USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 56
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The education of J. Ross Clark was received in his early years in the public schools of Van Buren county, Iowa, where his family removed when he was six years of age, and later in an academic course at Bentonsport Academy, but his wide business experience has furnished him with a breadth of knowledge which no course at school could have provided. In company with his brother, Joseph K., he was engaged in the United States mail contract business with head- quarters at Horse Plains, Mont. In 1876 he engaged as bookkeeper for the Dexter Milling Company in Butte, Mont., and the next year accepted a position as cashier in the bank of Don- nell, Clark & Larabie, where he continued until 1886, having in 1884 acquired the interest of Mr. Donnell in the business, and Mr. Larabie retiring soon after, the name of the firm was changed to W. A. Clark & Bro. and continuing as such to the present time, the brothers still being partners in the business.
The year 1892 saw his establishment in Los Angeles, where he instituted the Los Alamitos Sugar Company and has continued to make his home ever since. He was married in 1878 to Miss Miriam A. Evans, a native of Ohio, but at the time of her marriage residing in Montana, and they are the parents of two children, Ella H. and Walter M. Clark. In Los Angeles they are con- nected with the First Congregational Church, and although Mr. Clark prefers to devote his atten- tion entirely to his private business, he yet has firm political opinions and in a stanch Democrat. Aside from the Los Alamitos Sugar Company, Mr. Clark's business associations are with the Citizens' National Bank, of which he is a director, the Columbia Savings Bank of Los Angeles, where he fills the same office, the Chamber of Commerce, in which he has also served as direc- tor, and was president of the Y. M. C. A.
COL. FRANK M. CHAPMAN, who passed away at his home in Covina, Cal., March 18, 1909, was a native of Illinois, having been born in Macomb, McDonough county, in that state, on the first day of the year 1849. He was the eld- est of a large family of children born to Sid- ney S. and Rebecca Jane Chapman. His father was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, in 1827, and was a descendant of one of three brothers
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who came from England to Massachusetts about 1650. Going to Macomb when a young man, in 1848 he was united in marriage with Rebecca Jane Clarke, the eldest daughter of David and Eliza (Russell) Clarke, natives of Kentucky and early pioneers of central Illinois. Colonel Chap- man's boyhood was passed at Macomb. There he attended the common schools and engaged in various occupations until he answered the last call made by President Lincoln for soldiers. He en- listed in Company C, One Hundred and Thirty- seventh Illinois Infantry. Though a mere boy in years he was accepted and with his regiment went south, where he remained until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged.
Upon his return home our subject engaged at clerking in a store until 1868, when he went to the neighboring town of Vermont and engaged in business for himself. After the fire in Chicago in 1871, there being a great demand for bricklayers in that city, and having learned that trade with his father, who was a builder, he went there and for a time was foreman for a large building firm. For a while he engaged in building and contracting in that city for himself, when he again drifted into mercantile life. This he fol- lowed with varying success until he began the study of medicine. He entered Bennett Medical College, Chicago, and was graduated with the class of 1877. The following year Mr. Chapman, with his brother Charles C., embarked in the pub- lishing business. Prosperity attended this enter- prise and the business grew until Chapman Broth- ers (as the firm was known) erected their own building and owned a large printing plant in Chicago. For many years the firm did an exten- sive and prosperous printing and publishing busi- ness, and at the same time engaged extensively in the real estate business, and also erected many large buildings in Chicago.
On the second day of December, 1894, Colonel Chapman, with his family, landed in California, taking up his residence in Los Angeles. Here he lived for a year, when he removed to Palmetto Ranch, at Covina, at which place he was exten- sively engaged in orange growing up to the time of his death. Throughout the entire period of his residence here he was identified with almost every local enterprise inaugurated by its people, and was regarded as one of the substantial and highly respected citizens of the community.
Colonel Chapman was united in marriage with Miss Wilhelmina Zillen, September 9, 1886. To them were born four children: Frank M., Jr., born at Chicago, Ill., July 17, 1888; Grant, also at Chicago, June 11, 1891 ; Grace, born in Los An- geles, October 18, 1895; and Clarke, born at Covina, February 21, 1898. Mrs. Chapman was born in Friedrichstadt, Schleswig-Holstein, Ger- many, July 2, 1861. She is the daughter of Wil- helm Ferdinand and Louise (Fencke) Zillen and came with her father to the United States in 1866.
