USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 42
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Robert L. Casner walked three miles daily from his home to Santa Paula to attend school, and there he continued his studies until he had completed his freshman year in the high school. He gained practical experience in connection with the operations of the home ranch, and was still a youth when he learned the butcher's trade. In 1899 he came to Mon- rovia and took the position of carver in the meat market here conducted by one of his brothers. This was a pioneer market established by E. C. Bell, who sold the business to Frank Wiggins, from whom it was acquired by the Casners. The Casner market developed a large business in supplying meat to Monrovia and to the various ranches in this part of the county. Their original slaughter house was simply the shade of an oak tree on the old Bradbury ranch, near Durante. Slaughtering work was done at night, and the product was hauled to the market at Monrovia at three o'clock in the morning, no ice having been available at that time, so that slaughtering had to be done at frequent intervals. In 1890 Robert L. Casner took charge of his brother's market at El Monte, and there he remained until
Marches
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1903, when he returned to Monrovia. In 1910 he purchased his brother's market in this city, and he has since continued the business with marked success. In 1920 he purchased the lot and building where his market is located, and he is the owner of other valuable property in his home city and county. He has been a thorough and progressive business man, and has so, ordered his course as to gain and retain popular confidence and good will. On the 3d of August, 1922, Mr. Casner secured a valuable lease on oil-bearing land in the Sinal Hill District near Long Beach, and for the development work on this property he organized the Monrovia Oil Com- pany, of which he is president and active manager, the company being incorporated with a capital stock of $200,000.
July 5, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Casner and Miss May Patten, who was born at Monrovia, a daughter of Thomas Patten, her birth having occurred in 1886 and her death in 1907. She was not survived by children.
On the 1st of May, 1907, Mr. Casner wedded Mrs. Georgia Raines (Ough) Pennock, who was born at Albion, New York, a daughter of George W. and Anna Barbara (Burns) Ough, her father having become a prominent manufacturer of furniture at Lima, New York. The first husband of Mrs. Casner died in 1904, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two children having been born of their union. Mildred Lucille, elder of the two children, was born at North Tonawanda, New York, and received the best of educational advantages, with special training in languages and piano and vocal music, she being now the wife of L. Grover Lawlor, of Los Angeles. Miss Hadley Bernard Pennock, the younger of the two children, was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1922, is a student in Bryn Mawr College, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Casner gained her earlier education at Lima, New York, and later attended Syracuse University. She received in the musical conservatory of this institution the best of training in piano and pipe-organ music, as well as harmony, and after her graduation she became a successful teacher of these branches of music, besides having served as organist in one of the leading churches in the City of Buffalo, New York. She is the popular chatelaine of one of the beautiful homes of Monrovia and is active in the social and cultural life of the community.
WILLIAM ALBERT CHESS has been an important factor in the history of Monrovia for thirty-five years, and for a third of a century has been associated with John H. Bartle in the management of the First National Bank of that city.
He was born at Brownsville, Michigan, June 9, 1853, son of Findley and Sophronia Chess. His father, who had lived in Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, where he was a coal miner, moved to Michigan at an early day and took advantage of the cheap land in that state, developed a fine farm and as he prospered became owner of a store and grist mills.
William Albert Chess spent the first eighteen years of his life on a Michigan farm, attended public schools there, and finished his educa- tion with a commercial course at Clinton, Iowa. His early business training was as clerk in retail stores, and in 1879 he moved to Western Kansas, and had a full share of the pioneer life of that section. He was a stock rancher and merchant there until 1887, and much of his business was done with the cowpunchers and other noted frontier characters.
Mr. Chess came to Monrovia in 1887, and on January 1, 1890, became bookkeeper in the First National Bank. From that he was promoted to cashier, and for many years has held this executive posi- tion and is also vice president of the affiliated institution, the Mon- rovia Savings Bank. A brief record of these two prosperous institu- tions is given elsewhere. Mr. Chess is a real banker, has been a con- servator of the financial strength of the community and of its general welfare and has been such a careful and discriminating adviser to the
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patrons of the Bank and others that his judgment is accepted without question in all financial transactions.
