History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 28

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
Publication date: 1923
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 840

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During his twenty-one years of residence in Los Angeles Mr. Norton was ever vitally interested in the advancement and welfare of his fellow men. He had in his youth in England studied law for a brief period, previous to his engineering education, and had always desired to pursue the study further. In 1908 he entered the College of Law of the University of Southern California, though he was then fifty-six years of age, and in 1911 he finished the three years' law course. He had the respect and affectionate regard of his fellow stu- dents, most of whom were young men, and he always found pleasure in their active assistance in his later projects, and took pride in their rallying around him in various political campaigns.

In 1912 Mr. Norton was elected a member of the Board of Super- visors of Los Angeles County. He had never sought or desired pub- lic office prior to that time, and was reluctant to enter the fight for personal preferment, but circumstances seemed to call for his can- didacy. He retained this office five years, through three successive elections. In 1913 an attempt was made to recall him from office, on the stated ground that he was "temperamentally unfit for the office." It has been widely remarked that the charge should have been changed to read "temperamentally unfit to take program." Those interested in putting him out of office, by fair means or foul, openly stated that

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they would give him a dose of his own medicine, for having "foisted" the recall on them years before. At the special election called for voting upon this recall he was victoriously returned to office by a vote of over two to one, there having been several candidates in the field. At the end of this term of office he was re-elected for the term begin- ning in 1916. In the spring of 1917 charges of malfeasance in office. were preferred against the Board of Supervisors on technical grounds that they were responsible for certain conditions in transfer of funds from one fund to another in the office of the county treasurer. This condition had existed about thirty years, but the interests opposing the vigorous policies of Mr. Norton and his associates saw in it an opportunity to oust him from office, as they knew they would never be able to rob him of the well earned confidence of the people, which was one of his most treasured possessions. Formal charges were brought against him. He refused to engage a lawyer to defend him, as he felt confident that the absurdity of the charges was so evident that he had no reason to go into a long technical defense of his re- sponsibility for a condition that he had done his best to change for the better. The result was that he was removed from office and another noble character was assailed and stabbed by those unacquainted with the facts. Fortunately, the whole affair was treated, by those who knew the history of Los Angeles for the preceding twenty years, as another case of a brave man caught off his guard and not prepared to meet the unexpected blows from behind the ambush of legal tech- nicality. Even the district attorney, who fought him most bitterly. said publicly that no one could impugn the honesty and integrity of Mr. Norton.

Mr. Norton went out of office as a brave man should, with his head in the air and with the consciousness of having done his duty · as he saw it, without flinching and without deferring to what many could have considered his own best interests. It is significant to note that the same charges were made against all other members of the board of Supervisors, but that all were dropped after Mr. Norton's removal except in one case, and that the one against his chief sup- porter.

After his retirement from office Mr. Norton engaged in a manu- facturing enterprise, but his health became impaired, and he finally died, of nervous prostration, on the 25th of January, 1921, secure in the affection of his many friends and the respect of his enemies. It could be truly said of him, as was said of Agassiz, "No man dared offer him a bribe."

The foregoing reproduction constitutes a tribute to a noble man and a loyal citizen who did much for the county and state of his adop- tion and whose name and fame rest inviolate in the minds of all who appreciate right and justice and who have comprehension of what is genuine in thought and action.

MRS. CORA BROOKS FITHIAN. There is always much that is worthy of permanent record in the life career of any individual who has bravely faced and overcome obstacles and as a passer on life's highway left sign-posts of encouragement, cheer and helpfulness for those who later travel the same road. One of the most interesting personalities of Los Angeles, and a woman whose business achievements have made her remarkable in Cali- fornia, is Mrs. Cora Brooks Fithian, who through personal effort organized and built up and is now superintendent of the Woman's Department of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California.

