USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 42
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WILLIAM WALLACE WOODS. Another well known figure in banking circles in Los An- geles is William Wallace Woods, whose associa- tion with the Citizens National and Citizens Trust
and Savings Banks of this city is well known throughout this part of the state. Mr. Woods is a native of Indiana, having been born at Hagers- town, April 24, 1877, the son of William Wallace Woods, Sr., and Anna Mary Woods. He re- ceived his education in the public and high schools of Colorado and New Mexico, and later was em- ployed in the mercantile business with the Charles Ilfeld Company, at Las Vegas, N. Mex. He was married in El Paso, Texas, April 10, 1901, to Miss Marguerite Lucille Ainsa, a native of San Francisco. Her family removed to Texas at the time the first Southern Pacific trains were op- erated between San Francisco and El Paso, and she was reared and educated there. She has borne her husband two sons, William Wallace Woods, Jr., aged thirteen, and Richard Ainsa Woods, aged seven years.
Mr. Woods is well known in fraternal and social circles in Los Angeles, being a member of the California Club, the Los Angeles Country Club, and the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner.
JOHN L. BEVERIDGE. Gen. John L. Bev- eridge, whose life came to a close in his Holly- wood (Cal.) home, May 3, 1910, was a man who had made his mark in the world as a Civil war officer, a member of Congress, the governor of a state and a distinguished lawyer and statesman.
On both sides of the family General Pevcridge was descended from Scotch ancestors, the paternal grandfather, Andrew Beveridge, having left his home in Scotland and come to America in 1770 and settled in Washington county, N. Y., when only eighteen years of age. The maternal grand- parents, James and Agnes (Robertson) Hoy, came to this country fifteen years later and set- tled in the same county in New York, where they are now buried. The father of General Bever- idge, George Beveridge, was one of eight sons, of whom two enlisted in the War of 1812, but the closing of the war obviated the necessity of their active participation in the struggle. Born in Wash- ington county, N. Y., July 6, 1824, General Bev- eridge received his early education in his native state, continuing his studies in Granville Acad- emy and Rock River Seminary, Illinois, when the family removed to that state. Having completed his studies in 1845, he entered the teaching profes-
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sion in Tennessee, meanwhile studying law, and was admitted to the bar in Jackson county in November, 1850.
In December, 1847, General Beveridge was mar- ried to Miss Helen M. Judson in the old Clark Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago, where her father was then pastor. In 1848 they went to Tennessee, and there their two children were born, namely, Alla May and Philo Judson. On account of the mismanagement of an associate, General Beveridge found him- self in debt in 1849, and as soon as he could clear himself of this, he returned to Illinois, where, in Sycamore, DeKalb county, he began to practice the profession of law. On account of the reverses through which he had just passed, he also did extra work, such as keeping books for several business houses, as well as some rail- road engineering, and upon his removal to Evans- ton, Ill., in 1854, brighter prospects dawned for him and he opened a law office in Chicago, where he succeeded in gathering about him an influen- tial clientele. The epoch of his life upon which he looked back with the most satisfaction was that of his four years' service in the Civil war. Enlisting as a private in the Eighth Illinois Cav- alry, he became captain of Company F, and on the 28th of August, 1861, was elected major of this cavalry regiment, which became a part of the Army of the Potomac, with which it took part in the campaign of 1862-1863. He was in command of his forces during the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericks- burg, Chancellorsville, the Seven Days Fight around Richmond, and at Gettysburg. At the request of the governor of Illinois he resigned in 1863 and was honorably mustered out, in order to effect the organization of the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, he being commissioned colonel of the same. He served in the department of Missouri, taking part in Price's raid, the remain- der of his military career taking place in the states of Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas, he being re- tained for some time later as president of the mili- tary commission at St. Louis, Mo., where, in May, 1865, he received brevet commission as brigadier general. He was finally mustered out in Feb- ruary, 1866, his career having been marked by remarkable ability and gallantry.
