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 52
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H. C. HOLLWEDEL, well-known citizen of Santa Monica, is a native of New York City, where he was born January 21st, 1875. His father, Carsten Hollwe- del, a native of Germany, was a successful contracting builder in New York for many years. Mr. Hollwedel grew up in the city, passed through the New York public schools taking, also, instruction from a private tutor and latterly special courses in building construction and architecture. He then embarked in busi- ness as an architect and took up as a specialty heavy steel construction work. During the fifteen years of active experience, he erected several of the large business structures in modern New York, involving a most thorough and technical knowledge of the vast detail involved in heavy construction work of a most exacting and complicated nature. One of these buildings, which stands as lasting evidence of Mr. Hollwedel's skill, is 116 feet by 180 feet, two stories below the ground surface and the foundations embedded thirty feet in solid rock, while it stands sixteen stories above the street. Another building at the corner of Broad- way and 50th street, also one at Broadway and 62nd street, are of similar dimen- sions and construction. Mr. Hollwedel also designed and built for wealthy New
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Yorkers country seats on Long Island. Some of the most elegant and expensive bronze show windows in New York are of Mr. Hollwedel's design. He further had entire charge of and control of all construction work of one of the large and wealthy estates in New York City which involved great variety. By reason of over-work and ill health, Mr. Hollwedel was compelled to relinquish business. He came to California and located at Santa Monica in September, 1906, pur- chasing property at Fourth and Washington street, where he has erected one of the finest modern residences in the city. He has also made liberal investments in other Santa Monica property.
Mr. Hollwedel has taken an active part in the civic and commercial better- ment of Santa Monica. He is a material factor in the successful promotion and work of the Santa Monica Board of Trade and is its Vice-President. He is at present City Inspector of Construction on the new city ocean pier now in course of construction at the foot of Colorado street, which pier is of reinforced concrete and the first of its kind on the Pacific Coast. He is a deservedly popular citizen.
CYRUS L. EDINGER, for nearly a quarter century resident of California, and a well-known citizen of Sawtelle, is a native of White Haven, Luzerne county, Pa., where he was born January 2, 1874. His father, Aaron Edinger, and his mother, Sarah (Granger) Edinger, were born in Luzerne county and were of German descent. The family came to California in 1885 and for several years lived in Los Angeles. There are seven sons and two daughters. The father died in Ocean Park, February, 1908, at the age of fifty-nine years. The widow still survives.
Mr. Edinger received his earliest schooling in his native town and, in later boyhood and youth, attended the public schools of Los Angeles. He then took up and mastered the carpenter's trade and engaged in the contract building busi- ness. In 1897 he went to the town of Needles, California, and engaged in the business. Needles was then in the infancy of its growth, and during his resi- dence there of about eight years, he erected quite all of the principal buildings in the city. October 10, 1898, he there married Miss Etheline Keys, a native daughter of Illinois. In 1905 he took up his residence at Sawtelle and con- tinued in the building business. In February, 1907, in company with William Haas, he purchased the planing mill and building business of Snyder & Wer- lenbaker, which business is now conducted under the firm name of Haas & Edinger. Mr. Edinger is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood, the I. O. O. F., Eastern Star and the Rebeccas. He works and votes in the Republican party and was a delegate to the County Convention of 1908. He is a member of the Sawtelle City Board of Trustees. Mr. and Mrs. Edinger have four children-Harold, Claire, Edith and an infant unnamed. The family home is No. 114 Eighth street.
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DANIEL TURNER, Ocean Park, Santa Monica, if statements are correct, is the pioneer of pioneers. He is a native of Georgia and was born on our national birthday in 1806 and is, therefore, at this writing, (April, 1908) one hundred and two years of age. His father was a half breed Cherokee Indian and his mother a half breed Creek. When a small boy the family lived in Lou- isiana and his father took part in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Al- though very young, Daniel clearly remembers seeing his father behind breastworks of cotton bales giving battle with his musket to the enemy. Early in life he left the south and found employment with the Hudson Bay Fur Company in the Northwest Territory as a hunter and trapper. This strenuous life he followed for many years. Later he joined a fur hunting expedition for the Arctic re- gions. They encountered unexpect- DANIEL TURNER. ed difficulties and an unusually cold and prolonged winter, for which the company was inadequately equipped, and only one hundred and fifteen of the party lived to return to civilization. By stages Mr. Turner made his way west- ward through a trackless wilderness to Astoria, Oregon. Later he enlisted in the U. S. Light Artillery and was stationed at Fort Point near San Francisco. He served one year, was discharged and re-enlisted in Battery H, Second Califor- nia Heavy Artillery under Captain Homestead and served about five years. He is now a pensioner of the U. S. Government and draws $24.00 per month. Notwithstanding his extreme age, Mr. Turner is as active and healthy as many men who consider themselves well at fifty. He reads the daily papers, keeps in touch with current events and progress of the country and discusses issues of the day with great interest and sound logic. He has always been temperate in his habits of living. He has never married.
