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 20
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OTTO B. FRANZ is president of the Otto B. Franz Company, manu- facturers' agents and merchandise brokers, with offices in the San Fernando Building, at Los Angeles. Mr. Franz has been a business man of Southern California for a little more than ten years, but both he and his family have had active associations with the West and South- west for a long period of years.
Mr. Franz was born in St. Louis, Missouri, March 16, 1877. He is the son of Edward D. and Sophia (Deitzel) Franz. This is one of the old and honored names in the business and social life of the city of St. Louis. Edward D. Franz was born at Hamburg, Germany, March 20, 1834, and died at St. Louis in February, 1898. On coming to America as a young man he soon became associated with that great traffic and transportation that led westward over the Santa Fe trail from Western Missouri to the city of Sante Fe, New Mexico. He made many trips over that famous highway, transporting wares and merchandise with ox teams. That was long before railroads penetrated that section of the Southwest, and when encounters with hostile Indians were incidental to such undertakings. He maintained a trading post at Los Lunas, New Mexico. Later, with Mr. August Nasse, he organized the firm of Franz & Nasse at St. Louis, the pioneer wholesale grocery house of that city. The business is still conducted as the August Nasse & Son. Mrs. Sophia Franz is still living, at the age of seventy-nine, and resides with one of her daughters at Santa Fe, New Mexico. The city of St. Louis is the richer because of the long continued residence and business activities of the Franz family. In 1915 the old Franz homestead, in- cluding a comfortable old home in a park-like setting of trees, was pre- sented to the city as a permanent park or playground to be known as the E. D. Franz Memorial Square. The title was conveyed by Mrs. Sophia Franz. All the ten children, five sons and five daughters, of E. D. Franz grew to adult years in that old home and they joined with their mother in presenting the spot so dear to their early memories to the city as a playground. Of these children all are still living, except the oldest daughter, Mrs. Minna F. Kleinschmidt, who died in April, 1906. The others are: E. W. Franz, Mrs. Johanna F. Fiske, E. H. Franz, Mrs. Amanda F. Wheeler, G. A. Franz, Walter G. Franz, Otto B. Franz, Mrs. Henrietta F. Holdoway and Mrs. Adelaide Zimmerman. The only two in California are Otto and Ernest H., the latter a retired business man of Pasadena.
Otto B. Franz acquired a liberal education at St. Louis in the public schools, the Smith Academy, the Manual Training School, both branches of Washington University and the Bryant & Stratton Commercial Col- lege. From 1899 to 1907 he was in active business as a general mer- chant in New Mexico and Colorado, and in 1908 came to Los Angeles and engaged in the business of merchandise brokerage. He was first associated with Mr. E. T. Lee under the firm name of Lee-Franz Brokerage Company, then as now located in the San Fernando Building.
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In October, 1915, Mr. Franz bought out his partner, and in January, 1916, S. W. Cunningham became associated with him under the name Franz, Cunningham & Company. In April, 1919, Mr. Cunningham withdrew and Mr. Franz later changed the title of his business to the Otto B. Franz Company. Mr. Cunningham is now associated with the V. K. Morgan Company of El Monte, California, who specialize in the packing of California canned fruits and vegetables.
Mr. Franz is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association. On December 19, 1898, at St. Louis, he married Miss Louise Landry of that city, where she was born and educated. They reside at 123 North Hobart Boule- vard, and Mrs. Franz is active in the Parents-Teachers Association of the Virgil Intermediate School. They have five children, the first four born at Lamar, Colorado, and the youngest in Los Angeles. All are now in school. They are: Charles C., Otto B. Jr., Norman L., Louise C. and Marie S.
W. H. HAY came to Los Angeles in 1880 and almost continuously from that year to the present has been engaged in the real estate business. He is one of the veterans in that field, and as an expert in subdivision work practically has no superior in the state. Again and again he has exercised a rare skill and foresight in anticipating development and needs of the enlarging community of Los Angeles, and particularly in the district known as West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. His efforts and influence have been productive in covering much of that territory with beautiful suburban homes and highly developed suburban farms.
Mr. Hay, who is now preparing to retire from active business, was born at Hamilton, Canada, October 14, 1864. The town of Hamilton, Ontario, was named in honor of his grandfather Hamilton, who went to Canada on a sailing vessel from Scotland. William and Hamilla (Hamilton) Hay, parents of the Los Angeles real estate man, were both born in Scotland and were married in Glasgow. William Hamil- ton was a Presbyterian minister, and died of apoplexy while still en- gaged in that profession in Canada. His widow afterwards came to Los Angeles, where she died in 1893.
