USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 68
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John Harold Meldrim was born at Houlton, Maine, February 22, 1880, and lost his father by death in the same year. He is one of two children born to John and Alice (Cowan) Meldrim, and his sister, Myrtle, resides also at Long Beach, being the wife of George A. Miller. His father was a native of Maine and followed farming all his life in the vicinity of Houlton, where his people had settled very early. The mother of John Harold Meldrim was born at Woodstock, Canada. In 1888 she came to Riverside, California, where she subsequently contracted a second marriage, becoming the wife of H. P. Zimmerman, a prominent resident of that place and present public administrator, and for twelve years a member of the city council. Three of their sons are associated in business at the present time with their half-brother, Mr. Meldrim.
John H. Meldrim came to California in 1889 and had public school privileges at Riverside, prior to becoming a messenger boy in the Western Union Telegraph office in Los Angeles, and it was while serving on this first job, that a boyish love of adventure led him to join the Ringling Brothers' Circus for two years, during this time traveling all over the East. He returned then to Riverside and during the next two years. worked in a furniture store in which his step-father was interested, and afterward was employed by a Riverside transfer firm.
Mr. Meldrim was twenty-one years old when he went to San Francisco, where he was employed for two years by the San Francisco & San Rafael Express Company, then came to Long Beach and during his first year here was with the Davis Transfer Company, going then to Pasadena, where he entered the employ of George Miller (later his father-in-law) and for two years operated the Miller Transport & Storage Company for its owner. In 1904 Mr. Meldrim returned to Long Beach and founded what has become one of the largest transfer and storage concerns in this section, with a branch at Los Angeles, of which his half-brother Albert Zimmer- man is manager. Mr. Meldrim started his business on his own responsi- bility, in a small way, with a one-horse wagon, under the ambitious name of City Transfer Van & Storage. The motive force, the faithful old horse, has not been neglected in the prosperity it helped to bring about, but has long since been retired to a comfortable pasture. In 1919 Mr.
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Meldrim incorporated his business as the City Transfer & Storage Com- pany, of which he is president and represents about $170,000 of the stock. The company operates forty-six trucks and trailers, and at Long Beach they have two commodious modern warehouses, one for storage of house- hold goods only, and the other for commercial storage purposes, and at Los Angeles have similar facilities. Mr. Meldrim is now (1923) break- ing ground for a concrete furniture depository at Anaheim and Esperanza streets that is to cost $150,000. This building occupies a ground area of 75x140 feet and will be six stories in height, with all modern and up-to- date improvements. He is also building a 4-story 60x100 foot concrete warehouse at Eleventh and Grand streets, San Pedro, at a cost of about $120,000. They have long leases on their headquarters in both cities and are profitable tenants.
Mr. Meldrim is a member of the California Warehousemen's Asso- ciation; the Pacific Coast Furniture and Warehousemen's Association ; the National Furniture Warehousemen's Association; the Truck Owners Association of Southern California, and of the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Long Beach. He is a director of the Motor Truck Owners' Association ; is vice president and a director of the Pacific Coast Furniture and Warehousemen's Association; a director of the Franchise Motor Carriers' Association of Southern California; and a director of The Peoples Finance and Thrift Company of Long Beach.
At Pasadena, California, Mr. Meldrim was married to Miss Gertrude Viola Miller, who was born near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was educated at Pasadena. She is a daughter of George and Sadie M. Miller, Mr. Miller dying in 1903. Mr. and Mrs. Meldrim have one daughter, Helen Edith, who was born at Pasadena. She was graduated from the Long Beach High School in the class of 1919, and is now in her Junior year in the University of California, at Berkeley. Mrs. Meldrim is prominent in social circles and in club activities. She is a member of the Ebell and the Friday Morning clubs of Long Beach, is past matron of the Eastern Star No. 173, Long Beach; is past district deputy of the Twenty-third District and past grand treasurer of the Eastern Star, State of California. At present she is a member of the drill team of the order for Southern California.
Mr. Meldrim is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner. He belongs to Long Beach Lodge No. 327, F. & A. M .; Eastern Star, No. 173; Long Beach Chapter No. 84, R. A. M .; Long Beach Commandery No. 40, Knights Templar ; and Al Malaikah Mystic Shrine. In political life he is an earnest and influential republican, loyal to his party and friends but never has been willing to accept public office for himself. He and wife are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Long Beach.