FRED J. FINCH, well-known business man of Sawtelle, is a native of the city of New Albany, Floyd county, Indiana, and was born September 10, 1881. His father, O. J. Finch, formerly a wholesale grocer of Trinidad, Colorado, is now Chief of Detectives of the city of New Albany. His mother, whose maiden
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name was Emma Flint, is a daughter of Mrs. Elvira Flint of Ireland, Duboise county, Indiana. Mr. Flint grew up and attended the public schools of his na- tive city meantime, living at intervals with an uncle, Lawrence J. Finch, known as the " Sheep King " of Colorado, and lives at Mount Rose, that State. In the year 1900 Mr. Finch came to California and to Santa Monica and took a posi- tion with A. M. Guidinger, for many years in the undertaking business in that city. Mr. Finch held this position for about six years and thoroughly mastered the business. In July, 1907, he engaged in business in Sawtelle on his own account and opened the Sawtelle Funeral Parlors. In August, 1908, he formed a partnership with Mr. Guidinger and purchased the D. L. Allen Livery, Feed and Fuel business, which they now operate. Mr. Finch married December 14. 1905, Miss Pearle Cody, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. B. Cody of 1220 Lake street, Ocean Park.
Mr. Finch is an active Republican. He is a member of the Modern Wood- men of The Palms, and the Fraternal Brotherhood in Sawtelle.
CHARLES C. TOWNER, lawyer, of Santa Monica, is a native of Randolph. Riley county, Kan., and was born November 15, 1870, a son of Charles E. Towner, well-known pioneer of Santa Monica. Mr. Towner was educated in the public schools of Riley county, passed through the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia, taught school six years, was Superintendent of City Schools of Mankato, Kan .. entered Kansas State University and graduated therefrom in 1898. He then located at Abilene, the county seat of Dickison county, Kan .. . where he practiced law ten years. He served as City Attorney of Abilene two years and Prosecuting Attorney of Dickison county four years. Mr. Towner has a wife, a son. Charles, and daughter, Bertina. He came to California and located at Santa Monica in 1908, where as a member of the law firm of Hunter & Towner he is practicing his profession.
L. B. GOODRICH, retired, Santa Monica, is a native of lowa, where he was born December 10, 1851. In 1870 he went to State Center, Marshall county, Iowa, and engaged in the grocery business. In 1876 he purchased eighty aeres of land adjoining the town of State Center and engaged successfully in farming. increasing his acreage until his holdings comprise about one thousand acres. September 30, 1875, he married Laura Smith. He became active in local and State political affairs and served as member of the Common Council of State Center and subsequently was elected and served as Mayor of State Center. and as such was active in promoting the industrial interests of his city. He also became interested in the Dobbin & Whitson State Bank of State Center, served
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on the directorate and as vice-president for a period of about fifteen years. Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich have two daughters, Nellie M., born at State Center 1877, and in 1900 married Charles H. Ross, president of the H. W. Ross Lumber Company of Minneapolis, Minn: Bertha M., wife of Arthur Reynolds, presi- dent of the Des Moines National Bank of Des Moines, Iowa. He is one of the leading bankers of the country. He is chairman of the National Legislative Committee and member of the Currency Commission of the American Bankers' Association and is a recognized authority upon the national currency question. Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich came to Santa Monica in 1904. The family home is at Second street and Nevada avenue.
JOSE DE LA LUZ MACHADO is a worthy representative of one of the wealthy and influential families of early-day Southern California and a lineal descendant of Manuel Machado, a native Span- iard, who was a pioneer of early times at Santa Barbara and who, for mili- tary duty, was by the Spanish gov- ernment granted a tract of land, a portion of which lies within the · present confines of the city of Los Angeles. Augustine and Ygnacio were ambitious sons of Manuel Mach- ado, who became the owners of La Ballona grant, an extensive and valu- able tract of land upon a portion of which is now located the towns of Playa del Rey, Venice, Ocean Park and Palms. This land was acquired under circumstances recited on page 137 in this work, and which will give the reader many facts concerning this interesting California family.