William H. Hay was educated in the public schools of Canada and was fifteen years of age when he came to Los Angeles in 1880. On April 8, 1888, he completed his naturalization as an American citizen before Judge Lucius Shaw, now a member of the State Supreme Court of California. For about sixteen years Mr. Hay was associated with J. F. White in the real estate business at 4 East First Street. He learned the business with Mr. White and afterwards for about ten years they were associated in partnership as White & Hay. For about ten years he was associated with C. E. Norton, the firm of Norton & Hay being located at 318 West Third Street. Their office, occupying the ground floor of the building there, was the best known real estate establishment of that time. Since the death of Mr. Norton about 1911 Mr. Hay has carried on his business under his own name.
Mr. Hay became interested in the farm and ranch property at West Hollywood in 1908 and has developed that district so rapidly that it is now solidly covered with handsome residences. He also put on the market the railroad tract adjoining the depot at San Bernardino and originally owned what is now known as Marygold Acres adjoining the Rialto in San Bernardino County. His interests during the last several
W. H. Hay t
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years have been chiefly concentrated on a magnificent property in the San Fernando Valley, bisected by the beautiful California State Highway. This subdivision is known as Encino Acres and comprised originally over forty-five hundred acres, being about two and three-quarter miles square. Mr. Hay also installed aqueduct water through the above tract, laid out and constructed the streets, and the entire area, now divided into suburban farms, from five acres to twenty acres, has all the basic improvements which make such property immediately available to pur- chasers. He also marketed the hundred sixty acres known as Crescent Heights, West Hollywood, running along Sunset and Santa Monica boulevard, but this property is now all sold.
Mr. Hay is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, a life member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, a member of the Auto- mobile Club of Southern California, the Municipal League, Y. M. C. A., and the National Defense League of California. During the war he donated the use of a sixteen room house on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood to the Red Cross for sixteen months. The West Hollywood Red Cross Auxiliary was organized there. Mr. Hay is also said to possess the finest private collection of minerals in California.
Mr. Hay is a widely traveled and cultured gentleman, About ten years ago in 1908 he made a trip around the world, going by San Fran- cisco to Japan, visiting the larger cities of China, then to Vladivostok and across Siberia by the great Siberian railroad to Moscow, visiting Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, London and thence across the ocean to New York and across the continent to his home state. Politically Mr. Hay is a republican and was one of the stanchest supporters in California of Hiram Johnson.
In 1910, at Los Angeles, Mr. Hay married Miss Katherine Edmon- son, who was born at Huntington, Indiana, in a house where her mother is still living. She was educated in Chicago and since her marriage has become a well known and popular member of social circles in West Hollywood and Los Angeles. She is a member of the Hollywood Club and the Ebell Club. Mr. and Mrs. Hay reside at 7940 Sunset Boule- vard, and have a country home of fifty acres in Encino. Mr. Hay has also a sister Miss Minnie Grafton Hay and two daughters Ruby and Elizabeth.
PAUL W. SCHENCK is a Los Angeles lawyer, a man of mature abilities, with a good business, and with all those connections that a successful lawyer enjoys. It is doubtful if any of his contemporaries in the profession have a greater variety of experience and did more to overcome early disadvantages in entering the profession than Mr. Schenck. A brief recital of his early experiences will doubtless throw much light on the qualities and character that have made him a pros- perous lawyer.
Mr. Schenck was born at Albion, Michigan, August 18, 1874, son of Alonzo and Amanda (Wadsworth) Schenck. His parents were both natives of New York State. When Paul was five years of age his parents moved to the northwestern frontier, locating at Athol, in Dakota Territory. They were hard working home makers, and for some years lived with the barrenness of comfort and simplicity that marked all the homes along the frontier. In those strenuous days every member of the family had to bear a part. Thus, at the age of eight and a half, Paul W. Schenck took his first position as cash boy in a racket store at seventy-five cents a week. He worked only four weeks, and then secured
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a more profitable connection as cash boy in a dry goods store at a dollar and a half a week, and stayed on that job five months. He was messen- ger boy with the Western Union Telegraph Company three months, and going to Sioux City, Iowa, again took up the duties of cash boy in a dry goods store for four months, and for eight months was an A. D. T. messenger. During a brief period of three weeks he was learning the candy making trade, but so far as known never put that knowledge to practical account. For nine months he drove a wagon delivering gro- ceries.
