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 43
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John Greer Carey, the youngest of the family, attended the gram- mar and high schools of Bloomington, Wisconsin. After graduating from high school in 1898, he went to work as clerk in the State Bank of Woodhouse & Bartley of Bloomington, remaining there two years, partly from his desire to be near home after his father's death. He then went to Madison to complete his education, entering the Univer- sity of Wisconsin and graduating with the A. B. degree in 1905. He specialized in the School of Commerce, making his studies fit in with his plans for a business career. The year following his university work Mr. Carey spent in Chicago with the great mail order house of Sears, Roebuck & Company.
He arrived in Los Angeles in February, 1906, and in June of the same year went to work for the Equitable Savings Bank, which in January, 1912, was consolidated with the Security Trust & Savings Bank. The Equitable Savings Bank was in the Equitable Building at First and Spring streets, and since consolidation it has been known as the Equitable Branch of the larger institution. The Security Trust
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& Savings Bank, whose officers and directors are men of the highest standing in financial circles, operates four banks in Los Angeles and has total resources of upward of sixty million dollars. Mr. Carey went to work for the Equitable Savings Bank as a clerk, and at the time of its consolidation was cashier. His services were retained by the larger organization in the capacity of assistant manager, and since 1916 he has been manager.
Mr. Carey is an active member of the Optimists Club of Los Angeles, a member of the Union League Club, Chamber of Commerce and Automobile Club of Southern California.
At Long Beach, California, July 12, 1910, he married Miss Faye Rogers of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin in the same class as her husband. Mrs. Carey was born at East Troy, Wisconsin, daughter of Oscar B. and Ella (Mills) Rogers, an old Scotch family now living at Elkhorn, where her father for many years was a merchant. Mrs. Carey is a member of the Woman's Club of Pasadena. Their home is at 1706 Electric avenue, in South Pasadena. Mr. and Mrs. Carey have two children, natives of Los Angeles, John Rogers Carey and Janet Carey ..
ROBERT J. GAFFNEY. Though a resident of southern California for - a number of years and with important business interests here, Mr. Gaff- ney laid the foundation of his business and industrial success in the east. Through his own enterprise and that of his brothers the name Gaffney for years has had an outstanding significance in the chemical industries and in the manufacture of plate glass, window glass, charcoal, alcohol and other essentials.
The Gaffney family is descended from Milesius, King of Spain, through the line of his son Heremon. The founder of the family was Fiacha, ancestor of the Southern Hy Nials and son of Nial of the Nine Hostages, King of Ireland, A. D. 379. The ancient nafe was Rag- bheartach and signifies "The Stubborn." The possessions of the clan were located in the present county of Donegal.
Mr. Gaffney's parents, Michael and Matilda (Leach) Gaffney, were born in Ireland, were sweethearts in their youth, but were married after . coming to the United States Michael Gaffney came over on a steam- ship, and his sweetheart followed him on a sailing vessel, being nine weeks on the voyage. They were married in New York City, where they lived several years. Michael was an expert dyer and bleacher. In the days when women wore hoop skirts and waterfalls, before aniline dyes were known, when each dyer had to work out his own colors, he made a specialty of coloring jute to represent women's hair. There were only three in New York City engaged in this industry. In later years he was a manufacturer of linens and cottons at Valley Falls, New York, and became prominent in business affairs, opening the way for some of the enterprises which his sons so successfully developed. He was a Knight Templar Mason, and all five sons are the same, while his young- est son, Harry, is a thirty-third degree Scottish Rite Mason. Michael Gaffney was born in 1832 and died at Kane, Mckean county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1907, at the age of seventy-five. His wife, who was born in 1833, died in southern Florida, in 1910, at the age of seventy-six. Both were buried at Kane, Pennsylvania. They had five sons, and one daugh- ter who died in 1915, the sons are all living and engaged in manufac- turing. William S., of Bradford, Pennsylvania, is president of the Gaffney Wood Products Company. The next in age is Robert John.