José De la Luz Machado is a son J. D. MACHADO. of Augustine Machado. His mother was, by maiden name, Ramona, a daughter of Don Francisco Sepulveda, a Spanish soldier, who for his devotion and loyalty as a soldier to the Spanish crown, was granted the San Vicente Rancho of several thousand acres of land (see page 132 in this book). The city of Santa Monica and a large portion of the Soldiers' Home and the city of Sawtelle are on land originally embraced
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in this grant. The holdings of Augustine Machado in the Ballona grant have been shared by the children, eleven in number, and of whom José De la Luz is the youngest. He was born December 17, 1856, in Los Angeles on South Main street, corner of Winston street. He attended Santa Clara College at Santa Clara, Cal., and graduated therefrom in the class of 1876, taking the degree of Bachelor of Science. He then returned home and has followed agri- culture on a portion of the old Ballona grant that came to him by inheritance. He has never married and the family household comprises himself, a brother, Bernardino, and a younger sister.
COL. E. K. CHAPIN, deceased. The late Ephriam K. Chapin was one of the well-known pioneers of Santa Monica and was a factor in the business growth and development of the town. He was a native of Connecticut and was born January 29, 1839. He was, from 1866 to 1871, engaged in the mercantile business at Coventry, Conn. In 1867 he married Mary Morgan, a daughter of James S. Morgan, a silk thread manufacturer of Coventry, her native city, and where her father still lives at an advanced age. At Coventry, Conn., Chapin commanded a regiment of National State Guards and was otherwise active in local public affairs. Mr. Chapin in 1873 came to California and spent a brief time at Bakersfield, after which, the following year, he came to Santa Monica, which was then in the very infancy of its growth. Mrs. Chapin came in 1878. Mr. Chapin with faith and energy engaged with the pioneers in the development of a city and was very active in all movements looking to its business and polit- ical welfare. For many years he was a leading local grocery merchant. He was continuously serving the people of Santa Monica in some public capacity. He was Treasurer from the date of the organization of the city to the date of his death, which occurred July 6, 1891. Mrs. Chapin survives and has ever been prominent in the social and civic life of Santa Monica. She has one daughter, Mary M., wife of A. M. Jameson, prominent in the society and club life of the city and past president of the Santa Monica Woman's Club.
There is one grand-daughter, Mary Muir Jameson, native of Santa Monica.
P. H. SMITH, capitalist and banker of Santa Monica, is a native of Iowa and was born at Mount Pleasant, May 18th, 1862. His father, Simon Smith, by trade and occupation a cabinet maker, was a man of thrift and successful in his business. He was a veteran of the Civil War and served throughout the con- flict in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. He married Miss Jane Kelly, a young woman of Irish parentage, and of their two daughters and three sons, the subject of this sketch is the youngest. He grew up in his native town, passed through the local public schools, graduating from the High School. He completed a
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course of study at Howe's Academy, and finished at the lowa Wesleyan Uni- versity, Mount Pleasant. While in college he became an active member of the Phia Delta Theta fraternity. He also took great interest in outdoor pastimes and became a trained athlete. Upon leaving college Mr. Smith took up civil engineering and became attached to the civil-engineering department of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Company. While following his pro- fession he detected an error in the government surveys of land in Northeastern Minnesota on the Masaba range, which left unrecorded a tract of land designated in land parlance as no-man's-land. This land Mr. Smith carefully explored, de- cided it to be valuable for its mineral deposits, and filed his claim thereon. His rights were vigorously contested in the federal courts by contending interests for a period of sixteen years, and finally title was confirmed to him. The case was found to involve many technicalities and complications of the law relating to government lands and has gone on record as one of the most famous in the history of land litigation. This land, which has proven to be rich in high-grade iron ore, the deposits being almost limitless, is being rapidly developed and is already a source of princely income to its worthy owner. Mr. Smith also owns a large interest in, and is vice-president of, the Mendota Coal and Coke Com- pany of Centralia, Wash. He also has large and valuable timber holdings in that region of country.
