USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 2
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As city manager of Pasadena Mr. Koiner has direct charge of all municipal departments except the library and legal departments. The city; with a population of 55,000, owns its electric utility, with 20,000 customers ; its water utility ; 1,000 acres in parks; 500 acres in the city farm ; and also fifty-two acres of oil land, on which is now located one producing well, while another is in process of drilling at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1921-2.
September 25, 1895, recorded the marriage of Mr. Koiner and Miss Katie M. Bragunier, daughter of the late Joseph M. and Susan Bragunier, of Hagerstown, Maryland, where Mrs. Koiner was born and reared. Mr. and Mrs. Koiner have four children: Carl W., who is now connected with the light and power department of the City of Pasadena, was born at Laurel, Maryland, and was a student in the Oregon State Agricultural College when the nation became involved in the World war. He left college to enter the aviation service of the United States Army, trained and served as pursuit pilot, and he continued in active service in France until the close of the war. He married Miss Mae Lansing, of South Pasadena. Audrey Katherlene was born at Oneida, New York, and is a member of the class of 1924 in the University of California. Sarah Marie, who was born in
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Oneida, New York, graduated from the Pasadena High School as a member of the class of 1922, and is a freshmen in the University of California. Virginia, youngest of the children, was born in Pasadena and is now a student in the high school.
MRS. ADA POTTER WISEMAN. The musical life of Long Beach has had no more active figure and leader than Mrs. Wiseman, who has lived here since 1905. While her biggest work perhaps has been done as director of the choir and soprano soloist of the First Presbyterian Church, and as a vocal teacher, her enthusiasm for her art and spirit of helpfulness have prompted her to take part in and give aid to a countless number of enter- tainments and musical programs not only in Long Beach but throughout Southern California, where she is justly esteemed for the quality of her voice and her personal character as well.
Mrs. Wiseman was born at Monaca, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, daughter of John Braden and Margaret (Shrodes) Potter. She was educated in the public schools of Monaca and at Beaver College. Her musical training was directed by the best teachers of Pittsburgh and Phila- delphia, and subsequently she was a pupil in Europe of William Shake- speare. She became a teacher and appeared in concerts in the East, having taught voice in Beaver College and had charge of the vocal department of the Highland Hall School for Girls at Hallidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Wiseman has an extensive repertoire of French, German and English songs, and has appeared again and again in parts in many of the famous oratorios. She has drilled many choruses, and since she became choir director of the First Presbyterian Church at Long Beach one of the annual events has been the rendition of the Messiah. Mrs. Wiseman was the first paid soloist in Long Beach, her services being secured by the First Christian Church, where she remained about two years, and since then has been soloist and choir director of the First Presbyterian Church. She was active in the organization and for two years was president of the Philharmonic Society, a society whose primary purpose was to bring the great musical artists to Long Beach. As a concert singer she has appeared in nearly every notable musical event in the city, and has been heard in concerts in San Diego, Riverside, Redlands, Los Angeles and elsewhere. She took an active inter- est in the Polytechnic High School musical work, and has sung for nearly every church, civic and fraternal organization in Long Beach during her residence here.
Her versatile talents have also been expressed in poetry. In 1921 "Sweet Pea Bonnets" was published, and Miss Frieda Peycje set it to music, while in 1922 the Clayton-Summy Company of Chicago published her musical reading "Path on the Sea." Among other poems one that has been a favorite is "The Call of the Woods." Mrs. Wiseman is now working on a book of flower stories in verse form, each flower suggesting a story. During the summer of 1921 she made a concert trip through the East and repeated a successful tour there again in May, 1922. Recently she has been appearing in radio programs.
Mrs. Wiseman is a member of the Ebell Club of Long Beach, the Woman's Lyric Club of Los Angeles and the Southern California Woman's Press Club.
She was married at Philadelphia in 1903 to W. E. Wiseman, a prominent real estate man of Long Beach. She has one daughter, Mar- garet, born in 1905.
ROSCOE CONKLING SARLES, during his brief lifetime achieved special fame among the greatest motor car racers. His tragic death occurred in the midst of one of his great races at the Kansas City Speedway on Septem- ber 17, 1922, while a participant in one of the greatest meets of the year.
