USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 5
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When filling a pastorate at Baltimore Dr. Peebles took such a pronounced stand against slavery that the enmity of slave-holders was aroused, placing his life in danger and making his tenure of service brief. There followed a ministry of seven years in Battle Creek, Mich., where he had as parishioners meeting in Stew-
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art's hall a goodly number of Quakers, Uni- versalists, dissenters and freethinkers, people who were earnestly seeking the truth, although not in sympathy with old-fashioned orthodoxy. Among the members of the congregation was Sojourner Truth, for forty years a slave. Oth- ers were scarcely less interesting. While most earnestly seeking the truth, the congregation labored unweariedly to relieve suffering, satisfy the needs of the hungry and ameliorate the con- dition of the destitute in the community. Mean- while Dr. Peebles was becoming known to people of every creed and every political faith throughout the United States. Such was his prominence that in 1868 he was chosen a mem- ber of the Northwest congressional Indian peace commission and became consul at Trebizond, Turkey, Asia, in 1869. While in that leading commercial city of Asiatic Turkey he went without fear to comfort wretched hu- man beings dying of the plague. There he tried to teach, as he has indeed in every part of the world, the truth of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, the unerring justice of "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," that all divine punishments are reforma- tory, and that ultimately, through the Christ principle of love and wisdom, all human beings will be restored to final harmony and happiness. Before such a broad view of religion the nar- rowness of sectarianism must fall, according to the opinion of many scholars, and it has been his privilege to see, in his own experiences, the casting off by Americans of the worn-out shells of theology in the effort to bring greater re- ligious and social equality. Still larger changes await the religious history of future genera- tions.
Receiving the degree of M. D. from the Philadelphia University of Medicine and Sur- gery in 1876, the degree of M. A. from the same institution in 1877 and the degree of Ph.D. from the Medical University of Chicago in 1882, Dr. Peebles for a time had charge of a medical ward in the Philadelphia city hospital and in 1881 accepted a professorship in the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1886 he represented the United States Arbitration League at the International Peace Commission of Europe, held in Paris. During 1852 he had married at Canton, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., Miss Mary Mahala Conkey, who was a
daughter of Thomas H. Conkey and a teacher in the Clinton (N. Y.) Liberal Institute. The family home was maintained at San Diego from 1892 to 1896, the Doctor meanwhile conducting a sanitarium besides acting as president of the Los Angeles College of Science. In 1896 he removed to Battle Creek, Mich., where he be- came editor and proprietor of the Temple of Health and Psychic Review and the Better Life, both monthlies, with a combined circula- tion of almost sixty thousand. Having been the editor of several newspapers and magazines, his literary work has naturally been extensive. While his newspaper contributions run in the thousands, his pamphlets and larger volumes, reproduced in many countries, number about forty. His most popular works are : The Seers of the Ages (1861), twenty editions; Immor- tality and our Future Homes (1880), fifteen editions; Five Journeys Around the World, Demonism of the Ages, Spirit Mates, Death Defeated, or the Psychic Secret of How to Keep Young, Ninety Years Young and Healthy -How and Why, Buddhism and Christianity, The Pathway of the Human Spirit, Compulsory Vaccination a Curse and Menace to Health and Personal Liberty, and The Christ Question Settled, a symposium to which he largely con- tributed in connection with Rabbi I. M. Wise, Robert G. Ingersoll and Prof. J. R. Buchanan. Biographies of Dr. Peebles by Rev. J. O. Bar- rett and Prof. E. Whipple were published in Boston in 1871 and in Battle Creek in 1901, be- sides an interesting character sketch that con- tained the ideas and observations of John Hu- bert Greusel, in his biographical portraits of leaders whose creative work has made for na- tional progress.
