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 29
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Р. ОКоподвич
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growth of the parish has been slow but steady, beginning with twenty families, and there are now three hundred and fifty families constituting the parish. Father George Donahoe was pastor from the establishment of the church until March, 1918, when he was transferred to the Church of Sacred Heart.
Rev. Patrick O'Donoghue, the present pastor, was born in County Kerry, Ireland, August 4, 1885, a son of Daniel and Margaret (Kennelly) O'Donoghue. His early education was acquired in the National schools of Ireland until fourteen, and then being destined for the priesthood he studied at St. Michael's College at Listowel in County Kerry, graduat- ing in 1902, and took his theological work in St. Patrick's College at Carlow. He was ordained priest June 14, 1908, by Bishop Foley.
Practically all his active career of ten years has been spent in the Los Angeles Diocese. For several years he was assistant pastor of St. Patrick's church at Los Angeles, and in 1915 was appointed pastor of St. Joseph's church at Bakersfield, California, St. Mary's church at Taft, and St. Brendan's church at Maricopa. He was burdened with the responsibilities of these three missions until February, 1918, when he was inducted into his present duties.
ALBERT B. CONRAD, a former member of the Los Angeles City Coun- cil and long identified with the official life of this city and county, is a native son of California and has drunk deep of the romance and ex- perience of the west and far north. He is the son of a forty-niner, and much of his own life has been spent on the frontiers of civilization.
Mr. Conrad was born at Folsom in Sacramento county September 20, 1856, a son of Charles Claren and Elizabeth E. (Ager) Conrad. Her father was a Baptist minister, came to California at the age of eighty-four, but afterward returned to St. Lawrence county, New York, where he died at the age of eighty-eight. This Baptist minister's mother lived to the remarkable age of a hundred one. Charles C. Conrad and wife came across the plains in 1849 with an old ox team, building floats to get across the rivers, and experienced all the ups and downs of fron- tiering. Their first location was in the celebrated gold diggings of Hangtown, near Colomo. Charles C. Conrad died at Folsom in Sac- ramento county about 1860, when his son Albert was three or four years old. After his death the family traveled for two years in the east, and while there the mother died and as buried at Redwood City in St. Lawrence county, New York. In the meantime she had married Benjamin C. Quigley at Folsom. Mr. Quigley was in the grocery business at Vallejo, in Solano county, and in 1876 moved to San Fran- cisco, where he was street inspector under L. M. Manzer. He after- ward returned to Vallejo and married for his second wife Miss Nellie Hodge. He lived in San Francisco until after the fire and then came to Los Angeles, where he died about three months later. His widow is still living at San Francisco. Mr. Quigley was also a California forty-niner, coming from Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. Albert B. Conrad had one brother, older than himself, Charles C. He was lib- erally educated, his people spending about twenty thousand dollars in giving him the advantages of the best institutions of the east. He spent his life as a teacher and died in Arizona.
Albert B. Conrad acquired his education in the common schools of California and the best part of his education came from travel and experience. In 1879 he left San Francisco and went to Tombstone, Arizona, where he engaged in mining, smelting and assaying, working
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in the Toughnut and Empire Mines. He also did some mining in Sonora, Mexico. In 1884 he came to Los Angeles, and after several employments was appointed to a position in the county tax collector's office. During the smallpox epidemic of 1887-8 he was a volunteer nurse, taking charge of many patients until the Catholic Sisters came to his aid. He did sacrificing work for about nine weeks. He was then a deputy in a county office and later was an attache in the State Senate during two sessions as bookkeeper to the sergeant-at-arms and one session as clerk of the Judiciary Committee, and was secretary of the Republican County Central Committee under Charles W. Silent, Fred W. Wood and Bradner W. Lee.
