USA > California > Sacramento County > History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, 1913 > Part 74
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The marriage of Colonel Ficks took place in Sacramento Novem- ber 10, 1872, uniting him with Miss Inez Huff, who was born and reared in Placerville, this state, and who passed away February 22, 1908, leaving two daughters. Two sons, Miles Grant and Frank, had died in childhood. The elder daughter, Edna Inez, is the widow of John D. Bauman, an importer of New York City, who lost his life in the sinking of the Titanic April 15, 1912. The younger daughter, Blanche, is the wife of George F. Roberts, and lives in Bisbee, Ariz. During the long period of his residence in Sacramento Colonel Ficks has witnessed the development of the city and his portion of the state. He has filled many positions of trust and time and again has proved the worth of his citizenship to the higher developement of the locality. The Republican party has numbered him among its leading local workers, frequently he has represented its interests by service as a delegate to county and state conventions and he is now a member of the county Roosevelt Republican committee. A man of
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tried worth and integrity, he has proved loyal to his country not alone on the field of battle during the thrilling era of the Civil war, but also in the quiet round of citizenship during times of peace, and with justice he is regarded as one of the useful, patriotic men of his home city. On May 31, 1913, Colonel Ficks was appointed by Gov- ernor Hiram W. Johnson, commissioner to represent the state of Cali- fornia at the national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, Pa.
REV. WILLIAM F. ELLIS
The pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Sacra- mento ranks among the rising young clergymen of the Sacramento diocese, whither he came by appointment immediately after he had been ordained to the holy priesthood in Rome. The family of which he is a member is noted for the scholarly attainments of its male representatives and for their devotion to the cause of the church. Out of a family of seven there are five now living, all of whom are men of conspicuous mental endowments and extraordinary intellectual attainments. The eldest, Rev. J. H. Ellis, is pastor of the church at Jackson, Amador county, this state. The third, T. H., is now a stu- dent in the Propaganda University in Rome, Italy. The fourth, Vincent C., is a student in the Catholic University at Dublin, Ireland. The youngest, James P., is a civil engineer of superior qualifications. The father, James Ellis, is himself a man of education and ability. During young manhood he had married Miss Anne Clyne, who died in Ireland in June of 1911, and who was a member of a distinguished Catholic family, one of her brothers, Father P. J. Clyne, who died in Grass Valley, Cal., having been long and successfully connected with the Sacramento diocese.
The county of Westmeath, at no great distance from the city of Dublin, Ireland, is the native home of Father Ellis, and July 24, 1881, the date of his birth. In young manhood he was sent to the national schools. Religious training, begun with his first instruction by his parents, was continued after the age of eleven years in the Christian Brothers college at Mullinger, where he completed the regular course of study, graduating in 1897. Immediately afterward he entered All Hallows' college in Dublin, where he took a course in philosophy. The four years of study in that institution were most helpful and profitable. With his graduation in 1901 he turned his steps toward Rome, where he studied theology at the Irish college and the Propaganda university and in 1904 was graduated with high honors. May 28 of the same year he was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in the St.
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John Lateran Cathedral at Rome. Under an appointment to the Sac- ramento diocese he came to California, where he became assistant to Father L. Kennedy in St. Bernard's church at Eureka. From there he was transferred to Sacramento during December of 1909 as pastor of the parish of the Immaculate Conception. The first services he held in a temporary edifice, which soon was enlarged. At this writing plans are in readiness for a Romanesque structure of brick, to have a capacity of seven hundred persons. The parish property consists of one-half block, bought in 1909, and bounded by Orange, Sacramento, Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. On the corner of Thirty-sec- ond street and Sacramento avenue he has erected an attractive par- ochial residence. Soon a parochial school will be added to the group of buildings, and these, upon the completion of the edifice, will give ample facilities for the training of children and the religious needs of the five hundred families comprising the parish. In the parish there are various organizations for the upbuilding of the church, in- cluding the Altar and Sanctuary societies, Children of Mary and the Holy Name society, all of which are proving most helpful as an aid to the pastor in his many responsibilities.
DANIEL D. SULLIVAN
A complete enumeration of the citizens identified with the ma- terial advancement of Sacramento associated with the progress of the Republican party in the community and helpful in the interests of labor throughont the state, could not fail to include and give prom- inence to the name of Daniel D. Sullivan, who for many years has been connected with the state printing office. In many respects a list of his activities is also a list of measures for the growth of Sacra- mento. His enterprises have been varied, but always for the better- ment of local conditions. His activities have been large, but never for any movement not calculated to develop the permanent welfare of the region. While aiding civic and district projects, he has not lost sight of individual needs, but has been active in his aid to charitable organizations and in his personal help to the poor. As chairman of the police and fire commission, and as a member of the committee on safety and health, he has conserved the interests of the people, and his citizenship has been further made valuable through his service as a member of the committee that outlined the park system at Haggin grant, a subdivision adjoining Sacramento on the north.
