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 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
The distinguishing qualities of the place of business were the per- sonality and character of the neat proprietor, who had a genius for success, combined with sound intelligence, thrift, integrity and foresight and a thorough skill as a watchmaker and jeweler., He displayed at his little old fashioned window at the front a few watches and some cheap jewelry, while outside hung a large wooden watch as a typical sign. He worked alone, living in the rear of the store and closing and locking the door when he went out to dine. It is not too much to say that the splendid store of today is a practical monument to the industry and character of the young man who went to work on Commercial street in 1869. He acquired the confidence and patronage of the people of that day. After a time he had to employ help and carry a larger and larger stock. The business outgrew the first store, he moved to larger quarters in a better location, and this history repeated itself until there were six removals before the present location in the center of the retail business section was occupied. The present home of S. Nordlinger & Sons is nine blocks southwesterly from the first place of business.
March 31, 1874, five years after establishing his business in Los Angeles, Mr. Nordlinger married at San Francisco, Miss Fannie Berg. She was born at San Francisco, and her birth was the first record of a Jewish girl born in that city. She died at Los Angeles February 22, 1905. They were the parents of two sons, Louis S. and Melville. These sons as they grew up manifested some of the qualities of business, and in 1904 Louis was given a place in the business and in 1907 Melville came in, resulting in the organization of a stock company under the name of S. Nordlinger & Sons.
After forty-two years of active service with the business Simon Nordlinger passed away, April 2, 1911. The firm has been continued with Louis S. as president. The late Mr. Nordlinger after his business was completely devoted to his home, and his affection for and the richness of love he enjoyed in the family circle were among the most conspicuous facts of his long and useful life.
LOUIS S. NORDLINGER, president of S. Nordlinger & Sons, Gold and Silversmiths, entered his father's business twenty-five years ago at the engraver's bench, was made secretary when the business was incorporated, and since his father's death has been its president and active executive.
Thus the story of this business, told in the sketch of his honored father, Simon Nordlinger, is continued through his own personality and
251
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
career. Mr. Nordlinger was born in Los Angeles June 21, 1875. His birthplace was the third house north of Second street on Fort street, now Broadway. He attended the public schools and graduated in 1893 from Belmont School at Belmont, California. He was prepared there for Leland Stanford University, but instead of going to college accepted the advice of his father to learn the jewelry engraver's trade. He spent the year 1894 and a part of 1895 in a private office at San Francisco and in the latter year returned to Los Angeles and entered the engraving department of his father's business. That was his chief work in the establishment for eight years, and after that he had experience in all branches of the business. The firm of S. Nordlinger & Sons was in- corporated in 1907 with Louis Nordlinger as secretary. In 1911, after his father's death, he became president.
The present handsome location and establishment at 631-633 South Broadway represents the sixth removal of the business since it was established in 1869. and has been occupied since 1910. This is the old jewelry house and establishment at Los Angeles and one of the first ten oldest of all business concerns in the city.
Mr. Nordlinger is also a director of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles, a director of the Morris Plan Bank, is a former director of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and is the first vice-president and for five years has held that office in the California Gold and Silversmiths Association. He is a member of Corona Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West, and has been its treasurer for the past seventeen years and a member of the Parlor since 1896. He is affiliated with Westgate Lodge No. 335, F. and A. M., at Los Angeles, is a past master of that lodge, and in 1911 received the honorary thirty- third degree in the Scottish Rite. He is also a member of Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Culver City Country Club, and a member of the Board of Gover- nors of the Federated Jewish Charities. His firm belongs to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the Municipal League and the Merchants and Manu- facturers Association.
Mr. Nordlinger married Miss Rose B. Loew, of Los Angeles, Janu- ary 2, 1907. She is a native of Los Angeles, and was educated in the , city schools, public and private, as well as in Europe. Mrs. Nordlinger is a daughter of Jacob Loew, of Los Angeles, who came to the city in 1868, and she is a granddaughter of the distinguished Californian, the late Harris Newmark, who died in 1916, and who came to Los Angeles in 1856. Harris Newmark, author of the recently published "Sixty Years in Southern California," was a monumental figure in this city, and his career is fully sketched on other pages. Mrs. Nordlinger has been very active in Red Cross Canteen work at both depots, looking after the incoming and outgoing soldiers. Mr. Nordlinger was likewise identified with this local war work, particularly in the. Liberty Loan campaigns and as a member of the Red Cross teams. Mr. and Mrs. Nordlinger have two children, both natives of Los Angeles, Fannie Emily and Louis S., Jr. The family home is at 1537 West 9th street.
