USA > California > A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, Volume II > Part 34
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A more suitable completion of this historic sketch the writer could hardly hope to pre- pare than the following fitting and discriminat- ing tribute to the school, and its founder, ap- pearing in the Graphic of August 25, of the current year :
"To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
These are the words carved on the pro- scenium arch of the handsome assembly hall which is as it were the heart of the Harvard school. Dr. Emery sets before himself, his faculty and his boys the highest ideals. How well those ideals have been reached can only be realized by a personal inspection of Har- vard school.
Most of us know some of the Harvard boys and we must have been impressed by their manliness and by their gentlemanly bearing. The tone of a school is found more surely in the boys themselves than in the buildings, however fine the latter may be. But un- doubtedly, surroundings have an incalculable influence upon the upbuilding of youthful character, and Dr. Emery's inspiration in founding and developing Harvard school has been that only the best is good enough-to make good workmen good tools are essential.
Any Angeleno interested in the subject of education-and who is not ?- will find he will be more than repaid by an inspection of Har- vard school. Doubtless he will be surprised to realize the extent to which this institution has grown, quite keeping pace with the phe- nomenal growth of Los Angeles during the last six years. There can be, indeed, very few men who have built better, more wisely, and with a higher aim than Dr. Emery. And he has done it without flourish of trumpets or a sign of vainglory. The modesty of the head-master will impress you equally with his quiet force. He will tell you, "My aim was to found a decent school. I like that word 'decent': it means a great deal and is a favorite adjective of President Roosevelt." And surely, the noble buildings of Harvard school, and, more, the mental and moral atmosphere of the place, impress the visitor that "what- ever things are comely and of good report" are faithfully observed in the class rooms, in the dormitories and in the campus.
Harvard school is intended to fit boys for college, for the technical schools, for the gov- ernment schools and for business careers. The
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general equipment and the special provisions for special studies are unsurpassed by any school anywhere. The faculty is carefully se- lected, consisting of fourteen resident mas- ters, drawn from the foremost universities of the country.
The completion of Harvard hall about a year ago marked a new era in the history of the school. It was built at an expense of $60,000 and is a model structure in every re- spect. The upper and lower schools are now divided, the former occupying Harvard hall and the latter has all to itself the old Har- vard, now Junior, hall. The Lower school also has its own gymnasium, tennis courts and baseball field.
The central feature of Harvard hall is its magnificent assembly hall, a lofty and impos- ing room, 60x50 feet, with stage and gallery, and a seating capacity of four hundred and fifty. The assembly hall has a marked dig- nity both in architecture and decoration. On the first floor also is a large study hall, a finely equipped library, the headmaster's of- fice. the editorial room of the Sentinel, and several recitation rooms; on the second floor the commercial department and typewriting rooms are located, the mechanical and free- handed drawing rooms, a lecture room that would be a credit to any university, flanked by the chemistry and physical laboratories. In the basement are most commodious locker rooms, a splendid gymnasium, shower baths, the armory, the bicycle room, lavatories that are a model of convenience and sanitation, and the heating and ventilating systems. The recitation rooms, large and airy as they are, are supplied constantly with fresh air by the most perfect system ever invented.
The school owns a magnificent campus of ten acres, on which the best advantages are furnished for the pursuit of all wholesome ath- letics.
In six years Harvard school has grown be- yond its founder's most sanguine expectations, and no man can foretell its future. One thing is certain, that the influence of the school upon this community is for the very best. It is a sure foundation, inspired by high ideals and built on a noble plan.
