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 45
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plete establishments of its kind in Los Angeles County outside of the city. In this business Mr. Wyant has associated with him an only son, Charles H. Wyant.
Mr. Wyant for years was a consistent member of the Baptist Church. He is now one of the ardent and loyal supporters of the Union Mission, Sawtelle. He is a man of exemplary habits and strictest integrity and is held in highest esteem by all of the citizens of Sawtelle. He has been enterprising and alert, encouraging and liberally supporting all movements for the upbuilding and betterment of his home city. His influence is always found favorable to the promotion of a healthy condition of public and private morals. He is a Prohibi- tionist in politics but not radically partisan.
HON. THOMAS HORACE DUDLEY, mayor of Santa Monica, and by reason of his position, leading citizen, is a native of Liecestershire, England, and was born October 2nd, 1867. His father, Thomas M. S. Dudley, M. D., was a son of Rev. William Mason Dudley, A. M, vicar of Whitchurch and rector of Laverstoke.
Dr. Dudley married Emily Frances Draycott, daughter of Thomas Draycott, a farmer of Liecestershire, who bore him three daughters and a son of whom Thomas H. was next to the eldest. He was accorded the advantages of good schooling and passed through the Queen Elizabeth Grammar Schools. While yet a youth, the knowledge he acquired of American life and customs inspired him with a desire to try his fortunes in the new world. He came to the United States and located at Bakersfield, California, in 1889, and there engaged in the real estate and insurance business. In 1896 he removed to Santa Monica and engaged in the real estate and insurance business under the firm name of Proctor & Dudley. In February, 1899, he married Mrs. Matilda Brooks Ryan, of Santa Monica, widow of the late Francis G. Ryan; a lady of wealth, refine- ment and social prominence, and a daughter of Francis Wykoff Brooks (deceased) a California pioneer (see index). Soon thereafter the real estate firm of Kinney & Ryan, owners and promotors of the Ocean Park Beach Tract, was succeeded by the firm of Kinney & Dudley and under Mr Dudley's personal management this, then, new and comparatively undeveloped seaside resort was made a phe- nomenal success as time has duly demonstrated Mr. Dudley also became a fac- tor in other successful business enterprises. In 1902 he was one of the organ- izers of the Ocean Park Bank and has since been its president. In 1903 the Merchants National Bank was incorporated and he served as president thereof until early in 190S, when he was succeeded by James H. Grigsby. In 1905 the Bank of Venice was incorporated and Mr. Dudley was chosen, and still serves, as its president. In 1900 Mr. Dudley was elected a member of the Santa Monica City Board of Trustees, serving as chairman of the Board until 1907. Upon the reorganization of the city government under a Freeholders Charter in 1907, Mr. Dudley was elected mayor and is now (1908) the incumbent. He is a member of the B. P. O. E., and a leading member and officer of the St. Aug- ustine Episcopal Church of Santa Monica.
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JOHN J. PEVELER, resi lent of California since 1882, a native of Illinois, was born in the City of Chicago at No. 252 Van Buren Street, January 12th, 1859. His father, George W. Peveler, was by occupation a farmer. He joined the United States Army as a volunteer in the War of the Rebellion, went to the front and was killed at the Battle of Antietam, September 17th, 1862, leaving a widow and an only child, the subject of this sketch. Young Peveler spent his youth in Chicago, attended the public schools and learned the carpenter trade and later the cement contracting business. In 1896 Mr. Peveler went to Alaska where he spent five years and passed through all the excitement and experienced the hard- ships of the gold seekers of Nome and Dawson. He returned to California in 1901 and for several years had charge of numerous jobs of construction cement work for the Los Angeles Pacific Railway Company. Mr. Peveler married in 1904, Miss Theresa H. O'Laughlin, a native of Litchfield, Minnesota, and they have one daughter, Virginia C. The family residence is at the corner of Ninth Street and Nevada Avenue, Santa Monica.
JAMES L. BRICE, of Venice, a native of Hancock County, Ohio, was born May 24th, 1863. His father, Joseph Brice, was a native of Pennsylvania and a son of Henry Brice, a member of one of the pioneer families of Maryland, He was a thrifty farmer and lived in Washington County, Pennsylvania, when he entered for service in the War of 1812, following the example of his father who was a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary War. Joseph Brice was a sailor and navigated Lake Erie. He finally located near Findlay, Ohio, and en- gaged in manufacturing. He later removed to Lima, Ohio, where both himself and wife passed away. Mrs. Brice's maiden name was Lucinda Wolf. She was a native of Ohio.
