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 56
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In 1852 he was appointed by President Fillmore Indian agent for the southern district to help arrange Indian affairs in California. He was to work in conjunction with Lieutenant, afterward General, Beale, the general superintendent, but after participating in some of the pre- liminary work he found himself unable to work in harmony with the superintendent and resigned. In 1855 he was elected a state senator, and served a second term in 1869-70. Otherwise his life for many years was spent as a horticulturist in Los Angeles county at Lake Vine- yard, where he had his home when he composed the manuscript for Mr. Bancroft.
February 1, 1853, he married Margaret S. Hereford, widow of Dr. Thomas Hereford. He was survived by her and three daughters, the oldest, a child of his first wife, being Mrs. J. DeBarth Shorb; and the other two, Annie and Ruth, by his second wife. Ruth Wilson was mar- ried to George S. Patton, December 11, 1884.
GEORGE S. PATTON was born at Charleston, Virginia, September 30, 1856, son of George Smith and Susan Thorton (Glassell) Patton. His ancestry includes many distinguished names in American annals. He is directly descended from Mildred Washington, and another ances- tor was General Hugh Mercer, who commanded the Virginia troops under Washington and was killed at the battle of Princeton. There are numerous towns and counties in the various states named after this dis- tinguished Revolutionary leader. In all generations the Pattons have displayed an unequivocal patriotism, and many of them have shown strong inclination for military service. That Mr. George S. Patton has no military record is due to his fate in having been born too late for the
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Civil war and too early for the World war, in which his son Colonel G. S. Patton III achieved real distinction. Mr. Patton's father was a colonel in the 22nd Virginia Infantry during the Civil war and was killed at the battle of Winchester on September 19, 1864.
George Smith Patton II was educated in the Virginia Military Insti- tute at Lexington, Virginia, and afterwards studied law in that city. He came to Los Angeles in 1878, was admitted to the California bar two years later, and was soon prominent in his profession. He served as district atorney of Los Angeles county in 1884. Mr. Patton has always been a democrat, a leader in his party, and has never neglected an oppor- tunity to perform a part of usefulness in his city, state and nation. He was democratic candidate for Congress in 1894, in the Sixth District, and in 1916 was democratic candidate for United States senator for California. He has been a vestryman in the Church of Our Savior, Protestant Episcopal, at San Gabriel for more than twenty-five years. He is a member of the California Club of Los Angeles.
December 10, 1884, at San Gabriel, he married Miss Ruth Wilson. She is a daughter of Benjamin D. and Margaret Wilson. Her father was one of the first Americans to settle in Los Angeles and for many years exercised a great influence in that city. He became an extensive land owner, and his properties were widely distributed between the mountains and the sea. Mr. and Mrs. Patton have two children, Colonel George Smith Patton and Miss Anne Wilson Patton.
COLONEL GEORGE S. PATTON, JR., III, was born at San Gabriel, Cali- fornia, November 11, 1885, was educated in Pasadena, and in 1904 entered West Point Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1909. He was commissioned second lieutenant of the 15th Cavalry, sta- tioned at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. May 26, 1910, he married Beatrice Ayer, daughter of Frederick Ayer of Boston, Massachusetts. He was transferred from Fort Riley to Fort Myer, Washington, served therc two years, and for a few months was personal aide to General Leonard Wood, Chief of Staff. In 1912 he was appointed to represent the United States Army in the Olympic games at Stockholm, as the only representative in the contest known as the Modern Pentoathlon, a mili- tary contest requiring shooting with the pistol, fencing with the French duelling sword, swimming, cross country horse back riding and running. In this contest, which was participated in by twenty-nine officers of all European armies, he was successful over all except the Swedes, who of course had very numerous entries in all contests. As a result of the . fencing contest particularly, in which he was fortunate enough to defeat the French champion, he was detailed to go to Saumur, France, to the French Cavalry School, for special instruction in the use of the cavalry sabre. On returning home he was appointed first instructor in cavalry sabre at the United States Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas. He designed the new sabre then adopted, and trained two classes of officers at Fort Riley, at the same time himself taking the two-year cavalry course at that school, from which he graduated.
