History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 51

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

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John H. Flanagan was born at Brooklyn, Wisconsin, a son of John H. O'Flanagan, who was born in Tipperary, Ireland, in 1827, and came to the United States in 1849. After reaching this country he dropped the "O" in his name, and was afterwards known as John H. Flanagan. His wife was born at Flagmont, County Clare, Ireland, in 1838, a daughter of Francis Noonin and Margaret Purcell, Count and Countess of Muchrose. John H. Flanagan the elder, and his wife were married in 1858, two years after the Count and Countess of Muchrose arrived in the United States, bringing with them their daughter.

It is a matter of great satisfaction to Mrs. Westergard that through her side of the house her son can trace back to such a long line of honorable ancestors, but both she and his father are so training him that not only will he be worthy of them and his parents, but that his own

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life will be so lived as to entitle him to the esteem of his fellow citizens on his own account.

E. I. LESTER. The career of E. I. Lester, now one of the leading realtors of Long Beach, has been one that is interesting in many ways. He has in turn been collector, law student, homesteader, cowboy and real estate man, and in all his experiences has relied strictly on his own resources which have proven entirely sufficient for his needs.

Mr. Lester was born November 12, 1877, at Fort Worth, Texas, the fifth in order of birth in a family of five daughters and five sons, in addition to which there were two adopted sons, Ben and Sam Adaway, now residents of North Dakota, all reared by Mr. Lester's parents, A. Y. and Martha E. Lester. A. Y. Lester, who was a captain in the Confederate army during the war between the states, and the first county recorder and court clerk of Tarrant County, Texas, when the county seat was at Fort Worth, died at Decatur, Texas. His mother, who survives, is now a resident of Ontario, California.

E. I. Lester attended the public schools of Fort Worth and Decatur, Texas, and attended several private schools in order to master bookkeeping and a knowledge of what is now known as a commercial course. His first real experience was as a collector for Doctor McGruder and the Graham Drug Company, at Fort Worth, and subsequently attempted the study of law in the office of Hogg & Robinson, of that city, Mr. Hogg later becoming governor of the state. The call of out-door life had too strong an appeal, however, and in 1897 Mr. Lester took up the life of a cowpuncher in the Indian Reservation (now Oklahoma) where the town of Hobart is now located. He homesteaded and proved up an 160- acre claim, and later improved 960 acres of land, as well as paying eighteen per cent interest on several thousand dollars in order to get a start in the cattle industry. In the spring of 1899, when the cattle were being shipped from the southern to the northern ranges, Mr. Lester accomplished the unusual feat of gathering 9,000 head of cattle, success- fully rounding them up in one bunch. After the Government had settled up all the reservations, Mr. Lester made a start in a new direction by founding a factory for the manufacture of horse collars, on South Broad- way, Oklahoma City. In 1906 he moved to Hobart, where he continued in the same line, and also put in a line of vehicles and harness. This enterprise occupied his attention until 1909, when he moved to Long Beach, California, and started in the general real estate, exchange and loan business. The few thousand dollars that he invested in land here has grown to approximately $100,000, and Mr. Lester is accounted one of the most successful men in his line in the city.

Mr. Lester's views upon the question of politics are interesting and indicative of his independent spirit. He states: "I have never had much sympathy for a man seeking office, as office-holding has ruined a great many men who would have made a success in life had they remained out of office or waited until they were asked to serve their Government. I have always contended that all voters should be allowed to vote inde- pendently, as the pledging of voters at conventions and primaries has only served to give the control of all offices, from school board up to president, into the hands of a few men under the name of some kind of party. To my mind the name is immaterial." Mr. Lester is a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks No. 888, at Long Beach. He belongs to the Christian Church.

At Hobart, Oklahoma, November 30, 1902, Mr. Lester was united in marriage with Miss Bertha Hunter, daughter of James and Lottie Hunter. James Hunter was born in Ohio and served as a sergeant in the Union army during the war between the states, following which he took up the vocation of bridge building and followed that during the rest of his life. He built all the bridges in Audubon County, and another county, in Iowa, and died at Hobart, Oklahoma, March 23, 1923, at the

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age of eighty-three years. Mrs. Hunter, who survives him, is a resident of Hobart, Oklahoma. To Mr. and Mrs. Lester there has come one daughter, Thelma, who was born at Hobart, April 1, 1907.

