History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 3

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

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On December 4, 1862, Jotham Bixby was married at San Juan Bautista, California, to Margaret Winslow Hathaway, a daughter of Rev. George W. Hathaway, of Skowhegan, Maine, and they became the parents of seven children : George Hathaway, Mary Hathaway, Margaret Hathaway, Henry Llewellyn and Rosamond Read, all of whom are deceased; and Fanny Weston and Jotham Winslow, who survive. In 1912 Mr. and Mrs. Bixby celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at their magnificent home on Ocean Boulevard, Long Beach, facing Bixby Park, a beauty spot presented to the city by the Alamitos Land Company. They welcomed over eighty guests, many of whom were their children and grandchildren, and following the wedding luncheon, a great family reunion was held. On this occasion Mr. Bixby, strong and alert at the age of eighty-one years, received congratulations from scores of friends in all parts of the country, who admired him as a man, and appreciated his work in upbuilding the sub- stantial colony of Long Beach, on the land over which in former days his sheep and cattle grazed. Mr. Bixby long occupied a comfortable, but by no means ostentatious, residence overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Long Beach, but in September, 1911, he purchased the magnificent residence built there two years previously by A. D. Meyers, a mining man, which is one of the most palatial homes of Long Beach, and occupies a commanding position on the bluff above the ocean on East Ocean Boulevard, opposite Bixby Park where his widow still resides.

Jotham Bixby died at this beautiful home, February 9, 1917, at the age of eighty-six years. At the time of his death he left a widow and three children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Mrs. Bixby and two children, Fanny W. and Jotham W., and the grandchildren and great- grandchild now survive. The grandchildren are: Richard, Philip, Mar- garet, Barbara, David and Stephen, sons and daughters of the late George H. Bixby ; Beatrice, who is the daughter of Jotham W. Bixby ; and Harry, who is the son of the late Henry L. Bixby. The great-grandchild is Mar- garet, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bixby.

GEORGE HATHAWAY BIXBY. Connected with the development and progress of every community are certain men to whose public spirit, organ- izing force and thorough-going methods are due much for which they never receive any commensurate rewards no matter how great their material success may be. Long Beach is one of these communities in question. It was founded by the late Jotham Bixby, and developed through the remark- able business acumen of his son, George Hathaway Bixby, whose death. December 30, 1922, removed from Los Angeles County one of its most honored and representative citizens.

George Hathaway Bixby was born at San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, California, July 4, 1864, a son of Jotham Bixby, the famous South- ern California pioneer, and his wife, Mrs. Margaret ( Hathaway) Bixby, an extensive sketch of whom precedes this. Mrs. Bixby was a daughter of Rev. George W. Hathaway of Skowhegan, Maine, a graduate of Wil- liams College and the Andover Theological Seminary. During the war

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

between the two sections of the country he served as chaplain of the Ninth Maine Regiment. Mr. Hathaway traced back in direct descent to Governor William Bradford, one of the passengers of the historic Mayflower, and first governor of the Plymouth Colony; to Kenelm Winslow, a brother of Edward Winslow, the second governor of the colony. On his father's side George Hathaway Bixby traced, as do probably all who bear the name, scattered in various portions of the country, to Joseph Bixby, who came to the American Colonies from England in the early Puritan immigration, and settled in Massachusetts, from which section his descendants kept push- ing out to take the frontier in many directions. The California branch of the Bixby family settled in Maine, and Jotham Bixby's maternal grand- father, named Weston, was one of the sturdy Maine woodsmen and farmers who lost their lives in the service of their country in the first year of the Revolutionary war, while guiding through those pathless northern forests the ill-fated expedition of Gen. Benedict Arnold against Quebec.

George Hathaway Bixby was given unusual educational opportunities. After attending the preparatory schools of Oakland, California, he became a student of Sackett School in that city, from which he was duly graduated. He then matriculated at Yale University, and was graduated therefrom in 1886, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In college he was a member of the Greek letter fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon.

