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 4
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It was through these various activities and institutions that he de- veloped his business reputation and his prestige as a man of affairs. Dur- ing the years of his early practice as a lawyer in Chicago he had also used his pen as a contributor to newspapers and magazines. He also began his first book in Chicago, entitled "Lyric Echoes." In California he became author of a dozen good short stories, and less than a year before his death published a California novel, "El Estranjero," which was one of the best sellers of the holiday books. The dominating in- terests of his life were practical business, literature and home affections. He never belonged to clubs or lodges, and though a lover of the country, was neither a hunter nor fisherman. His country place in the foothills at Azusa consisted of a fine lodge and a quarter of a section of land, in the improvement of which he was never wearied. His city home was at 900 West Adams street, Los Angeles, where the peaceful end came to his life and activities on September 25, 1911, at the age of sixty-eight.
His wife had died at the Los Angeles city home February 5, 1903. Her maiden name was Adelaide Mary Ballard. She was born at Charle- mont, Massachusetts, April 16, 1848. They were married November 25, 1869, and as a bride she went to Chicago with her husband. Three of
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their living children were born in Chicago. The children are: Arthur J., president of the Citizens National Bank of Los Angeles; Mabel, Flor- ence and Myrtle, all of Los Angeles. Florence is the wife of Eli P. Fay.
ARTHUR J. WATERS, only son of the late Russell Judson Waters, whose career has been sketched on other pages, has been at different times associated with many enterprises in Southern California, but for the most part his business career has been centered in the Citizens Na- tional Bank, which he entered more than a quarter of a century ago as a messenger boy, and in which he succeeded his father in 1911 as pres- ident.
The Citizens National Bank is one of the largest financial institutions of Los Angeles. In 1919 its resources aggregated over twenty-eight mil- lion dollars. It was established in 1890 at Third and Spring streets, was subsequently moved to Third and Main street, and with increasing busi- ness and prestige, it was finally housed in its magnificent new bank and office building at Fifth and Spring streets. The Citizens National Bank Building, completed in 1914, is a twelve-story structure in the very heart . of the financial district. It represents an investment of over two million dollars.
Arthur J. Waters was born in Chicago, Illinois, March 4. 1871, and was about fifteen years old when his parents came to Southern Cali- fornia. He received his early education in the Eastern cities and is a graduate of the old University of Chicago. He has been identified with the Citizens National Bank since 1893, and served it successively as mes- senger boy, bookkeeper, teller, assistant cashier, cashier and vice pres- ident. Owing to the death of his father in 1911, he assumed the pres- idency. He was recently elected president of the Los Angeles Clearing House Association.
In 1899 Mr. Water's married Miss Charlotte C. Miller. He is a mem- ber of the California Club, Jonathan Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Automobile Club of Southern California and is a member of the Masonic Order.
HENRY WILLIAM O'MELVENY is one of the oldest active members of the bar of Los Angeles. Nearly forty y ars in practice, his reputation has grown with the years, and his standing as a lawyer is second to none, and his influence as a citizen has always been greater than any of his individual achievements in the profession, notable though they have been.
Mr. O'Melveny, to whom there came a specially grateful profes- sional distinction when he was elected president of the Los Angeles Bar Association in 1919, was born in Illinois, August 10, 1859, but came to Los Angeles in childhood with his parents, H. K. S. and Anna Wilhelmina (Rose) O'Melveny. He acquired a liberal educa- tion. After graduating from the Los Angeles High School in 1875, he entered the University of California and completed his law course in 1879. Upon his admission to practice he at once opened an office in Los Angeles, where from 1883 to 1885 he served as deputy under Stephen M. White, then district attorney. In the latter year he formed a partnership with J. A. Graves under the firm name of Graves & O'Melveny. The name of the firm was changed in 1888 to Graves, O'Melveny & Shankland. Through association with Henry J. Stev- ens in 1906, the firm of O'Melveny & Stevens was established, and this in turn by the addition of Mr. Millikin in 1907 expanded into the present co-partnership of O'Melveny, Stevens & Millikin.
