History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 87

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

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William R. Staats was educated in the public schools of Bristol, Con- necticut, and in the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. He prepared for college, but ill health compelled him to give up his ambition for a college career. His family physician advised that he come to Southern California, and acting on this advice he found his health improved and he has sustained a heavy volume of business and civic responsibility now for many years. He came to the Pacific Coast in 1886, by way of Panama, a month's trip from New York to San Francisco. Locating at Pasadena, he was with a business firm for a brief time and then engaged in business for himself, the business that is now represented by the William R. Staats Company. Mr. Staats started his business career at Pasadena about the time of the collapse of the great real estate boom of 1887, and has made a success in spite of many adversities. The William R. Staats Company was incorporated in 1894, and Mrs. Staats continued as president until 1920, and since then has been chairman of the board. The Los Angeles office was opened in 1907, and the San Francisco office in 1910, and another office in San Diego was subsequently established. In the spring of 1922

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the company moved to its handsome building at 311 East Colorado Street, a classic banking structure, owned and built by the Staats Company for its own headquarters. It is one of the handsomest of Pasadena's modern business edifices.

The Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank had its start in Mr. Staats office in Pasadena, and he has been a director of that institution from the beginning. He was one of the incorporators of the Title Insur- ance and Trust Company of Los Angeles, and is a director. Mr. Staats was also one of the Los Angeles County men who laid the foundation of the present wheat corporation, the Southern California Edison Company, the pioneer in the field of power transmission in the West. He was one of the four organizers of what was known as the West Side Lighting Com- pany, and the plant and service built up by this company subsequently were merged with the Southern California Edison Company, of which Mr. Staats is a director. In 1902 he joined the Union Oil Company of Califor- nia, and is still on its Board of Directors.

For a great many years he has been deeply interested in the develop- ment of Mount Wilson property, and is a director of the Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road Company, owning the hotel, cottages and camp grounds on Mount Wilson. The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory is also located on the grounds of this company. Mr. Staats for many years has been a director in the Pasadena Ice Company, the California Delta Farm, Mortgage Guarantee Company, Oro Loma Farms Company, and Pomona Valley Ice Company.

Mr. Staats has exercised a far reaching influence as a citizen, though never active in politics beyond voting as a republican. He is affiliated with Corona Lodge No. 324, Free and Accepted Masons, at Pasadena, is a member of the Sierra Club, the Tuna Club, Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the Revolution, the Annandale Golf Club of Pasadena, Midwick Country Club of Los Angeles and Pasadena, California Club of Los Angeles, Valley Hunt Club, University Club of Los Angeles, Bolsa Chica Gun Club, Overland Club of Pasadena, Tournament of Roses Association, Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association, and is a trustee of the Southwest Museum. The life in the open has always appealed to him, and that was a source of his great interest in the development around Mount Wilson.

March 14, 1900, at Pasadena, Mr. Staats married Helen Isabelle Wat- son, a native of Toledo, Ohio. There are two daughters by her first mar- riage : Mrs. Stuart O'Melveny, of South Pasadena; and Mrs. Robert G. Thomas, of Pasadena. Mr. and Mrs. Staats have one daughter, Mrs. Tur- ner Westray Battle, of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Mrs. Battle was born in Pasadena, was educated in that city, at Miss Ranson's School for Girls at Piedmont, at Mills College, Alameda, California, and at Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts.

ROBERT HOUSE PETERS. The wide variety of incidents, environment and personal experience that Robert House Peters has so successfully interpreted through his dramatic career on the moving picture stage has been a real part of his own life and personal experience. Mr. Peters long before going on the stage was a newspaper reporter, traveler and prospector in many remote corners of the globe, and his travel experiences have car- ried him to practically every country in the world.

He was born in Bristol, England, son of Robert and Mary Jane (House) Peters, his father a native of Bristol and his mother of Taunton. His father served in the civil service under Sir Robert Hart in China, and died in Australia, and the mother died at Sidney, Australia.

