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 III > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
511
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
and equipment engaged in the work, came to an abrupt conclusion. The entire party, coming back to spend Thanksgiving with their families, stopped at a camp meeting. The survey of the Jurupa Ranch was con- tracted for by a preacher, and he was the speaker at the camp meeting. During his discourse he said to his congregation that, if he owed a large sum of money and could not pay it, it would not worry him, as he would trust in the Lord to pay it. So the survey ended abruptly.
At that time the business of the firm was increasing and Mr. Pills- bury was engaged in constant practice as a consulting civil and hydraulic engineer. He made the survey of Catalina Island in 1889 for George R. Shatto. He also built the old Second Street Road, the Ostrich Farm Railroad and a number of local short lines which have been absorbed or have been discontinued.
In order that his professional services might be so far as possible concentrated and allow him to remain at home with his family, Mr. Pillsbury became assistant engineer of the Los Angeles Railway in 1895, and within a few months was promoted to chief engineer. He also became chief engineer of the Los Angeles & Interurban Railway. In 1902, at the formation of the Pacific Electric Company, he was retained as chief engineer, and held that office until the time of his death. He had suffered a severe nervous breakdown in 1910, still another in 1913, and for several years had been more or less of an invalid.
Mr. Pillsbury, who is survived by Mrs. Pillsbury, a son, George E. Pillsbury, Jr., and a daughter, Mrs. Robert C. Du Soe, was well known outside of professional circles. In 1905 he was appointed a member of Governor Pardee's staff and filled that office during the Governor's term, when he resigned, but was reappointed by Governor Gillett. He was one of the founders and a director of the San Gabriel Country Club, was a director of the Jonathan Club, and a member of the Covina Country Club. He belonged to many orders in Masonry, including the Knights Templar, and attained the Thirty-second Degree in the Scottish Rite. He was also a member of the Alamitos Gun Club, was president of the Surf Gun Club, a member of the Cataline Tuna Club, the Union League Club of San Francisco, and the Engineers' and Architects' Asso- ciation of America.
He was affiliated with the social insurance orders, The Maccabees and the Independent Order of Foresters. He was liberal in religious views and for many years a regular attendant at the Unitarian Church, whose pastor, Rev. E. S. Hodgin, supplemented the Masonic Rites in the funeral services, which were held in the Masonic Temple, and whose choir, assisted by the church organist, impressively rendered his best loved hymns.
Of the many tributes paid his memory, probably the best are those expressed by Mr. Paul Shoup, the head of the Pacific Electric Company, who, in a telegram to Mrs. Pillsbury, said: "He was a capable, patient, lovable man, for whom I personally, as well as professionally, had great affection-a man of many friends, universally known for his great patience and perseverance." In the Pacific Electric Magazine Mr. Shoup also paid a tribute to Mr. Pillsbury in the following words: "The death of Colonel Pillsbury marks the passing of one of the pioneers in the work of Pacific Electric construction. From the very inception of the road he was one of its officers, and to his ability, faithful service, unfail- ing patience and great capacity for making friends is due, in a very con- siderable part, the creation of this system as it is now. His illness during the last few years had kept him from active work. But his death comes
512
LOS ANGELES
as a shock, nevertheless, to all those who have been long in the service. Outside of the service he had a large circle of friends, who, with us, will miss him greatly."
ROBERT NELSON BULLA came to Los Angeles in 1883, and has long enjoyed high rank as a lawyer, business man and leader in public affairs.
He was born at Richmond, Indiana, September 8, 1852, son of Hiram and Elizabeth (Staley) Bulla. His great-grandfather, William Bulla, was a Pennsylvanian who moved his family to North Carolina. Thomas Bulla, grandfather of the Los Angeles lawyer, left North Caro- lina in 1806 and settled in Eastern Indiana on the land on which Hiram Bulla was born. Hiram Bulla was a farmer.
Robert Nelson Bulla was educated in public schools and in 1876 received his Master of Arts degree from the National University of Lebanon, Ohio. He studied law in Cincinnati and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1881. He practiced three years in Cincinnati, and in 1883 removed to Los Angeles. He was associated with the firm of Bicknell & White from 1883 to 1887, and until 1898 practiced with Percy R. Wilson under the firm name of Bulla & Wilson. He gave up his general law practice in 1901 and has since devoted his time to corporation law and business.
