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 34
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Mr. Friendlander was affiliated with the Elks Lodge at Louisville and was a life member of that order at Portland, Oregon. At the age of
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twenty-five he married Miss Gussie Fox of Louisville, Kentucky. Three years later she died, leaving one child, a daughter, Alice, now Mrs. Emanuel H. Lauer of Los Angeles. Mr. Friedlander never married again and the lives of father and daughter were very closely associated and from her he received that solicitous care which made his last years pleasant and comfortable. In his last illness he was confined to his bed for six months.
ALLE S. HAMILTON. While his years were brief, Alle S. Hamilton filled a notable place in the business and civic community of Los Angeles.
He was born February 19, 1882, in what is now Orange county, but was then Los Angeles county. His father was an early Californian, while his grandfather raised the first American flag on the Plaza in Orange. The grandfather came from Wisconsin, and the family were here before the famous days of forty-nine. The family conducted a bee ranch in the San Joaquin valley, and later moved to what is now Orange county. They operated a stage line to Silverado.
Alle S. Hamilton was educated in the public schools at Los Angeles. In 1905 he married Miss Alice Massey, a daughter of Thomas and Mary Massey. Mr. Massey was engaged in the trucking business in Los An- geles and died here in 1885. His wife still resides at Sixth and Flower streets, where her children were born. Mrs. Hamilton and two sons sur- vive him, Douglas, born in 1907, now attending a boys' school at Oak- land, and Thomas, born in 1911.
Mrs. Hamilton is a native Californian, and was born at Sixth and Flower streets in Los Angeles. Her mother has been a resident of Cali- fornia more than fifty years. She has told interestingly many charming reminiscences of early days. Mrs. Hamilton's parents were both born in Ireland, her father coming to New York at the age of five years and her mother at eighteen. Her mother lived for a time with an uncle in St. Louis, and came to Southern California by boat from San Francisco before the days of railroads, and lived at Rivera with an uncle.
In 1908 Mr. Hamilton established the Los Angeles Ignition Works, the first business of the kind in the city. He had no capital, but under- stood the business, and developed it by tremendous energy and by care- ful economy made it steadily prosperous. Ten years later, in the midst of his work and business, he died, January 27, 1918. Mrs. Hamilton proved a worthy and well qualified successor, and has carried on the business with even greater success than her husband. Mrs. Hamilton is a member of the order of the Los Angeles Parlor of the Native Daughters of the Golden West. Mr. Hamilton was an inventor and had secured a patent on a motorcycle "cut-out," which has been in use for twelve or fourteen years. He also perfected a magneto attachment and when this was completed he had not yet secured the patent and at the present time Mrs. Hamilton is taking out the necessary papers for it.
Mr. Hamilton was a charter member of La Fiesta Parlor of the Na- tive Sons of the Golden West, this Parlor subsequently being combined with the Ramona Parlor. He was also a member of the Jonathan Chib and was a very active supporter of the Children's Homeless Society. He was a man of splendid morals and fine character. Mr. Hamilton built a beautiful home at Eighth and Manhattan, but did not live long to enjoy it.
Ramona Parlor No. 109 of the Native Sons and Daughters expressed
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resolutions stating that "each member of this Parlor feels a keen sense of personal loss and the Order of Native Sons has been deprived of an estimable and valued member." In the official publication of the order the following comment was made on his passing: "Every Native Son and Native Daughter in Los Angeles and many throughout the state will read with sadness of Alle Hamilton's death, for he was loyal to the Orders and was always a friend to their members. He had, through his energy, built up a splendid business, and for him and his loved ones, until this fatal illness laid hold upon him, the future was indeed bright. While we sorrow at his going from among us, we take consolation from the knowledge that he lived well his brief life, and that his earthly suffering is over.
JOSEPH T. PENTON is treasurer, general manager and director of the California Metal Enameling Company of Los Angeles. This is one of the growing and important industries of the Pacific Coast, and its estab- lishment and growth mark another point scored in the broadening in- dustrial life of Los Angeles.
