History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 69

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

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Mr. Akins was born at Columbia Station, Lorain County, Ohio, March 27, 1869, and is a son of Alonzo B. and Florence (Churchill) Akins, the latter of whom was born at Waterbury, Connecticut, a member of an old New England family and a descendant of the Ethan Allen family.

Alonzo B. Akins was born at Cleveland, Ohio, and his life was spent as a farmer in his native state. He was able to provide excellent educa- tional advantages for his son, who after completing the public school course entered Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio, in which city the lat- ter's mother still resides.

After his university course and some preliminary business training William Akins became manager of the Collinswood Brick and Terra Cotta Company, in which office he continued for three years, when he became identified with the American Express Company, and for a time represented its interests in Ohio and Indiana, retiring from that organization to become general manager, secretary and treasurer of the Tuscarawas Rail- way Company, of which he was also a director. Subsequently he effected the consolidation of this road with the Tuscarawas Electric Company's line, which afterward operated as the Tuscarawas Traction Company, of which Mr. Akins was both manager and treasurer.

Other interests then engaged Mr. Akins and he moved to Lima, Ohio, · where he served for some time as auditor of the Western Ohio Electric Company, a position he resigned in order to accept that of general man- ager of the Ohio Central Traction Lines, in which relation he continued, working between Bucyrus and Mansfield, Ohio, until 1905, when consolida- tion was effected with the Cleveland, Southwestern & Columbus Railway. Mr. Akins retired then from the transportation field and came to Los Angeles County, California, soon afterward becoming associated with the Guarantee Realty Company at Ocean Park and in 1911 purchased the interests of the Smith Realty Company at Ocean Park and went into business for himself under his present style, the Akins Realty Company. This company was established here in 1900 as the Smith Realty Company, by T. G. and Margaret Smith, which they continued to conduct near Hill Street until they disposed of it to Mr. Akins. The latter has fine quar- ters at 114 Pier Avenue, where three, people are constantly employed, together with several outside salesmen, who work on a commission basis. Mr. Akins has acquired valuable property and handles both city and suburban realty and additionally does a large insurance business, handling every kind but life insurance, and is very prominent in this particular field, being a member of the Bay District Association of Insurance Agents and president of that association, the former body including the agencies of Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica.

Mr. Akins' sister, Florence Gertrude Akins, is a woman of remark- able oratorical ability, and in 1922 stumped the State of Ohio with six other women in behalf of the republican nominee for governor.

Mr. Akins married June 19, 1902, Miss Jane Goodrich Mitchener, of New Philadelphia, Ohio, and they have two children, Jean C. and C. Mitch-

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ener, both of whom reside at home and are students in the Santa Monica High School, classes 1923 and 1926 respectively. Mr. Akins belongs to the Chamber of Commerce of Santa Monica, Ocean Park and Venice, is a member and one of the executives of the Realty Board, and is also treas- urer of the Inter-City Fire Commission. For many years he has been a member of the Order of the Elks. He is everywhere recognized as a business man of honorable methods, and as a citizen who has the best interests of Ocean Park at heart and has done his share in making it one of the finest home sites in Los Angeles County.

Mrs. Akins is the daughter of Charles Elliott Mitchener and Jane (Goodrich) Mitchener of New Philadelphia, Ohio. The Mitcheners came to America with William Penn. Colonel Robert Elliott, the great- grandfather of Charles E. Mitchener, was an officer in the Revolutionary war and afterward, while looking after the Indians in Ohio, was killed by them near Cincinnati. Colonel Robert Elliott's brother, Commodore Jesse D. Elliott, was with Perry on Lake Erie, and it was Elliott's rein- forcements that saved the day.

Mrs. Akins is a graduate of Moravian Seminary of Bethlehem, Penn- sylvania, the oldest girls' school in the United States. She taught there for four years prior to her marriage. She was one of a family of six daughters and had no brothers. Mrs. Akins is a Daughter of the Ameri- can Revolution, and a member of the Santa Monica Bay Woman's Club.

FRANK D. SWEET, M. D .. Cumulative success and professional prestige have attended the work of Doctor Sweet since he established himself in general practice at Long Beach, where, by appointment in 1921, he is now serving as police surgeon of the city, as is he also at Seal Beach in Orange County.