James L. Brice received his education in the public schools of Allen County, Ohio. He graduated from the High School of Lima, Ohio, and embarked in life as a public school teacher. In 1886 he came west to Denver, Colorado, and later to Lyons, same state, where he engaged in the mercantile business, a member of the firm of Scanlon & Brice. In 1889, during the rush to Cripple Creek, Mr. Brice removed thence to open a general merchandise store. Soon, however, he turned his attention to mining, in which occupation he has been eminently successful in various sections of the state. In 1894, he went to Leadville and in 1899 came farther west to Idaho and operated in the Couer de Alene country. He gained a technical knowledge of mining and became a practical mining engineer. In 1905 he became editor of the mining department of the Idaho State Tribune. In 1906 he established and edited the Idaho Mines and Metals, which property he sold in 1907, since which time he has been associated with various mining enterprises throughout the west. He is president and manager of the Snowstorm Extension Copper Mining Company, of which he is one of the developers, and in a similar capacity is identified with the Idaho Lead and Silver Mining Company and the
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Whipple Mountain Gold and Copper Company, of San Bernardino County, Cali- fornia.
In the year 1897 Mr. Brice married Miss Josephine M. Van Hausen, daughter of Hon. John C. Van Hausen, a wealthy farmer and pioneer of Schuyler, Nebraska. He located at Schuyler about 1869 or 1870, and there married Miss Catherine Mohr. Of their five living children, Mrs. Brice is the oldest. Mrs. Jessie Brad- ford, widowed, is the youngest and is at home with Mrs. Brice. They were both born on the old homestead at Schuyler. John C. Van Hausen was a man of affairs, business and political. He has been honored with elections to the Nebraska State Assembly and likewise to the State Senate, as a Democrat. He was a son of Isaac C. Van Hausen, a native of Schoharie County, New York, and of Holland Dutch parents who were among the earliest pioneers of the Empire State.
In 1907 Mr. Brice purchased valuable real estate on the Coeur de Alene tract near Venice of America upon which he has erected, without exception, the finest residence to be found in the Santa Monica bay cities. Mr. Brice is accounted one of the substantial citizens of the state, takes a broad view of life and a personal interest in the prosperity of his adopted home city. Mr. and Mrs. Brice have one daughter, Beatrice M. Brice.
ROSCOE H. Dow, councilman from the seventh ward of the city of Santa Monica, was born in Booth Bay, Lincoln County, Maine, January 26th, 1873, and lived there until twelve years of age. The family then removed to Bay City, Michigan, and there young Dow grew to manhood. He received his education in the public schools of his native town and Bay City and finally attended Olivet College, Olivet, Michigan. While in Michigan he was more or less identified with Republican politics, holding various elective and appointive positions. At one time he had the distinction of being the youngest judge in the state, having been elected Justice of the Peace in Bay County, Michigan, immediately after attaining his majority. Mr. Dow is a son of John Wesley and Hattie (Tibbets) Dow, who were married in New York in 1867. John Wesley Dow was a native of Maine and was born in 1835, belonged to the Dows of English descent and bears rela- tionship to the late Honorable Neal Dow, of reform and prohibition fame. The major portion of his life has been spent as a mariner, having followed the sea from early boyhood until a time well into the eighties Hattie Tibbets Dow was also of old New England stock and her ancestors were sea-faring people Besides Roscoe H., there are two children -- Frank H. and Mary G.
Mr. R. H. Dow came to California in 1903 and located in Santa Monica and soon thereafter assumed management of the business of the Southwest Warehouse Company. He married in the year 1903, Miss Nellie K. Gillard, of Bay City, Michigan, a daughter of Henry B. and Jenrie (Evans) Gillard. They were natives of London, England, were married in 1866, and came to this country, locating at Port Huron, Michigan, in 1870. There he engaged success-
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fully in the lumber business, and later in farming and is now retired from active business pursuits. He reared a family of ten children.
Mr. Dow was elected to represent the seventh ward of the city of Santa Moni- ca in the common council at the election in April, 1907, and is an efficient and conscientious officer. He is a member of committees on Finance and Supplies, Streets and Cemetery, and is Chairman of the Committee on Buildings. He is a member of the B. P. O. E., No 88, of Bay City, Michigan, and Santa Monica Lodge, No. 307, F. and A. M.
