USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 23
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"Alfred Montgomery, who died the other day, may not have been considered one of the world's greatest artists, but he could do things with his brush that many painters never could accomplish. He could paint a corn cob so realistic that the birds would peck at it, and he could show you the inside of a canvas pumpkin that any cook would accept as the basis of a pie. As an artist of the farm he had no superior in America. The things he did, he did well."
"Coming in" and "Down on the Farm" are the most famous of Mr. Montgomery's paintings, and of scarcely less repute are his "Biddy and Her Brood," "Engaged for this Set," "Farmyard Scene." and "An Autumn Dividend." His first large canvas was "Down on the Farm," which Ferdinand Peck, of Chicago, as American art com- missioner, took to the exposition in Paris, where it was immediately acclaimed a classic of its distinctive type.
In earlier years Mr. Montgomery was a Presbyterian preacher, and in later years he was much in demand for lectures in Chautauqua assemblies and elsewhere. His reputation as an original thinker and remarkable public speaker was scarcely second to his fame as an artist. His metaphors, his similes, his construction-in fact his entire Eng- lish diction-were fully as original as his art. He was meteoric and all-pervading as a speaker. In this field of action he won high tributes far and wide over the country. Concerning him the following estimate
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was written prior to his death: "Few more spectacular characters have ever lived in Illinois than Alfred Montgomery. To tell of his mental qualifications would be but to give little concerning the makeup of this extraordinary man. He is a bundle of nervous energy. He is a dreamer, a man of impulse, erratic, yet brilliant, plain, yet im- pressive."
April 18, 1906, recorded the marriage of Mr. Montgomery and Miss Adora Flint, of Chicago, she being a daughter of Francis Flint, who was born in England, as was also his wife. The one child of this union is a daughter, Gloria Quayle Montgomery, whose second personal name was given her in honor of Bishop Quayle, of Kansas City, who baptized her and who had solemnized the marriage of her parents. Since the death of Mr. Montgomery his widow and daughter have continued to reside in Los Angeles, where the attractive home is at 1246 West Forty-eightlı Street.
It is possible in this review to give only a few of the inany estimates placed upon the Farmer Painter by newspapers and by men of prominence :
Governor Buchtel, Colorado: "He is a delicious inspiration to people with brains." J. Frank Hanley, Governor of Indiana: "The man, his words, his pictures, are as appealing as Burns or Riley." Professor John W. Wetzel, Yale University: "A unique character, scholarly advocate, leading American art on a mighty mission." Bishop Samuel Fallows, Chicago: "A genius, poet, orator, and first among American painters." Rev. B. L. Whitman, D. D., Seattle: "God has given him rare gifts and a heart of gold."
From a Chautauqua announcement is taken the following quota- tion : "Achieving distinction after forty years of diligent toil in his own chosen field, he comes with reassuring words to those who be- lieve and strive-putting courage into the lives of those who aspire but in whose hearts hope lies so low. He has given to the world the first original philosophic definition of genius, accounting for its ex- istence in the 'Power of Desire.'"
In concluding this article consistency is served by reproducing the poem entitled "A Lullaby," which was written by Mr. Mont- gomery and, as said by him, was "Sung to my own soul in sentiment long before it ever found expression in words :"
Were all our motives understood And all our worthy actions praised, 'Twere little credit to be good, With ne'er a thought or question raised.
But oh! to live from day to day Within the shadow of a frown ; To suffer for a false disgrace, With ne'er a chance to live it down.
To know within one's soul of souls That only motives good and kind Are misconstrued for cunning art, The concepts of a niggard mind.
To see the trusted one forsake, To feel our fate beyond control, These are the trials sore, that make Or mar the fabric of the soul.
Learn patience : it will serve thy weal. The voice of justice doth await,
-
!
Manus Inorgan
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And if some chance her lips doth seal, Her silence she will compensate.
By raising from the ashes, dcad, A beautcous hope, a new desire, That, Phoenix-like, shall rise more fair Than all that perished in the fire.