HON. CURTIS D. WILBUR. The versatile ability as displayed by Judge Wilbur, among the most prominent of the rising men of Los An- geles, has enabled him to practice law with gratifying results and further to fill the position of judge of the superior court with the same im- partiality of judgment and keenness of dis- crimination characteristic of him in all the affairs of life. Born in Boonesboro, Iowa. May 10, 1867, he is the descendant of a family long established in America, later members lo- cating in Ohio, where, in Cumberland, his father, Dwight L. Wilbur, was born. The elder man was reared to young manhood in his na- tive state, and upon the opening of the Civil war he enlisted in the Eighty-seventh Ohio Infan- try, serving until the surrender to Stonewall Jackson, when he received honorable discharge and returned to his home in Ohio. Following. he took up the study of law, which he completed in the University of Michigan and in 1866 lo- cated in Boonesboro, Iowa, and began a practice of his profession. He remained in that location until 1882, when he removed to Jamestown. N. Dak., and combined the real estate and loan busi- ness with the law. Five years later he came to California and located at Riverside, where he engaged in the real estate business, meeting with a success which placed him among the promi- nent citizens of that section. A Republican in politics, he gave his support to the men and measures of that party, and in fraternal circles was known among the Masons and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His death occurred August 10, 1903. removing from the community a citizen of wortli and works. While in Ohio he married Miss Edna M. Lyman, whose ancestors came to America in the latter part of the seven- teenth century. Her mother was a sister of Rev. Franklin W. Fisk, D. D., president of the Chi- eago Theological Seminary from its organiza- tion to 1900.
Curtis D. Wilbur spent his boyhood years in his native town and in Jamestown, in the latter city attending the high school for one year, after which, on account of his excellent scholarship, he was selected by a committee as appointee to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. MId. Upon the completion of the four years' course he was graduated in 1888, at the age of
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twenty-one years, being third in a class that originally numbered ninety-three, thirty-five of whom were successful in graduation. During his last year he was appointed cadet lieutenant of a company. In the meantime his parents had lo- cated in Riverside, Cal., and following his gradu- ation he came to the Pacific state, where he has since made his home. He resigned from the navy and at once began the study of law, getting in from eight to ten hours a day in his home for about sixteen months, after which, in October, 1890, he was examined before the supreme court of the state of California and was admitted to the bar. In Los Angeles he was for three years in the office of Brunson, Wilson & Lamme. In January, 1899, he accepted the position of chief deputy district attorney of Los Angeles county tendered him at that time. This office he filled with distinction until he was elected to the bench, which occurred in 1903, since which time as judge of the superior court he has been one of the strongest men in the legal fraternity of this city. The responsibilities of a juvenile court fell upon Judge Wilbur with his election to the bench, this law having been passed in 1903, his first work being the inauguration of the system which has since meant so much to the youth of Los Angeles. His name is inseparably associated with the juvenile court, for in his work he has brought to bear a patience and tact, an insight into human nature, and a helpful friendliness, which have won for him the affection of all chil- dren and the stronger esteem of the parents and those interested in such work. Since 1905 he has had charge only of the juvenile court and general litigation, having previously combined with these efforts probate work. Judge Wilbur also caused the grand jury to investigate the placing of public moneys in private institutions. The result of this action was an amendment to the constitution, permitting the depositing in public banks of about $50,000,000, the interest on which means a revenue of $1,000,000 from this source alone.
Not only is Judge Wilbur honored for his splendid ability, but is as well held in the highest esteem for his personal character, which marks him as a man apart from the great majority of those about him. He is a member of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, in which
he officiates as deacon, and ever since his loca- tion in the city has been prominent in the Chris- tian Endeavor Society of his church, having served for several terms as president. His deep interest in boys has always been one of his strongest characteristics and it is with them that he has met with the greatest success in his career. In the Sunday School he has a class of one hun- dred and twenty between the ages of fifteen and twenty years, and his influence over them is un- bounded. For some time he served as com- inander of the Boys' Brigade of Southern Cali- fornia and during his administration he organ- ized thirty companies and in other ways was instrumental in adding to the growth and devel- opment of this society. At the last California State Conference of Charities and Corrections, Judge Wilbur was elected state president for the year 1907. His capacity for work and inter- est in all movements tending toward the moral uplift of the community are unlimited, and no one ever appeals in vain to him for sympathy or material help.
Judge Wilbur has been twice married, his first wife being Ella T. Chilson, a native of Massa- chusetts. After her death he married Miss Olive Doolittle, and they are the parents of one daugh- ter and three sons: Edna May, Lyman Dwight, Paul Curtis, and Ralph Gordon. The judge is identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen fraternally.
JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS. No more beauti- ful, quiet and restful spot could be found than the Mountain View Cemetery of Pasadena. The original plot, comprising twenty-two and a half acres, was selected, purchased, platted and incor- porated in 1882 by Levi W. Giddings, and artist- ically arranged into lots 20x20 feet each. He himself was the first president of the organiza- tion, a position which he held for some time or until followed by E. H. Royce. Since 1898 J. R. Giddings has filled the position of president. The original acreage of the cemetery has been more than doubled since its organization, now comprising fifty acres.
A native of Ohio, Joshua R. Giddings was born in Ashtabula county October 10, 1858, a son of Levi W. and Luna A. (Wilder) Giddings, na-
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tives of Ohio and New York respectively. When their son was about two years of age the family removed to Marshalltown, Iowa, where they made their home for fourteen years. Coming to Cali- fornia in 1874, they located first in Pasadena, later made their home in Los Angeles for a short time, going from there to San Jose, and again in 1878 located in Pasadena. Here they both passed away, the father in 1892 and the mother in 1905. While in Iowa Joshua R. Gid- dings received a fair common school education and upon coming to California he attended the Los Angeles high school and the state normal at San Jose. The large undertaking inaugurated by his father in platting and laying out the Mountain View Cemetery made an opening for him when his school days were over, and until the death of the father the two were associated in its man- agement. As president and manager of the cor- poration he is conducting affairs along the policy adopted by his father, with the result that Moun- tain View Cemetery cannot be equalled from an artistic point of view. He has also dealt quite extensively in real estate, much of which he still owns. Perhaps his largest and most important undertaking along this line was the purchase of twenty acres on east Colorado street, which he subdivided, and from the sale of lots he received handsome returns on his investment. He also owns the old home place of sixty acres in Alta- dena.
In Pasadena, in 1879, Joshua R. Giddings was married to Miss Jennie Hollingsworth, a native of Iowa, and a daughter of Lawson D. and Lu- cinda ( Maudlin) Hollingsworth, natives of Ohio and Indiana respectively. From Peoria, Ill .. where they were pioneer settlers, Mr. and Mrs. Hollingsworth located in Iowa City, Iowa, and in 1876 came to California, settling in Pasadena. After residing here nearly thirty years both passed away on the same day, January 27, 1903. They were affectionately known throughout the surrounding country as Grandpa and Grandma Hollingsworth. Mr. Hollingsworth built and conducted the first grocery store here, and a son, Dr. H. T. Hollingsworth, now of Los Angeles, was the first postmaster. The parents belonged to the Society of Friends. Mr. Hollingsworth took an active part in the growth and develop- ment of Pasadena, the public school, water com-
pany and all matters of moment receiving his stanch support. He owned fifty acres of land in the heart of the city. To him was due credit for introducing a number of new fruits into this locality.
Six children have been born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Giddings, Lawson, Levi, Joseph, Blanche, Paul and June, two of the sons assisting their father in the management of the cemetery. Mr. Giddings takes an intelligent interest in local affairs, endeavoring by all means within his power to promote the welfare of the town and county with which his name has been associated for so many years. He is a namesake of Joshua Reed Giddings, who was elected to the legislature of Ohio in 1826, and in 1838 was made a member of congress, where he became prominent as an opponent of slavery. In 1861 he was appointed consul-general to British North America, and he died in Montreal May 27, 1864. He was a brother of Joseph R. Giddings, the grandfather of our subject.