HON. H. B. EAKINS, Mayor of Ocean Park, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in the city of Philadelphia, September 15th, 1865. He there spent his youth, attended the public schools and later passed through the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Va., from which institution he graduated in 1880. He returned home and served an apprenticeship to the trade of watchmaking, which he later followed in Philadelphia and Washington, D. C. At Washington, he also held a position for about three years in the weather bureau under the U. S. Government. In 1887 he came west and spent two years in the Black Hills, South Dakota. There he followed his trade and also became interested in mining, being connected with the Home Stake Mining Company. He was also guard for the Wells Fargo Express Company during the period of extensive shipments of gold bullion from that district. Mr. Eakins also became interested, somewhat, in affairs of state and active in issues involving the location of the state capitol, making a systematic canvass of the country in the interests of the city of Pierre. At that time, William Jennings Bryan was canvassing North Dakota for the Farmers' Alliance and, as a matter of expediency, they joined issues, traveled together and spoke from the same platform, Mr. Eakin usually following Mr. Bryan in the presentation of his cause. He thus became intimately acquainted with the now great "commoner" and candidate for the presidency.
In 1891 he came to Los Angeles. Here he became interested in mining properties in Arizona and also acquired an interest in and held a position with the jewelry firm of Montgomery Brothers, which interest he still retains. While with this house he personally installed the extensive time service of the Santa Fe Railway Co. in Southern California. In 1904 he organized the Commercial Warehouse Company (Incorporated), and is president thereof.
He took up his place of residence in Ocean Park, No. 28 Club House Avenue, in 1903. In April, 1908, Mr. Eakins was elected member of the Board of Trustees of the city of Ocean Park and chosen President of the Board, by virtue of which position he is the executive head of the city government.
Mr. Eakins, in 1890, married at Black Hills, S. D., Miss Gertrude E. Beemer, a native of Racine, Wis., and they have a son, Walter, and a daughter, Margaret. Mr. Eakins is a member of the Southern California Lodge, No. 278, F. and A.M.
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CLARENCE J. NELLIS, leading merchant and representative citizen of Saw telle, is a native of Livingston County, Mo. He was born October 3rd, 1866, only son of James J. Nellis, by profession a school teacher, now a resident of Sawtelle.
Mr. Nellis spent his boyhood and attended the public schools in his native town. At eighteen years of age he attended Park College, Park- ville, Mo., near Kansas City. He commenced his business career as a grocery salesman at Chillicothe, Mo., remaining there seven years. He then went to Tacoma, Wash., and worked in the same capacity for Fulton & Cathcart until they retired from business. He remained in Ta- coma until the spring of 1889, when he went to Alaska and engaged in mining on Forty Mile River. He located and worked claims in Frank- lin Gulch and Napoleon Creek, both tributary thereto. His expedition was on the whole a financial success. CLARENCE J. NELLIS. Mr. Nellis, coming to California in 1902, located in Sawtelle, engaged in the grocery business and has built up an extensive trade with one of the finest equipped stores in the Santa Monica Bay region. Mr. Nellis is one of Sawtelle's most enterprising and progressive citizens and has energetically worked for the advancement of the civic, business and social interests of his city. Upon the resignation of F. C. Langdon from the Board of City Trustees of Sawtelle, Mr. Nellis was appointed to fill the office and was promptly chosen chairman of the board. As the executive head of the city government he has made an enviable record, standing squarely for the enactment of statutory and efficient code of practical working ordinances and a faithful execution of the same.
NATHAN BUNDY, one of the earliest residents of Santa Monica, was born in Morgan County, Ohio, December 16th, 1846, his father having died three months before his birth. He grew up on the farm and acquired a public school education. He learned the trade of house and sign painter which he followed in Iowa and to some extent after coming to California and locating in Santa Monica, April 30th, 1876. Santa Monica was then a small but growing village, nd Mr. Bundy
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did a successful business at his trade Later he made judicious investments in real estate which proved profitable. He lived in Santa Monica upwards of twenty years and in 1898 retired to Lo : Angeles, where he remained until 1907. At that time he built and located at Westgate.
Mr. Bundy married Miss Harriet Smith and they have one daughter and five sons, the latter all highly esteemed and successful busines men of Santa Monica and Los Angeles-F. E. Bundy, G. G. Bundy, C. L. Bundy, Nathan P. Bundy and Thomas C. Bundy. The daughter, Sarah E. Bundy, is still at home.
