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 35

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 35

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drawed my pistol to fire into 'em, and just then a big old antelope raised his foreleg and shuck it at me. Then as I was about to take aim again, he pulled off his d-d old head and waved it at ine, and-that was enough for me!"

Dr. Edgar, after having been ordered to Fort Redding, in 1854, and then back, joined a com- pany of the First Dragoons which marched to the Tejon Indian Reservation and later estab- lished Fort Tejon. Here the Doctor pitched his tent under an umbrageons old oak, one side of which had been hewed flat, and upon it was engraved: " I, John Beck, was killed here by a hear, October 17, 1837." Doubting that John carved his own epitaph, the matter was investi- gated. The Indians living near there, in the Cañada de las Uvas, said that the place was greatly infested with grizzlies, which came down from the mountains after acorns, and long be- fore, a party of trappers passed there, and one of their number strayed off after bear, and wounding one under that identical tree, and sup- posing he had killed it, came too near it, when the brute caught and killed him, and his com- panions buried him there and cut the epitaph for him. It was while Dr. Edgar was camping in his tent under that tree, that one night (De- cember 8, 1854,) he was called from a sick bed to go out in the mountains in a blinding snow- storm to assist a wounded man of the fort. The night was dark and the ground slippery, causing his horse to lose his footing, whereby the Doctor was seriously injured. At last the man was found; one of his legs had been broken, a stretcher was improvised, and two men and the Doctor carried him a couple of miles to an abandoned Indian hut, where his wound was dressed. The Doctor returned to the fort about day-light wet, cold and exhausted. About sun- rise (December 9, 1854) he was stricken with paralysis of the entire left side. Some four months after, he was able to walk and speak; and with a servant to assist him, he was ordered East, on a three monthis' leave of absence. At the expiration of this, he reported for duty at Jefferson Barracks. From thence he was or-

dered (with the Second Cavalry) to Texas and then to Florida; and from there, with a lot of invalid soldiers, to New York Harbor. The next year, 1857, he returned to sea with recruits to the Pacific Coast and to Fort Miller again. From thence he went with troops to quiet In- dian disturbances in Oregon. The force was under Captain (afterward General) Ord, whose name is not only famous in the history of his country as a soldier, but also in the history of Los Angeles as the author of the first authentic and important survey made in the city. After being stationed at the Presidio, San Francisco and Benicia awhile Dr. Edgar was ordered to join an expedition in 1858 that was to start from Los Angeles against the Mojave Indians on the Colorado River. This was the first time he saw Los Angeles, though he had lived within a hundred miles of it for a year, and in the State for several years. His first night here is still fresh in his memory. He slept in the old Bella Union Hotel, then a two-story adobe. The second story was crowded with lodgers. The partitions were thin; and a guest who had at- tended a " baile" (ball) in Sonora town that night, came home late, loaded up full with " aguardiente," and he went to bed with his boots on, and at once set up the most unearthly snoring that ever was heard, causing such dis- satisfaction among the other lodgers that his door was bombarded by kicks and pounding which made him turn over with a snort and sub- side, thus giving the other lodgers a chance to sleep in peace. The expedition proceeded via Cajon Pass to the Colorado, where it found evi- dence of the destruction of a party of emigrants by the Indians, in the remains of burned wagons, etc. After punishing the Indians the expedition returned to the Cajon Pass. Subsequetly a much larger expedition was organized by the same and other officers, and marched by way of Yuma and up the Arizona side of the Colorado to the Mojave country. To this forec the Indians surrendered and gave hostages, and a treaty of peace was made. Part of the command re- inained to garrison Fort Mojave, and the other

