USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 40
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After this calamity John Baptiste Haas, who was fourteen years old when brought to St. Louis, lived with a Highland Scotchman by name Peter Nicholson, in whose general merchandise store he worked as a clerk. Nicholson was a staunch abolitionist, and young Haas frequently became an assistant conductor on the "underground railroad" aiding refugee slaves to cross the Illinois line. During the Mexican war John Baptiste Haas assisted the recruiting officers in the old recruiting station at the Green Tree Tavern, at Fourth and Almond streets, St. Louis, and subsequently wit- nessed the return of the volunteers as they marched triumphant through the city, dragging captured Mexican field pieces with them. John Baptiste Haas in his youth was a free-soil democrat, but became a republican during Lincoln's campaign, and remained so until the date of his death at the age of eighty-four. In St. Louis he was well acquainted with many of the old French pioneer families, including the Solnards, Gratiots, Berres, Choteau, and also with many Americans who later became prominent, including
Wallin F. Haas
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Colonel Harvey, Governor Gamble, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, Doctor Abady, Governor Sterling Price, Mulanphy and others.
The Mexican war, the conquest of California, the subsequent gold discoveries, all exercised an influence over the young mercantile clerk, culmi- nating in 1852, when he started over the plains and mountains in a journey fraught with interesting incidents. He went by ox team in a caravan headed by Charles Albright, whose descendants are pioneers of Eldorado County. The journey involved all the incidents common to such an adventure, includ- ing trouble with the Indians, floods, being lost in the mountains, sickness and near starvation. Once while reconnoitering for game John Baptiste Haas was captured by some Sioux Indians then on the war path against the Pawnees, and was saved from torture and mistreatment through an old squawman, a Frenchman he had known in St. Louis. There were buffalo hunts in which he came near losing his life and the destruction of a raft upon which he was crossing a stream, saving himself from drowning by clinging to the horns of one of the oxen.
At Salt Lake City he took employment with the Mormon leader, Brigham Young, for the winter. Unconverted by this sojourn among the Mormons, at the opening of spring he left for the gold fields of California, and shortly afterward his party had an encounter with the Indians and there were other hardships before they came down the mountains into Sacramento, then to San Francisco, and finally to the mines at Hangtown, now Placerville. At San Francisco he stayed at the old American House, which was still standing up to the time of the fire. At Sacramento for a time he conducted a store near the present site of the capitol, and in Eldorado County was both a miner and merchant, having stores at Placerville and Diamond Springs. At Diamond Springs shortly after his arrival he was made justice of the peace. About that time he engaged in the sheep raising business, his part- ner being Bob Carson, elder brother of Kit Carson, the renowned guide, trapper and scout. Mr. Haas was in California during the Civil war period, and remained staunchly loyal to the Union, and was an active worker in the various patriotic organizations.
Mountain fever, contracted while engaged in the sheep business, was the cause of his return East. Through San Francisco by way of the Panama Canal he returned to St. Louis, where in 1868 he married Caroline Bruere (Bruyere) and then moved to the little town of California in Monitou County, Missouri, where seven of his eight children were born. Nearly twenty years later, with his family, he again came West, reaching Los Angeles, May 30, 1884. Soon afterward he moved to what is the present corner of Fourteenth Street and Griffith Avenue. In the home there his youngest child, John B. Haas, now a Los Angeles attorney, was born.
In 1907 Mr. and Mrs. Haas and their sons John and Walter moved to Alhambra, and in the beautiful environment of that locality he passed his remaining years. The old family home in Alhambra is at the southeast corner of Granada Street and Alhambra Road. Some years ago his son Walter built a $50,000.00 residence there and otherwise beautified the prem- ises, and it is now the home of the widowed mother, her sons Walter and John and her daughter Josephine's three children.
The late John B. Haas, though he had little opportunity for schooling, was highly educated in the best sense of the term and met with signal success in the solving of the problems called life. He spoke, read and wrote four languages fluently and had a knowledge of several others. Journalism was an avocation with him, and his associates accorded him the respect paid to a well informed and well read man. For a time he served as a member of the Missouri State Legislature, and was always active in politics and civic matters.