Returning to California Mr. Bixby found many responsibilities awaiting him, and for several years he served as secretary of the Alamitos Land Company, during that period devoting much time and attention to a study of the business conditions of that region, and acquainting himself with his father's numerous properties and holdings. About 1901 he was made vice president and manager of the Bixby Land Company, and of the Palos Verdes Company, his father still retaining the presidency of these organ- izations, but relying upon him for their active conduct. From then on Mr. Bixby took the place in his father's affairs to which his talents entitled him, and displayed unusual genius in handling vast undertakings, and back of all of his labors was the underlying determination to make Long Beach one of the most desirable resorts in the world. He was one of the early directors of the Los Angeles Dock & Terminal Company, which developed the Long Beach inner harbor ; a director of the Seaside Investment Com- pany, owners and operators of the Hotel Virginia ; a director of the Wall Company Department Store ; a director of the Long Beach Dairy Company, and other local corporations. Mr. Bixby was also vice president of the National Bank of Long Beach, and president of the Long Beach Savings Bank & Trust Company during the earlier period of his business career. He was a member and later chairman of the Los Angeles County Highway Commission until August, 1911. having served as highway commissioner for four years. Retiring from that office, he concentrated his attention on his banking, real estate, ranching and other interests at Long Beach, all of which aided in the upbuilding of this city, his work in this respect being of such a character as to place and keep him in the very forefront of civic affairs.

All of these onerous and varied interests were a severe tax upon the strength of any one man, and Mr. Bixby's health gave way under it, and in 1919 he retired. He was a member of the California Club and the Virginia Country Club of Long Beach. For many years he maintained membership with Long Beach Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

One of the projects which always held the interest of Mr. Bixby was the development of the suburban residence district known as Los Cerritos, one of the most sightly portions of the original Rancho Los Cerritos. This ranch originally contained 27,000 acres, including the present town site of Long Beach, and a wide surrounding territory which Flint, Bixby & Com- pany purchased from John Temple in 1866.

On August 31, 1887, Mr. Bixby was married at Los Angeles, to Miss Amelia M. E. Andrews, a daughter of Joshua and Dinah Elizabeth Andrews of Toronto, Canada, who, upon coming to the United States became resi-

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

dents of the Los Nietos Valley. Mr. and Mrs. Bixby became the parents of seven children, namely: George Hathaway, Jr., who died a number of years ago ; Richard A., who is a resident of Long Beach ; Philip L., who is a resident of Beverly Hills, California; Mrs. Margaret Lupher, who is a resident of San Francisco; Mrs. Barbara Frye, who is a resident of Los Cerritos ; and David W. and Stephen L., both of whom are still at home. Mrs. Bixby survives her husband, as does his aged mother, Mrs. Jotham Bixby.

While Mr. Bixby had been in delicate health for several years prior to his demise, his death came suddenly as a result of heart failure, utterly prostrating his family, and coming as a shock to his host of warm personal friends who had been hoping to see him restored to his rightful place in the business life of the city. Mr. Bixby's course is run ; Finis is written on the page of his life history, but his influence remains and animates the lives of others for his was a dominating character, and his accomplishments were many and of great value. Long Beach can never cease to remember with grateful pride and real affection this man to whom its citizens owe so much.

EZRA SEYMOUR GOSNEY. The career of Ezra Seymour Gosney has covered, during more than thirty years in the Southwest, many important interests, both within the strict limits of his profession as a lawyer and outside. He is a resident of Pasadena, and is officially identified with several of that city's financial and business organizations.

Mr. Gosney was born in Kenton County, Kentucky, November 6, 1855, son of Daniel B. and Eloiza (Griffing) Gosney. The Gosney family landed in Virginia soon after the close of the Revolutionary war. Mr. Gosney's mother traced her ancestry through the names of Griffing, Steele and Ross, through Irish, English, Welsh and Scotch lineage. However, most of the family have been more interested in keeping their own record up to standard than in tracing their ancestry. Mr. Gosney's grandparents on both sides were among the earliest settlers of Northern Kentucky, and for the most part were quiet tillers of the soil.

