USA > California > Contra Costa County > History of Contra Costa County, California; with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 113
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He then came to Richmond and opened Hotel Veale, on December 15. Since that date Mr. Johnson has built up a reputation in the East Bay region and taken an active part in community affairs in Richmond. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and believes in enforcing the laws as laid down in the statutes. While at Loyalton he was a member of the city board of trustees.
On May 28, 1912, Mr. Johnson married Miss Caroline Dimmen, a native of Norway, where her mother is still living. He belongs to the Masons, the Sciots, the Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of America. His recreation is found in witnessing a good game of baseball and other out-of-door sports.
HIRAM ELNATHAN JACOBS .- A native son and an eminent lawyer, Hiram Elnathan Jacobs is ably serving Contra Costa County as a deputy district attorney and practicing his profession in Richmond. He was born at Butte City, Cal., on May 21, 1884, a son of Albert L. and Mary (McConnell) Jacobs, born in Illinois and Canada, respectively.
Hiram E. Jacobs attended the public schools in Butte City and was graduated from the Santa Rosa High School, Class of 1904. He studied for the bar and in 1906 entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Rail- road Company as a clerk in their offices. One year later he was employed as a clerk in the shipping department of the Standard Oil refinery, where he continued for seven years. In the meantime he studied law at night school, and in 1914, resigning his position with the Standard Oil Com- pany he entered Hastings College of Law, and in 1915 was admitted to practice in the courts of California. Coming to Richmond to begin prac- tice, on February 1, 1916, he was appointed police judge. After serving for two years, he resigned to enter the district attorney's office under Tom D. Johnston, deputy district attorney, remaining until Mr. Johnston went out of the office; then he opened an office in Richmond. In June, 1923, Mr. Jacobs was appointed a deputy under A. B. Tinning. He is still serving Contra Costa County in that capacity, and also continues his private practice in Richmond. He has been connected with some very im- portant cases in the county, cases that have attracted wide attention.
On December 31, 1921, Mr. Jacobs and Amy B. Siewert, of Chicago, were united in marriage, and they have two children, Mary Belle and Hiram Robert. There is also Charles R. Jacobs, attending the public school. Mr. Jacobs is a member of the Contra Costa County Bar Asso- ciation, and of the American Bar Association. He is a member and Past Master of Mckinley Lodge No. 347, F. & A. M .; Past Patron of Mira Mar Chapter, O. E. S .; Past Royal Patron of the Order of Amaranth; Past Exalted Ruler of Richmond Lodge No. 1251, B. P. O. E .; and Past District Deputy of Grand Exalted Rulers of the Bay District of Califor- nia. He is also a member and the first president of the Lions Club of Richmond, and belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Jacobs takes a live interest in the community in which he lives, and is ready to co- operate in all progressive movements.
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F. C. HEYLMAN .- A native of Amsterdam, Holland, F. C. Heyl- man was early sent to the schools of his native city, and after leaving the Technical School there he went to study in Germany, where he received his degree of Mechanical Engineer.
In 1902 he entered the service of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Com- pany and was stationed at various places in the Dutch East Indies until being transferred to California in 1914, where he has since been identi- fied with the Shell Oil Company of California as mechanical superinten- dent of their refinery at Martinez.
He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the American Welding Society.
BENJAMIN E. MORRIS .- Few persons in Contra Costa County are fully informed what the great importance the sand industry is to Antioch, from which city some 2000 cars are shipped annually for the mixing of asphalt, a purpose for which this particular grade of sand is unexcelled. The Benjamin Morris Sand Company is the most important of the sand pits east of Antioch and the owner operates three pits with bunkers from which the sand is loaded into the cars by electrical ma- chinery. Mr. Morris ships his product through the Western Rocks Prod- ucts Company of San Francisco and it finds a market within a 200-mile radius from Antioch. About an average of 600 cars are dispatched an- nually from Mr. Morris' pits. The original pit was opened in 1914 by Capt. John Scheller and since that time the business has developed into one of the industries of Antioch.
Benjamin E. Morris is a native son, born at North San Juan, Nevada County, on June 10, 1877, a son of Frank and Maggie ( Pierce) Morris. Frank Morris was one of the pioneer mining men of Nevada County and numbered among his associates all of the leading men of the Mother Lode district. He was a prominent Mason and had served as Master of three different lodges. He was born in Maine, was a veteran of the Civil War, and helped to lay the first railroad tracks in California after his arrival here. He died in San Francisco after a useful and eventful career. After attending the public school in Nevada County until he was thirteen, Benjamin E. went to San Francisco and began life as a cabin boy and during the thirty years he followed the sea he operated ships both on the Pacific and on the inland rivers in California. He gave up the sea in 1919 and has since been interested in the sand business, being the pioneer here.