A man of unusual achievements, no small part of his success was due to the noble companion who shared for over forty years his experiences and so wisely guided the destinies of their household. Caroline Bruere was born of German-French parentage in the City of Cologne, October 15, 1840. Her people were of noble birth. Her father was a descendant of an old
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Huguenot family driven out of the City of Rochelle by religious persecution and afterward settling in Lorraine. He was at one time a professor of architecture in the University of Paris, and to him was attributed the con- struction of many of the beautiful bridges of the last century in that part of the world. Her mother's maiden name was Jaeger. She was the pro- prietress of a girls' seminary and was associated with Froebel, to whom the kindergarten system is at the present day attributed. Caroline Bruere's connections comprised a large number of educators, lawyers and journal- ists, who came to this country in the early forties and settled in the old town of St. Charles on the Missouri River, near St. Louis. Here Caroline Bruere was reared, and during the Civil war she performed an active part in the organization corresponding to the modern Red Cross, and also helped in the instruction of the children of that town who were left during the war period almost without schools. Then, as previously stated, after their mar- riage in St. Louis in 1868 Mr. and Mrs. Haas moved to the little town of California, Missouri. Mrs. Haas celebrated her eighty-second birthday on October 15, 1922, with her children and grandchildren about her.
She reared a large family of five sons and three daughters to manhood and womanhood, and also a nephew who was left fatherless at an early age. Since her own children grew to maturity she has also had the care and bring- ing up of three grandchildren, and aided numerous little ones that the adversity of life bereaved of parentage. Her whole heart and soul has been in the proper care and bringing up of those that providence placed in her charge, and in her old age she can look back over the years with the satis- faction of having done the duty that God outlined for her, a mother's duty.
A brief record of the children of these noble parents is given in conclu- sion : Walter F. Haas, attorney, member of the firm Haas & Dunnigan, Los Angeles, and formerly city attorney of Los Angeles and of other cities ; Mrs. Clara Hummel, a resident of Pasadena, for many years a teacher in the Los Angeles schools; Charles E. Haas, attorney at Los Angeles, formerly deputy city attorney and deputy county counsel ; Herman L. Haas, a rancher in Riverside County; Dr. Gustave Haas, Orthopedic surgeon, with offices in the Pacific Electric Building at Los Angeles ; Mrs. Josephine Haas Dunn, deceased, whose surviving children are Mrs. Josephine Haas Keen, Clarence Dunn and Walter J. Dunn; Mrs. Lena Jewett, now of Tokio, Japan, formerly an instructor in drawing in the Los Angeles schools ; and John B. Haas, a Los Angeles attorney, formerly city trustee of Alhambra.
COVINGTON H. S. LITTLETON, JR. The Littleton Company at 608 East Colorado Street in Pasadena are architects and builders, and handle an 'extensive business in building and development in Pasadena and vicinity. The active member of the firm is Covington H. S. Littleton, Jr., who has built up the business since the war, in which he served as a member of the Naval Aviation Corps.
Mr. Littleton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1896, son of Covington H. S. and Clara (Hazen) Littleton. His father was born in Maryland and his mother in New York. His father for many years was in the building business in Philadelphia, Atlantic City and New York and was the contractor of many large office build- ings and hotels there. He handled the contract for the Professional Building in Philadelphia, at one time one of the largest office buildings in that city.
The Littleton family came to California in 1907, and have since been residents of Pasadena. The senior Mr. Littleton is a member of the Littleton Company, but is practically retired.
Covington H. S. Littleton, Jr., was eleven years of age when brought to Pasadena. He graduated from high school in 1913, and in 1917 was a senior in the University of California. A few days after America declared war on Germany he entered the naval air service, was commissioned an ensign, and was a pilot at Pensacola, Florida,
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and Chatham, Massachusetts, his duties being largely as an instruc- tor. He continued with the naval air service until the armistice was signed. He immediately returned to Pasadena and began his career as an architect and builder, and since October, 1921, has been located at 608 East Colorado Street. The permits for some of the finest buildings in Pasadena have been issued to the Littleton Company. This com- pany has built theatres and churches and hundreds of residences, not only in Pasadena but in Hollywood and in Los Angeles.
Mr. Littleton, who is unmarried, resides at 555 South Grand Avenue. He is a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, Uni- versity Club of Los Angeles, Flint Ridge Country Club, American Legion and the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. His religious affilia- tions are Episcopalian, and he is a democrat.