Mr. Bulla was elected to the Legislature from Los Angeles County in 1893 and 1895, and in 1897 was nominated by acclamation and elected by a large majority to the State Senate. While in the Legislature he introduced a delinquent tax law providing that in cases where real property is sold for non-payment of taxes, the state shall become the purchaser, permitting redemption at actual cost, with reasonable penal- ties. The law was passed by both houses in 1893, but vetoed by Gov- ernor Markham. The following session it was again passed and signed. Mr. Bulla in 1895 was appointed a member of the commission to inves- tigate and report upon the Torrens Land Transfer System of Australia. At the next session of the Legislature he submitted a bill which became a law adopting that system in a modified form in the State of California. He was also a member of the commission to codify the laws of Cali- fornia in 1898-99.
In 1895 Mr. Bulla organized the Central Oil Company of Los Angeles, and for many years has served as its secretary and manager. He is secretary of the East Whittier Oil Company, a director of the Security National Bank, the Inglewood Park Cemetery Association, and a member of the advisory board of the Bank of Italy. He was first vice president of the Panama-California International Exposition held at San Diego, California, in 1916. He is a member and served as president in 1915 of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and is a member and was vice president of the Southwest Museum, a republican in politics, a member of the Unitarian Church and a Mason. He belongs to the California Club, Union League Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Sunset Club, The Scribes' Club, Automobile Club of Southern California and Los Angeles Country Club.
August 4, 1890, he married Miss Evangeline Sutton, who died March 12, 1903, leaving two daughters, Vivian Olive and Loris Evange- line, both of whom were born in Los Angeles and educated here at Ramona Convent.
HARRY LANDON HEFFNER is a prominent rancher and real estate operator in Southern California, his chief business interest at present being the Huntington Beach Company at Huntington Beach. He also
J. WISEMAN MACDONALD.
513
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
handles ranch lands at Corcoran and other points in Southern California and much Los Angeles city property. His business headquarters are in the Kerchoff Building.
Mr. Heffner was born at Columbus, Ohio, February 10, 1874, a son of Robert Armstrong and Flora (Ramsey) Heffner. His father was born at Columbus, October 22, 1842, and died at Los Angeles, December 20, 1888. His mother was born at Lancaster, Ohio, November 14, 1845, and died at Los Angeles, June 6, 1913.
Harry L. Heffner has lived in Southern California since 1882. He attended the grammar and high schools of Los Angeles, and when six- teen years of age, in 1890, went to work as bookkeeper for the First National Bank. He left the bank in 1893 and for twelve years was with the firm of Vail & Gates, in the cattle business in Arizona and California. He was with this firm in California from 1905 to 1910. Since 1912 he has been farming lands at Corcoran and developing the properties at Huntington Beach.
Mr. Heffner is vice president and director of the Huntington Beach Company, director in Golden State Woolen Mills, Lakeland Canal Com- pany, Valley Irrigated Farms Company, Kings County Canal Company, and general freight agent of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad. He is a member of the Jonathan Club of Los Angeles, Orange County Country Club, a Knight Templar and Shriner, and in politics a democrat.
At Tustin, California, March 2, 1907, he married Bertha Sanborn, a daughter of Rufus Howard and Edith (Hyatt) Sanborn, Her father, a former Chicago business man, is now living at San Gabriel, California. Mr. and Mrs. Heffner have four children, Robert Armstrong, Landon Hyatt, Rufus Sanborn and Edith Ramsey.
J. WISEMAN MACDONALD was one of the men who identified them- selves with Los Angeles at the beginning of its varied growth and pros- perity. He came to this city over twenty-five years ago, and has been one of the able lawyers commanding a large practice and identified with many affairs of importance in the city and state.
Mr. Macdonald is of Scotch and English ancestry, and was born at Mazomanie, Wisconsin, January 17, 1866, son of Allan and Eleanor (Wiseman) Macdonald. His father was born in Scotland, in 1827, and was a descendant of the famous Macdonalds, Lords of the Scotch Highlands. The Macdonalds allied themselves with the Stuart cause and many of them saw active service during the Jacobite wars between 1715 and 1745. Allan Macdonald came to the United States as a young man in 1854. Locating in Wisconsin, which was just emerging from its territorial period, he acquired large tracts of land and supervised their operation on an extensive scale of farming. In 1861 he signalized his devotion to his adopted country by enlisting as a first lieutenant in the Seventeenth Wisconsin Infantry, and was in many of the hardest battles and campaigns of the war. It was as a direct result of the exposure and hardships of military life that he died March 8, 1869.
