An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California. Containing a history of Los Angeles County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day, Part 29

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092

USA > California > Los Angeles County > An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California. Containing a history of Los Angeles County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 29

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Born in Arkansas in 1842, he came to Cali- fornia when seventeen years of age; was brought up on a ranch; studied law at odd times while acting as deputy county clerk, and afterward as under sheriff, and was admitted to the bar of Lassen County in 1870. Governor Haight ap- pointed him county judge in the same year to fill an unexpired term, and he was elected to succeed himself in 1871, for a term of four years, beginning January 1, 1872. In the fall of that year he resigned his position to attend to the administration of the estate of his father- in-law. Ile continued his law practice, serving one term in the State Legislature with his usnal ability, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State at the October term in 1877. During this time he was engaged in all of the important water and mining litigation in his district.

In the fall of 1878, tiring of the limited field presented to him in Lassen County, and wish- ing to escape the rigors of the winters there, he removed to Los Angeles. While at first he labored under the difficulties that always beset the path of a lawyer in a new field, still his ability was soon recognized. In the spring of

1880 he formed a partnership with Mr. J. A. Graves, the firm being Graves & Chapman. This connection lasted until January 1, 1885, when he was joined by Judge James W. Hend- rick, his brother-in-law and former law partner in Lassen County.

Judge Hendrick had just finished, with credit to himself, his term as Superior Judge of Lassen County, to which position he was elected at the first election following the adoption of the new constitution. He was born in Missouri in 1851, came to California in 1862, residing first at Napa, then at Oakland, prior to coming to Los Angeles County.

Both of these gentlemen are well satisfied with Los Angeles. They stand in the front rank of an able bar, enjoy a large practice, embracing some of the heaviest litigation con- ducted in their section. Judge Hendrick attends, principally, to the office business of the firm, and, in so doing, has passed the title to all the property upon which the German Savings and Loan Society of San Francisco have loaned money here.

CHRISTOPHER NORTH WILSON was born at Gustavns, Trumbull County, Ohio, Jannary 10, 1830. His family was of English and Scotch descent. His father, Job Wilson, was a Meth- odist Episcopal preacher, one of the pioneers of the Western Reserve (Ohio) country, and Western Pennsylvania. Ile married Eliza Frew, daugh- ter of Thomas Frew, one of the first settlers of Meadville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Frew was born in Maryland; his father settled near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, shortly after the expulsion of the French from Fort Duquesne, and reared a large family of sons and two daughters. Their descendants may be found in nearly every West- ern State and the Territories. C. N. Wilson was at an early age sent to Quaker schools at Smithfield and Somerton. Ohio, and at the age of twelve years entered as a student at Alle- ghany College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1846 his mother died, and just one month after- ward his father died. Thrown upon his own abilities yonng Wilson went to Pittsburg, Penn-

of March

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sylvania, and was for several years engaged in the furniture business. In 1855 the opening up of the Territory of Minnesota attracted his attention, and he went to Minneapolis about the time it began its business importance. Ile was engaged in some of the Government surveys in the Crow River country, then occupied by the Sionx and Chippewa Indians. In 1858 he re- turned to Pennsylvania and commenced the study of law with W. R. Scott, of Meadville, Pennsylvania. After the commencement of the war of the Rebellion he was offered and accepted an appointment in the Treasury Department at Washington, D. C. Joining the law class of Co- lumbian University, he graduated in 1869, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. He shortly after resigned his position in the Treasury and re- moved to Los Angeles, California, where he has resided continuously ever since. In political affairs Mr. Wilson has always been a Native American; he was a candidate for the office of Secretary of State on the American ticket, for the State of California, in 1886; was a delegate to the National Convention that met in Washı- ington in August, 1838, and is a member of the State central committee of the American party for the State of California.

He is an active member of the National Guard of California, having been commissioned as judge advocate with the rank of Major on General Banning's staff in 1872; was one of the organizers of the Eagle Corps in 1881, and is now Commissary of the Seventh Regiment Na- tional Guard of California.

He is a member of Pentapha Lodge, F. & A. M., of which he has been Senior Warden.

Mr. Wilson took an active part in putting in operation the first street car line laid in Los Angeles City, and was for several years a stock- holder, director and secret ury of the Sixth and Spring street line.

