USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 53
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Mr. Clampitt is a director and a large stock- holder in the Columbia Oil Producing Company which owns and controls some four or five thou- sand acres of land, and from forty to fifty oil wells, and he also owns valuable oil properties in the Newhall district, and is president of the Eureka Crude Oil Company.
Mr. Clampitt was married to Miss Margaret Wright in Los Angeles, September 8, 1900, and they are the parents of two daughters, Leah Mar- garet, a pupil in the public schools, and Barbara Hallem. In politics he is a Republican, and fra- ternally is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the B. P. O. E. He served as a member of the city council in Los Angeles during the years 1907-1908-1909-1910.
Mr. Clampitt's business affairs became so nu- merous and called so much upon his time that he retired from political life through his own wishes, and is at present attending to his own business affairs.
E. J. VOTAW. The Mexico Immigration Land and Fibre Company, which has for its purpose the subdividing of land and the establish- ing of an American colony in the northern part
of the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, was organ- ized in Wichita, Kans., by E. J. Votaw, and in- corporated under the laws of the state of Kansas, with a capital of $300,000, the other officers of the company being J. T. Giles, vice-president, and E. L. Foulke, secretary and treasurer. The offi- cers and directors of the company are themselves financially interested in the enterprise and in seeing the colony assume a leading place both as a city and as a fruit-growing district on the east coast of Mexico, where they have purchased twelve thousand acres near Tampico.
The climate of that section of Mexico where the colony is situated is well adapted to the pro- duction of tropical fruits as well as many kinds of vegetables, the even rainfall throughout the year supplying the necessary moisture for the growth of the crops, irrigation being rendered unneces- sary by the unfailing supply of water found at a short distance from the surface of the ground. Excessive heat, as well as heavy storms or winter weather, are unknown in this district, and the rich soil is proving all that could be desired for the raising of such fruits as bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, grape fruit and pineapples, from the last named of which fruits the American colony takes its name, Pineapple City. The raising of cane for making sugar is also a thriving industry of the new settlement, and Mr. Votaw, besides being president of the Mexico Immigration Land and Fibre Company, is vice-president and general manager as well of the Pineapple City Sugar Com- pany, the home offices of which are located in the Marsh-Strong building, at Los Angeles, Cal., where Mr. Votaw established his headquarters in the year 1913. The oil interests of that section of Mexico where Pineapple City is situated must not be overlooked, it being in the center of what is bound to become a most active oil field, one of the world's greatest gushers being located a little to the south of it, and the development of oil on the property of the company is in the hands of a man thoroughly competent in every respect to deal with the enterprise, while to Mr. Votaw's brother has been given the charge of the agri- cultural work of the colony.
Previous to his interests in Mexico, E. J. Votaw had been engaged in the banking business, his first experience in that line of business having been the organizing in 1905 of the First National Bank of Cherokee, Okla., of which he was for a year the president, at the end of that time selling
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his interest and buying out the Cherokee State Bank, of which he was both president and man- ager for a year. Removing to Morgan Hill, Cal., he then organized the State Bank of Morgan Hill and was for about four years its president and manager. He then sold his interests there, and went to Wichita, Kans., where he established the Mexico Immigration Land and Fibre Company, after which, in 1913, he came to Los Angeles, where he has made his home ever since. Born near Oskaloosa, Iowa, on December 16, 1869, Mr. Votaw was the son of Joseph Votaw, and re- ceived his education at a district school and at Penn College, Oskaloosa, Iowa, until the age of twenty-one, at which time he engaged in farming until 1905, the year in which he entered the banking business. His marriage to Ruth A. Smith took place in Oskaloosa, on December 31, 1891, and they are the parents of five children, namely : Vera M. and Vernon J., both of whom attend the Friends' College at Whittier, Cal .; E. Clayton, a student in the high school; and Albert Harold and Joseph Howard Votaw, who are pu- pils in the public schools of Whittier, of which city Mr. Votaw is a well-known and valued resi- dent.