HUGO W. JONES, an expert in income tax law and practicing that profession at Los Angeles as a consultant on federal taxes, has been a resident of California since 1919. His offices are in the Lineberger-Hite Building. While a comparatively young man he has had an extensive experience in banking and financial affairs since early youth.

He was born at Heron Lake, Minnesota, July 7, 1888, son of Joseph J. and Ida B. (Amsler) Jones, his father of original Welsh ancestry and his mother of a Swiss family. His father was born in Mieglitz, Austria, was graduate of a college in Vienna, also attended school in Olmitz, and was a man of liberal education and very studious habits, being proficient in the sciences and in the classical as well as the modern languages. Ida B. Amsler was born in Switzerland. They married after coming to America at Heron Lake, Minnesota, and they lived to celebrate their twenty-fifth or silver wedding anniversary. Joseph J. Jones was in the lumber business in Southern Minnesota for over a quarter of a century and at his death August 5, 1920, was vice-president and manager of the Lakefield Lumber Company of Lakefield, Minnesota. This was a suc- cessful independent company which he was instrumental in organizing. Joseph J. Jones was also a talented musician and for many years a band leader. He is survived by his widow who with some of the younger children now resides at Kingsley, Iowa. There are three sons and four daughters living, one child dying in infancy. Hugo W. is the oldest and the only one of the family in California.

Mr. Jones attended common schools at Heron Lake, Minnesota, and graduated in 1907 from the high school at Lakefield, an accredited high school of Minnesota. In December, 1907, before he was nineteen years of age, he went to work in the First National Bank of Lakefield, and remained with that institution until October, 1911, at first as bookkeeper, then as assistant cashier and finally as cashier. In October, 1911, he took over the management of the Citizens State Bank of Clayton, Wis- consin, a bank then practically insolvent. In four years time he put the business on a sound basis, and his achievement was given special recognition by the Wisconsin Superintendent of Banks, A. E. Koult.

In 1916 leaving the bank at Clayton, Mr. Jones returned to Lakefield to assist his father for two years in the lumber business. Then in May, 1918, he entered the Treasury Department at Washington, D. C., as income tax auditor in the Internal Revenue Bureau. He also acted as an income tax instructor of several training classes organized in the Internal Revenue Bureau for the purpose of teaching income tax law to the employees of the bureau. In 1919 he was promoted to an executive position in the bureau, and in September of the same year obtained a transfer to the Pacific Coast as Revenue Agent with headquarters at San Francisco. Later in the same year he was transferred to Southern California. Mr. Jones in January, 1922, having severed his connection with the Treasury Depart- ment, established his office at Long Beach to engage in the practice of income tax law.

He has a number of investments in Southern California, being a stock- holder in the Bank of North Long Beach, in the B. & M. Candy Company of Seal Beach, and the Inventors Finance Corporation of Phoenix, Arizona. He owns various real estate properties in Long Beach and some residential properties on Temple Avenue, and is identified with an "own your own office building" enterprise, the City National Building Company of Long Beach, his individual share in this building being four offices on the eleventh floor. At Long Beach Mr. Jones is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Washington Gladden Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the First Congregational Church, and he served as secretary in 1916-18 of Lake- field Lodge No. 250, Free and Accepted Masons, and was instrumental in organizing the Knights of Pythias Lodge of Lakefield.

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At Lakefield, October 16, 1910, he married Miss Lillian A. Britsch, daughter of L. J. and Ida Britsch. Her parents formerly lived at Spirit Lake, Iowa, and Lakefield, Minnesota, and came to Long Beach, Cali- fornia, in 1912; her father is a large property owner in Long Beach and vicinity. Mrs. Jones is a graduate of the High School at Lakefield, the Domestic-Science Course of the School of Agriculture, University of Minnesota, and is an accomplished musician. In Minnesota and Wis- consin she took active part in Woman's Federated Club work. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have four children, the first two born at Lakefield, and the second two are natives of California, born at Long Beach. They are, Margaret Helen, Dorothy Lillian, Hugo William Jr., and Katherine Ida.

