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 21
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A concise and happy summary of Mr. Baldwin's life career cannot be better expressed than in the following quotation:
The history of California bears record of no more picturesque, albeit no more useful, energetic and praiseworthy character than Elias Jackson (Lucky) Baldwin. His career graces California's annals with a whirl- wind of spectacular, original and daring exploits, unique and resultful expeditions into the world of high finance, intermingled with good deeds and acts of kindness toward others. He gave California gratuitous ad- vertisement when such advertisement was needed and could be obtained perhaps in no other way. He made several fortunes and lost them, but when he died a millionaire it was truthfully said of him that he came by it all honestly-that he "filched from no man's store."
Elias Jackson Baldwin contributed to the annals of California many stirring chapters, and the memory of his constructive genius and daring expeditions into the field of development is part of the record of a unique and brilliant career. Unto himself he lived, taking little counsel of
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others ; certain in his judgment and quick in action. When the angel of death came to him on March 1, 1909, at his Santa Anita Rancho and closed the eyes of this wonderful character in his last sleep, it was at the close of a life long in years and as eventful as any in the state's history.
HON. BENJAMIN W. HAHN. As a lawyer who has devoted himself to his professional duties in southern California nearly thirty years, the record of Benjamin W. Hahn is easily one of the most important in the annals of the local bar. He has handled many large and important interests, especially as a corporation lawyer, but like many other lawyers who have found satisfaction and success in their profession his political and public career is brief.
Mr. Hahn was born in Chicago, Illinois, August 28, 1868, son of Samuel and Barbara Hahn. His father went to Chicago in early life and for many years followed his trade as a carpenter and builder. Ben- jamin W. Hahn attended the public schools in his native city. He was in his nineteenth year when he came to California in 1887, locating at Pasadena, and later entering as a student the law offices of Metcalf & McLaghlan. On December 24, 1895, he was admitted to the Supreme Court of California and to the United States Supreme Court February 26, 1900. Much of his practice in later years has been in courts of federal jurisdiction, including the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Hahn first began practice at Pasadena, and after a year or so became associated with his brother Edwin Hahn under the firm name of Hahn & Hahn. This is now one of the chief firms of corporation lawyers in the west. They handle almost exclusively a corporation and probate practice,
Mr. Benjamin Hahn has charge of the Los Angeles office, located in the Central Building at Sixth and Main streets. Mr. Hahn main- tains a large private law library in those offices. His brother Edwin has charge of the Pasadena office in the Boston Building. This is the oldest firm in Los Angeles county.
Mr. Hahn has always been a republican, and on that ticket was chosen to his only important office in 1902, when elected state senator from the 36th District. Because of his recognized attainments as a lawyer he was accepted into the leadership of the Senate and served as a member of the committee on finance, judiciary, corporations, banks and banking and code revision. At different times he has used an influ- ence in behalf of many civic movements in his home city of Pasadena. He founded the Pasadena Daily News, now one of the leading papers of that city, now consolidated with the Star News of Pasadena. He is a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Long Beach and organized that bank. He is a life member of the B. P. O. E., Silver Trowel Lodge of Los Angeles No. 415, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, belonging to Masonic bodies of Los Angeles, is author of Hahn's Corporate Parliamentary Rules, the only work on that subject ever published, and is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Asso- ciation.
At San Bernardino, November 9, 1892, he married Miss Grace Vir- ginia Gahr, daughter of R. P. Gahr, a well and favorably known citizen of San Bernardino. Mr. and Mrs. Hahn have one son, Herbert L., who was a lieutenant in the First Infantry of the United States. He was the Pacific Coast tennis star of Leland Stanford University, graduating from that institution in 1916, with the A. B. degree. He was admitted
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to the bar of California in May, 1917, and is now in the Pasadena office.
The favorite pursuit of Mr. Hahn is flower cultivation. He has a twenty acre ranch, where he resides, and has several acres devoted to dahlias, having in two years created five hundred varieties of that flower, some of them measuring nine inches in diameter and representing roses. On this ranch he also has the largest grape arbor in the world. He owns his own water and pumping plant. This beautiful estate is located one-half mile east of the city limits of Pasadena in the foothills.
