USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 39
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Fred C. Nash was born at Clinton, Iowa, January 21, 1878, and was about ten years of age when his parents came to Pasadena. He continued his education in the public schools of this city, graduated from high school in 1895, spent one year in Pomona College and two years, in the University of Michigan. In the latter institution he became identified with the Theta Delta Chi fraternity and now belongs to the Alumni Association of Southern California.
After his university career Mr. Nash returned to Pasadena, and for a year worked with his uncle, the late J. D. Nash, and then opened a branch grocery store for J. R. Newberry. He was with the J. R. Newberry Company two years, and on selling his interest in that concern he bought into what was then the Pasadena Grocery Company. He became secretary and treasurer and later general manager, and the business was subsequently expanded by a dry goods stock. In 1921 the name was changed from the Pasadena Grocery and Department Store to F. C. Nash & Company, one of the high class business establishments of Pasadena, handling a complete stock of women's and children's clothing, dry goods, household furnish-
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ings, groceries and meats. Mr. Nash is also vice-president of the Phospho Food Company of Los Angeles.
He is a republican, a member of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, served in 1922 as president of the Kiwanis Club of Pasadena, and is a member of the Golf Club, Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Associa- tion of Pasadena.
Mr. Nash married Eleanor Goodrich, of Pasadena. He has two chil- dren, Elizabeth G. and Hammond G., both natives of Pasadena and now attending the public schools of this city.
GEORGE ROSCOE THOMAS, D. D. S. The period of the late '70s and early '80s at Pasadena was prolific in pioneers. There were first pioneers in settlement, all of whom save a few sturdy veterans have passed away. Next came pioneers in trade, then those who established professions. The minister and lawyer came first, and close behind them came the doctor. It was only after the little village had grown to some maturity that prac- titioners in special lines came to seek for patronage and a livelihood. Dr. George Roscoe Thomas was a pioneer in dentistry, having arrived in the infant city in 1885. From that time until his death, which occurred November 9, 1918, after a long illness, he was engaged in civic affairs, land owning and banking. He became known for his public spirit, his sound integrity and probity and his many kindly acts of benevolence.
Dr. Thomas was born in Yorkshire, New York State, December 10, 1841, and was early attracted to the profession of dentistry and graduated from the Pennsylvania Dental College in 1867. For eighteen years he practiced his profession at Detroit, Michigan, and was one of the first lecturers on that subject at the University of Michigan. In 1885, with his wife, formerly Miss Caroline M. Clapp, and their five children, Doctor Thomas moved to Pasadena, where he had much to do with the early devel- opment of the growing city, and he was a member of the first Board of Trustees. He was a member of the council during "boom" times and a leader of the anti-liquor forces in early days, and, having owned property in various parts of the city, named several tracts of land and a number of thoroughfares, among the latter being Elevado Drive, Terrace Drive, Logan Street, Mentor Avenue, Mentoria Court, Bellefontaine Street and Sardinia Place, his home and where he died. He had a broad vision of the possibili- ties of Pasadena and was always an enthusiastic lover of its beauties and natural advantages. He was among the earliest members of the First Con- gregational Church, and after its becoming the "Neighborhood Church" had been prominently identified therewith. He presented the Neighborhood House as a memorial to his wife.
Mrs. Thomas died suddenly at the family home December 10, 1908, aged nearly sixty-four years. The Doctor was absent on Catalina Island at the time of her sudden demise, where he had a summer home, but re- turned immediately after hearing the sad news. Mrs. Thomas was a mem- ber of the West Side Congregational Church, and had always taken an interest in the activities of the denomination. In the early days of the town she was prominent in church and social activities, and in the later years of her life she was interested particularly in home and friends as well as in affairs of the time. She and her husband were the parents of five children. Grace, formerly registrar of Pomona College, was connected with the United States Shipping Board at Philadelphia during the war, and has later spent much time in travel; Mrs. R. C. Davis, of Pasadena; Prof. Carl C., who was formerly dean of the Engineering College of Johns Hopkins Univer- sity and manager in charge of the engineering staff of the great Hog Island shipbuilding yards, but now a resident of Pasadena, and who is mentioned in the following sketch; J. Paul, general agent of the Union Pacific Railway at Riverside ; and R. Ray, of Los Angeles, president of the Electric Equip- ment Company. Doctor Thomas is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Lulu T. Sovereign, of Los Angeles.
