Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 101

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366

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posed of his interest in the business. Taking the oath of office in January, 1890, he served two terms, retiring in January, 1894.

On settling up his official and business mat- ters in Iowa Mr. Manning came to Pasadena, Cal. In 1892 he had purchased ten acres in deciduous fruits at Lamanda Park, and as soon as he settled on the place he began to make im- provements. The property is situated at the end of East Villa street, on the corner of Santa Anita avenue. Since coming here he has bought an additional tract of nine acres, and now has nineteen acres in orchards of various fruits. In addition he owns three hundred and twenty acres, with water right, at Imperial, which is superintended by his son, Charles C. While liv- ing in Clinton, Mo., he married Miss Mary E. Kinne, who was born at Bloomingdale, IIl. They have three children living, namely: Mrs. Olive J. Aldrich, of La Habra valley, Cal .; Charles C., of Imperial; and Leroy, at home.

The Pasadena Farmers' Club has Mr. Man- ning among its members. He has always been a stanch Republican, voting and working for the party's success. In religions connections he is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Pasadena. The days of his army service are kept in memory through his identi- fication with Godfrey Post, G. A. R., and he was also active in the post at Rock Rapids, of which at one time he was commander. In mat- ters fraternal he is associated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and is especially prominent in Masonry, into which he was initiated at Rock Rapids, Iowa. While living there he was a past master of the blue lodge, but is now connected with Pasa- dena Lodge No. 272, F. & A. M., though still retaining his membership in the chapter and commandery at Rock Rapids (in which latter he was eminent commander) and in El Raid Tem- ple, N. M. S., Sioux Falls, S. D. Among the people of Lamanda Park he has many friends who respect him for his business ability, excel- lent official service and integrity as a man.

MITCHELL H. SALISBURY. The super- intendent of the North Pasadena Land and Water Company is a descendant of a New Eng- land family and a son of Hiel and Charlotte (Mitchell) Salisbury, natives of New York, and pioneers of Whiteside county, Ill. Upon the home farm in that county he was born May II, 1859, being the youngest of four children, one of whom, H. H., is engaged in the plumbing business at Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. After the death of her husband the mother came to the Pacific coast and has since made Los Angeles her home. The boyhood years of Mitchell H. Salisbury were passed principally in Lyons, Clinton county, Iowa, where he received

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a public-school education. One of his first posi- tions was that of stationary engineer in Grundy county, Iowa, after which, as a member of the firm of Salisbury Brothers, he was for seven years engaged in business as a machinist and pipe fitter at Atlantic, same state. Also, for eighteen months he served in the capacity of city marshal. On leaving Atlantic he became a traveling salesman for the Bostedo Package and Cash Carrier Company of Chicago, whose sys- tem he installed in different states. It was in their behalf that he first came to the coast, spending a few weeks in Los Angeles in 1891. While business duties obliged him soon to re- turn east, he did so with the conviction that one day he would return here as a resident. In 1892 he was burned out in Omaha, and instead of rebuilding he removed to California, settling in Pasadena.

Three months after his arrival Mr. Salisbury was appointed superintendent of the North Pasadena Water Company, and has since filled the position. During this time the capacity of the works have been trebled by the addition of two large pumping plants. Several miles of mains have been built and the system greatly ex- tended. As he thoroughly understands ma- chinery and engineering, he has proved a valu- able man to the company, and to him is largely due the credit for its successful continuance in business. In politics he is a Republican, and fraternally is connected with the Modern Wood- men of America. While living in Atlantic, Iowa, he married Miss Eudora Pressnall, who was born in Indiana. Four children were born of their union, namely: Ralph, who is a stationary en- gineer; Clarence; Alice, who died at eight years of age; and Gladys.

HON. WILLIAM H. COFFIN. A résumé of the life of William H. Coffin recalls to our minds the days of "bleeding" Kansas, when free-state and pro-slavery adherents bitterly contested for the supremacy of power and when every man carried his life in his hands. In all the work necessary for the securing of Kansas as a non-slavery state, Mr. Coffin was foremost, and perhaps none of his acts was more im- portant than those in connection with the un- derground railroad, over which he helped many a fleeing slave to freedom. Since 1887 he has made his home in Pasadena, where he erected and occupies a comfortable residence on the corner of North Raymond avenue and Roberts street.