Born in New York City in 1859, Daniel D. Sullivan is a member of a family that included ten children, whose parents, Jeremiah J. and
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Annie (Boucher) Sullivan, were natives respectfully of New York and New Jersey. For years the father followed the trade of a baker in New York City, but during the Civil war he left his business and his home in order to aid the Union. For three years he served with fidelity and took part in all the engagements of his regiment during that period, but finally a severe wound incapacitated him for further service, and he then received an honorable discharge. Some time after his discharge he determined to leave the east for the newer fields of the far distant west. About that time the railroad was being completed across the continent and public interest was aroused in the development of the coast regions.
The family established a home at Sacramento during 1868 and the father found employment as a baker, but after five years he re- moved to San Francisco, where he was made foreman of a cracker factory. That position he continued to fill until 1882. Both he and his wife died in San Francisco during the year 1901. Instead of join- ing the family in the coast city, Daniel D. Sullivan remained in Sac- ramento, and in 1882 he entered the state printing office, where he learned the trade of a pressman. From that time to the present he has been in the same office, and since 1895 he has held the position of foreman of the press department, where he has twenty men under him and where he is responsible for much work of great importance. His eldest son, Elmo D., who married Celia Morton, is also a skilled printer, and is now employed by the Star Publishing Company of Sac- ramento. The other children, Athol F., Merced, Loraine, Gertrude E. and Frank, are still living at home.
At the time of the organization of the State Federation of Labor Mr. Sullivan actively assisted in promoting the same and from the outset he was one of the officers. For three terms he was honored with the presidency, being the only man to whom has been given the dis- tinction of filling the important office for three terms. At this writing he is president of the Sacramento Federation of Trades Council. As one of the founders of Labor Temple, he took a prominent part in a movement of enduring importance to the cause of labor in the capital city. Elected the first treasurer of the Temple, he still fills the office, and in addition he has been a member of its board of directors ever since the start. For three terms he was honored with the presidency of the Sacramento Press Union, and in 1907 he served as a delegate to the National Convention of Pressmen at Brighton Beach. For years he has been a member of the Sacramento Chamber of Com- merce, and allusion previously has been made to his work as a mem- her of its committees. As a member of the state central committee since 1898 he has exerted his influence for the upbuilding of the Re- publican party, as he has also when serving as a delegate to every state convention of the party held since 1899. In addition, he was
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honored by being chosen delegate from the fourth district to the national Republican convention at Chicago in 1904 that nominated Theodore Roosevelt for the presidency. As a progressive worker in the party, he has been in sympathy with the platform and principles of that renowned party leader. The Eagles and Elks number him among their members, being a life member of the Elks, but his interest in fraternities is less engrossing than that in public affairs and in labor problems. Accordingly, we find that it is in these two depart- ments of citizenship that he finds his most engrossing activities and has reached his greatest influence.
HON. PETER J. SHIELDS
The lineage of the Shields family indicates a long line of Celtic ancestors and it was not until 1843 that Patrick Shields transplanted this branch from the Emerald Isle to the shores of America. At the time of emigration he was a man of middle age, frugal, purposeful and industrious, but handicapped by lack of means. Accompanied by his wife, Mary, and their sons, he crossed the ocean to the new world and proceeded to the then undeveloped regions of the Missis- sippi valley, where he took up a tract of government land and en- tered upon general farming. With the aid of his boys he trans- formed a raw tract into a productive farm and ultimately acquired the title to two hundred and ten acres of fertile land, which he had stocked with a large herd of cattle as well as other stock. His death occurred in November of 1856, when he was sixty-five years of age. Surviving him were three sons, of whom Frederick and Dennis sought homes in the undeveloped lands of Minnesota, while John, who was born in Ireland April 26, 1835, became a pioneer of California, leav- ing his Illinois home May 4, 1856, and landing in San Francisco on the 14th of June after an uneventful trip by way of Panama. For three months after his arrival he operated a threshing-machine for the owner, after which for eight or ten months he worked at $3 per day in the mines at Farmers' Diggings and elsewhere along the American river.
