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 46
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In response to a burning desire for adventure and an ambition to see the world, Frank Lawton, at about eleven years of age, left home without even the formal consent of his parents, went to sea and for many years sailed the open seas, rounding Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, visiting all the principal foreign seaports and San Francisco. After making a final voyage to Japan he returned to San Francisco and came south and located at Monrovia. This was in 1885 before the building of the Santa Fe Railway east of Los Angeles, when Monrovia was simply a "four corners" hamlet. Mr. Lawton here made his first business venture by opening the first hotel at Monrovia ; later he opened the first restaurant in the town. He there met and married Miss Emily Kallmeyer, in 1886, a daughter of Garret Kallmeyer, a wealthy farmer of El Monte. This was the first wedding to take place in the new city. Mr. Lawton remained at Monrovia two years, then went to Santa Fe Springs, a new and promising health resort about twelve miles east of Los Angeles on the Santa Fe Railway, and opened a hotel. In 1889 he came to Santa Monica, opened a hotel of twenty-five rooms, and a restaurant on Long Wharf at Port Los Angeles and operated the same about four years. About this time the town of Sawtelle was exploited and Mr. Lawton was promptly on the spot with the first stock of general merchandise. This store he conducted for a time, sold out to C. J. Nellis and went to the new town of Sherman where he built a thirty-six room hotel, the Larramond. He did a successful business there for about three years, simultaneously having in charge the purchase and handling of all the commissary supplies of the L. A. P. Ry. Co. After the taking over of the property at old Ballona Harbor by the Beach Land Co., and completion of the improvements there, Mr. Lawton made a lease of the entire property and operated the pavilion dining rooms, skating rink and dance hall, two hotels, launches and row boats on the lagoon, etc., etc., making it an immensely popular resort for pleasure seekers until he sold out to C. M. Pierce, the present owner. In 1905 he took a lease on and opened the new ship hotel, Cabrillo, the auditorium and the Hotel St. Marks, at Venice. In this connection he brought to Venice the famous Ellery Band of fifty-four instruments which gave the new Venetian city a prestige and popularity that was the envy of all other resorts on the coast. In September, 1907, Mr. Lawton disposed of all his interests at Venice. Upon the retirement of Dana Burks from the Ocean Park Board of City Trustees, Mr. Lawton was chosen to succeed him and served until April, 1908. This is the only political office he ever held and it came to him entirely unsought.
In the spring of 1908, Mr. Lawton negotiated leases on large tracts of the most picturesque portions of Santa Monica Canyon and also Rustic Canyon, tributary thereto, and is spending a large amount of money converting it into a first class pleasure resort. Famed for its natural scenie beauties, its towering bluffs, its grand spreading old sycamore trees, affording ample shade and ideal camping grounds, its abundant supply of cool spring water, its grateful breeze direct from the ocean, with direct transportation via L. A. P. Ry. from Los
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Angeles and all beach resorts on Santa Monica Bay to the canyon, surely Mr. Lawton's new enterprise cannot fail to prove a source of delight to all lovers of out of door life and rational recreation. It will be seen by the foregoing nar- ration of facts that Mr. Lawton is thoroughly possessed of the true spirit of the pioneer, having from the time he first came to Southern California been the first on the ground in undeveloped localities and new enterprises, alive to the demands of the present and the possibilities of the future and has ever "made good" in the accomplishment of his purposes.
Mr. Lawton is the principal stockholder and president of the Montezuma Rubber Company of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, extensive shippers and exporters of crude rubber, supplying some of the heaviest manufacturers of pneumatic and solid rubber tire manufacturers in this and foreign countries and employing from 350 to 400 men. Mr. Lawton owns a fine ranch and country home at El Monte and a seaside villa at No. 9 Club House Avenue, Venice. Mr. and Mrs. Lawton have two sons-David Edward, who is interpreter of Spanish for the Montezuma Rubber Co., in Mexico, and Homer Alfred, a student at Harvard Military School, Los Angeles.
L. H. CASE, M. D., Santa Monica, is a successful physician and is a native of New York. He was born in Watertown, Jefferson County, June 22nd, 1877, a son of Samuel Case, a respected and well known citizen of Santa Monica. Dr. Case was a boy of ten years when the family came to California. He received his schooling principally in the public schools of Los Angeles and Santa Monica. He studied medicine with the late Dr. J. J. Place, who, for about ten years, was a popular practitioner in Santa Monica. Dr. Case later took a course in medicine at the Hahnemann Pacific Medical College, San Francisco, from which institution he graduated in the year 1900, receiving the degree of M. D. He then returned to Santa Monica and commenced the practice of his profession. He is a member of the California State, and also, the Southern California Medical Societies.
