USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89
In what was the old town of El Modena, near Whittier, on October 23, 1888, Mr. Starbuck married Miss Emilie Cox, a native of Boone County, Indiana, a daughter of Jeremiah and Elzena Cox. Mr. Starbuck secured his license in the old adobe Court House of Los Angeles, which occupied the site of the Bullard Block. Mr. and Mrs. Starbuck have an adopted daughter, Helen, now the wife of G. L. Gose, of La Habra, California. Mr. and Mrs. Gose have a daughter, Mary Elizabeth. Having come to this region in the days of its early history, Mr. Starbuck has grown with it, and has aided very materially in its development. He takes great pride in the remarkable advance which has been made, and is proud of his con- nection with it. .
SYLVESTER W. BARTON. As the dean of the real estate dealers in the City of Whittier, California, Sylvester W. Barton can look back over twenty-seven years of honorable effort, during which time, through his energy, enterprise and business sagacity, he has contributed greatly to the development and substantial position of this city as it is today.
Mr. Barton was born in Wayne County, Indiana, February 5, 1855, a son of John and Rachel (Penland) Barton, the former of whom was born in Indiana and the latter in Ohio, both family names indicating English descent, and the early Penlands served in the Revolutionary war. The Bartons settled first in North Carolina, and from there removed in 1810 to Richmond, Indiana.
Sylvester W. Barton attended the country schools near his father's farm and later the Normal School at Ada, Ohio. His main occupation was general farming in Indiana and Iowa until 1887, when he came to Cali- fornia, became interested in fruit growing in the neighborhood of Pasa- dena, and remained there two years. In the fall of 1889 he came to Whit- tier and very soon embarked in the real estate business, and ever since has followed a vocation he believes one of the most dignified of business pur- suits, one basis of this claim being that he follows the example of no less a personage than George Washington, realtor, who, in August, 1773, adver- tised in the Maryland and Baltimore Journal his 20,000 acres of land sit- uated on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers for eight dollars per acre, and urged young men to settle in the West. It is doubtful if Mr. Barton has ever been able to sell Los Angeles County land at that price, but he has in the last quarter of a century satisfactorily handled a great many valuable tracts and has made many fortunate investments for himself. His first purchase was of ten acres near Whittier, which he set out to walnuts and oranges, and he also has fifteen acres in Whittier, more than 200 acres in Elsinore, of which seventy acres are in peaches and grapes, and twenty-five acres of oil land in North Whittier Heights, which tract he has owned for twenty-three years. He has one well on this property that has produced 100 barrels a day and it is now being drilled deeper with greater production assured. This land is under lease to the Pasadena Puente Company.
At Oskaloosa, Iowa, September 4, 1884, Mr. Barton married Miss Lelia
Holler
Elizabeth mcale gilmore
103
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
A. Mendenhall, born in Indiana, a daughter of Taylor W. and Lydia Men- denhall. Mr. and Mrs. Barton have one son, Russell J., who is a graduate of the Los Angeles Military School and was drafted for service in the World war just before the signing of the armistice. He is in the oil business at Long Beach. They have an adopted son, Andrew J. Tait, who takes care of the ranch business, both sons being reliable, steady young men, well and favorably known both socially and in business.
Mr. Barton is a member of the Whittier Citrus Association. At the World's Fair, Chicago, in 1893, he was awarded a medal for corn that had been grown between the trees. In politics he has always been a republican, and in former days was active in the councils of his party, on numerous occasions serving on the city and county and the state central committees and as a delegate attending all important conventions. He is a member of the order of Elks, and was local treasurer for fifteen years, has been through the chairs of the Whittier Lodge of Knights of Pythias, and in early times here was a member of the Founders or Old Folks Association, a body no longer maintained. Mrs. Barton belongs to the Christian Science Church at Whittier, being a member also of the Mother Church at Boston.