Mrs. Fithian comes of sturdy English ancestry on the maternal side, and her grandfather Brooks was a noted railroad builder in the State of Towa in his time and a man of independent fortune. On the paternal side she comes of Revolutionary stock. The family history includes able and well known business and professional men for generations back, and it is

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easily understandable that Mrs. Fithian should have inherited energy and ability, but, less so, that without intensive training she should have been so definitely successful as a pioneer in the almost untrodden field of pre- eminent feminine business life. She was orphaned when seven years okl. Her father's health was always precarious, and because of that he removed early from Toledo, Ohio, to Southern Iowa, where he became associated in business with his father and the late John A. Creighton, his cousin, in railroad enterprises. The latter became one of the leading capitalists of Omaha, Nebraska, and undoubtedly the father of Mrs. Fithian would have acquired an equal fortune had he been spared into middle life. He died, however, when but thirty-three years old, and the gentle, beautiful mother survived him but a short time. Mrs. Fithian had two sisters and one brother : Ida, who was a popular and efficient librarian for a number of years, died unmarried; Lizzie, a brilliant woman and social leader, who became the wife of Marion F. Stooky, prominent lawyer and politician ; and Edward J., a popular and successful lawyer and once state senator, who died when aged but thirty-three years.

Mrs. Fithian was reared by devoted family friends and was educated in private schools, Parsons College and the University of Minnesota, later was happily married and is the proud mother of two sons, both of whom are a credit to her motherly devotion and in their lives show forth the value of the ideals with which she inspired them. The older son, Chalmers B. Fithian, is prominently identified with the Y. M. C. A. at Kansas City, and has artistic and literary talent, while the younger son, Theodore B. Fithian, is a student at Yale, where he is popular in athletic sports and also as a debater. He was the first member chosen in the Yale-Harvard debate at Cambridge on April 28, 1922. Both sons have inherited their mother's gift of extemporaneous speaking, a noticeable talent she has shown on many occasions, and which was particularly remarked when she spoke twice before the National Underwriters Association.

Mr. Fithian's failing health first led Mrs. Fithian to consider the future in the way of taking care of her sons and providing for their education. She became a school teacher, and it was while so engaged that she chanced to hear of a woman who had found a satisfactory vocation as an insurance agent. After some thought she determined to enter the insurance field herself. Although she had practically no business training, she had a large amount of sound, common sense, was well educated and trained in all social observances and soon found that her sex, under such circumstances, did not entirely bar her way. Ambitious and determined, she soon found her- self earning a satisfactory income, and this stirred her to still greater effort. The time came when her opinion and judgment were consulted as to busi- ness innovations, and after five years with the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California she was permitted to measurably carry out her ideas in reference to organizing a woman's department.

Mrs. Fithian had undertaken a great task. She started the department with three workers, and for several years wrote the greater part of the business herself, but she never permitted herself to be discouraged and in the fifth year she found herself with more than forty efficient women mem- bers, whom she had trained herself, the most of these being university graduates and of high social standing in the community. She taught them how to impart intelligently to others the beneficence of life insurance, how to overcome their sex timidity and endeavored to inspire them with real sales enthusiasm. Judging from the past, Mrs. Fithian expects this depart- ment will write at least $4,000,000 worth of insurance in 1922, it now being the largest and most productive woman's department connected with any life insurance company in the world. Mrs. Fithian has every reason to feel proud of this achievement.

Mrs. Fithian has always been a church attendant, and while her sons were young she took an active part in Sunday School work. She belongs to numerous representative women's organizations and a number of insur- ance clubs. She is a charter member of the Los Angeles Womans Athletic

John Schumacher

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Club, belongs to the Hollywood Womans Club and also is a member of the Soroptimist Club.

THE SCHUMACHER FAMILY, now represented in the City of Los Angeles by the Schumacher children, is one of marked pioneer distinction in California, where John Schumacher established his residence in 1847, two years prior to the historic discovery of gold, in 1849, that led to the rush of immigration to the New Eldorado.

