USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > 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 44
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Andrew Boyle. The site of what is now Ever- green cemetery was purchased by John Shoe- maker for fifty cents an acre and afterward sold by him for $9,000.
In 1864 Mr. Roeder assisted in founding the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Los Angeles, and later served the lodge as treasurer, warden and past grand. He was married in this city in 1863, his wife being Miss Wilhelmina Huth. They have six children: Henry; Louis, Jr .; Lizzie, wife of Charles Dodge; Carrie, who is the wife of Frank Johansen; Minnie, wife of John Joughin; and Annie, who is single. The success which Mr. Roeder attained in life is due entirely to his industry, frugality, enterprise and tlirift, which have resulted in the ownership by him of some of the best business and residence property in Los Angeles, and he is justly held in esteem as one of the city's most honored pioneers and substantial citizens.
ON. FRED L. BAKER. One of the most important industries of Los Angeles is the Baker iron works, of which Mr. Baker is president and general manager. The plant is situated at Nos. 946-966 Buena Vista street, and is well equipped with every modern convenience. At the time of the establishment of the works only four or five hands were employed, but the increase of the business has been so rapid and steady that now two hundred workmen are eni- ployed and the plant is operated both day and night during much of the year. Its success is dne in a large degree to the intelligence, ability and wise judgment of the manager. The prod- ucts of the plant comprise principally heavy machinery, pumps, boilers, elevators and oil well machinery.
The subject of this sketch was born in Lansing, Mich., in February, 1865, a son of Milo S. and Harriet (Lawrence) Baker. His father brought the family to Los Angeles in 1872, and two years later established the Baker iron works, beginning the business on a very small scale. The original title of Bower & Baker was later changed to M. S. Baker & Co., and he remained connected with the business until his death in 1894. Dur- ing his residence in the east he had been con- nected with a similar business. He had also
represented his district in the legislature while living in Michigan. His wife was a member of a New York family and is now living in Los Angeles. Of his three children, Milo A. is superintendent of the Baker iron works, and the only daughter is living with her mother.
. While still a mere lad Fred L. Baker was em- ployed by the Wells-Fargo Company. As a boy he made considerable money out of his chicken ranch and at the same time he helped his father in the works. He never attended school a day in his life, but studied at home and gained a broad knowledge that has proved most helpful to him in his business career. By the time he was eighteen he was thoroughly familiar with every detail and every department of the iron works. For years before his father's death he practically had entire charge of the business, having risen from a position as apprentice in the shop to fore- man, superintendent, secretary, vice president and president successively, having held the last- named position since the death of his father. The foundation of his success is due largely to his close devotion to business. His assistants in the works are men of ability in their respective departments, and he trusts all matters of detail to them, but his is the master mind, the guiding hand, behind it all.
Thoroughly devoted to business, Mr. Baker nevertheless never neglects his duty as a citizen. He possesses true public spirit, and uses his in- fluence to enhance the best interests of the city, supporting all worthy enterprises for its advance- ment. Reared in the faith of the Republican party he saw no reason, on arriving at mature years, for changing his political views, and lie has hence remained true to the tenets of the party. In 1897 he was chosen to serve in the city council. The following year he was re- elected to the office. He is one of the prominent members of the Chamber of Commerce.
Among the important interests which Mr. Baker has had may be mentioned that of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, which he assisted in organizing and of which he was the president in 1898. The following year he was again offered the same position, but declined, owing to the demands upon his time by reason of his private business affairs. He is vice-president of the Southern California Build-
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
ing and Loan Association, one of the established organizations of its kind in Los Angeles. He is also a local director in the American Surety Com- pany of New York.
In 1897 Mr. Baker erected, at No. 730 North Hill street, the elegant and commodious residence that has since been occupied by his family. He was married in 1887, his wife being Lillian M., daughter of Oscar Todd, who came to Los An- geles from Michigan. They have three children, Earlda, Marjorie and Lawrence.