The business was started in 1910 at 4807 Huntington Drive. At first only a small building was occupied, and the output was general porcelain metal enameling. Six people made up the working force. To- . day there are eighty persons employed, many of them highly skilled workmen, and the plant at the same location has grown into a large fac- tory building 90x150 feet. The company now has contracts to furnish the states of California and Washington with enameled license tags for automobiles and motorcycles, and they also manufacture all the road markers for the Southern California Automobile Club, some of these markers extending as far east as Kansas City, Missouri. A recent de- velopment is the manufacture of machinery for the canning and fishing industries. The annual volume of business is valued at about a hundred thousand dollars. The plant is equipped with the most modern machin- ery, including three large metal furnaces. The personnel of the com- pany's executive staff is as follows: F. S. Kenfield, president ; Robert Roodhouse, vice president; R. B. Ahlswede, secretary, and Joseph T. Penton, treasurer, general manager and director.
Mr. Penton is a publicity expert by profession. He was born at Memphis, Tennessee, September 3, 1888, son of Joseph T. and Florence M. Penton. He was educated in the public schools at Louisville, Ken- tucky, graduated from high school in 1905, and later for three year's was a student in the Washington and Lee University.
For four years he was identified with the advertising business at Louisville, and was in the same line of work at Chicago until March 1. 1918, when he came to Los Angeles to accept the position as general manager of the California Metal Enameling Company. Mr. Penton is a member of the Union League Club of Chicago, Pendennis and Tavern Clubs of Louisville, Kentucky, is a democrat and a member of the Episco- pal Church. At Chicago, November 1, 1916, he married Miss Ruby Kenfield. They have one son, Joseph T. Jr., born in 1918.
PAUL ECOFF GREER, a well-known member of the Los Angeles bar in general practice, also a registered patent attorney, was for a number of years active in industrial affairs in the East, especially in Chicago.
Paul E. Greer was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 18.
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1869. His father, Howard Greer, resides in Los Angeles, a retired busi- ness man, was born at Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, April 26, 1843. He was educated at Alleghaney College, being a member of the same class as Senator Knox of Pennsylvania, and when the late President Mckinley was a student there.
After attending Yale University, he went into the iron and steel business at Chicago. He moved to Los Angeles in 1909. At Pittsburgh Mr. Howard Greer married Aberrilla Ecoff.
Paul E. Greer received his education in the public schools of Chi- cago, graduating from the Lake View High School in 1887. In 1891 he graduated A. B. from Yale University, and on returning to Chicago took an active part in managing the family affairs until 1905. Between 1896 and 1899 he also travelled both for pleasure and business through- out the United States, Europe and Alaska. He did not carry out his decision to become a lawyer until 1905, when he entered the law depart- ment of Harvard University, graduating L.L. B. in 1908. After one vear of practice in Boston, he came to Los Angeles, and has been prac- ticing law ever since. He is a member of the Los Angeles Bar Associa- tion, the American Bar Association and in politics is a republican.
MME. COMAN STANLEY was born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Her father, Jabez Coman, was a druggist. Her mother, Mary Angela Arn- old, at the time of her marriage was a medical student and later finished her course in New York, where she was a practicing physician for many years and where she originated the formula which later made her famous, giving up her practice of medicine to follow dermatology ex- clusively. She had two children, a son, Wallace Coman, and a daugh- ter, Elberta.
Elberta received her early education in the public schools of La- Crosse, afterward attending St. Xavier's Academy, a girl's school in Chicago. She later opened an office in Chicago, following the Coman method of removing facial blemishes, and for many years the mother continued the New York office.
Elberta was married in 1886, in Chicago, to H. E. Phillips and is the mother of two children, H. E. Phillips and Mrs. J. T. Geery, both of Los Angeles. After the death of Mr. Phillips she was married, July 20, 1910, at Elliance, Nebraska, to Mr. K. Stanley, and came to Los Angeles to live.
