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 64

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 64

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

Monte Lodge, No. 188, A. O. U. W. From the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bell there are five children living. viz .: Thomas, who is associ- ated with his father in his farming operations; Charles M. (a sketch of whom is in this volume); Susie, John and Annie. All of the children except Charles and Susie Bell are residing under the parental roof. Susie Bell is married to G. B. Wandling, a conductor on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and resides in Los Angeles.

LBERT BRIGDEN .- Among the success- ful horticulturists and representative busi- ness men of Lamanda Park, mention inust be made of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Brigden is a native of Penn Yan, New York, born in 1844. His father, Timothy Brigden, was a well-known carriage manufacturer at Penn Yan. His mother was nee Cornelia Hickox, a native of Connecticut. Mr. Brigden was reared and educated in his native place. In 1864 he entered the United States military service as Sergeant in the Fifty-eighth Regi- inent of New York Volunteers. This regiment was not sent to the field, but was stationed at Elmira, New. York, and engaged in guarding the rebel prisoners and conducting the paroled detachments to their point of exchange. Ile served his term of enlistment and returned to his home. Upon reaching his majority, Mr. Brig- den entered into partnership with his father in his manufacturing establishment. This was successfully conducted until 1872, when a fire destroyed their works. He then went to Chi- cago, Illinois, and entered into the wholesale hardware business. He remained in business in Chicago until 1876, and then came to Cali- fornia. After a short stay in San Francisco he sought a desirable place in Los Angeles County, and purchased 135 acres of land lying about one mile north and west of Lamanda Park. This was a portion of the land originally owned by Mrs. Johnston, the widow of General Albert Sydney Johnston. Mrs. Johnston built upon that land

the first frame house ever erected in that por- tion of the San Gabriel Valley. In 1869 she sold the property to Judge Eaton-now a resi- dent of Pasadena-who established the well- known Fair Oaks Vineyard. In 1871 Charles Ellis purchased from Judge Eaton, and in 1876 sold 135 acres to Mr. Brigden. When Mr. Brigden made the purchase there were forty acres of the land in vineyard and the rest was grain land, except twenty acres which were wild. He entered heartily into viticultural and horticultural pursuits, which he has since suc- cessfully conducted. At this writing he owns 115 acres of his original purchase, ninety acres of which are in vineyard, producing wine grapes of the Zinfandel, Blauelba and Muscat varieties. His orange and lemon groves oc- cupy twenty acres, and the rest of the land is devoted to deciduous fruits, mostly apricots and peaches. Water for irrigation is only needed for citrus fruits, and this is obtained from the Eaton or Precipice Canon. Realizing that the products of his vineyard should be made to yield the most profitable return, in 1885 Mr. Brigden, with J. F. Crank and others, incorporated the Sierra Madre Vintage Com- pany, with J. F. Crank as president and Mr. Brigden as vice-president and general mana- ger, and in the same year a winery was built at Lamanda Park. This winery has since been under the supervision and management of Mr. Brigden. The establishment is complete in all its appointments, and its products find a ready sale in home and eastern markets. It has a capacity sufficient to manufacture or dispose of 1,000 tons of grapes during the season, which are furnished by Mr. Brigdon's Highland Vine- yards, and the Fair Oaks Vineyards owned by Mr. Crank. Mr. Brigden has been identified with other enterprises that have advanced the interests and aided in the building and settling up of his section. He was one of the original incorporators and a director in the San Gabriel Valley Railroad, in 1885, that was so instru- mental in opening up that portion of the valley. This is now a part of the Santa Fe Railroad

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

system. He is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Union League. In political matters he is a Republican, and though not an office-sceker, is a worker in the ranks of his party, and has many times been a delegate to the county conventions. Ile is a man of trained business habits and experience, which he has applied to his enterprises in Los Angeles County, and which have rendered him universally successful. In 1882 Mr. Brigden married Miss Helen Whitaker, the danghter of General A. F. Whitaker, a prominent resident of Penn Yan, New York. They have two children: Lonise C. and T. Dwight.