ELIZABETH MCCABE GILMORE. That Mrs. Gilmore, a popular figure in the cultural circles of Southern California, has exceptional versatility of talent is conceded by all who are in the least familiar with her career. She has achieved high reputation as a writer of lyrics, and in this attractive field of poesy her productions have been many and varied. Concerning her the following has been written: "Born with a versatile and resource- ful temperament, she first won recognition (before her marriage to J. A. Gilmore) in her chosen profession, that of a trained nurse. After taking her degrees in New York City she soon became recognized among physi- cians as a skilled and resourceful surgical nurse. After her marriage, aside from home duties, she became proficient in lines of art, and her home is attractive with her handiwork. But, after all, music was her first love, and she eventually found expression in the field of lyric writing, her work being given instant recognition by well known critics, composers, publish- ers and educators of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. A lyric entitled 'Beautiful Memories of You' won the author entrance into the Matinee Musical Club of Los Angeles and the Verse Writers Club, a national organization."
Mrs. Gilmore was born at Tipton, Iowa, and is a daughter of Thomas McCabe, deceased, who was born at Dublin, Ireland, and educated in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, he having developed marked artistic talent as a painter and writer of prose, and his wife, whose maiden name was Josephine M. Lewis, having shown both musical talent and a special love for poetry, so that the daughter had a natural heritage of artistic predilections.
Mrs. Gilmore attended the great Art Institute in the City of Chicago, where she studied both landscape and china painting. It was not until the inception of the World war that her poetic muse was quickened to pro- ductive activity. Of her artistic heritage it may further be stated that her father, who studied for the ministry at Cornell College, failed to become a clergyman, but found special satisfaction in the avocation of wood carving and designing and also in the writing of prose articles on varied topics and themes. Mrs. Gilmore completed a high-school course in her native state, and thereafter took a kindergarten course.
It is certain, however, that Mrs. Gilmore has found her most effective expression and her maximum potential as a writer of lyrics. From a recent edition of the Pacific Coast Musician are taken the following extracts : "A prolific writer of excellent verse is Elizabeth McCabe Gilmore, of Los Angeles. Mrs. Gilmore has the conception of a poet, the talent for poetical expression, and she also possesses the feeling for rhythmic musical values that sets her poetry in lyrical verse. It is this latter quality in her work that makes her verse appealingly suitable for musical setting. Her writ-
104
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
ings have won commendation from publishers and have attracted the inter- est of a number of successful composers, including Charles E. Pember- ton, John David Beall, Vincent Rose, Ernest Ball, Sol Cohen and Paul Van Katwyjk, who have written music to her lyrics. She is at present writing an opera, in which she is incorporating the music of the different composers who have given her lyrics musical settings, the first act of which has been successfully presented a number of times." Mrs. Gilmore has recently brought to publication her book of lyrics entitled "Musical Mus- ings," and the same has met with most favorable reception on the part of critics and the reading public. It has been consistently said that the Gil- more home. at 4649 Beverly Boulevard, "is a mecca for those of artistic inclinations who enjoy meeting with kindred spirits."
Mrs. Gilmore is a valued member of the McDowell Club of Allied Arts, the Southern California Woman's Press Club, the Patio Players, the Verse Writers of Southern California, the Matinee Musical Club and other representative cultural organizations. Her stepson, Major Wayne Gilmore, now in England (1922), was a major at the front for eight months of the World war, he also being talented as a musician and his wife as a writer. Mrs. Gilmore's son, Robert S. Gilmore, has much artistic predilection and ability and is studying interior decorating and architectural designing.
WILLIAM ESPOLT, one of the successful citrus-fruit growers and representative citizens of the Whittier District, has here been identified prominently with the development of this important line of industrial enter- prise in this section, where he began operations in the year 1896. Imbued with the appreciative spirit of liberal and civic loyalty, he has taken lively interest in the growth and progress of Whittier and has expressed this in his support of all measures and enterprises tending to advance the welfare of his home city and district. When he first came to Whittier few improve- ments were to be found in this now beautiful little city, and he finds satis- faction in knowing that he has been able to contribute his share to the evolution of a most fair and prosperous city in a section that was represented by almost unbroken stretches of wild and uninviting land at the time when he here established his residence.
Mr. Espolt is of European birth, but was only a child of two years at the time of his parents' immigration to the United States, so that by train- ing, predilection and judgment he is an all around American in spirit and interests. He was born January 22, 1865, a son of Chris and Sophia Espolt. who came to this country in 1867, the father becoming a pioneer settler and farmer in Iowa, where he passed the remainder of his life, as did also his wife.