The treatment which was originated by Mrs. Stanley's mother, known as the Coman Treatment, was the only method of its kind ever endorsed in the United States Health Report. In the United States Health Report, published in Washington, August 8, 1900, by the United States Reporting Company, is an editorial which says: "In all investi- gations carried on by the medical staff of the United States Health Re- port the results are obtained without fear or favor and are wholly with- out bias. The only object is to separate the good from the bad, and in either case to give the findings of our investigating board widest pub- licity. On this account we are constantly in receipt of communications seeking information in regard to all matters pertaining to health, beauty, hygiene and sanitation: Our report was exhaustive and conclusive and shows that some methods are faulty and ineffective. The report also shows that the form of treatment which is most scientific and beneficial in results and most worthy of public confidence is the one employed by Mme. Coman, which results in perfect relief to the system,
Mone Coman Stanley
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removing all impurities from the blood and establishing a healthy con- dition. It also permanently removes all facial blemishes, such as wrin- kles, small pox pittings, scars, line marks, freckles and all blemishes of the face, neck, hands and arms. We give it the unqualified endorse- ment of the United States Health Board."
Mme. Coman was twice called to Europe, the first time to remove wrinkles from the beautiful Mme. Martial, the companion of King George of Greece in 1899. For this operation Mme. Coman received a thousand dollars and all traveling expenses, besides her expenses in Paris while she was there. Subsequently she was called to London and gave the treatment to four ladies. Her patients are the leading Society and professional women of the country and come from every state in the Union. Mme. Stanley has enjoyed over a quarter of a century of successful practice, and for the past eleven years has been in Los Angeles. Mrs. Stanley's mother died in Los Angeles, July 9, 1914.
JUDGE WILLIAM S. HARBERT. A resident of Pasadena from 1906 until his death on March 24, 1919, the late Judge Harbert had earned many distinctions as a lawyer, judge, soldier and broad-minded citizen before coming to California.
He was born at Terre Haute, Indiana, September 17, 1842, son of solomon and Amadine ( Watson) Harbert, and was descended from an old Virginia family of English ancestry. His father was a native of Bardstown, Kentucky. Judge Harbert was educated in the public schools of Terre Haute, in the Franklin College and Wabash College in Indiana, and had completed his sophomore year in the literary course of the University of Michigan when in 1862 he volunteered his services to the Union army. At the first battle of Franklin, Tennessee, he was taken prisoner, but after two months in Libby prison made his escape. He Was breveted captain "for distinguished and meritorious services," and after receiving his commission served on the staff of General John Col- burn, General Benjamin Harrison and Major General W. T. Ward. He was in the Atlanta campaign, with Sherman's march to the sea, and at the close of the war he began the study of law in the University of Indiana, but after a year entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he received his degree in 1867.
Admitted to the Iowa bar, he practiced at Des Moines seven years, and during that time was assistant United States district attorney and a member of the law firm of Harbert & Clark. His success as a lawyer and his undoubted talents called him to a larger professional field, and in 1874 he removed to Chicago, where he became senior in the law firm of Harbert & Daly, and later a member of the firm Harbert, Curran & Harbert, the junior partner being his only son. After the death of his son, in 1900, Judge Harbert practiced alone until he came to California.
Judge Harbert made no effort to resume his professional work in California and devoted his time and means to civic and philanthropic work. He was actively associated for four months with John H. Braly in behalf of the cause of suffrage. The women of California owe a lasting debt to Mr. Braly and also Mr. Harbert in securing the right to vote. Judge Harbert was also deeply interested in securing an ade- quate water supply, and gave liberally of his time and wide experience and judgment to various community projects.
During his life in Chicago he was prominently identified with a number of philanthropic organizations. One of the most important of
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these and one in which his personal resources were deeply enlisted was what was known as the "Forward Movement," and for seven years he was president of its Board of Managers. This was composed of an association of Chicago men and women united in what might be called "a spiritual chautauqua," where all religious philosophic and humani- tarian interests might have a common meeting ground. One important phase of its work was child welfare, and a large tract of ground on the east side of Lake Michigan known as "The Forward Movement" was usel for a number of years as a recreation and educational camp for the poor children of Chicago. Judge Harbert in his religious and political affiliations was absolutely independent, acting only as conscience dic- tated. He was a firm believer in municipal control of public utilities. At Chicago he assisted in the establishment of the Juvenile Court, the adop- tion of the indeterminate sentence law, and advocated the placing of a limitation on the power to grant by will large sums to single individuals. While attending the Universalist Church he established what was called the "Study of Civic and Humanitarian Questions Club," and led the class for a long time.