He was only a little past thirty when he met his death. He was born in LaFayette, Indiana, January 4, 1892, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Sarles. He was educated in the public schools in his native city, and as soon
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
as he left school he began to promote racing meets all over the country at County Fairs. His interest in racing was largely centered in individual participation in one of the most daring forms of sportsmanship. He drove his first race at the age of seventeen, and all his enthusiasm was concen- trated in the sport until his last and fatal race. His first racing in California was at Ascot Park, and he won all the races of that year. In 1921 he finished second in the great Indianapolis nieet for championship. The Kansas City race was for three hundred miles, and it became memorable for the numerous accidents which befell several California participants, the most tragic of which befell Roscoe Sarles when his car leaped over the railing and embankment. He was pinned under the wreckage and burned to death. His body was brought back to Los Angeles and the pall bearers at the funeral were six of his former associates, Tommy Milton, Jimmy Murphy, Harry Hartz, Eddie Pullen, Ernie Anstenberg and Ralph De Palma. Many prominent persons in the motion picture industry and the automobile business at Los Angeles also attended.
Mr. Sarles is survived by his widow. She was formerly Miss Dorothy Jones, daughter of Mrs. J. Wesley Jones of . Santa Monica. They were married June 23, 1919. Mrs. Sarles was born in Indiana, but was brought to California when a small girl and was educated at Santa Monica.
YVONNE DE MOSS WILLS. A worth-while life is one of achievement. The beautiful City of Los Angeles is the home of a body of brilliant women who in various lines of honorable activity have achieved notable things within the past few years, and a very prominent example in professional life is Yvonne De Moss Wills, Chiropractor.
Mrs. Wills was born at Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana, a descend- ant of two old pioneer families of Clay County, Indiana, on the paternal side of military distinction. Her father, enlisting in the Union Army when but fourteen years of age, served through the Civil war with a man's cour- age, and her great-uncle, Major Charles W. De Moss, served in the Mexican war, receiving his honorable discharge on June 25, 1847. She was educated in the public schools and in the State Normal school, and afterward took a commercial course with the idea of entering a business office in a clerical capacity. This she never did, however, but taught school very acceptably for three years.
Mrs. Wills was married early and has two daughters and three sons : Lucile, who is the wife of Frank O'Brien; Vesta, who is teaching school in Nevada, has literary talent and many of her writings have been published ; Angus and John, both of whom are in the employ of the Gay Electric Com- pany, Los Angeles ; and Samuel, the youngest, who is nine years old and is at school.
It is quite possible that even so cheerful and optimistic a person as Mrs. Wills felt somewhat discouraged when her Indiana physicians declared her menaced with tuberculosis and prescribed a more genial climate, suggesting California. It meant a great deal to her to sever old ties and lifetime asso- ciations, but the change of residence was effected and she came to Cali- fornia. Improvement was not as immediate as she had expected, and this led to a little experimenting, even entailing the long voyage to the Philip- pine Islands. There she found the climate too enervating and returned to California and subsequently established her home at Los Angeles.
It was at this time that Mrs. Wills became interested in the drugless healing system of Chiropractic, to which she owes her restoration to health. Ultimately her deep interest led to study of the same, culminating in her being graduated from the Los Angeles Chiropractic College, taking also a post-graduate course at the Eclectic College, and in addition has a diploma from the Chicago School of Therapy. For two years she was an instructor in the college, but for the past five years she has found her time entirely occupied with private practice. She is widely known and her pro- fessional success has been phenomenal.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
JOHN MCDONALD. The oldest real estate and insurance business under continuous management at Pasadena is that of the John McDonald Com- pany, Incorporated, established in 1886. Its founder was John McDonald, still living and enjoying life and the fellowship of his many friends, a veteran business man and citizen, and at the same time a man who has to a remarkable degree preserved the attitude and zest of youth.