ISAAC BURKHART. Among the immi- grants who came to this country from Germany in 1796 was Tobias Burkhart, who made settle- ment in Pennsylvania near Williamsport. His wife, Christena Kiess, was also of German birth and parentage and received a good education in the schools of Stuttgart, Germany. Born to these parents were four sons and two daughters, all of whom were born at Williamsport, Pa., and of whom the two daughters and one son are now living in Ohio; one son, George, died in 1913.
Isaac Burkhart was born November 28, 1840, and was therefore about seven years of age when the family home was transferred from Pennsyl- vania to Ohio. To this youthful traveler the journey was interesting indeed, and he well re- members the loading and unloading of the two covered wagons that held the family possessions. Settlement was made on a farm two miles east of Bucyrus, Crawford county, and there the fam- ily lived contentedly for ten years. After this, however, the children left home one by one to establish themselves elsewhere, until only Isaac and Jacob remained with the parents. Tobias
Burkhart finally disposed of his property in Craw- ford county and settled in Williams county, also in Ohio, and purchased three hundred and forty acres of land which he gave to the two sons just mentioned.
In 1867 Isaac Burkhart was united in marriage with Elisabeth Kaiser, who like himself claimed German antecedents, although she was born in Ohio. It was about twenty years after his mar- riage, and after the death of both his father and mother, that Mr. Burkhart made his first trip to the west in 1888. Among other places visited was Los Angeles, which city impressed him very favorably for large business opportunity. Asso- ciated with his brother W. H. he erected an apart- ment house on Temple street 60x80 feet with forty rooms. After the completion of the building Isaac Burkhart returned east for the purpose of disposing of his holdings there, and on April 17, 1890, entered Los Angeles for the second and last time, and made his home in the apartment house on Temple street. It was during that year also that Isaac and W. H. Burkhart put in operation the Nickel Plate Railroad, a dummy line running from the end of Temple street to Hollywood. The undertaking was carried on successfully for several years, when the brothers became owners of the Santa Fe avenue horse car line. This also was operated with good returns for several years, the brothers then purchasing from Abbot Kinney a tract of land on Dayton avenue. The interests of the brothers in this property were divided later, each taking his share and thus ending part- nership associations covering many years.
It was about 1895 that Isaac and Elisabeth Burkhart bought ninety foot frontage on Los An- geles and Seventh streets and upon it erected an apartment house of forty-five rooms, on its coin- pletion removing to it from the Temple street property. In the following year, 1896, Mr. Burk- hart built a number of cottages on Dayton avenue, still later putting up a three-story block on the corner of Temple and Figueroa streets.
Mrs. Elisabeth (Kaiser) Burkhart passed away March 31, 1900, and on January 1, 1902, Mr. Burkhart married Elisabeth Basler, a native of Germany. After holding the property on Los Angeles street for about ten years Mr. Burkhart sold it to H. E. Huntington in 1905. A few weeks afterward he purchased property at the corner of Main and Jefferson streets, upon which he built a two-story business block and also a
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residence at No. 111 West Jefferson street, which has been his home ever since. In addition to the properties already mentioned he built a two-story business block at No. 2614 Pasadena avenue, with garage, and also purchased and improved the corner of Vernon avenue and Figueroa street, be- sides improving about forty other places, and is still interested in building.
The entire life of Isaac Burkhart has been molded and influenced by religious convictions, for at an early age he was converted to a belief in the teachings of Christ, under the preaching of Mr. Shireman and George Haley in Ohio. He is identified with Salem Evangelical Church, at the corner of Twelfth and Hope streets, in which he has filled every office except that of pastor and at present is treasurer and a trustee. Although Mr. Burkhart had no children of his own several children have come under his protecting care and received educations that but for him would never have been possible. Two of these children married and died in Terre Haute, Ind. Another, Keziah Favorite, makes her home in Eaton Rap- ids, Mich. Two others live in California, Frank in Los Angeles, and Fred in Pomona. It is need- less to say that Mr. Burkhart has been a keen observer of conditions and possibilities in Los Angeles during his residence of nearly thirty years here, and his investments voice his senti- ments more favorably than could words.
