History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 73

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

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

at Cattaraugus, and thereafter he was for some time a student in Houghton Academy, at Houghton, New York. From 1895 to 1900 he gave his atten- tion in turn to teaching school, to service as bookkeeper and accountant, and to executive work as office manager of the Cattaraugus Cutlery Com- pany, at Little Valley, New York, for which he established and developed a complete and effective accounting system. From 1900 to 1905 he was cashier and a director of the Cattaraugus County Bank, and thereafter he continued as its cashier and manager until 1911, with a record of excellent administration, the bank paying substantial dividends and accumulating a big surplus. In the interval between 1912 and 1914 he was engaged in home building and also in the retail furniture business at Long Beach, California, and thereafter he was prominently identified with land development enter- prise in this section of the state until 1916, when he was made a director and the executive secretary of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. To this admirable institution and its service he has since given the major part of his time and attention, and he is a director also of the Paso Robles Develop- ment Company, the Paso Robles Fruit and Nut Company, and the Long Beach-Delano Fruitlands Company. It is not necessary in this personal review to enter into details concerning the work accomplished by the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, but it may be stated that it is one of the most useful and valuable vehicles of progressive movement in Los Angeles County and that it has had much influence in connection with the develop- ment of Long Beach from a place of 2,252 population, in 1900, to a fine modern city of 85,000 population at the close of the year 1922.

When Mr. Ballard was elected secretary of the Chamber of Commerce the organization was a few thousand dollars in debt and occupying very poor quarters. Today it owns its own home on Ocean Boulevard, which is considered one of the most convenient and beautiful Chamber of Commerce buildings in America.

Mr. Ballard takes lively interest, and that ever expressed in helpfulness, in all that touches the welfare of his home city, county and state, he is a progressive republican in politics, he was active and influential in the advancing of local patriotic movements and service during the period of the nation's participation in the World war, he is an active member of the Rotary Club of Long Beach; in the York Rite of the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the blue lodge of Palos Verdes, Long Beach, and with the chapter and commandery at Long Beach. He and his wife are zealous members of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city, and he has served for eight years as superintendent of its Sunday school.

At Sherman, New York, on the 29th of June, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ballard to Miss Emily Blackman Bates, who was born at Franklin, Pennsylvania, and who is a daughter of Rev. John H. and Caroline (Phillips ) Bates. Mrs. Ballard was graduated in the New York State Normal School at Fredonia and also in Allegheny College, she having been a successful kindergarten teacher prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Ballard have four children, whose names and respective ages (in January, 1923) are here given: Roderic Blackman, fourteen ; Esther Phillips, ten ; Bula Brown, four; and Eleanore, two.

WILLIAM G. REED. In these days of brilliant business success along many lines to become unusually prominent in any direction while yet a comparatively young man proclaims ability of a high order. A case in point that may be cited is presented by William G. Reed, engineer and contractor at Long Beach. In all business essentials Mr. Reed may be called a self-made man, having carved out his own fortune through personal effort and without assistance. He came to this city with a background of honorable professional achievement, and immediately entered the con- tracting field here upon a basis of thorough knowledge, unblemished business integrity and ripe experience.

William G. Reed is a native of Wales, born at Kilgerran, in Pem- brokshire, February 24, 1885, the second child and oldest son of George and Mary Ann (Watts) Reed. His parents were born in Wales and

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still reside there, his father being proprietor of the Black Lion Hotel at Kilgerran. Of their family of four sons and two daughters, the latter remain with their parents but all the sons have come to America, and through the assistance of William G. Reed are all well established in a business way in California, two being residents of Los Angeles and one residing at Bakersfield.

Mr. Reed spent his boyhood at Kilgerran and attended the public schools. As a rule Kilgerran boys are brought up in a practical way, and the matter of self support is an early feature of importance. It was a welcome one to young Reed, for he early had begun to plan for the future, and he gladly accepted the chance to go to work for W. E. Willis, a large contractor and engineer in Rhondda Valley, Wales. Mr. Reed remained with this employer for the next five years and, finding himself well satisfied with this line of business, closely applied himself to the study of its every detail, and after leaving Mr. Willis, worked as an engineer in different parts of Wales before coming to Winnipeg, Canada, executing many important contracts.

