USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume II > Part 88
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Mrs. Pyne now lives in the home she and her sons first purchased on coming to Los Angeles. At that time it was some distance from the heart of the city, and it is now surrounded with commercial structures and she
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has been made some attractive offers for the site. She has retained it, largely due to its associations. Mrs. Pyne for many years has been a member of the Ebell Club.
Mrs. Pyne's only living son, Estel Walter, is now occupying the home ranch, a wonderful place of two hundred acres eight miles from Anaheim, near Fullerton. Most of the land is in oranges, and six or seven families are employed on the property. Nearby are some oil wells, and three years ago the first producing well was brought in. Estel Pyne organized two companies and leased eighteen acres, and now has four producing wells on this lease. His own beautiful home is located at Laguna Beach.
DONALD EDWIN HAYNES, who is secretary and treasurer of Henley & Haynes, Incorporated, insurance, with offices both in Pasadena and Los Angeles, has for some years devoted his time exclusively to the insur- ance business, but has also had an extensive experience in banking and other affairs. He has been a resident of Pasadena since 1911.
Mr. Haynes was born at Cambridge, Ohio, June 13, 1881, son of Theodore G. and Ada (Lawrence) Haynes. His parents are living at Pasadena, and his father was born in Keokuk, Iowa, and his mother at Washington in Guernsey County, Ohio. The family came to California in 1907, and from Los Angeles moved to Pasadena in 1910. Theodore Haynes is also in the insurance business. There are two children, Donald E. and Marguerite.
Donald E. Haynes was reared at Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he attended the Central High School and the University of Minnesota. He also had some special work in the University of Chicago. He acquired his banking experience with the Security National Bank at Minneapolis, where for a time he had charge of the collection department. Later he went to Mexico, and was in charge of gold dredging operations in Sonora. On coming to California in 1911 Mr. Haynes engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Pasadena, but after two years confined his efforts exclusively to insurance. He was associated with J. C. Brainard and later with J. W. Wright, and in 1917 became associated with Robert R. Henley in the corporation of Henley & Haynes.
Mr. Haynes was rejected by both the army and navy examiners on account of heart murmur, but he enlisted and served for one year as a member of the Home Guard. He is a republican voter, a member of the Flintridge Country Club and Kiwanis Club of Pasadena, the City Club of Los Angeles, the University of Minnesota Alumni Association and is a member of the National and State Insurance Association.
November 22, 1906, he married Miss Aimee Laramee. Her father, Louis Laramee, came from Canada and settled at Minneapolis, then known as St. Anthony Falls, in 1857. He was a pioneer business man, and was in the harness business in Minneapolis until. his death in 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Haynes have one son, Louis Laramee Haynes, born in 1910.
ROBERT RIED HENLEY is a specialist in insurance, a subject to which he has devoted years of study, and is in the business not only for its com- mercial side but as a real profession. He is a member of the firm Henley & Haynes, insurance, Pasadena.
Mr. Henley was born in Knightstown, Henry County, Indiana, Febru- ary 8, 1887, son of Albert and Martha (Hollingsworth) Henley, both of whom were born in Henry County in 1856, and are now living at Indian- apolis. His father followed farming until 1894, in which year he became interested in the ice business at Indianapolis. The parents are of old Quaker stock, and both of them finished their education in Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana.
As a boy Robert Ried Henley exhibited talents and strong inclinations for art, and his earliest studies were directed along a line to prepare him for an artistic career. He was a student for several years in the John
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Herron Institute at Indianapolis and the Chicago Art Institute. By 1905, however, he realized the limited rewards of an artistic career, and in that year he entered the insurance business and has followed it as a true profes- sion ever since. Mr. Henley's primary principal has been not so much to sell insurance as to provide the essential service needed and desired by business men and other individuals from insurance. His close study of the needs of the insured, and adapting his service to these needs, has been the basis of his success.
Mr. Henley came to Pasadena November 1, 1915, and entered the insurance business under the name R. R. Henley & Company. On Sep- tember 1, 1917, he formed a co-partnership with D. E. Haynes, under the title of Henley & Haynes. In February, 1921, the business was incorporated as Henley & Haynes, incorporated. The present office of the company is at 51 South Marengo Street.
