History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 63

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


USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 63


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After completing his courses in the public schools, Fred A. Kellogg entered the University of Southern California, and when he left it he went to Arizona, and was there engaged in mining for fifteen years. The gold rush to Alaska took him to that northern possession of the United States, and on his return to this country, he was engaged in mining on Cripple Creek, Colorado. Subsequently he went to Ocean Park, Cali- fornia, where he owned property that yielded him an income, and he also resided in Tulare County, where he was engaged in ranching. In 1911 he returned to Los Angeles County, and conducted a large poultry ranch at Van Nuys. A far-sighted man he soon saw that Van Nuys had a future before it as a very desirable residential district, and that the handling of its realty could be made very profitable. Therefore in 1915 he established his present business, and not only handles all kinds of real estate, but sells insurance, collects rentals, manages properties and makes loans. He now is developing the valuable Kellogg and McKaig subdivision of fifteen acres to Van Nuys. This desirable subdivision is one of the most modern in improvements, its location is admirably suited for its purpose, and every facility is here afforded for comfortable and luxurious living, with the comforts of both urban and country existence.


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Mr. Kellogg belongs to the Van Nuys Realty Board, the California State Realty Board and the National Realty Board, and the Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce, and is a director of the last-named body. Fraternally he belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias, and is highly regarded in both lodges.


In 1889 Mr. Kellogg was married to Miss Sarah E. Carr, then of Los Angeles, but a native of New York State, where she was educated. Mr. and Mrs. Kellogg have had two children: Helen, who is the wife of Reginald Harns, of Los Angeles, has one child, Muriel Helen; and Frederick E., who is deceased. Mr. Kellogg is a consistent member of the Catholic Church.


WALTER BRADLEY HILL, M. D. Not only has Dr. Walter Bradley Hill won distinction in his profession, both as a general practitioner, and later as a specialist in obstetrics, but also because of the service he rendered his country during the war period when he was in the army with the rank of a lieutenant. He is an experienced and scholarly man, and one of the most representative citizens of Los Angeles County, whose efforts and interest are always directed toward the service of his fellow citizens.


Doctor Hill was born at Chicago, Illinois, March 6, 1875, a son of John W. and Mary E. (Bradley) Hill. The Hill family is of English origin, Col. John Hill, who led his troops at the battle of Waterloo, being a direct ancestor. The Bradleys are of Scotch-Irish descent, and the family was settled in this country prior to the American Revolution, in which members of it served in the Colonial army. Through them Doctor Hill is eligible to membership in the Sons of the American Revolution.


John W. Hill was born in New York City and his wife in Vermont. They were married at Dundee, Illinois, where he was interested in dairy farming. Prior to his marriage, however, John W. Hill had many experi- ences of an adventurous nature for he was one of those who crossed the plains to California in 1852, following the discovery of gold, and spent ten years prospecting in different parts of California. During that period he was one of the men, who, through the vigilance committee, sought to curb the lawlessness of the frontier settlements. In 1862 he returned to Illinois and with three of his brothers, enlisted in the Union army, he joining the Fifteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry and served as a private until the close of the war. After his return from the army he went on a dairy farm near Elgin, Illinois, and continued to be interested in agricultural matters the remainder of his life. He did not forget the possibilities 'of the Golden State, and in 1881 returned to it, bringing his family with him, and, buying a ranch at Garden Grove, six miles from Santa Ana, lived upon it until his death, in 1909, when he was seventy-six years old. The mother survived him only a year and passed away at Long Beach at the age of seventy-two. There were seven children born to them, of whom Doctor Hill was the eldest, and three sons and a daughter reached maturity, they being : Wesley A., who is assistant state game warden of Arizona, with headquarters at Phoenix, Arizona ; Merton E., who is principal of the Chaffee Union High School at Upton, California ; and Mrs. Lucia J. Chaffee, who died at Garden Grove of typhoid fever in 1895, when twenty-five years old.


