History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 4

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

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It was but a short time after he began practice that Mr. Merriam subordinated his professional ambition and personal interest to the call of patriotism when the nation became involved in the World war. In October, 1917, he enlisted as a "buck private" in the Three Hundred and Forty- seventh Field Artillery at Camp Lewis, this command being a part of the Ninety-first Division. He was made a non-commissioned officer and was sent to the Signal School of the Ninety-first Division. Just as he was finishing his studies and work in this school he received orders to enter the Field Artillery Officers Training School, and soon afterward the entire Ninety-first Division was ordered to service overseas. However, the students in the Officers Training Camps were ordered to Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, and after there completing his course of instruction Mr. Merriam was commissioned second lieutenant in field artillery and assigned to duty at Camp Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina. Because of his previous schooling and his excellent record his name was placed on the list for what has been termed the "University of the Army," at Fort Sill, Okla- homa, and in this school Mr. Merriam was graduated the day prior to Thanksgiving, 1918, the signing of the historic armistice on the 11th of November of that year having brought the war to a close. He was, how- ever, thereafter assigned to duty with the Thirty-eighth Field Artillery, Thirteenth Division, at Camp Lewis in the State of Washington, to which place he returned as an officer. He thus arrived at the camp in which he had entered service as a private, the date of his reappearance at Camp Lewis having been December 1, 1918, and his honorable discharge having there been received on the 17th of the following month. He returned to Pasadena, and on the 1st of February, 1919, became the junior member of the law firm of Merriam, Rinehart & Merriam, with which he has made a record of effective service and distinctive professional advancement.

Mr. Merriam is a stalwart advocate of the principles of the republican party, is an active member of the Pasadena Bar Association, holds member- ship in the New Century Club, and is a most loyal and earnest member of the First Baptist Church, filling several offices of responsibility. He takes deep interest in his former comrades and signifies this. by his affiliation with the American Legion.

March 28, 1919, recorded the marriage of Mr. Merriam and Miss Taylor, daughter of Mrs. Jeanette Taylor, of Pasadena. Mrs. Merriam was born in Los Angeles, and her education was received in that city, Monrovia, Pasadena and in the State of Arizona. She was graduated from the Throop Polytechnic Institute at Pasadena, is a talented artist and prior to her marriage had been a successful and popular teacher of art for five years-at Pasadena, Inglewood and Berkeley. Mr. and Mrs. Merriam have a winsome little daughter, Lora Jean. All three members of this interesting family circle were born in Los Angeles County. The family home is at 1281 North Catalina Avenue.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

GRACE CARROLL ELLIOTT, herself a musician of exceptional talent, has done much to further the advancement of musical art in her native state, especially in her present work in concert direction, in which she maintains her professional and business headquarters at 214 Music Art Studio Build- ing, Los Angeles. She takes pride in being a native daughter of California and a representative of one of its honored pioneer families, the while her loyalty is shown in the splendid service she has given and continues to give in the advancing of cultural activities in the state.

Mrs. Elliott was born at Copper Hill, near Sacramento, and the hill which gave title to the mining camp was eventually obliterated through the process of hydraulic mining there employed. This was a center of great activity in the early days of mining operations in California, and the father of Mrs. Elliott was a vigorous and influential figure in such pioneer mining enterprise, he having come to California some time prior to the historic discovery of gold in 1849, and his wife having crossed the plains in 1850. Mr. Carroll had been superintendent of mines in Nevada before he came to California, and was there the friend and associate of Senator Fair and other noted men of the locality and period. Later, as a locomotive engineer, he was for forty-five years in the service of the Southern Pacific Railway Company, and both he and his wife continued their residence in California until their deaths. Of the two daughters the subject of this review is the elder, and the younger is Mrs. Lena (Carroll) Nicholson, now a resident of Oakland, California. The daughters received much of their early education at Oakland, and in advancing their musical education they studied to a large extent in New York City. By a peculiar concatenation of circumstances Mrs. Elliott is now concert manager for one of her former musical teachers in the national metropolis, Mr. Franz Arens, besides whom she had many other instructors while in New York City, her studies having included harmony and thoroughbase, musical history, etc. For six years she studied with Francis Stuart of San Francisco, who is now estab- lished in New York City. Upon her return to San Francisco she married Frederick Nelson Elliott, and the one child of this union is Marjorie Carroll Elliott.

