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 54
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Carlos S. Hardy attended private schools in the South, was in the law department of the University of Texas in 1885-8, holds the degree of LL. B. and LL. M., received the degree Doctor of Civil Law from the Chicago Law School in 1897, and a similar degree from the Illinois College of Law in 1898.
He was admitted in the Supreme Court in Texas June 15, 1886, before he was twenty years of age, and in 1901 was admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States and is a member of the bars of Texas, Illinois and California. He practiced law in Texas until 1892. Following that he was a member of the Illinois bar until 1909, and in the latter year came to California.
Mr. Hardy has specialized in insurance law for a quarter of a century. His specialty has brought him a large practice all over the United States. For ten years he was general counsel for the Supreme Lodge, Knights of Pythias, a hundred million dollar concern, and han- dled several million dollars of investments for that society, as well as counselling in its general affairs. For the past three years he has been supreme president of the Fraternal Brotherhood, a twenty-five million dollar concern, with headquarters at Los Angeles. Mr. Hardy enjoys a personal acquaintance with nearly all the fraternal society officials in the world, and is not only a lawyer, but is nationally known as a lecturer, public speaker and writer. During the war he was vice-chairman of the Four-Minute Men for Los Angeles county, chairman for the Speakers Women's Committee, member of Red Cross and Liberty Loan Cam- paign Committees and delivered over three hundred speeches on patriotic subjects. He is a member of the Committee on County and Municipal Affairs of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, is a progressive re- publican with independent leaning, and is a member of the Elks, Royal League, Royal Arcanum, Maccabees, Woodmen, Fraternal Brotherhood, the Athletic Club and the City Club of Los Angeles.
Mr. Hardy is married and lives in Hollywood, surrounded by a large circle of friends. Mrs. Hardy has a large following and reputa- tion of her own as a noted author of juvenile stories and books and as a public speaker and club woman. Mr. Hardy has three sons, all of
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whom were in the great war and proved themselves gallant soldiers. Captain Rex G. Hardy is a successful lawyer, Harry E. is with a Boston barking house, and Oliver C. is a young lawyer and orange grower. Mr. Hardy also has three lovely daughters, Ethelyn, Grace and Marian.
Mr. Hardy for eight years held a chair in the Illinois College of Law and for several years was lecturer in the Post-Graduate School of the Law College of the University of Southern California. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of a number of educational and social organizations and is loyally identified with the forward movements in Southern California. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy live in Hollywood, where they are both socially prominent.
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ANDREW C. HANSEN, present city engineer of Los Angeles, was reared and educated in this city, and has a most successful record of experience as a civil engineer.
He was born near Copenhagen, Denmark, February 8, 1880, son of Niels Hansen and Anna Christiansen. A year and a half after his birth his parents came to the United States and settled at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and in 1887 moved to Fresno, California. Here Andrew C. Hansen attended the grammar and high schools, graduated from the latter in 1898, soon afterwards entering the University of California, where he graduated in the College of Civil Engineering in 1903. For several years he was connected with the United States Reclamation Service as assistant engineer .. During that time he was employed on projects at Yuma, Arizona, Klamath, Oregon, and in the Imperial Valley of California. In November, 1906, he accepted the post of assistant city engineer at Los Angeles, and in 1908 became division engineer of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, having charge of the Mojave, Jawbone and Antelope divisions. In November, 1911, he was appointed inspector of public works and street maintenance and in July, 1913, when the street maintenance and engineering departments were combined he continued as inspector but was soon made assistant city engineer. July 11, 1917, he was promoted to his present duties as city engineer.
Mr. Hansen is a member of the American Society of Civil Engi- neers and belongs to all its local branches in Southern California. He is a member of the Architects and Engineers Club, Chamber of Com- merce, University and Civic Clubs, is a republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. August 5, 1908, at Los Angeles he married Miss Genevieve O'Neil. Their two children are Genevieve and Gladys, students in the public schools.
FRÅNK J. PREHODA. For fifteen years or more Mr. Prehoda has been a factor of increasing importance in the oil industry of California. He is a thoroughly practical man in the business from the operating as well as the technical side, and is now superintendent of the great Rancho La Brea field.
