History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 7

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

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Colonel Hutchins established the Argonne Products Company in Los Angeles on his return from France, and was president of the company for two years; is also treasurer of the Mack Postograph Company of Los Angeles. He is a republican, and is a member of Clarence F. Smith Lodge of Masons at Los Angeles, a lodge made up of ex-service men and named in honor of Clarence F. Smith, the only Masonic military officer from Southern California killed during the late war. He is affiliated with Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, Pasadena Lodge No. 38, Knights of Pythias, the Kiwanis Club, Union League Club of Los Angeles, Young Men's Republican Club of Los Angeles, and the American Legion.

July 15, 1915, at Whittier, California, Colonel Hutchins married Miss Vera Jane Landreth, a native of Pasadena and educated in that city and at Whittier. She is a member of the Woman's Club of South Pasadena, their home being at 1001 Brent Avenue. Their two sons, Earl Lewis and Charles F., Jr., were born in South Pasadena.

HUGH RIDLEY SLAYDEN, proprietor of the substantial and important business conducted under the title of the H. R. Slayden Company at 237 West Colorado Street, Pasadena, is known and valued as one of the most vital and progressive business men of this city, besides being president of the Southern California Fuel & Feed Dealers Association, an office which he has held since 1918. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the California Retail Coal Dealers Association, and he served one year, 1920-21, as president of the Pasadena Merchants Association. Mr. Slay- den is always to be counted on for prompt and loyal support of measures and enterprises advanced for the civic and business progress of his home city and county, he is an influential member of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, and since June, 1921, he has been a member of the commission which has in charge the development of a municipal zone system in Pasa- dena. He is aligned in the ranks of the democratic party, is a life member of Pasadena Lodge No. 672, B. P. O. E., and holds membership in the local Lions Club.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Mr. Slayden was born in an unpretentious log house in Hickman County, Kentucky, and the date of his nativity was May 2, 1867. He is a son of Wesley and Mary Catherine (Campbell) Slayden, both of whom were born and reared in Tennessee, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they removed to Kentucky about 1865. The father was en- gaged in mercantile enterprise in Tennessee until the outbreak of the Civil war, and later he was identified with farm enterprise in Kentucky. He finally removed with his family to Kansas, where he became a pioneer settler and where he passed the remainder of his life. He died at Wichita, that state, in 1915, his wife having there passed away in 1886. They are survived by five sons and four daughters: Mrs. C. M. Green resides in Los Angeles ; Mrs. S. I. Hellar is a resident of Pasadena ; William W. is a resident of Los Angeles, and James W., of Tacoma, Washington; the subject of this review was the next in order of birth; Mrs. R. B. Robinson lives in Pasadena ; Mrs. Elbert Tucker resides at Baton Rouge, Louisiana ; M. C. Slayden maintains his home at Pueblo, Colorado; and Dr. R. H. Slayden is a representative physician in the City of Tacoma, Wash- ington.

Hugh R. Slayden gained his youthful education in the schools of Kentucky and Kansas, and among his early experiences were included farm work and service as clerk in grocery stores in Kansas. After coming to California he was for a time engaged in the oil business in Los Angeles. He later went to Tacoma, Washington, where he was employed as a clerk, and for four years he was associated with the Port Blakely Milling Com- pany at Kamilchie, a town at the extreme southwest side of Puget Sound. In 1893, shortly after his marriage, Mr. Slayden established his home at Pasadena, and here associated himself with his brother, William W., in the oil and gasoline business, under the firm name of Slayden Brothers. From a modest inception he has built up a large and prosperous business in the handling of lubricating oils and greases, gasoline and distillate, automobile tires and tubes and various other specialties of allied order, as well as coal and wood. His large and well equipped headquarters are established at 237 West Colorado Street, and he is now sole owner of the business, of which George Strebel is the manager. Mr. Slayden has won success entirely through his own ability and well ordered efforts, has built up a reputation that is in itself a valuable business asset, and he has not hedged in his inter- ests with his private business affairs, but has shown most lively public spirit and proved himself one of Pasadena's most loyal and progressive citizens.

