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 32
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Mr. Curtis was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, March 10, 1870,
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and has spent the greater part of his life in California. His father, Joseph Curtis, also a native of Massachusetts, first came to Calif rnia in 1861, and was a pioneer miner and general merchant in this state. After his return to Worcester, Massachusetts, he was in the flour and milling business with William H. Dexter. Joseph Curtis married Delia Maria Newton. In 1876 he brought his family to California and for several years was in the piano and organ business at San Jose, and in 1886 moved to Los Angeles. Here in company with C. G. Harrison, first president of the Title, Insurance & Trust Company, and E. H. Sweetser, he laid out The Palms townsite between Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
William Dexter Curtis acquired his education in public schools partly in California and partly in Massachusetts, and later received a special course in the University of Southern California. Among early experiences he was a grower of deciduous and citrus nursery stock and also conducted a general merchandise and fire insurance business at The Palms. Then, in 1895, at the age of twenty-five, he established his general advertising agency at Los Angeles. For a time the business, was carried on under the name W. D. Curtis, then for a short time as the Curtis-Harrison Agency, his associate, Mr. Harrison, being a son of C. G. Harrison. In 1898 Henry W. Newhall associated himself with Mr. Curtis. The business was incorporated under the name Curtis- Newhall Company in 1902. Mr. Newhall subsequently sold his interest to Mr. Curtis and for a time was engaged in the exporting business in Manila. Later, on his return to the United States, he became interested in the magazine Modern Priscilla, published in Boston.
Curtis-Ncwhall Company placed the first La Fiesta advertising which was sent to eastern periodicals in the spring of 1897. The late Fred K. Rule was president of the La Fiesta Association, and C. S. Walton, secretary, while C. D. Willard was then secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Curtis early became interested in mail order advertising and has a number of marked successes to his credit, a notable example be- ing that of the Cawston Ostrich Farm. Mr. Curtis is said to have worked two years to convince Mr. Edwin Cawston of the feasibility of selling ostrich feathers to women through national women's periodicals. Mr. Cawston made a fortune out of the idea, while Mr. Curtis profited to. the extent of handling his business, amounting to between thirty- five thousand dollars and forty thousand dollars a year.
The advertising service maintained by Mr. Curtis at Los Angeles for a quarter of a century has represented almost every line of business and practically every known advertising medium. He is more than an advertising expert, and for years has made a thorough study of business in general. Many prominent concerns in California have known him as "a business counsellor." It was his experience that many firms needed a greater perfection of their organization before embarking on an advertising campaign, and thus Mr. Curtis became naturally interested in advising and planning more efficient methods for his clients. and for the past ten years he has carried on this branch of his work as an independent business. His interests have extended not only to the formal technique of business, but to the personal element involved, and his study has gone deply into the relations existing between capital and labor. His "Human Element" folders designed to go with pay checks are being used quite extensively by large corporations. It is
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his sincere conviction based upon many years of experience that the lack of mutual understanding is usually the chief obstacle to prosperous and profitable relations between employer and employe and that the exchange of point of view is the chief factor in bringing about greater harmony and consequent efficiency.
Mr. Curtis is a republican in politics, a member of the Jonathan Club, Chamber of Commerce, and Merchants and Manufacturers Asso- ciation of Los Angeles and the First Baptist church.
December 16, 1891, at The Palms, California, he married Mary L. Rose. Her father, Anderson Rose, a native of Macon County, Mis- souri, crossed the plains with an ox team in 1852 with a company of friends and neighbors. This party was six months on the way, and on landing in Eldorado County, Mr. Rose engaged in mining. In 1867 he moved to Los Angeles County, and for many years followed stock rais- . ing and general farming in Santa Monica. He is one of the well remem- bered pioneers of the county, and his thoroughbred cattle and Norman draft horses took first prize at state and county fairs. H. Jevne at one time contracted for all the butter and cheese made on the Rose farm, those products being considered the best grade obtainable. In 1869 Anderson Rose married Annie E. Shirley. He was a Mason and be- longed to the first Masonic Lodge organized at Los Angeles.