Mr. Reed followed engineering and contracting at Winnipeg for about a year. In the fall of 1905 he came to the United States and settled at first in the copper country at Butte, Montana. Later he was engaged for two and a half years with the Arizona Smelting Company at Humboldt, Arizona, removing then to Twin Falls, Idaho, and three years later to Dillon, Montana, and after two busy years there returned to Twin Falls, Idaho. Mr. Reed's business interests were largely centered there for the next five years, but not to the exclusion of favorable business fields in other states, and from Twin Falls he removed to Salt Lake City, Utah, and from there to Long Beach, California, in July, 1922, coming here just after successfully completing the erection of the largest school build- ing in Utah, the West Side High School at Salt Lake City. Although Mr. Reed's bid of $618,000 was $22,000 higher than other bids offered, he was awarded the contract, which was a marked tribute to his professional and business reputation. He has made the building of high schools a specialty, and in addition to the above notable structure at Salt Lake, built the South Junior High School and the Jordan Junior High School, and built also in Utah the Box Elder County High School and the high school at Lehi.

At Dillon, Montana, Mr. Reed built the State Normal Training School and the Beaverhead County High School. Many magnificent publie build- ings stand to his credit in Idaho, including the Twin Falls High School, the Gooding High School, the Caldwell High School and the Jerome High School. Mr. Reed has become equally well known for his admirable work in California. In other cities beside Long Beach his name as engineer and contractor is held in the highest esteem. He is going to build the Capitol extension at Sacramento, and has built the McMahon Furniture Store, the Union High School and the Kern General Hospital, all at Bakers- field; the Seience Building in Kern County; the Fifteenth Street School Building at San Pedro; the Whittier School at Long Beach; the ware- house for Crane & Company at Long Beach, and at the present time of writing is directing the erection of the immense structure designed for Buffums' Department Store at Long Beach.

Mr. Reed married in Wales, in old St. Paul's Church at Grangetown, a suburb of Cardiff, Miss Rose Ena Clissold, who was born at Risea, Wales, and was carefully educated there. Mr. and Mrs. Reed have three sons and three daughters, all of whom were born in the United States, except the eldest, Sybil May, whose birthplace was Risca, Wales. The others are: Lois Theresa, William Henry, Pomeroy George, Frances and Douglas. The attractive Long Beach home of the family is situated at 310 Loma Avenue. Mr. and Mrs. Reed are members of the Episcopal Church.

In different sections of the country Mr. Reed has at times become interested in business enterprises other than those mentioned, and at present is a member of the directing board of the Torrance Brick Company of

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Torrance, California, and is a stockholder in the Big White Store, a pros- perous concern at Twin Falls, Idaho. He is a member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Associated General Con- tractors of America. He is a Knights Templar Mason and Shriner, belong- ing to the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery at Twin Falls, Idaho, and Bagdad Temple, Mystic Shrine, at Butte, Montana, and is a member also of the Elks at Twin Falls. In political sentiment Mr. Reed is a sturdy republican, although not unduly active because of his weighty business responsibilities, but, nevertheless, when occasion arises for proof of good and watchful citizenship he has proved as alert in public matters as in private business.

AUGUST B. HROMADKA, M. D. The most enlightened tenets of medical and surgical science find expression in the career of Dr. August B. Hromadka, a general medical and surgical practitioner of Sawtelle and Santa Monica since 1907, a progressive factor in many of the movements which have contributed to the advancement of his community and a man universally respected and esteemed because of personal characteristics and qualities.

Doctor Hromadka's professional ambitions unfolded on his father's farm in the vicinity of Milligan, Nebraska, where he was born July 26, 1880, and his parents were John and Anna (King) Hromadka, natives of Czecho- Slovakia. John Hromadka immigrated to the United States about 1875 and located on a farm at or near Milligan, Nebraska, where he has since carried on the pursuits of agriculture and has also followed the trade of blacksmith. He still makes his home on the farm there and is among the highly esteemed people of their community. Mrs. Hromadka passed away on October 28, 1922.

