USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 61
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
. COL. GEORGE S. PATTON, JR., III. was born at San Gabriel, California, November 11, 1885, was educated in Pasadena, and in 1904 entered West Point Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1909. He was com- missioned second lieutenant of the Fifteenth Cavalry, stationed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. May 26, 1910, he married Beatrice Ayer, daughter of Frederick Ayer, of Boston, Massachusetts. He was transfered from Fort Riley to Fort Myer, Washington, served there two years, and for a few months was personal aide to General Leonard Wood, chief of staff. In 1912 he was appointed to represent the United States Army in the Olympic games at Stockholm, as the only representative in the contest known as the Modern Pentathlon, a military contest requiring shooting with the pistol, fencing with the French dueling sword, swimming, cross country horseback riding and running. In this contest, which was partici- pated in by twenty-nine officers of all European armies, he was successful over all except the Swedes, who of course had very numerous entries in all the contests. As a result of the fencing contests particularly, in which he was fortunate enough to defeat the French champion, he was detailed to go to Saumur, France, to the French Cavalry School, for special instruction in the use of the cavalry sabre. On returning home he was appointed first instructor in cavalry sabre at the United States Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas. He designed the new sabre then adopted, and trained two classes of officers at Fort Riley, at the same time himself taking the two-year cavalry course at that school from which he graduated.
Still with the rank of second lieutenant he was appointed to the Eighth Cavalry at Fort Bliss, El Paso, and in 1916, went as a member of General Pershing's staff on the Mexican Campaign. He was engaged in a thrilling shirmish at Rubio Ranch, where in command of ten troopers he ran to earth and killed Col. Julio Cardenas, one of Villa's body-guard captains who was in command of a body of bandits. Returning from the Mexican Expedition in March, 1917, he was spending his leave with his wife and family in Boston when the United States entered the World war.
Ordered to Washington, he was placed in command of the Headquarters Detachment of sixty troopers, organized to accompany General Pershing on his staff to Europe, and thus had the good fortune to be with the first United States troops under arms to land in England. He reached France with the rank of captain and continued to command the Headquarters Detachment for six months. When the United States determined to organize a permanent tank corp he was made major and then lieutenant- colonel and put in command of the first training camp and brigade of tanks at Bourg, near Langres. France. He spent a short time in England with the British Tank School, and with the British tanks on the front line near Cambrai, and also at the French Training School. He trained and commanded the first brigade of American tanks which engaged in action at the Battle of San Mihiel on September 12, 1918. After that he was appointed full colonel and commanded the same brigade, consisting of one hundred and seventy tanks, one hundred manned by Americans and twenty-eight by. French, on the opening of the great battle of the Argonne. He was wounded on the first day's fighting, on September 26th. On December 17th, having recovered from his wound, he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross, the citation for the decoration con- tains the following reference to him individually: "Col. George S. Patton, Jr., Tank Corps. No. 1391, for extraordinary heroism in action near Cheppy, France, 26 September, 1918. Colonel Patton displayed conspicu- ous courage, coolness,, energy and intelligence in directing the advance of. his brigade down the Valley of the Aire. . Later he rallied a force of discouraged infantry and led it forward behind the tanks under heavy machine gun and artillery fire until he was wounded. Unable to advance further Colonel Patton continued to direct the operations of his unit until all. arrangements. for turning over, the command were completed.".
He returned to the United States in command of the First Brigade of American Tanks, landing in New York, March 17. 1919, and from there was ordered to Camp Meade, near Baltimore, where the permanent
Geo S. Patton For.
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tank corps of the United States Army is being organized, and was detailed on the board in Washington to write the official drill tactics and regulations of the tank corps.
Afterward on June 16, 1919, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in addition to the Cross, in the following citation :
"GENERAL HEADQUARTERS-AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES. "France, June 16, 1919. "Distinguished Service Medal Citation.
"Under the provisions of Cablegram No. 2830, received from the War Department, March 1st, 1919, the Commander in Chief, in the name of the President, has awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to you for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services as set forth below :
"LIEUT .- COL. GEORGE S. PATTON, U. S. A.