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For thirty years Mr. O'Melveny has been a moving force in the professional history of Los Angeles, and his vigorous mind has been felt continually as an important factor in legal circles. He has been prominent both as a counsellor and as an advocate, and his opinions have acquired great weight not only in the courts but among the pro- fession generally. His suggestions are received with deference since they are based on long and mature experience and a comprehensive knowledge of the law.
Mr. O'Melveny has many business interests, being a director of the Azusa Ice & Cold Storage Company, Farmers & Merchants Na- tional Bank, the Security Trust & Savings Bank of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Trust & Savings Bank, Title Insurance & Trust Company, Dominguez Water Company, Dominguez Estate Company and other well known business or financial concerns of southern California. Along lines of civic service he has been for two terms a member of the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Public Library, and also acted as a member of the Civil Service Commission and as a member of the Board of Park Commissioners. He is a member of the Sunset Club, California Club, and Los Angeles Country Club. He married at Los Angeles in 1887 Marie Antionette Schilling, of Los Angeles.
MILO S. BAKER, founder of the Baker Iron Works of Los Angeles, was a conspicuous character in the life of the Far West and also in the state of Michigan, where he lived until permanently settling at Los Angeles in 1874.
He was born in Genesee county, New York, March 20, 1828, mem- ber of a prominent New England family. His great-grandfather, Re- member Baker, was a relative of Ethan Allen, the celebrated leader of the Mountain Brigade in the Revolutionary war, and was captain of a company when General Allen stormed and captured Fort Ticonderoga, one of the outstanding exploits of the Revolution. This patriot soon after those exploits was captured by the Indians and murdered by them, and is said to have been the first officer killed in the American Revolu- tion. Capt. Remember Baker was one of the original surveyors of New Hampshire, and was succeeded in the profession of surveying by his son Ozi, who established the boundary lines between the states of New York and Vermont. Ozi in turn was assisted in surveying by his son, Remem- ber Baker, the latter being the father of Milo S. Baker. Remember Baker was also a sea captain and had the distinction of piloting the Robert Fulton on its first trip up the Hudson in 1807. He served as a soldier in the War of 1812 with a captain's commission. He had the pioneer instinct and in 1836 went to the wilds of Michigan, settling where the State Capitol now stands at Lansing. He died in that state about 1845.
Milo S. Baker grew up on the Michigan frontier, and at the death of his father, though only eighteen years of age, took charge of the business. In March, 1815, he and four companions set out for Cali- fornia, traveling overland and encountering many hardships and dangers. Milo Baker had many experiences in the mining district of California, where he remained about three years and where he was prosperous probably beyond the average. He returned to the States by the Panama route, going on the steamer "Winfield Scott."
On his return to Michigan he took up the business for which he was best adapted, machinery, and soon had a prosperous foundry and machine shop at Portland, in Ionia county. In 1860 he was elected a member of the Michigan Legislature, and both in that capacity and as a
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private citizen he rendered his stanchest support to the government at the outbreak of the Civil war. About that time he sold his business at Portland and directed a large plant at Lansing, known as Baker's Eureka Iron Works, manufacturing machinery and architectural iron. Subsequently he added a flouring mill and saw mill. When they were burned he rebuilt the mills and also established a planing mill. He built for his brother, Gen. Lafayette C. Baker, the Lansing House, one of the largest hotels in Michigan at that time.
Some reference should be made to his brother, Lafayette C. Baker, who was born in 1826, came West to California in 1853, was prominent among the Vigilantes in the pioneer days of that city, and at the be- ginning of the Civil war did some highly important work for the govern- ment as a Secret Service agent and was soon placed at the head of the Secret Service Bureau and commissioned colonel and subsequently brigadier general. When President Lincoln was assassinated he organ- ized the pursuit of the murdered and was present at his capture and death. He died in Philadelphia July 2, 1868, about the time of the publication of his work, "History of the United States Secret Service," which settled authoritatively some disputed points of the war.
Milo S. Baker was three times married. His first two wives died within a year or two after their marriage. January 19, 1863, he mar- ried Harriet L. Lawrence, daughter of William H. Lawrence, a business man of Yonkers, New York. She was a niece of Capt. James Lawrence, whose record figures so prominently in the early history of the American Navy, first as commander of the "Hornet," and later as commander of the frigate "Chesapeake" in its engagement with the "Shannon." Every American schoolboy knows his famous exhortation, as he fell mortally wounded, "Dont give up the ship."