After his death his widow returned, with her children, to her native home in England, and thus it was that James Wiseman Macdonald grew up in England and received his education there. He attended the Grant School, conducted by one of the best known English educators, W. M. Grant, at Burnley, Lancashire. He lived in England until the death of his mother, when he came to California and located in Los Angeles in 1891. In 1892 Mr. Macdonald was admitted to the bar
514
LOS ANGELES
before the Supreme Court of California. He is a director of the Hiber- nian Savings Bank of Los Angeles, and has served two terms. as trustee of the Los Angeles Bar Association and was formerly lecturer on cor- porations for the University of Southern California. He is president of the Civil Service Commisson of Los Angeles. Mr. Macdonald is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the California Club.
June 23, 1902, at San Francisco, he married Miss Jane Boland. They have three children: Allan, who was born in 1905; Elinor Wise- man, born in 1906, and J. Wiseman Jr., born in 1909.
GUY RICHARDS CRUMP was born and reared in old New England, is a son of a Connecticut lawyer and judge, and since 1907 has been practicing law in Southern California.
He was born at New London, Connecticut, April 4, 1886, a son of John Guy Crump. His father was also a native of New London, was a classmate of William H. Taft in Yale College, and became prominent as a lawyer of New London. He served as judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas and was also an editor of the New London Day, and book critic for the New York Sun. He died in 1894. His wife was Janet Elizabeth Williams, and their two sons were William C. of Pasadena, California, and Guy Richards.
The latter attended the public schools at New London and in New York City, from thirteen to sixteen was a student in the Blackhall School for Boys at Old Lyne, Connecticut, and then returned to New York City and was in the law office of Samuel Park, now dean of the Ad- miralty Bar of New York City. Mr. Crump came to Pasadena in January, 1905, continuing his studies in the office of Hahn & Hahn. He was admitted to the bar by the District Court of Appeals July 15, 1907, and during the following three years engaged in the practice of his profession. Removing to Los Angeles, he entered the legal department of the Los Angeles Abstract and Trust Company and served in various other departments of that corporation and its successor, the Los Angeles Title Insurance Company, for three years. Since 1914 he has been asso- ciated with Frank L. Muhleman in the firm of Muhleman & Crump.
Mr. Crump is a member of the California State and Los Angeles County Bar Associations, is a republican, a member of the California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, is master of South Pasadena Lodge No. 367, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a member of South Pasadena Chapter No. 112, Royal Arch Masons, and Pasadena Lodge No. 672 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. For seven years he has served as police judge and justice of the peace of South Pasadena. His church membership is Presbyterian.
At South Pasadena, June 12, 1912, Judge Crump married Miss Grace Elizabeth Baer, daughter of Joseph Silas Baer, a prominent gynecologist and surgeon of Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Mr. and Mrs. Crump have one daughter, Janet Vida, a student in the public schools.
JUDGE J. WALTER HANBY. While his time is now largely absorbed by his duties as presiding judge of the Justice Court of Los Angeles County, Judge Hanby has been a successful lawyer for seventeen years and has had a wide acquaintance and practice both in California and in Nevada.
Judge Hanby was born in Visalia, in Tulare County, July 16, 1872. son of Jonathan Waldo and Mary Emeline (Peck) Hanby. His father
Melvina adele Lott
515
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
is a well-known old-time Californian, born at Iowa City, Iowa, October 7, 1845, reared and educated there, and at the age of nineteen enlisting in the Twenty-second Iowa Infantry for service in the Union army. He received his honorable discharge in 1865 and at once started West, driv- ing an ox team across the plains, fighting Indians on the way, and first locating at White Pine, Nevada, where he engaged in farming until 1870. In that year he completed his Western journey to California and was a farmer in the Sacramento Valley until 1872, then moving to Visalia, in Tulare County, where for three years he was a blacksmith. He did similar work at Orland for two years, then moved his shop and business to Redbluff, where he was located four years. For several years follow- ing he lived in Los Angeles and was employed by the Second Street Cable Line until 1888. During the next eight years he was a farmer, and some of the land on which the beautiful suburb of Hollywood has been built was cultivated by him in that time. In 1896 he moved to Inyo County, where he still continues his agricultural interests. In 1870, at White Pine, Nevada, he married Mary Emeline Peck, and they hecame the parents of six children.
