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 174

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

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QUINTUS LYMAN SPAULDING. The youngest in a family of five children, Q. L: Spaulding was born in Rumney, N. H., Novem- ber 10, 1865, being a son of Lyman Spaulding and a brother of F. L. Spaulding of Los An- geles. After completing the studies of the dis- trict school, at the age of fourteen he entered Colby Academy at New London. N. H., where he remained for one term. Afterward for eight months he made his home with the family of August Tuffs, of Maulden, Mass., and rode two races for Mr. Tuffs, who was a well-known horseman. However, on account of illness he was obliged to return home. A year later he went to Boston and after a short clerkship in a grocery, began to learn the carpenter's trade, working up from an apprentice. The firm with which he remained for five years made a spe- cialty of church and public buildings and had contracts in every part of New England. Dur- ing 1886 he went to Florida, where he was hotel carpenter in Magnolia hotel and after his return to New England had a similar position in White Mountain hotel.

During the fall of 1887 Mr. Spaulding came to California and secured work at his trade in Pasadena. Soon he became interested in La- verne, where he bought land and was employed as carpenter by the Laverne Land and Water Company. However, the venture did not prove a success, and he then went to Oregon, return- ing to Massachusetts in 1888 and resuming work with his former employers. However, his short stay in the west had filled him with a love for California and he determined to return. The trip west was made via Denver, where he

worked a short time; Spokane, where he was employed in the building of Hussey's bank; and Seattle, where he worked on the Pioneer build- ing. After arriving in Los Angeles, he worked for his brother one year and then became his partner, continuing with him for four years, when he was severely injured by falling from a building on Adams street, and for a year was unable to engage in work of any kind. While he was still in very poor health he went to the Copper river country in Alaska, taking pas- sage on the steamer Alice Blanchard, October 19, 1898, and landing at Orca. With his part- ner, David Fales, and taking a supply of thirty- two hundred pounds of provisions, he started for Bremner river, each man hauling his sled with its load of supplies. The entire winter was consumed in an effort to reach Bremner river, and, finally arriving at their destination, they en- gaged in prospecting. They found favorable indications but were unable to get to bed rock, as it was a mountain swamp and there was no way to handle the water. In the fall of 1899 they had the thrilling experience of boating down the Copper river, with its many rapids and countless dangers. On the 6th of Noven- ber Mr. Spaulding arrived at home, little richer than when he left, but in the possession of the best of health, for which reason he counts his trip to Alaska as of inestimable value. For a time he worked at his trade in Tucson, Ariz., but in January, 1901, returned to Los Angeles. where he has since conducted a building busi- ness. He has erected stores and residences in every part of the city, and has an excellent repu- tation for reliable and skilled work.

In Santa Monica, Cal., Mr. Spaulding married Miss Gertrude Downs, who was born in Inde- pendence, Iowa. They and their children, Al- bert and Gwendolen, have a comfortable home at No. 746 East Twenty-fourth street, Los An- geles. Fraternally Mr. Spaulding is connected with the Maccabees. His political views are in- dependent, and his vote is cast for the men whom he considers best qualified to represent and serve the people, irrespective of party ties.

E. J. STANTON. It is doubtful if Southern California contains among its many experienced lumbermen one more thoroughly conversant with every branch of the business than is E. J. Stanton, who deals in this necessary commodity on a scale of large proportions, and has probably accomplished more for the lumber interests of Los Angeles and vicinity than any one other individual. Nor must it be supposed that any short cut methods have resulted in Mr. Stan- ton's grasp upon one of the greatest industries of America, for when a boy with undeveloped perceptions he received his first impressions of business among the pineries of Michigan, under the capable tutelage of his father, one of the

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pioneer lumber manufacturers of Ionia and Montcalm counties.

