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 3
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"Mrs. Hancock Banning as general manager of the Red Cross Shop has as her 'right hand bower' Mrs. J. M. Danziger, assistant manager, who in addition to the loaning of her home for the duration of the war has devoted her entire time with unflagging zeal to the work and has aided in many material ways to the success of the project. Mr. George Fusenot, assistant shop official, has lent an invaluable aid to the women, giving of his own experience as former proprietor of the Ville de Paris. Mrs. R. A. Heffner and Mrs. A. G. Faulkner, secretary and treasurer, respectively, are fulfilling their executive offices with utmost credit. Mrs. Charles Jeffras, chairman of the floor committee, who has responsibili- ties of manifold character, has recently brought into her work a new and splendid plan-that of enlisting the active interest and co-operation of the women of the various department stores of the city, each of which will assume complete charge of a Saturday program at the shop during the summer months.
"Mrs. Edwin R. Collins, aside from her office as director of the entertainment committee, which involves the work of securing famous stage and screen stars as participants and staging other crowd-drawing attractions for the Tea Room, has also undertaken, successfully, the work of publicity director, which means the daily 'peddling' of shop news items to the various newspapers for publication.
"Mrs. Clarence Hoblitzelle, chairman of the art department; Mrs. H. B. MacBeth, in charge of the automobile service; Mrs. J. Arthur Wright, manager of the Tea Room; Mrs. R. E. Wells, in charge of the Red Cross Shop branch at Tenth and Main streets, are all filling depart- ments equally as important to the success of the shop as a whole.
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"The stockroom, occupying a spacious part of the second floor of the building, is in charge of Mrs. Franklyn Booth, and it is here that surplus stock is stored, and where all articles upon receipt are sorted out, priced, and if in unsalable condition are sent out to be repaired, cleaned and in other manner converted into desirable commodities for sale.
"Mrs. Jaro von Schmidt is in charge of the children's clothing de- partment, while the women's apparel is under the jurisdiction of Mrs. Harry Dana Lombard, and the men's wearing apparel department is under the direction of Mrs. G. Martyn.
"Mrs. Frank Griffith is at the head of the fancy work committee, Mrs. Homer Laughlin, Jr., is in charge of the jewelry department, and Mrs. C. R. Bradford directs the Kinema Tea Room. Jams and jellies and their allies are in charge of Mrs. S. Dunlop; Mrs. S. J. Meyberg surpervises the work of the toy department; Mrs. W. A. Foreman has charge of the uniforms, while Mrs. Hallett Johnson presides over the shoe department.
"These represent only the larger divisions of the work, each of which is augmented by many branches and an enthusiastic corps of workers. The reconstruction bureau, under the management of Mrs. F. W. Poore, is an important branch of the work; the outside sewing, under the direction of Mrs. James; the Lilliputian work shop in charge of Miss Winifred Ballard ; the art shop under direction of Mrs. Robert Farquhar-all of these are component parts of the Red Cross Shop.
"This is perhaps an opportune place to touch upon the salvage branch and to differentiate between this phase of the Red Cross work and that of the Red Cross Shop. The salvage plan, distinctly separate from the Red Cross Shop, originated by Mrs. Banning, is accredited to Mrs. Oth- man Stevens, who conceived the idea of collecting such waste as tinfoil, old automobile tires, old papers and typewriter metals and marketing them. As succinctly expressed by a friend the other day, the Red Cross Shop exemplifies the idea of giving from unwholesome hoarding, of generosity of spirit, of giving from the sense of wishing to share, of self-denial and sacrifice. While on the other hand, the salvage idea educates along the lines of unselfish thrift. Individually it means noth- ing, but collectively, backed by the Red Cross spirit, it is the source of an appreciable income.
"From a money-making point of view the Red Cross Shop takes rank with 'big business,' since within a period of nine months it has netted a profit of a hundred fifteen thousand dollars, with the prospect of going over the quarter of a million mark before the close of the fiscal year. The net receipts for the months of May were $11.355.11, which against the gross receipts of $12,125.80 gives an idea of the cor- respondingly small amount disbursed for expenses. The June receipts mounted even higher, the profits reaching $12,000 for the month-repre- senting plain, straightforward sales, since there were no entertainments or special benefit features given during this period.
