Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 36

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996

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NORWALK, seventeen miles from Los Angeles, on the San Diego branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, is a flourishing village. It is the center of an extensive dairy country. There are numer- ous artesian wells in the district which afford abundant water for irrigation. Alfalfa, corn and barley are the principal agricultural products.

DOWNEY, the business center of the Los Nietos Valley, was founded in 1874, when the Anaheim branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad was built. It has had a steady growth. The terri- tory tributary to it lies mostly between the old and the new San Gabriel Rivers, which gives it splendid irrigating facilities. Downey has a school of five departments and has recently estab- lished a high school. The Downey Champion is one of the oldest newspapers in the county and is ably conducted. The town is the center of walnut production. The shipment of these nuts to the amount of $150,000 was made last year.

RIVERA, ten miles southeast of Los Angeles, on the surf line of the Santa Fe Railroad, was founded in 1887. Its location, in the heart of the Upper Los Nietos Valley, about midway be-

tween the new and the old San Gabriel Rivers, gives it the command, as a shipping point, of a large amount of the products of that fertile district. The country around it islargely devoted to the production of the English walnut.

ARTESIA is in the dairy district. The lands in its neighborhood are adapted to alfalfa. A con- siderable quantity of grapes are grown here.

SANTA FE SPRINGS, originally Fulton Wells, was started as a health resort. It has a large hotel. The iron sulphur wells here are reported to contain water rich in medicinal virtues. The town is twelve miles from Los Angeles, on the San Diego branch of the Santa Fe Railroad.

AVALON, the metropolis of Santa Catalina Is- land, bore the name of Shatto City at its founding. It was one of the boom towns of 1887. For sev- eral years after the bursting of the boom the town made little or no progress. When the Banning Brothers purchased Santa Catalina Island they set to work to develop Avalon as a summer re- sort. A number of improvements were made and during the summer season a daily steamer- the Hermosa-conveys passengers across the channel. The location of Avalon makes it an ideal summer resort. The absence of breakers in its bay makes boating and fishing safe and pleas- ant pastimes. Its resident population is about two hundred, but during July and August the transient population often teaches four to five thousand. Avalon bids fair to become one of the most popular seaside resorts on the coast.

HON. HENRY T. GAGE. Governor of California.

BIOGRAPHICAL

PREFACE.

The high standing of Los Angeles county among the counties of California is due not alone to its ideal climate and the rare beauty of its scenery. Other regions, boasting a climate and environment as exceptional, have nevertheless remained unknown to the great world of commerce and of thought. When we study the progress made by the city and county of Los Angeles, especially during the last decade of the nineteenth century, we find that the present gratifying condition is due to the enterprise of public-spirited citizens. They have not only developed the commercial possibilities of the city and the horticultural resources of the adjacent districts, but they have also maintained a commendable interest in public affairs, and have given to their commonwealth some of its ablest statesmen. In the lives of the citizens, indeed, is the history of the locality best narrated; and those who read the following pages will become acquainted with men and movements inseparably associated with the city and county of Los Angeles.

In the compilation of this work, and in the securing of necessary data, a number of writers have been engaged for many months. They have visited leading citizens and used every endeavor to produce a work accurate and trustworthy in even the smallest detail. Owing to the great care exercised, and to the fact that every opportunity was given to those represented to secure accuracy in their biographies, the publishers believe that they are giving to their readers a volume containing few errors of consequence. The biographies of some representative citizens will be missed from this work; this in some instances was caused by their absence from home when our writers called, and in other instances was caused by a failure on the part of the men themselves to understand the scope of the work. The publishers, however, have done everything within their power to make the volume a representative work.

The value of the data herein presented will grow with the passing years. Posterity will preserve the work with care, from the fact that it perpetuates biographical history which otherwise would be wholly lost. In those now far-distant days will be realized, to a greater degree than at the present time, the truth of Macauley's statement that "The history of a country is best told in a record of the lives of its people."

January 1, 1901.

CHAPMAN PUBLISHING CO. Chicago.