Robert House Peters was ten years of age when his parents moved to Australia, and he acquired his education principally at Adelaide. He early went into newspaper work, was sporting reporter and he was a newspaper correspondent during the Boer war in South Africa. He also did some prospecting in the mining district of South Africa. After a visit to Eng-

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land he returned to Africa, and his first success on the legitimate stage was at Johannisburg. Following that he was in the interior prospecting and hunting as far as Lake Tangemeka. Another season was spent on the stage at Johannisburg, and he then became a diamond miner in the Kimberley mines.

Mr. Peters came to America in 1911. For one year he played on Broad- way, New York, in Everywoman and in Susan's Judgment. A season with vaudeville took him to all the large cities as far west as Chicago. His first appearance in moving pictures was with the Paramount Famous Players with Mary Pickford in the Bishop's Carriage. He was also in the pictures Pride of Jericho, Chelsea 7750, the Brute, Clothes and Lady of Quality. He came to the coast with the California Motion Picture Company and helped make the first film at San Francisco, Salome Jane. He also appeared in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. He joined the Laskey-Paramount at Los Angeles in the Girl of the Golden West, Warrens of Virginia, the Captain, The Unafraid and Stolen Goods. He helped make the Ince pic- tures of Winged Idol, Between Men with William S. Hart, and with the Lubin organization was in the Great Divide and was in the Paragon Studio during the production of the Hand of Peril, The Closed Road, The Rail Rider, The Velvet Paw. Again at Los Angeles with the Paramount, he appeared in the Happiness of Three Women, The Lonesome Chap and the Heir to the Ages.

Since 1920 Mr. Peters' home has been at 431 Georgina Avenue in Santa Monica. He assisted the Equity in the picture Silk Husbands and Calico Wives. He appeared in the Great Redeemer, the Leopard Woman, Lying Lips, Isabelle, the Invisible Power for Goldwyn, The Man from Lost River, Human Hearts and The Storm.

July 25, 1914, Mr. Peters married Miss Mae Hilda King, who was born and educated in New York City, daughter of Albert Henry and Mary A. (Guidice) King, of Staten Island. They have two children : Robert House, Jr., born January 12, 1916, and Peggy House, born June 24, 1921.

DR. JESSIE A. RUSSELL, recognized as one of the most notable women of the state, is a native of Chicago, Illinois. She. is a daughter of the late Robert Logan and Lena Belle (Mackay) Jack. Her father was a native of Ayrshire, Scotland, and her mother was a daughter of Duncan and Jessie Mackay, pioneer settlers of Illinois. Doctor Russell attended a private school for girls during early girlhood, later taking a course at the State Normal School, and then in the University of Chicago, where she received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. She then went to the Boston Conservatory of Music and Oratory, where she completed with honor a three-year course in vocal and instrumental music and oratory. In 1902 Doctor Russell matriculated in the S. S. Still College of Osteopathy and Surgery at Des Moines, Iowa, and upon her graduation from a three-year course there, completed a post-graduate course in medicine in Chicago. She came to Los Angeles and maintained offices there and at Long Beach. In the prac- tice of her profession she was most successful, winning national distinction and honor by being the first osteopath in the United States to receive recog- nition from leading life insurance companies. She was appointed medical examiner for four companies of national prominence, holding these appoint- ments until ill health compelled her retirement from personal activity. After regaining her health she studied law at the University of Southern California and planned to follow that profession, but in 1917, because of her activity and popularity in several organizations, she was elected state president of the California Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Asso- ciations for a term of three years. With the nation just entering the World war Doctor Russell found herself elected to four of the most important positions held by women of California, including besides the state presi- dency, the chairmanship of the Los Angeles County Woman's Council of Defense ; the vice presidency of the Woman's Legislative Council of Cali-

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fornia and the vice presidency of the Woman's City Club of Los Angeles. For the ensuing three years she devoted all of her time to public work.

In 1909 Doctor Russell came to Glendale, where her ability was at once recognized. She was the first president of the Colorado Boulevard Parent- Teachers Association and also of the Parent-Teacher Federation upon its organization, being elected to these offices for three consecutive terms. Later she was elected president of the Intermediate Parent-Teacher Association for two terms. She organized and was the first president of the Glendale Choral Club, the first real coordination of musical activity in the city.

