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 85

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 85

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and a half sontheast of Monrovia. With the exception of thirty acres of deciduous fruits this land is now (1889) devoted to hay and grain. The brief facts given in regard to the life of Mr. Lee, and his success in business pur- snits, are of interest. He is a native of Huron County, Ohio, dating his birth in 1829, the son of Benjamin and Mary (Smith) Lee, both of whom were of old families of New England, his father being a native of New Hampshire, and his mother of Rhode Island. His parents were among the early settlers of Huron Connty, having taken up his residence there in 1820. Mr. Lee was early in life put to work, and given but limited time to devote to schooling. From the age of ten to twenty years he was almost constantly engaged in the hotel and on the farm of his father. In the fall of 1849 he con- cInded to seek his fortunes in the El Dorado of the West, and started via New Orleans for Cal- ifornia, arriving in San Francisco in January, 1850. He proceeded to Sacramento and there joined his brother, Barton Lee, and was with him engaged in mercantile pursuits, and later in the livery business. In 1851 he returned to Ohio, and engaged in farming in Huron County. From 1866 to 1869 he spent in railroading. In the latter year he went to Toledo, Ohio, and established himself in the manufacture of bar- rel staves, heading, hoops, etc. He was success- ful in his enterprise, and in 1873 moved to Henry County, Ohio, where he increased his business, establishing three large factories and employing a large corps of men. The success he achieved and the accumulation of large prop- erty interests in varions counties in Ohio, is the result of his business habits, his strong will, and his untiring energy in carrying to an end whatever he nudertook. Years of this life has broken his health, and recently he has sought the genial climate of Southern California, for a much needed rest. Despite his business cares, he takes an intelligent interest in politics, and is an uncompromising Republican. In 1851 Mr. Lee married Miss Mercy Iloyt. She died in 1867, leaving one son, Dwight L., who is

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

now (1889) a resident of Lucas County, Ohio. In 1868 Mr. Lee married Mrs. Eliza C. (Wiers) Yates.

LDRIDGE W. LITTLE was born in Fred- erick, Maryland, in 1832. His father, William Little, was born in Pennsylvania, and his mother, nee Wilhelmina Stanger, was a native of Prussia. In his youth Mr. Little's parents moved to Springfield, Clarke County, Ohio, and later, in 1841, emigrated to Iowa and located in Louisa County. His father was one of the pioneers of that county, and built the first house erected in Columbus City. In 1848 the family moved to Ogle County, Illinois, and there the subject of this sketch was educated, completing his studies in Rock River Semi- nary. At the age of twenty years he left the school and engaged in the study of medicine; but not feeling suited for the practice of that profession, lie entered upon legal studies, and in 1857 was admitted to the bar, and com- menced the practice of his profession in Oregon, Ogle County, Illinois. He was successful in his profession and took a leading part in the affairs of the community in which he resided. He was superintendent of schools in Ogle County from 1858 to 1862. In the latter year, at the urgent solicitation of Secretary Fred Law Olmstead, he entered the employ of the United States Sanitary Commission as a Field Agent- making no charge for his services-aud for the next year was with the Army of the Potomac. Then be accepted a clerkship in the office of General Meigs, Quartermaster-General of the United States Army, and in 1865 was appointed chief clerk to General Luddington, Chief Quar- termaster of the Department of Washington. Mr. Little held this responsible position for the next four years, spending two years of that time in Santa Fé, New Mexico. In 1869 he returned to Washington, and in the spring of that year was appointed United States Sub-Treasurer at Santa Fé. He was also Receiver of the Land