The first association of John Shields with western agriculture occurred in 1857, when he bought the squatters' right to three hun- dred and twenty-four acres, covered with brush and timber, and con- taining a black and sandy loam soil which proved very productive. The ranch was in Brighton township, Sacramento county, thirteen miles from the city of Sacramento, and bounded on the north by the American river. The original Hangtown Crossing was near this
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ranch, but later that name was discarded for the present title of Mills. All of the improvements on the place were made by Mr. Shields, who about 1879 increased his holdings by the purchase of one hundred acres near the original farm. Twenty acres were planted in a vine- yard, and the crops were so large that it is said about twenty-four tons of grapes were harvested from three acres in one season. One hundred acres were planted to an orchard of peaches, pears, plums and French prunes. Eventually the owner relinquished his arduous ranching activities and removed to Yolo county, where he now makes his home. November 18, 1859, he married Mrs. Elizabeth (Bow) Lynch, who was born in Ireland, crossed the ocean to Massachusetts in early life and in 1855 became a resident of California. They had a family of five daughters and two sons, namely: Mary, who married Charles Deterding; Lizzie A., wife of M. C. Pike; Alice; Hannah, who made a specialty of instrumental and vocal music and rose to a high rank in the profession; Emily, Peter J. and Robert E. Four of the family are still living. The mother, who possessed unusual abil- ity, made a specialty of the fruit industry and attained a reputation as one of the most thorough and prominent orchardists in the entire state. As an authority on horticulture her advice was songht by people from all parts of the west. When she died in 1895 the State Fruit-Growers' Association passed suitable resolutions of regret and condolence and alluded to her as "the fruit queen of California," a title which her wise and long-continued labors fully justified.
At the old homestead on the American river Peter J. Shields was born April 4, 1862. The neighboring schools afforded him fair advantages. Later he was graduated from the Christian Brothers college in Sacramento. At the age of eighteen years he took up the study of law in the office of A. P. Catlin. Three years later he was admitted to practice at the bar of the state. With professional am- bitions and youthful hopes he took up the practice of law, only to find himself forced to abandon practice at the age of twenty-four and to give attention to the restoration of his health, which had been seriously injured by over-study. As the best means of physical re- cuperation he sought ontdoor employment and turned his attention to a careful study of livestock, with such success that he since has been selected to act as judge in many of the most important stock shows in the entire country. It is said that his judgment of an animal is seldom at fault. At a glance he detects their favorable points as well as the apparently invisible weaknesses which prove a blemish to their record.
During the period of open-air activities as a means of health restoration, the young man had not wholly relinquished all identifica- tion with city affairs, but still held the office of trustee of the Cali- fornia state library, to which at the age of twenty-three years he had been appointed by Governor Bartlett and in which his service
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was so intelligent that he was again appointed in 1897. When he returned to Sacramento in 1895 he became a deputy to the state librarian, filling the position for nine months. During the next two years he served as secretary of the California code commission, while later for a similar period he held the private secretaryship to the governor, during the same period likewise serving as secretary of the State Agricultural Society. Resuming the practice of law in 1900 as an associate of Hon. Hiram W. Johnson, the present gov- ernor of California, he continued in private practice until a few months later, when he was elected judge of the superior court of Sacramento county by the largest majority ever given a judge in that county. While a Democrat in politics, he received a majority of eighteen hundred, the largest ever given up to that time. The first election was for an unexpired term, after which he was re-elected by a very heavy vote and then in 1908 he was chosen judge by the largest vote given any candidate on either side.
In the office of jurist Judge Shields has proved impartial and tactful, the possessor of a profound knowledge of jurisprudence and the exemplifier in his own forceful character of the ethics of the judicial office. Only an admirable personality could attain to his pop- ularity and prestige. Democracy, civic duty and good government are among the causes that have enlisted his intelligence. Sincerity of purpose has directed his conduct in every relation of life and has governed his excellent administration of the affairs of his court. Every movement for the upbuilding of the Sacramento valley has en- listed his sympathy and he has been particularly helpful in promoting the reclamation work. Educational activities have benefited by his wise participation and probably the most important act of his life was his furtherance of the university farm and school of agriculture, lo- cated at Davis. From the first he favored the plan for such an in- stitution and realized that it could be made most valuable to the material development of the state. Not only did he aid the cause by forcible speeches on the subject, but in addition he drew the bill creating such a school, and through his efforts it was passed by the legislature. In its present usefulness and future value to state ad- vancement it is now and will continue to be for years to come a monu- ment to the sagacious efforts of himself and other high-minded, patri- otic citizens broad in vision and prompt in action.
JOHN LATOURRETTE
The possession of decided business ability is indicated by the gratifying degree of success that has rewarded the painstaking efforts of Mr. Latourrette, one of the progressive and prominent business
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men of Sacramento. From his earliest recollections he has been fam- iliar with this county. Educated in its schools, trained to a knowledge of its conditions, familiar with its possibilities and conversant with its history, he was prepared to enter into its business activities with every hope of success offered by painstaking industry and forceful determination. During young manhood he embarked in business for himself, and his subsequent career has been one of slow but steady advancement in the specialty selected for bis life-work. The business established by his energy and pushed forward by his progressive spirit is now incorporated, with himself as secretary, treasurer and the principal owner, while W. D. Scoville fills the office of president and Dr. John L. White serves as vice-president.
