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 8
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When the Board of Harbor Commissioners of Los Angeles was organized, the local Chamber of Commerce directly requested the appoint- ment of Mr. Gibbon as a member of the body. He was so appointed by the mayor, and later for four years served as president of the commis- sion. As a commission member he proposed and had adopted a resolu-
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tion requesting the City Council of Los Angeles to bring action for the recovery of the tide lands surrounding a considerable portion of San Pedro harbor. This litigation and its consequences are also a prominent item in modern progress and development of the Los Angeles district, as elsewhere described, and through Mr. Gibbon's foresighted efforts the city now has title to several hundred acres surrounding the harbor, a property valued at millions of dollars. Thus Los Angeles is one of the few cities in the country that have taken steps to assure publicly owned terminal facilities at the waterfront, and with ability to control what has frequently been a vexatious monopoly. During his term with the harbor commission Mr. Gibbon was also instrumental in having Mr. Goodrich, the well known harbor engineer of New York, employed for the purpose of making a comprehensive plan for the development and improvement of the Los Angeles harbor. That plan is now in process of being carried out by the city. Another report prepared by Mr. Gibbon through the Board of Harbor Commissioners upon a municipal terminal railroad system, and subsequently presented to and approved by the los Angeles City Council, led to the employment of Bion J. Arnold, the eminent municipal transportation expert of Chicago, to prepare a com- plete scheme for a municipal terminal railway system that would ade- quatcly serve both the harbor and city.
Mr. Gibbon has been associated with many of the foremost men of our time in business, professional and civic affairs. He is a member of a number of interesting organizations, including the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Association for Labor Legislation, the National Child Labor Committee, the National Municipal League, the Commonwealth Club, the National Geographic Society, the Jonathan University, Bolsa Chico Gun, Los Angeles Athletic, Los Angeles Country, City and Federation clubs of Los Angeles. Mr. Gibbon is a democrat and a member of the Methodist Church.
December 9, 1891, at Little Rock, Arkansas, he married Ellen Rose, daughter of Judge U. M. Rose, one of the most distinguished of Arkan- sas lawyers, and a former president of the American Bar Association. Mrs. Gibbon died March 29, 1915, after a brief illness. She left two children: Lieutenant William Rose Gibbon, a student of Cornell Uni- versity, and Thomas Edward, Jr.
LEO MINZER, one of the active young business men of Los Angeles, has had a career of varied experience and interest.
He was born in the famous old-time mining district of Deadwood, South Dakota, August 19, 1890, a son of Louis and Nettie (Holstein) Minzer. He began his education in the public schools there, and when he was twelve years old his parents came to Los Angeles, where he at- tended school two years longer. His real business career began at the age of fourteen as clerk in a drug store at Vermont avenue and Jeffer- son street. After a year he was with Neuner & Company, printers and bookbinders, as delivery boy six months, with the Los Angeles Pacific Railway as clerk in the accounting department two years, was employed at Coalinga by the Kern Trading and Oil Company in charge of its commissary department three years, was bookkeeper at Kingman, Ari- zon, six months, and on returning to Los Angeles became solicitor for the Hollywood Laundry. With that business he has found probably his permanent connection. After six years as solicitor he was in charge
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of the delivery route for two and a half years, then was foreman two years, and since that time has been manager of this laundry, one of the largest in Southern California. The company employs a hundred seventy- five people, operates seventeen wagons, takes care of fifty-six hundred patrons, and has a large and modernly equipped plant in a building 90x210 feet.
H. B. TITCOMB. It has long been recognized that the Southern Paci- fic Railway has always enlisted in its service some of the resourceful en- gineers and executives in the West. H. B. Titcomb was for twenty-seven years in the service of that company before he entered upon his present work, September 1, 1918, as vice president of the Pacific Electric Railway. He is now vice president in charge of maintenance and traffic, construc- tion and general operation of the Pacific Electric Company. He is also vice president of the Pacific Electric Land Company.