ON. C. C. WRIGHT. A review of the rep- resentative citizens of Los Angeles and of men who have played an important part in the history of this city and the state would be sadly deficient without a sketch of the life and work of C. C. Wright, who is too well known on the Pacific coast to need special introduction to the public. At the bar he has been a brilliant advocate; in the halls of legislation, a wise and prudent counsellor and able debater; on the ros- trum, an impressive and convincing speaker; and in every field, a controller of the minds of men. Fitted by native courage and intellectual ability to direct affairs and to assume responsibility, he has steadily pursued his way to higher heights of achievement and has long been recognized as a leader in thought and action.
He is a worthy representative of a sterling family of the United States. His father was born upon a plantation in Kentucky, and his mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Paynter, was of Tennessee origin. In his early life the father was engaged in agriculture in the old Blue Grass state, but later he removed to Iowa, and for a number of years lived near Fairfield, where he was highly respected. One of his sons, Dr. W. S., is a practicing physician, well known in Iowa and Colorado, where he has been engaged in his professional labors; and another son, George W., is a successful agriculturist in Iowa.
Born near Fairfield, Iowa, in 1849, C. C. Wright early developed into a student of un- usual aptitude and distinction. His common- school education was supplemented by a course of two years and five months duration in the Fairfield Academy. When eighteen years of age
he entered the Iowa Western University, where he pursued the classical course, and was grad- nated with the honors of his class in the sum- mer of 1872. Long before, he had determined to enter the legal profession, and from this time onward he devoted his entire attention to the mastery of the law. For two years he studied in the office of Judge H. H. Trimble, at Bloom1- field, Iowa, after which, with a view to locating permanently in the west, he came to California, and for six months taught school in this state, in the meantime continuing his special studies. In April, 1875, he established an office in Modesto, the county seat of Stanislaus county, and the same year was honored by being nominated for the position of district attorney. He was elected and officiated for two years in that responsible position and was re-elected in 1877. It was not until 1895, after just a score of years spent in Modesto, that he decided to try his fortunes in the growing city of Los Angeles, where, as he rightly judged, a wider field of achievement awaited him. His reputation as a lawyer and statesman had preceded him and he at once stepped into a fine practice. His offices are in the Wilcox building, and his law library is ex- tensive and well chosen.
In political affairs Mr. Wright has been an advocate of the principles of the Democratic party since becoming a voter. In 1887 he was elected as a representative of the Stanislaus con1 - ty district in the California legislature, and while a member of that honorable body the famous ir- rigation bill became a law. He took an active and interested part in the matter, and having given years of study to everything relating to the subject, he has been considered an authority for years. Nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since he became a Californian, and in this period he has been very influential in its progress in many ways. About the time that he attained his majority he joined the Masonic order, and he also is associated with the Knights of Pythias and the Fraternal Brotherhood.
In his domestic relations Mr. Wright is espe- cially happy, and in the home circle he is seen at his best. His marriage to Miss Mamie Swain, of Contra Costa county, Cal., was solemnized Au- gust 16, 1883. They have one son, Alfred, now attending the public schools of Los Angeles.
BraquerMee
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
B RADNER WELLS LEE. To be a descend- ant of a long line of honorable ancestry might well be the cause of just pride in our country, which, though it boasts no titled nobility, gives place to no land in the number of its loyal and patriotic sons. That Mr. Lee has a notable ancestry the genealogical records amply prove; and it is by reason of this descent that he is eligible to membership in a number of organiza- tions of a most exclusive nature. He is a char- ter member of the Society of Colonial Wars and holds office as its historian. He is also treasurer and a director of the California branch of the Sons of the Revolution. As vice commander of the California Commandery, he is officially con- nected with the Military Order of Foreign Wars, an organization to which no one is eligible ex- cept a commissioned officer or a male descendant in the paternal line of a commissioned officer who served his country in a foreign war.
