History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 4

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

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In a comment on this award and an estimate of Mr. Johnson's art and work, John W. Mitchell, president of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Com- mission, said :

"As an architect of artistic qualifications Reginald D. Johnson must rank with the best, and certainly so in domestic architecture. And I thus abridge his qualifications, because I do not know of any large public or semi-public building or commercial structures designed by him. He has predominantly that which is so rare in architecture-a real, true feeling of design. He has this so strongly that I am sure if he has the opportunity and ever undertakes to apply the Greek orders to any great monumental public structures he will do it with a delicacy and beauty, and still with a strength, that will satisfy. For he has the faculty of seeing things in a simple, but a big way. His feelings are for soft lines, like the Greeks ; nothing hard, I mean the softness which expresses grace and beauty, not mushiness. Another of his strong points is that he studies all his problems particularly in relation to their settings, their surroundings. And he makes models of all his structures to guide him. This is a method in modern architecture which prevents the absolute failure of an architectural creation.

"His fine treatment of exteriors and surfaces and the concentration of points of interest in his masses; and, withal, the use of due restraint is admirable. The gradation in the surfaces, in textures and decoration, the juxtaposition of form and color upon the wall surfaces-just as a painter expresses texture, and gets his tonal qualities by his lights and shadows by the use of brush and paint, he brings his interest in surfaces by the proper placing of his ornaments and shadows, and by bringing depth into his plain surfaces.

"It is these subtle refinements of his art that have gained him an unusual appeal. I heard an architect say : 'Johnson can take a blank wall and by color and treatment make it interesting.'

"To sum up his qualifications I would say : That he is one of the best balanced architects we have in Southern California because he knows the engineering and allied sides of his profession, and he is one of the few good designers who has business capacity. Further than this he is not narrow and onesided, but broad enough and liberal enough to take an interest in public development. He was one of the active creators, and is now a director of the Allied Architects' Association, a co-operative organi- zation of the leading architects of Los Angeles whose purpose is to assist in securing good architecture in civic structures."

RT. REV. JOSEPH HORSFALL JOHNSON was consecrated Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles in 1896, and has endeared himself to Southern California by thousands of services and by the example of a saintly life.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

He was born at Schenectady, New York, June 7, 1847, a son of Stephen Hotchkiss and Eleanor (Horsfall) Johnson. He is of the same family as Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was the first American Episcopal clergyman ordained in England for work in an American congregation. Dr. Samuel Johnson was the first president and his son the third president of Columbia College, New York.

Bishop Johnson graduated A. B. from Williams College in 1870, and from the General Theological Seminary in 1873. He was awarded the degree S. T. D. by the General Theological Seminary in 1908. He was made a Deacon in 1873 and a priest in 1874, and his first work in ministry was with the Holy Trinity Church at Highland, New York, which he served from 1873 to 1879. He was rector of Trinity Church, Bristol, Rhode Island, during 1879-81, and St. Peter's Church at Westchester, New York, from 1881 to 1886. In the latter year he was called to the rectorship of Christ Church in Detroit, and served there the ten years prior to his consecration in 1896 as Bishop of Los Angeles. Bishop Johnson married, on June 14, 1881, Isabel Greene Davis, daughter of Isaac Davis of Worcester, Massachusetts. Their son, Reginald Davis Johnson, is the architect whose attainments are the subject of a special article in this work.

An estimate of Bishop Johnson's work written by one long familiar with his character and service is the following :

"No one can appreciate the character and work of Bishop Johnson who does not know that from his point of view the service of conse- cration represents an ideal that is anything but obsolete; that the supreme interest of his life through all the varied and exacting details of administrative responsibility is the spiritual interest; that the only success he craves in his Episcopate is to be able, through his ministry, to make the presence of God more real to those for whose spiritual welfare he is especially responsible and to all with whom he comes in contact.

"Bishop Johnson is keenly interested in Pomona College, being vice president of the trustees of that institution since 1912, and as well in the educational work of Southern California. He is president of the Board of Trustees of the Harvard Military School in Los Angeles. and has established the School for Girls at La Jolla. The Hospital of the Good Samaritan, the Church Home for Children and the Neigh- borhood Settlement in Los Angeles are also under his direction.

