History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 64

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

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On September 27, 1894, Mr. Kaufmann was converted to the faith of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was ordained to the ministry thereof March 1, 1908, and preached his first sermon March

Peter Kaufmann

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

14, 1909, at Los Angeles. He has preached in various pulpits since that time, and at present is looking after church work at Whittier. He is also parent of the Long Beach Church, at the time of the organization of which he acted as the home department superintendent, looking after isolated members. While thus engaged he worked up sufficient interest for the establishment of a Sunday School, following which the organization was perfected, and the first services were held at Long Beach April 6, 1913. He also acted as district superintendent of the Sunday schoools of this church in Southern California for four-years. In politics Mr. Kaufmann is a republican, and takes an active interest in local political affairs.

HERBERT FREDERIC AHLSWEDE is the proprietor of one of the leading mercantile establishments of Long Beach, the same being known as the Emporium, being situated at the corner of Broadway and Locust Avenue and constituting a thoroughly modern store devoted to the handling of dry goods, women's and children's apparel, etc.

Mr. Ahlswede was born in the City of Chicago, Illinois, on the 5th of July, 1878, the second in order of birth of the eight living children of Edward and Rose (Prinzing) Ahlswede, the former of whom was born in Hanover, Germany, and the latter in the City of Chicago, where her parents were pioneer settlers, the original American representatives of the Prinzing family having come from Switzerland. The paternal grandfather of the subject of this review was a soldier in the Hanovarian war against Prussia and was a patriarch of ninety-three years at the time of his death. The maternal grandfather attained to the age of eighty-seven years.

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ahlswede was solemnized in Chicago, and there Mr. Ahlswede was for many years successfully engaged in the retail mercantile business on the northwest side of the city, where the large department store is still conducted under his name, his son Herbert F., of this sketch, having been a partner in the business prior to the family removal to California. On account of the ill health of one of their sons, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ahlswede now reside at Banning, River- side County. Mr. Ed Ahlswede, Sr., is established in the mercantile busi- ness, at Whittier. The family came to California in 1912 and first settled in the City of Los Angeles, where the father became associated with manu- facturing enterprise, in which the son Herbert F. had charge of the trunk department, this business having later been sold and the year 1914 having recorded the purchase of the well established business of Henry Myers at Long Beach, the original owner having given to the establishment the title of the Emporium, which has consistently been retained and which repre- sents one of the well ordered and important mercantile marts of Los Angeles County, with a large and appreciative supporting patronage. The proprietor of this prosperous business is also a director of the Long Beach Building & Loan Association, is a member of the local board of education, of which he was president in 1921, and is a loyal and public-spirited citizen whose civic liberality is on a parity with his prominence as a business man. Mr. Ahlswede was specially active in the advancing of local patriotic service and measures during the period of American participation in the World war, he is a stalwart in the local ranks of the republican party, is a director of the Long Beach Young Men's Christian Association, is one of the influ- ential members of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and the local Kiwanis Club, and in the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with Palos Verdes Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Long Beach Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. He is a member of the Virginia Country Club and the Southern California Automobile Club, and he and his wife hold membership in the First Congregational Church in their home city. As a youth Mr. Ahlswede received the advantages not only of the public schools of the City of Chicago, including the Northwest Side High School, but also those of the great University of Chicago. Thereafter he was asso- ciated with his father's business in that city until the removal to California. While in the high school he became an active member of the Illinois Naval Reserves, in the affairs of which he took deep interest.

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On the 7th of June, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ahlswede to Miss Nancy Miles, who was born and reared in Chicago, where her parents still reside, her father, John Miles being a prominent figure in his profession, that of mechanical engineer and also in the circles of the Masonic fraternity. Mrs. Ahlswede is a director of the Long Beach Young Women's Christian Association, a member of the Woman's City Club, the Ebell Club, The P. E. O. Sisterhood and other representative organizations in Long Beach, and her gracious personality makes her a popular factor in the social and cultural life of the community. Mr. and Mrs. Ahlswede have two daughters : Lenore Kathryn, and Nancy Jane.

