History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 33

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

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

the United States during the early '60s and settled in the historic little mining town of Grass Valley, California, where they resided for nearly fifty years. There their son Albert J. received his education in the public schools and as a youth started to sell newspapers. He also learned the trade of blacksmith, which he followed until he became deputy county clerk and auditor of Nevada County, California. While the incumbent of this office, which he filled for eight years, he found time at nights to engage in newspaper work on the Daily Morning Union of Grass Valley, of which W. F. Prisk was and is editor, and in which Mr. Hosking is still interested. He later became clerk of the Superior Court and clerk of the Board of Supervisors of Nevada County, but about 1902 left office to become adver- tising manager of the Pasadena Star-News, a paper with which he has been identified ever since. Well-deserved promotions have been granted him, and at present he is associate manager and one of the publishers of the paper, and is also interested in the Long Beach Press and the Grass Valley Union. He has become one of the best-known newspaper men in Los Angeles County, and bears a splendid reputation among his fellow members of the craft for reliability and capacity. Mr. Hosking is a repub- lican in politics. He belongs to Madison Lodge No. 13, F. and A. M., of Grass Valley, has attained the Scottish Rite in Masonry, and belongs to Pasadena Lodge No. 672, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and also holds membership in the Flintridge Country Club, the Pasadena Golf Club and the Overland and Kiwanis clubs. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church.

At Oakland, California, June 5, 1907, Mr. Hosking was united in mar- riage with Miss Hazel Taylor, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Noble Taylor. Her father, an officer of an ocean-going vessel, met a sailor's death while in the performance of duty, and Mrs. Taylor now makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Hosking. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hosking: Albert Taylor and Ruth.

VINCENT M. GREEVER has been a resident of Azusa since 1887, and he and the community have advanced correspondingly in prosperity and no one has given more liberally of his time and means to the progress of the community than Mr. Greever. He laid the foundation of his own modest fortune here, starting as an employe and getting into business on a very modest capital that represented his personal savings.

Mr. Greever was born in Smith County, Virginia, January 8, 1858, son of Charles R. and Jane (Center) Greever, also native Virginians. He was the sixth in a family of nine children. . His parents spent all their lives on the Virginia farm. Vincent M. Greever was reared in a home of good cir- cumstances and of high ideals. His boyhood days were spent on a farm and in attending private school and academy, and he acquired the equiva- lent of a junior college education. He studied both Greek and Latin when a boy. When he was about twenty-three years of age he moved to Lynch- burg, Virginia, and for two years was employed in a hardware business there. Ill health then caused him to return home, and for three years he worked for a cousin, James S. Greever, as superintendent of a stock farm in Virginia.

Inspired with the knowledge that he must make his own way in the world, Mr. Greever finally departed from his home valley, leaving the con- gested districts of the East, and after a journey across the continent ar- rived on the dust trail at Azusa October 15, 1887.

His first employment here was in the grocery store of J. L. Whitney, with whom he remained three years. At the end of that time he and W. S. Bridges started a retail grocery business of their own. During his first three years at Azusa Mr. Greever had worked at $30.00 a month, had saved $300.00, and at the outset of his independent venture he went in debt to the sum of $450.00. The business, though started so modestly, was soon on the high road to prosperity, and in time it did business over seventy-five per cent of the Valley, delivering goods to Glendora, to Puente and to

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Corona. He and Mr. Bridges were in partnership ten years, and in all this time they never lost a discount, and their energy and the maintenance of high credit ratings were largely responsible for their success. In 1900 Mr. Greever bought the entire business, incorporating the V. M. Greever Company, a close corporation with $10,000.00 paid up capital. Mr. Greever continued the active head of the company until he sold the business in 1910.

