USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Los Angeles from the mountains to the sea : with selected biography of actors and witnesses to the period of growth and achievement, Volume II > Part 12
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Henry Bancoch
Hastamock Ross
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She was born at Imperial, Illinois, in 1843, and died at the age of seventy at Los Angeles, March 15, 1913. Her father was Count Agos- tin Haraszthy, whose life and history have special interest for the pres- ent time. He was one of the figures who made glorious the early strug- gle of Hungary against the despotic forces which manacled that coun- try for generations. On account of his active efforts in behalf of free- dom he was exiled from his native land in 1840. Coming to America, he cast his fortunes in the land of liberty. His wife was Elenora de Dediniskyi, a noblewoman of Polish ancestry. Their daughter Ida was born soon after they came to America. They had six children before they started for California. The oldest son remained in the east, at the Annapolis Naval Academy. Count Haraszthy's father also accom- panied the party to California.
They came to this state over the Santa Fe trail during the summer of 1849. The late Mrs. Ross was old enough to appreciate many of the circumstances of that romantic and dangerous exodus. After many weeks of traveling, suffering from hunger and thirst, and with good for- tune escaping hostile Indians, the party arrived in San Diego, where Count Haraszthy established his home. Here his character, superior ability and broad intelligence brought him into local prominence. He was chosen to offices, being elected first sheriff of the county, and also marshal of the city, while his father became first justice of the peace and president of the first City Council. In 1852 Count Haraszthy was sent to the Legislature from San Diego. He was a member of the Legislature at the same time with Major Henry Hancock, the future husband of his daughter. Eventually Count Haraszthy removed to Sonoma county and planted a vineyard, the original stock of which was imported from Europe and formed the first vines ever grown in the state for industrial purposes. In 1860 Governor Downey sent Count Haraszthy to Europe to collect cuttings of the finest wine grapes to use in develop- ing the California industry. He made this important and interesting trip at his own expense. In 1867 Count Haraszthy went to Central America, and died there the following year.
Ida Haraszthy was six years old when her parents came to Cali- fornia. In 1851 she and some of her brothers and sisters and her mother went back east and remained five years, completing her educa- tion in select institutions of the eastern states. In 1860 she and her mother went to Paris, in which city she lived two years and became in- timate with all the culture and social advantages of that great capital. Then upon her return to California she entered upon her social duties, and soon afterward became the bride of the gallant Major Hancock.
After his death in 1883 she was left alone with her two sons to rear and educate, and with the property heavily encumbered. Then and there she showed the nobility of her temper and the nobility of her an- cestry. With great courage and devotion she took her boys to the little old ranch house and for two years struggled and did much of the rough labor of the ranch with her own hands. At the same time she kept her boys in school near San Francisco. Her splendid business judgment eventually lifted the mortgage from the land, and from that time for- ward she lived in comfort, but, like the queen of classic mythology, hav- ing experienced suffering she was always sympathetic with those who suffered, and understood the privations of the human lot. It was this charity, born partly of experience and partly from the generosity of her character, that did so much to distinguish Madame Ross, as she was known. Few have succeeded so well in the master principle of charity,
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covering up the deeds from the knowledge of those benefited. It is only possible to say that the results of this private charity were enormous in the aggregate, but concerning its details the record can live only in the hearts of the recipients. Of one public benefaction people knew only, a semi-annual treat of ice cream, cake and candy to every orphan chat could be found to partake in Los Angeles. One of these occasions occurred on her birthday and the other either at Christmas or Easter.
By her first marriage with Major Hancock she had one son to grow up, George Allan Hancock, mentioned in separate paragraphs. In 1909 Mrs. Hancock became the wife of Hon. Erskine M. Ross, who served as a useful officer on the Confederate side in the Civil war, and came to Los Angeles fifty years ago and has long been one of the dis- tinguished lawyers and jurists of California. Forty years ago he was elected to the Supreme Court of the state, and has also served as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.
