History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 57

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

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notices. For several years Mrs. Gaut furnished many of the bungalow pages for "The Ladies' Home Journal," and in addition to the magazines already mentioned Mrs. Gaut has contributed to Leslie's Weekly, the Craftsman, the Designer, Sunset, Keith's, American Homes and Gardens, Country Life in America, Delineator, House and Garden, the House Beau- tiful, Good Housekeeping, Scientific American, Vogue, Overland Monthly, Strand, Wide World and others.

During the last two years Mrs. Gaut has been devoting her time exclu- sively to verse, having developed an unsuspected aptitude for song writing, setting the words to music of her own. She now has fresh from the press a collection of twelve song-poems, showing a wide range of thought, and charming spontaneity of musical theme.

· " No mention need be made to residents of Pasadena of her beautiful lines that have been adopted as the song of Pasadena.

Mrs. Gaut is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, the Southern California Woman's Press Club, the Matinee Musical Club, the Tuesday Musical 'Club and the Fine Arts Club.

ALBERT S. HANEMAN. Prominent among the business men of Her- mosa Beach whose activities have served to bring about the marvelous progress and advancement which this section has made during recent years is Albert S. Haneman, head of the Haneman Realty Company and identified with various other important interests. A man of marked talents, particularly in the field of real estate, his abilities have been recognized by his business associates, and since 1920 he has been president of the Hermosa Beach Realty Board.

Mr. Haneman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is a son of Theodore H. and Flora E. (Ludlow) Haneman, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Ohio. Theodore H. Haneman followed mer- chandising at Indianapolis for several years, and about 1890 came to California and located at Los Angeles, where he became a merchant. After a few years he retired from active business, and lived quietly until his death in February, 1921. His widow, who survives him, is a resident of Hermosa Beach.

Albert S. Haneman was a small boy when brought to Los Angeles, and he acquired his education through attendance at the public schools, supple- mented by a course at a business college. His first employment was with the Co-operative Mercantile Company, with which he remained for a short time, then spending a short period in the insurance business. Later he was employed as a salesman by Lee A. McConnell until 1907, at which time he came to Hermosa Beach, and with his brother, B. H. Haneman, founded the Haneman Realty Company, located at No. 63 Pier Avenue. This association continued successfully until the death of B. H. Haneman in 1910, at which time Mr. Haneman's father, Theodore H. Haneman, became a partner in the business, and since his death, in February, 1921, Albert S. Haneman has continued. the business alone. This has consisted of handling all kinds of real estate, including five subdivisions at Hermosa Beach, rentals, general insurance and loans. He specializes in ocean front- age and business property, having handled a large amount of this class of realty. He likewise handles California and "close in" Los Angeles prop- erties. Mr. Haneman was one of the organizers in January, 1921, of the Hermosa Beach Realty Board, of which he was elected president, a position which he still holds, Ira Hagenbuch being seceretary. This body meets semi-monthly and its members belong to the California State and National Realty Boards, the organization including: J. H. Kibler, Edward Thor- oughgood, Snider Brothers, Hughes Realty Company, A. A. Baird, A. R. Holston, the Haneman Realty Company and Ira Hagenbuch. Mr. Haneman is a member of the Board of Directors of the California State Realty Board and in 1922 was on the legislative committee of that body. He also holds membership in the Chamber of Commerce of Hermosa Beach, and is a director in the National Bank of Hermosa Beach and the

Haneman.

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Hall Aeroplane Company. He is also a director and is secretary of the Surf and Sand Club of Hermosa Beach.

At Los Angeles, February 3, 1914, Mr. Haneman was united in mar- riage with Miss Vera I. Holden. Mrs. Haneman, who was born at Topeka, Kansas, and educated at Los Angeles, is well known and popular socially, and is secretary of the Needlework Guild and a member of the Woman's Club.

