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 94

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 94

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shoes, which he carried on in connection with the tannery for a period of twenty-five years. Not only was he successful in business here, but he was honored by the people in being chosen on the Republican tieket as Senator from Santa Cruz County, and in this capacity he served during 1861-'62 and 1862-'63. In 1876 George K. and B. F. Porter and Charles Maclay .bought 56,000 acres of land, embracing the old Spanish Mission in the beautiful and fertile San Fernando Valley. On this vast ranch they have raised wheat, barley, horses, cattle and hogs. The ranch was subsequently divided, and our subject took the central part. Reserving 2,000 acres for himself, he has since sold his interest to the Porter Land and Water Company. On this ranch, one inile west of San Fernando, they have erected a fine hotel, at a cost of $40,000. The structure is three stories high, and is known as the Mission Hotel. It has about sixty rooms, with all modern improvements, and it would be a credit to any city. Mr. Porter is the local manager of the Mission Ranch, having entire charge of the vast interests connected with it, and in which he is the principal stockholder. He also has other and important interests in other parts of the State, and in San Francisco, where he is a member of the firm of Porter & Sessinger, manufacturers and wholesale dealers and importers of boots and shoes. Mr. Porter's record as the leading business man in the north- ern part of Los Angeles County is well known to all business men through this and other coun- ties of the State. Ile married Miss Kate A. Caystile, in Los Angeles, and has two children: George K. Porter, Jr., and Estelle C. Porter.

II .. PERKINS, contractor, Grand avenne and Washington street, Los Angeles, is a native of New York State, born February 19, 1850. He attended school during boyhood and served an apprenticeship to the trade of carpenter and joiner. After reaching manhood he went to St. Louis and was successfully en-

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gaged in building in that city fifteen years. He came to Los Angeles in 1887, worked at his trade, and the following year engaged in con- tracting and has taken contracts for a number of fine residences. Among them are the resi- dences of A. P. Phillips, Angelino Heights; J. H. Claudius, Ellis avenue; A. L. Wright, Bon- sallo avenue; and residences on Flower street and Orange avenue; also the Newell Block, for II. T. Newell. He has had a large experience as a responsible contractor and builder. Mr. Perkins was married June 29, 1873, to Miss Sara Zonville, of Rochester, New York. They have five children: Nellie V., Benjamin G., Ada May, Lillie and Sara.

ILLIAM H. PAYNE is the' senior member of the mercantile firm of W H. Payne & Co., of Duarte. The firm was established October 1, 1888, comprising the subject of this sketch, and Messrs. A. J. Beatty and R. L. G. Wright, and at that time entered into a general mercantile business upon the corner of Highland and Duarte avenues. They also have a branch establishment near the Duarte railroad depot, called the depot store. Their establishments are the only stores in Duarte, and are thoroughly equipped, carrying a complete and well-assorted stock of dry-goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, clothing and agri- cultural implements. The postoffice, with A. J. Beatty as postmaster, is located in their store. Mr. Payne is an energetic young man, well schooled in mercantile and other business pur- suits. He is a native of England, dating his birth at Brighton, in 1857. Ilis father was a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, who gave to his son the advantages of a good education in the higher schools of that city. In 1884 he came to California, and located at Lancaster, Los Angeles County, where he entered the em- ploy of the Atlantic and Pacific Fiber Company, in their paper manufactory, as the manager of one of the departments of their works. He

remained in the employ of that company for about three years, or until 1887, when he came to Duarte and established the depot store, which he successfully conducted until he entered into his present partnership. Mr. Payne has real- estate interests in Duarte, and is thoroughly identified with its best interests. Progressive and public-spirited in action, he is a supporter of such enterprises as tend to build up his sec- tion. His consistent course of life and honorable dealing have gained him the esteem of the com- munity.

