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 156

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

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DAVID BRIAN. A resident of Los Angeles since 1891, Mr. Brian was born in Lawrence county, Ill., December 14, 1855, being the third child in the family of John M. and Leah (Lan- dis) Brian, natives respectively of Hesse-Darm- stadt. Germany, and Richland county, Pa. In 1835 his father came to America, having served in the Prussian army for ten years as a com- missioned officer. During his entire residence in this country he made his home in Lawrence county, Ill., where he first followed the milling

business, and later carried on a farm. In reli- gion he adhered to the Lutheran faith, in which lie had been reared, and he continued faithful to its teachings until his death, at sixty-eight years of age. His wife. who also died in Law- rence county, was a daughter of Samuel Landis. a Pennsylvanian who spent his last years in the then frontier state of Illinois.

In a family of four sons and two daughters, all of whom are still living except one son, David Brian was third in order of birth. The district schools afforded him fair educational advantages, while on the home farm he learned lessons of industry, thoroughness and perse- verance. Engineering in some of its branches has been his occupation ever since he was eight- een, at which time he became a switchman in the St. Louis yards of the Indianapolis & St. Louis, Railroad. Two years later he secured employment as stationary engineer with James A. Cunningham, of Vincennes, Ind. On the burning down of the factory, he turned his at- tention to agriculture, and for two years carried on a farm in Wabash county, Ill. However, en- gineering was more to his taste than farming, and he resumed his old occupation, taking a position as stationary engineer in a flour mill at Sumner, Ill.

On coming to Los Angeles, in May, 1891, Mr. Brian was employed to assist in putting in the plant of the Los Angeles Consolidated Railway Company (now the Los Angeles Rail- way Company), and on the opening of the plant he was made second assistant engineer, after- ward being promoted to first engineer. The latter position he resigned in June, 1898, in order to accept a place with the San Gabriel Electric Company, whose plant he started with one engine and four boilers. The capacity is now five thousand horse-power, having been doubled since the first engine was put in. He continues in the position of engineer, and his services here, as elsewhere, have proved ac- ceptable and satisfactory. Along the line of his chosen occupation, he is identified with Los Angeles Division No. 2, Stationary Engineers. while fraternally he is associated with the Inde- pendent Order of Foresters; the Uniform Rank, K. O. T. M .; and the Odd Fellows, being connected with the lodge in Sumner, Ill., where he was initiated into the order.

The marriage of David Brian and Frances L. Fisher was solemnized in Lawrence county, Ill., at the home of the bride's father, M. C Fisher, a pioneer of Richland county, Ill., but for years a resident of Lawrence county. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Brian, at No. 727 Clin- ton street, is brightened by the presence of their children, of whom there are six, namely: Callie, Ora, Elmer, Flora, Ina and Cyrena. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Churchi and attendants at its services, besides being in-

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terested in various societies connected with the congregation. While Mr. Brian is a stanch Re- publican, yet his interest in politics has never led him into partisanship nor has he ever sought official honors or political prominence, his tastes being in the direction of business pursuits and domestic pleasures rather than public affairs.

W. P. BUTCHER. Santa Barbara has no more enthusiastic advocate of her manifold charms than W. P. Butcher, lawyer, scholar and man of letters. Of English descent, he was born in Camden county, Mo., February 14, 1854, a son of John Wesley Butcher, a native of Granger county, Tenn. The paternal grand- father was born in England, and married a Ger- man lady, and upon immigrating to the United States located in Montgomery county, Md. The mother of W. P. Butcher, one of the most noble and interesting of women, was formerly Esther Young Callison, and was born at . Abing- don, Va., a daughter of John K. Callison, who removed from Scotland to Virginia, and there engaged in farming. Mrs. Butcher reared her sons and daughters to be use- ful and capable men and women, and herself lived to the age of four score and one years. Of the sons, John H., who was a practicing law- yer in Rolla, Mo .; Oliver and James, who were farmers, were soldiers in the Union army dur- ing the Civil war; Marion is a farmer in Mis- souri, and Roland died in the Iron state; Mary, Almira and Sarah are deceased; and Juliette is living in Missouri.