Mr. Henley was eligible for the draft at the beginning of the World war, but having a wife and two children he was placed in class four. In politics he votes for the man that qualifies for office, and has no ambitions of his own in that field. He is affiliated with San Pasqual Lodge No. 452, F. and A. M. at Pasadena, and Pasadena Lodge No. 672, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
At Spokane, Washington, December 25, 1912, he married Myrtle D. Anderson, daughter of Nicholas Anderson. They have two children, Muriel J. and Robert R. Henley, Jr.
COLIN STEWART, builder of the Maryland Hotel, which he named in honor of his native state, was a resident of Pasadena thirty-one years. Fortunately for Southern California many Eastern men like Colin Stewart on coming to the West were not satisfied to utilize this playground of the world as merely the environment of their leisure and pleasure. From them flowed a constant current of energy and enterprise that next to nature itself have been the largest creative force in the development of city and country.
While his home was at Pasadena, Colin Stewart's activities covered a wide field in Southern California. He had begun his visits to Pasadena for a number of years before he moved to the city as his permanent home in 1890. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 28, 1850, and for many years was an active business man of that city. Almost from the first he became interested in Pasadena real estate, and among other prop- erties he owned the Richardson Block on East Colorado Street. Another investment was an extensive ranch in Santa Clara County and consider- able oil lands, but most of these he sold before his death. He owned the Stewart Fruit Company in the San Joaquin Valley, a prosperous business still in existence.
Besides the Maryland Hotel, which is the most conspicuous gift of his enterprise to Pasadena, he was also the moving spirit in the organiza- tion of the Annandale Country Club, which to him more than to any other individual owes its existence, For several years he was its president, and he took the greatest pride in creating the organization and in doing his share to make the club and its facilities realize the highest ideal of such an institution. He was an enthusiastic golfer, and especially inter- ested in the development of the wonderful link's at the club. He retained a considerable part of the real estate first held by the club. Mr. Stewart was also a member and a director of the Overland Club. He was presi- dent of the Pasadena Board of Trade for several years, and active in the Tournament of Roses Association. He was a member of the Masonic Order and a Presbyterian.
Colin Stewart was sixty years of age at the time of his death on August 4, 1910. He married in Baltimore, Maryland, Miss Annie R. Skinner, a native of that city, where she was reared and educated. Her father organized the Skinner Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of
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Baltimore. Mrs. Stewart survives with her only son, Colin Stewart, Jr., who is also a native of Baltimore.
HARRY GEOHEGAN was educated for the law, practiced his profes- sion and was successfully engaged in business in Chicago for a number of years, but since 1894 has been a resident of Pasadena, and has been responsible for the progress and development of one of this city's largest mercantile establishments, the Crown Emporium, a general department store now operating four places of business in choice localities of the city. The business originally was confined to hardware, but under the present management there are departments for groceries and meats, produce, dry goods, house furnishings as well as hardware, electrical and auto- mobile accessories. The four stores are at 15-21 West Colorado, 18-22 North Lake Avenue, 12-14 East California and the fourth store is at North Fair Oaks and Orange Grove Avenue.
Mr. Geohegan was born February 27, 1859, son of Anthony and Sarah (Boggs) Geohegan. His great-great-grandfather on his father's side was an officer in the Revolutionary war, and in the War of 1812 he and three of his sons were again soldiers. The Geohegans are of Irish and English descent. The Boggs family lived in Virginia, and from there moved to Ohio, settling at Lebanon in Warren County. Anthony Geohegan located in Chicago in 1865, and was in the furniture business in that city for many years. He and his wife both died there, and of their family of three sons and two daughters all are deceased except Harry and his sister, the wife of Judge Joseph H. Fitch, for many years a judge on the Superior Court bench in Chicago.
Harry Geohegan received his early education in the public schools in Chicago, and graduated in law from the law department of Northwestern University in 1881. He was admitted. to the Illinois bar that year, and at once moved to New Mexico territory, reaching Silver City the day Gar- field was assassinated. He was admitted to the bar at New Mexico and practiced there for over a year and a half. He then returned to Chicago, practiced law in that city for ten years in association with his brother- in-law, Joseph Fitch, and was engaged in the coal business under the name of the Lincoln Fuel Company for five years.
