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 49
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Mr. and Mrs. Brickner are widely known and highly esteemed for their splendid traits of character and strict integrity in all matters.
JUAN BANDINI, a member of one of the earliest and most prominent families of California, is a son of Don Jose Marie Bandini, a venerable citizen of Santa Monica and grandson of Don Juan Bandini, who, during his lifetime, was one of California's most distinguished and exemplary citizens. He was a native of Peru and came to California in 1821 when it was Mexican territory. He lived for several years at San Diego and there married a daughter of Juan Estudillo. By this marriage his children were Arcadia, who became the wife of Don Abel Stearns, after his death marrying Col. Robert S. Baker: Josepha, who married Pedro C. Carrillo: Ysidora, who married Cave J. Coutts; José Marie and Juan. Of these children, Mrs. Baker and José Marie still survive and are residents of Santa Monica. Later Senor Bandini married Senorita Refugio Arguello, and of this marriage Dolores, widow of the late Charles E. Johnson; Margurite, Mrs. J. B. Winston, and Don Arturo still survive. Senor Bandini spent the last years of his life in Los Angeles. He owned large tracts of land in Southern California, among others, the Jurupa Grant, lying mostly in what is now River- side County, where he for a time resided with his family. This land was granted to him in 1838 by the Mexican Government. In 1843 he established the little town of Agua Mansa (Gentle Water) upon the bank of the Santa Ana River which runs through the grant. He donated building sites to the settlers and aided them in the erection of a church. It became a pretty and romantic village and the business and social center for the surrounding country. He also owned extensive tracts of land in San Diego County, upon a portion of which is now located the city of San Diego. He was a man of broad information, an eloquent
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public speaker, whose counsel and opinion had much to do in shaping public affairs. He held various positions of public trust under the Mexican Govern- ment of California, not the least of which was the adminstration of San Gabriel Mission under secularization. He aided in making the first state constitution of California and was one of its most able and stalwart supporters. He died in Los Angeles in 1859. His daughters were all beautiful women of the most intelligent and charming California type and were social leaders of their day. Reference to Mrs. Arcadia B. de Baker and to her only surviving sister, Mrs. C. E. Johnson, is made elsewhere in this work.
José M. Bandini lived, for the most part of his active business life, on his ranch of 4,500 acres near Tia Juana, just over the Mexican line in Lower Califor- nia. He retired and has lived at Santa Monica since 1894. The wife died in Los Angeles, October 18th, 1878. Besides Juan Bandini, the third of this name, there survive of her children, Mrs. Sarah B. Freeman, of Santa Monica, and Josefa, wife of James Thomas, of London, England. Juan Bandini, the third, married Miss Ida, daughter of William Frost, now of Florence, Colorado. The ceremony took place in San Pedro, January 18th, 1897. They have one son, Juan Bandini, Jr. The Bandini home is at 1127 Second Street, Santa Monica.
GUSTAV W. SCHUTTE has been a resident of California since 1874. He came to Los Angeles at nine years of age. His father, August Schutte, a cabinet maker by trade, worked many years for Dotter & Bradley. Young Schutte attended school in the old building that stood at the corner of Spring and Second Streets, where now stands the Bryson Block. His teacher was Miss Bengaugh. He also attended Miss Parker's school on Eighth Street, between Broadway and Hill Streets. He attended the old high school then on the present site of the Los Angeles County Court House. He was born in Berlin, Germany, August 1st, 1866, baptized in St. Stephen's Church. The family came to America in 1868 and lived for a time at Allegheny City, Pa. Later they came overland to San Francisco. Mr. Schutte learned cabinet making and was an expert in the busi- ness, but by reason of poor health was compelled to abandon the same, and took up the study of music, perfected himself as a cornetist and violinist under German masters, notably Prof. J. H. Ohllwedal, a graduate of Leipsig Conservatory. Mr. Schutte pursued music as a profession for six years as a member of the original orchestra with Lillian Russell, later in Nellis Boyd's "All Gold Instrument Band Dramatic Company," two seasons, in which he was known as the boy band leader. He was six years in the band of the Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Veteran Soldiers. He was compelled to abandon music because of loss of health and eyesight, and took up his residence at Santa Monica. He organized an orchestra of string instruments in his home city and is its leader.
Mr. Schutte married Miss Sarah Wright, a native of Hillsdale, Michigan. She grew up and received her schooling at Washington, D. C. They have four children, Bertrand, Raymond, Varney and Jessie, a daughter.