The few advantages Ezra S. Gosney was able to enjoy during his early years were largely of his own securing. He attended the ungraded schools of Kentucky until fourteen, when the family moved to Texas. There he attended Caddo Peak Seminary. At seventeen he left home with a "grip- sack" and fifty-five dollars to work his way through college. This task required six years of close application. In 1877, at the age of twenty-two, he graduated Bachelor of Science from Richmond College in Missouri. In 1880 he received his law degree from Washington University at St. Louis. The struggles involved in achieving this education were of them- selves invaluable experience and training, and contributed vitally to what- ever success in business, the profession and good citizenship he has earned. Soon after qualifying as a lawyer Mr. Gosney located at St. Joseph, Mis- souri, and from 1881 to 1887 served as assistant general attorney for the Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad, at the same time keeping up as far as possible his growing general practice. Malarial poisoning, overwork and office confinement compelled him to seek a differ- ent climate and less arduous office work. After a year's rest he engaged in banking at Flagstaff, Arizona, continuing the law as counselor only. Mr. Gosney soon became closely allied with and interested in the cattle and sheep industry of Arizona and New Mexico. When grazing problems on forest reserves and the public domain threatened these industries he organ- ized the Arizona Wool Growers Association in 1898, and was its president for ten years, during which he also served on the executive committees of the National Live Stock Association, National Wool Growers Association and the American National Live Stock Association, attending all important conventions affecting those industries and taking a leading part in the settlement of grazing problems and particularly in the movement that

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

resulted in the transfer of the management of Forest Reserves from the department of interior to the department of agriculture.

Mr. Gosney established his winter home in Pasadena in 1906, and gradually closed out his Arizona and New Mexico investments, trans- ferring them to banking, manufacturing, oil production and citrus fruit growing in California and elsewhere. He was principal owner and man- ager of two banks in Arizona, was interested in mercantile enterprises in California and Nevada, and has served as a director in the Union National Bank and the Union Trust & Savings Bank of Pasadena, now the Pasadena Branch of the Pacific Southwest Trust & Savings Bank of Los Angeles. He is a director of the Morris Plan Company (Bank) at Los Angeles, and a director in a number of business corporations.

Mr. Gosney was one of the founders and a president of the Board of Trustees of the Polytechnic Elementary School of Pasadena, an institution organized and conducted for the purpose of elevating standards in ele- mentary education and demonstrating what can be done and should be done in the building of strength of mind, body, character and citizenship in the graded schools. This is one of the most interesting schools in the United States, supported by a group of prominent citizens, and is pursuing a con- servatively progressive course, forcing favorable recognition by all students of education.

In 1886, at St. Joseph, Missouri, Mr. Gosney married Miss Tyrene Noyes, daughter of C. W. and Sarepta Noyes, of St. Joseph. She died in 1887. In 1893 he married May Hawkey, at Flagstaff, Arizona, daughter of William B. and Eliza Hawkey, of Sidney, Ohio. He is the father of two children by his second marriage, Gladys Gosney, now Mrs. Joe G. Crick, and Lois Gosney, the wife of Otis H. Castle, an attorney-at-law at Los Angeles.

Mr. Gosney is an independent republican, was never a candidate for office, and while he voted a straight ticket at the age of twenty-one, he has exercised his independent judgment in selecting candidates for his support ever since. In the course of his career he joined several fraternal insurance associations, was once an Odd Fellow and Mason, but has no connections with such organizations now. He has also belonged to several country clubs and social clubs, but in this case, too, his time was too limited to participate actively in any organization except where there was some clear and definite object, such as is involved in the Lincoln Club of Los Angeles and the Twilight Club of Pasadena. He is a past president of the Twilight Club. Mr. Gosney's family are members of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

A masterful figure in business, with an energy for accomplishment practically undiminished, there is an interesting revealment of his dominant purpose and character in some words he used at one time in speaking of his practical interests in the education of young people. He says: "As an outgrowth of my own experience and observation of comparative results of an education acquired by the individual efforts of the student and in the usual and more popular way, I have made it a business to meet and study capable and worthy students who were working their way through academy or college, to encourage them by personal interest, contact, and to extend financial aid in the way of a loan, without interest, of only enough to meet those necessities which were beyond their personal efforts. It has been

necessary to select carefully the students thus helped. I recall only a few disappointments. The many successful men and women whose personal friendship is based on such personal and financial encouragement is one of the chief sources of personal satisfaction and reasons for the belief that the future generations may be better for my humble efforts. My ideal of a good citizen is a straightforward and frank advocate of what is right, and for the best interests of all. In pursuing this course I have also made enemies of whom I am proud. In every instance I think even these enemies have respected my word and trusted me to do the thing I agreed to even when that was what they opposed."