John Schumacher had been in active service as a soldier in the Mexican war, and as a member of the regiment in command of Colonel Stevenson came up through Mexico to Southern California and helped to gain freedom to Los Angeles, where the regiment stationed itself at Fort Hill, at the head of the present Broadway, which was then known as Fort Street. At that time the city was six miles square and was platted into lots of thirty-five acres each, these properties or squares having been sold for thirty-five dollars each and one of them having been designated on the first map of the city by the name of Schumacher, in honor of John Schumacher, the honored pioneer who did much to further the early development and progress of the beautiful metropolis of Southern California. Mr. Schumacher was actively identified with the civic and industrial advancement of Los Angeles County, and was the owner of a sheep ranch of 159 acres in the limits of the present city of Los Angeles, he having sold this property in 1856, at the rate of one dollar an acre. A few years ago his children purchased a building lot that is a part of this ancestral ranch, and paid $9,000 for the property, on which was erected the present attractive home, at 522 Shatto Place. John Schumacher was a man of great energy, circumspection and initiative ability, and as the owner of several sheep and cattle ranches was a leading exponent of the live-stock industry in Southern California in the early days. The original family home at Los Angeles was an adobe structure situated adjoining the corner of the present Spring and First Street, extending back to what is now Broadway, occupying nearly the whole block. The house had a pergola and patio and was of the old Spanish type then common to this locality. Later Mr. Schumacher added two rooms to the house, this annex having been constructed of brick, including the floors, the brick having been brought overland from San Francisco and the improvement to the building having entailed the expenditure of $7,000. John Schumacher, Jr., and his sister Carrie have distinct memory of the first destructive fire that occurred in Los Angeles, when they were children and when there were only three school houses in the city, the high school having been on the site of the present Bryson Block and having been in charge of Dr. Rose and Miss Madigan, the latter of whom taught the girl students, this having been in the year 1869. On Saturdays the town boys customarily met at the corner of Sixth and Spring streets and held footraces, this being now considered one of the finest corners in the metropolitan makeup of Los Angeles. Mr. and Miss Schumacher likewise have familiar knowledge of "Roundhouse" George Lehman, who donated to the city the park now known as Pershing Square. Lehman planted and personally attended to the watering of every tree in this park, and his civic loyalty and pride were shown when he presented his prized park to the city. Fate's ironies are manifest in this connection, for it is a matter of record that "Roundhouse George" eventually was buried in a pauper's grave

In 1855 John Schumacher, the pioneer, married Miss Mary Uhrie, and they became the parents of six children, namely: Mary A. (Mrs. Pruess) . Caroline ( familiarly known as Carrie), John H., Frank G., Percival F. and Arthur W. Mr. Schumacher owned the entire block at First and Spring streets and Franklin Alley, and on a part of this tract was erected the Schumacher Block. In the early '60s, when somewhat infrequent tourists or visitors arrived in Los Angeles by stage, then the only medium of overland transportation service, the city would promptly offer to such new- comer a city lot without cost if he would consent to remain here, the only requirement being that he should construct a fence about the property.

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Water was brought to the city in zanjas, or ditches, and trees were planted on each side of these ditches. Each autumn the Indians would come down from the San Bernardino Mountains and go from one end to the other of Los Angeles County as assistants in the picking of grapes, besides which they aided also in the annual sheep shearings, these picturesque pilgrimages having added a distinct note of color to the picturesque phases of life in that day.

That sterling pioneer, John Schumacher, was born in Bavaria, Germany, and at the age of twelve years went to the City of Paris, where he was reared and educated and whence as a youth he came to the United States, where he was destined to live a full and eventful life and make his value felt in worthy and constructive achievement as one of the world's gallant army of productive workers. Both he and his wife were venerable in years at the time of their deaths, and their names merit high places on the roll of the honored pioneers of Los Angeles County.