WILLIAM MEADE ORR, whose attractive home is at 500 North Vega Street in the City of Alhambra, was born in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Robert and Anna (Barlow) Orr, the former of whom was born in Belfast, Ireland, and the latter in Massa- chusetts. Their marriage was solemnized in Virginia. The father was for many years engaged in the mercantile business at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where occurred the death of his first wife, the subject of this review being the youngest of the three children of this union. By his second marriage Robert Orr became the father of five children.

After his graduation from the high school in his native city. William M. Orr there became bookkeeper in a mercantile establish- ment. Thereafter he was for a number of years connected with the Pittsburgh Forge and Iron Company, with which Pittsburgh industrial concern he won advancement to a position of distinctive trust and responsibility. His ambition was equalled only by his energy and his determination to make progress in the business world, and finally he became manager of the Pittsburgh branch of the S. E. Barrett Com- pany, a concern that held rank as the largest in the United States in the matter of manufacturing coal-tar products. The business was later combined with those of other corporations of similar order, under the title of the Allied Chemical & Manufacturing, Company, the com- pany having large and well ordered manufacturing plants in various sections of the United States and its business being the most extensive of the kind in the country.

In Pittsburgh was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Orr and Miss Bertha Harton, who was there born and reared, and in that city they continued to maintain their home until they came to California and purchased a tract of five acres of land in one of the most select dis- tricts of Alhambra, where Mr. Orr erected his present modern and beautiful residence, which is surrounded by orange trees and semi- tropical trees and shrubbery of the highest decorative type. Though Mr. Orr's capitalistic and business interests require him to pass an appreciable part of his time in Pittsburgh, he is gratified in claiming Southern California as his home, and is one of the loyal, liberal and appreciative citizens of Los Angeles County. In the climacteric World war period both Mr. and Mrs. Orr gave themselves earnestly to the promotion and support of the various war activities of the nation. and Mrs. Orr was not only specially active in the work of the Red Cross but also gave to the local chapter of the same a building at the corner of Main and Garfield Streets which was the center of Red Cross work in this community and which since the close of the war has been maintained as the headquarters of the local post of the American Legion. Mr. Orr gave himself with characteristic energy and loyalty to the advancing of patriotic activities, and was chairman of the finance committee of the local Red Cross, besides having been a director of the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce, which had much of leadership in local war service. He is vice-president of the Alham- bra Savings Bank, a trustee of Occidental College, is president of the San Gabriel Country Club, and holds membership also in the Midwick Country Club and the Los Angeles Country Club. He is staunchly aligned in the ranks of the republican party, and he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

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J. M. GRIFFITH was one of the honored pioneers of California, to which state he made his way when the early gold excitement was here at its height, and as a man of sterling character, broad outlook, progressive ideas and marked business ability he contributed much to development and advancement in California along both civic and material lines, especially in the City of Los Angeles, where he long maintained his home. He was about seventy years of age at the time of his death, which occurred at his home in Los Angeles. He was born in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, where he received his early education, and was nineteen years of age when he became imbued with the spirit of adventure that was inculcated in many a youthful American with the discovery of gold in California. In either 1851 or 1852 Mr. Griffith set sail from his native city and went forth on the long voyage to California, whither he came by the way of the Isthmus of Panama. Upon his arrival he found that the gold placer claims had been to a large extent located and that opportunities for the novice were limited. Under these conditions the youthful pioneer forthwith obtained employment on a Sacra- mento River steamboat, and he continued his association with this naviga- tion business several years. In the meanwhile he married, and in the early '60s, through correspondence with his brother-in-law, John Tomlinson, he was induced to remove from Sacramento to Los Angeles, where he entered into partnership with Mr. Tomlinson and engaged in the forwarding busi- ness. The firm operated stage and freighting lines between Los Angeles and San Pedro, their most formidable competitor having been the late General Phineas Banning. Mr. Griffith thus became one of the pioneers in transportation business on the south coast. Steamers at that time arrived once a month, and later there were two arrivals a month. With the increase in population and the general development of the country transportation facilities were still farther broadened, with weekly arrival and departure of steamboats. In this connection the firm of which Mr. Griffith was a mem- ber developed a large and prosperous enterprise in the transporting of pas- sengers by stage from the coast to Los Angeles. The business of the firm was expanded to include the operating of stages to important mining points in both California and Arizona, besides which the firm operated a stage line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The business was successfully continued until the time of railroad construction, which caused the more primitive method of transportation to wane. Mr. Griffith then engaged in the lumber business, in which connection it is worthy of special record that he opened the first lumber yard in Los Angeles, besides operating the first planing mill in Southern California. Prior to his establishing his planing mill the nearest point at which sash and doors were manufactured was San Francisco. With the rapid and substantial growth of Southern California the lumber business of Mr. Griffith attained to giant proportions, and he had the satisfaction of not only winning through this medium large financial success but also contributing much to the material upbuilding of Los Angeles and the surrounding districts. The name of Griffith became a power in connection with the lumber industry in Southern California, and is still recalled frequently as representing the maximum of resourcefulness and effective service in this line of enterprise.