Mr. Prehoda has been an American resident since early child- hood. He was born in one of those interesting districts which for- merly made up the Austrian Empire. His home country was Moravia, where he was born December 1, 1874, son of Bartholoma and Cath- erine (Effingberger) Prehoda. In 1881 when he was seven years of age his parents came to the United States and located at Riverton, Illinois.
There Frank J. Prehoda attended the grammar and high schools
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to the age of sixteen, at which date he went to work for the Riverton Coal Company. He was employed in duties fitting to his youth and inexperience, but in time had worked up to the position of weigh boss.
Mr. Prehoda came to California in 1902, locating at Bakersfield, where he was employed six months as a tool dresser for the Standard Oil Company. Since then his home has been in Los Angeles. He entered the producing department of the Amalgamated Oil Company as driller in the Rancho La Brea field for three years. He was then employed by the Rancho La Brea Oil Company, and on August 1, 1911, was promoted to his present responsibilities as superintendent in charge of that field. There are about a hundred eighty producing oil wells in the field and under his immediate supervision.
Mr. Prehoda is a fourth degree Knight of Columbus, a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and Royal Neighbors, a Catholic and a democrat. At Riverton, Illinois, June 16, 1896, he married Miss Isabelle Smith. They are the parents of six children. Eugene, born at Riverton March 26, 1897, is a graduate of the Hollywood High School and is now tool dresser for the Rancho La Brea Oil Company. Thomas, born in Riverton September 8, 1898, graduated from the Hollywood High School and is now in the United States Navy. Geral- dine also a graduate of the Hollywood High School, is employed by the Western Union Telegraph Company. The younger children are Edwin, born at Riverton, November 7, 1917; Louis B., born in River- ton, September 12, 1903, both attending the Hollywood High School ; and Mildred, a student in the grammar school.
DUANE WASHINGTON FARGO. It is not often that a man of sterling strength and character and business ability is remembered more for the rare serenity and sweetness of his nature than for these more virile traits. Such, however, is the case of the late Duane Washington Fargo, whose beautiful home place, Bonita Vista Ranch, near San Gabriel, remains as an attractive monument to the labors and the care of the many years he spent there. While successful in business, Mr. Fargo was known among his friends chiefly for his splendid traits of heart and mind, for his never-failing gentleness and courtesy, and for the character that surpassed all outward show and indicated him a gentleman to the man- ner born. Of a retiring disposition, he cared little for the outside in- terests of the world, though keenly alive to all that related to his own home life and the welfare of his friends. Loyalty to friends amounted in his case almost to a religion.
The late Mr. Fargo was born at Batavia, New York, December 15, 1836, and was reared and educated in the same city. After completing his school work he engaged in the grocery business, and in time became head of a large and prosperous enterprise. He sold out his business in New York in 1882 and came to California. Preparatory to his removal and at his own request for assistance in finding a suitable location, the Fargo brothers of San Francisco, brothers of Mr. Fargo, purchased for him the property which is the home of his widow. Thus Mr. Fargo was a resident of San Gabriel from 1882 until his death on January 28, 1907. The property originally consisted of sixty-five acres. He made addi- tional purchases from time to time until he had ninety-five acres, and later sold twenty acres, so that the estate at the time of his death con- sisted of seventy-five acres.
When he bought the land a few seedling trees were on the property
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and a few acres of vineyard. Later he had these vines removed alto- gether and the entire tract planted to orange trees, which had been raised by Mr. Fargo from the seed and grafted on the place. The varieties chosen were the Valencies and Washington Navels. For many years the Bonita Vista Ranch has, been noted as one of the most pro- ductive orange groves in the valley. Prior to coming to Los Angeles county, Mr. Fargo knew nothing about citrus fruit culture. He gave the subject a great deal of his time and study, and his training in the grocery business also helped hin m his experimental work. Long before his death he was regarded as one of the most competent authorities in his part of the country on citrus growing.
