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 5
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In March, 1887, Mr. and Mrs. Sartori arrived in southern Cali- fornia, seeking a home in the then village of Monrovia. He brought to the new environment a sound knowledge of real values, and an ap- preciation of the great future which the very obvious advantages and resources of southern California offered. He joined heartily in the general upbuilding movement. Monrovia needed a bank, so the First National Bank of Monrovia was organized, with Mr. Sartori as cashier, of which institution he is still a vice-president. In 1889 the superior advantages of Los Angeles had impressed themselves upon him, and he removed to this city, and was the principal factor in the founding of the Security Savings Bank, of which he became cashier. In 1895 he became its president.
Mr. Sartori has been a member of the Legislative Committee of the California Bankers' Association since its inception, and has taken a prominent part in the drafting of the California Bank Act. In the year 1914 he was president of the Savings Bank Section of the Amer- ican Bankers' Association, and since 1913 has been a member of the Currency Commission of that association.
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Mr. Sartori is a director of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. He is president of the Los Angeles Country Club, a former president of the California Club, and a member of the Jonathan, Midwick, Crags and Los Angeles Athletic Clubs.
SAMUEL M. HASKINS, whose work as a lawyer has brought him spe- cial prestige in corporation practice, is an old-time Californian, and has seen Los Angeles grow from a small city when it was almost pos- sible for one man to know every person of consequence within its boundaries.
Mr. Haskins was born at Salt Lake City January 20, 1872, and is a son of Thomas Wilson and Frances Emily (Austin) Haskins. His father, a distinguished Episcopalian minister, well known in southern California, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, July 5, 1837. He at- tended St. Stephen's College near Albany, New York, and after gradu- ating became assistant to his uncle, Rev. Samuel Moody Haskins. This uncle was for sixty-seven years pastor of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York, at Bedford street and Fourth avenue. He took charge of that church when the edifice was surrounded by a grain field. After his death the church was torn down and the east pier of one of the East River bridges was erected on the site.
The late Thomas Wilson Haskins did a great deal of missionary work in the far west in the Episcopal church in the early days. In 1866 he was stationed at Salt Lake City as a missionary and also as chaplain of Fort Douglas. In 1873 he took his family east to St. Albans, Ver- mont, where he was pastor of a church, and later filled numerous pulpits in Connecticut and Illinois. In 1885 he removed to Tucson, Arizona, for his health, becoming pastor of a local church, and in the spring of 1887 came to Los Angeles as assistant rector of St. Paul's Church. In 1888 he founded Christ Episcopal Church and was its rector until he retired in 1892, after an active service of over thirty years. He died in 1895. He was gifted as a writer as well as a minister and contributed to a number of publications. He married Frances Emily Austin at Brooklyn, New York, January 21, 1869. Of their eleven children three are now living. The younger daughter is the wife of W. H. Joyce, for- merly manager of the Globe Mills at Los Angeles and now president of the Federal Land Bank at Berkeley, California. The older daughter is Mrs. Almeric Coxhead, wife of a San Francisco architect.
Samuel M. Haskins spent his early life in eastern states. He came to Los Angeles in 1887, and in 1889 graduated from the Los Angeles High School. He then entered the University of California, receiving his A. B. degree in 1893. Mr. Haskins studied law in the office of Thomas L. Winder and was admitted to the bar in 1895. He left Mr. Winder in 1896 and served six years as clerk of the City Council. He then became associated with Dunn & Crutcher, lawyers, and in 1908 was made a partner, the firm in the meantime having become Bicknell, Gibson, Trask, Dunn & Crutcher. For many years Mr. Haskins has specialized in corporation law.
He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity, the California Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Midwick Country Club, the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, and is a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and Colonial Wars. His father was a direct descendant of John Haskins of Boston, one of whose daughters was the mother of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Mr. Haskins is a democrat in politics and a member of the Episcopal church.
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April 15, 1902, at Los Angeles, he married Elisa Bonsall. Her father, William H. Bonsall, was an old settler in Los Angeles and at one time president of the City Council. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Haskins are Samuel M., Jr., born in 1905, a student in the public schools; Barbara Bonsall, born in 1910, attending Miss Reilly's School for Girls; and Janet, born in 1914.
