USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 66
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The original American representatives of the Trauger family came from Germany to this country in 1638 and settled in Pennsylvania. Sylvester H. Trauger was born on the family homestead in New Jersey, a part of which is included in the City of Trenton, and he was a young man of ambition and determined purpose when he came to the West and first established residence in Illinois, where his marriage occurred and whence he later went as a pioneer into North Dakota. The father of his wife was a close boyhood friend of Abraham Lincoln and, like the martyred president, was a native of Kentucky, whence the family removed in an early day into the southern part of Illinois.
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Dr. Trauger attended the public schools of Long Beach and Upland, California, to which state his parents came when he was a lad of about ten years. In 1913 he was graduated in the high school at Monrovia, and he then entered the Los Angeles College of Optometry & Ophthal- mology, but in 1914 he went to Seattle, Washington, where he established himself in business as an optometrist. In 1915 he sold this business and went to Victoria, British Columbia, where he continued in business for a comparatively brief interval. After disposing of his business there he returned to Long Beach, and he now found opportunity to complete his course in the college in which he had previously been a student, as noted above. In this institution he was graduated in 1917, with the degree of Doctor of Optometry, and after passing the required state examination for admission to practice he went to San Diego and took charge of the optical department of the establishment of J. Jesson & Sons. In September, 1919, he returned to Long Beach, and here he has since continued in the suc- cessful work of his profession, with a substantial and appreciative clientage. On September 1, 1923, Dr. Tranger opened a new additional office in the Farmers and Merchants Bank Building. This office is the finest equipped optometrical office in the country and is fitted with instruments of the finest special design, made especially for Dr. Trauger's use. Through his active association with oil development in this part of the state, as a trustee in various oil companies and syndicates, he has received substantial finan- cial returns. In politics he is found loyally attached to the progressive wing of the republican party. He was the first secretary of that vital Long Beach organization, the Exchange Club, and in this connection his weekly announcements and contributions to the magazine which he pub- lished for the club under the title of "Pep," not only did much to further the progressive civic and business activities of the club but were also read before affiliated clubs throughout the United States. He and his wife are zealous members of the United Presbyterian Church of Long Beach, and he is a clerk of its board of trustees. The Doctor is an active member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, as well as of the Advertising Club, and his support is given to all well ordered enterprises and measures advanced for the general good of his home city, county and state. He is an influential member of the Long Beach Optometrical Association, and served as its first president, and is a member of the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks No. 888 and the Pacific Athletic Club of Long Beach.
September 9, 1914, recorded the marriage of Dr. Trauger to Miss Ethel Mae Vial, who was born in the state of Iowa but reared and educated at Long Beach, where she was graduated in the high school. Mrs. Trauger has a finely cultivated soprano voice and has gained more than local reputa- tion as a concert singer and church soloist. She is a member of the Ebell Club and the Music Study Club, and is a popular factor in the general social activities of Long Beach.
ROSCOE STANLEY WILKEY is one of the more recent additions to the bar of Los Angeles County, is in practice at Long Beach, and is both a well qualified attorney and a recognized orator.
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He was born in Fountain County, Indiana, February 1, 1894, a son of Elmer Sylvester and Margaret Crete (Dunn) Wilkey. His mother is a native of England and is a graduate of DePauw University of Indiana. Elmer S. Wilkey was born in Indiana, and for many years was a prom- inent figure in State politics there. His home has been at Long Beach since September, 1922. Margaret Crete Dunn was a teacher in Indiana before her marriage.
Oldest of three children, two sons and one daughter, Roscoe S. Wilkey was liberally educated, attending the common schools at King- man, Indiana, graduating in 1912 from the Covington High School in that state, and received Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw Univer- sity in 1916. He finished his law course and received the Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Michigan in 1921.
During the World war Mr. Wilkey was a First Lieutenant in the Infantry, stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison, near Indianapolis and at Camp Custer, Michigan. The example of all his ancestors inclined him to take an active part during the war. His great-great-grandfather, John C. Van Gundy, was an officer in the American Revolution. His great- great-grandfather, Abraham Myers, was a soldier in the War of 1812, while his grandfather, Charles Langford Wilkey, was a Union soldier in the Civil war, and his father, Elmer S. Wilkey, organized a volunteer company for duty in the Spanish-American war.