Mr. Chess has acted on the principle of his firm convictions that the best possible public service could be rendered through complete devotion to his banking duties. Consequently he has developed no important outside interests. For several terms he was city treasurer of Monrovia and a member of the Park Commission and Library Board. He cast his first presidential vote for Samuel. J. Tilden in 1876, but has never been active in politics. He is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees, is a member of the Granite Club at Mon- rovia, and usually attends the Unitarian Church, though he is not a member of any religious association.
At Cassopolis, Michigan, November 22, 1881, Mr. Chess married Miss Mary Belle Smith, daughter of Lewis D. and Jane Smith. They have two children, Claude S. Chess, who is married and lives at Mon- rovia ; and Miss Edna A., teacher of art in the Monrovia High School.
JAMES R. HODGES. Southern California has gathered within its gracious borders sterling citizens from virtually all other sections of the United States, and he whose name introduces this review claims the old Blue Grass State as the place of his nativity.
Mr. Hodges, whose attractive home is at 322 School Street in the City of Covina, this county, was born in Hart County, Kentucky, September 30, 1863, his father, Albert Hodges, having been an agriculturist and stock- grower in Kentucky. The youngest in a family of five children, James R. Hodges gained in the schools of his native county his somewhat limited edu- cational advantages, and he was only thirteen years of age when he was thrown upon his own resources and gave evidence of his self-reliance and determined purpose by coming at that age, in 1877, to California. In Or- ange County he forthwith entered upon an apprenticeship in the office of the Santa Ana Herald, and he gained familiarity with the various details of the "art preservative of all arts" and of newspaper business in general. He worked on various newspapers in this part of California, including the Los Angeles Star, and upon severing his association with the printing and newspaper business he turned his attention to farm enterprise. In 1883 Mr. Hodges bought twenty acres of land at a point one mile northwest of the village of Covina, which townsite was not then laid out. He reclaimed this land from the wild state, erected a modest house and planted nursery stock, his having thus been one of the early nurseries of this now favored and beautiful district. In the earlier period of his residence here the Covina colony had but few settlers, and industrial and civic conditions were not prepossessing, but he did not falter in his course, overcame many discour- agements and obstacles, and with the passing years won substantial suc- cess. In 1886 the white scale had made great inroads on the citrus-fruit industry in this locality, orange-growers became discouraged, and nursery stocks were allowed to die out in order that they might be replaced with healthy stock. Under these conditions Mr. Hodges imported orange trees from Florida, and in 1887 he sold these seedling trees at the rate of seventy- five cents each. He continued his nursery business many years, and eventu- ally gained substantial financial success in this connection. Incidentally he gained reputation as an authority in horticultural industry, especially in the growing of citrus fruits, and for the past twelve years, or since 1910, he has given most efficient service in the position of official horticultural inspec- tor for Los Angeles County. He is one of the honored pioneer citizens of the Covina District, and has been prominently identified with its develop- ment and advancement. The present fine little City of Covina was platted in 1885, by J. S. Phillips, and the townsite was one mile square. In the early days water for domestic use was taken from an open ditch and hauled in barrels.
Mr. Hodges, a man of superior mentality, has effectively overcome the educational handicap of his youth, and it is specially interesting to record
B. Sumado
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that he has mastered the English, German and Spanish languages and familiarized himself also with the difficult Chinese language, with the result. that he has been much in demand as an interpreter in these foreign lan- guages. Mr. Hodges gave close attention also to the study of law, and is an active member of the bar of Los Angeles County, besides which he served continuously as justice of the peace from 1884 to 1900. In his home community no man has more secure place in popular confidence and re- spect.
The year 1889 recorded the marriage of Mr. Hodges and Miss Olivette Judd, who was born in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. They have four children, concerning whom brief record is given in concluding this review : Clarence Albert is a teacher of higher mathematics in the University of Texas, and was in the nation's military service in the World war period. Vivienne resides in the City of Covina, where her husband is a member of the firm of Kemper & Campbell, their one child being a fine little son, Don- ald Campbell. Louis Aubrey is a member of the Covina grocery firm of Budd & Hodges. He married Miss Violet Budd, of Covina, and they have a daughter, Louise. James Glenn, the youngest of the four children, is manager of the Golden Orange Growers packing house at Covina, and he is a veteran of the World war service. He married Miss Helen Bambridge, and their one child is a daughter, Jeane.