To recount in full the activities of Dr. Peebles would be to dwell upon the progress made by the United States for more than half a cen- tury. It has not been enough for him to wit- ness marvelous transformations; by virtue of his great mental energy he had to assist in such progressive enterprises. More than fifty years ago he visited California, where he pleaded for temperance and better ways of liv- ing among the raw, rough mining men. The distinction of helping to create the Independent Order of Good Templars and of serving as its first right worthy grand chaplain belongs to Dr. Peebles, who also was early connected
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with the Free Masons, Sons of Temperance and other fraternal or progressive movements. He is a fellow of the Anthropological Society of London, the Psychological Association of Lon- don and the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Naples; member of the International Climatic Association, American Institute of Christian Philosophy, the Victoria Institute and the Philosophical Society of Great Britain. His friends have been leaders in many lines of thought in all parts of the world, including Brigham Young of the Mormon Church ; Elder Frederick Evans, the Shaker, of Mount Lebanon, N. Y .; Lord Lytton ; Hamilton Fish ; Bishop Chalmers; Mrs. Max Mueller ; Profes- sor De Morgan ; Baron Guldenstubbe ; "Brick" Pomeroy, the noted journalist; Joshua Gid- dings ; William Tebbs and Dr. W. Scott Tebbs; Colonel Ingersoll, whom he worsted in an ar- gument on the question of religion; Victor Hugo, who sat at his side in a psychic seance in Paris and shed tears of joy upon receiving a spirit message from his son ; Rabbi Wise, pres- ident of the Cincinnati Hebrew College, who considered with him in correspondence certain difficult phases of the Talmud; Walt Whit- man, with whom he often read poems and dis- cussed the great things of life ; Dr. Chapin, the silver-tongued anti-slavery orator; the "gray eagle of oratory", Col. E. D. Baker, the Oregon patriot ; and Thomas Starr King, with whom he tented side by side during vacations on the New England coast.
As an accomplished debater through scores of debates with prominent lecturers, Dr. Peebles has waged a relentless war with pen and tongue upon the curses of vaccination and vivisection. A large volume is devoted to this work. The effects of his early fighting is bearing much fruit in his later days.
The investigations of Dr. Peebles into differ- ent religions and particularly into psychic phenomena brought him into contact with many of the most notable scientists and think- ers of the world. Through his studies he be- came a master in psychic research along with such men as Dr. Alfred R. Wallace, Sir Wil- liam Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Lombroso and Professor James. The results of his studies appear in his large book which contains, among other records, extracts from the thoughts of the greatest minds from Socrates to Tolstoi. The
whole forms a gigantic index to expressions of belief in psychical phenomena. In the course of his travels in different parts of the world Dr. Peebles has been a witness to unusual psychical researches, such as those begun in Australia by Hon. T. W. Stanford, brother of the late Senator Leland Stanford and a man noted for his interest in science. Among other scientists he was intimate with Professor Hare of the Pennsylvania University, Judge Ed- monds of the New York supreme court, Gari- baldi's chaplain in Naples, John Bright of Eng- land, Sir Henry Holland, Gerald Massey and Chevalier James Smith of Melbourne. In Cey- lon he came in contact with the ancestral Ved- dahs. In Egypt he studied the arts of the ma- gicians. In Asia he interviewed Mohammedan hermits and studied with Megettuwatte, the Buddhist reformer who held the famous debate in Ceylon with Rev. D. de Silva, a Christian missionary. He visited the ruins of Sarnath near Benares, where Gautama Buddha deliv- ered his first public address after entering his Nirvanic condition. At Calcutta he met Babu Shishir Kumar Ghose, the noted educator and editor, and lectured often in the palace while the guest of the Maharajah of Tagore. It was his privilege to study the forms of worship accepted by the Brahmins in India, the Buddhists in Ceylon, the Parsees in Bombay and the Mohammedans in Asia and Africa; to witness the burning of the dead by the Hindus and the praying of the Persians in their fire- temples. The study of humanity always has been of the deepest interest to him and par- ticularly has he been interested in the religions of various races. Studying all creeds and ven- erating the martyrs of all faiths, he still insists that the final authority upon religious questions must be within the conscious spirit of each person.
