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 28
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At Bakersfield, California, on August 1, 1913, Mr. Kuster was mar- ried to Miss Edith Emmons. 1
HENRY L. MUSSER. The Aggeler & Musser Seed Company, which was incorporated in 1896, with H. L. Musser as president, has by a per- sistent and active service contributed values of untold millions to Cali- fornia and the great Southwest. It is much more than an ordinary seed- distributing house. Henry L. Musser for over twenty years made a scientific study of seeds and plants with regard to their adaptability to soil and climatic conditions. The company of which he is president has carefully extended its facilities for propagation and breeding of seeds under the peculiar conditions of the southwestern climate, and today, be- sides the large plant at Los Angeles, has an extensive acreage where seeds are grown and handled under the direct supervision of the experts of the company.
Through the long continued experiments carried on by this organiza- tion have been introduced some vegetables of national reputation, includ- ing the California Pearl Cauliflower, the Los Angeles Market Lettuce, the Casaba Melons, the White Rose Potatoes, the Anaheim Chili and Pi- miento Peppers and many varieties of vegetation of local prominence, all of which have meant millions of dollars to Los Angeles and California. While the business was built up practically from nothing, it now ranks
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with the largest seed houses in the United States. The firm not only grows s eds, but handles as jobbers and retailers seeds of all kinds, and have established a large mail order business. The company's export business extends to every agricultural center in the world.
The Aggeler & Musser Seed Company requires sixty thousand feet of floor space in its three Los Angeles plants. A hundred persons are on the pay roll, and the amount paid out in wages and salaries is several thousand dollars a week. Mr. Musser is president, Mr. E. A. Aggeler is vice president, and W. B. Early is secretary and treasurer. The volume of business is in excess of one million dollars per annum.
Henry Lincoln Musser was born at Marietta, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, May 3, 1865, and before coming to Los Angeles was in the lumber business. He is the son of Henry S. and Mary G. Musser. His father was for sixty-two years engaged in the lumber business at Marietta. Henry L. Musser attended public school, and finished his education in the Lebanon Valley College, at Annville, Pennsylvania, graduating with the class of 1884. Mr. Musser was a delegate to the Pacific Coast Congress for a League of Nations held in San Francisco during February, 1919. This brought out an interesting fact, showing that a prophet is not altogether without honor.
Now that the "League of Nations" is a reality, it is a matter of interest to read the following prophetic oration delivered by Henry Lin- coln Musser at the time of his graduation from Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1884 :
THE TENDENCY OF GOVERNMENT IS UNIVERSAL.
The requirement of a universal government is that there be con- gressional representatives from every nation and that there be an inter- national congress in every way as perfect as our nation's Congress at Washington aims to be. That it should have regular sessions and dis- cuss the general welfare of the world.
It would be the purpose of this congress to bring all people to a common equality; to educate the uneducated, and to Christianize the heathen ; dot the fair lands everywhere with schools and churches, and everywhere modify nature to the uses of man; all this to be done at the expense of the world, for all, by all. After a careful review, we can not help but see that the past and present tends to a universal government, although we have only gotten so far as an occasional international con- ference, we must admit this to be the dawn of universal government.
Let us review and see if each change of government, from the be- ginning of any government, has not been one step toward a republic.
Previous to the patriarchal government there was no center of power; this was the first established controlling center; next an abso- lute monarchy, followed soon with a king and council of wise men. This was succeeded by a limited monarchy, in which the voice of the people was having authority, which later led to pure democracy, which was as bad as no government at all, because there was no concentration of authority. This led to a representative democracy-a republic which proved to be the ultimate, when we might well say that by Divine in- spiration the Constitution of the United States was formed.
Here we have followed the tendency of all government and find that we are inevitably led to a republic. It is the ultimate government. It is now only sectional. To be perfect it must be universal, and I be- lieve if mankind exists to see their ideal millennium, it will be governed by a universal republic.
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You will all admit the possibilities of such a government; it could exist just as easily as the United States. Nations would simply sustain the same relation to each other as states.