Tracing the Lee ancestry, Nathaniel Lee (born 1695) was a commissioned officer in the British army, and on his retirement, about 1725, settled at Fishkill, N. Y., on the Hudson, where he married Margaret De Long. He had three sons and four daughters. His eldest son, Thomas, at the very beginning of the Revolutionary war, re- ceived a commission as second lieutenant in the Fourth New York Continental Line, one of the first four regiments organized by the Continental Congress; he was promoted to captain of a con1- pany in the Fifth New York Regiment of the Continental Line, serving in that and other regimental organizations, as a line officer, until the close of the war. He was a gallant soldier and fought in battles along the Hudson and else- where. After the war, in 1790, he settled at Milo, near Penn Yan, N. Y., and there built a colonial mansion which was a landmark for many generations. He died in 1814, at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife in 1833, aged ninety. Three of his sons served in the war of 1812. One of these, Dr. Joshua, served as a surgeon; another, Thomas, Jr., as a colonel, and the third, Sherman, as a major. Dr. Joshua Lee, at a later date, was several times elected to the New York legislature, once (in 1817) having as his opposing candidate his brother Thomas, whom he defeated. In 1833 he was elected to congress from the old Monroe (now Yates
county) district. Col. Thomas Lee, Jr., was elected to the New York legislature in 1816 and removed in 1822 to Detroit, Mich .; he was a member of the first constitutional convention in Michigan.
In the family of Capt. Thomas Lee were four sons and six daughters. Abigail, one of the daughters, married Joseph Ross, afterwards re- moving to Illinois; her grandson, Lewis F. Ross, of Lewiston, Fulton county, Ill., served several terms in the Illinois legislature, and was a member of the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth and fortieth U. S. congress, a presidential elector in 1848 and a member of the Illinois constitutional convention in 1861. One of the sons, James Lee (born 1780), who was the grandfather of Bradner Wells Lee, was an officer in the New York militia, Governor Morgan Lewis issuing his commission in 1805. He was a large land and mill owner at Penn Yan; his mills burned down in 1825, during Lafayette's visit to the United States, the fire, it is said, being caused by the firing of the militia in the vicinity the night before a grand rendezvous in Geneva to pay honor to the general. He married a daughter of Richard Smith, a native of Groton, Conn. (born 1746), and the owner of a large and valuable tan- nery and mill property. Mr. Smith was a mem- ber of a committee of three appointed and sent from Connecticut to Yates county, N. Y., in 1787, to purchase a tract of land for the Society of Friends, of which they were members; they purchased a large tract near Penn Yan, on which a large number of the society settled. One of his sons, Col. Avery Smith, of Penn Yan, served many terms in the New York legislature and was colonel of the One Hundred and Third New York Regiment during the war of 1812, taking part in the battle of Queenstown and other engagements. James Lee died at the old homestead in Penn Yan in 1868. Of his ten children, David Rich- ard Lee was the father of Bradner W. Lee. He was born in 1815 and died in 1886, at East Grove- land, Livingston county, N. Y., where for many years he had been a merchant and farm owner. In the same place his widow, Elizabeth Northrum (Wells) Lee, now resides. They were the parents of three sons, of whom Franklin Scott Lee and James Avery Lee are engaged in the manufacturing business in New York state.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
The English branch of the Wells family, from which Mrs. Elizabeth Lee is a descendant, con- tains among its progenitors Bishop Hugo de Welles, of the English nobility, who was one of the noblemen that procured from the king of England the famous Magna Charta. The pro- genitor of her line of the Wells family in America was Hugh Welles (as the name was then spelled), born in Essex county, England, in 1590. In 1635 he settled in Hartford, Conn., as one of its founders, afterwards removing to Wethersfield, where he died in 1645. He was an ensign in the colonial service and a kinsman of Thomas Welles, the first governor of Connecticut. Three descendants of Hugh Welles served in King Phillip's war. One of these, Capt. Thomas Welles, was in the Falls fight. The line of descent is traced from Hugh Welles to Thomas, Noah, Jonathan, Jonathan (2nd), Col. Daniel, Ira and Isaac Ticheuor Wells (born in Fairfax, Vt., 1807), the last being our subject's grandfather. He married Charity Kenyon, of Washington county, N. Y., in 1830, subsequently removing to Livingston county, N. Y., where he was a prominent business man and respected citizen for years. Jonathan Welles (2nd) was lieutenant- colonel of the Nineteenth Connecticut Regiment in the Revolution.