MRS. LUZ (SANCHEZ) GUIRADO. Fortunate in being the owner of valuable income properties in Los Angeles City and County, Mrs. Luz (Sanchez) Guirado, whose ranch home is located on Rivera Road, one fourth of a mile west of Los Nietos, is numbered among the wealthy citizens of this part of the state. She was born at the Old Mission home place in Los Angeles County. She was one of the ten children of Juan Matias Sanchez, a native of New Mexico, of Spanish parentage. He came across the plains and desert on horseback during the gold rush of 1849, and acquired the foundation of his fortune in the Placer mining regions of Northern California. Coming then to Los Angeles County, he acquired many thousands of acres, the historic Rancho Potrero Grande and Rancho La Merced being among his holdings, which comprised nearly all the land extending from the town of Montebello to El Monte, including the greater portion of the present Montebello oil fields. Belonging to the old type of Spanish grande, he generously placed his name on various documents as security for his friends, who, failing to meet their obligations, involving him most seriously in financial difficulties not of his own making. As a result his properties were lost through foreclosure to E. J. ("Lucky") Baldwin, and he retained out of his immense fortune only a 200 acre home- stead at the Old Mission, and there he died November 11, 1885, at the age of seventy-two years, his demise undoubtedly being hastened by his undeserved misfortunes. He was a devout Catholic, as were all of his people.
Mrs. Guirado first attended a Sister's School at Los Angeles, and later Notre Dame College, Sante Clara, California, from which she was graduated. Subsequently she was married to Bernardino Guirado, a widower, and a very wealthy and prominent rancher of Los Nietos, where he also had large mercantile interests. Largely a self made man, he had acquired large property holdings, including at one time the largest walnut orchard in California, and holdings near Los Nietos that had formerly been the property of his brother-in-law, John C. Downey, Governor of California. Mrs. Guirado still retains forty acres of the original holdings, now located in the Santa Fe Springs oil field, where once stood an old adobe mission church in which worshipped the converted Indians of earlier days before the building of the famous San Gabriel Mission. Wells of this new field produce 3,000 to 10,000 barrels daily of high gravity oil have been brought in a few hundred yards distant from her property, and future drilling will no doubt find her holdings to be equally productive.
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Mr. and Mrs. Guirado became the parents of one daughter, Margarita, who married Rudolph A. Dallugge, and they have seven children : Rudolph, Carl, Margarita, Raymond, Vida, Dulcita and Arleta. Mrs. Dallugge was educated in the same school and college as her mother, the latter being a Catholic College of note. Mr. Dallugge was for several years engaged in the banking business, but of late has devoted his time and energies to oil operations and lands. He is a native of Michigan, and came to California in 1902. He and his family reside at 1801 South Van Ness Avenue, Los Angeles. His oil holdings in the Santa Fe Springs oil fields are proving . very valuable.
The second big oil well at the Santa Fe Springs was brought in March 29, 1922, on the Dallugge property and produced at the rate of 4,000 barrels per day. This well greatly stimulated the efforts of the operators in all parts of the field and proved it to be more than a "one well" field, as many had predicted. Subsequently drilling has resulted in making Santa Fe Springs famous as having the greatest producers of high gravity oil in the world today, 112 wells so far completed capable of producing 300,000 barrels daily are held down to a production of 237,000 barrels daily at time of this writing ( May 26, 1923) and it is estimated upon good authority that the maximum production can be brought up to about 500,000 barrels daily within a few months if facilities for the transportation and marketing are provided as needed.
(Note: The above production figures are authentic being furnished by one of the large oil operators in this field.)