Mr. Morris was united in marriage in 1919, with Mrs. Marian Scheller, who had a daughter Louise by her union with Captain Scheller and who is now attending the University of California. Mrs. Morris died in 1921, and in October of that year Mr. Morris married Mrs. Ruth (Bradbury) Mccullough, who had four children, James, Harold, William and Adah Ruth, by her first marriage. The family live two and one-half miles east of Antioch on Wilbur Avenue. Mr. Morris is a member of Antioch Lodge No. 175, F. & A. M .; and of Antioch
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Chapter No. 65, R. A. M .; also of Oakland Council No. 12, R. & S. M. He is a highly esteemed citizen of Antioch, is interested in every move- ment that has as its aim the betterment of the community and his resi- dence in the county has been marked by strict integrity and probity of character.
G. GASPARDONE .- As the proprietor of the Columbia Hotel in Pittsburg, G. Gaspardone is making a success of his labors and at the same time building up a reputation for himself in the city of his adoption. He was born at Monte Chiaro, province of Alexandria, Italy, on July 24, 1885, a son of Giuseppe and Maria (Bezzio) Gaspardone, and is the eldest of four living children of this couple. His father was a farmer in Italy during his early life, but is now in the employ of the Italian gov- ernment. He is now seventy-two years of age and hale and hearty. The mother came to California, spent seven years here, and then returned to her native land, where she died in July, 1924, at the age of sixty-seven.
Our subject grew to boyhood on his father's farm in Italy, and at- tended the public schools until he was eleven, at which time he made a decision that he would go to sea. After several voyages into the chief Mediteranean ports he shipped to the Orient, visiting Japan and China, and during the Russian-Japanese war, in 1903, he visited Chinese ports. His one ambition was to get to America, and when he was nineteen he bade good-bye to home and family and sailed from Havre, France, to New Haven, Conn., arriving on May 8, 1906. Leaving his ship, he went to work making brick in Connecticut, and when he had saved enough money to pay his expenses to California he came to San Francisco in 1907 and found employment as a cement worker, chiefly in decorating, art work and finishing. His services were in demand during the rebuild- ing of that city, and in 1910 he moved across the bay to Oakland, where he continued his cement work until 1912, at which time he sold out and bought a ranch near Richfield, Tehama County. While following ranch- ing he was taken with malaria and was forced to sell out and seek other climes, and in doing so lost $6000 inside of six months. In July he was back in Oakland, following his old line of work. Some of his handiwork is seen at the Sixteenth Street depot for the Southern Pacific Railway, and at the Oakland pier. On September 12, 1918, he was registered for ser- vice in the World War and was placed in Class Five, entering the service as a cement finisher at the government ship yards in Fruitvale, where the cement ships Fate and Palo Alto were constructed, and remaining as a foreman for one year. In 1921 Mr. Gaspardone located in Pittsburg and purchased the Columbia Hotel, which he runs as a working man's hotel in the Italian style.
It was while living in Oakland, on June 10, 1909, that Mr. Gaspar- done was united in marriage with Miss Louise Garbero, a native of the Province of Alexandria, Italy, and the daughter of Bartelomeo and Francisca Garbero, both living in Oakland, where Mrs. Garbero con- ducts a grocery store. Mr. Garbero has been in the employ of a banker
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of Oakland for twenty years. The children of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Gaspardone are: Mary, Josephine, Frances, Rosa and Frank; the last named died when two months old. The girls attend the Pittsburg schools. The Columbia Hotel has twelve guest rooms and is a home- like establishment, patronized by laboring people, who find the proprie- tors ready to make every effort to please their patrons. Mr. Gaspardone still suffers from the malaria, but is gradually regaining his normal health. He is a member of the Ancient Order of Druids, of San Francisco. The family attend the Catholic Church in Pittsburg.
