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 47
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Claude I. Parker is the second of fourteen children, six of whom are still living. He lived on a farm in Southern Illinois to the age of sixteen, attending the common and high schools at Carmi. The rest of his education lie has derived from private study and experience in the intervals of self-supporting employment. On leaving his father's farm he went to Topeka, Kansas, and for two years was employed as ticket boy by the Santa Fe Railway Company. He then returned home, and for two years traveled on the road as salesman for the Acme Portrait Company in Chicago. Mr. Parker came to California in June, 1892, and for eight years was a salesman for the Singer Manufacturing Company at Los Angeles. He left that company to accept the position of deputy county tax collector of Los Angeles county, serving from 1902 to 1906; from 1906 to 1909 he was deputy county auditor, and having in the meantime diligently pursued the study of law, he was admitted to the bar in the latter year. Mr. Parker was appointed United States collector of internal revenue for the newly created district of Southern California by President Theodore Roosevelt, and entered upon his duties in that office on July 1, 1909. As collector for the Sixth District of California. he remained in office until September, 1913, and then began his law practice, specializing in Federal tax law.
Mr. Parker is a republican in national affairs. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, an Elk and Maccabee, and is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Automobile Club of Southern California.
MISS MILDRED CHASE. While the ever-widening activities of women seem to set no limit to their capacities, it is doubtful if at any time they will be more cherished or honored than in a situation which carries with it a suggestion of a home. Especially may this be true when illness brings helplessness and an urgent need of the tenderness and unselfish devotion that is an inherent part of a woman's nature, however sagacious she may be in business or gifted in the wider affairs of life. It is believable, therefore, that it was not altogether business opportunity that induced Miss Mildred Chase to build the Chase Diet Sanitarium at Los Angeles, which she so admirably manages and oper- ates, for it is not only a place of scientific healing, but in every essential is a quiet, restful home, where personal interest is added to professional attendance.
Miss Chase is one of the most interesting business women of Los Angeles, competent along many lines, and a cheering, helpful presence wherever she appears. She came here with much experience behind her and with many self-won honors, and the institution she founded has become one of the most worthy enterprises of the city.
Mildred Chase was born at Bellevue, Kentucky, in 1889. She came to California in 1906, was graduated early from the South Pasadena High School and from the Santa Barbara Normal School, and is also a graduate of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. Her interest in domestic science was awakened in girlhood. Her first experience in business was when she had charge of a tea room in a city in Vermont.
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From there she went to Alaska and had charge of the kitchens in the Golden North Hotel at Skagway, and later for nine months had charge of the kitchens in the Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. She also was an instructor in domestic science and domestic art in the high schools of Hemet and San Jacinto, California. In 1917 Miss Chase came to Los Angeles and built the Chase Diet Sanitarium, which has been so liberally patronized that, although in existence only two years, it has been enlarged to as great an extent as the grounds will permit. It is beautifully situated in the midst of attractive grounds, has every modern convenience and graduate nurses only are employed. Miss Chase her- self has always been the vitalizing force.
A. H. WOOLLACOTT. For fully forty years the name Woollacott has been one of many prominent associations with the business of real estate, banking and financial interests of Los Angeles. The Woollacott estate today is a large and valuable one, founded primarily by the late Henry John Woollacott.
A. H. Woollacott was born at Los Angeles, July 22, 1884. His grandfather, John Woollacott, was one of the early settlers at Salt Lake City, helped build up that community, and had an important part in the construction of the great Mormon Tabernacle. He married Miss Woolla- cott, of the same name but not related, who came from England and crossed the plains to Utah.