ROFESSOR M. M. PARKER, President of the Pasadena City Council, and Princi- pal of the Pasadena Academy, was born in Franklin County, Maine, November 27, 1849; educated at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, and also at the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, where he graduated in 1875. Soon afterward he became principal of the Glastonbury (Connecticut) Academy, where he established a reputation in his profession that caused boards of education elsewhere to apply for his services as teacher. Removing to the eastern part of the State of Massachusetts in 1878, he was en . gaged in his profession as teacher there until near the close of 1882, when he removed to Pasadena. Though in feeble health at that time, he took a lively interest in the welfare of the colony, and made a careful study of the social, educational and economic problems that arose in that grow- ing and ambitious community. To this study, as well as to his native talent, is due the sagacity he has exhibited in his public career. He has been signally efficient in giving direction to municipal policy and local enterprise. This management has of course tended toward the healthy development of the city. Such devel- opment is attended with neither penuriousness on the one hand, nor extravagance on the other, for either of these retards the wheels of progress. Ile is one of those who have contributed most in making Pasadena what she is to day-a

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beautiful, thrifty, orderly city. A thorough believer in American ideas in regard to the right of the majority to rule in civil affairs, he has sought to carry out the expressed wish of the people that saloons should be excluded from the city, as also the wishes of the community in all that pertains to its welfare. As an evi- dence of the confidence which is placed in him, it may be stated that, after serving one full term, he was re-elected at the last municipal election, receiving virtually the entire vote cast. But the most valuable service which Mr. Parker has rendered, for which he is likely to be longest remembered, is the establishment of the academy. Early discerning the need of the community for an institution of learning to supplement the public schools, he resolved to found an academy as a preparatory school for college. Accord- ingly, he opened such a school in 1886, which has ever since been in successful operation, although many obstacles liave been encountered. With its departments well defined, with compe- tent teachers, and with an earnest and diligent body of students, the academy is second to none in the essentials of a first-class preparatory school.

RANK A. PATTEE .- Among the leading drug firms of which mention is made in this work perhaps none are more worthy of recognition than the prescription drug store of Lockett & Pattee, corner of Second and Fort streets, Los Angeles. These gentlemen opened business September 15, 1888, with a fresh and carefully selected stock of drugs, chemicals, toilet articles and optical goods. The fact that they started free from indebtedness, and still discount all bills; the location of their store on one of the principal corners of the city; their geniality and fair dealing with the people, and exceptional adaptation to each other for business purposes, has won them a good trade from the start, and argues well for the future. Mr. S. W. Lockett, son of William M. Lockett, of Ilen-

derson, Kentucky, was born in the same place August 31, 1853. In 1871 he conducted a large insurance agency at Springfield, Missouri, going from this place to Lee's Suminit, Missouri, where he acted as teller in the banking firm of A. H. Powell & Son. Afterward purchasing a farm near Springfield, Missouri, he went into the stock business, following up this venture with the crockery and queensware business, under the firm name of Lockett & Eckelberry. Sub- sequently, after dealing considerably in Kansas lands, he, in company with others, founded the prosperous town of Minneapolis, Colorado. In October, 1888, he purchased a place in Los Angeles, having decided to make the latter city his permanent home. Mr. Frank A. Pattee is the son of Rev. C. R. Pattee, D. D., and Mrs. H. E. (McLean) Pattee, of this city, and recently from Topeka, Kansas. Mr. Pattee was born in the Alleghany Mountains, of Northwestern Pennsylvania, July 5, 1859. He was educated at Lawrence University, Wisconsin. After his collegiate course, he and his younger brother traveled by horse through the States, writing up and sketching the country. This trip finally landed them in Kansas, where Mr. Pattee's edu- cation and natural turn of mind settled him in the drug business. In this he rapidly rose, went into business as a registered pharmacist in the capital of that State, and on the 22d of November, 1886, came to Los Angeles, highly endorsed by all the leading physicians of Topeka, his former home. Choosing first to go into the employ of several leading druggists of Los Angeles, he succeeded in winning their highest testimonials for reliability in every department, and in finally establishing their present business, as compounding chemist of the firm.

AMES PEDGRIFT, capitalist, Los Ange- les, is a native of England, and was born January 6, 1842. IIe attended school and served an apprenticeship to the trade of plas- terer in his native country. He came to the

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United States in 1873; went to Chicago, where he worked at his trade six years, and then, in 1879, located in Leadville, Colorado. He re- mained there two years and a half, doing the principal part of the work in plastering, and employing a large number of men in the build- ing up of that mining camp during the gold excitement. He next went to Denver. On account of the ill health of his wife, she came to Los Angeles and Mr. Pedgrift went to Salt Lake City to perform a contract made while he was in Denver. From there he, too, came to Southern California, intending to return to Salt Lake City, but was so favorably impressed with Los Angeles that he decided to make it his per- manent home, although doing so at a great dis- advantage at that time. Being a thorough, practical workman in all the details of his trade, and having a large experience, he secured at once a good standing among the most responsi- ble contractors and architects, and for the past five years has carried on a large and successful business. He has been successful in his invest- ments and owns two small tracts close to the center of the city, also considerable property in the choicest residence part. Mr. Pedgrift was married February 10, 1861, to Miss Ann Skin- ner, a native of England. They have one daughter, Ada, now Mrs. A. E. Fisher, residing in this city.