For many years it has been the habit of Mr. Greever to set aside a tenth of his income for religious, moral or civic causes, but this represents only a small part of the effective work he has done for the community. Some years ago he was one of the members of a committee of three, the others being A. P. Griffith and J. T. Lindley, who undertook to induce the Pacific Electric Railway to build a line to Azusa. The committee acquired right of way and substantial donations ranging from $2,000 down to $200, besides numbers of small subscriptions, and Mr. Greever was able to hand a check for $10,000.00 to C. P. Huntington, who in return gave him an agreement to build the Pacific Electric to Azusa within a specified time, thus bringing to the town the inestimable advantage of rapid transporta- tion. Mr. Greever also served many years on the Azusa Board of Educa- tion and for nine years was a director of the Azusa High School. He personally made it possible for the Azusa Union High School to be built. He sold the land for the school site at a nominal sum. This site comprised eight acres, and he gave land for streets to be opened. For two years he was chairman of the Town Board, and was elected and served one term as chairman of the City Council. At the present time he is vice-president and director of the First National Bank and a director of the Azusa Valley Savings Bank, and has held these offices for a number of years.

June 25, 1902, Mr. Greever married Miss Margaret Porter. She was born in Butler County, Pennsylvania, September 29, 1876, daughter of Kerr and Ellen Porter. She was educated in Butler County and graduated from the Grove City College in Pennsylvania. She and Mr. Greever first met while she was visiting her half brother, Rev. J. P. Sloops, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Monrovia. Mr. and Mrs. Greever had a most happy married life of about nine years, and the heaviest loss he has ever sustained was the death of his gifted wife on October 19, 1911. She is sur- vived by one daughter, Virginia, born March 31, 1909. Now, at the age of thirteen, she is in the first year of the Union High School of Azusa, and had a private school education until entering high school.

When Mr. Greever came to Azusa thirty-five years ago the roads were among the worst in the state, consisting of deep sand and dust. One of his first efforts in a community way was to organize an association of Azusa men who at a meeting determined to adopt his plan of hauling clay and gravel, products from a nearby mountain, as material that might properly mix with the sandy soil and make a substantial road bed. The experiment proved successful, and has been the means of improving the highway situa- tion throughout this section of the state.

EZRA O. HANSON, president of the Zelzah Bank, is one of the astute and able financiers of Los Angeles County whose connection of years with the banking business has gained for him the reputation of being an excel- lent judge of men, as well as a solid and conservative banker. Because the banking houses of each community stand back of every person and all en- terprises, it is very essential that only men of superior character and attain- ments be selected as bank officials, and this has been borne in view by the stockholders of the Bank of Zelzah, for associated with Mr. Hanson in the bank are others of high standing. This is one of the new banks of the county, having been organized January 3, 1922, by Ezra O. Hanson, with a capital of $25.000, and a surplus of $5,000. Mr. Hanson, as above stated, is its president ; P. G. Owens is the first vice president ; H. C. Rob- isham is the second vice president; C. A. Thompson is the cashier, and a number of prominent men are on the Board of Directors. The bank is located at the southwest corner of Reseda and Gresham streets, Zelzah. This bank has deposits of $102,000, and 275 depositors.

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The birth of Ezra O. Hanson occurred in Dane County, Wisconsin, October 21, 1863, and he is a son of Hans Hanson and Julia (Nasby) Hanson, both of whom were born in Norway, where they were married. The old country offered poor opportunities to the young couple, and so they came to the United States and settled in Dane County, Wisconsin, where he followed farming with the faithful plodding work of one deter- mined to get a start in life. In 1868 he and his good wife journeyed into Iowa, located in Emmet County, and there rounded out their useful lives and died, greatly esteemed by all who knew them.

Ezra O. Hanson attended the public schools of Emmet County, Iowa, and worked on his father's farm until 1887, learning lessons of thrift and industry from his parents which he has never forgotten. In 1887 he went to Estherville, Iowa, and for four years was engaged in the hardware busi- ness, but sold and moved to Eagle Grove, Iowa, where for a year he was engaged in general merchandising. In 1900 he went to Humboldt, South Dakota, and was engaged in the banking business in that city until 1907, when he came to Los Angeles County. Establishing himself at Los An- geles, he soon had extensive realty, mercantile and banking interests in that important center, from which he branched out into different ones of the smaller communities of the San Fernando Valley. He owns large mer- cantile interests at Corcoran, California, and organized a bank in that locality ; and is president of the Scandinavian-American Land Company. On January 9, 1923, Mr. Hanson organized the Bank of Santa Fe Springs, with a capital of $50,000 and surplus of $10,000. He is its president ; K. B. Noswing is its first vice president ; J. P. Hight is its second vice president ; Oscar Sponheim is its cashier ; and J. B. Johnson is its assistant cashier. This bank has both commercial and savings departments, and safety de- posit boxes. The vault is protected by the burglar alarm system, and is fire-proof. Mr. Hanson is also president of the Corcoran Department Store, a very successful mercantile business with over $100,000 assets and located in Corcoran, California. Mr. Hanson is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of both Zelzah and Santa Fe Springs, and is much interested in the expansion of both communities. The Lutheran Church holds his membership.