The late Henry John Woollacott was born at Salt Lake City, August 21, 1858. His earliest business experience was as cash boy for Walker Brothers' department store in Salt Lake City. On November 10, 1876, at the age of eighteen, he arrived in Los Angeles, practically a penniless youth. He was employed as delivery boy and clerk by Alexander Mckenzie until 1880, 'and then entered the wholesale liquor business and the manufacture of wine. He was the first to ship California wine to eastern markets. In 1890 he established the State Bank & Trust Com- pany, becoming its president, and made this one of the leading financial concerns of the Pacific Coast. It was merged with the Central National Bank in 1905, at which time he practically retired from active business. H. J. Woollacott at one time had an office on Wall Street in New York City. He had a sublime faith in the future greatness of Los Angeles, and gladly invested considerable capital in local real estate. For a num- ber of years he was one of the largest taxpayers in the city. He erected the first brick building south of First Street, and made a num- ber of other notable contributions to the material progress of the com- munity. He was interested in a number of business corporations and was a stockholder in one of the largest dry goods stores in Los Angeles. He was a Scottish Rite Mason, and was one of the first nine candidates for the Order of the Mystic Shrine in Los Angeles. He was also a charter * member of the California and Jonathan Clubs. Henry John Woollacott died November 7, 1910. In 1879 he married at Los Angeles Mary D. Yates, and their three children are A. H. Woollacott, J. S. Woollacott of Los Angeles and Mrs. L. W. Neiswender, also of Los An- geles.
A. H. Woollacott received a public school education in Los Angeles, and when given the choice of an immediate business career or a uni- versity training he chose the former and went into his father's office in 1900. His father retired from active business, and his interests were handled by his son, who entered into the brokerage business of handling stocks and bonds. Since that time he has placed a number of bond
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and share issues for the financing of different southern California enter- prises, and has also been financially interested in Mexican copper, being a director of the Los Angeles Jalisco Mines Company, and he is a direc- tor of the California Warehouse Company, the Los Angeles Transfer Company and is interested in many other concerns. He inherited a large amount of property, especially real estate, from his father, Mr. Woolla- cott is a member of the Los Angeles and San Francisco Stock Exchanges and belongs to the Jonathan Club.
In 1919 the firm name of the business was changed to A. H. Woolla- cott Company, at which time a private wire system was installed in the office in Los xngeles for the handling of eastern business and which affords direct communication with all the principal cities of the United States and stock exchanges, the firm doing business in stocks, bonds, grain and cotton. An office is also maintained in San Francisco, doing business in the same securities.
DANFORD MORSE BAKER was born and reared in Connecticut. When a youth he was employed in the office of the Travelers' Insurance Com- pany at Hartford. The training he received there brought out his natural qualifications for service in the insurance field, and about 1886, more than thirty years ago, the Travelers' Company sent him to Kansas City, Missouri, as cashier of the agency there. He won promotion to general agent of the company at Kansas City.
For nearly thirty years Mr. Baker has been identified with the · Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California, having been with that old and substantial company through practically half of its lifetime. In 1891 he was appointed general agent for the Pacific Mutual Life at Kansas City, and in 1893 was sent to Chicago as general agent, and under his direction the great business of the company was built up in the Chicago district, including both life and accident. Mr. Bakcr came to Los Angeles in 1906 as third vice-president of the company, and in 1918 was made second vice-president and superintendent of agencies. Of all the executive officers of the company, Mr. Baker has the largest acquaintance among the members of the insurance fraternity throughout the country and now superintends all the field operations of the Pacific Mutual. While it has always been a California company, its business now ·extends from coast to coast.
Danford Morse Baker was born at Stafford Springs, near Hartford, Connecticut, August 20, 1862, son of George and Emeline (Morse) Baker. His father for many years was a boot and shoe manufacturer in a little town in Connecticut, where he obtained prison contracts and ex- panded his business. He was also a Union soldier in the Civil war. He is now living retired at Hartford. His wife died at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1918, and her daughter, Capitola Idell Spalding, wife of Fred E. Spalding of Providence, died within five days of her mother.'
Danford Morse Baker was educated in the country schools of Staf- ford, and taught school there for several terms before entering the in- surance offices at Hartford. He is one of the veteran insurance inen of the United States. While practically all his time has been given to the Pacific Mutual, he is also a director of the Central Business Prop- erties, Incorporated, of Los Angeles.
Mr. Baker is a republican in politics, is affiliated with Garden City Lodge No. 141 of the Masonic Order at Chicago, is a member of the California Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Midwick Country Club, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Press Club of Los Angeles, Auto-
Chabeli de Jonowe
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mobile Club of Southern California, and is a member of the Exmoor Golf Club of Chicago, and is vice-president and a director of Eagle Water Golf Club, which he and two others established at Eagle River, Wisconsin. Mr. Baker contributes to the support of the West Adams Methodist Episcopal Church at Los Angeles. His chief recreation is golf. His home is at 2118 Harvard boulevard.
