History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 8

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

USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 8

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

December 27, 1917, recorded the marriage of Mr. Riccardi and Miss Catherine M. Austin, of Pasadena. Mrs. Riccardi was born in Nebraska. but was reared and educated at Pasadena. She is popular in the social activities of her home city, and is here a member of the Shakespeare Club and of the Order of the Eastern Star.

GEORGE A. BACKUS is a prominent representative of the insurance and surety-bond business in the City of Pasadena, where he maintains his offices at 608 Chamber of Commerce Building.

Mr. Backus is a native of the State of New York, where he was born in Queens County, at the family home in the locality now known as Forest Hills and now a part of New York City. Mr. Backus was reared and educated in the old Empire State, and has been a resident of Pasadena, California, since 1890. In 1910 he here engaged in the insurance business, in which he has developed a substantial and representative enterprise, besides which he specializes in the handling of high-grade surety bonds. In the insurance department of his business he represents the Aetna Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut (Underwriters ) ; the Sun Under- writers Agency of the Sun Insurance Office of London, England; the Alliance Insurance Company of Philadelphia ; the Equitable Fire & Marine Insurance Company of Providence, Rhode Island; and the Commonwealth Insurance Company of New York.

In politics Mr. Backus gives his allegiance to the republican party, his basic Masonic affiliation is with Corona Lodge No. 324, F. and A. M .; and in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite he has received the thirty-second degree. He is a communicant of All Saints Church, Protestant Episcopal, in his home city.

Mr. Backus has two sons: Charles S., who was born at Forest Hills, New York City, is a resident of Bakersfield, California ; and F. Rowland, who was born at Pasadena, is now assistant cashier of the First National Bank of this city.

MARGARET MILES SHELBY, MRS. CHARLOTTE SHELBY, MRS. JULIA B. MILES MARY MILES MINTER

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

MRS. CHARLOTTE SHELBY. One of the most interesting groups or families of famous people in Los Angeles County is that presided over by Mrs. Charlotte Shelby. With her lives her aged mother, cultured and lit- erary, who in former days did some excellent painting as an amateur, and has a medal awarded her for painting the Confederate flag. One of the two daughters of Mrs. Shelby is Mary Miles Minter, the highest salaried artist in the moving picture field. Her other daughter is Margaret, business woman, who has turned her gifted talents to the field of architecture and building.

Mrs. Shelby before her marriage was Charlotte Miles, daughter of Dr. Elbert Milton and Julia B. Miles. Her father was a noted physician and surgeon in Louisiana, and died when his daughter Charlotte was quite young. Charlotte Miles was born in Louisiana, was educated in Virginia and while in school she wrote and directed some school plays. Later she went to New York and became a teacher of dramatic reading, and also played many years with the Charles Frohman Company. Her Shakes- pearean coach in New York had been Mr. Lemuel B. C. Joseph, and subse- quently they became associated in establishing a school of fine arts in Dallas, Texas, and made a wonderful success of that. As an interpreter of classic drama Mrs. Shelby favored Shakespeare and Browning, and was in great demand for her readings and teachings of those authors before clubs.

When Juliet Shelby, later known as Mary Miles Minter, was'five years old she was in the green room with her mother one day when Mr. Daniel Frohman, the producer, passed through, and noting her exclaimed "that's the baby we want to play with Nat Goodwin in 'Cameo Kirby.'" She was selected from a group of dozens of stage children for that purpose, and that marked the beginning of a career on the stage that has been continuous since then.

Between the ages of five and eight years this remarkable child was featured in a number of Broadway productions with some of the most cele- brated stars on the stage, including Madame Bertha Kalich, Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fisk, Mr. Robert Hilliard, while during the summer seasons she played child roles in the best stock companies. She played every famous role that had ever been written for a child. Then, at the age of eight, canie her greatest success in the title role of Edward Peple's "Littlest Rebel," which was especially written for her and in which she played several years with both Dustin Farnum and his brother, William Farnum.

Both Mary and Margaret had supported their mother in Shakespearean roles when they were only three and four years of age. Miss Margaret Shelby played boy's parts for many years and appeared in some notable productions in New York. Her taste for drawing has led her into other fields until she has gained distinction as a Los Angeles designer of artistic homes and interior decoration.