Politically Colonel Chapman was a life long Republican and was always more or less inter- ested in politics. While residing in Chicago he represented the twenty-fifth ward in the city council, and while chairman of the committee on railroads was the author of the ordinance de- manding the elevating of steam railways, thereby doing away with grade crossings.
He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the National Guard of California by Governor Henry Gage, and reappointed by Governor George C. Pardee, and Governor James N. Gillett, having served on the staff of these three governors.
Colonel Chapman was a member of the Chris- tian Church, and not only took an active part in church work, but was identified with every move- ment for the betterment of the community.
BRADNER W. LEE. The records of the Lee family since its location in America during the colonial period of our history form an inter- esting account of one of the most prominent names of the western world. The emigrating ancestor was Nathaniel Lee, who was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland, of English ancestry, in the year 1695. He was a commissioned officer in the British army, and at the time of the Rebellion and accession of George the First, he sided with the "Revolt ;" his property was confiscated, and while yet a single man, in 1725, he emigrated to America and settled on the banks of the Hudson, near the village of Fishkill, in Dutchess county, N. Y., where he soon married Margaret De Long. Of this union were born three sons, Thomas, Joshua and John (who died at the age of twelve years), and four daughters, Margaret, Patience, Polly and Sally. The father attained the ad- vanced age of ninety-eight years, and both him-
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self and wife were interred in the cemetery at Dover, Dutchess county, N. Y.
Thomas Lee was born at the family residence November 15, 1739, and before attaining his ma- jority-on the 22nd of July, 1760, he married Watey Shearman (or Sherman, as it is variously spelled), born December 9, 1743. Shortly after- ward Mr. Lee purchased a farm near Fishkill, at a point called Quakertown, and there made his home for some years. At the outbreak of the War of the Revolution he was among the first to re- spond to his country's call, and in the years of that long, and at times well-nigh hopeless strug- gle, his name appears frequently in the published military records of the part taken by New York. He was commissioned second lieutenant in Capt. Jacob Rosecrans' Dutchess County Company, Col. James Holmes, Fourth Regiment, New York Con- tinental Line, June 30, 1775. This was one of the first four regiments of the Continental Line organized in the Colony of New York upon the Establishment of 1775, by act of the Provincial Congress at its session of June 30, 1775. He was promoted to first lieutenant, same company and regiment, August 3, 1775, serving in this com- mand until November, 1776. At the session of the Provincial Congress, November 21, 1776, four additional battalions of the Continental Line of the State of New York were authorized, and a list of the officers and their rank arranged. In this list appears, in the Fourth Battalion, Col. Henry B. Livingston, William Jackson's Com- pany, Thomas Lee, first lieutenant, ranking tenth in the battalion. The minutes of this session further show that Col. Lewis Du Bois was being urged for appointment as colonel of one of the four battalions, but was left out of the arrangement, the records saying: "That from the quota of this state being assessed so low as four battalions many good officers will be unprovided for. That sundry applications have been made to your Committee for Commissions by Young Gentlemen of Fortune and Family whose services your Committee are under the disagreeable necessity of declining to accept."
It resulted finally in a fifth battalion or regi- ment of the Continental Line for the state of New York being authorized and Col. Lewis Du Bois appointed colonel thereof with the "rank of fourth colonel of the New York forces." In this regiment Thomas Lee was commissioned captain of the Eighth Company of date November
21, 1776, and following this participated in the battles of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, White Plains and other engagements along the Hudson. The muster roll of his company is preserved in the New York archives at Albany, N. Y., and is published in Vol. I, New York in the Revolu- tion, Albany, 1887. He was a member of a general court martial held by order of General Washing- ton near White Plains. This court was com- posed of Brigadier-General McDugall, president, a colonel, a lieutenant colonel, a major and ten captains. Col. Morris Graham was tried before this court on the charge of cowardice at the Battle of White Plains, preferred against him by Col. Joseph Reed, General Washington's secretary, and was acquitted, the evidence showing that his movement of troops from which the charge arose was directed by his superior officer. Captain Lee was also a member of a general court martial held at Fort Montgomery, April 30, 1777, by order of Gen. George Clinton, composed of Col. Lewis Du Bois, president, fifteen captains and two lieu- tenants. Nine men were tried before this court, charged with treason, convicted and sentenced to death. This court again met May 2, 1777, and proceeded to try sixteen additional men charged with treason, convicted them, and sentenced them to death, but recommended seven of them for mercy. Gen. George Clinton, however, disap- proved the recommendation, urging a severe ex- ample to deter others from like crime. His recommendation was followed, and the prisoners ordered executed.