Mr. Griffith's first residence in Los Angeles was an adobe house that stood opposite the old Pico House, which was erected later and which was one of the pioneer hotels of the future metropolis. Mr. Griffith later pur- chased property and erected a commodious frame house on Broadway, between Second and Third streets, where now stands the Potomac Building. which likewise was erected and owned by him.

.. About forty-five years ago Mr. Griffith purchased from the late Gov- ernor Stoneman, who was his intimate friend, thirty-five acres of wild land on what is now Huntington Drive, and . this place he developed and improved, the tract having been largely planted by- him with citrus fruit trees. This beautiful place is now owned by his daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Graves.

Mr. Griffith was not only a man of remarkable initiative and business

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ability, but also had a clear vision of the great future of Southern Califor- nia. His civic loyalty was of the highest type, and he was ever ready to aid by influence and financial support all measures tending to advance the social and material progress of his adopted city and state. He was a man whose life was ordered on a lofty plane of integrity and honor, was generous, kindly and philanthropic, and played a large part in the community life of Los Angeles. The religious faith of the family has long been that of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and in this connection it is to be recorded that Mr. Griffith gave the ground on which was erected St. Paul's Church, on Ohio Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets. This property, long occupied by the parish church edifice, was recently sold for more than $1,000,000, and on the site is to be erected the Biltmore Hotel, which is to be one of the finest in the state.

Mr. Griffith married Miss Sarah Tomlinson, and she was about sixty- nine years of age at the time of her death. They became the parents of seven children, of whom three sons and two daughters are living at the time of this writing, in 1922.

JOSE D. BATZ. Many of the old and honored families which have become prominent in agriculture and stock raising in Los Angeles County were attracted to this country by the news of the discovery of gold in California. It is doubtful if even a small minority of these families could have been transplanted to a new land by the announcement that here they could find soil that would yield them bounteous crops and fodder for vast herds; yet more have become opulent through these returns of the soil than ever found wealth through the medium of the yellow metal. Among these families which came at the lure of gold, but which remained to make its wealth in sheep and grain, was that bearing the name of Batz, a worthy representa- tive of which is found in Jose D. Batz, now residing on a part of the old family homestead on the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, near the Five-Mile House, Los Angeles.

