A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 83

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184

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brick buildings, suitable for school rooms, dormi- tories, offices, laundry, mess hall, etc., were drawn by a government architect in accordance with suggestions made by Capt. A. Tonner, assistant superintendent of Indian affairs. These build- ings were completed March 1, 1902, at a cost of $150,000.

July 18, 1901, was a gala day for Riverside. It was the day designated for the laying of the corner-stone of the Sherman Institute, an insti- tution that is to be made the great Indian school of the west. Every portion of Southern Cali- fornia was represented and there were represen- tative men from the northern and central parts of the state. United States Senator Perkins pre- sided and Hon. Will A. Harris of Los Angeles delivered the oration of the day. A guitar and mandolin club of twenty girls from the Indian school at Perris and a brass band composed of twenty-six boys from the same school furnished the instrumental music tor the occasion. Quar- tets of Indian boys and girls of the Perris school also rendered vocal selections that were highly appreciated.

The school is named for Hon. James S. Sher- man, congressman from the twenty-fifth con- gressional district of New York and chairman of the committee on Indian affairs of the present house of representatives. He has been active in securing the appropriation and in furthering the interests of the school. It is estimated that · there are about 600 Indian children in the vari- ous Indian reservations of Southern California without school facilities. If these are left to grow up on the reservations they will follow in the footsteps of their fathers. The only hope of "reform" for the Indians of Southern Cali- fornia is the removal of the young from the evil environments of the reservations and an indus- trial training in schools such as the Sherman In- stitute is intended to be.

The Institute has fulfilled the expectations of its founder. It has been well patronized since its founding. A number of new buildings have been added to it. The school has an excellent brass band, made up entirely from pupils in the school. It also has a football team that has won victories over some of the best teams in the state.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

THE CONCRETE BRIDGE.

Riverside can boast of one of the triumphs of modern bridge building- the concrete bridge across the Santa Ana river, built for the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad in 1903. It is claimed that this bridge is the largest of its kind in the world. It is over a thousand feet in length and its maximum height is seventy feet. It was planned and built under the direction of Henry Hawgood, chief of the engineering department of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. Ordinarily the Santa Ana is a harmless looking river .that ap- parently might be spanned by an ordinary tres- tle work. But at times during the rainy season it is subject to sudden rises when a huge torrent of water freighted with sand dashes with power-

ful force against any obstacle. It was to provide against freshets that so powerful and enduring a structure was built. To secure a solid footing on the bedrock of the river for its piers it was necessary to sink to a depth in the river bed varying from fifteen to fifty-five feet; as these excavations were carried down it became neces- sary to construct coffer dams and use steam- pumps to keep the water out. During the greater part of the time that the bridge was in the course of construction a force of 200 men was employed and the work was carried on night and day. An idea of the magnitude of the bridge may be ob- tained from the dead weight of the structure, which is estimated at 34,000 tons. Its cost was $200,000. The bridge was open for traffic early in 1904.

Potham Bixby

JOTHAM BIXBY.

* * *

O you youths, western youths,

So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,

Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,

Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

Have the elder races halted?

Do they drop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the seas?

We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson,

Pioneers ! 0 Pioneers !

All the past we leave behind ;

We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world;

Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,

Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

We detachments steady throwing,

Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,

Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

We primeval forests felling.

We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep the mines within ;

We the surface broad surveying, and the virgin soil upheaving, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

Raise the mighty mother mistress,

Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,)

Raise the fanged and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weaponed mistress, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

See, my children, resolute children,

By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or falter,

Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind 11s urging, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

* *

All the pulses of the world.

Falling in, they beat for us, with the western move- ment beat ;

Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front, all for us, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

Lo! the darting bowling orb!

Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets :

All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

Has the night descended?

Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop dis- couraged, nodding on our way?

Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivions,

Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

Till with sound of trumpet,

Far, far off the day-break call-hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind;

Swift ! to the head of the army !- swift! spring to your places,

Pioneers ! O Pioneers !