REV. CLEMENT MOLONY was born at Los Angeles, April 12, 1874, son of Richard and Nellie Molony. His early education was ob- tained in the public schools and St. Vincent's College. In 1892 he entered Kenrick Seminary at St. Louis, Missouri, where he completed his course in theology, and returning to Los Angeles, was ordained priest in St. Vi- biana's Cathedral by the late Archbishop Montgomery on April 19, 1897. He was the bishop's secretary until 1903, when he was assigned to a . work which afforded an opportunity for the full exercise of his energy and constructiveness as a church builder, and in the mature accom- plishments thereof he still remains as pastor of St. Agnes' Catholic church.
Father Molony organized St. Agnes' parish August 1, 1903. Prior to that portions of St. Paul's parish had been under the jurisdiction of St. Agnes' and his parish originally comprised all of the present par- ishes of St. Cecilia, St. Michael, Inglewood and Hyde Park.
Father Molony began his work in a temporary church building dedi- cated October 4, 1903. Ground was broken for the present magnificent granite church on the corner of West Adams street and Vermont avenue December 8, 1905. The cornerstone was laid by the late Bishop Conaty on the feast of St. Agnes, January 21, 1906. The edifice was completed and dedicated Thanksgiving Day, 1907. The marble altars of the church were consecrated by Bishop Cantwell on the feast of St. Agnes in 1918, and the following Sunday the bishop blessed the pipe organ, which is the finest instrument in any of the Catholic churches of Los Angeles. Both the main altar and the pipe organ were offerings of Mrs. Emeline H. Childs of Los Angeles, who has been the greatest benefactor not only of St. Agnes' church but of every Catholic institution and most of the Catholic churches in the city.
With the growth of the parish there came the necessity of a pa- rochial school, which was blessed by the late Bishop Conaty on the first Sunday of October, 1914. The school, which is accredited to the State University, is under the direction of sixteen sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Cross from Notre Dame, Indiana. This school has all the grammar grades, also a full course of high school instruction and a commercial curriculum. These different grades provide the educational needs for five hundred pupils.
MRS. MARGARET FRANCES SLUSHER. Since the field of big business management was first opened to women many of the representatives of this sex have attained distinction, proving that in all requirements they are equal to the masculine mind and efficiency. Los Angeles has long been distinguished in this connection, and among the more prominent business women of the city is Mrs. Margaret Frances Slusher, pro- prietress of one of Los Angeles' largest laundries. For twenty years she has devoted her excellent talents to this line of endeavor, and has maintained throughout the entire period a high standard of business
Margaret & Slusher
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ethics. She is a woman of marked activity, and her career in a number of ways has been a remarkable and interesting one.
Mrs. Slusher was born at Livermore, California, May 9, 1879, a daughter of J. C. and Mary Ellen (Langenkamp) Campbell, the former a native of Virginia, and for years the owner of a large plantation near Wheeling, West Virginia, and the latter born at Springfield, Illinois. One of her sisters, Mrs. Clara Hall, is the manager of a successful tea room, "The Tea Cup," at San Francisco ; another sister, Mrs. James E. Morgan, is the wife of a retired capitalist of Los Angeles; a brother, George W. Campbell, is engaged in business in Paris, France ; a cousin, Walter J. Bartinett, is a wealthy business man of San Francisco, and formerly was vice president of the Gould Railway System; and a niece, Miss Sadie Morgan, is in charge of a Los Angeles dancing academy.
Mrs. Slusher began her career at an early age, leaving home at the age of twelve years to make her own way and create her own oppor- tunities. Circumstances may in a measure develop an individual, but unless there is an underlying stability of character, combined with native ability and a determination to make the most of whatever opportunities life affords, all the circumstances in the world, no matter how advan- tageous, will not produce a person of whom associates can be proud. In many instances circumstances crush out ambition, render ineffective what might otherwise be well-sustained effort. In the case of Mrs. Slusher circumstances were such that at the age of fifteen years she became interested in the laundry business, and began to work at the old Excelsior Laundry. She had attended the public schools of Los Angeles and later, when she realized the necessity of further training, took a course at and graduated from the Bromberger Business College. At the Excelsior she was rapidly promoted until given charge of several de- partments, but it was her constant and unfaltering ambition to hecome proprietress of an establishment of her own, where she could work out her ideas and plans, and an opportunity for the realization of her aims came in 1899, in which year she founded her present business. From the start she made a success of her venture, but it was not until March 7, 1907, that her present laundry was completed and occupied.
