History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 47

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

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WALTER M. BLANCHARD. Under the title of the San Fernando Hard- ware Company a copartnership firm composed of D. E. Lewis and Walter M. Blanchard conducts a substantial general hardware business, with a large and well equipped establishment known as the Winchester Store. The trade of the concern extends throughout the territory normally tribu- tary to San Fernando. The establishment retains a corps of five employes, and in accommodating the stock of heavy and shelf hardware, stoves, ranges, paints, oils, saddlery goods, implements, etc., a floor space of 5,000 square feet is utilized. Special attention is given to the handling of build- ers' hardware of all descriptions. This progressive firm was organized in April, 1917, and purchased the general hardware stock of the L. M. Davenport Company, which had here conducted business for some time previously. The store of the San Fernando Hardware Company is eligibly located on North Maclay Street.

Walter M. Blanchard was born in Lenawee County, Michigan, on the 30th of July, 1869, and is a son of Charles L. Blanchard, who was a pioneer settler in that state. The public schools of Michigan afforded Walter M. Blanchard his early education, and after leaving school he was for two years employed in a piano factory at Muskegon, that state. At Morenci, a village in his native county, he was thereafter identified with a furniture and undertaking business for two years. He next took a position in a furniture factory in the City of Adrian, judicial center of his native county, and later he was employed in a piano and organ factory at that place during a period of about seven years. The ensuing seven years he devoted to the lumber and coal business, and he then engaged in the fuel business in an individual way. This enterprise he continued four years, and he then dis- posed of his interests in Michigan and in 1913 came to California and engaged in the lumber business at Burbank. There he remained until the spring of 1917, when he removed to San Fernando and engaged in the hardware business, with which he has here been successfully identified since that time. He is an active member of the local Chamber of Com- merce, his political allegiance is given to the prohibition party and he holds membership in the Holiness Church. Since establishing his residence at San Fernando Mr. Blanchard has served three years as treasurer of the District Sunday School Association, besides being zealous and influential in other departments of church work.

The year 1894 recorded the marriage of Mr. Blanchard and Miss Lena E. Mallory, who was born in Nebraska but reared in Michigan, in which latter state she attended the public schools of Morenci and Adrian College, Lenawee County. Mr. and Mrs. Blanchard have three daughters, Neva A., Eunice M. and Marguerite O. Neva A. is the wife of Embert Coles, a Government employe residing at Manhattan, Kansas.

WILLIAM J. MILLEN. The initiative and constructive ability of this native son of California is shown in the variety and important scope of his capitalistic and business interests. He maintains his residence at San Fernando, and is prominently identified with ranch enterprise, with bank- ing business and with real estate operations.

Mr. Millen was born at Wilmington, Los Angeles County, California, on the 20th of March, 1870, and is a son of William and Doniciana Millen. William Millen was born and reared in New York City and became a California pioneer of the year 1851. Here he gave forty-two years of service as a division superintendent for the Southern Pacific Railway, and after his retirement he maintained his home at Wilmington until his death,

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in 1920. His wife, who was born and reared in Los Angeles County, died in April, 1894.

To the public schools of his native place William J. Millen is indebted for his early education, which was supplemented by a course in the Wood- bury Business College in the City of Los Angeles. In 1886 he initiated his active association with the ranch industry, and in 1889 he obtained a ten-year lease on the Encino Rancho, of 5,000 acres, in the San Fernando Valley. In 1896 he leased the famed old Mission Ranch, comprising 6,500 acres, and in 1919 he effected a lease of the Kerckhoff Ranch in San Joaquin Valley. He brought to bear the most progressive policies and methods in his extensive ranch enterprise, and thus gained therefrom the maximum returns. Mr. Millen was engaged in the contracting business two years, and since August, 1922, he has been outside representative of the San Fernando branch of the Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank, one of the leading financial institutions of Los Angeles County. He is identified also with real estate enterprise, and in the domain of insurance he is local representative of the Occidental Life Insurance Company. He is the executive head of the committee which has in charge the improvement of Mission Boulevard in the San Fernando District, is an active and influential member of the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce, and he is affiliated with the Native Sons of the Golden West, Knights of Columbus, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks and Woodmen of the World. He and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church.