Mr. and Mrs. Curtis have two children: Lucile Rose and Meredith Anderson Curtis. The daughter is a graduate of Stanford University, where she also took post-graduate work, and is a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi and was a member of the various college honor societies. The son, who attended Stanford University for a year and a half and was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, is a young man with an in- teresting army record. He was a member of Company G, 364th In- fantry, 91st Division, and while in France participated in the battle of the Argonne.
HOYT POST, JR., a resident of Los Angeles since 1914, is following his profession of engineering with offices in the Garland Building, be- ing associated with Allen Sedgwick. Mr. Post for a number of years was a resident of Detroit, and for a time was connected with the ·engineering department of several large automobile concerns.
He was born October 4, 1885, and his father, Hoyt Post, Sr., was for many years one of the ablest business men in the city of Detroit.
Hoyt Post, Jr., is in the ninth generation of the family in America. 1. Stephen Post, a native of England, came to America in 1630 and settled first at Newton (now Cambridge) in the Massachusetts Bay Col- ony, but in 1635 removed to Hartford, Connecticut, and thence to Say- brook in the New Haven Colony in 1648. He died August 16, 1659. 2. Abraham Post, born at Hartford in 1640. 3. Abraham, born at Saybrook, Connecticut, June 9, 1669. 4. Abraham, born at Saybrook in 1691. 5. Roswell, born at Saybrook in 1728. 6. Elias, born at Saybrook in 1763. 7. Edmond Russell Post, born in Rutland County, Vermont, in 1808. 8. Hoyt Post, Sr., born at Tinmouth in Rutland County, Vermont, April 8, 1837.
In the pages of Hollister's History of Connecticut and in "Con- necticut Men in the Revolution" are found a number of references to members of the Post family who distinguished themselves in the Colonial and Revolutionary wars. Stephen Post, who was born in Saybrook in 1664, a son of Abraham above mentioned, was one of the original found-
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ers of the town of Hebron, Connecticut, in 1707. His son Stephen served in a Connecticut line regiment, Captain Hungerford's Company, under Colonel McCollem, and was a United States pensioner under the Act of Congress passed in 1818. General Phillip Sidney Post, who was born at Florida, Montgomery County, New York, in 1833, was a Briga- dier General in the Civil War and a member of Congress in 1886. Jed- dediah and John H. Post owned what was known as "the Glastonbury. Anchor Iron Works" which they sold to George Pratt in 1848. These works were first established prior to the Revolution and cast the cannon and måde the anchors for the armed vessels of Long Island Sound, two of which were commanded by Nathan Post. Nathan Post commanded the armed brig "Martial" in 1776, carrying a crew of eighty-five men, also the armed sloop "Revenge" in 1779, which he sunk in the Penobscot River to avoid capture by the British. Nathan, Jr., was with Captain Huntington in the Lexington Alarms of 1775, and with Captain Jones in 1777. Nathan, Jr., and Reuben Post were on the muster roll of the Guilford Company in the expedition against Ticonderoga.
Hoyt Post, Sr., who was a member of the Detroit bar for forty years and died at Detroit in February, 1912, was educated in the public schools of Rochester, New York, at Dayton, Ohio, and Detroit, attended the academy at Birmingham, Michigan, and received his A. B. degree in 1861, and his LL. B. degree in 1863 from the University of Michigan. He was a member of the Memorial Committee of the Alumni of the University to collect funds for the erection of a Memorial Hall on the campus. He began the practice of law at Detroit in 1863 and on Jan- uary 1, 1867, formed a partnership with Albert H. Wilkinson, which was succeeded by the firm of Wilkinson, Post & Oxtoby. He was re- porter of the Supreme Court of Michigan from 1872 to 1878, a member of the Michigan Fish Commission from 1889 to 1895 and held many other. posts of honor. He achieved prominence in business and financial affairs, being president of the Peninsular Electric Light Company, St. Clair Edison Company, Grosse Point Water Works, East Side Electric Company, Delray Terminal Railroad Company, was vice president of the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company and of the Detroit Steel Cooperage Company, and was a director and member of the Executive Committee of the Michigan Fire and Marine Insurance Company, a director of the Michigan Savings Bank, Plymouth United Savings Bank, Edison Illuminating Company, Washtenaw Light and Power Company, and many others. He was a member of the Wayne Club, University Club, Old Club, Bankers Club, was president of the Eta Association of the Kappa Alpha Theta fraternity and was president of the Detroit Bar Library Association and the New England Society.
