USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 40
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JACKSON FREER. One of the names which is indissolubly connected with the development of Southern California, and particularly that part of it included in Los Angeles County, is that of Freer, for not only was William H. Freer, the founder of the family in the Golden State, one of the men connected with this valuable work, but his twin sons, Jackson and Lee Freer, have continued it, and are today among the most representative men of their community. For years all have been connected with the history of El Monte, and their wealth is invested in this region.
Jackson Freer, whose name heads this review, was born in San Jose, Santa Clara County, California, April 6, 1870, and from 1875, when his parents came to El Monte, he has been connected with this district. He was reared on his father's ranch near El Monte, and he was sent to school at Savannah and Saint Vincent's College at Los Angeles. However, although he was given as many advantages as possible, he received but a limited education, for the schools were very poor in those days.
Remaining at home until he was twenty-three years old, Jackson Freer then began working on a ranch he had purchased, and in 1893 settled on his present property, corner of the old Pico Road and the San Bernardino Road, which he had bought when he was just of age. This tract comprised forty-six acres and was in a wild state, covered with elders and brush. With characteristic energy he went to work to clear this land with his own hands. He began its improvement by sinking two wells, from which he obtains ample water for his home supply and for irrigation purposes, pumping 200 inches of water. These wells thus afford him not only all the water he needs, but also irrigate his acres economically. In 1919 he capped his improvements by erecting his present modern and imposing residence on the boulevard. His magnificent property is set to fine walnuts, which he has planted at different times. This is known as one of the most beautiful and productive walnut ranches in California, and has been entirely devel- oped through his own efforts.
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Jackson Fiveer
Elija J. Freer
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Jackson Freer married at El Monte Miss Eliza Jane Schmidt, who was born in El Monte, California, a daughter of Henry Schmidt, a native of Alsace-Lorraine, France, born October 15, 1842, and granddaughter of Henry Schmidt, born in Bordeaux, France, superintendent of the court of Lorraine until his death in 1866. His wife, Margaret, also died in Lor- raine. They were the parents of sixteen children, fifteen of whom lived to reach maturity.
Of the sixteen children born to his parents Henry Schmidt, father of Mrs. Freer, was the ninth in order of birth. In his boyhood he was apprenticed in Luxemburg to the blacksmithing trade, and after learning it, as was the custom, traveled through Belgium, Holland and Poland, working at his trade. In 1863 he returned to Paris, France, and for three years made that city his home. In 1866 he came to the United States by way of the Nicaragua route, and landed at San Francisco, from whence he went to San Jose, and there worked at his trade for a time. Subsequently he went to Marysville, California, and thence to Virginia City, Nevada, and other points in Nevada and Idaho, and from Boise City, Idaho, he traveled over- land to Alaska. However, he was not able to reach his destination on account of the snow and ice, which forced him back, and he then spent some time in Salt Lake City, Utah. From there he went to Lincoln County, Nevada, and then, in 1869, after all of this traveling, came to El Monte and established himself permanently, and the remainder of his life was spent working in his smithy at his forge. After coming to El Monte he married Miss Eliza Slack, a native of Gold Creek, Utah, a daughter of William Slack, and they became the parents of the following children : Eliza Jane, who is Mrs. Jackson Freer; Victoria, who is the wife of Thomas Freer ; Frank; Margaret, who is the wife of Dr. William Cham- bers, a dentist of Los Angeles ; and Camilla, who is the widow of Herman Plath. Mrs. Freer had the distinction of being baptized in the oid San Gabriel Mission Church, but is now a member of the Presbyterian Church of El Monte.
Mr. and Mrs. Freer have had four children, namely: Delmer, who was born December 23, 1894, at El Monte, was there sent to school, and later became a student of Harvard University, married Miss Clair Kellerman, a native of Los Angeles, has two sons, 'Donald and Marion, and is a walnut grower with his father at El Monte; Irma, who was born May 3, 1896, died in 1898; Doris, who was born in 1905, died a year later ; and Fluvia, who was born February 9, 1908, is attending the El Monte High School.