As early as 1640 Tristram Coffin came from England and bought Nantucket Island from the Indians. Later in life he joined the Society of Friends. His descendants remained on the island and engaged in the whaling business. However, after some time the island became over-populated, and at this juncture Bethuel

Coffin headed a colony of Friends that settled in Guilford county, N. C. There he improved a farm, on which years later the battle of Guil- ford Courthouse was fought and the Friends' meeting house used as a hospital to succor the wounded soldiers. In 1825 he removed to Mil- ton, Ind., where he died. His son, Elijah, was born in Guilford county, N. C., and removed about 1824 to Milton, Ind. which city he helped to lay out, and later engaged in business there as a merchant, also was the first postmaster of the town, holding the office under General Jackson. A man of great liberality and public spirit, his influence was constantly given to pro- mote enterprises for the benefit of his home town. In 1833 he settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in a wholesale business for two years. Leaving that city he accepted a position as the first cashier of the State Bank of Indiana, having charge of its branch at Rich- mond. The bank's charter expired in twenty- five years, and after a long service covering that period he wound up the company's affairs and retired to an honorable leisure. For thirty-two years he was clerk and presiding officer of the Indiana yearly meeting of Friends. In politics he was a Whig and on the disintegration of that party became a Republican. Regarding the slavery question he was a stanch abolitionist. He had a cousin, Levi Coffin, who was president of the underground railroad.

The wife of Elijah Coffin was Naomi Hiatt, who was born in North Carolina, of Holland- Dutch ancestry who removed from Virginia to North Carolina. Her father, Benajah Hiatt, a native of that state. was a pioneer of Milton, Ind., and engaged in farming there, also served as a minister in the Society of Friends. Mrs. Coffin was a woman of deep spiritual convic- tions and accomplished much good through her self-sacrificing labors as a minister in the Friends' Church. Her death occurred in Rich- mond, Ind., when she was sixty-eight, and her husband died in the same town when sixty-four. They were the parents of two sons and five daughters, all living, of whom William H. was third in order of birth and is the only son in California. He was born at Milton, Ind., Sep- tember 25, 1825, and was eight years of age when the family settled in Cincinnati, and ten when they returned to Indiana to settle in Rich- mond. Though he had only the most meager educational advantages, he has always been in- terested in the securing of good schools and was a generous contributor to Earlham College at Richmond, Ind. When fifteen years of age he entered the bank to assist his father, but the work was uncongenial and he chose farming in- stead. As early as 1840 he began to be inter- ested in the slavery question, and nothing pleased him more than to aid some slave on the road to freedom. In one night he helped to get

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twenty-seven negroes through the lines, and it gave him pleasure afterward to learn that all of these safely reached Canada. In 1845 he mar- ried Miss Sarah W. Wilson, who was born at Milton, Ind., her father, John Wilson, having gone there from South Carolina. Their golden wedding in 1895 was an occasion of great re- joicing and was appropriately celebrated at their Pasadena home. After a happy married life of almost fifty-seven years, Mrs. Coffin passed away November 21, 1901, aged seventy-seven years. They were the parents of nine children, five of whom attained maturity, namely: John W., a builder living in Pasadena; William Henry, a farmer near Richmond, Ind .; Albert, a farmer and stockman at Salem, Ill .; Robert, of Pasadena; and Frank, a hardware merchant of Richmond, Ind.

For some years after his marriage Mr. Coffin engaged in farming near Richmond, Ind., but the fall of 1854 found him among the pioneers of Kansas, his primary object in going there being to aid the free-state movement. Settling in Leavenworth county, he engaged in farming there for eleven years. In 1858 he was elected a member of the Leavenworth constitutional convention, which met and drafted a state con- stitution, opposing the principles of the Le- compton convention and perfectly legal in all technicalities. It has been one of the pleasures of Mr. Coffin's later years to put in written form his recollections of Kansas during those stirring days that preceded the war, and the memoirs possess intrinsic value by reason of his connec- tion with many important events. These mem- oirs have been published by the Kansas State Historical Society under the authority of the State legislature.