John Wesley Butcher was a clergyman in the Baptist Church, and preached for several years in Missouri. Upon coming west he built a flat boat upon which he traveled down the river to Cairo, then by boat to St. Louis, and up the Osage river to Camden county, near Linncreek, where he entered land and improved a farm, clearing it of timber and preparing the soil for the reception of crops. In 1854 he removed to Laclede county, Mo., and settled in the heart of the wilderness ten miles from any house, and there also he endured the hardships of the pio- neer, but developed a most successful stock- farm. In Missouri also located his brother, David, who emulated him in success, but dif- fered in political affiliation and general charac- ter, for he was in all things a southerner, and consequently a slaveholder. As a freesoiler and an abolitionist, John Wesley Butcher exerted quite an influence in his locality, but it was un- fortunately an antagonistic one, for his was the only family within a radius of ten miles which was loyal to the Union. His oldest son, John H .. was a fearless man and a radical abolitionist, and with his brothers, James and Oliver, served all through the war. He was promoted to the rank of major in the Missouri regiment of in- fantry in . which he served, and was wounded

while engaged in conflict with Colonel Coffec. It is not surprising that in the face of such un- daunted courage the neighbors who had for- merly been friendly with the Butcher family resorted to all manner of devices to indicate their displeasure at their attitude in regard to the Union, and that they emphasized their hos- tility by burning their fences, outhouses and crops. In the face of this calamity the family were reduced to dire straits, particularly so be- cause the father had died in 1860, and the sense of personal responsibility fell heavily upon the sons of the house. As the oldest son, it be- hooved W. P. Butcher to leave home and face the problem of self-support, and it is no exag- geration to say that his lot was an unusually hard one, and that his perseverance and grit alone overcame the conflicting obstacles.

At the age of twenty Mr. Butcher began to teach school, having acquired his education by dint of hard study and attendance at the public schools. There materialized also the opportu- nity, long sought, to study law, and his first instruction in the science was under State Sen- ator W. I. Wallace, of Lebanon, Mo., and re- sulted in his admission to the bar of Missouri in 1881. Until his removal to California in 1883 he practiced in Lebanon, Mo., and his first four years in the west were devoted to travel through different portions of the state. After locating in Santa Barbara in 1887 he engaged in a general law practice, and his wide under- standing of legal principles has gained for him an enviable reputation among the professional men of the city. In his literary capacity Mr. Butcher contributes to a wide range, his pro- ductions including prose and poetry. Among the latter, "An Evening by the Sea" and "A Morning by the Sea" are considered particularly fine expressions of poetic license.

The marriage of Mr. Butcher and Laura Hurtzig occurred in Santa Barbara. Mrs. Butcher was born in Forest Hill, Cal., and is a daughter of Franz Hurtzig, deceased, a gradu- ate of Leipzig, Germany, and one of the pio- neers of California. One of the best educated men in the state, he was a graduate physician, although he did not practice, and had one of the finest libraries of Greek and Latin literature to be found in the west. He was formerly engaged in mining and owned a very rich and promising mine, but failed to realize his expectations be- cause of the dishonesty of his partners, in whose judgment and good management he relied. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Butcher: Tillie, who is eleven years of age, and William Preston, Jr., who is nine years of age, and a natural poet. Mr. Butcher is frater- nally associated with the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and with his wife is a member of the Eastern Star. In politics he is a Republican.

V hos . Stroluna .

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHIEF THOMAS STROHM. A strenuous and many-sided activity has characterized the career of Chief Thomas Strohm, and no tinge of narrowness or misdirection has marred the ambitions and abilities out of which has grown an enviable popularity, and fashioned what the community of Los Angeles acknowledges one of its strong and desirable citizens, as well as the most efficient fire department chief the city has known for years. Out of his multitudinous observations of life Mr. Strohm has evolved a philosophy regarding perfect health and general physical well-being, which pre-supposes that the possessor of this inestimable boon called health, has in a corresponding degree a clear intelli- gence, high morality, and capacity for all- around common sense and well doing. Acting upon this conviction he has spent many years of his life in teaching people the art of physical development, and is one of the expert authori- ties in a line of study which is receiving more and more the sanction and approval of thought- ful minds. In this connection he organized the Los Angeles Athletic club in 1885, and for two years was the instructor of physical culture.