William Espolt was reared on the home farm in Crawford County, Iowa, and was afforded the advantages of the excellent public schools of the Hawkeye State. There he continued to be associated with his father in farm enterprise until 1895, when he came to California. He passed the first year at South Pasadena, and in 1896 came to East Whittier and purchased seven and one-half acres of unimproved land. Two years later he added materially to the area of his land holdings, and his ability and progressiveness need no further evidence than the general appearance of his fine citrus groves of the present day, with an area of fifty-five acres, these groves being at East Whittier and La Habra. He has given himself with characteristic ardor and efficiency to the development and supervision of his properties, and abundant success has attended his well directed enter- prise. Mr. Espolt resides at 315 North Painter Avenue, Whittier, where he erected and occupies one of the most attractive houses in the city, the building being of the most approved California type of architecture, with special features that attract to it admiring comment on the part of all who view it. Mr. Espolt was one of the organizers and is a director of the La Habra Citrus Association, and is still a member of the Whittier Citrus Association, of which he served many years as a director. Since 1907 he
105
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
has been a member of the directorate of the Whittier National Bank, and in 1920 he was actively associated with the organization of the Citizens Commercial & Savings Bank of La Habra, of which he is a director, as is he also of the La Habra Midway Oil Company. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party, and he and his wife attend and support the Christian Science Church in their home city.
In the State of Iowa, in February, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Espolt and Miss Louisa Homier, who was born in Germany, and the children of this union are four in number. William, Jr., is a successful rancher at La Habra. He married Miss Hazel Cline, of Whittier, and they have two daughters, Atrelle and Clementine. Alma is the wife of R. J. Frantz, a prosperous rancher of the La Habra District, and their one child is a daughter, Mirabell. Orville G. is, in 1922, a student of Cornell College, Iowa, and Leora, the youngest of the four children, is attending Broad Oaks School in the City of Pasadena.
WILLIAM GRAHAM WORSHAM was one of the early settlers in the Whittier District. He did not live to develop the land holdings he acquired there, but that development work has been carried on with conspicuous success by Mrs. Worsham, who is one of the largest land owners in that part of Los Angeles County, has some fine citrus groves and operates a dairy farm.
William Graham Worsham was born in Henderson County, Kentucky, March 4, 1860, son of Elijah William and Mariam (Graham) WVorsham, both of English ancestry and of old American families. His father was also a native of Henderson County, Kentucky, and a planter. The mother was born in Southern Indiana.
William Graham Worsham was thirteen years of age when his parents came to California. He finished his education in the public schools of this state, attending school in San Francisco, and also the Baptist College located at Vacaville.
In the early part of 1878, when eighteen years of age, Mr. Worsham engaged in the feed business. He gathered together several large bands of sheep, and was making good progress until the dry seasons of 1881-82 brought disaster to this enterprise. After he retired from the sheep business he was an employe of the Los Angeles Furniture Company until his death in April, 1899. However, many years prior to his death he took up a government claim of 160 acres of land adjoin- ing what later became Whittier on the east line of the old John M. Thomas place. The original fourteen hundred acres acquired by the Whittier colony was owned in 1875 by Robert M. Towne. He lost this property to one of the banks in Los Angeles, and John M. Thomas acquired it for thirty-five hundred dollars. In the fall of 1887, Mr. Thomas sold it to Birch & Bold for thirty-five thousand dollars. Six months later they sold it to the Pickering Land & Water Company for $70,000. The Worsham homestead joined this on the east. The late Mr. Worsham was a member of Hollenbeck Lodge, F. and A. M. and Los Angeles Chapter, R. A. M.
May 10, 1881, at Los Angeles, Mr. Worsham married Miss Margaret Blasdel. Mrs. Worsham is a native of Indiana, and came to California as a young girl with her parents in 1875. She was one of the first graduating class of the Los Angeles Academy, which afterward developed into the University of Southern California. Her father, Elijah Sparks Blasdel, a native of Indiana, was for many years a prominent rancher and a mining man in Southern California. Long before the boom of 1887-89 in Los Angeles he predicted that the City of the Angels would be the largest city in the world. He was one of the original boosters of Southern California, and advised all his relatives and friends to purchase property in a district which he con- fidently predicted would be a solid settlement from the mountains to the sea, a prophecy that was only recently reiterated by John Hayes
106
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Hammond. Mr. Blasdel told his daughter that although he would not live to see it, she would live to see at least part of his vision come true. Mr. Blasdel died in Los Angeles in September, 1885. Two of his brothers became conspicuous men on the West Coast: Ex-Gov. Henry G. Blasdel of Nevada, and Capt. Enoch Weaver Blasdel, of Oakland, California.