Doctor Sweet was born at Anthony, Rhode Island, December 3, 1887, and is a son of Franklin Lincoln Sweet and Clara F. (Tanner) Sweet, the father having been but fifty-one years of age at the time of his death, which occurred in the City of Chicago, Illinois, in March, 1914, the subject of this sketch being the only child and the widowed mother being now a resident of Long Beach. Franklin L. Sweet was general auditor and financial representative of the various papers published by William Randolph Hearst, and maintained his headquarters in New Jersey.

The earlier education of Dr. Sweet was acquired in the public schools of Providence, Rhode Island; Hoboken, New Jersey ; and Chicago, Illinois. Thereafter he graduated from St. John's Military Academy at Delafield, Wisconsin, and next took a course in electrical engineering at the cele- brated Armour Institute in the City of Chicago. For two years he was a student in the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery, and he com- pleted his course in the medical department of Emory University, at Atlanta, Georgia, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1916. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he further fortified himself by the valuable clinical experience gained while serving as interne in and assistant to the superintendent of the Grady Memorial Hospital at Atlanta. He was for a time also a member of the house staff of the great Polyclinic Hospital in the City of New York. In 1916 he began the practice of his profession in the City of Atlanta, and in August of the following year he came, in company with his widowed mother, to Long Beach, California, which has been the stage of his professional services since that time, save for the period of his connection with the Medical Corps as past assistant surgeon at the United States Navy stations in the World war period, in which service he had rank of lieutenant. In June, 1905, he gained commission as second lieutenant in the unorganized militia of Wisconsin, the commission being signed by Gov. Robert M. LaFollette.

Dr. Sweet is a valued and popular member of the harbor branch of the Los Angeles County Medical Society, and holds membership also in the California State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion. In his home city he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

Vol. 111-22

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the Lions Club, International, the Virginia Country Club and the California Yacht Club, the Petroleum Commercial Club and the Pacific Club. The doctor is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which his basic member- ship is Dearborn Lodge, No. 310, Free and Accepted Masons in the City of Chicago, and he is identified also with the Delta Tau Delta and the Phi Chi (medical) college fraternities, as well as with the VX fraternity of Armour Institute. He is a member also of Long Beach Lodge No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His offices are maintained at 29-30 Pacific Electric Building.

October 8, 1919, recorded the marriage of Doctor Sweet and Miss Cecile M. Dunn, who was born in Nebraska, where she received her early education, which was advanced by attending school in Idaho after the family removal to the latter state. Dr. and Mrs. Sweet have two win- some little daughters, Betty Jane and Patricia.

NELSON McCook, president of the California National Bank of Long Beach, has made of banking a profession and has given to it the best years study and energy since he was a boy.

Mr. McCook was prominent and is still active in banking circles in the State of Iowa. He is a native Iowan, born at Riceville, November 11, 1875, son of Thomas and Euphamia (Brown) McCook. His father was a relative of the fighting McCook of Civil war fame. Thomas McCook was born in the North of Ireland and his wife in Scotland, where they were married. They were pioneers in Iowa, moving to Riceville in 1856, when the Indians were still in that section. Thomas McCook was a farmer, and at the time of his death was president of the Riceville State Bank. He died at the age of eighty-six and his wife at seventy-two. They had a large family of thirteen children, eleven sons and two daughters, five of whom died in infancy. The survivors are six sons and one daughter. The only ones in California are Nelson and R. D. McCook, the latter president of the American National Bank of San Bernardino. The other sons are J. B., vice president of the American National Bank of Pendleton, Oregon ; John, an attorney at Cresco, Iowa; E. C., of Pendleton, Oregon; and Matthew, of Riceville, Iowa, both retired.

Next to the youngest in this large family, Nelson McCook was edu- cated in the grammar and high schools of Riceville and Osage, Iowa, and began his training as a banker in the Riceville State Bank. He started with them as bookkeeper. In 1900 he and his brother R. D. organized the First National Bank of Sumner, Iowa, and he was cashier and active official of that bank until 1916, and since then has been president. He still retains that office in the Iowa Bank and is also vice president of the Rice- ville State Bank. Mr. McCook came to Long Beach in 1920 and in the same year organized the California National Bank and became its president.

