History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 8

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

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Early in 1906 H. S. McKee was elected director and vice president. He still holds those offices, taking an active interest in the management and affairs of the bank, though his home is in Los Angeles.

The aim of the officers in charge has been toward giving encouragement to civic progress, at the same time keeping in mind the fact that a bank is a semi-public institution and should be managed in such a manner as to serve first as a protector of the people's deposits, and, secondly, as a safe investment of the funds of its shareholders.

On these principles the prosperity of the First National Bank has been most noteworthy. The bank has total resources of one million seven hun- dred thousand dollars. Its affiliated institution is the Monrovia Savings Bank, of which John H. Bartle is also president and W. A. Chess, vice president. The Savings Bank has total resources of one million one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and the combined deposits of the two banks are over two and a half million dollars and the combined resources two million eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.

SHERMAN A. BULLIS, whose home is at 1331 South Sixth Street in Alhambra, is a pioneer of this section of Los Angeles County, and his interesting experiences illustrate the remarkable development that has occurred here during the past thirty years. Mr. Bullis is a self-made man, and while working for others he realized and accepted the opportunity to invest in localities that promised a substantial future, and his property

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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

interests are now widely diversified, including city and industrial property as well as country real estate.

Mr. Bullis was born near Albany, New York, January 22, 1865, second among the four children of John A. and Elizabeth Bullis. His parents were also natives of New York, and his father was a farmer and carpenter. Sherman A. Bullis acquired a grammar school education in New York State. He was fifteen years of age when his parents and family in 1880 came to California and located at Compton. Here he assisted his father in farming a tract of leased land.

Later, in 1893, he took a position on the De Barth Shorb Ranch, and assisted in superintending this extensive estate, comprising vineyard and general farm lands.

Mr. Bullis found in Mr. Shorb a splendid and high minded gentleman, and their associations were always agreeable. The Shorb ranch comprised 1,493 acres. Two years later its owner became financially involved and he lost the estate. I. W. Hellman took it over, and it was subsequently included in the I. W. Hellman and Huntington holdings, and is now oper- ated and owned by the Huntington Land and Improvement Company. After this transfer of ownership Mr. Bullis continued as superintendent of the estate, and has been in charge of this property or so much of it as has not been sold for over a quarter of a century. Some of the land is now devoted to orange culture, but the greater part to wheat and general farm- ing. It is very valuable on account of its close location to Alhambra and Los Angeles. Already about six hundred acres have been sub-divided and sold.

In 1893 Mr. Bullis married Miss Elizabeth Arrila Niman, who was born at Mansfield, Ohio, in 1872. They have one daughter, Rowena Eliza- beth Bullis, born in 1895. This daughter has been given every opportunity for a thorough education, and is a graduate of the Alhambra High School and of Stanford University. She was married to Harry C. Johnstone, connected with the Standard Oil Company.

Mr. Bullis is an active member of the Masonic Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter and Knight Templar Commandery at Alhambra, and the Mystic Shrine of Los Angeles. He served on the Alhambra School Board for three terms, in all about eleven years, and while serving the greater part of the principal school buildings were built or planned. These include the group of buildings comprising the high school; the purchase of the block on which the high school now stands, comprising six or seven acres ; the purchase of the block on Fremont Avenue and Hellman Street, which. was purchased for $175 per acre and is now worth more than $4,000 per acre. Also the purchase of the five acres on Garvey Avenue known as the Ynez School. During the early years of his employment on the Shorb estate Mr. Bullis exercised his thrift in saving a portion of his wages, and his observation of conditions led to several judicious investments. These investments have increased and have resulted in the accumulation of a sub- stantial fortune. One of his early purchases was fifty-six acres at the corner of Garfield Avenue and the Ocean to Ocean Highway. He paid $119 an acre for this, but soon sold it at a profit to the Huntington interests. Many of his investments have been made in line with his unwavering faith in the future development of Southern California. He has acquired some warehouse` sites on the Los Angeles Harbor, and some centrally located income property in the City of Los Angeles. When he came to the Shorb ranch there were very few houses or trees to obstruct the view, and a con- siderable portion of ground now included in the home cites of Alhambra and Ramona at that time was part of one vast grain field. Mr. Bullis is one of the survivors of that period of low prices and rather hard times who have witnessed the completed fixture of prosperity that now involves nearly all of Southern California.