Arthur W. Schumacher, youngest of the children, gained international fame as a diamond expert, and for many years occupied a position of trust with the great Tiffany jewelry house in New York City. He was forty- seven years of age at the time of his death, November 27, 1920, he having been at the old home in Los Angeles at the time of his demise. He was a graduate of Princeton University, was a man of most gracious personality, was a member of many of the exclusive clubs of the national metropolis and had the loyal friendship of many of the representative citizens of New York City. Among the clubs with which he was actively affiliated were the Piping Rock Club, the Tennis & Racquet Club, the Oakland Golf Club and the Princeton Club. He had great talent as a designer of artistic jewelry, traveled extensively abroad and gathered many rare pieces of art. He made biennial visits to the old home in California, and here the final Six months of his life were passed.

John H. Schumacher, eldest of the sons, was engaged in the drug business at Los Angeles for a number of years, and since his retirement from this line of enterprise he is giving his attention to fruit culture, as owner of a fine ranch property in Los Angeles County. Frank, the leading photographer for many years, is now retired. Percy, the third son, was formerly cashier of the German-American Bank at Los Angeles, he having been one of its original corps of executives and being still a director of this institution. Since his retirement from the bank he has resided on his beautiful place of eleven acres at Eagle Rock, where he raises avocado pears and other fruits.

MISS SUSAN S. SUMMERS, a graduate nurse who was an army nurse during the Spanish-American war, has been singularly successful in her profession, and is one of the few women who have succeeded in the finan- cial and executive side of her profession. Miss Summers has built up in Los Angeles a Sanatorium and Rest Home that represents some of the most advanced ideas of such an institution.

Miss Summers was born in Hastings, Michigan. Her father, Daniel A. Summers, was a Michigan pioneer, prominent stock man, and on moving to that state built his own log house and subsequently cleared up an exten- sive tract of land. Miss Summers had a country school education in her home county. At the age of eighteen she went to Cleveland and took her training as a nurse in the old Lakeside Hospital for three years and then one year in the new Lakeside, where she graduated. At this time an epidemic of smallpox broke out in Cleveland, and Miss Summers volun- teered her services and was given entire charge of the smallpox farm, where she remained until the plague was eradicated. Very soon thereafter the Spanish-American war broke out, and she was a volunteer nurse among the soldiers stricken with typhoid at Chattanooga and Chickamauga. She went to this duty under the auspices of the Daughters of the Revolution. Subsequently she went to Cuba as a war nurse, and remained on that island a year and a half. For four months she performed the dangerous duty of

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a nurse in the yellow fever district, under General Wood, with the Georgia Third Immune Regiment.

After being mustered out at Chickamauga Miss Summers went to Las Vegas, New Mexico, and for three years had charge of the Montezuma Sanatorium, belonging to the Santa Fe Railway Company. Her father dying in 1902, she returned to Cleveland, and soon afterward brought an invalid sister and her mother to California. In Los Angeles she bought a home on Oak Street, and made that the modest nucleus of her Sanatorium, opening it with three patients. Soon afterward she bought the site of her present Sanatorium, on Bonnie Brae Street, near Sunset Boulevard. A point of special interest is that she bought, paid for, built and financed the institution entirely through her own resources, and managed it without any outside assistance from physicians or otherwise. She has made this Sanatorium an invaluable adjunct to the health equipment of the city, and many of the best physicians send their patients to her care.

Recently Miss Summers purchased eleven acres off Huntington Drive, near Los Angeles Military Academy, and has matured her financial and other plans for the erection of a Rest Home for convalescents. This is to be a rest and recreation community with every facility for the conven- ience, comfort and pleasure of its guests. The plans call for the construc- tion of numerous cottages, each with all the service of a home. The insti- tution will stand in the midst of handsome shrubbery and with a view of Alhambra, San Gabriel, South Pasadena and the picturesque environment of the surrounding hills. Facilities for amusements are a vital considera- tion, and there are to be plunge bath accommodations, pool room, music room, tennis court and picnic grounds. The plans also call for a delicatessen and grocery. Miss Summers has been maturing the plans for this Rest Home for some time, and in this also she has waited until she could handle the proposition with her own financial resources.