Mrs. Slusher devoted her activities to the building up of an exclu- sive patronage, and at the time of the entrance of the United States into the great war her business consisted chiefly in handling the elite work of the city, delivery being made by private cars. The elect of the social world, prominent actresses and opera singers, formed the principal part of her customers, and in handling this kind of lingerie Mrs. Slusher did a business approximating some $4,000 per week. Her quick perception told her at the outset of this country's participation in the conflict that the opportunity to do big business was at hand, and without assistance she contrived to secure contracts for all the army and navy work at San Pedro, Fort McArthur and the Naval Reserve. Immediately the volume of business done jumped to huge proportions, and in 1918 alone she did $130,000 worth of United States government business. What an undertaking she assumed may be imagined when it is stated that at one time she had for laundering in her place of business 182,000 pair of sox, for which the Red Cross did the darning; 10,000 suits of khaki and 22,000 blankets.
In the landing of the above-mentioned contracts Mrs. Slusher had stolen a march on other laundries, managed by men, who endeavored to make up for their delinquency and tardiness in action by acquiring
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control of her business. She was deluged with offers to buy her plant, but her price of $150,000 was beyond what they desired to pay, and they accordingly adopted tactics designed to put her out of business. They found, however, that Mrs. Slusher's capabilities included a marked ten- dency to grimly hold on to what she had worked so hard and fairly to obtain and to determinedly and skillfully fight back, with the result that the controversy led to considerable publicity, terminating in the publish- ing of the valiant litle woman's picture in the leading newspapers of the city, April 17, 1919. The reaction was immediate, Mrs. Slusher re- ceiving bushels of letters of sympathy and congratulation and being forced to yield to innumerable interviews. The results, on the whole, were satisfactory, for while the notoriety was unpleasant, she was able to view the matter in a philosophic light in that hers was the victory and that the advertising thus gained brought her much additional business.
Mrs. Slusher gives much of the credit for her success to the fact that she has been able to select good employes. She built her own buildings, which are thoroughly equipped with their own electric plant, paint shop and water system, and the entire plant is complete and mod- ern in every appointment. She has invested her earnings sensibly and practically, and is the owner of several orange groves, one being at Santa Ana, and another of forty-five acres being located at Santa Fe Springs, where she resides in a large and imposing modern home. In addition she owns much desirable city property at Los Angeles, all ob- tained through her own efforts. Not only is she a splendid business woman, but is also possessed of marked intellectual attainments and has had considerable successful experience as a newspaper woman. She is active in club life of the city and has various important connections in this direction.
On July 23, 1902, Mrs. Slusher married Silas F. Slusher, a native of Floyd county, Virginia, but now of Los Angeles. They have no children.
CHARLES HULBERT TOLL. Thirty-five years of his business life Mr. Toll has spent in Los Angeles. He has achieved prominence in financial circles and for a number of years has been identified with the oldest and largest savings bank in Southern California, the Security Trust & Sav- ings Bank, of which he is a vice-president and a director. He is also a director of the Security National Bank, which is owned by the stock- holders of the Security-Trust & Savings Bank.
Mr. Toll was born at Clinton, Iowa, November 24, 1858, a son of Hon. Charles Hulbert and Elizabeth (Lusk) Toll. His parents were both natives of New York state. His father was an Iowa pioneer and one of the men who really built up and developed Clinton as a city. He was a manufacturer there, also held the office of postmaster, and repre- sented his district in the State Legislature. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted in the Tenth Iowa Infantry, and was in service until the close of hostilities. He was promoted to the rank of major and had charge of the Commissary Department. Major Toll spent his last two years in California and died in Los Angeles.
Charles H. Toll, the youngest of five children, grew up in Clinton, Iowa, acquired a public school education and finished in Cornell Col- lege at Mount Vernon, Iowa. For a time he was a clerk in the Clinton postoffice, later was deputy clerk of courts of Clinton county. Mr. Toll moved to Los Angeles in 1885. He was credit man for several large
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Frankettwe Bring ell
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firms of the city and gradually became identified with business and finance in an increasing scope, and as a banker has met with accustomed success and is a recognized power in the local money market.