The most thrilling chapter of Mr. Conrad's life experience was the two and one-half years he spent in the far north in the famous gold regions around the Yukon in Alaska. In 1897 he started alone with four dogs as companions, with twenty-eight hundred pounds of provisions, bedding and other supplies and two sleds. On the way he was joined by a man, a stranger, with the understanding that he was to reach Dawson, Mr. Conrad to provide him with money and pro- visions until he got work in Dawson. They pulled over the snow along the northern trails, and went over the lakes by the aid of sails on their sleds, letting the dogs follow behind. They put buckskin shoes on the dogs. Finally they arrived at a sheep camp in the Chil- koot Pass. He was the only man who fought his way to the sheep camp and escaped the slide in which a party of sixty-four men were buried in the snow, only four escaping alive, he having left before the rest. Four days later Mr. Conrad and his companion started on and arrived at Marsh Lake, where they whipsawed lumber from the standing trees, built a boat, put the boat on the sleds and loaded all their goods and dogs, set sail and started across the ice on the lakes. When half way down they struck open water and then transferred the sleds to the boat and partly rowing and partly sailing attained the head of the Yukon River. There they unloaded and recalked the boat and the next day started down the river. Many boats were ahead and behind, some of the parties having been trying for a whole year to get through. At the White Horse Rapids Mr. Conrad lost his boat, and spent a week walking up and down stream picking up everything that would float. His partner got hold of some San Francisco papers and taking them went on to Dawson in a canoe, selling the papers for a dollar and a half apiece. Mr. Conrad, left behind, joined a couple of boys from Iowa to assist him to Dawson, and they took turns with the boat day and night. When he reached Dawson eight hundred boats had preceded him but many more were behind and a large part of them never reached Dawson at all. As soon as he landed at Daw- son he made a run for Bonanza Creek, located a valuable claim there, but through the connivance of a Canadian official was prevented from realizing anything from it. He next started by boat for Fort Cudahy on the Forty Mile River, went up to Franklin Gulch, located several claims, built a log cabin with a dirt roof and named the locality Con- rad Gulch. Modern map makers still recognize that name. He spent about a year there prospecting and sinking shafts but found nothing of value, and becoming disgusted started back to Dawson. He then went up Bonanza Creek to Gold Hill, and was employed shaking a rocker at a dollar and a half an hour. He remained there until the district was cleared up and then on returning to Dawson was taken ill and soon took a boat to St. Michaels in order to get medical atttention. He
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reached St. Michaels about the time the first pan of dust was sent in from Nome. He started for Nome, but everything had been located ahead of him. He therefore remained on board the steamer, which brought him to San Francisco. He reached San Francisco the latter part of 1900, after having been away two and one-half years.
Mr. Conrad was soon appointed clerk of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate at Sacramento and at the close of the session returned to Los Angeles, where he was employed as extra deputy in the City assessor's office until appointed chief deputy of that department, a place he filled until the election of H. H. Rose as mayor, and was then ap- pointed by Mayor Rose as city tax and license collector. He was in that position until the office and that of the city assessor were con- solidated in 1916. Mr. Conrad then entered city politics as candidate for the City Council and was elected and took his seat the first Mon- day in July, 1917, serving faithfully the interests of all his constituents and the city at large until July, 1919.
Mr. Conrad is a member of Ramona Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West, is a republican and attends the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a member of the Automobile Club of Southern Cali- fornia and the City Club, and resides at 835 Garland Avenue. He married Mrs. Anna E. Clarke, of Los Angeles.
MERVIN J. MONNETTE. While during his residence in Los Angeles Mervin J. Monnette has had the dignified associations of a prominent banker and financier, the greater part of his life has been spent as a practical man of affairs in close touch with the working realties. He has been a farmer, live stock dealer, rancher, gold miner, as well as banker.
He was born at Marion, Ohio, August 24, 1847, son of Abraham and Catherine (Braucher) Monnette, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Pennsylvania. The Monnettes are an old French Huguenot family, the ancestry being traced back in direct line for six or seven centuries. They were early Colonial Americans, and members of the family participated in Colonial wars and also the war of the Revolution and many subsequent wars.
Mervin Jeremiah Monnette had only such educational advantages as were supplied by the country schools near his boyhood home. He remained at home farming and stock raising to the age of twenty-one, and in 1868 went to the Chicago Stock Yards as a dealer. Later he returned to Ohio and located at Bucyrus, where he was president of the Second National Bank from 1888 to 1898. His interests were attracted to the gold fields of the west, and during 1897-98 he was a stock broker at Cripple Creek, Colorado. From 1898 to 1905 Mr. Monnette was an extensive ranch owner and cattle feeder in Nebraska. When the famous gold field mines of Nevada were opened up he was one of the men early on the ground, and shares the credit for the discovery and development of the famous Mohawk mine, of which he was a part owner.