"It is a colossal enterprise-the Red Cross Shop-and one which reflects the spirit of the American women-a spirit that arises far above the pettiness of class distinction and unifies womankind in one great democratic purpose, the big vital issue of GIVING to relieve the distress which follows in the wake of this great surging world conflict."
O. W. CHILDS
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OZRO W. CHILDS. For all its other advantages, Los Angeles is a real "City of Angels," and famed in every part of the world because of its semi-tropical environment. Nature endowed it with a semi-tropical ยท climate, but it was the hand and ingenuity of man that permitted the cli- mate to grow and produce the fruits and flowers that redeemed an almost original desert into one of the most picturesque spots on the globe.
These well known historical facts are thus suggested to indicate more clearly the debt that the modern generation owes to the late Ozro. W. Childs, who by his work and splendid abilities both as a floriculturist and business man helped lay the foundation of Southern California's won- derful productiveness of fruits and flowers. He introduced many rare species of trees and plants, and for years local citizens and tourists found- in the Childs' farm and nursery one of the chief spots of interest. Those grounds, much of which has since been covered by the expanding city, was once a scene of well kept lawns, rare and beautiful trees and flowers, and, while properly esteemed for their beauty, were really a source of much of the commercial wealth that Southern California enjoys today.
Ozro W. Childs was one of the earliest American pioneers of Los Angeles. He was born June 5, 1824, at Sutton, Caledonia County, Ver- mont, son of Jacob and Sarah (Richardson) Childs. He was a young man of twenty-six when in 1850 he came west to California, and in No- vember of the same year located at Los Angeles, at that time a place of about five thousand inhabitants most of whom were relics of the old Spanish and Mexican regime. Mr. Childs for many years was a success- ful hardware merchant and manufacturer, and he was a typical New England merchant, one who made a success in practically every venture he undertook. Similar success followed his enterprise as a nurseryman, and he showed the greatest wisdom and foresight in his varied real estate improvements.
His wonderful gardens and nurseries had eventually to give way before the spread of the city and increasing population. In 1884 he subdivided his farm into city lots, retaining only the grounds immediately around his home from Main to Hill and 11th to 12th streets, which con- tinued to reflect the artistic taste of the owner in its fruit and flower gardens.
Mr. Childs was a trustee of the Los Angeles branch of the Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company of California, was president of the Los Angeles Electric Company, was a director and one of the organizers of the Farmers and Merchants Bank, and during his time was identified with a number of the biggest enterprises undertaken in the city. His liberality was as marked as was his success in business affairs. He was one of the founders of the University of Southern California, to which he contributed part of the land. He also gave ten acres as the site of old St. Vincent's College and that gift more than anything else insured the permanence of that institution of Catholic education. Los Angeles people of modern times are familiar with the Childs Opera House, which he built and opened in 1884 on Main Street between 1st and 2nd streets. It was one of the largest theaters in the west at the time, had a seating capacity of about twelve hundred, and even then was engaged by some dramatic company almost every night in the year. It is now being operated as a movie house and is still owned by the Childs' estate.
Ozro W. Childs died April 17, 1890, at the age of sixty-six. In 1860 he married Miss Emeline Huber, a native of Louisville, Kentucky. They were the parents of six children, five of whom are still living:
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Ozro W., manager of the O. W. Childs' estate at Los Angeles; Mrs. John W. Dwight, of Washington. D. C .; Mrs. Frank S. Hicks, of Los Angeles ; Mrs. A. W. Redman, of Los Angeles, and Mrs. Reynolds, wife of Col. F. P. Reynolds, of Washington.
LEE ALLEN PHILLIPS, who became a resident of Los Angeles in 1894, has become known to the public as a very able and successful law- yer, an organizer and executive in a number of reclamation projects, active as a banker and business man, and for a number of years as an official of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California, one of the most progressive insurance companies of America and with two hundred and fifty million dollars of insurance in force. Early in 1919 Mr. Phillips succeeded the late Gail Borden Johnson in the office of vice-president and treasurer.