On the 24th of November, 1893, at Tacoma, Washington, Mr. Slayden married Miss Alice F. Lemon, and her death occurred February 17, 1910. Of this union there are three children: Eustace R., who is engaged in the raising of dates in the Coachella Valley, Riverside County ; Hugh Lemon, who was an assistant in his father's store, and is now at Berkeley, class 1926; and Alice Fredonia, who is the wife of Virgil C. Shidler, of Turlock, California. All of the children were born, reared and educated in Pasadena. Hugh Lemon Slayden enlisted at the outbreak of the war and left Pasa- dena June 13, 1917, with the Pasadena Ambulance Corps for Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he spent one year. He then went with the Expedi- tionary Forces to Italy. He was in Genoa one year and later with the Red Cross in Italy, where he was in active service. He received his discharge while in Italy and spent several months sightseeing.

On the 14th of April, 1915, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Slayden of this review and Miss Edith Thill, of East Whittier, Los Angeles County. She was born in Ohio and passed her girlhood in South Dakota, whence she came to California about 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Slayden have their home at 30 North Vernon Street, and the same is known for its gracious hos- pitality.

PAUL MALLERS HUNTER, M. D. To do things well may be termed a fixed and intuitive habit of Dr. Hunter, and this is shown not alone in his success in his profession but also, and in high degree, in his achieve-

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

ment and standing as an amateur golfer: He is engaged in the general practice of his profession as one of the representative physicians and sur- geons of the younger generation in Los Angeles County, his residence being in the City of Pasadena, with office in the Central Building:

Dr. Hunter was born in the City of Chicago, Illinois, on the 28th of October, 1890, and is a son of Charles LeGrande Hunter and Ida (Mallers) Hunter, the former of whom died in May, 1916, and the latter of whom now resides with her son, Dr. Hunter of this sketch, at 508 South Orange Grove Avenue, Pasadena. Charles L. Hunter was for many years an active member of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, and was one of the successful and honored business men of the great metropolis at the foot of Lake Michigan.

In June, 1909 Dr. Hunter graduated from Throop Polytechnic Institute, Pasadena, and in the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery he was graduated as a member of the class of 1917 and with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1917-18 he gained valuable clinical experience through his service as an interne in the Cook County Hospital, Chicago, and since his return to California he has been established in successful practice at Pasadena. In the World war period he entered the Medical Corps of the United States Army, was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, 1918-19, and gained the rank of first lieutenant. The Doctor maintains affiliation with the Los Angeles County Medical Society, the California State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His higher academic edu- cation was obtained in the University of Chicago, and there he became actively affiliated with the Psi Upsilon fraternity. At Pasadena he holds membership in the Overland Club, the Midwick Country Club, the Pasadena Country Club, the Ambassador Country Club and the Annandale Golf Club, besides being an honorary member of the Wiltshire Country Club. His name still appears on the roster of eligible young bachelors in Pasadena.

Dr. Hunter has achieved distinction in connection with golf, and was amateur golf champion of California in 1920-21, besides having been golf champion of Southern California in 1908-9 and in 1921. In 1921 he was a member of the American amateur golf team that represented the United States in championship events in England. From an article by the cele- brated golf champion, Charles (Chick) Evans, that appeared in the Los Angeles Times of February 8, 1922, may consistently be taken the following extracts, which indicate the high estimate placed upon Dr. Hunter as a golf player :

"Probably no one else will be so surprised as Hunter himself when he learns that I place him as the fifth player in my designations of the first ten amateur golfers in America. But I have, I think, a better acquaintance with this player's real abilities than perhaps any other golfer in the country, and I think I know some points about his play that have not been observed by others. Hunter formerly lived in Chicago, and in a way we grew up on the same courses. Hunter has been the champion of California for the last two years. He reached the fifth round of the British amateur cham- pionship last summer, being beaten by Bernard Darwin.