"With the more or less direct responsibility for the management of these institutions, the care of any one of which would constitute a man's work ; with the supervision of ninety-eight churches of various sizes, scattered over a territory as large in area as the State of Penn- sylvania ; with the stream of requests that come to him to preside at meetings, to serve on boards of benevolence, to lead community move- ments, to arbitrate church disputes ; with an office that is the mecca for seekers of all kinds, from the man who comes for spiritual advice to the one who wishes to sell a book or borrow money, Bishop Johnson really has little option as to any day's schedule. He must give him- self to the duties of the day as they pass along, regardless of their relative spiritual significance. But the controlling and unifying factor in his work is the spiritual perspective that regards nothing as 'comon' and that holds secular things as sacred, and makes sacred and secular ministrations alike the agency of spiritual influence.

"Bishop Johnson is known abroad in the community as a man of breadth of interests, with a capacity for making friends, and adapt- ability to all sorts and conditions of men and all sorts and conditions of situations. He is an executive of ability, a public-spirited citizen, a leader among men. Of all the qualities that cause him to be admired, those who are intimately associated with him in the work of his diocese are fully aware and justly proud, but the things that mean the most to those who are privileged to come into closest contact with the

富

A. J. Pauland

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Bishop, that give him a place apart in their affections, are the rare simplicity of his character, the humility of his spirit, the leniency of his judgments, the sunny optimism of his disposition that finds him at the end of the hardest day sometimes cast down but never destroyed, the warmth and naturalness of his friendship and, above all, the sincerity of his religious life."

A. LINCOLN ROWLAND, attorney-at-law, Boston Building, Pasadena, joined the Pasadena bar in 1906, after a dozen years of successful experi- ence in high standing as a lawyer in Eastern Ohio. Mr. Rowland's practice from early years has been largely as a corporation attorney. He was honored with the office of president for 1922 of the Pasadena Bar Asso- ciation.

He was born at Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio, September 23, 1866, son of Thomas and Mary (Mosher) Rowland. The Rowland family in early times were Southern planters and slave holders. The great-grand- father of A. Lincoln Rowland about 1800 moved to the Northwest Terri- tory and settled in Ohio. Both parents were natives of Ohio, his mother born in Washington County and his father in Jefferson County, and they lived for many years on their farm in Morgan County, where the mother. died at the age of forty-three and the father at seventy-five. Thomas Rowland was a soldier in the Civil war, serving as a private and non- commissioned officer in the Seventy-seventh Ohio Infantry for four years. For ten months of this time he was a prisoner at Tyler, Texas. He was a very radical republican in politics.

A. Lincoln Rowland acquired his early education in Bartlett Academy, at Bartlett, Washington County, Ohio, later attended Marietta College at Marietta, and in 1887 graduated with the degree Bachelor of Science from the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. Mr. Rowland for sev- eral years was a country school teacher and was employed in the maintenance of way department of the Pennsylvania & Erie Railroad. At Youngstown, Ohio, he studied law in the office of King & McVey, and was admitted to the bar at Columbus in June, 1894, and from that year he practiced law at Youngstown until 1906. In May of that year he arrived at Pasadena, was admitted to the California bar in July, and for over sixteen years has carried on an extensive practice, largely in corporation law. Among the prominent interests he has represented during his professional career he was attorney for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- road, the Youngstown Street Railway Company, the Youngstown Tele- phone Company, and since coming to California he has been attorney for the Pasadena Telephone Company, San Gabriel Valley Bank, Union National Bank, Pacific Lumber Company and the Walter M. Murphy Motors Company.

While living at Youngstown he was president of the City Council in 1898-1900, and a member of the council from 1896 to 1900. Since 1917 he has been a member of the Pasadena Library Advisory Board. Mr. Rowland was president of the Pasadena Republican Club from 1920 to 1922. He has occupied all the executive chairs in the Knights of Pythias, is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and for 1922 was venerable master of the lodge of Perfection of the Scottish Rite. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Overland Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Lincoln Club, and belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Rowland was the seventh in a family of nine children. The only other one now living is his sister, Mrs. Mary Ellis, of Stockport, Ohio. At Stockport, December 25, 1890, Mr. Rowland married Ida May Glass- ford, daughter of William H. and Olivia Glassford. They have three chil- dren, all born at Youngstown, Ohio, and all graduates of the Pasadena High School: Helen M., county librarian of Tuolumne County ; Ruth E., teacher in the Pasadena public schools, and John L., a student.

