History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 15

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
Publication date: 1923
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 844

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Mr. Munson is a republican, is a member of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and the local Merchants Association, of which he is a director, and he and his wife are members of the Central Christian Church.

May 24, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Munson and Miss Lola E. Jackson, who was born at Emporia, Kansas, and who was three years of age when her parents came to Pasadena in 1887, her widowed mother, Mrs. Mary E. Jackson, being still a resident of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Munson have four children: Marion Fay, Virginia Jackson, Edward Jackson and John Spencer. The only daughter graduated from the Pasa- dena High School as a member of the class of 1922.

THOMAS R. PASSONS. With all of consistency does this publication accord recognition in its pages to the venerable and honored .pioneer citizen whose name initiates this paragraph and who has for nearly half a century maintained his residence in his present home on Passons Boulevard, a thoroughfare named in his honor, in the beautiful Rivera Dis- trict of Los Angeles County. At the time of this writing, in the early summer of 1922, Mr. Passons is in his ninety-fourth year, but he still enjoys vigorous health and retains fine mental poise, with the vitality that is the logical result of right living in the right place. He has been a prominent figure in the development and upbuilding of Los Angeles County, where he still has prestige as a successful orange-grower.

Mr. Passons was born in White County, Tennessee, December 25, 1828, a son of Major and Annie Passons, the former a native of Ken- tucky and the latter of Tennessee. The Passons family was founded in America in the Colonial era and gave patriot soldiers to the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution. Major Passons became a farmer in Tennessee, was influential in community affairs, and in that state he and his wife continued to reside until their deaths.

Thomas R. Passons is indebted to the pioneer schools of his native state for his early education, and has stated that he literally grew up

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

between plough handles. He continued to reside in Tennessee, with farm- ing as his vocation, until the year 1874, when he came with his family to California and purchased twenty-four acres of land, which he has since retained and on which he has continuously resided during the long intervening years, within which he has done well his part in transforming a wild district into one of the beautiful garden spots of Southern California. In the early days he used his land principally for the raising of corn, but eventually he planted English walnuts and later turned his land over to the propagation of oranges, he having now one of the fine orange groves of the Rivera District. In 1876 he erected his present house, which has represented the family home since that time. In addition to improving his own land Mr. Passons has leased and cultivated much other land, he having at one time had active charge of 400 acres.

Mr. Passons was one of the organizers and charter members of the first Walnut Growers Association in Los Angeles County, and today he is the oldest living member of the same. He was actively identified also with the organization of the Orange Growers Association. Mr. Passons has had no desire to enter the arena of politics or to hold public office. He is independent in his political views and supports men and measures rather than being constrained by partisanship. In recognition of the high esteem in which he and his brother Oscar P. were held in the community the boulevard extending from Rivera to a connection with the Whittier Boulevard was given their name.

Mr. Passons recalls as an incident of the earlier period of his residence in California that at one time the Passons home extended entertainment about two weeks to Jesse James, who, under the name of Roscoe Manning, came through the valley with the ostensible purpose of mending sewing machines, though such a machine was not then to be found within a radius of five miles from the Passons home. James applied for room and board, and Mrs. Passons accommodated him. The family noticed that he always sat with his back in a corner and that he rode different horses every day. but no suspicion was aroused until Felix Robinson, brother-in-law of Mr. Passons, who had known James in Missouri, identified him. The noted desperado immediately disappeared, and after his return to Missouri he wrote regularly and often sent books to a sister of Mr. Passons.

September 25, 1852, recorded the marriage of Mr. Passons and Miss Susan Jane Douglass, who was born and reared in Tennessee and who was eighty-five years of age at the time of her death, in 1915. Of the children of this union brief record is here given: Louisa A. became the wife of Joseph Eady and is now deceased. Bird Payne married Katie Armstrong, and they have two children. Permelia is the wife of Samuel Reed. J. Wesley died in infancy. Ada M. is the wife of Harry Moss. Elijah S. married. Agnes White, and they reside on the Whittier State Highway. Thomas B., the youngest son, is associated with his father in the manage- ment of the old home place.

