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 47
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is now Temple street and Belmont avenue, which, in company with Jacob Bell, he used as a sheep range. He was a man of energy and enterprise and experi- mented with the raising of grapes without irrigation on land he owned between Los Angeles and the sea-being a portion of the old Brea grant. He acquired other lands in the city which ultimately became very valuable. John Schumacher was a popular citizen, having a host of friends. He served on the City Council two terms. He spoke the German, English, French and the Spanish languages, was everybody's friend and was specially useful to the Spanish and non-English speaking people in adjusting their business affairs, as all had unbounded faith in his unerring judgment and integrity. In 1880 he built the Schumacher block on his property. First and Spring streets, then regarded as one of the most sub- stantial and architectural business blocks in the city. It stands today as a fitting monument to his enterprise and stability. He also built what was for years known as the White House, a pretentious and very substantial business block at the corner of Commercial and Los Angeles streets. He died from the effects of a stroke of apoplexy, March 2nd, 1885, leaving a valuable estate and an un- tarnished name as an inheritance to his six children. These children, besides Mrs. Preuss, are Carrie, who is the widow of Professor Paul Schumacher (no kin)-John H., Frank G., Percy F., and Arthur W. Mr. and Mrs. Preuss are old-time summer residents of Santa Monica. They have one son, Kenneth.
CLAUDE W. ROGERS, well known and successful merchant of Santa Monica, was born at Shawneetown, Johnson County, Kansas, July 31st, 1897. His father, Walton Rogers, a native of Kentucky, born in Gallatin County, was a Doctor of Medicine. He emigrated with his wife to Kansas in 1864. In 1869 they returned to Carrol County, Kentucky, and located in the town of Ghent, where young Rogers grew up. At sixteen years of age he went to Denver, Colorado, and worked for various commercial establishments as an accountant. He came to California and to San Francisco in 1893, where he spent three years. In 1896 he came to Santa Monica, taking a position with A. F. Johnston, merchant. Later, for two years, he became manager of the business. In 1906 the A. F. Johnston Company was incorporated and Mr. Rogers became a director thereof. Upon the untimely death of Mr. Johnston, Mr. Rogers succeeded to the presi- dency of the corporation.
The A. F. Johnston Company is extensively engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business, being the most progressive and prosperous in its line in the city of Santa Monica.
Mr. Rogers married in the city of Santa Monica in the year 1900, Miss Grace, daughter of the venerable Thomas H. Elliott, a most highly repected pioneer of Santa Monica. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers have one daughter, Arta. Mr. Rogers is a member of the F. and A. M. and the B. P. O. E. The family home is 928 Fourth Street.
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L. A. INGERSOLL, of Santa Monica, was born in the village of Delta, Eaton county, Michigan, August 7, 1851, a son of Alexander and Emeline Baker Inger- soll. Alexander Ingersoll was a son of Erastus Ingersoll, who with a family of thirteen children located large tracts of heavily timbered land on Grand river in the interior of the lower peninsula of Michigan, in 1836, when that State was a Territory. He obtained a charter from the U. S. Government to build a dam across the river, erected a sawmill and a grist mill, which formed the nucleus to a growing and prosperous community. Upon the death of Erastus Ingersoll a large landed estate came into the possession of members of the family and Alexander Ingersoll became owner of the water power and mills. He also owned timber and agricultural lands. He improved the milling property, built up an extensive business and was a moving spirit in the community. He served sev- eral years as a member of the County Board of Supervisors and was also for a long period director of the schools, deacon in the church and superintendent of the Sunday-school. Besides his interests in Delta he became interested largely in the milling interests of Lansing. In later years he closed out his interests in Michigan, located at Saint Croix Falls, Wis., where he died in 1890.
Emeline Baker Ingersoll was a native of the town of Stafford. Gennesee county, N. Y., a daughter of Captain Remember Baker, who was a grandson of Captain Remember Baker, a brother-in-law of Colonel Ethan Allen of Revolu- tionary fame. Captain Baker commanded a company of Green Mountain boys, and was Colonel Allen's second in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in the name of "The Great Jehovah and Continental Congress." Baker immediately there- after took possession of Crown Point, was betrayed by Indians, and beheaded. His name is recorded in history as the first officer killed in the American Revo- lution. Captain Remember Baker, the maternal grandfather of L. A. Ingersoll. early in life went to sea, became master of a ship and navigated North river. He was the pilot of the Robert Fulton on its first voyage up the Hudson river. He was a soldier of the War of 1812 and under General Brown held a captain's roving commission and did his country great service as a scout. He located on Grand river near Delta, Michigan, in 1836, later settled at Portland, thirty miles distant, where he died in 1846. Emeline Baker Ingersoll, his daughter. in early life taught school and later married at Delta. She was a woman of splendid domestic attainments and great kindness of heart. During her many years of active life she was tireless in church, Sunday-school and charitable work. She died at her home at Saint Croix Falls, Wis., February, 1906, at 83 years of age.