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

part returned to Los Angeles County and en- camped near the present location of Compton. Dr. Edgar was ordered to San Diego, where he remained till November, 1861. He, with the balance of the regular troops on the coast, was theu ordered East to take part in the war of the Rebellion. Dr. Edgar remained some time with the Army of the Potomac, and then was ordered (being promoted to Surgeon with the rank of Major) to Buell's army in Kentucky, where he soon was engaged in organizing a large general hospital in Louisville, which he had charge of until his assignment as Medical Director at Cairo, where, from want of rest and from the effect of the oppressive and uncon- genial climate in summer, he had a partial relapse of the former paralysis, which, with other troubles, rendered him unfit for the field at the time, and he was ordered before a retiring board in Washington. On examination he was retired from active service. After recovering from the effects of a surgical operation, he was assigned to duty in the Medical Director's of- fice in the Department of the East, and a part of the time he was a member of a board to or- ganize the Signal Corps in Washington. At the close of the war he was assigned the duty of disposing of the effects of the general hos- pitals of that department, and closing them up. After this he was again ordered to the Pacific Coast, and was stationed at Drum Barracks, Los Angeles County, in 1866, where he re- mained three years. Finding his health giving way he was relieved from military duty one year, and lie retired to his ranch at San Gor- gonio, California, and while there Congress passed a law (January, 1870), which provided that officers retired from active service should be relieved from all -duty. After remaining at his ranch a couple of years, and his health im- proving, he came to Los Angeles and practiced his profession nearly five years. In 1881 he sold a part of his ranch, and in 1886 sold the balance. This ranchi was originally settled by the old pioncer and trapper, Panline Weaver, about 1845. It was purchased by Dr. Edgar

in 1859, and managed by his brother, F. M. Edgar, till his death in 1874. The Doctor has for several years made his home in Los Angeles, which he thinks, after all his travels and explo- rations, is the choice spot of the Pacific Coast. Dr. Edgar married Miss Kennefer in New York in 1865. They have no children. The Doctor is an accomplished physician, a thorough man of the world, a warm-hearted, genial friend, and is sincerly esteemed by all who know him inti- mately for his many aimable, sterling qualities.

ELBERT N. MATITIS, M. D., one of the promi- nent, rising physicians of Southern California, is a native of Illinois, born in Livingston County, October 5, 1856. He was educated in the State Normal University. For five years he followed the profession of teaching in the Prairie State, studying medicine during the latter part of that period, having previously spent a year in a drug store as a preliminary preparation for his chosen profession. On Feb- ruary 19, 1884, he graduated at Rush Medical College, Chicago, with a standing in his class that secured him the appointment of intern in Cook County Hospital, which position he filled for a year.

Having wisely decided that it is not good for man to fight the battles of life alone, Dr. Mathis was united in wedlock, December 5, 1879, with Miss Mary Blanche Howard, daugh- ter of George A. Howard, formerly of Living- ston County, Illinois, now of Los Angeles. On leaving the hospital Dr. Mathis opened an office for practice in Lake View, a suburb of Chicago, but finding the climate on the border of Lake Michigan too severe for the health of his family. he moved three months later to Streator, Illinois, where he enjoyed a Incrative practice during the two years follow- ing. Mrs. Mathis's friends being in California, and offering the Doctor special inducements to come to Los Angeles, he decided to immigrate to the Golden State, and reached here on the 30th of November, 1887. Five days later he opened his present office at No. 28 South Spring street. IIis cash receipts from his first month's

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practice aggregated $76.75, and from that have steadily increased to nearly $400 cash a month. He has given special attention to the study of rheumatism and catarrhal affections, and has treated those diseases with marked success. He has also achieved a large practice in gynecology. The Doctor's father, Caleb Mathis, has resided on his farm in Livingston County, Illinois, from early pioneer days.

MELVIN L. MOORE, M. D., of the firmn of Bicknell & Moore, offices northwest corner of Spring and First streets, one of the most promi- ment and prosperous medical firms in Southern California, was born in Lakeville, Indiana, thirty years ago last December, and is the son of Dr. Robert Moore, who has been one of the leading practitioners of medicine and surgery of North- ern Indiana for thirty years. He graduated at Wooster Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio, and is now sixty years of age. The subject of this sketch took a four years' literary course in Val- paraiso College, after which he entered upon the study of medicine and graduated at Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1882, and two years later from Bellevue Hospital Medical Col- lege, New York. The first year at the latter institution was spent in a didactic course and clinical lectures, and the second year in regular work. Dr. Moore located and began practice in South Bend, Indiana. From exposure in professional work during the winter of 1884-'85 he took a severe cold and was threatened with symptoms of consumption, which caused him to seek a change of climate; and he spent the following summer on the Pacific Coast in Pasa- dena. He returned East in the fall very much improved in health, and in May, 1886, came to Los Angeles with a view of settling permanently. Forming a copartnership with Dr. F. T. Bick- nell, one of the oldest practitioners and most successful physicians of the city, the firm has from the first enjoyed an extensive medical practice, and now does a business among the largest in the State. Although lie does a gen- eral practice Dr. Moore gives special attention to diseases of the throat and lungs, taking

