USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 52
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61
Identification with the development of real estate has placed Mr. Marsh in touch with all other movements for the advancement of South- ern California and has interested him in the personal acquisition of property so that he now has valuable holdings. For more than a decade his name has been linked with almost every large proposition connected with local progress. It was he who first saw the possibilities of the lands bordering the mouth of the San Gabriel river. Through his efforts syndicates were organized for the improvement of Alamitos Bay, West Naples, East Naples and indeed that entire stretch of country fostered and developed by the
883
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
San Gabriel Improvement Company. The phe- nomenal sales in Venice, the Venice Canal Sub- division and the Short Line Beach were accom- plished largely through his ability to handle great enterprises. Real estate activities indeed are well adapted to his enthusiastic temperament. To him action is life. To accomplish nothing or to rest on the laurels of past accomplishments would be retrogression as such intensely distasteful to him. Few things are more gratifying to him than the remarkable growth of Los Angeles, and he de- lights in the way the city forges to the front as a center of commerce, of industrial enterprises and of a contented tourist population from the east. Meanwhile he labors with intelligent zeal to promote movements for civic welfare and com- munity progress. During 1908 the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce appointed him a member of the committee to promote the Union depot project, and since then, with his associates, he has labored efficiently and strenuously to attain the desired end. An improvement so greatly needed would seem to be a probability, yet at this writing the end of the fight has not come. Less difficult and tedious was the work of securing the annexation of San Pedro, so that Los Angeles was given a municipal harbor and placed in a position of importance as an outlet to the Panama canal. Much credit for the result is due to Mr. Marsh, whose efforts were timely and sagacious. At one time he officiated as vice-president of the Los Angeles Realty Board and he still occupies a leading position among its members.
The marriage of Mr. Marsh and Miss Ceceil Lothrop was solemnized at Alhambra, Cal., April 12, 1898. They, with their daughters, Florence Louise and Martha J., have a comfortable home in Westchester Place and a summer cottage at Alamitos bay. The fraternal and social relations of Mr. Marsh bring him into membership with the Masons (in which he is a Shriner), the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Jon- athan and California Clubs, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country, Crags Country, San Gabriel Valley Country and Bolsa Chico Gun clubs. For years he has been a leading member of the Emanuel Presbyterian Church and a large contributor to its missionary movements. The Republican party has received his ballot in all general elections occurring since he attained his majority. Although eminently broad-minded and liberal in his views, he has
sought conscientiously to advance the interests he endorses. Strong in mind and body, with tenacity of purpose and a prodigious activity that makes him a power to be reckoned with in every phase of business, he is a fitting type of the men who have developed "The City of Superlatives," and whose civic pride has been a strong factor in making Los Angeles what it is today, the western metropolis and a city of world-wide fame.
EDWARD A. KELLAM. The life of Mr. Kellam, from early years, has been associated with the pioneer interests of different parts of our country, he having known prairie life in Illinois as well as the development of Los Angeles in the early days of its growth.
Born in Newcastle county, Del., February 10, 1835, he went with his mother and brother in 1850 to join his father and brothers in Illinois, where they had preceded him. There the boy as- sisted his father and older brothers in developing their ranch of two hundred acres, which was situated in a wild prairie country, the home being but a log cabin. After they had cut the timber and broken the land with oxen the five brothers farmed there in partnership, raising cattle and hogs, and also growing their own grain. In 1865 this partnership was dissolved, and the son Ed- ward continued farming independently, in 1887 following his brother Milton to Los Angeles, Cal. Here in the West the brothers became interested in real estate transactions and played an import- ant part in the upbuilding of the city of Los An- geles. The first purchase in this city made by Edward Kellam was a home and lot on Boyle Heights, and, as he followed the carpenter's trade for some time, he built numerous houses and cot- tages. Other tracts of land bought by him were eighty feet of property located at St. Louis and Second streets and lots situated in the Fisher subdivision on Brooklyn avenue, both of which purchases were made in the same quarter of the city as his first venture, the present home of him- self and his brother having been built by him at No. 926 South Olive street, a portion of the city much nearer the downtown district. Mr. Kellam still has valuable real estate holdings in Los An- geles, and at one time was also the owner of out- side land in the smaller towns of Alhambra and
884
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
Azusa. His religious associations are with the Methodist denomination, he being a member of the First Methodist Church of Los Angeles.