When Jotham Bixby, the subject of this sketch, just turned twenty-one, set sail from Boston, March 1, 1852, aboard the clipper Samuel Apple- ton, Captain Doane, bound for a voyage of one hundred and fifty days around the Horn for San Francisco, it was doubtless because a certain adventurous fire was still steadily burning in his veins inquenched from that which prompted his emigrant ancestor, Joseph of that name, to come over from England in the early years of discov- ery and clear a farm in the virgin forests of Massachusetts, and which, a little later, while this splendid mother of Colonies in the first flush of her early matronhood as a Commonwealth was busily engaged in bringing forth, suckling, weaning and sending out to the frontier so many others of her sturdy offspring, impelled the sons and grandsons of that emigrant to themselves blithely and bravely cut loose from parental ties and as they became of age set their faces res- olutely in the direction of more room. Thus it happens that we find many apparently unrelated families of this name, which is rather an odd one, widely scattered over the continent, from New England, New York and Missouri to Indian Ter- ritory, California and Manitoba, all sprung from men who were pioneers of their own particular region and beyond doubt all tracingito a common origin in this single Puritan ancestor.

The branch of the family now in question sct- tled in Maine toward the end of the eighteenth century on the banks of the Kennebec river, then an outpost of civilization. Here, in the second generation, one of the sons, Amasa, married Fanny Weston, granddaughter of Joseph Wes- ton, one of the most active and capable of the

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

pioneer settlers who in the first year of the war of the Revolution volunteered as a woodsman guide to accompany the ill-fated expedition of Benedict Arnold through the pathless forests of Maine against Quebec, and lost his life in the patriotic discharge of that service.

Under this roof-tree were reared to maturity eight sons and two daughters, all of whom soon- er or later removed to California, and of whom Jotham and his older brother, Marcellus, who came out together around Cape Horn, are now, fifty-five years later, the only survivors.

These two brothers went at once to the mines, and for several years followed the washing of gold with varying but rather indifferent suc- cess. Here, through the exercise of that thrift and frugality which had been instilled into them in a home where principle and character and com- mon sense constituted the animating spirit rather than mere idle catchwords of daily life, they managed to save a few thousand dollars, which they first invested in a small mountain farm sup- plying produce to the mines.

Later on, having sold this, they invested in a flock of about one thousand sheep, which were then valued at about $6 a head. During the years of drought of 1863 and 1864 these flocks, which in the meantime had materially increased in numbers, were maintained with great diffi- culty by the partners on free government range in the foothills and mountains of San Luis Obispo county. If the crop of acorns in the latter year had not proved exceptionally abundant they would probably have lost everything. but through this providential circumstance and their own untiring efforts, living with their sheep as did the pa- triarchs of old, they saved most of them.

About this time the half interest of Marcellus in the sheep business was bought by the firm of Flint. Bixby & Co., composed of another brother, Llewellyn, who was the first of the fam- ily to come to California, and two cousins. Ben- jamin and Thomas Flint. This firm was already well established and doing business on an ex- tensive scale, and through them the new firm of J. Bixby & Co., then formed with Jotham Bixby as half owner and managing partner, was en- abled to buy lands in Southern California and abandon the at best uncertain practice of graz- ing on the free ranges.

As an indication of the wildness and inac- cessibility of Los Angeles county at this time, as late as 1866, it may be mentioned without im- propriety that one of the chief impelling motives which induced the elder brother to sell out his half interest to the wealthier firm, whose mem- hers indeed did not have to live here, was the fact that he dreaded to bring his family into so rough and distant a region, at it was then viewed

even in the not over-thickly settled districts of Central California.

Rancho Los Cerritos was purchased by J. Bix- by & Co., in 1866, from John Temple, a well- known trader and land holder who had come to this coast also, as it happened, from Massachusetts long prior to the Mexican war, and who died in San Francisco soon after making this sale, his widow, who was a daughter of one of the old established Spanish families, thereupon re- moving with her daughter and son-in-law to Paris, never to return to the Pacific coast.

The great drought above referred to had all but exterminated the formerly extensive herds of cattle throughout Southern California, the country being of course entirely without trans- portation facilities, and as these cattle ranges were now lying idle and unproductive of any revenne to their owners they were held at what at the present day seems an absurdly low value. Los Cerritos, which contained twenty-seven thou- sand acres of the best grazing lands in the Los Angeles valley, embracing the present flourishing farming districts of Clearwater, Hynes and Llewellyn, and the townsites of Los Cerritos and I.ong' Beach, was bought for $20,000, and paid for out of the first two clips of wool sold by the new owners.