Vol. II-2

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

WILLIAM H. WARNER. Seventeen years of association with the busi- ness interests of Los Angeles County have established for William H. Warner a reputation for ability, resource and unflagging industry. He is one of the captains of success who has piloted his own craft to harbor. In his several varieties of experience he has been a farmer, railroad man and poultry raiser, and out of all his struggles has evolved the belief that hard work rarely injures anyone and that honesty always pays. He is now a member of the firm of Warner Brothers, proprietors of the Pasadena Poultry Farm.

Mr. Warner was born October 7, 1881, in Ottawa County, Michigan, and is a son of William and Eleanor (Hopper) Warner, both of whom are deceased. The father, who was a native of London, England, was but seventeen years of age when he enlisted in the English Army, and during the next ten and one-half years served under the British flag, his services taking him all over South Africa and into various parts of India and China. When he was about thirty years of age he emigrated to Canada, where for two years he was engaged in farm- ing, although his regular trade, at which he never worked, was that of a printer. Near the close of the Civil war in this country Mr. Warner settled in Ottawa County, Michigan, after having been refused enlistment in the Union Army. In his later years he did considerable traveling in this country, but never beyond the Rockies. Mrs. Warner, who was born in Ottawa County, Michigan, died there. There were three sons and one daughter in the family: W. H., of this review; ' Alfred, who is a member of the firm of Warner Brothers; Mrs. Theo- dore Anderson, of Caledonia, Ontario, Canada; and George. George Warner was engaged in homesteading in Montana when the United States entered the World war, and he enlisted in Company C, 362nd Infantry, with which he went to France. He met his death in the glorious engagement of Argonne Forest, when the American troops swept their enemy from an apparently impregnable position. His remains have been recently brought to Pasadena, where he was given a soldier's burial in the cemetery here.

William H. Warner attended the Clayton school in the rural dis- tricts of Ottawa County, Michigan, following which he began farming in his native state. Reared as an agriculturist, he remained on the home place until coming to Pasadena, in February, 1905, when he began working on a poultry ranch. In 1907 he went to Sacramento, where he was employed in the freight department of the Southern Pacific Railroad, but later returned to Pasadena, and for a time was engaged in the employ of the Arden Milk Company, for which he worked as the driver of a milk wagon. His next connection was with W. G. Drew, with whom he remained for about one year and six months, and was then variously employed for several years, or until he and his younger brother, Alfred, bought out the interest of Mr. Drew in his business, which at that time was known as the Porter Poultry Ranch. The early years were ones of struggle, but the brothers possessed the courage of their convictions and the willingness to apply themselves unflaggingly to their tasks, so that they made steady progress. At the end of three years they sold out and founded another enterprise of the same nature, which they named the Pasa- dena Poultry Farm and which they conducted on a rented property for three years. It was at this time that their business career was terminated for the time being by the World war, the brothers enlisting in Company C, Nineteenth Coast Heavy Artillery. They were sup- posed to be stationed at Fort McArthur, but the armistice was signed before they were called to the training camp, although they had done some drilling. After receiving their honorable discharge they resumed business, building a new ranch on their property at 494 South Ray- mond Avenue, which they purchased. The Pasadena Poultry Farm has built up a large and profitable business, due to the good manage-

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

ment and enterprise of the brothers as well as to their unfailing integrity and honorable manner of doing business. They supply hotels, engage in a wholesale and retail poultry and egg business, and have an excellent family trade in milk-fed poultry, broilers, fryers, roasters, fowls, turkeys, ducks, squabs and freshly-laid eggs. The firm belongs to the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce.

Like his brother, William H. Warner is unmarried. He is a repub- lican in politics, and a life member of Pasadena Lodge No. 672, Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks, and occasionally attends religious services at All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena.

