USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 76
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87
BERTRAM ALMAR HERRINGTON. In an active career of a third of a century Bertram Almar Herrington achieved some of the highest distinc- tions of trial lawyer and counselor. During most of the time his home was in the northern half of the state, but about a year before his death he established his home and offices in Los Angeles.
He was born in Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, California, September 2, 1869, son of D. W. and Henrietta Herrington. His father came to California in the late fifties and was a prominent member of the bar, a member of the Constitutional Convention and finally serving as judge of Santa Clara County. Bertram A. Herrington is survived by two brothers, Clarence Herrington, now practicing law at Oakland, and Dr. Howard Herrington, a well known physician and surgeon of San Francisco.
Bertram A. Herrington was educated in Santa Clara and graduated in 1890 from the University of Michigan Law School. He was admitted to the Michigan bar and on his return to California was admitted to the bar of this state in 1891. His father on account of illness had been unable to attend to his practice for some time, and Mr. Herrington and his eldest brother, Irving took over the father's (now deceased) professional busi- ness. After his brother, Irving Herrington, was elected to the bench, Bertram Herrington continued alone, and for many years handled a prac- tice hardly exceeded in volume by that of any attorney at San Jose. In 1891 he was appointed district attorney of Santa Clara County, being the youngest district attorney up to the date of this writing (1923) either elected or appointed in California. About five years ago he retired from his law practice to look after some business enterprises. He was a partner of the prominent San Francisco criminal attorney, Walter Linforth, for three years.
About the time Mr. Herrington came to Los Angeles he took the defense of Clara Phillips in a murder case that attracted the attention of the entire world because of its unusual features. In spite of the fact that every person believed wholly in her guilt, all the facts in the case being against her, Mr. Herrington saved the client from the death penalty. The entire bar of California was interested in Mr. Herrington's adroit handling of what undoubtedly was the most atrocious murder of the age. While well known as a lawyer in the San Francisco district he was practically unknown in Los Angeles, and this was an added handicap and made his defense the more brilliant. He worked so hard in the defense that the
1
464
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
strain told on him. After the sensational escape of Mrs. Phillips and after her capture in Central America, her husband, Armour Phillips, was arrested on suspicion of having aided in his wife's escape, and the last act of Mr. Herrington's life was to put up his personal check for the husband's bail. A few hours later he died suddenly at the dinner table, April 21, 1923. The check he had given was immediately returned by the defense. Mr. Herrington was a republican, and attended many national conventions.
He married Miss Helene De Choisser of Chico, California. Her father, Louis De Choisser, owns some of the largest orchard properties in that sec- tion of California. Mrs. Herrington has one daughter, Helene De Choisser Herrington, born in 1922. Her home is at 106 North Kingsley Drive, and her mother now resides with her.
ADELAIDE ALEXANDER TICHENOR. In the building of homes, in the planning and execution of social welfare and artistic movements and by a wonderful wealth of energy unceasingly engaged in worthy enterprises, Adelaide Alexander Tichenor has well deserved the frequently bestowed title of "Mother of Long Beach.'
Mrs. Tichenor, who came to California nearly forty years ago, repre- sents the sturdy old New England pioneer stock. She was born in the Western Reserve of Ohio, a district originally peopled and settled by New Englanders. Her birth place was Ravenna and she is the only sur- viving child of John and Courance (Hamlin) Alexander. Her mother was a descendant of Giles Hamlin, head of the Middleton family of that name in Connecticut, one of the first settlers there. He was at Middle- town prior to 1645, "his home lot of five acres, on the east side of Main Street, bounding on ye highway west and the great river east." He married Hester Crow, daughter of John and Elizabeth Crow of Hartford, Connecticut, and by this marriage seven children were born, one of them, . William, being the ancestor of Mrs. Tichenor's mother. Giles Hamlin was a person whose character and ability were appreciated by his towns- men. He served as a deputy of the General Court from Middletown for twenty-three sessions. At the May session of 1685 he was elected an "assistant of the colony" (now called State Senator), a position he held until his death. It is recorded that in 1666 he gave a drum to town and train band, and in 1679 was commander of a ship called "John and James." He died September 1, 1689, and was buried in the old graveyard where his monument, now the oldest in the town, bears the following inscription :
"Here's a cedar tall, gently watted o'er From Great Britain's Isle to this Western Shore. Near fifty years crossing the ocean wide, Yet's anchored in the grave, from storm and tide. Yet remember the body only's here His blessed soul fixed in a higher sphere. "Here lies the body of Giles Hamlin, Squire, aged sixty-seven years, who departed this life, the first day of September, Anno Dom. 1689."