WELCH HANBERY since leaving the army after his service in the World war has developed an important business at Long Beach known as the Welch Hanbery Company, advertising and publicity experts and coun- selors.
Mr. Hanbery was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, September 26, 1889, son of John S. and Florence E. Hanbery. His parents were born and reared in Kentucky. Welch Hanbery spent his youth both in Kentucky and Oklahoma and attended schools in both states. He took up the news- paper business, and that has been his profession ever since.
September 5, 1917, he was inducted into service at Camp Lewis, Washington, and assigned to Headquarters Company of the 364th Infan- try. March 1, 1918, he was transferred to the Twenty-eighth Company of the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Depot Brigade and did special duty in the mustering office. He was discharged at Camp Kearney, San Diego, March 7, 1919, and soon afterward resumed his work as a newspaper and publicity man at Long Beach. Mr. Hanbery is an independent republican, is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, is secretary of the Long Beach Rotary Club and a member of the Virginia Country Club.
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At Long Beach, August 16, 1919, he married Atala B. Browning, daughter of Fred W. Browning.
HENRY D. MYERS is the efficient and popular cashier of the Bank of Lankershim, specific mention of which is made on other pages of this volume. He was born at Marysville, Washington, September 5, 1891, and is a son of Henry B. and Mary Emma (Dupree) Myers, both natives of Iowa, in which state the respective families were founded in the pioneer period of its history. Henry B. Myers became a successful exponent of real estate enterprise in the State of Washington and later in California, where his death occurred, his widow being now a resident of Lankershim.
The public schools of his native place afforded Henry D. Myers his early educational discipline, and he was fifteen years of age when, in 1906, he became associated with a ranching enterprise in the Coachella Val- ley of California. He continued his residence in Riverside County until 1909, when he became associated with a general merchandise business at Lankershim, his advancement to the position of cashier of the Bank of Lankershim having been recorded in 1917, and his administration in this office having inured greatly to the successful handling of the business of this well ordered financial institution. He is a republican in politics, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife hold mem- bership in the Congregational Church, Mrs. Myers being also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and of the Woman's Club of Lankershim.
On the 29th of September, 1915, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Myers and Miss Lelia E. Prince, who was born at Coshocton, Ohio, but who was reared and educated principally at Lankershim, California, where her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred H. Prince, still maintain their home. Mr. and Mrs. Myers have one child, Lavine Emma.
ST. FERDINAND CHURCH at San Fernando represents one of the important Catholic parishes in Los Angeles County, and the Spanish name of the parish and church is San Fernando. In the early days this parish was attended by the Catholic Fathers from the Plaza mission. Rev. Father E. Fla Leon was the first resident pastor, Father Domingo Zaldivar, C. M. F., was his successor, and thereafter Rev. Eugene Sugranes was the priest in charge of the parish for several years. Rev. Gerald Bergan succeeded him in this charge, and thereafter service of varying intervals was given in turn by Rev. J. B. Roure and Rev. Michael Egan. The present pastor, Rev. Father John R. Purtill, known to the Spanish-speaking members of his parish as Padre Ricardo, his second personal name of Richard gaining to him this title, is known for his dis- tinguished scholarship and for the excellent and devoted service he is giving in furtherance of the spiritual and temporal prosperity of this parish, 300 families being represented on the rolls of the communicants of the church, with a total of fully 1,500 persons.
Rev. John R. Purtill was born at Mystic, Connecticut, on the 30th of March, 1881, and is a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Craddock) Purtill. He gained his early education in parochial schools in his native state, and thereafter continued his studies in New York, his ecclesiastical course having been taken in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland, in which city his ordination to the priesthood occurred December 23, 1911. It is a matter of enduring gratification to Father Purtill that he received Holy Orders at the hands of the late lamented, distinguished and revered Cardinal Gibbons.
