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 23
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In 1914 he became secretary, general manager and director of the C. C. Harris Oil Company, the largest company operating in the old Los Angeles oil field. He is also president and manager of the Stanley Oil
John Gallagher
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Company. These connections and activities serve to indicate his well deserved prominence as a factor in the oil industry of southern Cali- fornia from its pioneer stages to the present.
Mr. Snyder is a Democrat and a member of the Presbyterian Church. In Beaver County, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1886, he married Miss Jennie M. Shannon. Their one child, Florence, is a graduate of the Pacific Union College at Napa, California, and is now Mrs. Arthur Hollenbeck.
REV. JOHN J. GALLAGHER. Of the zealous and able group of men who have the executive responsibilities involved in many Catholic churches and institutions in southern California, Rev. John J. Gallagher is conspicuous as pastor of St. Thomas Catholic Church at Los Angeles. Father Gallagher has been a devoted priest in California for the past ten years.
He was born at Mass Hill, County Sligo, Ireland, June 2, 1883, son of Michael and Mary (Henry) Gallagher. To the age of fifteen he attended the National Schools there, took his classical course for four years at St. Nathy's Seminary at Ballaghadareen, and studied theology in St. Patrick's College at Carlow. He was ordained a priest in 1908, and the following year he spent in Washington, D. C., at St. Patrick's Uni- versity.
On coming to Los Angeles, Father Gallagher was appointed assist- ant pastor of the Cathedral. After four mouths he was sent to Yuma, Arizona, and there for seven weeks served as assistant pastor of the Indian School. Then returning to Los Angeles, he was assistant pastor of the Cathedral, and on December 10, 1909, was made assistant pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart. July 26, 1912, he became the first pastor of St. Mary's Church at Fulton, and did some splendid work in that parish for about six years. He was appointed pastor of St. Mary's Church at Los Angeles in March, 1918.
St. Mary's Church was erected in 1897 and was dedicated by Bishop Montgomery. The church was entirely free from debt before its doors were opened. The first pastor was Rev. Joseph Doyle, who was suc- ceeded by Rev. Joseph Barron, and he in turn by Rev. Joseph McManus. The following societies are a part of the parish: Young Men's Club, Holy Name Society, Altar Society and Young Ladies Sodality. St. Mary's parochial school in connection with the church is conducted by . the Sisters of the Holy Name and has an enrollment of five hundred scholars. Father Gallagher is a member of the Knights of Columbus.
REA E. MAYNARD, vice president and director of the General Pe- troleum Corporation, is one of the ablest engineers in the west. His career has been one of most interesting experience and achievement, and has led him into the scenes of constructive activity and over a large part of the Globe.
He was born July 17, 1870, at a little town in Iowa, Tipton, where his father, Dr. Henry Hobart Maynard, was for many years a practicing physician. His father, a native of Columbus, Ohio, was brought to Iowa by his parents at the age of nine years, and he grew up and received his education there, finishing in the State University of Iowa. He took his medical course in the Rush Medical College at Chicago, but left school in 1861 to enlist as an assistant surgeon of the Eighteenth Iowa Infantry. Later he was made surgeon of the Second Arkansas Cavalry, and was finally advanced to medical director of southwest Missouri. At the close
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of the Civil war he located at Tipton, Iowa, and was in practice there until 1881. In that year he brought his family to Los Angeles, and was one of the well-known physicians of that city until his death in 1908. Dr. Maynard was a Republican. He married, at Chariton, Iowa, Susan H. Edwards, and their three children are: Miss Maud, still at home; Rea E. and Frederick G., of San Jose, California.
Rea E. Maynard was eleven years old when his father came to Los Angeles. In the meantime he had attended the public schools of Tipton, and was a pupil in the grammar and high schools of Los Angeles to the age of eighteen. He took freshman work in mechanical engineering in the Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre Haute, Ind. Returning west, he did some engineering work with the old Terminal Railroad, now part of the Salt Lake Railroad, for two years. Mr. Maynard then en- rolled as one of the first students of Stanford University, where he graduated in 1894 as a mechanical engineer. One year following he spent with the City Engineering Department of Los Angeles, and then entered the Colorado School of Mines at Golden, from which he re- ceived a diploma as mining engineer in 1896.