R. J. Gaffney
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George M., of Boston, is also a manufacturer of wood products, with a plant at Warren, New Hampshire. A. H., of Kane, Pennsylvania, is president of the American Plate Glass Company and the Kane Window Glass Company. Harry E. is general manager of the Gaffney Wood Products Company and lives at Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Robert John Gaffney was born in New York, January 14, 1863, and was educated at Valley Falls, where he also had his early business training in the cotton and linen mills in which his father was a stock- holder and general manager. On leaving home he spent a year in New York, and then took charge of a store connected with a wood alcohol works at Fishers Eddy in Delaware County, New York. Mr. Gaffney is a pioneer in the wood alcohol industry, and in 1888 built the first wood alcohol plant in Austin, Pennsylvania, later moving it to Bradford, Penn- sylvania, in which city is now located the head office of the Gaffney Wood Products Company, with plants all around that section of the state. The dozen plants formerly operated by the company have since been consolidated and reduced to six, four in Pennsylvania, one in New York, and one now in the course of construction and the first of its kind in the state of Mississippi. The principal output of these industries are wood alcohol, acetate of lime, charcoal and wood tar oils.
Mr. Gaffney is personally known by every extensive user of char- coal east of Chicago, and originated the practice of putting charcoal in paper bags for kindling fires, handled through grocery and other retail stores. From 1896 to 1901 he controlled all the charcoal manufactured east of the Mississippi River and sold the same. His business was then known as the American Charcoal Company, and is now the Standard Charcoal Company, with headquarters at Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gaffney is a director of the American Plate Glass Company and the Kane Window Glass Company of Kane Pennsylvania, is a stock- holder in the Tuna Glass Company of Clarksburg, West Virginia, and was one of the early directors and executives of the Wood Products Company of Buffalo, New York, and one of the incorporators of the United States Industrial Alcohol Company, which handles all the indus- trial alcohol in this country. He was instrumental in building the first charcoal iron furnace in Buffalo, New York, in which enterprise the late Senator Mark Hanna was associated with him.
Mr. Gaffney has also been prominently identified with the production of oil throughout the United States since 1890, having operated in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, Kansas, California, etc. The chief one of his important business connections in California is the Quintuple Oil Company, with offices in Los Angeles and the property in Orange County. He is president of this company and is a director of the La Habra Gasoline Company of Los Angeles. He also owns an orange and lemon grove consisting of one hundred and twenty acres at Strathmore, California.
In addition to his many activities as above mentioned he has been interested in several banks, formerly in the Bradford National Bank of Bradford, Pennsylvania, and at present is a stockholder in the Lindsay National Bank of Lindsay, California. He is a member of the Blue Bill Gun Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and the Automobile Club of southern California, is a republican, and belongs to several Masonic bodies at Bradford, Pennsylvania. and to Ismalia Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Buffalo, New York.
In 1917 he built his home at 449 South Plymouth Boulevard, Windsor Square. Mr. Gaffney married at Bradford, Pennsylvania, June
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5, 1895, Miss Adelaide L. Wyman, daughter of Adam L. and Sophia (Phalar) Wyman, of Rochester, New York. Her parents are both deceased. Mrs. Gaffney was born and educated at Oil City, Pennsyl- vania, and in a young ladies' school at Rochester, New York. Their three children, all born at Bradford, Pennsylvania, were John Wyman, Edwin Arnold, who died at the age of four years, and Marian Adelaide, a student in Marlborough School for Girls. The son, J. Wyman, was born August 22, 1897, educated in public schools of Bradford, Pennsyl- vania, and preparatory school at Asheville, NoNrth Carolina, and was attending Leland Stanford University when he entered the Officers Training Camp at Fort McArthur, in the heavy Artillery, receiving his honorable discharge December 13, 1918. With the assistance of his father he has since organized the Gaffney Motor Sales Company, of which he is general manager. This company has the agency for the Owen Magnetic automobile and the Raulang Electric car and the Mil- burn Electric car. Their salesrooms are located at 672-674-676 South Alvarado Street.