ILLIAM PRIDHAM, Superintendent of the Los Angeles district for Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express, has been con- nected with the company since back in the '50s, and is one of the oldest men in its employ in this country. His first experience was in carry- ing letters on the back of a mustang in the Overland Pony Express, between Jacobsville (now Austin) and Smith's Creek, in Nevada Territory. Then all package express inatter was transported between the Eastern States and Pa- cific Coast by steamers via the Isthmus of Panama. In 1861 he began office work in Aus-

tin, Nevada, and was assistant agent there and in Sacramento, California, for several years. Ile came to the Pacific Coast in 1851 and was express messenger for the company on board of Pacific mail steamers running between San Francisco and San Diego, stopping at Santa Bárbara. In August, 1868, he was assigned to duty in Los Angeles, as agent, and has repre- sented the company's interests here continuously for twenty-one years. During those early days, when the company's heavy freight was carried by steamers, there was established and running a line of stages from San Francisco down the coast to old San Diego, by the way of San José, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles, the latter be- ing the terminus of two divisions and headquar- ters where horses, stages and supplies were kept. The express and freight to and from Los Angeles was conveyed by teams between the Angel City and San Pedro Harbor. During his more than a third of a century of association with it, Mr. Pridham has seen the business of this now gigantic corporation growing from infancy to its present vast proportions. When he took charge of the office in Los Angeles he, with the assistance of one boy, did the entire work of the company at this point. Now the business in the city gives employment to forty-three men and eighteen horses; and on the trains running in and out of the city over the varions railroads, fifty messengers are employed. The company owns the two-story brick stable in which its horses are kept, with all the equipments, vehi- cles, etc. The spacious offices of the company are situated in the Baker Block, on North Main street. Until 1886 Mr. Pridham had charge of the local office, as agent. In that year he was appointed assistant superintendent, in charge of the Los Angeles district, comprising the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Bárbara, San Luis Obispo, Kern and San Bernardino, which position he still fills with marked ability and good acceptance to the great corporation he has so faithfully served for more than a third of a century. The variety as well as the volume of the Wells, Fargo & Co.'s business has grown

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to be of such a complex and comprehensive character that it embraces the transportation of every kind and description of freight to and from any point in the civilized world; the pur- chase and delivery of goods; the recording and execution of papers for the transfer of real estate; the payment of taxes, etc., on samne; the receiving and forwarding of goods in bond to the consignee; the transmission of money by telegraph, etc. As an example of the business methods of this great public carrier, the follow- ing is in point: Rev. C. F. Loop, of Pomona, while traveling abroad, employed a distinguished artist of Florence, Italy, to sculpture a statue of Pomona in fine Italian marble, intending to pre- sent the image of the mythical goddess of fruits to the city which bears her name. Under the tariff laws of the United States an article in- tended for a gift to the Government, a State or municipality is admitted into this country duty free. On receiving notification, after his return home, that the beautiful piece of art was ready for shipment, Mr. Loop was puzzled to know just how to proceed to have his treasure brought from Florence to Pomona, California. He con- sulted with Mr. Pridham in regard to it, who told Mr. Loop to hand him all the papers and correspondence concerning the ordering of and purpose for which the statue was to be made, including communications which had passed be- tween Mr. Loop and the American consul at Florence, and informed the reverend gentleman that lie, Pridham, would forward the same to the Wells, Fargo & Co.'s agent in New York, and that the company would take entire charge of the shipment of the two-ton statue and deliver it in perfect order in the city of Pomona, all of which was faithfully carried out, including the necessary negotiations with the Government to secure its admission duty free. Mr. Pridham is a native of New York, the same State in which both Wells and Fargo were born. IIc is fifty- two years of age, and his whole business life has been passed in the employ of the sterling company he represents. In 1880 he married Miss Wheeler, daughter of Colonel Jolin O.