CARLO LEPORI .- That the late Carlo Lepori, of Pittsburg, had a host of friends in the county and city of his adoption, was attested to by the universal signs of mourning when word was received that he had passed to the Great Beyond while on his honeymoon tour in the South. Carlo Lepori was a highly educated man, who not only spoke English fluently, but also spoke Spanish, French and Italian. He acquired his knowledge of French at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; of Italian at the School of Languages in Bellinzona, Switzerland; and of Spanish at the University of Barcelona, Spain, in all spending three years abroad, from 1912 to 1915. He was born in San Francisco on August 6, 1891, a son of Costantino Lepori, now a resident of Pittsburg and president of the First National Bank of Pittsburg, is also one of the organizers of the Citizen's Bank of Fruitvale, now merged with the Bank of Italy, and the Fugazi Bank of San Francisco, and one of the founders of the Italian Swiss Colony. His mother, Aurelia Oneto in maidenhood, was born in Sonora, Cal., where she was married. She died on December 24, 1924, in Oakland. Cecelia Lepori, the only sister, died August 11, 1922. Grandfather John Oneto was born in Genoa, Italy, came round the Horn, and landed in San Francisco in 1850, whence he went direct to the Southern Mines. He followed mining for a time, but later became a rancher and stockman in Tuolumne County, where he died at the age of seventy-five. His wife was born in Genoa, Italy, and came via the Isthmus of Panama to California in 1855. They had been mar- ried in Italy before John Oneto left there for California.
Carlo Lepori's childhood was spent in Sonora and he received his edu- cation in the public schools in Oakland, and in Santa Clara College, from 1906 to 1909, and later went abroad and pursued further studies, as men- tioned above. Returning to America, at the outbreak of the World War he enlisted, July 4, 1917, at San Francisco, for service in the United States Navy and served in the cable censor's office in San Francisco as interpreter. In February, 1919, he was honorably discharged with the rank of assistant paymaster, and returned to Pittsburg, Cal. Here he became active in the organization of the First National Bank, serving as cashier, and on January 1, 1925, became first vice-president. He was also elected president of the First National Bank of Bay Point, in which he acquired an interest in 1922, this bank being affiliated with the First
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National Bank of Pittsburg. He was largely responsible for the modern bank building now occupied by the bank in Pittsburg. Mr. Lepori was a member of the city council of Pittsburg, having been elected in 1923 for a four-year term. He was active in the ranks of the Republican party and was a member of the Contra Costa County Republican Central Committee.
Carlo Lepori was married at Ensenada, Mexico, on August 6, 1925, to Miss Marion A. Cutino, then a student at the Holy Name College of Oakland. She was born in Pittsburg, the daughter of Paolo Cutino, a pioneer fisherman, who died in Alaska in the twenty-fourth .year of his service in Alaskan waters. One daughter was born to Mrs. Lepori, on July 4, 1926, and named Carla Cecelia. It was while on a honeymoon trip with his bride of three months that Carlo Lepori was stricken with appendicitis and died very suddenly at National City, Cal., November 12, 1925. When his body was brought back to Pittsburg, flags on all public buildings were placed at half-mast; and on the day of his funeral all schools were closed and business houses closed at eleven o'clock, dur- ing the funeral hour. It was a cosmopolitan population that turned out to mourn their fellow townsman and to pay tribute to his memory. Mr. Lepori was always ready to help the poor and needy, to give them a chance to help themselves. He was a member of David A. Solari Post, American Legion ; of the Pittsburg Lions Club; Athens Club, of Oakland; Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce; the Alumni of Santa Clara College; and the Parfaite Union, French Masons, of San Francisco;and was also a trustee of the Veterans' Memorial building at Pittsburg.
WILLIAM AHART HISLOP .- A Richmond business man who is held in high esteem for his activity in community work is William Ahart Hislop, first vice-president of the California Art Tile Company, of Rich- mond. He was born in Lincoln, Placer County, on October 23, 1893, a son of J. W. Hislop, who is mentioned on another page in this history. His schooling was secured in the good schools of Stockton, and as a boy he began working with his father in the manufacture of tile and brick. For a time he was employed by W. S. Dickey at Livermore, but resigned to come to Richmond in 1922, and help organize the company in which he is an official and which was incorporated in 1923. Since the organiza- tion he has had charge of the glazing and mixing of materials. Salesmen are employed to cover the territory in which they find output, and to create new fields. The company is in a flourishing condition. In local affairs Mr. Hislop is much interested and was an honorary bond salesman when the new Carquinez Hotel building was being promoted.