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

ADOLPHUS BUSCH. Pasadena is one of several communities that cherish the memory of the late Adolphus Busch on account of special benefactions bestowed there. The Busch interests are prominently repre- sented in different sections of California, but it was at Pasadena that Mr. and Mrs. Adolphus Busch established their winter home many years ago, and one of the beauty spots of Los Angeles County is the famous Busch Gardens. A brief personal sketch of Adolphus Busch of St. Louis may be appropriately given here.

He was born at Mayence-on-the-Rhine, Germany, July 10, 1839, son of Ulrich and Barbara (Pfeifer) Busch. Educated in a gymnasium at Mayence, an Academy at Darmstadt and high schools at Brussels, he came to the United States in 1856, at the age of seventeen, and located at St. Louis. At the beginning of the Civil war in 1861 he served four months as a Union soldier under the lamented General Lyon. After leaving the army he became associated with E. Anheuser in the brewing business, and in 1865 was made a partner in the E. Anheuser Brewing Company. This later became the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association. Mr. Busch was president of the association until his death, which occurred while he was visiting in Europe October 10, 1913. A complete catalogue of his business activities could not be presented within a brief sketch and would hardly be necessary to an appreciation of his career by California people. He was officially interested in many banks, was president of the American Diesel Engine Company and was a stockholder and director in a number of the most prominent of American industries. Mr. Busch was a republican, a Unitarian in religious belief, and a member of many clubs, social and civic organizations. On March 7, 1861, he married Lilly Anheuser, of St. Louis.

More important than a review of his business connections is a concise tribute to his life and character found in an editorial published at the time of his death in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This editorial is as follows :

"What purpose can an obituary serve in the case of a man whose career and life are known to everybody? There was no citizen of St. Louis better known, in more than one sense, than Adolphus Busch. The press cannot tell the public, either of St. Louis or the country at large, much about the world's leading brewer that it has not heard many a time.

"The very human qualities of the man drew the public to him in an unusual intimacy. It is not going a whit beyond the fact to say that he was as well liked as he was widely known. There was no mock philanthropy about Mr. Busch. He did not patronize the public with overwhelming benefactions. He did not consider that he owed the public an apology for his great wealth, and he did not sue with huge bribes for forgiveness, for- getfulness or favor. He erected no monuments to vanity. He legitimately went about his own business with an independence which forced admiration from free American citizens-and his generosity, his kindliness, were real, prompted by the heart. Measured by the deeds that sprang from it, it was the heart of a big man.

"Of what use is it to recount the mere money gifts of a man of vast wealth? How little of the true character of the donor can be told in a column of figures. Too often they are set forth for want of something better; too often they conceal, they mislead, they lie. The real generosity and genuine quality of a man are more likely to be expressed in the charity of his right hand of which his left hand neither receives nor gives a sign. Many there are whose tears of grief alone tell of the secret kindness of Mr. Busch. Yet no public appeal, no worthy cause, ever sought of him in vain.

"In his death the world has lost a singular example of successful enter- prise coupled with high integrity, St. Louis has lost a big private citizen actively identified with a half-century of its growth, and thousands of men and women and children have lost a good friend."

BUSCH GARDENS. One of the places of particular interest in the County of Los Angeles selected as an illustration for the historical volume is a

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

view of Busch Gardens at Pasadena. These gardens are not only a notable instance of what can be accomplished by artificial development, but are also a monument to the generosity and public spirit of Mr. and Mrs. Adolphus Busch.