WILFRED TEAL. Since the development of the oil producing industry has reached such important proportions its allied interests and enterprises have likewise enlisted the activities of capable business men and concerns, and the outgrowth has resulted in the founding and extension of a number of important business ventures. One of the most important of these in Los Angeles County is the Union Tool Company, located at Torrance, the product of which, oil well drilling and operating tools and machinery, finds a receptive market all over the world. This concern has been fortunate in the possession of capable and energetic officials, among whom is the secre- tary and assistant treasurer, Wilfred Teal, a self-made man in all respects.
Mr. Teal was born February 1, 1887, at Huddersfield, England, and as a child was brought to the United States, the family settling in the New England states, where he received his early education in the public schools and in a preparatory school. While still in the East he learned the woolen and worsted manufacturing business, which he followed for a time, but gave up that vocation for the insurance business, in which he was employed at Hartford, Connecticut, in the accounting department of a large old-line company. Going then to Chicago, Illinois, he pursued a course at North- western University, and in August, 1913, came to California and further prepared himself for his career by studying accounting. On April 1, 1914, he became identified with the Union Tool Company, in the capacity of ac- countant, and in January, 1916, was made assistant secretary. On May 1, 1921, the duties of assistant treasurer were given him, and November 1, 1921, he was made secretary. The Union Tool Company was founded at Los Angeles in May, 1909, as successor to the Union Oil Tool Company and the American Engineering and Foundry Company, its first officers be- ing : Edward Double, president ; W. L. Stewart, vice president ; and P. W. Masten, secretary and treasurer. It was incorporated for $1,200,000, and remained at Los Angeles until 1912, when the plant was moved to Torrance. In June, 1920, a reorganization was effected, with a capital of $7,500,000 and the following officials: W. L. Stewart, president ; P. N. Boggs, W. A. Double and R. M. Goldsborough, vice presidents ; and P. W. Masten, sec- retary and treasurer. On January 1, 1921, the following officers were elected : J. H. Barr, president ; P. N. Boggs, vice president and general manager ; F. W. Black, second vice president and treasurer ; D. S. Faulkner.
Frank le. Renfrew.
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third vice president; and P. W. Masten, secretary and assistant treasurer. These officers continued their direction of the company's affairs until Au- gust, 1922, when the following officials were elected:, F. M. Barry, presi- dent and general manager; F. W. Black, vice president and treasurer ; D. S. Faulkner, second vice president; and Wilfred Teal, secretary and assistant treasurer. The concern utilizes 337,498 square feet of floor space under cover, and its oil well drilling and operating tools and machinery, under the trade name of "Ideal," are shipped to all parts of the world and have a reputation second to none for workmanship and honest representation. In the manufacture of this product 1,050 people are employed, who work un- der the most ideal conditions. In addition to maintaining a medical staff, a domestic science department and an industrial relations department, the company cares for the recreations of its employes, who have their own glee club, their own orchestra, a splendid baseball team representing the plant, and an inter-department baseball league composed of six teams. Oil and natural gas are used for fuel, and several individual electric motors have been installed for machines.
Mr. Teal is a member of the Board of Directors of the Torrance Cham- ber of Commerce, and is well known in business circles of the community. Fraternally he is a Mason, and has attained to the York Rite. On August 16, 1919, Mr. Teal married Miss Geraldine Clark, who was born in Ohio, but educated in the graded and high schools of Hollywood, California, and in the Junior College there. They are the parents of one son: James Robert.
FRANCIS CHARLES RENFREW, M. D. Nowhere is the fearless, question- ing attitude of the twentieth century more apparent than among the mem- bers of the medical profession. The tendency of the modern devotee of medicine to avoid, beyond all things, hasty jumping at conclusions or too ready dependence upon formulae, is rapidly destroying ancient delusions, thereby placing the health of the nation in the hands of reasoners and inde- pendent thinkers. To this class of rational thinkers belongs Dr. Francis Charles Renfrew, of Long Beach, who not only occupies a prominent place in the ranks of his calling, but is also identified with civic and other activities that contribute to his standing.