ELMER J. VOTAW, whose death occurred at his home in the City of Los Angeles, September 26, 1921, was a man of vision and of splendid initiative

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

and executive ability. He became an influential force in the development of business and industrial enterprises of important order, and was in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes.

On the pioneer farm of his parents near Oskaloosa, in Mahaska County, Iowa, Elmer J. Votaw was born December 16, 1869. His parents were of the fine old Quaker stock, honest, industrious, and God-fearing, and they were well fortified for the pioneer activities that were theirs in Iowa, where the father obtained a large tract of land and developed a fine farm. Mr. Votaw was the third son of Joseph and Sarah Ann Votaw. Joseph Votaw was born in Ohio, a son of Isaac Votaw, who thence removed to Wabash County, Indiana, where he became an early settler and where his children played with the Indian children of the neighborhood. Joseph Votaw later became a resident of Western Michigan, and it was from that state that he removed to Iowa.

Owing to the conditions and circumstances of time and place the subject of this memoir early began to contribute his share to the manifold activities of the home farm, and he attended school only through the successive winter terms. He remained at the parental home until he attained to his legal majority, when he married and initiated his independent career as a farmer. He rented land, and on the same he and his young wife estab- lished their home, their financial resources being summed up in ninety dollars in cash, and their working equipment comprising two horses, one cow, one hog, a few chickens, a wagon and a few second-hand farming implements. Within ten years Mr. Votaw, by the most arduous labor and by careful management, had gained place among the successful farmers of his native state. Impressed by opportunities offered in Oklahoma, he removed to that state with his wife and their three small children. He made Newkirk his destination, and in the pioneer period in Oklahoma he achieved substantial success in the buying and selling of farm land and accumulated more than $20,000. He finally removed to Cherokee, Okla- homa, where he assisted in organizing the First National Bank, of which he became president, besides which he became treasurer of the Cherokee Mill & Elevator Company, which erected and operated a mill of 400-barrel daily capacity. After residing six years in Oklahoma Mr. Votaw sold his farms and other interests in that state and came to Santa Clara County, California, where he organized the State Bank of Morgan Hill, of which he continued president and active manager during the ensuing four years. In the meanwhile he made a trip to Mexico and made a careful survey of conditions and opportunities in that country. Upon his return to California he sold his interests at Morgan Hill, and then purchased 12,300 acres of fine farming land in Mexico, these holdings being now in the celebrated Tampico and Tuxham oil district. At this juncture Mr. Votaw established the family home at Wichita, Kansas. He then effected, in August, 1909, the organization of the Mexico Immigration, Land & Fibre Company, of which he was made president and general manager. This organization was formed primarily for the purpose of encouraging colonization and the development of the agricultural resources of the part of Mexico in which his land interests lay. Internal troubles in Mexican governmental affairs soon put a damper on the colonization enterprise, but Mr. Votaw was successful in holding his Mexican lands, and in 1920 organized the Port Lobas Oil Company, capitalized for two millions, of which he was made president and general manager, and he continued his connection therewith until the time of his death. Mr. Votaw was a prominent figure in the development of activities and spent a great portion of his time in Mexico, where he did the pioneering and laid the foundation upon which this com- pany stands. For eight years he maintained his office headquarters in the Marsh-Strong Building at Los Angeles, and it was in this city that he passed the last three years of his life. He had previously resided at Whittier, Los Angeles County, and, as a birthright member of the Society of Friends, he there became one of the leading members of the Friends Church. He was an earnest and liberal supporter of churches and schools,

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

and in all of the relations of life guided his course upon the highest plane of integrity and honor. He was devoted to his family, and was a citizen who ever commanded the fullest measure of popular confidence and good will.

At Oskaloosa, Iowa, on the 31st of December, 1891, Mr. Votaw wedded Miss Ruth A. Smith, daughter of John Smith, and at her death she was survived by five children : Vera, who is now the wife of William T. Boyce ; Vernon J., the maiden name of whose wife was Miss Lucile Andrews ; E. Clayton, who married Miss Alma Boettger; and A. Harold and J. Howard, who remain at the family home in Los Angeles, the same being graciously presided over by the second wife of Mr. Votaw. Mrs. Votaw, whose maiden name was Grace Thurman, is a daughter of T. W. Thurman, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. No children were born of the second marriage.