When the war came to an end Mr. Coffin re- turned to Indiana and settled on a large farm near Richmond, on Greene's Fork, where he engaged in stock-raising and general farming. Meantime he acted as a commissioner of the state reform school located at Plainfield. In 1881 he returned to Kansas and settled in Law- rence, where he built a beautiful residence at Haskell's institute overlooking the city. In the founding of this institute he was a leading fac- tor, and took great interest in superintending the farms and instructing the Indians in the principles of agriculture. At the resignation of Dr. Marvin he also resigned his position, which he had filled with such credit. His first visit to California, made in 1886, left such delightful impressions of the Pacific coast that in 1887 he returned to make his home here. For a time he devoted considerable attention to the improve- ment of ten acres, planted in oranges and decid- uous fruits, but this property he sold, and is 110w retired from business cares. Politically he has always been a pronounced Republican. He is interested in the Anti-Saloon League of South-

ern California and in other movements for thic development of the highest citizenship. Like his ancestors, he is devoted to the work of the Society of Friends. For more than forty years he acted as superintendent of a Sunday-school or as an assistant in other departments of the work, and he is still actively aiding to the extent of his ability. During his residence in Kansas he was a member of the committee having charge of the Friends' mission on the Shawnee Indian reserve. While living in Indiana he was a member of the missionary board of the Indi- ana yearly meeting. After the war the govern- ment barracks in Arkansas and other states were turned over to the Friends for the pur- pose of using as schools for colored children, and Mr. Coffin went to Arkansas to assist in the starting of the work and to aid in every way possible as a member of the managing con- mittee. Indeed, in all of the movements for good devised and carried out by the Friends he has been in deep and earnest sympathy, and the society has had no member more efficient and resourceful than is he; and while necessarily his activities have been lessened by the advance of years, he still keeps in touch with all enter- prises for the welfare of his fellowmen.

O. E. GOODALE. On the establishment of the Pacific Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Mr. Goodale was selected for the important position of chief engineer and his service has been so efficient and satisfactory that he has been retained to the present time. The post is no sinecure, for it includes a careful oversight of all mechanical work connected with the plant as well as the management of such buildings as have been or may be erected on the grounds. His responsibilities have grown with each year, as he has witnessed the growth of membership from less than a hundred to more than two thousand.

Descended from an old family of New Eng- land, Mr. Goodale was born in Lewis county, N. Y., December 21, 1849, the oldest of four children and the only son in the family. His father, Nicholas, who was a son of David Goodale, a farmer of Lewis county, himself took up agricultural pursuits, following the same both in New York and in Iowa. During the Civil war he served with Company I, Third Battalion, Fifth Regiment New York Heavy Artillery, and remained at the front until he was honorably discharged for physical disability. About 1871 he settled in Parkersburg, Iowa, and there died in 1892. He married Delia M. Hough, who was born in Lewis county, N. Y., and died in lowa. Her father, John Hough, was a native of Connecticut and died in New York. During the war of 1812 he served in the American army.

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From boyhood Mr. Goodale has been familiar with carpentering, and he also studied architec- ture in New York, after which he engaged in the building business at Booneville, Oneida county. In 1885 he crossed the continent to Los Angeles, where he became an architect. When the Soldiers' Home was started he was appointed superintendent of construction and a year later was made general superintendent, continuing as such until he was transferred to the position of chief engineer. Men who are familiar with engineering claim that it would be difficult to find an engineer who is Mr. Good- ale's equal in thorough knowledge of the work and painstaking oversight of every detail. While living in New York he married Miss Mary A. Hoyt, who was born in Lewis county, that state, and by whom he has a daughter, Florence Adelle. The family are identified with the Christian Church in Los Angeles, where they placed their membership shortly after coming to California. Though not a partisan nor active in politics. Mr. Goodale is known as a stanch Re- publican, whose ballot is always given to the men and movements of the Republican party.