Office and agent for the payment of pensions at that place. As receiver he made the first sale of public lands in the Territory of New Mexico Mr. Little's trained business habits and legal mind soon enabled him to place the affairs of his office, which had been for years badly man- aged, upon a sound basis, and gained him the high encomiums of his superiors at Washing- ton. He held his office until 1874, and then resigned to accept the position of secretary and assistant treasurer of the Orinoco Navigation Company of New York, of which Governor A. B. Cornell was president, which he held until 1876. In 1871 he was appointed one of the managing commissioners of the Centennial Ex- hibition, and at the close of his labors in 1876 he accepted a position on the editorial staff of the Daily Herald and Sunday Chronicle, of Philadelphia. In February of 1877 Mr. Little re-entered upon his legal profession, and as the attorney of the Pusey-Jones Company, a large ship-building company of Wilmington, Dela- ware, went, in their interest, to South America, where he remained until the spring of 1878. In 1874 Mr. Little married Miss Lulu Pile, the daughter of General William A. Pile, now of Monrovia. Mrs. Little became an invalid, and in 1878 Mr. Little was compelled to abandon his business occupations and seek the restora- tion of his wife's health. He accordingly took up his residence at Ocean Grove, near Long Branch, New Jersey, where he resided until the fall of 1886. In that year he camne to Califor- nia and in December located at Monrovia, Los Angeles County. Upon his arrival he pur- chased three and a half acres of land on the south side of Banana avenue, east of Mayflower avenue. In March, 1887, he commenced the erection of his handsome residence. Mr. Little has one of the representative places of Monro- via, and has spared no expense in fitting his home with all the modern conveniences, and even luxuries, that characterize a well-ordered home. His grounds are beautifully laid out, rich in ornamental trees and flowers. He has also planted 104 citrus fruit trees and fifty de-

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cidnous fruit trees, comprising a large variety of the most approved fruits grown in his sec- tion. In 1887 Mr. Little commenced the practice of his profession in Monrovia, and has been identified with the remarkable building up and growth of that city. Upon the incorporation of the city of Monrovia in December, 1887, he was appointed city attorney, a position which he has since held; and in the same month was appointed a notary public by the Governor of the State. He is the secretary and treasurer of the Monrovia Street Railroad and one of the original incorporators of that company. In pol- ities Mr. Little is a Republican. Mr. and Mrs. Little have one child, William E.

DWIN P. LARGE .- Among the repre- sentative business men of the city of Monrovia, mention must be made of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Large is the senior member of the firm of Large & Wheeler, dealers in furniture, carpets, oil-cloth, etc. Their es- tablishment is located on Myrtle street, and is the pioncer furniture store of Monrovia, having been established in October, 1887. Mr. Large came to Los Angeles County in the spring of 1886 and located at Pasadena, where he was en- gaged in real-estate business and building enter- prises until he came to Monrovia in June, 1887. Upon his arrival in Monrovia he identified him- self with its interests, purchasing and improving both business and residence property. He is the owner of the store he occupies, also a sub- stantial residence on Myrtle street, and other real estate in the city. Mr. Large is a native of Muskingum County, Ohio, dating his birth in 1853. Ile is the son of Andrew T. and Sarah (Hendrickson) Large. His father is a native of New Jersey, and a carpenter and builder by trade. In Mr. Large's youth, his parents located in Monroe County, Wisconsin, where he was reared and received his schooling until 1865. In that year the family moved to Chicago. At an early age the subject of this sketch was put

to work in his father's shops, and there learned the carpenter's trade. When abont seventeen years of age he entered the employ of the well- known firm of F. H. Hill & Co., of Chicago, as a shipping clerk. The great fire of Chicago in 1871 swept away most of the business houses of that city, and at that time he returned to his trade, helping to rebuild the city. In 1872 the honse of F. H. Hill & Co. re-established thein- selves in business and he again entered their employ. He remained in their service, filling many positions of responsibility and trust until 1886, when he came to California. Mr. Large has taken a deep interest in the growth and prosperity of his chosen city, and has been a liberal supporter of such enterprises as tend to advance the welfare of the community. He was one of the first school trustees of the city, a po- sition that he still holds. In politics he is a consistent Republican, taking an interest in the affairs of his party, serving as a delegate to the county conventions. In 1888 he married Miss Jeanette Beebe, the daughter of Alonzo Beebe, a well-known resident and pioneer of Kendall County, Illinois, in which county Mrs. Large was born. Mr. Large's father is at this writing (1889) a resident of San Diego. His mother died at that place in 1888.

IDNEY LACEY, notary public and a dealer in real estate at Los Angeles, is a native of England, and was born in Bristol in 1845, his parents being John and Anna Maria (Davies) Lacey. His father was a me- chanic and of Irish ancestry, while his mother was of Welsh parentage. Young Lacey was educated in the common schools until his thir- teenth year, when he began to clerk in the dry- goods store of Mr. William Jones, at Bristol, and was so employed until 1863, when, in the early part of that year, he came to America. After visiting friends in Canada he went to De- troit, Michigan, and was employed as clerk by the dry-goods firm of Campbell, Linn & Co.,