The widow of this pioneer ancestor survived him several years, dying August 23, 1700, aged seventy-two. Deacon Jabez Hamlin, maternal grandfather of Mrs. Tichenor, migrated from New York when Mrs. Tichenor's mother was three years old and made the journey to the Ohio Western Reserve by canal boat and overland.
In the paternal line Mrs. Tichenor represents the prominent Alexander family of America, the Alexanders having come to America from Scot- land in 1650 and settled in Virginia. Capt. John Alexander served as captain in the Revolutionary war under "Light Horse" Harry Lee. The . old records say "the whole Alexander family would compare favorably with any family in America for honesty and good hard sense." Mrs. Tich-
12
Adelaide Lichener
465
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
enor's father was a native of Ohio, was in business at Ravenna and Cuyahoga Falls and died in Southern Ohio. Mrs. Tichenor's mother died at St. Louis, Missouri. There were three sons and two daughters in the family. Mrs. Tichenor was educated in Oberlin, Ohio, and in St. Louis, Missouri, graduating from the St. Louis Normal College. She studied art under Walter Smith in the Art School in Boston. Her early life was spent in Ohio and in Missouri. For a time she was a teacher. Wil- liam T. Harris, then Superintendent of Schools of St. Louis, and sub- sequently Commissioner of Education at Washington, once said that Miss Alexander was the best teacher he had ever known. Mrs. Tichenor also taught in the public schools of Boston.
She was carrying out a long cherished plan of making a trip around the world when she arrived in California in 1884. While at San Bernardino she met Lester Schuyler Tichenor, and her plans for the continued journey were abandoned and in 1885 she and Mr. Tichenor were happily married. Mr. Tichenor had just returned from Honolulu. Mr. Tichenor was a member of one of the oldest families of New Jersey, as the site of Newark, New Jersey, was originally the Tichenor farm. Mr. Tichenor's mother was a Van Houten, one of the oldest New York families and who were the original owners of Blackwells Island. He was in the lumber business in Honolulu and later at San Bernardino, and died there in 1891, and was a very able business man. Mrs. Tichenor acquired a hundred acre ranch in what is now the City of Redlands. In 1894, two years after the death of her husband, she sold her interests at San Bernardino and moving to Long Beach began the systematic investment of her means in this vicinity. Mrs. Tichenor owns many important finan- cial interests, is a director in a number of companies and corporations. She has built a total of twenty homes, four of them at Topeka, Kansas, and sixteen at Long Beach. Her beautiful home at 852 East Ocean Avenue, which she recently sold, was ranked by critics as one of the most beautiful homes in America, considered from an architectural stand- point and the landscape setting. It was featured in many magazine articles.
Mrs. Tichenor was the mother of the Long Beach Library and for several years not only collected the money for its maintenance and bought all the books in Los Angeles and brought them home in her arms, and later turned it over to the city when the city hall was built, but she has served on the book committee most of the time since. She was instrumental in securing the donation of $30,000 from the late Andrew Carnegie for a public library at Long Beach and has served a number of years on the library board. She gave the land and building to the City of Long Beach for the day nursery. One of the most influential organizations in the social and civic life of the city has been the Ebell Club, which was formed in Mrs. Tichenor's home with seventeen charter members. Mrs. Tichenor is known as the "Club Mother" and is an honorary life member. She is a charter member and honorary member of the City Club of Long Beach, is a member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and for years was chairman of the civic committee and is a former president of the Ebell Club. The Ebell Club House was built during the two years she was president. Mr. Tichenor is a member of the Dock & Terminal Company, the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, and has had an active part in about forty various organizations that represent the most progressive spirit and enterprise of this city. She considers the crowning event of her life is the Adelaide Tichenor Hospital-School. This institution will always stand as a monument to the generosity of Mrs. Tichenor and will be a blessing to thousands of unfortunate crippled children. The purpose is to erect and maintain a school and institution for the educa- tion and development mentally, morally and physically of crippled children ; to assume the legal guardianship of such children when necessary; to provide the necessary medical attention for these children; to invest and reinvest such sums as are suitable for investment purposes and generally to do and perform all things necessary in maintaining and carrying on the
ยท
466
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
institution. A corporation has been formed for this purpose and Mrs. Tichenor has made her will bequeathing the entire residue of her estate to the institution, also appointing an especially well fitted board of executors to carry on the work. Her memory will always live with the unfortunate chil- dren who will be benefited by the noble contribution to the welfare of the human race.