Brought to the west during his infancy, John Latourrette is a native of Dayton, Ohio, and was born February 18, 1876, being a son of Paredes and Eliza (Smith) Latourrette, natives respectively of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The father was a tinner by trade, and during early life, while following that occupation, he offered his services to the Union as a soldier, was accepted, sent to the front, assigned to the army of the west with an Ohio regiment under General Grant and for three years remained in active service, eventually receiving an honorable discharge at the expiration of his term of enlistment. Dur- ing 1876 he brought his family to California and settled at Galt, Sac- ramento county, where he opened a tin-shop and later developed the business into that of general hardware. During 1890 he was be- reaved by the death of his wife, and of recent years he has made his home with his son, John, in Sacramento.
Upon the completion of the regular course of study in the county public schools and a business college of Sacramento, John Latourrette began to learn the trade of a tinner under his father. At the same time he gained a general knowledge of the hardware business and also studied the management of heating apparatus as well as the putting in of plumbing. At the age of eighteen he was able to secure a position with Hallbrock, Merrill & Stetson, and for four years he continued with that firm. Desiring to embark in business for him- self, he resigned his position and rented a shop in Oak Park, where he engaged in sheet-metal work, also in plumbing and heating. For six years he carried on the store alone, after which he was the senior member of the firm of Latourrette & Fical, continuing in that connection until July 18, 1910, when the business was incorporated with the present officers. The house is now one of the largest of its kind in Northern California, and enjoys an enviable reputation for thorough- ness of work and honesty in business transactions. Among the recent plumbing and heating contracts awarded the firm may be mentioned those for Hotel Sacramento, the White and Donnelly building, Forum building, Sacramento county courthouse, California National Bank and People's Savings Bank, as well as contracts for various sub-
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stantial residences in Sacramento and Northern California. In poli- tics Mr. Latourrette always has sustained Republican principles by his ballot. In fraternal relations he holds membership with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Improved Order of Red Men, Eagles, Woodmen and Fraternal Union. On February 24, 1897, he was united in marriage with Miss Etta Larned, whose father settled at Placer- ville during the early mining era and became a man of prominence among the pioneers of the locality. Two daughters, Jessie and Leona, comprise the family of Mr. and Mrs. Latourrette.
MARK H. EBEL
The artistic ability displayed by Mr. Ebel in floriculture comes to him as an inheritance, for his father, Frederick Ebel, has few superiors in landscape gardening and in the appropriate selection of plants to produce certain desired effects. The two have exercised an uplifting influence upon their art in Sacramento, influencing the residents to develop taste in the selection of plants, in the arrange- ments of flowers upon their lawns and in the massing of plants for display. The beautiful lawns of the capital city arouse the admira- tion of all visitors and not a little credit for the same justly belongs to the Ebels, who possess in an unusual degree a genuine love for flowers and a remarkable taste in the creation of artistic effects in landscape gardening. The elder florist, who was born in Hamburg, Germany, and came direct from his native land to Sacramento about 1870, has always made a specialty of landscape gardening, in which capacity he was employed on the state capitol grounds. While in the employ of the Crocker family during the early days he assisted in their important designs for artistic landscape effects and platted as well as superintended the grounds of their art gallery. Throughout his entire life he has engaged in the one occupation. No induce- ments have been sufficient to divert him from the business of his choice and he is now conducting a florist's establishment on Tenth and P streets, where he carries a complete stock of cut flowers as well as every variety of plant life appealing to his large circle of customers.
At the time of his arrival in Sacramento Frederick Ebel was a single man, but shortly afterward he was united in marriage with Miss Dora Stehr, a native of the same German city as himself. They have lost one of their children, a son, August, and the surviv- ing members of their family are Mark H. and Lucy, the latter being the widow of William Woolston, of Sacramento. Mark H. was born
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in Sacramento November 10, 1874, received a common-school educa- tion in his native city and after leaving school worked for his father for a time, meanwhile acquiring a thorough knowledge of plants and flowers. For three years he had the management of the floral business of C. B. Strong & Co., and upon the discontinuation of the same by the owners he purchased the florist's department, which he has since conducted, having been at different locations at various times since he started in business for himself during 1893. At this writing he is the owner and manager of the establishment at Nos. 1016-18 Seventh street, where he conducts one of the most attractive stores of its kind in the city. He has established home ties, having been married September 7, 1911, to Miss Louise Dougherty, of Sac- ramento, a lady of education and culture, who joins with him in maintaining an intelligent interest in all movements for the better- ment of the city. By virtue of his birth in Sacramento he has become identified with the Native Sons of the Golden West, while his fraternal relations are further expanded through membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of Foresters. Ever since he attained his majority he has voted the Republican ticket at national elections and has maintained a warm interest in public enterprises, but has not aspired to official honors nor cared to identify himself with partisan politics.
DANIEL D. AMAYA
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