From this time dates an era of steady progress. The close of the Civil war sent hitherward many homeseekers out of both disbanded armies, farm- ing settlements were started in some of the choice alluvial lands of the San Gabriel and other ir- rigible valleys of the county, and many of the larger grants which had hitherto been used for grazing alone were opened for settlement, their owners being tempted to part with portions of their holdings through advancing values. The first sales from Los Cerritos were made along the northern boundary contiguous to the colony of Downey. Then followed fourteen hundred acres to the Wilmington Colony, and later in 1884 six thousand acres off the north to the California Co-operative Colony, and four thou- sand acres on the ocean side called the American Colony tract. Here is now situated the city of Long Beach, whose growth has appeared as a marvel of these latter years of improved electric transportation, but is, after all, only the natural outcome of her peculiarly favored situation up- on gently sloping hills fronting the most at- tractive of sea beaches, while, moreover, she is no doubt destined to reap high benefits from im- provements now in progress in the harbor of San Pedro, a large part of which lies within her cor- porate borders. More recent sales from this rancho embrace one of seven thousand acres to Senator Clark, of Montana, and one of one thou- sand acres to Mr. Skinner and others, of Florida, all of which make up one of the richest and most

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

productive bodies of farming land in the New River district. Mr. Bixby still retains personally some thirty-five hundred acres of the rancho surrounding the original adobe ranch house, built and first occupied by Mr. Temple, and where he made his own home for so many years, and to this he devotes much of his time in per- sonal direction of operations in dairy farming, and the growing of barley and alfalfa, never hav- ing lost a primary interest in the live stock and farming business.

Other extensive properties were acquired by him and by the firm in which he was half-owner and managing partner, from time to time since coming to Los Cerritos. Some of these con- sist of sixteen thousand acres of Los Palos Ver- des rancho, situated on the coast between Red- ondo and San Pedro, six thousand acres of farm- ing lands in Los Alamitos rancho near the Beet Sugar factory, seven thousand acres of the rancho Santiago de Santa Ana lying between Santiago creek and the Santa Ana river in Orange county. a little foothill orange ranch in Temescal cañon, Riverside county, certain landed and livestock interests in Arizona. various holdings in the cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles, and in other localities.

Mr Bixby was elected president of the first bank established in Long Beach, and still remains at the head of that institution now called the National Bank of Long Beach, the growth of which has been steady and rapid while practicing a policy of conservatism and security in loans and investments. He is one of the stockholders. though not a controlling owner, in the Long Beach Hotel Company. and other enterprises which have been started with a view to develop- ing the resources of the town in which the latter years of his life have been cast, and in the growth and prosperity of which he has always taken a lively interest. Mr. Bixby has never been in any strict sense a speculator, all of the properties which he now owns having been purchased with a view to permanance of invest- ment. It was his good fortune to come early to a favored region and to acquire large interests here : to him was also given the clear head and sober judgment to manage these interests some- times through seasons of prosperity and again of perplexity and discouragement, but always with skill and a good measure of that success which comes alone from correct perception and appreciation in the use of figures as applied to receipts and disbursements in business. Califor- nians, indeed, of that day and training were more generally actuated, it may be, by the principle known as "live and let live," than those schooled in an environment of more exacting commercial competition. In this prevailing spirit of fair dealing among Californians, which, of course.

like most rules, was not without its exceptions, it is believed that the student of social condi- tions may find an item of real compensation for many of the hardships and drawbacks of a life so far removed from the great metropolitan cen- ters of social and industrial activity. At all events to those who know Jotham Bixby best it is not necessary to enlarge upon this side of his character as a business man.