Mr. Batz was born at Los Angeles, August 9, 1857, and is a son of Jean Baptiste and Catalina (Hegui) Batz, both people of Southern France. In 1835 Catalina Hegui left France and took up her residence in Buenos Aires, South America, where she met and married Jean Baptiste Batz. In 1850, when the news reached South America that gold had been discovered in California, they hurriedly packed a few. belongings, made the long and perilous journey, and, arrived at their destination, found that the reports of the gold's availability had been greatly exaggerated. The trip from Buenos Aires was made by sailing vessel around Cape Horn and consumed six months. Instead of becoming camp followers, eking out a living by picking up what could be found, or becoming entirely discouraged and returning to their native land, they set about practically to find another means of livelihood in their new land, and in 1852 bought a quarter of a section of land known as Rosa Castilla, or Wild Rose Ranch, now within the city limits of Los Angeles but at that time five miles east of the city. Mr. Batz, the elder, engaged in sheep raising, and later acquired about 3,000 acres of land in the district now included in the Ramona Acres, Sierra Park, Sierra Vista, West Alhambra and to El Sereno Avenue, in the City of Los Angeles, and continued to be engaged in farming and sheep raising until his death, December 6, 1859. His widow survived him until Febru- ary 22, 1882, and after her death the estate was divided among the six surviving children. They were faithful members of the Catholic Church. On their arrival they were content to live in an adobe house while they made their start, but in later years, as they became prosperous, surrounded themselves with greater comforts and conveniences. They became the parents of seven children: Maria, who married Francisco Huarte ; Domingo, who is deceased; Martha Batz, now deceased; Raphael, who is now living in France; Jose D., of this review; Francisca, now Mrs. Echeveste ; and Pedro Amado, living in France.

Jose D. Batz attended the Jesuit school near the Plaza and the public

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schools of Los Angeles, and as a young man engaged in sheep breeding, the family occupation. He remained in this business for some thirty years, but as the country began to fill up more and more he cut down the size of his.flocks, and since 1888 has devoted himself entirely to general farming. He now has 108 acres, having sold in about 1902, 760 acres to Grider & Hamilton, now the Huntington Land Company. In 1906 he built his present beautiful home on the picturesque and magnificent old homestead, and has surrounded it with modern improvements of an attractive character.

In 1888 Mr. Batz married Miss Josefa Lifur, who was born in 1866, in Southern Spain, and came with her parents, John and Marguerite Lifur, to America in 1886 to join her brother, who had preceded her. Mrs. Batz died April 1, 1914, having been the mother of four children: Augustine. born January 3, 1890, a graduate of the Los Angeles public schools and Occidental College, who is unmarried and engaged in business at Los Angeles; Marguerite, born February 26, 1891, educated at the Throop School, Pasadena, single and residing with her father; Esperanza, born February 23, 1893, a graduate of the Throop School, single and residing at home ; and John Baptiste, born December 5, 1895, a graduate of Occidental College, single and a traveling representative for the firm of Peck & Hill. wholesale jobbers.

RICHARD W. READING, E. M. T., D. C. It is a great responsibility to be at the head of business enterprises that must enter the commercial field and contend with strong competition, and the men who ably fill such offices can neither be physical weaklings nor mental incompetents. On the other hand, the business problems of today carry so much weight that to success- fully solve them requires health of body and clearness of mind far beyond such demands of a generation ago. Business men are, fortunately, begin- ning to learn the necessity of treatment under skilled and experienced experts, and in this field a leading factor is the Reading Institute of Electro-Mechano-Therapy at Ocean Park, an institution under the pro- prietorship of Dr. Richard W. Reading, which cures without the use of drugs the ills not only of the business man but of all other afflicted.

Richard W. Reading was born in London, England, March 20, 1865. and is a son of John and Elizabeth ( Bentley) Reading. As a lad he was taken by his parents to the East Indies, where he received his early educa- tion, and later returned to London, where he was a scholar at Reading Institute. He was eighteen years of age when he came to America, first locating in Canada, where for a time he studied at the Toronto College of Medicine. When he left that institution he went to Detroit, Michigan, where he attended a medical school, and then further prepared himself at a sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan, where he spent two years in study and training, following which he enrolled as a student of physics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His equipment for his chosen calling was extended when he went again to the East Indies, where he spent some time in study and then came back to the United States and opened an office at Indianapolis, where he spent two years in practice. Later he followed his profession at several other places, but eventually came to California, which has since been his home.