The weekly returns of forces at Fort Mont- gomery for the months of May, June and July, 1777, show the presence there of Captain Lee and his company, and he continued at this post and participated in the battles of Fort Mont- gomery and Clinton. After this latter engage- ment the regiment went into camp at the Heights of New Windsor. On October 14, 1777, at this place, Captain Lee served as a member of a general court martial appointed by Gen. George Clinton. The court was composed of Colonel Du Bois, president, two majors and ten captains. Daniel Taylor, charged with being a spy, was tried before the court, convicted and sentenced to death. This sentence was approved and ordered carried into execution. In a letter dated November 24, 1777, from Gen. George Clinton to Gen. Israel Putnam, from New Windsor, statement is made that "Captain Lee was permitted to return with
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his Family & Effects to New York agreeable to your first letter." On March 1, 1778, returns of the regiment show Captain Lee at New Windsor. On May 19, 1778, Captain Lee resigned. On February 18, 1779, at Fort Ranger, Capt. Thomas Lee served as president of a court martial of inquiry for the purpose of trying Melkiah Grout, a justice of the peace, who had attempted to exercise jurisdiction within New York in the disputed territory known as the New Hampshire grants, when he had been appointed to office in New Hampshire. He was found innocent and set at liberty. On the 19th of October, 1779, Captain Lee was transferred to Col. Zephania Platt's regiment, New York Militia, Dutchess County Associated Exempts, in which command he served for some time. The returns from the regiment November 9, 10, 14 and 17, of the year 1779, show Captain Lee and company at Camp Fishkill. Subsequently he was commissioned and served as captain in Col. Lewis Du Bois' Regi- ment, New York Militia Levies of the State to re-inforce the Armies of the United States, July 1,1780.
After the close of his services in the army Captain Lee removed to Hudson, Columbia county, N. Y. In the spring of 1790, with his large family, together with a few of his friends, he emigrated to western New York, settling upon the western shore of Seneca lake, in the then county of Ontario, in what is now the town of Milo, near the present village of Penn Yan, now in Yates county. He purchased a tract of three hundred acres of land, erecting thereon a log house and a flour mill, near the falls of the outlet of Crooked lake, or Lake Keuka. The following spring he built a large residence of Colonial archi- tecture upon another portion of his farm, in which he resided until his death, when it passed to his son, Dr. Joshua Lee, who later rebuilt it and lived there until his death, and it continued for many years a prominent landmark. It was de- stroyed by fire a few years since. Captain Lee was one of the most prominent of the early settlers of western New York, and his name is frequently mentioned in the history of Yates county. He served as supervisor of the town of Jerusalem in 1792, being its first one. He died January 22, 1814, at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife on October 14, 1833, at the age of ninety. Their last resting place is in the cemetery at Penn Yan, N. Y. They had reared a family of
six daughters and four sons, namely: Abigail, Nancy, Mary, Patience, Elizabeth, Thomas, Jr., Watey, James, Joshua and Sherman. All of these children attained years of maturity, married and reared large families, and resided in Yates county, N. Y., in the vicinity of Penn Yan, and the sons of Captain Lee became prominent in the early civil and military history of their state, and all acquired comfortable competences. Abigail mar- ried Joseph Ross and while a widow removed, with her family, to Illinois, where her sons, Joseph, Ossian M., Nathan, and Thomas, became prominent among the early pioneers of that state. Her grandsons, Hon. Lewis W. Ross and Gen. Leonard Fulton Ross, attained distinction and prominence in the political and military history of Illinois. Among others of her descendants who have attained distinction are Commander William Kilburn, of the navy, a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis; his son, Capt. Dana Willis Kilburn, of the Army, a graduate of the West Point Military Academy ; Gen. Charles L. Kilburn, also a graduate of West Point, now deceased; and Hon. Paris Kilburn, formerly Sur- veyor of Customs, Port of San Francisco, and president of the State Board of Harbor Commis- sioners. Hon. John Wesley Ross, LL. D., was formerly postmaster of Washington, D. C., and president of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, and lecturer in the law department of Georgetown University. Nancy married Hezekiah Keeler. Mary married Joshua Andrews, and her grandson, Charles Asa Bab- cock, was educated at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, holding the rank of commander in the Navy at his death. Patience married Lewis Birdsall, a son of Col. Benjamin Birdsall, promi- nent in the Revolutionary and early political history of New York. Her granddaughter, Sophia Birdsall, daughter of Dr. Lewis A., formerly director of the mint in San Francisco, became the first wife of Hon. Milton S. Latham, formerly governor of California and United States Senator therefrom. Elizabeth married Lambert Van Alstyne. Dr. Joshua became a distinguished phy- sician and surgeon, and was one of the popular men of his day in Yates county. He was surgeon of the One Hundred and Third New York Regi- ment in the war of 1812, was at the battle of Queenstown, and was one of the first who crossed the river on that occasion in the discharge of his duties. He was a member of the New York
