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 26
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
It was a matter of public spirit and community faith as well as business prudence that suggested the direction of some of his enter- prises. A monument to this public spirited enterprise is the Herman W. Hellman Building at Fourth and Spring streets.
Business success largely meant to him an opportunity for service to his fellow men. He supported numerous charitable institutions, was helpful to those in need, and while serving as president of the B'nai B'rith Congregation the new temple was erected. He was a member of the Jonathan, California and Concordia Clubs. In Masonry he was past master of Pentalpha Lodge No. 202 A. F. and A. M., was a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and a member of Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
July 26, 1874, Mr. Hellman married Miss Ida Heimann. They were married in Italy. Their four children are Mrs. Louis M. Cole; Mrs. Sollie Aronson ; Marco H. and Irving H. Hellmann.
MARCO H. HELLMAN. When Herman W. Hellman died at Los Angeles in 1906, his positive financial genius was attested by the im- mense estate which he left, including a multitude of interests, banking, real estate, oil, corporation, etc. To the management of this vast prop- erty came his son Marco H. Hellman, qualified by business experience and by inheritance for its safeguarding and expansion.
It has been said that Marco H. Hellman holds more offices in banks and corporations than any other three men in Southern California. His ability as a financier and executive has been thoroughly tried and proved in handling the Herman W. Hellman estate, as well as in many other positions to which he has been called.
Marco H. Hellman was born in Los Angeles, September 14, 1878. He was well educated in the public schools of his native city and also attended Leland Stanford University. His banking experience began with the Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles, where he started as a messenger. Later his employment was of a nature to qualify him for a thorough knowledge of banking and finance in all its details. He was finally made assistant cashier, and remained with the bank about six years. He resigned to become assistant cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles, of which he is still vice president. He is president of the Hellman Commercial Trust & Sav- ings Bank besides being vice president or director of fully a score of banks, besides a number of industrial corporations.
The interests of his busy life have identified him with the welfare and advancement of his native city. While his name does not figure in politics, it is associated with many of the movements which have a larger importance than political issues. It is well remembered how, when the Owens River aqueduct project was proposed and money was needed, and the eastern syndicate accepted only its alloted portion, Mr.
David mon air
619
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
Hellman took over and sold the remaining portion of the bonds for the city, a transaction involving at least three million dollars. With the money obtained so promptly, the city was able to go ahead with its work of improvement and the Owens River aqueduct, a remarkable engineer- ing project, has brought pure water not only to Los Angeles, but to many towns and villages in the vicinity.
Mr. Hellman was born in his father's old mansion at Fourth and Spring streets, when that corner was part of the residential section of the city. It was on this site that the conspicuous skyscraper known as the Herman W. Hellman building was erected. Mr. Hellman is a mem- ber of the Jonathan, Union League, Los Angeles Athletic and San Gabriel Valley Country Clubs of Los Angeles, is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner, and a member of the Elks. June 10, 1908, at Los Angeles, he married Miss Reta Levis, of Visalia, California. They have two children, Herman Wallace Hellman and Marcoreta Levis Hellman.
DAVID McNAIR, a wealthy and prominent Canadian lumberman and manufacturer, came to San Diego, California, with his family about twenty years ago, and fifteen years ago moved to Los Angeles and built the beautiful home which his family now occupies at 625 Kingsley Drive, it being one of the first homes on that now noted thoroughfare.
Mr. McNair, who died in the beautiful surroundings his wealth and good taste had created, and honored and respected by many prominent Southern Californians, on January 25, 1920, was born at River Louison, New Brunswick, Canada, September 13, 1842, son of John and Elizabeth (Kelso) McNair and grandson of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Mckenzie) McNair. His father was of a prominent and wealthy Scotch Highland family, and came from Campbellton, Argyleshire, Scotland, to New Brunswick on a sailing vessel at a very early day (1819), when crossing the ocean was a matter of three months or more. John McNair took up the lumber business in Eastern Canada, and owned several timber mills and a fleet of sailing vessels to ship the product to England.