The record of his life so far is devoid of school attendance and experience. He had picked up much knowledge by the way, and among other accomplishments wrote a very clear hand. This skill with the pen brought him a job addressing letters for the M. H. Silberhorn Pack- ing Company. This was a large meat packing house in the Northwest states, and Mr. Schenck by ability rose from one position to another until he was made general office manager of the company. In 1891 he resigned, and in order to familiarize himself with every phase and department of the packing industry he went back to the bottom of the ladder as assistant engineer in the packing house. He also operated the freight elevator, was a blacksmith's helper, and in 1892 resumed his duties as office manager.
In April, 1893, the company sent him out to Rodeo, California, to take charge of their branch establishment known as the Rodeo Packing Company. He continued as office manager until August, 1893, when during the panic the company failed. After closing up the affairs of the office and turning them over to his successor, Mr. Schenck boarded a train for Chicago, arriving in that city with only twenty dollars in his pocket, and soon secured a position in a confidential capacity with Ed- ward Swift of Swift & Company. Three years of hard application to his work brought a general breakdown of health, and he gave up what promised to be a large field of usefulness and went out on one of the Swift & Company's cattle ranches and for nine months was a cowboy. The company then put him on the pay roll as assistant purchasing agent, but in 1900 he resigned and left the packing industry altogether.
In the meantime, from 1896 to 1898, while in Chicago, Mr. Schenck studied law in the night law school of Lake Forest University. He made a creditable record and graduated and was admitted to the Illinois bar. In 1900 he returned to Los Angeles and, with his brother, Sam Schenck, formed the co-partnership of Schenck, Tatum & Schenck, engaged in the general real estate business. Then in 1904 he withdrew from that firm to take up the practice of law, since which time his career has not been devoid of exciting experience in connection with the prac-' tice of criminal law almost exclusively, which has brought him increasing connections and associations with prominent professional interests of Southern California. Mr. Schenck is a member of the legal associations, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Union League Club, and is affiliated with the Elks. At Los Angeles, October 8, 1908, he married Miss Genevieve Kittrelle.
FRED H. CASE, who has been a resident of California since 1908. and has been industrially prominent as a promoter of the beet sugar industry in Michigan and on the Pacific Coast, was born at Constantine. Michigan, October 30, 1857, son of Richmond E. and Laura (Hewings) Case. He is a twin brother of Frank B. Case, a retired naval officer now living at Los Angeles.
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When Fred Case was six years of age his parents moved to Three Rivers, Michigan, where he spent his boyhood and received his early education. During the early nineties at Three Rivers he was editor and publisher of the Tribune, a daily and weekly paper. He sold this in 1896. At the age of eighteen he had joined the National Guard of Michigan, and rose from private to the grades of corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant-colonel, and from 1897 to 1901 was adjutant-general of the state under Governor Pingree.
It was during the Pingree administration that the beet sugar industry was established in Michigan. About that time the Legislature passed a bill offering a bounty of one cent per pound as a means of stimulating sugar beet production and the manufacture of sugar. Governor Pingree vetoed the bounty appropriation bill and the courts sustained his veto, but nevertheless from that time Michigan has ranked as one of the leading sugar states. For several years General Case was associated with the St. Louis Sugar Company in Michigan. On coming to Cali- fornia in 1908 he and his brother organized a company and built a sugar factory at Santa Ana, their partner being H. W. Hinze. This factory was sold to the Holly Sugar Company in 1915.
In June, 1917, Mr. Case became a partner in the Damon Specialty Company, which manufactures and sells the widely known Non-Olio polish.
Mr. Case married, at Three Rivers, in 1894, Mrs. Carrie (Roberts) Tucker. While in Michigan he was affiliated with the lodge, Royal Arch Chapter and Council bodies of Masonry, and is now a member of Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Los Angeles.
WILIAM H. DAMON has a personal acquaintance that hardly repre- sents a tithe of the people who are familiar with his name through the products of the Damon Specialty Company, of which he is the founder and inventor of its chief output, "Damon's Non-Olio" a polish of un- rivaled qualities and characteristics that have won the appreciation and testimonials of many of the largest automobile companies.
