his real estate deals. He has invested with such wisdom and foresight that he has reaped large profits from his various transactions, and today holds property in several Los Angeles county cities that is very valuable and so located that its valuation is steadily on the increase, al- though it was originally purchased at a com- paratively small cost.
Mr. Shields is a native of Pennsylvania, hav- ing been born in Philadelphia May 28, 1841. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Montgomery county, near Phila- delphia, and the Mount Kirk Academy, near Norristown, Pa., which institution he attended for two years. When he was a young man he was engaged with his father in the marketing of farm produce near Philadelphia, and in 1868, when he was twenty-six years of age, he re- moved to Belle Plaine, Iowa, where he engaged in farming and feeding cattle for the Chicago markets. He later removed to Blue Springs, Neb., where he purchased a half section of land, and for four years engaged in farming. He then returned to Belle Plaine, Iowa, where he
bought several tracts of land and continued his farming pursuits. It was on November 30, 1890, that Mr. Shields came to California, locat- ing first at Upland, where he purchased twenty acres of land, all unimproved, and set one-half of it to oranges and the remaining half to deciduous fruits. He resided here for seven years, at the end of which time he traded this property for Los Angeles realty and moved into the city to reside. Here he made many real estate investments of a remarkably profit- able nature. He owned property in West Arlington Heights, and also on Bush and Green streets, and he still owns property in Long Beach.
It was on October 1, 1910, that Mr. Shields and his family took up their permanent resi- dence in Monrovia. Here he bought a five-acre tract for a home place, and an eight-acre orange grove on West White Oak avenue for invest- ment purposes, of which seven acres netted him $2,832.41 in cash in 1914. He has bought and sold considerable property in Monrovia, always to a good advantage. Not only has he been successful in real estate transactions, but he has also made a decided success of his orange growing ventures. In addition to his large business interests Mr. Shields has a most in- teresting hobby in the nature of an aviary, where he has seventeen varieties of domestic and imported birds, of fancy coloring, all good singers. To him birds form a very large part of the world. and he takes an especial delight in their breeding and care.
The marriage of Mr. Shields occurred May 24, 1873, at Belle Plaine, Iowa, uniting him with Miss Frances Ziegler, a native of Bethel, Mo., and reared near Muscatine, Iowa. She is the sister of the baking powder king, William Zieg- ler of New York City, who gave her in 1897 a generous gift consisting of railroad bonds and stocks. Mrs. Shields has borne her husband five children, three daughters and two sons. They are William F., Clara L., Emma E., Fred G. and Frances E. Both Mr. and Mrs. Shields have many friends throughout Los Angeles county, with whom they are deservedly popu- lar. Mr. Shields is generally recognized as a man of great ability and of superior qualities of mind and heart. He is progressive and public spirited and has done much for the up- building of his locality, giving freely of his
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time and ability for the good of the community whenever and wherever he might best serve. Both Mr. and Mrs. Shields have been promi- nent members of the Methodist church for many years and liberal contributors to all re- ligious works and charitable institutions of dif- ferent kinds.
LORY HICKOX. Although a native of Texas, Lory Hickox knows no other home than California, having come here with his parents when he was a child of four years. For a time they resided in San Diego county, but later located in Orange county, and Mr. Hickox is a pioneer of that section of the state, having grown to man- hood there and being closely identified with its early development, both through his association with the activities of his father and by his own early enterprise and business undertakings. He is now a resident of West Covina, where he is the proud owner of one of the handsomest walnut orchards of the valley, and also one of the best producing.