In 1870, at Batavia, New York, Mr. Fargo married Miss Olive Squire of that city. She was his faithful companion all the remaining years of his life and she still resides on Bonita Vista Ranch, which under her careful management has retained its fame as one of the best producing groves in the county, while continued care has added to its attractiveness as a home.
Mr. Fargo had many warm friends and admiring acquaintances in Southern California. He was a Mason, having joined the order in Batavia when a very young man, and subsequently became a Knight Templar in that city. Mrs. Fargo is deeply interested in all that pertains to her part of the county. She has many times lent her influence to promote better schools and better educational advantages, and is thor- oughly conversant with all the details of her large business and the management of her property. While not so much an authority on citrus culture as her husband, she knows the practical and technical details and possesses the faculty of making a wise choice of persons and instru- ments for carrying out her plans.
MRS. EMMA PORTER MAKINSON. The artistic colony of Los An- geles had a notable addition when Mrs. Makinson chose this city as her home about eight years ago. Mrs. Makinson is a nationally known dramatic soprano, has interpreted a great deael of the finest music writ- ten for the voice, and has rendered a specially noteworthy service as one of the foremost interpreters of the songs of Charles Wakefield Cadman.
Mrs. Makinson's individual career has been one of unusual interest. She was born at Huntsville in Randolph county, Missouri. Her grand- father, Dr. Alexander Mitchell, studied medicine at Edinburgh, Scot- land, was married at the age of nineteen and had twin children when he was twenty-one. He became owner of the extensive estates in Vir- ginia, and much of this property subsequently was owned by Mrs. Makinson's father, Thomas Reeves Mitchell, a native of Virginia who subsequently moved to Philadelphia. He attended a New England boarding school preparatory for Princeton and was graduated from Princeton College at the age of eighteen.
Mrs. Makinson's mother was Elizabeth Ralston of an old and wealthy southern family of Natchez, Mississippi, where the Ralstons owned many tracts of land, and one of Mrs. Makinson's uncles had five hundred slaves. Through her mother Mrs. Makinson is descended from a branch of the Smith family that was conspicuous in New Eng- land. Her maternal great-grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Smith, were members of Old South Church at Boston in 1670, and some of them are mentioned in the books on colonial wars. Mrs. Makinson is eligible to membership in the Colonial Dames, and is a member of Los
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Angeles Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy. Her brother and two uncles participated in the Civil war.
Her father and mother were married in Philadelphia, where her father was engaged in the wholesale drug business. He lived only a few years in Missouri. He was at Natchez and owned a sugar plan- tation, but through illness was compelled to abandon that and go on an ocean voyage. He bought a vessel, loaded it with drugs, and sold the entire cargo to the West Indies. He then returned to Philadelphia, bought another vessel and cargo, and had similar good fortune in its disposition. He then engaged in the wholesale drug business at New Orleans. Mrs. Makinson was the twelfth in a family of fourteen chil- dren. From New Orleans her father moved to Texas when she was five years old, locating in Goose Creek, only two miles from where some of the biggest oil wells are now located. While in Missouri her father owned slaves and was a southern sympathizer in the Civil war. After the war he bought a home in Texas midway between Galveston and Houston on Galveston Bay, developing a cotton plantation. He was also in the drug business in Galveston under the name of Mitchell & Blunt. After the death of Mrs. Makinson's mother the family left the plantation and Mrs. Makinson went to live with her sister in Galveston, then to St. Louis, and from there entered the Hollidays- burg Female Seminary. This seminary in later years offered her the position as head of the Voice Department. From Hollidaysburg she returned to St. Louis to live with her sister and also spent some time with another sister in Texas.
She took her first vocal instruction. at the Seminary. While visit- ing a sister in Florida she met her husband Louis Carroll Makinson, a wholesale and retail merchant. They were married in Florida in 1887. Mr. Makinson having lost his business in Florida they removed to Tacoma, Washington, and from there to Chicago, where Mrs. Makin- son began the serious study of music and the development of her pro- fessional career. She had sung in public at Tacoma, occupying two church positions as a means of helping out the family budget. She sang in two of the largest churches in Chicago. Mrs. Makinson studied oratorio with Mrs. Clarence Eddy, later with Madam Duff, who at the same time had as another pupil Mary Garden, and she was also a student with C. Juanita, with Clement Tete Deux and with Mrs. Mag- nus, still one of the finest teachers in Chicago. While in Tacoma she studied with Herbert Joy.
