History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 31

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

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He was born in Saxe Menigen, Germany, February 15, 1846, a son of Ernest and Rose Wirsching. When he was six years of age his parents came to America and located in Connecticut. The late Mr. Wirsching was reared and educated in that state, and as a youth took out citizen's papers . in New Haven. He first learned photography, later became a carriage painter, and on August 19, 1875, he arrived at Los Angeles, reaching here with only twenty dollars in cash assets. He at once went to work at his trade, and nineteen months later he engaged in business for himself under the firm name of Rees & Wirsching, dealers in wagons and agricultural implements. Their first establishment was on Aliso Street, but in 1881 they removed to larger quarters on Los Angeles Street. The firm suffered heavy losses in the great flood of 1884, but Mr. Wirsching courageously went to work and in a few years had rebuilt his business on a larger scale than ever. At one time he had the largest wagon and farming implement business in California, both importing and manufacturing. When he began his business career it was customary for all Los Angeles merchants to depend upon the San Francisco market, and his firm was one of the first to import goods direct from the East. This was an important meas- ure, since it was the beginning of a new policy which in time made Los Angeles a great independent commercial center.

The late Mr. Wirsching was a leader in the republican party through- out his career in Los Angeles. He was elected a member of the City Council in 1889, and while a member assisted in inaugurating the city charter. He was a member of the Board of Public Works and chairman of the water committee, and in 1893-94 was a member of the fire commis- sion which gave Los Angeles the beginning of a paid fire department. During 1895-96 he also served on the police commission, and was elected to the County Board of Supervisors in 1897, serving four years. Later he was again elected a member of the council of Greater Los Angeles, and in 1913 began his service as a member of the City Board of Public Utilities.

Mr. Wirsching was affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and was one of the high officials in the Inde- pendent Order of Foresters. In 1880, in the Plaza Church, he married Miss Carlota Valencia. Mrs. Wirsching, who survives her husband, was born in Los Angeles, and her mother was also a native daughter. She is a daughter of Manuel and Gregoria (Romero) Valencia, the former a native of the City of Mexico and the latter a native of Los Angeles. Mrs. Wirsching recalls riding in one of the old time carretas at the age of five. She attended a convent school. Mr. and Mrs. Wirsching had three sons and one daughter: Rose E., wife of Theodore Froehlinger, of Los Angeles; Robert A., who married Nellie Purdue, a native of Iowa; Carl B., who married Beth Cochran, a native of Los Angeles, and who have two children, Margaret and Patricia; and Ernest D., who married Alpha Crouch.

C. M. SIMPSON is the oldest practicing attorney at Pasadena, his record of active service covering a period of thirty-seven years. He has a Civil War record and had gained prominence in the law and public life in the state of Kansas before coming to California.

He was born at Rockville, Indiana, December 9, 1844, son of Matthew A. and Catherine (Ghormley) Simpson. His parents were pioneer settlers

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in Indiana, moving to that state from Chillicothe, Ohio. Matthew Simpson was an Editor, a newspaper man and a teacher. He served as County Treasurer of Park County, Indiana, and was also County Examiner of School Teachers. He was a member of the State Senate of Indiana. In 1857 the family moved to Kansas, then a territory, settling at Iola in Allen County. Matthew Simpson was county superintendent of public instruc- tion in Allen County for a number of years until his death. He and his wife had eight children, four sons and four daughters. C. M. being the youngest. He has a brother and sister still living.

C. M. Simpson, the only member of the family to come to California, was educated in the Public Schools of Indiana and never attended a school, a day in his life after he was thirteen. He came with his parents to Kansas in 1857, and after that he lived on the farm with his father until the out- break of the Civil war. In June 1861 he enlisted and was assigned to special duty as a scout until the following September when he was regularly enrolled in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry. Mr. Simpson was in service until mustered out April 12, 1865, and at that time was still under age. The youthful veteran returned home and worked on the farm until 1868.

May 13, 1868, Mr. Simpson married Sarah A. Allen. She was born February 13, 1847, and recently celebrated her seventy-first birthday and several years ago they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Mrs. Simpson was born on the thirteenth and they were married on the thirteenth but the number has in no way proved unlucky for them. In fact Judge Simpson has always felt that he drew the great prize of life when he married. Mrs. Simpson enjoys exceptionally good health and spends much of her time outdoors working with her flowers.