ALEXANDER HURSH, one of the most prominent oil men of Long Beach, came to California from Texas where he had gained his practical knowledge of the business, being attracted here by the magnificent opportunities he saw awaited the pioneers in the oil industry, particularly in that branch devoted to refining the crude product. Today he is at the head of the Hursh Refin- ing Company of Long Beach, and another similar company at Santa Fe Springs, and is also interested in a number of mammoth enterprises along this same line.
The birth of Alexander Hursh took place at Wichita Falls, Texas, August 18, 1894, and he is a son of Frank and Alba (Randall) Hursh, both of whom died at Wichita Falls, Texas, when their son was twelve years of age. Frank Hursh was an old-time railroad man in that part of Texas, but he was a native of Missouri. His wife was born in Texas. They had three children, of whom Alexander was the oldest. The others being: Mrs. Earl Jennings, who is a resident of Long Beach, California ; and Randall W., who is also a resident of Long Beach, is connected with his brother in his oil projects.
Taken by his maternal grandmother, Mrs. L. E. G. Randall of Los Angeles, California, for a time after his parents' death, Alexander Hursh continued in the Los Angeles public schools the studies he had commenced in those of Texas, but when still a mere lad left home and began tramping about the country looking after himself. In 1916 he entered the oil industry in Texas in association with R. M. Atkins and others, and with the home office at Denver, Colorado, which was Mr. Atkins' home city. In 1920 Mr. Hursh came to Long Beach with $1,500, and has shown such good judgment in his investments, that today he is worth $250,000. He is exten- sively interested in the Signal Hill properties, and he put over and was the first manager of the 50-50 Oil & Land Syndicate for H. C. Davidson, which has nearly paid back 100 per cent already. Mr. Hursh also put over the Wiley Number 1, another oil and land syndicate, and then turned his atten- tion to oil refining, building his refinery at Long Beach, and a second one at Santa Fe Springs. He is active vice president of the Blue Tank Pipe Line and Refining Company of Wilmington, California, a million-dollar corporation ; he owns the controlling interest in the Turner Petroleum Com- pany of Los Angeles, and from the beginning has had no difficulty in finding enthusiastic supporters of his various projects.
His refining plant at Long Beach is a California organization, backed by responsible business men, and is attracting the interest and co-operation of conservative investors from all sections of the state. The success with which this project has been launched is a credit to the organizers and opens up unlimited possibilities for the future of the industry. The plant is the first of its kind established in the local field of Long Beach, is located at Nineteenth and Cherry streets, and is equipped with modern appliances in all of the departments. The daily capacity is 1,200 barrels of crude oil. This oil is supplied by an independent pipe line direct from the oil fields, and the plant is connected with railroad spurs to the main lines. Capable and experienced men are in charge of each process, and thoroughly practical methods are used. It is Mr. Hursh's emphatic conviction that the oil industry is a permanent institution of Long Beach. According to his own words: "No branch of the oil industry is more profitable than the refining business, and for that reason the establishment of a refinery here is of great importance to the community."