She gave her first paying concert with Frederick Archer. Though she went to Chicago a total stranger, she was there only a month when she got the appointment to sing in Dr. Thomas' church and at the same time sang at Rabbi Hirsch's synagogue. At that time she refused an offer of a thousand dollars to sing in the First Presbyterian church at Pittsburgh. An honor and privilege greatly appreciated by all vocal artists came to Mrs. Makinson when she appeared as soloist with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in Chicago. The following year she went to Pittsburgh to sing in the Third Church and lived in that city for fifteen years. While there she did concert work en tour and for over ten years was soloist in the Unitarian Church. She also did some teaching and considerable impresario work, bringing some of the great- est artists in the musical world to that city. While at Pittsburgh, she was one of the first to recognize and use Charles Wakefield Cadman's songs. She 'was the highest priced soprano Pittsburgh ever had, and among other occasions she delights to recall was her singing on pro-
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grams with James Whitcomb Riley, Eugene Field, Opie Reed and other entertainers. Then, and since, she has appeared in many joint recitals with Mr. Cadman.
About ten years ago, shortly before she left Pittsburgh, the musical columns of the Pittsburgh Spectator described some of her work and influence in behalf of music in that city as follows: "Pittsburgh has much for which to be grateful to Mrs. Emma Porter Makinson. She deserves a word of heartiest commendation for giving Pittsburgh the opportunity to hear three of the greatest artists of the country-Dr. Wullner, Tilly Koenan and Busoni. So far, Mrs. Makinson, as an impresaria, has been greatly successful, finding a certain opportunity to act as manager through a charitable motive, and being successful, finding a fascination about it, and with a desire to give Pittsburgh the best in recital work that the world could afford, she made a second venture in a recital by Dr. Wullner. This recital was a great success and started a busy season for Mrs. Makinson. Since entering the managerial field, she has been deluged with literature from various other managers wishing her to act as local manager for their artists. But Mrs. Makinson refuses to be influenced by alluring offers and selects her artists from the finest in the land.
"Mrs. Makinson came to Pittsburgh fourteen years ago from Chi- cago, where she had held two prominent church positions as well as doing much concert work from coast to coast. At present she is soprano soloist at the Unitarian church, a prominent member of the Tuesday Musical Club, Twentieth Century Club, the Art Society, and active in many outside musical enterprises.
In December, 1911, Mrs. Makinson came to California and' since then has devoted herself principally to teaching and in this time she has been most successful. It was her pupil, Ruth Hutchinson, who won first place in the young artists contest at the biennial meeting of the Federated Musical Clubs at Peterboro, New Hampshire, in June, 1919. Mrs. Makinson was associated with Mr. Cadman in two recitals for the Ebell Club, and on many other occasions of interest to the musical pub- lic. Mrs. Makinson is a member of the Ebell Club, the Wa Wau Club, the Matinee Musical, the McDowell Club of Allied Arts, and the Music Teachers' Association.
IRA WOODBURY SHIRLEY. In the career of the late Ira Woodbury Shirley there was demonstrated the fact that a man can dominate in more than one direction and that some of the most successful business men and prominent citizens are not entirely engrossed in their financial matters and civic duties, but also find time for participation in the ligliter activities of life and in the encouraging of inherent inclinations which lead them into the field of practical philanthropy. Los Angeles has every reason to remember with pride a man who not only was a repre- sentative of its highest type of business citizen, but who also was a leader in manly sports, and whose benevolences made possible the carry- ing on of worthy movements and charitable enterprises.
Ira Woodbury Shirley was born at Dunkirk, New York, in 1853, a son of Albert and Jane (Woodbury) Shirley, and a member of an old family of Massachusetts, in which state his parents were born. As a lad he was taken by his parents to Niagara Falls, New York, where he attended the public schools, and when a young man became interested in the oil business, subsequently taking over vast leases in Ohio and Penn- sylvania fields, which were highly productive. The greater part of his
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later life was devoted to the management and superintendency of these properties, which yielded him a handsome return on his investment. Mr. Shirley was an extensive traveler, not only in his own country, but in Europe and the Orient, and these experiences, combined with much reading, made him an interesting conversationalist and companion and an authoritative commentator upon all public affairs.