ALBERT C. MARTIN. Nowhere in the world has the profession of architecture such magnificent opportunities as in southern California. It is not strange that some of the most eminent members of that profession have done their work here, and concerning the standing of Albert C. Mar- tin as an architect, it is only necessary, therefore, to refer to some of the better known examples of construction to which he has furnished his skill and service.
Perhaps the most widely appreciated of these buildings is known as the Edison Building, the home of Grauman's Million Dollar Theater, at Third and Broadway. This building rises 150 feet above the level of the street, twelve stories high, is imposing in size and impressive by the beauty of its arrangements and form. It exemplifies in a remark- able manner the most distinctive ideals and ideas of the architectural profession as applied to theater and business architecture. It is a combination office and theater building and embodies several new and novel features of construction, especially the use of a concrete arch instead of the usual steel truss for the support of the balcony.
While a large part of the Los Angeles public has learned to ap- preciate and admire this conspicuous building, Mr. Martin's further work may be witnessed in the Higgins Building, ten stories, at Second and Main streets : the Ventura County Court House, the Catholic Chapel at Camarillo, the Loyola College Building, the Catholic Church at Bis- bee, Arizona, regarded as one of the finest examples of church archi- tecture in the west, while of minor importance, though representing an enormous total in aggregate, Mr. Martin's work as architect is exemplified in four hundred buildings in and around Los Angeles, comprising factories, warehouses, churches and schools.
Mr. Martin was born at LaSalle, Illinois, September 16, 1879, a son of John and Margaret (Carey) Martin. He attended the Brothers of Mary Academy at LaSalle, from which he graduated in 1895, and then took his technical work in the University of Illinois, graduating Bachelor of Science in 1902. After leaving the university he was in charge of certain technical departments in the steel mills and shops of Pennsylvania for the Pennsylvania Railway in the Pittsburgh district until 1904. Mr. Martin then came to Los Angeles and became asso- ciated with A. F. Rosenheim in the construction of the H. W. Hellman Building, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, and the Hamburger Store Building.
Since 1908 Mr. Martin has been practicing architecture for him- self, and has been in a position to render more than the ordinary services of the architect on account of his extensive experience in modern construction.
He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Newman Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Catholic Church, and in politics is an independent voter. At Oxnard, California, in October, 1908, he married Miss Carolyn E. Borchard. Her father, John Edward Borchard, is one of the oldest living pioneers of Ventura County. They have six children: Evaline, born in 1909, and a student
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in a parochial school; Margaret, born in 1911, also in school; Albert C. Jr., born in 1913; Carolyn, born in 1915; John Edward, born in 1917, and Lucille, born in 1918.
WILLIAM GEORGE KERCKHOFF. At different points in the narrative and personal history of Southern California the name William G. Kerck- hoff appears prominently in connection with the great industrial, par- ticularly the power, development in California. His associates are prominent men in the life of Southern California, and Mr. Kerckhoff is of equal eminence. His services could not be described in full except through a complete history of half a dozen or more great public utilities, banking and commercial enterprises that in themselves are of the great- est significance in Southern California.
Mr. Kerckhoff was born at Terre Haute, Indiana, March 30, 1856, a son of George and Philippine (Newhart) Kerckhoff. Besides the public schools of his native city, he attended a gymnasium in Hanover, Germany, and on returning from abroad went into business with his father, who conducted a wholesale jobbing saddlery and hardware busi- ness at Terre Haute. In the fall of 1878 he came to California, and after a year of travel and investigation located at Los Angeles, which then contained only ten thousand people. In 1879, with two associates, he organized the firm of Jackson, Kerckhoff & Cuzner, which later be- came the Kerckhoff-Cuzner Mill and Lumber Company. This is one of the largest enterprises of California, having built up through a period of years a chain of yards and docks along the Southern coast, owning a fleet of lumber vessels and carrying an immense amount of lumber and timber products from the Northwestern states to Los Angeles harbor.