Let us take a moment to contemplate the results of such a govern- ment. As the United States spends millions of dollars for national im- provement, so could a world republic expend millions for world im- provement ; an expense that would scarcely be felt by a world of people who would receive incalculable benefits.
Mr. John P. Morgan mentions such benefits when speaking of the relations of the United States with Mexico. He said: "When Key West is connected with the mainland with railway or a ship channel, and Cape Catoche is connected by railway with the Mexican system and with the inter-oceanic canals, a sea will be inclosed within the lines of the two republics that will add more to the civilization of the western hemisphere than the Mediterranean has contributed to the advancement and elevation of the human family in Europe, Asia and Africa which in- closes its waters.
With a universal government, this and like improvements would be made; all nature would be modified to the uses of man. To do this, work would be abundant ; to rid the world of idleness alone would be a grand achievement.
Take the expense that is required to support the armies of the world and apply it to the education of the ignorant everywhere and you have done the work you were ordained to do-and it can be done only under a universal government.
All this can be done. It must be done. It will be done. The past shows this tendency, and let it come soon, but let us grow into it with a calm and secure growth that can never become corrupted.
Since the foregoing oration was delivered, the Key West-Tampico Railway has been completed, the Panama Canal has been constructed, and a League of Nations is a reality that there may be a universal gov- ernment for all the people, by all the people, a World Republic.
After leaving college, Mr. Musser was for four years in the Railway Mail Service on a run between New York City and Pittsburgh, on the Pennsylvania Railroad. He then returned to Marietta and became asso- ciated with his father in the lumber business and was manager for the elder Musser until 1896. On coming to Los Angeles he organized the Johnson & Musser Seed Company, becoming its president. In 1903 Mr. Johnson died, and in 1906 the business was incorporated as the Aggeler & Musser Seed Company.
Mr. Musser is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and is a republican. At Marietta, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1896, he married Emma Pomeroy. They have one daughter, Mary, a graduate of the Hollywood High School.
WILLIAM ALFRED MARTIN, who has rounded out twenty years of active experience as a lawyer, has been a prominent member of the Los Angeles bar since 1903. Mr. Martin has offices in the Hibernian Build- ing and resides at 1309 West 12th Street.
He was born October 14, 1878, at Indiana Bay, Arkansas, a son of Micajah D. and Sarah (Rodman) Martin. He acquired his early education in the common schools of Arkansas, attended Hendrix College at Conway in that state, also the University of Arkansas, and took his law work in Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee. He gradu-
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ated LL. B. in 1899, and in the same year was admitted to the Tennessee bar. Mr. Martin came to California in 1902, locating at Los Angeles, and on April 6, 1903, was admitted by the Supreme Court of California and was admitted to the Circuit and District Federal Courts February 15, 1909.
He is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in politics is a republican.
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FRED G. WEIK. Property appraising is a delicate task, requiring judgment as well as experience, a knowledge of past history and of all possible influence affecting property values. It is an art rather than a profession, and perhaps for that reason the qualifications of the success- ful appraiser can never be acquired from books or schools. Nothing comes closer to the bed rock fundamentals of modern business than accur- ate and trustworthy valuation, and while there are many definite rules as to the appraisal of such physical properties, such as manufacturing plants, there are many complicated factors in the matter of valuation of real estate that can never be subject to a fixed routine.
On the third floor of the H. W. Helmann Building the name F. G. Weik appears as the personal title to a business in investments, loans, fire insurance and bonds, property appraisals and real estate agency. The business is the outgrowth of thirty years' experience on the part of Mr. Weik. His many clients and business interests generally regard Mr. Weik as the superlative authority on all matters connected with the appraisal of property in the Los Angeles district.
Through Mr. Weik it is conservatively estimated a volume of trans- actions in loans and real estate is handled to the annual aggregate of hundreds of thousands of dollars. His services are in constant demand in connection with the placing of mortgage loans, and the making of real estate investments generally. It would be difficult to overestimate the great advantages that have accrued to Los Angeles in the past years as a result of Mr. Weik's business activities. He is undoubtedly the most widely experienced and competent man in his line in Southern California.