The California National Bank was opened for business December 4, 1920, and has had a remarkably rapid growth, its resources in two years aggregating over $3,000,000.00. It has a paid up capital of $200,000, and its officers and directors comprise some of the most substantial business men and citizens of Southern California. Mr. McCook is also a director of the American National Bank of San Bernardino. He is a director and vice president of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Lions Club, the Virginia Country Club, and the First Congregational Church.

At Osage, Iowa, September 19, 1899, Mr. McCook married Miss Fanny Fonda, who was born in Osage, daughter of E. S. and Loretta (Crego) Fonda. Her mother now devotes her time among her children in California and Iowa. Her father was in the implement business at Osage, and took a very active part in republican politics. Mrs. McCook was educated at Osage, and finished her education at Lake Forest, Illinois. They have four. children : Fonda, Rupert, Fanny and Nelson, Jr., all born in Iowa. Rupert graduated from the Long Beach High School in 1922, and Fonda graduated from the Sumner High School in Iowa in 1920 and is now assistant cashier

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of the California National Bank. The other children are still attending school.

VERN DUMAS. As an oil operator in the Southern California field Vern Dumas has an almost incomparable record. His field of exploitation has been the Signal Hill District. He was formerly an operator in the Mid Continent field, and came to California with a successful record of experience. Mr. Dumas is president and general manager of the Duplex Petroleum Corporation, the Umpire Petroleum Corporation, the Metro- politan Petroleum Corporation, Apex Petroleum Corporation, Simplex Petroleum Corporation, vice president and general manager of the Cal-Mex Oil & Refining Company, Unity Petroleum Corporation, Acme Petroleum Corporation, Ridge Oil Company and the Blue Tank Pipe Line & Refining Company. His home is at Long Beach.

Mr. Dumas was born in Grayson County, Texas, December 26, 1875, son of T. M. and Annie (Kelly) Dumas. His mother, Annie Kelly, was a granddaughter of Collin Mckinney, one of the most distinguished patriots in the early history of Texas, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Texas independence. For him the County of Collin was named, its county. seat being Mckinney. T. M. Dumas' father was James P. Dumas, who settled in North Texas in 1842, when Texas was still a republic. He built the second house in what is now the City of Dallas. Both the Mckinney and Dumas families were among the first to inhabit the frontier of North Texas. Mr. Dumas' grandfather Dumas was a soldier in the war with Mexico under General Scott. T. M. Dumas is living in Southern California at the age of seventy-two. His wife died in Texas, the mother of three children, Vern being the oldest and the only son.

Mr. Dumas spent his early boyhood in Grayson County, Texas, attended public school there, and he had an extended experience on cattle ranches and as a cowboy. He followed ranch life until he was nineteen, and then went on the road as a commercial salesman, an occupation he followed until 1907. During the Spanish-American war he was commander of Company G of the Second Texas Infantry, known as the Joe Bailey Rifles, but did not get to the field of action.

Mr. Dumas came to California in 1905, and has been a resident of Los Angeles County ever since. In 1917 he engaged in oil operations in the Mid Continent Field in the Kansas District, though still retaining his residence in California., In Kansas and in Los Angeles County he has sixty-nine wells to his credit, and not one of them has been a dry hole. He has drilled twenty-one wells at Signal Hill. He drilled the first well on Signal Hill west of Cherry Street.

Mr. Dumas in politics is a progressive republican. He is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge and Lodge No. 453, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Hutchinson, Kansas, and is a member of the Christian Church of Los Angeles. He is a charter member and one of the board of governors of the Petroleum Commercial Club of Long Beach, is a director of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, having charge of its oil interest com- mittee, and is a member of the Virginia Country Club. He married in Grayson County, Texas, November 22, 1896, Miss Verna Dysart. She was born and educated there, daughter of Johnston and Mary E. (Sim- mons) Dysart. Her mother represented the old Simmons family of Kentucky. Johnston Dysart was a pioneer settler in Collin County, Texas, and served as a first lieutenant in the celebrated Ross Brigade of the Confederate Army. Mrs. Dumas takes an active interest in the Robert E. Lee chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy at Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Dumas have one daughter, Hazel A .; wife of Frank Rouse, a Los Angeles attorney.

WILLIAM BENTON WRIGHT, JR., M. D., a specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat, had a well diversified training in general medicine before taking up his specialty and came to Long Beach in 1921.