DR. EDGAR W. CHRISTENSEN, whose office is maintained at 539 Mark- well Building, in the City of Long Beach, is one of the able and successful exponents of the benignant system of osteopathy and is influential in the ranks of his profession. The legitimacy and great value of osteopathy are becoming better realized year after year, and its loyal practitioners have achieved results that make for human health and happiness, their service being the best voucher for the school or system of medicine and surgery which they represent.

Doctor Christensen was born at Mankato, Minnesota, August 21, 1875, and is a son of Henry P. and Isabella B. (Walz) Christensen. Henry P. Christensen was one of the sterling pioneers of Minnesota, took active part in repelling Indian outbreaks in the early days, including that incidental to the now historic massacre at New Ulm, and he became a prominent merchant at Mankato, where he later engaged in the real estate and insur- ance business. He died at Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1915, at the venerable age of eighty-two years, he having been visiting kinsfolk at Santa Fe at the time of his death. In 1906 he had come to Los Angeles, California, and in 1911 he removed to Long Beach, which place thereafter represented his home until the close of his life, his widow being now a resident of Los Angeles. Of the three children Doctor Christensen, of this review, is the eldest ; Mrs. C. C. Gatron, elder of the two daughters, resides at Santa Fe, New Mexico, her husband being a son of a former United States senator from that state; Mrs. F. J. Lavan, youngest of the children, resides at Culver City, California, her husband being a lawyer, as is also the husband of her sister. Henry P. Christensen was born in Denmark, a representative of an old and honored family there established for many generations. His wife was born in Ohio, of German and French ancestry, the original Amer- ican forebears having come from Alsace-Lorraine, France.

In the public schools of Mankato, Minnesota, Doctor Christensen con- tinued his studies until he had duly profited by the curriculum of the high school, in which he was graduated in 1896. Later he was graduated in the Mankato Commercial College, and in 1899 he was graduated in the Northern College of Osteopathy, at Minneapolis. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Osteopathy he was engaged in practice one year at Albert Lea, Minnesota ; three years at Paterson, New Jersey ; four years at El Paso, Texas; and four years in the City of Los Angeles, California, where he established his residence in 1906 and where he remained until 1910, when he removed to Long Beach, this city having since continued the central stage of his successful professional service. The Doctor has been specially active in upholding and advancing the system of osteopathy, has served as president of the Long Beach Osteopathic Society, and is an active member also of the California State Osteopathic Society and the National Osteopathic Society. He is a republican in political allegiance, is affiliated with Long Beach Lodge, No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. and the local council of the Royal Arcanum, besides being a popular member of the Kiwanis Club, the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, and the Vir- ginia Country Club. The Doctor has an attractive home property and other real estate at Long Beach and he is president of the Wilmington Bus Com- pany at Wilmington.

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

June 8, 1910, recorded the marriage of Doctor Christensen to Miss Anna Johns, who was born in the State of Washington but reared and educated in British Columbia. Her father was born in England and her mother in the United States. Mrs. Christensen is active and influential in the work of the Parent-Teacher Association of Long Beach, and is also a popular figure in representative social circles. Doctor and Mrs. Christensen have one child, Jack J., who was born at Long Beach and who is attending the public schools of his native city at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1922.

THOMAS B. KEY, D. D. S. A leading professional man and substantial citizen of Long Beach is found in Dr. Thomas Brooks Key, whose profes- sional experience as a dental practitioner covers thirty-eight busy years. He has been a resident of California for over a half century and has been a witness of many of the history-making events in the western country.

Doctor Key was born at Mount Lebanon, in Bienville County, Louisiana, June 29, 1861. He is a direct descendant of Francis Scott Key, American poet and lawyer, who wrote the stirring words of the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, in 1814. His parents were John Walker and Savannah L. (Tompkins) Key, both of whom were born in South Carolina. Before the war between the states, John Walker Key was a merchant and extensive planter. During that war he served in the Confederate army as did his brother-in-law, Capt. Thomas Brooks Tompkins, who was serving under "Stonewall" Jackson at the time the latter received the wound that occasioned his death.