DANIEL E. LUTHER. Nationally recog- nized as a leader in Y. M. C. A. work and since 1905 the practical upbuilder and general secretary of the Los Angeles association, D. E. Luther was born in Paris, Ontario, January 7, 1859, a son of Upton Henderson and Aurilla (Maus) Luther. His education was received at Medina Academy, Medina, N. Y., and at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, that state, from which he graduated June 18, 1879.
His education completed, Mr. Luther entered the mercantile business in Batavia, N. Y., con- tinuing for five years, after which he became the southern representative of Cassell & Co., Limited, of London, Melbourne and New York, with cen- tral headquarters at Atlanta, Ga., in which city he located. In 1895 he established the D. E. Luther Publishing Company of that city and pub- lished the lives of the three great southerners, Henry W. Grady, Stonewall Jackson and Robert Toombs; also "The United Negro: His Prob- lems and His Progress." This publishing house made a specialty of the sale of Bibles and sold more Bibles throughout the southern states than any other company has ever done.
While a resident of Atlanta Mr. Luther served for ten years as a director and chairman of sev- eral very important committees of the Atlanta Young Men's Christian Association and was urged by the other directors to take charge of the institution. Soon afterward he was elected Gen- eral Secretary of the Association, serving for eight years, and during that time made a record that will ever remain one of triumph. He was also prominently connected as a member and an officer in the Methodist church, as well as being a leader in religious work with all denominations in Atlanta.
In 1905 Mr. Luther received a call to take charge of the Young Men's Christian Association in Los Angeles. The city had been growing rap- idly and it became necessary to secure a leader capable of building up the association work suit- able to the needs of the city. Mr. Luther, realiz- ing the opportunities in this western field, gave up his work in Atlanta and was elected general sec-
retary of the association here. When he took charge the membership numbered but 1200, and under his able leadership it increased rapidly un- til in 1913 it had reached 6498, and held for some years the record of being the largest membership in the world in Y. M. C. A. work. Surrounded by able directors, Mr. Luther conducted the build- ing campaign in 1906 and the extension campaign in 1911. These two campaigns resulted in three- quarters of a million dollars being subscribed for the work of the association, Mr. Luther has repeatedly represented the local association in state and international conventions, and was a delegate to the world's conference in 1909 at Barmen, Elberfeld, Germany. So closely has he been connected with the work that hundreds of young men look to him with gratitude for opening to them new possibilities in life.
On October 22, 1879, in Wales, N. Y., oc- curred the marriage of D. E. Luther with Sadie J. Burroughs, the daughter of Joseph and Ann E. Burroughs. Mrs. Luther is a graduate of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, class of 1879. For six years she has been president of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Mckinley Boys' Home, and is a member of the Ebell and several other women's clubs. Mr. Luther is a Republican in politics, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the San Gabriel Golf and the Rotary Clubs.
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSO- CIATION OF LOS ANGELES, INCORPO- RATED, 1889. President, A. B. Cass; General Secretary, D. E. Luther.
Society has no yardstick for measuring char- acter. It is therefore difficult to find terms which indicate the worth of a character-making institu- tion.
The place a Young Men's Christian Associa- tion holds in any community is determined by the value given to its raw material-boys and young men, and its finished product-character.
The far-seeing citizens of Los Angeles have so placed emphasis on their "greatest asset" that the local Young Men's Christian Association stands high in the public estimate.
Appreciation of these "unmeasured values" is testified to by certain measurable evidences. For example, the Los Angeles Association reports a real property and equipment valuation of over
885
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
one million dollars, with a total cash expenditure of $279,325.62 in its general fund in 1914.
The fact that there was a deficit of nearly $13,- 000 after $16,000 in receipts had been secured from current expense subscriptions, shows con- clusively that the directors placed the greater emphasis on the object rather than the expense of the work, thereby keeping within reach of the most needy young men and boys the cost of privileges which make for efficiency and character.