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Doctor Wright was born at Effingham, Illinois, August 23, 1890, and is a member of a very prominent family in Southern Illinois, son of Judge William Benton and Dora (West) Wright, still living at Effingham. His father was born at Ewington, Illinois, and his mother at Greencastle, Indi- ana. This branch of the Wright family was first established in America in the vicinity of Trenton, New Jersey. Judge William B. Wright has been one of the distinguished lawyers of Southern Illinois, practiced for many years at Effingham, and is now on the Circuit Bench of the Fourth Judicial District, comprising nine counties. He is also vice president of the First National Bank of Effingham, and is past grand master of the Illinois State Grand Lodge of Masons. For a number of years he was secretary of the State Board of Illinois law examiners.

Doctor Wright is the oldest of four sons. His brother, David Lester, is a practicing attorney at Effingham, Robert Elwin is an attorney at Greenville, Illinois, and Nathaniel Branson is official court reporter for the Fourth Illinois Judicial District. Doctor Wright's brothers were all in service during the World war. Lester was overseas in the regular army, 'Robert was in the navy as an ensign and paymaster on the training ship Essex, Branson was in training at Annapolis, resigning at the close of the war.

Doctor Wright was educated in the public schools of Effingham, grad- uating from high school in 1909, and for several years studied law with his father. Abandoning his plan for that profession, he entered the medical department of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1912, and grad- uated Doctor of Medicine in 1916. For one year Doctor Wright was an interne in the Alleghany at Pittsburgh, was assistant superintendent and chief resident physician and surgeon of the City and County Hospital of St. Paul, Minnesota, nearly two years, and for a short time was super- intendent of the Rood Hospitals at Hibbing and Chisholm in the iron range district of Northern Minnesota. After this hospital experience and practice he took post graduate work in eye, ear, nose and throat, and for about two years was associated with Dr. Justice Matthews at Minneap- olis. Then in November, 1921, he located at Long Beach and since then has confined his practice to eye, ear, nose and throat. He is a member of the staff of the Seaside Hospital and belongs to the Phi Beta Pi medical fraternity, the Los Angeles County, California State and American Med- ical Associations.

Doctor Wright is a republican. He is affiliated with Effingham Lodge No. 149, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is a member of the Lions Club at Long Beach.

At St. Paul, Minnesota, November 2, 1918, he married Miss Mabel Cooper. She was born at Tacoma, Washington, and was educated there and in St. Paul, and is a Bachelor of Arts graduate of Wellesley Col- lege, Massachusetts. She is a member of the Wellesley Club and the Woman's College Club at Long Beach. Her father, the late Thomas Cooper, was born in Scotland, came to the United States at the age of sixteen, served in the regular army for a time, and was for forty years an employe and official of the Northern Pacific Railway, being executive vice president and land commissioner of that corporation. Mrs. Wright's mother resides with Doctor and Mrs. Wright in their home at 2810 East Second Street.

BERT STEPHENS. In mining and in oil industries Bert Stephens has found opportunities for the exercise of a most vigorous and enterprising disposition and at the same time more than ordinary financial reward. Mr. Stephens is one of the prominent men in the oil district of Los Angeles County, being vice president of a number of the companies comprising what is known as the Blue Tank Group, including the Duplex Petroleum Corporation, the Empire Petroleum Corporation, the Metropolitan Pe- troleum Corporation, and others.

Mr. Stephens was born at Chillicothe, Missouri, November 15, 1877,

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Savon, hutchison

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son of Ben F. and Mildred (Leggett) Stephens. His parents were both of Southern families, and his grandfathers on both sides were planters, slave owners and soldiers in the Confederacy. His grandfather Stephens was also a soldier in the Mexican war. Ben F. Stephens was a native of Kentucky and Mildred Leggett, of Missouri. Both are residents of Ardmore, Oklahoma. Ben F. Stephens has lived at Ardmore more than forty-five years. He located there when Ardmore was a town of the old Indian Territory, and be became associated with the hardware firm of Stephens, Kennerly & Spragins, subsequently operating hardware stores at a number of points along the Santa Fe Railway in old Indian Territory. He continued active in this business for over thirty-five years. When the original Oklahoma Territory was opened Ben Stephens shipped several car loads of lumber to Oklahoma City and sold the lumber direct from the cars. He and his old partner Mr. Spragins are now in the mule business at Ardmore, and have two hundred or more mules on hand nearly all the time. Ben F. Stephens and wife were the parents of four sons and one daughter : Bert; Ben F., now in business at Ardmore, Oklahoma ; William, who was born in Idaho and was killed in France during the World war; Frank, who is a resident of Long Beach and is owner of the Blue Tank Trucking Company, operating the tanks and trucks for the oil companies of which his brother Bert is vice president ; and the only daughter lives with her parents in Ardmore.