Always active in civic affairs, Doctor Russell has held numerous offices in various civic organizations, being a member of the Chamber of Com- merce, chairman of its civic committee, a former vice president of that organization, and secretary of the park commission. She has been chairman of civics of the California Federation of Woman's Clubs and of the Glen- dale Afternoon and the Thursday Afternoon Clubs. She is a member of the Friday Morning Club of Los Angeles, a charter member of the Woman's City Club of Los Angeles and also of the Woman's Republican Club of Southern California, of which she is vice president. She held the office of national chairman of legislation of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations for several years, during which time she made numerous trips to Washington, D. C., and lectured in most of the states in the Union, her services as a speaker being in great demand. She is an active member of over a score of organizations, including the College Woman's Club, the South Side Ebell Club, the Glendale Music Club, Order of Eastern Star, White Shrine and others.

Politically Doctor Russell is a progressive republican, having been active in the suffrage campaigns and has always been active in city, county and state campaigns. In 1916 she received a distinction never before accorded a woman in the nation, that of having a committee including the state chairman of the republican party from an eastern state come to Cali- fornia and personally extend her an invitation to go East to assist in organ- izing the campaign. The many interesting phases offered proved so alluring that Doctor Russell accepted and spent six weeks in the work. Keenly alert to the needs of the hour, Doctor Russell has been a potent factor in woman's activities throughout California.

In 1898 she married I. H. Russell, an attorney of Minneapolis, Minne- sota. They have one son, Harold Julian, now attending the State University.

MRS. MARGARET BRUCE BEAUMONT, whose home has been in Cali- fornia for a number of years, and is best known in San Francisco, has more recently become identified with Los Angeles. She has a most inter- esting achievement to her credit as founder of the University Fine Arts Society, which for several years has been a clearing house of culture and art in the City of San Francisco. It is an association of men and women whose purpose is the serious discussion of the questions of the day as relating to literature, art, politics and kindred subjects. It embraces in its membership prominent women from all the clubs, leaders in social as well as in cultural lines. In addition to the regular meetings there are announced gatherings at which the guests of honor are statesmen, critics, artists, writers and playwrights. Among honored guests in recent months have been Sir Gilbert Parker, Frank Vanderlip, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Rupert Hughes, Mary Garden, Nina Wilcox Putnam, Carrie Jacobs Bond and Judge Ben Lindsey.

Mrs. Beaumont was born in Chicago, daughter of James Campbell and Margaret (Shaw) Campbell. Her mother was a direct descendant of Sir Robert Bruce of Scotland, her mother being a Bruce. James Campbell was a pioneer pork packer, and he and the older members of the Swift, Morris and Cudahy families all started in business about the same time and all of them were close friends. James Campbell was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade for many years, and lived in Chicago continuously

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for half a century, being identified with much of its important growth and was a leader in civic affairs. Both parents are deceased.

Mrs. Beaumont was educated in St. Mary's Academy near Chicago. She has been known for a number of years in California as a woman of thorough culture and of special genius, with vision, insight and unusual business sense, well fitted to carry to success such an organization as the Fine Arts Society. In San Francisco she has made her home in the Fairmont Hotel, where the regular meetings of the society are held. It is incorporated under the state laws, and is conceded by all educators the most efficient, progressive and select club on the Pacific Coast. It is the intention to eventually extend the work of the society to Los Angeles.

Miss Margaret Bruce Campbell was married to Charles William Beau- mont, of Syracuse, New York, in 1906. He was then in the automobile business and later was interested in mining properties in Wyoming. He died in 1911, the only daughter, Margaret Bruce, being known to her friends as "Billette." Mrs. Beaumont numbers among her acquaintances and friends some of the most prominent citizens of the world.

W. B. KELLY, a veteran of two wars, is a realtor at 106 North Colorado Street, Glendale. He established his business in 1920 to handle general real estate, general insurance, loans and investments, and specializes in business properties. He is a member of the Glendale Realty Board and the Califor- nia Real Estate Association, is a past president of the Exchange Club and chairman of its Inter-City Committee and an active member of the Chamber of Commerce.