Still with the rank of second lieutenant he was appointed to the Eighth Cavalry at Fort Bliss, El Paso, and in 1916, went as a member of General Pershing's staff on the Mexican campaign. He was engaged in a thrilling skirmish at Rubio Ranch, where in command of ten troop- ers he ran to earth and killed Colonel Julio Cardenas, one of Villa's body-guard captains who was in command of a body of bandits. Return- ing from the Mexican expedition in March, 1917, he was spending his leave with his wife and family in Boston when the United States entered the World war.
Gro. S. Patton For.
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Ordered to Washington, he was placed in command of the Head- quarter Detachment of sixty troopers, organized to accompany General Pershing and his staff to Europe, and thus had the good fortune to be with the first United States troops under arms to land in England. He reached France with the rank of captain and continued to command the Headquarter Detachment for six months. When the United States de- termined to organize a permanent Tank Corps he was made Major and then Lieutenant Colonel and put in command of the first training camp and brigade of Tanks at Bourg, near Langres, in France. He spent a short time in England with the British Tank School, and with the British Tanks on the front line near Cambrai, and also at the French Training School. He trained and commanded the first brigade of American Tanks which engaged in action at the battle of San Mihiel on September 12, 1918. After that he was appointed full colonel and commanded the same brigade, consisting of a hundred seventy tanks, one hundred forty-two manned by Americans and twenty-eight by French, on the opening of the great battle of the Argonne. He was wounded on the first day's fighting, on September 26th. On December 17th, having recovered from his wound, he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross, the citation for the decoration contains the following par- ticular reference to him individually: "Colonel George S. Patton, Jr., Tank Corps, No. 1391, for extraordinary heroism in action near Cheppy, France, 26 September, 1918. Colonel Patton displayed conspicuous cour- age, coolness, energy and intelligence in directing the advance of his brigade down the valley of the Aire. Later he rallied a force of dis- couraged infantry and led it forward behind the tanks under heavy machine gun and artillery fire until he was wounded. Unable to advance further, Colonel Patton continue dto direct the operations of his unit until all arrangements for turning over the command were completed."
He returned to the United States in command of the First Brigade of American Tanks, landing in New York March 17, 1919, and from there was ordered to Camp Meade, near Baltimore, where the permanent Tank Corps of the United States Army is being organized, and was detailed on the Board in Washington to write the official drill tactics and regulations of the Tank Corps.
Afterwards, on June 16, 1919, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in addition to the Cross, in the following citation :
GENERAL HEADQUARTERS-AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES. France, 16 June, 1919.
Distinguished Service Medal Citation.
Under the provisions of Cablegram No. 2830, received from the War Department, March 1st, 1919, the Commander-in-Chief, in the name of the President, has awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to you for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services as set forth below :
LIEUTENANT COLONEL GEORGE S. PATTON, U. S. A.
For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services. By his energy and sound judgment he rendered very valuable services in his organization and direction of the Tank Center at the Army Schools at Langres.
In the employment of Tank Corps troops in combat, he displayed high military attainments, zeal and marked adaptability in a form of war- fare comparatively new to the American Army.
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MARTIN E. GEIBEL, whose work has demanded increasing atten- tion as a Los Angeles lawyer, is a man of brilliant scholarship and had an education acquired in some of the best schools and under some of the best minds of this country and abroad.
He was born in Summit township of Butler County, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1879, a son of Charles and Sarah (Eyth) Geibel. Up to the age of eighteen he lived on his father's farm and attended the pub- lic schools. His advantages after that were of his own acquiring. He attended St. Charles' College at Ellicott City, Maryland, studying under Father Tabb two years; for two years was a student in St. Vincent's College at Beatty Station, Pennsylvania; graduated with the A. B. degree in 1902 from St. Mary's University at Baltimore, and then went abroad and for three years was a student of theology in the University of Fribourg, witzerland His professor of history in that university was Pierre Francois Feliz Mandonnet, and excellent lecturer and emin- ent authority on Augustinism and neo-Scholasticism. His most noted work entitled "Siger de Brabant et l'averroisme latin au XIII siecle" was crowned by the French Academy.