Judge Hanby, who considers it his good fortune to have been born in California and to have spent practically all the years of his life here, was educated in the grammar and high schools of Los Angeles, graduat- ing in 1889, and subsequently took a general business course and acquired a knowledge of shorthand in the Los Angeles Business College. After 1892 he spent three years on his fathers' farm at Hollywood, then pre- pared for teaching by a year in the Boynton Normal School, and remov- ing to Inyo County. with his parents, and after passing a successful examination, was appointed a teacher in that county and served faith- fully and competently for eight years. In the meantime he studied law under Judge Walter A. Lamar of the Superior Court at Independence. and White Smith, at Bishop, in Inyo County. Judge Hanby was ad- mitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of California at Los Angeles in 1903 and began practice at Bishop. He was employed to handle the legal details in incorporating Bishop as a city and was appointed the first city attorney. He held that office two years, and until 1905 was deputy district attorney. He then removed to Carson City, Nevada, where, after admission to the har by the Supreme Court, he opened an office at Yerington. In November, 1906, he was elected district attor- ney of Lyon County, but in 1908 gave up his promising professional in- terests in Nevada and, returning to Los Angeles, was busied with a growing practice as a lawyer until 1915, when he was appointed by the county supervisors judge of the Justice Court. In 1918 he was elected to that office.
Judge Hanby is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a Knight of Pythias, a member of the Independent Order of Foresters, the Eastern Star Chapter, the Native Sons of the Golden West, and is a member of the Union League Club. In politics he is a republican and religiously leans toward the Christian Science Church.
At Bishop, California, June 20, 1900, Judge Hanby married Ger- trude Gunter. They are the parents of two children : Helen Lucile, born in 1902, is a student in the Normal Arts High School. and Douglas Vin- cent, born in 1908, attending the public schools.
MRS. MELVINA A. LOTT. To a "native son" there is great distinc- tion in belonging to a family founded in California by those sturdy pioneers, the "forty-niners," equalled by the pride displayed by those /
516
LOS ANGELES
of New England birth in descent from passengers on the historic May- flower. Therefore, it is but natural that Mrs. Melvina A. Lott is proud of the fact that she is a niece of the famous Remi Nadeau, known all over the West as proprietor of the Cerro Gordo Freighting Company, and later as the builder of the old Nadeau' House that still stands at First and Spring Streets, then the finest portion of Los Angeles.
Mrs. Lott was brought from Vermont to Los Angeles when a child during 1875. Her people were Canadians, who spent a few years in Vermont prior to making the long trip overland to the "land of promise." They, too, were practical and bought considerable property at Los Angeles. Mrs. Lott's mother, Adele Nadeau, was the youngest of fifteen children, all of whom were born in Canada. She was born in 1841, had a beautiful voice and at eighteen was the leading soprana in Quebec Cathedral. She married Michel LaPointe in 1861. They had eight children, of whom Mrs. Lott is the second, and five are still living. The father died in Los Angeles in 1909, and the mother in 1910.
In 1884 Mrs. Lott married Austin E. Lott, who for seventeen years was agent for Mr. Nadeau. Soon after his marriage he bought the teams and outfit of Mr. Nadeau, and taking his young wife to the mining camp at Daggett, he continued the freighting business, she keeping the books. During the last sixteen years of his life Mr. Lott lived in Los Angeles and there his death occurred. Mr. and Mrs. Lott had a son, Esperance A. Lott, and a daughter, who is now Mrs. H. M. Keller. At his death Mr. Lott left his widow some very valuable property, located opposite Pershing Square, where she now resides. She was subsequently married to a man bearing the same name as her first husband, but not related.
A lady of large means, Mrs. Lott's heart is as richly endowed with a wealth of sympathy and generosity as her purse with gold, and her benefactions are numerous and varied. A consistent member of the First Methodist Church of Los Angeles, which she joined when but twelve years old, she has made it many donations, the latest being a ten thousand dollar chimes equipment for the new church edifice, her name and subscription heading the list. She also financed the First Methodist Episcopal Church Red Cross Auxiliary of over seventeen hundred members, and is a life member of five church societies of Los Angeles. During the past two years she has been an earnest worker in the Red Cross, has been a leader in rummage sales, bazaars, and kindred benefactions, and raised for the cause thousands of dollars. She obtained materials from factories and, with her helpers, made at her home over three hundred rugs, her output in salvage consisting of everything from rags to gold and silver. An unusual privilege was conferred upon her in that she was the only person, aside from Red Cross headquarters, allowed to sell the products of her gathering and manufacture. During two years she worked indefatigably in this noble cause, and the highest Red Cross medal was conferred upon her.
