History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 59

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

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ERNEST HARNETT was a resident of Los Angeles County nearly thirty years. He was especially well known in the community of Long Beach,

Brought. Morison

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where his sons and daughters have made their generation of the family one of particular prominence.

On February 16, 1918, occurred the death of Long Beach's beloved educator, Miss Jane Elizabeth Harnett. Just four days later on February 20, while walking from his home at 2481 Atlantic Avenue to attend the prayer meeting service in the Trinity Methodist Church, Mr. Ernest Harnett was struck and killed by an automobile.

He was seventy-seven at his death. Mr. Harnett was born in Kent County, England, October 7, 1841. He married in England, and eleven of his children were born in that country, and three were born in Long Beach. The family came to the United States in 1889, and soon afterward located in Los Angeles County. Mr. Harnett built the home on Atlantic Avenue which was the center of family associations for thirty years. Mr. Harnett followed farming and ranching in Los Angeles County, and from 1897 to 1905 was associated with his son E. T. Harnett in the Long Beach Milling Company. He retired from active business in 1905. He was a devout attendant and communicant of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, but often attended special services of the Trinity Methodist Church on account of its location near his home.

Mr. Ernest Harnett was survived by Mrs. Harnett and four sons and seven daughters: The oldest of the sons is E. T. Harnett, manager and principal owner of the Long Beach Milling Company, one of the well known institutions of the city. The company operates a mill and also a store, manufacturing and dealing in flour, grain, feed and dairy and poultry supplies. The second son, John A. Harnett, lives at Belvedere. Mrs. Ethel Kersting, Mrs. Josephine Simmons, Mrs. Helen Morris, Mrs. . Noah Selfridge, Mrs. Anne Kimball is a resident of Wyoming, Miss Ivy, Miss Kathleen, Frank and Edward are all residents of Long Beach. Edward is in the city engineer's office. Miss Kathleen is principal of the Morenci High School at Morenci, Arizona. Frank is associated with his brother, E. T., in the Long Beach Milling Company.

Mrs. Harnett, the mother of these children, resides at 730 Sunrise Boulevard. Her maiden name was Julia S. Berrell. She and the late Ernest Harnett were married in the old church of Lambeth, in the borough of Lambeth at London, England, in 1872, and of the half century since her marriage, thirty-three years have been spent in Los Angeles County.

JANE ELIZABETH HARNETT. "Stand fast and serve," is an old motto that became a living principle of life, action and character with the late Jane Elizabeth Harnett. Long Beach as a community, and particularly all who grew up and received their education in that city, are under a lasting debt to the services she rendered as a teacher. Her home was at Long Beach for nearly thirty years, and throughout that time she was engaged in her work as an educator, beginning in the grammar schools, and for many years was a member of the faculty of teachers of the high school.

Miss Harnett, who died at the family home in Long Beach at 2481 Atlantic Avenue, February 16, 1918, at the age of forty-five, was born in England, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Harnett. She was sur- vived by four brothers and seven sisters. She had only recently gradu- ated from Rochester College when the family came to America and settled at Long Beach in 1889. For a time she was private tutor to the children of Judge and Mrs. Henry C. Dillon at their home on Signal Hill. After a year she became a teacher in the elementary grades of the Pine Avenue School at Long Beach, which at that time was the only school building at Long Beach. Miss Harnett was one of the few persons at Long Beach qualified to take a position on the high school faculty when the high school was organized. The high school began its sessions in the old Tabernacle Building under Principal Walter Bailey. At that time Miss Harnett was teacher of history and commercial arithmetic. Subsequently she taught these and other branches under the supervision of Professor H. L. Lunt in the old Chatauqua Building at the corner of Fourth Street

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and Pine Avenue. When the high school occupied its handsome new mis- sion type building at the corner of Eighth Street and American Avenue, recently replaced by the George Washington School, Miss Harnett was made head of the Department of History. That department remained under her supervision both in that building and later in the new Polytechnic High until the close of her life.