HI. BARTLE, Asisstant Cashier of the First National Bank of Monrovia, is one ' of the successful business men. of that city. Ile is a native of Keweenaw County, ' Michigan, and dates his birth in 1855. His father, John Bartle, was a native of Ireland, who, in his youth, came to the United States and located in Michigan, and was engaged in mining enterprises on Lake Superior. He mar- ried Miss Theresa Reynolds, a native of that State. Mr. Bartle was reared in his native county, receiving the benefit of a common- school education. Early in life he commeneed the battle on his own account, and when less than fourteen years of age he became a elerk in a mercantile establishment, and soon after en- tered into business on his own aceonnt as a trader in general merchandise throughout his section. Ile was successful and increased his business to such an extent that it necessitated a permanent location, and in 1875 he established himself at Port Arthur, Michigan, and there opened a general mercantile business, gradually increasing it until he was the proprietor of one of the largest establishments of that eity. Ile successfully conducted. his enterprise at that place until 1887. In that year he came to Cali- fornia and located at Monrovia, Los Angeles County. Mr. Bartle is a man of progressive

views and thoroughly trained to business pnr- snits. He was one of the original incorporators of the First National Bank and a director of the same, and later accepted the position of as- sistant cashier, taking the immediate charge of its business details. He is also a director in the Security Savings Bank and Trust Company of Los Angeles. His straightforward dealings soon gained him the confidence and esteem of the community, and he was chosen as the city treasurer of the city. In political matters he is a Republican. He is a supporter and adherent of the Presbyterian Church. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and affiliated with Shuniah Lodge, No. 287, of Port Arthur, Mich- igan. In 1885 Mr. Bartle wedded Miss Amelia Bowerman, a native of Canada, and danghter of Stephen and Annie (Badgley) Bowerman, both natives of Canada. Her father is now a resident of Monrovia. From the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bartle there is one child: Kathleen.

NDREW BODDY .- The subject of this sketch was born in the County of Leeds, Greenville Township, Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, in 1849. Ilis father was Thomas Boddy, a veteran soldier of the English army, who, after his return from that service, entered into farming ocenpations. His mother, Elizabeth Ogletree, was of Scotch de- seent. When Mr. Boddy was five years of age the death of his father occurred, leaving the care of the family upon the mother. At the age of nine years young Boddy commeneed to earn his own living by working for the neighboring fariners. IIc availed himself of snch meagre facilities as were offered him in obtaining an education, and by his natural talent and perse- vering study led many of his favored competi- tors. In 1865 he came to the United States and located in Cayuga County, New York, where he was employed for several months at farm labor, after which he returned to Canada, and in 1871 came the second time to the United States

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and took up his residence in Summit County, Ohio. He engaged in farm labor and other oc- cupations in that county until 1875. In that year he came to California and located at Ar- cata, Humboldt County. He spent abont five years in that county, working at lumbering and farm labor, and in 1880 came to Los Angeles County and took up his residence at Duarte. There he purchased a thirty-acre tract known as the Holland place, located on Beuna Vista ave- nne, north of San Gabriel avenue, and entered into horticultural pursuits and general farming. In 1882 he sold ten acres of that place to Mr. Mitchell, retaining the balance, which he thor- oughly improved until 1887. In that year he sold out and invested a portion of his money in real estate in Monrovia, and also purchased a thirty-four-acre tract of land on the Temple road, south of El Monte, upon which he took up his residence. He spent two years in farming there and then returned to the north side of the val- ley, residing on Daffodill street, Monrovia. He also purchased a ten-acre tract on Falling Leaf avenne, about a mile and a quarter west of his residence. Upon this tract he has planted 687 Navel orange trees and 187 deciduous fruit trees, comprising a large variety of the most approved fruits grown in his section. This land is located on the north side of Falling Leaf ave- nue, and is capable of perfect irrigation by water from the Santa Anita Water Company's pipes and ditches. The Duarte section is in no small degree indebted to Mr. Boddy for its present system of water. He was one of the most active and energetic men of that place, and the prime mover and one of the original incorporators of the Duarte Mutual Irrigation and Canal Com- pany. He was the first president of the com- pany, a position he held for two years, and later was the treasurer of the company. Politically he is a Republican. He is a member of Anni- versary Lodge, No. 85, I. O. O. F., of Arcata, and also of the Society of Orangemen. October 1, 1855, Mr. Boddy married Miss Laura H. Potts, a native of Illinois. Her father, David Potts, died in Illinois. Her mother, Jane A.

(Ramsay) Potts, afterward married Mr. Lutz and is living in San Diego County, California. Mr. and Mrs. Boddy are the parents of three children: George T., Elizabeth J. and Charles A.