Mr. Phillips was born at Ashton, Illinois, August 24, 1871, son of Milton Eaves and Magdelina Phill.ps. His father for many years was a prominent educator and became well known throughout the central western states. After many years of earnest and self sacrificing work there he came to Los Angeles and for four years was dean of the Uni- versity of Southern California, and finally took the pastorate of a Con- gregational church at New Haven, Connecticut, where he died in 1909.
Lee Allen Phillips received his higher education in the University of Kansas and in DePauw University at Greencastle, Indiana, where he graduated A. B., in 1892 and then taking the law course received in 1894 the LL. B. degree and the A. M. decree. He was therefore a briefless attorney when he arrived in Los Angeles in the late summer of that year. Then and ever since Mr. Phillips has been known among his associates as a man of modest and unpretentious worth, and has won success on the merit of his work and not by any influences outside his own character. In October, 1894, he began the practice of law in the office of Cochran & Williams, the senior member of which firm was George I. Cochran, now president of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California. The firm became Cochran, Williams & Phillips, and so continued until 1902. In 1907 Mr. Phillips became associate counsel for the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, and in 1912 was chosen third vice-president in charge of the investments of the company. In 1919 he was unanimously promoted to vice-president and treasurer and is still in charge of the company's investments, aggre- gating over forty-five millions of dollars.
There is usually a fundamental motive and driving force in the careers of men of large affairs. In the case of Mr. Phillips that motive is discerned through his interests in a line of work which has not yet been described. He has served the Pacific Mutual and many other interests as a masterful and skillful financier and has done a great work in safe- guarding and promoting the security and profit of many properties en- trusted to his care. However, he has been more than a "guardian of vested interests," and the phase of his career which furnishes him most intimate satisfaction was his part in the constructive development of his home state, through the reclamation of swamp and overflow lands in the San Joaquin Valley.
From 1902 to 1907, in order to give his personal supervision to these interests, Mr. Phillips made his home at Stockton. Between the years of 1902 and 1912 he organized, for the purpose of reclaiming tracts of land in the delta of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers,
Lee G. Chili
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the following corporations, each for the purpose of reclaiming a given acre ge: Middle River Farming Company, six thousand acres ; Middle River Navigation & Canal Company, 6 thousand acres; Rindge Land & Navigation Company, ten thousand acres; Orwood Land Company, three thousand acres; Holland Land and Water Company, ten thou- sand acres ; Empire Navigation Company eight thousand acres; Equita- ble Investment Company, seven thousand acres; Mandeville Land Com- pany, seven thousand acres; Island Land Company, three thousand eight hundred acres; California Delta Farms, Incorporated, a consoli- dation of the above companies and reclaiming an additional seven thousand acres; Bouldin Land Company, seven thousand acres; Hol- land Land Company, which was a reorganization of the unsuccessful Netherlands Farms Company, for the reclamation of twenty-six thou- sand acres. He also organized the Empire Construction Company, controlling a fleet of dredgers use in construction of levees for the purpose of reclamation of various properties.
Mr. Phillips gained his first experience in the development of agricultural lands through the organization of the Artesian Water Company and the development of the old Cienega Swamps adjoining the city of Los Angeles and fronting on West Adams street. Here in the year 1900 he changed this swamp into a wonderfully productive area, which up to date is producing a very large proportion of the fresh vegetables used in Los Angeles. At the same time he developed what is known as the Artesian Water Company, taking the water from artesian wells on these lands and conveying it to the dry lands lying along Washington street between the town of Palms and Santa Monica.
The total acreage reclaimed under Mr. Phillips' direct supervision and management, by summing up the above figures, seem to be a hun- dred thousand eight hundred. Some additional facts should be stated to indicate what significance this work has had as a factor of California agricultural production. Until the reclamation work was begun the properties had been only nominally assessed, and produced nothing of value. After reclamation, the average assessment rose to seventy-five dollars an acre, and the value of the land at normal market figures
. runs from two hundred fifty to three hundred dollars an acre. More important still, the production is the largest per acre of the various crops grown, including potatoes, beans, asparagus, onions, corn, barley and wheat, of which there is any record over similarly large areas. Since 1903 two-thirds of all the potatoes grown in the state of Cali- fornia have been raised on these various properties. In truth, in recent years there have been many destructive agencies let loose against civili- zation and the world's prosperity, and it serves a good purpose to con- trast these magnificent constructive enterprises that have been carried out by this Los Angeles lawyer and business man. Mr. Phillips' inter- est did not end with the completion of the reclamation projects them- selves but has continued through the practical distribution and settle- ment of the reclaimed land to actual owners and cultivators. He feels that the complete fruition of his hopes and plans will only be realized when this great body of land is not only productive of crops but fur- nishes homes and happy environment to the numerous families which it can properly support.