February 7, 1867, he married Miss Helen Deborah Hudson, daugh- ter of George W. Hudson, of Detroit. She is still living and makes her home with her son in Los Angeles. She was the mother of four daughters and two sons: Mrs. John P. Robinson, of Detroit, who died in 1911; Mrs. John C. Collins, of Detroit, who died in 1896; Mrs. W. B. Cady, of Detroit, wife of a member of the prominent law firm of War- ren, Cady, Ladd & Hill of Detroit ; Elon, who died in 1893 ; Mrs. Walter D. Steele, of Chicago, wife of the president and general manager of the Benjamin Manufacturing Company ; and Hoyt, Jr., the youngest of the family.
Hoyt Post, Jr., is a graduate of the Detroit University School with the class of 1904, spent two years in the University of Michigan in the
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engineering course, and for about eleven years during vacations and at other times was connected with the Edison Company of Detroit, of which his father was one of the founders and organizers. Later he went with the Paige Motor Car Company of Detroit, when it was first started and had only twelve employes. For about a year and a half he was connected with this company as a mechanical engineer, and when he resigned was assistant head tester. Later he engaged in the retail auto- mobile business, handling the American and the Krit cars for a year and a half. His business was known as the Krit Motor Sales Company, located on Woodward avenue in Detroit.
In the summer of 1912, after his father's death, Mr. Post and his mother paid a visit to Los Angeles and San Francisco. On his return to Detroit he entered the 'real estate business with the firm of Warren Brown & Company, being connected witlı the department which had charge of several large buildings and also in the rental department. He remained with this firm until he came to Los Angeles in 1914.
On January 2, 1914, Mr. Post had married at Los Angeles Miss Margaret Wilson. She is a native daughter of Southern California and it was her desire to be again in the land of sunshine and roses which caused Mr. Post to make his permanent residence in Los Angeles. For a time he was engaged in the real estate business in this city, but since 1915 has developed a large practice in engineering. He is treasurer of the Avawatz Salt & Gypsum Company of Los Angeles.
Mr. Post is a republican, a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fra- ternity, University Club, Brentwood Country Club, Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution of the State of California, Los Angeles Chapter, and the Automobile Club of Southern California.
Mrs. Post, who died October 15, 1918, of influenza pneumonia, was a daughter of John W. and Jennie (Haskell) Wilson, both prominent in Los Angeles, her father being examiner of the Los Angeles Clear- ing House. Mrs. Post was born at Redlands, California, graduated from the high school there, and finished her education in Leland Stan- ford University. She was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority of Stanford. Mr. Post has one daughter, born July 21, 1916, and she is being tenderly cared for by her grandmother, Mrs. Post, Sr. Mr. Post resides on St. Andrews Place, a home which he bought in 1917.
DANIEL O'CONNELL MCCARTHY. With proper regard to his ex- periences and achievement, it is permitted to call the late Daniel O'Con- nell McCarthy one of the most useful citizens of California. He was much more than a pioneer and early settler, founder of the first morning newspaper, and a picturesque personality. He came of fighting stock, and all his fighting was done on the side of constructive ideals and plans that resulted in many benefits of his home state, perhaps not properly appre- ciated at the present day.
Daniel O'Connell McCarthy was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, August 24, 1830, a son of Maurice McCarthy. His ancestry goes back to remote antiquity, to the time when the Spanish stock was blended with the native Celts of Ireland. He was descended from a line of Irish kings of Munster. One of the family, McCormick McCarthy, in 1476 owned Blarney Castle. One of the early kings of Munster was Carthack, which later was changed to McCarthy. Another king was Justin, in 1093, and later on in modern times we find Justin McCarthy, who was a second cousin of Daniel O'Connell McCarthy. The late Mr.
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McCarthy was also descended through his mother (Bridget O'Hea) from two noble and illustrious houses in the Province of Munster, in the County of Cork. Their magnificent estate, together with those of the McCarthy family, were all confiscated in the rage of religious persecu- tion, and to the lineal descendants nothing remained except their name and r.ligion. The coat of arms of the O'Hea family and that of the McCarthy family were united in one combined design, now in the pos- session of the families. The motto is: "To the strong and faithful noth- ing is difficult."