OCTAVIUS MORGAN- The late Octavius Morgan was one of the men of Los Angeles who took a most important part in developing the original Spanish town into the modern American metropolis of today, and many of the buildings of note in the city are the results of his skill as an architect. Mr. Morgan was an Englishman by birth, he having been born near Can- terbury, England, October 20, 1850, a son of Giles Chapman and Caroline Tyler (Adams) Morgan, the former of whom belonged to the gentry in Kent.
His parents were proud of their son, who early displayed unusual talents, and so Octavius Morgan received a sound education. As he was the eighth child in the family he was given the name of Octavius. At the age of nineeen years he came to the United States with the intention of put- ting to good use the skill he had acquired in architectural drawing, but drifted westward, and into the mountains, where for a time he was em- ployed in a saw-mill, and became an expert in the work, which practical knowlelge was later of great use to him in his wider field of activity. In 1873 he started by team for the Yellowstone, and reached Los Angeles in 1874, coming by way of Idaho and Nevada. His entry into Los Angeles was a somewhat humble one, for owing to the loss of his horse he was forced to mount a pack horse, and complete his journey in this manner. For the first two years after his arrival he found it more remunerative to work as a carpenter, and did so until he was able to resume his pencil in the office of E. F. Kysor, architect, whose partner he subsequently became. With the development of the lead mines at Leadville, Colorado, the young man felt a desire to experiment in mining, and in 1879 went to that region and worked in the mines for two years, but in 1881 returned to Los Angeles and, joining forces with Mr. Kysor, formed the firm of Kysor & Morgan which continued until 1890, when it was dissolved by mutual consent after nine years of profitable and pleasant association. Subsequently Mr. Mor- gan took John A. Walls into partnership, and his son, Octavius W. Morgan, entered the office and firm in 1910, the name then becoming Morgan, Walls & Morgan. Among other buildings standing to the credit of Mr. Morgan and his associates are: The buildings of the Sisters of Charity Hospital, the Hollenbeck Home for Aged People, the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, the I. N. Van Nuys Building, the Hollingsworth Building, the Title Guarantee Building, the Morosco Theatre Building, the W. P. Story Build- ing, the Stock Exchange Building, as well as numerous handsome resi- dences in Los Angeles and in its vicinity. Mr. Morgan was a member of the Freeholders Charter Board in 1898, and again in 1900, a member and past president of the Engineers' and Architects' Association, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and also a director, a past president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, a member of the California State Board of Architecture, and he was a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows, the Jonathan and Cali- fornia clubs and the Los Angeles Country Club.
In 1884 Mr. Morgan married Margaret Susan Offenbacher, the widow of William Offenbacher and the daughter of John Weller, a resident of Ohio. They became the parents of two children, Octavius W. and Mrs. W. S. McGilvray. Mr. Morgan died in March, 1922, of heart disease, pass- ing away very suddenly, and his remains are interred in Inglewood Ceme- tery, Los Angeles. In his passing not only his home city and state but the entire country lost a most useful citizen, and his family and immediate friends one whose loss cannot be replaced. Although his earthly career is
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closed, what he accomplished and the influence of his art and practical ap- plication of it remain, and will have their effect for many years to come.
H. BERT ELLIS, M. D. The late Dr. H. Bert Ellis, of Los Angeles, was one of the most representative men of his profession, and for years he held a dignified position among the eye, ear, nose and throat specialists of Southern California. His life was enriched many times over by civic accomplishments and deeds of charity, as well as the acquirement of pro- fessional distinction, and when he died the city lost a most worthy citizen, and his calling one of its most distinguished members. He was born at Lincoln Center, Maine, May 17, 1863, a son of Dr. James Henry and Annie M. ( Bullard) Ellis, the former being a doctor of dental surgery.