In 1916 Mr. Hursh was married at Wichita Falls, Texas, to Miss Willie Lee Smith of Houston, Texas, where she was reared and educated. Mr. and
46%
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Mrs. Hursh maintain their residence at 346 Moline Avenue, Long Beach. He is a democrat, but is not active in politics. The First Presbyterian Church of Long Beach holds his membership. A Mason, Mr. Hursh belongs to Palo Verde Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Through the medium of his membership with the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce Mr. Hursh is rendering a valuable service to his home city, and is deeply interested in everything pertaining to its further development and advance- ment. His really remarkable success has come through his having looked about him until he found a line of work for which he was particularly well suited, and then when he had found it, putting into it every ounce of his wonderful enthusiasm, ability and organizing strength, with epoch-making results.
FRANK M. MIKELS, M. D., has been established in practice in the city of Long Beach since the summer of 1917, and has gained status as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Los Angeles County, as well as a loyal and progressive citizen of Long Beach. He maintains his offices at 601 First National Bank Building, and his residence is at 2412 East First street.
Dr. Mikels claims the old Pine Tree State as the place of his nativity. He was born at Rockland, Maine, August 22, 1880, and is a son of Isaac and Sarah L. (Cohen) Mikels. His father maintains his residence at Bath, Maine, where his wife died in 1911. He spends his winters at Long Beach, California. Dr. Mikels was graduated in the high school at Bath, Maine, as a member of the class of 1900, and in 1905 he received from historic Bowdoin College the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1905 he was graduated in the medical department of this college, and thereafter he took a post-graduate course in the medical college of Harvard University. He was for one year temporary acting surgeon at the United States Marine Hospital in the city of Portland, Maine, and for five years thereafter he served as assistant physician and pathologist in the New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane, at Morris Plaines. In this latter connection he gained most valuable experience in treatment of mental and nervous dis- eases, and since establishing his residence at Long Beach, California, in July, 1917, he has devoted his time and energies to the general practice of regular medicine and surgery.
In the World war period Dr. Mikels was commissioned captain in the medical reserve corps of the United States Army, but the armistice was signed before there was call for his active service. The Doctor is a director of the Seaside Hospital of Long Beach, was first president of the Long Beach Jewish Community Building Association, and was first president of Long Beach Lodge No. 870, Independent Order of B'nai B'rith. He is affiliated with Long Beach Lodge, No. 327, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, and he holds membership also in the Knights of Pythias, the Fraternal Brother- hood, the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, the Vir- ginia Country Club, and the Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraternity. Dr. Mikels is actively identified with the Los Angeles County Medical Society, the California State Medical Society, the American Medical Asso- ciation, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Association of Mili- tary Surgeons of the United States. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he and his wife are members of the Long Beach Jewish Congregation, Mrs. Mikels being affiliated with the Order of the Eastern Star and holding membership also in the Ebell Club and is treas- urer of the local chapter of Council of Jewish Women.
July 29, 1914, recorded the marriage of Dr. Mikels to Miss Delia Marx, who was born and reared in Detroit, Michigan, and who received, in 1914, the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the great University of Michi- gan, at Ann Arbor. Mrs. Mikels' father, Adolph Marx, long an honored and influential citizen of the Michigan metropolis, is now living at Long Beach, California. Dr. and Mrs. Mikels have four children: Selma,
468
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Jeanne, Elaine, and Annette. The eldest daughter was born at Grey- stone Park, New Jersey, and the other three daughters were born at Long Beach, California.
FRANCIS LLEWELLYN ROGERS, M. D., is a distinguished member of his profession at Long Beach, and since coming to California has limited his practice to eye, ear, nose and throat.
Doctor Rogers was born on a farm near Mendota in La Salle County, Illinois, December 21, 1864, son of Daniel Farrand and Ruth Dodd (Llewellyn) Rogers. Both the Rogers and Llewellyn families have con- tributed many individuals of achievement to the professions. They have been lawyers, doctors, ministers of the Gospel and teachers. Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, grandfather of Doctor Rogers, was a native of Concord, New Hampshire, and one of the cultured and able men associated with the permanent group who lived in and around Concord and did so much to enlighten the world of liberty and art. He was a lawyer, and as an anti- slavery leader was associated with William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips and was editor and publisher of the Herald of Freedom, the first New England abolition paper. He was also a personal friend and profes- sional associate of Daniel Webster. Daniel Farrand Rogers, who was born November 22, 1828, was one of the eight children born to Nathaniel Pea- body Rogers and his wife, Mary Porter Farrand. His mother was a daughter of Judge Daniel Farrand, an eminent jurist at Burlington, Ver- mont. Daniel Farrand Rogers went West and was a pioneer farmer in Illinois and Iowa. On February 17, 1864, he married Ruth Dodd Llewellyn, who had been a teacher of .La Salle, Illinois. She was born in Western Pennsylvania, was educated in Washington Seminary, and was a lineal descendant of Prince Llewellyn of Wales. In 1910 Daniel F. Rogers and wife came to Long Beach, California, where the mother died in 1914 and the father in 1919.