L. A. Ingersoll grew up in the village of Delta, attended Olivet College. Olivet, Michigan, spent seven years in the dry goods house of an uncle, Harley Ingersoll, at Lansing, Mich., spent two years seeking health in the northwest. was from 1879 to 1886 engaged in compiling local history in Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, New York and the New England States. In 1886 he established and for two years published the Saint Croix L'alley Standard newspaper at Saint
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Croix Falls, Wisconsin. In 1888 he came to California and has devoted about twenty years to collating, writing and publishing California history. In 1904 he published Ingersoll's Century Annals of San Bernardino County. Ingersoll's Century History of Santa Monica Buy Cities, 1908, is the second book of a series of local histories he has in various stages of development. He married October 5th at Ypsilanti, Michigan, Miss Mary Elizabeth Otto, a daughter of George and Rose Otto, pioneers of Southern Michigan, and there is one daughter, Grace.
W. M. PALMER was born near Iowa Falls, Iowa, on October 23rd, 1870. His parents were New England Quakers of Scotch, Irish, French and English lineage and pioneers in the settlement of Iowa, having emigrated from the eastern states while Iowa was a wil- derness.
His grandfather, John Caldwell, was the first Justice of the Peace in Hardin, Hardin County, Iowa, at a time when Indians and land claim jumpers were the chief subjects of judicial inquiry and legal enactment. The family continued to reside in that locality for more than fifty years. The subject of this sketch was graduated from Iowa Falls High School in 1888, after which a three- year course of study was pursued in Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa.
Always, from inclination, associ- ating with youth, Palmer naturally became a teacher in the public schools of Iowa, though his first efforts as a pedagogue were put forth in Albany WV. M. PALMER. County, Territory of Wyoming. In this field of usefulness his predilection for athletic sports made him a favorite among the younger residents of the community in which he taught. Owing to the support of this element, while principal of the schools at Webb, Iowa, Palmer was elected mayor of the town and continued to hold that office until he took up the study of law, though the principal duties of the mayor of that town were to declare small pox quarantines and to act as police judge.
In 1902 the study of law was taken up by Mr. Palmer, his preliminary study being directed by the law firm of Bryson & Bryson and by the Honorable S. M. Weaver, since and now a member of the Supreme Bench of the State of Iowa. In 1904 Mr. Palmer became a resident of the city of Santa Monica, where
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he has since resided, continuing his law studies in the office of Judge George H. Hutton. He was admitted to the bar of California in 1905.
In 1894 Mr. Palmer was married to Miss Myrtle B. Mosely who had been his schoolmate from the primary grade. To them have been born four children.
Mr. Palmer has, since 1886, been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and occupied a number of official positions therein. He is an enthusiastic believer in the brotherhood of man and advocates strongly fellowship and sym- pathy as a means of aiding mankind. He is also is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
GEORGE W. FOSTER, well known citizen and trustee of Ocean Park, is a native of Sangamon County, Ill., born February 2nd, 1840. His father, Col. John D. Foster, was a lawyer by profession, and a native of Clark County, Ky. He was a pioneer of Sangamon County, lived near Springfield and practiced law throughout that region of country contemporaneously with Abraham Lincoln, not unfrequently opposing him in court. Mr. Foster's mother was Eunice Miller, also a native of Clark County, Ky. Mr. Foster was the eldest of seven children and spent his boyhood in Sangamon County. In 1853 the family removed to Missouri and settled at Kirksville, the county seat of Adair County. At the breaking out of the Civil War he recruited the 22nd Missouri Volunteer Infantry and commanded the same during the conflict. He was a brave and fearless officer and led his men in bloody charges against the enemy's breastworks at the seige of Corinth and in many other hard fought battles. Notwithstanding his youth, young George W. joined his father's regiment and was at his side during and to the close of the war. He held a commission as Quartermaster- Sergeant. He participated in the hottest of the fight at Corinth and many other battles. He served three years, luckily escaping bodily injury, and was mus- tered out of service at St. Louis in February, 1865. After the war he returned to Sangamon County, Ill., and pursued farming until 1878, when he removed to Kirksville, Mo. There he left his family and went to Leadville, Colorado, to engage in mining. He followed mining in all of its phases until 1902, when he came to Ocean Park, bought a home and settled down. Leisure proved not a luxury to him, however, and he took up his trade, that of a carpenter, and is the efficient foreman of the carpenter department of the Abbot Kinney Company at Venice.