Mr. Phillips is president of the California Delta Farms, Incor- porated, vice-president of the Bouldin Land Company, president of the Beverly Hills Corporation, president of the Pecos Valley Investment
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Company, president of the Central Business Properties, director of the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank, the Security National and Home Savings Bank.
Only recently through the public press it is learned that Mr. Phil- lips' ideals in regard to the settling of the Delta lands is about to be fully consumated, 27,000 acres of the land having been sold to settlers in the short period of fourteen weeks.
Mr. Phillips has not confined his activities in agricultural develop- ment to the state of California, but under the name of the Pecos Valley Investment Company has developed 3,400 acres of land in the Pecos Val- ley, New Mexico, which land was taken from the desert and by means of wells and pumping plants has been converted into large alfalfa fields and apple orchards, 700 acres of this property being put to the latter use.
Particularly in recent years Mr. Phillips has been active in in- vestments and real estate in Los Angeles, and has done much to aid the development of the newer section of the business district.
He is at present actively engaged in perfecting plans for a new twelve-story office building to be erected by the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, and also plans for a new fireproof building to be built on the corner of Sixth and Olive streets, this latter building to be owned by the Central Business Properties, Inc.
He was a member of the Los Angeles Library Board from 1900 to 1902, also of the State Normal School Board from 1900 to 1902. During the war he was chairman of Exemption Board No. 9 for the City of Los Angeles. Mr. Phillips is a republican, a member of the Phi Gamma Delta and Delta Chi fraternities, the California Club, Bo- hemian Club of San Francisco, Yosemite Club, of Stockton, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Midwick Country Club, Brentwood Country Club, and Los Angeles Press Club. He is a member of the Congregational church.
December 19, 1895, at Winfield, Kansas, Mr. Phillips married Catherine Louise Coffin, daughter of Tristram Sanborn and Susan Wink- ler Coffin. To their marriage were born two daughters, Lucile Gertrude and Katharine Louise. Lucile is the wife of Dr. Wayland A. Mor- rison.
RUSSELL JUDSON WATERS. Among the thousands of men who have sought the mild and beneficent climate of Southern California as a restorative and ideal condition in which to live, and among the many who transferred and projected their former business and professional in- terests to this state, probably none made his activities and influence more thoroughly constructive in every sense than the late Russell Judson Waters. One achievement alone, summed up in the phrase, "father of Redlands," would be sufficient to satisfy the ambitions of a more than average man. However, Mr. Waters, who lived in Southern California from 1886 until his death in 1911, was identified with a great number of commercial organizations, not only in Redlands, but in all the territory comprised in Greater Los Angeles, and every one of these enterprises was indebted to him for many of the primary sources of their success, and prosperity.
