USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 79
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Vienna University and did special work in the University of Budapest and the University of Basle, Switzerland. Doctor Ghrist did some prac- tice at Ames, Iowa, and served as an interne in San Francisco Hospital and for one year was emergency surgeon for that hospital. He opened his offices at Glendale in the Monarch Building, January 1, 1923.
Doctor Ghrist is a member of the County, State and American Medical associations. He is examiner for the Yeomen fraternity and is a mem- ber of Nu Sigma Nu Medical fraternity, the Beta Theta Pi social fraternity, is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the University Club of Los Angeles and the Chamber of Commerce.
December 27, 1920, he married Miss Eva V. Kurtz of Nevada, Iowa, where she was born and acquired her public school education. She is a talented musician, a graduate of the musical conservatory of Oberlin Col- lege in Ohio, with the degree Bachelor of Music. Her special field is piano and organ. She was head of the piano and organ department at Ames College, Iowa, before her marriage and is a member of the Organist Guild.
FREDERICK EATON is a native son of Los Angeles and has done much to advance the civic and material progress of the metropolis of Southern California, which was little more than a straggling village at the time when his birth here occurred in September 1855-a date which places his parents as pioneers of California. To Mr. Eaton must ever be given a large measure of distinction and honor for his splendid service in giving to Los Angeles its unique and adequate water system, which involved an engineer- ing achievement of ponderous and difficult order, as the general historical facts set forth in this publication will disclose.
Mr. Eaton is a son of Benjamin S. and Helena M. J. Eaton, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of Maryland, their marriage being solemnized in the City of Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, May 17, 1848. Benjamin S. Eaton received good educational advantages and entered the legal profession as a young man. With the historic discovery of gold in California he was among the celebrated band of argonauts who came to this state in 1849, he having ridden on horseback across the plains from St. Joseph, Missouri, in company with others who thus early made their way to the New Eldorado, and settled in Los Angeles, where he was later joined by his young wife and baby daughter. They were accompanied by the former's sister, who afterward became the wife of Dr. John S. Griffin. They came by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Benjamin S. Eaton was one of the pioneer lawyers and influential citizens of Los Angeles and early served in the office of district attorney, and later give effective service as justice of the peace, he having been a staunch and effective advocate of the principles of the democratic party. Mr. Eaton was virtually the founder of the now beautiful City of Pasadena, as he, together with Mr. Fletcher, a banker from Ohio, organized the Indiana colony which first settled on the site of that place. The colony was capitalized for fifty thousand dollars, twenty-five thousand of which was paid for the 4,000 acres of land acquired. and the other twenty-five thousand was expended in bringing water to a portion of the lands from the Arroyo Seco.
Of their two children the subject of this review is the younger, the older being Mary, who resides in Los Angeles and who became the wife of Hancock M. Johnston, a son of the distinguished Confederate officer, General Albert Sidney Johnston, whose name figures so prominently in the history of the Civil war.
Frederick Eaton attended school in Los Angeles until he was fifteen years of age, and shortly afterward, in 1871, he entered upon a practical apprenticeship in the Los Angeles waterworks plant, then owned and operated by a private corporation. It was not until after his marriage that Mr. Eaton applied himself to the study of engineering, thus gaining the basic technical knowledge and skill which later brought to him distinction in his profession. After thirteen years of service in connection with the Los Angeles water works system and while it was under private control, he
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resigned and took up the engineering and building of irrigation works. In 1885 Mr. Eaton made an extended investigation of the water system of various eastern cities, for the purpose of advancing his practical knowledge of efficiency in municipal water service. In 1886 he was appointed city engineer of Los Angeles, and within the two years of his incumbency of this office he designed the sewer system that was the nucleus of the present modern installation. After having retired from service one year he was again elected city engineer, and after holding office two years he accepted the position of chief engineer of the Consolidated Electric Railway, now known as the Los Angeles Railway. During his first term as city engineer in 1887, he was also engineer of the Pico Street Electric Railroad, which was one of the first attempts made in the United States to propel cars by electricity. This was before the design by Thompson and Houston of the trolley pole which made the contact between the overhead wires and the motor-the means then employed being a little car about two feet long and a foot wide with copper wheels running on two copper wires suspended by poles about fifty feet apart. The little car ran off its wire rails so often that it was necessary to perch a man on the top of the car at all times to replace it. This equipment was soon discontinued with the hope that the storage battery would solve the problem, and in the meantime the cars were propelled by mule power until they were in later years included in the Los Angeles Electric Railway system.