David McNair was educated in New Brunswick, and after leaving school took up the lumber business with his father. Later he utilized his experience in the new and pioneer districts of the Pacific Coast, the British Columbia forests, going to Western Canada in company with John Hendry and establishing his home and business headquarters at New Westminster and later moved to Vancouver. There he was associated with John Hendry in the sawmilling business at Nanaimo, and subsequently they formed the Royal City Planing Mills of New Westminster. The British Columbia Mills Timber and Trading Com- pany was incorporated by Mr. McNair, Mr. Hendry and Mr. Beecher in the early nineties, this new corporation absorbing the properties of the Royal City Planing Mills and the Hastings Sawmill Company. Mr. McNair was one of the first lumbermen to develop the timber resources of British Columbia on a large commercial scale. He was an eminently practical man, possessed of all the typical virtues of northern lumbermen, and was a recognized authority upon every phase of the industry. His part of the work was surveying and securing the timber. He con- tinued his associations with the British Columbia Mills Timber an 1 Trad- ing Company until in recent years, after coming to California. He came to Southern California for the benefit of Mrs. McNair's health. In California Mr. McNair became interested in real estate and the general
620
LOS ANGELES
development of Los Angeles and vicinity. He was one of the directors of the Angeles Mesa Land Company and the Mission Land Company at San Fernando.
April 13, 1881, Mr. McNair married Marion Hendry, who was born at Belledune, New Brunswick. Her parents, James and Margaret (Wilson) Hendry, had sailed from Ardrosson, Scotland, for Chaleur Bay April 6, 1832, on the ship Margaret Ritchie. Mrs. McNair died in Los Angeles April 14, 1920. The late Mr. McNair was always faith- ful to his training as a Scotch Presbyterian and was an elder in the church for many years. He was also one of the early members of the Los Angeles Country Club.
He is survived by two brothers, Mr. Alexander McNair of Van- couver and John McNair of Minneapolis, and one sister, Mrs. Daniel McMillan of Ottawa.
The family home at Los Angeles is now occupied by the daughter, Miss Ethelyn McNair. There are two other daughters, Mrs. Henry Browning Landes, of Los Angeles, and Mrs. Colin Defries, of London, England. Their oldest child, a son, died when a baby at New Westmin- ster. Mrs. Defries has two children, Joan Elizabeth and Madeline Darcy.
OTTO G. WILDEY grew up in California and since 1906 has been busily engaged in building up a large real estate, insurance and general contracting organization, conducted under the name Edwards & Wildey Company, in which Mr. Wildey is secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Wildey was born at Chehalis, Washington, January 1, 1880, a son of Henry and Jennie (Leach) Wildey. His father, a native of Not- tingham, England, came to Canada when a young man, later to the United States, and practiced the profession of civil engineering in the State of Washington. Later he was a merchant in Oregon, and about 1895 settled with his family at Whittier, California. He died at Los Angeles, March 26, 1917, and his widow is still living in Los Angeles, where the family have resided for the past twenty-two years. Otto G. Wildey has one sister, Mrs. J. C. Bannister, of Los Angeles.
Mr. Wildey was educated in the Public schools of Oregon and at Whittier, California, and attended the Quaker College in the latter place. During his business career he had only one employer, the Hulse- Bradford Company, of San Francisco, wholesalers and jobbers in uphol- stering supplies. Mr. Wildey was with this firm ten or twelve years in the branch office at Los Angeles. When the business was sold in 1906 he and Godfrey Edwards, who had also been with the Hulse- Bradford Company, engaged in business for themselves, incorporating the Edwards & Wildey Company, with Mr. Edwards as president and Mr. Wildey as secretary and treasurer. They did a general real estate business, buying and developing property and building homes in Los Angeles. Since 1917 they have branched out into heavy construction work, and have taken many contracts for heavy construction in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. They also represent some of the stand- ard fire, liability and insurance companies. Mr. Edwards and Mr. Wildey have always held the controlling interest in the company, the rest of the stock being in the names of their wives.
Mr. Wildey is a member of the Los Angeles Advertising Club, Los Angeles Motor Boat Club, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and in religion is a member of the Episcopal Church. His firm belongs to the Builders' Exchange of Los Angeles.