While the outstanding results of her life were her work as a teacher and her associations with the boys and girls in high school, she was an untiring seeker of knowledge for its own sake. Her mental resources were widening every year by contact with new fields of thought and by many vacation periods of study at the University of California. As a result of this study she won her Master of Arts degree. In her specialty of English history, Professor Henry Morse Stephens offered her a place in the history department of the University. Miss Harnett was a brilliant teacher, one able to inspire those under her and the inspiration was not only directed toward her special body of knowledge, but to that sound learning that accompanies good character. All the pupils who went through high school at Long Beach, felt a special veneration and love for Miss Harnett, and she was equally esteemed among her fellow teachers.

The worth of her practical influence and work and the duty of her character were paid many tributes in the impressive funeral service and the special memorial service at High School. The funeral service was con- ducted by Rev. Arnold Bode, rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and by her former rector Rev. Robert B. Gooden. All the students of the high school and many others assembled at the memorial service, conducted by Principal David Burcham, who said in part: "No greater loss could possibly come to the school than it has sustained in the passing of Miss . Jane Harnett. She was the kindest, truest, most unselfish friend Long Beach High School ever had. Ten years ago she organized the student body, and ever since that time has been on the Board of Commissioners of the school. Her kindly spirit was a benediction and blessing to us all." Another speaker at the memorial service was Rev. H. K. Booth, who had worked with her on the City Charter Commission, and who expressed the opinion that he had never seen any one with a greater grasp of govern- ment or history than that possessed by Miss Harnett. Among others who took this opportunity to voice their admiration and respect for this splendid educator were Mayor W. T. Lisenby of Long Beach, Commissioner Tin- cher, who spoke for the alumni, and Mrs. June G. McNee, of the Board of Education.

FRANCIS BOAS SETTLE, M. D., is one of the younger representatives of his profession in Los Angeles County, but has had the technical dis- cipline and the broad and varied experience that specially fortify him for his chosen department of service, his practice being confined to surgery and surgical consultation and his offices being maintained at 606-7 First National Bank Building in the City of Long Beach.

Dr. Settle was born at Blackwell, Missouri, October 26, 1891, and is a son of Francis Edward Settle and Martha Ann (Clay) Settle. who have been residents of Long Beach, California, since the year 1918. The father was one of the successful farmers of Missouri for many years and has lived retired since 1917. He was born at Bonne Terre, Missouri, a place formerly known as Settletown, the Settle family having there established residence about a century ago. Benjamin Franklin Settle, grandfather of the Doctor, was an official of the Iron Mountain division of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and assisted in building the line of this road from St. Louis to Iron Mountain. The family name of his wife was Boas, and this patronymic figures as the second personal name of Dr. Settle. William Boas, great-grandfather of the Doctor, was the originator of the development of the iron mines in southeastern Missouri, and was suc- cessful in the operation of his mines, he having owned virtually all of the land now included in Washington County, Missouri, and having been

JOHN G. MALMQUIST

ANNA L. MALMQUIST

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one of the influential men of his day in that state, where his activities were broad and varied and where he owned a large number of negro slaves. The Settle family has been established in America since the early Colonial period and the original representatives in Missouri went to that state from Kentucky. Mrs. Martha Ann (Clay) Settle is a daughter of William F. Clay, who was a kinsman of Henry Clay and who served as a soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, he having been an officer in a Missouri regiment and his death having resulted from wounds which he received in battle, with further complication of typhoid fever. His wife was a member of the old and distinguished McHenry family, which was founded in Missouri at a very early period in the history of that state. Dr. Settle is the youngest in a family of two sons and three daughters, and of the number only one other is living, his sister Gertrude.

