USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume III > Part 87
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Accordingly the Northwest Downey Public Policy Club was organized on March 4, 1919. A unique constitution was adopted, embracing the
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following purposes and objects: The better acquaintance of residents of the district through neighborhood meetings and friendly association; the extension of the means for supplying electricity and natural gas ; permanent improvement and repair of roads ; construction of bridges ; speeding up the work for controlling flood waters ; investigation of possibilities of securing electric railway transportation ; arrangement for securing instruction in agri- culture, horticulture and other subjects connected with country life; the protection of property from unjust and inequitable taxation ; development of a correct opinion on questions of public policy ; the creation of effective public sentiment to control radical and violent demonstrations against estab- lished law and order ; to demand equal and exact justice and a square deal for all, under constituted authority ; and to promote the diffusion of educa- tion and social refinement throughout the community.
Standing committees were appointed on electricity, natural gas, roads and bridges, flood control, electric railway transportation, assessments and taxation, cooperative marketing and purchasing, instruction and entertain- ment, publicity and membership.
These committees set to work and have succeeded in securing electric service for light and power in the neighborhood ; also natural gas for cook- ing, heating, etc .; the flood control work and bonds for road improvements have been ardently supported ; the distribution of irrigation water has been improved; tractor and other demonstrations have been given; lectures, discussions, etc., have been had on questions of public policy.
The club has now perfected arrangements for converting the main traveled road of the district-variously known as Hunts Crossing, West Twelfth Street, Harper Road and Clara Street-into a fine scenic-utility boulevard, with modern, up-to-date bridges across the Rio Hondo and Los Angeles rivers, connecting the Vernon-Downey and Cudahy boulevards and extending east and west one mile north of Downey, a distance of three and a third miles. The street is to be sixty feet wide, with twenty-foot pavement in the center and will not only shorten the distance to and through Downey, but greatly relieve the traffic on other roads, including several congested streets in Los Angeles. 4
Mr. McFarlane still lives on his Downey ranch, but is actively interested in several oil companies operating at Santa Fe Springs and Signal Hill, and is treasurer of the Bell View and the -Santa Fe Springs Mutual Oil Syndicates.
ISABELLA RICE GRANGER MACLAY. The names Maclay and Granger have been prominently identified with the San Fernando Valley from the beginning of its development from a great wheat field. In planning the work of development in the Valley the owners, including the late Senator Maclay, secured the services of one of America's foremost engineers, the late William P. Granger. A daughter of Mr. Granger is Isabella Rice Granger Maclay, wife of John C. Maclay. Mrs. Maclay has been a promi- nent factor in the affairs of San Fernando for many years.
William P. Granger, her father, was of New England ancestry and was born September 20, 1834, and died September 30, 1903. He was largely self educated, and chose the profession of civil engineering. Several years before the Civil war he became a member of the Engineering Corps of the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad in Tennessee, and was chief engi- neer of that road when the war broke out. He then returned North, and built a railroad on Cape Cod. He then returned to his boyhood home at Hoosac Tunnel and he surveyed one of two proposed lines for the con- struction of the tunnel, his route being accepted. At the time this was the second largest tunnel in the world. He became chief engineer of the tunnel and subsequently accepted a similar position with the Boston, Concord and Montreal railroad at the White Mountains, and also practiced for a number of years at Worcester, Massachusetts. After completing the Adirondack road from Saratoga to North Creek, he again resumed his duties as chief
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engineer of the Hoosac Tunnel. Later he built part of the Boston and Maine Railroad, was chief engineer of the Massachusetts Central Railway and was connected with a number of other important engineering projects in New England. In 1884 he went to the State of Oregon and built the second largest saw mill on the Pacific Coast. He then became an engineer with the Southern Pacific Railway, and left the services of that company to lay out the San Fernando Valley tract. He established his home at San Fernando and was a resident there the rest of his life, though he died at Hoosac Tunnel, Massachusetts, while looking after business interests.