Yman In Dney
621
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
He and his wife reside at 903 Mariposa Street. He was married in Los Angeles, July 2, 1902, to Miss Nella Dearden. She was born in Southport, England, and was brought to California from England by her parents when a girl of twelve years. Her father, William Dearden, is now living at Liverpool, England. Mrs. Wildey was educated in the public schools of Ontario, California.
F. BRUCE WETHERBY, who died December 7, 1916, was a pioneer resident of Pasadena and for many years a merchant in that city until his enterprise assumed metropolitan proportions and was moved to Los Angeles. He was widely known as a business man, citizen and factor in social and civil affairs in both cities.
He was born on a farm near Baldwinsville, Onondaga County, New York, December 25, 1863, a son of Theodore and Valenta Wetherby. His parents were residents of Southern California for many years. He attended public school to the age of fourteen and for several years was employed in the mechanical department of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. He came to California by way of Panama at the age of nineteen and his first work in Los Angeles, then a comparatively small town, was in connection with the surveying of Rosedale cemetery. He always lived in Pasadena, was one of the early residents of that community, and engaged in the shoe business in 1884 with F. R. Harris. This partner- ship was dissolved in 1886, the business continuing under his name of F. B. Wetherby until 1888, when a partnership was formed with Emil Kayser. These two men erected a two-story building at 55-57 Colorado Street, and that firm title still continues and is one of the oldest in the mercantile history of Pasadena and Los Angeles. December 1, 1902, they opened a store at 215 South Broadway, Los Angeles, continuing their Pasadena store for one year. In 1904 they acquired a place adjoining the store and in September, 1910, moved their establishment to Fourth and Broadway. In October, 1917, after the death of Mr. Wetherby another store was opened at 416-418 West Seventh Street. This Seventh Street store is probably the finest shoe store in the West, excelling not only in its appointments and equipment, but in the splen- did service it renders.
The business was incorporated in 1904 with Mr. Wetherby as president and Mr. Kayser as secretary and treasurer. Mr. Kayser suc- ceeded as president upon the death of the senior partner, and F. W. Heidel then became secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Wetherby always kept his residence at Pasadena having been president of the town, his home where he died being at 355 South Madison avenue. He was a leader in social affairs of the city, was a member of the California Club, and won a host of friends by his stain- less business and personal character.
In 1889 he married Miss Maria Visscher. Mrs. Wetherby and two children survive, Henry and Christine. The son Henry enlisted in the navy during the great war and received the rank of ensign and since his discharge has been actively identified with the management of the Wetherby-Kayser Shoe Company.
MRS. SUSAN M. DORSEY. There are few Los Angeles people who do not know Mrs. Susan M. Dorsey as one of the active officials in the public school system in the city. She has been a teacher and school administrator here for twenty years or more, but her service has been distinguished not merely by its duration and the responsibility of the
622
LOS ANGELES
offices she has held, but the particularly personal character of the work she has done and the ideas and ideals which have guided her in that work.
Mrs. Dorsey is a native of Penn Yan, New York State. She is a graduate of Vassar College and for three years after graduating taught at Vassar. After that she took up various social and church lines of work, and it was those interests which first brought her to California.
During the first nine years of her residence in this state she was identified with various social programs. In 1892 she entered upon school work, and in 1896 became a teacher in the classical languages in the Los Angeles High School. Later she was promoted to the head- ship of the classical department and later was made vice principal in this high school. In this position Mrs. Dorsey had opportunity not only to teach along the formal lines, but to assist largely in shaping the policies of the Los Angeles High School and of all the high schools of the city. She applied herself with great zest to many problems for integrating the work of the high schools with that of colleges and the practical work of life. She constantly sought to work out plans for developing the social life of the school, and for introducing into it a liberal and democratic spirit which would gradually disintegrate the class and clique system too frequently found in such schools. Mrs. Dorsey was profoundly interested and ultimately instrumental in devising a method whereby older giris should be able to help the younger ones.