Mr. Eaton made an extended and intensive study of water supply, and his vision of what the future metropolis of Southern California should demand was later verified in fact. In the summer of 1892 Mr. Eaton visited Owens Valley in company with a Mr. Austin for the purpose of looking over an irrigation project. This was turned down as an unprofitable venture on account of the transportation facilities, but the great quantity of water in evidence there tempted Mr. Eaton to investigate the possibility of its becoming a future water supply for the City of Los Angeles. About ten thousand dollars were expended by him on a gamble that surveys would show it feasible. His investigation was aided by a survey previously made by Joseph Seely, former county surveyor of Inyo County for the purpose of taking the water of Owens River out of its shed into Indian Wells Valley, also from data gathered by Civil Engineer Brooks, the war maps and Southern Pacific Railroad Surveys. This with the help of a couple of good aneroids, enabled him to demonstrate to his own satisfaction that there was a route over which this water could be conveyed to the City of Los Angeles. In the year 1902 Mr. Eaton was associated with Mr. William Mulholland then chief engineer of the Los Angeles City Water Works, upon a water distribution plan prepared by Mr. Mulholland. It was during this association that Mr. Eaton informed Mr. Mulholland of his investigation into a future water supply for the city, but did not detail sufficiently to reveal the location. In 1903 the United States Govern- ment Reclamation Service under active charge of J. C. Clauson, civil engi- neer, commenced its investigations of the Owens River Valley as a recla- mation project. Mr. Eaton then commenced to prepare for assembling all the controlling features necessary to enable the water of Owens River to be taken out of its shed. Mr. Eaton had stationed his son Harold at Independence for the purpose of obtaining data and securing options on the riparian land on the Owens River from the southern boundary of the Rickey holdings to Owens Lake. Mr. Eaton was preparing at the same time to visit New York with the view of interesting some parties he knew of there in the purchase of the Rickey holdings, as he was not strong enough himself financially to handle more than the riparian lands above referred to, together with the cattle that went with them. About a week before starting for New York Mr. Mulholland asked Mr. Eaton if he would show him the water supply he had spoken of a couple of years before. Mr. Eaton consented and arranged his trip to New York by way of Owens Valley and San Francisco. Eaton and Mulholland in September, 1904, made this trip by team over the previous route investigated by Eaton, and
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after looking over the water resources in the upper portion of the valley they sold the team and journeyed to San Francisco by rail, where Mr. Eaton's daughter was waiting to join him on his New York trip. Mr. Mulholland on leaving San Francisco for home asked permission of Mr. Eaton to obtain legal advice as to whether it would be possible for the City of Los Angeles to negotiate for the acquisition of this water supply. He suggested Mr. W. B. Matthews, then city attorney as a proper attorney to confer with. Eaton consented, and just before leaving for New York re- ceived a telegram from Mulholland asking to name a date he could meet Mr. Matthews at a certain hotel there. A date was fixed by Mr. Eaton, and Mr. Matthews was there on Mr. Eaton's arrival in New York. A full day's con- ference was held with Attorneys Dillon and Hubbard, and on their deciding that the city could go out of the county for a water supply Mr. Matthews expressed a desire that the city negotiate directly with Mr. Eaton rather than through a syndicate. Eaton demurred at. this, but after some discussion acceded to Mr. Dillon's request to so do. Mr. Eaton proceeded to acquire options to purchase on his own behalf and at his own expense such prop- erties as he knew were necessary. Eaton offered to sell to the city his options on all realty holdings in Inyo County at their face value, reserving the personal property included in the Rickey option and the power rights along the Aqueduct line. The city desired the co-operation of the Reclama- tion Department, which it could not get unless the project was a municipal one in its entirety, and Eaton yielded the power with the water without exact- ing additional compensation. The next day after a verbal agreement had been reached between the Water Commissioners and Mr. Eaton, at J. B. Lippincott's suggestion, an attempt was made by Messrs. Mulholland and Matthews to obtain a reservoir