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CARL CLAPP THOMAS. An authority on marine engineering and naval architecture, with many years of official.service in the East, Mr. Thomas recently returned to California, and has his business offices in the Hollings- worth Building at Los Angeles and his home in Pasadena.
He was born in Detroit, July 14, 1872, son of George Roscoe and Caroline Melissa (Clapp) Thomas. Mr. Thomas spent much of his youth in California, was a student at Leland Stanford, Jr., University, which he attended from 1891 to 1894, and in 1895 received the Mechanical Engineer- ing degree from Sibley College of Cornell University. The important positions and services rendered by him in his profession, covering a period of nearly thirty years, are noted briefly as follows: Draftsman, assistant engineer and chief engineer of the Globe Iron Works Company at Cleve- land from 1895 to 1899; chief draftsman of the Marine Department of the Maryland Steel Company during 1899-01 ; professor of marine engi- neering and naval architecture in New York University in 1901-03; assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Cali- fornia in 1903-04; professor of marine engineering at Cornell University from 1904 to 1908; and professor of steam engineering at the University of Wisconsin from 1908 to 1913. Just before his return to California he was professor of mechanical engineering in Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, holding that chair from 1913 to 1920. Since 1920 Mr. Thomas has been Western representative of Dwight P. Robinson & Company. Incorporated, of New York, with offices in various parts of the United States and foreign countries.
During the World war period he was on leave of absence from Johns- Hopkins University as manager of machinery fabrication of the American International Ship Building Corporation at Philadelphia. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the Franklin Institute, American Gas Institute, Inventors Guild and belongs to the Engineers Club of New York and the California Club of Los Angeles. He is author of a work on Steam Turbines, published in 1906. In 1922 he was elected a member of the City Board of Directors of Pasadena.
Mr. Thomas is a member of the Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi, and Phi Beta Kappa societies. July 14, 1899, he married Miss Katharine L. Nash, of Pasadena, a graduate of Stanford University. They are the parents of two sons, Alfred Randall and Roscoe, and a daughter, Dorothy, who died in Pasadena in 1904.
MATTHEW WILLIAM EVERHARDY, who passed away February, 13, 1923, left a large and prosperous business at Los Angeles, but in his earlier career he had also been identified with the principal pioneer industry in Southern California, cattle ranching. He was a resident of California nearly forty years.
He was born at Leavenworth, Kansas, October 8, 1862, son of Jacob and Mary Everhardy. His father was a pioneer rancher in the Middle West, doing a large business in Kansas, and in 1877 removing to Arizona where he continued cattle ranching. Matthew W. Everhardy acquired his education in the public schools at Leavenworth. He was fifteen when his father transferred his interests to Arizona, and the boy at that time was given heavy responsibilities, being put in charge of a large drove of cattle in Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon. The father and son removed to California in 1885 and settled at Santa Ana and for a number of years were associated in an extensive cattle business and packing business at both Santa Ana and Anaheim.
In 1886 Matthew W. Everhardy removed to Los Angeles and became associated with Simon Meyer, who was then the leading packer in the city. In 1895 Mr. Everhardy went into business for himself starting the chain of Palace Markets. He reorganized and owned this business the rest of his life, though for three years before his death ill health had seriously interfered with his active management. Mr. Everhardy was heavily inter-
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ested in real estate and had acquired some valuable property on moving to Los Angeles, and throughout was engaged in buying and selling. For his business integrity and his genial social characteristics he was esteemed by a large circle of friends. It is said of him that everybody knew him but to love him. He was a member of the Masonic Order, being a Knight Templar and Shriner, was also an Elk and a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Jonathan Club and the Cozadoras Gun Club. The Everhardy home for the past twenty years has been at 1401 Alvarado Terrace, Los Angeles.