JOHN W. CUSHING. Nearly twenty years have passed since the death of John W. Cushing, but he is still remembered as a man of sterling worth and high character, a capable man of business, possessed of foresight and confidence in his community, and a citizen of public-spirited impulses. He was born in Belfast, Ireland, June 24, 1830, a son of Patrick and Mollie (Stewart) Cushing, natives of Belfast, of pure Irish blood. Patrick Cushing was a prominent contractor of his city. Mollie Stewart was of the same family from which came A. T. Stewart, the famous New York merchant and philanthropist.

John W. Cushing received his education in the schools of Belfast, in which city he made his home until 1848, when, as a youth of eighteen years, he immigrated to New York City and was employed in the metropolis for four years. During this time he applied for his naturalization papers, indicating the loyalty of citizenship that he was always to display in after years, and these papers, granted him August 29, 1857, were delivered to him at San Francisco. Mr. Cushing came to California in 1852, via the Nicaragua route, arriving at San Francisco in April. He followed the mines for several years, but returned to San Francisco and engaged in gen- eral teaming and contracting, and was thus engaged until 1868. In that year he removed to Humboldt County, whence he came one year later to Southern California, the trip being made by wagons and the company includ- ing J. C. Hammon, William Friel and William Snowdy. At the termina- tion of the long, tedious trek, Mr. Cushing purchased 160 acres of the Dalton tract, and in the following year built a home and well-equipped out- buildings. He settled down to the raising of grain and stock, and later added 180 acres one-half mile north of Savanna. The most of the land in this vicinity at that time could be purchased for four or five dollars an acre, but for this selected land Mr. Cushing paid the unusually high price of eighten dollars per acre. He was firm in his demand to have this land allotted him, refusing to remain if he could not secure the desired tract, and time has proven that his judgment was good, as this land has proven the most valuable farm land in the valley. Mr. Cushing continued opera- tions on Primrose Ranch, as his property was known, until his death, which occurred February 14, 1903, burial being made in San Gabriel Mission Cemetery. He was a most devout member of the old San Gabriel Mission Church. In politics he was a democrat, but was a stanch supporter of the Union.

At St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, October 20, 1861, Mr. Cushing was united in marriage with Miss Mary Carr, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Father Croak. She was born in County Donegal, Ireland, a daughter of John Carr, a prominent general contractor, who in 1850 settled at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he died, as did his wife, formerly Catherine Travis, who, like her husband, was a native of Ireland. They were the parents of nine children. Mrs. Mary (Carr) Cushing came to San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama in 1859, and two years later married Mr. Cushing. They became the parents of the following children : Mary, who became the wife of Thomas Godfrey; Elizabeth S .; Anna L .;

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

John F., who died at the age of seven years; Patrick L .; Cecelia ; Catherine, who became the wife of Dr. C. W. Seeber, of Los Angeles; Patrick L., James E., Joseph Emmett, Eileen and Margaret S.

Patrick L. Cushing, son of John W. Cushing, was born on the ranch north of Savanna, January 31, 1876, and received a good common school education. By a close study of practical affairs and constant application to his business responsibilities he has become a strong man in his community, and with his brother, Joseph Emmett, is engaged in ranching at the old home place. This they have improved extensively, adding many of the latest farm conveniences, including two large water-producing wells, and the ranch is now one of the most valuable in this section. Mr. Cushing was baptized in the old Mission Church, as were his brothers and sisters, and in 1904 married there Miss Ellen M. Graney, a native of Portland, Oregon, and a member of an illustrious Irish family. Four children have been born to this union, all in the old Cushing home in which was born their father : John Clifford, July 13, 1905; Catherine, June 31, 1907 ; Mary Elizabeth, October 18, 1909; and Richard Francis, October 14, 1911. All were baptized in the quaint old San Gabriel Mission Church at San Gabriel.

Joseph Emmett Cushing, son of John W. Cushing, was born April 25, 1879, on the old Savanna ranch, and married at the Plaza Mission Church, Los Angeles, in 1913, Miss Marie Patricia Cross, of Los Angeles. Four children have blessed this union, all baptized at the old Mission Church at San Gabriel, born as follows: Joseph Emmett, Jr., born December 27, 1914; Francis Gerard, July 11, 1916; John Philip, December 29, 1918; and Betty Jane, December 15, 1921. Joseph E. Cushing is associated with his brother Patrick L. in the operation of the home ranch, and, like him, is a man of sterling worth.