At the time of his arrival in this state Doctor Reading visited San Francisco, but lost everything he had in the big fire of 1908, and not relish- ing his hot reception there went to Long Beach, where he established the Reading Institute of Electro-Mechano-Therapy, known as the Sanetas Baths. This institution he maintained at Long Beach until 1912, when he came to Ocean Park, his present location. His first establishment here was located on Trolley Way, whence in 1918 he moved to his present location, 131-135 Marine Street. Here he has a fully equipped establishment, where may be secured baths of all kinds, with treatments, including radio, steam, electric massage and electric baths. He gives employment to seven skilled experts and his patronage is large and growing larger all the time, No drugs of any kind are used by Doctor Reading, many of whose cures have

Richard. W.Reading

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attracted widespread attention because of the long standing of the cases and their stubborness to other treatments. In connection with his institute Doctor Reading conducts a college of Electro-Mechano-Therapy, and a Health Club is another popular auxiliary of this health institution. Doctor Reading is a member of the Ocean Park Chamber of Commerce, and has several fraternal connections. His interest in his calling has precluded the idea of his entering actively into other affairs, and he is not active politically, but takes a good citizen's part in supporting worthy measures. He formerly conducted an office at Los Angeles, but this has been discontinued. He belongs to the Chiropractic Association and to the Electro-Mechano-Therapy Association, and his religious connection is with the Baptist Church.

Doctor Reading has developed what he terms Radio Jupiter water, which, after passing through the Boine system, which takes all the alkali from it, passes through an electric rheostat and through a chamber of the ultra violet rays. The water is then charged by radium thimbles, each one of which has fifty micro grams of radium, and the emanations from the radium charges eight quarts of water every twenty-four hours. This is pronounced by all the leading physicians of the world as the only way to administer radium to the human body. He has equipped his institute with the radium steam cases and baths to accommodate forty persons at a time. The institute has about three hundred pounds of radium salts fur- nished by the National Radium Company of Grand Junction, Colorado, the leading radium company in the world. Doctor Reading is one of the pioneers in the radium world, and was the first man to use radium salts in the steam baths. Doctor Reading is in a fair way to do for Ocean Park City what the famous Mayo Brothers have done for Rochester, Minne- sota. He has become widely known by his work, and other communities have been seeking to have him establish branch institutes, and included among them is Hollywood and even a definite location at 1505 Cahunga Street, Hollywood, has been secured and the lease turned over to Doctor Reading, who will probably meet the request of the people there. He is at present considering the advisability of establishing a radium plunge,

On August 20, 1913, Doctor Reading was united in marriage with Miss Anita W. Wardell, daughter of Thomas Wardell, of Monrovia, California, and to this union there has been born one son, Thomas Rich- ard. Mrs. Reading was born in Iowa, and was four months of age when brought by her parents to California, where her education was acquired in the public schools.

OTIS W. LEWIS owns and conducts at Alhambra one of the finest suburban motion-picture theaters in Los Angeles County, and with the assistance of his brother-in-law, Frank A. Greth, has made of the business a splendid success. Mr. Greth passed away in November, 1919, and since that time Mr. Lewis has been sole proprietor.

Mr. Lewis was born in the City of Albion, Calhoun County, Michigan. on the 7th of May, 1884, and is a son of William H. and Ida (Marvin) Lewis, the former a native of Pensylvania and the latter of Michigan. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Lewis was one of the pioneer settlers in Michigan, he having made the overland journey from his native State of New York and having taken up 200 acres of land ten miles distant from Grand Rapids, which is now the second largest city in Michigan. He reclaimed his land from the virgin forest, but retained a fine grove of maple trees in which he annually manufactured maple sugar. In recent years this old homestead has been sold and has finally passed out of the possession of the family, which had retained the property until the death of Mrs. Ida Lewis, mother of the subject of this review, in 1902, her husband having survived her by about seventeen years and having passed away in 1919. William H. and Ida (Marvin) Lewis became the parents of five sons and two daughters, and of the number Otis W., of this sketch,

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is next to the youngest. The father was long and successfully engaged in business as a buyer and shipper of grain.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 57

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