Mr. Kerckhoff had established an enviable fame as a Western lum- ber man before he became interested in electric power development. In 1897 he was associated with A. C. Balch in organizing the San Gabriel Electric Company. The history of this concern has been referred to elsewhere as the pioneer in Southern California water power develop- ment for electrical purposes. Out of it has grown one of the greatest light and power systems in the world, the Pacific Light and Power Cor- poration, of which Mr. Kerckhoff was president until 1913.
He is also actively identified with the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation and the Southern California Gas Company as president, and the imposing scope of his influence is broadened by other official connections with the Midway Gas Company, Midland Counties Public Service Corporation, San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, the Farmers and Merchants National Bank and the First National Bank of Kerman, the Fresno Farms Company and the South Coast Land Company. He is also very largely interested in realty-improved property ยท in Los Angeles, including the Kerckhoff Building, among the very large office buildings, and has large holdings of acreage both in Southern California and also in the San Joaquin Valley.
Mr. Kerckhoff served by appointment of the governor two terms as a commissioner to manage the Yosemite National Park. He is a member of the Bohemian and Pacific Union Clubs of San Francisco, Los Angeles Country and California Clubs of Los Angeles and the Bolsa Chica Gun Club.
November 13, 1883, at Terre Haute, Indiana, he married Louise Eshman. Their two daughters are Gertrude and Marion.
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JOHN HENRY QUINTON, senior member of Quinton, Code & Hill, consulting engineers at Los Angeles, is one of the highest engineering authorities in the West, where he has lived for over forty years, and for a long period was associated as a consulting engineer with many of the monumental enterprises undertaken by the Government Reclama- tion Service.
He was born at Enniskillen, Ireland, October 19, 1850, son of William and Anne (Thompson) Quinton. From 1860 to 1866 he at- tended Portora Royal School at Enniskillen, from 1866 to 1868 was in Queen's College at Belfast, and from 1868 to 1871 in Queen's College at Galway. He received his A. B. degree from Queen's University of Ireland in 1871, and his B. E. degree in 1872. His first practical ex- perience was six months spent as leveler on construction of a railway in Sligo, Ireland. 1131983
Mr. Quinton came to the United States in 1873 and for three months worked as a leveler on the Fresno River Canal in California. From 1874 to June, 1876, he was in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railway, and in 1877 did surveying and leveling in the San Joaquin Valley. In 1878-80 he was assistant engineer in charge of location and construction on the South Pacific Coast Railway; 1880 was in charge of construction of eighty miles of the Oregonian Railway; 1881-84 was assistant engineer, principal assistant engineer and acting chief engineer of the Pacific Branch of the Mexican Central Railway; during 1884-88 was in private practice as a civil and hydraulic engineer in southern California ; in 1888-89 was assistant engineer in War Department at Portland, Oregon; 1890-92 was field engineer for Hoffman & Bates, bridge builders of Portland, and 1892-93 was principal assistant en- gineer in charge of location and construction of the Santa Ana Canal in California.
In 1894 Mr. Quinton engaged in private practice as a consulting engineer at Los Angeles, continuing until 1897. In 1898 he was engineer in charge of construction of the San Gabriel Power Canal, including thirty-six tunnels and other works. In 1899-1900 he was deputy city engineer in charge of construction of Third street and Broadway tunnels at Los Angeles, and from 1900 to 1902 was again in private practice. During the following year he was consulting en- gineer with the United States Geological Survey.
