USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 21
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Mr. Cattell at this writing (1922) has just completed a very attrac- tive and commodious colonial cottage for his future home, at 1365 North Los Robles Avenue.
BESSIE BARTLETT FRANKEL. Musician, composer, organizer and club woman, Mrs. Bessie Bartlett Frankel is one of the most representative members of her sex in Los Angeles or Southern California, and has been connected with some of the most progressive work in musical circles of any one in this section. Her musical talent is inherited, for her mother is a fine musician, carefully trained, and for many years one of the favorites at local benefits.
Bessie Bartlett Frankel was born in California, and early displayed musical talent, which her careful parents aided her in developing. She studied the piano with Maude A. Meserre, William Putti and Neally Stevens ; voice with William Chick and Clifford Lott of Los Angeles, and Herbert Witherspoon of New York, coached oratorio with Watkin Mills ; ballads with Guy D'Harlelot in London, England ; voice and the opera with Sebastiani of Naples, Italy. In addition to that exhaustive instruction Mrs. Frankel studied dramatics with Joseph Addman of New York, and appeared with the Joseph Addman Repertoire Company in concert work in New York and California, specializing in the "spoken song."
During 1918 and 1919 she was first vice president of the Woman's Club of Hollywood, in which she still retains membership, and organized and was chairman of the Hollywood Community Chorus, which from its ini- tial membership in 1917 of fifteen members has increased to its present one of 1,500. From 1917 to 1919 she was chairman of music of the Los Angeles District, California Federation of Woman's Clubs, and is now first vice president of the MacDowell Club. In April, 1918, she was elected state president of the California Federation Music Clubs, served as such for four years, and is now president emeritus. In July, 1919, she was elected president of the Utah and Nevada District, National Federation Music Clubs, at Petersboro, New Hampshire. She is also president of the American Music Optimists, organized for composers of American com- positions and American artists. This is a national organization, and Mrs.
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Frankel has traveled in fifteen states in its behalf, being very enthusiastic with reference to it and its helpful influence. A number of her own songs have become very popular with real music lovers. Mrs. Frankel has not confined her interests to the above mentioned organization, for she is a member of the Friday Morning Club, the Long Beach Music Study Club and others of local repute.
On June 6, 1911, Mrs. Frankel was married to Cecil Frankel, a native of New York, who came to California at the age of fifteen years. He is associate manager of the Equitable Life Association. Mr. Frankel has natural musical ability and plays all stringed instruments.
JUDGE LEMUEL C. McKEEBY, who died October 20, 1913, was a Cali- fornia forty-niner, a distinguished lawyer and judge of the state for many years, and was widely known in both Northern and Southern California. His home for many years was in the older part of Los Angeles, at Second and Broadway, Broadway then being known as Fort Street.
Judge McKeeby was a youthful volunteer in the Mexican war. At the close of the war he returned to the family home in Milwaukee. His sister's husband was coming to California and induced Lemuel McKeeby, then seventeen years of age, to accompany him. They started across the country in a caravan and finished the journey on horseback. Their first location after the long trip across the plains was what was then called Hangtown, later renamed Placerville. It was then the largest mining town in California, being so called because of three notorious hangings. Two years after coming to California Judge McKeeby met Miss Caroline Samp- son. She, with her mother, had come to California around the Horn, and was a teacher until her marriage.
For twenty years Judge McKeeby was prominently identified as an attorney and judge and mine superintendent, and served as Circuit judge in both California and Nevada. In 1866, while sitting on the bench in Nevada, he was the first judge to interpret the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of permitting a negro to testify. His ruling so incensed Hal Clayton, attorney general of Nevada, that the latter immediately left the court room.
Judge McKeeby also had the distinction of being the first white alcalde or mayor of San Buena Ventura. At the time of his death he was known as the oldest Mason in California. Served as master of Manzanita Lodge No. 102 for five years, and for a similar term was master of Ventura Lodge.
Mrs. McKeeby died in 1907. The only surviving son is George L. McKeeby, an attorney of Los Angeles. The living daughter is Mrs. Mae McKeeby Bartlett, wife of A. G. Bartlett, whose career is given in the fol- lowing sketch.
