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 36
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The Southern California Chautauqua Association, a popular in- stitution at Long Beach for a number of years, was due largely to her enterprise.
She was a member of the Play-Goers of New York, the Ethical Society of Los Angeles, the Woman's Press Association of San Fran- cisco, the California Club of New York, was one of the founders of the Woman's Press Club, a charter member of the Friday Morning Club of Los Angeles, a member of the Ebell Club of Los Angeles, a former president of the Los Angeles Woman's Suffrage Association, and a member of the Pacific Coast Woman's Press Association, Wom- an's Parliament of Southern California, and Woman's Parliament of San Francisco.
While it is appropriate to refer to these many activities, never at any time did they overshadow the dominating home and motherhood ideals of her life. In fact her other pursuits and interests were but the incidental expression of that vital instinct at the foundation of home. Her daughters' progress, welfare and character building stood first always. When it is considered how much her home and children meant to her, it was very appropriate that her pastor at the funeral service should read a poem written by Mrs. McComas and published many years ago, containing the following words :
"Heaven draws near to this Motherland ; How near those only may understand Who have felt the touch of a baby hand ; Who have seen the smile on baby's face Aglow with that far, still wondering grace ; Who feel, when the baby murmurs low,
There are those somewhere who hear and know, Who read the mystery of the skies In the tender blue of the baby's eyes ;
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And the restless arms the baby swings Still keep the motion of tiny wings As when from heaven it flew apart And found its way to a Mother's heart."
Her oldest daughter Alice Beach is a concert pianist and has played in most of the large cities of the United States She is now the wife of Mr. Charles P. Gray, well known as a map maker, of New York City. Their two talented daughters, Alice Dorothy and Charles Carroll, are .the only grandchildren of Judge and Mrs. McComas.
Clare McComas, the second daughter, also received every oppor- tunity and advantage in music and for four years made the stage her profession and is now prominent in musical circles of Los Angeles, being a member of the Lyric Club. She possesses a contralto voice of great power and sweetness. She traveled a great deal with her mother and sister Carroll in America, Europe and Africa. She is now the wife of Mr. Norman C. Robinson of Los Angeles.
The youngest daughter Carroll McComas enjoys a rapidly widen- ing appreciation and favor as an actress and has been leading lady with Frohman & Belasco. She traveled widely with her mother and sister Clare over Europe, Africa and Canada. They visited Paris, Brussels, London and other cities and spent some time in South Africa, being pres- ent in Johannesberg the day General Kruger was buried. In her earlier career when she was abroad with her mother she was known as "Carroll the Whistler." Under the auspices of the "Over There Theatre League" Carroll McComas was head of a unit which went to France and gave daily performances for the American soldiers, and followed the Army of Occupation to Coblenz, Germany, where she continued her work un- til the spring of 1919.
ORFA JEAN SHONTZ. A great many people in Los Angeles who are not under the bondage of fixed ideas and derive their chief enthusiasm from the lives of real service around them, have been following with increasing pride and appreciation for some years the career of Orfa Jean Shontz, one of the most prominent woman lawyers of the city, and in the capacity of referee in the Juvenile Court the first woman in California really to sit on the bench and administer justice. In 1918 Miss Shontz became a candidate for nomination for one of the judges of the Superior Court.
Miss Shontz was born in Avoca, Iowa, received her early education in Sioux City of that state, and after attending Iowa State College at Ames, came to California and studied law in the University of California. She graduated in 1914, and was admitted to the bar of California in 1913. For three years prior to that time she served as probation officer of the Juvenile Court. For two years she was secretary of the Probate Court, and during that time made a special study of property rights as pertaining to women and children and guardianship matters. In 1915 she was appointed referee of the Girls' Juvenile Court, and for three years has heard all the cases for the girls and boys up to thirteen years of age. She was appointed referee by Judge Sidney N. Reeve. During her four and one-half years as referee she heard over seven thousand cases. This can be said of Miss Shontz what can not be said of all her brothers in the law, that she entered and qualified for the profession as a profession and not a trade or vocation. She appreciates the dignities and responsibilities of the law, and recognizes it as a great opportunity
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for human service quite apart from any honors or material rewards in- cident to the practice. Her best enthusiasm has been aroused and her mind has been chiefly centered on those branches of the law which safe- guard human rights and particularly the rights of the dependent and those classes whom society too frequently neglects. Miss Shontz is state chairman of legislation for the California Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Association, and in that capacity she helped prepare a bill increasing the allowance for the care of orphans or half orphans from eleven to twenty dollars a month. She is past president of the Professional Woman's Club, member of the Psychopathic Association, member of the Woman Lawyers' Association, member of the Los An- geles Woman's City Club, is national president of the Phi Delta Delta Legal Sorority, and a member of several other woman's and civic organizations.