After his residence abroad Mr. Geibel returned to this country and came to California, spending six months in the law school of Stan- ford University and finished his preparation at Sacramento. January 14, 1907, he was admitted to the bar by the Appellate Court. He was the first to be examined for admission before that court after it was changed from the Supreme Court to the Appellate Court. Though well qualified for practice Mr. Geibel on coming to Los Angeles was for one year in the Los Angeles Military Academy. He then became asso- ciated with the law firm of Hatch & Lloyd until the death of Mr. Hatch in 1912, and has since practiced as a member of the law firm Lloyd, Cheney and Geibel.
Mr. Geibel is a republican, a Catholic, a member of the University Club and Los Angeles City Club. He belongs to the Los Angeles and California Bar Association Mr. Geibel resides at Pasadena. He married Angelina Nolf, also a native of Butler County, Pennsylvania, on Octo- ber 16, 1910. They were married at the Old Mission Church of Santa Barbara.
HON. MEREDITH P. SNYDER. Elected mayor of Los Angeles for the fourth time, in June, 1919, Hon. Meredith Pinxton Snyder is again demonstrating his possession of the attributes necessary to the proper handling of the reins of municipal government. One of the prominent and eminently capable financiers of his city, his personal achievements have been numerous, while he has been no less valuable in behalf of the interests of his adopted city since he first entered public service in 1891, in the capacity of police commissioner.
Meredith Pinxton Snyder was born October 22, 1859, at Winston- Salem, North Carolina, a son of K. D. and Elizabeth (Hire) Snyder. A sidelight on his boyhood is given in the following: When he was eight years old his father gave him a young colt. The lad "broke" him, but needed a saddle. This was a problem for those were the days known as the Reconstruction Period, when there was no money in the South, and everything was "swapped." Finally young Meredith's father told him that if he would clear a large piece of ground that was covered with old plum trees and plant it to corn he could have that first crop to swap for a saddle. The youth worked hard, and the land was finally cleared, the corn duly planted and the crop harvested, and
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the youth went to the nearby town of Lexington to get a saddle. His mother had given him a beautiful hand-woven saddle blanket. Proud indeed was the young man as he started home, but a severe snowstorm arose, and, thinking nothing of himself, he carefully wrapped up his beloved saddle, unmindful of his physical discomfort, and arrived at home nearly frozen. At the age of fourteen years he was managing three plantations, and every morning he would lead the darkies out and supervise their work all day.
In the meantime, Mr. Snyder was securing his education in the public schools of his native state, at the Bethany and Schylo Academy and at Yadkin College, North Carolina. That he was a leader while at school is evidenced by an old time photograph, taken when he was fifteen years of age, in which he is seen decked out in a great sash, as marshal of a celebration of the school in his home town. Imme- diately upon leaving Yadkin College, in 1880, he received $125 from his father for an estate, the first real money he had ever handled, and real- ized an ambition that he had cherished from boyhood, by coming to Los Angeles. Here he obtained a clerkship, and from that time his rise was consistent and steady, from clerk to business, from business man to banker, and from banker to leading public figure and a marked factor in the development of the city's interests. He is a director of the Lomita Land and Water Company.
In 1891 Mr. Snyder was elected police commissioner of Los An- geles, and his work in that office brought him favorably before the peo- ple. He retained the post until 1894, when he was elected city council- man. While serving thus he introduced a bill, ultimately passed, which placed water distribution under municipal control, saving the people of the city $136,000 in a single year and costing the water company an equal amount. In 1896 Mr. Snyder was elected to the mayoralty, and was again chosen for that office in 1900, serving until 1905. At that time he refused another renomination because of the heavy pressure of his private interests. Los Angeles progressed immeasurably during his administrations, and many reforms which made 'a modern city of the Southern California metropolis originated with him. To enumer- ate all of these would transcend the limits ascribed to this review, but one which was a notable achievement, and in which he took a great personal interest, was the merging of San Pedro and Wilmington with Los Angeles, thus giving the latter an outlet to the sea. He was a member and one of the hardest workers on the committee which brought about the merger.
Mr. Snyder had retired from business affairs and politics, and was comfortably spending the remaining years of his life in the en- joyment of those recreations which attract the active and cultivated mind, when, in July, 1918, occurred the greatest tragedy of his life in the death of his only son, Ross Snyder, who fell on the bloody field of Chateau Thierry. Feeling that he needed a new interest in life, he allowed himself to be persuaded to accept the candidacy for the mayor- alty, and in June, 1919, was again chosen to direct the city from the chief executive's chair.