Mr. Wilkey was admitted to and engaged in practice of the law in Foun- tain County, Indiana, for a time. In college he proved his marked supe- riority in debate and oratory. As a young man he made over fifty political speeches under the auspices of the Indiana State Republican Speakers Bureau and has made many formal addresses of a fraternal and public nature. Mr. Wilkey was admitted to the California bar by examination in 1922, and he opened his law office and engaged in general practice at Long Beach in October, 1922. He is a member of the Sigma Chi, a National College Social Fraternity, the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity, the Theta Nu Epsilon College Inter-Fraternity and is a Mason and a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church.
ARTHUR J. MEYER, a resident of Long Beach since 1905, is a plumber by trade, a master of his profession, and has executed some of the largest and most important contracts for plumbing equipment in Long Beach and vicinity.
Mr. Meyer was born at Iowa City, Iowa, November 25, 1879, son of Peter and Mary (Cooper) Meyer. His father was a native of Europe, had his early business experience at Paris, France, and from there came to America. For a number of years he was a member of the firm Kim- ball, Stebbins & Meyer, operating three retail meat markets at Iowa City. He was also active in politics but never ran for office. He died at Iowa City in 1893 at the age of fifty-nine. The widowed mother is still living in Iowa, as are three of her four children.
Arthur J. Meyer, third in order of age among the two sons and two daughters, was reared in Iowa City, attended Catholic schools there, and at the age of fifteen began learning the plumber's trade. He had a six years apprenticeship. Following that he worked as a journeyman at Davenport with the Davenport Steamheat and Plumbing Company. Mr. Meyer on coming to California in 1905 was employed by W. B. McKin- ley at Long Beach until 1907. In that year he went to Panama to work for the government on the Panama Canal. He was in the canal zone two years and in 1909 on .returning to Long Beach resumed his employment with W. B. Mckinley. Mr. Meyer has been in business for himself since 1911. He was member of the firm Meyer & Murray at 6th and Ameri- can Avenue until 1914, when he bought out his partner, Mr. Edwin Murray. Since 1918 he has occupied his present location at 323 East Fourth Street. Mr. Meyer specializes in high class work only, and has put in the plumbing, heating and similar installations in a number of stores, offices and apartment houses. Among the fine apartment houses of Long
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Beach that contain his work are the Alberta, Maryland, Hatfield House, Winnifred Dickens and others.
Mr. Meyer was in the service of the government during the World war, but continued to supervise his business at Long Beach. He was for six months plumbing inspector for the government at Camp Kearney near San Diego, being called to duty there in 1917.
Mr. Meyer is a democrat, but is not strictly bound to the party circle in voting. He is a member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, The Master Plumbers' National Association of State of California, is affiliated with Long Beach Lodge No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a Catholic, being a member of St. Anthony's Parish at Long Beach.
At San Diego, March 24, 1918, he married Miss Alice Carrie Trow- bridge. She was born and educated in Bradford, Kansas, and has been a resident of California since 1904. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer is at 3606 Weston Place, Los Cerritos, Long Beach.
JACOB BICKEL. The family name Bickel has been identified with the land proprietorship, a production of citrus fruit, and nearly all the important civic movements in the Whittier District for the past twenty years. Bickel is a name of French origin, and the original spelling is said to have been Bicquel. The first American of the name came to this country and subsequently took up arms in behalf of the Union during the Civil war. Sixty years later his grandson, an American by birth, and a prominent young Californian, went to France and assisted in winning the great struggle against Germany.
It was John Bickel who established the family in the United States. He was born in France, came to this country in 1853, and followed his trade of blacksmith. He became an American citizen immediately. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company F of the First Missouri regiment of light artillery. He was in active service until his discharge on June 25, 1864. He was in some of the greatest campaigns of the war in the Mississippi Valley. He began with the campaign in Southern Missouri, and was present at the battles of Booneville, June 16, 1861; Dug Springs, August 2, 1861; Wilson Creek, August 10, 1861 ; Blackwater, December 18, 1861 ; and at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, December 7, 1862. He was in the siege of Vicksburg, ending July 4, 1863, at the Yazoo City, July 13, 1863, and at Fort Esperilizi, November 27-30, 1863. After the war he resumed work at his trade, and his death in 1878 was largely due to the hardships and privations of his army service.