Judge Harbert found in his wife a companion and sharer in his in- tellectual tastes and occupations, and also in his charity. On October 18, 1870, he married Elizabeth Morrison Boynton. From 1874 until 1906, when they came to Pasadena, Judge Harbert and family resided at Evanston, Illinois.
Mrs. Harbert, who survives her honored husband, has for half a century been a co-worker with the greatest American women of her time. She was an author before her marriage, and as a lecturer and re- former is nationally well known. She was born at Crawfordsville, In- diana, April 13, 1843, daughter of William and Abbey Upton (Sweetser) Boynton. Her parents were both New Englanders. She was educated in private schools, attended the Female Seminary at Oxford, Ohio, and graduated with honors in 1862 from the Terre Haute Female College. In later years the Ohio Wesleyan University bestowed upon her the degree Ph. D. Mrs. Harbert published her first book, "The Golden Fleece," in 1867, and delivered her first lecture in Crawfordsville in 1869. During her residence at Des Moines she published her second book, "Out of Her Sphere," and also became actively identified with the woman's suffrage movement, being a pioneer in that cause in the state of Iowa. She gained a notable triumph when she induced the Repub- lican Platform Committee to allow her to write a specific woman's plank, which was adopted by the convention.
The most fruitful period of her life began in 1874, when she re- moved to Evanston, a suburb of Chicago. For eight years she was editor of "Woman's Kingdom," the woman's department of the old Inter Ocean. At that time the Chicago Inter Ocean had a tremendous influence and circulation all over the Middle West and Mrs. Harbert's name became a household word with the paper's constituency. Mrs. Harbert for one year was editor of the New Era.
She served as vice president of the Women's Suffrage Association of Indiana, as president of the Women's Suffrage Association of Iowa, and for twelve years was president of the Illinois Woman's Suffrage Association. She was also a member of the Board of Managers of the Girls' Industrial School at Evanston. Mrs. Harbert was founder and for seven years president of the Woman's Club of Evanston, and that organization, for many years an efficient instrument in the progressive
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liberation of women, owes a lasting debt to her personal inspiration and her wise leadership.
Mrs. Harbert's first book was a story of the period of the Civil war. Her second book was a suffrage story. A third book, "Amore," is a story along New Thought lines. She has also been composer of many songs, both words and music, including a recent one entitled "The Call to the Colors."
After coming to California, Mrs. Harbert tried in a measure to lay aside some of her arduous activities. She is an honorary member of the Friday Morning Club, the Altadena Club, and has been vice president of the Woman's Civic League of Pasadena, and vice president of the Southern California Woman's Press Association.
Probably her deepest desire is to see the establishment of the "World Unity League." which was formed at the World's Parliament of Re- ligion. Mr .. Harbert has served as an associate president of the World's Unity League. She was instrumental in formulating the pledge with which the religious extension movement was inaugurated by the Union. The words of this pledge are: "Recognizing the interdependence and solidarity of humanity, we will welcome light from every source, earnestly desiring to grow in knowledge of truth and the spirit of love and to manifest the same by helpful service."
F.r all her many outside activities the greatest ideal of Mrs. Har- bert has been expressed in the word "home," and through her life she has endeavored to make that word express the deepest and best rela- tionships and inspiration. She and Judge Harbert had three children : Arthur Boynton Harbert, who died in 1900; Corinne Boynton. Harbert, and Boynton Elizabeth. The latter is the wife of Ashley D. Rowe of Pasadena. Mrs. Rowe, who is a gifted performer on the harp, has three children, two boys and one girl. Miss Corinne is a graduate of the School of Oratory of Northwestern University at Chicago, and for a number of years gave her services to settlement work in Los Angeles.
The son, Arthur Boynton Harbert, inherited the intellectual gifts of his parents and supplemented them by an exceptionally alert interest. He was a graduate lawyer and, as above noted, for several years prac- ticed with his father, though his best talents were exemplified in other directions. He was a contributor to various newspaper and magazines, particularly along scientific lines. As a young man he devised a method of taking pictures from kites. He was also a student of aeronautics and but for his early death he would very probably have done much to assist in the wonderful development the world has witnessed in flight by air. As a close observer by nature, he often said that God had furnished man perfect models for all ideas, and his vision of a perfect aeroplane was modeled on the dragon fly. When only twelve years of age he had recognized the firefly as the only example of cold light. Only recently the possibilities of this subject are being extensively investigated by scientists. Young Harbert was one of a club of six boys who called themselves the "Oven," each pledging himself to original work. That was an organization of Evanston boys, several of whom are well known to fame, including Samuel Merwin, author of "The Short Line War," "The Whip Hand," "The Road to Frontenac," "Calumet K." Another is Henry Webster, whose novels and stories are found in every library. Another was Clarence Dickenson, who wrote the opera, "The Medicine Man," and is now a prominent organist in New York. Yet another is now Professor Zimmerman of Yale.