On the 20th of November, 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Millen and Miss Catherine Lopez, who was born and reared in the San Fernando Valley and who is a member of one of the old and honored Spanish families of this state. Mr. and Mrs. Millen have two children : William Alexander, representing the United States Steel Products Com- pany, is now a resident of San Francisco, and Louise is the wife of Chester Perry, of Montebello, Los Angeles County.

FELIX MILTON MONROE. There is always something attractive about the pioneers of a locality. Interest attaches to their lives, characters and actions, and if their careers have been successful they are even more the object of the interest of their community. Of the early pioneers of Monrovia, one who remains to tell of the early days of the community, and who has worked his own way from humble position to affluence and the respect of his fellow-citizens is Felix Milton Mon- roe, soldier, railroad builder, fruit grower and public-spirited citizen.

Mr. Monroe was born November 12, 1845, in the State of Indiana. He was still attending grammar school at the outbreak of the Civil war, and on November 25, 1862, volunteered for service in the Seventh Iowa Cavalry. There followed for. the seventeen-year-old youth a period of strenuous action. His service extended over a period of three years and three months, mostly spent on the western frontier, engaged in Indian fighting. After undergoing numerous hardships he was finally mustered out of the service in March, 1866, at which time he located in Nebraska and entered upon a career in railroad building. He was engaged in building railroads in the western and southern states, his first work being on the Union Pacific, west of Omaha, following which he continued on the Louisville & Nashville in Ten- nessee, the Sunset Route on the Rio Grande and construction work on the Mexican International and other lines in old Mexico. He did much road building for the late Collis P. Huntington on his lines, including the main line of the Southern Pacific. During the early '70s he left railroad work and purchased a farm near Hannibal, Missouri, on which he carried on operations until the spring of 1887, when he sold out and came to Monrovia, then a straggling and struggling town. Here he met the late Edward S. Armstrong, with whom he formed a partnership, founding the first livery business. Later Mr. Monroe saw the opportunity for carrying through a railroad proposi-

Chloe, De, Mouros

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

tion, and he and Mr. Armstrong contracted to build the narrow-gauge Rapid Transit Railway from Los Angeles to Monrovia. They built the grade and laid the rails for this, Monrovia's first railroad, and accepted stock in the road in lieu of money for the contracting work done, but the road failed and Messrs. Monroe and Armstrong realized practically nothing for all their work. In later years Mr. Monroe had an experience that was much more profitable in the railroad build- ing line, when he constructed the grade of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake route from Los Angeles to Ontario. After the failure of the narrow-gauge road Mr. Monroe continued in the livery business and also purchased eleven acres of wild land on Magnolia Avenue from his brother for $1,000 per acre. He soon sold a large part of this property at $2,000 per acre, and again later rebought some of it for $500 an acre. He now owns five acres of the original, which is set to a splendid orange grove, and on which is located his beautiful home, with its unexcelled view of mountain and valley. He has engaged profitably in orange culture, and is known in his community as a man of large interests. To this position he has brought himself from one of much humbler aspect. During the early days, after furnishing a plow and scraper, he worked for the City of Monrovia for ten hours a day as street superintendent at $1.75 per day, and was glad of the opportunity to get such work. In various ways, with his elder brother, he has contributed to the growth and development of his adopted community, where he is now held in the highest esteem. Mr. Monroe is a republican and the family belongs to the Baptist Church. Fra- ternally he belongs to Monrovia Lodge No. 330, I. O. O. F.