OSCAR ANDERSON, M. D. Holding an acknowledged position in the ranks of his chosen calling by reason of natural talent, comprehension of human nature and broad sympathy, upon which have been superimposed a thorough training and broad experience, Dr. Oscar Anderson is firmly entrenched in the confidence of the people of Santa Monica. Engaged in practice here since 1909, with the exception of the time spent in military service, he has shown himself a thorough master of his profession and has built up a large and important clientele.

Doctor Anderson was born at Zumbrota, Goodhue County, Minnesota, March 22, 1874, and is a son of Charles B. and Anna B. (Strand) Ander- son, the former a native of Sweden and the latter of Norway. Charles B. Anderson came to the United States in 1865 and located in Minnesota, where he was a merchant at Zumbrota for many years. He is now retired from active affairs and lives with his son at Santa Monica. Oscar Ander- son attended the graded and high schools of Zumbrota, following which he entered the University of Minnesota and received his degree of Bachelor of Science as a member of the class of 1898. He then pursued a medical course of four years, graduating in 1902 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and at once commenced practice at Wellington, Kansas. Subsequently he did post-graduate work at the General Hospital, Montreal, Canada, and for a time followed his profession at Keokuk, Iowa, whence he went to Houston, Texas. From the latter city he came to Santa Monica in 1909, and this has been his home and the scene of his professional activities ever since. Doctor Anderson has built up a large professional business, and his success is not the result of any fortuitous circumstance or happy chance. At the beginning of his career he was compelled to meet and overcome the same obstacles that confront every young practitioner and to work his way upward through merit. He has always been a close student of his calling, applying himself conscientiously to his task in order to keep fully abreast of the advancements being made therein, and spending much of his leisure time in research and investigation. He holds membership in the Los Angeles County Medical Society and the California State Medical Society and is a Fellow of the American Medical Association. As a fraternalist he belongs to the Knights of Columbus, and his religious relationship is with Ocean Park Catholic Church. Doctor Anderson has taken a good citizen's part in civic movements, and is an active member of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of this city. During the World War he enlisted in the United States Medical Corps July 11, 1917, when he was commissioned a first lieutenant. He was promoted to the rank of captain December 1 of the same year, and to major, May 11, 1918, and received his honorable discharge September 15, 1920.

On November 25, 1905, Doctor Anderson was united in marriage with Miss Emily Patten, of Keokuk, Iowa, and they have one daughter, Mary Jane.

LEE MARION MURPHY, M. D., specialist on eye, ear, nose and throat and a member of the Santa Fe Railway Hospital of Los Angeles, was a brilliant man in his profession, and his death at the early age of thirty-

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seven took him away when his powers for effective service were at their best.

Doctor Murphy was born at Montevideo, Minnesota, December 31, 1886, son of Dr. Lee and Ruth Murphy. He grew up in the home of a physician, graduated from the Montevideo High School, and spent two years in the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, and graduated in medicine from Northwestern University of Chicago. He took special courses in eye, ear, nose and throat in the New York Post Graduate Medi- cal School and Hospital, and for eighteen months was an interne in St. Joseph's Hospital at Chicago. His first private practice was done at Steger, Illinois, as factory physician at the Steger Piano Factory.

Doctor Murphy came to California in 1915, and was associated in prac- tice with Dr. R. W. Miller until three years ago. In addition to his work as eye, ear, nose and throat specialist on the staff of the Santa Fe Hospital he maintained private offices in the New Pacific Mutual Building. He was a member of the University Club, the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and County and State Medical Society. October, 1922, Doctor Murphy sought release from a serious throat trouble by going to Denver and remaining under the care of Dr. L. B. Lockard, the best authority in the country on laryngal tuberculosis. He returned to Los Angeles and died three weeks later, April 18, 1923. He was a member of the South Pasadena Epis- copal Church, his home being at 1114 Garfield Avenue in South Pasadena.

Doctor Murphy married Florence McGrath, daughter of Mrs. J. F. McGrath of Keokuk, Iowa, on October 5, 1912. Mrs. Murphy and her daughter, Mary Lea, born in 1917, survive him. He is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Nelbert Chouinard of the Chouinard School of Fine Arts, and a brother, Dr. Lloyd Murphy, who is a dentist of Woodlake, California.