John Bickel married Anna Mary Kley, a native of Germany, who came to America when a girl. They were married in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1860.
Their son, Jacob Bickel, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, February 23, 1866. He attended public school in his native city, and as a youth he assisted in farming his mother's land in Adair County in Northeastern Missouri. This property became part of his inheritance on his mother's death. He continued to live there until 1893. For the following ten years he was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, engaged in the real estate and other lines of business.
Mr. Bickel came to California in 1903. He bought a five acre orange grove on South Painter Avenue, below Short Street, but subsequently sold it. He then went East. However, California exercised an irresistible attraction over both him and Mrs. Bickel, and after a year they returned to Whittier, and have regarded this as their permanent home ever since. During the past twenty years Mr. Bickel has bought and sold several groves in and around Whittier. He now owns fifty acres planted to oranges, lemons and walnuts. Of these eight acres are included in his home place at 745 North Pickering Avenue. On this ground he has a beautiful and commodious home. His other forty-two acres are in East Whittier just beyond the school house on the Whittier Boulevard.
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This land is practically above the frost belt, and fully eighty per cent of his crops were saved in the year 1922.
Mr. Bickel has been prosperous in his enterprises and efforts, particu- larly so since coming to California. He is an enthusiastic believer in the greatness of this country, has been a liberal contributor to various projects for the benefit of Whittier, and is public spirited in every sense of the term. He is a director and treasurer of the Whittier Citrus Association, is a director in the Whittier District Exchange, a director in the Whittier National Bank, also a member of the La Habra Walnut Association, is affiliated with the Whittier Lodge of Elks, and Mrs. Bickel is a life mem- ber of the East Whittier Woman's Club.
June 30, 1892, Mr. Bickel married Miss Mary Milliken. She was born in Missouri, daughter of O. B. Milliken, a native of Indiana. She is a sister of Doctor Charles Milliken, a prominent professional man of Whit- tier, elsewhere referred to. Mrs. Bickel was a successful teacher in the public schools for six years in Adair County, Missouri, where she was born.
The son of Mr. and Mrs. Bickel is John Edward Bickel, born January 11, 1896. He is their only child. He operates the ranch at East Whittier. By his marriage to Miss Leora Jane Hill, daughter of Ernest Hill, of Whittier, he has a son, John Everet Bickel, and a daughter, Mary Belle Bickel. John Edward Bickel enlisted in the Signal Corps in June, 1917. He had been an amateur radio fan and accepted service in that line. He was called to duty September 25 of the same year, and on November 11, 1917, went overseas to France. He was put in the Avia- tion School at Tours, but later was assigned to the Radio School as instructor to officers. He was a sergeant of the first class in charge of installing radio sets in aeroplanes. He received an honorable discharge shortly after the armistice, and returned to America in May, 1919.
SAMUEL J. ABRAMS, whose residence is maintained in the city of Long Beach, has undisputed sartorial leadership in this part of the state, as indicated by his years of successful business enterprise as a merchant tailor and by the broad and representative scope of his business, which involves not only the maintaining of his finely appointed establishment at 114-16 Pine Avenue, Long Beach, but also branch houses at San Pedro and Huntington Beach.
Mr. Abrams was born in the ancient city of Posen, Germany, on the 20th of July, 1867, and is a son of Louis and Sarah Abrams, who passed their entire lives in their native land, where the father long conducted a prosperous business as a buyer and shipper of grain. Of the family of three sons and three daughters two of the sons are residents of California. The schools of his native city afforded Samuel J. Abrams his early educa- tion, and there also he served an apprenticeship to the tailor's trade, accord- ing to the thorough system there in vogue. . He was an ambitious youth of seventeen years when he severed the ties that bound him to home and native land and set forth to seek his fortunes in the United States. The year 1884 recorded his landing in the port of New York City, and from the national metropolis he forthwith continued his journey to Chicago, in which city he continued in the work of his trade until 1900 and developed a prosperous independent tailoring business, on the populous West Side. Upon leaving Chicago he removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was established in the same line of business until 1904, when he came to California and founded his present large and prosperous business at Long Beach. From a modest inception the enterprise has grown to one of important order and Mr. Abrams now figures as the oldest continuously established merchant tailor in this fair California city. He carries in stock the finest grade of suit and overcoat materials, is insistent in turn- ing out only the highest type of work, gives employment to sixty-three persons, and for the accommodation of his outside patrons he maintains the branch establishments at San Pedro and Huntington Beach.