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

until 1867. He then started for the West, and after spending two years in Colorado, New Mexico and Dakota, and being variously em- ployed, he came to California; and while so- jonrning at San Francisco he was employed in the carpet house of Mitchell & Bell as clerk and carpet-layer for about one year. In 1870 he came to Los Angeles under an engagement with Smith & Walter, the pioneer carpet, upholstery and paper firm of Los Angeles, with whom he remained until 1873, when he engaged in the same business with the firm of Dotter & Lord, afterward Dotter & Bradley, which later merged into the Los Angeles Furniture Company, re- maining with the concern through its varions changes, by having an interest and being an em- ployé, until 1886. In that year he made a trip to the East to visit the friends he had left twenty years before. He returned to Los Angeles in the summer of the same year, and being a member of the Democratic State Central Committee for the county of Los Angeles, he spent several months during the campaign at San Francisco, working with the executive committee of the Democratic State Committee, in behalf of the party candidates. In 1885, while in the employ of Dotter & Bradley, he started the carpet beat- ing and cleaning works known as the Los An- geles Carpet Beating Works, which are located on Alvarado street, above the woolen-mnill reser- voir, said works being still owned and run by him. In 1887 he was commissioned notary public by Governor Bartlett, and was re-ap- pointed in March, 1889, by Governor Waterman, and during the same year he engaged in the real-estate business at Los Angeles, in which business he is still actively engaged at 101 North Main street. Politically he is a Democrat, ever being active in the interests of his party. He has been a delegate to every Democratic State Convention for the past ten years, and has been a member of the State Central Committee for Los Angeles County since 1879; a member of the executive committee of the same for six years, and is still a member. The holding of the late Democratic State Convention at Los 35

Angeles, which passed off so harmoniously, is conceded by all to be due to the exertions of Mr. Lacey. December 10, 1874, he was mar- ried at Los Angeles to Miss Conception E. Williams, a native of Los Angeles, and of Eng- lish-Spanish parentage. Her parents are both deceased. Mr. Lacey is a member of Ashler Lodge, No. 91, F. & A. M., of Detroit, Michi- gan. Heis one of the organizers of the Iroquois Club (Democratic) of Los Angeles, of which he is president, the membership of the club being over 200.

ARL LAUX, proprietor of Laux's phar- macy stores Nos. 48 South Spring street and 447 Sonth Fort street, has been in the drug business for more than a quarter of a century, and is a thoroughly representative man in his profession in all that that term signifies. He was born in Germany forty-six years ago, and came with his parents to America in early child - hood. On reaching the proper age he began to learn the drug business, and was engaged in it in various capacities of employé and proprietor in the city of Chicago over twenty years. Be - ing affected with bronchial trouble, induced by the rigorous climate of Chicago, Mr. Lanx de- cided to sell out his prosperous business in the Lake City, in 1883, and came to California. Locating in Los Angeles, he resumed the drug business at 208 North Main street. After pur- chasing the store he refitted and refurnished it and put in an entire new stock of goods. This store he has recently removed to the handsome new Burdick Biock, corner of Spring and Second streets. The store, which is furnished in curly redwood, is one of the finest and most completely stocked retail drug houses in Southern Cali- fornia. A prominent feature of Mr. Laux's ex- tensive trade is his large prescription business. He prepares several proprietary compounds, among which are a quinine hair tonic, a " bead- ing oil " for liquor manufacturers and dealers, and his celebrated Kumyss, a beverage alike

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palatable, healthful and nutritious. Mr. Lanx was one of the first in Chicago to manufacture Kmnyss, by a formula of his own. It soon gained great popularity and had a large sale. He now makes a great specialty of this remedial agent so valuable for persons with weak or dis- eased digestive organs, and being the only manufacturer of Kumyss in the State, south of San Francisco, he sells large quantities of it. Ilis formula is so superior to any other that the druggists of the Golden Gate City use it. Mr. Laux's faith in the therapeutie advantages of the Southern California elimate has been fully real- ized in his complete restoration to health since settling in Los Angeles. Confident of the great future of Los Angeles, Mr. Laux has recently inereased his business by starting a branch store at 447 South Fort street.