ALFRED WARNER. When Alfred Warner first arrived at Pasadena, in 1905, his cash capital consisted of three dollars. To him, however, the outlook was in no way discouraging, for he possessed unbounded confidence both in his own abilities and in the community in which he had cast his fortunes, and was equally confident of capacity for making the most of his opportunities. His faith was not misplaced, for, while the struggle has been one which has taxed his strength and challenged his powers, he has worked his way to position and independence, and is now a member of the well-known firm of Warner Brothers, proprietors of the Pasadena Poultry Farm and wholesale and retail dealers in poultry and eggs.

Mr. Warner was born in Ottawa County, Michigan, December 13, 1882, and is a son of William and Eleanor (Hopper) Warner, both of whom are deceased. William Warner was born in London, Eng- land, and enlisted in the British Army at the age of seventeen years, serving therein for ten and one-half years, during which time he traveled all over South Africa, China and India. When he was about thirty years of age he emigrated to Canada, where he followed garden- ing for two years, although a printer by trade, and at about the close of the Civil war came to Michigan and endeavored to enlist in the Union service, but was refused. After locating in the United States he traveled considerably, visiting various parts of the country except that portion west of the Rocky Mountains. Mrs. Warner, who was born in Ottawa County, Michigan, died there. They were the parents of three sons and one daughter: W. H., who is a member of the firm of Warner Brothers; Alfred, of this notice; Mrs. Theodore Anderson, of Caledonia, Ontario, Canada; and George, who was overseas during the World war as a private of Company C 362nd Infantry, and met a soldier's death on the fields of France.

Alfred Warner was educated in the public schools of Ottawa and Kent Counties, Michigan, and after he had completed his education engaged in work on the farm and doing odd jobs for a produce com- pany. Subsequently he went to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he secured employment with the Vinkmulder Company and remained in that concern's employ for one and one-half years. At this time Mr. Warner decided that he was not making satisfactory progress, and, feeling that better opportunities awaited him in California, he set his face toward the West. Eventually, in 1905, as before noted, he arrived at Pasadena, with a depleted purse but a mind full of ambitious re- solves. He has been at Pasadena ever since, with the exception of a short time spent in the northern part of California, where he was working for the Southern Pacific Railway's freight department at Sacramento. On his return to Pasadena he worked for the Arden Dairy for about a year, driving a milk wagon, and then entered the poultry business in the employ of W. G. Drew, with whom he remained one and one-half years. He was next engaged in the oil fields for the Amalgamated Oil Company for about two years, after which he left the oil business for that of the poultry trade, he and his brother, W. H. Warner, buying out Mr. Drew's business, which was known as the Porter Poultry Ranch at that time. After three years of operation,

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

during the early days of which the brothers would spend most of the days in buying poultry and most of the nights in picking and dressing same, they sold out their interests in this enterprise and founded the Pasadena Poultry Farm, which they conducted three years. The World war interrupted their activities at this stage, and Alfred Warner enlisted in Company C, Nineteenth Heavy Artillery, but while he did some drilling he never got to an army camp, the armistice having been signed prior to that time. When he received his honorable dis- charge he and his brother, who had rented up to that time, bought their property at 494 South Raymond Avenue and started again in business under the style of the Pasadena Poultry Farm. They wholesale and retail poultry and eggs, and a private family trade is supplied with milk-fed poultry, broilers, fryers, roasters, fowls, tur- keys, ducks, squabs and newly-laid eggs. A specialty is also made of furnishing hotels. The business is a co-partnership and has been built up on the sound fundamentals of honorable dealing and fair representation. Recently they have added sixty feet to the main building and have acquired thirty-two feet frontage on the north for garage purposes. .

Alfred Warner is a republican in politics. He is a life member of Pasadena Lodge No. 672, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Pasadena Merchants Association.