HON. THEO. PARKER LUKENS. Since le came to Pasadena in 1880 the record of the life of Mr. Lukens has been intimately associ- ated with the history and development of the city. A descendant of remote German ancestry and a Pennsylvania family, devoted adherents to the Society of Friends, he is a son of W. E. and a grandson of Moses Lukens, the latter a farmer of the Keystone state. From his native county of Chester, Pa., W. E. Lukens moved to Ohio and settled at New Concord, Muskingum county, but later moved to Putnam and thence to Zanesville. At these various points he was principally engaged in the manufacture of lum- ber. In 1856 he went to Sterling, Whiteside county, Ill., and started a flouring mill on the Rock river, where he continued for many years. Meantime he also became interested in horti- culture and the nursery business both at Ster- ling and Rock Falls, and acquired valuable pos- sessions, representing his judicious and exten- sive investments. His death occurred at sev- enty-four years of age. In early manhood he married Margaret Cooper, daughter of Nicho- las, both born near Hagerstown, Md., and de- scendants of Quaker English ancestors.

Four sons and two daughters comprised the family of W. E. Lukens, namely: Sereno, a ma- chinist in South Bend, Ind .; Emeline and Me- lissa, of Whiteside county, Ill .; W. C., a veteran of the Civil war, and now engaged in horticul- tural pursuits at Redlands, Cal .; Theo. Parker, of Pasadena; and W. L., a molder living in Chi- cago. At New Concord, Muskingum county, Ohio, T. P. Lukens was born October 6, 1848.

From eight years of age he was reared in Illi- nois. His education was completed in Ster- ling high school. While still a mere child he acquired a thoroughi knowledge of the nursery business, and it is probable that he has grafted as much nursery stock as any nurseryman in the world. At one time his father had fifty acres in nursery stock, his specialty being ap- ples and ornamental trees, and Lukens' Nurs- eries were known all over the country, ship- ments being made to every part of the United States. On the retirement of his father, T. P. Lukens became manager of the business, which he conducted for some years, but sold out in 1880 on locating in Pasadena.

When nineteen years of age, Mr. Lukens en- listed in a United States regiment and was sent to Carlisle, Pa., where he was stationed nine months and then honorably discharged. His father was a strong abolitionist and had at his Ohio home one of the leading stations of the underground railroad. Reared under these in- fluences, he naturally espoused the Republican cause, nor has a careful study of national prob- lems during later life given him reason to change his views. While living at Rock Falls, Ill., he served as tax collector for three years and was mayor one term. In that town he was united in marriage with Charlotte Dyer, whose grandfather was a soldier in the war of 1812, while her great-grandfather was a Revolution- ary hero. Her father, David, engaged in farm- ing at Manchester, Vt., where she was born, but later he moved to Illinois, where his last years were spent. By her marriage to Mr. Lukens there is a daughter, Mrs. Helen Jones, of Pasa- dena, whose children, Charlotte and Ralph, are the pride of their grandparents.

On coming to Pasadena in 1880, Mr. Lukens started a small nursery of oranges and peaches. Soon, however, he drifted into other business, and after 1882 engaged in laying pipes for the mains between Pasadena and San Bernardino, as well as in all the settlements along the moun- tains. Next he drifted into the real-estate busi- ness in 1884, and his was the first shingle ever displayed on the streets of Pasadena. At first he had his office in a store on the corner of Colo- rado and Fair Oaks avenue, and while carrying on the business laid out Raymond's addition, Kensington Place and the addition to Olive- wood. His health failing, he took his brother- in-law, H. Dyer, into partnership, organizing the Lukens Land Company, but he still found the burden of business cares too heavy, so in 1887 relinquished his work entirely and traveled for two years. On his return he was earnestly urged to take charge of the Pasadena National Bank, which had been in unfortunate financial condition, its stock being worth only thirty-five cents. Somewhat reluctantly he accepted the management. So successful was he in the work

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that he placed the bank on a paying basis and brought its stock up to par. However, the ac- complishment of this herculean task had been too much for his health, which again gave way, and he resigned the management of the bank.