Mr. Freer bought his present property from Baldwin and Garvey, and has made all of the improvements upon it. When he began to work it he raised hogs and engaged in general farming, but soon decided to devote it to other purposes and experimented with walnuts. His initial planting proved so successful a venture that he increased the acreage of his grove until all of his land was set out with these nuts. Today he stands as one of the men who have mastered the soft-shell walnut industry, and his success is a monument to his skill and industry. He is a charter member of El Monte View Walnut Association, and is a close student of production and market- ing, both of which studies are of benefit to his association. The democratic party has in him an ardent supporter. In every way he is one of the most representative men of his locality and an enthusiastic native son of the state.
EDMUND MURRAY ARENSCHIELD, M. D. Although some years have passed since Dr. Edmund Murray Arenschield passed away, his reputation as a highly-educated and skillful physician and surgeon remains, and he is well and affectionately remembered by the older generation throughout Los Angeles County. His widow and children are numbered among the most representative people of this section of Southern California, and their large interests form an important factor in the wealth of this favored locality.
Doctor Arenschield was born at Moline, Illinois, in 1860, a son of Charles O. Arenschield, and grandson of Baron Victor Arenschield, who
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received a severe sabre cut at the battle of Waterloo. Baron Arenschield came to the United States when his son Charles O. Arenschield was only four years old, and from then on the family has been connected with the history and progress of this country.
Doctor Arenschield was very thoroughly prepared for his profession, and graduated in medicine from the University of Iowa, at Iowa City. For some years he was a surgeon for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, but in 1895 moved with his family to California and bought a tract of five acres of oranges at Monrovia, Los Angeles County. For several years thereafter he made various trips back to Iowa to look after his different interests, but finally disposed of them all. Doctor Arenschield was continually in practice from the time he came to Los Angeles County until his demise, and attained to distinction in his profes- sion. The Baptist Church had in him a zealous member, and he was interested in its growth. In politics he was a republican. Fraternally he maintained membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Doctor Arenschield married Lillian A. Williams, who was born at Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1860, a daughter of Morris J. and Mary E. (Stoops) Williams. A selfmade man, Morris J. Williams became a distinguished attorney, and later a jurist of equal distinction. A very prominent repub- lican he refused the nomination for governor of Iowa, which meant in those days an election, as his party was so largely in the majority, because of the fact that the salary was not at all commensurate with his needs. He was noted, after he reached the bench, for the wisdom of his decisions, which he delivered without fear or prejudice with reference to race or prominence. His death occurred in 1892, after a long and honorable service on the bench. In addition to the demands of his professional life Judge Williams was also interested in stock-raising and the breeding of fine cattle and horses. A great temperance worker, he drove out, by im- posing excessive fines, the saloonmen in his part of Iowa. He was utterly fearless in everything he undertook, and made a remarkable record as district attorney before he became a jurist. Morris J. Williams was named after his uncle, William R. Morris, who was a famous lawyer of Cincinnati and a man of national reputation.
Mrs. Arenschield was educated for the calling of a schoolteacher, and was engaged in that line of work until 1884, when she was married. Four children were born to Doctor and Mrs. Arenschield, as follows: Ione, who was born at Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1885, was educated in the public schools of her native city, and is now engaged in teaching school at Eldridge, California; Leola, who was born at Ottumwa. Iowa, in 1888, is the wife of Burke Adams, of Glendale, California ; Ethel, who was born at Monrovia, California, in 1895, is the wife of William Kirkland, of Pasa- dena, California ; and Edmund Murray, who was born at Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1897. He graduated from the high school of Elisnore, California. Enlisting for service in the World war, he served in the machine gun squadron as a private, was sent to Camp Kearney for training, and. was there made a corporal-sergeant, and was placed in charge as physical director after his unit reached France. While in France he was commis- sioned a second lieutenant, and continued in the service until the close of the war. Returned home following the signing of the armistice, he became a salesman for the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, and proved to be so good a salesman that his services were sought by the National Cash Register Company, in whose employ he now is, and he was made secretary of the One Hundred Percent Club of that organization at the recent annual convention held at Dayton, Ohio, because of his salesmanship, he ranking second in the entire selling force of this corporation in the United States. In August, 1922, Mr. Arenschield married Miss Sarah M. Burton, of Los Angeles, a graduate of the University of Southern California. It is a source of pleasurable pride to Mrs. Arenschield and her children that they can trace back to honorable and distinguished ancestors, and that none of the family on either side have done anything to reflect upon them in any
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way, and that many rose to distinction through earnest effort and good citizenship.