Mrs. Worsham has two children: Miss Helen, at home; and Charles M., who has charge of the ranch work for his mother.
Of the original 160 acres of the Worsham homestead twenty acres were sold to the Home Oil Company and five acres to Doctor Robbins. The remaining 135 acres constitute the undivided estate of Mrs. Worsham and her two children. On the death of her husband Mrs. Worsham took personal control of this ranch. She stocked it and con- ducts a dairy with from twenty to twenty-two head of fine Jersey cattle. She has proved an excellent business manager, and has an intimate knowledge of every detail of the work herself. In spite of many privations and discouragements she has carried on her business until it represents a substantial fortune. On the property she has seven and a half acres in valencia oranges located above the frost line. The product of her groves always commands the highest market prices. She also has five acres in lemons, while the remainder is used for grazing. In time a portion of this homestead will be subdivided as city lots, and will open one of the most attractive sections around Whittier for residence purposes. Mrs. Worsham has in recent years become an enthusiastic advocate of the avocado pear as a profitable crop in this section of California. Both the soil and location seem peculiarly adapted to its growth. She has on her land one remark- able avocado tree from which she sold in February, March and April of 1919, $414.10 worth of fruit, and consumed and gave away three hundred and eighty-seven of the pears. The tree which had this re- markable production was grown from seed planted by Mrs. Worsham twelve years ago. The seed was taken from one of the famous Murietta trees.
Mrs. Worsham is an honorary member of the Whittier Woman's Club, and in former years was a member of the Ruskin Club of Los Angeles. She is identified with the Christian Science Church.
BERT WARREN SUTPHEN. Whittier as a business community has long recognized in Bert Warren Sutphen one of the most progressive young men of affairs. He has built up and developed a merchant tailoring establishment, with a reputation widely extended beyond the City of Whittier. He is also a practical orange grower, and is a citizen who always has the interest of the community at heart. In the many years he has conducted his men's furnishing and merchant tailoring store at Whittier he has given much of his time and ability to work of designer and draper of men's fine garments. He believes in the absolute satisfaction of his customers, and on that satisfaction he has laid and built up a very prosperous business.
Mr. Sutphen was born at Suisun City, Solano County, California, July 1, 1879, and is therefore a native son. His father, Albert Warren Sutphen, was born in Aurora, Illinois, and gave the best years of his life to educational work. He taught for more than twenty years in California, and for a long time was superintendent of education in Solano county. He died March 27, 1921. Albert W. Sutphen married Mollie Blish, who was born in Illinois, and is also deceased. Besides Bert Warren there is also another son, Robert, and also three sisters : Alice, wife of Elmer S. Rigdon, who is a state senator from Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, formerly chairman of the Highway Commission, and has been prominent in behalf of highways in those two counties; Nellie, wife of C. E. Carroll, a well known rancher of Manteca, San Joaquin County ; and Lillie, wife of W. J. Phillips, a
.
10%
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
rancher at Hemet, California. A brother of Albert W. Sutphen is Wm. C. Sutphen, an automobile man, secretary of the Arnold Company at Los Angeles.
Bert Warren Sutphen acquired his education in the public schools in the northern part of the state. He also attended Woodbury Busi- ness College at Los Angeles, and in 1899 established himself at Whittier as a merchant tailor. For about twenty-one years he has occupied one location, at 113 West Philadelphia Street. Here he has his high class merchant tailoring and men's furnishing goods store.
Mr. Sutphen has a genius for friendship, and through his wide acquaintance he exercises a beneficent influence in local affairs. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, one of the oldest past officers of Whittier Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and served the lodge as organist for a number of years. He is active only in local politics, and nationally he votes the republican ticket. During the World war he was a member of the Reserves. Mr. Sutphen is owner of five acres of valencia oranges one mile and a half northwest of Whittier, and has been unusually successful as a citrus fruit grower and is a member of the Whittier Select Citrus Association. He attends the Presbyterian Church.
By his first marriage Mr. Sutphen has one daughter, Evelyn Ivalue Sutphen, a member of the class of 1923 in the University of Southern California. She has won many flattering commendations upon her ability as a pianist and pipe organist, and is now a special student of piano and pipe organ under Professor Steel.