The Damon Specialty Company has its headquarters at 516 E. Ninth Street, Los Angeles. Non-Olio polish is now twenty-four years old. It was invented by W. H. Damon in Chicago in 1894. As the etymology of the world indicates even to the most popular comprehen- sion, Non-olio means no oil or grease, and the absence of oil is the chief characteristic of the polish from the standpoint of manufacture. The makers also claim for it three items of excellence, that it cleans, waxes and polishes in one operation, and a number of the largest auto- mobile manufacturers as well as piano companies and automobile asso- ciations have called it the "best polish we have ever used."
During the years 1894-95 Non-Olio enjoyed considerable popu- larity in Chicago as a piano and furniture polish. That was of course before the advent of automobiles, and its adaptation as an automobile body polish was of later origin. Non-Olio is probably the only polish on the market protected by United States Patents. It is protected by two United States Patents and also by a Canadian Patent. Three years ago it was manufactured in a small way at Washington and Hoover streets, in Los Angeles. Then the company moved to larger quarters at 1103 South Hill, a year later to still larger quarters at 902 South Hill, and on February 1, 1918, the company occupied its present place at 516 East Ninth Street, where seven thousand square feet of floor space are used. The company has a capacity of five thousand quarts per day. Non-Olio is sold in practically every state of the Union
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and all over Canada, and the cessation of the great war means the open- ing of a great export market.
Dr. William H. Damon, the inventor and founder of Non-Olio and the Damon Specialty Company, is a native Californian, born in Napa, March 30, 1873. His parents were Rev. William C. and Amelia (Bailey) Damon. In 1891 he graduated from high school, following which for three years he was a student in the scientific department of Napa College. Then followed an apprenticeship of one year as piano maker with Hemme & Long Piano Company at San Francisco. For two years he operated a piano business of his own at Harriman, Tennessee. The next turn of his fortune took him to Chicago where he was em- ployed as a piano tuner and repairer by the Shoninger Piano Company a year, and then as a piano maker by the Bush and Gerts Piano Company three years. It was during that time that he invented Non-Olio. He con- tinued as a piano maker with the John Church Company five years. In the meantime he was studying medicine at the Dearborn Medical College of Chicago, and graduated with his degree in 1904, following which he practiced medicine in Chicago four years.
Then returning to California Dr. Damon located at Los Angeles and resumed his old profession as head piano tuner with the George Birkel Company one year. He then established a business of his own for piano tuning and repair work, and made it in a few years the larg- est enterprise of its kind of the Pacific Coast, requiring the services of fourteen employes. Dr. Damon sold that business in 1916 and has since devoted his entire time to the promotion of Non-Olio manufac- ture and distribution through the Damon Specialty Company.
Dr. Damon is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic Order. He married at Chicago, June 26, 1904, Grace Nichol, of Kan- sas City, Missouri, who is a native of Kentucky and comes from one of the well known old aristocratic southern families.
FRED E. EISNER, a business associate of Dr. W. H. Damon, of Los Angeles, was born in Bohemia, September 28, 1888, and was about three years old when his parents, Ludwig and Sophie Eisner, came to the United Sttaes in 1891 and located in Chicago. He attended gram- mar and high school in Chicago until 1902, and then went to work in the jewelry line, a business in which he grew up. He is a member of the Masonic order. August 21, 1910, he married at Chicago Nettie Spiegel. They have two children: Morton, born in 1911, and Lucile Marguerite, born in 1916.
CHARLES L. CHANDLER. A lawyer of ripe powers and abilities, Mr. Chandler began practice in 1901, and since 1903 has been a resident of Los Angeles. The greater part of his professional work has been car- ried on in connection with large business organizations, and he is one of the leading corporation attorneys of the West.
He was born at Davenport, Iowa, May 30, 1878, but grew up in Colorado. He attended grammar and high schools at Pueblo, and in 1892 entered the University of Nebraska Preparatory School, studying mathematics under Gen. John J. Pershing, who was then a first lieuten- ant of the Tenth Cavalry and Commandent of Cadets at the University of Nebraska. In 1894 returning to Denver he became a student in the Woodworth Business College and in 1896 entered the University of Denver, where he completed the law course and graduated in 1900. The following year he spent in post-graduate studies in Cornell Uni-
This Lo Chandler
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versity, from which he also received the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1901.