He married Miss Elizabeth Alice Platt, a native daughter, born at Sac- ramento. Her parents were John and Sarah (Holding) Platt, both born in England of old English families. Mrs. Everhardy's father was a first cousin of the great African explorer Henry M. Stanley. Mrs. Everhardy's grandmother came to Sacramento, California, in 1852, and her home, an old frame structure, brought around the Horn, was one of the first set up at Sacramento and is still preserved and standing in that city. Mrs. Ever- hardy's brother, P. E. Platt, shipped the first crate of fruit from California, it going to Denver, consigned to R. A. Patch of that city. This was the first express package carton of fruit ever sent out of California. He was presi- dent of the pioneer fruit shipping firm in California, the W. R. Strong Company, then with headquarters at Sacramento. This company shipped the first carload of oranges that ever left Southern California. Mr. Platt was also the first president of the California Fruit Union of Northern Cali- fornia, organized early in the eighties, and proved instrumental in effecting the organization of growers in Northern California and the profitable mark- ing of the products of that section of the State.
Mr. and Mrs. Everhardy made many trips abroad and the year before his death went to Australia as a means of restoring his health. Mrs. Ever- hardy, who continues to reside at the old home, is the mother of two chil- dren, John Raymond, a young business man, and Elizabeth, a university student. Mrs. Everhardy has been a member of the Ebell Club, was one of the organizers of the Woman's Lyric Club of Los Angeles, is a member of the Matinee Musical Club, the Wa Wan Club, and the Woman's Athletic Club. In younger years she was known for her fine contralto voice, and was a leader in the musical life of Los Angeles.
C. V. STURDEVANT. Few business men of Pasadena can better realize what changes have come about here within the past thirty years than C. V. Sturdevant, senior member of the Sturdevant-Swink Company, realtors, loans and insurance of this city. Mr. Sturdevant had his first view of Pasadena on Christmas Day, 1886, a straggling country village with the inevitable Main Street, and boastful of its three 25-foot strips of concrete walks. It is more than possible that without such men of character and business foresight and enterprise as C. V. Sturdevant Pasadena might still be only a country village.
Mr. Sturdevant was born at Mendota, Illinois, April 20, 1867, a son of T. D. and B. Affie (Treat) Sturdevant, both of whom had taught school prior to their marriage. Both came from honest, industrious, frugal and virtuous people, whose lives of quiet usefulness never brought them into the limelight of publicity. The father of Mr. Sturdevant served as a soldier in the Civil war, and was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. For a number of years he practiced dentistry at Clarence, Iowa. He be- longed to the Masonic fraternity, and both parents of Mr. Sturdevant were active workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Sturdevant's schooldays ended with the grammar school. He was nineteen years old when he came to California, ambitious to enter business, and in 1887 started his first real-estate office in Pasadena, and continued with fair prospects until the well known "boom" burst, and for some years afterward business along this line was entirely disorganized. But Mr. Sturdevant was not to be discouraged, and since May, 1902, has been one of the most active and successful realtors in this part of Los Angeles County. It has always been his theory that business follows population, and witl!
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that idea he was one of the first to start building and improving, even when he found himself ridiculed for his optimism. Subsequent events proved his sound judgment. He handled, as a beginning, and the first subdivision opened after the boom in Pasadena, the Huston tract ; then the Crown tract, followed shortly by the Monte Vista tract ; the Sturdevant-Swink tract ; the Sturdevant-Swink Park tract, and in conjunction with Clifton J. Platt, sold the present post office site to the United States Government. When he erected four store buildings on East Colorado Street, now one of the busiest thoroughfares of the city, there were many who doubted his business fore- sight. It was in 1908 that Mr. Sturdevant, in association with C. H. Yearian, with the best interests of Pasadena at heart, organized the Pasa- dena Realty Board, of which he was a director for some years, treasurer for one year, secretary for two years and also president for two years. For two years he was a member of the executive committee of the National Association of Real Estate Boards.
During a residence of seven years in Honolulu he had opportunities for great public usefulness, in which he became greatly interested. At the request of Hon. Sanford B. Dole, president of the republic of Hawaii, he prepared a booklet of information for the United States Congress in behalf of the interests of annexation, and another booklet suggested by President Dole of general information regarding the islands. He was also instru- mental in securing the admission of the Salvation Army into Honolulu, and in bringing about the defeat in the Hawaiian legislature of the bill for licensing opium.