Francis Llewellyn Rogers is the oldest of eight children, five brothers and three sisters. As a youth he made definite choice of medicine as his future career, and three of his younger brothers followed his example. All are now successful members of the profession in Los Angeles and Long Beach. One brother, a teacher, died while in the army during the Spanish- American war. All of the children were college educated. The three sisters became teachers, and two of them writers. These two received degrees from Cornell University, and have become noted in scientific and educa- tional circles.
Dr. Francis Llewellyn Rogers was reared in Iowa, attended village school at Minburn and high school at Adel in that state, and subsequently attended Iowa State College at Ames. He received his M. D. degree from the Iowa State University in 1891. In later years he kept in touch with his profession by frequent post-graduate courses, and gradually came to specialize more and more as a physician and surgeon, treating eye, ear, nose and throat.
Doctor Rogers has been a real leader in public health movements as well as other matters affecting the community welfare. He inaugurated the first plan for examination of school children of Long Beach for defec- tive sight and hearing. He served on the Board of Associated Charities, later helped organize the Social Welfare League, and has been continuously on its board as executive secretary. In 1920 he was elected by the city as a member of the Board of Freeholders, and helped frame the present charter of Long Beach. Doctor Rogers organized the local Anti-Tuberculosis Society, and served on the Board of Directors of both the Los Angeles County and the State Anti-Tuberculosis associations. He has been an enthusiastic member of and has done much to promote the public health movement through his work in the local, County, State and American Medical associations. He is also a director of the Chamber of Commerce at Long Beach.
Doctor Rogers is interested in all public questions, but in politics keeps
469
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
free from partisanship. He is a member of the Washington Gladden Club and a member of the Congregational Church.
June 10, 1896, at Iowa City, Iowa, Doctor Rogers married Miss Lillian Johnson, daughter of Samuel and Mary E. Johnson, of Philadelphia. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, was graduated in 1890 from the Uni- versity of Iowa, and taught English in high school until her marriage. Mrs. Rogers is a woman of broad culture and has shared with Doctor Rogers an interest and participation in all movements for community betterment. They have three children. Marion Llewellyn is a graduate of Stanford University, an honorary Phi Beta Kappa of that University and in 1922 completed the course of the Stanford Training School for Nurses and is now on the teaching staff of the St. Francis Training School for Nurses in San Francisco. The second daughter, Frances Lillian, is specializing in languages and literature in the University of Arizona. Gordon Farrand, the son, graduated from the Long Beach High School in 1923, where he prepared for the profession of civil engineer in the California Institute of Technology.
CHARLES LEE CRONK is resident partner and manager of the Long Beach office of the California Company, one of the large financial organ- izations of Southern California, dealing in Government, municipal and cor- poration bonds. This company has financed the largest corporations of the state, and its success in selling bonds places it among the foremost bond houses of the West.
Mr. Cronk is one of the prominent young financiers of Southern Cali- fornia, well known both at Long Beach and at San Bernardino. He was born at Canton, McPherson County, Kansas, October 13, 1890, son of Franklin J. and Emeretta (Ogden) Cronk, the latter now deceased. His - father was born in New York State, was a pioneer in Kansas, living in a sod house for several years, and in 1903 moved to California and has since been in business as a merchant at Lamanda Park. The Cronk family came from Holland, and has been in America for about 300 years. Emeretta Ogden was a native of Iowa and of English and Revolutionary ancestry.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.