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Mr. Abrams is financially interested also in oil-production enterprise in the Long Beach district, and is a loyal and progressive citizen who has secure place in popular confidence and esteem. As a republican he is a stalwart supporter of the progressive policies advocated by former Governor John- son, and in the time-honored Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the York Rite bodies, Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commandery, at Long Beach, and with the temple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of Los Angeles, besides which he is a life member of Long Beach Lodge No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is an active member and loyal supporter of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, and holds member- ship also in the Exchange Club. The attractive home of the family is at 213 Roswell Street, in the beautiful Belmont Heights District of Long Beach.
In the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the year 1902 recorded the marriage of Mr. Abrams to Miss Hildred W. Selin, who is of Swedish lineage, she having been born in South Dakota and having been one year cld at the time of the family removal to Chicago, where she was reared and educated, her parents having passed the closing period of their lives in her home at Long Beach. Mrs. Abrams is a woman of marked business ability and has general supervision of the office affairs of her husband's extensive business. Mr. and Mrs. Abrams have no children.
CLINTON F. SECCOMBE is a native of Southern California, was a prac- ticing lawyer for several years, but is now giving all his time and atten- tion to the Knollgrove Farm of seventy-five acres, located at 19801 Ven- tura Boulevard at Reseda. He established this ranch in 1919. It has all been planted to walnuts and oranges, there being sixty acres of walnuts and fifteen acres of oranges. In the meantime the land is being devoted profitably to bean and vegetable growing. He also farms sixty acres of alfalfa land. Mr. Seccombe has forty-one acres at the corner of Reseda Avenue and Ventura Boulevard which has been subdivided and is being sold under the name of Ventura Highway Park.
Mr. Seccombe was born at San Bernardino, April 25, 1890, son of Alfred H. and Carrie (Richardson) Seccombe. His father was born in Nova Scotia and his mother in Arkansas. He is a nephew of Governor Friend W. Richardson.
Clinton F. Seccombe attended public schools in Los Angeles, and graduated in 1913 from the law department of the University of South- ern California. He was admitted to the bar in 1912 and during the next five years he engaged in law practice. Then, in 1917, he began ranching near Redondo Beach, and two years later came to his present property. He takes an active part in the affairs of his community, being director of the Reseda State Bank and a director of the Reseda Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of South Gate Lodge of Masons at Los Angeles, the Hollywood Masonic Club and belongs to Ramona Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West. He is a Phi Alpha Delta.
July 29, 1914, he married Miss Edith Mathis, of Los Angeles. They have two children, Clinton F., Jr., and Robert K. Mrs. Seccombe is a native of San Francisco, but was reared and educated in Los Angeles. She is a member of the Eastern Star, the Woman's Club of Reseda and Sigma Tau Psi.
WILLIAM DIBBLE has been a resident of Los Angeles County for thirty-five years, has been a farmer and fruit grower, and a business man with widely extended interests. His home is on the historic La Puente Rancho, one of the most noted and picturesque places in Los Angeles County.
Mr. Dibble was born July 9, 1865 at Clatworthy, Somersetshire, Eng- land, son of Charles and Frances Dibble. He was educated at Taunton, Somerset, and was trained to English methods of farming. In 1885, as a youth of twenty, he made a voyage to Australia, but was back in England
Vol. 11-20
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the following year. In 1887 he left England bound for the United States, coming by way of Canada and arriving in California in July of the same year. After deciding to make his permanent home he took out naturaliza- tion papers and completed his American citizenship in 1897. Also in 1897 Mr. Dibble purchased 168 acres of the Rancho La Puente, near Covina, and developed what was known as the Oakwell Ranch. This was his home until 1920. In the meantime he had extended his holdings else- where. In 1900 he went to Mexico and with others purchased lands in the states of Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz and San Luis Potosi.