While Mrs. Lott did not arrive in California until the pioneer period was past, she imbibed much of the spirit of those glorious days and possessed some of the characteristics of the men and women who raised standards of hearty, wholesome hospitality, generous, open-handed friendship, and a fearlessness in supporting what they ,believed to be right and good. As long as such persons as Mrs. Lott remain, Los Angeles will continue to live up to its name, and the spirit of the founders of the "Golden State" will continue to animate it and its works.
Perhaps the finest crown. of long experience and achievement is the
517
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
spirit of humility which is found in all really wise people. Many of her close friends and co-workers have long known Mrs. Lott for her literary ability, especially as a writer of verse, much of which has been heard in church and charity entertainments. The quality of her verse and the spirit just noted above is best expressed in the following stanzas from the pen of Mrs. Lott :
What can I say that has not been said? Of the pleasant things in life ? What can I tell that has not been told Of all the world's sadness and strife?
What can I see no other has seen? The beautiful everywhere found -- I can see with just my own viewpoint- All the bad and the good around.
What can I hear not heard by others? There is music in everything. It's just within self, in mind and will That gives all a musical ring.
What can I be no other has been ? Nothing but my only self, Me, For there were never two just alike. So I can just one pattern be.
What can I do that has not been done In this world of pleasure and strife? It is only character that counts- In the building to make a life.
What can I love any more than you ? Only that which belongs to me- As personal gifts from God I love; And that is just as it should be.
What can I take with me when I go? Not an item more than can you. We bring nothing in, take nothing out, 'Tis something we can not undo.
What are the pleasures to be enjoyed, By the taste, touch, hearing or sight- Not enjoyed by the first here on earth ? The answer is none, and 'tis right.
When I pass on and my story told, I'll be worth just this, hear me say ! Not one cent less, or one penny more --- Than what I have given away.
When I shall go to the Great Beyond- And the song of niy life is sung- I'll be remembered by just one thing ; And that will be, what I have done.
518
LOS ANGELES
REMI NADEAU came to California in 1859 from Minnesota, and unlike so many of his associates, did not waste effort in endeavoring to wrest from the rocks and waters of the state its golden treasure, but practically set to work to reap a harvest from the necessities of those too excited over picking up gold to exert themselves in ordinary business affairs.
Recognizing that the vast army of gold seekers marching across the country from every section would have to be fed and clothed, and that their gold would have to be freighted as well as their goods, Mr. Nadeau decided to provide the means for furnishing a safe and, for the time and locality, rapid transportation service. His finances at the beginning only permitted of the purchase of a few mules, but he added to the number as rapidly as possible, and at one time owned sixty-five teams of twenty-two mules to a team. These teams traveled the entire distance from San Pedro up through Death Valley, making Los Angeles and San Fernando, Newhall, Mojave Desert and over Death Valley and Cliente, and hauled freight exclusively, and this was the only transporta- tion facility the region afforded for some years. The work of this com- pany forms an important part of the history of California during its formative period.
Remi Nadeau was born near Quebec, Canada, in 1818. As a young man he showed a mechanical turn of mind, and all his varied enter- prises, though on a small scale at the time, showed the constructive energy in him. He was one of a family of fifteen children, his parents being married at the age of sixteen. On leaving his native land, Remi Nadeau came to the United States and lived in Minnesota until he crossed the plains to California, spending the winter en route at Salt Lake City. He came with ox team. During the time of his transportation business he had some sixty-five stations and, as stated, sixty-five mule teams. The present site of Clune's Auditorium, just opposite the Pershing Square, was a great corral for the many teams of Mr. Nadeau. When Mr. Nadeau built the hostelry which bore his name, it was the only four-story structure in Los Angeles, and his contemporaries jeered at the far-sighted business man who always had faith in the future of the city and was broad-gauged enough to prove it in a material manner.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.