USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 46
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Early in 1864 impaired health due to overwork compelled him to retire. After a few years in travel he gave his attention for several years to farm- ing and orange planting in Los Angeles County. With health much im- proved, he found the quiet life irksome, and was again attracted into the mines. From Galena, Nevada, he proceeded to Eureka, California, and became superintendent of the Geddes and Bertrand mines and supervised the erection of a new mill. Again he overtasked his physical powers, and when the work at Eureka was completed he resigned and returned to his home at Oakland, where his death eventually occurred.
In 1862 Mr. Strong erected at Virginia City, Nevada, the edifice of St. Paul's Church, the first Episcopal Church in that state. He not only gave his personal supervision to the construction of the building, but advanced money to complete the work. He was a recognized power in the community, and when Nevada was made a state he was tendered, but declined, the nomination for the office of first governor of the new com- monwealth. Later his friends endeavored to effect his election to the United States Senate, but this honor he likewise declined.
Los Angeles County came within the scope of his great enterprise. In this county Mr. Strong became interested in Don Pio Pico's subdivision of the Governor's favorite ranch el Ranchito in the San Gabriel Valley. The plans included a townsite named Picoville, besides acreage. This was the next enterprise after the settlement of Anaheim, which was Don Pio's inspiration. During the winter of 1867-68 the San Gabriel River left its banks and made a new channel next to the Pico Mansion, costing Don Pio a great loss of land and discouraged him in the promotion of his new enterprises. All water ditches, the Zanja Madre included, were destroyed, and as a result Don Pio lost his interest and would not complete the plans for the townsite. It was at this juncture that Mr. Strong brought his larger vision and his material resources to complete the plans. At his own expense he constructed the upper ditch at a cost of $9,000. This ditch is still doing service. He bought three hundred acres around the townsite of Picoville, and constructed another ditch, lower down, which is today practically the same.
At Virginia City, Nevada, February 26, 1863, Mr. Strong married Miss Harriet Williams Russell. Her interesting life and works are the subject of a special article.
Old Californians who remembered "Charley Strong" always spoke with affection of his kindliness and lovable disposition. When he was a young man in New York City he spent his evenings at the best operas, and so fine was his musical ear he could whistle all the arias after once hearing an opera. Also he possessed a gift for languages, and could speak French and Spanish, which he acquired almost entirely from hearing them spoken. A great Bohemian anthropologist has been making a study of American Colonials whose ancestors have been here (both sides) for six generations. As can be seen, Mr. Strong's family goes back seven, and in him were to be found the family characteristics which had persisted in all the generations, notably, large dark eyes, firm well-formed mouth and hands with short fingers. This substantiates the scientist's claim that marked types persist in the descendents of the Colonials, and that no such thing as a "melting pot" has as yet developed in those families who have been longest in America.
HARRIET WILLIAMS RUSSELL STRONG is one of California's most re- markable women. The profession of engineering has acknowledged her original work. She has proved her ability as a developer and manager of ranch and fruit properties. She has been a leader in advancing the cause of woman, and her personal influence has been instrumental in the success of
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several organizations that have accomplished great good in her home county of Los Angeles.
The story of her husband's career, Charles Lyman Strong, is told in the preceding sketch. Mrs. Strong was born at Buffalo, New York, fourth daughter of Henry Pierrepont and Mary Guest (Musier) Russell. She is a lineal descendant of William Russell, who came from England to America in the early part of the seventeenth century, in company with his brother-in- law and sister, Lord and Lady Brook, and Lord Say and Seal. He settled at Windsor, and later at Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut. The family name since that early period has been prominently identified with American history as one generation has followed another on the stage of life. Judge Samuel Russell, grandfather of Mrs. Strong, was a noted jurist and served as commissary general in the War of 1812. He was a resident of New York City. The father of Mrs. Strong served as post- master of the City of Buffalo, and later as adjutant-general of the State of Nevada.