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GEORGE W. COREY, M. D., for about fifteen years a resident of California and for nine years a citizen of Sawtelle, is a native of Edgar county, Ill., and was born in the town of Grand View, January 10th, 1833. His father, Jonathan Corey, was a thrifty farmer and incidentally a preacher in the M. E. Church. His mother, by maiden name Diademia Griffith, was a daughter of John Griffith, a farmer and brick manufacturer. Both the Coreys and the Griffiths were full-fledged Scotchmen from Dumfriesshire. They were both am- bitious men and left the old estate in Scotland to seek their fortunes in a country of greater opportunities. Jonathan Corey, upon his arrival in this country, went to Olean, Cat- - taraugus county, Southern New York, where he married. There, he and John Griffith jointly built a flat boat and with their families sailed down the Allegheny river to Pitts- burg : thence down the Ohio river to Cincinnati, where they landed. They G. W. COREY, M.D. were among the early pioneers of that now large and wealthy city. Here John Griffith burned the first bricks and erected the first building of Miami College. He afterwards removed to Rock county, Wis., and practically retired from business at Evansville, where he died about 1858. Mr. Corey went on westward and settled in Illinois, about thirty miles west of Terre Haute, in Edgar county. There he lived until about 1836, when he moved to Rock Grove, in Stevenson county, the same state on the Wis- consin state line. In 1850 he went to Monroe, Green county, Wis., where he lived until his death in 1859. The mother came west and spent her declining years with a daughter, Isabel Moses, at Leavenworth, Kansas. She died at the age of eighty-six years, and was the mother of sixteen children, fourteen of whom she raised to maturity.
Dr. Corey, the subject of this sketch, spent his boyhood at Rock Grove, Stevenson county, Ill. When yet a youth he purchased a scholarship in the Lawrence University at Appleton, Wis., where he took a two years' course of study. He then took up the study of medicine at Rockford, Ill., and later grad- uated from the Rush Medical College, Chicago, February 16th, 1859. He com- menced the practice of medicine at Cherry Valley, seven miles east of Rockford.
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where, on March 25th, 1861, he married Miss Margaret Ann Brantingham, a daughter of Robert M. Brantingham, a wealthy capitalist and man-of-affairs of New York City. Dr. Corey was an aggressive and wide-awake republican and was chairman of the township republican committee, a member of Winnebago county central committee and captain of the local Wide-Awakes, the political club of the first Lincoln campaign. He rendered valued service to the party, making stump speeches throughout his section of the country.
October 22, 1861, he volunteered as a private in the Federal army and was mustered into the 12th Illinois Cavalry. Soon thereafter he was appointed acting assistant surgeon and later made surgeon of the 12th Missouri Cavalry. After Lee's surrender and the close of the Civil War he was detailed to fight the Indians on the western plains of Nebraska, and passed through a most strenuous and exciting campaign. He served in the army about four and one- half years. As a surgeon he held the rank of major, and, by an act of congress of August 1st, 1865, he was, for meritorious services as an officer, brevetted lieutenant-colonel.
At the close of his military career he went to Rockford and settled up the large estate of his father-in-law, who meantime had died. In 1866 he located in Cheyenne City, Wyoming, where he practiced medicine successfully for about twenty-one years. There in 1876, his wife died and for several years he trav- eled in various sections of this country. In 1893 he came to California and spent six years in Sacramento. In 1899 he came to Sawtelle, where he is prac- ticing his profession.
Dr. Corey is a member of the Volunteers Retired List Association, an organization composed of about six thousand retired army officers. It will be seen that he has lel a most active, eventful and useful life. He is a man of broad information, quiet demeanor and is eminently successful in his profession.
JOHN L. SMITH, well-known druggist and pharmaceutist of Sawtelle, is a native of Michigan and was born in the city of Saginaw, March 14, 1887. He is a son of George H. Smith, now of Sawtelle. He passed through the excellent graded schools of Saginaw and came with his parents to California in 1901. He spent two years in the Santa Monica High School. Later he took a course of study at the University of Southern California and graduated from the de- partment of pharmacy in the year 1907. In 1908 he assumed management of the business of the Laing Drug Company of Sawtelle, which owns the leading drug store of that city. Mr. Smith is a member of the F. and A. M. and also a member of the Commercial Club, a social organization made up of the leading business and professional men of Sawtelle. Of these Mr. Smith is deservedly one of the most popular.