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Assembly for 1816, 1817, 1833, and a member of the Twenty-fourth United States Congress in 1835-1837. He was elected to the assembly in 1817, defeating his brother, Thomas, Jr., who was the opposing candidate. Thomas Lee, Jr., was a man of great force of character and engaged in large business enterprises. He was a colonel in the war of 1812, and afterwards served as a colonel in the New York Militia. He also held many town and county offices, and served in the New York Assembly in 1816, finally emigrating in 1822 to Detroit, in the territory of Michigan, where he was a member of its first Constitutional Convention. He afterwards resided at Dexter, Mich. Sherman Lee was a major in the War of 1812, and afterwards colonel of the One Hun- dred and Third New York Militia Regiment. James Lee was commissioned by Governor Mor- gan Lewis as an ensign in the New York Militia in 1805. This commission is now in the possession of his grandson, Bradner Wells Lee, of Los Angeles, Cal. Many of the descendants of Cap- tain Lee and his children have served with distinc- tion in the civil and military departments of the government, adding honor to the name bequeathed to them by the Revolutionary hero.
James Lee, the second son of Captain Thomas Lee, was born January 15, 1780, and in young manhood married Sarah Smith, who was born August 3, 1784, daughter of Richard Smith, of Groton, Conn., who removed to Penn Yan, N. Y., in 1790. He was one of a committee of three sent out from Connecticut in 1787 who purchased a large tract of land near Penn Yan for a Society of Friends. He became one of the most promi- nent of the early settlers of that county, and was a man of large property interests. His son, Col. Avery Smith, was colonel of the One Hundred and Third New York Regiment in the War of 1812, and also served in the New York Assembly several terms. James Lee died in Milo, N. Y., in 1868, his wife having passed away January 11, 1858, in her seventy-fourth year. They reared a family of ten children, viz .: Elizabeth A., Daniel S., Mary, Avery Smith, Sarah Jane, David Richard, Susanna Wagner, James Barker, Russell Joshua and Sophia P., all of whom married and reared large families. Their sixth child, David Richard Lee, was born at Milo, N. Y., January 27, 1815, and in young manhood became a farmer and merchant. He settled at East Groveland, Livingston county, N. Y., in 1849, and made that
place his home until his death, which occurred March 11, 1886. By marriage, June 14, 1849, he allied himself with an old and prominent family of America, Elizabeth Northrum Wells becoming his wife. She was a daughter of Isaac Titchenor and Charity (Kenyon) Wells, and her paternal ancestry can be traced back to the time of William the Conqueror.
The Roll of Battle Abbey contains the name of this ancestor of the Wells family, "R. de Euille" or Welles. Euille or Welles bore the same arms with slight variation. The name rami- fies in many directions, and among many different families, Vallibus, Welles, Lee, Millburn, Mol- beck, Mollineaux (or Miller), D'Everaux, Wassa, Washbourn (afterwards Washington), Burn, Hurtburn, Heburn, etc. The ancestor was named Euille (a spring or water) in Normandy, and originated also the root of Vernon.
The origin of the de Welles family of Lincoln- shire, Barons by summons to parliament, was in the Vaux (or Baux, or Bayeux, or de Vallibus) family of France, one of the illustrious families known to history. The derivation is traced to the year 794, from which period they held the highest rank, personally and by royal inter-marriage. It was founded in England after the Conquest, by Harold de Vaux (a near relation of William the Conqueror) and his three sons, Barons Hubert, Ranulph and Robert, all surnamed de Vallibus. The descent is through the younger son, Robert, whose grandson, William, had four sons: Robert de Dalston, Baron ; Adam and William de Welles, of Lincolnshire, 1194, and Oliver de Vallibus, prior of Pentney Abbey. Adam de Welles died without issue and his brother, William, thus be- came founder of that long line of noblemen of Lincolnshire. The family of Vaux derived its surname from a district in Normandy, where it was originally seated. In 794 of the Christian era a branch is found in Provence.