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BIOGRAPHICAL

OMER LAUGHLIN. There is no region of the United States whose natural attrac- tions surpass those of Southern California- rugged mountains, smiling valleys, prosperous towns and the vast ocean whose waves beat cease- lessly upon the picturesque coast, all these added to a climate recognized as ideal form influences which no visitor can resist. It is due to these attractions that many men of wealth and high standing in other parts of the country have, after years of successful business or professional activ- ity, established their homes here and identified themselves with the social and commercial envi- ronments. Among this class of men none de- serves more conspicuous mention than Mr. Laugh- lin, of Los Angeles.

The paternal ancestors of Mr. Laughlin settled in America in an early day. His grandfather, James Laughlin, a native of Maryland, died in Pennsylvania when past middle life. He had married Nancy Johnson, who was born in Penn- sylvania and died in Ohio. Their son, Matthew, was born in Beaver county, Pa., March 31, 1799, and in early life settled in Ohio, where he was long interested in milling and merchandising. While he had few opportunities or advantages in youth, yet he acquired a broad fund of informa- tion, which made him an influential citizen and a highly respected man. For forty-five years he was postmaster, miller and merchant at Little Beaver Bridge, in Columbiana county. He died in East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1876. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Maria Moore, was born in Colum- biana county, Ohio, in 1814, and died in Pittsburg, Pa., June 19, 1888. Of her children three are still living. She was a daughter of Thomas Moore, who was born near Belfast, Ireland, and received an excellent education in Dublin. When

a young man he sought a home in the United States. In the employ of the government as an engineer he was sent to Ohio during the period when it was known only as the Northwestern Territory. Afterward he made his home there, dying in Columbiana county when sixty-six years of age. His wife, Nancy Lyon, was a na- tive of Beaver county, Pa., and died in Colum- biana county, Ohio, when advanced in years.

In Columbiana county, Ohio, Homer Laughlin was born March 23, 1843. His primary educa- tion was obtained in common schools. Later he studied in the Neville Institute. At the break- ing out of the Civil war he determined to offer his services in behalf of the Union. He enlisted July 12, 1862, as a member of Company A, One Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio Infantry, under Capt. H. R. Hill, and accompanied his regiment to the front, where he remained until the close of the war, being in active service during the entire time. He was mustered out at Murfreesboro, Tenn., and received his final discharge in Cleve- land, Ohio, July 7, 1865, returning home with a record as a soldier of which he and his might well be proud.

For a year or more after the war Mr. Laugh- lin was interested in boring oil wells in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, and during that time had charge of the boring of twelve wells. His next business enterprise was along an entirely different line. He went to New York City, and, with his brother Shakespeare as partner, began to import chinaware from England and sell the same in this country. During the three years in which he was thus engaged he gained a fund of business experience that proved of inestimable value to him in later years. From New York he returned to Ohio, and, with his brother still as

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

a partner, built the first whiteware pottery started in East Liverpool, Ohio. In 1877 he bought his brother's interest and afterward conducted the business alone. The plant was brought to such a state of efficiency that its products came into demand throughout the entire country, and sales of the Laughlin ware were made from Portland, Me., to Portland, Ore. In equipment it is mod- ern and complete. Every facility for improv- ing the grade of products or the output is in- troduced. In 1876, at the Centennial Interna- tional Exhibition at Philadelphia, a diploma and medal were given Mr. Laughlin as first prize, in recognition of the superiority of his products; in 1879 his work was recognized at the Cincinnati exposition by a gold medal, and in 1893 he was awarded three diplomas and a medal at the World's Fair for both plain and decorated ware.