He has been largely interested in bee-keeping ever since he came to California, and now has three apiaries in successful operation.

In religion he is a Low Church Episcopalian,

and is heartily at war with Romanism in all its operations on American soil.

HON. DAVID P. HATCH. The expression "The Man from Maine" can be appropriately applied to others besides the distinguished man at the head of the State Department of our Govern- ment, for the Pine Tree State has bred great lawyers and jurists as well as eminent states- men. The Los Angeles County bar has its man from Maine in the person of Judge David P. Hatch, who is an honored representative of his profession, both in the forum and on the bench. On the 22d day of November, 1846, on the bank of the Kennebec River, on the sunrise shore of America, this David was born. His grand- father had cleared up the little farm, and erected the massive old house with its huge hewed raft- ers, in which his family were born and reared; and there his son, Ebenezer Hatch, reared his family, among them David, and lived and died. The old homestead, which has been owned and occupied for more than a century by the grand- sire and his descendants, is now the home of the Judge's youngest brother. Margaret Fanny Pat- terson, who became the wife of Ebenezer Hatch, had been a New England school-teacher and was a cultured, amiable wife and mother. David passed the first fifteen years of his life on the little farm, at which age the restless ambition and youthful love of adventure not infrequently dominant in the boy of promise, asserted them- selves, and young Hatch left the quiet country home and went to Boston. Fascinated by the glamour and gaiety of New England's metropo- lis, and desiring to master the mysteries of the stage, the youthful adventurer hired out to a theatrical manager. Parental authority, how- ever, vetoed this engagement forthiwith, thus nipping in the bad the son's aspirations for dramatic fame. After remaining in Boston the . greater part of a year, Master Hatch returned to his native State and spent nearly two years in the wilderness of Northern Maine, among wild Indians (Penobscots and Canadas) and wild animals, hunting and trapping. At the end of this time he had partly arranged to accompany

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George Jones, one of Kit Carson's scouts, to Kansas on a buffalo hunt, when the prudent foresight and wise counsel of his mother inter- posed and changed the current of her son's life by persuading David to spend a year in school before going on his contemplated hunting ex- pedition. Ile entered Maine Wesleyan Semi- nary, and, as his mother had anticipated, by the time he had spent a year in school his naturally active mind had experienced an intellectual awakening, which subordinated his love of forest and gun to the new-born love for books and knowledge. Six years were spent in the semi- nary, save three or four winter terms out teach- ing to earn expense money, and in June, 1871, Mr. Hatch was graduated with flattering honors. Coming West, he entered the Law School of Michigan University that fall, and at the close of a year's study in that institution, went into the law office of Biggelow, Flandrau & Clark in St. Paul, Minnesota. Being admitted to prac- tice in the Supreme Court of that State in 1872, he opened a law office in Fergns Falls and com- menced practice. In 1874 Mr. Hatch was elected district attorney of that county (Ottertail), but resigned in the spring of 1875 and came to Cali- fornia. Settling in Santa Bárbara, he formed a partnership with Hon. E. B. Hall, ex-Attorney General of West Virginia, which relation con- tinned till Mr. Ilatch went on to the Superior Bench. In the spring of 1880 he was elected city attorney of Santa Bárbara, which office he resigned the following fall, to enter upon his duties as Superior Judge, having been appointed for four years to serve out the nnexpired term of Judge Engene Fawcett. In 1884 he was re- elected as his own successor, and in 1886 re- signed to accept a law partnership with Julius Brousseau, of Los Angeles, and removed to that city. Both gentlemen being possessed of ex- traordinary legal ability, the firm of Bronssean & IIatch at once assnined a leading position in the Los Angeles bar, and have maintained it with increasing prestige and popularity to the present time. They are both strong men, either as counselors or trial lawyers; and, confining