Dr. H. Bert Ellis attended the collegiate school at Frederickton, New Brunswick, for a year, and then spent three years at Arcadia College, Wolf- ville, Nova Scotia, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Entering the medical department of the University of California, at Los Angeles, he graduated therefrom in 1888 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Subsequently he took up post-graduate work at the University of Goettingen, Germany, studying surgery under some of the leading surgeons of Berlin, and also specialized in ophthalmology. Until 1893 he was engaged in a general practice, but from then on he devoted himself to diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. At one time he was very active in the Los Angeles County Medical Society, the California State Medical Society, and the Southern California Medical Society, acting as president of all three at various times; also the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Medical Science, the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, the American Ophthalmia-Otological Society, and the Los Angeles Clinical and Pathological Society. He was also a charter member of the American College of Surgeons. For two years he was president of the Los Angeles Board of Education. From 1892 until his death he was professor of ophthalmology in the medical depart- ment of the University of California. From 1917 to 1920 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association, and through his Eastern connections he had a transcontinental reputation as well as a local one. A man of the highest personal honor, he did more than any other member of his profession on the coast to maintain the highest standards of the ethics of his calling. He was on the staff of Consulting Physicians of Children's Hospital, and his charities were many and continuous, and he never refused to care for any one who applied to him. He was a Knight Templar, thirty-second degree and Shriner Mason, and belonged to the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, the Sunset Club of Los Angeles and was one of the past presidents of the University Club, California Club, Los Angeles and Wilshire Country clubs, and in all of them his loyalty and good fellowship made him very much beloved. During the war he served on the Advisory Board.
Doctor Ellis died April 16, 1922, very suddenly, at his residence in Los Angeles, leaving a widow, Mrs. Florence E. Ellis, and a sister, Mrs. Fred Bacon. For thirty-eight years Doctor Ellis made Los Angeles his home. and during that period he was associated with the best of the city's progress.
MRS. JEAN GRANT MCCRACKEN. For a work of endless diversity and responsibility, a key to the welfare of many human souls, that of psycho- pathic parole officer at the Hall of Records of Los Angeles stands pre- eminent. Personal experience, character, love for fellow men have been the qualifications which have enabled Mrs. Jean Grant McCracken to perform her duties so ably and with such infinite patience through the years since she became parole officer, covering the entire period of the existence of that office and system.
This is the only system of its kind in the country, and in hundreds of cases has worked marvelous transformations. The office was created in 1912, being sponsored by Judge George H. Hutton. Its first aim is to
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restore mental health, and under psychopathic parole the individual grad- ually fits into normal society so as to have at least a measure of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The office and society take charge of many men and women brought before the Lunacy Commission who can be cared for outside a state insti- tution. Some are placed in sanatoriums, while others are cared for in their own homes under the supervision of the department. To meet the con- ditions and problems that arise from cases that are merely due to over- work and the loss of hope, the Resthaven Association has provided a home known as Resthaven. Its physician, Dr. Ida Colburn, looks after the happy family. If able the inmates pay a small amount. They are cared for until well enough to return to their homes. This is to save women whose present condition does not demand a state institution. Resthaven was founded in 1912, and each year has done increasingly efficient work. In 1912 the Psychopathic Parole Office handled sixty-seven patients. This number has multiplied rapidly until in 1922 the number that passed through the office aggregated one thousand.
Mrs. McCracken is a native of Haddington, Scotland. Her father at one time was mayor of that town. She was educated in Glasgow and in Switzerland. At the age of nineteen she came to America, but has since revisited her native land several times. She met Mr. McCracken on one of her trips to Scotland, and they subsequently came to California for the sake of his health and settled in Antelope Valley. He died in 1896, and soon afterward, left alone, Mrs. McCracken took up Juvenile Court work and still later her duties as psychopathic parole officer.
FREDERICK LEIX, M. D. Among the marvelous discoveries of com- paratively recent years in the field of medical science, none perhaps have proved of more substantial value than Roentgen's X-ray, in the scientific use of which the late eminent Dr. Frederick Leix, of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, was an acknowledged expert.