Mrs. Elliott has been actively and prominently identified with musical affairs in the City of Los Angeles since 1910. Upon removing to this city she became active as director of the California Music Teachers Association and also of the People's Orchestra, besides which she sang in church, did concert work and also taught music for a number of years. She then became manager of the Los Angeles Music Hall, and finally she turned her attention to a service for which she saw imperative requisition, that of concert direction, of which she has become a leading and specially successful representative on the Pacific Coast. In her extensive bookings she has represented distinguished individual artists as well as various leading musical organizations, including the famed Los Angeles Trio. She is booking agent for May MacDonald Hope, Calmon Luboriski, and May Bronson, constituting the above named trio, which gives splendid interpre- tations in the line of chamber music, the admirable concerts given by this trio within the past two years having been a source of boundless delight to music lovers. Under the able direction of Mrs. Elliott this trio is soon to make an extensive concert tour. Mrs. Elliott is also managing the work of soloists of note, including Nell Lockwood and Constance Balf. The entire immediate family of which Mrs. Elliott is a member has been known for exceptional musical talent, both her father and mother having fine voices that were frequently heard in concert and choir interpretations, and her sister being one of the best known musical instructors in San Francisco and Oakland.

MRS. GLADYS M. ESCHER. The trained, graceful movements of the body, illustrated by those who understand the art of dancing, are universally pleasing to witness, and perhaps not enough consideration has yet been given to dancing as a healthful and even a therapeutic agent. Yet, exercise

Vol. ITI-2

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

and gymnasium work are a part of every school curriculum and are often carried to extremes. There are a number of observant educators in Cali- fornia who have become interested in a new system of exercise, based on scientific and artistic principles, and to such an extent that at the present time there is a bill pending before the California Legislature, a provision of which is to authorize substitution in the high schools classical and inter- pretative dancing as taught at the Denishawn Studios in Los Angeles for the present accepted gymnasium work.

The Denishawn Studios, under the able management of Mrs. Gladys M. Escher, also known as The Ted Shawn-Ruth St. Denis School of the Dance, occupies a distinct and important place in this art in Southern California. Mrs. Escher was born in Arizona, came to California and is a graduate of the San Diego High School. She was trained in the methods of the Denishawn Studios, is an able instructor and capable business woman, and at present is deeply interested in a project to establish a Greater Denishawn at Grossmont, and additionally establish preparatory schools in many large cities. One school has already been established in New York, similar to the Los Angeles school, the latter having a country- wide reputation, and still another is prospering at San Diego, California, Mrs. Escher devoting one day of each week to this school.

The art of dancing, like the art of music, needs intelligent development, and that is what this modern school claims to do. In its scope it is wide, the teaching by experts covering every type except toe dancing, including such special forms as the Burmese, Javanese, Siamese, Chinese, Japanese, Egyptian and Greek, known as the oriental dances, in each of which there are different graceful movements and artistic gestures. The Ballet Technic and the technic of arms, hands and feet, receive attention here, special attention being given to the technic of the hands as developed by Miss St. Denis herself. The pupils are taught to interpret to music, the method being to make them familiar with a story and then to music tell the story through the dance.

The work in the Denishawn school is systematically carried on from eight o'clock in the morning until nine at night. The work is hard, but beginners work only three hours a day unless they are enthusiasts, as many are. In addition to the different steps and interpretative movements the students are taught the history of the period that each dance illustrates, thereby increasing their general knowledge. This school has been of the greatest importance in photography and motion picture work, and many of the artists who appear to such great advantage on the silver screen are graduates of this admirable school. Here, perhaps, many have also learned the necessary art of stage make-up, and proper costuming for period plays.

Mrs. Escher has been remarkably successful in the management of this great enterprise. An artist herself, she has understanding and sympathy for those who have artistic aspirations, but is also very practical. In her happy family there is a wide range of age, and all are taught the principles of music and often are taken to the Symphony Concerts to assist in develop- ing a taste for music. An especial feature is made of public recitals, in which each pupil has an opportunity to come before the public in her specialty.