their attention entirely to the civil practice, they handle numerous cases in which large values are involved and for which correspondingly liberal fees are received, reaching in some cases $10,000. The ineome of the firm is one of the largest of any law firm in Southern California. They have all the business the partners and several assist- ants can attend to. Judge Ilatch is not only a man of distinguished ability as an advocate, but possesses a fine judicial mind, a fact fully demonstrated by his flattering record on the bench. One of the most noted cases that came before him for trial was the Perkins Baldwin breach of promise suit, in which Lonise Perkins was plaintiff, and E. J. Baldwin, the wealthy sporting man, was defendant. At the request of the Los Angeles judges, Judge Hatch canie down from Santa Bárbara to adjudicate the case. The trial opened February 1, 1886, and con- sumned the entire month. Sensational features developed during the trial, and public feeling was wrought up to an intense state of excite- ment. Miss Perkins obtained a verdict for $75,000 damages, the largest sum awarded in a case of that kind in the United States up to that time. The case was appealed by defendant, but was compromised before it came to trial, for $14,000. It was during his stay in Los Angeles on this occasion that Judge Hatch decided to make the "City of Angels" his future home. While residing in Santa Bárbara, Judge Hatch turned his attention to bee culture as a pastime, and during his summer vacations he devoted a good deal of study to the subject, becoming one of the most expert apiarists on the Pacific Coast. He gave special attention to breeding for the best results, and imported queen bees from Palestine, the lloly Land, paying as much as $16 for one queen, and sold specimen queens of their progeny from his own apiary for $5 each. Ilis apiary produced as high as forty tons of honey in a season. In 1874 Judge Hatch re- turned to his native State from Minnesota, and married Miss Ida Stilphen, a Maine lady. Mrs. Hatch having a desire to master the intricate problems of the law, studied three years with

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her brother, one of the leading attorneys of Maine, after which she attended the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, and was ad- mitted to the bar of California in -. She has never practiced but a few months, and then chiefly in office work. Of the five children born of their marriage, only two, one of each sex, are living.

Judge Hatch is a member of the Knights Templar in the Masonic order, and of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

GRAVES, O'MELVENY & SHANKLAND. The members of this firm are J. A. Graves, H. W. O'Melveny and J. H. Shankland, all of whom are men of family.

Mr. Graves came to California in 1857, when four years of age; spent his early life on a ranch at Marysville; graduated from St. Mary's College at San Francisco in 1873, with the de- gree of A. M .; studied law in that city, and came to Los Angeles in 1875, as a clerk for Brunson & Eastman, who were doing as large a business as any firm in Southern California, He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the State on January 10, 1876, and was immediately admitted to the firm by his former employers, the business being conducted under the name of Brunson, Eastman & Graves; and from that time until its dissolution in 1878, his firm did the leading law business in Los Angeles City and county. On January 13, 1876, the banking house of Temple & Workman failed, and Brunson, Eastman & Graves became the attorneys for Daniel Freeman and E. F. Spence, to whom Temple & Workman made an assignment for the benefit of their creditors. The unsecured debts of the assignors were over $1,000,000, and their assets many and valnable. Had their creditors allowed the assignment to stand in peace, the dividends paid by the assignees would have equaled a large per cent- age of the total indebtedness; but assaults of every conceivable nature were made upon the assignment. Law snits of every description embarrassed the assignees in the administration of their trust. The amount of money expended

for costs and in protecting the assets of the es- tate was simply enormous. William Work- man, one of the assignors, finally committed suicide. F. P. F. Temple, his co-assignor, partner and son-in-law, misled by the advice of parties who had influence with him, filed a petition in bankruptcy under the national act, as surviving partner of the firm of Temple & Workman. He was adjudicated a bankrupt, and George E. Long, an old and respected resident of Los Angeles, was elected his assignee. Many of the creditors objected to Freeman & Spence delivering the assets of the firm to the assignee in bankruptcy; and a long and bitter contest followed between Long, assignee under the National Bankruptcy Act, and Freeman & Spence, assignees under the State law, which finally resulted in a judgment against Freeman & Spence, rendered by the United States Dis- trict Court for the district of California; under which, after a settlement of their accounts be- fore Judge Hoffman, they surrendered the assets of the insolvents to Assignee Long. In the meantime E. J. Baldwin, who held a mortgage for $280,000, or thereabouts, bearing interest at a heavy rate, foreclosed the same, and at a sale under a decree had in the case, bid in nearly all of the valuable lands of the assignors, including large portions of the Puente, Merced and Potrero ranchos, and a great deal of prop- erty in the city of Los Angeles. Other fore- closures followed, the Newmarks getting the Temple Block for abont $130,000. There was a gradual shrinkage of values, and of the assets of Temple & Workman; and, notwithstanding the magnitude of the estate, the creditors never re- ceived anything. All went into the whirlpool of litigation and the maelstrom of hard times. Freeman & Spence, as assignees, were involved, either as plaintiffs or defendants, in over 100 actions at law or in equity, and Assignee Long in as many more. Brunson, Eastman & Graves'. connection with the estate terminated npon the surrender of the assets of the estate by Freeman & Spence to Long.