Mr. Toll was elected without opposition and served as a member of the City Council of Los Angeles from 1896 to 1900. He is a repub- lican, a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and the Automobile Club of Southern California. He and his wife are both prominent socially. Mrs. Toll was educated in the Oakland High School and is now president of the Grammar School Board of Glendale and first vice-president of the Ebell Club of Los Angeles.
Mr. Toll was one of the sponsors of Mr. McGroarty's Mission Play during its successful season at San Gabriel, ending May 4, 1919.
Mr. Toll married September 4, 1901, Miss Eleanor M. Joy, of Los Angeles. Their children, all natives of Los Angeles, are Charles Hul- bert, Jr., Gerald Sidney, Maynard Joy and Carroll Costello. Charles H., Jr., is a graduate of the Glendale High School, class of February, 1919, and Gerald S. is a member of the graduating class of February, 1920, in the same school, each graduating in their sixteenth year. The family home is at Glendale.
ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE CHURCH, at West Pico and Mariposa Boulevard, is one of the strong and flourishing parishes that exemplify the extension and increasing power of the Catholic church in keeping with the general development and expansion of Los Angeles itself.
The parish was established August 1, 1903, by the Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Conaty. The new parish comprised that portion of the city between Hoover, Washington, West 9th and City Limits, and was placed under the charge of the Rev. John J. Clifford as its pastor.
The church, built after the style of the Old Missions of California, with a touch of the Fourteenth Century Spanish Renaissance architec- ture, was completed for worship December 25, 1904, and was dedicated February 19, 1905. Since then the buildings of the parish have been supplemented by a school and rectory.
The first and only pastor of this parish, Rev. John J. Clifford, was born in County Kerry, Ireland, December 22, 1871, a son of James and Mary (Houlihan) Clifford. He was educated in the Christian Broth- ers College until the age of fifteen, then in Carlow College, from which he graduated in 1894, and at the same time received his diploma from the Royal University of, Ireland. As he was destined for work in the American field he then came to this country and finished his studies in the Catholic University at Washington, where he was ordained a priest in 1895.
Father Clifford was stationed as assistant pastor of the Cathedral of Los Angeles until August 1, 1903, when he was made pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle church. His work has not been entirely confined within his own parish. He was one of the founders of the Brown- son House, which has done wonderful work for the poor of Los An- geles, and is chaplain of the Newman Club of the Los Angeles State Normal School. He is also a Knight of Columbus and a member of the Young Men's Institute.
FRANK HERVEY PETTINGELL, who in 1919 enjoyed the honor of his fifth consecutive term as president of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange, has been in the stock and bond business for over a quarter of a century and has been a resident of Los Angeles since 1912.
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Mr. Pettingell represents some of the oldest and most prominent colonial American families, and for many years has been deeply inter- ested in genealogical, patriotic, historical and various civic and social institutions.
He was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, January 2, 1868, and is in the eighth generation of the American family of Pettingell. Its founder was Richard Pettingell, who was born in 1620 in England, came to America about 1640 and was made a freeman at Salem, Massa- chusetts, June 2, 1641. Later he settled at Newbury and died there in 1695. He married Joanna Ingersoll, who was born about 1625, and died several years before her husband. The second generation was repre- sented by Matthew Pettingell, born in 1648 and died about 1714. He lived at Newbury and was a felt maker. Nathaniel Pettingell, of the third generation, was born January 21, 1675-6, at Newbury, and also followed the trade of felt maker at that place. Cutting Pettingell, of the fourth generation, whose descendants are eligible to membership in the Society of Colonial Wars, was born January 17, 1721-2, and died in 1793. He was a fisherman and coaster, and served as a private in the train band of Colonel John Greenleaf's Company. He was one of the petitioners for the founding of the old South Church at Newbury. Josiah Pettingell, of the fifth generation, was born in 1753, in Newbury- port, and died there June 30, 1826. He was the revolutionary ancestor. He was a fisherman, and was in Captain Stephen Kent's Company, raised for coast defense in Essex county, Massachusetts, in November and December, 1775. Cutting Pettingell, of the sixth generation, was born in May, 1785, and died at Newburyport September 1, 1865, was in the War of 1812 as a member of Captain John Woodwell's Company, Lieutenant-Colonel Ebenezer Hale's Regiment, Second Brigade, Second Division, service at Newbury, between September 30 and October 4, 1814. Nathaniel Henry Pettingell, father of the Los Angeles citizen, was born at Newbury September 11, 1835, and died at Newmarket, New Hampshire, November 12, 1874. September 6, 1863, he married Mary Anna Feltch. She was in the seventh generation from Henry Felch, who was born about 1590 and came to Massachusetts about 1640. The successive generations of the Felch family were: Henry; Henry ; Dr. Daniel; Samuel; Jacob ; Joseph Harris, who was born in 1804 and was father of Mary Anna Feltch, who was born at Newbury September 10, 1843, and died at Newburyport August 6, 1894.
