USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 73
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William Thomas Nichol, Jr., was born at Lawrence, Massachusetts, February 23, 1887, and is a scion of sterling English ancestry on the paternal side. He attended the public schools of Long Beach until he was about twelve years of age, and thereafter was a student in Harvard Mili- tary Academy, he having been about eight years old at the time of the family removal to California. He further advanced his education by attending Pomona College, at Claremont, this state, and later he became associated with his father's hardware business at Long Beach. After his father sold this business Mr. Nichol became a traveling salesman in Cali- fornia for Pike & Company, wholesale hardware dealers of San Francisco, and later he was similarly engaged with other concerns, his career as a commercial traveler having covered a period of about five years. He passed three years with his parents on their ranch near Oxnard, and when the nation became involved in the World war he enlisted in the United States navy, but impaired vision rendered him ineligible for active service, with the result that he was soon given an honorable discharge. He thereafter found a medium for further expression of his patriotism by taking employ- ment in the shipyards at San Pedro, where he remained until the armistice brought the war to a close. He then returned to Long Beach and engaged in the heating and gas-appliance business at the corner of Third and Locust streets. About a year later he removed to his present well equipped quarters, at 212 American Avenue, where under the title of the W. T. Nichol Com- pany he has developed a substantial and prosperous enterprise. Concerning his establishment the following statements have been written and published : "The show room is well stocked with the highest grade of gas ranges on the market, hot-air furnaces, refrigerators, etc. This is one of the most complete stocks of the kind in this community, and so many of the old difficulties are overcome and so much saving in fuel effected by the con- veniences and comfort of these modern appliances that they offer to the prospective builder attractions which cannot be overlooked."
Mr. Nichol is one of the enthusiastic and loyal citizens and progressive young business men of Long Beach, is an active member of the local Cham- ber of Commerce, and his political allegiance is given to the republican party. His pleasant home is at 821 East Ocean Boulevard, and in addi- tion to being a popular figure in the social life of the community, Mrs. Nichol is affiliated with the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star.
August 23, 1920, recorded the marriage of Mr. Nichol and Miss Louise A. Bond, of Vancouver, British Columbia, she having been born at Ham- mond, British Columbia, and her parents, Edwin John and Mary (Jenkins) Bond, being now residents of Vancouver, where the father is living virtually retired. Mr. and Mrs. Nichol have one child, a winsome little daughter, Annie Louise.
TOM NOLAN, real estate, oil lands and oil leases, possesses a genius for the practical affairs of business, and has accomplished a tremendous volume of work for a man of only thirty-five.
He represents an old and prominent family of New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was born April 9, 1888, son of James Thomas and Mary E. (Cun- ningham) Nolan. His mother is now Mrs. Charles F. Parker of Houston, Texas, prominent both in business and in club circles in that city. She is owner of the Milby Hotel, the Baltimore Apartments and has been a builder
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of some of the palatial homes of Texas. Mr. Nolan's maternal grand- parents were P. J. and Mary E. (Ferguson) Cunningham, who met and married in Ireland, and about seventy years ago located in New Orleans. P. J. Cunningham was a contractor, built the first ship building dock in New Orleans, and also constructed the first boat that went under Niagara Falls, called the "Maid of the Mist." He did much ship building in South America. He and his wife both died and were buried in New Orleans.
Mr. Nolan acquired his education in schools in Houston, Texas, and Jesuit College of New Orleans. He took naturally to accounting, and when only eighteen years of age was employed as a traveling auditor by Swift & Company, and had the power of attorney to sign checks in any amount for that packing firm. Subsequently he engaged in the drug busi- ness in Houston. While in that city the World war came on, and on October 17, 1917, he became sergeant of Battery F, of the Three Hundred Forty-fifth Regiment of Field Artillery, Ninetieth Division. He saw eleven months of duty overseas in France, England and Belgium. He returned to this country with thirty-eight hundred casuals of New York's own Twenty-seventh Division, a division that received the greatest wel- come ever accorded a contingent of casuals from overseas.