Mr. Titcomb is an old Californian, though he was born at Indian- apolis, Indiana, December 10, 1871. In 1873 his parents came to California, locating on a farm near Modesto, and eighteen months later moving to Atwater, Merced County, where Mr. Titcomb attended the public schools, and lived a typical farmer boy until 1887. He tlien entered the Indianapolis High School, and later Cogswell Polytechnic College, at San Francisco, graduating in 1891.
Upon leaving college he entered upon his long service with the Southern Pacific Company, in the capacity of a draftsman at San Francisco. His record of service is briefly reviewed as follows: Pro- moted to assistant engineer, construction division, in 1898; appointed roadmaster of the western division in 1899; was successively road- master of the Shasta and Sacramento divisions, 1900 and 1904; assist- ant resident engineer from 1904 to 1905, resident engineer at Bakers- field from 1905 to 1906, and at Los Angeles, 1906 to 1909; appointed district engineer of Los Angeles, serving from 1909 to 1914; and main- tenance of way assistant to the assistant chief engineer at San Fran- cisco from 1915 to October 15, 1917, when he became superintendent of the Stockton Division.
Some facts concerning this long service deserve more than routine mention. He was engineer of planning and consummating the Southern Pacific Railroad station in Los Angeles while division engineer from 1909 to 1914. But his resourcefulness was best exhibited during the heavy floods of the Colorado River in the Imperial Valley. During that time Mr. Titcomb was in charge of maintenance of that section of the railroad. "The position he has come to occupy in industrial activity has been earned step by step through his own individual effort, and from this one is perforce led to believe that he has a very thorough knowledge of every phase of a railroad man's life and appreciates many of the rough places as well as the pleasant paths that all of us pass over."
Mr. Titcomb is a member of the Jonathan and Athletic Clubs of Los Angeles. He owns a beautiful bungalow at 208 South Ardmore street, Los Angeles. He married, at San Francisco, Mabel Havens. They have one daughter, Mildred, a student in the public schools of Los Angeles.
WILLIAM MANSFIELD BUFFUM. The life of William Mansfield Buffum impressed itself conspicuously on the affairs of the territory of Arizona during its early history, and was equally notable as a builder of the modern city of Los Angeles. He achieved a position of wealth, but
William Mansfield Buffum
Ara R.E. Buffum and Son Asa
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much more important than his wealth was the work he did and the in- fluence he directed in so many ways to insure the permanent welfare and substantial character of this section of Southern California.
Mr. Buffum was born at Salem, Massachusetts, May 10, 1832, and his ancestry had in it all the fundamental virtues of the pure and nin- diluted American stock. He was a son of James R. and Susan (Mans- field) Buffum. Some of his ancestors were among the real founders of New England. They were especially prominent in Rhode Island, the first of the family locating there soon after Roger Williams estab- lished the first settlement. Several of Mr. Buffum's forefathers were soldiers in the War of the Revolution. His great-grandfather, Benjamin Bates, was in 1778 commissioned a lieutenant by the Continental Con- gress in the newly formed American Navy. He was one of the gallant fighters who helped to make glorious the annals of the American Navy. His original commission is still one of the prize documents and heirlooms in the archives of the Buffum family. On the maternal side William M. Buffum was descended from the Mansfields of New Hampshire, who were among the first settlers of that state, and one of the family later became governor of the commonwealth.
Until he was fifteen years of age Mr. Buffum attended public schools in the historic old town of Salem. In 1850 his brother George was appointed postmaster of Stockton, California, by President Taylor. George Buffum soon afterward sent for his young brother and the latter made the long voyage to San Francisco by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He assisted his brother in organizing the Stockton postoffice, and later they were fellow prospectors for gold in Calaveras County.