site in Long Valley on the lands retained by Mr. Eaton out of the Rickey option. Mr. Eaton agreed to give the city an easement on these lands for reservoir purposes to an elevation of 100 feet above the stream channel at the Government's selected site for a dam, provided he was reimbursed the expense money used in acquiring the water rights. This sum amounted in round numbers to $30,000, which Mulholland and Matthews pledged the city to reimburse, but a subsequent set of public officials repudiated the debt on the grounds that no written document covering the agreement was in evidence. Eaton could have had this part of his deed to the city set aside, but preferred to wait a further time for collection rather than throw a vital part of the aqueduct system open to attack by its enemies. Mr. Mulholland's high sense of honor would not allow this matter to rest, and in a public report some years later made note of the facts substantially as above stated. Mr. Eaton was elected mayor of the city in 1899, and served for two years. His strong advocacy of municipal control of its water supply made him the available candidate of his party at the time, as the water works were about to be taken over by the city. Protracted litigation between the city and the private company holding the property under a' thirty year lease prevented the consummation of this before the expiration of his term.
An attempt was made to show that Mr. Eaton had acquired the Owens Valley properties while acting in an official capacity for the city, but the date of his introduction to Owens Valley was a year or more after completing his service as city engineer, and his activities in the acquisition of these water properties were started a couple of years after his term of office as mayor had expired. All expenses on both occasions were provided from his private funds. Up to the present time he has realized no profit in his dealings with his native city in this connection. He achieved in a direct, quiet and independent way a great work for the enduring benefit of Los Angeles and its people, and his careful handling of affairs undoubtedly resulted in a saving to the city of millions of dollars. Even his just financial "returns in connection with various transfers and negotiations have not been received, but he contents himself in the reward of knowing that without the water resources which he was instrumental in giving to Los Angeles it could never have become the great.
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metropolis that it is today. He makes no claim to being a public bene- factor, but states that his course was taken as that of an ordinary citizen who looked to making a reasonable profit from his undertaking. In one respect justice must have its due and give record for all time of the really great part Mr. Eaton has played in connection with the development of the great City of Los Angeles.
ALFRED KENRICK PLUMMER is an old time resident of California. He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, February 20, 1868, and was brought to California in 1875 by his mother and grandparents. They first lived in Los Angeles, then in San Francisco, where he finished his public school education. His first calling was railroading, and in 1903 he entered the service of the Los Angeles Railway Company, beginning as motorman, and was promoted to inspector, instructor and finally director of traffic, which position he holds at the present writing.
Mr. Plummer is a member of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, and is a Mason. He married, May 12, 1897, Miss Angeline Delfino, daughter of Joseph and Louise (Lastro) Delfino, of San Francisco. Mrs. Plummer was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 13, 1873, but was reared and educated at San Francisco, attending public school there and St. Vincents Convent.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Plummer were: Gertrude Louise, Lincoln Kimball, Joseph D .; and Vivian and Evelyn, twins, at Seattle, Washington ; Alfred G., at San Diego, California; and Carles M., at Los Angeles, California.
ARTHUR W. ELLIS. One of the substantial and representative men of Long Beach, whose spirit of business enterprise is an element of public as well as private importance to this city, is Arthur W. Ellis, president and general manager of the Long Beach Realty Company, Incorporated, one of the largest and most comprehensive concerns in its line in this section. Mr. Ellis is of New England birth and of Revolutionary stock, a University man of wide travel both at home and abroad, but nowhere has he found a more congenial or more comfortable place to live than at Long Beach, where he has heavy property investments and many other interests.
