USA > California > Los Angeles County > Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities prefaced with a brief history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County, 1542-1908 > Part 42
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Mr. Alton has been twice married. The present Mrs. Alton was America Weaver Lee, a member of a branch of the famous Lee family of Virginia. Mr. Alton's life has been one of great industry and business activity. Leaving the parental roof when a mere lad to make his own way in the world, he soon there- after promptly responded to the country's call to arms in defense and preservation of the Union, and with shattered constitution returned to the responsibilities of active civil citizenship. With meagre means he engaged in farming in a new and frontier country, and by diligent endeavor, aggressive yet conservative enterprise he became one of the most successful and influential farmers in his county. He also, as a matter of civic duty, took an active part in shaping the policies and conducting the public affairs of his county and was for seventeen years Supervisor of Tenhaussen Township and chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Martin County. Notwithstanding his manifold private responsibilities and his public duties, Mr. Alton found time for extensive travel, having visited nearly every state in the Union making, meantime, thirteen trips from the Mississippi River to California, thoroughly prospecting the country for the most desirable home location. Sawtelle may be congratulated upon the fact that Mr. Alton, after so much deliberation, has finally taken up his home in its midst, where he has invested many thousands of dollars in city realty and income property.
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ALVIN N. ARCHER, a well known pioneer citizen of Ocean Park, Santa Monica, is a native of the State of Maine, born in the town of Charlotte, Washington County, October 23rd, 1844. His father, John N. Archer, a shoemaker by trade and occupation, a native of the same state, married Abigal Hughes and they raised a family of four sons and four daughters of whom Alvin N. was the fifth. Abigal Hughes was the daughter of John Hughes, a native of Wales, G. B. He was a man of great physical strength and a professional athlete. Young Archer left home at eighteen years of age and in 1862 entered the Union Army for the Civil War. He was mustered into the service at the town of Lincoln, Penobscot County ; First Maine Artil- lery, Battery I., which was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. His regiment was held in the defense of Washington until April, 1864, and was then sent to the front under the command of General W. S. Hancock. They participated in all the bloody fighting involved in the Siege of ALVIN N. ARCHER. Petersburg and it is a matter of public record that the First Maine Artillery sustained a larger per cent of losses than any other in the Federal Army. In one instance, when assaulting the breastworks, Mr. Archer's battery came out with only seven out of a total of sixty man who made the charge. Mr. Archer received two wounds during the war and still carries a musket ball under his shoulder blade. He mustered out in July, 1865, at Philadelphia, Pa., and soon thereafter returned home. For a time he followed lumbering and in 1877 went to Michigan, located at Midland and worked for the Flint & Pere Marquette Ry. Co. In 1879 he removed to Madison, South Dakota, and worked on a bonanza farm. In 1891 he came west to Oregon and in 1892 to Southern California. He was in poor health and located at Santa Monica. For the Y. M. C. A. he erected the first building in South Santa Monica in 1894. For four years he was local agent of the Santa Fe Ry. Company. Later he held the office of deputy constable and was also the first uniformed policeman of the new town. He was the prime factor in organizing fire company No. 2, and for years was its president. He was elected and served as a member of the board of Freeholders that draughted the present city charter
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of Santa Monica. He is at present member of the City Fire Commission having in charge all matters relating to the present efficient fire department. Mr. Archer married at Ocean Park, in 1892, Miss Luetta Litch, a native of Fredonia, N. Y., and a daughter of Joseph Litch, a one time extensive farmer and land owner of Chautauqua County, N. Y. He, however, met with financial reverses and died in middle life. The mother soon passed away leaving the daughter in the guardianship of her present husband. Mr. and Mrs. Archer have four children-Bula June, the first child born of American parents in South Santa Monica: Reed M .: Glen E .; Altha F. The Archer home is No. 245 Hill Street. Mr. Archer is one of the influential and progressive pioneers of Ocean Park, Santa Monica, and takes a lively interest in the public welfare of his adopted city.
DANIEL MELOY was born at Harrisburg, Pa., September 15th, 1833, the son of John Meloy, a farmer who settled on the western frontier in Ohio at what is now the City of Wooster, in 1834. In 1836 he removed to Mercer County, Ohio, and settled on wild land in a dense wilderness. There he developed a good farm. In 1841 he went to Whitney County Ind., and located near the county seat, Columbia, and developed an eighty acre farm. Later he made a new location in Kosciusko County, Ind., which became the permanent family home.