A native of Angelica, Allegany county, N. Y., Mr. Stanton was born April 26, 1856, a son of Hon. E. H. Stanton, born in Greenville, N. Y., and grandson of R. H. Stanton, a farmer of New York state, and a soldier during the war of 1812. E. H. Stanton, who possessed ca- pabilities for large public service, and business acumen for substantial enterprises, left New York in 1857 and settled in Beloit, Wis., where he was a large land owner, and was successfully engaged in the banking and general merchan- dise business. About 1861 he removed to Mich- igan and became interested in the manufacture of lumber, and was one of the first to realize the latent possibilities within the forests of Ionia and Montcalm counties. To facilitate his enterprises he organized the Ionia & Stanton Railroad, and laid out the town of Sheridan, Montcalm county. In recognition of his serv- ices in that part of the state the town of Stanton, the county seat of Montcalm county, was named after him, and the town of Sheridan, where the mills were located, attained a high degree of prosperity under the impetus of his enterprise and solid worth. He was a Repub- lican in politics, and represented Ionia and Mont- calm counties in the state senate for two terms, and he was mayor of Ionia for three terms. After years of well directed energy and cease- less striving for the largest accomplishment, he retired from active business life, and died in Ionia in 1886, at the age of seventy-one years. He married Mary Sanford, a native of Greenville, N. Y., and who died in Riverside, Cal. Mrs. Stanton was the mother of six chil- dren, four of whom are living, E. J. being the third. Charles H. is the manager of the lum- ber business of H. M. Laud & Co., of Buffalo, N. Y .; Mrs. E. T. Montgomery lives in lonia, Mich .; and Alice M. is a resident of Riverside, Cal. E. B. Stanton, a prominent attorney of Riverside, died July 31, 1901.

The education of Mr. Stanton was begun in the public schools of Ionia, Mich., and from earliest boyhood he began to acquire a knowl- edge of the lumber business. In 1876 he be- came manager of his father's large business at Sheridan, and continued in this capacity until the interests were disposed of in 1880. He then located in Saginaw, Mich., and was identified with the Saginaw Lumber & Salt Company for twelve years as manager of their sales depart- ment. In 1892 he removed to Williams and be- came a partner in the Saginaw Lumber Com- pany, which, however, went out of business the following year, at which time he located in Los Angeles and started a lumber commission busi- ness. In 1896 Mr. Stanton began from com- paratively nothing the lumber yard on East Seventh street, which now covers two blocks,

and which owes its present commercial prestige to the perseverance and wide understanding of the owner and proprietor. Mr. Stanton con- ducts a purely wholesale business, and he is the sole representative south of Fresno of the Colo- rado Sugar and White Pine Agency of San Francisco, the lumber of which includes the sugar and white pine from every mill in the west; and he is representative of the C. C. Mengle Company lumber concern of Louis- ville, Ky., a large hardwood firm; and the George T. Houston Company of Chicago, Il1., the largest hardwood firm in the world.

In Albion, Mich., Mr. Stanton married Fan- nie Boynton, a native of Benton Harbor, Mich., and of this union there are three children, Ade- laide, Roy E., and Lillian. Mr. Stanton has ac- cumulated considerable property in Los An- geles, and he is prominently connected with the most exclusive social organizations of the city, including the Jonathan and Union League Clubs. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he is associated with the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent Protec- tive Order of Elks, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a Republican in na- tional politics, and is one of the versatile, pop- ular, honorable and thoroughly representative citizens of this commonwealth.

LOUIS J. STENGEL. As a pioneer nursery- man of Los Angeles, where he established him- self in business in 1873, Mr. Stengel has a wide acquaintance with the people of Southern Cali- fornia. His first location was on Los Angeles street, between First and Third, and for many years he continued there, but, finally, feeling the need of more space, about 1891 he removed to a six-acre tract between Johnson street and North Griffin avenue, where he now has his exotic gardens and nurseries. Visitors to the gardens are attracted by the complete assort- ment of ornamental trees and nursery stock, and admire particularly the collection of palms. which is the most complete to be found in this section of the state. A total of thirty-five thou- sand square feet of glass is utilized in the grow- ing of plants, and the value of the gardens is further enhanced by a private reservoir and water plant. In addition to this property, Mr. Stengel is the owner of a large plantation in Mexico, near Guadalajara, and forty miles from Omaca, where he has set out two thousand acres in eucalyptus, pine and other trees, which he is raising for the wood.

Near Stuttgart, Wurtemberg, Germany, Mr. Stengel was born April 13. 1843. the third in a family of one daughter and three sons. All of these children came to America and two sis- ters still reside in New York state, where one brother, John, a harnessmaker, died recently. The father and grandfather both bore the name

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

of Gotlieb Stengel, and were born near Stutt- gart, being of a very old family of Wurtemberg. In their occupation, too, there was identity, as both were harnessmakers. Both attained ad- vanced years, the grandfather dying at eighty- seven, while the father was ninety-seven when he died, and the latter was so hale and hearty to the last that he was able to continue work at his trade. The grandfather was a soldier dur- ing the Napoleonic wars from 1812 to 1815. The marriage of Gotlieb, Jr., united him with Annie Jelter, whose father, Charles, an inn- keeper, and grandfather took part in the war with Napoleon, the latter, a lieutenant, partic- ipating in the march to Moscow and later serv- ing in the Prussian army from 1812 to 1815. Mrs. Annie Stengel was forty-eight at the time of her death.