J. HARLEY LONG, proprietor of Long's Music House, a leading establish- ment which is the only one in the City of Pasadena to find representation in this publication, has here developed a large and representative business as a "dealer in everything musical," and incidentally he has been able to give a distinct impetus to the cultural activities of the community. In his hand- somely appointed establishment is to be found at all times a select and com- prehensive line of standard pianos and other musical instruments, including the Knabe-Ampico reproducing pianos, and the Brunswick phonographs and records, player rolls, etc., a specialty being made of popular sheet- music. Long's Music House, one of the most popular resorts of the music-

Bishop of montrey and Los Angeles.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

lovers of Pasadena and vicinity, is established at 15-21 West Colorado Street.

J. Harley Long was born in Fayette County, Ohio, on the 11th of Feb- ruary, 1884, and is a son of J. W. and Missouri (Lindsey) Long, both of whom reside on their old homestead farm in that county, their children being two sons and three daughters and both of the sons being now resi- dents of California, Arthur maintaining his home at Fullerton, Orange County.

J. Harley Long was reared on the home farm and acquired his early education in the public schools of his native county. He has natural musical talent of high order and is able to play effectively on all manner of musical instruments. In the Washington Conservatory of Music at Washington Court House, Ohio, he gave special attention to the study of the violin, mandolin and guitar. The Long family in Ohio has long been known as one of great musical talent, and a family orchestra was maintained for a long term of years. While the subject of this review has a fine appreciation of musical art, he had in his earlier youth a strong penchant for athletic sports and gained no minor reputation as a ball player, he having been a member of the Columbus baseball team in the capital city of Ohio.

After his marriage, in 1906, Mr. Long engaged in the music business at Mechanicsburg, Ohio, and later he moved to Marysville, county seat of Union County, that state, where he continued five years in the same line of enterprise. In 1910 he removed to Denver, Colorado, where he became associated with the Knight-Campbell Music Company. He later took a position with the Hext Music Company, which had stores at Denver and Colorado Springs. In 1911, after a short visit to the old home in Ohio, Mr. Long came to Los Angeles, California, and engaged in special piano-sales work in different towns in Los Angeles County. In October, 1912, he founded his music business at Pasadena, and in the intervening years he has here built up a large and prosperous enterprise. His first place in Pasadena was a most modest establishment, known as the Factory Piano Store and later as the Melody, Song Shop. Under the present title of Long's Music House the establishment is widely known and controls a substantial trade that extends throughout the districts normally tributary to Pasadena as a distributing center. Mrs. Long has given effective co-operation in the management of the business, and is a popular figure in the social and cul- tural circles of Pasadena. Prior to his marriage Mr. Long had been a suc- cessful teacher of violin, piano, mandolin and guitar music. The handsome Chandler automobile owned and driven by Mr. Long is painted in pink and blue shades and has been used effectively in the advertising of his business, the car being known all through Southern California and as far east as Ohio. In 1919 Mr. Long decorated his car so effectively for the parade in the Pasadena Rose Tournament of that year that he captured on the same a prize of a silver loving-cup. He resides at 1871 Locust Street, where he has an attractive home, with an acre of ground, and where he finds diversion and profit in the raising of turkeys, chickens and rabbits. He is the owner also of a ranch of forty acres near Hemet, Riverside County.

On the 6th of June, 1906, at the home of the bride's parents near Belle- fontaine, Logan County, Ohio, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Long and Miss Lena Ethel Creviston. Mrs. Long is a daughter of Thomas Jef- ferson and Mary A. (Connelly) Creviston, who still reside on their farm in Logan County, Ohio. Mrs. Long graduated from the high school at East Liberty, Ohio, in 1902, and prior to her marriage had been for four years a successful and popular teacher in the schools of her native state.

RT. REV. JOHN J. CANTWELL. In 1918 the Diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles welcomed as its new. bishop John J. Cantwell, D. D., who has been a consecrated worker in California nearly twenty years, and was called to his present duties from his former position as Vicar General to the Archbishop of San Francisco.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Rt. Rev. John J. Cantwell was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1874. A number of his family have been distinguished in the annals of the church. Several of his uncles were priests and Bishop Cantwell himself has two brothers in the clergy: Rev. James P. Cantwell, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and Rev. William J. Cantwell, rector of St. Anselm's Church, San Anselmo, California, while still a younger brother Arthur, is a student at St. Bernard's Seminary at Rochester, New York.