Soon after the birth of Mrs. Strong her parents moved West on account of the impaired health of her mother. Her early education, received under the direction of private instructors, was supplemented in the young ladies seminary conducted by Miss Mary Atkins at Benecia, California. She was young when she married, and in 1883 she was left a widow with four daughters. Her husband's estate consisted largely of mines and lands in Southern California. The property was involved in litigation, being terminated successfully in her favor after eight years. Thus she was burdened with many unusual cares and responsibilities which developed her powers as an executive and also brought out the latent talent of a thoroughly technical mind. For many years her attention has been given to the management of her estate, Ranchito del Fuerte, in San Gabriel Valley. It has largely been planted with walnut and orange groves and is yielding returns.
In 1897 Mrs. Strong drilled a number of artesian wells, and to utilize the water thus obtained she purchased one thousand acres of land five miles distant, installed a pumping plant and incorporated the property under the name of Paso de Bartolo Water Company, of which she was made president and her two daughters, respectively, treasurer and secre- tary. Bonds to the amount of $110,000 were issued to carry on the enterprise, and a few years later the property was sold at a handsome profit.
Mrs. Strong has made a study of water problems, including the con- trol of flood waters and also water storage. She was the first person to advocate source conservation as a flood remedy, and proposed a succession of dams in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River to conserve the water for irrigation purposes and the generation of electricity. On December 6, 1887, she was granted a patent for a dam and reservoir construction. Her invention consists of a series of dams, one behind the other, to be con- structed in a valley, canyon or water course in such a way that when the water has filled the lower dam it will extend up to a certain height upon the lower face of the second dam and thus act as a brace and support for the dam above it. November 6, 1894, Mrs. Strong obtained another patent on a new method of impounding debris and storing water in hydraulic mining. She was awarded two medals for these inventions at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, where she exhibited a working model. Mrs. Strong's patent covered a new use of the principle of the arch in dam construction. In 1918 she appeared before the congressional committee on water power and urged the Government to store the flood waters of the Colorado River by constructing a series of dams, by her method, in the Grand Canyon, which in full capacity are 150 miles long, and thus control floods and increase irrigation water, making available thousands of acres of land, as well as unlimited power for generating electricity.
A member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Whittier
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Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Strong represented both these bodies in 1918 as a delegate to the annual convention of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, held at Chicago. She was the first woman delegate to a con- vention of this great organization. In the Whittier Chamber of Commerce she was a member of the Board of Directors and chairman of its flood control committee, and a member of its law and legislative committee.
For all the wide range of her work and experience Mrs. Strong prob- ably regards as her most important personal achievement the founding of the Hamilton Club of Los Angeles, organized in 1920. This club now has a membership of about fifty, its personnel being drawn from the members and friends of the republican state and county central committees. Its object is the study of the constitution of the United States and kindred subjects. It is already coming to be recognized as a power in economic and governmental affairs. Mrs. Strong has been its president from the beginning, and her daughter, Miss Harriet R. Strong, is chairman of the program committee. One special object of the club is to advocate for women, with their newly granted right of suffrage, a fuller knowledge of the national constitution and of economic and political subjects in gen- eral. Mrs. Strong, a woman of thought and action, is an ardent champion of the principles and policies of the republican party.
Another phase of her versatile talent has been her work as a musical composer, for which she has found time in spite of increasing business and semi-public duties. She has published a number of original songs and a book of musical sketches, and for many years has been vice president of the Los Angeles Symphony Association. She was the founder of the Ebell Club of Los Angeles, and for three consecutive terms its president. She is an active member of the Friday Morning Club and the Ruskin Art Club of Los Angeles.
Some of the pioneer work in the walnut growing industry of California is ascribed to her. In 1889-90 she planted one hundred and fifty acres to walnuts, and was the first to plant such trees on mesa land and the first to employ winter irrigation. Her success has been notable, and her walnuts have been awarded many prizes at various expositions, including a gold medal at the Omaha Exposition, bronze medal at the Lewis & Clark Exposition, and silver medal from the French Government at the Paris International Exposition of 1900. Mrs. Strong has many orange trees set between the walnut trees on her Ranchito del Fuerte ranch near Whit- tier. This ranch also has eight acres of orange trees, showing the result of seedlings planted in 1872.