At the close of the war General Beveridge re- turned to Chicago to resume the practice of law. He was elected sheriff of Cook county in Novem-
ber, 1866, after which he continued his legal prac- tice until November, 1870, in which year he was elected state senator. A year later he became congressman-at-large and in 1872 was elected lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Governor Oglesby, which resulted in his becoming governor of Illinois, which office he assumed January 21, 1873. At the close of his term as governor he went into business under the firm name of Bev- eridge & Dewey, as bankers and dealers in com- mercial paper in Chicago. In 1881 he was made assistant United States treasurer, which position he filled until 1885. Retiring from active life on account of poor health, he made his home in Evanston, Ill., until the close of the year 1895 which saw his removal to California, where he made his home in the city of Hollywood until the time of his death.
General Beveridge was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was elected a compan- ion of the first class in the Illinois Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States in 1882 with insignia No. 2411, be- ing transferred in 1896 to the Commandery of California. He was a member of the Methodist denomination. Of his two children, the elder, Alla May, is now the wife of Samuel B. Raymond and resides in Chicago, the son, Philo Judson, is active in the advancement of the city of Hollywood.
PHILO JUDSON BEVERIDGE. The fam- ily of Philo J. Beveridge, a retired business man and a prominent citizen of Hollywood, Cal., is of Scotch extraction, the great-grandfather, Andrew Beveridge, having come from Scotland to Amer- ica in 1770 when only eighteen years of age and settled in Washington county, N. Y. Gen. John Beveridge, the father of Philo J., was born in Washington county, N. Y., in 1824, graduated from Granville Academy and Rock River Semi- nary in Illinois, and entered the teaching profes- sion in Tennessee, studying law meantime so that in 1850 he was admitted to the bar in Jackson county, Tenn. At the commencement of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in the Eighth Illinois Cavalry in 1861, becoming captain of Company F, and later major of this cavalry regiment, and was commissioned colonel of the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, and brigadier-general in May, 1865. After the war he was elected state senator,
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and became congressman at large and then gov- ernor of Illinois and assistant United States treas- urer. In 1895 he removed to California, where he made his home in the city of Hollywood until the time of his death.
The son, Philo Judson Beveridge, was born in Tennessee, December 1, 1850, his mother being Helen Mar (Judson) Beveridge, and his elder sister, Alla May, now the wife of Samuel B. Raymond of Chicago. Philo Beveridge graduated from the Northwestern University at Evanston, Ill., and at twenty entered business life, serving in the auditor's office of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, at Sacramento, Cal., in 1871, then being employed for a year with the Geological Survey at Yellowstone Park, and as private secretary to his father, then the governor of Illinois, from 1873 to 1877. For about five years he was a sugar broker in Chicago, and for a few months the sec- retary of the Illinois Railway Commission. Then he went into the banking business in Chicago, as note broker, under the firm name of Beveridge & Dewey, remaining with this firm three years, after which he was engaged as mining superintendent in Nevada a year, representing the interests of a Chi- cago capitalist at Austin, Nev., then spending three or four years in the management of gas heating appliances on his own account.
In November, 1893, Mr. Beveridge came to Cal- ifornia and settled in Hollywood, interesting him- self in ranching and real estate operations in this state from that time onward. His marriage oc- curred in March of the following year, uniting him with Mrs. Ida D. Wilcox, widow of H. H. Wilcox, one of the pioneer settlers of Hollywood, where he died in 1891. Mr. and Mrs. Beveridge became the parents of two children, Marian and Phyllis, the death of Mrs. Beveridge occurring on August 7, 1914. The elder daughter is now the wife of Wilbur W. Campbell, and they have one son, Philo Beveridge Campbell, born February 24, 1915. The younger daughter is a pupil at Bishop's School. Mr. Beveridge, who is now re- tired from active business life, devotes himself to the care of his private interests, but has sub- divided and sold considerable real estate in Holly- wood, where he has done much for the upbuild- ing of the city, and spent seven months in getting the old Los Angeles Pacific started. He is a mem- ber of St. Stephen's Church in Hollywood, and a director in the Hollywood National Bank and the Citizens Savings Bank at Hollywood, and
president of Connell Company, undertakers, of Los Angeles, and the Auto Funding Company of America. He holds membership in the Loyal Legion of the United States by inheritance, is identified with the Knights of Pythias, being also a Knight Templar, and in business and social affiliations is a member of the Los Angeles Cham- ber of Commerce, the Hollywood Board of Trade and the Los Angeles Country Club.