He married Mary Smith at Harrisburg, Pa., and they raised a family of thirteen children. He died on the old homestead in 1891 at eighty-five years of age.
Daniel lived at home until twenty-one years of age. He then spent two years in Illinois and two years in Iowa. Iowa then had no railroads and corn was worth but eight cents per bushel. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted in the Federal army, Co. B, 52nd. Ind. Vol. Inf., and went to the front. He was about nineteen months in the Fifteenth Army Corps, under General Thomas, did some lively fighting at the battles of Gettysburg, was in the fight at Shanondoah, Winchester and at Harpers Ferry. He remained in the army until the war was over. He had two brothers, Seth and Andrew, who responded to the first call for volunteers. The latter lost his life at Corinth, Miss.
After the war, Mr. Meloy emigrated to Kansas and located near Senaca, the county seat of Numnah County, and purchased one hundred sixty acres of land. Later he lived for fifteen years at Fort Scott, Kansas. In 1877 he came to Cali- fornia and lived a short time at Pasadena. In 1878 he located near Santa Monica, at what is now Twentieth Street, near Colorado Avenue, where he owns eight good residence lots.
Mr. Meloy married in Kosciosko County, Ind., Miss Amarylis F. Thomas, a daughter of George Thomas, by whom he has four children living-Tryphosa F .. Horace T. Meloy, a well known and successful business man of Santa Monica; Rosetta H. and David C. Mrs. Meloy died August 3rd, at sixty-four years of age.
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HENRY X. GOETZ, for nearly a quarter of a century a resident of California, and since 1888 an active and influential citizen of Santa Monica, is a native of the Province of Ontario, Canada, where he was born August 7th, 1861. His father, Andrew Goetz, was of German parentage, and spent his entire life in Ontario. He was a thrifty farmer whose parents emigrated from Strasburg, Germany, about the time of his birth and were pioneers in the early settlement of the country. Henry Goetz lived on the home farm until 1881, when he started out single handed and alone to carve his own future in the business world. He went first to the town of Walkerville, Ontario, and entered the employ of Hiram Walker & Sons, founders of the town. His services were so valuable to his employers that, although but a youth, they placed him in charge of a crew of men. He remained with Hiram Walker & Sons two years and acquired valu- able knowledge and experience in various departments of the building and me- chanical business. The years 1883 and 1884 he spent in Victoria, British Columbia. In November, 1885, he came to California, spending eleven months in San Francisco. The following year (1886) he came to Southern California and spent one year in Los Angeles, after which he located permanently in Santa Monica.
Mr. Goetz found Santa Monica just awakening from a protracted period of lethargy, the result of a miscarriage of ambitious plans for building here a har- bor city. The completion of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. into Los Angeles this year resulted in the influx of armies of people overland from the east, the spontaneous advance in realty and the greatest land boom the country has ever witnessed. Santa Monica began to expand and Mr. Goetz became active- ly interested in her civic, political and business development. He has erected a large number of Santa Monica's finest business blocks, public buildings and residences. He built the Santa Monica Bank building in 1888, and later the Academy of the Holy Names, corner of Third Street and Arizona Avenue. He has built several of Santa Monica's finest school buildings, notably, the Lincoln High School and the Washington Buildings. He also built the North Beach Bath House, the Santa Monica City Hall, the Public Library, the Bundy Block and the Ocean Park City Hall and Fire House. The Dudley Building, corner of Third Street and Oregon Avenue, is evidence of the thoroughly architectural and substantial manner in which Mr. Goetz pursues his business, both as a de- signer and builder. In the building of Venice, Mr. Goetz took an active part. He built the Venice Bath House, the lake and grand canal system, in thirty days time, under rush orders; also, at the same time, the St. Marks Hotel, to- gether with a number of other buildings, a phenomenal feat in view of all the circumstances.