While his time was very well occupied with his important business interests, Mr. Shirley always found time to indulge in his hobbies, which principally had to do with sports. He belonged to the Annandale Club, the Los Angeles Country Club, the California Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Santa Ana Gun Club, and was inordinately fond of fishing, hunting, golf and billiards, in fact of any of the manly forms of sport and exercise. As a golfer he became known as an expert, and had his name engraved three times on the Julius Brown cup at the Los Angeles Country Club for certain splendid series of scores, being the only member in the history of the club to achieve such distinction. He was an expert shot with rifle, shotgun and revolver, and a quarter of a century ago defeated Col. William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) in a match at New Orleans, considered an accomplishment of more than ordinary importance. In billiards he won many trophies at the California Club, and as a fisherman had a long and splendid record for big catches at Catalina, his record catch being a 535-pound member of the finny tribe, which it was necessary to spear before it could be landed. He was fond of animals and birds, and dogs were his especial delight. A great lover of children, his contributions for their welfare were epitomized in his friendship for and support of the Children's Home Society, which owed much to him for its ability to carry on its splendid work. A typical American, and intensely patriotic, during the great war he was a con- stant and generous subscriber to the movements founded and fostered for the assistance of the fighting men, and no call was made on him in vain for the aid of stricken humanity.
Among his numerous business holdings, Mr. Shirley was especially interested in a beautiful orange grove at Upland, California, where he was constantly improving the grove and experimenting with various kinds of deciduous fruits. He built a modest home on this property and there enjoyed many happy days. His death occurred April 12, 1919. With his passing Los Angeles lost an honorable business man, square sportsman and public-spirited citizen, who had many friends and few enemies. His record both in business and private life was blameless. Mr. Shirley is survived by his widow, Mrs. Nellie B. Shirley, and two brothers, Albert Shirley, of Sawtelle, California, and D. Charles Shirley, of Niagara Falls, New York. Mr. Shirley was twice married.
DANIEL M. McGARRY, who died on July 4, 1903, was for some twenty-two years, numbered among the distinguished and respected citizens of Los Angeles.
He was born at Loughgiel, County Antrim, Ireland, January 20, 1842; educated in the common schools and in the national schools of his native country. In early life he was a teacher and in the early seventies, came to America.
In Cleveland, Ohio, with a cousin, he engaged in the fuel business. In 1871, he married Miss Margaret McCaughan. He then became a resident of Chicago and operated a wholesale and retail fuel business until 1881, when he came to Los Angeles. He purchased a ranch at Eighth and Almeda streets, and this was the home place of the family for twenty years.
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For a number of years, without compensation, he represented the old Fifth Ward as a member of the City Council, and in 1890 was again elected from the then Seventh Ward. He was one of the potent factors in abating evil conditions and in enforcing efficient administra- tion. He was a democrat in National politics, but in politics, as in religion was broad and tolerant of the views of others. He served several terms as a director of the First National Bank; was one of the early members of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and had served as one of its directors. In 1900 he was a member of the Free- holders' Conference. He was a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and never had lost his zeal in the cause of Ireland's free- dom.
In everything connected with the betterment and upbuilding of the Catholic Church and its institutions in Southern California he was ever ready to respond with personal work and financial aid. He was a benevolent friend to the orphan children and to all worthy chari- ties ; a man of high ideals, noble impulse and broad sympathy.
This excerpt (a part of the codicil to his will and personally addressed to his children), gives a fair insight to the lofty character of Mr. McGarry: "I would remind my dearly beloved children of the duty they owe to their mother. Strive to smooth the declining years of her life by tender solicitude and care, as she has given you from infancy to now. Always keep God in sight and never let avarice or passion silence conscience. Keep moral principle above money making, and always endeavor to assist the poor and elevate the lowly, without regard to race or color-all are God's creatures."
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