GUY B. BARHAM. The long and eventful career of Guy B. Barham, extending over a period of thirty-seven years at Los Angeles, has been characterized by his connection with various lines of activity, in all of which he has found a field for the display of his versatile abilities. During the past eight years he has been president and owner of the Los Angeles Evening Herald and at present is one of the leading figures in journalistic circles of the state.
Mr. Barham was born at The Dalles, Oregon, March 21, 1864, a son of Richard M. and Martha Medora (Arnold) Barham, and when two years old was taken by his parents to Watsonville, California. In 1873 the family removed to Los Angeles County where he received his early education in the public schools. Subsequently he attended Anaheim High School, and in 1882 became a resident of Los Angeles. At the age of twenty-one years he became a railway postal clerk, and, finding governmental work satisfactory and congenial, in 1888 accepted an ap- pointment as deputy collector of Internal Revenue of Los Angeles. Re- signing this post two years later,'he embarked in the customs house and internal revenue brokerage business on his own account, which success- ful business he still maintains. During this time he was also actively interested in politics, and in 1895 served as police commissioner of Los Angeles. In 1902 he was made president of the Board of Bank Commis- sioners of California, and discharged the duties of that office until 1906, when he resumed his activities in his former line of business. Mr. Bar- ham purchased the Los Angeles Evening Herald in 1911, and since then has devoted the greater part of his time and attention to his duties as president of the company controlling that newspaper. He is a member of the Los Angeles and Midwick Country Clubs, the Jonathan Club, and the California Club, of Los Angeles, the Bohemian Club of San Fran- cisco, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On August 4, 1903, Mr. Barham married at Detroit, Michigan, Miss Marie Humphreys Baby. They became the parents of one child, Millicent Marie.
DON C. McGARVIN, who died June 21, 1910, had lived intensely and picturesquely during his brief forty years and achieved a merit of long memory. The superficial events of his life could be reviewed in a few words, but the interest lies in his personality and the spirit which he exemplified. No one appreciated this better than his personal friend, Harry C. Carr, who gave to the public press a tribute which deserves repetition and from which the following is taken :
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Guy B Barham
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"After an illness of five days, Don Clio McGarvin, one of the fore- most figures of political life in Southern California, died at his home, 1547 Gramercy Place, of scarlet ever. One of the most interesting men of California has passed. Were I asked in a foreign country to describe a typical American, I should try to draw a picture of Don C. McGarvin, who was my friend and who has died. He had every American char- acteristic. He looked American, he thought American. In the middle of a crowd in the wilds of Kamchatka, he would have been picked out at the first glance as an American. He was the most perfect exemplifica- tion of the new race type I have ever known.
"He had the true American faculty of doing intense, accurate, tre- mendous work in an easy, careless way. He had an American way of being shrewd and keen without being sharp or hard. He had the Amer- ican way of meeting his most stunning success and his hardest bumps with the same whimsical humorous philosophy. He could receive the news that he had been made king or pauper without letting his cigar go out. He was a good loser, but he was also what is much finer and much rarer, a good winner, because a generous, modest one.
"The picture of a true American type would have been marred if McGarvin had not been a politician. I can't imagine a man so thoroughly and typically American without seeing him immersed to the neck in our great national game. He played politics unselfishly. With him it was a kind of an aggrandized sport. McGarvin's political career in its ım- portant phase began in the county campaign of 1898. He was at that time already well known in Los Angeles, for he had lived here nearly all his life. He was born in Baxter Springs, Kansas, in 1870. Five · years later his parents came to Los Angeles. His father became one of the most prominent real estate operators of the city. At twenty, after he had gone through the public schools, Don C. decided to become a lawyer. He started in the office of Ex-Judge Waldo M. York. His eyes failed. Being forced to abandon his law study, he entered the service of the Chamber of Commerce and conspired with Frank Wig- gins to depopulate the frozen East. At the Columbian Exposition at Chicago and at the Midwinter Fair at San Francisco he was Wiggins' . lieutenant and did a great deal toward creating the immigration schemes which have made Los Angeles famous throughout the world. He was in the real estate business with his father in 1898 when elected secretary of the Republican County Central Committee. He held this position through two campaigns, that is to say for eight years. He showed the highest ability as a city organizer and tactician. He never got exc ted, he never was thrown into panics; he was wary and shrewd and keen. yet open and square in his dealing. He 'said it to your face.'