This ranch, of three hundred and twenty acres, was purchased from Pio Pico, and immediately afterward one hundred acres of the tract were sold. After the death of her husband Mrs. Strong had the land set to walnuts and oranges, and has since given the place her personal supervision and management.
The Governor Pio Pico Museum and Historical Society, of which Mrs. Strong was president, restored the fast crumbling old mansion of the last Mexican Governor of California. This is situated on the east bank of the New San Gabriel River, about two and one-half miles west of Whittier. This organization also secured the deeding of the mansion to the state by the City of Whittier, so that this old historical landmark is owned and cared for by the state.
Mrs. Strong has studied deeply many of the great problems affecting world life and politics. At the close of the World war, out of her con- sideration of causes of war and means of preventing future wars, she evolved a program comprising the principle that goes to the very root of things. She communicated it in a letter to a member of President Wilson's peace expedition, and subsequently embodied it in another letter to Mr. Harding after his election as president. Her recommendation was briefly as follows : "Wars are usually about territory. To acquire territory there are three recognized modes: Right of discovery, right of purchase, and right of conquest. There must hereafter be but two. Right of con-
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quest will have to be eliminated, and the right of discovery and the right of purchase be the future law."
Mrs. Strong as president of the Hamilton Club has urged a method of paying the national debt that has met with much favor. A resolution intro- duced by her and adopted by the Hamilton Club was directed to the Presi- dent and Congress under date of August 1, 1921, and after reciting the well known fact of the depreciation of war bonds recommended that "In order to preserve the integrity of our Liberty and Victory Bonds, Congress be instructed to dispose of no public property so bonded by Congress, except to provide funds to pay off the bonds and the interest thereon, believing that such action will relieve much of the unrest and dissatisfaction of the present time and make the people at large feel that right and justice will prevail. Furthermore, that all money due this Government from foreign nations shall be collected upon maturity, including both interest and prin- cipal, and that this money so collected shall be applied to the liquidation of all bonds and other debts contracted during the World war, including adequate compensation of our Citizen soldiers for those services rendered which brought that World war to an end."
Mrs. Strong was married at Virginia City, Nevada, February 16, 1863. The four daughters born to her and Charles Lyman Strong were: Mary Lyman, wife of Dean Mason, of Los Angeles; Misses Harriet Russell and Nelle deLuce Strong, who live with their mother; and Georgiana Pierre- pont, who became the wife of Hon. Frederick C. Hicks, of New York, and she died at the City of Washington, D. C., January 1, 1918.
HEATON GRANT DAUGHTERS, M. D., who divides his professional time between his offices at Long Beach and in the Security Trust & Savings Bank Building, and in Los Angeles in the Marsh-Strong Building, is a physician and surgeon whose special province is chronic blood and women's diseases. Doctor Daughters earned his medical diploma twenty years ago and has since engaged in active practice. Preceding that was a period of work and experience that was a test of his powers of determination in achieving an ambition, and his experience has led him over nearly all the West.
Doctor Daughters was born at Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana, February 23, 1867. In the paternal line his grandparents were slave hold- ers of Southern Maryland. His grandmother and his great-grandparents were of the first English stock that settled in the State of Delaware. In 1824 his grandmother Daughters sold thirty-seven slaves and other property and moved to Dearborn County in Southern Indiana. She was the mother of seven children, four sons and three daughters, William Turpen Daugh- ters being the sixth child.