CHARLES LINCOLN MYERS. Within recent years the general public has begun to understand and appreciate the value and importance of organized labor, and as the people become educated to further degree this realization will result in improved conditions throughout not only this but other countries. Never before in the history of the world has the working man been accorded such recognition as today, when the dignity and importance of labor honestly performed is urged by the leaders of organized labor. This condition has been brought about gradually, and principally through the efforts of the more conservative of the men placed in authority by their fellow workers, and among them one worthy of more than passing mention is Charles Lincoln Myers,. secretary-treasurer of the Central Labor Council of Los Angeles.
Charles Lincoln Myers was born at Louisville, Ohio, August 31, 1885, and there attended the common and high schools, and learned the machinist trade in Alliance, Ohio. In 1906 he was attracted, as have been so many of the ambitious young men of the country, to the coast, and found ready employment in the shops of the Southern Pacific Rail- road at Los Angeles as a machinist. With the labor troubles of 1911 Mr. Myers left these shops on account of a strike being called, and for the subsequent three years was fully occupied with the duties per- taining to the office of treasurer of the Machinists' Union, to which he was elected in 1909. In 1911 he was elected financial secretary, which position he held for a period of two years. For eight years Mr. Myers took a very active part in securing better conditions for his associates as a delegate to the Central Labor Council and to other conventions of his union, and his ability and knowledge of men and affairs received recognition to such an extent that in 1914 he was elected assistant secre- tary of the Central Labor Council, and in 1915 was elected secretary- treasurer, which office he has since held.
There are 102 unions in Los Angeles, and each one sends three representatives to the Central Labor Council each Friday night, at which time all matters which have been referred to it are settled by this council. A practical man, Mr. Myers has had every opportunity to study labor conditions, and is a firm believer in organized labor, although he realizes that there is still much to be done to educate the public as to the value of unions. He declares that during the great war all of the labor councils followed strictly the regimen laid out by the government,
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and all of the requirements were responded to generously by all the members of the unions.
On May 21, 1908, Mr. Myers was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth A. Carter of Buffalo, New York, and they have two sons, Lewis E. and Charles Lincoln Jr. Mr. Myers' interest is centered in his work and he has little taste or time for club life. Quiet and un- assuming in manner, he gains attention through his genuine sincerity and undoubted faith in the justice of his organizations. Pleasing in personality, he seeks to convince through argument and facts rather than force, and his example is one which results in beneficial results, for he is able to control those who would go to extremes to bring together the opposing elements and effect a satisfactory arrangement between capital and labor, and at the same time establish a better understanding between both sides. Such men as Mr. Myers are raising high standards for organized labor and gaining for the workingmen the rights to which' they are undoubtedly entitled, without undue hardship to any class.
CAMILLUS JOHN WILLIAMS. The career of Camillus John Wil- liams, of Los Angeles, furnishes a most interesting study, as well as food for much wholesome thought. Left an orphan in infancy, com- pelled to overcome numerous obstacles in the acquirement of an educa- tion, his life has been one of distinctive and growing achievements, culminating in the founding and substantial establishment of an in- stitution which has taken high rank in the educational field, the Williams International School.
Mr. Williams was born at Newport, Isle of Wight, south of Eng- land, July 18, 1861. He did not know his parents, who died when he was but two years of age, and his education, largely self-gained, was acquired at Newport, where he made his home until he was eighteen years of age. At that time he went to Paris to teach English as a private tutor, and during the three years that he remained in the famous capital acquired a knowledge of the French language. From Paris he went to Barcelona, Spain, where he taught French, English and Spanish, and when twenty-three years of age settled at Genoa, Italy, where he was an instructor in the three same languages. He was similarly engaged in Switzerland for three years, and at Buenos Aires, South America, for a like period, subsequently going to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he established a school of languages and remained until 1890. In chat year he came to the United States and located at New York City, but for the following two years was not actively employed, and in 1892 went to Mexico, where he resumed his educational activities. In 1898 he was married in Mexico to Louise Rani, a native of Rome, Italy. Mr. Williams came to Los Angeles in 1912 and established what was at first known as the Swiss College of America, but which is now called the Williams International School. Mr. Williams has a growing school, well organized, and is a power for good among his boys, who under his capable instruction are being fitted for work in foreign countries through their mastery of foreign languages. He has an all-absorbing love for boys and young men, which assists him materially in winning their con- fidence and thus greatly adds to his natural ability as an instructor. Likewise he is devoted to Los Angeles and its interests and is a generous and helpful supporter of all worthy movements. He has leased con- siderable ground adjoining his school, and when he has completed his plans will build extensively, at which time the institution will allow a limited number of boarders.