EVI NEWTON BREED, President of the Southern California National Bank of Los Angeles, was born in the town of Clay, near Manlius, Onondaga County, New York, in 1832, his parents being James and Elizabetli (Kinne) Breed. He is descended from Allyn Breed, who is believed to have been the pro- genitor of all who bear the name of Breed in the United States. Allyn Breed was born in Eng- land in 1601, emigrated to Massachusetts Bay in 1630, and settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, where more than a hundred families descended from him still reside. The oldest of his four sons, also named Allyn, born in 1626, had a son John, born in 1663, who moved to Stonington, Connecticut. His son Allen, born in 1714, was the father of Gershom, born in 1755, who moved from Stonington, Connecticut, to Little Hoosic, Rensselaer Patent, New York, in 1789, and thence to Manlius, Onondaga County, in 1793. James Breed, who was born in 1794 and died in 1884, was the eighth son and the youngest of the twelve children of Gershom Breed. Elizabeth Kinne Breed was the daughter of Ezra Kinne and the granddaughter of Cyrus Kinne, who settled in Manlius, about 1793. The Kinne family is also of early New England stock, and both families have been neighbors for nearly a century. Breed's Hill in Boston, the joint scene of the Revolutionary conflict known in history as the Battle of Bunker Hill, was so named because it was owned by Ebene- zer Breed, also a descendant, but in another line, of Allyn Breed, the immigrant of 1630. The American redonbt was on Breed's Hill. When the subject of this sketch had reached his twelfth year his mother died, and the family being in a measure broken up, he was thrown on his own resources. Reared on a farm and educated in

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the distriet school when held, the change in- volved, aside from the irreparable loss, was little inore than lending a helping hand on the farm of some neighbor instead of his father's, with the privilege of still attending school. In 1849 he inoved to Schuyler County, Illinois, where his eldest brother, Dr. S. P. Breed, had settled in the practice of liis profession. There also he engaged in farm work and attended school at intervals. In 1853 he set out for California. At a reunion of the family, at the home of Dr. Breed, near Princeton, Illinois, in 1886, a gen- eration later, he thus refers to that trip: " I find a vast difference in journeying across the continent in 1853 and in 1886. Then I was four months in driving eattle across the arid plains and rugged mountains, swimming rivers and fighting Indians, and subsisting on bacon and beans. Now the trip is made in four days, and those are spent in a palace ear where yon can enjoy all the comforts and luxuries of life." Mr. Breed spent some time in San Francisco but without securing a solid foothold. In 1856 he settled in Honey Lake Valley, in what is now known as Lassen County but was then claimed by Plumas. There he opened a trading post and took up 160 acres of land. In 1857 he was secretary of a publie meeting of citizens which attracted some attention at the time by refusing to pay taxes to Plumas County on the ground that Honey Lake Valley was outside the legal limits of that county. The few settlers were much harassed by the depredations and attacks of hostile Indians. At one time they drove off every head of cattle Mr. Breed had on his ranch. In 1859 he quit merchandising to try his fort- une on Fraser River, but the disorganized eon- dition of society there occasioned his return to Iloney Lake in 1860, settling on his place, now known as the Epley Ranch. A year later he re- moved to Indian Valley, where he kept a livery stable about one year. He again returned to Honey Lake Valley and in 1862 bought a gen- eral store in Janesville, where he continued to live about twenty years, owning a part of the time 1,000 acres near the town, to which to-

gether with the store he gave constant personal attention. He was a commissioner for the or- ganization of Lassen County in 1864. In 1873 he built a larger store with a hall overhead for the various organizations to meet in. He re- moved to Los Angeles in 1882, handling realty for about three years. He was elected council- man in 1885, and president of the council in 1886. On the organization of the Southern California National Bank in June, 1886, he was elected vice-president, and at the election of of- ficers in January, 1889, he was chosen president. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Republican party, and in religious affili- ation inclines to Unitarianism, though the tra- ditions of the family are Baptist, his grandfather and great-grandfather having been elders in that communion. September 21, 1861, Mr. Breed was married to Miss Samantha Blood, born in New York, August 10, 1843. She died August 19, 1867, leaving one child, Frederick Arthur, born July 7, 1862, who was killed in a railroad accident in Arizona, at the age of twenty-three. Mr. Breed was again married May 28, 1870, to Miss Annie J. Blunt, born in Somerset County, Maine, September 20, 1852. They have one child, Lillian, born June 24, 1871.

