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 18
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Mr. Kennedy is general agent of the Southern California Edison Company. Mount Whitney Power & Electric Company, and is a director
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of Santa Barbara Electric Company, Santa Barbara and Suburban Rail- way, and the Wallace Refineries. He is a 'republican voter, a member of the Masonic Order and is affiliated with the California Club of Los Angeles.
October 1, 1902, at Alhambra, California, he married Miss Mattie Wallace, daughter of the late J. C. Wallace of Alhambra. Her father was a prominent orchardist and citrus nurseryman in Los Angeles County. Her granduncle was the late B. D. Wilson, conspicuous among the early pioneers of Southern California.
FERMAN E. DAVIS is one of the veteran lawyers of Los Angeles, having been in active practice there nearly thirty years, and either alone or in association with other prominent lawyers has been employed in many of the most important cases before the courts of Southern Cali- fornia.
Mr. Davis, who carne to Los Angeles immediately after finishing his law education, was born at Liberty, Indiana, June 27, 1868, a son of Andrew F. and Sarah Elizabeth (McKee) Davis. His father was a native of Ohio and his mother of Indiana, and they were married in the latter state and moved to Illinois about 1873. Mr. Davis is descended on both sides from a long line of farmers and stock men. During the Civil war his father served three and a half years in Company I of the Fifteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry as a first lieutenant. He was badly wounded and lost his hearing at the battle of Shiloh and a naturally strong constitution was greatly impaired for the rest of his life. He died at Monticello, Illinois, in 1891. His widow is still living at Monti- cello. In the family were five children, one son dying in infancy. Orilla Conard, the oldest, is the widow of Philip H. Conard, and lives with her mother at Monticello, Illinois, and is the mother of ten children. Hattie, who came to Los Angeles about thirty years ago, at the time of her second marriage, returned east and is now Mrs. Charles M. Bond of Philadelphia. All four of her children are married and live at Los Angeles. The other daughter was Nancy, Mrs. D. W. Deardurff, of Monticello, Illinois, who died a number of years ago leaving two children.
Ferman E. Davis, the youngest of the family, was educated in the public and high schools of Monticello, Illinois, and after public school taught for two terms in Piatt County, Illinois. He then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, graduating LL. B. in 1891. He was admitted to the Michigan bar, but immediately came to Los Angeles and opened his law office on Spring Street in what was then the Los Angeles Theatre Building. During the first seven years he practiced alone, and then formed a partnership with the late Thomas L. Winder under the name Winder & Davis. Telfair Creighton subse- quently became a member of the firm Winder, Creighton & Davis, and after the death of Mr. Winder the firm was Creighton & Davis. Then for a time Mr. Davis practiced alone later becoming a member of the firm of Hansen, Davis & Wilson. He was afterward associated with Judge W. W. Hyams as Davis & Hyams for a short time, and since 1914 has conducted an individual practice. He handles no criminal cases and much of his work has been in corporation law. For a number of years he has been general counsel for the Tejunga Water & Power Com- pany.
Mr. Davis is a republican, a member of the Union League Club and the City Club. In August, 1892, at Los Angeles, he married Miss Hedwig Gross, at Atwood, Illinois. She died at Los Angeles in 1904,
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leaving a daughter, Helen, a native of Los Angeles. Helen spent four years in the University of Illinois, and is now connected with the depart- ment of psychology in the Carnegie Institute of Technology at Pittsburgh. In 1906 Mr. Davis married Thelma H. Howe of Los Angeles. They have a son Charles Foster, born at Los Angeles in 1909. This son has decided musical talent, has been a student of music since he was five years of age, largely under the direction of his talented mother, who is a singer and has appeared in public for a number of years. The son now plays piano accompaniments for his mother and is a skilled pianist. Mr. and Mrs. Davis are both people of many accomplishments. All the family are fond of horseback riding, Mr. Davis being an expert rider. He is also an expert shot with rifle and pistol. The family reside at 1372 Lucile avenue.