William M. Buffum became a resident of Los Angeles in 1859. At that time he represented as agent one of the large concerns of San Francisco. In 1871, when the territory of Arizona was organized, he went to Prescott, and with John G. Campbell established the partner- ship of Campbell & Buffum, which became one of the largest mercantile enterprises of the territory. In 1873 Mr. Buffum moved his family to Prescott and for twelve or fifteen years was one of the leading spirits in Arizona affairs. His prominence as a business man and his integrity of character attracted to him men of all classes and particularly the leaders and makers of pioneer history in the territory. Among other men with whom he was associated at Prescott were E. P. Clark and General M. H. Sherman, who later inaugurated the modern transpor- tation systems in Pasadena and Los Angeles. Mr. Buffum served as one of the members of the early legislature of Arizona. One of his colleagues was Tom Fitch, who later achieved fame as an orator. He was also one of the school trustees of Prescott, and was head of the board when General M. H. Sherman was invited there to inaugurate the school system. In 1877 General Fremont appointed Mr. Buffum as a member of the Territorial Prison Commission, and his presence on that commission acted as a check to the loose and extravagant methods which threatened to make the administration a public scandal. Mr. Buffum while living in Arizona was one of the first to become interested in the Arizona Verde mines, which since then have become one of the most famous copper properties in the world.
In 1889 Mr. Buffum gave up his business interests in Arizona and returned to Los Angeles. Here he became actively associated with Gen- eral M. H. Sherman and E. P. Clark, who were at that time financing and promoting an adequate street railway system for Los Angeles and Pasadena. Mr. Buffum became treasurer of the company and was its active official for twenty years.
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From the first he had complete faith in the future of Los Angeles and his foresight enabled him to make investments which have since become fortunes in themselves. He owned some of the most important parcels of local real estate at different times. Most of his investments were in the business district of Los Angeles, though his foresight enabled him to place these investments in the line of development so that some of them went outside the current of business and are now in the very heart of the commercial metropolis. When the old Temple estate was subdivided Mr. Buffum was one of the largest purchasers, and property that he then acquired has since become almost priceless. He once owned the land where the Coulter dry goods store is now located. He also owned the corner of Franklin and New High, the corner of 8th and Spring, a lot on 12th Street between Hill and Olive streets. This last is now one of the strategic points in the developing business center. At Jefferson and Main streets, then on the outskirts of Los Angeles. he owned forty acres, and this has since become the most densely populated section of Los Angeles.
Mr. Buffum was a Royal Arch Mason and member of the California Society. His death occurred June 12, 1905, and he was laid to rest by the Masonic Order. At Los Angeles, September 17, 1864, he married Miss Rebecca Evans, formerly of Smithfield, Fayette County, Penn- sylvania. Mrs. Buffum survives her husband, and is one of the most beloved pioneers of California. Two children were born to their marriage, Asa Mansfield, now deceased, and one child that died in infancy.
ASA MANSFIELD BUFFUM. A ,worthy life too early closed brings regret and sadness, but the influence of such a life as that of the late Asa Mansfield Buffum abides, and through it men are made more con- scious of the value sterling integrity and fidelity to duty bear in rounding out a successful, useful life.
Asa Mansfield Buffum was born at Los Angeles, California, Decem- ber 25, 1865. His parents were William Mansfield and Rebecca (Evans) Buffum. His father was one of the early California pioneers, a descend- ant of a distinguished New England family, and his mother was a Penn- sylvanian, whose ancestors immigrated to that colony in the early days of George III of England.
Mr. Buffum received his early education at Prescott, Arizona, then a military post on the frontier, whither his father had gone and established the principal merchandising business in the territory. The youth's first principal and teacher was General M. H. Sherman, who later helped make history in Arizona, and later still created the transit system of Los Angeles, Pasadena and Santa Monica Bay district. When Mr. Buffum was fifteen years old his parents returned to Los Angeles, where he con- tinued school attendance and later entered the University of California under the tutelage of Professor Bovard, one of the distinguished educa- tors of the state. The long journey to and from, however, had to be made on foot or in the slow-moving vehicles of those days, and this difficulty finally compelled Mr. Buffum to give up his work in the university. He then matriculated at St. Vincent's College, Los Angeles, then under the direction of the noted Father McGill. From St. Vincent's he entered a select school for boys maintained by St. Paul's Protestant Cathedral in Los Angeles. At this period in his life Mr. Buffum decided to fo low in the footsteps of his father and seek a commercial career. To fit himself for this he hegan a course in the Woodbury Business College, where he secured a diploma after a year of strenuous study. Soon after
Asa Mansfield Buffum
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graduating from that institution he took, without the slightest prepara- tion, an examination for the United States postal service, and from a large number of specially prepared candidates he finished third and soon after was appointed to a position of trust at the general post office, Los Angeles. This appointment was the beginning of a career that lasted throughout Mr. Buffum's life, and which, as his passing, won for him the eulogies of government heads and colleagues.