Mr. Smith came to California and located at Santa Monica in 1908. With James H. Grigsby and others he acquired the stock of the Merchants' National Bank of Santa Monica, which institution they have thoroughly reorganized and put upon sound financial basis, identifying with them some of the most widely- known financiers on the coast, with officers and directors as follows: James H. Grigsby, President; P. H. Smith, Vice-President; Ehrman Grigsby, Cashier : F. J. Townsend, Assistant Cashier ; Roy Grigsby, Receiving Teller. The Board of Directors are: James H. Grigsby, Roy Grigsby, P. H. Smith, Marco Hell- man, W. H. Holliday, P. R. Stahl, M. Hamburger and Ehrinan Grigsby. Mr. Smith is a man of broad culture and striking personality. He is possessed of a highly artistic nature and owns one of the choicest collections of oil paintings on the coast. He is a splendid type of the self-made American citizen, having fought all of his own battles in life unaided and alone, save the sustaining loyalty of a wise and helpful wife. Mr. Smith married December 14th. 1898, Miss Ger- trude, a daughter of John Griffin, retired, of Grand Forks, North Dakota. She is a lady of social refinement and domestic culture. They have a daughter. Se- ville, and a son, P. H. Smith, Jr.
STEPHEN HARRIS TAFT. The genealogy of the Taft family in America is traced back to a period between 1670 and 1680, when Robert Taft crossed the ocean from England and became a pioneer in Massachusetts. From the Indians he purchased a large tract of land in the township of Mendon, which-
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title was afterwards recognized as valid by the Colonial government. On the Blackstone River, near Uxbridge, he built the first grist mill on that stream, or in that part of the colony, in return for which service he was exempted from taxa -. tion for a number of years. Of his large family, five were sons, viz: Robert, Thomas, Daniel. Joseph and Benjamin, the last named being the progenitor of Stephen Harris Taft.
The Ohio Tafts are descended from the same ancestry, their most distin- guished representative in the present generation being Hon. William H. Taft, member of President Roosevelt's cabinet and formerly identified with the Amerian occupancy of the Philippines. He is the son of Judge Alphonso Taft, who was secretary of war and minister to Russia under President Grant's ad- ministration.
In August, 1874, the Taft family celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the coming of their great ancestor to America. Many hundred Tafts and descendants of Tafts from all parts of the United States met in Uxbridge, Mass., where Judge Alphonzo Taft gave the genealogical address in" the largest church of the town, after which a free dinner was served in a spacious tent.
Nathaniel Taft, the grandfather of Mr. Taft, of the third generation from Robert and a descendant of Benjamin, youngest of the five sons, moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and settled in Richmond. Benjamin and his descendants were all Quakers, Nathaniel belonging the the Unitarian branch of that denomination, holding the same theological views as those later held by the poet, Whittier.
Among the children of Nathaniel Taft was a son, Stephen, born and reared at Richmond, New Hampshire, and throughout active life, a farmer. During the early twenties he removed to New York State, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1861 at the age of seventy years. Six years later Mr. Taft's mother died at the home of her eldest daughter, Mrs. Samuel Hart, at Fulton, New York. Mrs. Taft's maiden nanie was Vienna Harris, her mother being a sister of Hosea Ballou, the distinguished scholar and Universalist divine of Massachusetts. Mrs. Taft's mother and President Garfield's mother were cousins. Of Mr. Taft's family, four daughters and three sons attained the age of maturity- Maranda, deceased; Elizabeth, residing in Oswego County, New York; Vienna and Susanna, both deceased; Stephen Harris; Lorenzo P., deceased, for many years a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Jerome B., who was a Unitarian minister, now deceased.
Not far from the city of Oswego, New York, on the 14th of September, 1825, occurred the birth of the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch. As a boy he attended the common schools and later was a student in an anti- slavery Baptist institution, known as New York Central College.
Mr. Taft's marriage, in 1853, united him with Mary A. Burnham, who was born and reared in Madison County, New York, and died in 1897 at Santa Monica, California. Mrs. Taft was a woman of superior ability, whose influence for good was felt by all with whom she came in contact. She was always an inspiration
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to her husband in his work. Six children were born of the union, namely- George, deceased; William J., who is serving his fourth term as District Attorney of Humboldt County, Iowa; Fred H., for several years City Attorney of Santa Monica; Sydney A., residing in Minneapolis, Minn; Mary V., and Elwin S., both deceased.
Mr. Taft entered the ministry in early life, his last field of labor before leaving New York for his western home being in Martinsbury, Lewis County. In 1862 he moved to the state of Iowa where he purchased ten sections of land in the Upper Des Moines valley, and in the spring of 1863 brought from Lewis County, New York, a colony of twelve familes, to the head of each of whom he conveyed eighty acres of land at a dollar and a half an acre. The same year he laid out the town of Springvale, now Humboldt, organized the Christian Union church, now known as Unity church, and commenced the building of a dam on the Des Moines River, preparatory to the erection of a saw and grist mill. Mr. Taft named the streets of the town after distinguished statesmen, scholars and generals of that day. He laid out and deeded to the town, two parks, John Brown Park, embracing one block and Taft's Park, embracing four blocks, setting hundreds of trees upon the latter, which is located in the center of the town. He gave two lots for the school house and a lot to each of the churches first organized, which were Christian Union and Congregational.