James E. Cushing was born November 18, 1877, and is a resident of Los Angeles. At the Plaza Mission he married Miss Bertha M. Armstrong. They have no children.

The members of the Cushing family belong to the element of early San Gabriel settlers of good Irish stock who have been hard-working, earnest and faithful citizens of the highest merit, and whose contributions to the upbuilding and lasting development of their community have been invalu- able. They are all strong in the Catholic faith and members of the old Mission Church of San Gabriel.

The old home burned on November 27, 1922, and thus passed another . of California's old landmarks.

C. W. KEYS. The annals of Southern California show that this remark- able section has been developed though the energy, far-sightedness and public-spirit of its pioneers, and to them, rather than to those who have come in after all of the hard work was accomplished, is the credit due for present-day conditions. One of these men, a native son of the Golden State, C. W. Keys, has played a very important part in the development of El Monte, and his fine estate, planted to walnuts, is one of the choicest in this region.

C. W. Keys was born in San Francisco, California, October 7, 1868, a son of Gilbert S. Keys, a native of New York State, who came to Cali- fornia in 1867. The only child of his parents, C. W. Keys was carefully reared, and was brought to Southern California by his father in 1892. Gilbert S. Keys bought land in Alhambra, adjoining the property of Mr. Weeks, another pioneer of this region.

In 1895 C. W. Keys purchased fifty acres just south of El Monte at that time, but now included in the city limits, and planted it to walnuts. On this property he has erected a beautiful residence and made many other improvements, and here he and his wife have resided during all their happy married life.

In 1898 Mr. Keys married Miss Betsy Kellogg, a daughter of Doctor Kellogg, Alhambra's first physician and surgeon. Mrs. Keys was born and was educated at Alhambra, completing her studies in a local convent. Mr.

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

and Mrs. Keys have one son, Gilbert Keys, who was born May 5, 1899, at Alhambra. He married Miss Margaret Snell, who was born in California, and they reside at Sierra Madre, Los Angeles County, California.

Doctor Kellogg was born in Canada, but was brought to the United States by his parents when a small boy. They located in Iowa, where he was educated, and he graduated from an Iowa medical college with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1876 he came to California and settled at Alhambra, becoming not only the only physician and surgeon of that place, but the only one between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. In order to respond to the calls made upon him promptly he used to keep relays of horses stationed at intervals. At that time there were no definite roads, and the trails led through sand and brush, and were hard to travel. How- ever, the horses learned them and it was no unusual thing for the weary physician to drive up to one of the stations sound asleep from utter exhaus- tion, the horses having brought him in safely, without guidance on his part. He continued in active practice at Alhambra until about 1896, when he retired, but he lived until July 4, 1904. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Rebecca Melissa Whitten, died July 15, 1905. She was a native of Iowa. They had seven children, namely: Thomas, who died in child- hood; Betsy, who is Mrs. Keys; Edith Rebecca; Walter J., who lives in Colorado; Jack W., who lives at Sierra Madre; Cleaver, who is a traveling salesman in Iowa ; and one who died in infancy. Doctor Kellogg, together with Dr. Tom Hayden, now of Fresno, California, started to build a large sanitarium at the corner of Main and Alamansor streets at Alhambra, but this was destroyed by fire, before completed. A man of the highest char- acter, Doctor Kellogg was one of the typical old-time physicians, and although years have passed since his demise, his memory is cherished by those to whom he ministered in the early days, and the results of his work and example remain as a lasting monument to his skill and humanitarian impulses.

LEWIS FARMER. Every man has not succeeded who has come to South- ern California, for here, as elsewhere, a man must give value for value if he expects to win out in the struggle for existence. To those who haye sought opportunities for honest advancement this region has been very kind, and here men of merit have succeeded way beyond their original expecta- tions, one of them being Lewis Farmer, one of the substantial ranchers and walnut growers of El Monte.

Lewis Farmer was born in Harlan County, Kentucky, May 15, 1848, a son of William C. and Catherine ( Bronson) Farmer, natives of Kentucky, but of Virginian ancestry. He died at the age of eighty-six years, but she lived to the advanced age of eighty-nine years and ten months. They had twelve children, ten of whom survive, and of them all Lewis Farmer was the first born.