On January 17, 1884, Mr. Hanson married Miss Barbara Kittelson, of Estherville, Iowa, and they became the parents of seven children, as fol- lows : Hannah, who is the wife of Edward Horn, has two children, Helen and Ralph, and lives at Corcoran ; Henry, who is married, has a daughter, Margaret, and lives at Zelzah; Sophia, who is the wife of Dr. Stangeland, has one child, and lives at Los Angeles ; Gilbert, who lives at home ; Arthur, who is married, has a son, James, and lives at Corcoran ; and Margaret and Louise, both of whom are at home. Mrs. Hanson was born and educated in Norway, but came when a girl to the United States, settled at Estherville, where she met and was married to Mr. Hanson.

CHARLES F. GARCIA. As long as there is a desire in the human breast for a home will there exist a need for the services of a realtor, and as this longing is one of the essential characteristics of man it is not likely he will soon lose it. Back of the stability of the government, nourishing the roots of patriotism, is this prime necessity for some spot one can call his own. Until a man has a home he has no solid interest in any community. One place is much the same as another to him, but once he sets up his lares and penates, then he begins to see to it that he gets a fair value for his taxes, supports men who will insure good government, and works for civic better- ment. It is because of these and other equally cogent reasons that the real- tor is so important a factor in all communities, and especially so in those which are of recent development. One of the young men of the San Fer- nando Valley who is achieving an enviable record in this line is Charles F. Garcia, who was born at Los Angeles, January 3, 1892, and has been a resi- dent of Owensmouth since 1915. His father, Joseph Garcia, was born in Santa Barbara, California, and his mother, Mrs. Nora (Campo) Garcia,

Charles It- Prises

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was born at Los Angeles. For a number of years Joseph Garcia was a steam engineer for Banning Brothers, but is now living retired at Sawtelle, California. The mother is also living.

Charles F. Garcia was educated in the parochial schools of Los Angeles, and after leaving school spent two years in the employ of Hubbard & Wright in the San Fernando Valley, in this connection gaining a valuable experience. Going then with the American Sugar Beet Company at Ox- nard, California, he served that corporation as a foreman for eighteen months. For the subsequent five years he was a salesman for the Whitley -. Mead Company, and then, in 1915, came to Owensmouth and became mana- ger of the real estate business established by Charles B. Saxsmith, but sub- sequently taken over by the Whitley Syndicate. Until 1921 Mr. Garcia continued as manager, but in that year bought the business and conducted it under his own name until July of that year, when he changed the name to the Owensmouth Realty Company. This company handles industrial farm lands and city lots; and negotiates exchanges and loans and sells all kinds of insurance, representing some of the most reliable of the old-line companies. Employment is given to three able salesmen, and headquarters are maintained at 501 West Sherman Way, Owensmouth. This company has opened up and developed several desirable residential subdivisions in this locality, and is purposing to extend this feature of the business.

Recognizing the necessity for concerted and organized effort in behalf of civic development, Mr. Garcia is a member of the Owensmouth Chamber of Commerce, and works through it. He is a member of, the Roman Cath- olic Church.

On July 8, 1909, Mr. Garcia married Miss Nonie Velarde, a native of Los Vergines, California. She was born at Hollywood, California, and was educated in the parochial schools of that community. Mr. and Mrs. Garcia have one son, Joseph. Mr. Garcia is a sound, shrewd young busi- ness man, but one who takes a pride in living up to his promises, and one who in all of his transactions endeavors to give the public a square deal. He has earned for himself a high reputation as a reputable and upright business man, and his future lies very bright before him.