Few citizens of Santa Monica have been more active and influential in public affairs than Mr. Goetz. He served four years, 1893 to 1897, on the Board of City Trustees and was Chairman of the Judiciary and Ordinance Committee, likewise Chairman of the Committee on Streets and Parks, in this latter capacity
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introducing and testing the present splendid system of petrolithic oil paving for streets and roads now adopted throughout Southern California. To this work he devoted much time and serious attention and the results must stand as a monument to his energy and wisdom as an officer and public servant. Mr. Goetz, in July, 1908, was elected president of the Santa Monica Board of Trade to succeed Mr. J. J. Seymour. Mr. Goetz was married in 1887, in Los Angeles, to Miss Catherine G. Woods, a native of San Francisco. They have three child- ren-Joseph H., Mary and Milton. He is a member of the local lodge of Foresters of America, the Knights of Columbus and the B. P. O. E. For many years a consistent Democrat in politics, he is not radically partisan but stands rather for good men for office and good public measures, not party expediences. The Goetz family residence, one of the most substantial and artistic in the city, is on North Third Street, No. 1043.
GEORGE BOEHME, pioneer of Santa Monica, is a native of Alsace-Lorraine, then a province of France, and was born in the year 1829. He came to America in 1850, landing at New Orleans. In 1852 he came to California and spent several months in the mines. In 1854 he established himself in the tinning and plumbing business, in San Francisco. In 1855, he removed to Sacramento, and engaged there in the same line of business for a period of twenty years. He there assisted in laying the corner stone of the present State Capitol building, and later was assigned the contract for the copper roofing of the same.
In 1865 was appointed lieutenant in the Sacramento Hussars, Fourth Brigade National Guards.
In 1875 he came to Santa Monica and disembarked from the first vessel that touched at the first Santa Monica wharf. He immediately invested in about $2,000 worth of city lots, purchasing the same at the first auction held. From that date he took an active part in the material advancement of his chosen home city. In 1887, he built the Boehme Block, on Second Street, near Utah Avenue, which was at that time the most pretentious business block in the city. For many years he carried on a successful hardware and plumbing business and became a large holder of real estate, both business and residential.
He held the office of City Treasurer from 1892 to 1895, and was succeeded by Eugene W. Boehme, his son, who held the office four terms. During recent years he has led a retired, quiet life.
Mr. Boehme married in 1860 Miss Mary Kalgarif, a native of Ireland, who came to New Orleans, at eighteen years of age, and in 1855, with a brother, to California, and lived at Sacramento. They have three sons and a daughter, George C., Henry M., Eugene W., well known business men of Santa Monica, and Adaline.
Mr. Boehme has been an active and successful business man, and commands the respect and esteem of all who know him.
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JOHN METCALF, capitalist and retired citizen of Venice, has been an impor- tant factor in the upbuilding and commercial development of the Canal City. He is a native of Yorkshire, England and was born February 9th, 1842. His father, Thomas Metcalf, was a lead miner by occupation and was reared to his calling in the mining regions of Yorkshire. He came to America in 1849, bringing his family with him, and located at Dubuque, Iowa, his destination. He soon, however, located almost opposite Dubuque across the Mississippi River in South- western Wisconsin in the town of Benton, La Fayette County, where he purchased a farm upon which he lived until his death in 1855. He was about forty-three years of age.
Young Metcalf grew up at Benton and commenced the battle of life at the tender age of thirteen years. He first worked in the lead mines of the Galena district near his home, for fifty cents per day, and by studied industry and frugal habits coupled with intelligent economy, he gradually improved his financial con- dition. In 1864 he joined the Union Army and went to Texas. He was in the service one year when the war came to a close and, returning home, he turned his "sword into a plough share" and went to farming. He raised and bought cattle and engaged in the butchering business. In order to better his field for operation he sold his property in La Fayette County and removed to Hardin County, Iowa, and later to Sioux City, buying and selling real estate. He finally became interest in property in Obrien County, northeast of Sioux City and located at Paullina, then a small town in a new but promising country. He engaged in the real estate business and also became heavily interested in grain and stock farms. In 1883, he established the present Bank of Paullina of which he has since been the owner. Later, in 1902, he purchased the Bank of Merrill in Ply- mouth County, Iowa, of which he is still the owner. Mr. Metcalf has always pursued a liberal yet intelligently conservative business policy and he makes and values money for the good it can be made to accomplish for mankind at large. By judicious investment in worthy enterprises he makes it the force that opens up new industries and developes the country.