"Hunter, because of the remarkable foundation he was given for his golf, is without a single fault in playing. As a stylist he is equal to Vardon. As a shot-maker his every move is the acme of rhythm and grace. Every- thing he does is done properly. This is because his father started him off to a golf career when the son was very young. The best available instruc- tion was engaged and maintained, so that Hunter was instructed in the precise things to do at such a tender age that right movements grew up with him and have stuck. He has this magnificent foundation, and he has with it a physique and a temperament that are all that anyone could ask for. Hunter is big, and, as I have intimated, very well put together. He is a whale of a driver with wood or iron. He stands wide open in his drives. Because of the great distances he can carry, it seems to me he has a knack of getting out of trouble more easily than the rest of us can do it."

In an earlier paragraph of the same article Evans makes the following

Mas Mary C. Thomas. horas.

He. M. Thomas

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

query and explanation : "Ask me why Paul Hunter is not the national amateur and the national open golf champion, and I will have to turn you the same answer that Geers probably would give me if I asked him why one of his colts failed to show its heels to the best the turf offered when it had everything with which to do that. 'Pop' probably would say of his horse, 'he's kidding us-wait till next season.' And something to that effect applies to Hunter. I think he must be just kidding us."

JAMES W. MORIN, a representative member of the bar of Los Angeles County, is established in the successful practice of his profession in the City of Pasadena, with offices in the Dodworth Building. His broad and exact knowledge of the science of jurisprudence has made Mr. Morin especially successful as a counselor, and much of his law business is of important advisory order, a department of practice to which he gives preference.

Mr. Morin was born at Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the 8th of March, 1883, and is a son of Joseph and Anna (Tanner) Morin, the father having been a leading member of the bar of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and having been a resident of California at the time of his death, in October, 1888. The mother is now a resident of Pasadena. Mr. Morin's mother was born and reared at Grand Rapids, Michigan, her father having been one of the founders of that thriving Michigan city. His ancestors settled in Rhode Island in the seventeenth century, and became founders of Bristol, that state. Mr. Morin's mother is more remotely a representative of the English family known for heirship in the celebrated Ingraham estate, the property of which includes the site of the City of Leeds. The family title to this great estate was lost in the course of prolonged litigation, the late Lord Chancellor Erskine of England having had charge of the interests of the heirs. On the father's side the founders of the Morin family in Wisconsin came from Ireland and became pioneer settlers in the Badger State in 1840, a year which marked the settlement of a large number of sterling Irish citizens in the commonwealth.

James W. Morin was but three years of age when his parents removed from Wisconsin to California, in November, 1886, and established their residence in the northern part of Santa Barbara County, where the death of the father occurred about two years later. In that county Mr. Morin was reared to adult age, and there he and his mother resided until 1900. In 1901 he graduated from the Pasadena High School, and in 1905 he graduated from the University of California, at Berkeley, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Two years later he received from his alma mater the supplemental degree of Doctor of Laws. He was for three years an assistant in the history department of the university, and since 1907 he has been engaged in the practice of law at Pasadena, where he has a large and representative clientage, especially as a counselor. Mr. Morin is one of the most loyal and progressive citizens of this fair California city, and is here president of the Community Playhouse Association, of which men- tion is made elsewhere in this work. He is a progressive republican, and was one of the first California members of the Roosevelt League, in 1907. He is a member of the Kiwanis and Cauldron clubs at Pasadena and the Union League Club of Los Angeles, and is affiliated with Pasadena Lodge No. 672, B. P. O. E. He holds membership in the Presbyterian Church in his home city.

At Santa Barbara, on the 28th of July, 1909, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Morin and Miss Ruby Tully Evarts, daughter of the late Dr. R. M. Evarts, a representative physician and surgeon in that city and a member of the same family as was the late United States Senator Evarts. Mr. and Mrs. Morin have one son, Joseph Evarts Morin.

HENRY CLAY THOMAS was one of the venerable and honored pioneer citizens of Los Angeles at the time of his death, which here occurred on the 3d of October, 1921. Of him the Los Angeles Times of the succeeding day spoke as follows :

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

"With the death yesterday of Henry Clay Thomas, aged eighty-three years, Los Angeles lost another of its pioneers, one who watched this com- munity grow from a village, step by step, to a great metropolitan city. It was on November 2, 1865, that he arrived here from Ray County, Missouri, having taken six months to make the overland journey. He drove a team of four oxen from his home county to Salt Lake City, and then replaced them with the mules with which he completed the trip. Always active in religious work, he became a charter member of the First Baptist Church and the First Baptist Association, and he devoted much of his time to aiding his fellow- men. His death is mourned by scores of friends."