Doctor Hill attended the public schools of Garden Grove, the California State Normal School at Los Angeles, and was graduated from the Univer- sity of California, at Berkeley, California, in 1904, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. For four years he was engaged in educational work in Orange County, and for the last two years also served on the School Board. During this period he began to fit himself for the medical profes- sion, and completed his studies in the College of Medicine connected with the Southern Branch of the University of California, from which he was graduated in 1909, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Immediately thereafter he located at Long Beach, where he has built up a very large and lucrative practice, and is now recognized as being the leading specialist in obstetrics in the county.


Halter B Will, M.L.


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When this country entered the World war, Doctor Hill was one of the self-sacrificing medical men, who laying aside all personal consideration, offered his services to the Government. These were accepted, he was commissioned a first lieutenant, sent to Fort Riley, Kansas, for intensive training, he was there for some time, and in 1918 was sent to Camp Stanley, Texas, and attached to the Fifteenth Ammunition Train, Fifteenth Divi- sion, and was placed in charge of the medical detachment. Prior to being sent to camp, he was occupied for nearly a year in examining the drafted men as a member of Examining Board No. 10 at Los Angeles. Following the close of the war, he returned to Long Beach and resumed his practice. He is president of the Board of Directors of Seaside Hospital, Long Beach; a director of the Long Beach Transfer & Storage Company, and of the Long Beach Young Men's Christian Association. High in Masonry he belongs to Long Beach Lodge No. 327, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; Long Beach Commandery No. 20, Knights Templars; and Al Malaikah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Los Angeles. He is a member of the Virginia Country Club of Los Angeles, the Harbor Branch of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, and the American Medical Association. Long associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Long Beach, he is now a member of its official board, and for the past ten years has taught the Young Men's Baraca Class.


On April 3, 1898, Doctor Hill was married at Riverside, California, to Miss Rose M. Medsger, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Medsger, now deceased, formerly farming people of Scottdale, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Hill was born at Scottdale, and educated there and at Riverside. She is a member of the Ebell Club of Long Beach. Doctor and Mrs. Hill have one daughter, Muriel Jeanne.


PETER L. LOPEZ, one of the substantial and honored citizens of the San Fernando District of Los Angeles County, is a representative of a sterling family whose name was worthily identified with the old Spanish regime in California history.


Mr. Lopez was born in Los Angeles, on the 28th of June, 1867, and is a son of the late Valentine and Conception (Rosselle) Lopez, both of whom likewise were born in Los Angeles, when that now beautiful metropolis was little more than a village pueblo. Valentine Lopez eventually became one of the prominent exponents of agricultural industry in the San Fernando Valley, and here he and his wife continued to maintain their home until their deaths, both having been devout communicants of the Catholic Church. Valentine Lopez was a citizen who commanded unqualified esteem, and in the early days in San Fernando Valley he served as constable. Of the children the eldest is Annie, wife of William J. Bescouling, of Newhall, Los Angeles County; Peter L., of this review, was the next in order of birth ; Eliza and Ida are deceased ; Mathilda is the wife of Martin Zerloin, of La Habra, Orange County ; Ray is a resident of Bakersfield, this state; and Flora is the wife of Cecil Elliott, their home being at Hollywood.


The early education of Peter L. Lopez was obtained in the schools of San Fernando and was advanced by his attending San Fernando College. At the age of twenty-one years he was elected constable, and of this office he continued the efficient and valued incumbent eighteen years. As a young man he ran a stage line over the Santa Susaima' Mountains for a period of three years, and in this connection he carried express and also the United States mail on the route. Thereafter he gave four years of effective service as road master of San Fernando Township, besides becoming actively iden- tified with ranch enterprise, in which line of industry he is still associated, as the owner of a well improved ranch of 500 acres, devoted principally to the raising of grain. For more than a score of years past Mr. Lopez has been engaged also in general contracting. His secure place in popular esteem was further shown when he was chosen city marshal of San Fer- nando, an office which he retained some time. He is a republican in political adherency, is a valued member of the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce,


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is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Native Sons of the Golden West, and he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church.