SAAC BANTA .- Among the beautiful and elegant residences on Fair Oak avenue, Pasa- dena, surrounded by the many luxuries of life which suggest to the tourist not only the wealth but also the rare taste and enlture of the owners, is the home of Mrs. Banta, widow of the late Isaac Banta. Mr. Banta was a native of New York State, having been born in Mont- gomery County. For a number of years he was engaged as superintendent of railroad work, and later he devoted his time to farming in IInron County, Ohio, where, in 1846, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary G. Hooper. In 1882 he came to California and settled in Pasadena. Here he engaged largely in the real-estate bnsi- ness, in which he was very successful. Ilis

Faithfully. J. D.Barrows.

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

career in the Golden State, however, was des- tined to be of only a few years'duration, for, in 1888, after a life of usefulness, lie was called to that other world, leaving a wife and two grown daughters to mourn his loss.

JENRY DWIGHT BARROWS was born February 23, 1825, in Mansfield, Tolland County, Connectient, near the Williman- tic River, which separates the town of Coventry from Mansfield. His ancestry came from Eng- land to Plymouth Colony, and afterward two brothers by the name of Barrows moved from Plymonth to Mansfield, where they settled. From these two brothers, who seem to have been of a hardy stock, sprang a great number of descendants, many of whom still remain in Mansfield. The subject of this sketch says le connted over thirty heads of families of that name in his native town in 1845. Indeed, it was the most numerous family name in the town at that time and for years afterward; be- sides, many married and acquired other names, and many also scattered throughout the United States. His ancestors on his mother's side were Binghams. Mr. Barrows's early years were spent on a farm, and he received a good, thorough English education in the common schools and academies of Tolland Connty. He also tanghit school several winters, commencing when only seventeen years old. Early in life he acquired a strong love for music, which he enltivated as he had opportunity, learning to play on any instrument he could get hold of He took lessons on the organ of a Mr. Monds, an English organist in Hartford, Connecticut. He also became the leader of the local brass band of his native town when he was only eighteen. years of age. He was fond of books and de- voured all he could get hold of in the neigh- borhood, which, however, was not very rich in literature of any kind. He read through the Bible and Shakespear and Byron, including all the prose writings of the latter. . A stray copy

of Dr. Dick's "Christian Philosopher" he read with delight, and he thinks to this day that it. is one of the best books that can be placed in a boy's hands to enlarge his ideas of the worlds around him. He went to New York in 1849 and engaged in clerking; and while there had a touch of the California gold fever which pre- vailed so generally that year. However, he did not decide to go to the new El Dorado till somne years later. In 1850 he went to Boston, where he lived something over two years, being employed as book-keeper in the large jobbing house of J. W. Blodgett & Co., on Pearl street. This firm sold goods in every State in the Union and in Canada, doing an immense business; and the experience and discipline acquired here were invaluable to him in after life. During his residence in Boston he of course enjoyed the lectures, music, etc., of that center of intel- lectnal activity. He says he retains to-day a vivid recollection of Theodore Parker's preach- ing, the Lowell Institute lectures, the concerts of the Germanians, Jenny Lind, etc. In the spring of 1852 lie finally concluded to come to California, and April 1 he left Boston for his home in Connecticut to get ready for the trip, and on the 26th of that month he sailed from New York on the steamer Illinois, with a large number of passengers. The hardships of crossing the Isthmus at that time were great, the railroad having been finished only a few miles ont from Aspinwall, the balance of the way being made by row-boat up the Chagres River to Gorgona, and from thence, twenty- six miles, on mule-back or on foot to Panama. To a Northern man the heat of all seasons seems formidable on the Isthmus. Especially is this true at Aspinwall, where the heat becomes more oppressive on account of the excessive humidity of the atmosphere. It used to be said that it rained there all the time in the "wet season" and twenty hours a day in the "dry season." The connecting steamer of the Illinois on the Pacific was the Golden Gate, Captain Patterson, of the navy, commander. Abont 1,700 passengers came up on this trip.