Bishop Cantwell received his academic education in the College of the Jesuit Fathers at Limerick and pursued his theological studies at St. Patrick's College, Thurles. He was ordained a priest in 1899 and at once came to California, being assigned to the Archdiocese of San Francisco. His first mission was at Berkeley, and for five years was assistant to the rector of St. Joseph's Church. His learning and eloquence quickly won him distinction and gave him great opportunities for service in the Uni- versity City, where he interested himself especially in the Catholic students at the University of California, and through his efforts brought about the organization of the Newman Club in that city.

In 1904 the late Archbishop Riordan called Father Cantwell to the post of secretary, an office demanding a fine combination of learning, courtesy and administrative ability. It was his fulfillment of the obligations and responsibilities of his new post that brought him quickly the regard and confidence of a growing number of the clergy, laity and non-Catholics. Upon the appointment of Archbishop Hanna to the see of San Francisco, Father Cantwell in 1915 became Vicar General of the Archdiocese. This position he held until he came to southern California to assume the duties of Bishop of the Diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles.

HENRY DEDRICK MEYER, president of Meyer's Department Store Com- pany, the large and well equipped establishment of which is at 23-31 North Raymond Avenue in the City of Pasadena, was born at Freeport, Illinois, February 3, 1879, and is a son of George H. and Anna (Cattenhorn) Meyer. In the earlier part of his career George H. Meyer was successfully identified with farm enterprise, first near Freeport, Illinois, and later in Rice County, Kansas. In 1897 he and his wife came to California, and here he became associated with his son Henry D. in mercantile enterprise. Both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives at Pasadena, where the latter died Jan. 27, 1908, and the former on the 1st of May, 1910. Both were born in Germany, Mr. Meyer having come to the United States when eighteen years of age and his wife when seventeen. Their acquaint- anceship was formed in Illinois, and at Freeport, that state, their marriage was solemnized. Of their family of four sons and four daughters two of . the sons and one of the daughters are deceased. The eldest of the surviv- ing children is Mrs. H. T. Sandbye, of Pasadena; Henry D. is the next younger ; Rev. H. O., a clergyman of the Baptist Church, resides at Des Moines, Iowa ; the next younger of the children is the wife of Rev. C. H. Fischer, of Wellsville, Kansas ; and the youngest of the children is now the wife of Rev. C. W. Catherwood, of San Bernardino, California.

Henry D. Meyer was reared to the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm in Rice County, Kansas, and gained his early education in the public schools of the locality. Shortly after his sixteenth birthday anniversary he came to California, about two years prior to the removal of his parents to this state. Here he learned the trade of shoemaker, to which he continued to devote himself until after he attained to his legal majority. He then, in 1901, took unto himself a wife, and shortly afterward he purchased a small variety store at Long Beach, where he thus initiated what has proved a remarkably successful career in the mercantile business. After remaining five years at Long Beach he came, in 1907, to Pasadena, and opened the local department store for the Edward Alswede Company, in which he became a stockholder and from which he developed the large and prosperous business now con- ducted under the title of the Meyer's Department Store Company, of which he is the executive head. A man of exceptional progressiveness and cir-

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

cumspection, Mr. Meyer has made a splendid record in connection with mercantile enterprise. Until 1918 he conducted branch stores at Long Beach, Riverside, Imperial Valley and Huntington Beach, and he has since found it expedient to concentrate his activities in the large and successful business at Pasadena. He has added to the commercial facilities of the business by maintaining an office in New York City. In the department store at Pasadena are handled all general lines of merchandise except furni- ture, drugs and groceries. In the Covina District of Los Angeles County Mr. Meyer is the owner of a fine orange grove of ninety acres, in full bearing. He is a director of the Irwindale Citrus Association. and also of the A. C. G. Fruit Exchange at Azusa, besides which he is interested in oil development at Huntington Beach. He is a progressive republican, is an implacable adversary of liquor traffic and believes that the national prohibi- tion law should be enforced to the letter. Mr. Meyer is affiliated with Pasa- dena Lodge No. 272, F. and A. M., and in addition to his York Rite affiliations he is identified also with Scottish Rite bodies and is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and is also a member of Pasadena Lodge No. 672, B. P. O. E. He is an active and loyal member of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, and has secure status as one of the progressive business men and liberal and public-spirited citizens of the city, county and state in which he has achieved large success through his own ability and well directed efforts. The religious faith of the family is that of the Baptist Church.