Mr. McCarthy's parents were married in Ireland, where their first child was born. When the family came to America they settled in west- ern North Carolina, and subsequently removed to Columbus, Mississippi, where both parents died when the oldest child was only fourteen years old. The loss seemed irreparable, for not only was the father an honor- able and useful citizen, devoted to his family, but the mother was a woman of rare culture and refinement, of noble character and of great personal beauty.
The children, with names and dates of birth, are briefly noted as follows: Maurice, born in Ireland in 1820; "Yankee" James, born in America in 1822, and died in infancy; James Barry McCarthy, 1824; Michael O'Hea, 1826; Mary Barry, 1828; Daniel O'Connell, 1830; Catherine, 1832; John Harvey, 1834, and Jeremiah Crowley, 1835.
Daniel O'Connell McCarthy was educated in the common schools of Columbus, Mississippi. At the age of fourteen he was appointed commissary clerk by Captain William Barksdale, and went with his com- mander to Mexico at the time of the war between the United States and Mexico. In 1848 he was stationed on General Taylor's line. At the conclusion of peace he located at San Antonio, Texas, engaged in mercantile business and remained in that city until 1850. In Septem- ber, 1850, he organized a company of young men, and as captain, inter- preter and commissary general conducted them overland to California, and immediately went to the mining districts of Tuolumne County. He spent two years in placer mining, and then engaged in stock raising and other lines of business until 1858. Selling out his interests, he became a merchant in the town of Sonora and was also extensively engaged in quartz mining.
Sonora, the town where he was established in business, was then the center for that considerable body of Southerners and pro-slavery peo- ple who employed every expedient to range California on the side of the South. A Southerner himself by birth and training, Mr. McCarthy had none of the characteristic attitude of those people toward our political institutions. He had no interest in slavery and the Union of the States was one of the first articles in his creed and faith. As an appropriate means of expressing this faith in the Union cause, he was left to estab- lish in 1860 a newspaper at Sonora, the title of which pioneer journal was The American Flag. It was founded entirely upon the basis and spirit of personal patriotism and unselfish love of country, and its pub- lication was continued under circumstances of persecution and injustice. In the end The American Flag became one of the chief instruments for the winning of California to the side of the Union. It is well recognized by historical authorities that when the people of California voted to enter the Union as a free state, the cause of the Union was fortified as it had been by no previous event for twenty years. The American Flag was not only the first morning newspaper in the state, but was the first
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radical Union newspaper, and during the Civil war was considered a deciding factor in the refusal of California to secede with the Southern states. It was also the first advocate of woman's suffrage in the state.
One of the first acts of the "Union State Convention," meeting at Sacramento in 1863, and composed of six hundred representatives from all parts of the state, was to pass a resolution, amid enthusiastic cheer- ing, endorsing The American Flag as a newspaper true, energetic and reliable for its advocacy of the great measures and principles of the Union party in this state, and that we do hereby commend it to the con- fidence and support of all loyal men. At the same time there were forty two other papers in the state supporting the Union party.
Soon afterward, at the written request of a large number of lead- ing Union men of the state, Mr. McCarthy moved his paper to San Francisco and established it as a daily journal. Even by its bitter enemies The American Flag was considered to be the most brilliant and fearless journal ever published on this coast.
Mr. McCarthy was nominated for state printer, a very important and lucrative office, but owing to the combined opposition of jealous news- papers, who placed two independent republican candidates in the field, he was defeated, though running five thousand votes ahead of his ticket.
While publisher in San Francisco, the owner of The American Flag started one of the first newspaper agitations in the United States. An effort was being made to pass the Pacific Contract Law. Corrup- tion was charged against the State Legislature. This resulted in the arrest of Mr. McCarthy. He was later released and feted by hundreds of supporters. It was also The American Flag that first published the news of the assassination of Lincoln in California.