THOMAS HADDEN AGNEW. What has been called "the most unique institution in America" is Doctor T. H. Agnew's Small Animal Sana- torium in Lamanda Park section of Pasadena. It is a sanatorium for the care and treatment of domestic dogs and cats for the most part, and there is probably not an institution anywhere with such unrivaled facilities. The head of the institution is a veterinarian who has devoted all his professional career to this special branch of the subject, and the inspiration of his work is pure love for the animals that have been at once the companions and the comforters of mankind for untold ages. Doctor Agnew loves his work, and his ideals are well expressed by his favorite quotations from Theodore Roosevelt: "The one thing supremely worth having in life is the opportunity, coupled with the capacity to do a thing worthily and well-the doing of which in its vital importance, affects all human kind."
Doctor Agnew was born in Ontario, Canada, about one hundred miles west of Toronto, November 9, 1869. He was reared and edu- cated in public schools of that locality, and in 1896 graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College with the degree Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. He practiced about a year at Bucyrus, Ohio, and then removed to Evanston, Illinois, and for fifteen years conducted a veter- inary hospital and had a general practice. Doctor Agnew in 1912 came to Pasadena, and subsequently acquired a tract of ground in Lamanda Park, on Daisy Street, where he now has six lots, 275 by 150 feet. On this ground he began the erection of a group of buildings in the Spanish style of architecture, and has occupied them as his home and sanatorium since March, 1919. He has accommodations for a hundred small animals, and everything is spotless and sanitary, and besides the individual quarters there are operating room, bathroom, a diet kitchen, and an isolation ward for contagious diseases. Because of its facilities and unsurpassed service the institution has attracted a great deal of attention. The distinguished New Yorker, Dr. E. T. Devine, visited it not long ago and pronounced it "the finest place of its kind from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Winnipeg to the Gulf."
Both Doctor and Mrs. Agnew are people of artistic standards, and their artistic taste has enabled them to make this a place of beauty in every way. Their happy personal philosophy is exemplified in a quotation at the entrance of the grounds : "It's always morning some- where in the world." Doctor Agnew is a member of the First Congre- gational Church of Pasadena, and is a member of the County and State Veterinary Societies.
November 24, 1898, at Portland, Oregon, he married Miss Stella G. Gilliam. Mrs. Agnew was born at Pilot Rock, Oregon, and her parents were pioneers of Oregon, going to that country overland with wagons from Indiana. Mrs. Agnew was educated in Portland, and met her husband while a student of music in Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois. Doctor and Mrs. Agnew have one son, Manrice
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G., born in Chicago, October 20, 1901, who graduated from the Pasa- dena High School in January, 1922, and is now planning a medical career.
JOHN AUGUST ANDERSON, PH. D., who has been research associate in Mount Wilson Observatory since 1916, has a distinguished record in scientific circles, and is one of the group of scholars and scientists claiming Pasadena as their home.
Doctor Anderson was born at Rollag, Minnesota, August 7, 1876, son of Brede and Ellen Martha (Berg) Anderson. He grew up in a rural community, isolated from the libraries and advantages of uni- versity and city centers, and his higher education was acquired largely through his own self-denying labor. During 1891-93 he attended Con- cordia College at Moorhead, Minnesota. The following year he was a student in the State Normal School of Moorhead, and from 1898 to 1901 attended Valparaiso College in Indiana, graduating Bachelor of Science in 1900. His advanced work in the sciences was done in Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, where he majored in astron- omy. He attended Johns Hopkins from 1903 to 1907, winning his Doctor of Philosophy degree in the latter year.
For a period of eight years Doctor Anderson remained at Johns Hopkins as associate professor of astronomy, 1908-16, and was then called to his present line of duties at the great Mount Wilson Ob- servatory. He is the author of a number of bulletins and reports on astronomical subjects, and was author of "Absorption Spectra of Solu- tions" in collaboration with H. C. Jones in 1908. Doctor Anderson is associate editor of the American Optical Journal, a member of the American Optical Society, American Astronomical Society, American Physical Society, American Chemical Society. He is a Phi Beta Kappa of Maryland.
June 9, 1909, he married Miss Josephine Virginia Barron, of Bal- timore. Their home is at 642 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena.