Being in poor health, Milo S. Baker sold his Michigan business a few years after the war, and on January 1, 1874, arrived in Los Angeles, where he lived a few months. For about one year he lived at Indiana Colony (now Pasadena), then moved his family to Santa Monica. Be- ing restored to health, he built in 1877 a foundry and machine shop on Spring street, opposite the old Court House. A small machine shop had been established there by a Frenchman in 1872. The business was so small that Mr. Baker was able to fill all orders without any assistance except an extra man in busy seasons. But under his enterprising direc- tion the establishment grew and prospered and moved to larger quarters at Second and Main streets, and in 1886 the Baker Iron Works was incorporated and a new plant built on Buena Vista Street, now North Broadway, and College street. At the present time seven acres arc occupied by the different departments and buildings. The develop- ment of such an industry proves the possibilities of Los Angeles for manufacturing in every line, since the results achieved by the Baker Company might be duplicated by other men of equal capability and efficiency. The product of the Baker Iron Works through forty years has met every test of efficiency and quality. This company furnished the structural iron and steel work for such well-known buildings as the Security Bank, Union Trust, Douglas, Johnson, Grosse and Auditorium Buildings, the VanNuys and Alexandria Hotels and hundreds of others.
When Milo S. Baker brought his wife and children to Los Angeles county in 1873 they were the first outside family to join the Indiana colony now known as Pasadena, a settlement that hitherto had been composed of seventeen families, all from the state of Indiana.
Milo S. Baker continued actively as president of the Baker Iron
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Works until his death in 1894. He and his wife had two sons and a daughter, Fred L., now president of the Baker Iron Works; Milo A., vice-président, who has also been identified with the business for many years, and Belle.
FRED LAWRENCE BAKER. Any of half a dozen organizations or institutions in Southern California might be taken as a text to illustrate the enterprise and influence of Fred Lawrence Baker as a Los Angeles citizen. However, his primary and longest continued work has been with the Baker Iron Works, the first and greatest industry of its kind in California. The career of its founder, the late Milo S. Baker, has been sketched on preceding pag. s.
Fred Lawrence Baker is a son of Milo S. Baker and was born at Lansing, Michigan, February 10, 1865. Though of a notable family in the history of Michigan and the American nation, Fred Lawrence Baker as a result of several circumstances never attended school more than six months altogether. His individuality has been such that apparently he has needed none of the conventional sources of education and training, and has hewed out his own way and has always dominated his circum- stances.
As a result of the death of his father in 1894, the responsibilities of the management of the great Baker Iron Works fell upon him. He had grown up in the atmosphere of these works and was well qualified to make of them an even greater industry than his father had ever antici- pated. Of this corporation, whose products are distributed throughout California, Arizona and Northern Mexico, Mr. Baker has for a number of years been president, while his brother, Milo A., is vice president ; W. C. Kennedy is secretary, Harry S. Hitchcock, treasurer, and J. Foster Rhodes a director.
The Baker Iron Works, during the early years of Milo Baker's ownership known as the City Foundry, did a great amount of business in providing building material for construction, irrigation and agricul- tural enterprises thirty years or more ago. Incorporated under the present title in 1886, the Baker Iron Works has in all the years b en relied upon for an output used in nearly all the larger enterprises in the mining and irrigation fields in the Southwest. The business, now located in a plant covering an area of more than ten acres, provides structural steel for every class of buildings, designs and manufactures passenger and freight elevators, dumb elevators, builds steam boilers, manufactures machinery of every description for mining and petroleum operators, and provid :s water pipe for city and irrigating corporations. The construc- tion of powerful traveling cranes, steam and electric hoists, and the manufacture of gas plants are among other special features of the Baker Iron Works product. When this country became involved in the great European war the Baker Iron Works was among the first of the patriotic industrial corporations to offer to provide steel ships for the United States government. Mr. Baker helped organize the Los Angeles Ship- building and Dry Dock Company, and with remarkable speed built a big plant at the harbor and secured contracts with the government for the construction of steel ships valued at about seventy million dollars. Throughout the war period practically the entire organization of the Baker Iron Works was enlisted in some phase of government service.