ALBERT A. PERKINS. California may well be proud to claim among her citizens a man with the inventive genius of Albert A. Perkins, the inventor of the Perkins Patent Process for cementing oil wells, which offsets the deteriora- tion of oil-producing ground by the gradual en- croachment of water therein. The preservation of oil property has been a problem for California oil operators for some time, and various devices for overcoming the harmful presence of water in the oil-bearing sands have been tried, of which the most successful is the process invented by Mr. Perkins, president of The Perkins Oil Well Ce- menting Company which owns five outfits and operates between Fullerton and Coalinga, Cal., and the reliability and practical value of the method is testified to by the number of the com- pany's outfits and the extent of its operations.
The inventor of this valuable method of pre- serving the oil interests of the state, was born in Rochester, N. Y., March 3, 1852, the son of James H. and Lavina C. Perkins, and received his education at the public schools and Graff's Col- legiate Military School, at the age of nineteen years engaging in business with his father, who was interested in oil wells in the city of Petro- leum Center, Pa. When he was twenty-five years of age, Albert A. Perkins removed to Butler county, Pa., engaging in oil well drilling and contracting independently until the year 1880, when he formed a partnership in Bradford, Pa., under the name of Perkins and Oliver, oil well drilling and contracting being carried on by the partners together until 1885, when the interests of his business took Mr. Perkins to Peru, South America, there to look over some oil property and drill a well. The year 1886 saw his return to Bradford, Pa., where he continued in the busines of well drilling with his partner until 1901, at which time he came west, locating at Fullerton, Cal., where for a year he was in charge of the Olinda Crude Oil Company. His next move was to Evanston, Wyo., where he assumed charge of the Michigan-Wyoming Oil Company, remaining with that company until 1904, when he returned to California, this time going to the town of Coalinga and engaging in the drilling of oil wells until 1905. Going thence to Santa Maria, in the same state, he was in charge of the wharf and of the building of a pipe line for the Graciosa Oil Company until 1907, when for two years he supervised the building of a pipe line for the Associated Oil Company. Returning to Santa Maria, he was for six months at the head of the Palmer Oil Company there, engaging next with the Standard Oil Company as assistant man- ager of their Midway fields until January, 1910. In the meantime he had invented the Perkins Patent Process for cementing oil wells, which is meeting a need of long standing in the oil indus- try of the state, and at the time of his leaving the employ of the Standard Oil Company, he formed The Perkins Oil Well Cementing Company, of which he is the able president.
In fraternal circles Mr. Perkins is well known as a Mason of the York Rite and Scottish Rite degrees and a Shriner, and is a member of the Bakersfield Club in the California city of that name. His marriage with Miss McCandleff took place in Oil City, Pa., in December, 1878, and
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they are the parents of three children, namely : Beatrice, now Mrs. L. J. Whitney, of Sagamore, Mass .; J. C., manager of the Perkins Oil Well Cementing Company for the district of Fullerton ; and Edna C. Perkins, who is secretary and treas- urer of the same company. The main office of the company is situated at No. 509 Union Oil building, in the city of Los Angeles.
ARTHUR M. KLEIN. The early life of Ar- thur M. Klein was spent in Hungary, where he was born November 6, 1872, and attended the public schools of that country until reaching the age of sixteen years, at which time he removed to the United States. Coming to New York City, he went from there to Paterson, N. J., where he soon found employment with the Edison Electric Light Company, with whom he remained for four months engaged in making globes for electric lights. From there Mr. Klein went to Schenec- tady, N. Y., engaging with the General Electric Company there as mechanic for three years, after which time he came west to Los Angeles, Cal., in 1893 securing employment on a ranch near Altadena for two months. Removing to the city, he went into the wholesale fruit business on the Plaza, in the old part of Los Angeles, in the year 1898 leaving that location and establishing him- self at Ninth and Los Angeles streets, where he formed the Klein Fruit Company, of which he be- came president. At the same time he also as- sisted in organizing the Los Angeles Public Mar- ket Company, becoming its president, an office which he resigned in the year 1910. From his location at Ninth and Los Angeles streets he moved his fruit business in 1904 to Third street and Central avenue, and seven years later bought out the Frank Simpson Fruit Company at No. 1338 Produce street, becoming president of the same and changing its name to the Klein-Simpson Fruit Company. This firm carries on a general wholesale fruit business, shipping its products to all eastern points, and is the largest company en- gaged in this business in Los Angeles, its record- breaking day having been July 3, 1912, when there were fifty-four carloads of produce on its tracks. The extent of the business is shown in part by the fact that the company now has one hundred and twenty-five people in its employ.