Mr. McDonald has carved his own fortune in a most creditable manner. He was born at Westchester, Pennsylvania, September 4, 1850, and from his earliest recollection he understood the meaning of poverty and the responsibility of the individual for his own destiny. Altogether he attended a cross road school about three months, and he had finished his education in this meager manner before as a boy of twelve he responded to the call of patriotism, then and since one of the chief issues of his life. He enlisted as a drummer boy in October, 1861, when only eleven years of age, in the One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania Infantry, and in 1862 was made drum major of the regiment. He saw active and continuous service for four years, including the battles of Winchester, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Spottsylvania Court House, Gettysburg and finally witnessed the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. The climax of the glorious record of the One Hundred Tenth Pennsyl- vania came at Gettysburg, and the drum major of the regiment shared in that glory. At the height of the battle he threw away his drum, seized a musket and fought shoulder to shoulder with older men. His name is one that appears on the monument erected on the Gettysburg battlefield by the State of Pennsylvania as a tribute to the Pennsylvania soldiers who took part in that battle. Altogether there were about fifteen hundred men in the ranks of the One Hundred Tenth Pennsylvania during the war. Following the battle of Chancellorsville and the long march from Fredericksburg this regiment arrived at Gettysburg with greatly reduced ranks. It went into the second day's battle and lost one-third of those engaged during the fighting in the wheat field between four and six o'clock on the afternoon of July 2. The last day of the battle the regiment was in sight of Pickett's famous charge, hearing the chorus of the two hundred pieces of field artillery, but was not called upon to take part in the repulse of Pickett.
At the Thirty-eighth annual reunion in Pennsylvania in the fall of 1921, a signal honor was paid to the distant comrade in California when John McDonald was elected president of the Regimental Association. In July, 1913, at the Fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, the State of California appropriated money to the eighteen or twenty survivors from this state, but the appropriation was ruled illegal. In twenty-four hours Mr. Mc- Donald raised the necessary funds and the survivors attended the meeting, each having a lower berth and with all transportation and other expenses paid.
For a time after the war Mr. McDonald served as a messenger in the Quartermaster's Department at Washington, D. C. Later he became identified with the Ohio River steamboat traffic, and for several years was manager of a steamboat and barge company on the Ohio River, with headquarters at New Cumberland, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania.
He left that business and came to Pasadena in 1886 and entered the real estate business. His business has since been incorporated as the John McDonald Company, handling real estate, insurance, loans, stocks and bonds. Mr. McDonald is president of the corporation. He is also a director of the First National Bank and the First Trust & Savings Bank of Pasadena, and is vice-president of the First Trust & Savings Bank. These affiliated institutions have combined deposits of over twelve million dollars and combined resources of nearly ten million dollars.
Mr. McDonald has been a staunch republican through all his political career, and in fact for all of his life. He served two terms of four years each as city treasurer of Pasadena. In 1921 he was a member of the
John Mc Donald
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Republican State Central Committee and is now a member of the Repub- lican County Central Committee and one of the executive committee. He is also chairman of the Republican Central Committee of the Sixty-seventh Assembly District. He is a member of Pasadena Lodge No. 271, F. and A. M., is a member of the Knight Templar Commandery of Pasadena and the Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Los Angeles.
Probably no other citizen of Pasadena has done more to stimulate and lead the way in patriotic expression than John McDonald. For many years he has been a member of John F. Godfrey Post No. 93 of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was commander of the post in 1890. He has had charge of most of the memorial day services and has planned and directed nearly all Fourth of July celebrations since his residence in the City of Pasadena. During the World war he was chairman of the patriotic committee of the Board of Trade. The Board of Trade is now the Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association, with about nine hun- dred members, and he is the chairman of its committee on patriotism and American ideals, affiliated with the National Committee. This committee, composed of fifty representative men of Pasadena, found the inspiration for its work in the poem written by Ernest E. Cole, first assistant superin- tendent of Chicago schools, a poem officially adopted by the committee, the essence of it being expressed in the first stanza as follows :
"There's no other land like my land, Beneath the shining sun ; There's no other flag like my flag, In all the world-not one ; One land, one tongue and one people, To one flag loyal, true- No red shall wave o'er my fair land Without the white and blue."