charge of that part of the firin's business. He is a member of both the Los Angeles County and the Southern California District Medical societies.

In 1880, in South Bend, Dr. Moore was united in marriage with Miss Lizzie Holler, a native of Indiana, and danghter of IIon. Christian Holler, a prominent politician of the Hoosier State, and several times a member of . the Legislature. Dr. Moore and wife have two children: Clarence, seven years old, and Lillian, three years of age.

WEST HUGHES, M. D. Probably no physician on the Pacific Coast has enjoyed a more thorongli educational training for the profession than the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. Born in Arkansas thirty-one years ago, he left his native State at sixteen years of age, and enter- ing the University of Virginia, graduated with the degree of M. A. in 1879. He soon after- ward went to Europe, and while there com menced the study of medicine, spending three years on that side of the Atlantic, pursuing his studies in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and other cities. On returning to the United States he studied a year in the medical department of Harvard University, then entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City where he graduated as M. D. in the spring of 1885. He then served a year and a half on the surgical staff of the New York Hospital- the oldest in America, having been founded by King George III. in 1771. In the further pursnance of his desire to master his profes- sion, Dr. Hughes spent nearly a year in clinical work in a special hospital for diseases of the throat and nose, and in the Eye and Ear Infirm- ary on diseases of those organs. Thus com- pleting a long period of studies preparatory for his professional life-work, Dr. Hughes started, January 1, 1888, for the golden land of the Occident via the Isthmus of Panama, and reached Los Angeles in February following. After having charge of the small-pox cases at San Fernando for six weeks, he opened an office nt No. 75 North Spring street, and is rapidly

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gaining a fine paying business. While his practice is of a general character, the Doctor gives special attention to the treatment of dis- eases of the throat, nose, and to surgery.

Dr. Hughes is a member of the Los Angeles County Medical Society. Possessing an active nervous temperament, and belonging to the pro- gressive school of thought and action, he is one of those men who will find "room at the top."

HURBERT NADEAU, M. D., was born in 1841 in Marieville, near Montreal, Canada. He was given a scientific education at St. Hyacinth's College, Canada, and in 1862, at the age of twenty-one, he graduated as M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Mon- treal. He then practiced at St. Aimer, Canada, until 1866, when he went to Kankakee, Illinois, and continued the practice of his profession until 1874. While residing there he served two terms of two years each as one of. the councilmen of that city. On leaving Kanka- kee, in 1874, he traveled in the United States and Canada until the spring of 1876, when he located at Los Angeles, where he has since practiced, and where for ten years he has been physician in charge of the French Hospital. In 1879 he was elected coroner of Los Angeles County, which office he held by re-election np to 1884. Iu 1885 he was made professor and chief of dispensary clinics of the medical de- partment of the University of Southern Cali- fornia at Los Angeles, and now holds that posi- tion. During the year 1883 he was president of the Los Angeles County Medical Associa- tion. He is a Freemason and member of Kankakee Lodge, No. 389, F. & A. M .; Kan- kakee Chapter, No. 78, R. A. M., and Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 53, K. T., all at Kankakee, Illinois. He is also a member of the Oriental Consistory, S. P. R., Chicago, Illinois.

The Doctor is unmarried. His father, John B. Nadean, was of French origin and a well-to- do farmer and prominent man near Marieville, Canada.