Thomas B. Passons was born February 20, 1873, and received in the Rivera schools his youthful education. For some time he and his wife were engaged in the hotel business, in Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and in the Imperial Valley, but they returned to the old home of Mr. Passons to relieve the venerable father from the active management of the place. Mr. Passons is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Independent Order of Foresters. He married Miss Ella M. Sparks, who was born at San Jose, this state, a daughter of Thomas J. Sparks, who now resides at Ontario, San Bernardino County. He was six years of age when he accompanied his parents from his native state of Indiana on the long overland journey to California in 1848. Mr. and Mrs. Passons have two sons: Gerald P., who is employed in the City of Los Angeles, volunteered for service in the World war but was rejected by reason of physical disability; George D. married Miss Helen Cayler, a native of San Francisco, and he is engaged in farm enterprise near Rivera.

Franklin &Mather Thankl

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Mrs. Thomas B. Passons has passed the official chairs in the Woodmen of the World and Modern Woodmen of America, is a member also of the Knights and Ladies of Security and holds membership in the First Christian Church at Long Beach. In her home she retains as a valued family heirloom a beautiful suite of hand-carved parlor furniture that was brought by her grandfather to California on his voyage from the East around Cape Horn.

REV. FRANKLIN D. MATHER. Among the prominent residents of the beautiful City of Pasadena few are better known, perhaps, than Rev. Franklin D. Mather, ex-member of the California State Legislature and a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church for forty-three years. Dr. Mather is not only one of the most scholarly men of his church body, but along every line of useful effort has shown such broadness of mind and clear understanding that his influence in helpfulness and beneficence can not be measured. Dr. Mather bears a very distinguished family name in American history, and his ancestral line carries back to Rev. Richard Mather, who came from Lancashire, England, to Dorchester, Massachu- setts, in 1635. There he organized a Congregational Church, of which he was pastor until his death in 1669. He was the father of Rev. Dr. Increase Mather, who became president of Harvard College, and who was the father of Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, and grandfather of Rev. Dr. Samuel Mather.

Franklin Davis Mather was born at Livonia, Livingston County, New York, September 26, 1851. His parents were Norman Wells and N. Cor- nelia (Van Fossen) Mather. He was reared in an intellectual atmosphere, both parents being people of education and social standing and teachers before their marriage. From the public school he entered the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, New York, and was graduated from the classical department of Penn Yan Academy, Penn Yan, New York, in 1872. The years 1873 and 1874 were passed in the study of law in the office of Wood and Scott, Geneseo, New York, which period was followed by a four years' theological course in the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

After twenty years of faithful work in different pastorates Dr. Mather fulfilled a wish that he had long cherished by matriculating in the Columbian (now George Washington) University, Washington, D. C. From this institution he was graduated in 1901 with the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, having come under the instruction of some of the most eminent jurists of the day. He had Comparative Constitutional Law and Conflict of Laws under Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court of the United States; Inter- national Law under Justice Brewer of the same court ; European Diplomacy under Hon. David J. Hill; American Diplomacy under Hon. John W. Foster ; Transportation and Interstate Commerce Law under Hon. Martin A. Knapp; Roman Law and the Comparative Jurisprudence of Ancient Nations and of Modern States under Hon. William Wirt Howe, with courses also in common law and political science.

Dr. Mather was not more than sixteen years old when he taught his first term of district school, and he was quite successful, but wider interests soon claimed his attention. For eleven years he served as treasurer of Huntington Beach Methodist Assembly and for the same length of time as treasurer of the Southern California Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church; has been a trustee of the latter and of the Hough Endowment Fund for sixteen years, and has just been at this time (1922) elected for the seventeenth consecutive time, of which board he has been president for the past nine years. As treasurer of the conference between one and two million dollars passed through his hands, and with the other trustees of the conference he is now handling invested funds of more than a quarter of a million.

In political sentiment a progressive republican, Dr. Mather was an enthusiastic follower of the late Theodore Roosevelt, whom he believes to have been one of the greatest and truest men of this country, and of the ages.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

He was elected assemblyman from the 67th Assembly District to the Cali- fornia Legislature, and served two terms, 1918-20, 1920-22. During this time he worked and voted for the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, and for the Harris and Wright Enforcement bills. He entered the fight for national prohibition of the liquor traffic nearly fifty years ago.