Mr. Hickox was born in Benton county, Tex., May 31, 1866. His father, Alfred Hickox, was a native of New York and the mother, Charlotte Payton, was a Virginian and a descendant of one of the old historic families of that state, and directly related to the father of the late Benjamin Harrison, ex-president of the United States. The Hickox family in the United States are all related, being descended from Scotch ancestry, the Ameri- can progenitor of the family having settled in the colonies during the Revolutionary period, New York state being their first home. There were four children in the parental family, Lory Hickox being the third born. The other members were Johanna, Allie and Dory. The father crossed the plains to California in 1850 and mined for a time in the northern fields, then going to Benton county, Tex., where he engaged in stockraising. In 1870 he returned to California with his family and located in San Diego county, near Oceanside, where he traded a pair of ponies for a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres of government land. This he farmed for a short time and then sold, going to Orange county and locating at Orange. Here he again engaged in farming and was one of the pioneers in this line in that section. He
made the first irrigating ditch in the county and forged to the front along other lines of progress. Later he bought a sixty-acre ranch west of Ana- heim, and with others helped to settle the Cen- tralia district. He built the schoolhouse there, the church and other similar improvements. On his ranch he planted apples and other fruits and improved it in many ways, making this his home until his death in 1888.
Lory Hickox was reared and educated in Orange county, attending the public schools and assisting his father on the ranch. Later he farmed twenty acres on his own account near Centralia, but after a time disposed of his interests and went to Hucrfano county, Colo., where he engaged in prospecting, mining and farming for three years. Returning to California he helped to build the beet sugar factory at Los Alamitos and worked in the sugar industry for eight years. He also helped to build the sugar factory at Oxnard, Ven- tura county, and later purchased a ranch in Tulare county, between Tulare and Porterville, which he conducted for a time but eventually sold and returned to Los Angeles county. He then purchased his present property at Covina, consisting of fifteen acres all in bearing walnut trees, in splendid condition. The orchard is now eight years old (1914) and the trees are well developed and especially well cared for. The grove produced four and a half tons of walnuts in 1914, and its splendid condition is a credit both to Mr. Hickox and the community in general.
The marriage of Mr. Hickox and Miss Ella Seaman, a native of Iowa, was solemnized in Anaheim, February 10, 1887. Mrs. Hickox came to California with her parents at an early day and has since that time made her home here. She has borne her husband nine children, four daughters and five sons, as follows: Percy R., Fred H., Charles M., Sheldon R., Clifton L., Mabel E., Elva, Ida and Doris. Mr. Hickox is closely identi- fied with the best interests of Covina and vicinity and takes an active part in all that tends toward the upbuilding of the community. He is especially well informed on questions pertaining to the welfare of the fruit industry of California and has made a careful study of the conditions sur- rounding the walnut industry particularly. He is progressive and broad-minded, and altogether a desirable type of citizen.
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FLEMING FRANKLIN. Coming to Cali- fornia first when he was a youth of but eighteen years, and going later into Arizona, where for many years he was engaged in grain raising in the Salt river valley, Fleming Franklin later returned to Los Angeles to establish his permanent home, and from then until the time of his death, June 13, 1910, almost twenty years later, he took an active part in the business, social, educational and religious affairs of the city, giving of his best service for the public welfare. He was a charter member of the Broadway Christian Church and one of its deacons. He was especially interested in all church and religious work and his death was a severe loss to the denomination with which he worshiped.
Mr. Franklin was a native of Missouri, having been born in Springfield, March 6, 1849, the son of Thomas and Caroline (Stewart) Franklin. He passed his boyhood in Missouri and Kansas, at- tending school in both states, having removed to the latter with his parents when about fifteen. Three years later he came to California, but re- mained only a short time, going from here to Arizona, where he engaged successfully in grain- raising until 1893. At that time he disposed of his Arizona holdings and returned to California, locating in Los Angeles, where he made his home until the time of his death. Here he engaged in the private real estate business, being especially interested in buying and selling city property, in which he was very successful. In 1906 he pur- chased the Rosedale Feed and Fuel Company, and became the active manager of this enterprise, death relieving him of his responsibilities. While residing in Los Angeles Mr. Franklin made many warm friends and is remembered with deep re- gret. He gave freely of his time and ability for the general welfare of the city and was always to be found in the supporting ranks of all pro- gressive legislation. He was a trustee of the Nor- mandie public school for many years.