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The Williams International School is dedicated to the parents of the country who have the best interests of their children at heart. Character building is one of its features. The students are taught to be ambitious, energetic, independent and to respect their comrades and be respected by them. The amusements and diversions of the students are supervised and shared by their instructors. The intensive personal instruction which is given by the institution under Mr. Williams' super- intendency in all branches of study prescribed for graded and high schools guides and advances the talented youth and encourages and awakens the backward student in a manner impossible by any other method. The facilities offered by the school for the study of foreign languages are unique and worthy of special attention, and the school is prepared to offer personal instruction by competent native teachers and constant association and conversation with those who speak French, Spanish and Italian.
The school occupies a choice site on West Adams street, near Chester Place, the finest residence district in a city world-famed for its beautiful homes, and the beauty and magnitude of the buildings particularly fit them for its purposes. The heating, lighting, ventilation and sanitation are perfect, and the spacious, well-located rooms, the porches and the verandas are ample for all occasions. The gardens, lawns and tree-bordered walks afford most agreeable places for rest and diversion after the daily periods of study. The school endeavors to be and succeeds in being a true home for its pupils, who find a home- like air, with careful and prudent discipline. It has been the aim of Professor Williams, by precept and example, to stimulate nobility and manliness in the youth entrusted to the care of the institution. The class rooms are furnished according to the latest ideas, every effort has been made to furnish a model institution, and the food is carefully selected and prepared, wholesome and abundant. The Williams Inter- national School is dedicated to the harmonious mental and physical development of its pupils, and to that end provision is made for not only gymnastic apparatus and instruction, but also frequent excursions to the mountains, the beaches and through the countryside, thus giving the pupils every possible opportunity to observe the actual operation of factories, farms and other businesses that they may familiarize them- selves with practical affairs. Under the direction of the school, students may prepare and finish for careers in medicine, law, chemical engineer- ing, mechanical engineering, agriculture, finance, painting, commerce in all its branches, etc.
In addition to the Williams International School, Professor Wil- liams is also a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. His children are: Mary, Luz, Anita, Rosita, Sophia, Sarita, Elvira, Eddie and Charles. -
GEORGE DODDRIDGE ROWAN, who died at his home in Los Angeles, September 7, 1901, was one of the notable group of men whose en- thusiasm, faith, energy and foresight constituted the foundation stones upon which the Los Angeles of the present generation rests. He lived long enough to realize many of his early visions and the fruits of the efforts expended by him and his associates. But his active career was identified with the Los Angeles of forty years ago, when perhaps not even the most sanguine and optimistic mind could comprehend half the development that has since taken place. However, the late Mr. Rowan often predicted that Los Angeles would be built solid from the mountains to the sea, and that is no longer a visionary ideal.
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He represented an old New York State family, a son of James and Rebecca Rowan, and his father was a merchant at Batavia, New York. George D. Rowan was born at Corfu, New York, November 7, 1843. He attended the public schools, afterward entering Union College, in New York State. He later entered upon a business career in association with his brother-in-law, E. B. Millar. This firm entered the wholesale grocery trade at Lansing, Michigan, under the name E. B. Millar & Company. In the early '70s they went to Chicago, where they were importers of teas, which business grew and prospered and is now one of the great commercial institutions of the metropolis of the middle west. Mr. Rowan's part in the business was in broadening its trade connections and effectively organizing them over the west. He finally went to the Orient and for more than a year made his home at Yokahama, Japan.