FREDERICK WILLIAM LINDSLEY gave the active years of his life to a broad routine of farming and business affairs in Minnesota, and even after he sought the comforts of living in beautiful Santa Monica he em- ployed his sound judgment and business capital to advantage and was an active factor of that community until his death.
Mr. Lindsley was born at Catskill, Greene County, New York, May 9, 1853, and was in his sixty-ninth year when he died at Santa Monica, December 30, 1921. His parents were Clark and Ruama (Bennett) Lindsley. His great-grandfather Lindsley came from England, and was an American soldier in the War of 1812. Clark Lindsley was born in Oswego County, New York, May 22, 1822, moved to Greene County, and at Bleecker, Fulton County, on January 16, 1850, he married Ruama Bennett. In 1855 the family left New York and moved to Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, where Clark Lindsley owned and operated a farm. On May 9, 1869, when his son Frederick was sixteen years of age, he moved down to Jackson County, Minnesota, took up a claim of 160 acres, and personally superintended its development and cultivation until 1887, after which he lived retired in the town of Jackson until his death.
Frederick William Lindsley was educated in Wisconsin, finished in the public schools of Jackson County, Minnesota, and was associated with his father on the home farm until 1879. In that year he engaged in the agri- cultural implement business and as a live stock dealer at Jackson in Jackson County. At the height of his career in Minnesota Mr. Lindsley had six hundred and ten acres under cultivation, with five tenants on his farm, was a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator and a director in the State Bank of Jackson. In 1912 he moved to Santa Monica, and here he was engaged in the real estate business and also owned an undertaking establishment. Mr. Lindsley endeavored to do his part as a public spirited citizen in every community where he lived. He was a republican and served as a member of the City Council at Jackson, Minnesota. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
On October 24, 1882, he married Miss Laura E. LaRue, daughter of Samuel and Jennie (Dixon) LaRue, the father a native of Ontario, Canada, and the mother of Ireland. Mrs. Lindsley resides at 1021 Fifth Street in Santa Monica, and is the mother of three children : Mattie R., 'born March 2, 1884; Leora May, born March 7, 1886; and Frederick W., born June 18, 1889. The two daughters reside with Mrs. Lindsley. The son is married and has three children, named Eleanor, James LaRue and Enid. Mrs. Lindsley was born at Darlington, Ontario, Canada, September 24, 1855, and was reared and educated in Jackson County, Minnesota. Her father was a native of Canada and her mother of Dublin, Ireland. Her father moved to Jackson County, Minnesota, in early days, and was a farmer there until his death on March 8, 1882, at the age of seventy-one. Her mother died June 14, 1904, aged ninety years. Mrs. Lindsley is an active member of the Santa Monica Bay Woman's Club.
HARRY B. WATSON, head of the Watson Company, Buick dealers at Burbank, has been actively identified with the automobile business a number of years. He was an army aviator during the late war, and his experience in business has taken him over nearly all the United States.
The Harry B. Watson Company was established February 1, 1922. The company maintains salesroom and service stations on North Olive Street in Burbank and a branch on Sherman Way at Van Nuys. The company acts as sales representatives and distributors for the Buick car in the San Fernando Valley except Glendale, and also handles accessories and maintains a complete service department. Nine persons are employed by the company, and at Burbank they have thirteen thousand square feet of floor space. The company is incorporated with a capital of $25,000, Mr. Watson being president, E. H. Woodford, vice president and J. R.
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Binford, secretary and treasurer. During the first year the company did a business of $180,000, selling over a hundred new cars.
Harry B. Watson was born in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, February 28, 1890, son of John Bartlett and Amy (Thickbroom) Watson. His parents were born in London, England, and first settled in Canada, and subsequently lived in Chicago. His father was a merchant and real estate man, and subsequently came to Burbank, where he was in the real estate business for several years and is now retired.