ORRA EUGENE MONNETTE. Although a resident of Los Angeles only since April, 1907, when he came west from Toledo, Ohio, where he was known as one of the leading attorneys of the city and state, Orra Eugene Monnette has as- sumed a position in the business affairs of the city that easily ranks him as one of the first citi- zens. He has invested heavily in real estate and has also identified himself with a multitude of other progressive interests, prominent among which is the banking business of the city, in which he is a more than ordinarily prominent figure. He has also been connected with several well-known legal cases and has established an enviable reputa- tion for himself before the bar of the state.
Mr. Monnette is a native of Ohio, born near Bucyrus, April 12, 1873, the son of Mervin Jere- miah and Olive Adelaide (Hull) Monnette, who were well known in their section of Ohio. Mr. Monnette received his primary education in the schools of Ohio, first attending the public and high schools of Bucyrus, and graduating from the latter in 1890. Following this he attended the Bucyrus Business College, and later the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, receiv- ing the degree of B. A. after taking a special course in law in 1895. He received his first busi- ness training in the Second National Bank of Bucyrus, where he was employed for some time after completing his college courses. In 1896 he passed the bar examinations and was admitted to practice law in all the courts of Ohio and in the United States District Courts. In 1897 he formed his first law partnership, this being with Judge Thomas Beer and Smith W. Bennett, under the firm name of Beer, Bennett & Monnette, with offices at Bucyrus. Two years later (1899) Mr. Bennett retired and the firm was known as Beer & Monnette until 1903, when Mr. Monnette moved to Toledo, Ohio. Here he formed a part-
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nership with Hon. Charles A. Seiders which con- tinued until 1906, when Mr. Monnette withdrew and continued his practice alone.
It was in April, 1907, that Mr. Monnette re- moved to Los Angeles to make his permanent home. Here he opened his law offices and estab- lished a thriving practice, working alone until January, 1912. At that time he was elected presi- dent of the Citizens Trust and Savings Bank, and has since then given much of his time to the banking interests of the city, with which at this time he is closely identified. He is a director of the Citizens National Bank of Los Angeles, Citi- zens Trust and Savings Bank, Los Angeles Title and Trust Company, and Mortgage Guarantee Company.
Mr. Monnette possesses much literary ability and has done some very creditable literary work. In 1911 he published a volume entitled Monnet Family Genealogy, consisting of thirteen hundred pages, one hundred seventy-one illustrations, large royal octavo, at a cost of $10,000 and ten years of close labor. Mr. Monnette is descended from a long line of illustrious ancestors, of whom he is justly proud. He is entitled to membership in practically all of the famous pioneer and patriotic societies of the nation, and in most of these is a prominent worker. Among such organizations may be mentioned the Society of Mayflower De- scendants ; Huguenot Society of America; Sons of the Revolution; Society of Colonial Wars; So- ciety of the War of 1812; Sons of the American Revolution ; and the Order of Washington. He is also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa (hon- orary scholastic) and Phi Kappa Psi fraternities, having been elected national president of the lat- ter in June, 1911. He is a member of the Masonic order, thirty-second degree Scottish Rite, and is also a Shriner, and is a prominent member of many of the best local clubs, including the Cali- fornia, Jonathan, Union League, Los Angeles Athletic, Los Angeles Country, and Los Angeles Ad Clubs.
Politically Mr. Monnette is a member of the Republican party. He is well posted and keenly alive to all the affairs of his party, local, state and national, but has never been actively asso- ciated with the party activities in Los Angeles. He is a progressive citizen and is certain to be well in the van in any movement for the civic welfare and social betterment of the city.
The marriage of Mr. Monnette with Miss Car- rie Lucile Janeway was solemnized in 1895 at Columbus, Ohio. Both are members of the Meth- odist Church.
JAMES G. DONAVAN. The Donavan & Seamans Company, jewelers, started in business in Los Angeles in 1894 when Broadway and Spring street were residence streets and their store on Spring street, near Temple, was in the heart of the shopping center. Removing later to Third and Spring streets, they remained there for twenty-one years, when they removed to their present elegant quarters at No. 743 South Broad- way, where the tiled floors, mirrors, balcony, marble show windows, and show cases of ma- hogany and rosewood make an appropriate set- ting for the company's display of high class jew- elry, silverware and flawless precious stones.