Much is said nowadays about vocational guidance and other features of school and social programs. It is not assigning too much credit to Mrs. Dorsey to say that she was one of the pioneers in developing the idea of vocational guidance. In the direction of that ideal she was steadily progressing when most public schools in America and elsewhere were given over to the cut and dried program of formal education, with only incidental relationship to the big and vital problems of life.
In March, 1913, by the unanimous choice of the Board of Educa- tion, Mrs. Dorsey entered upon the duties of assistant superintend nt of schools. With this assignment there came the responsibility of super- vising one of the school districts. In spite of absorption in this larger and more general work she has always found time to consider individual cases whether of a teacher or a pupil. Because of her interest in organi- zations having in charge the social welfare of women and girls in the city, she has done much to put the work of the schools into close and effective co-ordination with such outside organizations, and to secure frequent conferences between the school authorities proper and the juvenile associations, the City Mothers and charity organizations. Espe- cially during the war much time and serions effort were given to making the schools one of the great controlling factors in Los Angeles toward winning the war.
Mrs. Dorsey has served as president of the California Teachers' Association, Southern Section, and is at present a member of the Com- mission on the National Emergency in Education, a member of the National Council of Education and vice president of the National Educa- tion Association. She is a charter member of the Woman's University Club, a member of the Vassar Club, City Teachers' Club and of the National Education Association. She is devoted to the working out of a large and wholesome program of American education, and her own Americanism is a record that begins with her ancestors, who fought in the Revolutionary war.
On January 1, 1920, Mrs. Dorsey entered upon the work of superin-
623
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
tendent of the schools of Los Angeles, to which position she had been assigned by the Board of Education a few days before. She has assumed this responsible work at a time of extreme difficulty, owing to the fact that war conditions for several years have prevented the usual improve- ment and increase in school facilities, while the child population of Los Angeles has kept on growing at an astonishing rate. She will bring to the situation steadiness, courage, optimism and determination.
EDWIN H. KENNARD, who has made his headquarters at Los Angeles for the past sixteen years, is a mining and metallurgical engineer well known by his operations throughout the west and southwest and is senior member of the firm Kennard & Bierce in the Hollingsworth Building.
He was born in Effingham, Illinois, December 15, 1878, a son of F. F. and Jessie Benton (Holliday) Kennard. His father was a Union soldier in the Civil war, afterwards followed the profession of civil engineer in various eastern states, and came to Los Angeles in 1905, living retired until his death in 1914. He was a Knight Templar Mason. The widowed mother is still living in Los Angeles. There were three children in the family, two daughters and one son.
Edwin H. Kennard grew up and spent his boyhood chiefly at Den- ver, Colorado, where he graduated from the high school in 1898. He afterward attended the Colorado School of Mines at Golden, and has been engaged in the different branches of mining and mine engineering in the United States, Mexico and Canada. His work, comprising metallur- gical engineering and everything pertaining to the designing and con- struction of milling plants and examination of mines has been done chiefly in Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and California.
Mr. Kennard is a member of the American Institute of Mining, and Metallurgical Engineers, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Automobile Club of Southern California, and San Gabriel Country Club. May 8, 1904, he married Teresa W. Maltman, of Los Angeles, who was born and educated in Southern California. They have one daughter, Geraldine.
EDWARD A. DICKSON, editor of the Los Angeles Evening Express, has been a resident of California since 1886, and in later years his name has been associated with a number of important movements in the state's civic development.
He was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, August 29, 1879, a son of William H. and Jennie (Iverson) Dickson. He attended the University of California, from which he was graduated in 1901, with the degree of B. L. He then spent a year in Japan and on returning to California was for four years on the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle. He became associated with the Los Angeles Express in 1906, and was the Wash- ington, D. C., correspondent of that paper from 1910 to 1912. In February, 1919, he became editor of the Los Angeles Evening Express.
Mr. Dickson is a regent of the University of California and a mem- ber of the California Historical Commission. During the war he was a member of the State Council of Defense.
Mr. Dickson is affiliated with King Solomon Lodge of Masons, the University Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, is a republican and a Methodist. At Los Angeles, December 25, 1908, he married Wil- helmina de Wolff.