"For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services. By his energy and sound judgment he rendered very valuable services in his organization and direction of the tank center at the army schools at Langres.
"In the employment of tank corps troops in combat, he displayed high military attainments, zeal and marked adaptability in a form of warfare comparatively new to the American Army."
FRED W. GRAY. Perhaps no one of the residents of Whittier has identi- fied himself more fully with the changing developments and progress of Southern California than Fred W. Gray, now retired. Mr. Gray has found life one round of satisfying experience and useful accom- plishments. He was largely responsible for opening up an Eastern market for California's greatest products-citrus fruits. For years he has been regarded as a foremost authority on everything connected with horticulture in Los Angeles County.
Mr. Gray comes of pioneer American stock, a sturdy New Eng- land class of seafaring men. He is a great-great-grandson of Cap- tain Robert Gray, born in 1725 and died in 1806, who has a place among America's great explorers. He commanded vessels sailing from the port of Boston. It was Captain Robert Gray who sailed the ship Columbia around Cape Horn, was the first to carry the American flag around the world, and in the course of his voyages gave the name to Gray's Harbor, Washington. He sailed up the great river on the Northwest coast, planting the American flag at the head of naviga- tion and naming this river after the ship which he commanded. He made a second trip with his two sons on a trading expedition and they were never heard from again, it being supposed that they were massacred by the Indians. Subsequently the family moved to Maine, and Fred W. Gray was born at Stockton, Maine, July 31, 1856. His, father, William A. Gray, was also a native of Stockton, was a ship and bridge builder, and after the construction of the first Continental Railway he came to California to work for the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads, building tunnels and bridges. He built the second bridge across the Sacramento River for the Central Pacific, and also built the big freight ferry Sausalito plying on San Francisco Bay. Later he went to Lake Chelan in Washington to build a Govern- ment post there, but the project was abandoned, and he subsequently carried out the contract for constructing a Government post at Spo- kane. After that work was completed he visited his son in Southern California, then returned to Maine, bought a farm, and lived there until his death in 1896. William A. Gray married Sarah J. Crockett, a native of Stockton, Maine.
Fred W. Gray acquired a public school education in his native state. As a very young man he began work for a wholesale fruit con- cern in Bangor, Maine. He was in the service of this firm seven
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years. It was a firm doing an extensive business importing and handling foreign fruits. The experience acquired there proved in- valuable to Mr. Gray later, as will be told. After leaving Bangor Mr. Gray was for three years a clerk in the Union Stock Hotel at Watertown, Massachusetts, and for one year was a elerk in the Hotel Brunswick on Boylston Street in Boston. Leaving the East, he went direct to Portland, Oregon, then to Spokane, Washington, and in 1881 he and his father came down the coast to San Gabriel to visit his sister Carrie, then teaching school at that point.
While there Colonel Mayberry made Mr. Gray a proposition to go on the El Molino ranch, at that time known as the "Old Mill Ranch." This consisted of eleven hundred acres in grain, vineyards, eitrus and walnuts. This extensive property and the large business involved was under the management of Mr. Gray as superintendent for twelve years. At that time, forty years ago, California citrus fruits were practically unknown in the Eastern markets. Mr. Gray was one of the few men who had definite reason for a belief that California oranges could be successfully shipped to Eastern markets. The basis of this belief was his previous experience with the fruit company at Bangor, Maine. This company had handled oranges brought from the Medi- terranean and other foreign ports, and Mr. Gray was familiar with the method of packing and shipping. Thus in 1882 he shipped the first two carloads of oranges that ever went to points east of the Missouri River. These oranges were grown on the El Molino ranch near San Gabriel. Mr. Gray did not remember the correct dimensions of the boxes in which oranges had been shipped from Mediterranean ports, and consequently he sent a request to T. J. Stewart & Sons, of Bangor, Maine, to express to him the shooks for one box. . When they arrived Colonel Mayberry sent them North as samples from which a carload of shooks could be made. When they arrived Mr. Gray had to show the men how to put the boxes together by hand. He also superin- tended the sizing and wrapping of the fruit. all done by hand and largely by guess work. Finally the two carloads were ready for ship- ment to New York and to Boston. Colonel Mayberry was very skep- tical that the returns from the venture would pay the expenses. About the first of July of that year Colonel Mayberry received returns on the shipment, and was so excited that he ran out into the fields to find Mr. Gray and tell him the good news. This first lot of California oranges on the New York and Boston markets netted him nearly five dollars per box.