He started life as a farmer boy in Germany and came to Los Angeles at the age of sixteen with hardly a dollar to his name. He was born at Almersbach, Germany, September 14, 1873. His parents, G. F. and Fredericka (Kuhnle) Weik, both spent their lives in Germany. Their three sons and two daughters all live in the United States. Mr. Weik also had three uncles, brothers of his father, who were American soldiers in our Civil war, and nine of his relatives were in the World war.
Fred G. Weik attended school in Germany and as a boy came to this country and lived for about seven years in New York City. He attended school there as opportunity permitted and he earned his living largely by selling papers, chiefly the New York Evening News. He cried papers day after day on Third avenue, in New York City. In 1887 coming to California he was engaged in a bakery at Monrovia and Pasadena, and eventually bought the Pasadena bakery. He laid che foundation for his present fortune in the bakery business at Pasadena and Los Angeles, conducting the enterprise successfully for a period of sixteen years. From a small shop he developed a large enterprise and his wagons delivered his goods to all the nearby towns. While in the bakery business he became more or less interested in property and its values, and also built up a large personal acquaintance. Many of his
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former bread customers are now his clients in the realty business. He has given all his time to the real estate, loan and insurance business since 1905.
He does a large amount of brokerage business, being the trusted agent for many private estates. This department of his business is an important one, handling the interests of absent owners. He is also individually owner of four ranches, including the largest in the city and County of Imperial, besides other valuable holdings in the city and County of Los Angeles. Other property interests are in San Bernardino County. He has been interested in the Imperial Valley since the begin- ning of its wonderful development. His business might now be described as a limited one, since he attends largely to his own properties and handling of city and country property for his old clients and friends.
Mr. Weik is a director of the Bell Water Company of Bell, Cali- fornia, and is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and of many local organizations. For over sixteen years he has held a com- mission as a notary public. Politically he is a republican, and in every sense of the word is a loyal American in thorough sympathy with the best traditions of American government and life.
Mr. Weik owns a fine residence at 2790 South Eighth Street. He married at Pasadena in the Lutheran church of that city September 12, 1898, Anna Ilmer. Her father is H. Ilmer, a Pasadena pioneer still living at the age of eighty-three. He has been a resident of Pasadena over forty years and was engaged in the furniture and upholstering busi- ness there until he retired when about seventy years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Weik have four children: Helen, Margaret, William H. and Louisa A., all natives of Los Angeles County. Margaret is a student in the Los Angeles High School.
J. A. McGARRY, M. D. The work of a proficient and capable phy- sician and surgeon, with the incidental services given to several institu- tions and movements. has been Dr. MeGarry's contribution to an unusu- ally notable family record in Los Angeles. Dr. McGarry is a son of the late Daniel M. McGarry, whose career has been described on other pages and is one of the four sons who have done much to keep the name in fair esteem in Southern California.
Dr. McGarry was born in Chicago, Illinois, April 17, 1875, but has lived in Los Angeles since boyhood. He graduated in 1893 with the Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Vincent's College and took the Master or Arts degree in 1895. From the University of California he received the M. D. degree in 1898, and has also a number of times attended the New York Post-Graduate Hospital. During the ensuing twenty years he has been steadily engaged in the practice of medicine at Los Angeles. For one year he was an interne in the Los Angeles County Hospital and for a year and a half was assistant surgeon of the Soldiers' Home. He began the regular practice of medicine in 1901.
Formerly Dr. McGarry was examiner for the Insanity Commission of Los Angeles County and was on the Board of United States Pension Examiners. He is independent in politics, a member of the Los Angeles County, California State and American Medical Associations and belongs to the Newman Club, Knights of Columbus and St. Vincent's Parish.
June 26, 1901, in the Plaza Church, with Father Clifford performing the ceremony, he married Miss Christine Kurtz, of Los Angeles, daughter of Dr. Joseph Kurtz. Dr. and Mrs. McGarry have three children, all natives of Los Angeles, Catherine, Margaret and J. Felbert.
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MARION WARDE. While the appreciation of her talents is interna- tional, there is a conscious pride on the part of Los Angeles in Marion Warde, owing to the fact that for a number of years she has lived in California and here has earned more than a passing name as a dramatic artist.