In 1894 Mr. Geohegan came direct from Chicago to Pasadena, and for a time was connected with the Pacific Electric Road as an inspector and subsequently was buyer for the company. His first duties were as inspector of the power houses for the Pacific Electric at Pasadena. Mr. Geohegan then bought an interest in the hardware business of the Munger- Griffith Company, a business that subsequently was changed to the Crown Hardware Company and with its enlargement into a general department store the name was changed to the Crown Emporium. The business was incorporated in 1891, and Mr. Geohegan for many years has been presi- dent and general manager. His son, Joseph Geohegan, is vice president ; his wife, M. Geohegan, is secretary and treasurer. Mr. Geohegan has served as president of the Merchants Association of Pasadena, was a director and at one time president of the Pasadena Board of Trade, now the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, of which he is a member, and is still a member of the Merchants Association. He is affiliated with Corona Lodge No. 324, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Pasadena, is a Knights Templar Mason and a member of Pasadena Lodge No. 672, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The sub-postoffice station No. 1 of Pasadena is located in his No. 1 store.
Mr. Geohegan married Miss Mary Filz in Chicago, where she was born and educated. She is an active member of the Shakespeare Club of Pasadena. They have three children : Helen, wife of A. H. Cauthers, who is buyer for the grocery department of the Crown Emporium; Joseph A., who as vice president has charge of the office management ; and Harold E., assistant manager. The two oldest children were born in Chicago, and Harold E. is a native of Pasadena. All were educated in
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the public schools of this city, and Helen is a graduate of Leland Stanford University.
GEORGE NATHAN TURNER, secretary of the Coast States Oil Com- pany of Long Beach, has been a resident of Southern California thirty years, and has had an extensive experience in mercantile, banking and oil production.
He was born near Virden in Macaupin County, Illinois, September 7, 1876, son of Thomas John and Annie J. (Chamberlain) Turner. His father was a native of England and his mother of New York State, and they were married in Illinois. Thomas J. Turner was an Illinois farmer for some years near Virden, and later became an employe of his father- in-law, Mr. Chamberlain, who conducted a hardware and furniture business at Virden. In 1893 Thomas J. Turner brought his family to Los Angeles, and for a time was in the feed and fuel business in this city. In 1896 he resumed the furniture business as a member of the firm Wright & Turner, whose first store was at Third and Main streets, and their later location was on Spring Street between Fourth and Fifth. Thomas J. Turner died in Los Angeles in May, 1921, and his widow still lives there. Had he lived a year and a half longer they would have celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. George N. is the only son, and was second among the four children. The oldest was Marie, who died in Los Angeles, wife of Arthur Macnab. The other two daughters are: Lena, wife of Dr. Paul Allen, of Waverly, Illinois; and Eila, wife of William Hargis, of Los Angeles.
George Nathan Turner was about seventeen years old when he came to Los Angeles. He finished his education in the public schools, attended the old Woodbury Business College at Los Angeles, and later the University of Southern California. After leaving school he spent about two years in the hardware business at Los Angeles, and then became an employe of the Old Union Bank of Savings, an institution no longer in existence. He was assistant cashier of this bank when he resigned. For several years he was also engaged in the investment security business and incorporation accounting, and as a corporation accountant he has had an extensive prac- tice for a number of years. He is still doing work of that kind in connection with the companies with which he is connected.
Mr. Turner has been one of the very successful oil producers in the famous Signal Hill fields near Long Beach. In March, 1922, he became an accountant, and has since been secretary of the Coast States Oil Com- pany, which drilled its first well, known as the Coast States Oil Company Well No. 1, and at this writing is putting down a second well.
Mr. Turner is a republican in politics, is a member of the Sigma Chi College fraternity and the Masonic Order and belongs to the Methodist Church. At Los Angeles, October 11, 1905, he married Miss Clara Gar- butt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Garbutt. Her parents lived in Ontario, California, for several years after coming from Canada, and are now retired residents of Los Angeles. Mrs. Turner was a girl five or six years old when her parents came to this state. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Turner are: Thomas O, and Louis G., both natives of Los Angeles, the former attending high school and the latter grammar school. Mrs. Turner after coming to California attended the Chaffee College in Ontario, and she met Mr. Turner while a student in the University of Southern California. Their home is at 4350 Victoria Park Drive in Los Angeles, and Mr. Turner's business office is in Long Beach.