While the home base is in the thirteen-story Central building and two-story Technical school at 715-33 South Hope street, the association owns and operates an eight-acre athletic field and club house at 2834 Stephenson avenue ; operates a col- ored department at 831 South San Pedro street, and owns lots bought for extension work in Holly- wood and East Los Angeles, and for a colored building of its own at the corner of Ninth and Hemlock streets.
Over eight thousand members during 1914 came within short range of the various advan- tages open only to members. Many times that number were compassed by the association mes- sage and influence in such direct ways as at shop, school and many other extension gatherings of various kinds.
Throbbing with life is the report of the voca- tional, educational, physical, religious and social work done for both men and boys, when one realizes that back of each figure given there is the face and life of some individual man or boy.
President Wilson recently said: "You can test the modern community by the degree of its in- terest in its Young Men's Christian Association." This interest in Los Angeles can be well measured by the personnel of men who represent the com- munity in directing the affairs of the local asso- ciation. The City of the Angels does not suffer by this test, for it has committed the destiny of this institution to its leading citizens.
Inseparably connected with the growth, pros- perity and moral well-being of the City of Los Angeles are the following officers of the Young Men's Christian Association: President, A. B. Cass ; first vice-president, A. J. Wallace ; second vice-president, J. G. Warren ; recording secretary, A. P. Fleming ; treasurer, W. E. McVay; assist- ant treasurer, J. H. Woods ; directors, Judge Wal- ter Bordwell, Julius A. Brown, J. E. Carr, E. P. Clark, J. Ross Clark, George I. Cochran, S. M. Cooper, J. E. Cowles, D. K. Edwards, Charles L.
Hubbard, Arthur Letts, S. P. Mulford, Gregory Perkins, Jr., C. M. Staub, and Weymouth Crowell. Committee of Management: E. C. Lyon, chairman; R. W. Bailey, first vice-chair- man; Arthur Cardwell, second vice-chairman ; W. H. Metzger, secretary ; Charles E. Bent, B. H. Dyas, E. A. K. Hackett, I. C. Louis, G. J. Lund, Seeley W. Mudd, Orem Newcomb, Harry Philp, H. W. Sjostrom, John M. Sands, R. F. Skellen- ger, H. B. Tuttle and Frank Welton. Advisory board: Messrs. W. W. Beckett, A. B. Benton, George F. Bidwell, W. F. Cronemiller, E. A. For- rester, O. T. Johnson, F. B. Kellogg, Giles Kel- logg, M. J. Monnette, Z. L. Parmelee, A. E. Pomeroy, J. D. Radford, Charles M. Stimson, A. H. Voight, Judge C. D. Wilbur, Edward S. Field, W. E. Howard, Robert Hale and T. E. Gibbon.
President Cass, well-known also as president of the Home Telephone Company, rendered note- worthy service to the association as first vice-pres- ident, and as chairman of the finance committee for some ten years previous to his election as president in January, 1915. He is well equipped to be head of this great public institution by reason of his intimate acquaintance with associa- tion work and in many other ways.
His state-wide duties while lieutenant governor did not prevent Mr. Wallace from giving much valuable time to the association, which he has ably served for ten years as vice-president.
While frequent state and national demands are made upon the second vice-president, J. G. War- ren, by his denomination and by the Interdenomi- national Sunday School movement, yet he gives a large margin of time to the association, particular- ly as chairman of the finance committee and of the educational committee. Under his chairmanship there was in 1914 an enrollment in the educational department of 1705 different students registered in fifty-two different classes under fifty different instructors.
The character of its educational work and the policy of Mr. Warren's committee to cordially co- operate with the public schools is attested in the following letter to Mr. Warren from the super- intendent of schools :
Los Angeles City Schools, June 19, 1915.
Mr. J. G. Warren, 359 N. Main Street, Los Angeles, California. My dear Mr. Warren:
I I am greatly interested in the educational work of the local Young Men's Christian Association.