Upon the dissolution of the firm of Brunson,

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

Eastman & Graves, the latter practiced by him- self for a year; and afterward, in 1880, forined a partnership with Mr. J. S. Chapman, now of Chapman & Hendricks, the firm being Graves & Chapman. This connection lasted five years, the firm taking a front rank among the lawyers of Los Angeles County, and having a large and remunerative practice.

In Jannary, 1885, Graves & Chapman dis- solved partnership, and the firm of Graves & O'Melveny was formed; and in April, 1888, the firm became Graves, O'Melveny & Shank- land.

Mr. H. W. O'Melveny came to Los Angeles while quite young, with his parents, his father being the Hon. II. K. S. O'Melveny, who was for two years county judge of Los Angeles County, and who also served a term on the Superior Bench. Mr. O'Melveny graduated from the University of the State of California, and studied law with Messrs. Bicknell & White, serving as deputy district attorney under the latter.

Mr. James H. Shankland is a native of Ten- nessee, an alumnus of Brown University, and has been on this coast since 1874. For about ten years prior to his locating in Los Angeles, he was attorney for the Board of Trade of San Francisco.

The firm of Graves, O'Melveny & Shankland ocenpies an enviable position at the Los Angeles bar, enjoying a large commercial and banking practice. It does as innch, if not more, than any other firm in their city, in passing titles to real property. Theirs is largely an office busi- ness, and their list of clients embraces many of the most substantial financial institutions on the coast, among which are the Farmers & Merchants' Bank of Los Angeles, the First National Bank of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Savings Bank, the Security Savings Bank & Trust Company, all of Los Angeles, and Messrs. Balfour, Guthrie & Co., of San Francisco. Among their commercial clients are the Los Angeles Board of Trade, Hellman, Haas & Co., Jacoby Bros., Hayden, Lewis & Co., M. Levy

& Co., L. Harris & Co., the Los Angeles Farm- ing & Milling Co., the Capitol Milling Co., Schoder, Johnston & Co., the J. M. Griffith Co., Kerckhoff-Cuzner Mill & Lumber Co., San Pedro Lumber Co., the Los Angeles Storage, Commission & Lumber Co., and other leading merchants of Los Angeles. They also are ad- visors of the Abstract and Title Insurance Com- pany of Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Loan Association, and of Wells, Fargo & Co.

FRANK P. KELLY, District Attorney of Los Angeles County, State of California, the subject of this sketch, was born in the city of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, on the 7th day of Jan- nary, 1854. His parents came to America from the county of Tyrone, in the north of Ireland, in the year 1836.

At the early age of ten years, by reason of the hard times brought about by the Rebellion, he was compelled to leave school and go to work to assist in the support of a large family, his father and eldest brother being in the army. His first work was that of errand boy in the drug store of James T. Shinn, on the corner of Broad and Spruce streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Realizing that his position in life would not permit him to stop work and go to school again, he began a course of reading and study with snch books as he conld command, with a full determination to supply as far as possible the want of scholastic training and to satisfy a crav- ing for knowledge. For the first three years of his work he drifted about from store to store as errand boy, and finally, at the age of thirteen, concluded to learn the trade of printer, entering the then large printing house of H. G. Leisen- ring & Co., in Old Dock street, near Third, Philadelphia. His father and brother returned from the war in 1865; in July, 1866, his father died. An elder sister having been married and living in California for many years previons, wrote for the family to come out; and in Feb- ruary, 1867, the family, consisting of seven persons, left Philadelphia and came to California via New York and Panama, arriving in San Francisco in March of that year. The family