James G. Donavan, vice-president of the Dona- van & Seamans Company, has met with phenome- nal success in his business, as appraiser and dealer in diamonds and other precious stones, and has reached the top in his line of business, being also a financier of note. He was born in Aurora, Ill., June 19, 1866, the son of Daniel Donavan, a con- tractor, and Elenor O'Connor Donavan, both members of pioneer families of Aurora, where the mother died in 1913, at the age of eighty-six years. They were the parents of five children, of whom four are now living, one of the daughters being the wife of S. D. Seamans, Mr. Donavan's part- ner in Los Angeles. The education of Mr. Dona- van was received in the public schools and at the old Jennings Seminary at Aurora, and at the close of his schooling he went to work in the Aurora watch factory, where he evinced a deter- mination to master the watch-making business, and served an apprenticeship under some of the best master watchmakers in this country. Later, Mr. Donavan was employed by other large watch factories, spending fifteen years in all in the manufacture of watches and becoming an expert and master of the trade. Working his way up from apprentice to a leading mechanic, he filled a four years' contract at a large salary, and having saved his money, engaged in the retail jewelry business at Aurora in 1890. He first came to Los Angeles on a thirty days' vacation, in company with his sister, and at the end of his vacation decided to stay two weeks longer, at the end of
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that time determining to stay three months, finally resolving to make his stay here permanent. At that time he owned a one-half interest in a jewelry store at Aurora, Ill., and after disposing of his interests he decided to remain permanently in Los Angeles. On new Year's Day, 1894, he was present at the Rose Carnival at Pasadena, Cal., and in writing to his friends at home in Illinois he told glowing tales of the oranges and roses and snow-capped mountains about him in January in Southern California.
The marriage of Mr. Donavan to Miss Rose Ganahl united him with one of the pioneer fami- lies of Los Angeles, the father of the bride being F. J. Ganahl, a wholesale and retail lumber dealer of Los Angeles and one of the pioneer business men of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Donavan are the parents of four children, Elouise, James Jr., Frances and Daniel. Their home is in a com- modious residence at the corner of Western ave- nue and Twenty-second street, built by Mr. Dona- van when that section was only a wheat field. Mr. Donavan is a member of the Los Angeles Mer- chants' and Manufacturers' Association, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Knights of Columbus and the Newman Club, and is interested in the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, the First National Bank, the Security Trust and Savings' Bank and the United States National Bank, all of Los Angeles, as well as in the Hamilton Watch Company, of Lancaster, Pa. In his political in- terests he is a Republican. A prompt and accurate business man, he has reaped success in his chosen occupation, having commenced business with one eight-foot show case in 1894, the nu- cleus of the present large business of Don- avan & Seamans Company, incorporated in 1905, with a capital stock of $200,000 and employing from twenty to twenty-five persons in the busy seasons. For twenty years Mr. Donavan has come down to his store at exactly ten minutes of eight every morning, missing only one day on account of illness, and no man gives stricter at- tention to his business than he, so that his store in the fashionable business district of the city has become known as a house of reliability.
LOUIS BLONDEAU. The childhood of Louis Blondeau was spent in several and diverse lands. In earliest infancy he lived in France, having been born in that country October 29,
1880, and when he was about one year old his parents removed to South America, where the boy's primary education was received in the schools of Argentina. At about eleven years of age he removed with his family to Hollywood, Cal., and here the son attended the old Pass school, a building that was deluged by a cloud- burst in the rainy season which sent a torrent of water down from a neighboring canyon so that the pupils in the school had to be carried away, one by one, on horseback through the water.
Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two years, Mr. Blondeau was engaged in farming and raising winter vegetables in the Cahuenga Valley, which, sheltered from cold winds by the high mountain range, is a fertile orchard and garden for the farmer and fruit-raiser. Besides the pros- perity to be attained in California from tilling the surface of the land, even more is to be real- ized by appropriating the wealth of oil contained underground, by which occupation many a man in California has made his money, the forests of tall derricks that crop up in such abundance in some portions of the country attesting to the value of this industry. Mr. Blondeau was for a year en- gaged in the oil business, being employed at the oil fields at McKittrick for that space of time, being there at the time the California Standard Giant No. 1 was tapped.