The traditions and accomplishments of the Strohm ancestry have their location in Wurtem- berg, Germany, and in this prosperous and re- nowned portion of the empire, near the city of Ulm, Chief Strohm was born, November 5, 1846: His father, Matthew, who was born in 1808, was also a native of Wurtemberg, as was his mother, Anna Barbara (Jauch) Strohm, daughter of Mathias Jauch, representative of a very old and distinguished Wurtemberg family. The elder Strohm was a master mason, con- tractor and builder in Germany, and in 1852 brought his family to America, the sailing vessel from Havre to New Orleans making the long journey in three months. He then sailed up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati, where he engaged in contracting and building, an occupation continued until his death, July 2, 1860. His brother, Capt. Thomas Strohm, received his commission in Germany by reason of valiant service in the Wurtemberg cavalry. The mother, who died in Cincinnati in 1879, at the age of sixty-seven years, was the parent of eleven children, seven of whom grew to matur- ity, and four are living. Thomas and John, the latter of whom is lieutenant of chemical engine No. 2, are the only members of the family on the coast. Another son, Prof. Matthew Strohm, is instructor of gymnastics in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and has held the position for thirty-four years.

Chief Strohm was reared in Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated in the public schools. In 1865 lie was apprenticed to learn the trade of machinist in the A. B. Hollabird shops, and at the same time perfected himself to become professor of gymnastics. In 1868 he removed to Kansas

City, Mo., and was employed as leading ma- chinist in the J. B. Green shops for eighteen months, and simultaneously taught gymnastics in the Turn-Verein. Upon removing afterwards to St. Louis he was employed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company in their shops, and was leader of the St. Louis Turn-Verein until 1872. During that year he settled in San Fran- cisco, and was for three months in the Pacific inachine shops, also was connected with the Turn-Verein. He was then in the shops of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company at Sacra- mento, and in the latter part of 1873 went to Marysville, this state, where for eighteen months he worked in the shops of Booth & Co. dur- ing the day time, and taught gymnastics during the evening. After returning to San Francisco he was a machinist for three months in the United States mint, after which he yielded to the solicitations of the Los Angeles Turn- Verein and became their gymnasium instructor, coming to Los Angeles in March of 1876. At Wilmington he was later employed in the shops of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and after the removal of the shops to Los Angeles he con- tinued in his former capacity until 1878. A later venture was the starting of a grocery business on the corner of First and Vine streets, which was continued for seven years, and then substi- tuted by the manufacture of ice and soda. For the carrying out of the latter enterprise ex- tensive ice machinery was put in, also soda works, and after a time soda alone was manu- factured. This business is still having an un- interrupted era of success, at No. 323 Towne avenue, and is known as the Excelsior Soda Works, being run by the sons of Mr. Strohm.

Since 1876 Mr. Strohm has been from time to time connected with the Los Angeles fire de- partment and was at first with the No. I Engine Company. In August of 1887 he was elected chief of the fire department of Los Angeles, and resigned from the position in 1888, his re-elec- tion followed in 1889. After resigning again in 1891 he returned to his gymnastic teaching, and in 1893 was elected councilman from the seventh ward and served for one term. In April of 1900 he was again elected chief of the Los Angeles fire department, and has ever since filled this responsible position with credit to himself and the city which he represents. Under his admin- istration the department has been greatly im- proved and enlarged, and is now a full-paid de- partment of one hundred and twenty men. Of the eighteen different houses four are double, and there are eleven engine companies, five hose companies, two chemical engine compa- nies, and four hook and ladder trucks, eighty horses being required in the department. All the latest and most expeditious devices for ex- tinguishing fire are adopted regardless of cost, including the latest electric fire alarms.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

In Los Angeles Mr. Strohm married Emily Schubnell, who was born in Oregon, and of this union there are four children: Lewis R., Anna B., Clarence B., and Walter T. Mr. Strohm is prominent fraternally, and variously interested in the best organizations in the coun- try. He was made a Mason while living in Marysville, and is now associated with Los An- geles Lodge No. 42, in which he is past master; was raised to Los Angeles Chapter No. 33; is a member of the Council, R. & S. M .; Command- ery No. 9, K. T., in which he was captain-gen- cral in 1883; and is also connected with Al Ma- lakiah Temple, N. M. S. The Ancient Order of United Workmen and Benevolent Protective Order of Elks number him among their mem- bers. He is associated with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Germania Turn- Verein, in which organization in various places he has been active for forty years. A Republi- can in politics, he has served on county and city central committees, has been active in his ward, and was a delegate to the state convention in 1898 which nominated Hon. H. T. Gage for governor.