Thomas Brooks Key was eight years old when he accompanied his par- ents and his two older brothers to California, the family coming through the Golden Gate on June 1, 1869. Both brothers survive, Henry T. Key being a stockman near Spokane, Washington, and Dr. John W., a retired dentist, residing near Saratoga, Santa Clara County, California. Doctor Key received his early educational training in the public schools of Marysville, Yuba County, California, afterward becoming a student in the Pacific Methodist College at Santa Rosa, where, for proficiency in his studies, he won the gold medal of his class in 1879, which he still treasures. After completing his education in the schools, he looked about for some congenial line of work to follow, and before deciding on dentistry, worked in drug stores at San Jose, Stockton, Marysville and Gilroy. In 1882, however, he became an apprentice in the dental office of Dr. C. G. Cogswell, in San Francisco, and completed his studies and training there in 1884, and from that time until the present has been in the active practice of his profession, being well known in San Francisco, Oroville in Butte County, Fresno, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Phoenix, Arizona, having been a resident of Arizona during the uprising of the Apache Indians under Chief Geronimo. Doctor Key came to Long Beach in 1918 and is located at 38 Pine Avenue, where he has well appointed modern offices. With his long professional experience and thorough knowledge of his science, Doctor Key enjoys the confidence of a public that has come to the realization here as elsewhere, that the skilled dental surgeon is one of mankind's truest friends.

At Fresno, California, on April 15, 1902, Doctor Key was united in marriage with Mrs. Nellie (Hatch) Key, who was born near Bloomington, Illinois. Mrs. Key is a member of the patriotic order Daughters of Veter- ans, as her father was a soldier in the Union Army in the Civil war. Mrs. Key had one daughter born to her first marriage, who is now the wife of M. J. Lauer, a prominent merchant of Fresno, California.

Doctor Key is a wide awake and deeply interested citizen of Long Beach but has never been very active as a politician, always having reserved the right to cast his vote according to his own excellent judgment. His only fraternal connection is his membership in the Long Beach lodge of Elks. He is a very enthusiastic member of the Long Beach Chamber of Com- merce, and has large investments in oil lands in this vicinity.

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

GEORGE WELLINGTON WELLS, who is one of the prominent exponents of the real estate and loan business in the City of Long Beach, has had a varied and interesting career, at each stage of which he has given good account of himself.

Mr. Wells was born in the City of Portsmouth, Ohio, an important industrial port on the Ohio River, in the southern part of the Buckeye State, and the date of his nativity was March 2, 1878. He is a son of Richard H. and Mary Ann (Sampson) Wells, both now deceased. Rich- ard H. Wells was a prosperous agriculturist, stock-grower and orchardist in Pike County, Ohio, for many years, his homestead farm having been near Waverly. He went forth as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. He was made first sergeant of Company G, Fifty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and his service continued four years and nine months -virtually the entire period of the war-the while he took part in many of the important battles marking the progress of the great conflict through which the integrity of the nation was preserved. In a family of four sons and three daughters the subject of this sketch is now the only sur- viving son, his three sisters being still alive, and one of them, Mrs. Margaret Brown, is a resident of California, her home being at Pomona. David S. Wells, eldest of the children, became a successful lawyer and also achieved high reputation as a writer, he having been a resident of Portsmouth, Ohio, at the time of his death. As a writer of history he was for ten years in the employ of the publishing firm of B. F. Bowen & Company of Indianapolis, for which he produced many commendable histories in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Kentucky. His death occurred about the year 1912. The other two sisters still reside in Ohio.