Soon after leaving the army Mr. Nolan came to California and settled in Long Beach, he then became identified with several of the foremost firms of the city, engaged in the handling of general real estate, subdivisions and oil lands. Mr. Nolan was connected with the oil industry prior to coming to California, and is thoroughly conversant with all phases of oil production. He is a member of the firm Hengen-Kitterman-Nolan of Long Beach, and his special work is handling oil leases and oil lands. Mr. Nolan is a democrat in politics, and is a member of several posts of the American Legion.
June 16, 1920, at San Bernardino, California, he married Mrs. Ethel (Phillips) Bean of Troy, New York. Mrs. Nolan was educated in New Jersey attending Ruth Hall. Asbury Park, an Episcopal school, founded by the Rt. Rev. H. C. Potter, D. D., Bishop of New York. Her first husband was the 'nte Lieut .- Com. Paul J. Bean, civil engineer United States Navy, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy 1906 and R. P. I., Troy, New York, 1908. Four children were born to Lieutenant- Commander and Mrs. Bean: Ethel Adele, Paul, Jr., Virginia Rose and Fields Ratcliffe. Mr. and Mrs. Nolan reside at 985 Park Circle, Long Beach. They have two native sons, Tom, Jr., born in December, 1921, and Kenneth Parker, born in December, 1922.
HENRY D. McDONALD is one of California's native sons who can claim Los Angeles as the place of his nativity, that great metropolitan center having been little more than a straggling village at the time of his birth, which there occurred December 11, 1856, in the modest family home that stood at the corner of Second and Main streets. He is a son of John and Eliza (Connelly ) McDonald, the former of whom was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and the latter in Ireland. John McDonald was a young man when, as a representative of a mercantile house in the City of London, he went to Australia, and after coming to the United States he soon made his way to California and gained place as one of the pioneers of Los Angeles, where he became secretary and general manager for Henry Dalton, one of the extensive landholders and leading early representatives of the real estate business in this section of the state. Mr. Dalton figured as one of the first great real estate subdividers of Los Angeles, where he owned property below First Street and extending as far south as Main and Spring streets and Broadway. Few streets had at that time been laid out and general municipal improvements were notable chiefly for their absence, there having been no business establishments below Temple Street. Lots in the future metropolis then sold at prices ranging from forty to fifty dollars. Mr. McDonald continued his active association with business interests at
Henry. L. Mª Donaldy
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Los Angeles until his death, his widow and two sons surviving him. The subject of this review, then less than three years of age, is the older son, and the younger, James Alpin, who was born at Los Angeles in 1858, died in September, 1920, his entire life having been passed in California. The widowed mother eventually became the wife of William Mulock, of San Gabriel, and of the four children of this union two are living at the time of this writing, in 1922. Mrs. Mulock was venerable in years at the time of her death, in July, 1912.
The pioneer public schools of Los Angeles afforded Henry D. McDon- ald his early education, and at the age of twenty years he initiated his independent career as a farmer in Los Angeles County, and for a long term of years he was actively identified with this line of industrial enter- prise, in connection with which he won substantial success. He finally became prominently identified with banking enterprise at Alhambra. The Alhambra State Bank, with a capital of $25,000, and with Alhambra citi- zens as its principal stockholders, had diverted its business to the extending of loans in San Jacinto Valley, to the exclusion of the interests of Alhambra, and in order to bring about a change in the management of the business Mr. McDonald was induced to buy stock, of which he acquired about fifty- one per cent. In 1902 he became president of the institution, and he was still the incumbent of this position when the institution was chartered as the First National Bank of Alhambra, in 1906, his regime as chief executive having been marked by policies that brought the bank into excellent condition and made its service of the best order. He founded also a savings bank, of the stock of which he held fifty-one per cent until 1914. He is now president of the First National Bank, the business of which is of most substantial order and the fine building of which is situ- ated at the corner of Garfield and Main streets. Mr. McDonald has other important property and industrial interests in his native county, and his attractive suburban home is on West Drive, in one of the finest sections of the Alhambra District. Mr. McDonald has proved a liberal and progres- sive citizen, is a republican in politics, but has never desired or held public office, and is actively affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including Alhambra Commandery No. 48, Knights Templars.