WILLIAM E. DE GROOT. Not long since there passed from the citizenship of Los An- geles one of the most earnest and forceful men identified with the business interests of the city-William E. De Groot, who had been established in this state since 1887. from then until his death prominent in local movements for the development of Southern California. Mr. De Groot was a native of New York, and was born November 26, 1858. He was edu- cated in the public schools of his native state until the age of fourteen, when he started out on his life work. He remained a resident of New York until 1880, when he located in the mid- dle west, choosing Chicago for his first lo- cation. Shortly afterward he went to St. Paul, Minn., and engaged in business as a merchant tailor. Attracted to the Pacific coast about this time he came to Los Angeles in 1887, and from that date up to the time of his death he remained an important factor in pub- lic enterprises. Although various enterprises occupied his time, his first work of importance was the laying out of Knob Hill tract, prop- erty located just north of Westlake Park, and
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disposal of the lots. A little later he be- came interested in the local oil industry, and still later was one of the foremost promoters of this enterprise during the Bakersfield ex- citement. He was the sole promoter of the immense enterprise known as the Reid Oil Company, and was active for many years in its management and upbuilding. Success ac- companied his efforts and during his connec- tion with this business he accumulated a fort- une.
The greater portion of Mr. De Groot's time was spent in Los Angeles and from this point he exercised a controlling interest in move- ments calculated to upbuild and develop the southern coast. In East San Pedro he became interested in the Crescent Wharf and Ware- house Company and was president of the same up to the time of his demise, continuing prom- inent in the development of this enterprise. Chief among his latest ventures in Los An- geles was his erection and furnishing of the Hinman, one of the most luxurious and tho- roughly modern of the magnificent apartment houses which this city affords for the comfort of the countless guests that flock to Los An-' geles. The building was something over a year in the course of construction, being com- pleted in December, 1903, and elegantly fur- nished by a New York house, in which city Mr. De Groot spent considerable time in at- tending to the details of the business. Al- though so recently established, the enterprise was proving a financial success, as had all others that had felt the master touch of Mr. De Groot,-a man of strong and unerring judgment, executive ability, and withal a nat- ure of such strength of purpose and power, that he could not help but win an enviable place for himself among the citizens of this western commonwealth. May 18, 1904, with no warning as to the nearness of death, he died of heart failure, being then just in the prime of life and the power and vigor of man- hood. Many friends felt his loss and his pres- ence was missed in the business circles of the city. He left a widow, formerly Miss Adalena Hinman, a native of Michigan and a daughter of A. B. Hinman. They were the parents of two children, a son and daughter.
FERDINAND GOTTSCHALK. The in- fluences which tended to mould the character of Mr. Gottschalk in his youth were such as cluster around the Rhine country in Germany, for there, near the city of Solingen, he was born July 31, 1819. There also his father, Frederick John A. Gottschalk, was born December 28, 1795, his mother's birth occurring in the Fatherland also. She was Miss Margaret Roenchen, the daughter of a government official in that country.
When a lad of twelve years Ferdinand Gotts- chalk accompained his parents to America, the vessel on which they took passage from Rotter- dam casting anchor on this side of the Atlantic at Baltimore, in October, 1831, after eighty- two days spent in transit. Two years and a half after their settlement there they removed to St. Louis, Mo., and there it was that the father's earth life came to a close December 18, 1865. His wife died on June 29, 1849. An excellent training in the schools for which the Fatherland is noted was the equipment with which Ferdinand Gottschalk came to this country, supplementing this by attending a private school in Baltimore and the only public school of St. Louis. Ap- proaching an age when the masculine mind natur- ally turns to thoughts of a business career, it was while in the schools of the latter city that an opportunity was offered him to become clerk in a general store in that city, an offer which he seized with avidity, for he was ambitious to get a start in the business world. The same per- sistency and concentration of purpose which he had learned during his school years entered into his new duties, and the four years which he spent in the mercantile business not only gave him a practical training in methods, but enabled him to lay by the means with which to learn a trade. Having in the mean time determined to master the carpenter's trade he devoted his means and the time to its accomplishment, attending private night schools to learn designing and architectural drawing, at the same time working in his father's shop. After he had mastered this he began working at the carpenter's trade with reference to house construction in St. Louis, later engaging in contracting and building there on his own account, a calling which he followed with ex- cellent results as long as he continued in that city. During the early part of the 'zos he made a
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trip to California with his wife, and liking the climate he made another trip and the third time, in 1881, located permanently to avoid the cold winters and hot summers, at the same time set- tling in Los Angeles, which has since been his home. He was the first St. Louis man to locate in Los Angeles.