One of the most beautiful homes of Los Angeles is the place at Wil- shire Boulevard and Vermont avenue, where Mrs. Ross lived until her demise. It is architecturally a replica of the Villa Medici at Florence, which was greatly admired by Mrs. Ross. The music room in this Los Angeles mansion is a marvel of art, and in it was installed by Mrs. Ross one of the largest pipe organs in the state. It was also enriched with many rare art treasures, including pictures collected by Mrs. Ross during her European travels. For a number of years she spent about six months annually abroad, and her wealth enabled her to give full scope to the tastes acquired in early life and long subsequent study of the greatest masters of painting and other fine arts. She was richly endowed with critical appreciation of all the best in music and art, and also of those talents which find expression in practical beneficence and charity. Such a life becomes a resource to a community, and it was thus regarded when Mrs. Ross passed away. She had lived the greater part of a half century in Los Angeles, had delighted in the growth of that Spanish community, as she first knew it, into the unique city of the western continent, and she took a corresponding pride in all that fur- thered that growth. More than a thousand persons gathered at the Cathedral for the solemn requiem mass by Bishop Conaty and Mon- signor Harnett, their presence testifying to the popularity of Mrs. Ross and all the beauty of her character.
GEORGE ALLAN HANCOCK, a son of Major Henry Hancock and Ida Hancock Ross, both distinguished pioneers of the old Los Angeles, was born at San Francisco, July 26, 1875. He attended the Brewers private school at San Mateo and Belmont School at Belmont, California, to the age of eighteen. After taking a business course at Los Angeles he went on his father's famous Rancho La Brea adjoining Los Angeles, and was immersed in the practical duties of this great property up to the age of twenty-six. After that he was employed in the oil field on the same ranch, and acquainted himself with every phase of the oil industry during the next four years.
At that time Mr. Hancock organized the Rancho La Brea Oil Com- pany, of which he is owner. He individually owns two thousand acres of this famous rancho. Under his personal supervision seventy-one oil wells have been sunk, and there is a total of a hundred and eighty wells on the land. At the present time the daily production of gas from this field amounts to two and a half million cubic feet, all of
Gallan Hancock
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which except a small portion used for operating purposes on the prop- erty is supplied to domestic consumers in Los Angeles. The oil pro- duction is only part of the vast resources Mr. Hancock superintends. He has fifteen hundred acres in cultivation, a thousand acres in beans, and five hundred acres in barley.
In the south room of the Museum of History, Science and Art of Los Angeles, there is on exhibition a collection of animal skeletons from the Rancho La Brea deposit. These animals belong to the period immediately preceding recent times, the geological epoch known as the "Pleistocene," in which occurred the last glacial advance and when the earlier forms of life were disappearing, replaced by the more modern types which now inhabit the earth. On June 23, 1918, Mr. George Allan Hancock, the present owner of Rancho La Brea, granted to the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles the exclusive privilege of excavat- ing for a period of years. This work is being done under the auspices of the Museum of History, Science and Art, the specimens to remain in the possession of the institution. The specimens thus acquired are to be segregated and exhibited at the Museum as the Hancock Collec- tion-a memorial erected by Mr. George Allan Hancock in memory of his parents, Major Henry Hancock and Mrs. Ida Hancock Ross, The institution is to have eventually a room devoted solely to this ex- hibit, to be known as the Hancock Room.
Mr. Hancock is vice-president of the Hibernian Savings Bank of Los Angeles, is a member of the California Club, the Los Angeles Ath- letic Club, the Gamut Club, the Uplifters, the Knights of Columbus, the Bohemian Club of San Francisco and of a number of yacht clubs. He is a republican voter and a member of the Catholic church. Mr. Han- cock has his own extensive hobby, which gives him real pleasure- his yacht, on which he spends his Saturdays and Sundays, usually en- tertaining a number of guests. This yacht was designed and planned by its owner, and is unusual in the fact that boatmen and builders pre- dicted that it would prove a failure. Severe tests have demonstrated it the safest and soundest of craft. Mr. Hancock is his own captain and always takes full charge of the handling of his boat and its navigation.
Mr. Hancock has many of the artistic traits of his honored mother "and is especially well known in musical circles in southern California. His favorite musical instrument is the cello, and it is hardly fair to call him an amateur, though he is an amateur in spirit and ranks with the leading professionals in skill and technique on that instrument. He has one of the finest instruments in existence, one made in 1772 by Nicolus Gagliano. His mother spent much time and took a great deal of care in selecting this instrument while she was abroad. Mr. Hancock has played with the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra for six years, and his personal time and resources do much to keep up that splendid organ- ization. He served as its treasurer from 1914 to 1916, and its president for the years 1917-18-19. Mr. Hancock, through his untiring efforts, has been successful in bringing the Los Angeles Symphony over a most trying era in its history. Last year it emerged from a very successful season, leaving the orchestra to commence its future work clear of all past debts.