At Los Angeles, June 2, 1920, Mr. Dibble married V. Lillian Hudson, daughter of J. W. and Victoria Hudson. She was born on the Rancho La Puente March 17, 1882, and is a granddaughter of the great pioneer of Southern California, John Rowland, who bought the Rancho La Puente and settled there in 1841. Mr. and Mrs. Dibble now occupy the old Row- land homestead, one of the comparatively few homes in Los Angeles County that date back before the American occupation. Mr. Dibble is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Gamut Club, and is a life member of the Overseas Club of London and also a member of the Society of Somerset Men of London.
JOSEPH WALTER DROWN. The name Drown has been associated with the history of Los Angeles city and county since the early years of Ameri- can occupation. The first district attorney of the county was Ezra Drown. His son, the late Joseph Walter Drown, was for many years a figure in the business life of the county.
Joseph Walter Drown was born in Iowa, May 21, 1852. His parents, Ezra and Helen Drown, were natives of New Hampshire, settled in Iowa in the early '40s, in the territorial period, and in 1853, about a year after the birth of their son and only child, they started for California. They made the journey by ship around Cape Horn. While at sea the ship took fire, and Mrs. Helen Drown lost her life, her husband and only child making their escape. Ezra Drown was a lawyer by profession, and held the office of district attorney of Los Angeles County until his death. In 1854 the family located at El Monte, and in 1856 went to San Bernardino. Joseph W. Drown in 1858, when six years of age, went to live with his uncle, Doctor Dickey, who was to rear him. Doctor Dickey was in Sonora, Mexico, and Mr. Drown remained with him there until 1862, when he returned to Los Angeles and for a brief time attended the school of Doctor Griffin. In 1863 he moved to Puente, and in 1868 entered Santa Clara College, where he graduated in 1871.
Mr. Drown was for some time associated with the Los Angeles County pioneer, William H. Workman, becoming superintendent of the Puente ranch in 1872. In 1874 he put in two thousand acres in wheat, but the great drouth of that season practically bankrupted him and he sold his stock in 1875. For five years he was foreman in the Workman Winery, and for eleven years he was a salesman for the pioneer grocery firm, Lam- bourn & Turner, on Alisso Street, in Los Angeles. He was a well known and popular citizen in Los Angeles, and served as a member of the City Council from December 24, 1888, to February 21, 1889.
On September 24, 1876, Mr. Drown married Miss Isabella Kelley, who was born near Nevada City, California, October 3, 1858, daughter of Michael and Isabella (Roberts) Kelley, her father a native of Ireland and her mother of England. They came to America in 1849, in a vessel around Cape Horn, and located in the vicinity of Nevada City, in the min- ing district, where they remained some years. There were thirteen chil- dren in the Kelley family, and two are still living. Mrs. Kelley died at Nevada City when her daughter Isabella was ten years of age. The latter was then reared by a family named Blakely, who in 1868 came from San Francisco down the coast to Los Angeles, making the voyage on the old steamship Senator, which landed the party at Wilmington. There they took passage on the newly completed railroad to Los Angeles, making
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the trip on the second run of the train. Mrs. Drown finished her educa- tion in the public schools near El Monte, and lived in the vicinity of Los Angeles until her marriage.
The late Mr. Drown died at his home, 2233 East Second street, in Los Angeles, on August 7, 1899, at the age of forty-seven. Mrs. Drown now resides at 135 South Breed street, in Los Angeles. She was the mother of seven children, two dying in infancy or early childhood. The oldest was Martha Josephine, born in LaPuente, September 24, 1877, and died November 6, 1878. Alice Isabella, born December 24, 1879, is the wife of Fred C. Spreng, living in Wyoming. They have two children, Alice Marie and Frederick C. Walter Joseph, born December 17, 1881, at LaPuente, is a traveling salesman for the Percival Iron Company of Los Angeles. The first three children, Martha, Alice and Walter, were all christened in the Old Mission Church at San Gabriel. Charles Ezra Drown, born at Los Angeles, at the home at Second and Breed street, December 12, 1887, is a salesman in Los Angeles, his home being at El Soreno, and by his marriage has four children, Lyman, Dorothy, Walter and Donald. Charlotte Helen, the youngest, and twin sister of Charles E., is the wife of Harold A. Bond, their home being at 2049 LaFrance Avenue in South Pasadena, and they have a son, Marvin Harold Bond.
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