It was during a pleasure trip in the west that Mr. Laughlin first saw Los Angeles. He was so pleased with the city that in 1894 he purchased some property here. Afterward he bought other property. In 1897 he established his home in this city. However, he has not severed his con- nection with his eastern factory; but, in order that it might be satisfactorily conducted during his absence, in 1897 he organized a stock com- pany, of which he is the head, and the business has since been conducted in this manner. Mean- time he has identified himself with the interests of Los Angeles, and by the erection of the well- known Laughlin fire-proof building, as well as by the improvement of other property, he has contributed materially to the city's advancement. Business interests, as well as a love of travel and a desire for recreation, take him frequently to the east, and on the occasion of these trips he inva- riably visits his friend of twenty-five years' standing, President Mckinley. This friendship. which in the language of the poet proves "as strong for him as his for me," is one of the many pleasant life experiences of Mr. Laughlin.

In politics Mr. Laughlin is and always has been a firm Republican, upholding the principles which form that party's platform. He has taken an active interest in Masonic work, and as a member of the Allegheny Commandery of Knights Templar visited Europe in 1871, accompanying a party of forty representative Americans, who inade the first trip of the kind to Europe. This

being shortly after the treaty of Geneva, they were royally entertained in Great Britain, and had a succession of forty banquets.

Mr. Laughlin's family consists of his wife, for- merly Miss Cornelia B. Battenberg, and two children: Homer Laughlin, Jr., and Guendolen Virginia Laughlin. The former is a chemical engineer and a graduate of the Stanford Univer- sity

ON. C. M. SIMPSON. Among the citizens of Pasadena who have been prominent in the public life of the state, conspicuous mention belongs to the subject of this narrative. He has been a leader of the Republican party in this portion of the state, and has been elected to various positions of honor and responsibility. Believing a public office to be a public trust, as an officer he devoted his attention to the faithful discharge of his duties, and endeavored to keep in touch with every principle or plan brought forward for the benefit of the people. He rose to a position of influence solely through the exercise of his native powers of mind, and his life affords a striking illustration of the results of intel- ligence and wise judgment rightly applied in the affairs of life. His record as a state senator is well known to all and was so satisfactory that he has since been urged by friends to stand for congress, but this he has refused.

A native of Rockville, Ind., born in 1844, Mr. Simpson settled in Kansas before attaining his majority. On the outbreak of the Civil war, with the eagerness of youth and fired by patriotic zeal, he determined to serve his country. He entered the service as a scout and later became a member of the Ninth Kansas Cavalry, in which he remained uutil the close of the war. On re- turning home he learned the elements of agri- culture, and later the mercantile business. From 1870 to 1878 he served his constituents in Allen county, Kans., as a district clerk. He also served as school director, mayor of Iola one term, four termis as councilman, two years as city attorney and for ten years as postmaster. He chose the law for his profession and in 1877 was admitted to the bar, but before he had gained the place at the Kansas bar to which he aspired, his health failed and he sought the genial climate of the Pacific coast, settling in Pasadena in 1886.

Amaters

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, RECORD.

His abilities were soon recognized by his as- sociates in the Republican party. In 1888 he was elected president of the Republican club of Pasadena and the following year was made a member of the Pasadena city council. Here he took advanced ground in the interests of the peo- ple, and, with a keen appreciation of the needs of a live and progressive city, performed well his part in its advancement. In 1892 he became a member of the assembly from the seventieth dis- trict. As a member of the legislature he took a strong stand against the resolution in the inter- ests of the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and for this action was censured by the San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee, two of the leading Republican journals of the state. However; in 1889, his party went overwhelm- ingly in his direction, crowding down silver as a dead issue, and thus placing Mr. Simpson in a handsome light before his party. In1 1894 he was elected to the state senate from his district, and four years later was returned, his present term expiring in January, 1903. He was appointed in 1895 chairman of municipal incorporations committee; in 1897 chairman of the judiciary committee, and in 1899 of the committee on cor- porations. Of his work in the senate, the Na- tional Advocate says: "No senator rendered more efficient service or took a more leading part in the deliberations of that body."

Senator Simpson was married May 13, 1868, at Iola, Kans., and has two sons, Theodore A. and Harold G., both married and living at Los Angeles.