In November, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lopez and Miss Letty May Williams, daughter of Charles and Hattie (Ziom) Wil- liams, of Los Angeles. Mrs. Lopez was born in Ohio and was a child at the time of the family removal to California, where she was reared and edu- cated in the City of Los Angeles. She is a popular member of the Ebell Club at San Fernando. Mr. and Mrs. Lopez have one daughter, Bertha, who is the wife of Richard Rush, M. D., of Birmingham, Alabama, and whose two children are Marian and Letty May.


WALTER D. SPENCER has been actively identified with the industrial interests of the Whittier and Rivera Districts of Los Angeles since 1889, has here been a progressive exponent of agricultural enterprise and of fruit and walnut culture, and he has served continuously as road supervisor of his district for more than twenty years.


Mr. Spencer was born in Madison County, New York, July 18, 1864, and in the same old Empire commonwealth were born his parents, Benja- min Wisner Spencer and Emily (Burnham) Spencer, both families having been founded in America in the Colonial era and representatives of the Spencer family having been patriot soldiers in the Revolution, Mrs. Emily (Burnham) Spencer was descended from an English family that not only was one of distinction but also had a strain of royal blood. In the late '70s Benjamin W. Spencer moved with his family to Kansas, where he became a pioneer and a successful farmer in Chase County and where he and his wife continued to reside until their death.


The public schools of the Sunflower State afforded Walter D. Spencer his youthful education, and he continued to be associated with his father in the operations of the home farm until he went to St. Paul Park, Minne- sota, where for two years he was employed in a factory. In 1889, at the age of twenty-four years, he came to California and associated him- self in ranch enterprise with an uncle, as half owner. Later he was engaged in running water, as zanjero, and in 1907 he purchased his pres- ent home place on Passons Boulevard, in the Rivera District, the same comprising slightly more than nineteen acres. When he purchased this tract it was planted to walnuts, but all of the walnut trees with the excep- tion of twenty-four about the house have since been supplanted by orange trees. Mr. Spencer has been specially careful and progressive in his activities as an orange grower and has made his business along this line substantially successful. Though he has served more than twenty years as road supervisor and by his efficiency has shown his civic loyalty, he has had no ambition for public office and has confined his political activities to supporting the principles of the republican party. He is a member of the Road Foremen's Social Club, is affiliated with Downey Lodge No. 220, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and has passed the official chairs in the local organizations of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Independent Order of Foresters. He and his wife are active mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church at Rivera, and Mrs. Spencer holds mem- bership in the Pio Pico Woman's Club.


On December 21, 1892; at Rivera, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Spencer and Miss Lizzie Easton, who was born in the State of Texas. Howard, the one child of this union, is a skilled mechanic and is employed in the Monte Bello oil fields, in the service of the Standard Oil Company. When the nation entered the great World war Howard Spencer promptly attempted to enlist in the United States Army, but was rejected. He then made his way to San Diego, where his enlistment in the United States Navy was accepted. He was assigned to service in the radio department, on one of the oil-tank vessels that was in service in transport- ing oil from Mexico to Philadelphia. Since receiving his honorable dis- charge he has been retained as a member of the Naval Reserve.


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JAMES SLAUSON is a native son of the Golden West, and has been a resident of California since his childhood. He is a representative of an old and influential family of this state, and is a progressive and liberal citizen whose business and capitalistic interests are of broad scope. His beautiful home is at 407 Georgiana Avenue in the City of Santa Monica.


Mr. Slauson was born at Austin, Nevada, on the 2d of October, 1865, and is a son of Jonathan Sayre Slauson and Sarah R. (Blum) Slauson, the former of whom was born at Middletown, Orange County, New York, December 11, 1829, and the latter was born in New York City, December 11, 1836. The marriage of the parents was solemnized in. New York City on the 22d of July, 1858.