Dr. Francis B. Settle was graduated in the Teachers College High School at Columbia, Missouri, as a member of the class of 1906, and he received in 1910 the degree of Bachelor of Arts, upon his graduation in the University of Missouri. In preparation for his chosen profession he entered the medical department of St. Louis University, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1917. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he served as an interne in the Lutheran Hospital and the Missouri Baptist Sanitarium in St. Louis, and when the nation became involved in the World war he enlisted in the medical corps of the United States Army and was assigned to duty in the United States Marine Hospital at St. Louis, where he continued in service, with the rank of first lieutenant, until the war closed and he received his honorable discharge. Thereafter Dr. Settle had the splendid experience of three years of surgical work in connection with the famed Mayo Brothers hospital and clinic, at Rochester, Minnesota, and at the expiration of this gratifying and valuable fellowship with one of the greatest institutions of its kind in America, he came to Long Beach, California, and opened his office for the exclusive practice of surgery, this action on his part having been taken in October, 1921.

Dr. Settle holds membership in the Missouri State Medical Society, the St. Louis Medical Society, the Southern Minnesota Medical Society, the Los Angeles County Medical Society, the California State Medical Society, and is a fellow of the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons. He is identified also with the Southern Surgical Society, the Phi Beta Pi medical college fraternity and the Mayo clinic, as a former resident physician and surgeon of the same. At Long Beach he is a member of the staff of surgeons at Seaside Hospital. The Doctor is a democrat in political adherency, holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was formerly an honorary mem- ber of the Delta Omicron fraternity, which is now a chapter of the Sigma Phi Upsilon. He is a member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and of the local Kiwanis Club. While a resident of St. Louis he was for three years assistant professor of anatomy at the St. Louis University.

On the 26th of January, 1921, at Rochester, Minnesota, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Settle to Miss Anna Bertha Marquardt, who was born and reared in that state and who was there graduated in St. Mary's College, at Faribault, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. While a student in this institution Mrs. Settle there taught German, she having been gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1918. She has exceptional musical talent, and as a vocalist sang in the choir of one of the leading churches at Rochester, Minnesota. She has become a popular figure in the representa- tive social and cultural circles of Long Beach and is here a member of the Ebell Club. Dr. and Mrs. Settle are the parents of one son, Billy Francis Settle.

JOHN G. MALMQUIST. Among the old and greatly honored citizens of Los Angeles who have attained more than four score years and who have the confidence and respect of their fellow-citizens may be numbered

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John G. Malmquist, of Montebello. Through sturdy toil and honorable dealing he has accumulated through legitimate channels sufficient wealth to meet his every desire, and at the same time has reared a large family to honorable man and womanhood and has himself been a credit to the com- munity of his adoption.

Mr. Malmquist was. born near the City of Stockholm, Sweden, April 16, 1842. His father, a farmer, lived on government lands in Sweden, and the youth, called upon to work hard, had few opportunities to gain an edu- cation. At the age of fourteen years he was apprenticed to the flour miller's trade, and until 1874 worked as a miller in his native land, but very soon came to the conclusion that there was little future for him in the land of his birth, and, accordingly, in that year came with his wife and four children to the United States, seeking the far West. His first loca- tion was Gunnison, Utah Territory, still a new and raw country into which the Union Pacific Railway had made its way only four years before. Money was scarce. Mr. Malmquist himself was possessed of but sixty dollars at the time of his arrival, and of this amount he spent fifty dollars for a cook stove. He was willing and ambitious, and as during his milling days in Sweden he had learned something of carpentry he secured employ- ment putting up rough dwellings for the early arrivals in that part of the country. This proved a profitable business, and by Christmas he was able to present his family with a house of their own. Two years later he took up 160 acres of Government land, which he proved up and improved, and this property he still owns, it being operated by one of his sons. For years Mr. Malmquist lived among the Mormons, but never adopted their faith or customs. In 1905 Mr. Malmquist moved to Montebello, where he pur- chased five acres of land at $325 per acre, which he set to Valencia oranges. This venture has proved a very successful one, and Mr. Malmquist is now the owner of a handsome, well-improved and highly productive orange grove, upon which stands a home and other buildings erected by his own hands. As this property is situated in the oil belt, it may at some future time develop untold riches. Ever since taking out his naturalization papers Mr. Malmquist has voted the republican ticket, but he has never sought public office. His life has been one of well-directed industry in which he has always maintained a high order of honesty combined with principles of citizenship that have made him a useful member of the communities in which he has resided.