Mr. Monnette has had his home at Los Angeles since 1907. He became president of the American National Bank, and later vice presi- dent and director of the Citizens National Bank and the Citizens Trust & Savings Bank. He was also a member of the Los Angeles Mining Stock Exchange. His present active business connections are as vice president and director of the Citizens National Bank, Citizens Trust & Savings Bank, and secretary-treasurer and director of the Bankers Oil Company.
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Mr. Monnette is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with the Elks, the California Club, is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Society of Colonial Wars. Janu- ary 5, 1869, he married Olive Adelaide Hull, now deceased. Their only living child is Orra E. Monnette, president of the Citizens Trust and Savings Bank of Los Angeles. Mr. Monnette was married to Ethel M. Reed, in Los Angeles, October 21, 1915.
ORRA EUGENE MONNETTE. The interests and associations that lend quiet distinction to Orra Eugene Monnette are those of a successful lawyer, a banker, member of many scholarly, patriotic and social organi- zations, and, to his intimate friends, a cultured personality to which no large human undertaking makes an uncertain appeal.
Mr. Monnette, who has been a resident of Los Angeles since 1907 and is president of the Citizens Trust & Savings Bank, was born near Bucyrus, Ohio, April 12, 1873, son of Mervin Jeremiah and Olive Ade- laide (Hull) Monnette. Of his father, also well known in Los Angeles, more is said on the preceding page of this publication. Mr. Monnette graduated from the Bucyrus High School in 1890, attended a business col- lege there, and took his college work in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, where he was graduated A. B. in 1895. He also took a special course in law in the same institution. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1896 and in the meantime had received some training in business as an employe of the Second National Bank at Bucyrus. He formed a law partnership with Judge Thomas Beer and Smith W. Bennett, under the name Beer, Bennett & Monnette, at Bucyrus in 1897. After Mr. Bennett retired in 1899 the partnership continued as Beer & Monnette until October, 1903. At that date Mr. Monnette removed to Toledo, and as a partner with Hon. Charles A. Seiders enjoyed an extensive clientage until 1906, when he opened an office of his own. On coming to Los Angeles in 1907 Mr. Monnette con- tinued his individual law practice, but since 1912, when he was elected president of the Citizens Trust & Savings Bank, has given almost his undivided attention to the affairs of this splendid institution, one of the best known and strongest banks of southern California.
Mr. Monnette is also a director of the Citizens National Bank of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Title and Trust Company, and the Mort- gage Guarantee Company. By appointment of the mayor he served as a member of the Municipal Annexation Commission of Los Angeles and is president of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Public Library.
Many people unfamiliar with his career as a lawyer and banker know his name in connection with considerable literary work, especially through articles, poems and various prose works contributed to maga- zines. He has long been a student of genealogy and history, and pub- lished "California Chronology" in 1915. His Magnum Opus, however, is "Monnet Family Genealogy," published in 1911, upon which he ex- pended ten years of labor and ten thousand dollars. The work has thirteen hundred pages and one hundred seventy-one illustrations.
Mr. Monnette is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descend- ants, of the Huguenot Society of America, Sons of the American Revo- lution, Society of Colonial Wars, the Order of Washington, Society of the War of 1812. He is a member of the honorary scholarship fra- ternity Phi Beta Kappa and of the social fraternity Phi Kappa Psi, of
Jeorge Danahoy
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which he was elected national president in June, 1911. He is a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. In politics he is a republican, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Local societies of which he is a member are the California Club, Jonathan Club, Union League Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Knickerbocker Club, "The Scribes," "The Uplifters," Los Angeles Rotary Club, the Automobile Club of Southern California, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. November 6, 1895, Mr. Monnette married Carrie Lucile Janeway, of Columbus, Ohio. On De- cember 15, 1917, he married Helen Marie Kull, of Los Angeles.