PAUL SHOUP. In 1919 Paul Shoup was made vice president of the Southern Pacific Company, after having been in the railroad game for over twenty-eight years. He was born in 1874 at San Bernardino. At the age of three his parents moved to Iowa, where he received his early schooling, returning ten years later to San Bernardino. In 1891 he joined the mechanical forces of the Santa Fe at San Bernardino. Later he joined the Southern Pacific forces, passing through the various offices from ticket clerk, telegrapher agent, etc., to assistant general pass- enger agent until 1910, when he was appointed assistant general man- ager of the Southern Pacific Company in charge of its electric lines. In 1912 he was made president of the Pacific Electric Railway Company, and also retained charge of the electric properties in Fresno, Stockton, San Jose and Oakland. When the government took over the operation of the steam railroads of the Southern Pacific Company, together with its operating officials, Mr. Shoup was made vice president thereof in charge of the company's other property interests as well as its affiliated and proprietary concerns.
He is a member of the Jonathan, California and Union League clubs of Los Angeles ; the Bohemian, Pacific Union and Olympic clubs of San Francisco, and is a member of the Episcopal church. In 1900 he married Miss Rose Wilson of San Francisco. Their three children are Carl, Jack and Louise Shoup. He lives at Los Altos, Santa Clara County.
ISAAC SPRINGER, who came to California in 1885, and was the first agent of the Santa Fe Railway at Raymond Station, has for thirty years played an increasingly important part in the financial affairs of Los Angeles and Pasadena, as an insurance man, banker, mortgage and invest- ment business.
Mr. Springer, who is president of the Pacific Mortgage Company, of Los Angeles, was born May 24, 1861, in Illinois, but spent his early life in Ohio. He has no recollection of his father and his mother married a second time and came to California in 1891 and lived with her son in Pasadena until her death. Isaac Springer grew up in Union County, Ohio, and received most of his early advantages in a log school house near Richwood in that county. His environment was a farm until after he was twenty-one. He learned and worked as a telegrapher with what is now the Erie railroad, spending two years at Galion, Ohio. From there he came to California in 1885, and has always made his home in Pasadena. For one year he was on a ranch, then did railroad work, and for one year occupied the position of agent of the Santa Fe at Raymond.
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In 1888 Mr. Springer entered the general insurance, both fire and life, at Pasadena, and had his business in that line in Pasadena until 1908, when he opened an office in Los Angeles. While in Pasadena he organized the Home Savings Bank at Los Angeles, and the American Bank and Trust Company at Pasadena. He also did an extensive busi- ness in real estate, and was secretary of what is now the Pasadena Building and Loan Association. In 1912 he organized the Pacific Mort- gage Company, of which he is president.
Mr. Springer is a republican of the Roosevelt type, is a member of the Ohio Society of California, and the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Pasadena. October 18, 1892, at Kokomo, Indiana, he married Miss Mary S. Libert. Her father was Rev. James Libert, who died while a pastor at Fremont, Ohio. Mrs. Springer was born at Ross- ville, Indiana, and was educated at Galion, Ohio. She is a very active Sunday School worker. They have four children, all born in Pasadena and educated in that city. Joseph L. enlisted as a private in the National Army, was made a lieutenant in the quartermaster's department, and is now in the superintendent's office of the American Railway Express at Norfolk, Virginia. The daughter Helen is the wife of Ralph T. Taylor, of Los Angeles; Robert S. is a resident of Salt Lake City ; and James W. is a student in the University of California at Berkeley.
CRECIAT. This has been an honored name in Los Angeles for nearly forty years. While several of the name have gained prominence in business, the interests and associations of the Creciats have been singu- larly close and affectionate, and it is as a family group that they may be best considered.
The founder of the family was the late Charles H. Creciat, who was born at Buffalo, New York, of French parentage. In 1872, at Sewanee, Tennessee, in the Cumberland Mountains, he married Louisa A. Burnette, an orphan then living with her sister. Her father died when she was three months old and her mother when she was eight years old in 1861. She first attended school at Nashville, Tennessee, and at the age of fifteen entered Murfreesboro College, a Methodist institution. She was the youngest of five children. At sixteen she went on a visit to Sewanee, Tennessee, where she met Charles H. Creciat, who then owned a bakeshop. After their marriage they lived at Nash- ville, where Mr. Creciat was employed in a planing mill, and thus laid the foundation of what was to become his life's business.