Thus his professional service as an engineer covers a quarter of a century, and has been filled with many interesting experiences. For two years he was a mining engineer in different localities of the west. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he went to the Hawaiian Islands and was in that interesting republic more than five years. At that time he built three railroad lines and also some of the noted public highways of the island. One of these highways is world famous and stands out as one of Mr. Maynard's greatest achievements. It is the road to the Pali on the Island of Oahu. The railroads he built were for the Honolulu Sugar Company, the Kona Sugar Company and the Hawaiian Agricultural Company.
Mr. Maynard also spent about a year surveying and developing tin deposits in Southern Asia. Returning to San Francisco, he was superin- tendent of construction for the Centerville plant of the Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation until 1906, the year of the earthquake, when con- struction was temporarily abandoned. For the following two years Mr. Maynard was interested in electric power projects at various points in eastern California and Nevada. Then, after a trip through the east and his return to Los Angeles, he became engineer for Captain John Barneson in developing the immense oil interests of the captain. September 20, 1910, Mr. Maynard started the actual survey of the pipe line for the General Petroleum Company, of which Captain Barneson is president. This pipe line extends from the Lost Hills Oil Field to Los Angeles. Ditching work was begun at Pentland, California, July 31, 1912, and was finished March 17, 1913. Oil was brought into Los Angeles by pipe line May 10, 1913, and to San Pedro on June 8th of the same year. This pipe line is a difficult piece of engineering, and was constructed in record time at a cost of five million dollars. It has eighteen pumping stations along the line, and one interesting distinction is that at one point the pipe line runs at an altitude of 4,230 feet above sea level, the highest pipe line in the world.
As already noted, Mr. Maynard is now vice president and director of the General Petroleum Corporation and is chief engineer and director of its pipe line transportation. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of the California and University Clubs, the San Gabriel Country Club, and the Sigma Nu Fraternity. He is an independent in politics.
adrien
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ADRIEN LOEB. One of the Los Angeles business men whose lives are stimulating as personal experience and represent a high degree of achievement in the commercial world is Adrian Loeb, head of the Adrien Loeb Company, one of the largest and oldest established wholesale pro- duce and fruit houses in southern California.
Mr. Loeb was born at Avenches, Switzerland, June 11, 1866, son of Bernard and Florentine (Block) Loeb. He acquired a liberal education, graduating from high school at the age of eighteen, and from Lausanne College, in Switzerland, in 1884. For a year or so he was a dealer in horses and cattle, but in 1886 set out for America, arriving in Los Angeles February 24. Many men have won success in business affairs because they were willing to take what was apparently a very humble position and make it a stepping stone to higher things. That was true of Mr. Loeb, whose first employment in Los Angeles was as a porter for the Germain Fruit Company. His wages were thirty dollars a month. At that time he had a very meager knowledge of the English language, but his early education proved useful, since it included a knowledge of bookkeeping. He soon made arrangements with the bookkeeper of the Germain Company to afford him some special training in the business at night. This instruction was carried on after the proprietor had gone home, and Germain therefore had no knowledge of his porter's capabili- ties beyond the fact that he appeared an industrious workman. After about six months Mr. Germain opened a fruit packing house at Riverside and promoted his regular bookkeeper to manager of that establishment. It was at that time he learned, much to his surprise, that the young por- ter, Adrien Loeb, had a practical knowledge of the books of the com- pany, and from that time Adrien Loeb had a new position in the offices of the concern. Mr. Germain was quite willing to encourage his am- bitious employe, and kept giving him additional responsibilities, until in February, 1891, Mr. Loeb became vice president and general manager of the Germain Fruit Company.
In 1896 Mr. Loeb and Adolph Fleishman bought out the Germain Company, changing its name to Loeb, Fleishman & Company. In 1901 Isadore Fleishman, a brother of Adolph, came in as a partner, though without making a change in the title. Isadore Fleishman died March 8, 1918, and on July 1, 1918, Mr. Loeb acquired all the other interests and has since been sole owner of the business, changing the name to Adrien Loeb Company. Mr. Loeb conducts his business on the co-operative plan, giving his older employes share in the profits as well as salaries, and thus he is giving to others in the way of encouragement what Mr. Germain did for him some thirty years ago. The Adrien Loeb Com- pany has a large plant and warehouses and other facilities, and handles an immense volume of provisions, the trade territory being California, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.