The marriage of Mr. Franklin occurred in Los Angeles in 1894, uniting him with Miss Minnie Stover, the daughter of Emanuel and Catherine (Beach) Stover, and a native of Ohio, although her parents were descended from old Virginia families. Mr. and Mrs. Franklin became the parents of three children, all born and educated in Los Angeles, where they are well and favorably known. They are Mary, Grace and Lynn, and are members of the younger social set. There is
also a son, Samuel Franklin, born of a previous marriage of the father, the first wife having died many years ago. Since the death of Mr. Franklin the family home has continued to be in this city as before.
ELWOOD LAMBERT. One of the most delightful old couples of Whittier is Elwood Lambert and his wife, who was Phoebe Ross in the days of her maidenhood. They have been married for more than sixty-six years and have held many notable celebrations of their wedding anniversary. They are both of a religious nature, Mr. Lambert being a member of the United Brethren Church, while Mrs. Lambert is a faith- ful Methodist. Both are natives of Belmont county, Ohio, and the wife is descended from one of the proud old Southern families of Virginia. Mr. Lambert is now eighty-six years of age and his wife is eighty-four, but they are still interested in all that transpires about them and are promi- nent members of their community. Mr. Lambert enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-eighth Ohio Regiment of Volunteers during the Civil war and after a year of service was mustered out. In 1865 he emigrated to Missouri, locating near Chillicothe, where he followed farming until 1886. In that year he went to Kansas and engaged in farming and stock-raising until 1893, when he came to California, locating near Whittier. Here he bought twenty-five acres of raw land, which he improved and planted to walnuts. There were at that time only two houses in the valley between the home of Mr. Lambert and Fullerton, all of which is now thickly settled and under a high state of cultivation. The Lambert ranch has al- ways been one of the best producing of the wal- nut groves of the valley, the average being three- fourths of a ton to the acre. Mr. Lambert has bought and sold other property from time to time, at one time owning a lemon grove in Whittier, which he improved and later sold. He is a mem- ber of the Whittier Walnut Growers' Association and takes an active part in any movement that is for the welfare of the valley, the fruit interests being especially dear to his heart.
Mr. and Mrs. Lambert have five children, only one of whom, Reece S., lives at Whittier. Of the others, Angelina is the wife of John Gee, a prominent rancher of Lincoln, Neb .; William re- sides at Montebello; Emma is Mrs. Howell, also
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of Montebello, and Charles is deceased. He was a soldier in the Spanish-American War, serving for two years, and being one of the participants at the Battle of Manila.
Reece S. Lambert is one of the prominent and successful walnut growers of Whittier. He was born in Washington county, Ohio, February 6, 1864, and joined with his father in farming en- terprises in Missouri. When he was twenty-two years of age he homesteaded a half section of land in Kansas, proved up on the same and sold it at an appreciable profit. On coming to California with his father in 1893 he purchased twenty-three acres of unimproved land, which he planted to walnuts, developing a splendid grove of highly productive trees. He also owns a valuable forty- acre alfalfa ranch near Modesto, Stanislaus county, this state. The marriage of Mr. Lambert and Lucy Clark of Ohio took place in Morgan county, that state, in 1905. Of their union has been born one child, a son, Ross C. Mr. Lambert takes a prominent part in the affairs of the com- munity and is a member of several fraternal and social orders, among them being the Sons of Veterans. He is a member of the United Brethren Church.