At the age of twelve Mary was featured in an all-star stock company running a season in Richmond, Virginia. She was there as the child heroine of "The Littlest Rebel," and at this early age dropped her skirts, put on high-heeled slippers, with her hair high on her head and appeared as juvenile lead in these productions. Mary had been starred in child roles on the stage for several years, and it was only natural that she should enter the Realm of the Silent Drama as a star, her first picture being the "Fairy and the Waif," produced by the Frohman Amusement Company six months later than her stock engagement in Richmond. Following that came the contract with the Metro Company, and later she spent three years at Santa Barbara starring in American film productions. For the past three years she has been carrying out a million dollar contract and making pictures at Los Angeles with the Famous Players-Laskys Corporation. Some of her pic- tures have been "The Mate of Sally Ann," "The Cumberland Romance," "Judy of Rogues Harbor." "Ann of Green Gables," and many others.

Miss Minter, guided by her mother, has been active in many civic and philanthropic causes at Los Angeles. Mrs. Shelby has seen to it that Miss Minter's name has been associated with the life of the city in all its impor-

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

tant philanthropic and artistic phases. Mrs. Shelby placed her daughter's name in the corner stone of the Hollywood Bowl. Largely through Miss Minter's activities under Mrs. C. C. Carter the Philharmonic concerts were made possible. Recently she played Helena in the "Midsummer Night's Dream" performance given in the Hollywood Bowl for the Actors' Fund of America under the auspices of Mr. Daniel Frohman. Miss Minter also took an active part in the various Liberty Loan drives.

· Miss Margaret has executed a number of contracts in the planning and supervision of interior and exterior decorating and building. Recently her mother purchased the palatial Los Angeles home known as the Duke residence. It is a mammoth place, and Miss Margaret planned its trans- figuration into an apartment house, unique among such places. No two apartments are alike, and everything is on a scale of beauty and magnifi- cence, with a specially arranged Patio for afternoon teas, and an organiza- tion of caterers permanently connected with the business of the apartment house.

This property, known as "Casa de Margarite," at 701 South New Hampshire, in the exclusive Wilshire District, is accurately described as "little houses within a large house." It contains eleven beautifully furnished apartments and one bungalow, each of the houses with a name and individu- ality of its own, and with furnishings and service that are the last word in elegance and refinement. This property is owned and managed by the Margaret Shelby Investment Company.

Mrs. Charlotte Shelby has found her great joy in constant work, in early years in developing her own talent, but chiefly as the manager, director and trainer of her daughters' remarkable talents. She is herself connected with some of the real estate development of Los Angeles. In her is a some- what unique combination of the resourceful business woman and the talented artist. She has handled and directed contracts of both her daughters, and her utmost effort for twenty years has gone to the fulfillment of the careers of her daughters. She has managed the financial end of Mary's productions and investments.

ARTHUR D. WOOD is junior member of the firm of Brenner & Wood, which conducts one of the leading men's clothing and furnishing-goods stores in the City of Pasadena, at 155 East Colorado Street, and his coad- jutor in this well ordered business enterprise is George J. Brenner. By a happy combination of the surnames of the two principals in the firm the "Brenwood" clothes of quality have established a high reputation in the local trade field.

Mr. Wood was born at Wilmington, Delaware, August 25, 1874, and is a son of Isaac N. and Rachel S. (Hill) Wood. The family home of the Woods was established in Pasadena in the autumn of 1885, upon removal from Wilmington, Delaware. Isaac N. Wood here assumed a clerical position in the drug store conducted by his brother John W., their father likewise having been a druggist by vocation. He here continued his active association with the drug business until about 1900, when, by reason of impaired health, he made a distinct change of occupation. He was for four years an assistant in the office of the county clerk of Los Angeles County, and he then resumed his connection with the drug business at Pasadena. Later he assumed his present position, that of bookkeeper for the firm of Brenner & Wood, of which his son Arthur D. is junior partner. His wife died in 1910, and she is survived by two children, Arthur D. and Mrs. W. T. Finch, both of Pasadena.