Dr. Mather married at Lincoln, Wayne County, New York, October 19, 1881, Miss Clara Parthena Dewey, daughter of Josiah Davis and Alta (Miller) Dewey, of the same ancestral line as the late Admiral George Dewey. Rev. and Mrs. Mather have one son, Wiley Wells Mather, who was born in Pomona, California, March 12, 1884. He married Glenn S. Shaw, of Chico, California, and they have two children, Norman Wells and Leonard Shaw. Since the age of sixteen Dr. Mather has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a minister in the same since 1879. In 1904 and again in 1912 he was a delegate to the General Confer- ence. For seventeen years he has been a member of the New Century Club of Pasadena.

DOMINGO BATZ. The cultivation and ownership of land and the substantial industries connected therewith have for several generations been the pursuit of the Batz family of Los Angeles County.

A sterling representative of the name was the late Domingo Batz, a man of great energy and industry who made for his family a fine home along the South San Gabriel Boulevard. He was a native of California, and his father, Bautiste Batz, was born in the French Pyrenees, of the old Basque stock. Bautiste came to California in the early fifties. Domingo Batz had little opportunity for education, and as a youth became a sheep herder and later owned a flock of his own, grazing them on the hills in the eastern part of what is now the City of Los Angeles. From the chief industry he became gradually interested in general farming and for many years followed that occupation around Los Angeles. Later he bought the land on South San Gabriel Boulevard, to the care and management of which he devoted his later years, and five acres of which still con- stitute the homestead of his widow. He died there in 1909.

Domingo Batz married Miss Esperanza Alvitre, a native of California and of Spanish ancestry. She has lived on the old homestead purchased by her husband for over forty years. The family are all members of the Catholic Church.

The four children were born in the vicinity of Los Angeles, and were educated in California schools. The oldest, Josie, born in 1890, is the wife of Nicholas Escujuri, a rancher on the old Garvey ranch. They have three sons, Martin, Batista and Joseph. The second child is Mary, born in 1892, wife of Joseph Capdeville, of Glendale, California, and has a son, Domingo. Beatrice, born in 1895, is the wife of Louis Capdeville, of Oxnard, California, and their children are: Margaret, Catherine, Camilla and Louie.

Domingo E. Batz, youngest child of the late Domingo Batz, was born in 1896. He had a common school education, and since his father's death has devoted most of his time to the management of the old home place on San Gabriel Boulevard. He is unmarried.

EMIL A. BUEHLER, M. D. Successfully combining the practice of his profession with the essential industry of the district, citrus growing, Doctor Buehler has thoroughly earned his high position in the Whittier community, where he has had his home for the past twelve years.

Doctor Buehler is one of the many Iowa men living in Los Angeles County. He was born in Odebolt in that state September 24, 1878. His father, Jacob Buehler, was born in Germany, came to the United States at the age of eighteen, and spent his effective lifetime as a farmer and as a good citizen in his Iowa community. Two of his brothers, John and Sebastian, were soldiers in an Indiana regiment during

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

the Civil war. Jacob Buehler married Elise Einspahr, a native of Denmark.

Emil A. Buehler was reared on a farm, attended the public schools of Iowa, and largely through his own efforts acquired a liberal education in preparation for his chosen career. He attended Charles City College in Iowa, and in 1904 graduated M. D. from the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. For five years he was established in a general country practice at Spencer, Iowa. He then returned to Chicago, and after a course in the Medical Department of Illinois University received a diploma of graduation in 1909.

Doctor Buehler arrived at Whittier March 17, 1910. He has looked after an increasing general practice since that time, and while not a special -- ist a large part of his work is handling cases of eye, ear, nose and throat. Doctor Buehler is a member of the medical staff of the Murphy Memorial Hospital. His home is a comfortable residence at 432 North Friends Avenue.

Such time as he can spare from his professional work he devotes to the care and management of a fine citrus grove comprising fifteen acres located in Happy Valley, North Whittier Heights. This grove is above the frost line, and can always be depended upon for a good crop, and in fact Doctor Buehler has the reputation of raising some of the finest fruits sent out of Whittier. He is a member of the North Whittier-Citrus Association. Doctor Buehler affiliates with the Chamber of Commerce, Whittier Lodge of Masons, Independent Order of Foresters, and is a republican; but has never sought any of the honors of politics. He and Mrs. Buehler are mem- bers of the Eastern Star, and Mrs. Buehler fills one of the points of the Star Chapter. Both are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church.