Mr. Metcalf first came to California in the winter of 1893-4 and visited various sections of the State. He finally purchased fifty-four acres of land of Antonio Machado, it being a portion of the La Bullona Grant. He bought it for its value for alfalfa land, as an investment. The building of the Los Angeles Pacific Short Line R. R., and the development of the beautiful city of Venice brought this land into demand for other purposes and in 1905 it was platted as the Venice Gateway Tract into three hundred and fifty residence lots of the usual size. The major portion of the tract has been sold to home builders and to others as investments. The streets are sixty feet wide beside twenty feet on each side is devoted to sidewalk and parking purposes. The Ocean Park City Hall is located at Venice Gateway, the land for which was donated to the city.
Mr. Metcalf is one of the incorporators and a stock holder in the Venice Shoe Manufacturing Company, Inc., and a director of the corporation. He erected
W. B. B. TAYLOR.
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at an expense of about $12,000, the beautiful and substantial factory building which he leases to the new industry at a nominal rental price.
In 1869 Mr. Metcalf married Miss Mary A. Simpson, of Dubuque, Iowa. She died at Paullina, Iowa, in 1892. In 1894 he married Mrs. Bell R. Carpenter. They maintain their old home at Paullina, Iowa, and have a beautiful modern California home at Venice Gateway.
WENDELL B. B. TAYLOR, pioneer attorney of Sawtelle, was born at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, May 4th, 1875. He is the son of Rev. George Taylor, pastor of the Baptist Church of Sawtelle. On the maternal side he is a son of the Revolution. At the age of seven years, with his parents, he moved to Maine, where he lived three years, when the family determined to come to California, arriving here in December, 1885. After residing nine months in Los Angeles the family moved to Pasadena, where over fifteen years of Mr. Taylor's life was spent. There he received his education. After being graduated from the Pasa- dena High School, in the Class of 1897, and spending one year at Pomona College, Claremont, he took a thorough course of bookkeeping and stenography and enter- ed upon the study of law at the law offices of Hahn & Hahn, the leading attorneys of Pasadena, spending five years in hard study and office work, receiving a thorough training in both theory and practice. He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the State of California on the 20th day of October, 1903, at which time he enjoyed a good practice, which has since grown. His practice includes all phases of the law, both civil and criminal, but he is making a specialty of corporation and probate law and conveyancing. Since coming to Sawtelle he incorporated all the established churches of the place, the Sawtelle Water Com- pany, the Sawtelle Cemetery Association, beside other corporations, while his probate matters carry him frequently into the courts. These, together with his office practice, make him a busy man.
He came to Sawtelle about the middle of April, 1902, and commenced work for Mr. W. E. Sawtelle, then manager of the Pacific Land Company, and remained with him until they formed the real estate co-partnership of Sawtelle & Company, which did a good business for a number of years. Mr. Sawtelle then became associated with the Citizens State Bank and Mr. Taylor became the first City Attorney of the City of Sawtelle and turned his attention solely to the practice of law and to fire insurance.
Mr. Taylor has served as Clerk of the Sawtelle School District and Sawtelle City School District Boards for about six years ; has been two terms Chief Templar of the Sawtelle Good Templars Lodge; is serving his fourth term as Clerk of the Baptist Church of Sawtelle; served one term as Noble Grand of the Sawtelle Lodge, No. 128, I. O. O. F., and is serving his sixth year as Secretary of the Sunday School Convention of the Los Angeles Baptist Association.
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On the 8th day of June, 1904, Miss Carrie Adelia Hoyt and Mr. Taylor were united in marriage at the home of the bride's uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. O. E. Goodale, at Los Angeles. Mr. Goodale was for fifteen years the efficient chief civil engineer at the Pacific Branch, N. H. D. V. S., which position he resigned to take up architectural work. During this period Mrs. Taylor was a member of Mr. Goodale's family. She was a hard worker in the Protestant Chapel of the Home, as choir leader and organist and her activity in religious and patriotic circles of the institution made her acquaintance an extensive one. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor reside at Pine Knoll, No. 654 West Oregon Avenue. They have two small children.
Mr. Taylor has two brothers, both married. Mr. Hawley O. Taylor is proficient as a civil and mining engineer, and is now a student at Cornell Univer- sity. Mr. Almo R. Taylor, with his family, reside at present at Sawtelle. He is chief artist for the Neuner Company, Los Angeles.