In 1883 was recorded the marriage of Mr. McDonald and Miss Lillie Negus, who was born in the State of Iowa, and the two children of this union are Bert, who was born in 1885 and who resides at Alhambra, the maiden name of his wife having been Gladys Ward; and Florence, who was born in 1890 and who is now the wife of Frederick Fitzpatrick, of Alhambra.
Youthful memories of Mr. McDonald touch much of the pioneer conditions and events in Los Angeles County. He recalls that in the early '60s horse stealing seemed to be a popular "pastime" in this section of the state, Mexicans being the principal culprits. Lawyers and courts failed to abate the depredations, and finally the Vigilantes took matters in hand and brought results, Mr. McDonald having personally witnessed the hang- ing of ten horse thieves at the corner of Spring and Franklin streets, Los Angeles. When he left Los Angeles in 1866 no sidewalks were to be found in the future metropolis, except for an occasional wooden platform in front of a store and a few brick walks. His mother at this time bought and moved with her two sons to a tract of about thirty-three acres of the old Cooper place, and at this little farm water for irrigation was obtained from what was then the only available source of supply, the old mission ditch. This ditch was constructed to irrigate lands about the old mission. Later wells were sunk, and eventually deep wells provided adequate water for the irrigation of the citrus groves and ranches.
DAVID MERRITT SHREVE. Deeply interested and practically concerned for years, in the development and welfare of Long Beach, David M. Shreve (pen name), who is president and general manager of the Worth While Publishing Company, and president of the board of trustees of the Shreve
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Oil Syndicate No. 1, has become one of the outstanding personalities and influential men of this beautiful California city. His birth took place in the City of New York, September 22, 1868, a son of George and Kate Greenfield.
To the public schools of New York City, Mr. Shreve is indebted for his educational training, and his first business ventures were in the real- estate line. In a comparatively short time, however, he found his proper environment as a writer, and from that time until the present, he has been mainly interested in writing and publishing. In 1905 he founded the Worth While Magazine, a fearless progressive monthly, devoted to review and criticism, which, from a purely local publication, has grown to nation- wide circulation.
Some of his writings are: "Human Aphorisms," a goodly collection of trite, up-to-date epigrams; "Plain Talk," a philosophical criticism of religions, and "Verses," a book of topical poems.
Since 1910 Mr. Shreve has been an aggressive leader in all movements of a substantial character for the betterment of Long Beach. In the above year he had the foresight to start the movement for the municipal owner- ship of the water system, and it was largely through his energy and enthusiasm that Mayor C. H. Windham was induced to appoint a water commission on March 24, 1911, made up of the following representative citizens : C. H. Windham, J. H. Wollbrink, B. F. Tucker, W. L. Porter- field, R. P. Harley, L. G. Ohl, C. J. E. Taylor, C. A. Bonar, L. D. Dawley, Reuben W. Graybill, with Charles Malcolm, secretary, and D. M. Shreve, chairman. The commission engaged the services of F. C. Finkle, a prom- inent consulting engineer, and after exhaustive research, presented their findings to the taxpayers in the form of a booklet entitled "Report of Water Commission," which was placed in the hands of every citizen.
Chairman Shreve called and presided at public meetings held in the Auditorium, and in these well attended mass meetings the question was discussed, and the matter was voted upon at an election held on June 27, 1911. Five years before the proposition had been voted upon and defeated, but this time when the vote was counted it was found that the project had carried by over 11 to 1. Mr. Shreve also led the forces in another civic victory, this being the matter of segregating the industries in the Harbor district. At the time he was obliged to bear much harsh criticism, but sentiment has entirely changed since then, and his former critics now praise as they realize what his foresight, idealism and determination has done for the city in eliminating the unsightly shacks and smoking bar- racks that formerly confronted home people and made an unpleasant im- pression on visitors and prospective investors. For many years he was a member of the board of directors of the Long Beach Chamber of Com- merce.