May 14, 1901, recorded the marriage of Mr. Meyer and Miss Mabel Von Wessler, who was born and reared in Kansas. The children of this union are six in number : George H. graduated from the Pasadena High School in 1919 and in 1922 is a student in the University of Southern Cali- fornia; Amy graduated from the high school as a member of the class of 1922; Carl H. is a member of the high school class of 1923; Lillian is also in the high school; and Eleanor and Henry E. are attending the graded schools.

MRS. JANE LEWIS has a unique and distinguished business enterprise in the City of Los Angeles conducted under the title of Lady Jane Lewis. Of her attractive shop, at 6055 Hollywood Boulevard, the following appre- ciative statements have been written: "Much of distinction at once impresses the visitor who enters the shop of Lady Jane Lewis, the quiet, refined atmosphere of the place bringing immediate recognition of the fact that here is a business place much out of the ordinary, and when you meet Mrs. Lewis the reason for this impression becomes evident. On entering her place the writer found Lady Jane Lewis in conference with one of the best known moving picture directors of the great California colony, and they were busily engaged in scanning and passing verdict upon manuscript for a new picture the costuming of which she was called upon to provide in its entirety. It was to take up this interesting and important work that Lady Jane Lewis came to Los Angeles in 1919, and her success in her chosen profession has here been unqualified."

Mrs. Jane (Kennedy) Lewis was born at Towanda, Pennsylvania, and there she continued her studies until her graduation from St. Cecilia's Academy. After leaving school she entered the employ of H. B. Claflin, a prominent costumer engaged in business on Fifth Avenue, New York, and while she was thus engaged Mrs. Lewis was induced to take charge of costuming in the productions of the old Vitagraph Company, which pioneer moving picture concern she joined at the time when the Talmadge sisters, Lillian Walker, Flora Finch, and many other screen celebrities were initiating their work for the pictures under the auspices of this company, of which Commodore Blackton was then the director. For nine years Mrs. Lewis continued her alliance with the Vitagraph Company in New York City, and when many of the talented young women for whom in this con- nection she had provided costumes, including Anita Stewart, Alice Joyce and many others, came to join the screen colonies in the West Mrs. Lewis likewise decided to come to California. Here she established herself inde-

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

pendently in business as a costumer for picture productions, and in this field of enterprise her business title of Lady Jane Lewis has come to repre- sent the acme of artistry and to constitute an important part in the presenta- tion of the silent drama. In addition to having provided costumes for many of the most notable screen productions, Mrs. Lewis has developed a sub- stantial and distinguished enterprise in providing costumes for women of prominence in the social, professional and business circles of the city, a Lady Jane product being a distinctive mark of refined and "correct" taste. In the handling of her large business Mrs. Lewis now retains a corps of efficient assistants. At the time of this writing, in the late summer of 1922, Mrs. Lewis is preparing costumes for a new and splendid Von Stroheim production, and has just completed the costuming of "The Dangerous Age," which will see release before this publication is issued from the press. Mrs. Lewis always provides costumes for the Anita Stewart pictures and also for Betty Blythe, in connection with the latter of whom an exception was made, however, in the production of the "Queen of Sheba." The Lady Jane establishment costumed Alta Allen in the "Marriage Chance," and Bessie Love in "St. Elmo." Leah Baird likewise looks to Mrs. Lewis for her effective costumes in all roles in which she appears, and the clientage of the Lewis establishment is distinctly of representative order, both in screen and social circles. Mrs. Lewis at all times has greater demand for her service than she is able to meet, and she is constantly busy. She is an enthusiast in her work, and is a close student of all things pertaining to the productions for which she provides costumes, the result being that consis- tency and artistic results are always assured through her interposition.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 4

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