ALBERT G. BARTLETT during his long career as merchant in musical merchandise at Los Angeles has proved one of the finest friends of musical education and artistic talent.
He was born in Devonshire, England, March 28, 1850, son of Samuel and Elizabeth Bartlett, who about five years later came to America and located at Adrian, Michigan. He grew up there, graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, and then worked as clerk in a store and as assistant bookkeeper for a manufacturing plant. In the summer of 1871 his employer sent him to Chicago to get a more extended business experi- ence, and he was there at the time of the great fire, beginning October 8 of that year.
Mr. Bartlett came West to San Francisco in 1874, and in January, 1875, arrived at Los Angeles. For a time he was associated with his brother, Charles G. Bartlett, in the jewelry, music and stationery business at Ven- tura. For playing a cornet in a local band July 4, 1875, he was paid twenty dollars, and soon began employing his talents as a musician for
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teaching and organizing a band. While this was an occupation on the side, it did much to increase the business of his store. He organized the first local company to produce the opera Pinafore in Southern California, and sang the tenor roles in that and many other popular operas.
In 1881 Mr. Bartlett started a music house opposite the old Nadeau Hotel, on First Street in Los Angeles, and for a time he conducted a music class twice a week in the University of Southern California. He also organized the Seventh Regiment Band, and was band master eight years.
In 1883 his store was moved to the Nadeau Hotel and three years later to the Wilson Block. While in his Wilson Block store Mr. Bartlett was instrumental in bringing Adelina Patti to Los Angeles. Twenty thousand dollars' worth of tickets for her concert were sold at his store. His next location was in the Philips Block on North Spring, near First Street, and after three years he took larger quarters in the Shumacher Block at 103 North Spring. This store became the rendezvous for many famous artists while in Los Angeles. Concerts were given in the Bartlett music room by Chevalier DeKontski, the Polish pianist, then an exile from his country. After seven years Mr. Bartlett moved to the old Orpheum Theater Building on Spring Street, and six years later took quarters opposite the City Hall on Broadway. After six years there, failing in health, he turned over his great and prosperous business to his old employes.
While serving on the Board of Education Mr. Bartlett was instru- mental in introducing a system of music into the public schools. He was elected president of the City Club in 1917, and again honored with the same office in 1919. He is a Knight Templar Mason, was the first candidate to be initiated in Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, a republican and a Christian Scientist.
At Ventura, January 19, 1882, he married Mae Ann McKeeby, daughter of the late Judge L. C. McKeeby, whose career is briefly given in the preced- ing sketch. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett have two daughters, Bessie H. and Miss Florence E. Bessie is the wife of Cecil Frankel and one of the most prom- inent musical leaders in Southern California.
ORANGE SHERIDAN IHRIG. Science in the household has become a familiar demand, and the old domestic methods, one by one, are being suc- ceeded by modern ways that revolutionize in large degree the arduous tasks that formerly confronted every housekeeper. Thus the modern laundry has become recognized as one of the most helpful of industries, and, conducted as the present excellent laws require, along sanitary lines, gives relief from hard household labor while its results are more generally satis- factory than are possible in the ordinary home. A leading enterprise of this kind is the Pasadena Laundry Company, the successful development of which has been largely due to the abilities of its treasurer and manager, Orange Sheridan Ihrig, who has been identified with the laundry business in various localities for more than thirty-six years.
Mr. Ihrig was born near Fort Wayne, Indiana, October 31, 1864, and is a son of John B. and Saretta (Maring) Ihrig, natives of Ohio, who were taken as children by their respective parents to Northern Indiana, where the maternal grandfather, Phillip Maring, was one of the earliest settlers. John B. Ihrig was an agriculturist for many years in Indiana, but when past sixty years of age came to Los Angeles, where for two years he was connected with the Excelsior Laundry Company. He died at the age of sixty-five years. Mrs. Ihrig still survives him and is a resident of Los Angeles, and has reached the advanced age of eighty-five years, being still in excellent health. Of the three sons and three daughters all survive except one daughter, who met her death in a railroad accident.