In 1918 Mr. Shreve purchased an acre of ground in Bixby Heights, a newly opened sub-division of Long Beach, and built a handsome residence there. This acre is now in the center of the producing oil area of Signal Hill, and an oil well is now going down on the Shreve acre at Pasadena Avenue and Wardlow Road. The site is on proven territory, on a direct northwest line from the heart of Signal Hill, California's greatest oil field, where more than a hundred great gushers are producing over half a million dollars worth of oil annually. To drill the well, Mr. and Mrs. Shreve are selling 1,300 royalty interests, and at such a moderate price that a good dividend paying investment has thus been brought to people of small means. The business is conducted under the name of the Shreve Oil Syndicate No. 1, Mr. Shreve being president of the board of trustees. The enormous revenues which Long Beach will receive from the pro- duction of oil on its waterbearing land, and which indicates a taxless city here, must be largely credited to the persistency and energy with which Mr. Shreve worked to secure this land for the municipal ownership of the water system.
In New York City, on June 5, 1906, Mr. Shreve was married to Miss
Frank I Darling
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Florence Dombey Bollenbach, who is a daughter of Prof. Henry Bollen- bach, and they have four children: Florence Isabel, Charles Henry, Catharine Greenfield and Isabel Agnes. Mrs. Shreve is a woman of high scholastic attainments and both a civic and social leader at Long Beach. She is a graduate of Hunter College, New York City, from which she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, and formerly was a student in the law depart- ment of New York University. She was the founder of the Woman's City Club at Long Beach and its first president and recently served again as its president. She organized the Municipal Market, over the strenuous and persistent opposition of a hostile City Council, and later successfully established its constitutionality in the courts when attacked by the Mer- chants' Association. For several terms she served on the board of directors of the Ebell Club; is an officer in the Music Study Club ; is first vice presi- dent of the Long Beach Philharmonic Association; and is a member of several college woman's clubs; the Southern California Woman's Press Club, and the Delphian Club.
During the entire period of the World war, Mr. Shreve served as chair- man of the Civilian Relief Long Beach Chapter of the American Red Cross, and after being rejected when he enlisted for active service, was one of the organizers of the Home Guards. In his political views he is a republican and is serving as a member of the Republican County Central Committee. He was one of five who organized the Unitarian Church at Long Beach, serving as chairman of the board of trustees, an office he holds with the Northside Community Church, which he organized, a non-sectarian body. He is a member of Lodge No. 888, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Long Beach.
FRANK L. DARLING. While in all sections of the United States the automobile industry in its various phases is one of major importance, its supremacy in Southern California is assured by reason of the wonderful attractions here offered for the devotee of the omnipresent "machine," to say nothing of the practical uses to which the various types of motor vehicles here find ready application. In Los Angeles a specially vital, successful and popular representative of the automobile business is Frank L. Darling, whose well equipped business headquarters are established at 225 American avenue in the city of Long Beach, where he has the agency for the Chandler and Cleveland automobiles and the Moreland motor trucks- vehicles whose intrinsic excellence and high reputation are distinct assets in the large business controlled by Mr. Darling.
Frank L. Darling was born at Delta, Colorado, October 12, 1887, and has by very natal heritage his claim to a full share of the progressive spirit of the West. He is a son of Herman and Rose (Wright) Darling, who still reside at Delta and who are honored pioneers of western Colorado. The father is successfully engaged in the wholesale lumber business and is one of the most substantial and influential citizens of Delta, his wife being a kinswoman of the Wright brothers who gained fame in the field of aero- plane development and service.
Frank L. Darling is indebted to the public schools of his native town for his early education, and his training was broadened by the lessons and hard knocks gained in experience with the practical affairs of a workaday world that thoroughly tries out and proves a man. As a young man he was for a time engaged in the plumbing and general repair business at Delta, and later, as a practical electrician, he operated an electric-light plant at Mount Rose, Colorado, his early experience having included also service as a steam-engineer. In 1905, Mr. Darling came to California and in the city of San Francisco he entered the employ of the Crane Company, in its shipping department. He was in that city during the period of the great and now historic earthquake and fire that brought San Francisco to ruins, and after this catastrophe he returned to his old home at Delta, Colorado, where, on the 6th of January, 1908, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Winnie Womack. Upon his return to California Mr. Darling was accom-
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panied by his bride and they established their home at Long Beach. Here he took a position in the City Garage, and he won advancement to the posi- tion of general sales manager. He continued with this concern six years, and then, in November, 1919, engaged independently in the automobile business in this city, a venture that has been attended with unqualified success. He has developed a large and important business, and as a matter of expediency, with the constant expansion of the enterprise, he formed a close corporation, in which his wife is the other principal, for the conducting of the business, which is now based on a paid in capital of $125,000 and the annual business of which aggregates fully $800,000. When Mr. Darling came to Long Beach his financial resources were practically summed up in the amount of $250-and his wife was in impaired health. He has not only won financial success but also a secure status as one of the substantial and progressive citizens and business men of Long Beach, while the greater than this is the fullness with which his wife has recuperated her health, the two being the sole owners of the automobile business conducted under the title of Frank L. Darling, Incorporated.