In 1869 Mr. Simpson engaged in the mercantile business at Iola, but gave that up on account of ill health. From 1870 to 1878 he was clerk of the District Court of Allen County, being elected on the republican ticket for four successive terms. For four terms he was a member of the Iola City Council, for one year was mayor of that city and was school treasurer three years. In 1877 was appointed Postmaster, an office he filled nearly ten years. While clerk of the District Court he took up the study of law, and before leaving that office was admitted to the bar in 1877. He engaged in practice with J. H. Richards of Iola under the firm name of Richards & Simpson and that firm continued until Mr. Simpson came to California. He was for two terms city attorney of Iola.

Mr. Simpson came to California in 1886, and since that year has been engaged in an active general practice at Pasadena. From the spring of 1921 to the spring of 1922 he was chairman and president of the Pasadena Bar Association. Since coming to California his abilities have been drawn into public affairs as they were in Kansas. He was president of the Repub- lican Club of Pasadena in 1888, a member of the City Council in 1889, was elected to the General Assembly in 1893, and in 1894 to the State Senate being again elected in 1898. He was in the Legislature ten years, two years in the Lower House and eight years in the Senate. At the session of 1897 he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he was one of the member of the Legislature to go on record in the session of 1893 as oppos- ing the free and unlimited coinage of silver. Mr. Simpson was admitted to the California Bar in the Superior Court in Los Angeles County, and after- ward was admitted to the Supreme Court upon his certificate of admission to the Supreme Court of Kansas. Mr. Simpson since January 1904 has considered himself completely retired from politics and has looked after only his private interests and his law practice.

He has been prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, is Post Commander of John F. Godfrey Post No. 93 of Pasadena, and for two terms was Commander of the Post of Iola, Kansas. He is President of the Pasadena Eucalyptus Club No. 1, which owns land in Kern County, California.

Mr. and Mrs. Simpson have two sons. T. A. Simpson, the older, has for over thirty years been with the Title Insurance and Trust Company

Arany CloughNation

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of Los Angeles, of which he is First Assistant Trust Officer. Harold G., the younger son, since being admitted to the bar has been in practice with his father in the firm of Simpson and Simpson in the Chamber of Com- merce Building. Both sons were born in Iola, Kansas. The family home is at 307 North Marengo Avenue, a beautiful place in which Mr. Simpson and wife have lived ever since coming to Pasadena. In 1887 he planted eight palm trees in front of his home and these have now attained an average height of sixty feet.

GEORGE ALBION GIBBS. In point of years of service George Albion Gibbs is the second oldest practicing attorney of the Pasadena bar, where his service to the profession and larger interests of the community began in 1888.

Judge Gibbs was born at Lancaster, Massachusetts, July 8, 1858, son of Albion Wilder and Anna Lee (Woods) Gibbs. He was educated in Lan- caster Academy and in Boston University, was admitted to the bar at Worcester, Massachusetts, September 20, 1887, and for a brief time prac- ticed in Clinton, Massachusetts. On January 8, 1888, he settled at Pasa- dena, California, and after more than a third of a century he still carries heavy burdens in the general practice of the local and trade courts. April 10, 1905, he was appointed by Governor George Pardee as judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, and served two years. Among the more important incidents of his work as an attorney and on the bench may be mentioned the fact that he presided at the trial of the celebrated Water Case known as the City of Los Angeles against Buffington, involving all the water rights of the City of Los Angeles. A judgment passed in that trial was affirmed by the Supreme Court. Judge Gibbs also presided over the Probate Department of Los Angeles County.

Judge Gibbs for a number of years was a director in the National Bank and Trust Company of Pasadena. He was commissioned a member of the Home Guards of Pasadena during the late war, was chairman of the Legal Advisory Board for the Pasadena District, was the first president of the Pasadena Bar Association and is a member of the County, State and American Bar Associations. For seven years he was a member of the Public Library Board of Pasadena, was president of the Pasadena Hospital for five years, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Pasadena Branch of the Security Trust and Savings Bank of Los Angeles. Judge Gibbs is a republican, a member of the Masonic order, the Twilight Club and the Pasadena Golf Club and the Westside Congregational Church.