Mr. Foster married, at Kirksville, Mo., Miss Margaret Scott, a native of Boone County, Ky., born 1845, who was sixteen years of age at the time of her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Foster have four children living-Emma, wife of E. D. Wheeler, of Ocean Park; W. F. Foster, of Denver, Colorado; Abbie A., Mrs. F. C. McArthur, of Los Angeles, and Dora Bell wife of Fred Olds, of Milwaukee, Wis. John D. Foster met accidental death in a mine in Colorado in 1902, and George E. died at the age of twelve years in Denver.
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Mr. Foster is an active and popular citizen and takes an interest in local public affairs. In April, 1908, he was elected a member of the Ocean Park Board of City Trustees and is a member of the following important committees: Fi- nance, Lighting, Building and Lands. He is a charter member G. A. R., Farragut Post Dunn, is enrolled at the Soldiers' Home and is pensioned at $12.00 a month.
WALTER MUNDELL, P. M. of Sawtelle, is a native of Scotland and was born in Ross-shire, within three miles of Lands End, September 4th, 1842. His father was Robert Mundell, a shepherd by occupation and a son of David Mundell, who was by trade a cabinet maker. He was a prominent Free Mason and received his third degree in that order from Robert Burns, the great Scotch poet, who was then master of Kelwinning Lodge No. 1. David Mundell and Robert Burns were strong personal friends. There is now in possession of David Mundell, an older son, the first copy of the first edition of Robert Burns' works, presented to David Mundell by the author. David Mundell at the time lived in Dumfriesshire, where Burns was government excise officer. Walter Mundell was about fourteen years of age when the family left their native heath and came to America. They located in Pickaway county, Ohio, on a farm where the parents lived until the close of their earthly career. Besides Walter, there are two sons living. David and James, the former at the old home and the latter in Wilson county, Kansas. In August, 1862, Mr. Mundell, with his brother, James, enlisted in the Civil War and were mustered into Company A. 114th Ohio Infantry, under Captain John Lynch. They served under Grant at the siege of Vicksburg, where the subject of this sketch was wounded in both arms and taken to the army hospital at New Orleans. While there he was nursed by Mrs. Lizzie Southworth. A warm friendship ripened into mutual love and, when he had sufficiently recovered from his wounds, they were married September 20th, 1864. They made a wedding journey to the Ohio home, where the wife remained while the husband returned to his regiment at the front to complete his term of enlistment.
Mrs. Mundell is a daughter of James Ince and was born in England, Chor- ley, Lancashire. Her father was a wholesale merchant. She grew up at her native home and there married George Southworth, who was by trade a painter and glazier. They came to America in the year 1859 and located at Lancaster, Dallas county, Texas. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. South- worth was conscripted into the Confederate army. He determined not to fight against the Union and crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico, where he was taken sick and died in the vicinity of Monterey. The stricken widow and only son, John, took the remains to Monterey, where the interment took place and she proceeded to return to England. Upon reaching Brownsville, she met General Herron, who induced her to take up army nursing. The battle of Brownsville
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soon took place and she accepted the offered position of nurse. She went down the Rio Grande river, crossed the gulf as nurse in charge of the hospital boat and landed at New Orleans, where she continued her work.
The Mundell brothers both filled out their terms of enlistment and were mustered out of service in August, 1865, having served three years. Mr. Mun- dell, after the war, returned home and followed his trade, which was that of a millwright, and also that of stationary engineer. He came with his family to California and in 1887 located in Los Angeles, purchased a home and for a time lived in retirement. Later he was for about eight years in the employ of the street department and latterly four and a half years the park commissioner of the city. He located in Sawtelle in the fall of 1904, and in 1906 was ap- pointed postmaster of that city by President Roosevelt. Mr. and Mrs. Mundell have one son, Robert, who is engaged in the lumber business at Oberlin, Kansas, and a daughter, Myrtle, who is assistant postmaster at Sawtelle. Mrs. Mundell has, by her former marriage, one son, John Southworth, who is proprietor of the Southworth apartments on Kinney street, Ocean Park. Mr. Mundell has always been an active republican and, while never seeking office, has repeatedly attended the party conventions as delegate from his home district or precinct. He is a member of the F. and A. M.