The maiden name of Doctor Daughters' mother was Sarah Elmira Heaton. She was of English, Welsh and Scotch stock. Her great-grand- father came over on the supply ship of the Mayflower to Massachusetts. In the next generation some of the family moved to New York. Grand- father Heaton married a Miss Sarah Elmira Streeter, and he took his bride on a wedding trip to Southern Indiana in 1801, going from the Catskill Mountains in New York and on the way to Cincinnati found only twelve houses in that city. He was one of the most prominent Masons in this section of Indiana, and when he died at the age of eighty-four had one of the largest Masonic funerals ever seen there. The ox-cart in which he drove to Southern Indiana, was made by his own hands. The mother of Doctor Daughters was a first cousin to Mr. Streeter of Illinois who ran for president of the United States in the early nineties. The oldest brother of William T. Daughters, James Daughters, was one of the California forty-niners. He joined a large emigrant train that crossed the country overland and was elected chief or leader of the caravan. William T. Daughters was a moulder and mechanic by trade, was a locomotive engineer on the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad running between Cincinnati & St. Louis. William T. Daughters was a prominent pioneer in Southeastern Kansas. Doctor Daughters is the fifth in a large family of fifteen children, ten sons and five daughters. Twelve of the children grew to mature years and all
ItG Daughters
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at some time taught school. The oldest child Rose, taught for twenty-three years, and attained high rank in the educational profession. Four of the sons studied law, but only one followed it as a profession. Of the sons there are now two preachers, two professors in universities and one doctor. This family has been represented in every war of the United States, either in home or foreign service.
Doctor Daughters grew up in a home where thrift and industry were practiced. His mother made and darned the socks for all her children, and had an old spinning wheel and all the clothes were home spun. Doctor Daughters holds degrees from three colleges, graduating from the Kansas Normal College in 1892, from Kansas City Medical College in 1903, and also from the University of Kansas. His three degrees are Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and Doctor of Medicine. Before graduating in medicine he had been a farmer, railroader, brickholder, plasterer, brick- layer and cement worker, stationary engineer, and put up the first gasoline engine successfully operated in North Dakota and also ran traction engines for threshing crews. He was a school teacher, a miner and during his last years in the mines was timber boss. These were the occupations and the rough work he went through while preparing for his chosen career. He also graduated as a nurse, and during his four years in medical school he took every prize but one open to members of his class. While roughing it in the West, Doctor Daughters was the means of seeking out one of the fine water powers on the Rio Grande River for the Government, a water power which when harnessed will provide light and power for four states.
During the Spanish-American war in 1898, Doctor Daughters tried to get in as a volunteer, but found the quota filled and then hurried to Kansas and arrived there too late to get enlisted. The Daughters family lived in Allen County, Kansas, and they were warm friends of the Funstons, including the late Gen. Fred Funston. Before the outbreak of the Spanish- American war, Fred Funston was in Cuba on a filibustering expedition and was captured and stood in imminent danger of being executed by General Weyler. A letter he sent to his father told of his capture and his prospects for early death. Congressman Funston showed this letter to Doctor Daughters and when questioned seemed to be completely at a loss as to any action he could take to avert disaster from his son. Doctor Daughters proved his resourcefulness in the emergency by suggesting that Mr. Funston immediately telegraph to the Kansas senators, to the President and secretary of war and also to General Lee, then the consul general at Havana. These five telegrams brought results, and particularly through the intervention of General Lee the American prisoners including Fred Funston escaped the death by execution which had been ordered for them. Among all the incidents of his busy life Doctor Daughters has found more satisfaction in this than in perhaps any other.
Doctor Daughters was a regular republican in politics and in 1912 became a progressive and had the credit of carrying the state of Colorado for Roosevelt the last time he was candidate for President. Doctor Daugh- ters is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights and Ladies of Security and is a member of the Los Angeles County and American Medical Association. He belongs to the Big Bear Country Club and the Baptist Church.
At Paola, Kansas, December 25, 1903, he married Miss Evalena Mickle- borrough. The Mickleborroughs were an old family of Virginia and Ken- tucky and their estates in those commonwealths have been noted for their historical associations. Her father Richard Mickleborrough is still living and is a veteran of the Civil war.