On account of his long and enviable prominence in produce circles, Mr. Loeb was honored with election to the office of president of the Los Angeles Produce Exchange on January 1, 1919. He served as president of the Wholesalers' Board of Trade of Los Angeles in 1898. Mr. Loeb is a member of the Royal Arcanum, is a republican in politics and a member of the Jewish faith. March 18, 1894, he married, in San Fran- cisco, Emma Steiner. She died November 24, 1918.
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LIONEL T. BARNESON, a son of Captain John Barneson, noted Cali- fornia capitalist and head of the General Petroleum Company, has earned success and important position in business affairs on his own account, and knows the oil business through every detail of practical experience.
He was born in one of the interesting South Sea Islands, Papeete, Tahiti, September 14, 1890. Most of his life has been spent in California and he attended grammar and high schools at Redwood City, graduating in 1909. When he entered the oil industry he chose one of the points of contact with that business which involved hard work. He became a roustabout with the Wabash Oil Company in the Coalinga Oil Field. Though his father was president of the company, he sought no favors on that account. From roustabout he became tool dresser, and in the summer of 1910 went to the Lost Hills Oil Field at Esperanza, becoming connected with the Esperanza Consolidated Oil Company, from which the General Petroleum Company was developed. In September, 1911, Mr. Barneson removed to Los Angeles and, under the direction of the General Petroleum Company, took up the study of oil refining with the Trumble Refining Company, which is now controlled by the General Company. In 1912 Mr. Barneson supervised the erection of the refining plant at Vernon, California, and was its superintendent until 1913. He then became superintendent of refineries for the General Petroleum Com- pany, and in 1915 was put in charge of the refining department, H. H. Isaacs succeeding him in charge of the Vernon plant. In January, 1918, Mr. Barneson also became assistant to the president of the company, his father. He is a director of the General Petroleum Company, of the Trumble Refining Company and of the San Vincente Land Company.
Mr. Barneson is well known in Los Angeles socially, a member of the Athletic Club, Brentwood Country Club, and is a republican. At Yreka, California, October 29, 1914, he married Hazel C. Hamerson. They have two children, Janet H. and Robert L.
ALBERT L. GUDE, proprietor of one of the largest retail shoe estab- lishments in Los Angeles, began his career here a number of years ago as a clerk, and it was through the exacting discipline of working for others and a growing experience and alertness for opportunity that eventually enabled him to embark in business for himself.
Mr. Gude was born at Birmingham, Alabama, November 21, 1878, a son of William Lawrence and Hatton (Heidelberg) Gude. His father was born at Kallundborg, Denmark, was educated there and in early youth came to America. He was connected with railroading in Canada for a time and later moved to Alabama, where he followed railroading. At the time of his death he was superintendent of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company at Birmingham, the largest organization of its kind in the south. He died in 1893.
Albert L. Gude received his early education in the public schools at Cullman, Alabama. At the age of sixteen, soon after his father's death, he came west to Los Angeles. For two years he clerked for the M. P. Snyder Shoe Company, and later with the Hayden B. Lewis wholesale leather and shoe supply house as a salesman for one year. Going to The Dalles, Oregon, he was manager of the shoe department of a dry goods store four years. On returning to Los Angeles Mr. Gude became salesman in the shoe department of the Hamburger Department Store for a year, and then invested all his capital and experience in a stock of shoes, and Gude's, Incorporated, opened at its place of business at the
S.w. gil fielen
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corner of Fourth and Spring streets. He was located there for eight years, and during that time built up a prosperous business, having the agency for the Burt & Packard shoe. He then removed to his present store, 537 South Broadway, and has developed his facilities to a large scale, represented by the employment of fifty people in the different de- partments. He sells men's and women's shoes.
Mr. Gude is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los An- geles Country Club, the Chamber of Commerce and is a Mason and a Shriner, and is affiliated with the Order of Elks. November 23, 1903, at Los Angeles, he married Miriam Barnes. They are the parents of three children: Kathryn Frances and Elizabeth Hatton, both students in the Berkeley Hall School for Girls, and William Lawrence, who was born in 1912.