At the time of the birth of O. S. Ihrig his father, a farmer, was a regu- lar subscriber of the American Agriculturist, at that time published by Orange Judd, of New York City, of whom the elder Ihrig was a great admirer, hence Mr. Ihrig's first name. His second name, as perhaps might be guessed, was given him because his father, a strong Union man, was
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greatly elated over the accomplishments of General Phil Sheridan at that period of the Civil war. Orange S. Ihrig attended the public schools of Whitley County, Indiana, where he taught his first school term of three months when eighteen years of age. With the fifty dollars thus earned he entered the Methodist Episcopal College of Indiana, rang the class bells to pay for his board, and taught in his odd times, thus working his way through that institution. In 1886, when twenty-one years of age, he boarded the train at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and made the journey first- class to Los Angeles for the sum of twenty dollars, securing this cut rate because of the bitter rate war that was being waged by the railroad com- panies at the time. For twenty-two years after his arrival he was con- nected with the Excelsior Laundry at Los Angeles, participating in its growth from a small and unimportant enterprise to one of recognized importance and large proportions. He then went to San Pedro, where he bought a small laundry and had four years of the hardest kind of work in an endeavor to make a living and keep his enterprise in operation. Later he decided that the only chance for success lay in organizing the laundries, and he accordingly bought the old Anchor Laundry and then consolidated with the Harbor Laundry, calling the new concern the Golden State Laundry, of which he was secretary and manager. After eight years he disposed of his interests there, but has always felt that this was one of the greatest mistakes of his career. From San Pedro he went to San Diego, where he became president and manager of the Munger Laundry, but sub- sequently sold his interests and went to Ocean Park, there becoming iden- tified with L. A. and J. B. Lorbeer, brothers. After two years at Ocean Park, in March, 1921, Mr. Ihrig bought an interest in the Pasadena Laun- dry Company, another enterprise of the Lorbeer brothers, of which he is now a director, treasurer and manager, this being the leading laundry of Pasadena.
Mr. Ihrig was the first man in California to organize a semi-military company and take it across the Rocky Mountains. In 1900, while captain of the Uniformed Rank of the Los Angeles Lodge No. 2, Knights of Pyth- ias, of which he is a charter member, he organized a full company, became its first lieutenant, and took it to Detroit, Michigan, to compete in the drills held in that city. The company won $1,300 in prize money and the captain's diamond set medal, the expenses of every man were paid in full, and each returned to Los Angeles $6.35 in money ahead as a result of the trip. Mr. Ihrig is now a colonel of the Uniformed Rank, Knights of Pythias : a charter memebr of Los Angeles Tent No. 6, K. O. T. M., and a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood and San Pedro Lodge No. 966, B. P. O. E. In politics a republican, while in Indiana during the candidacy of Blaine and Logan he took an active part in campaigns, but since coming to California has evidenced only a good citizen's interest in political matters. His hobbies are fishing and hunting, and he has a number of handsome trophies to evidence his skill with rod and gun.
On Easter Sunday. 1909, at Los Angeles, Mr. Ihrig married Miss Alice M. Wood, a daughter of the late Dr. P. A. Wood, who laid out and was one of the founders of Wellington, Kansas, where Mrs. Ihrig was born. When she was four months old she was brought to San Diego, California, where she received her education in the public schools, and where her father became one of the prominent physicians of his day.
THEODORICK ARMISTEAD WILLIAMS had gained for himself a high place as a member of the bar of Los Angeles County, and had professional interests of broad scope and importance at the time when his labors were cut short by his tragic death, which occurred on the 1st of August, 1921, as the result of injuries which he had received that morning in a gasoline explosion that occurred while he was attending to his automobile. So severe were the burns which he received that after the accident he lived only about twelve hours. In the very prime of his strong and useful manhood, Mr. Williams had won the success which is the evidence of ability and
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sterling character, and his untimely and tragic death brought a shock to the people of the City of Los Angeles and great bereavement to a host of friends in business, professional and social circles.