Mr. Harbert loved California, her people and her every interest.
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EUGENE GERMAIN. One of the oldest commercial institutions in Los Angeles is the Germain Seed and Plant Company, whose founder was the late Eugene Germain. He established his home at Los Angeles fifty years ago, and was a man of wide and influential relationships with the city until his death.
He was born in the French part of Switzerland, November 30, 1849. Educated in public schools and the college at Lausanne until he was twenty, he then came to New York City and after a short time went west to Los Angeles by way of Panama. His first enterprise in California was a restaurant, but soon afterward he opened a grocery store and gradually developed the commission business then known as the Germain Fruit Company. While it was a general commission firm, an important feature was the handling of seed, nursery stock, wines, and the operation of a fruit packing plant at Santa Ana. Eugene Germain continued as president of the business until 1893. President Cleveland appointed him United States Consul to Switzerland for a term of four years, and during his absence the business was left in charge of a manager. On returning to Los Angeles he sold the wine department to his brother Edward and the commission business to Loeb-Fleishman & Company, and thereafter concentrated his attention upon the seed and nursery features under the name Germain Seed & Plant Company. In this line he continued active until his death in 1909, when his son succeeded him.
April 2, 1872, at Los Angeles, Eugene Germain married Caroline Sievers. They had five children: Edmund, of Brooklyn, New York; deceased ; Lillian, wife of C. A. J. Sharman, of Alberta, Canada ; Clare, at home; and Marc L.
Eugene Germain was the first.president of the Board of Trade, one of the first vice-presidents of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and a director and officer in many other important institutions. He was a Mason and Odd Fellow, a member of the Jonathan Club, a charter member of the California Club, and a democrat in politics.
Marc L. Germain, who was born at Los Angeles, August 20, 1882, attended the local public schools to the age of nine, and during his fath- er's residence abroad attended the schools at Zurich, Switzerland. He finished his education in Yale University, graduating in 1904. On re- turning to Los Angeles he became associated with his father in the Germain Seed & Plant Company, and as noted above, succeeded him as president in 1909. Eugene Germain has also been responsible for much building improvement in Los Angeles. Some of the buildings erected by him were the Germain Block on Los Angeles street, near Requena street, a building on Los Angeles between First and Second streets, another at the northwest corner of Fourth and Los Angeles streets, the Germain Hotel at Tenth and Hope streets, the Germain build- ing at 224 South Spring, a large building at the southeast corner of Twelfth and Main streets, and a building on Main near Second street, on part of the property on which the Albert Cohn store is now located.
The Germain business was originally located in the J. Kurtz build- ing at First and Main streets, but in 1899 was moved to 326-330 South Main street. In 1918 a separation was made between the wholesale and retail departments, the retail being located at Sixth and Main streets and the wholesale at the Terminal Market.
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ALBERT ERNEST EDWARDS, who died at San Francisco while attend- ing a meeting of the California Bankers Association on January 4, 1919, was president of the First National Bank of Pasadena, and was a man of that rare character and ability who achieves a lifetime of work before reaching middle age, and though death came untimely, it found a big work completed and to his lasting credit.
Mr. Edwards, who had been a resident of Pasadena more than thirty years, was born at Lowell, Massachusetts, May 6, 1877, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Edwards, who still reside in Pasadena. His father was an Englishman and came to America when a boy. His fundamental tastes were social and artistic, and he was a great lover of the violin, but eventually finding that it interfered with business, he had to give up music altogether. Mr. Edwards' mother was Edna Ophelia Bryant, a niece of William Cullen Bryant. The family came to Los Angeles in 1887, when Albert Edwards was ten years of age.
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