Reared in Ballingen and educated in the high school and gymnasium, Louis J. Stengel was fifteen at the time he crossed the ocean to America, arriving in the new world July 2, 1858, and celebrating the 4th in Boston, Mass .. after a voyage of sixty-eight days from Havre on the sailing vessel Rufus Choate. His first employment in America was on a farm near Dedham, Mass., where he was paid $4 per month and board for a year, then for the sec- ond year $6 and board, and afterward received $20 per month as a gardener at Worcester, in charge of the Taylor estate, filling the position three years. In 1866 he was given a contract to carry United States mail between Klamath, Ore., and Yreka, Cal., a distance of one hundred and four miles, which he usually covered in twen- ty-four hours, with a horse and pack mule. Two round trips were made each week, until he re- signed, after a year. No accident had happened nor did he meet with any attacks from savages, but had he done so, he would have been pro- tected by his fine Maynard rifle, which carried twice as far as an ordinary gun.

In 1867 Mr. Stengel went to San Francisco and two years later settled in San Diego, where he opened a nursery on Fifth street, in the rear of the Horton house, remaining there until he removed to Los Angeles. During his residence in San Diego he married Miss Mary Reed, who was born in Placerville, Cal., and died in Los Angeles. The only child of this union, Louis, is a member of the United States Engineer Corps now in Japan. The second marriage of Mr. Stengel, in Los Angeles, united him with Miss Marie Brandis, who was born in Hol- stein, Germany, and by whom he has three children, Lillie, Carl and Elmer. The family are connected with the Episcopal Church. While in Massachusetts Mr. Stengel was made a member of King David Lodge, A. F. & A. M., with which he is still identified. During war times he was a member of the Union League. Ever since attaining his majority he

has voted with the Republicans and worked for the principles of that party. The success which he has gained in the nursery business proves that he is especially adapted to that occupation. Under his care and oversight plants grow and blossom, and trees become hardy and strong. Indeed, it might be said that he had formed a partnership with Nature, and the result is that his nursery stock, fed by Mother Earth, warmed by the kindly rays of the southern sun, trained and nurtured by the wise skill of the gardener. attain a beauty and strength not always seen, but always greatly to be desired.

M. STEPAN, one of the successful brick- work and masonry contractors in Los Angeles, was born in Freistadt, Austria, July 10, 1848, and at the age of fourteen years was appren- ticed out to learn the brick and stone mason's trade. His family was of German descent, early members having settled in Austria, and his father, John, was born in Freistadt, as was his mother, Sophia Capell, and his paternal grand- father. The family vocation was farming, and the twelve children born to John and Sophia Stepan were reared to a knowledge of the best way to conduct agricultural enterprises. M. Stepan was the youngest of this large family, and at his tenth year the other children, as well as the parents, were hale, hearty, and well, and in possession of their best faculties.

After completing his trade, M. Stepan trav- eled in different parts of Austria and worked as a stone mason, and then, to escape military duty, resolved to immigrate to America, where he would be at full liberty to pursue his effort to make his way in the world. Arriving in Bal- timore, via Bremen, on the steamer Ohio, he made his way north, and at Winona, Minn., engaged at his trade with considerable success. So rapid was his rise that in 1875 he began con- tracting and building, extending his field of op- eration to St. Paul and Minneapolis, and includ- ing in his undertakings some of the largest and finest business blocks in Winona. In 1882 he married, in St. Paul, Mary Sophia Rowekamp, a native of Iowa, and of German descent. Shortly afterwards he removed to Jamestown, N. D., where he contracted and built until 1887. Among the buildings that went up under his good management were banks and the state asylum, as well as many public buildings and residences.

In the spring of 1887 Mr. Stepan settled in Los Angeles, where he has since been promi- nent in building circles, and has put up, among others, the Louis Roeder building, the Hoffman Hardware Company building, the Maier & Zo- belein brewery building, the Los Angeles Brew- ing Company building, the Madera Trading Company's building, the Wilson block on First street, St. Joseph's Church, and many other

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constructions of equal prominence. Also, he has erected a pleasant and comfortable home for himself at No. 1942 Los Angeles street, in which are living his wife and seven children: Mary, John, Annie, Sophia, Vine, Edith and Clara. John is assisting his father in business. Mr. Stepan is a member of the Builders' Ex- change, of the Turner Society, and the St. Jo- seph Society. In national politics he is a Dem- ccrat, but not an office seeker.