STEPHEN H. TAFT, father of Judge Frederick Harris Taft, of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, spent the greater part of his long and useful life in Iowa, but was also a resident of Southern California and is distinguished here as the "father" of Sawtelle.
He was born at Volney in Oswego County, New York, September 14,
252
LOS ANGELES
1825, the sixth in a family of ten children born to Stephen and Vienna (Harris) Taft. The founder of the family in America was Robert Taft, who came from England and settled at Mendon, Massachusetts, in 1679. Robert was the father of five sons, and the generation including Judge Frederick H. Taft is of the ninth in direct descent. One of the sons of Robert Taft was the ancestor of former President William H. Taft.
Stephen T. Taft was born in a log house on a farm, and was chiefly indebted to his mother for his early education. He worked as a farm hand, taught school, and at the age of twenty was licensed to preach by the Wesleyan Methodist Church. His religious experience was one proof of his independence of mind. He early identified himself with the Chris- tian Union movement, later became a Unitarian, and in 1854 organized an independent Congregational Society in Pierrepont Manor, Jefferson County, New York, and preached to it three years. For five years he was pastor of an independent church at Martinsburg in Lewis County, New York.
In the fall of 1862 he moved to Iowa, contracted for the purchase of nearly seven thousand acres of land on the West DesMoines River in Humboldt County and selected the site for a new town, which was first known as Springvale and later as Humboldt. The following year he brought out a colony of about fifty persons, laid out his town, superin- mill, and also operated a hotel. He was a great lover all his life of trees, tended the construction of a dam and saw mill, later built a grist and flour and in Humboldt superintended the planting of thousands of trees and donated two parks dedicated to the use of the public, one being Taft's Park and the other John Brown Park. The name of the latter recalls his enthusiasm for the great abolitionist, John Brown, and his own active part in that cause. After John Brown was hanged Mr. Taft preached a sermon which was published and attracted much attention.
The first five years he spent in Iowa he was pastor of the Christian Union Church. In 1868 he began the work of founding an unsectarian institution of learning known as Humboldt College, which opened in Sep- tember, 1872, and of which he was the first president. Among the in- fluential eastern friends who helped him in this undertaking were Wen- dell Phillips, Edward Everett Hale, James Freeman Clark, Henry W. Longfellow, Oliver Ames, Henry Ward Beecher, William Lloyd Garrison, Peter Cooper, Charles Sumner and William Cullen Bryant.
He also commenced the publication of a republican newspaper known as the Humboldt County True Democrat, which later became the Hum- boldt Kosmos and is now the Republican. He was identified with every interest and activity of the Humboldt community for over thirty years. He has been described as a man of medium height, strong, rugged, and able to endure all the hardships and privations of pioneering. Several times in Iowa he was caught in blinding blizzards of that section, and he had many other narrow escapes from imminent danger.
Besides the papers which he published he wrote for the public press, and the vigor of his mind was undimmed to the very end. In 1913 he returned to his old town of Humboldt and was the principal speaker at the semi-centennial of the community. He was a strong advocate of tem- perance and one of the early members of the prohibition party. Only a few weeks before his death he wrote a letter in which he expressed the fundamental reasons for a general condemnation of all people for the Ger- man Kaiser and the system he represented.
Mr. Taft came to California in 1896. He was then over seventy years
253
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
of age, but he had strength and resources to found another town, Saw- telle, adjoining the National Soldiers' Home. He published a monthly paper known as the Bay District Investigator, one of the objects of which was to promote the annexation of Sawtelle to Los Angeles, a movement which culminated about a year before his death. He was prominent in the Iowa Association of Southern California, served as its honorary presi- dent, and was a member of the Centenary Club of Los Angeles, composed exclusively of near-centenarians. At the age of eighty-nine he sat for a full year upon the Los Angeles County Grand Jury.