FrankRKellys

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

proceeded to Sacramento City and located tliere. Here he immediately applied for a position, and was received into H. S. Crocker's printing establishment, remaining in continnous employ- ment in said printing-house for about five years, or until he had mastered the art of job printing and press-work; afterward, for about two years he served a further apprenticeship under E. G. Jeffries in what was then recognized and known as Jeffries' Law Printing Office, where little else than legal matter was printed, such as briefs, transcripts and Supreme Court reports. At the age of twenty he began business for him- self and conducted a small establishment in Sacramento called the Globe Job Printing Office, publishing in connection therewith a small daily newspaper called The State Capital Globe; selling out the office in the fall of 1874, he removed to San Francisco, where with the money realized he began a career of speculation, which was quite successful until 1877, when by injudicious investments he lost nearly all of his small fortune; nothing daunted by his reverses he looked around to mend his fortunes, applied for and received a position on the Sacra- mento Daily Bee, then published under the management of General John F. Sheehan and James McClatchy, working as solicitor, collector and reporter during the winter of 1877 and spring of 1878. In April, 1878, he purchased a newspaper, the Tehama Tocsin, and issned the first number under his editorial control, April 21, 1878. For four years and seven months the Tehama Tocsin came ont regu- larly every week ; in 1882 he removed the plant from the town of Tehama to the county- seat, Red Bluff, and began the publication of a semi-weekly, selling it out in the fall of that year to a syndicate of politicians. The recur- rence of malarial fever attacks while living on the Sacramento River in that neighborhood, so affected Mr. Kelly's eyesight that he was com- pelled to leave that county, and by advice of a physician sought the sea-coast, removing thence to Santa Bárbara in the spring of 1883.

In 1879, while living in Tehama County,

Tehama and Colnsa counties being then a joint Assembly District, Mr. Kelly was offered and accepted the nomination for the Assembly, although it was a forlorn hope for a Republican; and right here it might be observed that he has always been an enthusiastic Republican and an active aider in its trinmphs in this State. Al- though young yet in years, he has been identi- fied with the party and has been heard in its councils and on its platforms for nearly fifteen years. In the campaign of 1879, which stirred this State politically as it has not been stirred since, he opened the campaign at Chico with the Hon. George C. Perkins, candidate for Gov- ernor, and the Hon. Charles N. Fox, of Alameda. The great question of the new constitution with its bearings on the future prosperity of the State was the then absorbing topic.

In the spring of 1883, after his arrival at Santa Barbara, whither he had gone for health, he accepted the position of editor of the Press, leaving that to accept the more pleasant and lucrative position of cashier and bookkeeper of the Arlington Hotel. During all these years, however, Mr. Kelly never forgot the ultimate object of his life, the entering of the profession of law, and every opportune moment he was studying the deep and interesting problems of law. In January, 1884, Mr. Kelly was called to take charge of the Republican, a newspaper published in Los Angeles that year. His connec- tion with that paper was brief, leaving it to take the management of the Evening Express, and conducted that paper until purchased in August, 1884, by Osborne & Cleveland, the present pro- prietors.

In 1884 Mr. Kelly was admitted to the bar, and has been in active practice ever since. In 1885 Hon. J. W. Mckinley, who had been elected city attorney, appointed Mr. Kelly his assistant, and he remained such during the terin of 1885-'86. When the term expired, being quite familiar with the principles and requirements of municipal law, Hon. George W. Knox, the assemblyman elect from Los Angeles City, called him to Sacramento in January, 1887, to

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take the clerkship of the important committee of municipal corporations in the Assembly of which Mr. Knox was chairman. On his return to Los Angeles from the Legislature, two new courts of the county having been created, he was appointed to the elerkship of the Superior Court under Judge O'Melveny. After a few months he resigned this position to resume the prac- tiee of law. Mr. Kelly is a careful and clear- headed lawyer, qniek at comprehension, and with a liberal broad-gauge experience in life. Few lawyers of his age have been more success- fnl in conrts.

In 1888 he was presented to the Republican County Convention for the nomination of dis- trict attorney for Los Angeles County against two competitors, and received the nomination at the hands of that large body of representative men, on the first ballot. He went into the cam- paign with enthusiasm for the Republican cause, and it was remarked at the time, that though Frank P. Kelly was making a splendid canvass for the whole ticket, not one word ever dropped from his lips about his own candidacy, and when asked about it, remarked, " that he was a Re- publican, and he would either win or lose with the ticket." A considerable opposition was or- ganized by a certain clement against him in the city of Los Angeles, but he overcame it by his hard and consistent work in the ontside dis- triets, being elected to the office by a majority of 2,630 votes.

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Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1092

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092