Wheeler, one of the oldest living pioneers, who left his New England home and came to Cali- fornia in 1850 or 1851.

HIOMAS PASCOE, proprietor of the pop- ular Hotel Lincoln, is a hotel man by both nature and education, for successful hotel proprietors, like poets, are born, not made. This natural adaptation developed by twenty- three years' experience as a caterer and proprie- tor of public hostleries, has made him one of the most successful hotel men on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Pascoe is an Englishman by birth, and began active life on board a man-of-war in the British navy. He there had years of train- ing as a caterer in the position of chief steward. Atter leaving the navy and settling in the United States, he selected the hotel business as congenial to his taste, and conducted sucess- ively and successfully several prominent hotels in as many different towns and cities during the following decade, among them the Pascoe House in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the Grand Hotel at Ukiah, in Mendocino County, Califor- nia. He moved to Los Angeles in 1883, and when the completion of the trans-continental railroad to the city, a year or two later, liad given an impetus to its business and growth, the Clifton House was built on North Fourth street, with the understanding that Mr .. Pascoe was to lease and carry it on. It was completed and ready for occupancy in February, 1886, when the new proprietor christened and opened it, it being then the largest family hotel in the city. Ilis lease expired March 1, 1889, and he de- clined to re-lease it, expecting to retire from the hotel business, but being solicited by the owner and friends to take the IIotel Lincoln, lie con- sented to do so, and opened it for guests on March 1, 1889, taking all of the patrons of the Clifton with him. Ile is ably assisted by his wife, who is thoroughly acquainted with all the details of a hotel, and has the peculiar charin of making all their guests feel at home, which

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has added greatly to the popularity of the hotels they have conducted. The Hotel Lincoln is situated on Hill street, just south of Second, and is a large, sightly, three-story and basement structure of handsome architectural appearance, finished in modern style and furnished with the latest improved appliances and conveniences, the entire construction and arrangement admirably adapting it for a first-class family hotel. Its seventy commodious, light and airy guest rooms are chiefly arranged in snites, with bay windows looking out upon flower-embowered homes and the busy streets of the city below, or upon the rock-ribbed, snow-crowned mountains in the distance. The view from the balconies at the front of the hotel is rarely equaled for pictur- esque beauty. The dining room and parlors on the first floor are spacious, richly furnished and inviting; the halls and stairways are broad and cozy, and the entire building is the embody- ment of home-like comfort. Under Mr. Pas- coe's judieious management the Hotel Lincoln is one of the most attractive and restful resorts for the tourist sojourner to be found in Sonth- ern California.

ACOB PHILIPPI, capitalist, corner of Buena Vista and Rock streets, is a native of Germany, and was born at Merzlich Kar- taus, on the River Mossel, near the old Roman city of Trier, in the Rhine Province of Prussia, October 20, 1836. He emigrated to America when only sixteen years of age, spent one winter in Cincinnati and then went to St. Louis, after which he ran on steamboats between there and New Orleans. He was for a time in the employ of the Government at Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1855 he hired out to Waddell & Russell, the great transportation company, to drive team, his first trip being made to New Mexico. Dur- ing the same fall he acted in a like capacity for General Harney, during the uprising of the Sioux Indians, and was at Ash Hollow, where the battle with them occurred, where there was

such a great slaughter, several hundred Indians being killed. In 1857 he went on the Govern- ment surveying expedition, under General Joe Johnson, running the south line of the State of Kansas. In the spring of 1858 he was with the train that went to Salt Lake to convey relief to the soldiers at Fort Bridger, under command of General Sydney Johnson. After reaching there the troops were removed to Salt Lake. Over 800 teams were employed, and the command established the military post, Camp Floyd. During the fall of the same year, fifteen of them started from Salt Lake with mule teamns, for Southern California. The mules gave out and the party were compelled to walk from Camp Floyd to Los Angeles. They were disturbed by the Indians, who stole their provisions, and in consequence they suffered for want of food. They reached Los Angeles in November, 1858. Upon his arrival here, Mr. Philippi went up to San Francisco. After prospecting for a time in the mines, he went to Stockton and Napa City, California, and the following year returned to Los Angeles, where he was in the employ of the Government, while General Hancock was in command, until 1861. Then he worked for General Banning as teamster. In the fall of 1862 he started a grocery, and after running it for a time, and not being successful, he again went to work for General Banning. He after- ward rented the New York Brewery and was successful, but had to give up that enterprise on account of sickness, and again went to work for General Banning. In November, 1864, he bought a saloon at the corner of Market and Main streets, and carried on the business there and in that block and at the People's Hall on Market street for eighteen years. In 1882 he sold out and made an extended visit through the Eastern States and old Mexico. After his return the following year, he established " The Gardens," at Buena Vista, and mnade extensive improvements; but on account of ill health sold the place to Mrs. Banning. Since then he has not been engaged in active business. Mr. Philippi was married October 23, 1869, to Miss Wil-