Dr. Frederick Leix was born in Wittenberg, Germany, where he had educational advantages, and when he came to America in young manhood, was a qualified civil engineer. His first home in the United States was at Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he soon found himself associated and competing with other competent men of his profession in organizing and carrying out some of the great enterprises that had much to do with the development of the western country. For a number of years he was active as a civil engineer, and it was a professional contract that first called him to Texas.
Soon after reaching Texas Engineer Leix, remembering his early mili- tary training in his own country, became interested and connected with a Texas military organization, of which he was commissioned captain. The country was but sparsely settled in some sections at that time, and such organizations were absolutely necessary for the establishing of law and order and the protection of ranchers and their cattle interests. On many occasions Captain Leix and his command took part in sharp skirmishes both in Texas and Arizona with Indians.
Although successful as a civil engineer and capable in military life, it is as a specialist in medical science that Dr. Leix is best known. It was not until 1900, during middle life and as a resident of California, that he turned his attention to the study of medicine, and with the vigor and determination that attended all his undertakings soon completed his course of study and was graduated from the California Medical College with his degree. In hi's early practice of medicine and surgery he immediately recognized the possibilities of the X-ray, and it was then that he went to Europe to study its scientific application in the great universities of Berlin and Vienna. Upon his return to Los Angeles he opened one of the first offices in this city as an X-ray specialist, in which line he built up a great reputation and continued in active practice until his death, after an illness of but eight days, on January 14, 1921. He was past master of Hollenbeck Lodge, F. and A.
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M., and a member of the Mystic Shrine and Knights Templar, and belonged also to the Los Angeles County Medical Society and the American Medical Association. In all the relations of life he was an honorable, upright man and well deserved the high regard in which he was held by his brother practitioners and the public.
Dr. Leix married on September 20, 1906, Dr. Frances Bryant, a native Californian, born at San Francisco. Her parents came to California in 1867, her father by ox-team across the plains, and her mother, with her parents, around the Horn. Dr. and Mrs. Leix had one son born to them, Frederick, who is now in school.
Dr. Frances Leix received her medical degree in 1906 in the San Fran- cisco College of Physicians and Surgeons, and is a well known X-ray specialist at Los Angeles. Since the death of her husband she has continued in X-ray practice, having been well trained in her association with him and in Europe. Dr. Leix is a member of the Eastern Star, the Woman's Progressive Club and of several scientific bodies.
WALTER M. MURPHY has been actively associated with the business life of Los Angeles and Pasadena for twenty years, and during the past half dozen years has developed one of the largest and most adequate automobile sales organizations in the southern part of the state. This business is known as the Walter M. Murphy Motors Company of Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Francisco, Oakland and Fresno, of which Mr. Murphy is proprietor and manager.
He was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1881, and was liberally educated in his native city. He attended the public schools, and from there entered Detroit University, where he graduated in 1902. After his university career Mr. Murphy engaged in the lumber business, and soon came to California and established a lumber manufacturing plant in Pasadena. He conducted a plant that supplied special mill work throughout this section of the state until 1910, and in 1916 he sold out his interest in that line and established an automobile salesroom. After six years he is proprietor of what competent judges have pronounced the most completely equipped and attractive salesrooms and offices in the State of California. His business headquarters are in Los Angeles, at 932 South Hope Street. Mr. Murphy handles the Ford and Lincoln cars and his able management has brought greatly enhanced reputation to the standard output of this great manufac- turing corporation.
In 1908 Mr. Murphy married Miss Adeline Ricks, a native daughter of California, born at Eureka. Their home is in La Canada. Mr. Murphy is a member of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants Asso- ciation, the Overland Club, Midwick Country Club, Annandale Golf Club of Pasadena, the California Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles and Detroit Club of Detroit, Michigan.
JULIUS CONRAD was one of the influential business men and honored pioneer citizens of Los Angeles at the time of his death, January 3, 1922, at the age of sixty-four years. He was president of the Torrance Window Glass Company and had other capitalistic interests of importance, but his name and memory shall be longest cherished by reason of his noble steward- ship as a loyal and progressive citizen and by reason of his earnest support of worthy charities and benevolences.