In the long struggle for the incorporation of the City of Sawtelle, Mr. Taylor was a hard worker for the cause of incorporation, which finally triumphed. After the incorporation of the city and election of the first board of trustees and officers, the disincorporationists petitioned for an election to disincorporate under the law provided for that purpose. Mr. Taylor, as the first city attorney, rendered an opinion that the board of trustees were without jurisdiction to enter- tain the petition or call the election on the ground that there was no method of ascertaining the sufficiency of the petition as to the requisite number of qualified electors signing the same, as there had as yet been no municipal election in the City of Sawtelle within the meaning of the disincorporation act, the election to incorporate the city being a special election and not a municipal election. The act provided that the petition must be signed by qualified electors of the city equal in number to one-half the vote cast at the last municipal election held therein. The matter was carried into the courts and the opinion of Mr. Taylor was sus- tained.
JAMES STEPHEN TALKINGTON is a retired resident of this city, a native of Crawford County, Ark., born at Cedar Creek, twelve miles north of Van Buren, the county seat, September 20th, 1844. His father was Allen A. Talkington, a farmer, a native of Todd County, Ky., who pioneered on the western frontier in Arkansas, raising a family of six children. He came to California in 1869, lived and died at Orange, Orange County, his decease taking place in 1903, when he was ninety-three years of age. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Elizabeth Nichols, also a native of Kentucky. She died in 1884, at seventy-four years of age, at her home in Orange, Cal. Mr. Talkington has a brother, Simeon N., of No. 323 Tenth Street, Santa Monica. Three sisters are living : Mrs. Marga- ret Marshall, widow, No. 231 West Sixty-second St., Los Angeles; Mrs. Ethelinda Yarnell, widow, of Orange, Cal., and Mrs. James V. Sutton, of Orange.
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Mr. Talkington, at nineteen years of age, May 10th, 1864, joined the Con- federate Army. It was, however, under a misconception of the true condition of affairs, and he soon made a trip into Mexico through Southwest Texas, and took a hand in the revolution then in progress in that country, encountering much hardship and adventure. He returned home in August, 1865. The family soon thereafter came overland with ox teams and covered wagons, Mr. Talkington driving a team of four yoke of oxen, with a "Prairie Schooner," the entire distance. They located and lived three years in the mountains of San Diego county. In 1869 they removed to Orange county, where the parents died, and a portion of the family still reside. Mr. Talkington later lived at Tropico, and also later in Los Angeles. In 1893, he located in Santa Monica, and now lives on 216 Arizona Avenue, between Second and Third Streets.
There are few cities on the Pacific Coast that have attached to their citizen- ship a larger percentage of well-to-do and the wealthy men of the country than has Santa Monica. Bernard Quinn is one of the recent acquisitions to this most thrifty colony. Mr. Quinn is a native of Ireland, having been born in County Armagh in 1837. His father, Michael Quinn, died in Ireland and the widow, with seven children came to America, locating in Allegheny County, Pa., about twenty-one miles above the city of Pitts- burg. Here the mother died at the age of about fifty years. Young Quinn grew to manhood in Allegheny County and when ten years of age learned the business of operating a stationary engine, pursuing that calling for several years. In the year 1856, at the age of nineteen, he came west to the territory of Nebraska. Here he did a freighting business with teams and wagons for the United States Govern- ment, transporting supplies to the troops garrisoned at Fort Benton.
In 1864 he, with a brother, Charles, BERNARD QUINN. came still further westward to Montana. The transportation was made with a train Of twenty-five emigrant wagons, each drawn by five yokes of oxen, young Quinn driving the lead team. The Quinn brothers owned six of these outfits. They located about one hundred miles north of what is now the city of Helena and engaged in mining with very indiffer-
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ent success. In 1867 they went to Salt Lake City, where they purchased of the Mormons one hundred and sixty cows and calves. This stock they drove north into Montana and for about fifteen years engaged in stock raising in that state. Their range covered a stretch of country nine miles square, one of the richest and best watered in the region and they made the business profitable. In 1888 they disposed of all their stock interests and went to Butte City where they invested heavily in city property. The brother died in Butte City in May, 1897, at 78 years of age.
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