M ILTON LINDLEY, EsQ., is a native of North Carolina and was born in Guilford County in 1820. When he was twelve years of age his parents, David and Mary (Hadley) Lindley, removed to Morgan County, Indiana. The former was of English- Scoteh and the latter of English-Irish extrac- tion. She was a descendant of the Hadleys, one of the old and prominent Quaker families of Hendricks County, Indiana. Milton Lind- ley lived with his parents until manhood and was given only a common-school education, yet through much reading and study-which is even now his daily habit-he has acquired an excellent education. Although reared a farmer he did not follow that vocation, but on leaving the homestead started out on his business ca- reer as a harness and saddle maker at Monrovia, Indiana, which oceupation he continued for twelve years. In 1850 he engaged in general merchandising at the same place, and four years later, when his health became impaired by a too elose application to business, he engaged in farming and afterward in general merchandis- ing in Hendricks County, Indiana, remaining

there twelve years. During this time he was sent East by a number of wealthy gentlemen to study the new National banking system. His investigations proving satisfactory, he assisted in organizing the First National Bank of Dan- ville, Indiana, which is yet a stanch institu- tion. In 1866 he removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he resided until the latter part of 1875. In that year he came to Los Angeles, having previously spent two winters there for the benefit of his health. He pur- chased forty acres of land adjoining the western limits of the eity, which he devoted to fruit culture, the varieties being so numerous that he could pluck ripe fruit of several kinds every day in the year. Selling his ranch in 1882 and retiring from business, he became a resi- dent of the city of Los Angeles. Politically he is a Republican. In 1879 he was elected treasurer of Los Angeles County, which posi- tion he held for three years, holding over one year on account of a constitutional change. In 1884 he was elected a member of the county board of supervisors, and served as such during 1885 and 1886. Mr. Lindley was married in 1849, at Belleville, Hendrieks County, Indiana, to Miss Mary A. Banta, daughter of Cornelius and Elizabethi (Eecles) Banta. She was born in Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, but reared principally in Hendrieks County. She is a member of the Christian Church. They are the parents of nine children, seven of whom are living: Walter, a physician of Los Angeles; Ilervey, banker and dealer in real estate at the same place; Ida B., filling the chair of modern languages in the University of Southern Cali- fornia at Los Angeles; Arthur, a contractor of Claremont, California; William, a physician of Albion, Idaho; Albert, solicitor and collector for the Black Diamond Coal Company, of Los Ange- les; and Bertha, still at home, and a graduate in both letters and music, of the University of Southern California, with the class of 1887. Mr. Lindley is now nearly seventy years of age, but retains all the genial social attributes for which he was noted during his younger days.

Milton Lindley

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

While a careful business man, he is also a gen- erous one, and what he has given to assist worthy young men and religions, charitable and educational institutions would be consid- ered a competence by almost any family. He has yet with him, much of the time, his mother, who is bright and intelligent and eighty-seven years of age. With a wife, who has been in every sense of the word a helpmate to him for the last forty years, with seven grown children around him, with several grandchildren looking up to him with love and veneration, he is pass- ing the evening of a well-spent life in this sunny land of the Pacific Coast, where the orange, the vine and the fig-tree flourish, and the mighty ocean and majestic mountains pro- claim the glory of the Creator.

ERVEY LINDLEY, of Los Angeles, was born in Belleville, Hendricks County, Indi- ana, June 25, 1854. When twelve years of age his family moved to Minneapolis, Min- nesota, where he was educated in the grammar and high schools. In 1870 he began learning the lumber business, with one of the leading Minne- apolis firms. Three years later, when but nineteen years of age, he became a partner in the Inmber business in Waterloo, Iowa. He soon became one of Waterloo's most active citizens and, while always refusing any political office him- self, was very active in the Republican party. He served for several years as secretary and treas- urer of the Republican Connty Central Com- mittee. In 1875 he was married to Miss Kate C. Owens, of Waterloo. Like many other suc- cessful men, Mr. Lindley can attribute mnch of his prosperity and advancement in life to the force of character and wise council of his wife. The firm in which Mr. Lindley owned a one- half interest soon established three branch yards in Dakota, all proving very profitable. In 1879 Mr. Lindley came on a visit to his father and family in Los Angeles. Ile was much delighted with Southern California, and returned to Iowa