ATWOOD SPROUL was with his brother the founder of the modern town of Norwalk in Los Angeles County. He was a pioneer of the great West, and a man distinguished by his enterprise and public spirit.
Atwood Sproul was of Scotch ancestry and was born in Augusta, Maine, March 3, 1834, son of William and Susan Sproul. He was reared and educated in New England, and in 1854 left home for California, crossing
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the Isthmus of Panama. He spent four years in the mining district, meeting alternate success and failure, and on leaving there went to Hum- boldt and for a year worked in saw mills and flour mills. He also spent some time in Trinity County, returning to Humboldt for the winter, and in the spring of 1862 went to what is now Grant County, Oregon, where he pursued several mining and business ventures. He built Humboldt ditch, using the water partly for the operation of his saw mill. He con- tinued milling there for twenty years. A mine he operated in the same vicinity became known as the Humboldt mine, and has been worked with profit until recent years. Like many of the early settlers he was frequently in contact with the Indians, and while he endeavored to live peaceably with them there were several occasions when he escaped death by the narrowest of margins.
In the spring of 1866 Atwood Sproul came to Southern California, and in the winter of 1868 he and his brother Gilbert H. bought 457 acres of unimproved land at what is now Norwalk, the original portion of the Sproul ranch costing only eleven dollars an acre. The village of Nor- walk stands on this ranch. Immediately after locating on the property Atwood Sproul built a livery barn and began buying, selling and training horses. A number of splendid horses were kept there. One of them was Conveth, a chestnut horse that sold for $10,000 as a yearling. The Sproul Brothers gave the right of way and depot grounds, altogether twenty-three acres, to the railroad. In the deed conveying this property was a clause compelling maintenance of daily train service for the station at Norwalk. This clause proved very valuable to the citizens of the community. At one time the railroad declined to stop for passengers.
Atwood Sproul, who died at Norwalk September 23, 1910, married Miss Caroline J. Sollinger. She was born at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, January 13, 1864, and is still living at Norwalk. Her parents were George and Catherine (Herburger) Sollinger, natives of Germany, who came to America with their parents when about six years of age. Mrs. Sproul was one of eight children. The family in 1868 set out for Oregon, going east by way of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, thence down to the Isthmus of Panama and up the Pacific Coast to Oregon, where her parents spent the rest of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Sproul were the parents of two children. Carrie, born at Norwalk June 11, 1885, was educated in the Norwalk High School, and is now the wife of C. C. Hillis, manager of the A. C. G. Fruit Exchange at Azusa. Mr. and Mrs. Hillis have two children, Jack and Carolyn. A second daughter of Mrs. Sproul was Beatrice, who was born at Norwalk, April 7, 1887, was educated in the Norwalk High School and the Los Angeles High School and married L. A. Norris, cashier of the Home Commercial and Savings Bank of South Pasadena. Mrs. Norris died in February, 1920, leaving her two interesting children, who are now at the home of their grandmother, Sproul. Their names are Aileen and Marjorie Norris.
STEPHEN ARNOLD RENDALL, who died at Los Angeles December 15, 1905, was a man conspicuous for his wealth and enterprise both in this city and in other sections of California.
He was born at Wells, England, son of William and Rachael Rendall. His father was a wealthy English gentleman. Stephen A. Rendall came to Amercia at the age of nine to live with his sister Marion, who married an English gentleman of prominence, Sir Hugh Trenchard. Their son during the late war was prominent in the air service and is Gen. Hugh Trenchard, who has received many honors in military and civil life in England.
Stephen A. Rendall inherited money from his father, and in 1868 he was well provided financially and used his means to purchase many valu- able and now historic pieces of ground. Among his investments were the block on Main Street now occupied by the old Cathedral, where at one time he had a corral, and he also had a corral where the old Nadeau
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House was later built. At one time he also owned the property now known as Pico Heights. This property he later let go for taxes.
He married Cecelia Ann Barnes, daughter of William Harrison and Julia (Murray) Barnes. Her grandfather was a very prominent and wealthy man who had many dealings with the American government in early days. Mrs. Rendall was one of the first American brides in Los Angeles. She and Mrs. Mary Banning, Mrs. L. J. Rose and Mrs. Edgar were the first American brides here.