In 1862 at San Juan, San Benito county ( then in the county of Monterey), Jotham Bixby mar- ried Margaret Winslow Hathaway, daughter of Rev. George W. Hathaway of Skowhegan, Me. This marriage followed an engagement made some time before on a visit by Mr. Bixby to his old home, and for this purpose this handsome young woman came out alone under the protec- tion of acquaintances, on the long steamer trip by way of the Isthmus. An older sister was at the time married to Llewellyn Bixby, who was to become her future husband's partner, and they were living in San Juan. Here the young couple made their first home, and their oldest son, George Hathaway, was born. Later at Los Cer- ritos and Los Angeles six more children were born, of whom two, their daughter Fanny Wes- ton and their son Jotham Winslow, are now liv- ing. Both these sons are married and there are now six grandchildren of whom one is the son of their son Harry Llewellyn, who died in 1902.

Larger fortunes than Mr. Bixby's are not u11- common among those who have combined the exceptional opportunity of early residence in Cal- ifornia. good judgment in investing and close study in the handling of their affairs, but in this case at least the best legacy which will be left by the pioneer father to his offspring, when in the days to come, let us hope still many long years distant, his soul goes faring forth out of an out- worn tenement, to join those of his own forbears, will be a name unsullied by personal misconduct, cowardice or any meanness. More than this, on the positive side to those who really know him will be revealed a depth of kindness and con- siderateness toward others but thinly veiled un- der habits of reserve and unostentation border- ing on diffidence.

How are the strong, simple men of that gen- eration to be replaced under these more artificial and tense conditions of American society? The answer comes through an appreciation of the spirit of the virile verses of the poet Whitman. which have been prefixed to this article.

Hail and all hail our fearless, able, generous pioneers! For the good of the Republic may the fine example and stirring memories of your adventurous lives prove a beacon guide alike to leaders and to hosts of many a stalwart genera- tion of Americans yet unborn !

504

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

GEORGE H. BLOUNT. In all avenues pertaining to the growth of his adopted city George H. Blount is proving himself an im- portant factor and a citizen whose best endeavor is enlisted for its growth and progress. He has been a resident of Long Beach since 1890, and for the greater part of this time has engaged in the handling of real estate and the opening up of subdivisions, although he is also interested in various mining enterprises in this state and Nevada. He is a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, his birth having occurred in the vicinity of Salem February 14, 1858, the second son and third child in a family of five sons and three daughters. His father, Thomas Blount, a native of England, came to America in 1853 and in Salem, Ohio, engaged in railway construction, although he was a dyer and tailor by trade. For many years he was identified with the in- terests of the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railway, when he finally retired from the active cares of life and located in Alliance, same state, where his death occurred at the age of seventy- six years. His wife, formerly Hannah Cray, born in the north of Ireland and reared in Eng- land, died in the vicinity of Salem.

George H. Blount received his education in the common schools of Salem, Ohio, and later attended the Friends' institution at Damascus. Qualified to teach, he entered this field of labor in 1880 and in Alliance was so engaged for two terms, after which he engaged in buying and shipping and also farmed to some extent. In 1884 he engaged in a coal yard in Alliance and after two years came to California, in El Modena, Orange county, engaging in the real- estate business. He laid out three different tracts as subdivisions, and also built the Blount hotel, which was burned before it was occupied. Locating in Long Beach in 1890 he was employed as foreman in the track department for eight years, since which time he has followed the real-estate business. He opened up Blount tract No. I, and Blount tract No. 2, the latter con- sisting of ten acres, and also handled and had an interest in the Burton and Patch tracts. He is a very successful man in his chosen work and has done much toward the upbuilding of Long Beach and surrounding country, at the present writing opening up Alamitos, a sub- division to Long Beach. He is also interested in mining properties in Siskiyou county, and in Nevada and Alaska.

In Alliance, Ohio, Mr. Blount was united in marriage with Esther F. Jenkins, on the 10th of August, 1880. She is a native of that place and the daughter of William Jenkins. They are now the parents of two children, Bessie M. and William J .; their eldest child, Charles Garfield, having died at the age of twelve years. Mr.

Blount is associated fraternally with the In- dependent Order of Foresters (in which he has passed all the chairs), the Knights of the Mac- cabees and the Fraternal Aid. He is a member of the Friends' Church, in which he is acting as chorister. Politically he is a stanch Republi- can and active in his efforts to advance the prin- ciples he endorses. He is now a member of the county central committee. Mr. Blount is in all respects a man worthy of the position which he holds as a citizen of Long Beach and the con- fidence which he enjoys at the hands of his fellowmen.