Mr. McDonald was leader in the movement of Pasadena resulting in the erection of the soldier's monument in Library Park to perpetuate the memory of the defenders of the Union. This monument was dedicated on Memorial day, 1906, Mr. McDonald now being chairman of the committee.
His many friends among both the old and newer citizens of Pasadena have repeatedly made Mr. McDonald sensible of their affection and esteem. One such occasion was a banquet tendered him in November, 1921, where the speakers of the evening took as a text of their toasts "As young in 1921 as he was in the days of '61," and those who knew him in all his activities, whether as a business man and banker, as a soldier or as a good citizen, recalled facts and anecdotes offering proof, if any proof was needed, of his patriotism, his essential kindliness and good fellowship, and the proven worth of his presence in the community.
One of his distinguishing characteristics is a great love for the out of doors. One of the greatest pleasures he has derived from residence in - Southern California has been the opportunity it has afforded to get into. the woods and on the waters. There is no more enthusiastic and skillful angler in the country. He is the trout's most deadly enemy, and whipping the streams with rod is a diversion of which he never tires, and the pursuit of which has undoubtedly contributed to length of life and happiness. Mr. McDonald has been happily married for many years, and has a beau- tiful home and a family of three children, a son and two daughters.
John B. McDonald, associated with his father in the realty business, during the war was a member of Ambulance Company No. 1 from Pasa- dena, this being the first company raised and fully equipped by the residents of that city. The daughter, Miss Ella N. McDonald, is a graduate of Stanford University, now a teacher in the Polytechnic High School of Los Angeles. Miss Celia E. McDonald at this writing is a resident of the City of Mexico, where she is studying the Spanish language and familiar- izing herself with conditions in that country.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
OSCAR THOMAS NAY, whose home was in Pasadena for over a third of a century, was one of the really constructive business men of that city. He was associated with other pioneers in laying the foundation of this com- munity, and the esteem paid him for his material efforts was increased by that accorded by those closest to him for his high character.
He was a native of Bangor, Maine, and of Colonial New England ancestry. Early in his life he went to what was then the great and unde- veloped Northwest, lived for several years in Minnesota and later in Wis- consin, and in 1884 came with his family to Pasadena, California. Here he engaged in business, and some years later with his sons established the business that is now the E. O. Nay Company, of which he was secretary.
Oscar Thomas Nay died January 24, 1907. He had become well known and well loved by the many people who knew him. He married Flora J. Warren, who is still living at Pasadena. Of the five children born to their marriage two died in childhood, and the survivors are Mrs. Joseph Welsh, whose husband is president of the Pasadena Hardware Company; Edward O., whose career is sketched in the following article ; and Earl W., secretary and treasurer of the E. O. Nay Company.
EDWARD O. NAY is one of the progressive business men of Pasadena, where he is president of the corporation entitled the E. O. Nay Company, plumbing, heating and ventilating, with a well equipped establishment at 186 East Union Street.
He is a son of the late Oscar Thomas Nay, a brief review of whose life is given in the preceding sketch. Edward O. Nay was born at Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 13, 1873, and was eleven years of age when the family came to Pasadena in 1884. Here he continued his education in the public schools, including high school, and served an apprenticeship to the plumber's trade in the establishment of P. P. Bonham, a pioneer in this field of enterprise at Pasadena and now living retired in the City of Los Angeles. His appren- ticeship with Mr. Bonham and his work as a journeyman continued for six years. Then, in 1897, he became associated with his brother and father in establishing a plumbing and heating business at 49 South Fair Oaks Avenue. Later the headquarters were removed to the establishment of the Pasadena Hardware Company on East Colorado Street, and with the sub- stantial growth and expansion of the enterprise the present building of the E. O. Nay Company was erected, a two-story and basement structure that
houses one of the best equipped plumbing and heating establishments in the city. After the death of the father the two sons incorporated the business under the present title. This company has done plumbing work for a large proportion of the larger buildings in Pasadena, and has installed heating plants in many of the leading buildings and has done a considerable business in Los Angeles. The reputation for high class work has been responsible for this widening territory of the business.