In December, 1901, he married Miss Catharyn Miles, a daughter of the lamented Rev. Elam C. Miles, a pioneer of Southern California and Santa Monica, a brief biography of whom appears on another page of this book. Mrs. Case is a native daughter of Santa Monica where she has passed the greater portion of her life. Dr. Case is a member of the F. and A. M. and the B. P. O. E., of Santa Monica. Mrs. Case is an active and popular member of the O. E. S., of Santa Monica and is Past Matron of the Santa Monica Lodge. She is also an active and effective worker in the Santa Monica Woman's Club, and one of its most popular members. In July, 1908, she was, by acclamation, chosen the club's president. She is charming in her personality, possesses good executive ability and makes an able presiding officer.
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REV. ELAM C. MILES (deceased) was born in Litchfield County, Conn., in 1832, a son of Stephen and Delia M. (Hawley) Miles. They were staid and highly respected New England people by birth and ancestry. He was a success- ful farmer. The son grew up on the old homestead, was passionately fond of good books and studiously devoted his spare moments to systemized reading and study ; thus becoming in a liberal degree, self educated. He became an ex- pert mathematician and held the professorship of higher mathematics in Jefferson County Institute, St. Louis, Mo., when only twenty years of age. In 1861 he married Miss Elizabeth C. Massey in the town of Morris, Grundy County, Il1. Her father, Sylranus P. Massey, was of English and Irish extraction. He was a merchant by occupation and a native of Salem, Mass., where he grew to man- hood. He married Hannah Shedd, of Tewksbury, Mass., and there their two children, Elizabeth and Sylranus, Jr., were born, she being the eldest. She was born in the same house and rocked in the same cradle as was her father. About 1855 when this daughter was twelve years of age the family came on to the then western frontier and located in Illinois near the town of Manlins, La Salle County. Later the father became a prosperous merchant in the town of Lostant, in the same county. He there died at about seventy-five years of age. By a second marriage he left a son, Solon P. Massey, of Lake Mills, Iowa. Elam Miles joined the ministry and upon coming to California occupied the pulpit of the Unitarian Church at Pomona. He came to Santa Monica in 1878, when it was a small village. Here he held the office of Justice of the Peace and was an effi- cient officer. He soon thereafter located on a ranch in Blakes Canyon, a mountain resort back of the Malibu Grant. Here for a time he engaged in bee culture. Returned to Santa Monica and later went to Florida where he spent several years. Returning to Porterville he there died in the year 1900, at about seventy-six years of age. He was a scholarly man and left a very large and valuable library. Besides Mrs. L. H. Case there are, of his children living-Waldo P. Miles, of Corona ; George C. Miles, of Los Angeles ; G. Bennett Miles, of Riverside ; Bessie, wife of Peter Ting, of Porterville, California; Clara, Mrs. Clarence W. Preston, of Exeter, California, and Mabel, Mrs. Charles W. Smith, of Scioto, Ill.
SIMON N. TALKINGTON, for upwards of forty years a resident of California, was born in Crawford County, Arkansas, May 15th, 1846. He is the son of Allen A. Talkington, a native of Todd County, Kentucky, and by occupation a farmer. Later he pioneered with his family on the western frontier of Arkansas. Of the wife and children mention is made in the sketch of James S. Talkington, in this work. In 1864 Mr. Talkington and an older brother, James S., were induced to join the southern army. Mr. Talkington was a youth of eighteen years and, in fact, knew little of the issues involved in the great civil conflict and the actual status of affairs. The two brothers, in time, made a journey across Southwestern Texas into Mexico and joined in the revolution then in
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progress in that country, enduring great hardships and passing through many thrilling experiences. They finally, however, arrived home in good health. In 1868 he preceded the family to California and located at Campo, in San Diego County, there engaging in stock raising. The family, including his parents, soon joined him. In 1869 they all moved to Orange, then Los Angeles County, and in 1885 he removed to Los Angeles and in 1891 to Compton, thence to Tropico. In 1903 he located in Santa Monica and on July 12th, 1905, he married Miss Olive Watenpaugh, of Santa Monica. He has invested in Santa Monica residence property. Mr. and Mrs. Talkington are member of the First Methodist Church, of Santa Monica.