Arthur D. Wood was eleven years of age at the time when the family home was established in Pasadena, and after leaving the public schools of this city he did not lack for variety in his scheme of employment, as he assisted in the laying of water pipe, made window screens, washed bottles in his uncle's drug store, and finally became clerk in a clothing store, that of Randall & Twombly. He clerked for this firm at intervals during a number of seasons, and then was a regularly retained clerk for the firm

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

luring a period of five years. He learned all details of the business, and in the period of his six years' association with the firm of Conrad & Hotaling he greatly amplified his experience, as he did window trimming and advertising work, acted as buyer and also as salesman. He finally became associated with Mr. Brenner, who likewise had been an employe in the same establishment, in forming the firm of Brenner & Wood, the success of whose independent enterprise has been unqualified. The per- sonal sketch of Mr. Brenner, elsewhere in this volume, gives additional information concerning the firm and its business.

Mr. Wood is a republican, is a member of the local Chamber of Com- merce, the Merchants Association, of which he served four years as a director, and of the Kiwanis Club. He is affiliated with Pasadena Lodge No. 672, B. P. O. E., is active in the work and service of the Young Men's Christian Association, and his wife is a specially active member of the Opportunity Club, under the auspices of which most effective charitable work is carried forward in Pasadena.

At Los Angeles, on the 27th of September, 1899, Mr. Wood was united in marriage with Miss Sarah A. Stombs, who was born in San Francisco and who was an infant at the time of the family removal to Los Angeles, where she was reared and educated, and where her parents, Thomas A. and Sophia (Wood) Stombs, still reside. The father was born at Marys- ville, this state, and his parents were pioneers of California. Mr. and Mrs. Wood have no children.

John W. Wood, uncle of the subject of this review, was one of the early druggists at Pasadena, where he is now living retired. He is one of the honored pioneer citizens of this section of Los Angeles County, and a few years since he wrote and published a most interesting and valuable work, known as Wood's History of Pasadena.

CHARLES JOSEPH HALL. A prominent figure in the banking circles of Pasadena for fifteen years, Charles Joseph Hall is vice president of the Pasadena Branch of the Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank, and his experience in banking covers practically his entire career since he left school.

He is a son of Charles Abel Thomas and Laura (Lacey) Hall, now deceased, and was born at Charlotte, Michigan, October 1, 1866. Mr. Hall attended the public schools of Charlotte, and was one of the very popular young men of that Michigan town, a leader in useful activities, a friend to everyone, and has carefully distinguished himself as an amateur actor. When he was a young man the Barton Comedy Company spent its summers at Charlotte, and in the home talent plays Charles Joseph Hall always took a conspicuous part. His genius for friendship has continued with him in his mature career in the West, and at Pasadena his personal popularity is second only to the esteem paid him as a banker.

Mr. Hall was brought up in the banking business, beginning in 1883 as a clerk in the First National Bank of Charlotte. His Uncle, Honorable Edward S. Lacey, was president of that bank and subsequently became comptroller of currency at Washington and following that was president of the Bankers National Bank of Chicago and its successor, the Continental and Commercial National Bank, until his death. Mr. Hall was assistant cashier when he left Charlotte in 1895, and subsequently he served as cashier and vice president of the Phoenix National Bank of Phoenix, Arizona, and from 1905 to 1907 was vice president and treasurer of the Home Savings Bank and Trust Company of Phoenix. While at Phoenix he also acted as receiver for the Arizona Canal Company, the Arizona Improvement Company and was vice president of the Arizona Water Com- pany and treasurer of the Phoenix Light & Fuel Company. Mr. Hall served for a time as paymaster general of the National Guard of Arizona Territory.

Locating in Pasadena in 1907, he became vice president of the San Gabriel Valley Bank of that city, and filled that office until February, 1912,

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

since which time he has been connected with the Union National Bank and the Union Trust & Savings Bank, now affiliated in ownership with the First National Bank of Los Angeles and now known as the Pasadena Branch of the Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank. Mr. Hall is manager of the Savings and Trust Department in the Pasadena management. He is also vice president of the Weatherby-Kayser Shoe Company of Los Angeles.

Mr. Hall was a member of the Public Library Board of Trustees at Charlotte in 1894, and while in Arizona served on the Public Library Board at Phoenix. In March, 1920, he organized the Pasadena Rotary Club, and was its first secretary. He is an old-line republican, and is a member of the California Club and the Gamut Club of Los Angeles, the Flint Ridge Country Club, Overland Club and Twilight Club of Pasadena. Mr. Hall is a direct descendant of John Bradford, the first governor of Massachusetts.