SENNET W. GILFILLAN, president of the Gilfillan Brothers Smelting and Refining Company, is spoken of by all his friends and associates as a special genius both in technical industry and the general business field. He is a young man, and for all that may be said properly to justify the claim of the older generation of inventors and experts, it is true that the astounding marvels of the present day industrialism largely reflect the genius, capacity and inexhaustible energy of a group of younger men, among whom Sennet W. Gilfillan is by no means the least.
Mr. Gilfillan has spent most of his life in Los Angeles. He was born, however, in Leavenworth, Kansas, November 25, 1889, son of William and Cora (Sennet) Gilfillan. His' father was a native of Penn- sylvania, was educated there, and later moved to Carthage, Missouri, where he became a contractor in the flagstone business. He furnished flagstones for many large contracts, including the Union Passenger Sta- tion at St. Louis. In 1895 he came to Los Angeles with his family, but retained his business in Carthage, Missouri, where he passed away in 1898. He and Cora Sennet were married in Carthage, Missouri, in 1887. The latter was born in that town, and her father was a captain in the northern army during the Civil war. She first came to Los Angeles . in 1884 on a visit, and in 1895 moved to this city with her children. There are three children, Mrs. Ione G. Brown of Los Angeles and Sennet W. and J. G., who make up the Gilfillan Brothers firm.
Sennet W. Gilfillan was educated in the public schools of Los An- geles, attended St. Vincent's College until 1902, and in 1906 graduated A. B. from Santa Clara College at Santa Clara, California. Later he was a student in Leland Stanford University and graduated from that institution in 1912.
Almost immediately he was attracted into the general field where he has since specialized. As a buyer of platinum he did an extensive business for eighteen months, buying at the source of production in Canada and selling in New York. He then returned to Los Angeles and, with his brother, formed the partnership of Gilfillan Brothers Smelting and Refining Company, for the smelting of gold, silver and platinum. Their first headquarters were at 161 North Spring street. Gradually the business developed special features, particularly the manufacture of platinum pointed ignition parts and portable electric tools. Since the war broke out they have been manufacturing metal parts for the Curtis aeroplanes for practice purposes. They also manufacture "Bakelite" in- sulating parts for wireless telephones as used in naval and air service. In 1916 they erected their plant at Eleventh and Wall streets, in Los, Angeles, and have a large factory, with a hundred and twenty-five people
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working night and day in three shifts. In 1916 they also opened branch offices in New York City and Kansas City. Their general offices are at 217 West Sixth street, in Los Angeles. The business was incorporated June 10, 1917, with S. W. Gilfillan president, J. G. Gilfillan vice president, and Miss A. W. Kluseman secretary and treasurer.
Gilfillan products are by their very nature highly technical and hardly appropriate for general description in this brief article. How- ever, automobile owners have a practical familiarity with the many igni- tion parts manufactured by the Gilfillans, including contact points, brushes and other equipment used in practically every type of electrical equipment used in automobile construction.
It will suffice to refer to the general ideals and spirit which govern the business and which have been set forth in one of the handsome cata- logs that advertise Gilfillan products .. "From the beginning it has been the aim of Gilfillan Brothers Smelting and Refining Company to build a business that would never know completion, that would advance con- tinually to meet advancing conditions ; to create a personality that would be known for its strength and friendliness; to arrange and co-ordinate activities to the end of winning confidence by meriting it ; and to develop quality and service to a notable degree." This ideal has been translated into achievement, and it is an achievement of which the Gilfillan Brothers niay well be proud.
Mr. S. W. Gilfillan married, at Los Angeles, February 20, 1918, Edna Miles, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Miles of Westmoreland Place. .
WILLITTS J. HOLE. A number of the larger business undertakings in Southern California have been successfully piloted and directed by Willitts J. Hole during the past quarter of a century. Mr. Hole came to Los Angeles after a successful business career in the state of Indiana. While his early business experience was largely along the lines of manu- facturing and contracting, he has shown what amounts to a genius in ·the handling and developing of immense properties, especially ranches, in California, and few men could claim a greater share of credit for the immense fruit and agricultural production than Mr. Hole.