Mr. Darling is a republican, is affiliated with the Long Beach Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is an active member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Auto Trade Association, and the Automobile Club of Southern California and member of Nujin Country Club. Mrs. Darling, like her husband, was born at Delta, Colorado, and there she acquired her early education, which was advanced by her attending a school for girls in the City of Denver. She is a leader in social activities at Long Beach and is a prominent member of the Ebell Club. Mr. and Mrs. Darling have one son, Glenn F., who is (1923) a student in the Long Beach Military Academy.
The Darling automobile establishment is doing a larger volume of business than any similar concern at Long Beach, the well equipped garage and sales rooms using a floor space of 17,500 square feet, making his the largest garage in the city. He was active in the furthering of patriotic movements and service in Los Angeles County during the World war period, was liberal in his financial contributions to the government war bonds, to Red Cross work, etc., and manifested the loyalty that is his by distinct heritage, his Grandfather Elisha Darling having been a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war.
LYMAN B. PARKS, youngest son of William and Rachel (West) Parks, was born in Missouri July 2, 1872 and now is recognized as the Insurance Man of Lankershim having ancestral prestige in connection with Califor- nia history, his father having been one of the gallant argonauts who came to the state shortly after the discovery of gold within its borders, where he gained rank of Colonel as a leader in the conflicts with the Indians. Returning to Missouri Colonel Parks took up prairie land in Knox County and added to it until he possessed one of the most beautiful farms in that section, comprising almost 1,400 acres, where in later years he was recog- nized as one of the leading cattle-feeders, and bore the distinction of having shipped the first carload of dehorned cattle ever marketed in Chicago.
Lyman B. Parks and Miss Laura Sutton, who were representatives of two of the oldest families in Northeast Missouri, were united in mar- riage in the year 1900 and came to Ventura, afterward to Los Angeles, thence to Alhambra and finally located in Lankershim, which Mr. Parks says is not only "Home of the Peach," but Hub of the Universe. To this union four children were born: Lyman, Ruth, Raymond and Virginia. (Ruth being deceased.) Mr. Parks says his greatest achievement, and of which he is indeed most proud, was that himself and wife were among the pioneers who laid the foundation, for the cause of Christian Science in Lankershim. That they were instrumental in the assemblage of a hand- ful of earnest workers who soon grew in proportion and established a Christian Science Society in Lankershim as a branch of the Mother Church, the First Church of Christ Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Mr. Parks is a member of the Local, State and National Realty Associa- tions. He is an enthusiastic Kiwanian, a member of the Blue Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Lankershim, Royal and Select Masters of Hollywood, and Council No. 11 in Los Angeles. Both Mr. and Mrs. Parks are Charter members of Christian Science Society, and the Order of the Eastern Star in Lankershim, also Fremont Chapter of the Amar- anth, and the White Shrine of Jerusalem in Hollywood.
ROBERT M. LAMOREAUX. The term "live wire" has come to signify much in connection with modern civic, industrial and commercial pro- gressiveness and loyalty, and in adopting this term as the title of his news- paper at North Long Beach Mr. Lamoreaux showed excellent judgment, for he has made the paper justify in every sense its suggestive name and also its slogan-"It has the pep." The North Long Beach "Live Wire," now a six-column quarto of excellent letter-press and well selected subject matter, celebrated its first anniversary on Friday, November 10, 1922, and worthy of perpetuation in this connection are the following quotations from its anniversary issue :
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