After his seven years as superintendent at the El Molino raneh Mr. Gray resigned and, going back to Maine, bought a farm. After his California experience he found the routine of the Maine farm far from satisfactory. Selling the place, he then took up teaming in the quarries on Hagen Mountain, was promoted to assistant superin- tendent of the quarry, and remained there three years. During this period stone from this quarry was taken out and shipped to build the Seventy-first Regiment Armory in New York City, one of the finest structures of its kind in the United States. Mr. Grey measured and weighed every stone that went into the building. The stone was shipped by sea to New York.
In the meantime his longing to get back to the Golden State sub- ordinated every other desire. He arrived in the West and began his permanent residence in California in 1894. For another five year period he was identified with the El Molino ranch, following this for a year and a half he was foreman of the McNally ranch of 2,550 aeres, and then became superintendent of the famous Leffingwell ranch near Whittier. He remained in charge of this great property fifteen years. In the meantime he bought and planted five acres in East Whittier. and on the conclusion of his service at the Leffingwell ranch, occupied this place in December, 1918. He also had sixty acres on the mesa
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planted to lemons, but sold this property. After two years on the place at East Whittier he purchased his present home at 441 North Comstock in Whittier.
His working experience finally put Mr. Gray into the profession of adviser in orchard work. His services have been greatly in demand, and he is one of the few men in the southern part of the state qualified as an expert to determine the value of trees. This valuation work is frequently required in condemnation proceedings where such values constitute the background of the suits. Owing to his extended knowl- edge of tree and plant growth the orchardists practically forced Mr. Gray into the business of tree pruning. For several years he managed a force of from fourteen to sixteen men working under him all the year around. It was a large business of itself. The year ending in Sep- tember, 1921, when he retired from active work, yielded him a gross revenue of $21,465.25.
Mr. Gray has taken an active part in republican politics, serving on county central committees and representing his party in county conventions. He was deputy sheriff at San Gabriel for two years, from 1884 to 1886, and on returning to California in 1894 he again served in a similar capacity for three years. He has held many offices in Whittier Lodge of Masons, is treasurer of the Royal Arch Chapter, is a Shriner and a member of Whittier Lodge of Elks. Both he and Mrs. Gray attend the Christian Science Church.
On April 4, 1884, at San Gabriel Mr. Gray married Miss Jane McLean, a native of Canada. Her father, Alexander McLean, was born in Scotland, came when a young man to Canada, and later moved to Kansas. Mrs. Gray's mother is still living, at the age of ninety- seven. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Gray, and these are all living and there are also several grandchildren: Jessie M. is the wife of John D. Murphy, a citrus grower at San Fernando, and they have a daughter, Catherine. Rachel J. is the wife of Lester K. Cole, a citrus grower of East Whittier, and manager of the Whittier Wal- nut Association. Their two children are Constance and Naomi. Fred A., the oldest son, is a mechanic with the Standard Oil Company at Huntington Beach. Glen is a mechanic for the Leffingwell walnut orchard. Robert M. is a member of the class of 1924 in the California School of Technology at Pasadena. These sons were all enrolled in some branch of duty during the World war. Fred spent a year at Camp Kearney and a year in France, going overseas as a master mechanic. He was given duty at a base hospital, and he took over eight mechanics with him and brought them all back. The colonel of his regiment lost his baggage, and the duty of finding it developed upon Fred Gray. He drove twelve hundred miles over devastated territory, and had an unusual opportunity to gain a comprehensive view of much of the battle front. The son Glen was in the aviation service at Mather Field, then in the School of Instruction at Cincinnati, and afterward he was returned to Mather Field. He was formerly in the machine shops at Atascadero. Of the eight planes of which he had charge not one of them ever had an accident. He was injured while in the service, and at his discharge was first sergeant. The youngest son, Robert, was assigned at the submarine base, and is still on the reserve list.