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H. E. HUSTON is a native of Missouri, born at Independence, July 14th, 1876. His father, Milton L. Huston, was born in the same town where he grew up and became a contracting builder. He was a pioneer of Kansas City in his line of work. He came to California in 1888 and located in Los Angeles, where he now lives. H. E. Huston, when a boy of ten years, commenced work in a meat market on Washington Street, Los Angeles, for Ryder & Taylor, and in 1898 commenced business on his own account. In 1904 he came to Santa Monica and opened his pioneer market which promptly grew into a profitable business. In 1906 he purchased a business lot on Third Street and erected thereon an archi- tectural and substantial brick building twenty-five feet front by ninety feet, two stories in height, on the ground floor of which is the new Pioneer Market, having a modern equipment, including a cold storage plant. The second floor is occupied as his residence.
Mr. Huston married in 1900, Miss Lola, daughter of Alvin Fay, Esq., of Los Angeles, a California pioneer, many years District Attorney of Kern County and head of the Kern County bar. Mr. and Mrs. Huston have one son, Alvin. Mrs. Huston is a native daughter, having been born at Kernville, Kern County, January 14th, 1880.
WILLIAM P. SNYDER, well-known citizen of Santa Monica, is a native of the state of Michigan and was born in the town of Marshall, Calhoun county, September 20th, 1869. His father, Porter Snyder, was one of the pioneers of Calhoun county and located at the then new town of Marshall, on timbered land which he improved, and also engaged in the building business. He was an enterprising and successful man of affairs, and served for a time as sheriff of Calhoun county. He was a son of George W. Snyder, a native of Holland, who with his parents came to America and settled in New Jersey, and soon thereafter removed to New York and located on wild land in Seneca county. During the war of 1812 with England, he served as a scout. It may be said that he was a soldier of fortune since he was three times captured by the Indians and once barely escaped burning at the stake. After the war he returned home, where he lived until his death at ninety-four years of age.
Porter Snyder, by a second marriage, to Sarah J. Eddy, had three sons and one daughter. Two of these sons, George D. and William P., the subject of this sketch, are leading citizens of Santa Monica. When about fifteen years of age William P. Snyder went to Jackson, Mich., and served an apprenticeship at painting. In February, 1890, he came to California and located in San Ber- nardino, where he served the Santa Fé Railway Company as foreman of paint- ing in the bridge and building department, having charge of all work on the lines between Barstow and San Diego. In 1895 he resigned his position and began contract painting in Los Angeles. In 1900 he was one of the first to locate in Santa Monica and engage in the business during the earliest days of
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its phenomenal growth. He took an active part in the building and civic devel- opment of the embryo city. In the year 1901 he executed contracts in his line on about one hundred and twenty-five cottages, employing a small army of men.
In 1904 he retired from the business and has since then held a responsible position with the mercantile house of Devore & Pettis, Santa Monica. In 1892 he married Miss Helen M. Schoch of Marshall, Mich., and a native of Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder have four children, Catharine, Paul, Philip and Zada. Mr. Snyder in 1908 was appointed a member of the Santa Monica City Board of Education, vice A. B. Clapp, resigned, and is a most efficient and affable officer.
LEGRAND G. INGERSOLL, born in Elmira, N. Y., June 9th, 1845, son of Platt Carl Ingersoll, a graduate of Yale College and a native of Stanford, Conn., later studied medicine at Stanford ; became one of the principal owners of the Grafen- burg Medicine Company. He was gifted with mechanical genius and later turned his attention to mechanical pursuits.
He met and married Miss Betsy Mariah Miller, a daughter of Abraham Miller, a successful grain farmer and distiller of spirituous liquors of South Port, Chemung county, New York, where she was born. The circumstances of his marriage proved to change, somewhat, the course of his life, and he settled down at Elmira and engaged in the milling business, an occupation more nearly in harmony with his tastes and natural bend of mind. He owned a steam saw- mill, and incidentally became interested in a drygoods, likewise a drug store, at Wellsburg, a near-by town. About the year 1855 he invented and patented Ingersoll's cotton press, which he manufactured on a large scale at Brooklyn, N. Y. They came into popular use throughout the cotton-producing states and were, in essential respects, the most perfect machines of the kind of their day.