CHARLES ALEY BOUCK, of Venice, is a native of Green County, Ohio, where he was born in the township of Beaver Creek, July 11th, 1856. His grandfather, Henry Bouck, was a Pennsylvanian as was also his maternal grandfather, John Aley, and both were of Holland Dutch parentage. John Aley was an early- day pioneer of Green County, owned valuable farm lands and a steam saw mill at "Aley's Mills," in Beaver Creek Township. The family had a large member- ship which, with its connections, constituted by far the larger portion of the thrifty and prosperous community ; Sarah Aley Bouck was the fourth daughter of this family. Mr. and Mrs. Bouck had three sons-Orrin L., who became a wealthy manufacturer of Dayton, Ohio, died September 27th, 1906; William Lincoln, who died in infancy, and Charles A., the subject of this sketch. Mr. Bouck grew up on his father's farm and about the mills in which his father also was interested. At sixteen years of age he went to Dayton and attended the public schools about two years. He then followed the trade of carpentry about three years in Springfield, Ohio. Later he was with the Mast-Foos Co., manufacturers, until 1881. In 1881 he married Miss Cora D. Harnish, a daughter of Christian Harnish, a wholesale and retail grocery merchant of Springfield. In 1882 Mr. and Mrs. Bouck came to Los Angeles and were guests of the family of Ex-Mayor Henry T. Hazzard, whose residence was where the Grand Theater on North Main Street now stands. They were among the early comers to the Boca de Santa Monica Canyon. They returned east in 1884 and came again to California in 1890. In 1891 Mr. Bouek went to Colton and was one of the first purchasers of unimproved land in the now rich and beautiful Colton Ter- race tract, where he erected buildings and made other improvements. The same year, by the wrecking of a farm building during a severe storm, December 11th, 1891, Mr. Bouck received injuries which permanently disabled him for active business, but in no degree affected his mind. From the spring of 1897 to 1903 the family lived at Hollister Avenue and Ocean Front. In 1904 they were among the first to build at Short Line Beach, Venice, and have since been identified with the marvelous beach developments. Mr. Bouck takes a lively interest in all that transpires and, through his extensive reading, keeps in touch with the outside world. He is much interested in the development of his adopted city of Venice and has great faith in its future. Mrs. Bouck is a lady of splendid
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social and business attainments and lends her time and influence in forwarding the social and civic interests of Venice, and she has entire management of the Venetian Villa City.
Mr. and Mrs. Bouck have one son, C. Harnish Bouck, born at New Carlisle, Ohio, February 25th, 1886. He married at Venice, December 12th, 1907, Miss Nettie Lillis Robinson, of Stockton, California. He may properly go on record as one of the active promotors of Venice, since in 1904 he aided in erecting the first building in the city having a roof, for the Abbot Kinney Company, and soon thereafter opened the first store which was located near the Ocean Front on the east side of Center Street. He is now chief engineer at the power house of the Abbot Kinney Company, Venice.
NOAH R. SMITH, D. D. S., Santa Monica, is a native of Missouri and was born in the town of Clarksville, Pike County, February 11th, 1874. His father, John R. Smith, was a farmer by oc- cupation and was born in the same county in 1841, there grew up and married Catherine, a daughter of Noah Griffith, who came from Bourbon County, Ky., and pioneered in Mis- souri. John R. Smith's parents were Virginians and pioneered in Pike County, Missouri, as early as 1840, bringing with them considerable property which included a number of slaves. The father was a typical Southern man, a democrat of the pronounced type and a firm believer in the divine institution of slavery, the doctrine of the State's rights and secession. John R. Smith spent his entire life on his farm in Pike Coun- ty, and there raised a family of four children. While on a visit to Dr. Smith at Santa Monica he died, in N. R. SMITH, D.D.S. 1901, and his remains were taken to Clarksville and laid beside his wife in the old family plot of the Clarksville Cemetery. Dr. Smith is the third child of his parents. He attended the public schools of Clarksville, and later graduated from La Grange College, La Grange, Lewis County, Mo., in the class of 1891. He then attended the Western Dental College, Kansas City, Mo., graduating therefrom in 1896. He commenced practicing his profession at New Franklin, Howard County, Mo., and remained
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there about five years. At New Franklin he met and married Miss Roberta M., a daughter of H. M. and May (Hanson) Todd, now of Ocean Park, California.