CHARLES A. WILLIS has been a resident of Los Angeles County over twenty years. A pharmacist by profession, his career in this county has been identified with building and contracting, and he has become one of the leaders in that field at Long Beach.

Mr. Willis was born at Carlisle, Indiana, on Friday, the thirteenth of February, 1880, son of Charles B. and Fanny (Davidson) Willis. The Willis family were pioneers in Sullivan County, Indiana. Charles A. Willis was born near Carlisle, November 27, 1850, and devoted his active career to the business and contracting in Sullivan County. He was a leader in the republican party, serving as county chairman, that being the same county in which former postmaster general Will Hays lived. Charles B. Willis had been coming out to Southern California for visits during the last twenty years of his life, and the last three years lived in Long Beach, where he died January 1, 1922. His wife died in Carlisle, Indiana, when her son Charles was about four years of age. There were five sons in the family, and Charles is the youngest. Two are still living: Thomas Franklin and French, both in Indiana. Two sons died in infancy.

Charles A. Willis attended public school at Carlisle, and is a graduate of Purdue University of LaFayette, Indiana. He graduated in pharmacy there in 1900, and for about a year was employed in a drug store at Carlisle. He was a registered pharmacist in his native State.

Leaving Indiana, March 13, 1901, Mr. Willis came to Los Angeles and soon went to work as a carpenter, having learned that trade from his father. From journeyman he gradually has developed an important business as a general contractor. During the World war from March, 1918, to May, 1919, he was in the government service in the ship yards at Long Beach, being foreman of hulls. His home has been in Long Beach since 1918, and his business is now largely the building of houses and selling on his own account. He is also secretary and treasurer of the Katherine Big Four Mining Company of Long Beach and of the East Long Beach Oil Company.

Mr. Willis is a progressive republican. He is affiliated with Long Beach Lodge No. 327, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Long Beach

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Chapter No. 84, Royal Arch Masons, Long Beach Council No. 26, Royal and Select Masters, Long Beach Commandery No. 40, Knights Templar, Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and Long Beach Lodge No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He belongs to the Exchange Club of Long Beach, the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Union Glee Club of Los Angeles, the Automobile Club of Southern California.

At Los Angeles, January 11, 1904, Mr. Willis married Miss Matilda Edmunds, a niece of old Senator Edmunds of Vermont, and member of a very prominent New England family. Mrs. Willis was born in Arizona and educated there. Her father, Eugene Edmunds, was a California forty- niner, making the trip by ox team from Vermont to California. He drove the first freight team from Stockton, California, to Tombstone, Arizona. All over the Southwest he was widely known as "Stockton Edmunds," and his children were known as Stockton's children, his christian name never being used after coming West. He became a large property owner in California. On his large California ranch may be found relics of the old big wheeled prairie schooners he once owned. He also owned a whole block on South Main Street in Los Angeles between Third and Fourth streets. A pioneer of the West in its fullest terms was "Stockton Edmunds." He married Antonia Kruse, of Spanish ancestry. She was reared in Tucson, Arizona, and both the parents of Mrs. Willis died at Tombstone, that state, Mrs. Willis being a small child when her mother died and about ten when her father died. Mr. and Mrs. Willis have one daughter, Frances E., born at Los Angeles.

SAM HOUSTON ROBINSON. The name borne by this well known citi- zen of the Puente district of Los Angeles County, is in itself adequate indication of his ability to claim the Lone Star State as the place of his nativity. Mr. Robinson was born in Nacodoches County, Texas, Septem- ber 19, 1858, and is a son of Houston and Amanda (Hamil) Robinson, both natives of Bedford County, Tennessee, and both representatives of early pioneer families of Texas, as is evident when it is stated that Houston Robinson was five years of age and his future wife a child of three years at the time of the immigration of the respective families to Texas. The Robinson family first settled in St. Augustine County, and later removed to Nacodoches County, where also the Hamil family gained pioneer honors. Houston Robinson was reared under the conditions of the frontier era in Texas history, and at the age of seventeen years he became actively concerned with overland freighting. Later he became a successful repre- sentative of farm or ranch industry in the western part of Texas. About the year 1895 he removed to Greer County, Oklahoma, and in that state he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, his death having occurred in 1912 and that of his widow in 1921, their marriage having been solemnized in February, 1857, and the subject of this review being the eldest in their family of twelve children.