T. HORACE DUDLEY. Standing pre-emi- nent among the leading citizens of Los Angeles county is T. Horace Dudley, of Santa Monica. Although yet a young man, he has met with al- most phenomenal success in his career, winning a position of prominence in financial and social circles, and becoming influential in the manage- ment of public affairs, as mayor of Santa Monica greatly advancing its civic development and im- provement. Keen-witted and quick of percep- tion, he has made himself useful as a business factor, and is now connected with two of the leading financial institutions of this part of the county, being president of both the Ocean Park Bank and of the Merchants' Bank in Santa Monica. He is of English birth and ancestry, having been born, October 21, 1867, in Leices- ter, England, which was likewise the birthplace of his father, Melville S. Dudley.

A man of culture and talent, T. Horace Dud- ley was educated in England, living there until 1889, when he came to California in search of a place in which the business ambitions of his youth might be realized. Locating at Bakers- field. he invested money in city property and also bought farming land near by. A few years later, he came to Santa Monica, and at once began to identify himself with the best and highest in- terests of the place, his business ability and tact being soon recognized and felt. With the growth and prosperity of Ocean Park, he has been in- timately associated from the time of its inception, being one of its principal civic promoters, and his name, with that of Abbott Kinney, will be remembered for generations to come. In 1902 Mr. Dudley assisted in organizing the Ocean Park Bank, and has since served acceptably as its president, E. S. Tomblin being now the first vice- president, W. A. Penny the second vice-president, and P. J. Dudley, the cashier. Mr. Dudley also helped to organize the Merchants' National Bank of Santa Monica, which was incorporated Sep- tember 23, 1903, and now occupies the hand- somest bank building in the county aside from buildings of the kind in Los Angeles. Of this

hamm17 Pull shing Ce Goingc

Thomas R Bard

507

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

institution Mr. Dudley has been president since its organization, William S. Vawter, serving as vice-president, and George F. Doty as cashier. Mr. Dudley has likewise large business interests in the city of Los Angeles, and is connected with the Merchants' Trust Company. He is likewise prominent in fraternal circles, belonging to the Masons, and to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.

Mr. Dudley has been twice married. He was married first, in Santa Monica, to Mary Addison Smith, a daughter of Capt. Addison Smith, of Baltimore, Md. His second marriage was with Mrs. Matilda (Brooks) Ryan.

HON. THOMAS ROBERT BARD. As a inan of exceptional talent, high character, a statesman of eminent ability, and a distin- guished lawmaker ex-Senator Bard has left the impress of his individuality upon the legis -. lation which was enacted during the period of his connection with our national legislature, and no man of this state has a wider or more favorable reputation among his former col- leagues of the senate. His is a family which has for many generations been one of promi- nence, antedating the founding of the United States government on this continent, and while on a trip to Italy in 1905 Mr. Bard suc- ceeded in tracing his lineage back through the British Isles, through France and into Italy, where in the ninth century the family left its record, at Ft. Bard, Piedmont. The history of the family in America begins with Archibald Bard who came from the north of Ireland, and settled near Gettysburg. Pa. The next in line was Richard Bard who was born in Pennsyl- vania, served in the French and Indian war, and in April, 1758. after Braddock's defeat he and his wife were captured by the Indians and held for a ransom. * Mr. Bard succeeded in making his escape after ten days' captivity, but his wife was carried away and held cap- tive for two years and five months before her whereabouts were discovered and her release secured by the payment of forty pounds ster- ling to the Indians. Richard Bard also served in the Revolutionary war. Captain Thomas Bard, the son of Richard, was born in Frank- lin county, Pa., and took part in the second war with Great Britain in 1812. This brings us to Robert M Bard, the father of Thomas R. He was born at Chambersburg. Pa., being an attorney of prominence who was consid- ered the leader of the bar in his section of the state. He was also a strong man in political circles and the year before his death was nom- inated by his party as a member of congress.

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A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 83

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1184

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184