In the initial period of his pastoral service Father Purtill was assistant priest in St. Patrick's Church at Iowa City, Iowa, for seven months, and for four months thereafter he was a member of the faculty of St. Ambrose at Davenport, Iowa. He next became assistant to Monsignor J. P. Ryan of St. Mary's Church in that city, and after retaining this charge eighteen months he was for two years pastor of St. Peter's Church at Lovilia, Iowa. He next gave a short period of service as chaplain and
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instructor in St. Joseph's Convent at Ottumwa, Iowa, and his next assign- ment was to the Corpus Christi diocese in the State of Texas, where he held for eighteen months the pastorate of St. Joseph's Church at Beeville. In 1918 Father Purtill came to California, and after remaining a short time at Elsinore he became officially connected with the parish of St. Anthony's Church at San Jacinto and Indian Missions. He thereafter gave three years of earnest and fruitful service in Indian mission work at Pala Mission in San Diego County, and from that post he came to his present charge in San Fernando.
The Cinco de Mayo celebration in San Fernando was one of the best Mexican celebrations ever witnessed here. Thousands of Mexicans and visitors from different parts of Southern California were present, and interesting speeches were made by some of the best known Mexican orators of Los Angeles, San Fernando and vicinity. The program was a success from start to finish, and great credit is due to those who made it such an affair, and particular mention must be made of La Comision Honorifica, Atilano Adama, president; M. S. Durazzo, secretary; J. C. Nava, president of the program; and of La Cruz Azul Mexicana. Speeches made by the mayor of the city of San Fernando, and by Chief of Police Thompson, and interpreted in Spanish by Rev. J. R. Purtill, were received with great interest by all, and it was evident to all visitors that the Mexican people are attentive listeners, and appreciate the interest taken in them by the officials of San Fernando. The Cinco de Mayo was truly a red-letter day.
The surprise came to all when Rev. J. R. Purtill, rector of St. Ferdi- nand's Church, San Fernando, was decorated by J. C. Nava, president of the program, in the name of La Comision Honorifica and also by the Cruz Azul Mexicana, with the decoration of the Liston de Tri-color, amidst the applause of the thousands present. This is the first time that an American priest has been honored with the decoration of the Liston de Tri-color. This was conferred upon Father Purtill, who is called "Padre Ricardo," in recognition of his great work among the Mexican people of San Fernando and Pacoima. He has been in San Fernando only three months and he reads, writes and speaks Spanish fluently. All are con- gratulating the Padre upon the great honor conferred upon him, and as he says, the Cinco de Mayo, 1923, celebration of San Fernando and the clecoration of the Liston de Tri-color will never be forgotten.
HENRY RAMIREZ. Aside from the distinction that is his as a member of one of the oldest and most highly honored Spanish families of South- ern California, Henry Ramirez occupies a prominent place in his com- munity because the success which he has gained as a grower of walnuts and fruits. His has been a personal success, as he began his independent career practically without means, and the prosperity that has come to him has been won through individual effort.
Mr. Ramirez was born at Los Nietos, Los Angeles County, Califor- nia, June 19, 1863, and is a son of an early Spanish settler, Jose Maria Ramirez, a review of whose career appears elsewhere in this work, and Josefa Rangel. The youth attended the Los Nietos country school, and was reared to habits of industry and honesty on his father's property, where he familiarized himself with all the duties of farming. It was to this vocation that he gave the earlier years of his active career, but more recently he has been a fruit and nut grower. In 1906 he pur- chased his present farm of ten acres, located on the Workman Mill Road, a paved highway overlooking the valley mountains, and this he has highly improved and made very valuable, setting out English walnuts and fruits. Mr. Ramirez, as before noted, has had to make his own way, for at the start of his career and the time of his marriage he was without means. He has worked hard and saved, and has proven emi- nently worthy of the honorable name which he bears.
On June 27, 1885, Mr. Ramirez was united in marriage with Miss
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Delfina Gonzales, who was born at Rivera, California, August 27, 1870, a daughter of Tranquilino and Marie (Aquirre) Gonzales, a Spanish family which came from the Mexican state of Sonora at an early date. Marie Aquirre came to California with her parents in 1849, and died in 1921. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ramirez : Joseph, single, a veteran of the World war, who traveled all over the world and spent eighteen months in Siberia, and in all his travels was never sick a day; Henry, who resides with his parents, married Rosie Rendon and is occupied as an oil operator; Cipriano, an exceptionally capable man, engaged in general construction work, in the erection of buildings, married Victoria Rubidoux, of Riverside, California, and has two children, Francisco and Louisa; Laura, a graduate of Rincon School, who married Darius Didier, a Frenchman, of Peunte, Califor- nia, and has one child, Gracie; Miguel, who is unmarried and engaged in landscape gardening; Delphina, who is now attending high school; and Richard, attending grammar school. Mr. and Mrs. Ramirez and the members of their family belong to the Catholic Church.