Returning to his old home, Hollywood, Mr. Blondeau engaged in the business of barber at the corner of Gower street and Sunset boulevard, an occupation which he followed successfully at this location for two years, when he removed to more extensive quarters at Cahuenga avenue and Sun- set boulevard, in the same city. Prospering in his chosen occupation which increased rapidly, he in- stalled, in 1911, a very up-to-date tonsorial parlor at Hollywood boulevard and Cahuenga avenue, and, his increased business warranting it, he has recently opened a second parlor located at Holly- wood boulevard and Highland avenue, with baths and all up-to-date equipment. Since establishing the latter he has disposed of store No. 1. On the corner of Hollywood boulevard and Cahuenga avenue Mr. Blondeau purchased property that was formerly a part of the Paul de Longpre gar- dens, and on this he erected a handsome business block. Mr. Blondeau's father was an old friend of Paul de Longpre, both of whom were French. On May 1, 1915, Mr. Blondeau engaged in the
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automobile business, his store being located in his own building.
Mr. Blondeau is a public-spirited man who is glad to devote much of his attention to the better- ment of his adopted home in California, and no chronicle of the town of Hollywood would be complete without mention of the valuable as- sistance he has rendered in the advancement of the place. When the lighting system on Holly- wood boulevard was installed, he was one of the originators of the new system, and filled the office of chairman of the committee that arranged for the big celebration held when the lights were installed. The great changes which he has seen take place in the city of Hollywood during the more than twenty years of his residence there are indicative of the growth made by many Southern California towns. What were once large farm lands in the productive valley have been trans- formed into beautiful residence property, and paved streets, well-kept lawns, orange groves and handsome modern residences take the place of farms and simple ranch houses of an earlier day, while the green foothills and the high mountains beyond continue to add beauty to the scene as they have always done.
The wife of Mr. Blondeau is Frances ( Kleck- ler) Blondeau of Atlanta, Ga., to whom he was married in Los Angeles, June 29, 1909. In his religious affiliations Mr. Blondeau is connected with the Catholic Church. Fraternally he holds membership in the B. P. O. E. No. 99, and is member No. 323, being also a valued member of the Hollywood Board of Trade.
GEORGE W. MAY. While Los Angeles is in the truest sense of the word a city of golden opportunities, it is also equally true that there are many men here waiting to take advantage of these same openings, and so it is, here as else- where, the man who is capable and brainy, the man who sees the opportunity before his neighbor sees it, and who is then able to grasp and hold it by the strength of the honest and upright service that he renders, will forge ahead and make his mark in the race for wealth and preferment. There are many such in Los Angeles, and among these may be named George W. May, prominent contractor and builder, who has erected many of the handsome residences and apartments in the
exclusive districts of the city during the past fifteen years. Mr. May has won for himself a reputation for reliability and straightforward dealings that is the most valuable asset that he possesses and which is a certain guarantee of plenty of contracts for many years to come, and in fact as long as he continues in his present line of occupation in this city.
A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. May was born at Scranton, June 12, 1872, the son of John and Julia May. His parents continued to reside in Scranton after his birth and there he received his early education, attending the public and high schools until he was seventeen years of age. He then learned the trade of a carpenter and for four years followed it, then accepted a position with the Delaware & Hudson Railway as carpenter, later becoming foreman of a construction gang, which position he occupied until 1899. It was then that Mr. May came west, locating in Los Angeles, where for four months he followed his trade of carpenter, then becoming foreman for P. A. Mulford, the contractor, remaining in his employ for a year. At the end of that time he engaged in the building and contracting business for himself, meeting with much success, especially in the erection of residences. In 1909 he entered into partnership with H. G. Grimwood under the firm name of May & Grimwood, the business being still conducted by them under this name. They have met with more than customary suc- cess. Many handsome residences have been erected by them and also many apartment houses involving the expenditure of many thousands of dollars. Among the residences constructed by them are those of Dr. George H. Hunter, Edward Trinkeller, A. G. Stoll and H. H. Cox, while among their list of apartment houses may be mentioned the Barker, located at Eleventh and Beacon streets, and costing $50,000; the Shuster, costing $36,000; the Ione, Thirtieth and Flower streets, costing $40,000; the Anise, at Venice, costing $25,000; and the May, costing $20,000. Another well known building erected by this firm is the sanatorium at Fourth and St. Louis streets ; the warehouse for John R. Smurr, the garage for Warren & Kepler and the St. Elmo cigar factory, while the residence of Dodd, the contractor, cost- ing $20,000, is now under construction.
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