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belmina Burkhardt, a native of the city of Tübingen, Würtemberg, Germany. They have had two children. Both are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Philippi have a very attractive home, sit- nated on one of the finest locations in Los An- geles.

OHN F. POWELL was born in Galway, Ireland, December 17, 1839, and is the oldest son of Mathias and Delia (Burk) Powell, both natives of the Emerald Isle. They came to America when the subject of this sketch was only fifteen months old, and located in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where John F. Powell was reared under the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument. The father followed fishing, and died in 1882, at the age of eighty-two years. The mother is still living with her daughter, Maria C., and wife of Thomas F. Meade. John F. Powell went to the Winthrop school at Charlestown until he arrived at the age of fifteen, and his old school-ınaster, Mr. Griffin, who was considerable of a dramatic critic, seeing that his young pupil showed an extraordinary talent for the stage, obtained for him passes to the Boston Museum and National Theatre so as to enable him to prepare himself for the school exhibitions. IIe became a favorite with the leading actors, among whom was Edwin For- rest, the great tragedian, and a particular friend of young Powell's school-master, Mr. Griffin, and through whose influence Powell became a pupil of Mr. Forrest, and studied for the stage for several months and took some of the lead- ing characters in the dramatie entertainments given by the " Booth Dramatic Association," the " Hamilton Institute," and the " Fenelon Association." When Mr. Forrest was leaving Boston he wanted to take young Powell with him and give him a thorough education for the stage, but the boy's mother objected, and that proposition for his future fell through. When a little more than sixteen years of age he went to serve an apprenticeship to Charles Brooks, to

learn the plasterer's trade, and worked at it but very little after his apprenticeship expired. In July, 1859, he enlisted in the navy on board of the fastest war vessel in the navy, the United States sloop of war Constellation, twenty-two guns, and ordered to the African squadron as flag-ship to aid in suppressing slavery. During her crnise on the west coast of Africa, the sub- jeet of our sketch aided in capturing several slavers, among which was the barque Cora, of New York, having on board at the time of the capture 705 negroes. In October, 1861, six months after the war broke out, he returned home to Bunker Hill, and afterward enlisted in the Fifth Massachusetts Infantry, and served mostly in North Carolina, in the First Division of the Eighteenth Army Corps, which was com- prised mostly of Massachusetts troops, and fight- ing South Carolina troops, which comprised the Confederate forces in North Carolina. He par- ticipated in all the battles fought by liis regi- ment, among which were the battles of Kinston, Whitehall, Goldsboro, Gnm-swamp, Deep Gully, Rainbow Bluff, Blounts Creek, and the siege of Little Washington, and the assault on Newbern by A. P. Hill and Longstreet, March 14, 1863, and others. He was mustered out in July, 1864, at Camp Wenham, Massachusetts, and in 1866 entered the regular army, and was sent to California in charge of a company of recruits froin David's Island, New York Harbor, and was assigned to the Second United States Artil- lery; arrived in San Francisco in April, 1867, and soon after was placed in command of Goat Island for a period of five months, and by order of General IIalleek he was subsequently sent to Sacramento to open recruiting service for the regular army. Here he received orders to open a branch office at Marysville, California, and he returned to his battery after one year's recruit- ing service, and was discharged from the artny in December, 1869. Four days later he set out for Los Angeles to join his brother, M. A. Powell, whom he accompanied to Big Roek Creek, where they had a large ranch, and where they made a treaty with the Indians, who were

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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