CHARLES H. PRISK. Alike through his forceful and versatile personality and his executive service as editor and manager of the Pasadena Star-News, Mr. Prisk wields marked influence in connection with the advancement of civic and material progress and prosperity in the City of Pasadena and its tributary territory, the while he takes due pride in claiming California as the place of his nativity. He was born at Grass Valley, Nevada County, this state, on the 24th of December, 1875, and is a son of William and Mary Prisk, both now deceased. William Prisk was actively identified with mining enterprise in California for more than a third of a century. For nearly fifty years he was a resident of Grass Valley. Both he and his wife were born in England. They are survived by three sons and one daughter, and all of whom are residents of California. William F. is editor and manager of the Long Beach Press ; James H. resides at Grass Valley ; Mrs. Edgar M. Shaw likewise maintains her home at Grass Valley ; and Charles H., the subject of this sketch, is the youngest of the number.

After having profited by the advantages of the public schools of Grass Valley Charles H. Prisk took a special course at Leland Stanford, Jr., University. Even before entering his teens he carried newspapers at Grass Valley, and later he was for a number of years a member of the reportorial and editorial staffs of the Grass Valley Union. Thereafter he became associated with his brother, William F., and A. J. Hosking in conducting the Watsonville Register. However, within a few months' time with his brother and Mr. Hosking he found it possible to purchase the plant and business of the Pasadena Star, which, in 1915, was consolidated with the News, under the present title of the Pasadena Star-News. As editor and manager of this paper Mr. Prisk has made it a power for good, always emphasizing and furthering the clean and wholesome things of life. Polit-

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ically the Star-News is of the republican faith, yet it is independent in its utterances. It is regarded generally as a most excellent exponent of the varied interests of this section of the state. Beyond question the Star- News is one of the excellent daily papers of California, and its widely extended circulation indicates the high popular estimate. Its plant is modern in equipment.

In addition to his association with the Star-News Mr. Prisk is one of the principal owners of the Long Beach Press, being the vice-president and a director of the company. Though interested in public and political affairs, he has manifested no desire for office. He is affiliated with San Pasqual Lodge, F and A. M., the local bodies of the York Rite of Masonry, and the Scottish Rite bodies, in the Consistory of which he received the thirty- second degree. He is affiliated also with Pasadena Lodge No. 672, B. P. O. E., and with the Native Sons of the Golden West. In his home city Mr. Prisk is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants' Asso- ciation, the Twilight, the New Century, the University and the Overland clubs, as well as of the Annandale, the Flintridge Country and the Pasa- dena Golf clubs. Both he and Mrs. Prisk are members of the Presbyterian Church.

At Los Angeles, on the 5th of June, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Prisk and Miss Mabel Pauline Peterson, who was born in the State of Illinois, a daughter of Charles Peterson, who had been engaged in the grocery business at Morris and Pullman, Illinois, and who passed the closing years of his life at Pasadena, California, as did also his wife. Mrs. Prisk spent the greater part of her early life in the City of Chicago, and there received her youthful education. Mr. and Mrs. Prisk have one daughter, Neva J., who was born at Grass Valley, the native city of her father, and who is now (1922) a student in the Orton School for Girls at Pasadena.

WILLIS H. GUNDRUM, M. D. No other profession yields so many de- pendable and helpful citizens as does the one devoted to medicine, perhaps for the reason that those engaged in it have to exercise at all times such self-sacrificing control and give so much of themselves to the public weal that service becomes a habit, and when they see the need for action in civic matters, usually take charge personally. Dr. Willis H. Gundrum is not only one of the most experienced physicians and surgeons of Owensmouth, he is more, for he stands back of practically all of the public improvements and progress of the city, and is held in the highest esteem by all who know him.