886
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
believe the association has met the needs of working men and boys in a very efficient manner and I have been influenced somewhat by the Y. M. C. A. plan in opening similar courses in our evening schools and vacation schools.
With best wishes for the continued success of your work, I am,
Yours very truly, J. H. FRANCIS, Superintendent.
Varied responsible offices in public life in Los Angeles and elsewhere have served to assist rather than to prevent Secretary Fleming in helping to make the association a great complementary force in the public and civic affairs of the city.
The trust of expending over a quarter million dollars annually in current expense is vested in Mr. McVay, fitted for this responsibility not only by temperament but by training as vice-president for years of the German American Trust & Sav- ings Bank.
Associated with him in this work is the assistant treasurer, J. H. Woods, well qualified by banking and business experience of many years, who gives several hours of actual time daily at his desk at the building.
To write of any aggressive, modern Young Men's Christian Association without telling of the general secretary would be as fatal an omis- sion as to present Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark left out. The general secretary is the executive officer of the board of directors in car- rying out their policies with respect to the mem- bership and to the public at large.
The usual importance of the unique place thus occupied by the general secretary has in the case of the Los Angeles Association been greatly en- hanced during the past decade of its history. This has been due in part to the period of transition and construction which began in 1905 and also to the strength of personality and purpose of the general secretary whose leadership has marked the past ten years.
Inwrought in the history of the Los Angeles association the discerning observer will find the faith and works of D. E. Luther, general secre- tary, from August 5th, 1905, to the present time. A member of the board of directors for ten years and general secretary for eight years in the At- lanta Association, Mr. Luther's ability and ex- perience were at once challenged when he came to Los Angeles to find the association occupying entirely inadequate quarters in a small frame structure at No. 614 South Hill street.
A successful membership campaign demonstrat- ing the desire of young men for an association building was followed by a building campaign resulting in $328,000 being secured by May 30, 1906. On the morning of the eighteenth day came the news of the earthquake and fire at San Fran- cisco, rudely interrupting the thirty day campaign. At the noon-day luncheon that day the unselfish- ness of the Los Angeles campaign committee showed itself in the prompt raising of funds for relief to the stricken associations in San Fran- cisco and in San Jose, as well as the tender of the entire organization of the building campaign com- mittee made to the Chamber of Commerce relief committees.
That same fateful afternoon of April 18th, 1906, President Arthur Letts left for the north with a purse of $1500 for relief, while for just thirty days the association devoted its organiza- tion and energies to relief work for the unfor- tunate refugees.
With special permit from Governor Gillett Mr. Letts spent three days within the stricken zone in co-operation with the authorities in the work of fighting fire and of relieving suffering. He delivered in person $500 to the association at San Jose and $1,000 to the association at San Francisco at a time which veteran Secretary H. J. McCoy described in his letter of appreciation as "the very darkest hour of our lives."
This little chapter stands bright in the Los Angeles association history as exemplifying the spirit of helpfulness which has continuously char- acterized its efforts.
The sale at splendid enhancement in value of property previously purchased at 619-23 South Hill street, together with the satisfactory collec- tion of subscriptions made by the general public, enabled the directors to open on September 1st, 1908, the new building of eleven stories at 715 South Hope street. This building was declared at that time by Dr. John R. Mott to be the "finest association building on earth." He further said that "in point of adaptation for carrying out the purposes of the Association" there were no other buildings out of five hundred which he had seen "all over the world which can be put in the same class with this one."
A. B. Benton, architect, and C. B. Weaver, builder, wrought out well in plan and stone the ideas of the general secretary, which were
887
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
the product of years of mature study of associa- tion buildings and activities all over the United States.
In 1911, under the chairmanship of E. T. Earl, an extension campaign secured subscriptions of $400,000 to enlarge and broaden the work. The next year the Central building was completed with the addition of two stories as originally planned. A club house was also erected on the eight-acre athletic field purchased at 2834 Stephenson ave- nue. Three sites were purchased for the exten- sion of the work as follows: In Hollywood, East Los Angeles, and for a building to house the good work for colored men prosecuted in rented quar- ters since 1906.