William B. Kelly was born at Galesburg, Illinois, February 28, 1875. He was reared and educated in his native city, attending Knox College. After leaving school he went to New York City and had five years of experience in real estate there. His next location was at San Antonio, Texas, where he was in the jewelry business, and in 1910, he located at Glendale, California, and for some years was a jeweler, until he became a realtor in 1920.

Mr. Kelly was in the Spanish-American war with the Eighth New York Volunteer Infantry, his period of service being from May 3, 1898, to November 3, 1898. He was discharged with the rank of sergeant. During the World war he was captain of the Home Guards, and was appointed by the Draft Board to give military instruction to drafted men in the San Fernando Valley. On August 12, 1918. he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Thirty-ninth Battalion at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and was on duty there until discharged in November, 1918. He is a charter member of Glendale Post No. 127, American Legion. Mr. Kelly is a Catho- lic, a fourth degree Knight of Columbus, and member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Sunset Canyon Country Club.

On September 21, 1901, he married Miss Orline G. Richards, of Boston, Massachusetts, where she was born and educated. She is a member of the Tuesday Afternoon Club and the Glendale Musical Club.

HORACE RUSSELL BOYER, M. D. One of the able men who handle the general medical and surgical practice of the Glendale community, Doctor Boyer is a native of Maryland, and practiced in that state for several years before coming to California.

He was born at Accident, Maryland, May 30, 1877. He was reared in his native community, attended the public schools and the County Normal, and then entered the Medical Department of the University of Maryland at Baltimore, where he graduated Medical Doctor in 1903. He had one year of training as an interne in the University of Maryland Hospital, and for six years he practiced in his old home community at Accident.

Doctor Boyer moved to California in 1909, and for two years practiced in San Francisco, and for a year and a half was on duty with the Los

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Angeles Hospital. Since 1913 he has been engaged in general practice at Glendale. He was honored with the office of president of the Glendale Physicians Club in 1922. Doctor Boyer in 1908 attended the Chicago Poly- clinic, and in 1922 went abroad for post-graduate work in surgery and diag- nosis at the University of Vienna, Austria. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations.

Doctor Boyer is an active member of the Glendale Chamber of Com- merce, belongs to the Exchange Club, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a York Rite Mason and Shriner. In 1913 he married Miss Elizabeth B. Stebbins, of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

GERHARD KAEMMERLING, M. D., is one of the prominent young physicians and surgeons of Glendale, and has practiced in Southern Cali- fornia since his release from duty in the Army Medical Corps during the World war.

Doctor Kaemmerling was born at St. Louis, Missouri, April 6, 1881. When he was a small child his parents moved to Crawford County in South- eastern, Kansas, where he finished a public school education and then took up mining, and for several years was district manager of the J. R. Crowe Coal and Mining Company. In preparation for his profession he entered the National University of Arts and Sciences of St. Louis, where he was graduated Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine with the class of 1915. He was an interne in the Evangelical Home and Hospital of St. Louis, and for ten months assistant surgeon to Dr. Charles A. Vosburgh, one of the eminent surgeons of St. Louis.

After a brief period of private practice Doctor Kaemmerling entered the service May 11, 1918, being commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps. He was on duty as a regimental surgeon at Camp Dix, New Jersey, until honorably discharged December 21, 1918. He then came West and located in Los Angeles, engaging in private practice one year and since then has been located at Glendale. He is a member of the Glendale Physicians' Club and the American Medical Association. Doctor Kaemmerling is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and a popular member of Glendale Post No. 127, American Legion.

On July 18, 1917, he married Miss Grace C. Webb, of Webb City, Missouri. She is a granddaughter of John C. Webb, the founder of the town which bears his name and the first man to discover lead and zinc ore, which products have made that district one of the world's greatest lead and zinc producing centers. Mrs. Kaemmerling attended the public schools of Webb City, and was a student at Cotley College, Nevada, Missouri, also at Central College, Lexington, Missouri, from which institution she received her degrees in music, French and English, and was for two years a student of voice in Kansas City, Missouri. Mrs. Kaemmerling is active in social affairs of Glendale, being a member of the Tuesday Afternoon Club, the Glendale Music Club and belongs to Eta Upsilon Gamma Sorority. Doctor and Mrs. Kaemmerling have two sons, Gerhard Webb Kaemmerling, Jr., and Elijah William Kaemmerling.