P. T. SULLIVAN. The Columbia Dairy, with its capacity for catering to one of the larg- est and most exacting trades in Los Angeles, owes its immunity from adverse criticism to the capable management of P. T. Sullivan, who thoroughly understands the many sides of his interesting occupation. His birth occurred in Kansas City, Mo., January 30, 1875, and he was brought to Los Angeles by his parents the following May. For many generations his ancestors tilled the soil of Ireland, and the paternal grandfather, Timothy, was no excep- tion to the rule. His son, Timothy, the father of P. T., was born in county Kerry, Ireland, but with larger ambitions immigrated to the United States, where, for several years, he was longshoreman in Buffalo, N. Y. In 1869 he re- moved to Kansas City, Mo., and was there em- ployed by the Union Pacific Railroad Company until his removal to Los Angeles May 24, 1875. In the west he engaged for a time in ranching, but eventually became interested in the dairy business to the exclusion of all other interests, operating on the site where his son now con- ducts his business, and where his death oc- curred in 1882. His wife, formerly Johanna Flaherty, was also a native of county Kerry, Ireland, and died in Los Angeles in 1897. Of her six children, Mary A., of Los Angeles, John, of Idaho, and Timothy, who died at the age of twenty-one years, were born in Buffalo; P. T. was born in Kansas City; and Margaret F. and Honore, both of San Mateo, were born in Los Angeles.

At the public schools of Los Angeles P. T. Sullivan received his preliminary education, this training being supplemented by further study at St. Vincent's College, Los Angeles. After her husband's death the mother reared her chil- dren on the home ranch, and in order to assist in the family's support P. T. left school in 1893, and, with his brother, John A., started the Co- lumbia dairy business, under the name of Sulli- van Brothers. In 1897 P. T. Sullivan bought out his brother, and has since independently man- aged the interests of the dairy. He has thirty-two acres of land between Rosalyn and Hollenbeck avenues, east of Ninth street, and he leases be- sides one hundred and fifty acres of land adjoin- ing on the west. His own place is under water,

as are also fifteen acres of the leased land, and the balance of the property is devoted to alfalfa and pasture for the cattle. The three barns, which are 48x160, 70x40 and 22x45 feet in di- mensions, are modern of construction, and the dairy house is fitted with boilers, and is model in all of its appointments. The silo capacity is three hundred tons, and Mr. Sullivan finds no trouble in supplying his long list of patrons, for he bases his calculations upon the universal principle that pure goods will always be in de- mand, and that therefore he is entitled to at least a fair showing of the best custom of the city, and arranges accordingly.

July 17, 1900, in Los Angeles, Mr. Sullivan married Marie Le Mott, a native of Los All- geles, and a daughter of John S. and Maria (McGuire) Le Mott, natives respectively of Montreal, Canada, and Ireland. John S. Le Mott, who was of French extraction, and a cop- per and tinsmith by trade, located in Los An- geles about 1873, where he applied his trade with considerable success, and where he died in 1891. His wife is still a resident of Los An- geles. To Mr. and Mrs. Le Mott were born three children: Stephen M., who is an electri- cian in Los Angeles; Mrs. P. T. Sullivan; and J. W., who is a machinist in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Mrs. Sullivan is the mother of one child, Thomas Joseph. In na- tional politics Mr. Sullivan is a Democrat. He is a broad-minded and enterprising citizen, and his success in life materially promotes the pros- perity of his city.

PETER TAYLOR, Sr. The early repre- sentatives of the Taylor family were seafaring men. The grandfather of our subject was Capt. Peter Taylor, who was engaged in the wheat trade in the Mediterranean and Baltic seas and continued to follow the sea until he was seventy- six, his death occurring when he was eighty- seven years of age. CaptainTaylor's father and grandfather were also in charge of ships in the same trade, and our subject has in his posses- sion a Bible, printed in 1615, which these captains carried during their various cruises. The third of these captains had a son, George, who was born in Heddington, Scot- land, July 21, 1791, and served for a time in the English navy, after which for years he was steward of the large estate of Sir John Huglı Dalrymple, Viscount Stair. He died in Scot- land in 1865.