C. Fletcher Quillian, associate general secre- tary, has been intimately related to the general administration of the association since May 5th, 1905, except for a two years' leave of absence for research work in the graduate school at Prince- ton University. He has for over eight years been continuously by the side of the general secretary in various membership, building and extension campaigns, and in the intensive development of the organization.
Much credit for the successful work of the Los Angeles association is due the able corps of executive heads of departments and assistants with whom the general secretary has surrounded himself.
The death of W. S. Bartlett in October, 1914, terminated his brief term as president. During his short incumbency he well conserved and in- creased the love and respect of the entire associa- tion constituency which he had richly won as treasurer for nine years.
The presidency of Arthur Letts from Septem- ber, 1905, to January, 1914, marked a period of constructive progress memorable for its achieve- ments. The membership increased from 1174 in 1905 to its high water mark of 6498 in 1913. In the financial campaigns of 1906 and 1911 he set the pace in each instance with his own personal subscription of $25,000. Mr. Letts resigned as president in 1914 to devote himself to a program of humanitarian work carried out by him in North America as president of the National Retail Dry Goods Merchants Association.
The faithful work of those who served as offi- cers and directors before Mr. Letts' election as president laid the foundation for what was later accomplished. "They builded better than they
knew." Frederick H. Rindge was president from January to September of 1905; J. Ross Clark from 1900 to 1905; E. A. Forrester from 1890 to 1900; Dr. F. A. Seymour, 1889; H. W. Mills, 1888; Lyman Stewart, 1886 and '87, and S. I. Merrill, the first president, from February 21, 1882, until 1886.
The Los Angeles public has been generous in giving splendid equipment for this work in be- half of their present and future citizens. Those directly benefited pay in large measure the cur- rent expenses of operating the plant provided for them. It is, however, necessary that a compara- tively small amount be raised annually to supple- ment what the immediate beneficiaries themselves pay in tuitions and fees.
It is respectfully suggested to those seeking to know philanthropies to which they may wisely make bequests that they consider carefully the merits of the Young Men's Christian Association. It is a public institution of established standing and value, whose affairs are ably administered by responsible, well known citizens.
EDWARD A. CLAMPITT. The oil industry of California has proved a source of wealth to many a business man who has come from the eastern states to make his home in the west. A man who has for nearly twenty years been in- terested in the oil business and has been a resi- dent of California since 1889, is E. A. Clampitt, owner of the E. A. Clampitt Company, of Los Angeles. The son of James A. and Elma (Badgley) Clampitt, he was born in St. Clair county, Ill., December 14, 1869, and attended the public schools in eastern Kansas, where he had accompanied his parents in 1874, between the ages of four and five years. Mr. Clampitt was reared upon his father's farm until the age of eighteen, after which he was engaged in drill- ing water wells in Kansas, gradually drifting into contracting. In 1889 he left that state and came to Los Angeles county, where he was en- gaged for a year as driller. In 1890 he removed to San Diego county, where for a time he en- gaged in farming and drilling of water wells; afterwards removing to Los Angeles and was for some time engaged with J. H. Kellerman in the oil business, working as tool-dresser. His next employment was as a pumper for an oil com- pany, with whom he remained for a few months,
888
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
devoting the following years to well-pulling and repairing of oil well pumps, and taking up the oil well contracting business in 1902.
Mr. Clampitt was also engaged in the buying and selling of oil well machinery, casing and pipe, and the following year purchased machin- ery and drilled the first oil well for himself, near Temple street, in the Los Angeles oil field. The oil well was brought in at a depth of about 1000 feet and produced about forty barrels a day ; at which time oil was selling at $1.25 per barrel ; he then bought five additional producing oil wells in the same field, which made him six wells at that time. The next year he sold the six oil wells to the Dividend Oil Company and continued buying and drilling oil wells, and in 1904 purchased several acres of land located in the central part of Los Angeles, on which his shops and pipe yards are now located. He is also owner of a number of other valuable pieces of property scat- tered throughout the city, and owns and operates twenty-seven oil wells in the Los Angeles oil field, which produce several thousand barrels per month ; also owns other oil properties in different fields in California, besides farming lands.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.