JOSEPH JEFFERSON DAVIS, widely known as a successful man of affairs, as head of the Santa Monica Land & Water Company and identified with other extensive business enterprises, is a native of Ottawa, Canada, born August 8th, 1869. His father, Jefferson Davis, was a capitalist and land owner, a native of Lancaster, England, and his mother, Mary Proctor, was of Sussex, England. The family came to the United States and located at Milwaukee, Wis., about 1862, there the father died, the mother surviving until 1903, when she passed away at Santa Monica at seventy-five years of age. Mr. Davis came to California in 1890. In 1895 he entered actively into the organization of the United Electric Gas & Power Company, for the purpose of supplying light, fuel and power to the city of Santa Monica and vicinity. Mr. Davis was vice president and general manager with offices at Santa Monica. In 1900 this company's stock and plant was sold to the Edison Electric Company and Mr. Davis, in 1905, associated with R. C. Gillis, purchased the San Vicente y Santa Monica Grants and interested others with them, which resulted in the development of that section of the country known as Westgate, Brentwood Park and Carlos Heights along the foothills.
In 1903 Mr. Davis formed a company and took over all of the interests of the Santa Monica Land & Water Company. He also purchased the unsold lands of the San Vicente and the Boca Santa Monica Grants (see index, West- gate) and has spent an almost fabulous amount of money in improvements there- on. Mr. Davis, vice president of the Santa Monica Land & Water Company,
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is a stockholder and director in the Broadway Bank in Los Angeles and has other extensive financial and property interests.
Mr. Davis married, in 1896, Miss Emma Volkman, a daughter of Martin Volkman, of Santa Monica. They have three sons, Herbert Leslie, Robert Carlyle and Joseph Jefferson. The family residence is one of the finest modern country seats at Westgate.
ALF. MORRIS, popular citizen of Santa Monica and president of the City Council, is a native of England, now fifty-six years of age. He received his education in a private grammar school and at the age of sixteen years entered the counting house of one of the largest foreign shippers as an accountant. He spent several years in this employ and acquired a thorough knowledge of the business. Subsequently he took a position as an employee of the Great Western R. R. Company, acting as chief clerk in a branch office. He arrived in New York City nearly thirty years ago and spent two years traveling in the states. He then engaged in the hotel business in the city of Chicago and met with a liberal degree of success. He came to California and located at Santa Monica in 1894, successfully conducting a restaurant business. In October, 1898, he purchased the Santa Monica Steam Laundry, operating the same until October, 1905. He built up an extensive and profitable business in this line, later disposing of it. He then bent his energies to the building of the Kensington Apartments. These have proven to be, not only an innovation in the line of family residential apartments, but with their convenient location to the quick transportation to and from Los Angeles, their close proximity to the sea beach and surf bathing and with their grand views of the ocean, they compose one of the most valuable property holdings of the kind extant. Mean- time, Mr. Morris has made several profitable real estate deals and has, withal, become one of Santa Monica's most substantial property owners.
Mr. Morris has always been enterprising and alive to the best interests of his adopted city, and has borne his part in the promotion of its civic and political welfare. He was elected to the first city council under the Freeholders Charter from the fourth ward and took his seat April 15th, 1907. He was chosen pre- siding officer of this body. As president of the council his services have proven valuable, having brought honor and dignity to the position by the pursuance of a broad, impartial and judicious policy. His genial personality, uniform kind- ness and courteous bearing must have had much to do with his prosperity and success in life.
Mr. Morris' mother died when he was yet a youth. His father, was, for many years, a manager for some of the largest mercantile houses in England. He died greatly respected in the year 1891. Mr. Morris married Miss Annette Olsen in the city of New York, January 20th, 1890. She is a daughter of Prof. O. Olsen, of Chicago, a native of Norway, and one of the finest scenic and land- scape painters in the country.