Mr. Sturdevant married at Honolulu, on July 14, 1901, Miss Isabella Boyce Walker, who is a daughter of William and Isabella ( Medill) Walker, pioneers of the '50s in Nevada and California, where Mr. Walker was an extensive cattle raiser. Mr. and Mrs. Sturdevant have three children : C. V. Sturdevant, Jr., who married Miss Lena Spake, of Pasadena, and they have twin sons ; Isabella Affie, who is the wife of David R. Coleman, teller in the First Trust & Savings Bank, Pasadena, and they have two sons; and Matthew Chafin Sturdevant, who is yet in school.
Mr. Sturdevant's name is well known in temperance literature, his writings in favor of prohibition having been a conscientious duty with him for many years. With his family he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. In fraternal life he is a Mason and belongs also to the Knights of Pythias, being master of finance in the latter organization for some years.
ROBERT A. SWINK. One of the obvious explanations concerning the rapid and substantial development of Pasadena's many interests is that among her most prominent citizens will be found many who have come here after long experience in professions or other vocations in other sections. This experience is a valuable asset. An example may be found in the successful business activities and good citizenship of Robert A. Swink, of the Sturdevant-Swink Company; realtors, loans and insurance at Pasadena, who for many years before coming to California was well and widely known in legal and banking circles in his native State of Missouri.
Robert Augustus Swink belongs to a family that can lay claim to the best aristocracy of America, that of age, for he is a direct descendant of John Lewis, who came to Virginia in 1667, and of Captain Hickman, a Revolutionary war hero. Mr. Swink was born on a farm in Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri, September 30, 1870, and is a son of John Edwin and Maria Louisa Swink. In 1852 the father of Mr. Swink. in company with Capt. John L. Bogy, of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri, crossed the plains to California and engaged in gold mining there until 1870, when he returned to Missouri. He later purchased a farm near Festus in that state, and continued to reside on it until 1902, when he removed with his family to Farmington, Missouri.
Robert A. Swink attended the public schools and Farmington College. and in 1897 graduated from the law department of the Missouri State University with his degree of LL. B. Years of constant activity and responsibility followed, in which he engaged in school teaching, practice
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of law, banking and public affairs. He located at Festus, Missouri, where he was city attorney, and afterwards removed to Farmington, Missouri, where he engaged in the practice of his profession, in the meanwhile becoming active in democratic politics. In 1898 he was elected city attorney of Festus, and served until 1900, in which year he removed to Farmington and organized the firm of Pipkin & Swink, lawyers and title examiners. After that Mr. Swink was engaged in banking and real-estate dealing at Maplewood, a fine suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, and during his residence there, in connection with his brother, John L. Swink, placed on the market several choice sub-divisions. For a number of years Mr. Swink was identified with large financial interests in several sections of Missouri, where his reputation as a sound banker still prevails. In 1898 he became one of the directors of the Citizens Bank of Festus, and in 1901, a director of the St. Francois County Bank; in 1900 organized and was a director of the Bank of Flat River; and in 1904 organized the Bank of Maplewood, of which he was president and a director, and in every instance his con- nection with these solid, reliable institutions continued for many years.
Mr. Swink married at Festus, Missouri, on June 10, 1897, Miss Mary Adelle Ard, who is a daughter of Reuben J. Ard, a well known farmer of Jefferson County, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Swink have no surviving children. They are members of the Christian Church, and Mr. Swink has been chairman of its Official Board since 1919. Before coming to Los Angeles County he was more or less active in the political field, and in 1918 was the democratic candidate for presiding judge of St. Louis County, Missouri. Although failing of election, he ran far ahead of his ticket. For many years he has been a member of the Knights of Pythias, and belongs also to the New Century Club of Pasadena and to the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution of Los Angeles.
SAMUEL H. BELL. On coming to Whittier Samuel H. Bell, though he had been a prosperous wholesale merchant in the East for a number of years, did not choose to retire altogether, and he was a merchant in Whittier and in the real estate business practically until his death. Person- ally he enjoyed a high esteem among all his friends and acquaintances, and was the type of citizen frequently called upon for public duty.