Mr. and Mrs. Creciat came to California by railroad, bringing with them their four children. Their home for the first six months was at Riverside, where Mr. Creciat helped erect the County Fair buildings then in course of construction, and also the Riverside Baptist church. After moving to Los Angeles they lived for a time at the old Com- mercial Hotel at Third and Spring, until they bought property at Daly and Pasadena Avenues.
The names of the children of this couple were: William L., Charles H. Jr., Marie Antoinette, George L. and Jennie. Mr. Creciat, Sr., was a man who was always a companion to his boys, and he and his wife created a home atmosphere so compellingly attractive that the greatest pleasure of the children was in the home society. After com- ing to Los Angeles Mr. Creciat, Sr., helped build many of the finest homes in the city. As a building contractor he was in partnership with others and later for himself. He erected a planing mill called the East Side Planing Mill, and subsequently owned another similar establish- ment on East Fourth Street.
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After having retired from business he went to Alaska during the gold excitement. He built boats for the miners, creating them from the trees of the forest, and he also packed miners over the hills, having a team of horses. On his return to California, he resumed contracting and at that time established his planing mill on East Fourth street. Later he and a Mr. Hinter went up into the California hills and staked out some gold mining claims, and while at the mines he was stricken and died of heart disease.
The children were all educated in Los Angeles. While young men the three boys entered the employ of the Morgan Oyster Company. The youngest brother went into business for himself on the present site of the Jevne store on 6th and Broadway, and his business grew so fast and the possibilities were so great that the two older brothers joined him under the firm name of Creciat Brothers. Subsequently they established branch houses at San Pedro and San Diego. The lease expiring on their place at Sixth and Broadway, they bought the Haniman Fish Com- pany to obtain a suitable location. This was the oldest market location in the city. The father had always advised the boys to be honest, upright in their dealings with everyone, and they scrupulously carried out the principles thus instilled, and integrity was the foundation stone of Creciat Brothers. The children were all baptized in the Episcopal church, though in later years they have affiliated with different churches.
Recently the business community of Los Angeles sustained a great loss in the almost coincidental death of two of the brothers, William L. and George L., who died of pneumonia within a few hours of each other. William L. Creciat was born June 8, 1873, and his brother George L. on August 28, 1879, both being natives of Nashville, Ten- nessee. William L. never married and after the death of his father was by common consent looked upon as head of the household. He was a Shriner, an Elk, Modern Woodman, a member of the Athletic Club and Chamber of Commerce. His brother Charles was also affili- ated with the Masonic Order and the Modern Woodmen of America, and George was an Elk, a Shriner and Woodman. George L. Creciat married Della Vogt, of St. Louis, and he was survived by two small children, William G. and Edward H. The daughter, Jennie C., is the wife of Ernest Murray, a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, and now employed in the parcel post department of the Los Angeles postoffice. The other daughter, Mary Antoinette, is the wife of Edward O. Straub, who came with his parents from Missouri in 1875, his father being one of the first blacksmiths in Los Angeles. Edward O. Straub began work as a machinist in the Pacific Electric shops, later was made foreman of the shops, where he remained nine years, and at the outbreak of the World war took the position made vacant by enlistment of the power house engineer, and since then has been promoted to shop superin- tendent of the Pacific Electric Railway. Mr. and Mrs. Straub have four children : Ilenn Rosabell, Rose Marie, Louise and Edward George.
Charles H. Creciat, who continues the business of Creciat Brothers, married Miss Gertrude Gillman, who came to California from Maine. They have two children, Charles Edward and Birdine Louise.
JOSEPH P. SPROUL, a Los Angeles lawyer, now a member of the firm of Sproul & Sproul in the Washington Building, is a California native son and member of a family of prominence in that part of Los Angeles County known as Norwalk.
He was born at Pomona in Los Angeles County, March 30, 1884.
Joseph P. Sproul
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His father, Bedfield Sproul, who was born at Augusta, Maine, March 15, 1838, was reared and educated there, and enlisted in the Union army from Augusta and had an active service as a Union soldier. He was a Main farmer for many years after the war and in 1880 moved to Los Angeles County and settled at Norwalk where he engaged extensively as a stock raiser, buying and selling and was long considered an expert on all branches of livestock husbandry. He owned a large ranch in Orange County which was primarily devoted to stock raising. Bedfield Sproul died in July, 1892. He married at Norwalk, California, in 1882, Mary C. Kelly. It was his people who founded the town of Norwalk and were otherwise prominent as pioneers in that section. Bedfield Sproul and wife had three children, John R. Sproul, deceased ; Joseph P. Sproul and Mary E. Sproul, the latter Mrs. J. T. Blythe of Downey, California.