J. H. DOBBINGS.
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J. H. DOBBINGS, native of Middleboro, Yorkshire, England, was born April 13th, 1864, the son of John and Sarah ( Bell) Dobbings. John Dobbings was born in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England, and his wife at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. John Dobbings was by occupation a mining superintendent and for a period of twenty-six years was thus employed in his native land. He came to the United States in 1888 and is since a resident of Pasadena. Both his father, J. G. Dobbings, and his grandfather, John T., have to their credit long terms of service in the British navy-J. G. Dobbings being an officer thereof and retired at sixty-four years of age. Mr. Dobbings' maternal grandfather, George Bell, was an experienced railroad man and division manager of the North Eastern Ry., in England. J. H. Dobbings attended the local public schools of his native town. In 1878, being then a youth of fourteen years, he entered the employ of Blockow-Vaughn & Company of Middleboro, as an apprentice to learn marine engineering and served seven years. In September. 1885, he embarked for the United States and, upon arrival, located at Des Moines, Iowa, where he worked at his trade. In the spring of 1886, he came to Cali- fornia and worked for the Risdon Iron Works at San Francisco, until October, 1887. He then came to Pasadena and engaged in the retail oil business. In 1889, he went to San Diego and, until 1893, was chief engineer of the Fourth Street Cable Ry. Company. He then came to Santa Monica and was appointed first assistant engineer at the Soldiers' Home. In January, 1904, he was made chief engineer, which position he now holds. In January, 1887, he married Miss Mattie A. Evans, a native of Concord, N. H., and daughter of George Allen Evans (see index.) Mr. Dobbings became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1890 and the country has no more loyal citizen and enthusi- astic American. He is one of the prominent Masons of Southern California. He is past master of the Santa Monica Blue Lodge, member of Perfection Lodge No. 3 of. Los Angeles, and Rose Croix Chapter. A. A. S. R. Temple of Los Angeles. He is past master of Veteran Lodge 373, Sawtelle, and a life member of the Masonic Veterans' Association of the Pacific Coast. He is a member of the Uniform Rank of the K. of P., Santa Monica, and a member of the National Association of Stationary Engineers. He is an influential republican and a member of the Episcopal church. Mr. and Mrs. Dobbings have one son. Olney J., and a daughter, Dorothy Bell.
CHARLES S. DALES, for years a well-known citizen of Santa Monica, was born in the State of New York. September 20. 1853. For some years as a young man he followed railroad telegraphy. He married at Middleport, White county, Illinois, Miss Dora, a daughter of D. W. Galloway, a successful farmer. She died, leaving two sons, E. V. and John B. Dales, prosperous grocery mer-
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chants of Santa Monica, doing business under the firm name of Dales Brothers, brief sketches of whom appear elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Dales came to California in 1886 and spent one year in Santa Cruz. In 1887 he came to Santa Monica and for a time clerked in the clothing store of C. B. Van Every. He was later elected City Clerk of Santa Monica and subsequently served as Con- stable. He is (1908) serving his second term as City Assessor of Santa Monica. The present Mrs. Dales was Miss Anna Felts of Bellville, Ill. She has one daughter, Marion.
JOHN B. DALES, successful grocery merchant and junior member of the firm of Dales Brothers, Santa Monica, was born in the town of Roland, White county, Illinois, September 23, 1880, a son of Charles S. and Dora Galloway Dales. (See biographical mention of Charles S. Dales elsewhere in this volume).
In 1886 the family located in Santa Monica and here Mr. Dales attended the public schools, graduating from the Santa Monica High School in the class of 1898. In 1902 he entered the present business firm of Dales Brothers. For two years he was in charge of the Dales Brothers' branch grocery house at Ocean Park, until the consolidation of both stores at Santa Monica.
Mr. Dales married in 1903 Miss Leah Johnson, a daughter of C. C. Johnson of St. Louis, Mo. They have one son, Leighton. His home is 1014 Fourth street.
Mr. Dales is Past Master of Ocean Park Lodge F. and A. M. and member of the B. P. O. E., Santa Monica.
T. J. CONNELLY, is a native son of the Golden West, born in Amador County, California, August 9th, 1861. His father, Jeremiah Connelly, was a miner and lost his life by accident in the mines. Young Connelly went to Nevada where he learned the trade of blacksmith. He spent several years in mining camps, a portion of this time as an engineer in the Calico Mining District. He came to Santa Monica in 1892 where he has successfully engaged in general black- smithing and horse shoeing.
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