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GRACE ADELE PIERCE, a literary woman and lecturer, for six years a resident of Santa Monica, is the daughter of John C. and Marron A. ( Pingrey ) Pierce, and was born in New York State. She was educated in her native State and in Boston, where she trained for literary work and public speaking. She is an au- thor known on both continents, her poet- ical work being represented with honor in the Bibliotheque National, Paris. She is the author of two books, "The Silver Cord and The Golden Bowl "-a volume of poems-and " Child Study of the Clas- sics," used in the schools of Boston and introduced as a text-book throughout the state of Massachusetts. Of her book of poems, Dr. Richard Burton says :
" This book contains genuine poetry. The work is artistic, refined, pure and high in quality, and inspired by worthy ideals. The work should be encouraged by all earnest lovers of literature, because its ethical influence is strong and the reader, while enjoying a poem æsthetically, is made better for its message."
GRACE ADELE PIERCE.
Mary Holland Kinkaid, the novelist, in writing of Miss Pierce, says: " Two poems in Miss Pierce's volume have enjoyed wide fame. They are the sonnets on Queen Victoria and on Browning's . Saul.' The sonnet on Queen Victoria attained a wide vogue in Great Britain. Miss Pierce's later poems fulfilled the promise given by these two remarkable sonnets. While the author has the poetic gift she has such versatility that she finds little time for verse. Her short stories are likely to make her name in a field where few achieve supremacy. No one
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in California better understands the technique of the short story and no one can handle a dramatic incident more artistically. This fact has been so well recog- nized by eastern editors that Miss Pierce has been kept busy filling her numerous commissions. As a platform speaker Miss Pierce is not less brilliant than as a writer. She has a talent for oratory ; she has something to say and she knows how to say it, for in all her activities she is an artist."
Miss Pierce is a contributor to many of the leading magazines and journals of the East and is writing largely for the western press. She is associated with many of the organizations for the betterment of humanity and is deeply inter- ested in the wage-earning woman's problems. She is on the Advisory Board, Committee of One Hundred, the National Health League, New Haven, Conn., and is on the Board of Directors, the Ladies' Auxiliary R. C. P. A., Denver, Colorado. Miss Pierce is also a member of the International League of Amer- ican Pen Women, Washington, D. C., and is associated with the Southern Cali- fornia Woman's Press Club. Before coming to California Miss Pierce was con- nected with Chautauqua publications, having been classed among " The Makers of Chautauqua Literature." Bishop John H. Vincent, Chancellor of this great educational institution, said of her work :
"Miss Pierce's work is worthy in every way. She has genius. The book reveals it. It yields the pleasant aroma of a human heart that has companioned with Nature, felt the spell of Art, experienced the joys and sorrows of Life, and found rest in God. The book does credit to her intellect and sympathies."
Miss Pierce has an adopted sister-Miss Caroline M. Simmons-who has close companionship with her in her life and work.
TOM SCHOFIELD is a native of England, born in Wales, March 21st, 1877. In 1879 the family moved to Yorkshire, England, and there lived until 1889 and then emigrated to the United States, locating in Edmunds County, South Dakota, where they pursued farming. There Tom attended the local public schools, learned the trade of blacksmith and became a horseshoer. There the father, John Schofield, died, and the widow, with four sons and one daughter, came to California in 1902 and located in Los Angeles. These children were Ernest and William, who are residents of Los Angeles, and Herbert in Mexico.
Mr. Schofield married in Santa Monica Miss Mary A., daughter of Thomas Lawson. Mr. Schofield purchased the business of Robert Nairn in Santa Monica in January, 1907. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of the World, Lodge No. 2719. Mr. Schofield's mother and sister live in Los Angeles.
Mr. Schofield is a thorough mechanic in his line and turns out only the best class of work. He has recently distinguished himself by building at his shops, on Second Street, the first automobile built in Santa Monica.
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EDWARD F. BONTTY is a native of Oregon, born at Portland, February 7th, 1877. His father, Joseph Bontty, is a Bohemian by birth, was born in Austria and came to America at twenty-five years of age and located at Portland, where he engaged in the building business. He lived in Santa Monica from 1885 to 1905 and engaged in the grocery business; he also became interested in some successful real estate deals. He then removed to San Diego, where he is now engaged in the grocery business. He has two sons and one daughter. One son, Joseph, is a conductor in the employ of the Los Angeles Pacific Electric Ry. Co. The daughter, Sebaldeni, is Mrs. R. R. Tanner, of Santa Monica. Mr. Bontty came to Santa Monica with his family in 1883. Here he attended the public schools, was for several years salesman in his father's grocery, the first store opened at what was originally known as South Santa Monica. This cov- ered the years 1898 to 1905. Mr. Bontty was a conductor four years for the Los Angeles Pacific Ry. Co., which position he resigned and in April, 1906, opened his present store-fish, poultry and game-on Utah Avenue, between Second and Third Streets.