Jonathan S. Slauson graduated from a law school at Philadelphia and thereafter was engaged in the practice of his profession in the national metropolis. About the year 1863 he made the trip to the Pacific Coast, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and became actively and prominently identified with gold and silver mining at Austin and White Pine, Nevada. He was one of the influential pioneer citizens of the vital little frontier city of Austin, of which he served as mayor, besides which he there engaged in the practice of law, in association with Charles and Thomas R. DeLong, the latter of whom served as United States minister to Japan under the administration of President Grant. Mr. Slauson continued his residence in Nevada until 1869, when he moved with his family to San Francisco. There he remained until the spring of 1874, when he estab- lished his residence in Los Angeles and effected the organization of the Los Angeles County Bank, of which he continued the president until 1884 and which under his effective executive direction became one of the strong financial, institutions of Southern California. Two years after his retirement from the presidency of this bank Mr. Slauson organized the Azusa Land & Water Company, which corporation founded and platted the town of Azusa, Los Angeles County. This company gave large and well ordered service in the development of that locality, and he continued its president until 1893, when he retired. Thereafter he gave his attention largely to the planting and general improving of lands owned by himself, his son and his two daughters, and these properties, comprising 600 acres, devoted to the propagation of citrus fruits, are now under the control of the corporation known as the Azusa Foothill Citrus Company. Mr. Slauson was a man of splendid initiative and administrative ability, and his influ- ence was large and constructive in connection with civic and industrial development and progress in Los Angeles County. He served as presi- dent of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and was president of the Sunset Club at Los Angeles, where also he held membership in the City Club and other representative civic and social organizations. He served as a member of the Los Angeles Board of Education, an office from which he retired about a year prior to his death .. He and his wife became promi- nent members of the Plymouth Presbyterian Church at Los Angeles, and he was a deacon and a trustee of the same. He had great admiration for the benignant work accomplished by the Salvation Army, and gave to the same a most liberal support, especially his large contribution to the erection of and maintenance of the Nellie Truelove Rescue Home, which is still carrying forward its splendid service. The death of this loved and hon- ored pioneer occurred on the 28th of December, 1905, and high and low, rich and poor, marked his passing with a sense of personal loss and bereave- ment. In consonance with the request of the mayor of Los Angeles the remains of Mr. Slauson lay in state in the city hall; the Seventh Regiment of the California National Guard escorted his body to the city hall under full military honors, and members of the Salvation Army stood guard over his remains. Slauson Avenue, Los Angeles, was named in honor of this distinguished citizen, as was also the Slauson playground near the site of the plant of the Goodyear Rubber Company at Los Angeles, this play- ground having been endowed by his family to the amount of $50,000 since his death. Mrs. Slauson, who was of German lineage on the paternal side


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and of French and Dutch ancestry on the maternal side, graduated from Rutgers Institute, was a woman of exceptional culture and most gra- cious personality, and was loved by all who came within the sphere of her gentle influence. She passed to the life eternal on the 20th of February, 1920. She was an active member of the Ladies' Benevolent Society of Los Angeles, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Working Girls' Home, and she and her husband, in association with Mrs. W. R. Widney, were instrumental in giving to the Salvation Army property at Los Ange- les that has now become very valuable. Mr. Slauson was prominently identified with the building of the edifice of the First Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, a work to which he made most liberal contribution. Mrs. Kate (Slauson) Vosberg, eldest of the children, was born in New York City, May 24, 1861, and now resides at Azusa, Los Angeles County, on land given to her by her father in 1883. She erected and presented to the Azusa Clinic its fine modern building, and made this a memorial to her parents. She is the executive head of this clinic, which gives free service to the poor and which maintains a resident nurse and also an efficient corps of visiting nurses. Louise, the second daughter, was born in New York City. She is the wife of Hugh Livingston MacNeal, and they reside at Los Angeles, their home being on land acquired by her father in 1874, a part of the original five acres being now known as Chester Place. The youngest child and only son is he whose name initiates this review, and as a loyal and progressive citizen and man of affairs he is effectively upholding the honors of the family name.