Marion Warde, who in private life is Mrs. Walter C. Farnum, was horn at Frederickton, New Brunswick, daughter of James Scott and Marion (Warde) Scott. Her parents live retired in Humboldt County, California. Her father was promin nt on the stage for many years, traveling in various productions, including the Booth and Barrett organi- zation.
She was educated in Washington, D. C., New York and St. Paul in both public and private schools. She grew up in the atmosphere of the stage and at the age of twelve regularly began taking juvenile parts. She worked in stock companies and in many of the leading organizations that have been favorites on the American stage. For eight years she had shows of her own on the road, touring all the states and Canada. For four years she was engaged in lyceum work, and for a year and a half was in the moving picture field at Los Angeles. She was with the Lyceum Company until late in 1918, when she left the road on account of the influenza epidemic. On February 1, 1919, she opened her own dramatic school at Los Angeles in Blanchard Hall. Since opening her studio in June, 1919, three of her students are working professionally in motion pictures and two are in dramatic road shows.
Marion Warde as an emotional actress has been one of the best on the American stage in recent years. During the Liberty Loan cam- paigns she was generous of her talents, and used her skill and reper- toire to effective purposes in aiding subscription work. At the time she gave her dramatic recitations the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The Flag of the U. S. A .. " One of her most popular entertainments is a dramalogue entitled "The Bull Fight" given with Spanish costumes and settings. In the "Show Lion" she appears in typical circus garb. She also presents the wonderful Biblical poem "Hagar" and in that her versatility is pronounced. For several seasons she was leading woman with the noted English actor, Charles Erin Verner, and also played leads with James Keane. She was in the Warde-Farnum Company, and for two seasons was in concert in Canada and the Northwest. She has appeared in dramatic recital under the auspices of the most prominent Shakespeare and literary clubs.
Marion Warde has been the recipient of a great deal of praise and favorable criticism coming from sources which bespeak the highest praise for her wonderful character and abilities. ยท About a year ago the secre- tary of the Advertising Club of Los Angeles in a personal letter to Miss Warde, said: "The Advertising Club is exceptionally fortunate at all times to have come before it the very best talent available the country over and I unhesitatingly desire to say that for real fascination and dramatic ability that compels and attracts, we have yet to learn of your superior." Many similar endorsements might be quoted, but the people of Los Angeles hardly need any repetition of the praise which they bestow directly from the heart.
Marion Warde is holding informal salons every other Saturday at her studio, which have become such a popular rendezvous for visiting and local dramatic and screen artists.
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FRANK CROWELL BISHOP, M. D., whose work is as a specialist in mental hygiene and was employed as a specialist in the service of the United States Army for six months during the war, is medical director of two well known institutions, the Canyon Crest Sanitarium at Glendale, and the Compton Sanitarium at Compton.
Doctor Bishop was born at Danville, Illinois, July 6, 1883, a son of William L. and Emma (Adams) Bishop. His mother is still living at Danville, where his father, who was a wholesale grocer, died in 1905. Doctor Bishop has a younger brother, Lewis G., who served more than a year with the Ordnance Department of the army in France.
Doctor Bishop as a young man was employed as private secretary to Judge Sawyer, at Terre Haute, Indiana, three years. On his father's death he returned to Danville, Illinois, and was in the music instrument and supply business under the name Bishop & Company for two years. He sold kis store and began the study of medicine at the University of Louisville, where he spent three years, and in 1912 came to Los Angeles, and after two years received his M. D. degree from the University of California in 1914. Soon after completing his medical studies Doctor Bishop served an internship in a mental and nervous institutions. After one year, with only sixty dollars in cash capital, he took the management of the Compton Sanitarium and the Canyon Crest Sanitarium, institu- tions which had been started and had failed under other ownership, and have made these highly specialized institutions for mental and nervous patients. The Canyon Crest Sanitarium has one main building and four cottages, while at Compton are four buildings, two for men and two for women. There are sixty-five beds at Compton, and thirty at Canyon Crest. Doctor Bishop also maintains private offices for his clientage at the Marsh-Strong Building.