Mr. Bontty married September 4th, 1903, Miss Alice Novetny, of Chicago. They have one son, Richard Robert Bontty. Mr. Bontty is a member of the Masonic fraternity and an Eagle.
RALPH BANE. A sketch of Santa Monica's first Treasurer, under the Free- holders Charter may be read with interest by those not intimately acquainted with him, because of the responsible public position he holds and by any who may have misgivings as to what a young man of metal and earnest endeavor can accomplish in our sun-kissed land of material promise.
Mr. Bane was a native of Ohio and was born at Newark, February 22nd, 1879. His father, Frank Bane, a merchant tailor of Newark, died in 1886, when his only son was but seven years of age. Mr. Bane, at the very tender age of two years, suffered the irreparable loss of his mother in 1881, when he was practically adopted by his great aunt, Mrs. C. B. Buckingham, of Newark, a noble woman of great benevolence and christian fortitude, he being the last and youngest of her fourteen adopted children. She passed to her final reward at her life-long home in Newark on July 1st, 1907, at eighty-three years of age.
Young Bane grew up under the tender care of his foster mother, passed through the excellent graded public schools and took a course of study at the Newark High School. From his seventeenth to his twenty-first years he engaged in various local business ventures, in which he succeeded. In the year 1900 he went to Zanesville, Ohio, and with J. H. Stephen embarked in general merchandis- ing. The new enterprise suffered unforseen business reverses and closed out. In 1902, Mr. Bane, somewhat impaired in health, came to California and soon after reaching Los Angeles, came to Santa Monica. He soon obtained employ- ment as conductor for the Los Angeles-Pacific Ry. and remained with the com- pany two years.
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He resigned his position and for a period of about nine months acted as inspector of street work for the City of Santa Monica. He then went to Saera- mento and acted as clerk of the legislative committee on public buildings and grounds, Thirty-sixth Session of the California Legislature, 1905. Upon return- ing, he accepted a position as Deputy County Tax Collector under W. O. Welch and served until March 1st, 1907. This position he resigned and became a candidate for the office he now holds under the Freeholders Charter. In the per- formance of the duties of the positions he has held Mr. Bane made a wide cirele of friends and acquaintances and his fitness for the office of City Treasurer was not questioned, but became a factor in according him vietory.
Mr. Bane married, in 1899, Miss Edith, a daughter of Elkanah T. Perry, and a niece of the late lamented W. H. Perry, a widely known and eminently success- ful pioneer of Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Mrs. Bane is a native of Newark, Ohio, and they were youth-day acquaintances. They have one daughter, Ethel Lillian, born in Newark. Mr. Bane is a Republican in polities, and a charter member of the B. P. O. E. of Santa Monica, and a member of the Woodmen of America, Los Angeles.
Mr. Bane is a courteous and unassuming gentleman, an ideal public official who is thoroughly wedded to a faithful performance of the manifold duties of his office.
FRANCIS WYCOFF BROOKS, was a California pioneer of 1850, a native of Boston, Mass., where he was born March 14th, 1821. He was educated at Walpole Academy, Walpole, N. H. Later he went to New York City and, with a brother, engaged in the wholesale paper business. When the reports of the discovery of gold in California became current in the east, he joined the rush to the new El Dorado. After some experience in the mines he, with his two brothers, Horace and George Brooks, engaged in the wholesale paper business on Sansome street, San Francisco. He was a vigilante and did much for the establishment of law and order in San Francisco in the early days. The firm did a prosperous business for about twenty years, their field of operation extend- ing throughout the state. The brothers, individually, acquired large property interests in the city.
Francis W. Brooks married Miss Matilda Smith, daughter of Floyd Smith. a leading business man and prominent lay churchman in New York City, where she was born, reared and educated. The marriage took place June 20th, 1855, and they came direct to California via the Panama route. Of their children two are still residents of this city, viz .- Matilda, now wife of Mayor T. H. Dudley, and Alice Brooks, who lives at the old home. Another daughter, Mrs. J. Erwin Hoy, lives in Paris, France. Mr. Brooks died in Battleboro, Vt., in 1885. In 1890, the family located in Santa Monica at the corner of Third and Washington Streets, where Mrs. Brooks died in 1897.