GARFIELD R. JONES. One of the prominent men of Los Angeles County, and for nine years a member of the bar at Los Angeles, retired from active practice during the war, in 1916, and since then has devoted the greater part of his time to the active management and development of his California ranch properties. He is well known in numerous business cor- porations and other fields of activity.
Mr. Jones has always been to some extent interested in agricultural · matters, and his first entrance into business was in connection with foreign trade in agricultural implements. The disturbing effects of the World war
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were directly responsible for Mr. Jones' abandonment of his extensive law practice and the taking up of food production on a large scale. In 1918 the Bench and Bar of California made certain recommendations to the Judge Advocate General, and of this number Mr. Jones was one of four to be appointed major judge advocate just prior to the armistice.
Mr. Jones was born at Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 26, 1881, the son of William Hugh and Elizabeth (Owen) Jones, and is of Welsh descent, both parents being born in Wales. He has had exceptional educa- tional advantages. After completing grade and high school training at Evanston, Illinois, he spent much time in foreign travel, during which time he carried on his studies in Germany and later entered Yale University, where he graduated with the degree LL. B. Cum Laude in 1902 and LL. M. Magna Cum Laude in 1903, being the Joseph Parker Roman Law essayist that year. Mr. Jones served as attorney for the International Harvester Company, in charge of its subsidiary corporations and inter-state relations, from 1904 to 1907, and in the latter year removed to Pasadena, being admitted to the bar of California and becoming a member of the law firm of Craig, Wood & Jones. Shortly thereafter he opened his law office at Los Angeles, and later formed the law firm of Jones & Bennett, which con- tinued from 1912 to 1916.
In business affairs Mr. Jones appears as a director of the Curtis Ranch Company, Realty Investors Company of Southern California, Pan-Amer- ican Hardwoods Company, and the Union Mortgage Company of Cali- fornia. He is also a member of the Local Advisory Board of the Pasadena Branch of the Security Trust & Savings Bank.
At Evanston, Illinois, on January 6, 1904, Mr. Jones married Leta Ruth Hartshorn, and they have two daughters, Ruth Elizabeth and Eleanor. Mr. Jones has always maintained his residence in Pasadena, but has his office in the Pacific Finance Building in Los Angeles.
In political.life Mr. Jones is a republican. He is a member of a number of representative social organizations, including the California Club, Mid- wick Country Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Overland Club of Pasadena, the Tuna Club of Avalon, and the Graduates Club of New Haven, Connecticut.
THOMAS NEWLIN, D. D., LL. D. A dignified, scholarly man, Dr. Thomas Newlin, of Whittier, is one of the leading educators of California, and for more than thirty years he has been a minister of the Society of Friends. During all of his mature years he has been connected with educa- tional work upon a broad and comprehensive scale, and for nineteen years served as president of three colleges. Doctor Newlin is very well-known in the lecture field as well, and has traveled all over the country lecturing upon educational and social themes. Since he came to Whittier in 1907 he has been closely identified with the life and development of this locality, both as president of Whittier College and later of Guilford College, and in a private capacity.
Doctor Newlin was born in Howard County, Indiana, December 28, 1855, a son of John and Elizabeth (King) Newlin, the former of whom was born in North Carolina and the latter at Baltimore, Maryland. The King family is of Revolutionary stock, having been settled in this country prior to the American Revolution by English forebears. Mrs. Newlin's father served in Cuba and other places as a representative of the United States Government. John Newlin was taken to Indiana as a boy, and there he was educated and reared in the faith of the Society of Friends. Early in life a teacher, he later became a surveyor in Howard County. Both he and his wife are now deceased. The Newlin family is an illustrious one, and the first American ancestor came to this country from Ireland with William Penn. This ancestor. Nicholas Newlin, settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of his sons migrated to North Carolina, and from him Doctor Newlin of this notice is directly descended.