On March 29, 1920, Mr. Sutphen married Miss Martha Armstrong, of Los Angeles, daughter of George H. Armstrong, of Roosevelt Avenue, that city. Mrs. Sutphen has a fine reputation as a teacher in Los Angeles, and still continues her work in that profession in that city, where she is a member of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church. Mr. Sutphen at this time is building a typical Spanish bungalow home on his ranch on Palm Avenue, where he expects to spend the declining years of his life after he retires from business. The home will cost Mr. Sutphen over $10,000 to construct, and will be one of the most attractive in that district.
HENRY TEMPLE NEWELL was one of the venerable and revered pioneer citizens of Los Angeles at the time of his death, which occurred on the 19th of June, 1920. He did much to advance the civic and mate- rial development and progress of Los Angeles and the surrounding coun- try, his loyalty to the state of his adoption was of the highest and most appreciative order, and he lived to see and participate in the marvelous growth of the beautiful metropolis of Southern California-one of the wonder cities of the world.
A scion of Colonial New England ancestry in both the paternal and maternal lines, Mr. Newell was born at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Febru - ary 28, 1835, and thus he was eighty-five years of age at the time of his death. His father, Sylvester G. Newell, attained to the patriarchal age of ninety years, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Ryder. was eighty-six years of age at the time of her death. Henry T. Newell was reared and educated in the old Bay State, and was a young man when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Dwight, Illinois, where the father engaged in the work of his trade, that of cabinetmaker. Henry T. Newell learned the tinner's trade, and this he followed as a vocation in his earlier business career. He continued his residence in Illinois until 1882, when he came to California and purchased property in Los Angeles. He then returned to Illinois, and within a short time thereafter came again to California, his family accompanying him at this time. The home was established in a house on the second lot from the present Security Bank in Los Angeles, which city at that time had only 11,000 population. For a number of years Mr. Newell gave his attention to the real-estate business,
108
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
and his fair and honorable methods and progressive policies made him a successful leader in this field of enterprise, besides which he was thus enabled to contribute largely to the material and civic advancement of his home city. He was one of the organizers of the Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles, and served as vice president of the same until its consolidation with another of the leading banking institutions of the city. Mr. Newell impressed himself upon the community as a man of sterling character and marked business ability. He lived and wrought to goodly ends and accumulated a substantial estate, in excess of $500,000, the greater part of which passed to his widow and their two daughters. He was a stalwart republican in his political adherency.
On the 21st of February, 1861, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Newell and Miss Eliza A. Gould, and their marital companionship, cover- ing a period of sixty years, was one of ideal order. Mrs. Newell, a vener- able and gracious gentlewoman, has endeared herself to those who have come within the compass of her gentle and helpful influence. She was born at Michigan City, Indiana, July 14, 1840, and is a daughter of Oren F. and Ellen (Legg) Gould, the former a native of the State of Maine and the latter of Leeds, England, whence she came to the United States as a young woman of eighteen years. The parents of Mrs. Gould removed from Michigan City, Indiana, to Dwight, Illinois, and from the latter state they came as pioneers to California, where they passed the closing years of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Newell became the parents of four children, concerning whom brief record is given in conclusion of this memoir : Nellie Viola, the first born, died at the age of three years. Lillie Adell, who was born March 21, 1865, is the widow of James A. McCusker. Edna May, who was born January 10, 1868, became the wife of Harry C. Veazie, who was a resident of Los Angeles at the time of his death, and she here passed away on the 4th of May, 1910. Maude Muller, who was born October 14, 1875, is the wife of Philip L. Wilson of Los Angeles, their marriage having occurred November 7, 1906. Mr. Wilson is a native son of California. Their two children are Catherine Newell and Philip Louis, Jr. The marriage of Miss Lillie Adell Newell and Charles F. Kimball was solemnized February 21, 1888, at Los Angeles, and Mr. Kimball was here one of the interested principals in the Baker Iron Works at the time of his death, March 15, 1890. On the 22nd of Decem- ber, 1903, Mrs. Kimball became the wife of James A. McCusker, who was born at Watsonville, this state, and whose death occurred October 11, 1916, his widow still maintaining her home in Los Angeles.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.