December 8, 1887, at Clinton, Massachusetts, he married Jeanie White, who was born in Linlithgow, Scotland, daughter of John and Catherine (Crichton) White. Judge and Mrs. Gibbs have four children: Elliott. who married Muriel Stewart; Roland D., unmarried ; Doris Jean, wife of Edward M. Ford, of Chicago; and Marion Wallace Gibbs, unmarried.

MARY CLOUGH WATSON for a number of years has been one of Cali- fornia's ablest pen women, and her varied experience as correspondent. writer and editor easily places her in the front rank of American woman journalists and authors.

Mrs. Watson's home is in Hollywood. She was born in Maine, where her father, Mace R. Clough, was a Methodist minister for thirty years. Her mother was Caroline Harnion, of Portland, Maine. Her mother's two grandfathers were soldiers in the Revolution. Her mother's father was a soldier in the War of 1812. Mace R. Clough was chaplain of a Union regiment in the Civil war. Miss Mary Clough married Col. John Wanless, who was an army officer in the Regular Army and well known in the West. Subsequently, in 1887, Mrs. Wanless married George W. Watson, of Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was at one time mayor of that city, and died in 1897.

Mrs. Watson began writing when she was twelve years of age. She is a graduate of Baker University at Baldwin, Kansas, the first institution of higher education started in the State of Kansas. She also had two years

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of post-graduate study at Vassar College. She was editor of the college paper in Kansas, and subsequently wrote for the Central Christian Advo- cate and the Ladies Repository. However, her first regular assignments of duty as a journalist came from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. This paper commissioned her to travel through Utah and write her impressions of the Mormon Church. An autographed copy of the "Book of Mormon" given her by Brigham Young is still one of her literary possessions. The articles she wrote at that time were widely copied. She also wrote for the Boston Journal.

For several years she had the task of revising Ellen G. White's books for the press of the Seventh Day Adventist Church at Battle Creek, Mich- igan. Ellen G. White was her aunt, and was a very prominent official in the Adventist Church. Mrs. Watson traveled and for several years reported the camp meetings of the Adventists from one end of the country to the other. While in Battle Creek she also wrote "Battle Creek as the largest Sanitarium and Doctor Kellogg."

The main work of her literary career has been the revising of manu- scripts and preparation of literary materials. This work she still continues. Mrs. Watson in 1911 became the first editor of the Hollywood Enquirer, and continued at that post for three years. The Enquirer has since been succeeded by Holly Leaves. At one time she was also correspondent for the Los Angeles Express.

Mrs. Watson is president of the School of Applied Christian Psychol- ogy. She served two years, until 1920, as president of the Southern Cali- fornia Woman's Press Club, is a member of the American Pen Woman's League, and is press correspondent of the McDowell Club of Allied Arts. Many of her forms have been published, one of the most noteworthy being "Breakfast, Dinner and Supper."

MRS. ELIZA P. (DONNER) HOUGHTON. Romance, poignant with the thrill of territorial days, and tragedy so dire that it has a place in all histories of California, were closely interwoven in the life of Mrs. Eliza P. (Donner) Houghton, the brave, great-souled little woman who called Los Angeles home during the last decades of her eventful life. She was born near Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, March 8, 1843, the youngest child of George and Tamsen ( Eustis) Donner.

Dr. C. W. Chapman, chairman of the committee in charge of the colossal Pioneer Monument on Lincoln Highway, near Donner Lake, unveiled by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West, June 6, 1918, said : "The Donner party has been selected by us as the most typical, varied and comprehensive in its experiences of all the trains that made these wonderful journeys of thousands of miles, so unique in their daring, so brave and worthy the admiration of man." In the calm of her twilight years Mrs. Houghton wrote "The Expedition of the Donner Party," embodying not only reminiscence, but also the result of careful research, begun in girlhood and continued through life. This book, which first issued from the press in 1911, has been accorded wide recognition as a work of exceptional value from a human, an historic and a literary point of view, and from it the portion of this review dealing with its subject matter is largely collated.