One feature of the service she has rendered has been provision for older or younger members of families leaving the city for a period. Her home has been open to such people, requiring a well regulated household and its service and scientific care and nursing. Along with the facilities she has provided the personality of Miss Summers herself has contributed a great deal to her success. She has a sister in Los Angeles, Mrs. L. E. Clawson, wife of a well known attorney. Her sister, Maude Summers, owns and operates a Tubercular Sanatorium at San Gabriel, and another sister, Mrs. Oreana Culbertson, resides on an adjoining site, overlooking the Rest Home.

FRANK BAIRD ALEXANDER was a child of four years at the time his parents established their residence in Los Angeles where he was reared and educated and where he rose to a position as one of the representative business men of the younger generation, he having been in the very prime of his strong, noble and constructive manhood at the time of his death, which resulted from blood-poisoning superin- duced by an abscess in the throat. His death occurred on the 29th of September, 1921, his illness having been of brief duration and only an autopsy having revealed the mysterious source of the disease that caused his death.

Mr. Alexander was born in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the 27th of November, 1884, and his death occurred about two months prior to his thirty-seventh birthday anniversary. Ile was about four years old when he came with his parents to Los Angeles County, and for several years the family home was maintained on an orange ranch that had been given to his father at Corona, this gift having been made by an uncle in whose home the father had been reared. Upon leaving the ranch the family removed to Los Angeles and established a home on North Grand Avenue. The parents still reside in this city, the father having in earlier years been associated with the Baker Iron Works and later having had supervision of the Doheny oil interests at Tampico. In the public schools of Los Angeles

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Frank B. Alexander continued his studies until his graduation from high school, and during vacation periods he found employment in the store of the Desmond Clothing Company. He became a valued clerical assistant in this establishment, but finally impaired health led him to seek open-air occupation, and he passed two years in desert work for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. He then resumed his connection with the Desmond Clothing Company, and in 1912, with James Oviatt, a fellow employe, he engaged independently in the re- tail clothing business. The firm of Alexander & Oviatt opened a store on Fourth Street, between Broadway and Spring Street, and three years later the well established business was removed to larger quarters, at 605 South Hill Street. Mr. Alexander was a young man of exceptional foresight and business ability, and he succeeded in establishing the most exclusive men's clothing and furnishing goods store in the Los Angeles metropolitan district, the greatest care having . been taken in the selection of stocks that would appeal to the most discriminating and refined tastes. The haberdashery department of the Alexander & Oviatt establishment gained wide reputation and representative supporting patronage. For a time the firm conducted two stores, Mr. Oviatt having charge of the store on Fourth Street and Mr. Alexander having the supervision of the new store, on Hill Street, where the entire business was eventually concentrated. In the early period of the World war conditions were such that the firm had to steer a careful and steady course to weather financial disaster, but thereafter the business expanded rapidly in scope and solidity, and it became necessary to acquire more floor space, with the result that an adjoining store on Hill Street was rented. After the nation entered the war Mr. Oviatt gave two years of service in the United States Navy, and the active management of the entire business devolved upon Mr. Alexander.

No young man in Los Angeles was better known or had a greater coterie of sincere friends that did Frank B. Alexander, and his death was not only a shock to the community but engendered a sense of personal bereavement and loss. A clear-sighted, honorable, genial personality that found expression in generous and kindly acts and tolerant judgment, marked Mr. Alexander as a true friend who could not but gain friends of equal loyalty and appreciation. He was a popular figure in both business and social circles in his home com- munity, and was actively identified with various representative organizations. He was also affiliated with the Gamma Eta Kappa fraternity.

On the 19th of May, 1909, Mr. Alexander wedded Miss Harriet Bradford, whose parents established their residence in Los Angeles in 1888. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Alexander has sold his interest in the business of Alexander & Oviatt, and with their three children, Frances, Dorothy and Frank Baird II, resides at 4061 Leonard Avenue. Mrs. Alexander is a popular figure in representative social activities in Los Angeles, and in her bereavement she was sustained and comforted by the devotion of her wide circle of loyal friends.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 28

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944 Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Number of Pages: 840

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
Publication date: 1923
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 840