Of New England ancestry, a son of Luther and Mary (Knowlton) Waters, Russell Judson Waters was born at Halifax, Vermont, June 6, 1843, being the youngest in a family of thirteen, eight daughters and two sons reaching mature years. When he was four years old his father
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died. His mother then removed to Colerain, Franklin county, Massa- chusetts, and at the age of eight years the boy was put in a cotton mill to contribute to the necessities of a large and impoverished household. He worked there two years at a dollar and a quarter a week. As there were no child labor laws to violate, the work violated nature's law, and he had to leave the mill, and was next put to work on a farm at Deer- field, Massachusetts, where he quickly regained his vigor. During the two years on the farm he managed to attend a few brief terms of public school. This schooling was important, because it instilled in him an ambition for more knowledge, and he never ceased to be a student the rest of his life. He studied at home and at every leisure opportunity, and earned and paid for all his higher education. Then he went to work in a cutlery factory at Deerfield, working as a machine operator. The family in the meantime had located at Richville, New York, whither he removed, and then resumed employment on a farm at sixty cents a day. During the winter he chopped wood at fifty cents a cord. It was this outdoor life which developed the splendid physique enabling him to apply his mental and physical energies without rest to study and work for many years. Going back to Massachusetts, he learned the machinists' trade, taught two terms of school, and eventually completed his studies at Franklin Institute. He graduated at the age of twenty-four and was at once offered and accepted the position of professor of Latin and mathe- matics in Franklin Institute. He remained there one year. In 1868 he removed to Chicago and took up the study of law with such diligence that he was admitted to the Illinois bar after two years. He practiced law in Chicago until 1886. He made a name and reputation as a lawyer in that city, and it was only as a result of ill health that he gave up his profitable business as a lawyer to come to Southern California. He was never a member of the California bar.
On coming to California he became associated with the California- Chicago Colonization Association as chairman and commissioner. In that capacity he purchased a large tract of land, in the center of which is the famed city of Redlands, a community which recognizes him as its founder and upbuilder. He was a resident of Redlands about seven years, and during that time and also afterward no enterprise to promote its interest was ever calculated complete without his name and influence. He was attorney for the city one year. It was through his efforts that the Santa Fe Railroad Company extended its lines from San Bernardino to Redlands. One of the important features of the city, making it well known to tourists, was the "kite-shaped track," in the construction of which he had a leading part. He was also at various times a director of the Union Bank, the First National Bankthe Crafton Water Com- pany, the East Redlands Water Company and the Redlands Hotel Com- pany, which built the Windsor Hotel. He built and operated the Red- lands Street Railway and was president of the company. He was also identified with the Bear Valley Irrigation Company as its inanager, and during his administration the stock of the company almost doubled in value.
When, in 1894, he removed to Los Angeles, his business prestige was not dwarfed in the larger city. He became widely known as a banker, was a leading member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, was a member of the Board of Park Commissioners, and while in no sense a politician in the ordinary sense of the term, he was prevailed upon by his friends to become a candidate for Congress from the Sixth District and was nominated by acclamation at the Congressional Convention, the
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nominating speech being made by his old time friend, ex-Governor John L. Beveridge of Illinois. He carried his district after a vigorous cam- paign by 3,542 votes. He represented the district in the Fifty-sixth Con- gress from 1899 to 1901. As a member of Congress he proved an ardent friend of conservation, and introduced measures approved by the South- ern California Forestry Commission whereby it was made a criminal offense to leave campfires burning and endanger the public forests. He also introduced a bill appropriating over half a million dollars for the improvement of San Pedro Harbor. He was a defender of the Nicaragua Canal bill, when that measure was regarded of equal merit with the Panama project, and was especially defended by the interests of South- ern California. His influence also secured the order issued by the com- missioner general of the Land Office suspending the filing of lien scrip upon land until after a full and complete investigation by special agents of the department had been made. He also introduced a bill to authorize the entry and patenting of lands containing petroleum and other mineral oils under placer mining laws. Shortly before he entered Congress the first rural mail route had been put in operation, and he did much to ex- tend the service over the Sixth California District, and also secured the establishment of eleven additional postoffices.
After his return from Congress he was elected in 1903 president of the Citizens National Bank of Los Angeles, and the following year be- came president of the Home Savings Bank.
A short time before his death, Mr. Waters, besides being president of the Citizens Bank, was president of the Broadway Trust Company of Los Angeles, of the First National Bank of Alhambra, of the Home Savings Bank of Los Angeles, the Columbia Commercial Company of Los Angeles, the California Cattle Company and the San Jacinto Valley Water Company. He had also been president of the Los Angeles Di- rectory Company, was president of the Pasadena Consolidated Gas Com- pany, was a director of the American Savings Bank of Los Angeles, was president of the Citizens Security Company, treasurer of the Equit- able Security Company, treasurer of the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad, a director of the Citizens National Bank of Redlands, treasurer of the Continental Life Insurance Company of Salt Lake City, and president of the Bay Island Club of Newport.
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