The dominant traits of Mrs. Houghton's forefathers were strong relig- ious convictions and the impulse to push the boundaries of civilization farther into the unknown. Her paternal grandfather came from Switzer- land about the epoch of the struggle for American independence and settled in North Carolina, in which colony her father was born. As a youth her father's adventurous spirit led him into the wilds of Kentucky, of Texas and of Illinois, and after he had passed his sixty-second year, and was well blessed with worldly goods, tales of peaceful patriarchal life on estates virtually principalities, in the wonderful Mexican province of California, appealed to him as the crowning achievement of life, and thither he jour- neyed to his fate and his unknown grave on the shores of the lake which bears his name. In Illinois he married Tamsen, the daughter of William

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Eustis, and their children, Frances, Georgia and Eliza, were born in the log cabin their cultured and refined New England mother soon made the literary center of the frontier settlement which claimed Abraham Lincoln as its leading citizen. The destruction of her diary, botanical specimens and water-color sketches of the flora en route to California were a distinct loss to the early records of the state.

Eliza P. Houghton was but three years old when the Springfield con- tingent of the overland train of emigrants, which later elected her father captain, left Illinois. This party numbered thirty-two persons: George and Tamsen Donner, their three daughters; Elitha and Leanna, daughters by a former marriage of George Donner, his brother Jacob and family ; James F. Reed and family, and their drivers and attendants. The plan was to join the Oregon caravan scheduled to leave Independence, Missouri, early in May, 1846, to continue with it to Fort Hall, and thence follow Fremont's route to the Bay of San Francisco. Leaving Independence May 12, 1846, they soon joined Russell's California party and proceeded to the South Fork of the Nebraska River, soon after which Governor Boggs was chosen captain. After leaving Fort Laramie, July 19, an open letter was received from Lamford W. Hastings, a well-known frontiers- man and mountain guide, recommending a new route from Fort Bridger by way of the south end of Salt Lake, claimed to be 200 miles shorter. He promised to await their coming.

George Donner was elected captain of a section of sixty-five to take the shorter trail and known thenceforth as the Donner Party. Hastings failed to meet them as promised, and from then on hardship and disaster drove the doomed party to its fate. Delayed interminably, provisions ran low, and after volunteers went ahead to entreat a relay train from Captain Sutter, the party entered upon the "Dry Drive," a region of fearful desola- tion, cruel mirages and deluding oases. Water casks were empty; cattle, footsore and without feed, stumbled under their yokes; a pitiless sun parched man and beast ; and women and children, heartsick and exhausted, could walk no further. Wagons were abandoned, valuable goods cached and thirty-six head of cattle lost on that desert. September 24, dim wagon tracks extending northward guided them to the valley of Ogden's River and by the 30th the party were on the old emigrant road leading from Fort Hall. Indians now pilfered from the camps, and in spite of the armed guard ran off a bunch of cattle, thereby necessitating the placing of cows under the yoke and of proceeding with a lessened food supply. At the sink of the Ogden River the Indians swooped down and killed twenty-one cattle, and because of this more goods were cached and wagons abandoned, many of the party continuing on foot and carrying children and packs.

Near the present site of Wadsworth, Nevada, one of the first volunteers returned from Sutter's Fort to the party with seven mules laden with flour and jerked beef. After a delay while the jaded animals of the party recuperated, October 23 the party started the crossing of the Sierras, con- fident of reaching California in two weeks. By the 28th the forward section had reached three log cabins, built in 1844 by the Townsend party, near the lake now called Donner, and had gone into camp. Although awakening in five feet of snow, the party pushed intrepidly onward and were within three miles of the summit when thrown back. Eventually, after numerous desperate attempts, they were forced to acknowledge themselves storm- bound. The second section of the party, ten miles farther down the trail, were likewise in the same position, held prisoners by the worst storm that the mountains had known for thirty years. From that time forward the history of the party was one of slow starvation and death. By the middle of January the snow measured from twelve to fifteen feet, practically all food was gone, and wood was so scarce that it could not be spared to prop- erly cook the strips of rawhide or dry weather-soaked garments. To remain in camp was certain death, and December 16, on the faint chance of being able to send back help, fifteen haggard men and women, calling themselves "The Forlorn Hope," started on snowshoes, staff in hand, each carrying a