August B. Hromadka attended the public schools of his native locality, following which he went to the Freemont Normal School for two years. Next he pursued a course in pharmacy at the Highland Park College of Pharmacy, Des Moines, Iowa, receiving the degree of Graduate Pharma- cist as a member of the class of 1902, and for one year thereafter acted in the capacity of instructor in the same institution, being manufacturing pharmacist. Continuing his preparation for his chosen profession, he entered the medical college of Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, from which he was graduated with the class of 1907, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and at once began the practice of his profession at Sawtelle. During the ten years that followed he built up a large and lucra- tive practice and became well and favorably known as a skilled practitioner of both medicine and surgery. Like many others, his career was interrupted by the entry of the United States into the World war, and September 19, 1917, he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the United States Army Medical Corps and assigned to Camp Kearney, where he remained ten months. On March 20, 1918, he was promoted to captain, and July 25th of the same year was sent to the advance school detachment of Fortieth Division, which he accompanied to France. After three weeks in the Army Sanitary School he was sent to the Zone of Advance, in the St. Mihiel and Argonne sectors, where he served with an operating team in Evacuation Hospital No. 7 and Mobile Unit No. 1 until November 11, 1918. He returned to this country and was honorably discharged April 15, 1919, and again came to California, where he formed a partnership with Dr. W. S. Mortensen, with offices at 201-209 Butler Building, Santa Monica. The practice of Doctor Hromadka is large and important and extends through Santa Monica and Sawtelle. Professionally he belongs to the emancipated class whose mind is open to conviction and who sanctions the belief of the past only in so far as they are in harmony with the greater progress and enlightenment of the present. He takes time to investigate the new order of things and has the breadth of mind to judge wisely and conservatively. A great capacity for painstaking constitutes one of his chief mental assets, as well as a genuine liking for the enormous amount of work entailed by his allegiance to a fascinating and inexhaustible science. Doctor Hromadka

Horace W. Janu

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belongs to the Los Angeles Medical Society, the California State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He also holds membership in the Chamber of Commerce of Sawtelle and Santa Monica, and as a fraternalist belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Order of the Eastern Star and Masons, being a Scottish Rite Mason of the thirty-second degree, at Los Angeles, and a member of Veteran Lodge No. 373, Free and Accepted Masons, of Sawtelle, in which he has passed through all the chairs.

On May 19, 1907, Doctor Hromadka was united in marriage with Miss Ethlyn Leone Judd, daughter of Dimas and Caroline (Hallock) Judd, of Vandalia, Illinois, and to this union there have been born two children : John B. and Ralph J. Mrs. Hromadka was born at Champaign, Illinois, and was educated in the public schools there and at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and at Highland Park College, Des Moines, Iowa. She takes an active interest and participation in community affairs, and is a popular member of the Santa Monica Bay Woman's Club, the Sawtelle Woman's Club, the Order of the Eastern Star and Santa Monica Chapter, P. E. O.

HORACE W. MANN. One of the active, energetic and prosperous young business men of Pasadena is Horace W. Mann, proprietor of Mann & Company, a modern automatic super-service station handling everything for the automobile, including every standard accessory, doing vulcanizing and tire repairing, equipped with a washing and greasing rack and mechani- cal repair shop, handling Goodyear tires, United States tires and Hood tires. While it is not one of the oldest business houses of the city, its business methods, standard goods and general spirit of accommodation have secured for it the approval and patronage of the public.

Horace W. Mann was born at Muskegon, Michigan, January 1, 1893, and is a son of William H. and Harriet (McKillip) Mann, the former of whom was born in Michigan and the latter in Wisconsin. Horace W. is their only son.