The wife of George Taylor was Elizabeth Storey, who was born in Northumberlandshire, England, and died in Scotland in 1848. Of her three children, Peter alone survives. She was a daughter of John Storey, a farmer on the Tweed. One of her brothers, Robert Storey, was well known as the Northumbrian poet and

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received a prize of one hundred guineas for his poem, "The Death of Byron." Early in life a school teacher and also a famous athlete, after his ·marriage to a lady of wealth he became edi- tor of the Leeds Intelligencer and in an editorial capacity won distinction. He was honored with appointment as secretary of the audit office in London. His son, Gourley Pierson Storey, is now rear-admiral in the English navy.

The education of Peter Taylor, Sr., was se- cured in the schools of Edinburgh and vicin- ity. When sixteen he began as fireman on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railroad, on whose first locomotive he had ridden when eleven years of age. After two years as fireman with that road, he accepted a similar position with an- other and was soon made engineer and later promoted to other positions. Coming to Amer- ica in 1850, he engaged as engineer in the pin- eries of Wisconsin and resided successively in Yellow River and Portage. Later he began to manufacture lumber, bringing the necessary machinery from Chicago. In 1860 he came to California via Panama, and at first ran an en- gine, then engaged in saw-milling, and in the fall of 1861 went to Virginia City, where he put in machinery and ran engines for mining com- panies. In 1867 he went to Arizona as super- intendent of the Vulture mine at Wickenburg, but through the dishonesty of the mine's man- ager, he lost about $14,000. In 1873 his wife came to Los Angeles and he joined her here the next year. Buying fifteen acres at first, he added to it until he had forty acres within the city lim- its, and he still owns twenty-eight and one-half acres, but this he rents. Since coming to Los Angeles his life has been a very busy one. He laid pipes for the water works at Santa Monica and then assisted in building a locomotive for the plant. Next he was superintendent of the Emigrant mine in Inyo county and later opened gold mines in the Beverage district, where he put in a 5-stamp mill, conveying all the ma- chinery on mules twelve miles over the moun- tains. On account of an injury by a runaway team, he found himself seriously affected by the high altitude, and was obliged to dispose of his interests, at a serious financial loss to himself. His reputation as an expert in judging mines led to his frequent employment in that capacity. For one year he prospected for a company of English investors in San Gabriel Canon, since which time he has been retired. During his long experience in mining life he has had many narrow escapes, and time and again he was in the greatest peril. Misfortunes, too, have come to him, perhaps in a larger degree than they come to most, but he has borne them with an undaunted spirit and a brave heart, and the evening of his existence is being passed in quiet contentment in his pleasant home.

June 28, 1852, at Decorah, Columbia county,

Wis., Mr. Taylor married Miss Jane Wilson, a native of Nelson, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and a daughter of James and Mary (Robertson) Wil- son, who were born in Scotland and died in Wis- consin. They were the parents of six sons and four daughters, seven of whom are living, Mrs. Taylor being one of the youngest. In 1843, when thirteen years old, she accompanied her parents to America and settled in Wisconsin. Of her marriage three sons were born, in whose future the hopes of their parents centered. The oldest, George, was a stalwart youth, possess- ing a splendid constitution, and standing six feet and three inches tall. When he was twenty years of age lie was in Arizona, fixing a flume for the Vulture mine, and when about ten miles out from the mine, he was waylaid by Apache Indians and assassinated. The second son, James, was burned to death in 1891 when the family lost their home by a fire. The youngest son, Peter, alone survives, and he is engaged in superintending his father's ranch.

S. W. VAN DOMPSELAAR. A descendant of one of those fine patrician families whose so- cial standing, cleanly morals, and wise conserv- atism have kept alive the enviable prestige of the Netherlands, Mr. Van Dompselaar was born in Franker, Province of Friesland, Holland, Jan- uary 10, 1845. His grandfather, Albert, was born in Utrecht, in the north of Holland, and was a landscape gardener by occupation, while his father, William, was a native of Friesland, and was a landscape gardener on a large estate up to the time of his death at the age of forty- five. He married Aaltje Wassenaar, who also was born in Friesland, a daughter of Pier Was- senaar, representative of a Friesland family of ancient lineage. Mrs. William Van Dompse- laar, who died when thirty-one years old, was the mother of three children, of whom S. W. is the oldest and the only one in America.

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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 174

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