Politically, Mr. Klein is allied with the interests of the Republican party, while fraternally he is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. His marriage to Miss Viereck took place in Altadena, on June 24, 1900, and they are the parents of one daughter, Rosilyne Klein.
ARTHUR LETTS. The native country of Arthur Letts is England, where he was born June 17, 1862, on his father's farm, which had been in the family for four hundred years. He was the son of Richard and Caroline (Coleman) Letts, both members of honored old English families. The education of Mr. Letts was received in the private school of a Rev. Mr. Hedges and at the Creaton Grammar School, both in England, and his experience in business life began in a dry goods store in a town not far from his home, where he remained several years. With his elder brother he set sail for Amercia, and in Toronto, Canada, Mr. Letts found employment in a large dry goods store, he being then about twenty years of age. In 1885, when the Reil rebellion broke out in the northwestern part of Canada, he en- listed as a volunteer, and for his valuable service was presented with a silver medal and clasp and a grant of land by the Canadian government.
In 1887 Mr. Letts removed to Seattle, Wash., where he remained for seven years, coming to California in 1895 and establishing his home in Los Angeles, where he soon made a reputation for himself as a progressive and prosperous busi- ness man. Here he bought out the bankrupt stock of J. A. Williams & Co., at Fourth and Broadway, then at the southern end of town, and although receiving a setback by fire, Mr. Letts' business has grown and prospered with marvelous results, his buildings have been enlarged, and he has be- come one of the rich men of Los Angeles. In 1899 his store covered the entire ground floor of the Pirtle & Hallet building; two years later an adjoining building was purchased, four years after that the upper floors of the original building were acquired, and in 1906 the Slauson building also was annexed to the business. Since that time, entirely new buildings, of magnificent proportions and appointments, have been erected on the same site, so that the Broadway Department Store's motto, "Watch Us Grow," has proved a most ap- propriate one. Mr. Letts' great interest in educa- tion and the welfare of the young has brought
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about, besides his presidency of the Young Men's Christian Association of Los Angeles and his trusteeship in the State Normal School of the same city, the establishment of an evening school at his great department store for the benefit of the younger of his employes. Other offices which Mr. Letts has filled are: Director of the Cali- fornia Savings Bank and of the Broadway Bank & Trust Company and also of the Sinaloa Land Company, and in 1912 he acted as a representative of America of the advisory board to the commit- tee in charge of the International Horticultural Exhibit in London, the special hobby of Mr. Letts being the study and culture of flowers and trees.
The grounds of his beautiful residence at Hol- lywood, Cal., well illustrate his appreciation of landscape gardening and the scientific interest he takes in his flowers and shrubs and trees, all of which are labeled with their names for the benefit of the public, to whom the grounds are open one day each week. His collection of palms is beyond price, and his Cactus Garden is famous the coun- try over, the marble statuary of his Italian garden being an education as well as a source of delight to the visitor. The marriage of Mr. Letts, April 25, 1886, at Toronto, Canada, united him with Miss Florence Philp, and they are the parents of three children, Florence Edna, Gladys, now Mrs. Harold Janss, and Arthur Letts, Jr. He is a member of the California Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Automobile Club, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Realty Board, Municipal League, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Hollywood Board of Trade, Federation Club, all of Los Angeles, and the Bohemian Club of San Francisco ; and has held the office of pres- ident of the Young Men's Christian Association of Los Angeles, and still holds that office in the National Retail Dry Goods Association, and is a member of the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Hol- lywood Lodge, F. & A. M., and a Knight Templar.