In 1867 Mr. Malmquist married Miss Anna Anderson, who was born in Sweden, as were four of their eleven children. Her death occurred at the Montebello home February 5, 1921. She was a worthy helpmate to her husband and a woman of great industry and resource.

WILLIAM EDWIN OLIVER, whose death occurred at his home in the City of Los Angeles on the 26th of June, 1921, had been a resident of California more than thirty-five years and had here been prominently identified with business affairs of broad scope and importance, had achieved substantial prosperity entirely through his own ability and efforts, and had proved himself a loyal and progressive citizen well worthy of the high regard in which he was uniformly held. -

Mr. Oliver was born in New York City and was sixty-two years of age at the time of his death. His father died while in service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and he was but twelve years of age at the time of his mother's death. The orphan boy was thus denied many of the advan- tages that otherwise might have been his, but his self-reliant nature and determined purpose enabled him to overcome handicaps both along educa- tional and material lines and to make for himself a worthy place in connection with life activities. After he came to California Mr. Oliver's first service was in the capacity of postmaster at Redondo, and later he was for a number of years successfully engaged in the book and stationery business in Los Angeles, as a member of the firm of Oliver & Haynes. He made judicious investments in Los Angeles real estate, and from time to

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time was the owner of local properties that are now of large value. In this connection he was able to contribute much to the material development and growth of the city, and his splendid powers were enlisted also in the further- ance of civic and business progress. He became vice president of the Home Savings Bank, later the California National Bank, and the Ridge Oil Company, and for several years was a trustee of the California State Normal School. In the Masonic fraternity his affiliations included his membership in the Temple of the Mystic Shrine in his home city, and he was a popular member of the City Club and the Wilshire Country Club. Though never a seeker of political office, he was a staunch and well fortified advocate of the cause of the Republican party. Mr. Oliver had a fine appreciation of the responsibilities that success imposes, and was ever ready to give his support to worthy charities and benevolences, besides which he did not fail to aid in a private and unostentatious way those in need, those "in any ways afflicted or distressed in mind, body or estate." Generous and kindly, he won by his loyalty the most loyal of friends, and he was one of the well known and highly honored citizens of Los Angeles at the time of his death. He is survived by his widow, two sons, William and Gordon, and one daughter, Jane.

HARRY W. KROTZ, of Long Beach, is uniformly recognized as one of the most vital, resourceful and successful representatives of the real-estate business in Los Angeles County, and significant is the follow- ing statement that has been written concerning him :. "Whenever the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce desires the livest of all of this city's live wires to gather in members for its organization, to raise funds for advanc- ing the progressive work of the chamber, or to formulate and carry forward special enterprises projected by this fine civic organization-in such contingencies all members cast their votes to hand the job over to Harry W. Krotz. . If there be a bond issue to carry, some one sings out, 'Just go and get Harry.' If his club needs a member to give the service that shall gain it a permanent place on the map, Krotz is the boy who will bring about the desired result. As a real-estate broker he has made a record of fine achievement. These things constitute the reason for citizens calling on Mr. Krotz to administer just the right kick in civic affairs that have taken a wrong slant and need a stimulating action."

In his real-estate operations Mr. Krotz is associated with John B. Hughes, and they are doing much to further the development of the "Greater Long Beach."