In 1893 at Charlotte, Michigan, he married Miss Jessie Ainger. She died at Santa Barbara, California. On June 6, 1905, at Phoenix, Arizona, he married Miss Martha Crews. They have two children : Jean Hall, born at Phoenix, and Lacey C. Hall, born at Pasadena.

REV. ELLIS BISHOP, organizer and executive head of the firm of Ellis Bishop & Company, real estate, insurance and investments, with offices at 28 Garfield Ave. in the city of Pasadena, gave twenty years of earnest and successful service as a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and since turning his attention to business affairs has brought to bear mature administrative ability and the broad vision that make for large and worthy achievement.

Mr. Bishop was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 7, 1872, and is a son of James and Mary Faugeres (Ellis) Bishop, who passed the closing years of their lives at Morristown, New Jersey.

James Bishop, son of James and Ellen (Bennett) Bishop, was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, May 11, 1816, and died at Kemble Hill, near Morristown, that state, on the 10th of May, 1895. He became a successful merchant and ship-owner, in which lines of enterprise he was first associated with his father under the title of James Bishop & Son, at New Brunswick, and later he became the head principal of James Bishop & Company, 3 Beaver Street, New York City. The vessels of this concern traded in European, African and South American ports, and for a time the firm had a virtual monoply of India-rubber imports, besides being interested in various enter- prises for the manufacture of rubber goods.

James Bishop served in 1850 as a member of the New Jersey Legis- lature, and, as a whig, was elected representative from his native statc to the Thirty-fourth Congress of the United States, 1855-7. He inherited from his father a large fortune, and his beautiful home in New Brunswick was the stage of generous and gracious hospitality, ever open to his many friends. When Mr. Bishop was about fifty years of age his health failed. His business was then very widely cxtended and, believing it thoroughly established on the basis of stable prosperity, he went abroad with his family, to remain three years-a period suggested by his physician as one of requisite rest to prolong his life. While he was absent the panic of 1873 intervened and in 1874 he returned home, to find his business virtually oblit- erated. Giving up everything, he lived for several years on a farm near New Brunswick, and after recovering his health he was ap- pointed, in 1878, chief of the New Jersey Bureau of Labor Statistics. With residence in the capital city of Trenton, he retained this office until 1893, and upon his retirement the following appreciative cstimate appeared in the New York Evening Post :

The New Jersey Labor Bureau has taken a leading place among the state offices of this character because of the excellence of its annual reports. These reports have circulated not only among all the states of this country but have been in demand among the leading

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

countries of Europe. While devoted broadly to all the prominent branches of the labor question, they have been free from demagogism and have been so replete with statistics and other information that they have been indispensable to students of social affairs.

James Bishop was distinguished for his patriotic spirit in every emergency, as well as for his unobtrusive piety. The principal founder of St. James Methodist Episcopal Church of New Brunswick, he was chosen a member of the central committee of arrangements appointed by the general committee in charge of the celebration of the Centennial of American Methodism in 1866. Through all his vicissitudes Mr. Bishop retained a firm and unshaken faith in the providence of God. Early in his life it fell to his lot to be upon the train that fell through a bridge at South Norwalk Connecticut, the most appalling railway accident that had ever occurred up to that time and one that has seldom been surpassed in horror since. Again, he was upon the French steamer, La Ville de Havre, that was bearing to their homes many foreign delegates to the Evangelical Alliance and that was wrecked in the open seas. For nearly an hour he was in the water, and barely escaped with his life. In 1849, at the time of the rush of gold- seekers to the newly discovered fields in California, Mr. Bishop crossed the continent, mainly by stage coach, and he returned from California on one of his own ships, by way of Cape Horn. On May 31, 1839, Mr. Bishop married Harriet Romeyn McClelland, daughter of Rev. Alexander McClelland, D. D., who was professor of theology in Rutgers College from 1829 to 1851. Mrs. Bishop's death occurred April 9, 1844. On the 27th of November, 1850, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bishop and Mary Faugeres Ellis, daughter of John and Isabella (Thompson) Ellis, of New York. Mrs. Bishop was born at Sing Sing, New York, May 26, 1831, and died at Kemble Hill, near Morristown, New Jersey, June 14, 1896, one year after the death of her husband. Of the family of seven sons and three daughters, five sons and one daughter are living at the time of this writing, in 1922, and the subject of this review is the only one of the number residing west of the state of New York. One son, Dr. Louis Faugeres Bishop, of New York City, is a world authority as a specialist in arterio- sclerosis. Another of the sons is Professor John Remsen Bishop, who is a prominent figure in educational circles and who resides at Peek- skill, New York.