CAPT. JAMES J. MEYLER. Although the man principally responsible for the development of the Los Angeles harbor has passed from the scene of his former activities, the magnificent results of his skill and unselfish labors remain and stand as a monument to him. This public-spirited gen- tleman and highly-trained engineer was Capt. James J. Meyler, late of the United States Army Engineering Corps, whose untimely death deprived the army of one of its most capable officers, and the Los Angeles harbor project of its most useful backer. Captain Meyler was born in New Jersey, March 14, 1866, a son of Nicholas and Sophia Meyler.
After having studied in the schools of his native state and an academic course at Rock Hill College, Maryland, James J. Meyler received the ap- pointment, July 1, 1883, to the West Point. Military Academy from New Jersey, and was graduated therefrom in June, 1887, and received his appointment in the Regular Army, as a second lieutenant of the engineer- ing corps, to date from June 12, 1887. While serving as assistant engineer under immediate order of William H. H. Benyaurd, chief of the engineer- ing corps of the United States Army, he was detailed to draw plans and make an estimate of the work necessary for the development of the San Pedro inner harbor. So well did he do this, and so thoroughly conversant did he prove himself with all of the details and statistics of the tides, that he at length after many efforts was able to prevail in having San Pedro selected in preference to the Santa Monica Bay property, which project was fathered by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. His accurate and detailed data convinced the Federal authorities that this harbor could be developed to a great extent by a seining process. His estimate of 2,000,000 cubic feet was accurate as time proved, for nine-tenths of this was removed by seining processes without dredging or blasting, and in this
U.S.
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way a depth of sixteen feet over the bar was easily developed. After hav- ing charge of this important work from October 1, 1887, to June 7, 1889, he was transferred to other government work in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The people of California, however, desired his return, and when Congress appropriated a sufficient amount, he again took charge, December 31, 1898, and was in control here until his death. During the Spanish-American war he had charge of the mining of San Diego harbor, California, and the construction of the coast defenses, of which at that time there were none. In this work he called for volunteers, and with those who responded carried on his work until he completed it. While working on the San Pedro harbor project he made plans and estimates proving that a wharfage larger than that of New York could be secured at a low cost, and was also the father of the project for the outer harbor, for which he drew the plans his successors are now using in carrying out his ideas.
James J. Meyler was made a first lieutenant September 20, 1892, and was commissioned a captain July 5, 1898. He served with the battalion of engineers. From the time of his graduation until October 1, 1887, he was at the United States Engineering School, Willetts Point, New York. From then until January 7, 1889, he was assistant to William H. H. Benyaurd on river and harbor work in California. From April 15, 1889, to October 10, 1892, he was under the immediate orders of Maj. Daniel W. Lockwood; from October 18, 1892, to September 3, 1895, he was an aid of Maj. James J. Gregory, doing important construction work on locks and dams in West Virginia and Kentucky. From November 9, 1895, to June 4, 1896, he was under the immediate orders of Lieut. Col. William H. H. Benyaurd. From January 8, 1896, to February 19, 1897, he was engaged in river and harbor work in Florida, under the immediate orders of Capt. Cassius E. Gillette. From March 4 to July 3, 1897, he was under the immediate orders of Maj. E. L. B. Davis ; from July 3, 1897, to December 31, 1898, he was in charge for fortification and river and harbor work in California. His death occurred December 12, 1901, at Newark, New Jersey. He was a man of more than usual ability. Just and upright, possessing a kindly disposition, he could inspire in his men a whole-souled co-operation that was productive of the best of results. His inferiors respected and reverenced him ; his superior officers depended upon him and recognized his ability; his brother officers loved and followed him. His unusually efficient service, his devotion to duty, and his stainless integrity won him the approval of his department and the gratitude of the American people.
On February 9, 1891, Captain Meyler married Miss Frances Bouyer Gephard, a native daughter of California. Her parents were George and Frances (Graves) Gephard. The father crossed the plains to California during the period of the gold rush, in the spring of 1850, when thousands thronged San Francisco. Mrs. Gephard came to California via the Isthmus route in 1854, and met Mr. Gephard in Grass Valley, Nevada County, and was married in that city and later located in Rough and Ready, where Mrs. Meyler was born. The marriage of Captain Meyler and Miss Gephard was a military wedding, and solemnized at Los Angeles, in Saint Paul's Protestant Cathedral. One child was born to Captain and Mrs. Meyler, Robert G. Meyler, at Thomasville, Georgia, March 5, 1893.