Mr. Bell was born near Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia, November 3, 1855. He acquired a common school education, and at the age of twenty-two removed to Wheeling, West Virginia, and was employed as a salesman in a wholesale house. Later in the same city he became head of a wholesale produce business, and conducted this for eighteen years.
Mr. Bell came to California in 1905, and for a short time was a merchant at Rivera under the firm name of Bell & Triggs. From there he moved to Whittier, and while in the real estate business was associated at brief times with L. M. Baldwin, Frank Wright and A. P. Fillpot. He served several years as a member of the School Board, and was a city trustee of Whittier from 1916 until his death, which occurred May 8, 1920.
Mr. and Mrs. Bell both were deeply interested in church work, and for many years he was an official in the Methodist Episcopal Church, acting as steward of his church in West Virginia, and for a number of years as treasurer of the church in Whittier. He stood high in Masonry, and at the age of twenty-three held the chair of worshipful master in the Lodge of Middleburn, West Virginia.
December 17. 1884, at Wheeling, he married Miss Rachel C. Wells. She was born at Wellsville, Ohio, where her father, George Wells. was proprietor of a wholesale grocery and wool warehouse. Mr. Wells was one of the prominent men in his section of Ohio, and at one time was candidate for Congress. Mrs. Bell, who survives her honored husband and resides at 238 North Painter Avenue in Whittier, is the mother of two sons, both natives of West Virginia.
George H. Bell. born June 11. 1890, was vice-principal of the Downey
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High School and for two years principal of the Lancaster School and is now science teacher in the Glendora High School. He married Miss Eliza- beth Lancaster, of Riverside, and their four children are Dick, Mary, Ruth and Rachel. Samuel J. Bell, the younger son, born July 11, 1901, is a graduate of the University of California, and is now on duty in Utah as grazing assistant in the United States forestry service.
JOHN BAPTISTE HAAS. The people of Los Angeles County may do well to pause and consider the life of the late John Baptiste Haas, who died at his home in Alhambra in 1916, at the age of eighty-four. It was a long life. It was spent in many diverse localities and in changing experiences. He was a California pioneer. His home was in Los Angeles County for over thirty years. Above the material facts of existence and of fortune, the outstanding and noteworthy fact of his life was the character which in part he no doubt inherited, which he maintained and which he passed on so that it has become exemplified in the lives of his children, several of whom occupy places of prominence in the affairs of this county.
He was born in the year 1832. His birth place was the then walled fortified city of Landau in the Palatinate, a so called "free city." Landau had been under French rule until 1815, and after the downfall of Napoleon was incorporated in the German empire. He was of German-French extrac- tion, son of Jean Baptiste and Marie Clara (De Bellon) Haas. The latter was of an old French Alsatian family, was proud of her French ancestry and was in some way related to the Betrelles and the Laveliers. Her family was thoroughly republican or anti-monarchist. It was related that when the Bavarians took Landau and had troops garrisoned on the walls of the ancient city, this patriotic woman sent one of her older sons, then a child, with files in his pocket to spike the guns of the enemy. The grandfather of John Baptiste Haas had been "Maire" of the City of Landau, and under the great Napoleon fought at the battle of Hanau and marched with the Emperor on his Russian campaign.
John Baptiste Haas was one of eight children. One of them, Mrs. Josephine Zukosky, lives at St. Louis, widow of a prominent pioneer mer- chant of that city. A few years after the birth of John Baptiste his father was found publishing revolutionary documents by the Germans and was forced to flee to Holland with his family. Reading the works of the great American novelist, James Fennimore Cooper, induced him to bring his fam- ily to America. On reaching Pittsburgh, in absence of a railroad to the West, they traveled down the Ohio by steamboat to St. Louis, arriving in that city in 1846. Here Jean Baptiste Haas established himself as a bookbinder, and undertook the binding of the books for the State Government at the State Capitol at Jefferson City. His home was on Franklin Avenue, St. Louis, where the family lived happily and prosperous until the terrible cholera plague, in which perished Jean Baptiste, his wife and one of their daughters.
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