REV. EVERETT L. CONGER, D. D. Rep- resentative of a family holding an honored place in the annals of our nation is Dr. Conger, who by his own useful and helpful life has added lustre to the family name. He was born De- cember 23, 1839, in Cherry Grove, Knox county, Ill., where his parents, L. E. and Mary WV. (Hurd) Conger, natives respectively of New York and Vermont, located in 1837. His father was a rugged pioneer farmer who entered gov- ernment land with every dollar he could earn and became an extensive dealer in cattle and lands. He was one of the founders of the Re- publican party, a champion of its principles and a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. He moved to Galesburg in 1850, where he was one of the prime movers, and gave largely of his increasing fortune in founding Lombard Col- lege, under the auspices of a liberal theology, and the first institution (after Oberlin) to open its doors to women for an equal education with men. In 1870 he moved to Iowa and established a bank at Dexter, where he died two years later. Of his thirteen children all but two at- tained maturity, E. L. being the third of these.

The eldest son, George W., enlisted in the Civil war and sleeps in an unknown grave. Harriet married John Thomas, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hannah W. married O. P. Williams, of Dexter, Iowa, where she died. Edwin Hurd, who graduated from Lombard at nineteen, en- listed as a private in the Civil war, rose to the rank of captain, marched with Sherman to the sea and was honorably discharged as brevet- major at the close of the war. After graduating

from the Albany (N. Y.) law school, lie settled in Iowa, where he served his fellow citizens as county supervisor, county treasurer, state treas- urer, and for three terms as congressman, finally resigning this position to become minister to Brazil under President Harrison. Under Presi- dent Mckinley he was transferred to Pekin, China, where he so honored his country and immortalized his name in the dreadful siege of July, 1900. Helen, Mrs. George Pierce, died in Des Moines, Iowa. Alta married Charles Baldwin, now deceased. For many years she has been in Washington, D. C., with the botan- ical division of the agricultural department. Frank is with the Graham & Morton Steamship Company in St. Joseph, Mich. John W. is agent for the Douglas-Lacy Company, bankers and brokers of New York, at Prescott. Ariz. Wil- liam became a prominent banker and financier in Iowa and died at Fresno, Cal. Mary W. is the wife of Capt. E. A. Edwards, of the Twenty- fifth United States Infantry, who was wounded at San Juan Hill in the Spanish war and is now detailed at Washington, D. C., in writing up the records of that struggle for the war depart- ment.

E. L. Conger was graduated at Lombard Col- lege with the degrees of A. B. and A. M. He received liis theological education at St. Law- rence University, in New York. Buchtel College of Ohio gave him the honorary degree of D. D. During his ministerial work of forty years he has held only four pastorates, these being at Monroe, Wis .; Taunton, Mass .; Concord, N. H., and Pasadena, Cal. The large and pros- perous Universalist Church at Pasadena was or- ganized and built up under his leadership. He was also a close adviser and co-worker with his parishioner and friend, Hon. A. G. Throop, in establishing the Throop Polytechnic Insti- tute. For some years he was financial agent for Lombard College in Illinois, whose endow - ment and patronage lie largely increased, be- sides starting its theological department, which was afterward named the Ryder Divinity School, in honor of Dr. William H. Ryder, of Chicago, a very liberal giver to its endowment fund.

Dr. Conger's first wife, Jenny Biddlecome, died in Monroe, Wis., leaving a daughter, Jenny, who is the wife of E. C. Conger, of the Union Hardware Company, Los Angeles. His second wife, Annie Smith Dwinell, is buried with their daughter, May, in Taunton, Mass. In 1875 Dr. Conger married Miss Harriet A. Drowne, a native of Providence, R. I. They have two children, Ray, who is now in the Union Savings Bank of Pasadena; and Lyda. wife of Richard A. Vose, a native of Maine, now living in Clinton, Iowa.