Bradner W. Lee was born in East Groveland, Livingston county, N. Y., in 1850. He received his education in public schools and by means of a course of private study. From New York, in 1871, he went to Mississippi, where he prepared for the legal profession under the preceptorship of his uncle, Col. G. Wiley Wells, then United States district attorney, northern district of Mississippi, subsequently a member of congress from that state, and later United States Consul- General to Shanghai, China. Mr. Lee was ad- mitted to the bar in that state in 1872, after which he held the position of assistant United States attorney for seven years. On resigning that position he came to Los Angeles in 1879 and associated himself with Judge Brunson and Col. G. Wiley Wells in the firm of Brunson, Wells & Lee. On his arrival in this county he was ad- mitted to practice before the state supreme court, April 30, 1879, and when the United States cir- cuit and district courts were organized for Southern California, he was admitted to practice
in them. At the time of the election of Judge Brunson to the bench of the superior court, the firm was reorganized under the name of Wells, Van Dyke & Lee, Hon. Walter Van Dyke being a member thereof, who after a time was elected to the judicial bench, has since served as judge of the superior court, and is now associate justice of the supreme court. Since then Mr. Lee has been associated with different partners, being for a time a member of the firm of Wells, Guthrie & Lee, later the firm of Wells, Monroe & Lee, next that of Wells & Lee, and upon the admission of Judge Works, ex-justice of the supreme court, the name became Wells, Works & Lee. On account of failing health, Colonel Wells finally retired from practice, and since then the title has been Works & Lee, the senior member being Hon. John D. Works. For eighteen years the offices of the firm were in the Baker block, but now are in the Henne building.
During almost the entire period of his resi- dence in Los Angeles, Mr. Lee has participated in its prominent legal contests, and he has been connected with some of the most noted litigations in the history of the state. He has often been urged to allow his name to go before the people for nomination for public office, as a judicial can- didate, but has steadfastly refused, although always taking an active interest in politics, and has served for two terms as chairman of the Republican county central committee, and was again chosen for that position for a third term in 1900. At the session of the legislature in 1898 he was elected as a trustee of the state library for a term of four years. His attention is largely given to professional work, and he permits no outside matters to interfere with the concentration of his mind upon his practice. By other attor- neys he is said to excel in probate and corpora- tion law. As a citizen and as a man possessing brilliant qualities of mind, he stands honored and respected by his fellow-citizens.
In Philadelphia, Pa., in 1883, Mr. Lee married Miss Helena Farrar, daughter of Col. William Humphrey Farrar, who was born in Lancaster, N. H., in 1828, graduated from Dartmouth Col- lege, and studied law under Hon. Caleb Cushing, former attorney-general of the United States. For many years Colonel Farrar practiced law in the east, During President Pierce's administra-
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tion he was appointed United States attorney for the territory of Oregon, and at the expiration of his term of office he returned to Washington, D. C., where he died in 1873. Mrs. Lee was educated in that city and at Mount de Sales, near Baltimore, Md., also at Notre Dame, near Balti- more. In Los Angeles and vicinity she is well known socially as a lady of culture and artistic ability. Mr. and Mrs. Lee have two children, Bradner Wells Lee, Jr., and Kenyon Farrar Lee, the former fourteen and the latter twelve years of age.
R ICHARD ROBERT TANNER, city attor- ney of Santa Monica, and senior member of the law firm of Tanner & Taft, of Los An- geles and Santa Monica, is well known through- out Southern California and ranks high in his profession. He is one of the native sons of this wonderful state, his birth having occurred in San Benito county in 1858, and during his entire life he has been devoted to the upbuilding of Califor- nia's prosperity.
For more than half a century the Tanner fam- ily has been associated with the Pacific coast, as our subject's father, a native of New York, and a veteran of the Mexican war, located in Cali- fornia in 1847. He was engaged in stock rais- ing in San Bernardino county until 1849, when he went to Sacramento county and engaged in mining and prospecting for two years. Then, returning to San Bernardino county, he resumed his former occupation as a stockman and gave seven years of his life to the business. In 1858 he settled in San Benito county, where he dwelt for many years. His wife was Miss Lavina Bickmore, of Illinois. The Tanners, on one of the ancestral lines, were descendants of Miles Standish.