Mr. Williams was a scion of patrician Colonial ancestry in the historic Old Dominion State, which he claimed as the place of his nativity. He was born in the City of Norfolk, Virginia, December 12, 1875, the family having been resident at that place from the early period when it was a borough of the Virginia colony. A member of this family was one of the founders of the Elizabeth City Parish at Norfolk, and the family pew in the Protestant Episcopal Church of this parish was handed down from generation to generation, the mother of Mr. Williams having held the same at the time of her death.
Mr. Williams was a son of Theodorick Armistead Williams, Sr., and Gertrude (Smart) Williams, both natives of Virginia. His paternal grandparents were John Williams, of Fairfax County, Virginia, and Martha Juliania Armistead, whose birth occurred at Petersburg, Virginia. The traditional family names of Theodorick Bland and Richard Armistead have been well known in Virginia since the period of the War of the Revo- lution.
The late Mr. Williams was of the seventh generation in line of descent from Theodorick Bland of Virginia, through the latter's daughter Juliania. Another of the four children of this ancestor was Colonel Richard Bland, a patriot soldier and officer in the revolution. Frances, elder daughter of Theodorick Bland, married a Mr. Jefferson of Virginia, and the son of this union was Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States. Through the various lines the late Mr. Williams was eligible for membership in the society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Mr. Williams was born at Norfolk, Virginia. His ancestors had located on the James River in Virginia in the seventeenth century, and subsequent generations moved to Petersburg on the James and Appomattox rivers, and some to Norfolk, which was established as a town in 1680, under act of the House of Burgesses. Mr. Williams was not yet twenty-one years of age when he graduated from the law department of the University of Virginia. He was not permitted to practice until reaching his majority. For several years he was prominently engaged in law practice in his native city, practicing alone and also in partnership with George Arnold Frick. On account of the condition of his wife's health, for whom a complete change was recommended, in August, 1912, he came to California and soon afterward established himself in the practice of law at Los Angeles. Though an active member of the bar only nine years, he made a splendid record both as a trial lawyer and counsellor. He had the distinction of obtaining in connection with the Long Beach cases a reversal of a decision made by the Supreme Court of California. This was an achievement that greatly enhanced his professional prestige. He also gave special attention to the settling of estates for the Security Trust and Savings Bank of Los Angeles. The profession generally and shipping interests accorded him the reputation of being the best authority on the Pacific Coast in admiralty law. He held the respect and good will of members of the bench and bar in the city and county, was a man of splendid intellectual and professional attainments. and a most ethical lawyer. He was a deep Bible student, and his public address entitled "Christ Before Pilate" attracted wide commendation. He was a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and for two years taught the Bible class of the Sunday School of Christ Church of Los Angeles, where he also served as a member of the vestry and treasurer of this church. In his native city of Norfolk he served four years as a member of the vestry and four years as junior warden of the vestry of Christ Episcopal Church. He was a member of the committee which selected the site of the present magnificent church edifice of this Virginia parish, of which the Williams family has been one of prominence for many generations. In Norfolk Mr. Williams was affiliated with the Masonic
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fraternity, of the traditions, history and teachings of which he was an appreciative student. At the time of his death he had arranged to appear before the United States Congress and present a plea in behalf of the Indians of California, in an attempt to secure to them their rights. He was also planning to go to Mexico as adviser for capitalists contemplating making investments in that country, and had frequently expressed the hope that the United States would soon accord formal recognition to the neighboring republic.
The late Mr. Williams was a courteous gentleman, an ethical lawyer and a true patrician in bearing and sentiment ; was tolerant and kindly in judgment, always worked for the good of his fellow men, and his gracious personality gained to him the most loyal of friendships.
November 27. 1902, he married Miss Mary Susan Skinner, likewise a native of Virginia and a daughter of the late Theodore Clay Skinner, a banker and tobacconist of Danville, Richmond and New York. Two chil- dren were born to this union, Theodorick Armistead, born in 1904, and Frances Bland, born in 1906. . Since the death of her husband Mrs. Wil- liams has continued to maintain her home in Los Angeles, at 736 South Wilton Place, and also has her residence in Norfolk, Virginia, at 513 Boissevain Avenue.