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HARRY FRANTZ RILE, a well known photographer of this eity, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., December 1st, 1860. His father was John C. Rile, a carpenter of English parentage, and his mother, Sarah Frantz, was of Dutch descent, born near Norristown, Pa. Mr. Rile spent his youth at his native home and at about eighteen years of age he took up photography in Philadel- phia and by degrees worked his way to California,via Chicago, Kansas City, and Portland to San Francisco and thence to Los Angeles. On December 20th, 1887 he reached the latter city and almost immediately opened a studio on North Beach in Santa Mon- ica. For twenty years he has been continuously in the photographic bus- iness on this beach. Mr. Rile mar- ried, in 1889, Miss Georgetta May Heimer, a daughter of George Heim- er, of Galesburg, Ill. She was born in the city of Galesburg. Mr. and Mrs. Rile have two daughters, Maud Frances and Caroline Inez. Mr. Rile H. F. RILE. is a member of the Royal Arcanum and Woodmen of the World. The family residence is at the corner of Eighth Street and Oregon Avenue.
E. A. PREUSS, for forty years a resident of Los Angeles, is a native of New Orleans, La., and was born June 7th, 1850. When yet a child the family re- moved to Kentucky and located in the city of Louisville, where he attended the public schools and business college. In 1861, he entered the employ of a drug store in Louisville as an apprentice to the business which, after several years. he thoroughly mastered. In 1868 he came to California, and, following a brief stay in San Francisco, he came to Los Angeles and embarked in the drug busi- ness. In 1875, he associated in business with the late John Schumacher, one of the best known of the early pioneers of the city. Some years later. C. B. Pironi succeeded to the interests of Mr. Schumacher and the business continued until September, 1885, when Mr. Preuss permanently retired. In June, 1887. Mr. Preuss received the appointment of postmaster of Los Angeles by the lamented President, Grover Cleveland, which office he acceptably filled to Feb- ruary 14th, 1890, until the appointment of his successor. His encumbency cov-
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ered four years of the most phenomenal growth that Los Angeles has ever had, known as the boom of 1887 to 1889, and it may safely be stated that probably no postmaster in any city of the country ever held his office under more stren- tous conditions. By reason of the great and sudden influx of people from all parts of the country, the postoffice, not any too well equipped for handling the business of a city of 12,000 people, was required, before Mr. Preuss' term of office closed, to meet the demands of 50,000 inhabitants, and this through one office, there being no branch stations. The office was then located on North Main street near Republic, opposite the Baker block. As the boom crowds in- creased the clamor for mail at the windows became so great that two long lines of men and women extended up and down Main street waiting their turn. Mr. Preuss promptly petitioned the government for an increased allowance for the employment of additional help, and for a branch office in East Los Angeles, but relief, because of the exact and deliberate routine of the department business at Washington, was meager and slow in coming. The total cash handled during the year 1887 was $1,838,000.00, being an increase of more than $700,000.00 over 1886. Stamp sales alone exceeded $120,000.00 for the year 1887, when the office handled the mail for over 200,000 transients. Mr. Preuss retired from the office with a splendid record as a man of executive ability and ready resource for emergencies. During those days, Mr. Preuss was wide awake and ready to take a hand in forwarding the best interests of Los Angeles, and was also iden- tified with the social life of the city.
He was one of the charter members of the Turn Verein, organized in 1870. He was one of the prime movers in the organization of Los Angeles' first athletic club, in 1883. In 1877 he married Miss Mary A., eldest daughter of the lamented John Schumacher, one of the most prominent and highly esteemed pio- neers of Los Angeles, of 1847. Mr. Schumacher was a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, and was born January 23rd, 1816. In 1832, being then an orphan, he left his native town and went to Paris, soon thereafter coming to America. He lived in New York until 1846, when he enlisted for the Mexican War in the First Regiment New York Volunteers, under Col. John D. Stevenson, and was mustered into Company G. On September 26th of that year he sailed for San Francisco in the ship Thomas H. Perkins, arriving at destination in the month of March, 1847. The following May they shipped for San Pedro and reached Los Angeles on the 9th of that month, there remaining until mustered out of service. September 18th, 1848. He almost immediately set out for the newly discovered placer gold diggings on Sutter's Creek, El Dorado county, where he unearthed a gold nugget for which he realized $800.00. He continued in the mines for several months, having fair success, then returned to Los Angeles and embarked in merchandising in a store near the northwest corner of Spring and First streets, which property he very soon acquired, together with all the land bounded by Spring, First, Fort (now Broadway), and Franklin streets, for which, it is said, he paid $700.00. He also later owned a tract of land at what
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