George W. Wells gained his early education in the public schools of his native state, and thereafter was for two terms a student in the Uni- versity of Illinois, at Champaign. At Indianapolis, Indiana, he enlisted in the Twenty-second United States Infantry, with which he was for two years stationed at Fort Keho, Montana, whence the command was then transferred to Fort Crook, at Omaha, Nebraska. He won promotion to the office of first sergeant, and as such received his honorable discharge at Fort Crook in 1897. He then made a visit to his old home in Ohio, and in the following spring engaged in the meat market business at Ports- mouth, that state. Two years later he sold this business and became a district agent for the National Protective Association, an accident and health insurance corporation, which he represented in the district com- prising Hocking, Jackson, Meigs, Scioto and Brown counties, Ohio. During the final three years of his alliance with this corporation he was general agent and claim adjuster. He severed his alliance with this association in 1906, in which year he came with his family to California and estab- lished his permanent residence at Long Beach. Here he has since been continuously engaged in the real estate business, and while his operations have been of broad scope and importance in a general line, he gives special attention to the extending of financial loans on approved real estate security. He is the owner of valuable realty at Long Beach, including the Wells apartment building, on Broadway, and his beautiful and modern home property, at 1414 East Fourth Street. He has recently taken a long lease of the ground on which is established the building in which his offices are maintained, at 223 East Broadway, and in the spring of 1923 he will institute the erection here of a modern office building of four stories and basement, to be known as the Wells Building and to represent an investment of $50,000. He is the owner of several orange groves in San Bernardino County, as well as important holdings in the Signal Hill oil field.

Mr. Wells is a republican in political adherency, is an active member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Long Beach Real Estate Board, he is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine, besides being affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his

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name still appears on the roll of members of the church of this denomina- tion at Jackson, Ohio, his wife being a member of the Christian Science. Church, besides which she is affiliated with the Order of the Eastern Star and is a popular member of the Ebell Club of Long Beach.

November 9, 1902, recorded the marriage of Mr. Wells and Miss Jennie E. Phillips, daughter of William E. Phillips, M. D., of Jackson, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Wells have two sons: William Phillips, who was born December 25, 1903, at Jackson, Ohio, is now (1923) a student in Lake Forest Academy, at Lake Forest, Illinois, and is making plans to prepare himself for the legal profession. Chester E., the younger son, was born at Long Beach, California, April 3, 1914, and at the time of this writing is attending the public schools of his native city.

HENRY KENDALL BOOTH, D. D., pastor of the Congregational Church of Long Beach, is not only a clergyman of unusual power, but an educator in the broadest interpretation of that term. He is a man of scholarly attainments, whose extensive reading and wide research coupled with a remarkably retentive memory and supurb diction make him a most impres- sive speaker. His trained powers of speaking, quickness of perception and analytical mind have placed him in the forefront of contemporaneous lecturers. His weekly lectures on current events at the Young Women's Christian Association, and his monthly illustrated lectures at the church, on art, science, travel and kindred subjects of world interest have made his name and church popular and Long Beach the subject of flattering com- mentary.

The birth of Mr. Booth occurred at Peru, Illinois, April 19, 1876, and he is a son of Sanford S. and Ella (Kendall) Booth, the former of whom was engaged in an insurance and trust business in Iowa and Illinois. Doctor Booth was graduated from Hamilton College in 1898 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts; and secured his degree of Master of Arts from the same institution in 1901. His degree of Bachelor of Divinity was received from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1901, and that of Doctor of Divinity from the same body, in 1919. Entering the ministry of the Congregational Church in 1901, he was ordained to the ministry, at Michigan City, Indiana, November 6, 1901, and held his first pastorate in that city during 1901 and 1902. From there he was sent to Tucson, Arizona, and remained there until 1904, when he was transferred to Sacramento, California, and held a pastorate in that city until 1907, when he was called to Berkeley, California, and continued there until 1909, when he was called to Long Beach.