Sam H. Robinson was reared on the home ranch to the age of sixteen years, when he went to work on the great cattle ranges of Texas, he having continued for fourteen years in the employ of the firm of Jordan & Broadus, which conducted extensive operations in the raising and shipping of cattle. At the expiration of the fourteen years Mr. Robinson went to southwest Texas, and in 1886 he came thence to California and settled at Monrovia, his financial resources at the time having been summed up in $15.75. He arrived in Los Angeles on a Friday noon, and on the following Sunday morning he started forth for Monrovia, on the San Gabriel Valley Railroad, now a part of the Santa Fe system. After his arrival at Monrovia, the terminus of the line, he found employment in hauling material for the railroad bridge across the San Gabriel River, the work being under the supervision of his cousin, William Lilley. Mr. Robinson had not seen this cousin in twelve years, and did not know he was in California. The two kinsmen immediately recognized each

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Ca Lang worthy

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other, and Mr. Robinson promptly secured work with the outfit of which his cousin had charge, his compensation having been $1.50 a day and his service in this connection having continued until the following February. In that month he found employment in the livery barn of Baxter Brothers, at Monrovia, and in the meanwhile he carefully saved his earnings until, on the 1st of the following July, he was able to buy a team and engage independently in the teaming business. He finally purchased a modest house at Monrovia, and in this home he and his young wife took up their abode, his marriage to Miss Mildred Shepherd, a native of Texas, having occurred in February, 1888. To Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have been born seven children, and all of the children were graduated in the El Monte High School with the exception of Robert, who was graduated in the Puente High School. Milton Houston, eldest of the children, is a success- ful orange and walnut grower in the Puente district ; Taylor, at the age of twenty-one years, was injured while participating in a ball game, and his death resulted from this injury ; Walter is a progressive famer near Puente ; Edna was the wife of Conrad Graff, and she was killed in an automobile- railroad accident and is survived by one son, Samuel Kenneth Graff ; Ella was graduated in one of the state normal schools of California and became a successful teacher in the public schools, she being now the wife of George Sembler, a fruit grower at Covina, Los Angeles County ; Hazel, likewise a normal school graduate, gave five years to successful service as a teacher and she is now the wife of Philip Federson, a successful walnut grower of Los Angeles County; Robert holds a position in the First National . Bank at El Monte.

In 1889, the year following that of his marriage, Mr. Robinson rented land that was a part of the estate of E. J. Baldwin (Lucky Baldwin) in the vicinity of El Monte, and under these conditions he continued his enterprise as farmer for a number of years. In 1893 he purchased ten acres of the old Workman tract, to which he later added an adjoining ten acres, and with increasing financial prosperity he finally became the owner of thirty acres. He reclaimed this land from its wild state, and though at the start he knew little about practical agriculture and even less about horticulture, he has so directed his energies as to win substantial success in connection with these basic lines of productive industry. He set out soft-shell walnuts on his land, has given close study to scientific methods of care and propagation, has profited by the experience of the passing years, and is now known as one of the top-notch walnut growers of Los Angeles County. Mr. Robinson in the earlier period of his resi- dence in the El Monte district was bewildered by the conflicting advice given him, and thus decided to depend upon his native common sense and judgment in handling his walnut enterprise, the result being that he has gained worthy success and authoritative knowledge of the industry. When he established his home on his present beautiful place, two and one-half miles west and one-fourth of a mile north of Puente postoffice, on the San Bernardino road, Mr. Robinson's family figured as the only American settlers east of the river, all other residents of the district having been Spanish. Not until the year 1920 did he find it necessary to supply irrigation to his land, and it is only in exceptionally dry seasons that he finds recourse to this, by renting water supply from wells in the locality. Mr. Robinson is a democrat in national politics but in local affairs is independent of strict partisan lines and votes for men and measures meet- ing the approval of his judgment. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Puente and of the Puente Savings Bank and has been a director of both institutions from the time of their incorporation. Hc is a loyal supporter of all movements tending to advance the material, social and moral well being of the community, and he and his wife are earnest members of the Christian Church.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 51

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