From the years of his early service as a Uni- versalist minister dates the first interest of Dr. Peebles in psychic research, a movement be- gun by the Davenport brothers, the Fox sis- ters and Andrew Jackson Davis. Everywhere men were inquiring in new directions for old truths, but the orthodox churches opposed all investigations of psychic phenomena as tam- pering with the very laws of Nature. Deciding to trace the pathway of the spirit to the spir- itual world, Dr. Peebles devoted his active life
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largely to psychic research and many of his expositions long antedated similar achieve- ments on the part of W. T. Stead, whose life was lost with the Titanic. With William James, Sir Oliver Lodge, Count Tolstoi and Victor Hugo he holds that man has many pow- ers not charted in the science of the day ; that there is a life beyond the grave; that it is possible to know the life beyond the grave; that the dead do return, as in the days of Christ; and that life itself is at once pre- existent and perpetual. With Victor Hugo he believes: "When I go down to the grave I can say like many others, I have finished my day's work; but I cannot say I have finished my life. My day will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind-alley ; it is a thorough- fare. It closes on the twilight and it opens on the dawn." With that same great author he be- lieves that those who pass over still remain with us. "They are in a world of light, but they as tender witnesses hover about our world of darkness. Though invisible to some, they are not absent. Sweet is their presence; holy is their converse with us."
At present, Dr. Peebles, though quite near the century mark, is vigorous and healthy, with the full possession of all his faculties. In fact he believes that sickness is a bad habit and that dying early is a worse one. He has been a rigid vegetarian for sixty years, avoiding to- bacco, liquors and stimulants of all kinds. He now writes for over thirty magazines in this and foreign countries, keeps up an extensive correspondence all over the world and dis- courses learnedly, logically and with much en- thusiasm before large audiences upon hygiene, philosophy and religion. His favorite pastime is digging around the rose trees that literally cover his bungalow home. His constant com- panion and associate is Robert Peebles Sudall, whom he met in Glasgow, Scotland, and upon whom he intends to leave the mantle of his future work.
Choosing Los Angeles as possessing the most equable and health-giving climate in the world, Dr. Peebles has permanently resided at 5719 Fayette street for many years and intends to spend the rest of his days in this "City of the An- gels." He says "There is nothing like the turn- ing, whirling grindstone of toil to put an edge on the steel of humanity. Laziness I abhor
and consider industry the best stuff for the making of saints. Personally I am too busy to think about dying-there is too much fuss made about it. I expect to work on the morn- ing of my departure and sleep into the better land of immortality at sunset of the same even- ing. With the poet I can say :
"'Up and away like the dew of the morning, That soars from the earth to its home in the sun,
So let me steal away gently and lovingly,
Only remembered by what I have done'"
JOHN DRAKE MERCEREAU. Descended on his father's side from a historic New York family who landed at Staten Island and were identified with its progress from the first, and on his mother's side the descendant of an old Scotch family, John Drake Mercereau, late of Los An- geles, the organizer of and the president of the Mercereau Bridge and Construction Company until his death October 25, 1912, was born at Union, N. Y., November 6, 1862, the son of Joshua (2d) and Julia (La Monte) Mercereau, and was educated in Kingston Seminary at Wilkesbarre, Pa. His first employment was with the Paterson Bridge Company, at Paterson, N. J., as assistant superintendent, where he remained for eight years, following which he was a few years associated in the leaf tobacco business with his brother, Henry C. Mercereau, at Waverly, N. Y.
On first coming to Los Angeles, in 1887, he invested his money in oil and land here, with the intention of retiring from active business life, but lost heavily with the sudden decline of pros- perity here soon after his arrival. He then went into the bridge contracting business, which he later incorporated under the name of the Mer- cereau Bridge and Construction Company, and in this business he continued until the time of his death. For several years he carried on his busi- ness personally, but later, when it had attained large proportions, he incorporated the business and took in as partners men who had assisted him in early years when the business was in the mak- ing. He was also the owner of shares in several important companies and a man of wealth. The marriage of Mr. Mercereau occurred October 12, 1871, uniting him with Geraldine Wagner, the
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daughter of Adam, a Pennsylvania farmer, and May (Bailey) Wagner, a native of the state of Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Mercereau became the parents of three children, namely, Julia L., now Mrs. F. Irwin Herron; Clara M., now the wife of Robert Swigart; and Agnes, who is de- ceased. Mr. Mercereau's religious affiliations were with the Christian Science Church. As a inan he was an inspiration to everyone with whom he came in contact, either in business or in social matters, and was a tower of strength in his adopted city. He was unostentatious in his tastes and manner and was beloved by all who knew him. The social clubs with which he was connected were the California, the Jonathan and the San Gabriel Country Clubs, while fraternally he was a Mason, belonging to the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery and Shrine.