The Gardens comprise an area of thirty acres divided into two parks, known as the Upper and Lower Gardens, each containing fifteen acres. It was in 1903 that Mr. and Mrs. Adolphus Busch decided to turn the tract into a garden. Many of Mr. Busch's friends on looking over the ground felt that he had made a great mistake and that such a rough place could never be developed. However, the work of carrying away the boulders, poison oak and other debris in what are now the Upper Gardens was promptly begun. The work involved the displacement and the filling of immense quantities of material, and altogether involved a class of land- scape development seldom undertaken even by municipal or national govern- ment. The development of the Lower or Arroyo Gardens was begun in the spring of the San Francisco fire. In the two parks there are fourteen miles of walk, and elaborate measures were undertaken to control and regulate the storm waters and also a private pumping station was installed to provide a water supply adequate for the gardens during the summer season. These gardens contain many rare plants from all parts of the world, and under the stimulation of the gardening methods followed the growth obtained was in many cases remarkable. Some of the redwood trees planted on the tract attained the diameter of four feet in about fifteen years.

Prompted by a magnanimous spirit both Mr. and Mrs. Busch desired that every one should enjoy these gardens with them. After their com- pletion it was decided to throw these parks open to the public 365 days in the year free of charge. Since then they have become the real beauty spot of Pasadena, and have been visited by more celebrities than any individual spot in Southern California.

Since Mr. Busch's death in October, 1913, Mrs. Busch has maintained the gardens just as they were prior to his demise. In May, 1920, she con- ceived the idea of charging an admission to the gardens, the total proceeds of which have gone to the benefit of some special charity. At the present writing the charity designated by Mrs. Busch is the American Legion. All funds collected by admission to the gardens go to the aid of the disabled men and women of the World war.

REGINALD D. JOHNSON. While the general public has regard for his long and eminent services to the church, Bishop Johnson is known by some of his intimate friends to possess a full measure of artistic instinct, feeling and knowledge, and these qualities have borne distinguished fruit in the career of his son, Reginald D. Johnson, who has been accorded supreme rank as a master designer of domestic architecture in Southern California. The life of Bishop Johnson is subject of an article on other pages.

Reginald Davis Johnson was born at Westchester, New York, July 19, 1882. From 1885 to 1895 the family lived in Detroit, and then came to California. After his early education he spent three years in school at Morristown, New Jersey, and in 1903 entered Williams College, where he graduated with the B. A. degree in 1907. For a year he had training in architecture in California, and then entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree in architecture in 1910. Both before and after graduating he made several trips abroad that were of inestimable value to him in his education as an architect. After a year's work with Mr. Robert Farquhar in California he began his private practice in Pasadena. He was alone for about ten years, and is now senior member of the firm of Johnson, Kaufmann and Coate, architects, with offices in Los Angeles and Pasadena.

Mr. Johnson was a private in the heavy artillery during the great war. He is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi college fraternity, is a director of the Allied Architects' Association, a member of the American Institute

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

of Architects, the Flint Ridge Country Club, and the University Clubs of Pasadena and Los Angeles.

June 9, 1910, at Washington, D. C., he married Kathleen Leupp. Her father was the late Franci E. Leupp, commissioner of Indian affairs under Roosevelt, for. many years a newspaper man and editor, active in civil service and good government movements, an authority on Indian relations, and an author of a number of books, including the life of Colonel Roosevelt. Mr. Leupp was born in 1849 and died in 1918. His daughter Kathleen was reared and educated in Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have three children, all born at Pasadena, Joseph L., Ethel M. and Constance D.

Official recognition of domestic architecture in Southern California was accorded at the Architectural Exhibit held in Washington in 1921 by the American Institute of Architects when with exhibits from twenty-five of the forty-eight Chapters of the Institute the gold medal of primacy for domestic architecture was awarded to Reginald D. Johnson. The inscrip- tion on this gold medal reads "First award by the American Institute of Architects for residential work to Reginald D. Johnson, M. A. I. A., National Architectural Exhibition Washington D. C., 1921."

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 3

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