In Los Angeles, November 12, 1901, Mr. Hancock married Gene- vieve Mullen. They have two children: Bertram Deane, born in 1902, who attended Notre Dame University, at Notre Dame, Indiana, one year, and is now a student in Santa Clara College, Santa Clara, Cali- fornia. Rosemary, the second child, is a student in the Ramona Con- vent, at Alhambra, California.
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SPENCER LANGDON BLODGET, of Huntington Beach, has been a resi- dent of California since 1885 and is well known in banking and business circles. He and his wife, Carra Myrtle Belnap Blodget, represent some of the oldest American New England families. Of Puritan English stock, their ancestors fought in every American war. The first Ameri- can ancestor of Mr. Blodget was Thomas, who spelled his name Blogget. He came from Norfolk, England, in 1635. Mrs. Blodget's first an- cestor was Abraham Belnap, who came from County Kent in the same year. Twelve of tlie Blodget and Belnap families were soldiers in the Revolutionary war.
Spencer Langdon Blodget was born at Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1859. He is a son of William Oren Blodget, born at Gorham, New York, in 1824, a school teacher and merchant at Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, who served as first lieutenant in the 151st Pennsylvania Infantry at the battle of Gettysburg; a grandson of Arba Blodget, a soldier of the War of 1812; and great-grandson of Solomon Blodget, a direct Revolutionary ancestor of Brimfield, Massachusetts. Other an- cestral lines represented in William Oren Blodget were Thomas Maule, known in history as the first defender of Free Press, who lived at Salem, Massachusetts; Isaac Sternes, Gregory Stone, Walter Haynes, Sergeant John Tidd and other Puritan pioneers.
The mother of Spencer L. Blodget was Esther Ann Spencer, who was descended from Squire Benjamin Spencer, whose controversy with Ethan Allen of Vermont resulted in riots and the outlawry of Allen. Benjamin Spencer and his five sons were United Empire Loyalists and moved to Canada, where the family lived for generations.
Spencer Langdon Blodget finished his education as a student in the Annapolis Naval Academy, but resigned to engage in business. He was a merchant in Pennsylvania, and on coming to California in 1885 settled at Bakersfield. For a number of years his home has been at Huntington Beach, and he was cashier of the First National Bank of that town from 1906 to 1913 and is still a director. He served as colonel of the California Sons of Veterans in 1888, and for ten years ending in 1898 was lieutenant in the California National Guards, Com- pany G of the Sixth Regiment at Bakersfield. Mr. Blodget is a repub- lican, a Knights Templar Mason and Shriner and past master of Bak- ersfield Lodge and Huntington Beach Lodge and past commander of Bakersfield Commandery of the Knights Templar.
He and Carra Myrtle Belnap were married December 17, 1878. She was descended from Jesse Belnap, a Revolutionary soldier who forged the chain to obstruct the passage of the Hudson at West Point. Her father, A. M. Belnap, came to California in the gold rush of the fifties, crossing Nicaragua in Central America. Later he returned to Youngsville, Pennsylvania, and was postmaster there for twenty-one years. He returned to California in 1886, and died at Bakersfield in 1910, at the age of eighty-five. His wife was Ellen Fletcher, descended from Robert Fletcher, and from Ezekiel Cheever, the "Boston School- master." Carra Myrtle Belnap was born at Youngsville, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1860, and died in 1893. S. L. Blodget married in 1895 Florence Langdon.
Mr. Blodget by his first wife had five sons and one daughter, all now grown. The oldest, Claude R. Blodget, is in business at Bakers- field. The second, Percy L. Blodget, is a mining engineer. The third, Rush M. Blodgett, is an attorney. The fourth, Ward B. Blodget, is
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chief geologist of the Sante Fe oil properties. The youngest, Lewis W. Blodget, is city attorney of Huntington Beach. The one daughter, Marian B., is the wife of C. C. Ramsey, of Bakersfield, California. All the sons are Leland Stanford men except Lewis. Four of them have military records. Claude served as a sergeant in Company G, Sixth Regiment, California Volunteers, in the Spanish-American war. The other three had their military experience during the World war. Percy was captain of the United States Engineers; Ward, a private in the . 23rd Regiment of Engineers, and Lewis, a first lieutenant in Headquar- ters Company, 13th Regiment Infantry.