Mr. Buffum continued in the general post office for some years thereafter, until he was appointed to the management of one of the branches which was then being opened to take care of the business caused by the rapidly increasing population of the city. Under his direction was a large force of clerks and carriers. In assisting in establishing new routes and in perfecting the system of mail delivery Mr. Buffum was considered one of the most able aids in the department of Los Angeles. He was later appointed to the management of the branch office on Spring Street, Los Angeles, which office was mainly conducted for the handling of large money order and registered letter business that came from the mercantile district of the city. The responsibilities of this post were probably the largest in the city branch postal service. The confidence which Mr. Buffum's departmental head imposed in him was given sub- stantial expression in this important appointment. He remained in charge of this branch for several years, when he was recalled to the general post office, but later was placed in charge of the Stahl & Thayer branch, where he remained until the time of his death, building up the business and caring for the rapidly multiplying duties with an honesty of purpose and regard for duty that won him time and again the praise of his superiors.
Mr. Buffum's tragic death abruptly ended one of the most promising governmental careers in Southern California, and is believed to have hastened the death of his father, who was one of the best known and most beloved pioneers of the old west. In October, 1904, Mr. Buffum accompanied his mother on a trip to White Sulphur Springs in Ventura County, California. While there the abundance of small gaine attracted Mr. Buffum, who was an ardent sportsman and fond of hunting, and this led to his accompanying a number of companions into the wilds of the neighborhood in search of pigeons. The accidental discharge of one of his companion's guns emptied the gun's contents into the body of Mr. Buffum. Life lingered six hours afterwards, during which time every possible effort was made by hastily summoned physicians, but their work was unavailing. He was but thirty-nine years old at the time of death. His sterling qualities had marked him throughout his younger life and during his early manhood as one of the most promising young men of Los Angeles. His even disposition and lofty-minded views on life and social relations had won the esteem of a large host of friends, who regarded him as a worthy descendant of a distinguished father. IJe was a member of Ramona Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West, and not only took great interest in the rising generation of Californians, but in the welfare of the superannuated survivors of the early days on the frontier. His devoted mother yet survives, but his father survived him only a short time.
SAYRE MACNEIL, a scholarly young lawyer, also well known because of his associations with various phases of the public welfare in Los Angeles, is a son of one of the pioneer ranch and town developers in southern California.
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His father, the late Hugh Livingstone Macneil, was born in the town of Wick, Ontario. Canada, August 9, 1850. He received a high school education and soon afterward went to Chicago, where he was immediately appointed cashier and auditor of Ingraham, Corbin & May. In 1876, in Los Angeles, he became connected with the Los Angeles County Bank as cashier. In 1887 he left the bank and spent four years in association with his father-in-law, Jonathan Sayre Slauson, in various land developments. As one of the owners of the Maclay Rancho, in the San Fernando Valley, he took an active part in develop- ing and selling the land of the Rancho." The town of San Fernando stands on this land. He acquired a large acreage where the towns of Ontario and Upland are located, soon after the Chaffeys had organized the Ontario colony, and assisted in promoting and establishing both these now flourishing little cities. Hugh L. Macneil was also asso- ciated with J. S. Slauson, James Slauson and others in organizing the Azusa Land and Water Company, which, in April, 1887, established the town of Azusa. Mr. Macneil, in 1891, took up his residence there and for the next few years devoted himself to planting orange and lemon lands, the development and transportation of water from the San Gabriel Canon, and the early organization of the Southern Cali- fornia Fruit Exchange. He died in Los Angeles October 21, 1901, after achieving a high place among southern California pioneers. He was the first president of the Caledonian Club, one of the early pres- idents of the California Club of Los Angeles, a charter member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and was also a member of the Creel Club and of the Sunset Club. He was for four years a state fish and game commissioner. He was a republican and a Presbyterian. In Los Angeles, on September 17, 1884, he married Louise Slauson. Of their two children, the daughter, Marion, is the wife of Captain Bertnard Smith of Los Angeles.