A short time after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Rendall moved to Santa Rosa, where he invested in large tracts of land. He built the first brick building in that town. Thirty years ago he returned to Los Angeles and purchased an immense tract, which he later subdivided. He built his home on the corner of Ninth and Alvardo streets, and owned all the property through to the Westlake district. He named the various streets in that district, including Westlake, Bonnie Brae, Alvarado, Park View and Lake View. When he built his home at Ninth and Alvarado the horse-car line did not extend that far, and out of his personal means he financed the extension so that the cars might pass his door and be convenient for his children to attend school.
Mrs. Rendall is still living at Los Angeles. Her oldest child, Julia Anne, is the wife of Warren Fitch, of Los Angeles. The two sons, George Downing and Robert Stephen Rendall, both live in Los Angeles. Maybelle Cecelia, the fourth child, is the wife of Vernon Goodwin, of Los Angeles. Daisy Rendall is the wife of Tasker Lowndes Oddie, former governor of Nevada, and now United States senator from that state. Senator Oddie come of a prominent family of Washington and Baltimore, and is a direct descendant of the Stoddard who was the first secretary of war under George Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Oddie are intimate friends of the late President and Mrs. Harding.
Mr. Vernon LeBaron Goodwin, who married Maybelle Cecelia Rendall, comes of families prominent in Kentucky and Virginia. His father brought his family to California, locating at Santa Rosa, and secured as a tem- porary home the residence of Stephen A. Rendall. By an unusual coin- cidence Vernon LeBaron Goodwin was born at Santa Rosa in the same house as his wife, Maybelle Cecelia Rendall. Mr. Goodwin was for years interested in the Alexandria Hotel at Los Angeles with Mr. Billicke, and when Mr. Billicke went down on the Lusitania Mr. Goodwin took over the active management of both the Alexandria and the Ambassador until he sold out to the present owners. He and associates now have under- way a new project in Yellowstone Park. During the war Mr. Goodwin acted as food administrator at Los Angeles, and as head of the civic center. He is a member of the Sons of the Colonial Wars, the California Club and Los Angeles Club, and is a Knights Templar Mason. He is a law gradu- ate, though he has done little. practice. Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin have two children : Barbara Elizabeth and Vernon LeBaron Goodwin, Jr.
U. S. GRANT HINTON, prominent realtor and head of the Hinton . Realty Company, with main offices at 104 South Pacific Boulevard, Hunting- ton Park, California, was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on March 4, 1869. He is the fifth child of fourteen born to Thomas E. and Eunice (Armitage) Hinton. His parents were born in England and came to this country in 1840. Mr. Hinton's father died in 1889 at the age of seventy-two. His mother is still residing in Monterey Park, California, and is now ninety years of age.
Mr. Hinton was reared in Massachusetts, educated in the public schools and is a graduate of the Scofield Business College of Providence, Rhode Island. At the immature age of eighteen years he entered the grocery business in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and continued in this line until 1902. On June 12, 1895, he married Margaret A. Griffith, the daughter of Rich- ard and Margret (Jones) Griffith of Llanefydd Denbighshire, North Wales. On June 17, 1897, a son, Clarence R. Hinton, was born to them.
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In 1902 Mr. Hinton gave up the grocery business and became associated with the New York Life Insurance Company, with offices in Worcester, Massachusetts. After a successful two years he came to Los Angeles, where he assisted in organizing an office for the Conservative Life Insur- ance Company, and later accepted the position as manager, and when the Pacific Mutual and Conservative Life merged in 1906 Mr. Hinton became manager for the Pacific Mutual, with offices at San Francisco, but gave up this position after a prolonged illness which made it impossible for him to continue in this strenuous capacity. He then moved his family to Santa Barbara, where he spent three years recuperating.
In 1909 he again entered the insurance business in the capacity of inspector of agencies for the Occidental Life Insurance Company, with headquarters in Los Angeles, but was unable to continue in this capacity on account of poor health. Leaving the insurance business Mr. Hinton entered the automobile specialty business and was very successful along this line, manufacturing and jobbing high grade automobile specialties, chiefly the Hisco Automatic Air Control for Holley and Kingston carburetors, which Mr. Hinton invented and manufactured.
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