Personally, Mayor Snyder is small in stature, but large in men- tality, bodily activity and worth-while achievements. He is possessed of a magnetic smile and a cheerful and likeable personality that open the way to instant and lasting friendships, and his manner, while not self-assertive, is quietly confident. He finds recreation in golfing, en- joys shooting at his gun club and during the wild duck season, and
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confines his reading to current events, his interest in the classics being secondary. His enjoyment in the companionship of his fellows is indi- cated by his membership in the Masons, in which he is a Knight Temp- lar, and the Mystic Shrine, and in the Elks, the Jonathan Club and the Los Angeles Country Club.
On February 14, 1889, at the Coronado Hotel, San Diego, Cali- fornia, Mayor Snyder was united in marriage with May Ross, and they became the parents of one son: Ross Snyder, who was born at Los Angeles, June 29, 1893. He attended a private school and Harvard Military Academy, from which latter he was graduated as captain of Company B, in June, 1913. At that time his father was president of a local bank and wished his son to come into the institution: The latter, however, felt that he was not fitted for the life of a banker, and instead informed his father that he had decided to enter the United States Army, at the same time predicting in a prophecy that is remark- able considering later events, the entrance of this country in a world's war. He had spent three years as sergeant of artillery in the National Guard, and in 1916 enlisted in the United States Army, as a private of Troop D, for although he had been offered a commission he desired to gain experience from the private's viewpoint. When war with Ger- many was declared by the United States, he received orders to report at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was graduated as a first lieu- tenant of the Forty-seventh United States Regiment, and was imme- diately made captain of Company M. Soon thereafter he was advanced to acting major of a battalion of the same regiment, with which he went to France and took part in the battle of the Marne. On July 14, 1918, he started for Chateau Thierry, and met his death in that battle, north of the Orcqu River, July 31, 1918. On July 30 he was wounded but refused to go back to the hospital, insisting on remaining with his battalion, and on the next day, July 31, met his death at Leige while leading his men in battle.
Meredith P. Snyder was president of the Home Telephone Com- pany of San Diego until February, 1919, when he sold out to the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. He is the owner of the Meredith Office Building, at No. 618 South Spring Street, a large farm in Modesto, and has business, civic and social interests that make him one of the leading citizens of his community today.
FRANK HALL JOYNER is a highway engineer of national reputation and standing and for the past eight years has been the technical and official expert who has planned and directed practically all the improve- ments on the highway system of Los Angeles county.
Railroad and other engineering work has been almost a lifelong study and pursuit of Mr. Joyner. He was born at North Egremont, Massachusetts, January 20, 1862, son of Loomis M. and Mary L. (Cross) Joyner. He is of pure Yankee stock and is descended from Robert Joyner, a Revolutionary soldier, and from Joseph Loomis, who located at Windsor, Connecticut, in 1639 and founded the large and prominent family of Loomis in America.
Mr. Joyner received his early education in the schools of his native town, in the high school at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in Carter's Commercial College at Pittsfield, and had a course in the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst. In 1881 he was working as a chainman with the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad. Later for three years he was assistant engineer with that company. In 1885 he was
the Joy ner.
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made resident engineer for the Wisconsin Central, now the Soo Line, with headquarters at Des Plaines, Illinois. Beginning in 1886 and con- tinuing for over a year, he was engineer at the end of track and assistant superintendent of construction with the Fitzgerald & Mallory Company in the construction of a branch of the Missouri Pacific System.
Mr. Joyner left railroad engineering in 1887 to become connected with a firm of Chicago engineers, Morrison & Corthell. He had charge of the preparation of stone for the bridge over the Ohio River at Cairo, and bridges over the Mississippi at St. Louis and Memphis. He was city engineer at Bedford, Indiana, until 1891, when he resigned that office and left the firm of Morrison & Corthell.
His varied experience as an engineer was supplemented when, in 1892, he became connected with the Pejepscot Paper Company, one of the largest establishments of its kind in Maine. As assistant engineer, he supervised the construction of dams and pulp mill plants for this company.