On November 6, 1913, Mr. Hislop married Miss Mary S. Newell, daughter of Stephen and Lillie (Kent) Newell, natives of Kansas and Michigan, respectively, but resident of Redlands, Cal. In the Newell family are the following children: Laverne, of Oakland; Ethel, Mrs. H. Sbraggia, of Pasadena; Minerva, who married W. E. Konantz, of Fort
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Scott, Kans .; also a half-brother of Mrs. Hislop is George Shinn, of Red- lands, well-known in Richmond as a singer in the church. Mrs. Hislop attended the high school at Fort Scott, Kans. She is a teacher of a Sun- day School class in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Richmond. Mr. and Mrs. Hislop have a son, William James, born December 9, 1921. Mr. Hislop belongs to the Masons in Livermore, Cal. For recreation he enjoys deer hunting. His hobby is inventions in clay working machinery and he has perfected two machines, one of which is being used extensively by the California Art Tile Company, two men doing the work with this machine that formerly was done by ten men by hand. The home of the family is at No. 634 Eleventh Street.
ERNEST RANDOLPH LASELL .- As resident partner, in charge of the extensive business of L. M. Lasell Company in Martinez, Ernest R. Lasell is demonstrating his worth as a business man and citizen of California. This business, known as the "Emporium of Contra Costa County," was established in 1886 by L. M. Lasell and from a small be- ginning has developed into the largest department store in this section of the State, outside of the large cities. It has fourteen completely stocked departments, each under the supervision of competent salespeople.
Born in Martinez on March 26, 1889, Ernest Randolph Lasell is the son of L. M. Lasell, who is mentioned at length on another page in this history. When Ernest was six years of age the family moved to Berke- ley, and there he attended the public schools, graduating from the high school with the Class of 1910; and that same year he entered the Uni- versity of California and took a commercial course. Leaving his school days behind him, Mr. Lasell then entered the establishment of his father and from the beginning demonstrated his excellent business ability, thus relieving his parent of much of the worry incident to the details of such a large and growing business. He took a decided interest in planning the new and modern building now occupied by the company at 900-922 Castro Street, where every attention has been given to modernize busi- ness, safeguard the employees, and show consideration to the ever-grow- ing patronage of satisfied customers. He gives close personal attention to the business, and has been a factor in the fast-developing enterprise.
Mr. Lasell is also interested in 300 acres of land upon which is lo- cated the source of supply of the Alhambra Pure Spring Water, which is marketed under the name of the Alhambra Natural Water Company, with head office, bottling works, storage and distributing warehouses lo- cated on Ferry Street in Martinez, and with J. J. Robrecht in charge as general manager in Martinez, L. Wight Lasell in charge of the Oakland office, and E. R. Lasell as owner and in charge of the depot and interests in San Francisco.
Ernest Randolph Lasell was united in marriage in San Francisco on June 17, 1920, with Miss Elizabeth Stark, born in Oakland, a daughter of G. J. W. Stark, a well-known retired wholesale grocer of San Fran- cisco. Of this union one son has been born, Ernest Randolph, Jr. Mr.
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Lasell is a Mason, belonging to the Martinez Lodge, to the Chapter and Commandery of Berkeley, and the Aahmes Temple in Oakland. He is a member of the Martinez Chamber of Commerce. When war was de- clared with Germany, Mr. Lasell enlisted with the Masonic Ambulance Corps, served eleven months at Camp Lewis, and then went over seas with the 91st Division and saw service at Argonne and in Belgium, be- eleven months on foreign soil. He was honorably discharged in San Francisco on May 12, 1919. Mr. Lasell and his estimable wife are leaders in the younger social set in Martinez. He takes an active part in all movements that have for their aim the upbuilding of his city, county and State.
Z. C. LYTLE .- Since no small amount of the prosperity of a district depends upon the railway service extended to the ranchers and producers, it is gratifying to know that the Santa Fe Railway gives most efficient attention to the needs of the fruit shippers and ranchers of the Alhambra Valley, in Contra Costa County, and well merits the large patronage given it by the growers of the valley, who give their shipping business al- most exclusively to the Santa Fe, thus making Muir Station an important point on the road; and both the railway and the residents of the valley are fortunate in that they have in charge of Muir Station a man who has spent practically all of his working life in railroad work, and understands thoroughly the details of the business. A Southerner by birth, and a native of Asheville, N. C., where his birth occurred on January 18, 1878. Z. C. Lytle is a son of John and Amanda (Osborne) Lytle, both South- erners before him, and now deceased. He was reared in North Caro- lina, attending the public schools, at Asheville, and at the age of sixteen started in as messenger boy in the office of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Asheville, and later became clerk, learning telegraphy and finally becoming telegraph operator there for the company. After two years as operator there he went to Union, S. C., and acted as operator there for two years. He then started West, working for different rail- ways and telegraph companies. It was while he was at Minden, La., as operator for the Western Union, that his marriage occurred, at Long- view, Texas, to Miss Daisy King, a native daughter of that place, where her father was a carpenter and builder. He was David King, and had married Iona Simms, who was born in Arkansas and is still living in Los Angeles; the husband and father having died in that city in 1916, aged fifty-eight years.