CARL BRENNER marked the passing years with worthy achievement, made his influence count for good in all of the relations of life, and his character was the positive expression of a noble and loyal nature. He was one of the venerable and honored pioneer citizens of Pasadena at the time of his death, January 20, 1915, at the age of eighty-two years. He was a pioneer settler in the State of Iowa, where he reclaimed and improved a productive farm near Muscatine, and he represented that commonwealth as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which he served three years and eleven months, as a member of the Eleventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He participated in many important engagements marking the progress of the great con- flict between the states of the North and the South, and in one battle he received a wound of no inconsiderable severity. After the close of the war he continued his residence in Iowa until 1883, in December of which year he came with his family to Pasadena, California, where he became actively associated with the Kirchoff Mill & Lumber Company and where he long continued his active connection with busi- ness affairs, besides which he did all in his power to aid movements which contributed to the civic and material advancement of his home city and county. In Iowa was solemnized his marriage with Anna E. (Mark) Conrad, a representative of one of the pioneer families of that state, and she passed the closing years of her life at Pasadena, where her death occurred February 21, 1900. The first husband of Mrs. Brenner died when a young man, and was survived by two sons and one daughter. One of the sons, William H., is deceased, as is also Frank E. Brenner, a son of the second marriage. The surviving daughters of the Brenner family circle are Mrs. W. Dolcater, Mrs. G. C. Sanderson and Misses Mary and Martha Brenner. The sur- viving sons are George J., Charles F., Arthur J. and Milton S. Of George J., Arthur J. and Milton S. individual mention is made in the following sketch. The two surviving children of the mother's first mar- riage are Mrs. H. Biedebach and Louis Conrad.

In the city and state of his adoption Carl Brenner won a circle of friends that was limited only by that of his acquaintances, and in the City of Pasadena he and his gracious wife are held in reverent memory by all who came within the sphere of their influence. Mr. Brenner, was a stalwart republican and was an appreciative and honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

&Green

Greenville

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

GEORGE J. BRENNER not only has standing as one of the progressive business men and loyal and public-spirited citizens of Pasadena but is also a son of one of the honored pioneers of this section of Los Angeles County, his father, the late Carl Brenner, being accorded a memorial tribute in the preceding sketch, so that further review of the family history is not demanded in the present article.

George J. Brenner, senior member of the firm of Brenner & Wood, which conducts one of the leading retail clothing establishments in Pasadena, was born at Muscatine, Iowa, May 3, 1870, and is the eldest of the sons of the late Carl and Anna E. Brenner. He gained his rudi- mentary education in his native city, and was a lad of thirteen years at the time of the family removal from Iowa to Pasadena, California, in 1883. Here he continued his studies in the public schools, and in 1886 he took a position with the firm of Mosher & Conrad, dealers in men's clothing and furnishing goods, on South Fair Oaks Avenue. After remaining three years in the employ of this firm Mr. Brenner passed about eighteen months in similar service in the State of Oregon, at Salem and Portland. Upon his return to Pasadena he entered the employ of Conrad & Hotaling, and after Mr. Hotaling assumed sole ownership of the business, that of clothing and furnishing goods, Mr. Brenner continued as an able and popular salesman in the Hotaling establishment until 1905, when he and a fellow-employe, Arthur D. Wood, engaged in the same line of enterprise in an independent way and under the firm name of Brenner & Wood. The original store of the new and progressive firm was at 37 North Raymond Avenue, where the enterprise was successfully continued until April, 1919, when removal was made to the present large, modern and finely equipped quarters at 155 East Colorado Street. The Brenwood qual- ity-mark, representing a combination of the names of the members of the firm, has become known as a designation of the highest standard of products in ready-to-wear clothing and furnishing goods, and the firm by effective service and honorable policies has developed a large and prosperous business, with a supporting patronage of represen- tative order. Mr. Brenner now has precedence as having been a sales- man of clothing, including his service as a clerk and his activities as an independent merchant, for a longer period than any other man identified with this line of enterprise in Pasadena. He is a director of the Pasadena branch of the Security National Bank of Los Angeles, and also of the Pasadena Building & Loan Association. His influence and co-operation are ever to be counted on in the supporting of meas- ures and enterprises projected for the general good of his home city, county and state, and while he has had no desire for political activity he is a staunch supporter of the cause of the republican party. He is an active member of the local Rotary Club, and a life member of Pasa- dena Lodge No. 672, B. P. O. E.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 4

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