During the World war Edward O. Nay was captain of a local company of the Home Guard and otherwise active in advancing patriotic measures and enterprises. He is a republican, is a past commander of Pasadena Commandery, Knights Templar, past master of Pasadena Lodge No. 2, F. and A. M., past patron of the Chapter of the Eastern Star, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. In 1922 he was master of the Rose Croix Lodge. He is a member of the Mystic Shrine and the Shrine Club in Pasadena, and is also a member of the Rotary, the Overland and the Golf clubs. He is an active figure in the Pasadena Chamber of Com- merce, the Merchants Association and the local Young Men's Christian Association. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church.
At Pasadena, October 18, 1900, he married Miss Mae Kienly, who was born at Lafayette, Indiana, and was educated in the public schools of Para- dise, California, where her parents established their residence in 1885. Her father, George Kienly, died thirty years ago at Pasadena, where his widow still resides. George Kienly was in the real estate business at the
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Nay have four children : Dorothy Louise, Edward Oscar, Jr., Catherine Lucille and Eleanor Mae.
HUMBERT LOUIS GIANETTI. Some individuals' energies are so alert and their abilities are so well distributed that they are able to carry on successfully various operations. It would be practically impossible to tie down such men to any one line. The community would lose much that was worth while if such were done, and many sound enterprises would never be brought into existence. It is fortunate that there are those who are capable and are willing to distribute their efforts and give their sound direc- tion to more than one concern. It has been found that very often those who have succeeded best along such lines are those of foreign birth or parentage, although no definite reason has been assigned for this fact. One of the men who may be mentioned in this way is Humbert Louis Gianetti, vice- president and manager of the Hogan Company, one of the best known and conservative real estate and life insurance companies of Pasadena, secre- tary of the Altadena Country Club Park Company, secretary of the Cali- fornia Mausoleum Company, and vice-president of the Frank G. Hogan Company.
Mr. Gianetti was born August 27, 1878, in New York City, New York, and is a son of Luigi and Marie (Bruchard) Gianetti, both of whom are now deceased. His father, a native of Milan, Italy, was educated in his native place, and as a young man went to Paris, where he met and married Marie Bruchard, who was born at Creppy, then a suburb but now a part of Paris, and who was educated at Marseilles, France. Shortly after their marriage they immigrated to the United States and settled at New York City, where Mr. Gianetti became chef of the Lotus Club. He was still acting in that capacity at the time of his death, when thirty-one years of age. Mrs. Gianetti survived her husband until 1914, passing away at New York City at the age of fifty-seven years. There were two children in the family : Louise F., of Pasadena, secretary to Doctor Hale, head of the Mount Wilson Observatory, and Humbert L.
Humbert Louis Gianetti attended the day and night schools of New York City until he was thirteen years of age, at which time he started to work, but continued to attend night school, although he never had the advantages of a high school education. His first employment was with a life insurance broker of New York City, who bought and loaned money on life insurance policies, with whom he remained seven years, after which he secured a position with the New York Life Insurance Company, and continued in the claim department of that concern until 1908. In that year he came to Pasadena, where he has since resided. Since its organi- zation he has been with the Hogan Company, dealers in real estate and all kinds of insurance, including life, fire and automobile, and is now vice- president and manager of this concern, one of the best known and most conservative at Pasadena. He is also secretary and manager of the Altadena Country Club Park Company, proprietors of a subdivision of 166 acres at Altadena, located three miles northeast of Pasadena's business center, close to the Sierra Madre Mountains, at the foot of Mount Lowe and Mount Wilson, directly on the famous Altadena Foothill Boulevard and extending south to New York Avenue, a highly improved residential thoroughfare. This is 1,500 feet above the level of the sea, at the very summit of a choice bit of county highway acknowledged by tourists to be one of the most scenic portions of the entire Southern California good roads system. Overlooking Pasadena and Los Angeles, it commands an unobstructed vista of the entire San Gabriel Valley, with an extended view including the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island, fifty miles away. This residential park enjoys the advantage of adjoining the Altadena Country Club and golf links. Mr. Gianetti is also vice-president of the Arroya Park Corporation, another subdivision; secretary of the California Mausoleum Company, of which the president and general manager is Frank G. Hogan ; vice-president of the Frank G. Hogan Company, owners of the Maryland
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