ELISHA T. SHOEMAKER, M. D., was born at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, in 1850, where he

was reared a farmer. His father, Jesse Shoe- maker, was a farmer and of German descent. He died when the Doctor was about three years of age. His mother, nee Susannah Brubaker, was also of German ancestry, and died about 1873. Both were Dunkards and were strong adherents to that faith. The Doctor completed his literary education at Mount Union Univer- sity, near Alliance, Ohio. In 1874 he began the study of medicine at Oakland, Pennsyl- vania, with Dr. P. W. Shoemaker. After tak- ing two courses of lectures he graduated as M. D. from the medical department of the Michi- gan State University at Anu Arbor, with the class of 1877. He then practiced at Clarion, Pennsylvania, until 1879 when he went to Sil- ver Cliff, Colorado, and continued his practice until 1882. In that year he came to Los An- geles and has built up an extensive practice. He is a member of the Los Angeles County Medical Society, and while in Colorado was a member of the Medical Society of that State. He also served as physician of Custer County, Colorado, in charge of the County Hospital two years.

March 21, 1881, he was married, at Silver Creek, Colorado, to Miss Mary E. Rivers, an accomplished teacher in vocal and instrumental music. At one time she was the organist in the Baptist Church at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is now preparing herself for the practice of medicine, and is in attendance, in the junior year, at the medical department of the Univer- sity of Southern California, and anticipates graduating as M. D. with the class of 1889, They have two children: Gracie E. and Jesse R. The Doctor is a member of East Side Lodge, No. 325, I. O. O. F., of East Los Angeles.

JASPER M. HARRIS, M. D., whose office and drug store are at No. 350 East First street, Boyle Heights, is a Kentnekian by nativity, born in Monticello in 1854. He studied medi- cine and graduated at the Medical University of Louisville, Kentucky, an M. D., in 1881. Opening au office in Liberty, Kentucky, he continued there in practice until 1882, when he

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moved to Greenville, Texas, a place of about 7,000 population, and one of the most important railroad centers in the Lone Star State. During his residence in that city Dr. Harris did a pros- perous and lucrative professional business; and while there, on July 14, 1886, he was united in marriage with Miss Mamie Upthegrove, daugh- ter of Daniel Upthegrove, a prominent lawyer of Texas, and a Colonel in the Confederate army during the civil war.

In November, 1887, the Doctor and his wife moved to Los Angeles, and the following month he purchased a lot with fifty feet frontage on East First street, and erected a block containing three stores, one of which he occupies for his drug store and office. The store is stocked with a general line of drugs, chemicals and toilet goods for the retail trade. The business is in charge of a gradnated pharmacist of ten years' experience, and the pharmaceutical is an impor- tant feature of it. Dr. Harris is enjoying a fine growing practice, and is much in love with the country and climate of Southern California.

J. KINGSLEY CARSON, M. D. A worthy mem- ber of the medical profession of Los Angeles, and of whom it is fitting that mention should be made in this work, is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He is a native of Illi- nois, born in the city of Jacksonville, March 18, 1853. During his early childhood, his father, who was a carpenter and builder by occupation, died. His mother afterward moved to the city of St. Louis, and there the boy was educated and commenced his medical course of reading, which he completed near Springfield, Missouri, and graduated at the Missouri Medical College in 1883. He then started to practice in Ilart- ville, Wright County, that State. From there he moved to Mountain Grove, the same county, where he did a good professional business till he came to California in 1887. Dr. Carson married Miss Thula Wilson in Missouri, of which State she is a native. The delicacy of her health was largely the cause of their immi- grating to this coast. After spending several monthis traveling in Southern California, seck-

ing a desirable location, they selected East Los Angeles, and have since resided there; and the Doctor has already obtained a prosperous prac- tice. Although while in college he took a special course in gynecology, he does not con- fine himself to that or any other specialty in his professional work.

Dr. Carson is a member of both the Los An- geles County Medical Society and the Southern California District Medical Society. He owns several pieces of real estate in Los Angeles and vicinity, and in San Bernardino.