January 8, 1890, Mr. Baker married Miss Clara Louise Gabel of Kansas City, Missouri, where she was born and educated. Her parents, . Mr. and Mrs. William Gabel, have been residents of Kansas City for over sixty years. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Baker were born two children: Bessie Emeline, the daughter, is a graduate of the Los Angeles High School, attended Westlake School for Girls, and is now the wife of Arthur Letts Jr. of Los Angeles. Danford M. Baker Jr., who was educated in Los Angeles and in the Culver Military Academy of Culver, Indiana, served as an ensign in the navy and spent about nine months on the battleship "Illinois." Since the close of the war he has been connected with the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California.
MRS. ISABEL R. DE TONONI, who passed peacefully from this life August 29, 1917, was one of the notable women of Los Angeles. She lived a saintly life, and was distinguished by her relationship with family and various religious causes.
She was born April 5, 1841, when Los Angeles was only a small adobe village At the age of eleven Isabel Ramirez, which was her maiden name, was taken to Notre Dame Convent in San Jose, accom- panied by her two brothers, Frank and John. There she distinguished herself by taking practically all the first premiums given for the various studies. While yet in her youthful bloom Isabel Ramirez was married to Antonio Pelanconi, a native of northern Italy. They enjoyed a short but happy married life. Two years after the death of her first husband she married Giacomo Tononi, also of Italy, who was a kind father to her little children for ten years, and then he too was called to his reward.
Mrs. Tononi was survived by four devoted children: Lorenzo and . Miss Petra Pelanconi, Mrs. A. Z. Valla and Mrs. M. J. Hanifan. There were also the following grandchildren: Sister M. Agnes of Jesus of the Carmelite Order, Sister Mary Ynez of the Sisters of the Holy Names, Pomona, Mary, Stella and Victor Valla, and Mary Catherine Hanifan.
The following account of the last rites appeared in The Tidings : "Distance, distinction and creed were no bar to the vast number of friends that gathered at 611 South Bonnie Brae Street to pay their trib- ute to the memory of Mrs. Tononi. Many priests and sisters of various orders visited the house. The active pall bearers at the funeral were : Messrs. John Larronde, Frank and Dominic Bernard, William H. Menn, Nick Quierolo and Walter Hardwick. The honorary pall bearers were W. I. Foley, W. H. Workman, former Governor Henry T. Gage, H. W. O'Melveny, Charles Prudhome, W. I. Gilbert and Albert Vignolo.
"The solemn Mass of Requiem was celebrated in the Cathedral chapel by Rev. Francis J. Conaty, assisted by Rev. P. McNellis as deacon and Rev. Jose Preciado, sub-deacon. Rev. Robert E. Lucey, D. D., was master of ceremonies. Revs. Joseph McManus, M. O'Gorman, Thomas O'Regan, J. J. Burri, A. Bucci and Miguel Sana were present in the sanc- tuary.
"An impressing tribute was paid by the Sisters of Charity, who gath- ered all the little ones of the Orphan Asylum in Boyle Heights before the convent as the funeral passed."
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LORENZO A. PELANCONI. Pelanconi is one of the prominent names among the French and Italian families of southern California. For over a half century it has stood for exceptional business enterprise, fine integrity and participation in all philanthropic and civic activities.
The founder of the family in California was the late Antonio Pelan- coni, who was born in Gordona, Province of Sondrio, Italy, was educated there, and worked on his father's farm to the age of eighteen. Crossing the ocean to New York City, he soon embarked on the still longer and more hazardous journey across the plains with a prairie schooner and ox team, eventually arriving in Los Angeles. Here he found employ- ment in orchards and later on as a rancher. For a time with his brother Lorenzo he also did some mining in San Francisquito Canon and later in the noted Caribou mines of British Columbia. Returning to Los Angeles, he became associated with Don Jose Gazzo in the wine and liquor business. Later he was in the firm with Rivarra and Sanquinetti. He finally bought out the business and operated it under his own name until 1877, when he sold to Valla & Tononi. In the meantime he had acquired extensive land holdings, and his last years were spent in look- ing after his land and other interests. This well known old time citizen of Los Angeles died May 13, 1879. For many years he was a member of the French Benevolent Society and was one of the founders of the Italian Mutual Beneficial Society. He was a devout Catholic. At Los Angeles, March 4, 1866, he married Isabel Ramirez. Seven children were born to them: Lorenzo A .; Magdalena, deceased; Mrs. A. Z. Valla, of Los Angeles ; Antonio, deceased; Maria Lucia, deceased ; Miss Petra, of Los Angeles; Antonio, second of the name, also deceased.