Mr. Krotz was born in the Province of Ontario, Canada, November 26, 1887, and after leaving school he became associated with his father in the mercantile business. In 1909 he came to California, and after a brief sojourn in Los Angeles he went to El Centro in the famed Imperial Valley of this state, and there opened a real-estate office. One of his first sales was that of a large tract to the Timken Bearing Company, for a consideration of $102,000. Later he became superintendent for the firm of Varney Brothers, operating a chain of seven department stores and doing an annual business of $3,000,000. He was active in exploiting and extending the fame of the Imperial Valley of California, especially while serving as vice president and a director of the Calexico Chamber of Commerce. In the World war period he served as chairman of the Four Minute men engaged in the advancing of government bond sales and other patriotic activities. In church work he found requisition for his services as choir leader, president of the Church Board and president of the Business Men's Class in the Sunday school. The excessive heat of the Imperial Valley finally led Mr. Krotz to return to Los Angeles, and there he served for a time as superintendent for the firm of Cal Hirsch & Sons, by which concern he was later placed in charge of its store at Long Beach. Here the business made healthy strides under his direction, and after vitalizing the enterprise with his characteristic effectiveness he resigned his position in June, 1921, to associate himself with John B. Hughes in the

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real-estate business. The result of this venture has been unqualified suc- cess, and the firm now has status as one of the foremost in progressive real-estate operations in the Long Beach District, with office headquarters at the DeLuxe Hotel, corner Ocean and Locust avenues. While residing in the Imperial Valley Mr. Krotz married, and he has three children : Harry W., Jr., Evelyn Myrle and Betty Jeanne.

Mr. Krotz is affiliated with Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic frater- nity and is identified with various other fraternal organizations. He has been a vigorous and enthusiastic worker in Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, was vice chairman of its membership campaign, and in every sense he is a liberal, loyal and progressive citizen. He is a student and reader, a logical thinker, and a constructive worker. He has made many valuable contributions to the columns of the Long Beach newspapers, and in this connection has adopted as a slogan "Pull for a Greater Long Beach." Mr. Krotz is an effective public speaker, is a leader in the community sing- ing in his home city, and is an active member of the Taubman Bible Class of Long Beach, which has the distinction of being the largest Bible class in the United States. Mr. Krotz is treasurer of the Lions Club of Long Beach, and chairman of its Civic Committee. He is a valued member of the Long Beach Realty Board; is permanent chairman of the five lunch clubs of the city, in the furthering of civic betterment, this amalgamation of the five organizations for such service being under the title of Inter Club and being one of the largest and strongest organizations of the kind in Southern California. Mr. Krotz and his wife are active members of the First Christian Church in their home city, and Mrs. Krotz is a leader in cultural and social affairs in Long Beach. At Calexico she was presi- dent of the Woman's Improvement Club and of the Parent-Teacher Club. At her home in Calexico she organized the first Red Cross auxiliary or chapter in the Imperial Valley, and she was a leader in other patriotic service in the World war period.

At El Centro, Imperial County, on the 27th of October, 1912, Mr. Krotz was united in marriage to Miss Myrle Edith Swanberger, who was born in Ohio but reared and educated in California. Mrs. Krotz was graduated in the State Normal School at San Diego, and she gave five years of effective service as a teacher in the schools of Colorado and California.

Mr. Krotz is an ardent exploiter of the manifold attractions and advantages of the Long Beach District of Los Angeles County, and is a citizen whose friends and admirers are in number as his acquaintances.

STEPHEN HOMER UNDERWOOD is a Long Beach attorney, has spent all his life in the far West, and has been in practice in California since 1909.

He was born at Cheyenne, Wyoming, December 22, 1880, son of Abraham and Virga Underwood. His father, now a retired resident of Pasadena, went to Cheyenne in 1865, about the time the Union Pacific Railroad was built to that point, and was a pioneer merchant. He came from Cheyenne to Pasadena in 1905. The mother died at Cheyenne in 1895. There were two children, Mrs. Clara B. Andrews of Pasadena and Stephen H.

Stephen H. Underwood attended school at Cheyenne, graduating from high school in 1900, received his Bachelor of Arts degree in the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1904, and was graduated in 1906 from the law department of the University of Colorado. Mr. Underwood was admitted to the Wyoming bar in 1906, and after one year of practice at Cheyenne, he came to Pasadena, spent a year in that city, and since the spring of 1908, has lived at Long Beach .. For about two years he handled the Long Beach agency of the Los Angeles Times. He was admitted to the California bar July 12, 1909, and has been steadily building up an exten- sive general law practice since then.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 59

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