RUSH M. BLODGET, senior member of Blodget & Blodget, lawyers at Los Angeles and Huntington Beach, has lived in California for over thirty-five years and since his admission to the bar in 1907 has made an enviable record as an attorney and counselor.
Mr. Blodget was born at Youngsville, Pennsylvania, December 3, 1881, a son of Spencer Langdon and Carra Myrtle (Belnap) Blodget. He came out to California with his parents in 1884. His mother died in 1893 and his father is a resident of Huntington Beach and an expert accountant by profession. Rush M. Blodget acquired his early educa- tion in the public schools of Bakersfield, graduated from the Kern County High School with the class of 1899, and took his law work in Leland Stanford University, graduating LL. B. in 1907. He was admitted to the California bar in July of that year, and in 1908 became a member of the law firm of Watkins & Blodget at Los Angeles. In 1912 he took up an individual practice, and has since been associated with his brother under the name of Blodget & Blodget, handling all the business of that firm at Los Angeles.
Mr. Blodget was city attorney of Huntington Beach from 1909 to 1911, served in a similar capacity at Stanton in 1911-12, and since his appointment in 1918 has been city attorney of Venice, where he resides. He is independent in politics. Mr. Blodget served seven years as a member of the National Guard, is a member of the Delta Chi fraternity, Huntington Lodge No. 380, A. F. and A. M., is a member of Los An- geles Chapter of the California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
May 29, 1911, at Los Angeles, he married Miss Beryl Lorena French, a native daughter of California and a graduate of the Los Angeles Nor- mal School in 1907. Her parents were James Edward and Mary (Prosser) French. Both the Prossers and Frenches were among the early day California pioneers. Her father, who died in 1896, was for many years a fruit grower at Loomis, California, where Mrs. Blodget was born. Mary Prosser French is still living at the old homestead in Loomis. Her father, Robert Prosser, was a Virginian, hating the insti- tution of slavery, and left the south and went to St. Louis, Missouri. where he was a carriage manufacturer, and in the early fifties crossed the plains to California. Mr. and Mrs. Blodget have one son, Rush M. Blodget II, born at Los Angeles November 3, 1918.
LEWIS WILLIAM BLODGET is a member of the law firm of Blodget & Blodget, of Huntington Beach and Los Angeles, and handles the prac- tice of the firm at Huntington Beach. Mr. Blodget is well versed in the law and is a young man whose past record gives signal promise of brilliant performance in coming years.
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He was born at Bakersfield, California, November 27, 1893, a son of Spencer Langdon and Carra (Belnap) Blodget. His father, a resi- dent of Huntington Beach, is an expert accountant in the motor vehicle department of Los Angeles Lewis William was the youngest of a family of five sons and one daughter, and his mother died at Bakersfield soon after his birth. He was educated in the grammar schools of Bak- ersfield, the high school at Huntington Beach, graduated in 1911, and received his degree Bachelor of Laws from the University of Southern California in 1915. After a few weeks of practice alone he formed a partnership with his brother, Rush M. Blodget, as Blodget & Blodget, with offices in Los Angeles and Huntington Beach. Lewis looks after all the business at Huntington Beach, while his brother takes charge of the practice at Los Angeles, and they, as a matter of fact, carry on an individual practice, being associated when their interests require it.
Mr. Blodget was in the United States Army a year and a half, serving with the rank of first lieutenant and being stationed at Camp Fremont, Camp Mills, Long Island, Camp Merrit, New Jersey, and also at Washington. He was one of many officers denied the privilege of getting into overseas duty, his legal experience calling him to special work in Washington. He was commissioned a first lieutenant of the Regular Army, and much of his time was spent in drilling and instruct- ing troops. The day that the armistice was signed he was on board Transport No. 42 preparatory to going overseas, but left that transport at Hoboken, New Jersey, the next morning.
While he was in the army he was appointed city attorney of Hunt- ington Beach, and by means of telegrams from leading citizens of that community he was discharged from the army and reached home the lat- ter part of January, 1919. Mr. Blodget is a republican and has been prominent in politics and civic affairs at Huntington Beach for a num- ber of years. He is senior deacon of Huntington Lodge No. 380, A. F. and A. M., a member of the Delta Chi college fraternity, the Orange County Bar Association, the Los Angeles Bar Association, and is a member of the California Society of the Sons of the Revolution. Mr. Blodget was married September 2, 1919, at Huntington Beach, Cali- fornia, to Miss May Ball, of Morristown, New Jersey.