January 7, 1840, Mr. Gottschalk was united in marriage with Maria L. Gill, a native of Jack- son county, Ill., in which state the family name was well known, her father, James Gill, having settled there as a pioneer from Kentucky during the very early days. Of the three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gottschalk, Nancy L. became the wife of Judge Gottschalk of St. Louis, both now deceased; Sarah H. is now the wife of Charles H. Matthay, and the mother of one child, Ferdinand L .; and Charles makes his home with his parents. Mrs. Nancy L. Gottschalk was the mother of four children, of whom three are now living : Louis F., in New York ; Ferdinand C., of Los Angeles ; and Mrs. J. Bond Francisco also of Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Gottschalk take great pride in their great-grandchildren. Politic- ally Mr. Gottschalk has always favored Repub- lican principles, and cast his first presidential ballot for Benjamin Harrison. It was upon the Benton Anti-Slavery ticket that in 1852 he was elected to represent his district in the Missouri legis- lature and as soon as the Republican party was organized joined its ranks, subsequently repre- senting his constituents in the senate of that state. He served in the legislature from 1852 to 1881, during which time many important measures yet in existence were enacted as laws. Since coming to Los Angeles Mr. Gottschalk has accumulated considerable valuable property and is counted one of the well-to-do residents of this prosperous city. Although now in his eighty- seventh year he is hale and hearty, and in the enjoyment of all his life-long faculties is spend- ing his last years in quiet contentment, free from remorse which too often accompanies the ac- cumulation of wealth.
CLARENCE WARNER PIERCE, M. D. The supreme medical director for the Frater- nal Brotherhood and surgeon-general of the Uniform Rank, is Dr. C. W. Pierce, one of
the able physicians of Los Angeles and a pop- ular and highly esteemed citizen, whose ef- forts have brought him personal success as well as added to the material upbuilding of the city. His father, James Washington Pierce, was born in Dutchess county, N. Y., there grew to young manhood, and then became a farmer in Delaware county, that state. His pursuits were interrupted by the breaking out of the Civil war, in which he enlisted. His last days were spent in retirement in Los An- geles, where he was a prominent figure in the circles of the Grand Army of the Republic. Dr. Pierce's motlier was Frances Clark, daugh- ter of Charles Clark, a successful farmer of New York. She survived her husband and now makes her home in Los Angeles. For more complete details refer to the sketch of Hon. F. E. Pierce, which appears elsewhere in this volume.
Clarence Warner Pierce was born in Dela- ware county, N. Y., May 29, 1871, and after receiving a preliminary education through the medium of the common schools, attended Col- gate Academy in Hamilton, N. Y., for more advanced instruction. He came to Los An- geles in 1892 and engaged in the mercantile business with his brother under the name of the Pierce Furniture Company, after two years taking up the study of medicine. He finally entered the medical department of the Univer- sity of Southern California and was graduated therefrom in 1898 with the degree of M. D. He first engaged as the resident physician at the California Hospital for a year, then went east and for a season was in Bellevue Hospi- tal College. Returning to Los Angeles, he practiced for several years, and in 1902 was ap- pointed police surgeon for a term of two years. Upon the expiration of his term he again took up a general practice, and in December, 1905, was made supreme medical director of the Fra- ternal Brotherhood by its executive council. January 5, 1906, he was elected to this office at the special meeting of the Supreme Lodge in Los Angeles, and in addition to the im- portant duties which this entails upon him he has still carried on his general practice, which is fast growing to large proportions. He is thoroughly progressive and keeps in touch
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with every forward step taken by his profes- sion, and is affiliated with many societies, among them the Alumni Association of the Medical Department of the University of Southern California, the American Medical and State Medical Associations, the Southern Cal- ifornia and Los Angeles County Medical So- cieties, and the Clinical and Pathological So- ciety of Los Angeles.
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