Bert Stephens attended the public schools of Chillicothe, Missouri, and afterward a business college in Oklahoma. When he was about nineteen years of age he engaged in the drug business in Ardmore, and was in that line for about six years. He then gave up business to follow mining, and has been in nearly every gold field opened in the United States or Mexico since that time. His persistence brought him more than the average rewards of a gold seeker. For about eighteen months while in the mining busi- ness in old Mexico he lived at Mexico City. He was for eight years operat- ing in the Imperial Valley. About 1911 he gave up gold mining and has since turned his enterprise and capital to the oil industry. He owns inter- ests in some of the best oil properties in the Signal Hill fields near Long Beach.

At the time of the Spanish-American war Mr. Stephens was one of the one hundred and seventy men recruited at Ardmore and vicinity for service with Roosevelt's Rough Riders under the command of Captain Dan Kendall. They enlisted at Fort Worth, but did not get out of the United States. Mr. Stephens is a democrat, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Fullerton, and is one of the Board of Governors of the Petroleum Commercial Club of Long Beach, and a member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.

At Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday 13th of March, 1903, he married Miss Estella Edwards. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens came to California after their marriage, and have lived in this state now for practically twenty years. Mrs. Stephens is a native daughter of California. She was born at Ukiah in the northern part of the state, but finished her education in a college in Missouri. She is a member of the Ebell Club of Long Beach. Her mother came around the Horn to California in the early days. Her father is a native son of California. Her mother now lives with Mr. and Mrs. Stephens. Her grandfather, Col. Harry Hughes, served as a colonel in the Confederate Army.

SAMUEL N. HUTCHISON, M. D., a Long Beach physician and surgeon, has accepted unusual opportunities for service in a professional way since he graduated from Medical College. For a time he was surgeon for a large industrial corporation, from that entered the United States Public Health service, and he still holds a commission as assistant surgeon in reserve with the United State Public Health service.

Doctor Hutchison was born September 29, 1892, in DeSoto County in the extreme Northeast corner of Mississippi, fourteen miles from the city

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of Memphis, son of William H. and Ella (Neely) Hutchison. The Hutchison family originated in East Tennessee, and the Neelys were pioneers of Mississippi. William H. Hutchison was born, reared and has devoted all his active life to the old plantation near Memphis. The mother died there in 1912, and of the seven children, five sons and two daughters, three sons survive.

The oldest of these sons is Dr. Samuel N. Hutchison, who is also the only member of the family in California. He attended public schools in DeSoto County, spent one year in Maryville College at Maryville, Tennessee, and had two years of work in the old Memphis Hospital Medical College, which since 1913 has been the medical department of the University of Tennessee. The last two years of his medical course Doctor Hutchison pursued in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, being granted his degree of Doctor of Medicine on Friday, May 13, 1915. Doctor Hutchison earned and paid his own way through medical school. After graduating he was an interne at St. Vincennes Infirmary at Little Rock, and remained as anesthetist in the Infirmary until July 1917. At that date he was employed as chief physician and surgeon for the American Bauxite Company at Bauxite, Arkansas, the largest active aluminum mines in the world. He remained with this corporation until September 1, 1918, and his services were appreciated in the fullest degree, evidence of which is a letter written by an official of the corporation expressing a tribute for the work done in a professional capacity and hopes that he would return for a permanent engagement. Doctor Hutchison left this position to join the United States Public Health Service and was adjutant at the Marine Hospital at New Orleans from May 1919 to June 1920 under Major R. E. Ebersole, doing reconstruction work under the war risk insurance bureau. After leaving the government service he returned to Arkansas and spent another three months with the American Bauxite Company, and in April 1921 came to Long Beach. Doctor Hutchison spent a long vacation here, but was licensed to practice in California in July 1921, and in August opened his office in the Central Building at First Street and Pine Avenue. Beginning in April, 1922, he took charge of the practice of Dr. George H. Galbraith, while the latter was abroad in Europe, and he subsequently resumed practice on his own account.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 69

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