He was born at Madison, Indiana, October 9, 1858, son of William and Matilda (Hasley) Hole. His paternal ancestors came from Devon- shire, England, the founder of the American branch sailing from Plym- outh, England, in 1740. When Willitts J. was seven years old his parents moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended public and high schools to the age of eighteen. He completed a course in Bryant & Stratton Business College in 1880, and in 1884 graduated from Chattanooga Uni- versity. He then went to Butlerville, Indiana, and worker in a chair factory for three years. At North Vernon, Indiana, he established a small planing mill, lumber yard and subsequently a chair factory, and gradually entered the general construction business, erecting numerous public buildings, churches and other structures over a wide extended territory. He made a practical study of architecture, and has frequently designed his own building improvements.
It was the health of Mrs. Hole that brought him to Southern Cali- fornia in 1893. He spent the first three months at Santa Barbara and gradually divorced himself from his business interests in the east and for many years has concentrated all his efforts in the west. From Santa Barbara he went to Whittier and soon afterward began buying land in the La Habra Valley. He is known as the father of La Habra Valley,
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and eventually became owner of all the good land in that section, in- cluding the Rancho La Habra of 7,500 acres. He also acquired the San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana Rancho of two thousand acres, and the Rancho Los Coyotes of twenty-five hundred acres. This land he bought at prices ranging from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars an acre, and some of it today is worth as high as four thousand dollars an acre. He sold out about thirty-five hundred acres of this tract, and it is now covered with orange and lemon groves.
In 1897 Mr. Hole became resident agent at Los Angeles for the Stearns Ranchos Company of San Francisco, owning a hundred eighty thousand acres, which Mr. Hole gradually sold off. That property in- cluded the Rancho La Sierra at Riverside, seventeen thousand acres, which is now part of the individual properties of Mr. Hole. He also owns a ten-thousand-acre ranch in Riverside County planted to sugar beets, tomatoes, oranges and lemons, grapefruit, peaches, apricots and alfalfa, which is a small industrial center in itself, requiring the services of about fifty people on the ranch. There is also a large cannery, and a complete irrigation plant has been installed for the ranch, including four pumping plants. Together with I. W. Hollingsworth, Mr. Hole owns a sixteen-thousand-acre ranch near Needles, California, devoted to cotton culture. He owns a fifth interest in thirty-one thousand acres comprising the property of the Belridge Oil Company, of which he is secretary. He is also president and manager of the Arden Plaster Com- pany, president of the Western Silica Company of Los Angeles, and president of the California Industrial Company and a director of the Citizens National Bank. Mr. Hole has bought and subdivided some of the largest areas in California and has become personally owner of ex- tensive tracts both in this state and in Mexico. For several years he represented a large financial institution of Mexico. The Arden Plaster Company owns the largest gypsum mine in the United States.
Mr. Hole is also well known socially, being a member of the Jonathan Club, a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the California Club and Los Angeles County Club, Newport Yacht Club and the San Joaquin Gun Club. He is a republican in politics, and in religious affiliation is a birthright Quaker.
At North Vernon, Indiana, June 12, 1887, Mr. Hole married Miss Mary Weeks, daughter of Harvey R. Weeks. Her father for a num- ber of years was a mechanical engineer with the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, and later with the Queen & Crescent Route. Mr. and Mrs. Hole have one daughter, Agnes Marian, now Mrs. S. K. Rindge of Los Angeles. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Rindge are named Samuel Hole and Ramona.
WILLIAM L. VALENTINE is a man of unusual experience and achievement, and especially since entering the oil industry has had rare success in developing and promoting one of the best known companies operating in California, the Fullerton Oil Company.
Mr. Valentine was born in Mendocino County, California, March 8, 1870, a son of William and Susan (Lucas) Valentine. His father was a California forty-niner. A native of New York, soon after the discovery of gold in California he organized a company of sixty men, chartered a vessel and landed at the mouth of the Rio Grande River, up which they traveled in a flat-bottomed steamer until the channel be- came impassable. Thence they traveled overland through the states of Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico, through Arizona and thence into Cali-
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