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Soon after arriving in San Francisco, Mr. Bar- rows started for the Northern Mines above Shasta; but he worked only a short time at min- ing, as (it being the month of June) the dry season had set in, and he returned down the valley as far as Tehamna, where, about five miles back, he went to work on Thom's Creek for Judge Hall, who had a contract to furnish Hall & Crandall, the stage contractors, some 200 tons of hay. There were great numbers of deer and antelopes roaming over the plains of the Upper Sacramento Valley at that time. One day as Mr. Barrows was walking along Thom's Creek alone, a California lion jumped out from a clump of bushes within a few feet of him and made off out of sight in a few muscular bounds. Coming down the Sacramento Valley to Marys- ville, where he made a brief stop, he arrived in San Francisco the last day of July; and having his system full of chills and fever, then so prev. alent in the neighborhood of Tehama, and the contrast between the heat of the Sacramento Valley and the cold of San Francisco being so very great, he found himself very ill with con- gestive chills, from which he did not entirely recover for nearly a year afterward. When he first arrived in California he knew nothing about the great differences in climate of the different sections of the State. Having suffered much, including an attack of Panama fever, in coming through the tropics, he had an aspiration for a cool climate, which he thought could be found in going 500 miles north from San Francisco; but if, instead, he had come 500 miles south and kept near this coast he would have found the blessed temperature he songht. But he had then never heard of Los Angeles. Finding that he could not get rid of the chills in San Fran- cisco, he went in August to San José. There he staid abont a year; and there he met two men who were from this same town from which he came. One of them, Captain Julian Hanks, had come out to this coast many years before and had married at San José, Lower California, and afterward moved to San José, Upper California, where he was living with his family at this time

(1852). He had a vineyard and orchard and also a flouring mill at his home place not far from the center of the pueblo; and he also had a ranch about four miles south of the town. Mr. Barrows went on to this ranch and raised a crop of wheat and barley. He says that the rains were very heavy that winter and that the house in which he lived was for some time sur- rounded by water. Flour was very dear, being worth 25 cents per pound. James Lick (since the founder of the magnificent Lick Observa- tory) was then building very deliberately, and finishing off somewhat elaborately, a fine flour- mill just north of San Jose, on Alviso Creek, where he lived. Citizens urged him to finish it whilst flonr was so scarce and high, and grind up some of the wheat which was abundant, and thus benefit the public as well as himself, but he gruffly replied that he was building the mill for Lick and not for the public. Among other eccentricities he insisted on having mahogany railing for the stairway of his flour-mill. Mr. Barrows, in the fall of 1853, went to James- town in the Southern inines, where he worked at mining for awhile. Afterward he secured an engagement as teacher of music at the Collegi- ate Institute in Benicia, where he remained during the greater part of 1854. While there, the late William Wolfskill engaged him to teach a private school in his family in Los Angeles, whither he came in December, 1854. Ile has made his home in Los Angeles ever since. He taught four years, or until the latter part of 1858. During 1859 and 1860 lie cnlti- vated a vineyard that is now owned by Mr. Beau- dry on the east side of the river. In 1861 he was appointed United States Marshal for the Sonth- ern District of California, by President Lincoln, which office he held four years. In 1864 he engaged in mercantile pursuits, in which he continued about fifteen years. At present (1889) he is in no regular business. Mr. Barrows has been thrice married, and has three children living, all grown. The subject of this sketch has scen Los Angeles grow from a partly Ameri- canized Mexican village to a modern progressive

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. city of 75,000 inhabitants. He has seen lots in the central parts of the pueblo rise in value from seventy-five dollars to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He has witnessed the introduction into Los Angeles of steam, strect, electric and cable railroads. and gas and electri- cal light, and the telegraph and telephone, etc., which were all unknown here in those primitive times of his early residence. In 1854 Los Angeles had bnt one church edifice (that still fronting the Plaza), and but one Roman Catho- lic and one Protestant church organization, the latter having no building of its own. There were but two public school-houses, one on Spring and one on Bath Street, both of which have been demolished to make room for impos- ing business blocks. There was one Masonic lodge here, and of other benevolent and secret societies not one. And most of the people who lived and bore sway here then, many of whom he knew well, have (and he cannot but say it with a tinge of sadness) passed away, and their places are mostly filled by comparative strangers. Mr. Barrows has made frequent visits to the Atlantic States-once in 1857 by steamer, once in 1860 by the Butterfield stage route, and sev- cral times by rail. In 1875 he spent the sum- mer in the East with his family. He has been a member of the city school board inany terms, and was county superintendent for one term, and he has always taken a lively interest in educational matters. He has been a frequent writer for the local and other papers on economic and social questions. A close watcher of current events will often be impressed that this and that thing ought to be said to a larger andience than to his own immediate acquaintances, and that good can be done by thus saying it at the right time. Besides much that Mr. Barrows has written for the public press, over his own name, during his long residence in Los Angeles, he has said many things and made many argu- ments that have been admitted into the editorial columns of sundry journals at different periods. For nearly ten years, from 1856 to 1866, he was the regular paid Los Angeles correspondent of

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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