James Slauson gained his early education under the direction of pri- vate tutors, and at the age of fifteen years he became messenger boy for the Los Angeles County Bank, in connection with which he gained his initial business experience. He remained with this institution five years, and in the meanwhile won advancement to a responsible post, and upon severing his connection with the bank he became secretary of the Azusa Land & Water Company. Later he became prominently associated with his father in the citrus fruit industry, and as a prominent representative of the same he is now chairman of the Board of Directors of the Azusa Foot- hill Citrus Company, previously mentioned in this context. He has served as president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, president of the Sunset Club, vice president of the Balsa Gun Club, president of the Azusa Water Company, and president of the Barlow Sanitarium. He is a trustee of the Harvard University School at Los Angeles and of the Azusa Clinic. He is a member of the Los Angeles Country Club, and is a director of each the First National Bank of Azusa and the Azusa Valley Savings Bank. In addition to holding membership in the Los Angeles Chamber of Com- merce Mr. Slauson is similarly identified with those of Azusa and Santa Monica, besides which he holds membership in the Merchants & Manufac- turers Association of Los Angeles and the Sierra Club of that city. He has been a resident of Santa Monica since November 11, 1918, and here he is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal parish of the Church of St. Augustine-by-the-Sea.


ROY ALBERT TERRY, M. D., physician and surgeon, is regarded one of the ablest members of his profession in Long Beach, and is also one of that city's successful business men and property owners.


Doctor Terry was born at Dana in Vermilion County, Indiana, February 8, 1887, son of Leonidas May and Eusebia N. Terry. His father was of English descent and a descendant of Samuel Terry, who was born in England in 1632, and was a prominent resident of Springfield, Massa- chusetts, in Colonial times. He served as a sergeant and constable and was also a commissioner to fix boundaries. He died in 1730. His relative Elizabeth Terry was sixth in descent from Governor William Bradford of the Mayflower. Governor Bradford's son William married Alice Richards; their daughter Alice married Rev. W. Adams; Alice Adams married Rev. Nathaniel Collins; Ann Collins became the wife of Major


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Ephraim Terry, and their son Col. Nathaniel Terry and wife Abian Dwight had a daughter Elizabeth Terry.


Doctor Terry graduated in medicine from the Indiana University School of Medicine at Indianapolis in 1910. For one year he remained at Indianapolis as emergency surgeon of the Bobbs Free Dispensary and also as house surgeon of the Protestant Deaconess Hospital. Doctor Terry in 1911 came to California, and has since conducted a large practice as a physician and surgeon at Long Beach. He served as secretary of the Board of Health under Mayor Whealton, and is an officer and stockholder in the Seaside Hospital and at one time owned the controlling interest in the Long Beach Sanatorium. In 1908 at Indianapolis he was a mem- ber of the Hospital Corps in the Indiana State Guard.


He is a member of the American Medical Association, the California State Medical Association, the Los Angeles County Medical Society and the local branch of the County Society, the Southern California Medical Society.


Doctor Terry has manifested his faith in Long Beach by real estate investment and development, and he built two of the show places of the city, the Terry Apartment at 425 East Ocean Avenue, and the Casa Del Terry, at 2415 East Ocean Avenue.


Doctor Terry is a republican, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, a life member of Long Beach Lodge No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, represents the profession of surgery in the Rotary Club, and was reared a Baptist though not now associated with any church. At Indianapolis, April 2, 1909, Doctor Terry married Miss Portia L. Junkins. They have two children: Marjorie Lucile, born in 1910; and Frances Virginia, born in 1912.


MISS ZAIDEE BROWN, librarian of the Public Library of Long Beach since 1914, was educated in California, and was a teacher before she took up library work. She is prominently known in library circles both in the East and West.


She was born at Burdett, New York, October 27, 1875, daughter of Rev. Edmund Woodward and Martha Day (Coit) Brown. Miss Brown graduated Bachelor of Arts from Leland Stanford Junior University in 1898, and following that was principal of the Castelleja Hall, a girls' school at Palo Alto; taught in the high school at Pueblo, Colorado, in 1899-1901 ; attended the New York State Library School at Albany during 1901-02; and was an assistant in that school during the following. year. She was classifier and cataloger at the Public Library at Brookline, Massa- chusetts, from 1903-05; assistant librarian there in 1905-08; acted as library organizer under the Educational Extension Division of the New York State Educational Department from 1908 to 1910, and for four years prior to beginning her work at Long Beach was agent for the Massachusetts Free Public Library Commission.




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