In August, 1866, not long after his discharge from the army, Mr. Monroe married Miss Chloe Sevier, who was born October 29, 1845, in Missouri, a daughter of G. W. and Jane C. Sevier. Mr. Sevier raised blooded stock in Marion County, Missouri. The great-grandfather of George Washington Sevier was the first governor of Tennessee. To Mr. and Mrs. Monroe were born five children: One who died in infancy ; William Sanders, born in Iowa, in 1869, who died at the age of three years ; his twin, George Walter, Lillie C. and Daisy L. George Walter Monroe, who is prominent in educational circles, is a graduate of the State Normal School and the State University at Berkeley, and at present is principal of the Owensmouth schools. He is a Mason and a man of high intellectuality. He married Miss Lela Bent, and they have one child, Muriel Isabel, a promising student at the State University, Berkeley. Lillie C. Monroe was born in 1876, and grad- uated from Claremont College. She married Jewel Fowler, a prom- inent contractor, merchant and orange grower, and a son of the pioneer Captain Fowler of Duarte. Two daughters (twins) have been born to this union: Doris Catherine and Marjorie Pauline. The youngest child of Felix M. Monroe, Daisy L., is a master of the Spanish language and one of the best-known and most popular teachers of that study in the state. She was born at Monrovia, in 1890, and is a graduate of Monrovia High School and of the State University at Berkeley. After graduating from the latter institution she took post-graduate courses in Spanish at Mexico City and Los Angeles, and since then has specialized in teaching Spanish in the better schools of California. For three years she taught that language at Redlands, and is now similarly engaged in the city schools of Glendale.

CHESTER GILLMORE. Los Angeles County is the home of some of the most valuable of the small ranches of the state, every inch of which is productive, so intensive has been the development work put upon them. These ranches are so valuable that the prices they command are astonish- ingly high, and those who had the foresight to invest in them when land was lower are reaping the benefit of their good judgment. Chester Gill- more is the owner of one of the valuable ranches of Lankershim, and he is

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conducting it with the same enterprising activity that he has displayed in the other lines of business in which he has at different times been engaged.

Chester Gillmore was born at Pasadena, California, September 3, 1890, a son of Charles G. and Hattie H. (Lyman) Gillmore, and grandson of Charles Gillmore, who came to Pasadena about 1874 and built the first two-story house in that vicinity. Charles G. Gillmore was born at Boston, Massachusetts, and his wife was also a native of that city. He was em- ployed in the Waltham Watch Factory, Waltham, Massachusetts, prior to 1874, when he accompanied his father to Pasadena. Subsequently hẹ moved to Los Angeles, and there was engaged in a meat business. Later he sold it, and now is in charge of the sign department of the City of Los Angeles. His wife is still living. They have had the following children born to them: Lucy, who is the wife of Harry Whomes, of Los Angeles ; Charles J., who is a resident of Los Angeles; Gertrude, who is the wife of Bert Harmon, of Los Angeles ; George, who is a resident of Pasadena ; Gardner L., who is a resident of Los Angeles; Hattie, who is the wife of Roy Neeley, of Huntington Beach, California; and Chester, who was the youngest.

Chester Gillmore attended the public schools of Pasadena, and his first business venture was in connection with the bicycle industry. Later he handled motorcycles, and still later went into the auto business. In 1922 he began handling real estate at Hollywood, and is still occupied with this line in addition to ranching. The Methodist Episcopal Church of Holly- wood holds his membership.

In August, 1911, Mr. Gillmore married Miss Maybelle Gird, a daugh- ter of Ed C. Gird, of Los Angeles, who came to California from Missouri forty years ago, and conducted a farm and dairy in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles. Both he and his wife are still living, but he is now retired. Mrs. Gillmore is a native daughter of Los Angeles, where she was educated. She is a member of the Harmony Club of Hollywood, and otherwise active socially. Mr. and Mrs. Gillmore have one son, Edward.

ALBERT WOLFE SHERMAN. Los Angeles County is one of the regions of California in which poultry raising can be carried on with very gratify- ing results, and the immense local demand for fresh eggs and dressed chickens provides a market that is easy of access. The enterprising ranch- ers of this section have not been backward to grasp the opportunities thus afforded them, and a number of the most prosperous of them are maintain- ing large poultry farms that are netting them handsome returns on their investment of time and money. One of these men is Albert Wolfe Sher- man, proprietor of the Sherman Poultry Ranch, 12711 Sherman Way, Lankershim. This ranch comprises two and one-half acres of land, and is well-equipped for poultry breeding and raising.

Albert Wolfe Sherman was born at Port Huron, Michigan, November 12, 1885, and he is a son of Fred W. and Charlotte E. (Wolfe) Sherman, natives of Detroit and Port Huron, Michigan, respectively. For many years Fred W. Sherman was a newspaper man, and owned and conducted the Port Huron Daily Times, but sold his plant in 1910 and, moving to California, living for a time at Santa Barbara, but subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where he is now living retired from business activities.