Harry B. Watson attended public schools in Chicago, and was a member of the class of 1906 in Northwestern University, receiving the B. M. C. degree. He, was associated with his father in the real estate business in Chicago for a time, and had his first experience in the auto- mobile business at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Subsequently he was one of the pioneer automobile dealers at Tampa, Florida.
While in Illinois Mr. Watson enlisted as a private in Company G of the First Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, and served three years, 1906-09. He was appointed a corporal under Capt. Benjamin Zweig, now a major of the First Regiment of the Illinois Reserve Militia. In 1907 he was at Camp Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, and he was also called to service at Memphis, Baton Rouge and Vicksburg. After his discharge he enlisted in the Illinois Reserve Militia and was appointed a first lieutenant.
When the World war came on Mr. Watson was sent to Berkeley, California, to attend the school of Military Aeronautics, graduating No- vember 13, 1917. He was then sent to Camp Dix, New Jersey, where he joined Pershing's Fighting Observers, consisting of three hundred and fifty picked aviators. He was also in training at Selfridge Field at Mount Clemens, Michigan, and was appointed a second lieutenant in the air service. He still holds a commission in the Reserve Corps with unit 513 Observation Squadron, Second and Third Field Armies.
After the war Mr. Watson. for a brief time was in the automobile business in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and on July 4, 1921, came to Burbank, California. He organized and is past president of the Burbank Kiwanis Club and is now its district trustee. He is a member of the Hollywood Athletic Club, the Sunset Canyon Country Club, the Burbank Commercial Club and Chamber of Commerce, the Good Fellowship Club of Burbank, and is a member of the United Commercial Travelers.
CORINNE KING WRIGHT. In childhood, inspired by the stories of the romantic life of the Spaniard in the early days of California as related by Don Antonio Coronel in his adobe hacienda, a veritable casa del rosas which nestled in one of the oldest orange groves in the City of Los Angeles, Mrs. William Henry Wright, nee Corinne King, began what has been her most signal service to posterity-that of collecting data and documents pertaining to the history of California prior to 1850.
From old Indians who worked for her father at her home at San Ber- nardino, where her girlhood was spent, Mrs. Wright obtained many of the Indian legends which have been published. In many a Spanish chest or forgotten niche she has procured letters and papers bearing testimony of the social and political life of the first Angelenos, which have furnished the material for much of her literary work. By far the most important product of her researches from an historical point of view is "The Mystery Play in California," for the book is unique in the fact that it is the first work to be published giving an authentic and detalied description of the Pastores as produced in the Missions and in the homes of the wealthy dons of the pueblas. The text includes a translation of a seventeenth century Pastores that was brought to Los Angeles from Mexico by Don Ygnacio Coronel in 1836. For this thesis Mrs. Wright received the degree of Master of Arts from the University of Southern California. Another work from original sources, presented to the Historical Society of Southern California, is the "Conquest of Los Angeles," in which the writer disproves from docu- mentary evidence many erroneous statements regarding the political and
Portrait by herself. of Cousins Ring Wright
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military actions of that drama that have passed unchallenged in the histories of the state. She writes as a student of histology, seeking neither to exalt or deprecate either the American or the Californian, but only to tell the truth. Her novel, with this period as a background, is soon to be published.
When still in her 'teens, Mrs. Wright visited the old South, the land of her birth, for the purpose of studying and preserving Negro folk-lore and folk-songs. It was during this visit that she extended her researches to a study of voodooism, the strange, savage blood-worship of the African. At New Orleans she interviewed the aged daughter of the once-famous sorceress and voodoo queen, Marie Lavou, and obtained much valuable information, but was earnestly warned by the old mulatto of the danger of her mission and especially of the risk of publishing a description of any of the rites performed by the superstitious believers of the cult. But now, after the lapse of years, her notes are being prepared for publication. When the writer puts aside the more serious themes her rhymes and stories for children reflect a sympathetic understanding of the quaint philosophy of childhood.