By reason of failing health a change of climate was necessitated and they came to California, locating at Santa Monica in 1901. Mrs. Todd's mother, the grandmother of Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Sarah L. Hanson, is a resident of Beverly Hills. She is a charming and sweet-spirited woman of eighty-two years and is a native of Virginia. Her father was Colonel Peter Pierce who, during the period antedating the Civil War, was a foremost property owner and slave holder of Virginia. His ancestors and all the interests of the family were intimately associated with the history of that state.
Dr. Smith has become a fixture, both as a successful dentist and an esteemed citizen of Santa Monica. He and Mrs. Smith are members of the Baptist Church. They have four children-Nelson R., John Robert., Roberta Elizabeth and J. Fred. The family home is No. 1417 Yale Street.
THE REV. JOHN D. H. BROWNE was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and educated at the grammar school, and by private tutors, and at Dalhousie College, Halifax, and King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia. He was ordained deacon in 1873, having been the gospeler of a class of six, and priest in the following year, by Bishop Binney of Nova Scotia, and entered at once upon the duties of the active ministry.
In 1880 Mr. Browne, having been the rector of the important parish of Dorchester, New Brunswick, was elected clerical secretary of the Diocese of Nova Scotia, and was also editor and publisher of Church Work, a very largely circulated monthly, and of The Church Guardian, published weekly, which soon became the most largely circulated Church paper in Canada.
Ill health forced Mr. Browne to give up his important positions in the East. dispose of his papers, and remove to the Pacific Coast, in May, 1884, since which time he has been in active service in Southern California, where he has been successful in building a number of Churches, and in developing strong centers of Church work and life in several places.
Mr. Browne built the beautiful Church at Pomona in 1885; a Church and rectory at Pasadena, in 1888: the Church at Covina in 1890; the Church in San Bernardino in 1898; and has greatly enlarged and beautified the Church at Santa Monica, where he now resides, and of which Parish he has been the Rector for nearly nine years.
Mr. Browne is a member of, and secretary to, the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Los Angeles. He is also chairman of the Convention's Com- mittee on Church Charities, chairman of the Committee on the Episcopate En- dowment Fund, chairman of the Press Committee and chairman of the Commit- tee on Work Among Seamen.
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In 1898 a Church paper for the Diocese was started and Mr. Browne was elected by Convention its editor, since which time the Los Angeles Churchman has been continued under his editorial management. This paper is now owned as well as edited and published by him, and is successfully covering the field of Church Journalism in Southern California.
The Parish of St. Augustine-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, when Mr. Browne took charge of it, reported twenty-seven communicants, while now it is in a very flourishing condition, having grown to 203 communicants and having be- come the seventh of all the Parishes and Missions of the Diocese.
Mr. Browne finds time from his official duties to lend his aid to every public matter having to do with the moral and material welfare of the city, and in the Board of Trade and elsewhere has been a useful and enthusiastic citizen, and a willing worker in advancing the general interests of the community.
THOMAS R. LOWE is a California pioneer, coming to the state from Girard, Erie County, Pa. He is a native of England, and was born at Durham in 1841. Coming to Canada with his parents in 1848, he located at Queenbush, north of Toronto, in the Township of Wallace. In 1863 he came to Pennsylvania and in 1867 to San Francisco, where he engaged in farming and a brief time at lumbering in the redwood forests of Mendocino County, near Eureka. In 1875 he went to Lincoln County, Nevada, where he engaged in farming on the Rio Muddy. From 1881 to 1883 he operated a ferry across the Colorado River at its junction with the Rio Virgin in Lincoln County, Nevada. In December, 1888, he came to Santa Monica, and for sixteen years was in charge of the property of the Santa Monica Land & Water Company, as overseer of the water plant, and one of their trusted employees. He has made investments in Santa Monica property from time to time and now owns some of the best located residence property in the city. He is widely known and highly esteemed for his sterling traits of character. He has retired from active life.
FRANK LAWTON, well known throughout this region of Southern California for his enterprise and business activities, is a native of Springfield, Hampden County, Mass., born August 12th, 1860. His father, Michael Lawton, was a civil engineer by profession and occupation and as such, was in the employ of the United States Government and, during the Civil War, served throughout the conflict as a member of the Engineer Corps. He was a native of County Cork, Ireland. He came to America when a young man, and married Elizabeth O'Reilly. They were thrifty, prosperous people and almost lifelong residents of Hampden County. They both died advanced in years at Chicopee Falls.
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