Doctor Gundrum was born at Bucyrus, Crawford County, Ohio, Janu- ary 20, 1862, a son of careful parents, who encouraged the aspiring lad in his ambition to become a physician. After he had completed his public- school courses he studied in the normal school at Valparaiso, Indiana, and Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, and acquired his professional train- ing in the medical department of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, from which he was graduated in 1891, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

Immediately following his graduation Doctor Gundrum established himself in a general practice at Toledo, and remained in that city for six- teen years, building up a very valuable connection. In 1908, however, he left Toledo for Denver, Colorado, and in 1918 located permanently at Owensmouth, where he has found the environment for which he had been seeking. His practice is a large and general one, and he is admitted to be one of the best doctors in this part of the county.

Doctor Gundrum saw the necessity upon coming here of a Chamber of Commerce, and organized this body with thirty-five charter members. So satisfying have been the results that'new members have been added, and 100 names are now enrolled. Elected its president in May, 1919, when the Chamber was established, he is still in office, his associates being Guy Crowley, secretary; F. L. Cary, treasurer ; L. J. Tindall, first vice presi- dent ; and Hugo Carlson, second vice president. Under Doctor Gundrum's

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leadership the Chamber of Commerce has handled the good roads move- ment for this section and the school and water questions for this district, and has done so very intelligently and satisfactorily. Doctor Gundrum belongs to the Los Angeles County Medical Society, the California State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. The Knights of Pythias hold his membership, and he also belongs to the Pitt Alumni So- ciety. While not a native son of the Golden State, Doctor Gundrum shares the enthusiasm for it held by those thus fortunate, and is bending every energy to bring to his home city the best element of the new settlers, and, having brought them, wants to give them unusual advantages in this beauti- ful little city of Southern California, which the forces of nature and the art of man are combining to make an earthly paradise.

EDWIN R. KENNEDY. While he was a continuous resident of Califor- nia for only about six or seven years, the late Edwin R. Kennedy estab- lished himself in the confidence and esteem of the people of the Montebello locality as a man of consequence, stability and thorough integrity. During his residence here he was engaged in the growing of oranges, but the earlier and more active years of this veteran of the Civil war were spent in intensive farming on the prairies of North Dakota.

Mr. Kennedy was born at Rochester, New York, July 6, 1833, a son of Orsemus and Mabel (Dickinson) Kennedy, his father being a flour and sawmill man. One of nine children, he was given a common school educa- tion in his native state, but as he was an omnivorous reader and close stu- dent he surpassed his fellows in education and became a veritable storehouse of knowledge. In his youth he learned carpentry, and at the age of four- teen years moved with his parents to Illinois, the family settling at Elgin, where he followed his trade and married his first wife, Cordelia Finney. Later he moved to Valparaiso, Indiana, and at President Lincoln's first. call for troops for service during the Civil war he was the first to answer the call from Valparaiso, subsequently becoming a member of the Ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. At the end of his three-months' service he re-enlisted, for three years, and when this service was completed he again enlisted, in the field, this time as a member of the Engineering Corps, with which he served until the conclusion of the war, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. He saw much heavy fighting, but came through the great struggle with only a slight wound and was never captured by the enemy. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and a lifelong and stanch republican. It was but natural that he should have made a good soldier, as he came of a family of patriots and fighting men, his grandfather having been a soldier of the Revolution, his father having taken part in the Mexican war, while he and three brothers served in the war between the states. .

At the termination of his military service Mr. Kennedy went first to Valparaiso, Indiana, and later to Chicago, Illinois, where he became a builder. Subsequently he listened to the call of the soil, and embarked upon a long and successful career as an agriculturist in North Dakota. His first wife lived only three months after their marriage, and for his second wife Mr. Kennedy married Miss Linda Carpenter, who at her death left two sons and a daughter. One son died in infancy, and the other, Joseph Carpenter Kennedy, born at Valparaiso, Indiana, is now a resident of Battle Creek, Michigan. He is married and has one child, Mary Louise. The daughter, Emily Roberts Kennedy, was born at Valparaiso, and mar- ried Dr. O. Wellington Archibald, who died in 1913. He was for years the superintendent of the State Insane Asylum at Jamestown, North Da- kota, and many of his ideas are still being carried forward at that institu- tion. There were two children born to this union: Jean and Emily Wel- lington Archibald. The latter, a musician of marked talent, both vocal and instrumental, is living with her grandmother Kennedy at Montebello.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 33

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