REV. GEORGE DONAHOE, pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart, has been a consecrated worker in the diocese of Los Angeles ever since he was ordained to the priesthood.
The Church of the Sacred Heart originally formed a portion of the Old Plaza parish. Its first mission was opened under the pastorate of Father l'eter, afterward Bishop of Brownsville, Texas. In 1889 the Church of the Sacred Heart was formed into a separate parish. Its first pastor was Father Harnett, appointed by Bishop Francis Mora. In 1900. Rev. Michael Mc. Auliffe succeeded him, and served until his death, November 23, 1907. The next incumbent was Rev. P. Gerald Gay, who in February, 1918, was succeeded by Rev. George Donahoe.
Father Donahoe was born at Loretto, Pennsylvania, September 4. 1876, a son of Thomas and Lydia Donahoe. He was educated in public and parochial schools in his native state, attended the Holy Ghost College in Pittsburgh and St. Vincent's Seminary at Pittsburgh. He was ordained a priest August 15. 1901, at Los Angeles by Bishop Mont- gomery.
His first appointment was as assistant pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart at Hollister for two years. Returning to Los Angeles, he became secretary to the late Bishop Conaty for two years, and then took charge of the Church of our Lady of Loretto, at the corner of Court and Union streets. Father Donahoe organized this parish in 1905 and continued in charge until March, 1918, when he was transferred to his present field.
WILLIAM R. BURKE, who died following an operation for appen- dicitis at the Mayo Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, July 19, 1911, was a Los Angeles pioneer, one of the earliest investors in city real estate, and in gaining an individual fortune made many contributions to the welfare and development of his community.
To his friends he was always known as Major Burke, a title which he shunned, but as a son of the Southland and as a mark of real dis- tinction the title clung to him. He was born at Helena. Arkansas, and was about sixty-five years of age when he died. Prior to 1885, when he came to Los Angeles, he was editor of a paper in his home city. He married Miss Greenfield, daughter of a wealthy cotton broker of New Orleans. She died January 25, 1910, the mother of two children, Carle- ton F. Burke, and Miss Louise Burke.
William R. Burke had considerable wealth when he landed in Los Angeles. With great faith in the future of southern California, he invested his money in real estate and allied himself with every move- ment to make Los Angeles and the surrounding territory better known and appreciated. This faith was well rewarded, his investments pros- pered, and at the time of his death his property was estimated to be
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worth more than a million. He bought beautiful Berkeley Square when it was a barley field and developed the district into one of the most exclusive residential sections in southern California. His large home has stood as one of the distinctive types of old southern architecture for many years. He also owned valuable frontage on Broadway be- tween Eighth and Ninth streets and between Ninth and Tenth streets, and other property on East First street near San Pedro street.
For years he was a recognized leader in civic life, was a stanch democrat, and a delegate to the national democratic convention in 1896, where he seconded the nomination of Bryan for president. He was a Catholic, a member of the Knights of Columbus and of the California and Los Angeles Country Clubs. His hobby in athletics was polo, and it is said he never missed a polo game in or about Los Angeles.
CARLETON F. BURKE, son of the pioneer Los Angeles real estate man, William R. Burke, whose career is sketched on preceding page, has for a number of years handled the valuable Burke interests in southern Califor- nia, and is widely known in real estate and civic life and also as a soldier of the recent war, in which he spent two years in the service and attained the rank of major.
Major Burke was born at Helena, Arkansas, December 10, 1882, and was two years old when his parents came to Los Angeles. He at- tended St. Vincent's College to the age of fifteen, then Thatcher School for Boys at Nordhoff, Ventura county, for two years, and spent three years in the University of California. After completing his education he was associated with his father in real estate operations and still continues the real estate and insurance business.
Mr. Burke since early youth has been an enthusiastic polo player, and perhaps his greatest enthusiasm has been in good horses. This taste strangely enough became the basis of his qualifications for patriotic service during the recent war. He enlisted in June, 1917, in the Re- mount Service of the United States Army, his duties being in the pur- chasing and training of horses for army use. He was commissioned a captain at enlistment and in October, 1918, was promoted to major. Major Burke spent fifteen months in France, and received his hon- orable discharge in June, 1919.