ON. RUSSELL JUDSON WATERS, mem- ber of congress from the sixth district of California, was born in Halifax, Vt., June 6, 1843, a son of Luther and Mary (Knowlton) Waters. He was one of thirteen children and the youngest of those (eight daughters and two sons) who attained mature years. When he was four years of age the family, upon his father's death, removed to Colerain, Franklin county, Mass. After his father's estate was settled it was found that there was only enough money remaining to purchase a small cottage and lot, leaving the sup- port of the family to the exertions of the widow and children. He attended the village school until his eighth year, when the necessities of the

family were so pressing that he obtained work as bobbin boy in the cotton factory of Joseph Gris- wold at Griswoldville, Mass., his wages being $1.25 a week. For two years he worked in the factory, and then, his health being delicate, he was placed upon a farm at Deerfield, Mass. There he remained for two seasons, and in the winter attended a district school taught by his sister. His next position was as an operator of machines in the manufacture of knives, in the cutlery factory of Lamson, Goodnow & Co., at Shelburne Falls, Mass. Later he went to Keene, N. H., where his mother then lived, and for one season he worked on a neighboring farm at Beech Hill. Returning to Shelburne Falls, he resumed work in the cutlery factory. Meantime the fam- ily moved to Richville, N. Y., and he joined them there, working on a farm near by for fifty cents a day, and chopping wood at fifty cents per cord. After a time he returned to Shelburne Falls, where he learned the machinist's trade. Being very fond of music, he learned to play the violin and piano, and played the solo baritone in Foster's cornet band at the Falls. His musical talent on the violin, in the band and in concert singing, as well as in the church choir greatly assisted him in ob- taining an education. He taught one term of school at Charlemont Centre, Mass., and later graduated from the Franklin Institute, where he remained as professor of Latin and mathematics.

Believing the opportunities to be greater fur- ther west, Mr. Waters left New England and set- tled in Chicago, where he studied law with Rich & Waterman. After two years in their office, he was examined by C. W. Reed, district attorney, and Judges Bradwell and Gary, for the supreme court of Illinois, and passed a most creditable ex- amination, which caused him to be granted ad- mission to the bar May 12, 1868, with permission to practice before the state and United States courts. During the following years he met with a constantly growing success. However, over- work and excessive application to his profession impaired his health to such an extent that a change of climate was rendered necessary; and he therefore left Chicago for California in 1886.

As chairman and commissioner of the Chicago- California Colonization Association, Mr. Waters purchased a tract of land, with water, and estab- lished that colony on a sound basis in what is

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

now known as East Redlands, San Bernardino county. He promoted the building of Redlands and was one of the foremost public-spirited citi- zens of that city. In fact, his prominence in local affairs caused him to become known as "the father of Redlands." He was chiefly instrumental in the incorporation of Redlands as a city of the sixth class, and he was chosen the first city attorney, but resigned at the end of a year. With the as- sistance of E. G. Judson he raised the necessary funds ($42,800) to pay for the right of way for the Southern California Railway Company to build the line from San Bernardino through Red- lands to Mentone, now known as the kite-shaped track. At different times he was a director in the Union Bank, the First National Bank, the Craf- ton Water Company and East Redlands Water Company. He was secretary of the Redlands Hotel Company and built the Windsor Hotel. As president of the Redlands Street Railway Company, he was the chief factor in the laying of the tracks and securing of the franchise for the building of the street railroad. During the year in which he served as general manager of the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, he brought its financial affairs up from a very low ebb to a prosperous condition, pushing its development forward steadily. Besides reducing its indebted- ness nearly $500,000, he left the company with over $1 10,000 in its treasury and with practically unlimited credit, its stock selling at $160 per share, par value being $100. In the early years of the growth of Redlands he was instrumental in the building of all the business blocks in the town. In fact, it is impossible to mention any public enterprise of note that was projected dnr- ing the period of his residence in the beautiful little city in which his name did not stand fore- most as a supporter. The reputation for beauty which has caused the town to be known through- out the entire country is due not a little to his far-seeing judgment.