Death came to him as he desired, while in the full possession of his faculties and engaged in the work he loved. While pruning a tree for one of his tenants at Sawtelle he fell to the ground, was severely stunned, but walked home. His death occurred as a reaction of the shock, and came on April 22, 1918, at the age of ninety-two years and seven months
Two tributes written after his death serve to express some of the dominant characteristics of his life: "Mr. Taft could do more different things and have them all going at one time than any man in the northern half of the state of Iowa." "He was a worthy citizen and a forceful per- sonality. He was a builder, one of the few who could, despite his handi- caps, impress his character upon communities and times."
February 22, 1853, he married Mary A. Burnham, of Madison, New York. Her father, Rockwell Burnham, was of a family established in Rhode Island in the middle of the seventeenth century. Mrs. Taft died at Santa Monica, California, February 1, 1898. Several years later Mr. Taft married a niece of his first wife, Mrs. Etta Burnham Barber, who with two adopted girls survive him. By his first marriage he had six children : George B., who died in infancy ; Mary V., the only daughter, who died in 1889, at the age of twenty-two; Elwin S., the youngest of the family, who died in 1900; William J., Frederick H. and Sidney A., who survive their honored father.
FREDERICK HARRIS TAFT, who has been a resident of Santa Monica since 1894, has practiced law in Southern California for a quarter of a century, and for the past six years has been a judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. He presided over the Juvenile Court nearly two years, and is now in charge of Department No. 13, the Court of Domes- tic Relations.
A man better fitted for the responsibilities he enjoys it would be diffi- cult to find. Mr. Taft is not an extreme in any direction, not radical, is not easily attracted to superficial advantages, and altogether is a plain, everyday citizen, has led a well regulated life, one of much usefulness, and has the temper, the training, the insight and the patience which serve to distinguish even the routine performance of his daily duties.
Judge Taft was born at Pierrepont Manor, Jefferson County, New York, April 4, 1857, and is a son of the late Stephen Harris Taft, a well- known figure in Southern California, whose career is reviewed on other pages. Judge Taft shared in the general admiration of his father, and also pays a particular tribute of gratitude to his mother, Mary Antoinette Burnham Taft, who was born May 1, 1832, at Madison, New York, and died February 1, 1898, at Santa Monica, California. His mother shared all the hardships of the Iowa pioneer, was a woman of unusual poise, and gave quiet, efficient support to all charities and good works in her old home town of Humboldt, Iowa, where her memory is the cherished pos- session of the entire community. She was one of the mothers who crown womanhood with sanctity.
254
LOS ANGELES
Judge Taft grew up in Iowa from the age of six, acquired a liberal education and was a successful newspaper man in that state before taking up the practice of law. He graduated from Humboldt College in 1879, but his experience in newspaper work began in 1874, and until 1882 he was editor and publisher of the Humboldt Kosmos. In 1883 he was one of the founders of the Hardin County Citizen, and from 1884 to 1887 was associated as editor and manager with the Fort Dodge Messenger. He continued newspaper and publication work in Sioux City until 1892. While at Sioux City he was a student of law in Morningside College, now Northwestern University, from which he received his LL. B. degree in 1892.
With eight months of practice as a lawyer in Iowa Judge Taft arrived at Los Angeles in 1893, and became one of the organizers of the firm of Tanner & Taft at Santa Monica in 1894. In 1904 this firm became Tan- ner, Taft & Odell, and so continued until Judge Taft went on the bench.
Judge Taft has taken considerable interest in politics as a progressive republican for many years. He served as city attorney of Santa Monica from 1902 to 1907, and was appointed superior judge in August, 1913. He was regularly elected to that office in 1914. At different times he has held offices on school and library boards of Santa Monica, and during the war was community chairman of the Four-Minute Men.