As a matter of patriotic duty, he spent six months in the Department of Mental Hygiene of the army, at the Letterman General Hospital, in San Francisco, from September 18 to February 19, 1918-19. Doctor Bishop is a member of the Los Angeles County and State Medical Societies, also a member of the Inominate Medical Society, and belongs to the California Country Club and Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Phi Chi Fraternity.
Doctor Bishop was instructor in mental and nervous diseases during the years 1915-16 in the medical department of the University of South- ern California, and is now on the staff of the County Hospital service in the department of neuro-medicine.
February 12, 1911, he married Kathryn Dumesnil of Louisville, Kentucky, where she was born and educated. Doctor and Mrs. Bishop have three children : Williani H., born at Louisville, and Jean M. and Frank C. Jr., born in Los Angeles.
HON. ASA WESLEY WOODFORD since 1904 has been a resident of Southern California, with home at Elsinore, where, with the beautiful lake and hot springs and the mountain scenery, more appropriate environ- ment could hardly be. conceived for the closing years of a career which has expressed so many strenuous and successful activities as that of Colonel Woodford.
Colonel Woodford achieved fame and business prominence from a youth of almost poverty and meager opportunities. He was born two miles west of the historic town of Phillippi, in Barbour County, in what later became West Virginia, May 20, 1833. His parents were John Howe and Nancy (Minear) Woodford. Through his father he is of
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English descent, and members of the ancestry played many prominent and patriotic parts in American history. Colonel Woodford is of Revo- lutionary stock. His maternal ancestors were also represented in the war of the Revolution and came originally from France. In America, at least, it has never been a dishonor for a good and substantial family to bear the cross of poverty. When Asa Wesley Woodford was a boy his people were in humble circumstances, and he early learned the lessons of work and self-denial. The only school he ever attended was in a log cabin on Pleasant Creek, near his birthplace. From his rugged environment he acquired the qualities of thrift, courtesy and honor, and by his individual efforts acquired also a real education, consisting of logical mental processes, sound judgment, and an intellectual curiosity that has urged him to acquaintance with many subjects outside his per- sonal broad range of experience.
When he was seventeen years of age he hired himself to a cattle drover at thirty-five cents a day. He walked and led an ox before a drove of cattle to Philadelphia, a distance of four hundred fifty miles. That trip was made in the winter of 1849. In order not to dissipate his hard-earned wages on the luxuries of travel, he returned home on foot, trudging through the mud and snow. About twelve years later he traveled over the same road, this time with six hundred head of cattle owned by himself, and sold his stock to the government to feed the army. He was the first rancher in West Virginia to drive stock from that state to the Eastern markets during the Civil war. He frequently supplied army headquarters at Washington with his beef. In 1863, when the Confederate generals, Jones and Imboden, swept across Vir- ginia, they confiscated two hundred fifty head of cattle from Colonel Woodford, and though they paid him for the stock in Confederate money, Colonel Woodford still keeps those examples of engraving by . the Confederate government as a souvenir of the war.
As a result of much industry, Colonel Woodford had become estab- lished as a farmer and stockman in West Virginia by the outbreak of the rebellion. He was one of the stanch Union men in the western counties of Old Virginia and voted against the ordinance of secession, and when the war came on he aspired to lead a regiment organized in Ritchie County with the rank of colonel, but was superseded by Colonel Moses Hall, then a prominent figure in West Virginia. During the re- maining period of the war he continued in the cattle business.
In subsequent years he became widely known not only as a demo- crat in his home state, but as also one of the most prominent land owners and cattle breeders. At one time he owned twenty-two hundred acres of land in Lewis and Barbour Counties, West Virginia, including some of the finest land in the state. He developed on this farm a herd of Hereford cattle known all over the country, and several times he shipped a cargo of beef cattle raised on his ranch direct to London and Liverpool. His principal farm of eleven hundred acres near Weston also became the scene of some profitable natural gas production. At Weston he built a flour mill, which was profitably operated by him for about fifteen years, and built and owned a large brick block on the main street of that town, and still owns part of it.
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