Joseph P. Sproul attended grammar and high school and the Depart- ment of Liberal Arts in the University of Southern California, gradu- ating from the Law Department of the University with the degree of LL.B. in 1913. He was admitted to the bar that year and practiced alone until 1915. He then formed a partnership with his cousin, Frank P. Sproul, the State Inheritance Tax Appraiser. While Mr. Sproul does a general law practice his principal work is in probate law. He is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, Elks, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Delta Theta Phi college fraternity and is a republican. At Los Angeles, November 24, 1915, he married Adeline E. Wheeler, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Wheeler.
JULIUS B. WEIL. No country of the world offers such opportuni- ties for advancement to the thrifty, industrious and ambitious youth as America, and this fact has been a determining factor in bringing here some of the best young men and women of other nations. One of the decidedly self-made men of Los Angeles, long an American citizen, but of foreign birth, is Julius B. Weil, proprietor of the Finkle Arms Apart- ments, at 912 South Figueroa Street. Born in Baden, Germany, Novem- ber 25, 1852, Julius B. Weil, a son of Bernherd Weil a farmer of Baden, had the misfortune to lose his excellent mother when he was only three years old, and his father when thirteen, and so was early thrown upon his own resources. He acquired what educational training he could in his native land, and then, realizing that for one who had his own way to make in the world, America was the "land of promise," he came to the United States, landing here March 17, 1877. His first experience in commercial life in this country was at Wilkesbarre, Penn- sylvania, as a merchant tailor, but later, responding to the feeling that a land good enough to live in was good enough to fight for, he enlisted in the United States Army and served in it for five years, taking part in the Indian warfare, under General Crook, in Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska and the "Black Hills" of Dakota. After his honorable dis- charge, he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and later was at Jonesboro, Arkansas. In 1902, Mr. Weil went to New Mexico, where he spent a year, and then in 1903 came to Los Angeles, and for the subsequent seven years was engaged in several commercial enterprises, principally accounting and auditing. He served the city of Vernon as city auditor from 1915 to 1917. On May 15, 1919, he bought his present apartment building, the care of which is now engrossing his attention. Mr. Weil was also connected with the Southern California Showcase Company as secretary, the Resilient Wheel Manufacturing Company as assistant secretary, and the Southern California Beverage Company as secretary.
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On March 31, 1878, Mr. Weil was married, at St. Louis, Missouri, to Miss Melanie Levi, and they had one son, Herbert Weil, who is now sales manager of the A. B. Jones Grocery Company of Jonesboro, Arkansas. Mrs. Weil died at Jonesboro, in 1898. On March 19, 1899, Mr. Weil was married to Miss Malwina Zander, and they have one daughter, Reva Love Weil. Although only sixteen years old, this young lady is a musician of rare ability, recognized genius and one who has already made her name a well known one in musical circles. A brilliant career is before her, to judge from the enthusiastic press notices she has received. It is the intention of her parents to give her every ad- vantage to develop her talent, and place her in a position where she can secure international recognition. A genius is too rare not to be accorded every opportunity for proper expression, and the world will benefit from the appreciation by the parents of Miss Weil of her possibilities, and without doubt the next few years will give to the musical roster a new name and to adoring audiences untold delight.
WALTER SCOTT MOORE, who died March 31, 1919, at his home, 34 St. James Park, for over forty years enjoyed a place of high esteem and influence in the rising fortunes of Los Angeles.
He was born in Philadelphia, December 23, 1850. He was three years of age when his father, Isaac Walker Moore, died. His mother was Margaret Harvey, of an old colonial American family, whose people had fought in the French and Indian wars. She was a member of the Colonial Dames. After her husband's death and while her children were still small she was married to the late William F. Hughes of Philadelphia.