ADOLPH H. KOEBIG, SR. One of the well-known citizens of Southern California, and a man of much influence in public affairs, Adolph H. Koebig, Sr., a native of Germany, has become an important and active citizen of the country which he has made his new home. Mr. Koebig was born in Prussia, May 17, 1852, the son of Christian and Julia Koebig, both of whom died in their native country. He received his education in Germany, attending the public schools and gymnasium, from which he was graduated in 1869, and serving seven years in the army before completing his education at the University of Karlsruhe and the University of Berlin, from which last he was graduated in 1877 from a course in civil engineering. This profession he practiced for the German government until 1880, when he made his first trip to the United States, coming first to New York and thence to Lead- ville, Colo., where he engaged in mining until 1882. Removing to Denver, Colo., he was as- sistant engineer of the Denver & Rio Grande Rail- road until 1883, when he returned to Germany for a nine months' stay in his native land.
In 1884 Mr. Koebig returned to the United States, this time to make his permanent home here, and settled first in Milwaukee, Wis., where he acted as general manager of a large manufac- turing company during the illness of the general manager until the autumn of 1884. In that year he came to the Mojave desert in California, and
became chief engineer and general manager of the California Mining and Reduction Company, continuing in this capacity until the following year. At that time he removed to San Bernar- dino, Cal., engaging there as assistant chief en- gineer of the Santa Fe Railroad until his resigna- tion in 1888 to enter into the private practice of civil, hydraulic and hydro-electrical engineering in the early development of irrigation and hydro- electrical enterprises. In 1900 he removed to Los Angeles and has been engaged in the same line of work in this city ever since.
Mr. Koebig has taken a great interest in and is very active in the City Planning Association, of which he is chairman of the advisory board and executive committee. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce in this city, and is vice- president of the Engineers' and Architects' As- sociation, and holds membership in a number of prominent clubs, namely, the California, Univer- sity, Los Angeles Country and Los Angeles Athletic Clubs, his interest in his native land and her sons being evidenced by the fact that he is the president of the "Deutsche Club," and presi- dent and organizer of the German, Austrian and Hungarian Relief Society. In politics Mr. Koebig upholds the interests of the Republican party, and his religious affiliations are with the Episcopal Church.
The marriage of Mr. Koebig to Helena Marie Kieffer occurred in Metz, Germany, January 31, 1880, and by her he is the father of three children, namely: Dr. Walter C. Koebig, of Riverbank, Cal .; Adolph H. Koebig, Jr., a partner of his father in the firm of Koebig & Koebig, Engineers ; and Curt J. Koebig, employed with the Security National Bank of Los Angeles.
JESSE FONDA MILLSPAUGH. The presi- dent of the Los Angeles State Normal School was born in Battle Creek, Mich., June 18, 1855, and is a son of Jacob and Mary A. (Decker) Millspaugh. The ambition to obtain a thorough education inspired his efforts from an early age. Determination of character and devotion to study brought their merited results. During 1875 he was graduated from the high school of Ann Arbor, Mich., and four years later he received the degree of A. B. from the University of Michi- gan at the conclusion of the regular classical
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course, the degree of A. M. being granted by his alma mater in 1904. A resolution formed in youth took him to the medical department of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, from which in 1883 he received the degree of M. D., without, however, any subsequent identification with the medical profession. Destiny turned his efforts into the educational field, for which he was admirably qualified by temperament and intellectual prepara- tion. As early as 1879 he had engaged as prin- cipal of the high school of Frankfort, Ind., and his resignation two years later, in order that he might complete his medical course, was received with regret by associates in that small but cul- tured city. A larger field of service was offered to him in connection with the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute of Salt Lake, Utah, with which he be- came connected as an instructor in 1883 and as superintendent in 1885. In that city in 1886 he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Clark Parsons, by whom he has two children, Winne- fred and Helen.