Mr. Baker is vice-president and treasurer of the Pacific Gasoline Company, a director of the Sierra Vista Ranch Company, treasurer and director of the Brea Gasoline Company, director and treasurer of the Harbor View Company, vice president of the Wallace Refineries, and
freds faller
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president and treasurer of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, president now and has been for the past twelve years of the Automobile Club of Southern California, is president of the Insurance Exchange of the Automobile Club, is a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Associa- tion.
His influence has been imparted to much of the very spirit and life of Los Angeles industry and also to broader movements of civic progress. From 1904 to 1913 he was president of the Founders' and Employers' Association, an organization standing for the open shop in Los Angeles. From 1892 to 1896 he represented the Second Ward in the City Council. For four years he was a member of the Board of Water Commissioners, one of his fellow commissioners being William Mulholland. That was a service made conspicuous in the history of Southern California by reason of the fact that Mr. Baker was one of the primary leaders in advocating and consummating the plan for the construction of the twenty-seven million dollar aqueduct by which Los Angeles is now supplied with an inexhaustible supply of pure water. During one term as vice-president and one term as president of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, he made his chief ambition the upbuilding of Los Angeles.
No public cause makes a stronger appeal to him than that of good roads. The splendid highways stretching out in every direction from Los Angeles might be considered a monument to Mr. Baker and some of his associates more prominent in their construction. Much influence in behalf of good roads has been rendered through the Automobile Club of Southern California. Mr. Baker is director of the California Club, a member of the Los Angeles Country Club, the Midwick Country Club and Los Angeles Athletic Club.
November 28, 1887, Mr. Baker married Miss Lillian May Todd, daughter of Oscar Todd of Los Angeles. They have three children: Earlda A., wife of W. J. Wallace; Marjorie M., Mrs. Guy C. Boynton, and Lawrence Todd Baker.
MILO A. BAKER, whose active business connection in Los Angeles for over thirty years has been with the Baker Iron Works, is a son of the late Milo S. Baker and was born at Lansing, Michigan, March 14, 1868, being about six years of age when brought to Los Angeles.
He attended the grammar and high schools of California and at the age of fifteen went to work in his father's iron foundry as an assistant. During the next four or five years he worked in every department and acquired a thorough knowledge of every branch of the industry. In 1895, the year after his father's death, he was made vice-president and superintendent, the office he holds today.
Mr. Baker is a republican, a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Royal Arcanum, Sons of the American Revolution, life member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club and a member of the Los Angeles Country Club and California Club.
ISIDORE BERNARD DOCKWEILER, a member of the Board of United States Indian Commissioners and officially identified with a number of public institutions in California, has been a Los Angeles lawyer for thirty years and is a native son of that city.
He was born December 28, 1867, son of Henry and Margaretha (Sugg) Dockweiler. His father was born in the Rhine Phalz, then be- longing to Bavaria, and his mother in Alsace.
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Mr. Dockweiler acquired a liberal education. He received his com- mercial diploma from St. Vincent's College at Los Angeles in 1883, and during the next two years worked as a bookkeeper. In 1887 he was graduated A. B. from St. Vincent's, and the same institution conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree in 1889, and further honored him in 1905 with the degree LL. M. and in 1911 LL. D.
During 1887-88 Mr. Dockweiler worked as a surveyor and qualified for the bar with Anderson, Fitzgerald & Anderson at Los Angeles. He was admitted to the California bar in 1889 and later to the Federal Courts of California and the United States Supreme Court. He is also a member of the bars of Arizona and Nevada.
Mr. Dockweiler has long been recognized as a leader in the demo- cratic party in California. He is a member of the Democratic National Committee, 1916-20, and on its executive committee. He was a candi- date for lieutenant governor on the democratic ticket in 1902, and in 1908 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Den- ver. By appointment from President Wilson he has. served as a mem- ber of the Board of United States Indian Commissioners since Decem- ber 22, 1913. Mr. Dockweiler has a large practice and is a member of the firm of Dockweiler & Mott.