FRANK E. DUNLAP began the practice of law at Stockton, California, thirty years ago, and since 1907 has been a resident of Los Angeles. Here with offices in the Union Oil Building he has built up one of the largest individual organizations in the legal circles of southern Cali- fornia. He has an extensive corporation and land title practice, and has his business thoroughly systematized with six competent lawyers under him, each assigned to a different branch of the work. Mr. Dun- lap is a Californian of long residence and many varied interests and associations with the state. For a number of years he has been ex- tensively interested in oil development.
He was born November 6, 1859, on a farm near Trenton in Grundy county, Missouri. General E. H. Crowder, who so ably administered the draft organization during the recent war, was born in Missouri in the same year, and General John Pershing was born the year following. Mr. Dunlap knew both of them as boys in Missouri while they were nursing their first ambitions for a military career. All three are good friends today, and General Pershing has promised Mr. Dunlap a visit when he gets back to the United States. Mr. Dunlap is a son of Wil- liam and Elizabeth (Foutz) Dunlap. His people were well to do Mis-
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souri farmers, moving there from Ohio. They were active members of the Baptist church, and his father served as a deacon and largely through his influence a church of that denomination was built on the Dunlap farm. William Dunlap and wife had eleven children, six sons and five daughters, all of whom grew to maturity. Three sons and two daughters are living today and all of them residents of California.
Frank E. Dunlap attended the public schools of Missouri and fin- ished his literary education in the Grand River College, a Baptist institu- tion at Edinburg, in Grundy county. He graduated A. B. with the class of 1880. Up to that time he had lived as a Missouri farm boy, and had received his first instruction in country schools. In 1881 he came to California, locating at Stockton, where he taught and studied law alternately. His law studies were carried on under the direction and in the offices of the late Governor James H. Budd and his father, Joseph H. Budd, at Stockton. He was admitted to the bar from their office in June, 1888. Mr. Dunlap practiced law at Stockton until May, 1907, when he moved to Los Angeles. While at Stockton he was in partnership with Judge Paul W. Bennett under the name of Bennett & Dunlap, and also with Judge J. A. Plummer, now on the Superior Court Bench, under the firm name of Dunlap & Plummer. He has had no partnership relation in Los Angeles, though, as above noted, his busi- ness is an extensive one requiring the services of many other lawyers working under him
While at Stockton Mr. Dunlap became prominent in politics as a republican. He served one term as city attorney, as assistant district attorney one term, and was a member of the State Legislature from 1899 to 1905. For seven years he was identified with the National Guard of California, being adjutant of the Sixth Regiment five years He was formerly master of Morning Star Lodge No. 68, F. and A. M., at Stockton, and is now affiliated with Highland Park Lodge No. 382 and still retains his affiliation with the Royal Arch Chapter at Stockton. He is also a member of Stockton Lodge No. 11, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of Charter Oak Lodge No. 20, Knights of Pythias, at Stockton. Mr. Dunlap is a member of the Sons of Veterans at Stock- ton. His father was a lieutenant in the Union Army during the Civil war, serving all through that struggle with the Twenty-first Infantry Regiment of Missouri. He had a horse shot under him in one engage- ment. Mr. Dunlap is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
December 11, 1889, he married Miss Althea E. Hickman, a native daughter of California, born and educated at Stockton. Her parents were Edward and Hepsabeth B. (Fisher) Hickman, both now deceased. Her father for many years was a Stockton dry goods merchant !! Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap had two sons, both born at Stockton. Willard E. was educated in Los Angeles, graduating from Occidental College of this city, and from Leland Stanford University, and is a geologist for the General Petroleum Oil Company of San Francisco in the Los Angeles offices. He married Miss Marian Bristol, of Los Angeles. The other son, Percival H., was educated in Occidental College, from which he graduated, and attended Leland Stanford one year. He was in charge of the Paul N. Boggs Oil Well Supply Company at Coalinga, Cali- fornia, and while there was stricken with the influenza and died De- comber 15, 1918. He was laid to rest in the Mausoleum at Hollywood.
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