Aside from her work with the pen Mrs. Wright has been equally occu- pied with the brush, and many of her paintings have been hung in the art exhibitions of the state. The best known landscapes are those portraying the witchery of the old missions when seen under the softening influence of twilight or moonlight. It is as a portrait painter, however, that technical skill is so combined with intuitive understanding that the result is a work that places Mrs. Wright in the front rank of the portrait artists of the West. As art supervisor in the schools of Alhambra for more than a decade this tireless worker was an inspiration to instructors and students alike, and did much to foster an appreciation of art and architecture in their direct relation to the domestic and civic life of the community.
The world of art and letters, however, has not prevented the partici- pation in movements for the betterment of society and the preservation of the priceless landmarks of California. Mrs. Wright is an active member of the San Gabriel Woman's Club, of which she was the founder, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the. Con- federacy. During the World war she was president of the first auxiliary in America organized for the purpose of furnishing comforts for the sol- diers, the Auxiliary for Company E, 117th Engineers, Rainbow Division. Her son, Kenneth King Wright, was a member of this famous company of the battle-scarred division, "the first to go and the last to return" from France.
Mrs. Wright is the daughter of the late Robert Hawkins King, whose maternal grandfather was an English baron, but who considered service upon the staff of Washington to be a greater honor, and the title remained in the American family, unused, until the middle of the last century. Mr. King's paternal ancestor was the founder of Queens College, Chapel Hill, now the University of North Carolina, which graduated many famous Southern men, among them William Rufus King, a descendant of the founder. Edwin King, one of the organizers of the Vigilantes of San Francisco, and James King of William, the intrepid editor whose assassina- tion forced the Vigilantes into action, were members of the family.
The mother of Mrs. Wright, Martha Melton, was in her maternal lineage of French Huguenot descent of the family of So Relle, who came to Canada in the first years of the seventeenth century and thence to Georgia, a family of which few men bear the name, yet whose feminine line has given America a number of statesmen and military leaders, among them Theodore Roosevelt, Gen. John B. Gordon, Thomas Watts, the attor- ney-general of the Confederacy ; and the "fighting parson," Wiley So Relle. It was on this last-named great plantation that Mrs. Wright was born. She was brought to California in infancy when her parents, impoverished and discouraged by the vicissitudes of the long years of the reconstruction period, made the long journey via New York and the Isthmus of Panama to San Pedro and thence by stage to San Bernardino. Here the Mormons
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had surveyed and laid out a beautiful townsite, but had abandoned it and returned to Salt Lake City some years previous. Mr. King bought half a "square" at Eighth and "E" streets. It was to beautify this home that the first eucalyptus tree was imported from Australia into California about the year 1875.
Mrs. Wright was educated in the schools of San Bernardino, then en- tered the State Normal School of Los Angeles, and has the distinction of having been graduated at the age of sixteen. She holds her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Southern Cali- fornia. In 1893 she married William Henry Wright, the son of a California pioneer, whose Puritan ancestors founded the town of Sayebrook, Con- necticut, in 1648. Of this marriage there are two sons, So Relle and Kenneth King, and two daughters, Dorothy and Corinne, who live with their parents at the home place, "La Solana," at San Gabriel.
SAMUEL HENRY WEST. The Santa Monica Bay District of Los Angeles County has its quota of enterprising and reliable representatives of the real estate business, and among them, occupying a position of promin- ence, is Mr. West, who is the executive head of the substantial real estate and insurance business conducted under the title of S. H. West & Com- pany, with offices at 1337 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica. This corpora- tion is the successor of the firm of West & Fraser, and the original firm was Bulling & West. The business is incorporated with a capital stock of $25,000, Mr. West being president of the company, his wife being its vice president, and P. K. Mackedie being secretary and treasurer. The opera- tions of the company are of large and important order in the handling of city and suburban properties, and the concern is a distinctive force in furthering the development and progress of this section of Los Angeles County. The company is handling the development of the Palisades Sub- division, comprising fifty-six acres, and is exploiting other attractive properties in and about Santa Monica. The company represents the Pacific Mutual Insurance Company, the Union Fire Insurance Company and the Columbia Casualty Company.
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