Lorenzo A. Pelanconi was the oldest of his parents' children and was born at Los Angeles, December 24, 1866. Up to the age of seventeen he was educated in a private French school, then attended St. Vincent's College one year, 1881, and his first regular business employment was as clerk in his father's establishment, continuing until August, 1884. He also carried on studies that perfected him in his knowledge of the French and Italian languages. Until 1886 he was a student in Santa Clara College at Santa Clara, California, and then became a clerk in his step- father's establishment. His stepfather was Giacomo Tononi. In 1887 the stepfather sold that business. Mr. Pelanconi then spent six months in the Woodbury Business College, and then used his modest capital and previous experience for the purpose of opening a general store at Sepul- veda Station, California. He was in business there until 1892. In that year his stepfather died, and he then went to the aid of his mother in looking after the estates of both Antonio Pelanconi and Giacomo Tononi, her two husbands. Mr. Pelanconi has been busily employed ever since in handling the family business affairs. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Bank of Italy, is a republican, and a member of the Catholic church. At Yorba, California, November 24, 1909, he married Martina Yorba, daughter of Vincente Yorba and Mrs. Erolinda Cota Yorba, both members of old Spanish families in southern California.
WILLIAM F. BALL is a veteran tobacconist of Los Angeles, has been active in business nearly thirty-five years, and still carries some im- portant responsibilities in the business affairs of the city.
Mr. Ball was born at Ball's Mills, in Lycoming county, Pennsyl- vania, November 12, 1860, son of Joseph and Matilda C. (Fisher) Ball. He grew up on his father's farm and when not in school was assigned duties sufficient to keep him busy and never formed any habits
Lorenzo A Pelanconi.
Antonio Delancome Pelancones .
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of idleness. At the age of seventeen he came out to California with his brothers, and for a few months worked at Anaheim Landing, in Orange county, then spent a 'year as a ranch hand on the Alamitos Ranch, in the same county, and on coming to Los Angeles had charge of the looms for weaving cloth in the Horner & Toor woolen mills. He was also employed as watchman for the Southern Pacific Railroad at River Station until November, 1881. At that date he acquired an interest in a fruit stand at River Station, and looked after his end of the partnership until June, 1882. At that date Mr. Ball bought a cigar and tobacco store at 110 North Spring street. There his business steadily grew and prospered, and in 1892 he rented an adjoining store at 106 North Spring. This place is still patronized by many of the old- timers, and in the changes and developments of a third of a century the store is now somewhat isolated and in one of the older parts of the town. Mr. Ball continued active as a tobacconist until January, 1916, and is now giving his time to varied interests. He is vice-president of the Fullerton Oil Company and has been a director since organization of the Mortgage Guarantee Company. He and his brother, A. L. Ball, are quite extensively interested in citrus fruits near Downey, and Mr. Ball gives much of his time to that industry.
Mr. Ball is president of the Blue Wing Gun Club, is a member of the Pioneer Society, Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and is a republican. He has always taken an interest in politics, but never as a candidate for office.
In Los Angeles, February 25, 1886, he married Paula Mary Chard. They have two children. The daughter, Madge, is the wife of Edwin J. Salyer of Los Angeles, secretary of the Bartlett Music Company. The son, W. F. Jr., born in 1890, is a graduate of the Los Angeles High School and the University of California, and is secretary of the Maine Machine Works.
JOSEPH A. ADMIR, a native son, for eight years a member of the Los Angeles bar, has been a teacher, lawyer, editor and public official, and altogether has had an exceedingly busy career.