LELAND P. REEDER, an ex-service man, both before the war and since has been associated with the real estate business in Los Angeles County as an associate of his father, William A. Reeder, former congressman from Kansas, and prominent as a banker both there and in California.
Leland P. Reeder has been one of the active men in the Beverly Hills
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Real Estate Board, which was established November 7, 1922. He is vice president. S. C. Rowe is president, J. A. Cornelius is secretary, and Harrison Lewis, treasurer. This board has accomplished many important objects both for the benefit of the community as a whole and for improving the standards of real estate transactions. The board meets every week and there are thirty-three charter members and a present membership of thirty- nine. The board was instrumental in securing three mail deliveries for Beverly Hills, secured better telephone service, and has promoted the campaign to patronize home industries. They also organized a clearing house, through which all property transactions by the different realty com- panies are published for the preceding week. Of the four meetings of the board each month three are open to the public and one to the realtors only. The board has adopted a standard listing card, and all listings of property must be accompanied by this card, signed by the owner. The board cooperated in raising money for a float to represent Beverly Hills in the tournament of roses, and this float was awarded second prize. All the members of the local board are members of the California State and Realty Board.
Leland P. Reeder was born at Logan, Kansas, October 5, 1891. His father, William A. Reeder, was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1849, was educated in schools there and was a teacher for a time. He was a pioneer in Kansas, having previously taught school in Illinois until reaching his majority. He continued teaching in Kansas until reaching his majority, and then went into the banking business at Logan. He represented the Sixth Kansas District of Kansas from 1899 to 1911, and while in Congress was chairman of the committee on irrigation.
Soon after retiring from his seat in Congress William A. Reeder came to California, in 1911, and after two years of retirement located at Beverly Hills and has since been active in banking and real estate business. He organized the First National Bank of Beverly Hills, the Crescent Heights National Bank of Hollywood, the United States National Bank of Sawtelle, of which he is president. He is also president of the Beverly Hills Realty Company. William A. Reeder is a republican, and for many years was one of the outstanding men in his party in Kansas. He is a Methodist and a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner. On August 18, 1876, he mar- ried Eunice H. Andrews, of Beloit, Kansas. They have three children, Harry C. and Leland P., of Beverly Hills, and Miss Highland.
Leland P. Reeder was about twenty years of age when the family came to California. He was educated in the public schools of Kansas, at- tended high school at Washington, D. C., and in 1915 graduated A. B. from Leland Stanford University. He also studied law in the University of Southern California, and then became associated with his father in the real estate business at Los Angeles.
During the World war he enlisted as a private of Company D of the 364th Infantry, and was made first sergeant. Subsequently he attended an Officers' Training School, and was commissioned second lieutenant and was transferred to the Regular Army as first lieutenant in the Seventy- fifth Infantry. He became adjutant of the First Battalion, regimental exchange officer. He received his honorable discharge as first lieuten- ant June 5, 1919. Mr. Reeder since the war has been manager of the sales department of the Beverly Hills Realty Company, and he also helped organize and is a director of the California Title Insurance Trust Company, is a director of the Beverly Hills Building and Loan Company, and a director of the Crescent Heights National Bank. He is also a director of the United States National Bank of Sawtelle and the First National Bank of Beverly Hills.
Mr. Reeder is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and a member of the University Club. He married, February 4, 1922, Miss Caroline Campbell, daughter of Allen G. Campbell, of Salt Lake, Utah. Mrs. Reeder was born at Salt Lake, and was educated in the Bishop School at La Jolla and the Marlboro School of Los Angeles. She
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is a member of the Eastern Star and the Woman's Club of Beverly Hills. Mr. and Mrs. Reeder have one son, William Campbell.
Mr. Reeder is a charter member of the Hollywood Athletic Club, is a member of the Santa Monica Swimming Club and belongs to the college fraternities Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Phi Delta Phi.
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