Walter Scott Moore was educated in the public schools of Phila- delphia, and came to California with his mother on a pleasure trip in 1874. The railroad had only recently been completed to the coast. While Mrs. Hughes came only as far as San Francisco, her son came on to Los Angeles, and from that time until his death was a resident of the city. Soon after coming here he engaged in the real estate and insurance business. He was also admitted to the bar, but never practiced law. At one time he was collector of internal revenue.
Probably the distinction he prized most highly was as first chief of the fire department. He helped organize the old volunteer department and was elected its first chief, a position he held for twenty years, even after the department had been placed on a paid basis. He was after- wards a member of the Fire Commission, was a member and president of the City Council, and served as a member of the Board of Freeholders which drew up the original city charter. He was president of the Council when Cameron Thorn was mayor. Through his service as a member of the Governor's military staff he had the title of colonel. He was deeply interested in politics, but chiefly for the welfare and growth of his home city. He was a republican and at different times was a candi- date for the Senate and secretary of state. He was a popular speaker, and was oftentimes selected as an after-dinner orator.
For forty years he was a member of Los Angeles Lodge No. 42, A. F. and A. M., and was also an Elk, an Eagle and Maccabee. He was historian and prominent in all Elk activities.
November 17, 1877, in the Plaza Church, at Los Angeles, he mar- ried Amenaida Raphela LanFranco, daughter of John Tomas LanFranco and Dona Petra Pilar Sepulveda. Her father came from Genoa, Italy. Her mother was a daughter of Jose Loretto Sepulveda, owner of the Palos Verdes Rancho, at San Pedro, and an early Spanish settler. Mrs.
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Moore's great-grandfather was killed in defense of the Purissima Mis- sion against the Indians. Mrs. Moore is still living and her three children are Mrs. Richard O'Neil, Walter Moore, both of Los Angeles, and Mrs. Paul Selby of Johannesburg, South Africa.
NILS JACOBSON. When he arrived at San Bernardino, California, in 1887, Nils Jacobson was twenty-two years of age. He was not equipped at once to take a prominent part in California affairs. He had youth, but no capital, had been in America only about a year, had some knowledge of stock raising and general farming, but his best resources were a, complete integrity of character, good health and a steadfast ambition.
His education had been derived from the grammar school of his native county of Villeje in the town of Malmo, Sweden, where he was born March 11, 1865. His parents were Jacob Nelson and Boel Jan- son; Swedish farming people, thrifty, frugal and people who impressed their sturdy qualities upon their children.
Nils Jacobson on coming to America first located at Ottawa, Illinois. The first twelve years he spent in California he did a great deal of hard labor in the lumbering district in the San Bernardino mountains and in the Temescal tin mines. He employed his native intelligence to study the local situation and keep himself informed of opportunities.
Mr. Jacobson, during the last twenty years, has been one of the men most prominent in the real development of California's lands and agricul- tural and horticultural wealth. In 1896 he moved to Highland, where he made his first investment in a seven acre ranch. This land he later planted to oranges. Subsequently he acquired a tract of twenty-three acres of full bearing oranges. In 1902 he filed on a desert claim of three hun- dred twenty acres in the Mesquite Lake District in Imperial County. Thus he was one of the pioneers in the development of that magnificent region, which has been the marvel of the world. The following year he moved from his residence at East Highland to Imperial County. For twelve years Mr. Jacobson gave practically all his time to the development of his Imperial holdings. He acquired a block of land consisting of ten hundred forty acres, used for stock and grain farming. Today it represents one of the finest farms in the heaviest income pro- ducing property in that rich valley. In 1915 Mr. Jacobson acquired an orange ranch of fifty-five acres near Downey, and is living there at the present time. In 1917 he acquired thirty-five acres more land, all set to oranges and lemons, located just west of Rivera in Los Angeles County. Mr. Jacobson disposed of all his holdings consisting of three orange groves located at East Highland, in 1919, and during the same year he negotiated an exchange of his Imperial holdings for seventy acres of oranges located four miles west of Fullerton in Orange County. This property is reputed to be one of the finest in that section of Cali- fornia. At this writing Mr. Jacobson's holdings in orange groves com- prise a hundred sixty acres. He was also a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Imperial.
While Mr. Jacobson is a republican voter, he has been too busy with his other substantial interests to enter politics, and the work which constitutes his best memorial is that which has been briefly surveyed above.
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