THE ADOHR STOCK FARMS, founded and owned by the Adamson Cor- poration, are located on Ventura Boulevard in San Fernando Valley, within the municipal limits of Los Angeles, and it is probably the largest plant in the world devoted to the production of certified milk. The farm comprises six hundred acres, and it has a herd of registered and grade Guernsey cattle of twelve hundred.
The Adamson Corporation, of which Merritt H. Adamson is president and Rhoda Rindge Adamson is secretary, established this plant in 1916 and assembled the nucleus of the Guernsey herd the following year. In August, 1918, they began producing certified milk, and in less than half a dozen years they have developed one of the most perfect industries of the kind in the world. Under the rigid conditions of California laws, and particularly the Los Angeles County Milk Commission, the production of certified milk requires facilities and methods of the most exacting charac- ter, demanding a great investment of capital and daily and hourly atten- tion to the most minute specifications as to cleanliness and sanitation. The buildings on the Adohr Stock Farms are as sanitary as a hospital, and every process of handling the milk has been so carefully safeguarded that Adohrs Certified Milk has made a record for continuous high scores in milk tests that have never been broken. The Adohr Stock Farms pro- duces hundreds of gallons daily of certified milk, but it is distributed to consumers by six other distributing companies and is sold practically all over Los Angeles County.
Merritt H. Adamson, president of the corporation, was born in Los Angeles, November 2, 1888, son of John Q. and Ellen (Huntley) Adam- son, his father a native of Missouri and his mother of Oregon. His father was a well known stock man and also for many years engaged in the wholesale butcher business. He came to Los Angeles from Arizona in 1888. The widowed mother is still living in Los Angeles.
Merritt H. Adamson was educated in the Los Angeles Military Acad- emy, attended high school and Pomona College, and studied law in the University of Southern California. Soon after completing his educa- tion he conceived and began the development of the business now repre- sented in the Adohr Stock Farms. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity and belongs to the Los Angeles Country, University and Los Angeles Athletic Clubs. He also belongs to the Optimist and Beach Clubs.
On November 18, 1915, he married Miss Rhoda A. Rindge, of Los Angeles. They have two children, Rhoda May and Sylvia Rindge. Mrs. Adamson was born in Los Angeles, and finished her education in the Girls Collegiate School and Wellesley College. She is a member of the Woman's Athletic Club of Los Angeles.
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CHARLES F. VAN DE WATER. While in the enjoyment of the fullest measure of richly merited success, the career of Charles F. Van de Water was terminated in a tragic and sudden death. Mr. Van de Water was founder and head of the Charles F. Van de Water Company, one of the largest real estate and general insurance organizations in Los Angeles County. Only a few days before his death he had been elected to Con- gress to represent the Ninth California District.
Mr. Van de Water was born at Hobart, New York, October 10, 1872. His father, Rev. Isaac Randolph Van de Water, devoted a long and active life to the ministry of the Methodist Church, and died in his ninety-fourth year at Long Beach, his home having been in this city for twenty-two years. The mother of Congressman Van de Water was Jane (Wilde) Van de Water.
Charles F. Van de Water spent a number of years in Florida, where his parents owned an orange grove. He received his preparatory education in the schools of De Land, that state, and paid most of his expenses by working as janitor. He also earned the money that put him through Athens College in Tennessee, tutoring in Latin and having charge of the military training.
Shortly after his marriage Mr. Van de Water came to Long Beach in 1904, and for over fifteen years was a leader in the business and civic affairs here. The Charles F. Van de Water Company represented a number of the oldest and largest insurance organizations and did a tremendous business in all lines of insurance both in Long Beach and Los Angeles. This company also handle real estate, and the Townsend-Van de Water Company of which Mr. Van de Water was vice-president was a successful organization in the development of acreage tracts and subdivisions in Los Angeles County. This company also handled the development of more than two thousand acres in Orange County. The late Mr. Van de Water was twice president of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. At his own expense he went to Washington to secure the harbor appropriation incorporated in the rivers and harbor bill. For fifteen years he was a mem- ber of the Board of Trustees of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, was a director in the National Bank of Long Beach, and during the war devoted most of his time to patriotic duties. At the beginning of the war he applied for the training in the Monterey Training camp, fitted himself for service, and tried to get an assignment overseas, being barred by reason of his age. A short time before his death he was elected a trustee of the University of Southern California.