He made several other mechanical inventions which proved practical, nota- bly a coffee hulling machine, which he manufactured in large quantities at Green's Point, Long Island. He was a son of Alexander Ingersoll, who was a farmer and lived near Greenwich, Fairfield county, Conn. Besides Platt C., Alexander Ingersoll had a son, Simon Ingersoll, who was the inventer of Inger- soll's rock drill, which effectually revolutionized the business of rock drilling, quarrying, quartz mining, etc., and is in general use for such purposes all over the world. After a busy and successful life, Platt C. Ingersoll died at his home in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1870, at about sixty-three years of age and his remains were interred in Greenwood cemetery.
Legrand G. Ingersoll is the only living of three sons of Platt C. Ingersoll. There is one daughter living, Georgiana, Mrs. Geo. H. Hughes, of Brooklyn, N. Y. His boyhood and youth were spent at Wellsburg and in Brooklyn, in which latter city he learned the mechanic's trade and worked in his father's factories. He attended the public schools of Brooklyn and pursued a special
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course of study of mechanics in the night schools of Cooper Union, New York City. In 1865 he married Miss Augusta Wells, a daughter of Calvin Wells, an old-time citizen and manufacturer of Wellsburg, Chemung county, N. Y.
For a time Mr. Ingersoll traveled and was identified with the promotion of various successful business enterprises in the East and Middle West. He lived for about sixteen years in the city of Pittsburg, Pa., where he developed Kenwood Park, one of the most popular amusement resorts in the city. There in 1896 his wife died as the result of a railway accident. In the year 1900 he commenced the development on a large scale of two amusement-resort enterprises in the city of Detroit, Michigan, which he carried to a most successful comple- tion, operating the same for a time at a handsome profit. He came to California and to Los Angeles somewhat broken in health, in 1903. In 1904 he built the roller coaster at Ocean Park, which promptly became an amusement feature of that city. This he operated for a time and sold, retiring from active business pursuits. He lives in Ocean Park. Mr. Ingersoll married for a second time, January 3rd, 1898, Miss Eleanor, a daughter of John Burke, a native of Colum- bus, Ohio, and a railroad official. By the former marriage there were seven children, of whom four are living-Le Forest and Frederick of Pittsburg, Audley and Louis of Spokane, Washington. They are all operating large amuse- ment enterprises originally inaugurated by the father. Mr. Ingersoll's business career has been one of large and successful achievements. Besides the extensive business enterprises that Mr. Ingersoll has built up and controlled he has made several successful inventions. He invented the first slot weighing machine that ever came into practical and popular use and for several years manufactured them on a large scale in Chicago. He also invented a slot hung tester which proved a phenomenal success. He is a man of positive temperament and inde- pendent thought and action. These characteristics he has inherited from a line of ancestry that dates back to the early settlement of the New England colonies and includes judges, preachers, lawyers, musicians and mechanics. They are all men of sterling worth who made themselves useful and memorable in their time.
H. C. MAYER, merchant and member of the Board of Trustees of Ocean Park, is a native of Henderson, the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky. His father, Jacob F. Mayer, was a successful farmer. His grandfather, George A. Meyer, settled in Kentucky as early as 1831, and was an expert gunsmith, which business he acquired from his father, who made guns for the continental army during the Revolutionary War. Jacob F. Mayer married Lucy Bond, whose ancestors were patriots of the Revolutionary days and associates of the family of George Washington. She died in Kentucky at about forty years of age, survived by the husband and four children.
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Mr. Mayer received his education in a private school and later graduated from the Henderson Public High School, and subsequently pursued a special course of study at the University of Chicago. He then entered the employ of the well known hardware house of Hibbard, Spencer & Company, Chicago. He worked in all departments of the business and finally became traveling sales- man, covering the field in Oregon and Washington. He later resigned his posi- tion and located in Los Angeles, entered business on his own account, and did a successful business at 537 South Broadway. In February, 1905, Mr. Mayer disposed of this business, removed to Venice and has since been identified with the commercial and civic growth of that city.
At the city election of 1908, Mr. Mayer was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of Ocean Park, and is a member of the Committee on Public Works, Fire and Police, Lighting and the Legal committee. He is secretary and treas- urer of the Venice Shoe Mfg. Co., and one of the founders of this enterprise which is the first of its kind on the southern coast.
Mr. Mayer married, at Henderson, Kentucky, Miss Sarah Bradshaw, a mem- ber of an old Kentucky family, and they have one child, a daughter, Sarah Louise.