After completing his studies in the grammar and high schools of Indiana
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Per. 1. Cochran
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Doctor Newlin graduated from Haverford College, Pennsylvania, in 1885, with the degrees of Bachelor of Science, and Master of Arts, having taken his preparatory course in the academy at Spiceland, Indiana. Subsequently he took up post-graduate work in special courses for one year at the Uni- versity of Michigan, and at the University of Chicago in 1905, in which he received the degree of Master of Philosophy. In 1915 Whittier College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, and that same year he received from the University of Southern California the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
The initial work of Doctor Newlin in the educational field was per- formed in Indiana, when he became a teacher in the public schools of Howard County, and he later taught in Henry County, the same state. He was then made president of the Pacific College at Newberg, Oregon, and remained there in that capacity for nine years. For the following two years he was vice president of Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio, and then for five years was dean of Guilford College, Guilford, North Carolina. In 1907 he came to California to become president of Whittier College, leav- ing that institution in 1915 to become president of Guilford College. Nortli Carolina. His entry into service of the Young Men's Christian Association in 1917 terminated his connection with this institution, and after the war was over and he returned to California it was with the intention of retiring, but was induced to accept the chair of philosophy in the Fullerton Junior College, which he still holds.
With the entry of this country into the World war Doctor Newlin enlisted with the Young Men's Christian Association and served for one year at Camp Jackson in South Carolina ; then in the aviation camp at Park Field, near Memphis, Tennessee, from which he went with the Marines to Perris Island, South Carolina. As part of his work in the educational field Doctor Newlin made an extended trip through continental Europe, studying the social situation, and speaks with authority upon this and kindred subjects.
On July 10, 1884, Doctor Newlin married Miss Olive Wilson, a native of Indiana and a daughter of the late Timothy Wilson, one of the old edu- cators of that state, but a native of North Carolina and a member of one of the old families of the South. They have a daughter, Edna B., a graduate of Pacific College, of Oregon, who is at home. Doctor Newlin is a repub- lican. He is a trustee of Whittier College, and has been a member of the corporation of Haverford College for many years. He owns property in Whittier, Fullerton and North Whittier Heights, and is a member of the North Whittier Citrus Association.
GEORGE IRA COCHRAN. While he began his career as a young lawyer in Los Angeles thirty years ago, and was identified with a large law prac- tice nearly two decades, it is as a mánager and director of large financial and business corporations that George Ira Cochran is best known.
In him have been developed and have come to' fruitage many fine traits and qualities inherited from his ancestry. His father, Rev. George Coch- ran, D. D., was a prominent minister and missionary. Mr. Cochran's mother, Catherine Lynch Davidson, was a descendant of the Wesleys, founders of Methodism.
: George Ira Cochran was born at' Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, July 1, 1863. When he was seven years old his father went to Japan, and lived in the Orient engaged in missionary and other church work for six years. While at Tokyo, George Ira Cochran attended private schools. After his father returned to Toronto he completed his education in the Collegiate Institute and the University of Toronto, and studied law in Osgood Hall. He was admitted as Barrister at Law shortly after his graduation, and in 1888 came to Los Angeles and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of California in February of that year. Mr .. Cochran practiced law until: 1906.
.Since then the responsibilities of many business organizations have
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claimed practically all his attention. In 1906 he became president of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, one of the oldest and largest insurance organizations in the West. The Pacific Mutual is today listed among the foremost old line American companies, and its business has been extended practically across the continent. Mr. Cochran has super- vised and directed the investment of millions of dollars of this company's assets, and to a large degree has been responsible for the enviable record the company has made.
Many other organizations claim some share of his abilities and time. He is a director of the Southern California Edison Company, Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank, Rosedale Cemetery Association, Home Fire and Marine Company and Anglo California Trust Company, of San Francisco, Citizens Trust and Savings Bank, Sea Side Water Company, Long Beach Bath House and Amusement Company, California Delta Farms (Incor- porated), and many others. Mr. Cochran is a regent of the University of California and a trustee of the University of Southern California. He served as a member of the Los Angeles City Charter Commission of 1893. He has served as a member of the Republican County Central Committee, as a trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association, and is a member of the California, Jonathan, University, Los Angeles Athletic, Midwick Country, Los Angeles Country, and Union League clubs, and the Pacific Union and Bohemian clubs of San Francisco. He is, a member of the Methodist Church.
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