Growing up in his native county, Lewis Farmer attended a subscription school in the winter and worked on the farm in the summer, remaining at home until he was twenty-two years old. Then, on November 1, 1870, he married Miss Ellen Rice, born in Harlan County, Kentucky, May 20, 1853, and took up carpenter work, and continued it until 1878, although in 1872 he was elected county clerk of Harlan County, and held the office for two years. In 1878 he left Kentucky for Kansas, and took up a homestead on the frontier near Buffalo. After having two crop failures he went to Topeka, Kansas, and worked at his trade for eighteen months, leaving that city for Concordia, Kansas, and from there came to California. He left Concordia April 2, 1884, and traveled on a mixed freight and emigrant train which landed him at Los Angeles April 14, 1884. At that time Los Angeles had only about 24,000 inhabitants, and the largest building was the Temple Block. None of the streets were paved, and a horse car ran down Main Street to Seventh Avenue.

When he reached California he was without means, and had a sick wife and two children, but he did not allow himself to be discouraged, but at

HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

once looked about him for work, which he found on "Lucky" Baldwin's ranch, and remained there for six months. Using his savings to make a small payment, he bought twenty-four acres of what was then almost worth- less land, water-soaked and covered with willows, three miles south of El Monte. To cover the balance of the purchase price he gave his notes, and when the last one fell due he paid it. His initial equipment consisted of a team of Mexican horses and a few second-hand tools, but with them he made so good a beginning that it was not long before he had some return from his land. He has cleared, drained and developed the place, and has put in three plantings of walnuts, one in 1885, the second in 1893 and the last in 1898, and now has one of the most productive groves in the district. He has made his place pay for itself and for all of the improvements, including a handsome residence and other buildings, and has every reason to be proud of what he has accomplished.

Mr. and Mrs. Farmer have three living children, namely : Lula E., wife of Thomas Lyttle. She was born in Kentucky, in 1875, and lives on the ranch adjoining her parents. Ava Kate, who was born in California in 1886, married J. M. Fickling, of Los Angeles. Roy R., who was born on the present ranch, in 1889, married Carrie Serbeck, of Santa Fe Springs, and they have three sons, Donald, Richard and Robert, the last two being twins. Roy R. Farmer is a rancher on Durfee Avenue, El Monte.

Over fifty years ago Mr. Farmer was made a Mason in Kentucky and was admitted to Gibson Lodge No. 575, A. F. and A. M., of Harlan Court House. Subsequently he demitted to Lexington Lodge No. 104, A. F. and A. M., El Monte. The Presbyterian Church holds his membership. He has not definitely connected himself with any political party, preferring to vote for the man he deems best suited for the office in question. Hard- working, thrifty, a good manager and a public-spirited citizen, Mr. Farmer measures up to high standards, and his prosperity is well-merited.

CHARLES ARTHUR BODELL, who has had an extensive association with the mining industries of the West, established the Pasadena office of R. W. Hadden & Company, Los Angeles, investment securities, one of the leading organizations of its kind on the Pacific Coast, and recently bought out this branch and is now the sole owner, conducting the business as C. A. Bodell & Company. The business is run along broad lines, handling stocks and bonds. Branch offices are to be established in the surrounding cities, one already having been started in Alhambra.

Mr. Bodell was born at Middletown, Orange County, New York, October 9, 1883, son of Charles Henry and Ada (Miller) Bodell. His paternal ancestry runs back to an old Scotch family which during the wars with England was driven from Scotland to the North of Ireland, and finally, in 1698, members of the family, still in search of religious freedom, crossed the ocean to New York and after journeying westward finally settled in what is now Orange County, New York. Their place of settle- ment was called Scotchtown, all the colonists being Scotch. Here was founded the First Scotch Presbyterian Church in the new country. In the corner stone of the old original church are preserved many interesting family records concerning the Bodell name. The great-grandfather of C. A. Bodell was Patrick Bodell and the grandfather was Charles S, Bodell, both natives of Scotchtown, New York. Charles Henry Bodell and the grandfather, Charles S. Bodell, both fought as soldiers in the Civil war, the grandfather enlisting when he was fifty-eight years of age. A brother of Charles Henry Bodell was J. Knox Bodell, who was chaplain of the Second Hawaiian Infantry and for many years one of Hawaii's leading ministers.

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History of Los Angeles county, Volume III, Part 8

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