Henry Clay Thomas was born in Knox County, Missouri, on the 23d of March, 1838, and was a son of Hervey B. and Mary Mildred (Hewlett) Thomas, the former of whom was born in Kentucky, in 1806, a repre- sentative of an old and honored Colonial American family in the South, and the latter of whom was a descendant of Lord Nelson of England. Hervey B. Thomas became a pioneer settler in Knox County, Missouri, where he established his residence in 1834, and where he remained until 1852. He then moved to Carroll County, Missouri, but started for Cali- fornia from Ray County, Missouri, in 1865, and with his family came to Los Angeles County. The family left Ray County, Missouri, in May of that year and did not arrive in Los Angeles County until the following November. The long overland journey brought to them its full share of dangers, trials and hardships, and after leaving Salt Lake City, where the original ox teams had been replaced by mules, it was necessary to provide barrels to hold water for use in crossing the desert, a shelf on the side of the wagon being used to store food supplies. The father passed the remain- der of his life in Los Angeles County, and died here in 1885, his wife having passed away in 1881.

Henry Clay Thomas was twenty-seven years of age at the time he came to California, and he was accompanied by his young wife, whose maiden name was Mary Catharine Paynter and who was born in Carroll County, Missouri, in 1841, her grandparents having removed from Virginia to that state in 1835. During the long years of his residence in California Mr. Thomas gave his attention principally to the vocations of buying and selling property, farming and stock raising, and he achieved prosperity through earnest and well directed endeavors, the while he ordered his course on a high plane of integrity and honor and commanded the high regard of all who knew him. His marriage was solemnized February 23, 1861, and his widow still resides in Los Angeles, a city endeared to her by the memories and associations of many years. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas first joined the First Baptist Church at El Monte, and later he became one of the organizers of the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, of which he was the last surviving charter male member at the time of his death. Of the eight children of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas six are living and all reside in Los Angeles County. The surviving children are: Mrs. I. E. Hopkinson, Mrs. J. H. de la Monte, Mrs. Horance N. Taylor, William H., Charles R., and Henry C., Jr.

HON. GEORGE E. WALDO. After a long and honorable record as a lawyer and man of affairs in the East, Judge Waldo came to Southern California in 1913, and for ten years has been a member of the Los Angeles County bar. He is a member of the firm Waldo & Hinds, attorneys, in the Boston Building at Pasadena.

He was born at Brooklyn, New York, January 11, 1851, son of George and Sarah Ellen (Jagger) Waldo. He was educated in Natchaug High School at Willimantic, Connecticut, and in Cornell University. He was admitted to the bar in the Supreme Court of New York in 1876, and has . been in active practice for nearly half a century. He is a member of the state bars of New York, Nebraska and California, and has practiced in all the Federal Courts of those states and is a member of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1876 to 1883 Mr. Waldo carried on a general

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

practice in New York City. From 1883 to 1889 he lived in Ulysses, Butler County, Nebraska, where he was a member of the law firm Waldo Brothers. He then returned to New York City, and from 1889 to 1913 was a member of the firm of Wells, Waldo & Snedeker, Waldo, Naylor & Linn, Waldo & Bullard, and Waldo & Ball. Mr. Waldo was for many years prominent in politics and public affairs in Brooklyn. He was elected and served as a member of the New York Assembly in 1895-96, and from 1899 to 1904, was commissioner of records of Kings County, Brooklyn. He was a republican delegate to the National Convention of 1900, when McKinley and Roosevelt were nominated. In 1904 he was elected to represent the Fifth New York District in Congress, and was a member of the Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Congresses, from 1905 to 1909.