The Mann family was established in Michigan in 1855 by the grand- father of Horace W. Mann. He was a native of Summerville, New Jersey, and came West to engage in the lumber business. He established his home at Muskegon, and lived there until his death in 1910, at the age of seventy- six years. He became a man of independent fortune and a widely known financier. When a private bank was started at Muskegon, by T. J. Rand, the grandfather of Horace W. Mann was an employe, and when Mr. Rand died he became president of the bank, and upon his death William H. Mann served as an officer and director of what was known as the National Lum- bermans Bank. Prior to this for some twenty years he had been exten- sively engaged in lumbering. When he came with his family to make his permanent home at Pasadena in 1919 it was not as a stranger, for the family had wintered here for ten years previously and had a wide social circle. William H. Mann and wife are highly esteemed retired residents, and enjoy a beautiful home on Oak Knoll Avenue, Pasadena. Mr. Mann is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner, and belongs also to the Elks.

Horace W. Mann attended the public schools and was graduated from the Muskegon High School in the class of 1910, following which he spent two years in the University of Illinois. He then went into his father's bank as a clerk to learn business methods. During the World war he served for a time in 1918 in the United States Navy, and three weeks after his release came to Pasadena and has resided here ever since. In 1919 he established his business at 376 East Colorado Street, opposite the Mary- land Hotel, whence he moved in October, 1922, to his present location, 60 South Los Robles Avenue, where, in his own building, he is equipped to meet every demand of the motorists for supplies, repairs and general service.

At Muskegon, Michigan, Mr. Mann married, on March 24, 1917, Miss Marguerite Urch, who was born at Chicago, Illinois, but was reared and educated at Muskegon. They have one daughter, named Gertrude. Mr. and Mrs .. Mann are members of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Mann's grand-

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father, Alexander V. Mann, was a charter member and the first master of Muskegon Lodge No. 140, Free and Accepted Masons, of which both Horace W. and his father are members, the latter being a past master of the same. Horace W. Mann is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner ; belongs to Muskegon Lodge No. 274, Elks, and is a member also of the Overland Club of Pasadena and the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

HON. SPENCER ROBINSON. Prominent among the men of his times and locality who have accomplished much of real value, Hon. Spencer Robinson is now rendering a much-appreciated service as mayor of Glendale, and is still attending to his large real-estate business, in which he occupies a com- manding position. He is a man of sterling worth and acknowledged capa- bilities, and his success has been earned through legitimate practices. Mr. Robinson was born at Rock Island, Illinois, March 11, 1868, and he was educated in the public schools of his native city, Shortridge Academy, Media, Pennsylvania, and Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, being graduated from the latter institution in 1891.

Returning to Rock Island Mr. Robinson joined the Rock Island Plow Company as a salesman, but, although successful in that capacity, left that position to give expression to his musical ability, and for several years traveled all over the United States giving recitals, and making a name for himself in professional circles. In 1902 he came to California and for five years was one of the prominent teachers of vocal music at Los Angeles, and also took an active part in musical circles as a vocalist. In 1907 he trans- ferred his activities to Glendale, and two years later embarked in the real- estate business, in which he has since continued with very gratifying results. He handles all lines of insurance, and his own investments in realty. In 1921 he was elected mayor of Glendale, and was re-elected to the same office on his record in 1923 for another term of two years. His conduct of the city's affairs is marked by a wise judiciousness which is productive of the best results. He belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Kiwanis Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Glendale Realty Board, the California State Realty Board, the Glendale Musical Club, and Delta Tau Delta, his college fraternity.

On October 14, 1901, Mr. Robinson was married to Miss Bertha Hen- rietta Sontag. of Davenport, lowa, and they have three children: Julia, who is a student of the University of California ; Jean and Dean Tyler. Mrs. Robinson was born at Davenport, Iowa, and after she had completed her courses in its public schools, perfected herself in vocal and piano music at the Munich Conservatory of Music, Munich, Germany, and is a very accomplished musician. Like her husband she is one of the valued members of the Glendale Musical Club, and she also belongs to the Glendale Tuesday Afternoon Club. Since coming to Glendale Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have taken an active part in the social life of the city, and are the center of a congenial group of people, but they are also popular with all classes, and very much interested in the further development and improvement of what they are convinced is the very best residential district in the world. Their faith in Glendale, and their constructive efforts in its behalf are very stimu- lating, and they have the hearty co-operation in their work of the best elements of its citizens.