MARTIN COSTELLO -- The West has produced men of fabulous wealth, returning heavy dividends to those who had the courage and initiative to brave the dangers and overcome the discouragements of frontier life. Some of them in rising above humble commencements forget early beginnings and seek to impress strangers with the importance of their position. It was not the case with the late Martin Costello, nor his family. Belonging to the very wealthy people of Los Angeles, the Costellos are quiet, sincere people who seem to regard their many holdings as a trust, and who take pleasure in their wealth because it affords them so many opportunities for usefulness. Much of their time has been spent in travel, both in this and other countries. and yet they are deeply interested in Los Angeles, where they maintain a palatial home, and are connected with many generous charitable under- takings.
When a young man Martin Costello Jeft the territory of New Mexico and went to Colorado, as an employe of the United States Government, and subsequently located at Tombstone, Airzona, where he was interested in many lines of endeavor. He established a loan business, bought copper mines at Bisbee, which he subsequently sold to the Calumet & Arizona Company and the Shattuck Company, and was also connected with different banking interests at Tombstone, being a man of action until his death in September, 1911. Fraternally he maintained membership with the Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Costello married Miss Mary McNeillis of Plymouth, Pennsylvania. The day prior to their marriage Mr. Costello, as a gift to his bride, bought a copy of "Poets and Poetry of the Wyoming Valley," by John McGroarty. In this first work of the distinguished poet Miss McNeillis recognized an old neighbor of Pennsylvania, whom she had known very well. Mr. and Mrs. Costello became the parents of ten children, seven of whom survive. The eldest son was in the army during the World war and spent one year overseas. The sons have all attended Ushaw College at Durham, England.
In July, 1902, Mr. Cosetello brought his family to Los Angeles, and bought the property at 1417 South Figueroa Street, where they resided until he purchased the present home, a magnificent palace which was built by the late Fred Engstrum, 2142 Canyon Drive. Standing at the crest of the hills, it commands a wonderful view of the entire city and the surrounding country. Mrs. Costello is a lady of simple tastes and many charities. She is very proud of what her husband accomplished, and enjoys relating the incidents of their early married life, before he had become wealthy and famous. She has no false pride, but rightly believes that it is to his credit that commencing as a poor man, without outside assistance, he was able to
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accumulate a great fortune, and at the same time command the full confi- dence and hold the respect of his fellow citizens. Innately modest, she says little of her own share in this rapid advancement ; of the unremitting work, the careful thrift, the wise care of their large family, and the constant encouragement she gave the head of the household, but her listener senses all of this, and renders homage to this typical helprate of a successful business man.
EDITH LILLIAN CLARK, concert pianist and teacher, is one of the musicians of Los Angeles whose playing is vigorous and convincing, and her methods of teaching are such as to insure progress and thoroughness in her pupils. She was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and was educated at Chicago, where she earned a scholarship in the Conservatory of Music. Her mother is also a musician, and is still engaged in teaching the piano. Her father also came of a musical family, and her sister, Carolyn Handley, is a vocal teacher of Los Angeles.
Shortly after she graduated from the Chicago Conservatory of Music she was married to her teacher, Frederic Horace Clark, a noted musician of Chicago, Boston and Berlin. She continued her musical studies and concert work under the direction of her talented husband.
Mr. Clark was one of the foremost pianists to promote a broader school of pianism. The Ravista Musicale Italiana, the great musical publication of Europe, declared Mr. Clark to be a man of vision and born fifty years in advance of the times. In 1882 he published his first treatise in Berlin on weight as a factor in pianoforte tone production, the essential principles of which Steinhausen and Breithaupt of Berlin and Tobias Mathey of London later advocated and promoted, and which today is said to be the fundamental basis of the best in modern musical pedagogy.
For many years Mrs. Clark assisted her husband in his teaching, pub- lishing and concert work. She has been active in musical circles since she came to Los Angeles ten years ago, and she and her pupils appear fre- quently in recital and club programs.
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