On removing to Los Angeles in 1913 Mr. Waldo engaged in practice with an office in the Story Building, but in 1918 moved to Pasadena, where he has been associated with Samuel S. Hinds, in the firm Waldo & Hinds in general practice. Mr. Waldo has continued his active connections with republican politics in Southern California, and is now chairman of the local congressional committee. He is a member of the Pasadena, the Los Angeles County, California State, New York State, New York City and American Bar Associations.

Fraternally he is affiliated with Pasadena Lodge of Masons, Crown Chapter, R. A. M., and the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Consistory in Pasadena. He is a member of the Knickerbocker Field Club of Brooklyn, the Annandale Golf and Pasadena Garden clubs, The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, Automobile Club of Southern California, and he attends the All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena. Judge Waldo and family reside at 585 San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena.

May 11, 1896, he married Miss Flora A. Henderson, eldest daughter of Col. John A. Henderson, of Tallahassee, Florida. They have two sons. John Henderson, the older, was a lieutenant of infantry during the World war, serving as an instructor at the Washington University in Seattle. He has recently been admitted to the California bar, and has taken his law degree at the University of California. The younger son, Cornelius Thornton, is a student at the University of Washington, Seattle. Both sons are natives of Brooklyn.

LEONARD L. RICCARDI is one of the representative members of the bar of the City of Pasadena, and has here served continuously as city prose- cuting attorney since February, 1917. His law offices are maintained at 302-3 Central Building, and he has secure place as one of the able and successful attorneys and counselors at law of the younger generation in his native county.

Mr. Riccardi was born in the City of Los Angeles, August 12, 1890, and is a son of Francesco and Josephine (Durant) Riccardi, who were born in Italy, whose marriage was solemnized in the City of San Francisco, California, and who are now residents of Pasadena. Francesco Riccardi was reared and educated in his native land, and after establishing his home in California he was for a number of years an employe in the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, in which city he remained from 1885 to 1888. In the latter year he removed to Los Angeles. He is now living retired at Pasadena, where he and his wife have maintained their home since 1900. Of the two children the subject of this sketch is the elder, and the younger is Mrs. Rodney M. Chase, of Pasadena.

The success and reputation that Leonard L. Riccardi has achieved in his exacting profession is the more gratifying to note when recognition is taken of the fact that his advancement has been won entirely through his own ability and efforts. As a lad of eleven years he became a newsboy, and he has earned his own way in the world since that time. At the age of fourteen years he obtained a position as trolley tender for the Pacific Electric Company at Pasadena, and when it is recalled that he was paid for his services at the rate of twenty cents and hour and that in a single month

Vol. II-3

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

he received $96.00, it becomes evident that in that month he worked 480 hours. A part of this time he attended school, his determined ambition having been shown with equal distinction in his school work. In 1910 he graduated from the Pasadena High School, and he then entered the Uni- versity of Southern California, at Los Angeles, where he graduated as a member of the class of 1914 and with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He had been admitted to the bar in the preceding year, his professional fortifica- tion having been previously advanced by study in the law office of Ticknor & Carter of Pasadena. While still attending the law school, in 1913, Mr. Riccardi gained practical experience in the work of his chosen vocation, and he has been continuously engaged in successful general practice at Pasadena since 1914, the while he has effectively proved his powers as a resourceful trial lawyer and safe and conservative counselor. He is attorney for and also a director of the Automobile Trade Association of San Gabriel Valley, and, as previously stated, has served since February, 1917, as city prosecuting attorney. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, he is a past exalted ruler of Pasadena Lodge No. 672, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks ; is a past consul of Pasadena Camp No. 253. Woodmen of the World; is first vice president of the Lions Club in his home city; is a member of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Associa- tion : is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association : and is an appreciative and popular member of the Pasadena Bar Association and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. In the Masonic fraternity his basic affiliation is with San Pasqual Lodge No. 452, A. F. and A. M., besides which he is affiliated with the Order of the Eastern Star and has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. as a member of Pasadena Consistory No. 4. He is the first junior past president of Pasadena Parlor No. 259 of the Native Sons of the Golden West, being a charter member and one of the organizers of the parlor.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 7

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