The English branch of the Wells family from which Mrs. Elizabeth N. Lee is descended, con- tains among its progenitors Bishop Hugo de Welles. He became one of the most important men in England, being advanced to the See of Lincoln as archdeacon and Lord Chancellor of England, was chief of the barons, instrumental in obtaining from King John, in 1215, the great Magna Charta, prepared by his own hand in 1207, and being Lord Chancellor, was the most confidential advisor to the king. His very numer-
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ous and important official acts and history are given in Rymers' "Foedera," "Parliamentary Rolls," Hume's and other English histories. The progenitor of the Wells family in America, from whom Mrs. Lee is a direct descendant, was Hugh Welles (as the name was then spelled), born in Essex county, England, in 1590. He emigrated from Essex county to America in 1635, with his brothers Richard, Joseph, George and William, coming in the ship Globe, which sailed from Gravesend August 6, 1635, and landed at Boston the same season. Thence he removed in 1636 to Hartford, Conn., where he was one of its first settlers. Soon after the autumn of 1636 he re- moved to Wethersfield, Conn., being one of its first settlers and the first of the name of Welles there. He lived there the residue of his life, dying in 1645. He was appointed and served as an ensign in the Colonial service, and was a kinsman and contemporary of Thomas Welles, the first governor of Connecticut. Three descendants of Hugh Welles served in King Philip's War, one of these, Capt. Thomas Welles, serving in the Falls fight. The line of descent is traced from Hugh Welles to Thomas, Noah, Jonathan, Jona- than 2nd, Colonel Daniel, Ira, and Isaac Titche- nor, who was born in Vermont. Jonathan Wells 2nd served in the Revolutionary war as lieutenant- colonel of the Nineteenth Connecticut Regiment, while various other members of the family were associated with the affairs of the colonies, serving in colonial wars as commissioned officers.
Mrs. Lee survives her husband and still resides on the old homestead at East Groveland, where her family was reared. They were the parents of four children, namely: Bradner Wells, born May 4, 1850; Franklin Scott, born February 2, 1852; James Avery, born July 31, 1860; and Charles Bedell, born November 7, 1854, the latter dying January 14, 1862.
Bradner Wells Lee is now one of the most prominent lawyers of Los Angeles, where he has been located since 1879. In his birthplace, East Groveland, Livingston county, N. Y., he received his early education, and later took up a private course of study. In 1871 he went to Holly Springs, Miss., where under the instruction of his uncle, Col. G. Wiley Wells, he prepared for the legal profession. His uncle at this time was United States district attorney of the Northern District of Mississippi, and was subsequently a
member of congress from that state, and later United States consul-general to Shanghai, China. Mr. Lee was admitted to the bar in Mississippi in 1872, after which he held the position of assistant United States attorney until 1879, resigning there- from in the last named year in order to come to Los Angeles. He here associated himself with Judge Brunson and Col. G. Wiley Wells in the law firm known as Brunson, Wells & Lee, having been admitted April 30, 1879, in the Supreme Court, to practice in all the courts of the state of California. The old business then organized is still in existence, the firm name having been successively changed to Wells, Van Dyke & Lee; Wells, Guthrie & Lee; Wells, Monroe & Lee; Wells & Lee; Wells, Works & Lee; Works & Lee; Works, Lee & Works, and Bradner W. Lee, with offices in the H. W. Hellman building. The old firm had their offices in the Baker block for eighteen years, then in the Henne building for eight years, and then removed to their present location in one of the finest office buildings in the city of Los Angeles. Here they have one of the largest private law libraries in the state, collected by Col. G. Wiley Wells.
During almost the entire period of his resi- dence in Los Angeles Mr. Lee has participated in its prominent legal contests and has been con- nected with some of the most noted litigations in the history of the state. A stanch Republican, he has served continuously since 1896 as chairman of the Republican county central committee, and still holds that position; and from 1902 to 1904, inclusive, served as a member of the executive committee of the Republican state central com- mittee. In 1898 he was elected trustee of the state library at a joint session of the senate and assembly and was re-appointed by Governor Gage in 1902, and again by Governor Pardee in 1906. He is a charter member of a number of societies, among them the California Society of Colonial Wars, serving as its first historian and later as chancellor; the California Commandery of Foreign Wars, of which he was vice-commander, the late General Shafter being commander; and has been a member of the Los Angeles Bar Association since its organization; and in the Chamber of Commerce has served on the law committee, and was a member of the Harbor committee. For years he served as a director and treasurer of the California Society Sons of
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