He was born June 2, 1861, at Michigan Flat, now the town of Lotus, three miles from Coloma, in Eldorado county, where the first discovery of gold in California was made. His parents were James C. and Mary Deegen Adair, his mother a resident of Los Angeles and now in very advanced age. His father, who died in 1895, came to California in the fifties and was one of the gold seekers in Eldorado county. When Joseph A. Adair was an infant his parents moved to San Francisco. and later to Mariposa county, where he was reared and where he spent many years of his mature life. Mr. Adair is the oldest of eight children, five of whom are still living.
He had a public school education in Mariposa county, also attended the State Normal School and for a number of years taught in Mariposa county. While a teacher he devoted his leisure time to the study of law and was admitted to the California bar by the Supreme Court January 12, 1892. In the same years he was elected district attorney of Mariposa county, serving in 1893-94. In 1895 he bought the Mari- posa Gazette, and was its editor and publisher until 1901. In 1902 he was again elected district attorney, re-elected in 1906 and altogether filled that office for ten years. From 1887 to 1892 he was a member of the Board of Education of Mariposa county, resigning upon his first election as district attorney. In 1911 Mr. Adair moved to Bakersfield,
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1
practicing as a member of the bar of that city six months, and on June 23, 1911, located at Los Angeles, where he continued his general prac- tice, with offices in the Fay Building. So far as his other duties have permitted Mr. Adair has been engaged in the general practice of law since 1892.
He is a democrat in politics, is past president of Ramona Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West at Los Angeles, and is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus. November 1, 1898, in Mariposa county, he married Miss Annie L. Kerrins. She is a member of the Native Daughters of the Golden West and was born in Mariposa county. They have two children, Joseph A. Jr. and Aubury L.
KARL W. THALHAMMER. Many of the marvelous effects which mys- tify the beholder in moving picture art are the results of inventions and devices perfected by a Los Angeles man, Karl W. Thalhammer, whose name is known wherever motion picture photography is practiced. He has contributed some of the beautiful lighting effects, dissolving and double pictures, and lastly the production of natural color, and as a me- chanical genius has done as much to revolutionize and improve the cinema as any other one man.
Mr. Thalhammer was born October 31, 1881, at Kakan, Doboj, Turkisch Brod, Austria. His parents were both natives of Austria and are still living, his father eighty-six and his mother seventy-seven years of age. His father is still active, working every day as cashier in a large cabinet establishment. Of a family of four there are three sons, the old- est having achieved a high place as a government engineer, while the sec- ond is a railroad man.
Karl Thalhammer was educated at Vienna, where he studied the art of electro-technique and gained a knowledge of many instruments of precision used by scientists. His parents at one time planned a career as priest for him, and he studied in the Castle Monastery, the largest in Europe. On leaving Vienna he traveled through Europe and Africa, after which he served his regular time in the army and on December 23, 1904, he landed in New York City, with twenty-five cents in his pocket. That first night in America was the coldest of his entire experience. In order to learn American ways and language he became a bus boy in the Wal- dorf-Astoria Hotel, but a month later was employed by a private party for experimental work. Early in 1906 he invented an electric phonograph at Toledo, Ohio. He was soon afterward in San Francisco, and during his first year in America accumulated a small fortune by his inventions. All his hard-earned savings were swept away by the San Francisco earthquake and fire. He left San Francisco on a bicycle with a couple of dollars in his pocket, and coming to Los Angeles went to work for the Frese Optical Company. He then held several other positions doing ex- perimental work.
In 1908, at 548 South Flower street, he engaged in business for him- self as a manufacturer and inventor. His present business headquarters are at 550 South Figueroa street, where he has twelve experienced work- men under his direction, and all the fine and delicate machinery required for the production of devices representing the last word in precision and accuracy. Mr. Thalhammer is inventor of a telephone signal recorder, of a self-photo apparatus, a self-stop device for phonographs. It was in 1913 that he applied his inventive genius to the world's greatest industry, moving pictures. He has made many changes and improvements for the motion picture camera, and today three hundred producers use the Thal-
Lewis R Works
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hammer Combination Iris Diaphram. He now has a natural color photo- graphic process a hundred per cent perfect, and that, of course, will mean the most startling innovation in moving picture art since the invention of the cinematograph itself. He also has perfected an economical device for use on the present camera, used for black and white pictures, which ac- complishes a saving of at least three hundred dollars a week to larger companies.
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