Judge Taft is a member of the Chamber of Commerce at Santa Monica and in Los Angeles is a member of the Union League, Los Angeles Ath- letic, City Club and Gamut Club. He became an Odd Fellow in early manhood, but has never been attracted into the ranks of secret fraterni- ties. He is a member of the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles.
February 23, 1881, at Humboldt, Iowa, he married Frances M. Welch, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Ira L. Welch of that town. Mrs. Taft has been prominent in social and club life at Santa Monica for a quarter of a century, is former president of the Santa Monica Bay Woman's Club, and past matron of Seaside Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. Judge and Mrs. Taft had three children: Alice Marie, who died in infancy ; Muriel Charlena, wife of Nathan E. Shutt, of Santa Monica ; and Harris Welch Taft, who married Lucile Sharp and is a member of the law firm Tanner, Odell & Taft at Santa Monica and Los Angeles.
JOHN BARNES MILLER, chairman of the Southern California Edison Company, has long been identified with the electrical industry in this section. He first came to California in 1891, remaining here about a year, and returned east only because of his father's ill health. In 1896, however, he moved to California, almost immediately becoming identified with the development and consolidation of electric power companies. His work has been an important contributing factor in giving southern Cali- fornia its premier position in the United States in the production and transmission of hydro-electric power.
John B. Miller was born at Port Huron in St. Clair county, Michigan, October 23, 1869, a son of John Edgar and Sarah Amelia (Barnes) Miller. His American ancestry goes back two or three centuries to an original colony of Mennonites or Swiss-German Quakers who left Europe on account of religious persecution and settled in Pennsylvania at the invitation of William Penn. He attended public and private schools at Port Huron and was graduated from the Ann Arbor High School in 1888, and then entered the University of Michigan, studying for the degree of A. B. At the end of his second year, however, he was compelled to leave college on account of a serious crisis in his
1
PoluBully
255
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
father's health. He undertook the management of his father's business and at the same time studied law. In 1892 he became interested in a plantation near Delhi, Richmond Parish, Louisiana, managing it for about two years and then returning to Michigan, where his father was again actively engaged in business. They became interested in the steamboat and fuel business, to which he devoted about three years.
In 1896 Mr. Miller moved to California, made a thorough investiga- tion of conditions, and was deeply impressed with the wonderful oppor- tunities for development of electricity for light and power and the utiliza- tion of water power for long transmission, a method then little known, and decided to ally himself with the industry.
At that time southern California had a number of little plants, none large enough to attract capital and therefore none in a position to expand or render adequate service to a growing community. Mr. Miller took the lead in amalgamating a number of small plants, acquired valuable water power sites, and in 1901 was elected president of the Edison Electric Company, one of the first great electric utilities furnishing electric current to numerous towns and cities throughout southern California. He served as the president of this company and its successors until 1917; when the Pacific Light and Power Corporation was consolidated with the Southern California Edison Company, and Mr. Miller became the executive head of the combined companies with the title of chairman.
Many other institutions have felt the impress of his resourceful mind .. He was one of the founders of the old Southwestern National Bank, later consolidated with the First National Bank; also of the Los Angeles Trust Company, now the Los Angeles Trust & Savings Bank ; and at the present time is president of the Landowners Company, the San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad Company, and is vice-president of the Sinaloa Land and Water Company and of California Delta' Farms, Inc. He is a director of the First National Bank of Los Angeles, of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, and of Santa Barbara Gas and Electric Company. Mr. Miller is a trustee of the Polytechnic Elementary School of Pasadena, where he has his home, and of the Harvard School of Los Angeles. He is a member of the California, Automobile, Los Angeles Athletic and Los Angeles Country Clubs, all of Los Angeles ; the Midwick Country Club and Overland Club of Pasadena, Santa Bar- bara Club, Santa Barbara Polo Club and Santa Barbara Country Club, the Pacific Union and Bohemian Clubs of San Francisco and the Racquet and Tennis and D. K. E. Clubs of New York. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, a republican in politics and an Episcopalian in religion.
On April 17, 1895, Mr. Miller was married to Miss Carrie Borden Johnson, of Yonkers, New York. They have the following children : Philadelphia Borden, now Mrs. Donald O'Melveny, John Borden, Edgar Gail, Morris Barnes and Carrie St. Clair Miller.