Since 1896 Mr. Joyner has given practically all his time to highway engineering. For two years he was resident engineer with the Massa- chusetts Highway Commission, and in 1898 was advanced to division engineer, a post from which he resigned February 1, 1911. It was his record in Massachusetts that brought him to the attention of the Los Angeles County Highway Commission, who secured his services in the early part of 1911 as engineer in charge of maintenance and care of main highways of this county. In July of the same year he was appointed chief engineer for the Los Angeles County Highway Commission, and under the new charter was made road commissioner in April, 1914, his present office. In that capacity he has charge of all road construction and maintenance, including dirt roads, lanes, alleys and bridges, in Los Angeles county.
Mr. Joyner is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Massachusetts Highway Association, the American Road Builders and the American Highway Association. He also belongs to the Los Angeles Engineers' Club and the Architects' Club, the University Club, and in politics is a republican. At Brooklyn, New York, October 1. 1888, Mr. Joyner married Miss Clara E. Curtiss. They have one daugh- ter, Mary C. Joyner, who has made a rather unusual record of scholar- ship and is now a computor at Mount Wilson Observatory.
JOHN AMOS KINGSLEY. The gratification of ambitious aims is liable to result in the accomplishment of every ultimate aim and a consequent cessation of endeavor and an inactivity that must of neces- sity be supine. Those who risc, however, recognize the possibilities of successful attainment and continually strive energetically and per- severingly, actuated by a determination for still further advancement, that results in the reaching of a position of power and influence. To reach this desirable consummation, success must be based upon a definite aim and persistency of purpose which enables the individual to continue on a given course regardless of the obstacles which may appear in his path. A review of the careers of those who have attained success shows that those who have reached their goal have possessed self- reliance, conscientiousness, energy and integrity, for these are the traits of character which make for the highest awards in any field of endeavor: One of the men who has always possessed just these traits is John Amos Kingsley, veteran business man of Los Angeles, and well-known fraternalist.
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Mr. Kingsley was born April 18, 1852, at Eaton Rapids, Michigan, . a son of Phineas Kingsley, a native of the state of New York, who located at Eaton Rapids, Michigan, in 1848, and was engaged as a cooper and wheelwright. There was little time for schooling in the boyhood days of John A. Kingsley, but this was only one of the obstacles which his strong character and determination overcame and today he is a well- educated, if self-educated, man. He was still a youth when he was married, November 11, 1869, at Lansing, Michigan, and in 1880 came to Los Angeles. He has two children living: Grace, who resides with her parents; and Mildred, who is now the widow of E. E. Mossman. He has one granddaughter, Grace Frances, nineteen years of age. When Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley came to Los Angeles from Lansing, Michigan, their children were six and four years old respectively. They made the journey on the slow and primitive trains of the day, the jour- ney consuming six days. Los Angeles at that time was a far different city than it is today. It could boast of neither sidewalks nor paved streets, and many of the houses, and even business houses, were of the adobe class, as there were few residents other than the old Spanish families, with many of whom Mr. Kingsley was acquainted. Mr. Kingsley retains an affectionate remembrance of the old-fashioned Spanish barbecues of the early days, so popular in their time. In that day there was only what might be termed a trail to Pasadena. Mr. Kingsley would often visit the built-up section of that community, then consisting of a drug store on one corner, a school on another, a hotel on the third, and a blacksmith shop on the other. Horse-back was the usual means of travel, and the trails were hard and the going bad.
When he arrived at Los Angeles, Mr. Kingsley found employment temporarily in taking subscriptions for "The Journal," one of the first Los Angeles newspapers. In 1881, because of the vicarious state of his health, he turned to railroading, and engaged therein for five years both as fireman and locomotive engineer. Determined to get a start and to be the proprietor of a business of his own, he went to San Fran- cisco, having found an old friend in Los Angeles who was able and willing to lend him $800, and with this capital he purchased a small printing office and later returned to Los Angeles and established him- self in the printing business with a partner, under the firm name of Kingsley & Barnes, an association which lasted for more than sixteen years. In 1902 there was founded the present business of Kingsley, Mason & Collins Company, stationers and printers, which has grown to goodly proportions, and maintained high standards and ideals that he set at the outset of his career and has maintained them through thirty-five years of business activity in Los Angeles.
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