Vol. II-10

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pack containing little save a quilt and light rations for six days' journeying. One had rifle, ammunition, flint and hatchet. Eventually the food of this party was gone and, facing the horrible expedient that if one would die all the others might live, they cast lots. The fatal slip was drawn, but none would touch a hair of the great-hearted man's head, to whom it fell, and they agreed to stay their hunger until the course of nature ended some poor mortal's woes. In this extremity a dying father called upon his daugh- ters to conquer sentiment and loathing, stating that it meant death not only for themselves but also for their dear ones in the snow-beleaguered camp did they refuse to use the bodies of the dead for sustenance. Hardly had he spoken when driving hail on the wings of a swirling gale blotted out the flickering fire and with it the lives of the dying. For two days and nights food lay before the living and they could not touch it. Then, with sickening anguish, they made the hateful sacrifice, and eight gathered strength to struggle onward. At the close of January 10, twenty-five days from the date of leaving Donner Lake, they came upon an Indian village. The chief immediately dispatched swift runners bidding his people take care of the pale-faces as they journeyed to Sutter's Fort, but when they had well nigh made their goal utter exhaustion prostrated all but one. He finally suc- ceeded in reaching the home of Col. D. M. Richy, and immediately word was broadcast, the other members of the "Forlorn Hope" were rescued, a message was forwarded to John Sinclair, alcalde of the Upper District of California, and civil and military authorities immediately set themselves to studying the situation. Aided by liberal popular subscriptions, the work of outfitting relief parties progressed apace.

During this time starvation stalked at the lake cabins and at Donner camp only a small portion of one hide remained, but the Captain and his wife steadfastly refused the only other sustenance available. If that course meant death they would abide by it, and they did to the end. Eliza and her sisters often crept from the hut and watched for the "First Relief Party," and when it finally arrived it took their half-sisters, Elitha and Leanna, and others who could walk, and departed, leaving a small quantity of flour, biscuit and jerked beef. When the second relief party arrived, the Captain begged his wife to save herself, but she arranged to send the children out and remain at the side of her husband, now ill beyond hope of recovery. It was soon found that the children's little legs were not equal to the task of supporting them in the sleeted snow, and the children were left at the Lake cabins. This was fortunate, for a terrific tempest broke upon this party with their eighteen refugees, and they, themselves, had to be rescued after experiences in "Starved Camp" very like those of the "For- lorn Hope." When the third relief party arrived Captain Donner again used every argument at his command to induce his wife to save herself, but she refused. Once again she sent her little ones forth from the upper camp with rescuers, and journeyed back alone the ten miles to the side of her husband at Donner camp, although she knew it meant certain death.

Eliza walked when she could, but the man who had her in charge was forced to carry her on his back much of the way. When they reached the relay camp the men of the third relief party begged Lieutenant Woodworth, in charge, to send a party to the rescue of Mrs. Donner, but he refused, saying it was too hazardous ; however, he ordered horses which bore Eliza and her sisters to Sutter's Fort. In the meantime, Tamsen Donner, after wrapping a winding sheet about her dead husband, had set forth, on snow- shoes, alone and without food, with the one thought of reaching her children. When she arrived at the Lake cabin the only other living soul in that desolate solitude, a lame man left there because he was too crippled to travel, per- suaded her it were better to rest until dawn. In the morning she was dead.

Eliza and Georgia Donner were given a home with Christian and Mary Brunner, who lived on a dairy ranch near Sonoma, the Mexican pueblo of "Bear Flag" fame. This prosperous but childless old Swiss couple became so attached to them that they were unwilling to release them to their eastern relatives. "Grandma" Brunner, as she was called, was rarely skilled in the

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use of herbs and "simples," and taught her little protegees her art, and sent them as her messengers to the sick and suffering in the villages where physicians were practically unknown. When the mad rush for gold left the place deserted by able-bodied men little Eliza, to guard against harm and accident, was dressed in boots, trousers and jacket, and, mounted on horseback, scoured hill and plain for straying herds. She reveled in the beauties of nature, and loved the birds and flowers, to whom she told many a pathetic tale of orphan loneliness and longings for a mother's tenderness.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 31

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