In the organization of the Board of Trade Mr. Lukens bore an active part and at one time served as its vice-president. In addition to his charming home at No. 195 North Marengo ave- nue, he has built some forty houses in Pasa- dena, but most of these have been sold. Largely through his efforts, the Colorado Street Rail- way Company was organized and he put in the first $10,000 of its $25,000 of stock. The first cement sidewalk in Pasadena was built in front

of his residence. In 1891 he was elected to the council, and during the same year became presi- dent of the board of trustees. Under his admin- istration as mayor, from 1891 to 1895, the sewer system was completed, the first paving done, the first piping and cement reservoirs built. It was the desire of the people to have a business ad- ministration, and in this respect Mr. Lukens more than met their anticipations, his four years of service as mayor proving most helpful to the business interests of the city. Fraternally he is a charter member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen in Pasadena, in which he has passed all the chairs. In Pasadena Lodge, F. & A. M., he was made a Mason, and while in Illi- nois was actively connected with the Odd Fel- lows.

Becoming interested in the idea of reforesting the mountains, in 1897 Mr. Lukens took up ac- tive work along that line, and in 1900 he was appointed agent for this work by Secretary of Agriculture Wilson. Under his supervision men are now engaged in planting pine seeds on the mountains, and much of his time is spent there. For six years he was president of the Mutual Building and Loan Association of Pasadena, and is still a stockholder in the same. Near Bald- win's ranch he has improved an orange orchard of forty acres, in which he also has a number of walnuts. Some of the vineyards and orange groves that he set out in Pasadena years ago are now among the most thrifty in the entire city. One of the measures in which he was most interested and the success of which reflects credit upon his persistence was the library move- ment, to which he was an early contributor and an earnest friend. For years he was a member of the library board of trustees. For eight years he was connected with the board of trus- tees of the California State Normal, which was established at San Diego, but removed to Los Angeles on account of the advantages offered by the latter city. His first appointment came from Governor Markham and his second from Governor Budd; twice he resigned, but it was accepted neither time, the general feeling being that his services were of too valuable a character

to be dispensed with prior to the expiration of his term.

JOHN M. HUNTER. The prolific soil of the Montecito valley proved a boon to many of the settlers who sought here a home in the early days, and among those who came, about 1872, and introduced modern methods of tilling the ground and developing the latent richness thereof, none is entitled to more credit than John M. Hunter, one of the successful ranchers of the valley.

For many years the Hunter family has been identified with Kentucky, where settled the first of their number who immigrated to America. John M. Hunter was born near Georgetown in 1824, and reared on the farm of his parents, Wil- liam and Frances (Hurnden) Hunter. He re- ceived his education in the district schools, and when sixteen years of age was no longer depen- dent upon the family resources, but started out to earn the wherewithal for his own existence. His first stopping place was New Orleans, La., where he lived until 1850. While there he en- listed as a soldier for the Mexican war in 1846, in Colonel Marks' Third Louisiana Regiment. He participated in the battles of Buena Vista and Monterey, but afterward, being on the sick list, was discharged and sent back to New Or- leans.

In 1850 Mr. Hunter came to California via the Isthmus, and up the coast to San Francisco, from where he went to the mines in Sonora and for eleven years engaged, with fluctuating suc- cess, in mining. Later he remained for ten years on Truckee river, four miles above Reno, Nev., where the services which he rendered in the neighborhood and the esteem in which he was held resulted in the naming of a station after him on the Central Pacific railroad. In 1872 Mr. Hunter removed to the locality of which he is now a resident, and bought the ranch which has developed under his industry into a fine and paying property. At first cov- ered with oak trees and shrubs, he has cleared fifty acres of the home place, and is engaged in raising hay and apples, and besides has one of the finest lemon orchards in the valley in which are set out three hundred trees; he now has nineteen acres in orchard. He is one of the charter members of the Santa Barbara Lemon Growers' Exchange, and is otherwise interested in the enterprises which have aided in promot- ing the growth of the valley. In addition to the management of his ranch he has dealt some- what in real estate, and has exerted his influence in the building up of the school system and the erection of schoolhouses. As a stanch Repub- lican he has taken an active part in local politics, and served for four years as supervisor of the county. Fraternally he is associated with the Masonic order at Santa Barbara.

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Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 101

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co. Number of Pages: 1366

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366