Doctor Renfrew was born December 6, 1875, at Arcola, Illinois, and is a son of Charles Henry and Frances Marion (Dickson) Renfrew. The family is of Scotch extraction, having come from Renfrewshire, Scotland, and settled in Vermont three generations ago, later migrating to Illinois. Charles H. Renfrew was born in Vermont, and as a young man went to Loda, Illinois, where he married Miss Dickson, a native of Pennsylvania. Mr. Renfrew was a schoolteacher all his life in Central Illinois, and died at Urbana, Illinois, in 1917, at the age of seventy-one years. He and his wife were the parents of two sons and four daughters, all of whom survive, but Francis C. is the only one living in the West and is next to the oldest in order of birth.
Francis Charles Renfrew attended the public schools of Urbana, Illinois, following which he entered Austin College, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1900. He prosecuted his medical studies at Miami Medical College, at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was given his degree of Doctor of Medicine as a member of the class of 1903. In the meantime, he had taught in the public school at Sadorus, Illinois, thus assisting in paying for his education. He commenced practice at Sadorus in 1903 and remained there until 1914, in which year he came to Long Beach, where he now occupies well-appointed offices at 401 First National Bank Building. Doctor Renfrew has been engaged in general practice for more than twenty years, and while in Illinois was surgeon for the Wabash Railroad, being at present the surgeon for the Southern Pacific at Los Angeles. Since 1920 he has practically limited his work to surgery, in which he is known as a specialist. He is an officer and director in the Sea-
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side Hospital Corporation and numerous local business corporations, and belongs to the Harbor branch of the Los Angeles County Medical Society. Politically, Doctor Renfrew is a republican, but has never taken any active interest in politics. He has, however, been an enthusiastic worker in public and civic affairs, being active in the work of the American Protective League and the Better American Federation. He has also taken a great deal of interest in the Chamber of Commerce, and in 1922 was elected president of that body for that and the ensuing year, and likewise belongs to the Long Beach Rotary Club and the Virginia Country Club. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to Long Beach Lodge No. 327, Free and Accepted Masons, and Oriental Consistory, Chicago, Illinois ; is a life member of Long Beach Lodge No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; and a member of Long Beach Lodge No. 210, Knights of Pythias, in which he has held all elective offices. He is an active member of the First Baptist Church of Long Beach.
On June 22, 1898, at Sadorus, Illinois, Doctor Renfrew was united in marriage with Miss Gertrude Sadorus, daughter of H. W. Sadorus, an early settler of Champaign County, Illinois, who founded the town named in his honor. Mr. Sadorus still resides at the age of eighty-two years at Sadorus, where Mrs. Renfrew was born and educated. The four children of Doctor and Mrs. Renfrew were all born at Sadorus, where they acquired their early educational training. Donald Henry, the eldest, is a graduate of Long Beach Polytechnic High School, class of 1922; and Helen, Marjorie and Constance are attending the public schools.
DAVID CLINTON TEAGUE has been one of the prominent and influential citizens of the San Dimas District of Los Angeles County, and here he is now living virtually retired after many years of well ordered and successful activity along industrial and other lines of enterprise.
Mr. Teague was born on a farm near Salem, Indiana, October 23, 1847, and he is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of the old Hoosier State, within the borders of which his father, Crawford P. Teague, was born in the year 1823, a son of John Teague, who was born on the family homestead on Great Pedee River in Rowan County, North Carolina, and who became a very early settler in Indiana. John Teague served as a sol- dier in the War of 1812, and soon after the close of the same he married Miss Mary Thomas, who was of Scotch ancestry. In 1817 the young couple established their residence in Indiana, which was then a territory, and there, in Greene County, on the White River, Mr. Teague reclaimed a productive farm from the forest wilderness. Eventually, with various kinsmen, he moved to Iowa and became a pioneer settler in Davis County, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. Crawford P. Teague was reared and educated in Indiana, and as a young man he there wedded Amanda Reed May, who was born in Kentucky, a daughter of Benjamin F. May, who was born in Maryland and who moved from Baltimore to Kentucky, whence he later removed to Indiana, in which state he thereafter maintained his home until his death.
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