In 1894 Mr. Waters removed to Los Angeles and built a residence on Adams street, where he has since made his home. He has done his full share in the building up of this city and is con- nected with many of its most substantial business institutions: He is vice-president of the Citizens Bank and a director of the Columbia Savings Bank, and has been treasurer of the Los Angeles

Chamber of Commerce and president of the Los Angeles Directory Company. Besides his city interests he is connected with ontside enterprises, notably the Pasadena Consolidated Gas Company, of which he is president. In 1897 the council chose him to serve on the board of park commis- sioners and he filled the position to the entire satisfaction of the public, but after a year re- signed, owing to business demands that required all of his time.

At the earnest solicitation of his friends in Los Angeles, in 1898 Mr. Waters reluctantly con- sented to the use of his name as a candidate for congress from the sixth district of California. At the congressional convention in Sacramento he was nominated by acclamation, without one dis- senting vote. The nominating speech was made by his old friend, ex-Governor John L. Beveridge, of Illinois. After a vigorons campaign he was elected by a plurality of three thousand five hun- dred and forty-two, this being the first time fusion was defeated in the district.

When Mr. Waters arrived in Washington he was a stranger to the ways of the capitol. Polit- ical diplomacy of the brand that is required to ac- complish things in Washington was quite un- known to him. He was familiar with large af- fairs, but familiar with them from a business rather than from a political standpoint, and he brought into his congressional work more of the business than of the political plan of procedure. Other men in this and other congresses have tried this very thing and have not succeeded very well. Mr. Waters has succeeded splendidly, and to-day he stands in the house of representatives regarded by all as a safe man to follow, sought by the leaders for his counsel, and gradually preparing himself to assume the proportions of a national character.

The reciprocity treaty with Jamaica, which was sent to the senate for ratification, was considered to be a very serious blow at the citrus fruit indus- try of California. Whether it would have so proved is quite another matter, but Southern California got up in arms against the treaty and Mr. Waters set out to see what could be done to defeat it. Had the treaty been before the house it would have been easier, but it was before the senate, where work for a new man is hard. How- ever, Mr. Waters used business arguments with

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

a nicety of diplomacy mixed with them that caught those senators with whom he talked. Fortunately he was backed by the whole Califor- nia delegation, and this assisted him greatly, but the brunt of the work fell upon Mr. Waters. As a result the treaty was conceded, after a while, to be dead for this session of congress, at least, and it now sleeps peacefully in the archives of the senate committee on foreign relations.

The Southern California Forestry Association had long wanted congress to pass a bill to punish persons who start fires on the public domain. Mr. Waters, early in the session, introduced an amendment to the existing law for the "Preven- tion of Fires Upon the Public Domain," making it possible for the Forestry Association to prose- cute persons who carelessly or maliciously start forest fires. This amendment was put through the house by Mr. Waters without a ripple of ex- citement. It was afterwards passed by the sen- ate, being called up by Senator Bard, and it is now the law of the land.

Mr. Waters has introduced some important ap- propriation bills. Among these is the bill appro- priating $550,000 for the improvement of the in- ner harbor at San Pedro. This bill was not in- troduced with any idea of having it taken up at this session; it was simply put in so as to allow Mr. Waters to start work upon it gently, picking up a supporter here and there, advancing this argument and that in its favor, and getting mat- ters generally in such shape that at the opening of the next session he will be in a position to be- gin to push quite hard where he is merely shov- ing now. It is going to be a difficult task to put this bill through congress; may be it cannot be done until the work upon the outer harbor at San Pedro has been completed. He has also intro- duced a bill appropriating not more than $50,000 for the establishment of a light and fog signal station at Point Dume, Los Angeles county; a bill for the erection of a new public building at Santa Barbara at a cost not to exceed $85,000; a bill to increase the compensation of criers and bailiffs in all of the United States courts; and a bill to increase the salary of the United States marshal in the southern district of California from $3,000 to $4,000 per year.

Probably no project is more important in the minds of Southern Californians than the

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Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 36

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 996

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996