After his marriage, Mr. Lytle continued in the railway business with the exception of one year, when he worked for the Commercial Lumber Company at Gilmer, Texas. In 1913 they came to California, arriving on July 15 of that year, and here he went to work for the Santa Fe, and came to Muir Station in 1918. Mrs. Lytle operates the Alhambra Ser- vice Station on the Alhambra road, near Muir Station.
Five children blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Lytle: Alwyn, a clerk in the Bank of Martinez; Lois, cashier for the L. M. Lasell Com-
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pany; and Charlie, Robert, and Virda, attending grammar school. Popu- lar in both social and business circles, the family are well known through- out the county. Mr. Lytle is a member of the Odd Fellows, of many years standing, having joined the order in Bronte, Texas, and demitted to Martinez Lodge No. 297. In national politics he supports the Demo- cratic platform, and locally he stands for the best man and the commun- ity's best interests. With his wife he is a member of the First Methodist Church at Martinez.
EDWARD R. GUINAN, M.D .- A native son of California who has attained to the front rank in the medical profession in the State is Edward R. Guinan, M. D., of Richmond, Contra Costa County, where he takes a live interest in all that pertains to making this city a better place in which to live and prosper. He was born in San Diego, on May 11, 1889, the son of Robert P. and Nora Guinan. The father came from Ireland when he was sixteen years of age, and landed in California in 1878 as one of the pioneers of San Diego, where he followed glass, sash and door work for many years.
Edward R. Guinan was educated at St. Mary's College in Oakland, and was graduated from Cooper Medical College, affiliated with Stan- ford University, with his M.D. degree in 1911. His first practical expe- rience was obtained at St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco, where he took his first year's internship. He was also engaged in his professional work in Sacramento County Hospital and for a year was resident physi- cian at Providence Hospital in Oakland. At the time of the Mexican trouble Dr. Guinan was graduated from the Army Medical School, and in 1917 he was commissioned lieutenant, senior grade, in the United States Navy, and saw service in the Orient; he was in the Island of Guam Naval Hospital for two years, and for eighteen months he was stationed at Mare Island. He resigned from the United States service in 1920 and went to Kern County, and at Bakersfield was associated with the leading physician there for a year.
In 1921 Dr. Guinan made a permanent location in Richmond, estab- lishing an office on Macdonald Avenue. At that time he was an absolute stranger ; now he has the leading practice in the city and is recognized as one of the leading men in the medical profession in western Contra Costa County. He is a member of the staff of Providence Hospital in Oakland. Doctor Guinan makes a specialty of surgical cases and has met with the best of success since he came here. He believes in Richmond's future, and in 1926 completed one of the finest homes in Mira Vista, modern in every detail. Besides his professional duties he also has other outside interests that make him a very busy man. The confidence he has gained has been won through his thorough understanding of medical science and his willingness to give each patient the full benefit of his knowledge. His offices are located at No. 335 Tenth Street.
Edward R. Guinan was united in marriage in Oakland, in 1917, with Miss Margaret Clark, the daughter of Robert and Julia Clark, large
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landowners in Sonoma. She was born at Petaluma. Dr. and Mrs. Gui- nan are the parents of two children, Jewel Kathleen and Clark Edward. Dr. Guinan is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks; the Improved Order of Red Men; the Fraternal Order of Eagles, in which he serves as physician; the Fraternal Brotherhood; the Knights of Col- umbus; and the Athens Athletic Club of Oakland. He is also a member of the American Legion, the Lions Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the County and State Medical Societies, the American Medical Association. and the Stanford Alumni Association. Politically, he is a Republican on national issues; locally, he supports men and measures regardless of party lines. He is an enthusiastic football fan, and for recreation enjoys hunting and trout-fishing, and touring by automobile through the many beauty spots to be found in California.
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