From 1903 to 1915 Mr. Quinton was consulting or supervising engineer with the United States Reclamation Service, and also con- sulting engineer for the United States Indian Service. He filled the office of consulting engineer until June 15, 1908, when he was appointed supervising engineer on a yearly salary to act as consulting engineer when called upon, and later at his own request he had the terms of his service changed to a per diem basis. In this capacity he has been con- nected with some of the greatest irrigation projects in the west. He was consulting engineer for the Truckee Carson project in Nevada, making all the original plans, including the concrete dam in the Truckee River, and having general supervision of the project. For three years he had supervision of the Uncompahgre project in Colorado, including the six-mile Gunnison tunnel. At the same time he had supervision of the Strawberry project in Utah. For a time he had supervision of the Pathfinder Dam and Interstate Canal in Nebraska, both parts of the North Platte project. He made the original design for the dam, one of the two highest concrete arch dams in the world, and was one of the board of consulting engineers who passed upon the feasibility
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and practicability of the scheme. He also made all the plans for struc- tures on the Minidoka project in Idaho, including the great dam in Snake River at Minidoka. He was one of the board of consulting engineers who passed upon plans for the Laguna Dam in the Colorado River, part of the Yuma project, this being one of the great diversion weir dams of the world, and the only one of its kind in the United States. He made a four months' study and elaborate report on the best method of reclaiming Klamath marshes in Oregon-California. For a time he had charge of the Belle Fourche projects in South Dakota, including probably the highest earthen dam in the world, and made designs for the concrete diversion dam in the Belle Fourche River. He was one of the board who passed upon the feasibility of the Shoshone project in Wyoming, making the original plan for the Shoshone Dam, 325 feet high from the foundation, the highest purely concrete arch dam in the world.
Other projects upon which he was consulted were the Orland project in California, Grand Valley project in Colorado, Huntly project in Montana, Milk River project in Montana, Lower Yellowstone project in Montana and North Dakota, Hondo project in Mexico. For the United States Indian Service he drew up the plans for the reclamation of a large acreage of the Upper Klamath marshes in Oregon.
Mr. Quinton remained as consulting engineer with the Reclama- tion Service until May 12, 1915, when he resigned at the request of the director in order to comply with the new method of administration adopted for that service. He was also employed by the state of Colo- rado to report upon the Piute Reservoir and Dam on the Sevier River, and was employed to make a report and give an opinion upon the plans for a high masonry dam by the Twin Falls Salmon River Land and Water Company of Idaho. From 1911 to 1914 he was also con- sulting engineer for the Casa Grande Reclamation project, the River- side Groves and Water Company, the Southwestern Fruit and Irriga- tion Company, in Arizona ; the Mocking Bird Dam at Arlington Heights, Riverside, California ; the San Joaquin Valley farm lands in Fresno County ; made a report for the city of Los Angeles on the distribution of surplus water of the aqueduct, and has had other professional en- gagements involving surveys, reports and investigations on projects from Western Canada to South America. Altogether his professional services have been acquired in the reclamation of several millions of acres of land in the west.
Mr. Quinton is a member of the American Society of Civil En- gineers, the Engineers' and Architects' Association of Southern Cali- fornia. He is a republican in politics and a member of the Masonic Order.
At Los Angeles, May 22, 1888, Mr. Quinton married Miss Sophia Inglis Donnell.
WILLIAM HENRY CODE is the second member of the widely known firm of consulting engineers, Quinton, Code & Hill, with offices in the Hollingsworth Building. Since 1890 his work as an engineer has been in the mountain states and on the Pacific Coast, involving connection with some of the greatest projects under the auspices of the govern- ment or private corporations.
Mr. Code was born at Saginaw, Michigan, November 22, 1865, a son of James and Elizabeth Code. He attended the public schools of Saginaw and Harrisville, Michigan, and received his degree Bachelor
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of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan. Be- fore going to college and during college vacations he spent several years as rod man, instrument man and inspector of street paving and sewers.
In 1890-91 Mr. Code was assistant engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad at Cheyenne, Wyoming, in charge of work in connection with expenditures approximating a million dollars for railroad shops, yard system, etc. In 1891-92 he was assistant state engineer of Wyoming under Elwood Mead.
From 1893 to 1902 Mr. Code was chief engineer for the Con- solidated Canal System in the Salt River Valley of Arizona, a large and comprehensive project covering a considerable portion of the irrigated section in that valley. During 1901-02 Mr. Code was also special agent for the Department of Agriculture in Arizona on irrigation investiga- tions, and wrote several department bulletins on the duty of water in Arizona.