Ellis Bishop, youngest of the ten children, attended the Princeton Preparatory School, Princeton, New Jersey, and thereafter continued his studies in historic old Rutgers College, in his native city of New Brunswick. He was later graduated from the Berkeley Divinity School, at Middletown, Connecticut, and after his ordination to the priesthood of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he continued his pastoral service for twenty years, his most noteworthy incumbency having been that of rector of St. Stephen's Church, Boston, Massachu- setts, while in the educational work of the church he served for some time as professor of pastoral theology and Christian ethics in the Berkeley Divinity School. Before entering the ministry he was associated about two years with Cooper, Hewitt & Company, a concern now a part of the United States Steel Corporation. After retiring from the active work of the priesthood Mr. Bishop made a European tour of one year's duration, and in 1914 he came to Cali- fornia, where he finally made permanent settlement at Pasadena. Here he established the Vitalait Laboratory, on West Colorado Street, and organized the company to develop the enterprise, he being now a director and the vice president of the company. He had the active management of the business two years, and in 1919 he entered into partnership with J. W. Wright in the handling of city real estate in Pasadena. The enterprise was continued under the firm name of Wright, Bishop & Company until October, 1921, when Mr. Bishop

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

sold his interest to his partner and formed the firm of Ellis Bishop & Company, real estate, insurance and investments, the new organ- ization giving special attention to the sale and development of high grade properties, both business and residential.

In the World war period Mr. Bishop gave the major part of his time and attention to Red Cross work and Belgian relief service. In politics he supports men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, irrespective of strict partisan lines. He is a member of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, the Overland Club, the Annan- dale Golf Club, the Merchants Association and the Pasadena Realty Board.

At Southboro, Massachusetts, on the 21st of May, 1907, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bishop and Miss Eleanor Burnett, who was born at that place, the youngest daughter of Joseph Burnett. She received a fine musical education, which she completed at Paris, France. Her brother Edward married the only daughter of the late James Russell Lowell, and her sisters all married men of prominence and influence. Joseph Burnett was the founder of the firm of Joseph Burnett & Company in 1848 in the City of Boston, this having become one of the leading American concerns in the manufacturing of extracts and similar products. Of the six sons and five daughters of Joseph Burnett all are living except one son, and Mrs. Bishop is the only one of the number in the West. Her oldest sister is the wife of Charles Kidder, of Kidder, Peabody & Company, one of the oldest banking concerns in the City of Boston, and another sister married George Peabody Gardner of the influential Boston family of that name, while another sister is the wife of Charles F. Choate, nephew of Joseph Choate and now one of the leading corporation lawyers in New England. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop have two children: Mary Josephine, who was born at Middletown, Connecticut, and James, who was born at Bridgeport, that state.

MRS. O. P. CLARK. Through the sympathetic energy and kindly interest of Mrs. O. P. Clark of Los Angeles one of the most progressive movements in social betterment work was inaugurated and has been maintained with remarkable results. The nationally famed "Resthaven" and the Psycho- pathic Parole System are monuments to those whom she has been able to enlist in this laudable enterprise. Mrs. Clark has always been interested in humanitarian work, and it was while on a tour of inspection of the County Hospital, where the insane were held awaiting trial and commitment, that her attention was especially attracted toward a quiet, nice-appearing girl. It developed that the girl was not insane, only despondent and needing a thorough rest. Her sister, with whom she had been residing, had reported her as mentally unbalanced, and, as there was no other place to keep her. she had been taken to the insane ward of the County Hospital. Realizing that it was only a matter of time until her mind gave way under the strain, and that hers was but one of many similar cases in need of different treat- ment, Mrs. Clark sought an early interview with Judge George H. Hutton, who then presided over the Lunacy Commission at Los Angeles. Out of this grew many changes in the manner of caring for the insane in Los Angeles County. The court was taken to the hospital rather than bringing the patient to court. Later a psychopathic ward was built in connection with the County Hospital, where the patient can be held for observation and where court is now held ; a Psychopathic Parole Committee was formed and a definite system inaugurated to provide care for those who are only mentally tired and highly nervous, and to give every chance possible to every one for whom there is hope of recovery.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 8

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