After completing his studies in the public schools of Port Huron, Albert Wolfe Sherman had the additional advantage of a course in the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, Michigan, and still later was a student of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated with the class of 1908, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Coming to California, he taught in the high school of Santa Monica for two years, and then for five years was in the employ of the Southern California Edison Electric Company. In 1916 he entered the employ of the Pacific Gas & Electric Light Company of San Francisco, and was at Marysville for a year. From there he went to Los Angeles and for two years was with the Pacific Light & Power Company, following which he spent a year with the

wir Monroe

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Westinghouse Electric Company. In 1920 he established his poultry ranch, taking possession of his present quarters in 1921. He raises White Leghorn and Black Langsham chickens, and breeds high-grade chickens, and sells hatching eggs, baby chicks, breeding stock, etc. He raises about 10,000 birds annually, and keeps 3,000 layers on hand all the time. Two people are constantly employed. His territory embraces the City of Los Angeles and the Fernando Valley. He also has a peach orchard on his ranch, and owns a subdivision at Lankershim. He maintains membership with the Farm Bureau and the Lankershim Chamber of Commerce. Fra- ternally he belongs to the Masonic Order and the Independent Order of Foresters.

On August 26, 1913, Mr. Sherman was united in marriage with Miss Gwendolyn O. Evans, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Evans, natives of Wales. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman have two children: Mary Jane and Barbara Anna. Mrs. Sherman was born in Ventura County, California, and she was educated in the public schools of Los Angeles. Both she and Mr. Sherman are deservedly popular, and are numbered among the younger . married set of their social circle.

JOHN THOMAS MILLIGAN, while a public accountant by profession and with broad experience in commercial affairs, has at the same time been a recognized poultry breeder and expert for a number of years, and is now actively associated as one of the owners and production manager of the California White Leghorn Breeding Farms at Lankershim. Since January 18, 1923, Mr. Milligan and A. O. Eckerman have been joint owners of this proposition.

The farms are located on Tulare Street, two blocks west of Lankershim Boulevard, and comprise twenty acres. The ranch is stocked with over twenty-three thousand chickens, and includes representatives in whole or in part of some of the famous splendid bred leghorn flocks of the Pacific Coast.

Mr. Milligan was born in Louisville, Kentucky, August 11, 1879, son of Samuel A. and Kate V. (Knapp) Milligan. He was reared in that city, attended the common and high schools and also completed a business course. For a time he was employed as bookkeeper and stenographer by the National Foundry and Machine Company of Louisville, and was then with the Belknap Wholesale Hardware Company of Louisville. He was also connected with the Bell Telephone Company, and for several years did an independent business as a public accountant. Mr. Milligan in 1907 bought a farm in Kentucky and specialized in poultry production there until 1917. During that time he had exhibited his stock and won prizes in many of the leading poultry shows of the country. Mr. Milligan in 1917 became asso- ciated with the Kentucky Agricultural College and Experiment Station in the poultry investigation department and also as an official of the National Egg Laying Contest. In 1918 he went to Washington, D. C., as one of the auditors in the treasury department and for field work with that depart- ment. In 1919 he resumed professional work as a public accountant at Lexington, Kentucky, and in 1921 transferred his headquarters to Denver. On September 1, 1922, Mr. Milligan came to Lankershim, California, and soon afterward became associated with the poultry farm.

He is independent in politics. His first wife was Miss Mary Daniel, of Louisville, who died in March, 1907. The only child of that marriage is Edwin, now in the United States Navy. On November 7, 1907, Mr. Milli- gan married Miss Alice Jockell, of West Point, Kentucky. They have three daughters, Wilma, Helen and Virginia.

WILLIAM NEWTON MONROE. Founder of a town, and through more than a third of a century cherishing and fostering in every possible way its growth and prosperity, William Newton Monroe has enjoyed the fruits of long experience and garnered the best wishes of com- munity esteem.