On June 20, 1905, in Charles City, Iowa, Mr. Buehler married Miss Lena Siegrist. She was born in Iowa, daughter of John Siegrist. Their four children are George S. and John (Jack) S., Elise and Gertrude Louise. The sons are being educated in the Whittier schools.

LOANSHIER HOSPITAL, at Santa Monica, is an institution built around the personal service and ability of its proprietor, Mrs. Hallis Bashforth. who established it January 6, 1912. The hospital, with an acre and one- half of grounds, is located between Princeton and Twenty-sixth streets. It is a hospital on the cottage plan, with fourteen cottages and the capacity of thirty-eight beds. The main building contains operating room, labora- tory, X-Ray room, with a staff of nine graduate nurses, maternity ward, two wards with eight beds each and eleven private rooms. Recently there was opened a nurses home of eight rooms. Mrs. Hallis Bashforth was born in Dover, England, daughter of John and Elizabeth Hinds, of Dover. She was educated in the public schools of her native city, learned nursing there, and was married at Dover to Mr. George Bashforth. Mr. Bashforth died near London.

Mrs. Bashforth came to America and for a short time located at Toronto, Canada, and in 1893 moved to California. She followed her pro- fession as a nurse in Los Angeles until 1907, and since that year has been a resident of Santa Monica. Since 1919 her son Cecil James Bashforth has been an active partner in the hospital. This son is her second child. Her oldest son, George Percival, died at Santa Monica in 1920, leaving two children, Genevieve and Robert. The youngest child is Arthur H. Bash- forth.

CHARLES F. SCHMID, M. D. Since his arrival at Hermosa Beach in 1921 Dr. Charles F. Schmid has demonstrated the possession of abilities that give promise of a vast amount of professional and civic usefulness. A physician of skill and experience, he has already attracted to himself a practice of the most desirable kind, and has also assumed public duties in the capacity of city health officer.

Doctor Schmid was born July 19, 1886, at Greensburg, Kiowa County,

HISTORY OF. LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Kansas. He received his early education in the public schools of Chicago, and after attending Bennett Medical College, class of 1911, he entered Loyola University, Chicago, from which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1913, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He at that time became an interne at Frances Willard Hospital, Chicago, where he remained four months, this being followed by an interneship of one year at St. Bernard's Hospital, in the same city, and five months at the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Dispensary. Doctor Schmid then began the private practice of his profession at Chicago, but in November, 1920, came to California. He spent one year at Los Angeles, and in November, 1921, came to Hermosa Beach, where he has since been engaged in general practice. As noted, he has already built up a large and representative prac- tice and has established himself thoroughly in the confidence of the people of his adopted community. He is a member of the Chicago Medical Society, the Cook County Medical Society and the American Medical Association. and while attending college was admitted to membership in the Phi Chi medical fraternity. He is also a Mason and a member of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce. He has already shown commendable public spirit, and is discharging his duties as city health officer in an efficient and conscientious manner.

On February 10, 1913, Doctor Schmid was united in marriage with Miss Antoinette Mayer, who was born at Chicago, Illinois, and educated in the public schools there and under the instruction of the Sisters of Notre Dame. They are the parents of two children: Charles F., Jr., and William A.

ALFRED JACKSON STEVENS. A resident of the Whittier district forty years, being there before the City of Whittier was laid out, Alfred Jackson Stevens knows that part of Los Angeles County as few other men now liv- ing. One of the wealthy and substantial citizens of the town, he earned his fortune here, and at one time was a farm hand. Success has been largely a matter of hard work and the foresight and judgment with which he has directed his investment.

Mr. Stevens was born in Washington County, Tennessee, August 31, 1858. His father was John C. Stevens, a native of Tennessee, and his grandfather was Jack Stevens. William Stevens, a brother of Jack Stevens, served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He lived to be nearly a hundred years old, and in his advanced years told many stories of his Revolutionary service to the boy, Alfred J. Stevens. The mother of Alfred J. Stevens was Nancy Dillingham, who was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, of English descent. Her father, Alfred Dillingham, who died when a hundred three years of age, at one time owned fourteen thousand acres of land in North Carolina.