HENRY PARKHURST BARBOUR. Educated for the law and engaging in its practice in Boston for several years, leaving that profession for a larger scope of interests involved in railroad building, establishment of towns and development of the rich Norhwestern country, Henry Parkhurst Barbour had a number of substantial achievements to his credit when he came to Southern California twenty years ago. In the last two decades he has proved one of the ablest leaders in promoting the development and permanent improvement of several communities in Los Angeles County, primarily at Long Beach, which has been his home.

Mr. Barbour was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, November 8, 1854, son of Isaac R. and Selina M. Barbour. His father was a woolen manufacturer in Massachusetts. The son prepared for college in the

Hurry S. Barbour

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Worcester High School, graduated valedictorian of his class in Leicester Academy at Leicester, Massachusetts, and in 1874 entered Amherst College, graduating with the Bachelor of Arts degree with the class of 1878. In 1923 Mr. Barbour was elected a vice president of the General Alumni Association of Amherst College, considered a great honor by all Amherst men. In 1880 he received the Bachelor of Laws degree from the Boston University Law School, and for three years following practiced law in Boston. Even while engaged in the practice of law other interests attracted him, and during 1881-82 he promoted the Duluth and Winnipeg Railroad in Minnesota. Retiring from the law in 1883, he became business manager of the Northwest Magazine at St. Paul, and with E. V. Smalley, a dis- tinguished writer and editor, conducted that publication for several years.

During 1888-90 Mr. Barbour was in the real estate business at St. Paul and in Washington Territory, and was one of the principal promoters of the Gray's Harbor country of Washington, a district now containing two large cities, Hoquiam and Aberdeen. For a dozen years, from 1890 to 1902, Mr. Barbour's interests were chiefly mining in the iron range district of Minnesota, around Duluth, and also in Colorado and Arizona.

Coming to Los Angeles in 1902, Mr. Barbour was president of the Beach Land Company that founded Playa del Rey, and during 1903 he laid out subdivisions in Los Angeles and San Pedro. He established his home and business headquarters at Long Beach in 1904. Most of the beach frontage there was sub-divided by him and in 1905 he conceived a plan and laid out Long Beach Harbor. His continued activity in real estate fields in Los Angeles and Long Beach since 1905 have brought him enviable prominence among the realtors of the Pacific Coast. In 1920 Mr Barbour purchased Alamitos Bay and revived that section, and he was also one of the promoters of the Belmont Pier Tract. His business offices are at 225 East First Street.

On January 19, 1922, at the state convention of the California Real Estate Association at Oakland, there were representatives from twenty-one cities who competed with five minute addresses on the subject of "Home Town," and the award of the cup trophy for the best speech was given to Mr. Barbour, who in the brief time assigned him probably compressed as many substantial and significant facts of growth and development as any speaker possibly could do on such an extensive subject, and his speech has been widely published as a model of concise expression and also as perhaps the most succinct advertisement of Long Beach's resources. In 1923 Mr. Barbour represented the Long Beach Board of Realtors at the National Convention of Real Estate boards in Cleveland, Ohio, and was one of the eighteen speakers heard in the National Five Minute "Home Town Cup Contest."

Mr. Barbour has served four terms as president of the Long Beach Board of Realtors. In 1922 he put that board in second place in California and made it one of the most important organizations of the kind in America, ranking eighth in the United States. In 1922 he was unani- mously elected one of the vice presidents of the California Real Estate Association, comprising 102 realty boards. A vice president of the California Real Estate Association recently proposed a toast to Mr. Bar- bour, in which he said: "Mr. Barbour is giving his life to the upbuild- ing of the real estate profession, and no man in all the nation is doing greater work for the profession than the stalwart president of the Long . Beach Board of Realtors."

Among other interests that have occupied his time and resourceful energy was the Long Beach Improvement League, of which he was president from 1908 to 1910. He is affiliated with Norfolk Union Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, at Randolph, Massachusetts, is a member of the Sigma Chapter at Amherst College of the Delta Kappa Epsilon. He was a director of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce in 1911-14. Mr. Barbour was chairman of the Building Committee of the new Congrega- tional Church erected in 1913, considered one of the finest church buildings of that denomination in the United States. For twelve years he was a member of the Republican County Central Committee and for four

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 73

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