Richard Robert Tanner was educated in the schools of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, completing his higher studies in the Ventura county schools. Having decided upon the law as his future line of endeavor, he entered the office of Blackstock & Shepherd, of Ventura county, and was admitted to the bar in 1884. Ever since that time he has been a resident of Santa Monica, where he established an office and gradually built up an extensive and representa- țive practice, For the past eleven years he has
been attorney for the city, and during this period has been instrumental in promoting the welfare of this place to a marked degree. He it was who had in charge the task of drawing up the petition and documents relating to the incorporation of Santa Monica, and in countless instances he has rendered services of incalculable value to the city of his choice. Step by step he has risen in his profession and in the estimation of his fellow- citizens by fidelity to his own high principles of personal conduct and to the ethics of his calling. While he never neglects to note and take advan- tage of any point in the progress of a case which may prove advantageous to his client, he scorns the unscrupulous methods of some practitioners and gives his absolute loyalty to whatever he be- lieves is the true and the right. One of the many important cases which he has brought to a suc- cessful issue was that in which he appeared for the town in the case of the Town of Santa Monica vs. John P. Jones, by which the town recovered Ocean Front Park and Seventh Street Park, the former now estimated to be worth $200,000. Another notable case was that of the People of the State of California vs. H. E. Howland, the defendant being charged with perjury. Mr. Tanner prac- tices in the state and United States courts, and his well-prepared cases, clear and logical plead- ing, acknowledged earnestness and integrity possess great weight with judge and jury. Dur- ing the years of 1889 and 1890 he served as deputy district attorney for Los Angeles county under Frank P. Kelley, and gave general satis- faction to all concerned in the proper adminis- tration of justice.
Politically Mr. Tanner is an ardent Repub- lican. Fraternally he belongs to Santa Monica Lodge No. 307, F. & A. M .; Seaside Lodge No. 369, I. O. O. F .; Orange Grove Encamp- ment No. 31, I. O. O. F .; Silver Wave Rebekah Lodge No. 199, I. O. O. F .; Court Santa Mon- ica No. 438, I. O. F .; and Pacific Lodge No. 201, K, of P. For three years he served as a member of the Santa Monica board of education, and in many ways has manifested the deep inter- est which he has in the provision of good school advantages to the rising generation. Briefly, he is an ideal citizen, alert to advance the welfare of his community and country and true in all of the varied relations of life.
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The first marriage of Mr. Tanner took place in 1883, when Miss Elizabetlı J. Robinson be- came his wife. She departed this life some nine years later, and left a little daughter, Nora. In 1893 Mr. Tanner married Miss Seboldina M. Bontty, who was born in Oregon, and who pre- sides over their pleasant home in an admirable manner.
AX LOEWENTHAL, who is attorney for a number of large corporations in Los Angeles and who also carries on a general practice in the courts of the city, is of German birth and parentage, but, having spent the greater part of his life in this country, he is thoroughly American in his tastes and sentiments and, above all, is intensely Californian in his aspirations and ambitions. He was born in Germany in 1858 and was nine years of age at the time the family came to California, settling in Sacramento, where he received an excellent English education in the public schools. He is a son of Rev. H. P. Loewenthal, who for twelve years was rabbi of the Hebrew congregation in Sacramento and for a similar period ministered to the congregation at San José. However, on account of ill health, it became impossible for him to engage in ministerial work. He died in March, 1899, at the home of his son. Rev. H. P. Loewenthal was married in Inovrozlav, Germany, to Natalie Schoenberg, daughter of the Jewish rabbi of that city. She died in 1880 in San Francisco, Cal.
On the completion of the studies of the public schools, Max Loewenthal entered the University of California, where he took the regular course, graduating in 1881, and receiving the degree of A. B. He then began to fit himself for his chosen profession of the law, entering the Hastings Col- lege of Law, and continuing there until his grad- uation in 1884, at which time he was admitted to practice in all the courts of California. He opened an office in San Francisco, where he com- menced in general practice, but after two years, in 1886, he came to Los Angeles, establishing the practice which has since grown to large propor- tions. He has his office in the Bullard block.
While Mr. Loewenthal is not a politician, yet lie has proved liimself to be actively public- spirited and interested in public affairs, whether political or otherwise. The Democratic party
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