MORRIS D. KEMPER is a realtor at Montrose, with a special record in handling subdivision properties in Los Angeles County. Mr. Kemper has seen life from the standpoint of many occupations, and has traveled over practically all the West.

He was born in Lawrence, Kansas, July 25, 1879, son of Nathaniel S. and Louisa (Deffenderfer) Kemper, his father a native of Reading, Penn- sylvania, and his mother of Lancaster County, in the same state. His father was a contractor and builder and is now living at Topeka, Kansas.

Morris D. Kemper acquired a public school education in Topeka, and for a short time was associated with his father in the building business. He then took up painting and decorating, was located at Denver, Colorado, following which he was in the plumbing business, and was a hotel man in that city. For three years he followed the same line of business

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in Boise City, Idaho, and then returned to Lawrence, Kansas, as steward of the Lake View Hunting and Fishing Club. During the construction of the great Gunnison Tunnel, an irrigation project in Western Colorado, he conducted the commissary at Montrose for five years. Following that for a short time he was again at Boise, Idaho, proprietor of a cafeteria, and in 1913 came to Los Angeles and for a time was in the hotel business for the Salt Lake Railway and spent one season in the Yellowstone National Park. Mr. Kemper first became identified with the La Crescenta com- munity of Los Angeles County as a contractor, and since then has taken up real estate development. He subdivided and sold a property of thirty- five acres there. He is also a stockholder in the First National Bank of Glendale.

Mr. Kemper is a member of the Elks Lodge. He married Miss Bernice Mathias, of Denver, Colorado. She was born and educated in Iowa.

MRS. LUCRETIA A. PYNE. For a number of years the Pyne Music Company has conducted music stores in several Southern California cities. The Pynes have been a musical family, accomplished and talented, and in their business they have been leaders in developing musical tastes and upholding the best musical standards.

Mrs. Lucretia A. Pyne, mother of the sons who formerly conducted this business, was born in Vermilion County, Illinois, in 1846, daughter of Isaac Fisher. Isaac Fisher was a general merchant in Illinois. Her grandfather was one of the first settlers in Eastern Illinois, and he made frequent trips to Chicago when it was nothing more than a trading post. On these trips he traveled with ox team. He took up land at $1.25 an acre, and gave each of his children a farm.

Mrs. Pyne finished her education in a college at Bloomington, Illinois. She was well trained in vocal and instrumental music, and her twin sister was also very musical.

In 1867 Miss Lucretia Fisher was married to Mr. J. W. Pyne, of Columbus, Indiana. He had been a major in the Union army in the Civil war. After their marriage they lived a year at Louisville, Kentucky, where they were together in an extensive manufacturing business, having a box factory which occupied a whole block, and also conducted an iron foundry. After selling out Mr. and Mrs. Pyne moved to Chicago, where their three children were born, Estel Walter, Forest and Cecil W. In Chicago Major Pyne studied law, and all three of his children were given every opportunity to improve their musical talent. The son Forest also studied law, and at one time was a law partner of Senator Luther in Sioux City, Iowa.

The musical genius of the family was the late Cecil W. Pyne. After his early training in Chicago he spent much time abroad studying in the capitals of Europe, and he appeared in concerts after his return. He heard Rubenstein give his last public performance, when he played for the students at Leipzig.

Estel Walter Pyne, the only survivor of the three brothers, came to California twenty-nine years ago. Two years later Cecil and their mother came to this state. About that time they engaged in musical merchandising, and built up stores at Los Angeles, at Santa Ana, and a number of other places. The Pyne Brothers Music Company was the first to introduce the self playing or player pianos in Southern California.

After two years of failing health Cecil W. Pyne, who had been head of the music company, died November 19, 1922. His brother Forest had passed away June 23, 1903. Cecil Pyne had other accomplishments than in music. He spoke Spanish, French and German, and during a year of residence in Japan studied the language of that country. He had traveled all over the world.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume II, Part 87

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