* Frank Hervey Pettingell was educated in the public schools of his native city and in 1889 left Massachusetts and removed to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where for about three years he was connected with the First National Bank of that city. Since 1892 he has been engaged in the stock and bond business. In 1895-96, while a resident of Colo- rado Springs, he was elected vice president and subsequently president of the Colorado Mining Stock Exchange of Denver, then an organiza- tion of considerable importance. He became a charter member in 1894 and is still a member of the Colorado Springs Mining Stock Association. During 1904-05, Mr. Pettingell maintained an office on Wall street in New York City. He came to Los Angeles in December, 1912, and has almost continuously held the honorary office of president of the Stock Exchange.
January 19, 1898, at Independence, Missouri, he married Mary Agnes Morgan, daughter of Robert K. and Mary (Smith) Morgan. She was born at Independence, Missouri, February 27, 1876. The two
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children of that union are Frank Hervey, Jr., born November 27, 1898, at Colorado Springs; and Mary Agnes, born January 27, 1901, at De- troit, Michigan.
At Denver, Colorado, September 5, 1905, Mr. Pettingell married for his second wife Medora Anna Wilson, daughter of John Mitchell and Rosabel (Cantril) Wilson. She was born at Denver February 27, 1881.
Mr. Pettingell is governor of the Society of Colonial Wars in the state of California; first vice president and a life member of the Sons of the Revolution in the state of California; first vice president, Cali- fornia Genealogical Society of San Francisco; honorary vice president of the General National Society Americans of Royal Descent; senior vice president, National Mining and Stock Brokers' Association; was president in 1915 of the International Congress of Genealogy at San Francisco; and a suretie of the Baronial Order of Runnemede (de- scendants of the Sureties of the Magna Charta, 1215 A. D.) of Phila- delphia. He is also a member of the Board of Library Directors of Los Angeles ; Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts; Society, Sons of the Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts; Massachusetts Society, Sons of the American Revolution ; New England Historic Genealogical Society of Massachusetts; Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities of Massachusetts; So- ciety of the War of 1812 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; So- ciety of Old Plymouth Colony Descendants; New Hampshire Historical Society at Concord; life member, Historical Society of Old Newbury, at Newburyport; Order of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe of Bal- timore ; member of the Paul Jones Club at Portsmouth, New Hamp- shire; the Pike Family Association of America; Chevalier Commander for California, Order of Lafayette; charter member, Lafayette Society of California ; honorary life member, St. Ananias Club of Topeka, Kan- sas ; member of the California Club of Los Angeles, and member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks No. 99, Los Angeles, Cali- fornia.
THOMAS HIGGINS. In several of the greatest mining districts of the Southwest Thomas Higgins was the pioneer operator. Mr. Higgins is a man of half a century of experience, has been through all the ups and downs of the profession, and some years ago he came to Los Angeles to invest his means, and is owner of some of the city's most conspicuous property.
Mr. Higgins was born at Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, July 12, 1844, a son of Patrick Higgins. Up to the age of fourteen he attended national schools and then contented himself with the quiet routine of his father's farm until he came to America. After coming to this country he lived in Troy, New York, and was employed in iron works a short time. He then invaded the wilderness of the middle west and became a woodsman and lumberman at Mosinee, Wisconsin. Two years later he went south along the lower Mississippi, and for several years was foreman in the construction of river levees. Later he worked on con- struction for the Iron Mountain Railway.
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