He has been a trustee of St. Vincent's College since October 1, 1890. In December, 1898, he was commissioned a trustee of the State Normal School at San Diego, and still fills that office. From 1897 to 1911, with the exception of one term, he was a director of the Los Angeles Public Library and part of the time president of the board. Mr. Dockweiler is a member of the Los Angeles County, California, and American Bar Associations, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the California, Gamut, Los Angeles Country and Newman Clubs, and is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, Young Men's Institute, Native Sons of the Golden West and the Elks. He is a member of the Catholic church. June 30, 1891, he married Miss Gertrude Reeve at San Francisco. They have eleven children.
WILLIAM CHARLES BLUETT. A business man of enterprise and energy, yet of caution and good judgment, was the late William Charles Bluett, who for many years was prominent in commercial life at Los Angel's, to which city he came when it was almost in its infancy. Mr. Bluett was born at Dublin, Ireland, but was brought to the United States in childhood. He was educated here and very early disclosed a marked aptitude for business.
It was in the city of Chicago, that Mr. Bluett built up his first great clothing business, and there, in 1871, he, like thousands of others, saw his possessions reduced to ashes in the great fire. In 1883, hav- ing assisted in the commercial rebuilding of Chicago, he determined to take advantage of the genial climate of Southern California and came to Los Angeles, which remained his home until his death on October 28, 1906. From 1883 until 1885 he was associated in business as the senior partner in the firm of Bluett, Daly and Sullivan, the location of the firm's clothing store being in the old Nadeau Hotel block. In 1885, when the location was changed the business was conducted on the corner of First and Spring streets, the firm name becoming Bluett & Sullivan. In 1889 the firm of Mullen & Bluett entered upon its long and prosperous business career, its history being a part of the history of Los Angeles. Mr. Bluett retired from the firm in March, 1905. He was always credited with unusual business sagacity, and he carried his efficiency into public affairs, becoming a valued and trustworthy citizen.
J.F. Sartori
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Mr. Bluett married Miss Elizabeth Mulvey, who died in the old family home on Union avenue, between Seventh and Eighth streets, in February, 1908. The only survivor is the one daughter, Miss Alice Bluett, who remembers many interesting things about the Los Angeles of her girlhood. She recalls that their first home was next to the old Bradley home on Fourth street. An old restaurant, where the family sometimes went to dine, bore the pretentious name of Delmonico. It was situated next door to a blacksmith shop and separated from the same by a curtain. On one occasion, caught in a storm, she had difficulty in wading through the flood, for the old horse cars only operated as far as Sixth and Pearl street, now Figueroa.
Mr. Bluett was a faithful member of the Catholic Church. Al- though inclined to adopt the principles of the republican party, he never entirely identified himself with it. Being an excellent judge of men, he frequently supported for offices of political importance, those who met with the approval of his own conscience. He was one of the char- ter members of the California Club, a member of the Newman Club and of the National Irrigation Association, belonged to the Los Angeles Board of Trade and was a director and president of the Chamber of Commerce.
JOSEPH F. SARTORI is president and one of the founders of the Security Trust and Savings Bank, which with nearly four millions of capital and surplus, and with total resources of nearly sixty millions, has been for more than a decade the largest depository of money in the southwest, and one of the notably large banks of the United States. The growth of the bank has been contemporaneous with the growth and development of Los Angeles and southern California.
Joseph F. Sartori was born at Cedar Falls, Iowa, Christmas day, 1858, son of Joseph and Theresa (Wangler) Sartori. The young man grew up in eastern Iowa at a time when that part of the country was advancing in a period of very rapid but none the less substantial growth. He was liberally educated, in Iowa Cornell College and abroad, studied law at Ann Arbor, and practiced for a time in the office of Leslie M. Shaw, who later became a leading lawyer-banker of Iowa, and secretary of the treasury of the United States. From 1882 to 1887 Mr. Sartori practiced law with Congressman I. S. Struble as a partner. In June, 1886, at LeMars, Iowa, he married Miss Margaret Rishel.
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