From 1902 to 1911 he served as chief irrigation engineer for the United States Indian Bureau, Department of the Interior, having been appointed by President Roosevelt in 1902, and reappointed in 1904, and again by the Secretary of the Interior in 1910. He resigned in 1911 to enter private practice. During the last years of his government work he had general supervision over expenditures approximating a million dollars annually. This work comprised the construction of canal sys- tems, reservoirs and pumping plants, covering several hundred thousand acres of irrigable land in various states and territories west of the Mississippi. During 1910 he was also a member of the advisory board of engineers of the city of Los Angeles in the matter of the disposal of the surplus waters from the new aqueduct. That subject was also part of the professional business of the firm of Quinton, Code & Hill from its organization in 1911. As a member of this firm Mr. Code has been engaged in many important engineering projects, including hydraulic work in the United States, Mexico and Canada. One of the most ex- tensive projects in which Mr. Code has been interested as a member of this firm was the project for reclaiming 72,000 acres in Fresno County for the San Joaquin Farm Lands, the initial cost of which was three million dollars. The firm's services were also required for the Pine Flat Reservoir and Dam, Fresno, and the Millerton Dam, Reservoir and Irrigation System in the San Joaquin Valley. Another project was that undertaken by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Arizona to reclaim land for the growing of Egyptian cotton.
Mr. Code is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Southern California Engineers' and Architects' Association, and is a member of the California and Gamut Clubs. September 14, 1893. he married Martha E. Devlin, of Bay City, Michigan.
LOUIS C. HILL, who since March 1, 1914, has been a member of the firm Quinton, Code & Hill, consulting engineers, is on the basis of his experience and achievement one of the foremost construction and elec- trical engineers in America.
He was born at Ann Arbor, Michigan, February 22, 1865, son of Alva Thomas and Frances (Bliss) Hill. He is a graduate Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Electric Engineering from the Uni- versity of Michigan, and in 1911 received the honorary degree Master of Engineering. He began the practical work of his profession in 1886. During 1887 he was with the Duluth, Redwing & Southern Railroad, and also assistant engineer in the St. Paul office of the United States
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Engineer Corps, and in 1888 resident engineer of the Great Northern Railroad at St. Paul. From 1890 to 1903 he was professor of hydraulic and electrical engineering in the Colorado School of Mines.
During 1903-04 Mr. Hill was engineer for the United States Geo- logical Survey in charge of the Roosevelt Dam in New Mexico, and in January, 1905, entered the United States Reclamation Service as super- vising engineer, and was gradually placed in charge of all the work in the southern district, including Arizona, southern California, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.
His specially important assignments while with the reclamation service were on the Salt River project, in which he had full charge of the design and construction of the power canal, also the diversion dam and diversion works at the head of the canal and the location and con- struction of the 147 miles of mountain road.
In connection with the Roosevelt Dam he had charge of the con- struction and operation of the cement mill, the design and construction of the dam itself and allied works; also had charge of construction and operation and assisted in the design of the power plant at Roosevelt.
In the spring of 1906 he took general charge of the Yuma project, and for a time had charge of the construction of the Laguna Dam, which is built on the quicksand bottom of the Colorado River, and since completion has successfully withstood two unprecedented floods. He also had charge of the construction of the very difficult inverted siphon under the Colorado River at Yuma. Mr. Hill was a member of the American commission on the division of the waters of the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico, and the division of the water of the Colorado River. In 1908 the Strawberry Valley project was added to the southern district under his supervision. He had general charge of the design and construction of the distribution sys- tem for the Rio Grande project, and on March 1, 1914, by promotion, he became consulting engineer in special charge of the famous Elephant Butte Dam on the Rio Grande River. Mr. Hill was a member of the board of engineers which made the report to the city of Austin, Texas, on the plans for the building of a new dam in the Colorado River of Texas. While with the reclamation service he was also supervising engineer on several well-known California projects, including the Pine Flat Reservoir and Dam at Fresno, the Madera Reservoir and Dam on San Joaquin River, and was consulting engineer for the contractor in the building of the Otay Dam in San Diego County. For the past five years he has also been identified with the many important projects with which the firm Quinton, Code & Hill have been connected.
Mr. Hill is a member of the Colorado Scientific Society, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Forestry Association, the Na- tional Geographic Society, and during the war he was consulting en- gineer for the United States Army for Camp Kearney. August 26, 1890, he married Gertrude B. Rose, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their home is at Hollywood.
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