MARCO H. HELLMAN. The banking in- terests of Los Angeles include no name carrying greater weight or accorded higher prestige than that of Hellman, for the Farmers & Merchants Bank was founded by I. W. Hellman and under the wise management of Herman W. Hellman weathered many a financial storm including the
serious panic of 1893-94. The latter gentleman in addition was an officer of the Los Angeles Sav- ings Bank, a director of the Main Street and Security Savings Banks, and also a director in numerous financial institutions in the smaller towns of Southern California. Many of his in- terests have descended to his son, Marco H., who as an executor of the vast estate, necessarily has become a participant in many large corporations and is now acting as president, vice-president or a director of twenty-one banks and nine indus- trial institutions, his principal connections being those of vice-president of the Merchants National Bank, president of the Herman W. Hellman building and president of the Hellman Commercial Trust & Savings Bank. Aside from the large in- dividual interests which he has personally ac- quired, the extensive interests of the estate cover banking, building and unimproved properties scattered over the greater part of California and numerous other possessions in various parts of the country. The Hellman temperament is notable for shrewd insight into financial intricacies, for ability to cope with the teeming difficulties of times of moneyed stress and for remarkable acu- men in the development of substantial banking institutions. Evidence of this family characteris- tic appeared at the time of the building of the Owens river aqueduct, when money was needed and an eastern syndicate accepted only its allot- ment. Under stress of this emergency Marco H. Hellman came to the relief of the city authorities and promptly sold the remaining portion of the bonds, with excellent advantage to the city.
Marco H. Hellman was born in Los Angeles September 14, 1878, received a fair education in the city schools and Leland Stanford University at Palo Alto and from the age of nineteen years has been identified with the banking business. Dur- ing six years with the Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles he filled various positions up to and including that of assistant cashier, but resigned from that institution to be- come assistant cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles. Later he was promoted to be cashier and from that to vice-president, which office he still fills. In Los Angeles June 10, 1908, he was united in marriage with Miss Reta Levis, of Visalia, by whom he is the father of one son, Herman Wallace, and one daughter, Marcorita. Aside from being one of the leaders among the younger set of financiers in the state, he is very
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popular in social and club circles and is identified with the Jonathan, Union League, Concordia, Fed- eral and San Gabriel Valley clubs, as well as the Masons of the thirty-second degree and Mystic Shrine, and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Concerning his service to the city in his capacity of financier and banker the public well knows. His vigorous mind and keen ability have been at the service of the municipality and have been appreciated as an important factor in the progress of the entire region near the shores of the southwestern sea. The successful financier is the ripened product of the wide-awake youth who was never content to rest upon laurels won by others of the name, but strove to add to the fam- ily prestige and enlarge its influence throughout the locality of his lifelong residence.
GEN. MOSES H. SHERMAN. California is forced to share with Arizona her proud interest in the achievements of Gen. Moses H. Sherman, that territory having been the fertile field of his splendid endeavor previous to his coming to Los Angeles in 1889. There is no need of jealousies, however, for there is enough and to spare for each state to write into her annals a record of much accomplished for the public welfare, and great lasting good which has been the result of this man's toil and tireless application.
General Sherman was born in West Rupert, Bennington county, Vt., December 3, 1853, of sturdy old New England stock which dates from early colonial days. He early determined to de- vote his life to educational work, and graduated from the Normal school at Oswego, N. Y., after- wards teaching in New York state. When he was nineteen years of age he decided to seek his fortunes in the far west, and accordingly, in 1872, came to Los Angeles. He remained here but a short time, going on to Prescott, Ariz., where he secured a position in the public schools and taught until 1876. His ability as an organizer and leader was already becoming recognized, and he was at this time selected by Gov. A. F. K. Stafford to represent Arizona territory at the Cen- tennial Exposition. Returning to Arizona after his services in Philadelphia were ended, he was ap- pointed superintendent of public instruction of the territory by Gov. John C. Fremont. It was in this capacity that General Sherman accomplished some of the most noteworthy work of his eventful
career. The educational conditions in Arizona were in a very unsettled state, there being little or no organization of a permanent character, and therefore but little concerted action throughout the educational forces of the state. The new su- perintendent immediately set to work to organize a complete system for the schools of the terri- tory, and most of his plans and resulting regula- tions are incorporated in the school law of the commonwealth today. That his work was more than satisfactory was exemplified at the close of his appointive term, when he was re-elected by an overwhelming majority.
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