Sayre Macneil, who was born April 1, 1886, received a public school education in Los Angeles, Azusa and Pasadena, graduating from the high school in the latter city in 1903. The following year he spent abroad in travel, and then, returning to California, entered the Uni- versity of California, from which he received his degree A. B. in 1908. Mr. Macneil took his law course in Harvard University Law School, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1911. He is now associated with the law firm of O'Melveny, Millikin & Tuller, with offices in the Title Til- surance Building.
December 1, 1917, Mr. Macneil was appointed chairman of the Department of Conservation of Food Supplies of the United States Food Administration for California and in June, 1918, head of the En- forcement Division of the United States Food Administration for Cali- fornia, and served in that connection until January, 1919. Mr. Mac- neil is a trustee of Harvard Military School of Los Angeles, is local corresponding secretary for the Harvard Law School Association, and while at Harvard was an assistant editor of the Harvard Law Review in his second year, and editor in chief of the magazine in his third year. He is a member of the California Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club, and from May, 1915, to November, 1916, served as secretary of the Municipal Charities Commission of Los Angeles. He is a Republican and a member of the Episcopal Church.
November 10, 1915, at Los Angeles, he married Daphne Drake. Their two children are Maria Antonia and Hugh Livingstone Macneil.
Gev. 1. Cochran
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WILLIAM JAMES PALETHORPE. In his business and profession as cer- tified public accountant William James Palethorpe has achieved as a result of many years experience and widely diversified service a leading position on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Palethorpe has been a resident of California over thirty years, and since 1905 his home and business headquarters have been in Los Angeles.
He was born in London, England, August 30, 1860. His father, John Palethorpe, spent twenty years in the diplomatic service of Great Britain in France, Italy, Spain and Russia. His mother, Sarah Floyd Palethorpe, was a great-granddaughter of the Earl of Fairfax, and was noted as an author and poet.
William James Palethorpe attended the Auckland School in Lon- clon, and did his undergraduate work in King's College in that city. On account of failing health he left England in 1887 and visited San Fran- cisco. In England he had come to be regarded as an expert in account- ing and in America he has specialized in mining practice, his reports and audits having widely accepted authority both east and west.
After coming to San Francisco Mr. Palethorpe located at San Ma- teo, and for many years taught at St. Matthew's School there. He then resumed the practice of accounting in San Francisco. While making reports on the Imperial Valley, representing the Southern Pacific Rail- road Company and allied interests, the fire and earthquake in April, 1906, caused him to change his residence to Los Angeles. His account- ing practice has been carried on at Los Angeles since that year, but his clientele is so broad that his practice really extends to the state of Washington and as far east as Pittsburg.
Mr. Palethorpe is a Republican, is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Automobile Club of Southern California, and is affiliated with the Elks, the Knights of Columbus, and is a Catholic in religion. He is a member of the American Institute of Ac- countants. June 22, 1890, at San Francisco, he married Mary Frances Dorrity, a daughter of Anthony and Mary Dorrity. She was born at Belfast, Ireland. Her father, Anthony Dorrity, was a marine engineer and in 1870 brought his family from Ireland to New York. After a few years he left New York for San Francisco on the maiden voyage of the steamship George W. Elder around the Horn. The family fol- lowed him by way of Panama. Anthony Dorrity at the time of his death in 1912 was the oldest marine engineer in age and service on the Pacific Coast. He was noted for his ability and devotion to detail and regarded as the "safest" man in engineering circles. Mr. and Mrs. Palethorpe have two sons and two daughters, Harold John, Anthony Floyd, Ruth Dorothy and Marie Dolores.
GEORGE IRA COCHRAN. While he began his career as a young lawyer in Los Angeles thirty years ago, and was identified with a busy law practice for nearly two decades, it is as a manager and director of large financial and business corporations that George Ira Cochran is best known.
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