On July 18, 1864, William P. Granger married Adelaide Abigail Rice, who was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, June 20, 1838. They had been sweethearts since she was five and he nine years of age. She was a descendant of Edmond Rice, who was born in England about 1594, and coming to America in 1639 settled at Sudbury, Massachusetts, where his home became the historic old "Wayside Inn." Mrs. Granger was a great-great-granddaughter of Capt. Moses Rice, the first white man to settle in the "Wilderness of Western Massachusetts." He was killed by the Indians there June 11, 1755. At his old homestead Charles Dudley Warner spent his boyhood, and his book "Being a Boy" describes that environment. Mrs. Granger's grandfather, Samuel Rice, was a soldier of the Revolution. Mrs. Granger was the first white woman to go through the Hoosac Tunnel, riding on the engine of a supply train, and accom- panying her was her daughter, now Mrs. Maclay. Both Mr. and Mrs. Granger became charter members of the Pioneer Society of the San Fer- nando Valley and of the Elective Study Club. Mrs. Granger was a char- ter member of the Woman's Civic League of San Fernando, and of the San Fernando Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, being the oldest member of that organization. She died at her home in San Fernando, April 10, 1919.
Isabella Rice Granger was born at North River, New York, September 18, 1871, and was educated in public schools in Massachusetts, Oregon and California, and at Drury Academy at North Adams, Massachusetts. Feb- ruary 27, 1900, at San Fernando, she was married to John Charles Maclay, son of Alexander and Amanda Maclay. He was born in the San Joaquin Valley not far from Stockton, California, January 20, 1860. In 1874 he accompanied his uncle, Senator Charles Maclay, to the San Fernando Valley when the latter purchased the San Fernando Rancho of fifty-six thousand acres. J. C. Maclay's father and four uncles were Methodist ministers, one of them being Rev. Dr. Robert Samuel Maclay, the first. Protestant mis- sionary in China, Japan and Korea. In 1846 at the age of twenty-one he sailed for China, and spent forty years in the Orient, establishing missions and colleges, publishing an alphabetical dictionary of the Chinese language of the Foo Chow dialect, and translating the entire New Testament into the same dialect.
When the City of San Fernando was incorporated August 31, 1911, J. C. Maclay was elected first mayor. He held that office for two terms and for eight and one-half years was a member of the city council. He was for a quarter of a century associated with his cousin R. H. Maclay in the mercantile firm of Maclay Company at San Fernando.
Mrs. Maclay is a republican. She is a member of the Pioneer Society of San Fernando Valley, is a charter member of the Elective Study Club, and is a charter member and for nine years was president and is now presi- dent emeritus of the Woman's Civic League of San Fernando. She also belongs to the San Fernando Chapter Daughters of the American Revolu- tion, and is a member of the Ebell Club of San Fernando. She is former treasurer of the Daughters of the American Revolution and present regent of the San Fernando Chapter.
The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Maclay was Fredericka Rice Maclay, born January 14, 1901, and died February 18, 1920. She was a charter member of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of the Daughters of the
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American Revolution, making three generations represented in the charter membership. She was the youngest member and the second to be called by death, passing away in less than a year after her grandmother.
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EDWARD DORWIN ZEHNER. Though in the very prime of his years and powers when he died June 21, 1923, Edward Dorwin Zehner left a record of experience and achievements such as few men attain in a much longer lifetime.
Mr. Zehner was born at Cleveland, Ohio, May 23, 1871, son of Erastus J. and Mary Zehner. Two of his brothers William E. and Fred B. Zehner still live at Cleveland, active in business affairs there. He was also sur- vived by a sister Mrs. Ernest B. Brown.
The late Mr. Zehner was reared and educated in Cleveland, attending the public schools and studying mechanical engineering. For a time he was employed in the shops of the Warner and Swasey Company, one of the largest industries of the kind in the world manufacturing optical and scien- tific instruments. While with them he was assigned duties in the prepara- tion of the great telescope for the Lick observatory. However, by nature he was not fitted for the limitations and confinement of shop work, his independent spirit constantly seeking interests of his own. He became superintendent and one of the instructors of the First Manual Training School for boys in Cleveland. Later with three other men he went to Alaska to investigate a claim for the Klondyke Mining Company, and remained in the far North during the year 1898.
When he returned he stopped at San Francisco, and remained there for two years as head of the Experimental Department of the Union Iron Works in their ship yard plant. Following that he returned to Cleveland.
Mr. Zehner became a resident of Los Angeles in 1905. He soon became prominent in the brokerage and real estate business, and was eminently successful in handling several important sub-divisions in Los Angeles County. During his residence in Southern California it was his first inclina- tion to engage in the real estate business, specializing in the sale and develop- ment of "small farms that pay." For several years he was extensively engaged in locating newcomers on small acreage, from which a good liveli- hood could be secured.