In November, 1920, after a successful campaign, he was elected Con- gressman from the Ninth District, and on November 19, he and Mrs. Van de Water attended a banquet held in celebration of his election at Pomona. He had received a majority of twenty-seven thousand votes. At the cele- bration at Pomona many tributes of admiration were paid him, and in the course of his talk to the two hundred fifty fellow republicans assembled there he had referred to his recognition of certain shortcomings, but declared that he felt that he was "nearer heaven than ever before," and that with such a body of friends to support him he could hope for a favorable consideration when his time came to face the "great beyond." On the way home from the banquet while driving his car, with Mrs. Van de Water beside him, and his private secretary, Miss Janice Luebben, and Mrs. Jack- son in the rear seat, the car collided with a motor truck trailer which had been left standing without lights by the side of the Valley Boulevard a mile east of Walnut, and in the crash he suffered a basal fracture of the skull and died two minutes after being taken to the Pomona Valley Hospi- tal. His private secretary was instantly killed, but Mrs. Van de Water and her companion escaped with only minor injuries. The funeral services were held in the First Methodist Church at Long Beach, and were attended by many prominent leaders in civic and business affairs in Southern Califor- nia. The pastor, Rev. Lewis T. Guild, was in charge of the service, and was assisted by Rev. S. T. Westhafer of Hollywood, who had been pastor
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of a Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to which Mr. and Mrs. Van de Water had formerly belonged.
Mr. Van de Water and Miss Edith Weir, a native of Ohio and a daugh- ter of John Weir, were married at Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1904. Mrs. Van de Water is prominent in church and club work, and has been an active member of the Ebell Club since 1904, and is now president of that organization and for more than seventeen years has been identified with the work of the Ladies Aid Society of the First Methodist Episcopal Church and for more than twelve years of that time was its president. She was the first president of the Delphian Study Club of Long Beach and is vice presi- dent of the executive board of the Young Women's Christian Association. Mrs. Van de Water and three children survive, the names of the children being : Charles F., Jr., Janice Wilde and John Randolph.
G. S. THATCHER is a well known Los Angeles County banker, and for the past ten years has been the active official in the banks and banking interests centered at Hermosa Beach.
He is now vice president and cashier, with R. E. Mattison presi- dent of the First National Bank of Hermosa Beach, which was estab- lished May 29, 1922, and opened for business August 14, 1922. This bank has a capital of $50,000, and surplus of $5,000, deposits of $400,000 and the other directors are Ernest C. Jones, W. W. Phelps and Dr. C. Edgar Smith.
The First Bank of Hermosa Beach, at the Southwest corner of Thirteenth and Hermosa avenue, was established in 1913, and Mr. Thatcher was its first cashier. J. E. Walker was president and R. E. Mattison vice president. This bank started with a capital of $25,000, and in 1915 was increased to $35,000, and in 1922 to $50,000. R. E. Mattison became president in 1915, and since 1921 he has been president, with Mr. Thatcher vice president and cashier. On June 21, 1922, the First Bank opened a branch at Second and Camino Real. The same banking interests also control the State Bank of Manhattan Beach, which was opened July 24, 1922, with G. H. Kern as president, G. S. Thatcher vice president, J. C. Stockwell, vice president, A. P. Manning cashier. This bank has an authorized capital of $50,000, and $35,000 paid in, and a sur- plus of $5,000.
G. S. Thatcher was born in Albany, New York, October 19, 1890, son of Allen Z. Thatcher. His father was a stave manufacturer at Rochester, New York, and in 1903 came to California and lived retired at Los Ange- les until his death in 1906. G. S. Thatcher was educated in the public schools of Rochester, and also attended school in California at Ocean Park and Santa Monica. He served his apprenticeship in banking with the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles, remaining there five years. He then went with the First National and Savings Bank of Redondo Beach, and left there to assist in organizing the First Bank of Hermosa Beach in 1913.
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