At the time the town was laid out a majority of the supervisors of the county were so dominated by the influence of Dakota City (a rival town located near by) that he could get no public road laid out to his mills so he personally took the matter in hand, building a culvert in the low lands near the eastern end of Sumner Avenue, and grading the same. He then employed the county surveyor and staked out a road leading ten miles north to Lots Creek, called the air line and also another road to the Lizard River, eighteen miles southwest. Three persons owning land along the line of road leading north, taking advantage of Mr. Taft's necessity, demanded $100.00 each before giving their consent to the opening of the road, which passed along their section line. This Mr. Taft paid to avoid the delay which would otherwise have been involved.
Mr. Taft proceeded with the erection of the mills, which involved much labor and expense, as all the lumber and machinery had to be transported a long dis- tance over almost impassable roads. When completed the event was celebrated by an oyster supper, at which hundreds of biscuits, made from the new ground flour, were consumed. Although the mills were indispensable to the building of the town and the success of the colony enterprise, Mr. Taft found them an expensive luxury, as the spring floods and attendant ice successively carried away three dams. Following the loss of the first, in 1867, he excavated a canal from the mills to a bend in the river a half mile above the first dam. This re- quired an outlay of many thousand dollars which, while a heavy burden to Mr. Taft, proved a great blessing to many families residing in Humboldt and neigh- boring counties, as the work made necessary provided labor for the pioneer settlers.
Of the food conditions then obtaining and incidents attending the bringing
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in of the last load of flour before recovering control of the water, Mr. Taft says: "At this time there were almost no settlers on the vast prairies in North- western Iowa. The pioneers who had come in had selected homesteads along the streams where they could obtain fuel and material for building their cabins and sheds for their stock. No surplus food supplies had been accumulated, so the people lived from hand to mouth. They had been accustomed to bring what corn and wheat and buckwheat they had raised to my mill, so the loss of the dam was of serious import to them to say nothing of the new arrival of settlers who were wholly dependent upon others for their bread. The continued rains of that season had rendered the roads almost impassable, yet all supplies had to be brought by teams from the railroad station, which was a hundred miles away. The workmen, who had thus far been furnished with flour and meal to take home to their families on Saturday, knowing how difficult it was for me to obtain the necessary food supplies, began to express solicitude regarding the future. Such progress had been made in the construction of the new dam and the digging of the canal that two weeks more with the force I was then employing would so far complete the work that the mill could be set to grinding. The crucial ques- tion with me was how to obtain provisions to supply my workmen for two weeks. O.1 a Saturday morning, late in November, I went to Fort Dodge. On reaching town I found the price of flour to be five dollars a hundred, cash down. I tried to negotiate for the purchase of a ton on ninety days' time, but could obtain no flour without the money. A hundred dollars would buy the ton of flour so much needed and win the victory so essential to all concerned, but I had not had five dollars in my pocket for weeks. Learning that Hon. George Bassett had Agricultural College funds to loan, I called upon him and learned that a respon- sible name with my own upon a note would secure me the money. I went to Hon. B. F. Gue, Lieutenant-Governor of Iowa, stated the conditions surrounding me, upon which he at once signed the note and, obtaining the money, I purchased a ton of flour, which was soon loaded and the team was on its way to Springvale while I remained to transact some other business. In about an hour it occurred to me that if the flour reached home before I did, none of it would find its way to my bin, and I had the largest family of all. I immediately started for home driving rapidly. While not able to overtake the load I came in sight of it as the teamster was driving up to my residence. That it was seen by the workmen at the lower end of the canal was evident and they passed the word along the line to the men working on the dam. Spades, crowbars and scrapers were aban- doned and the majority of the workmen moved rapidly toward the load. Each man on reaching the wagon took a sack of flour. Had I been a few seconds later I should not have secured a single sack. As it was, I possessed myself of two of the forty sacks. The scene was never to be forgotten by any of those who par- ticipated in it. Some were shedding tears of gladness and devoutedly thanking God. Others were laughing and telling me they would stick by the work to the end, while a son of the Emerald Isle, with his sack of flour in his arms, called out : 'Bully for the boss! We knew he wouldn't let us starve.'
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