He was a veteran of the Spanish American war and during the World war served as a member of the County Council of Defense, organized for the purpose of carrying on home activities. All the members of the County Council recall with pride the interest taken by him in that important work. For several years he was an honored member of the Public Welfare Com- mission, being appointed by the board of supervisors of Los Angeles County. In this welfare work he was greatly interested and devoted most of his valuable time to it. He became interested in the welfare of young men particularly and helped many to find the right vocation and become useful citizens. For almost two years he occupied the very important and responsi- ble position of under-sheriff of Los Angeles County. His kindly work among the prisoners and his optimistic temperament endeared him to all those who transacted business with that office.
When his life-long friend Jonathan S. Dodge was appointed superin- tendent of Banks of the State of California by Governor William D. Stephens, Mr. Zehner was appointed Chief Appraiser for the Department of Banking, and handled with great credit that very important and responsi- ble position. His duties required much travel over the state, and in this way he became acquainted with many prominent Californians, all of whom remember with pleasure the optimistic and cheerful way in which the busi- ness of the state was carried on by him.
After the discovery of oil in large volumes in Southern California, Mr. Zehner became interested in the development of that commodity and was interested in a number of oil producing companies in and near Los Angeles. To the efforts of Mr. Zehner may be accredited the success of the El Paso
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Pacific Oil Syndicate in the development of a large producing oil well on what is known as the Jackson Syndicate in the Signal Hill field. The genius of Mr. Zehner was shown in the financial management of that syndi- cate. He was the vice president and General Manager of the Lacal Oil Company, and at the time of his death was actively engaged in bringing to success the details of that company.
Early in life he was initiated into the Masonic fraternity, first joining Woodward Lodge of Cleveland, and afterwards demitting into member- ship in South Pasadena Lodge No. 367, of Pasadena, where he was always welcomed by his brothers as a loyal and considerate member. Later he joined the Scottish Rite in Los Angeles, and only one year before his death was initiated into the Mystic Shrine in Al Malaikah Temple. He was one of the organizers of the Union League Club. His home was at 2044 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena. Mr. Zehner married Miss Mae Ethel Mac- Donald, daughter of D. D. MacDonald of Cleveland. She and a daughter Ethel Mae, now fifteen years of age, a native daughter of California, sur- vive Mr. Zehner.
JOHN STEVEN MCGROARTY, poet, historian and playwright, was born in Foster Township, Luzerne County, in Northeastern Pennsylvania, August 20, 1862. He is the son of Mary and Hugh Montgomery McGroarty, his father being a grand-nephew of Gen. Richard Montgomery who was famous as one of Washington's generals in the American Revolution and who fell in the immortal assault on Quebec in 1778.
John Steven was educated in the parochial and public schools of his early home, and later pursued his studies in The Hillman Academy of Wilkes-Barre. At the age of sixteen years he entered the pro- fession of teaching, which he abandoned at the end of three years to take up journalism, serving his apprenticeship on the Wilkes-Barre "Leader," of which he rose to be managing editor.
Taking an active interest in politics, Mr. McGroarty was elected justice of the peace the year he obtained his majority, being the youngest man to hold that office in the history of his native state. At twenty-six he was elected to be treasurer of Luzerne County, being also the youngest man ever elected to that office. At the expiration of his term as county treasurer he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar where he practiced law for three years, and then accepted an offer from Marcus Daly, the famous "Copper King" of Montana, to join his legal staff in the mountain state where he remained until the time of Mr. Daly's death. He then toured Old Mexico and the Southwest, finally locating in California where he became chief editorial writer on the Los Angeles "Times" under the late Gen. Harrison Gray Otis. He held this position for a period of upwards of fifteen years, retiring from its active duties to prosecute special literary work of his own. He is still, however, a member of the staff of "The Times," contributing to its columns as an occasional and not infrequent writer.
Mr. 'McGroarty's best known books are the two volumes, "California" and "Wander Songs," the one a fascinating narrative of the romantic history of the Golden State, and the other a volume of poems. He has also now in press with the publication firm of Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, a new California narrative which will appear under the title of "The High House," and which deals with a phase of history hitherto quite untouched by any other writer.
The one great and doubtless immortal literary production of John Steven McGroarty, however, is the now world-famed "Mission Play," produced for a season every year at Old Mission San Gabriel. The "Mission Play" is declared by Dr. Henry Van Dyke to be the world's greatest pageant drama. It has been visited by hundreds of thousands of people from every part of the globe and its prosperity and popularity increases with each passing year.
Mr. McGroarty's home in California is situated in a lovely nook of the
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Verdugo Hills, about twenty miles distant from Los Angeles. It is an ideal situation for a writing man, and it is a spot from which the world expects still greater inspirations from its well-beloved poet.
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