SISTERS OF MERCY. This community was introduced into Southern California some thirty years ago, on the invitation of the late Right Reverend Bishop Mora of the Diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles.
524
LOS ANGELES
Hospitals at San Diego, Bakersfield and Oxnard, also parochial schools at Redlands and Bakersfield bear witness to the rapid increase and de- velopment of the various works of the Order in this favored Southland.
In Los Angeles the Sisters conduct St. John's Academy-an up- to-date boarding school, where boys from five to fourteen years of age receive a thorough education calculated to enable them to continue with credit their studies at the higher seats of learning and to fit them for their responsibilities as future citizens of our Glorious Republic. As "All true character and integrity of life must be solidly grounded on the unchangeable principles of eternal truth," it is needless to say re- ligious instruction holds a paramount place in the curriculum.
St. John's is a Military School. Such discipline is maintained as enables the pupils to make efficient progress in their studies and the mili- tary system helps them in the acquirement of the habits of obedience, neatness, promptness and the acquisition of self reliance. However, while military exercises are thoroughly taught, they are never per- mitted to assume such prominence as to lessen the proper attention due to the principal object of the school.
JOTHAM W. BIXBY is the younger son of the late Jotham Bixby, whose story as one of the pioneer builders of Southern California is recited at length on other pages. The son inherits many of the master- ly qualities of the father, and many of their business interests have been similar and are now successfully carried on by the son.
Mr. Bixby was born in Los Angeles, attended public school at Long Beach, and up to the age of twelve was in the Throop Polytechnic Insti- tute at Pasadena. For two years he attended Belmont School at Bel- mont, California, another two years spent in the noted Thacher School for Boys at Ojai, following which he was again for one term in the Throop School. His liberal training was diversified and completed by three years of world travel.
On returning from his education abroad, Mr. Bixby entered the cattle business on his father's ranch near Long Beach. From time to time he became identified with other interests of his father and was in many ways his resourceful assistant until the death of the honored senior Bixby on February 9, 1917. Since then Jotham W. Bixby has been vice president of the Jotham Bixby Company, a director of the Bixby Land Company, a director of the Palos Verdes Company, vice president of the Bixby Development Company, and director of the Anaheim Beef and Provision Company. Mr. Bixby is also affiliated with the Elks and Virginia Country Club of Long Beach, Jonathan and Los Angeles Athletic Clubs of Los Angeles, and in politics, is a republican. March 7, 1906, at Long Beach, he married Bertha Catherine Kingore. They have one daughter, Beatrice, now attending Mrs. Porter's School for Girls in Long Beach.
THE HOSPITAL OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN STUDENT BODY GOVERN- MENT. The year 1919 marks the sixth anniversary of an important organization in the Nurses Training School of the Hospital of the Good Samaritan, namely, Student Body Government. This organization has been a most valuable factor in the upbuilding of the school, and one of which each member has every reason to be proud.
Knowing that trust in an individual will raise that person's standards, our country has for the past ten or twelve years endeavored to improve
625
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
the discipline in its high schools and colleges by placing upon its students the responsibility of self government. The inefficiency of student body government, more especially in the high schools, has been due largely to the carefree and irresponsible attitude of its members. Our nurses' Student Body has not this condition to meet, for a young woman enter- ing the nursing profession very early realizes the responsibility of her position in life. It would seem most plausible that self government should operate successfully amongst a body of professional women. But, upon deeper thought, the difficulties of such a government begin to ap- pear. However, these can be overcome very readily by a strong founda- tion on which to build. The foundation consists of a body of nurses with high standards and a superintendent they love, respect and admire. With these assets, Student Body Government in a Nurses Training School develops the weaker nurses, weeds out the undesirable and promotes a feeling of pride and loyalty in the school.
The following is a very condensed summary of the methods used in our school :
The Student Body officers are elected once a year from the Senior class. Prior to the election, the nomination committee submits the nom- inations to the superintendent of the hospital for approval. The officers consist of a president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, librarian and five monitors. There is also a Board of Student Body Affairs, consist- ing of the Student Body officers and the president and vice president of each class.
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.