Major Burke is unmarried. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, California Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club, and in politics is a democrat.
JACOB W. EARL. Thirty years ago Jacob W. Earl had 'a small car- riage shop in Los Angeles. He was one of the pioneer carriage makers of the city. He gradually developed his works, adapting himself to progress and change, and a large patronage and an entire community have come to recognize the value and reliability of his service. That position meant much to him and was a decided asset when the automobile came into popularity and threatened to displace horse-drawn vehicles. Mr. Earl early made a change in his facilities to meet the new demands, and for a number of years has been a maker of automobile bodies and other parts exclusive of mechanism. Today the Earl Automobile Works is a big institution. It is best known not only in Los Angeles but in other parts of the country to people of means and of exclusive tastes. Some of the products of this company are sent all over the United States, and it is the largest industry of its kind west of Chicago.
Mr. Earl comes from a state that is now a center of automobile per- fection. He was born at Lansing, Michigan, February 1, 1866, a son
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of John and Carl (Teman) Earl. Up to the age of sixteen he lived at home and attended public schools. Then going to Cadillac, Michigan, he learned the carriage making trade with W. A. Miller. In 1886 Mr. Earl came to Los Angeles, and for the next three years was employed by the J. N. Tabor Carriage Works.
In 1889 he established a shop of his own at 107-109 East 9th street. His floor space was only 18x38 feet. The business grew and prospered and in 1900 he moved to 1320-22-24 South Main street, and about that time added to his general business the manufacture of automobile bodies, tops, trimming and painting. Mr. Earl stands prominent in the auto- mobile industry as the inventor and pioneer maker of the automatic wind shield which is universally used today.
In 1917 another change was affected in the business when it moved to its present quarters at the corner of Pico and Los Angeles streets. The works now occupy 60,000 square feet. In 1889 only one assistant worked with Mr. Earl, while today he supervises the activities of a force of ninety men. Very recently he invented the "tonneau wind shield," which is attached to the top and is considered the most practical device of its kind on the market. But Mr. Earl's primary reputation is built upon the construction of automobile bodies and special tops. Except for the motive mechanism he turns out complete automobiles and some of these are of the most distinctive models for individual customers. He has built a number of such machines ranging in price as high as ten thousand dollars.
Mr. Earl is a republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. June 20, 1891, at Los Angeles, he married Miss Abbie L. Taft, who passed away October 29, 1914. They were the parents of five children: Carl E., aged twenty-six; Harley J., aged twenty-four; Arthur T., aged twenty-two; Jessie L., aged thirteen : and William O., who is nine years old. The younger children are in public schools. Carl E. is a graduate of high school and the University of Southern California and is now purchasing agent for the Earl Automobile Works. Harley attended Leland Stanford University after leaving high school and is now a designer with the automobile works. Arthur is a high school graduate and is now a salesman for his father's business. Mr. Earl was married to Nellie May Black January 17,. 1917, and the one child of this union is Henry John, born September 10, 1918.
JOSEPH F. GRASS. For twenty-five years the late Joseph Ferdinand Grass was an important factor in the business affairs of Hollywood and the worth of his efforts in the developing of real estate here cannot be overestimated. He built the first residence ever erected on that avenue of beautiful homes, Hollywood Boulevard, and it was Mr. Grass who laid out the curbing. He was devoted in every way to the interests of this section, investing himself to the extent of his fortune and being the means of bringing large amounts of capital here.
Joseph F. Grass was born in New Orleans in 1863. His French ancestors wrote the name "de Grasse" but the family as it became thor- oughly Americanized adopted the shorter appellation. Mr. Grass was a grandson of Count de Grasse, who came early to New Orleans. A quarter of a century has elapsed since Mr. Grass came to California and settled in Hollywood, where at tthat time only twenty-five families had preceded his own. He started ranching on a small tract of six- teen acres, on which he grew oranges and lemons. He kept watchful as to business opportunity and when H. J. Whitley came and bought land Mr. Grass opened his first real estate tract, later opening up five
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