Arthur W. Ellis was born at Boston, Massachusetts, February 19, 1882, a son of James H. and Annie (Wakefield) Ellis, and a grandson of Col. Franklin Ellis, a Civil war veteran, a prominent republican politician in Pennsylvania and in the iron trade at Pittsburgh, who traced his ancestry back to a noted shipbuilding family of Bristol, England. The mother of Mr. Ellis, who had Revolutionary ancestors, still survives and resides in New York City. Mr. Ellis has one brother, James, who lives in London, England.
Arthur W. Ellis had both educational and social advantages at Boston in his youth, from select private schools entering Foster Academy, and sub- sequently spent two and one half years in the Harvard Medical School at Cambridge. He then went abroad and passed two years in Heidelberg University, Germany, and after a period of leisurely travel reached London, England, where for a time he conducted a motor agency. Subsequently he returned to his own country and went into business in New York City, where he handled automobiles until 1913, in which year he again went to Europe and was there residing when the World war broke out in Europe. He came back to the United States but returned to Europe in a confidential relation with a foreign government, being familiar with European languages, and during that year was engaged in intelligence work for that country. In 1915 he returned to the United States, and from 1916 until the close of the war he was connected with government intelligence work, mainly handling the same for the Department of Justice at Long Beach, California. In 1917 he was made chief of the Long Beach branch of the American Protective League, an auxiliary branch of the Department of Justice, being particularly well equipped for secret service work and responsibility.
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Mr. Ellis embarked then in the real estate business at Long Beach, and in 1922 the Long Beach Realty Company, was organized and incorporated with Mr. Ellis as president and general manager. On December 13, 1922, the company purchased 120 acres of the Long Beach Dairy & Creamery Company, sub-divided it and on January 13, 1923, placed 1,300 lots on the market, a record in lot selling being made when the last one was disposed of on March 13 following. Since then they have purchased sub-divisions and sold 237 acres in six months' time. This company is capitalized at $250,000 and its officials are all men of large capital and high personal standing.
Mr. Ellis married at Mount Clair, New Jersey, on April 27, 1910, Miss Anna T. Doyle, who was born and educated there, a daughter of Frank and Anna ( Bowling) Doyle, the latter of whom is deceased. The father of Mrs. Ellis is a prominent contractor. Mr. Ellis is a member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and of the Long Beach Realty Board. He has been active and influential in the republican party for many years, and has a wide acquaintance with men of national fame.
LLOYD STEVENS NIX. Among the younger men of affairs at San Pedro, California, none are most justly held in high regard than Lloyd Stevens Nix, a well established law practitioner, whose talent and quiet industry give promise of eminent success in his profession. Mr. Nix is an overseas veteran of the World war, and not only has that distinction, but in the decorations he modestly exhibits when questioned is shown that in this quiet young American, not yet out of college and all his life accustomed to peace and orderly living, existed a spirit of high courage that led to unusual valor on foreign battlefields.
Mr. Nix was born at Providence, Rhode Island, September 29, 1895, the younger of two sons born to William A. and Phebe A. (Stevens) Nix. His brother, George W. Nix, is a well known attorney at Los Angeles, and a special lecturer in the Southern University College of Law of Cali- fornia. The parents of Mr. Nix were born in Nova Scotia, Canada, were married there and then came to Providence, Rhode Island, removing later to Lake City, Colorado, and from there in 1913 to Delta, Colorado, where the father was engaged in business for four years. In 1917 they came to California, and for the past two years have resided at La Verne, in Los Angeles County, where the father continues in business.
Lloyd Stevens Nix received his early educational training at Provi- dence, Rhode Island, later attended the public schools in Colorado, and was graduated from the Delta High School with the class of 1914, follow- ing which he took a preparatory course in law in the Colorado College, at Colorado Springs, and then entered the College of Law at the University of Southern California.