EDWARD V. DALES, senior member of the grocery house of Dales Brothers, Santa Monica, is a native of Illinois. He was born in the town of Middlepoint, White County, September 10th, 1877, a son of Charles S. Dales. The family came to Southern California and located at Santa Monica in 1886 when young Edward was but nine years of age. His youth was spent, therefore, in Santa Monica where he passed through the graded schools and finished in the Santa Monica High School as a graduate of the class of 1895. He then worked for Lang & Middlekauff, hardware merchants, as salesman for two years. In 1898 he embarked in the grocery business under the firm name of Gray & Dales, on Third Street. In 1899 he purchased his partner's interest and conducted the business alone until 1902, when his brother John became interested and the present firm of Dales Brothers was organized. Besides their store on Third Street, Santa Monica, Dales Brothers operated a store for two years on Pier Avenue and Ocean Front, Ocean Park, but in 1906 the two stores were merged at Santa Monica.
Mr. Dales married Miss Florence Wright, of Santa Monica, February 20th, 1900. She is a daughter of Mr. P. B. Wright, now of Imperial, California. They have two sons, Verner and Lowell. Mr. Dales is a prominent Mason, having twice served as Master of Santa Monica Lodge, F. and A. M. He is also a member of the B. P. O. E., of Santa Monica. He was elected a member of the first city Board of Education under the Freeholders Charter and is now doing important committee work.
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WALTER E. DEVORE, leading merchant and influential citizen of Ocean Park, in Santa Monica, is a native of Clay City, Ill., and was born January 15th, 1856. His father, Jerre Devore, was a well to do farmer. Mr. Devore lived on the farm until about twenty-five years of age, then went to Springfield, Mo., where, for five years, he held a position as salesman in a furniture store, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the business. From Springfield, he went to Denver, Colo., where he remained seven years and was manager for the firm of Lunt & Company, Furniture. In 1896 he became a resident of Santa Monica and held responsible positions with the mercantile house of G. Knesel and later with the old house of Jackson Brothers. In 1902 he associated himself with Chauncey B. Petis, under the firm name of Devore & Petis, and opened a store on Main Street In 1904 they moved to their present quarters on Pier Avenue, in Ocean Park, Santa Monica, and they have built up an extensive business in furniture, hardware and general household equipment, having the most complete stock in their line in this section of the state, outside of Los Angeles. In 1908 the furniture stock was segregated from the hardware stock, materially enlarged, and installed in spacious double store quarters opposite the original store on Pier Avenue.
Mr. Devore married in his native town, Miss Ivan Nicholson. She was born, reared and educated in Clay County, Ill., where they were youthful friends. Mr. and Mrs. Devore have one child, a daughter, Burnsie E., born in Denver, Colorado. Mr. Devore has for five years been a member of the Santa Monica City Board of Education, is now first president of the Board under the Free- holders Charter and makes a most efficient presiding officer. He is counted among Santa Monica's most substantial citizens.
AUGUST M. GUIDINGER, for a quarter of a century a resident of California and widely known in Los Angeles county, is a native of Manitowock, Wisconsin, and was born July 31st, 1863. His father, John B. Guidinger, was a native of Germany. Mr. Guidinger was nineteen years of age when he left home, coming to California and almost directly to Los Angeles, where he attended the State Normal School. This was in 1883, and the school was in the second year of its existence. Mr. Guidinger completed a thorough course of study and grad- uated in the class of 1886. He then went to Santa Paula and was principal of the Santa Paula high school from 1887 to 1890. He then returned to Los An- geles and with Howry & Peck gained a thorough knowledge of the undertaking business. In 1894, he opened this business for himself in Santa Monica and con- tinued for about thirteen years. He meantime served the city of Santa Monica about ten years as magistrate, a portion of this time as police judge and other- wise as justice of the peace.
In 1906 he erected the splendid Guidinger building at 1334 Third street,
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which is designed especially for the undertaking business, being fitted with all modern conveniences. It is of the mission style of architecture and the most artistic building in the city. Mr. Guidinger in 1907 disposed of the business to Brezee Brothers & Todd, retaining ownership, however, of the building. He has valuable real estate holdings in Hollywood, which is at present his home. He also has business interests in Sawtelle. Mr. Guidinger married at Santa Panla, Miss Emma F. Hall, a daughter of R. R. Hall, deceased. They have one son, Theodore, born in Santa Monica, August 1st, 1905.
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