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The town in which his name figures so conspicuously at the begin- ning and through all the years of history is Monrovia. He and Mrs. Monroe before the town was thought of called their estate Monroevia, and when the same name was suggested for the town the "e" was eliminated, so that the name stands as today Monrovia. Mr. Monroe was born at Lexington, Scott County, Indiana, June 4, 1841, son of Sanders A. and Catherine Monroe. His parents were natives of old Virginia and of old Southern stock and Scotch-Irish fame. His father was a prominent stock man. W. N. Monroe was a student in Ashland University in Iowa when the Civil war came on, and in 1861 he left with the First Iowa Cavalry, and was in service until the close of this struggle four years later. After two years he was promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to the Seventh Iowa Regiment, and at the close of his service was brevetted major. He was in many battles in the main theatre of the war, and toward the end of the struggle was sent West to quell Indian troubles.

Following the war for many years Mr. Monroe was a contractor and railroad builder. His father-in-law, Milton Hall, was a railroad con -. tractor, and Mr. Monroe worked for Mr. Hall in handling a contract for constructing a part of the Union Pacific from Omaha. From Omaha he came to California, where he was superintendent of construction for the Southern Pacific for twelve years. He then went to Old Mexico, where he spent four years altogether. He constructed two hundred kilometers or about one hundred and fifty miles of the Mexican Inter- national from Eagle Pass, Texas, for Collis P. Huntington. Mr. Mon- roe was a close friend of the late Mr. Huntington. He also built two hundred and forty miles west from San Antonio on the main line of the Southern Pacific. From San Antonio he came to Los Angeles in November, 1884. He shipped a car load of mules to Los Angeles, selling most of them at $200 a piece, but kept sixteen for his own pur- poses. While a railroad contractor he accumulated a modest fortune of $150,000. He was a married man at that time, and then as since he and his wife were real partners. He was provided with a specially fitted car while on railroad work, and the car was both a home and an office, being furnished with a piano and other comforts. Mr. Monroe constructed many miles of the Southern Pacific main line through Arizona and Texas. It was in 1884 that Mr. Monroe, after driving about over the country in every direction, selected two hun- dred and forty acres from the Lucky Baldwin ranch as the site for. their home and fruit farm. He at once put to work a large party of men with tools and mules in clearing the land, cutting away the under- brush but leaving the live oak trees, and the home has ever since been known as The Oaks.

Two years after buying his land Mr. Monroe became associated with J. D. Bicknell and E. F. Spence, each contributing land, Mr. Monroe 120 acres, as the townsite of Monrovia. Mr. Bicknell was secretary and attorney of the town company and Mr. Spence, treasurer. These three men were the founders of Monrovia, and they started the work of laying out the town in March, 1886, grading streets, laying water pipes and naming the streets for fruit and flowers.

Among other enterprises for the new town in which Mr. Monroe enlisted his time and capital was the rapid transit railway, the build- ing of which he handled as a contractor and which finally passed into the hands of the Southern Pacific. He built the Granite Bank, building it out of cut granite rock from Sow Pit Canyon, at a cost of $22,000. Monrovia now owns the building as a City Hall. He also built two brick buildings north of the City Hall and many other buildings. Mr. and Mrs. Monroe gave three lots to the Baptist denomination to build their first church and also helped build the church building. He and his family were members there. They also gave three lots for the Methodist Church, and helped to build the church, also two lots to

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the Congregationalists and helped to build that church. They gave four lots for the first school house on Orange Avenue.

Mr. Monroe's interest in Monrovia has been continued, but his residence here was interrupted in 1907, when he went to Alaska and participated in the exciting adventures of the Klondike and other gold fields. In 1909 he went to Nome, and was engaged in the construction of Alaska's first railway, known as the Wild Goose Railroad, between Nome and Anvil Creek, a distance of seven miles. After doing his work as superintendent of construction he operated the road until it was sold to the Nome Arctic Railway Company. The following year it was extended to Iron Creek, and the property was then sold to the Seward Peninsular. Railroad. Mr. Monroe remained for seven years superintendent and general manager of these roads. Mrs. Monroe was with him in 'Alaska all this time. In 1914 they returned to Mon- rovia. While in Alaska Mr. Monroe hauled in as much as $159,000 in gold dust to Nome. This was in bags hauled on open flat cars, and was the week-end cleanup on the part of the miners along Anvil Creek.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 47

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