He was admitted to the Colorado bar in January, 1900, and during a part of 1901-02 was employed by a firm of leading attorneys at Denver. From Denver he went to New York City and was employed both as a lawyer and business representative by the Yellow Poplar Lumber of Ironton, Ohio. The owner and active head of this business was his uncle, the late F. C. Fischer. During the next year or so he became an expert in the examination of land titles for the company through the Southern States and also had duties that took him to the timber districts of Southeastern and Northwestern states.
Mr. Chandler resigned from the lumber company in 1903 and set- tled in Los Angeles. For two years he was connected with the firm of Cochran & Williams and in 1906 became a partner in the firm of Williams, Goudge & Chandler. This firm represented the interests of some of the large corporations in the West, including the Pacific Mu- tual Life Insurance Company, the Broadway Bank & Trust Company, Home Savings Bank and other banks and corporations. With the pres- tige and experience gained by membership in that firm, Mr. Chandler since resuming private practice alone, with offices in the Investment Building, has built up an individual organization that is one of the foremost in the legal circles of Southern California.
He has served as president of the Seaboard Land Security Com- pany, as an officer and general counsel of the Midway Light and Power Company, The Needles Light & Power Company, the Seaboard Metal Works and Orland Land Company, and is in many respects as thoroughly a business man as he is a lawyer. He has also served as the secretary of the Republican County Central Committee of Los Angeles County.
Mr. Chandler is a Scottish Rite Mason, was one of the organizers and former president of the Cornell University Club of Southern Cali- fornia, and is a member of the Sons of the Revolution. March 6, 1906, he married Gisela Pluemer of Elizabeth, New Jersey. They have four children, Sarah Fischer, Davis Pluemer, Barbara Belle and Meta Lovell Chandler, and they reside at "Los Ritos" in Verdugo Canyon at Glendale. 1
ARTHUR LOUIS MERRY was a popular citizen of Los Angeles for a number of years, connected with the Department of Public Works, and widely known as naval veteran of the Spanish-American war period.
Mr. Merry, who died at his home, 1142 West Fifty-third Street, March 27, 1919, was laid to rest with Roosevelt Camp of the United Spanish War Veterans in charge of the services. The casket was draped with the flag which Mr. Merry raised in Honolulu when his uncle, John F. Merry, received his commission, and which Mr. Merry lowered when his uncle retired from the navy.
Arthur Louis Merry was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 9, 1871, and represented some of the oldest and most patriotic of Amer- ican stock. His people have lived in Massachusetts since the earliest colonial settlement.
His father, Louis E. Merry, was born at Edgecomb, Maine, son of Captain John and Sarah Ann Merry. A brother of Louis E. Merry was the late Rear Admiral John Fairfield Merry, U. S. N., retired, who was a member of the Legion of Honor, a membership that was trans- ferred to Henry Merry of New York City.
The mother of Arthur Louis Merry and other members of the family still reside at West Summerville, Massachusetts. Louis E. Merry
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was long prominent in the business and social life of West Summerville. For nineteen years he was president of the Second Unitarian Church, was a member of John Abbott and Summerville Lodges of Masons, of Caleb Rand Lodge No. 197, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was trustee and charter member of the Summerville Hospital Corpora- tion, trustee of the Charlestown Five Cent Savings Bank, trustee and chairman of the Security Committee of the West Summerville Co-Opera- tive Bank, president of the Summerville Sons of Maine Club, a member of the Republican State Committee, trustee of the Boston College of Physicians and Surgeons, a member of the Sons of the American Revo- lution, of the Chamber of Commerce, Unitarian Club, Massachusetts Horticultural Society, sat on the Summerville Common Council in 1887-88, and was a member of the Building Committee which had in charge the erection of the Carnegie Branch Library of West Summer- ville. The Merry family spent their summer vacations at Merry Island, at the mouth of the Damariscotta River, near Edgecomb, Maine, where they owned a country residence. In 1867 Louis E. Merry served as captain's pay clerk on the United States receiving ship Ohio at the Charlestown Navy Yard, on which his brother, John Fairfield Merry, was then a lieutenant. A sister of Louis E. Merry, Mary, became the wife of Professor Lyman Wheeler of the Boston Conservatory of Music, who numbered among his pupils Maud Rees Davie, Adelina Patti and others who became famous in the dramatic and musical world. The brothers and sisters of Arthur Louis Merry now living are: Mrs. Sarah Royal and Miss Mary of West Summerville, Louis Merry of West Summerville, and Ralph Merry of New York City.
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