determined to close out his business and trans- fer his home to the Pacific Coast. Almost immediately on liis becoming a resident of Los Angeles, he was recognized as a considerable factor in financial, political and social circles. The co-operation of his active, comprehensive mind is always considered a valnable aid to any enterprise for which it can be secured. Mr. Lindley was one of the organizers of the Cali- fornia Bank of Los Angeles, in which he is a director and member of the finance committee. Ile is a stockholder in the Southern California National Bank of Los Angeles, and a one- third owner in the Whittier Bank. While he spends the most of his time in Los Angeles, he has a country residence at Whittier, twelve miles away. Mr. Lindley takes great pride in the village of Whittier, where he has several hun- dred acres of land devoted to barley and fruit. His farm and his horses are his chief delight and recreation, and he is never happier than when he can take a day's absence from his multifarions duties in Los Angeles and spend it with his stock and trees. While a business man in business matters, he is also very generous, and his purse is invariably open to every worthy call for aid. He was recently appointed by the Governor of California as president of a board of three trustees to locate, build and control a State Reform School, for which the Legislature has appropriated 8200,000. He was also selected as one of a commission of five to control the police department of the city of Los Angeles, under the new charter adopted early in 1889. Hervey Lindley is noted for his indefatigable energy and industry, his keen, quick and com- prehensive mental grasp, his incorruptibility and his intense patriotism. He is a typical American, and his boyhood days were spent where the strains of Yankee Doodle from the fife and drum of the recruiting officer were making the blood of the Union man run quick from heart to head and from head to heart again; where wounded boys in blue came home to tell of the valor of the country's defenders, who were risking their lives that the " stars and

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

stripes " might float over a free and undivided country. Cradled in such an atmosphere, his every fiber thrills with love for his home and native land.

ANTONIO MARIA LUGO .- One of the old patriarchs of California, wbose de- scendants to the fourth and fifth genera- tion are scattered throughout the State, was born at the Mission of San Antonio de Padua in 1775, and died in 1860. IIe was a soldier here under the King of Spain. He lived many years in a large adobe house on the east side of Negro alley, which in early times, before gain- blers and Chinamen took possession of that lo- cality, was a sightly and desirable place of resi- dence. There the greater portion of his large family of children were born. He told the writer in 1856, that he obtained permission to settle on his Rancho of San Antonio where he then lived (near the present town of Compton), in 1813, after the expiration of his term of serv- ice as a soldier. Later he obtained a formal grant of eleven leagues. Eventually, as his boys grew np, and his flocks and herds increased to such an extent that he did not know what to do with them, he obtained a grant in his boys' name of the Rancho of San Bernardino, which at that time belonged to this county, and a portion of his horses and cattle were moved to the new grant, where they continued to increase and multiply. In after years he planted a vine- yard on San Pedro street, and sometimes made his home in the long adobe house on the tract, still standing, and belonging to his grand- daugliter, Mrs. Woodworth, now Mrs. O'Reilley. In the latter part of his life, he used to ride into town on horseback with a sword strapped to his saddle, according to the custom of Span- ish Caballeros. One of Mr. Lugo's daughters, Merced, married a Perez; she is still living and is now the wife of Stephen C. Foster; her danghter married Wallace Woodworth, and her grandchildren are numerous. Another dangh-

ter of Lngo married Colonel Isaac Williams, the owner of El Chino Ranch. The descendants by this line include the Carlisles, the McDougalls, the Rains, etc., and their children. Don José Ygnacio Lugo the grandfather of the Wolfskills, was a brother of Don Antonio. The wife of old Sergeant Vallejo, mother of General Vallejo, was one of Lugo's sisters.

BON. FREDERICK LAMBOURN, senior partner in the wholesale grocery firm of Lambourn & Turner, was born in England, in 1837, but passed most of his childhood youth on his father's farm in Marshall County, Illi- nois, his parents having immigrated to the United States while he was quite young. He attended Eureka College in Woodford County, Illinois, but did not stay long enough to graduate, for want of funds, and in 1859 came to California and has been a resident of Los Angeles County ever since. Previous to 1876 he was engaged in farming, wine-making and ranching, part of the time as manager of William Workman's exten- sive Puente stock ranch. In July of the year last named Mr. Lambourn started in the grocery business, in company with William F. Turner, his present partner, in one room of the brick block they now own and occupy, comprising numbers 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31 Aliso street. The firm had erected the first story of that part of the block including numbers 29 and 31 the same year they opened their grocery in one of the rooms; and the following year (1887) built another story. Two or three years later they erected the first story of the remainder of the block, and some four years ago added the second story to that part. The block has over ninety feet frontage on Aliso street, and is a substan- tial business building. In the beginning of their modest mercantile ventures the proprietors did all the work, one of them acting as sales- man and book-keeper and the other delivering the goods to customers; but by upright dealing and judicious management the volume of busi-

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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