From the beginning of the great war Mr. Miller was very active in the American Red Cross. He was appointed a member of the execu- tive committee of the American Red Cross War Finance Committee, and in 1917 he was elected a member of the Board of Incorporators. In the first War Fund campaign he served as chairman for all the territory west of the Mississippi, and in the second War Fund campaign was chairman for the Pacific Division. He then served as manager of the Pacific Division from December 1, 1918, to June 1, 1919, and is now a member of the Advisory Committee for the Division.
256
LOS ANGELES
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY. No one in Los Angeles or the Southwest can escape a vivid daily reminder of the vital service and efficiency of the Southern California Edison Company, one of the greatest public utilities in America. A brief history and description of the company and its service brings to light some interesting facts in the pioneer development and transmission of the electric current which are probably known only to a few of the older residents and practical electric engineers.
In 1888 Walter S. Wright of Pasadena and E. E. Peck came into possession of a miniature electric plant at San Pedro. Soon afterwards the village trustees cancelled their street lighting contract, and the owners of the plant found no outside demand to warrant the operation of the business. Mr. Peck, after returning from the East, bought back the engine and dynamo, which in the meantime had been sold to a junk dealer, and tried to secure a franchise from the city of Los Angeles. The City Council denied his application and the county supervisors granted him the privilege of operating a plant outside the city limits. This plant, consisting of an eighty-horsepower boiler and engine and a thirty-light arc lighting dynamo, was installed in a small building on Twenty-second Street, just east of Vermont Avenue.
It began operation in December, 1895, and that was the origin of the West Side Lighting Company, one of the first of many constituent enterprises now merged in the complete history of the Southern Cali- fornia Edison Company. The West Side Lighting Company comprised E. E. Peck, Walter S. Wright, William R. Staats and George H. Barker. and at the time of its organization was known as the Walter S. Wright Electric Company. Mr. Wright remained with the company as attorney and member of the board of directors until his death a few years ago, while Mr. Staats is still a director and one of the vice presidents of the Southern California Edison Company.
Unable to secure a public franchise from the City of Los Angeles, the company extended its business to private patrons of the city by setting poles on private property and only crossing the city with the wires. Mr. Wright finally discovered an old franchise and bought it. This franchise was shortly to expire and one of its conditions required that the company furnish lighting at the City Hall. Two weeks remained to comply with this condition. Every man in the company went to work and got the line as far as Third and Hill Streets by stringing the wires on the poles of the Los Angeles Traction Company. A block still re- mained between that point and the City Hall and there were no poles. Permission was granted by Mr. Byrne to set a horse on the roof of the Byrne Building, and by this means the wires were carried to the tower of the City Hall, and on the night before the day on which the franchise would have expired a light was burning in the City Hall tower.
All of this was done in the early part of 1896, and on June 5th of that yearthe West Side Lighting Company was incorporated, capitalized at five hundred thousand dollars, and with an authorized bond issue of three hundred thousand dollars. Business was rapidly developed, soon outgrowing the little plant on Twenty-second Street, and the directors deciding to build for all time, bought the power house and equipment of the Second Street Cable Railway, at Second and Boylston Streets, the site of the present Los Angeles Number One Substation, and trans- formed the whole into a modern steam power station. This plant began operation in December, 1896, but contrary to expectations, the demand grew so rapidly that additional machinery had to be installed the follow- ing month, and still more later in the same year.
257
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
In December, 1897, these properties were taken over by the Los Angeles Edison Electric Company, capitalized at five hundred thousand dollars and with a bond issue authorized at equal amount. This capitaliza- tion was later increased to a million dollars and a bond issue authorized for one million two hundred fifty thousand dollars. The company at that time had great trouble in securing necessary capital for its rapid develop- ment. At that juncture John B. Miller, for many years president of the company and now chairman, became treasurer and a director. He at once proved an important factor in the affairs of the company and has been its directing genius along financial lines. Twenty years ago the company's one and only bookkeeper was R. H. Ballard, now first vice president, while the cashier was W. L. Percey, now treasurer.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.