Robert G. Meyler graduated from Cornell University, and for a year thereafter was instructor of the senior class in engineering, but then re- signed. At the beginning of the World war he offered his services to the Government, and was sent to Rock Island, where he took charge of the arsenal, and was occupied with organizing the forces at that point until the signing of the armistice, after which he was honorably discharged as rank- ing first lieutenant. At present he is residing at Los Angeles. He married Miss Helen Jones, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Carlos Jones, of Los Angeles. Mrs. Meyler, who survives her husband, maintains her resi- dence at 2713 Severance Street, Los Angeles.
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J. TYLER PARKER, JR., D. D. S. No one name has been more intimately associated with the practical work of the dental profession in Pasadena than that of Parker. Doctor Parker, just named, is the son of a veteran doctor of dental surgery in Pasadena, and his uncle has likewise practiced dentistry here for about thirty years.
His father, J. Tyler Parker, Sr., has been a resident of Pasadena thirty- two years. He graduated D. D. S. from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the oldest dental college in the world, in 1890, and was president of his class two years and the first honor man. He and his brother, Dr. James E. Parker, have been in practice in Pasadena almost from the time when the community was large enough to support a member of this pro- fession. J. Tyler Parker, Sr., married Bertha M. Bresee, who has been a resident of Pasadena for thirty-five years. They were married in Los Angeles. Her father, Phineas F. Bresee, D.D., was one of the early pastors of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Pasadena, and was founder of the First Church of the Nazarene. He died in Los Angeles. J. Tyler Parker, Sr., and wife had two children, the daughter being Helen M., now Mrs. Harold Record, of Los Angeles. She had three children, two of whom are living.
J. Tyler Parker, Jr., was born in Pasadena, July 30, 1892, is a graduate of the Pasadena High School, and prepared for his profession in the University of Southern California, where he graduated D. D. S. in 1914. He began practice with his father and uncle. During the World war he served eleven months as first lieutenant in the Dental Corps, stationed at Rockwell Field Aviation School in San Diego, and was also a flyer about six months. During the first four years after graduating he taught dental anatomy and operative technic in the College of Dentistry of the University of Southern California, practiced in Pasadena, and also lectured twice a week on the above mentioned subjects. He was president of the freshman class in dental school and valedictorian at graduation. He is a member of the oldest dental fraternity in the world, the Delta Sigma Delta, and a member of the City, County, State and the National Dental Associations.
Doctor Parker is a director of the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Pasadena, is a republican, and is prominent in Masonic circles, being affiliated with Pasadena Lodge No. 272, F. and A. M., the Royal Arch and Knights Templar Commandery, holds offices in the Blue Lodge and in the Lodge of Perfection of the Scottish Rite, is a member of the Pasadena Consistory, A. A. S. R. Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and is a past patron of Southland Chapter of the Eastern Star. He also belongs to the University Club and the Kiwanis Club of Pasadena, and is a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
April 6, 1911, he married Miss Ethyle O. Doty, a native of Chicago, Illinois, and reared and educated in Michigan and California. Mrs. Parker is a member of the P. E. O. Sisterhood and an officer in the Eastern Star. They have one daughter, Virginia Anne, born in Pasadena, March 19, 1916.
WILLIAM FRANKLIN KNIGHT. When he qualified and took up his duties as postmaster of Pasadena on May 1, 1922, William Franklin Knight brought to this important public position the experience and abilities gained in a long and successful record of business and participation in civic affairs both in Pasadena and in the East.
Mr. Knight is a real New Englander in spirit and in ancestry. He was born at Brooklyn, New York, September 2, 1859, son of Samuel Frost and Mary Eleanor ( Firth) Knight. He is a direct descendant of Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin. His maternal grandfather, John Firth, was founder of Firth, Pond & Company, the pioneer piano manufacturers of the United States. A fact of general interest is that Stephen Foster com- posed the music of his famous songs, including Suwanee River, in the warerooms of this firm at No. 1 Franklin Square, New York, a place still further hallowed in American history by the fact that it was the site of
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