Soon after giving up his journalistic career, Mr. McCarthy removed to San Diego in 1870, investing in real estate. He also became inter- ested in the wonderful Burrow silver mining district of New Mexico, where he located several claims and organized a company, acquiring tim- ber properties, water privileges and laying out towns and railway routes. He was one of the first to locate silver mines in Silver City, New Mexico. In the meantime the man he had left in charge of his interests at San Diego had mismanaged them, so that his presence for several years was required in restoring order to California affairs. In the meantime a large part of his rights and acquisitions in New Mexico were lost. Dur- ing those years he proved a leader and man of vision in promoting a number of large undertakings, and while he experienced numerous vicis- situdes, the failures were due chiefly to the inevitable inability of one man to thoroughly control and direct issues involving widely separated groups and responsibilities.
At San Diego he served as president of the Board of Trustees (at that time practically mayor of the city) and was instrumental in build- ing the first railroad into that city. Later he was engaged in mining in Lower California, and in 1882 removed from San Diego to his ranch, Siempreviva, and became interested in stock raising and farming. While president of Mount Tecarte Land and Water Company at San Diego in 1892. he went to the City of Mexico and obtained a concession from President Diaz to bring a portion of the water across Mexican territory. A tribute to the far-sighted genius of Mr. McCarthy is found in an edi- torial recently published in The San Diego Union and quoted herewith for the value it has in supplementing this brief biography: "H. N. Savage, hydraulic engineer, and three newspaper men stood on the site
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of the Barrett dam last Wednesday afternoon, discussing the work which will be necessary in the erection of this last link in the construction of San Diego's water system. Mr. Savage was relating the history of the dam site. 'You speak of vision in great engineering projects,' he said, 'of the romance and imagination behind it all, and you have mentioned the Panama Canal, the mighty Assouan, the Roosevelt and the Shoshone ; but right where we stand is as fine an example of that sort of thing as I know. Here, in the early eighties, a man visioned this Barrett dam; he even started the work with that bit of stone parapet down there. This man's vision saw the future need of San Diego; he had supreme con- fidence in the potentialities of the little city, then no more than a village ; he knew that eventually a great seaport metropolis would cover the shores of San Diego Bay; and he hoped to see the realization of what to others was only a dream.' So the story went on until one of the newspaper men asked the name of this visionary. 'His name,' said Mr. Savage, 'was D. O. McCarthy.'
"At that very moment the man who had located and started the construction of the Barrett dam more than thirty-five years ago was lying dead in his Los Angeles home. He had passed away while his name was on the lips of men who were contemplating his dream at the inception of its full realization.
"The coincidence does not end here. McCarthy's interest in the Barrett dam site passed from him to E. S. Babcock, and thence to the control of the city that he had visioned as he worked in that outlet gorge to a water shed with an area of one hundred thirty square miles. In the meantime the Morena dam was built by John D. Spreckels, whose original purpose was to build the first dam of his system at Barrett. One of the newspaper men in the inspecting group was connected with the San Diego Union, owned by John D. Spreckles. The San Diego Union in 1900 absorbed the plant of the Morning Call; the Morning Call had been the San Diego Vidette; D. O. McCarthy established the Vidette in the fall of 1893. He was the owner of that newspaper when he dreamed the Barrett dam.
"There are cycles in human affairs as in the physical functions of the natural order ; and it is complete in this instance. The legacy of D. O. McCarthy's vision has passed from dream to dream through devious ways until it came back to him by the impulse of his own desire-on his deathbed. The Barrett dam will be built by other hands than those which laid its foundation ; but those hands are guided by the same vision that inspired the purpose of the man who saw it first. Within the area of that vision lies three hundred forty-seven square miles of watershed, all converging to the Lower Otay reservoir, and when the Barrett dam is finished, the city that D. O. McCarthy visioned will have a water storage capacity of 48,550,000,000 gallons, 16,000,000,000 gallons of which will be stored behind the mighty wall of the Barrett dam.
"It is the men with vision who build empires and move the world. Dreams come true for those who know how to dream."
Mr. McCarthy lived at Los Angeles from 1901, and until a few years before his death was engaged in the real estate business. He was a republican, and it is said that he never missed voting after California became a state. He voted for Lincoln, and during the Blaine campaign of 1884 it is said that he rode fifty miles on horseback to cast his ballot. December 1, 1909, he was admitted to life membership in the Archaeo- logical Institute of America at Washington. Mr. McCarthy was elected
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