ALEXANDER B. FOTHERGILL. That "truth is stranger than fiction" has never been more graphically demonstrated than in the case of Alexander B. Fothergill, who within the short space of ten years builded a business from a simple start and an investment of some $40 to a point where he very recently received therefor the magnificent sum of a quarter of a million dol- lars. It is a tale of modern business romance that is full of interest, and which carries always the strong undercurrent of honorable service, straight- forward methods, fair dealing, and sober industry and application. In 1902 Mr. Fothergill came to Los Angeles from Pueblo, Colo., where he had been in business for several years, and opened a little bakery on Avery street. He invested about $40 in the venture, and gradually the business grew in scope and patronage. After a short time the proprietor gave it the name of the Buffalo Baking Company and began to make a specialty of bread. He had a substantial savings account and within a short time he determined to put out a special brand of bread known as "Holsum." Having secured the necessary rights from the
"Holsum" people (for be it known that in the undertaking Mr. Fothergill was allying himself with a nation-wide movement for the production of a superior brand of clean, wholesome bread), the proprietor of the Buffalo Baking Company entered upon a campaign which soon gave him a place in the front rank of his business in Los Angeles. He installed new and modern equip- ment, with splendid ovens of the latest pattern, automatic and sanitary devices for the handling of the bread at its various stages, and also the best means of placing it before the patrons. The name soon became familiar and the demands therefor made an enlargement of the plant a necessity. In 1910 a larger establishment was secured on Tennessee street and additional changes and additions were made in the equip- ment, always the latest and most sanitary devices being installed, and neither time nor expense being spared to make the bakery a model of sani- tation. The returns entirely justified the steps taken by Mr. Fothergill, and his profits continued to increase in amazing proportions. The demand for the new product was so great that the output of the plant was increased from 3500 to 30,000 loaves a day, which has necessitated an almost constant increase in help and equipment. Within the past two years an even greater change has taken place. A new building has been erected, modern in every appointment, within and with- out, and the devices for the handling of their product are such as to fill a housewife with envy. The output continued to increase, and at the time that Mr. Fothergill disposed of his interests it had reached the enormous amount of 75,000 loaves per day, with a patronage that extended not only all over the city, but also throughout the entire district tributary to Los Angeles, and the bakery itself had become known as the largest and finest equipped in Southern California, if not in the entire west. On April 15, 1914, he sold out his business and retired from active life, since that time having lived in quiet enjoyment of the fruits of his splendid efforts, which in ten years had brought such a splendid result that the business that originally called for an investment of $40 was sold for $250,000. The business was taken over by the Pacific Baking Company under the personal management of W. F. Long, and is being conducted along the same lines of sanitation and high grade principles as its former owner found so profitable, while the same brand of bread that
7.H. Redpath
maria. O. Realpath
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
worked such wonders for Mr. Fothergill is still their specialty.
Mr. Fothergill is a native of Scotland, having been born in Glasgow, August 25, 1878, the son of Jonathan and Eliza Fothergill. His father has passed away, but his mother is still living. His parents removed to Aylmer, Ontario, Canada, when young Alexander was a mere lad and there he attended school for a short time, his school days being cut short when he was twelve years of age. At that time he entered a bakery as an apprentice, learning the trade and working at it until he was fifteen, in Aylmer. He then went to Lansing, Mich., where for a year he followed his trade, afterwards going to Pueblo, Colo., where he remained until 1902, following the same occu- pation as formerly. While in Lansing Mr. Fother- gill for a time conducted a restaurant, but this did not appeal to him and he afterwards confined himself exclusively to his trade as a baker. The rise of this energetic man has been entirely due to his own efforts, and to his wisdom and fore- sight in business affairs. He is still a young man, and yet, starting with nothing, he has won his way to the top of the ladder, not by speculation, not by luck, nor yet by gambling in the necessities of life; but rather by a straightforward pursuit of business methods along lines of honor and hon- esty. He discovered that a great need of the age was a bread-the staff of life-that should be absolutely clean and wholesome, made under the best possible sanitary conditions, of the best ob- tainable materials, by the best obtainable bakers, and then sold to the consumer at a reasonable profit. That his belief in the support by the people of such a product was right has been more than proven by the magnificent results that he has achieved, and also by the monument of industry that he has so well builded and which will long continue to honor his name.
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