Before his law course was completed Mr. Nix entered military service for the World war, and after some training was sent overseas as a member of the famous 364th Infantry, 91st Division, American Expeditionary Forces. During his eleven months in France and Belgium he took part in some of the most serious events of the war, and in three major battles, St. Mihiel Hill, the Meuse-Argonne offensive in France and the battle of Lyle-Schilt in Belgium, which won the decorations he now wears so unosten- tatiously. Citation for Distinguished Service Cross from General Pershing ; the Belgium Croix-de-Guerre; and also the Gold Crown of the Kingdom of Belgium, the highest military medal issued by the Kingdom of Belgium during the war. Sergeant Nix left his native land in June, 1918, and stood once more on her beloved soil in May, 1919.
After a short time at Camp Kearney, San Diego, Mr. Nix was honor- ably discharged from the army and then returned to his law studies in the University of Southern California, and was graduated in 1920, with his degree of Bachelor of Law, and at the same time was admitted to the California bar. He began practice at Los Angeles, and was then associated with the trust department of the Los Angeles Trust & Savings Bank, now the Pacific Southwest Trust & Savings Bank. In March, 1921, he went
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to San Pedro and opened a law office, and has built up a substantial prac- tice there. He is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce and the Retail Merchants Associa- tion of San Pedro. During college days he was actively interested in whole- some outdoor sports, and in 1915 was captain of the freshmen football team of the University of Southern California and played on the university team in 1915 and 1916. While there he was manager also in 1917 of the Trojan, the daily newspaper published by the university, and additionally took considerable interest in the fraternities that mean so much to a modern student in a social way. He belongs to Sigma Nu Phi, Greek letter legal fraternity, and is a member of the honorary societies "Scull and Dagger" and the "Spinks and Supes," both of the University of Southern California.
Mr. Nix married at Tacoma, Washington, on June 15, 1917, Miss Gladys H. Pine, who was born at Phoenix, Arizona, but spent almost her entire life at Los Angeles, and is a graduate of the Polytechnic High School of that city. She is active in the pleasant social life of San Pedro, is a member of the Womans Club of this city, and belongs also to Harbor Chapter of the Eastern Star. Mr. and Mrs. Nix have one daughter, Lor- raine L., who was born at San Pedro. The family resides at 1132 Third, Street, San Pedro, and Mr. Nix maintains his offices in the Sepulveda Building on Sixth Street.
Mr. Nix is a member of Henry S. Orme Lodge No. 458, Free and Accepted Masons, of Los Angeles, and Harbor Chapter of the Eastern Star. He belongs also to San Pedro Lodge No. 966, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, and to the Lions Club, and is first vice commander of San Pedro Post No. 65 of the American Legion, and is secretary of, the Harbor Hospital Association. In political life he is a republican, but thus far his political activity has been confined to giving hearty support to candidates that measure up to his ideal of loyal and honorable citizenship and fearless upholders of law and order.
C. CLAUDE SUMTER, of Long Beach, has helped make history in the development of the petroleum deposits of this section of California. He has shown his integrity in the face of adversity, and has well deserved his individual success and the confidence shown in him by friends and clients.
Mr. Sumter was born near Deadwood, South Dakota, January 13, 1890, son of James M. and Margaret (Parker) Sumter. His parents have lived in Long Beach since 1911, and his father was the builder of the Sumter, Apartments on East Ocean Avenue.
C. Claude Sumter attended school at Belle Fourche, South Dakota, graduating from high school there, and then took a course in. the Brookins Business College at Brookins, South Dakota. While at Belle Fourche he . had charge of the shoe department of a general department store, and for a short time was with the Cash Clothing Company at Belle Fourche. In September, 1911, on arriving at Long Beach, he engaged in the cigar busi- ness, and then for about two years operated exclusively in the real estate field. After that he broadened his enterprise to include building construc- tion, and for about four years carried on an extensive program of building and selling small residences, and was responsible for some of the notable developments in and around Long Beach.
For the past two years his business experience has been almost entirely in the oil industry. His first venture was drilling a well in Ventura County on the Lewis Ranch. He was secretary and manager of the undertaking known as the Conego Oil Trust, which had lease on a tract of land just South of Camerillo on the Lewis Ranch. The drill went down 825 feet. It was a shallow field and oil sands were expected to be encountered at less than 225 feet. However, the drills struck a lava formation and finally the work was abandoned, resulting in a complete loss.
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