On June 15, 1909, Doctor Booth took charge of what was then called the Plymouth Congregational Church, which, in the following February, was merged with the other Congregational Church into the Congregational Church of Long Beach. While he was acting pastor, he was not regularly installed by the council until February 26, 1912, and from then on the church has shown a most remarkable growth. At that time the church had a membership of 391. Its present membership was nearly 1,500. In the former year the home expenses were $7,614, and its benevolences $1,404. In 1922 its home expenses were $23,100, and its benevolences $14,954. And for four successive years it has led the Congregational churches of America in additions to membership. However, not alone in these figures is this growth fairly represented for the present magnificent church edifice, Third and Cedar, was built during the pastorate of Doctor Booth, and he has either established, or greatly advanced the various church organizations, such as the Woman's Guild, the Fortnightly Club, the Washington Gladden Club, the Men's Bible Study Class and graded Sunday school classes. Still another feature of the progress, and the one which after all is of paramount importance, is the creation of a healthy spiritual awakening in the com- munity, and among the members of the church. The Congregational Church of Long Beach is the second largest church of this denomination in South- ern California and the thirteenth in America, and to Doctor Booth and his

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able co-workers, all of whom he has been able to inspire with his own help- · ful spirit, is due the credit for this expansion.

Doctor Booth is a man who cannot be satisfied with a merely academic connection with the life of his community. His is too vital a nature for that. He has a keen interest in the material as well as the spiritual welfare of Long Beach, and in all of the serious problems of a local governmental character the force of his oratory and trenchant arguments are utilized by city officials and civic bodies to sway public sentiment and enthuse citizens to loyal co-operation for community betterment. In 1912 and again in 1921 Doctor Booth served as a charter commissioner of Long Beach. He is a republican in his political sentiments. A strong believer in concerted effort through different mediums, he has long been an effective member of the Long Beach Rotary Club.

On October 17, 1900, Doctor Booth was married at Winona, Minnesota, to Miss Olive Mears, who died in 1920. On November 6, 1922, he was married again, at Long Beach, to Miss Leona Hays. Doctor Booth is proud of his family history. The Booths are of English origin, and came to the New England Colonies in the eighteenth century. His paternal great- grandfather was a native of New York, and his own father was also born in that state, but in the early '40s the grandfather moved to Southern Illinois. On his mother's side his grandfather was Henry Kendall, for whom he was named, and he was for over forty years general secretary of Presby- terian Home Missions.

Doctor Booth has given over one-half of his life work to the building up of the church at Long Beach, and naturally his heart is centered in it and what it represents. In spite of his many cares and heavy responsibilities pertaining to it, and his other diversified activities, he never shirks what he feels is a duty, and therefore in the interests of higher education, accepted the election to the board of trustees of Pomona College in 1921, an honor he richly deserved.

The Congregational Church of Long Beach is so beautiful a structure as to merit more than passing mention. It is located almost in the midst of the heart of the hotel, apartment house and business section of the city, and is therefore especially convenient for the tourists who flock to it both in. summer and winter. The imposing church building is of pressed red brick, trimmed with cream terra cotta, and it has, with its three galleries, a seating capacity of 1,500. It is heated by a steam heat and ventilating plant. There is an exceptionally commodious and comfortable parish house, separated from the main building by heavy brick partitions, and contains a Christian Endeavor room, the parish auditorium, two large and five small Bible class rooms, church parlors, sewing room for the woman's societies, kitchenette, church office, pastor's study, large assembly room, kindergarten room, ladies' dressing room, kitchen, serving room, large dining room, with a seating capacity of over 1,000, and a stage with curtain, footlights and dressing rooms attached. The building is supplied with patent umbrella racks, flower-room, call-bell system, interphones, drinking fountain, audo- phones for the deaf, and other unique equipments. Three services can be carried on in the parish house without disturbing each other.

One of the especially beautiful features of the church proper, is the windows. There are three great rose windows above the gallery, and six picture windows below, symbolic of the Apostles and the Gospels. On the east side of the main auditorium is a group of three picture windows, the one representing Night and Morning being the gift of the first Mrs. Booth in memory of her mother, Mrs. Sarah Bentley Mears. On the exterior of the church the campanile rises 110 feet above the pavement, and is topped by a handsome belfry, the upper portion of the tower being used for a boys' clubroom, and still higher a boys' game room. The magnificent memorial organ, one of the finest in the country, is the gift of Miss Martha Hathaway.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 64

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