EDWARD C. MANNING, M. D., one of the inost active and prominent practitioners in the home- opathic school of medicine in Southern Cali- fornia, is the son of Rev. William R. Manning, a Baptist clergyman, and was born in Wiscon- sin in 1851. His father was a pioneer mission- ary in the Northwest before that State was organized, and when it was chiefly inhabited by wild animals and wild Indians, Milwaukee being then but a mere village. He preached and tanght school in Winnebago County, often traveling twenty miles to fill his appointment on Sunday. His faithful, fearless wife reared their family where Indians were among their nearest neighbors and inost frequent visitors, Mrs. Manning being much of the time alone with her children through the day and far into the night. She and her husband were natives of Vermont, and were possessed of that physi- cal and moral courage born of the rugged Green Mountain State. Like most of the preachers of that day, his father was poor, and Dr. Manning started out to earn his own living at twelve years of age, first securing employment on a farm. From the age of fifteen to eighteen he worked in a sash and door factory, and not only provided for himself, but contributed largely toward the support of the family during those years. He received his primary education through the kind instruction of an elder brother, and after graduating from the High School, taught for some time. He was also employed a number of years in an organ mannfactory as tuner of instruments, studying medicine mean-

Je. D. Mise.

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time. He attended lectures at the Rush Medi- cal College, but before finishing his eourse was obliged to commenee practice, locating in Ver- non County, Wisconsin, where he often drove ten miles or more into the country and back, over a rough road, when the temperature was thirty to forty degrees below zero. After four years of practice there, he completed his course in Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, from which he received the degree of M. D. in 1882. He then came to Los Angeles, and since that time has been in active practice here, and now has all the business he ean attend to. He has attained large practice in obstetrics, being re- markably successful in this branch of his pro- fession.

In his twenty-second year Dr. Manning was united in marriage with Miss Emma Terry, a native of Long Island, New York. They have two sons : Merle and William. Dr. Manning traces his ancestry back on his father's side to William Manning, who came from England and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1634. Dr. Manning is a member of the Los Angeles Connty Homeopathic Medieal Society.

KENNETH D. WISE, M. D., one of the -most eminent surgeons and successful physicians on the Pacific Coast, was born in Kentucky in 1836, and was reared from early childhood in Southern Indiana, where his father, Louis Wise, also a native of the Blue Grass State, married and passed most of his subsequent life, and where he died at little past forty years of age, the father of eleven children. His wife, the Doctor's mother, was formerly Miss Deborah, the daughter of a prominent clergyinan of Soutlı- ern Indiana, who began the ministry at eighteen years of age and preached till he was ninety-six years old.

The subject of this memoir was thrown on his own resources at ten years of age, since which time he has never received a dollar his own hands or brain have not earned. The orphan lad, though withont money or education, was endowed with the elements of which the world's successful men are made, among them a landable

ambition, industry, and an indomitable will which recognized no such word as defeat. Hav- ing procured employment on a farm, young Wise utilized every spare hour in reading and study. When not at work books were his con- stant companions. Eleven, twelve, and not infrequently two o'clock found him " burning the midnight oil," pouring over their pages. In his efforts to gain an education lie was materi- ally aided by the advice and assistance of Harri- son Jones, a cousin, and a self-educated man of superior attainments and intelligence. By the time he had reached his fourteenth birthday Master Wise had chosen his future vocation and marked out his course, and from that day for- ward no obstacle, and they were many and seri- ous, was sufficient to change his determination or thwart his purpose. Whatever intervened between him and his ideal was either brushed aside or surmounted by his iron will and inde- fatigable industry. While plowing in the field he had often observed, with boyish adıniration, a neighboring physician drive by, and resolved that some time he would graduate at the same college, and become a doctor. At fourteen years of age he was receiving $12.50 per month, and began to buy and study books on anatomy, physiology and other branches pertaining to the seience of medicine, and he has been a close student of his profession ever since. In 1860 he attended a course of lectures in Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, and was licensed to practice.

Upon the breaking out of the civil war in 1861, he raised a company of volunteers and entered the Union army as First Lientenant of Company A, Ninety-first Indiana Infantry. After recruiting the company, he having no knowledge of military taeties, induced a friend better posted than himself to take the captaincy. In March, 1863, Lientenant Wise was promoted to Captain, and at Kenesaw Mountain, he resigned to finish his medical education so as to enter the medical department of the armny. March 5, 1864, having obtained his medical diploma, he re-entered the service as acting assistant surgeon. He had passed the required examni-

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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