On account of his wife's failing health, Mr. Rowan retired from the Chicago business in 1876, and shortly afterward located at Los Angeles. At that time Los Angeles had achieved only a modest dignity as one of the coast cities. Mr. Rowan conducted a grocery store on North Main street in 1884, and during the following year was a mem- ber of the firm Jennings & Rowan, commission merchants at San Francisco. On his return to Los Angeles, in 1885, Mr. Rowan entered the field where his abilities enabled him to be of greatest service to the expanding city of his choice. He was a pioneer real estate operator and used his growing means and prestige to attract many substantial residents to the city. He participated in the historic boom of 1887, and though two or three years later the collapse of this period of prosperity was regarded in the light of a calamity, more mature judgment accords to Mr. Rowan and his associates a substantial work and a stimulus to prosperity which without doubt hastened the recovery of values and ushered in the long and stable era of growth which has taken place in the last quarter of a century. Much of the larger significance of his business career is reflected in the fact that in his transactions he was associated with a group of men including such outstanding figures as Colonel J. B. Lankershim, O. H. Churchill, I. N. Van Nuys and Otto Mueller. Mr. Rowan specially emphasized his faith in Broadway even when it was called Fort street. He acquired much property on that thoroughfare and could never be induced to sell a foot of it.
His formal retirement from business life came in 1889, though he guided many large private affairs for a number of years afterward. He then lived in Pasadena until 1898, which year saw his return to Los Angeles.
One of the interesting though smaller achievements of his long career is the fact that he is credited with introducing the first nickels or five-cent pieces into common usage at Los Angeles, where previously popular prejudice had practically barred that coin from circulation. He was very popular in social organizations, was active in church, an ad- vocate of temperance and woman's suffrage and has properly been esteemed as a gentleman of the old school who placed honor above all other considerations.
At Lansing, Michigan, in 1873, Mr. Rowan married Miss Fannie F. Arnold, a native of Rensselaer County, New York. Mrs. Rowan, who is still living, is the mother of eight children: Robert A., Frederick S., Earl Bruce, Paul, Benjamin, Philip Doddridge, Fannie F. and Florence.
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GEORGE F. DUSTIN, president of the Dustin-Roman Auto Top Company of Los Angeles, was born at Sandwich, New Hampshire, March 15, 1862, a son of Ezekel and Elsie Dustin. His public school education continued only until he was ten years of age. Mr. Dustin being of a very tender-hearted and sensitive nature, on being punished by his father, left home at the age of ten. He made his own way in the world by working on a New England farm near Concord, New Hampshire, until the age of eighteen, when he determined to advance and broaden his knowledge of the world. Leaving the farm, lte went to Boston, Massachusetts, entering the employ of John T. Smith as an apprentice to learn the carriage makers' trade. In a very short time he was promoted to manager of the Smith establishment, remaining with the above firm for six years.
Mr. Dustin always having had a great desire to take up art, and having acquired the means that would enable him to gratify his natural inclination, he entered the Boston Conservatory of Music and Art. Ap- plying himself diligently here, as in all other undertakings, he soon acquired much proficiency in the fine arts and for the next eleven years he followed this profession.
When the automobile was in its infancy Mr. Dustin saw that it would be the coming business, and his previous knowledge in the car- riage business stood him in good stead. Looking for a location, he de- cided on Denver, Colorado. Here he opened a plant for the manufacture of automobile tops, seat covers, painting, etc., similar to his present business. He remained in Denver until 1913, when he came to Los Angeles and became associated with a firm in the auto top and painting business.
In March, 1918, he organized the Dustin-Roman Auto Top Com- pany, with himself as president, Mrs. M. M. Moore vice-president, and Mr. J. T. Roman secretary and treasurer. They chose their present location, Eleventh and Figueroa streets, having built for their own use a modern building 100 by 170 feet. Mr. Dustin saw to it that his building was well adapted for his particular business in having it well ventilated and with plenty of light and other conveniences that would enable him to turn out good work. The business started with the help of seventeen people, and now the pay roll has more than thirty of the best experienced workmen in the city.
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