Failing health from overwork compelled the doctor to relinquish the arduous duties of a

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large parish, but his deep interest in the wel- fare of others keeps him active in the educa- tional, charitable, philanthropic and religious work of the community.

CAPT. D. W. MARTIN, chief of police of Santa Barbara, is a popular and efficient officer, and has realized, in his administration, the ex- pectations of those who placed him in his pres- ent responsible position. During the years that have elapsed since 1883 he has been continually before the public eye, and in one capacity or an- other has been called upon to defend life and property against the unruly. Yet during all that time, while thrown with the vicious, the desperate and the misguided, he has maintained a dignity of demeanor, a common sense judg- ment, and a consistent understanding of human nature, compatible with his duty as a public servant and gentleman. Furthermore it is em- phatically asserted by those who know of his coming and going that at no time have his various positions been used for personal gain at the expense of public confidence, a catastrophe which only too often darkens the career of less public-spirited and less honorable men.

A southerner by instinct and training, Mr. Martin was born in Louisville, Ky., November 19, 1854, a son of Thomas C. Martin, who was born in Nashville, Tenn. The paternal grand- father, Thomas, was also born in Tennessee, and there engaged in farming until his removal to near Louisville, Ky., where, in July of 1876, he attained to the age of ninety-nine years. He was of Scotch descent, and served in the war of 1812, his father, equally patriotic, having been a soldier in the war of the Revolution. Thomas C. Martin removed from Kentucky to St. Jo- seph, Mo., when his son, D. W., was six months old, and there engaged in the livery business and also was a veterinary surgeon. With hopes of more rapid financial gain he went to Mon- tana in 1860, and for eight years was engaged in mining with fluctuating success. It is sur- mised that the result of his experiment was the conviction that after all a sure and steady business career was the most desirable if not the most exciting, for he returned to Atchison, Kans., and re-engaged in the livery business until removing to Santa Barbara in 1875. In the beautiful Southern California city he lived until his death in February of 1890, his wife having died in 1883. Before her marriage the mother of Captain Martin was Sarah Shumake, who was born in Kentucky, and became the mother of eight children, three of whom are liv- ing, the youngest being Captain Martin.

Captain Martin was educated in St. Joseph, Mo., and Atchison, Kans., and in 1869 went to work on farms in the vicinity of the latter- named city. He eventually became associated with the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad, and ran

from Atchison to St. Joe. In November of 1876 he engaged in ranching in Santa Barbara county, Cal., and for the following three years was in- terested in teaming. He then entered the em- ploy of Col. W. W. Hollister, and in 1883 was appointed special night officer for the city of Santa Barbara. From then on his promotion was in accord with his pronounced ability as an officer, and in 1884 he was elected marshal of the city for two years, his re-election following in 1886, 1888 and 1890. Though defeated for the office of marshal in 1892, he was elected in November of the same year a constable, and re-elected in 1895 for four years, and in April of 1896 was elected marshal for two years, and re-elected for an equal length of time in 1898. In January of 1900, when the new city charter provided for the appointment of a chief of po- lice, he secured the appointment, and now has six officers under him. Captain Martin is an ex-member of the county central committee. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and is prominent in fraternal circles, being asso- ciated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Santa Barbara Lodge No. 156, and with the Encampment; with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of which he is financier; with the Foresters of America, and with the Benevo- lent Protective Order of Elks, of which he is a charter member in the Santa Barbara Lodge.

In Santa Barbara Mr. Martin married Frances Sanchez, a native of Ventura, Cal., and a mem- ber of one of the old Spanish families. To Mr. and Mrs. Martin have been born six chil- dren, Ida May, Daniel A., Walter B., Mabel, Dora and Blanche.

JOHN TEMPLETON CHAMBERS. As chief engineer of the Los Angeles city hall, Mr. Chambers discharges one of the many impor- tant responsibilities which have come his way, and which have won for him a deservedly high reputation among his fellow craftsmen. Nor is a minute understanding of wheels and cogs and pistons his only claim to recognition, for wherever his wandering life has temporarily found repose and occupation, whether on the large waterways of the country, or in the wild and dangerous mining localities of Montana, Wyoming and Utah, he has found interests other than his boyhood occupation, and has had a voice in the political and general advance- ment.

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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 156

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