A representative of an Austrian family of wealth and influence, Mr. Conrad was born in the year 1857. His early educational advantages we're of superior order and included study in Vienna College as well as in the City of Budapest. At the age of twenty years he severed the ties that bound him to his native land and came to America. He traveled extensively through the United States and Canada, and finally became identified with the mining industry in California. He was prospered in his activities along this line, and continued his association with mining enterprises a number
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of years. He next made large investments in real estate, which eventually became very valuable, and he acquired large tracts of land, and for a term of years he was associated with Thomas Hughes in extensive lumbering operations, both of them acquiring in the passing years substantial wealth.
Mr. Conrad became one of the heaviest stockholders in the Torrance Window Glass Company, the pioneer and most important concern of its kind in Los Angeles, and of this corporation he was the president at the time of his death. His appreciation of the manifold advantages and attrac- tions of California was marked by intense loyalty, and he was proud to number himself among the citizens of this great western commonwealth, where his circle of friends was limited only by that of his acquaintances and where his influence was ever exerted in behalf of the things that are good and true. He was a director of the Jewish Orphans Home, and a leader of the Jewish Charities Federation and other charitable and benevo- lent organizations. No worthy charity failed to enlist his support, and his liberal contribution for such causes frequently anticipated request for the same. Mr. Conrad counted as his intimate friends many of the leading men of California, was a staunch and enthusiastic advocate of the principles of the republican party, though never a seeker of political preferment, and he was affiliated with the B'nai B'rith and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His marriage occurred two years prior to his death, and his widow resides in the beautiful home which he had provided, at 1124 South St. Andrews Place.
DR. EDITH IONA MOON is one of the leading exponents of the benignant science of chiropractics in the City of Los Angeles, where she has built up a large and representative practice and gained high standing in her chosen profession. In point of continuous practice she is one of the oldest chiro- practors in the city, and she has been a resident of Los Angeles for the past twenty-five years.
Dr. Moon is most thoroughly fortified in the science to which she is devoting her attention, and is the only chiropractor in Los Angeles who has studied under the direct preceptorship of both D. D. Palmer, the discoverer of the art of chiropractics. and B. J. Palmer, the developer of this science.
JEANETTE BROWN. Some of the most efficient and determined factors in the business life of a community today are the carefully trained women whose efforts are put forth to secure not only a material success, but also to raise the status of their sex and to advance the welfare of their fellow citizens. One of these highly competent and eminently successful business women of Los Angeles is Miss Jeanette Brown, public stenographer, multi- grapher and notary public, with offices at 396-397 Pacific Electric Building.
Miss Brown was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana, and her father was born in Pennsylvania, of Dutch ancestry, and her mother in West Virginia, of Scotch-Welsh ancestry. She attended the public schools of Warsaw, Indiana, and then took a business course at Indianapolis, Indiana, following which she entered upon her career. Miss Brown deems it fortunate that her first position was the somewhat trying one of secretary
to Brig .- Gen. Will J. McKee, of the National Guards, who was commis- sioned a brigadier-general in the Spanish-American war by President Mckinley. The exacting demands of this army official so grounded Miss Brown at the very commencement of her work that its effects are to be seen in her business today, and in part accounts for her remarkable success. Leaving Indiana, Miss Brown came to California and spent a year in the state before going to the mining camps of Nevada, where she remained for four years, there gaining her first experience in public work.
In 1910 she came to Los Angeles and opened her present office. Hers is one of the oldest established businesses of its kind in Los Angeles, and she employs a staff of experienced people and enjoys a very large patronage from the leading professional men and commercial houses. Beginning with
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nothing but her natural ability and the determination to succeed, Miss Brown has achieved a distinction in her line of which she has every reason to be proud, and her progress has blazed the trail for others less venture- some. She is a member of the Soroptimist Club, composed of professional and business women, which to them is what the Optimists, the Lions, the Kiwanis, Rotary and other similar clubs are to the men. She also main- tains membership with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, "Direct- by-Mail" Association, and the Public Stenographers and Multigraphers Association of Los Angeles.
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