Alfred Jackson Stevens had a common school education. As a youth he worked on his father's farm of two hundred and ten acres. Leaving home, he spent eight months as a farm laborer in Texas, his wages being $15.00 a month. From what he was able to save from this service he came on to Los Angeles, reaching that city December 23, 1882, with only $5.00 in his pocket. His first employment was in a mill at Downey, and for one year he worked for T. L. Gooch for a salary of $300.00. For two years he was on the farm of Dunlap and Tiler, and he then rented that farm and engaged in stockraising for two years. It was while there that the town of Whittier was laid out, and Mr. Stevens was one of the men attracted to purchase property on the town site. Through that investment he lost every dollar he had accumulated. Resuming employment as a wage worker, he spent two years on the East Whittier ranch of John P. Sanborn, and he then rented 2,700 acres of the Sanborn ranch and for a number of years conducted an extensive business as a cattle raiser and wholesale butcher. This gave him the nucleus of his fortune. In the meantime he bought nineteen acres of land in Whittier for one hundred and seventy-five dollars an acre. Fifteen acres of this he planted in oranges and four acres in walnuts. Later he sold fifteen acres for twenty-five thousand dollars. Since then he has

A y stevens

MRS. A. J. STEVENS

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

extended his investments in Whittier until he owns many valuable revenue producing pieces of business property along Philadelphia Avenue, and his time is now well taken up by looking after his real estate investments. Mr. Stevens as an old resident and a substantial business man commands the respect of all who know him, and his advice is frequently sought in matters connected with real estate and investment. At one time he was a member of the County Central Committee of the republican party, but has never sought office for himself. Mr. Stevens is affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

June 3, 1903, he married Miss Estelle Lorimer, a native of Tennessee and daughter of Hyce Lorimer, who was a farmer. They have four children: Lila Estelle, who graduated from the Whittier High School in 1922, and is now a student of Whittier College; Gladys May, member of the class of 1923 in Union High School ; Alfred Jackson, a student of Whittier High School, and Garnet Stevens, attending grammar school.

MRS. MABEL ROCKWELL. The art of dancing is a form of amusement or exercise which dates back to the early Egyptians, who ascribed that invention to their god Thoth. It corresponds to a universal primitive in- stinct in man, and is practiced by the Forest Indians of Brazil, the South Sea Islanders, the Zulus and the native Australians exactly as it was in the earlier stages of every civilized modern race. Among the ancient Jews, Miriam danced to the sound of a trumpet, and David danced in procession before the Ark of God. The Cretan chorus, moving in measured pace, sang hymns to the Greek god Apollo, to whom Pindar applies the name of "The Dancer," and one of the muses, Terpsichore, was the especial patroness of the art. Today the art of dancing is universally practiced in civilized countries, as the enjoyment and benefit derived therefrom have become more and more appreciated. This has brought about the founding of vari- ous institutions for instruction in this, as in any other art, and one of the leading enterprises of its kind is the Mabel Rockwell School of Dancing, located at Redondo Beach, the proprietress of which is Mrs. Mabel Rock- well, a dancer since childhood and the creator of a number of popular dances.

ALFRED A. SNIDER, member of the firm Snider Brothers, Realtors, at Hermosa Beach, came to Southern California from Western Canada, where for a number of years he was engaged in the contracting and build- ing business.

Mr. Snider was born at Brockville, Ontario, Canada, July 5, 1885, son of Charles and Sarah (Brown) Snider. His father was a merchant and spent his last years at Detroit. Alfred A. Snider was educated in Canada, learned the printer's trade, and for several years was manager of a novelty printing works at Utica, New York. Leaving there in 1908, he moved to the Canadian Northwest, and for eight years conducted a business as a con- tractor and builder. For two years he was in the grocery business at Cal- gary. Then, in February, 1919, he joined his brother W. J. Snider in the real estate business at Hermosa Beach. They also handle loans and insur- ance.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 15

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944 Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Number of Pages: 844

Author: McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
Publication date: 1923
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 844