An opportunity to organize and develop the public school system of Salt Lake City led Dr. Millspaugh to resign as superintendent of the institute and accept the superintendency of the city schools, a position that he filled for eight years with such tact, skill, wise judgment and keen intelligence that the work was upon a sub- stantial and permanent footing prior to his resig- nation. In leaving Salt Lake City it was for the purpose of entering a field of even higher service and larger usefulness. The attention of the trus- tees of the Minnesota State Normal School at Winona having been attracted to his signal success as an educator, he was invited to fill the chair of president in that institution and his acceptance marked the beginning of a new era in that school, with which he was connected as its chief execu- tive from 1898 until his removal to California in 1904. In each instance of change of position there was the same thought of enlarged service and a broader sphere of usefulness, and this hope directed him in accepting the invitation to serve as president of the California State Normal School at Los Angeles. Undoubtedly many of his friends feel that his greatest life's work has been accomplished in Los Angeles. From the first the school has shown the results of his wise leadership and splendid educational ideals. The 1eputation of the school increased so rapidly that soon it outgrew the large building in which from
the first it had been housed. It became necessary to limit the attendance. Students applied for admission many terms before it was possible to accept them. This directed the thoughts of all interested parties toward larger quarters, where a more thorough work could be accomplished and a greater number of students admitted to the benefits of the institution.
The first public ceremonial in connection with the reconstruction of the school on its new campus on Vermont avenue, Los Angeles, was celebrated November 18, 1913, in the laying of the corner-stone of the group at the entrance of the administration building. The ten buildings exhibit an architecture reminiscent of Northern Italy and are artistically arranged on the campus of twenty-five acres. The block of ground, rec- tangular in shape, is surrounded by four streets, with a frontage of over twelve hundred feet on Vermont avenue and eight hundred feet on Mon- roe street. Heliotrope drive forms the western boundary and Willowbrook avenue lies on the north. The auditorium seats over sixteen hun- dred persons. Every equipment is provided that will aid the students in their task of preparation for life's duties. The remarks of President Mills- paugh on the day of the first public ceremonial indicate the thought in his mind and the ambition in his heart relative to the new institution, and we quote a few sentences to impress upon the reader that thought and that ambition: "The corner-stone laid that day thirty-two years ago is not the real corner-stone. That material structure has been but the tenement in which has dwelt the living, growing structure, which is the true corner- stone. The school feels no special pride in its size. It does not boast that the classes of the past few years have been the largest that have gone out from any normal school in America. Of all the satisfaction we feel today the greatest comes from the knowledge that we shall all have, in a measure we never realized before, the opportunity to develop a higher manhood and womanhood."
During his residence in Utah, President Mills- paugh served as a member of the State Board of Education from 1896 to 1898, and from the time of his arrival in California up to the present time he has been connected with the State Board of Education, a wise contributor to its important work in the educational field. From 1899 to 1904 he was a member of the Minnesota State Library Board and from 1895 to 1908 he served on the
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National Council of Education, being its secretary in 1902-04. For years he has been associated with the National Educational Association. Numerous addresses on educational subjects and many papers in school journals have brought him into national prominence in his profession. In religion he is of the Congregational faith. The California Academy of Science has had the benefit of his intelligent co-operation and he has been further allied with the University Club, the Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Upsilon, as well as other organizations social, fraternal and professional in purpose.
WILLIAM E. OLIVER. From a boy of twelve years selling newspapers, William E. Oliver has risen by his own merit and endeavor to his present office of vice-president of the Home Savings Bank of Los Angeles, Cal., of which he has been a director since its organization, and since the year 1912 has been active in that com- pany as appraiser and in looking after the real estate interests of the bank.
Born in New York city, in February, 1859, Mr. Oliver is the son of Percy and Jane Oliver. and until the age of twelve years attended the public schools and out of school hours he sold newspapers. Subsequently he was cash boy in a large department store for two years and later was clerk in a grocery and provision house. After coming to Los Angeles he was employed as a general delivery clerk in the postoffice, where he was promoted to the position of clerk in the register division and later was superintendent of that department, an office which he resigned in 1891 to enter the stationery business with a Mr. Gardner under the firm name of Gardner & Oliver, which later became the Oliver & Haines Company. After acting as president of the firm for some time Mr. Oliver sold his interest in the business in 1911 and for the two years following was retired from active business life. Fraternally Mr. Oliver is a Mason, a member of Golden West Commandery, and a Shriner, and socially is a member of the Jonathan Club of this city. For one term he served as Normal school trustee, and in his political interests is allied with the Repub- lican party.
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