"In 1905 he was made chairman of the City Central Committee, a fierce fighting job. McGarvin enjoyed every minute of it. This was 'the game' for all it was worth. At the same time he was a member of the State Central Committee which managed the Gillett campaign. In 1902 McGarvin was elected public administrator of the county. I don't believe that any one else ever held the office who got so much fun out of it. The public administrator sees life as it comes, hot and strong ; he sees life with the cover stripped off.
"Mr. McGarvin had fine literary interests and he appreciated the little comedies and tragedies of the administration of his office as no public administrator ever did before or, I guess, ever will again. While in that office he completed his legal studies and was admitted to the bar
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in 1905. After his term expired he became associated with J. W. McKin- ley in the law business and had a big practice."
Mr. McGarvin belonged to the Masonic Order, Signet Chapter No. 57 R. A. M., Los Angeles Commandery K. T., and Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He also belonged to the Jonathan Club and the Union League Club.
JULIAN PASCAL. It is the peculiar power of Southern California to attract sooner or later most of the eminent men and women of the world as visitors, and the musical community of Los Angeles has frequently congratulated itself upon the conditions which made Julian Pascal a permanent resident from 1912.
Mr. Pascal, whose name has for a number of years been associated with the world's foremost pianists, was born at Bridgetown in Barados, British West Indies, and is of French and English parentage. His early education was acquired in Barbados. Later he attended Harrison Col- lege and going abroad studied at the Leipsic Conservatory and later with Martin Krause, in London under Tobias Matthay, and in New York with Raphael Joseffy. He has given recitals in England, Germany, 'South America and West Indies and in most of the large cities of the United States. Mr. Pascal was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music in London, and while there had as a pupil Myra Hess, a little girl of seven years, now one of England's best known pianists.
As a composer his work includes about fifty compositions for the piano and about half as many songs. Some of the better known are "Dreams, " "The Cloister," "Two Romances," " Water Song," "April," "Spring Morning," "Tropical Scenes," "Compensation," "Bouree, a French Dance," "Nocturne," "October," "Dancing Fairies," "Melody," "Valse Caprice," "Bacchante." The most popular is "Dreams," which had a sale of more than two hundred thousand records on the Pianola.
After five years at the Guildhall in London Mr. Pascal made an- other trip to the West Indies on account of his health. After recuperat- ing he came to the United States and was a highly successful teacher in New York for twelve years. Then to benefit Mrs. Pascal's health he came to California in 1912, and Los Angeles has since been his home. Some of his best work as a teacher, composer and performer has been done under these genial skies.
As an artist Mr. Pascal's work speaks for itself and is self sustain- ing, but some very flattering comments have been made upon it by press and musical critics. A typical criticism is that found in an issue of the Musical Courier : "He exhibits a thorough mastery of the keyboard and an exhaustive memory. As a composer he is decidedly a musician and as a pianist he is one of the few whose dazzling technique does not outshine his art." "He has the prodigious technique of Lhevinne and Hofman, coupled with the poetry of De Pachmann and the touch of Harold Bauer." "His playing indicates ability of the highest order, his style is artistic and graceful, and he is able to do full justice to the greatest pianoforte compositions."
Concerning his wonderful gift of improvisation and for tone color the Examiner says: "Particularly delightful and interesting is his free improvisation which seems to portray the exquisite lotus dream of a per- fect Southern California afternoon." Leading critics have pronounced Mr. Pascal one of the most magnetic, inspiring and cultured pianists of the present day. He has developed many child prodigies, a fact of the
Julian Parcal
Marie C. Hodadow
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highest significance concerning his teaching. He has devoted most of his time in Los Angeles to teaching. The gentle spirit of this highly temperamental and cultured genus has brought him a host of admirers. Mr. Pascal is a Mason and a member of the Christian Science church. 1
MARIE CAROLYN HODGDON. While not so widely known as some other persons in Los Angeles, Marie Carolyn Hodgdon has performed an invaluable work during the past ten years as superintendent of nurses at the Clara Barton Hospital.
Miss Hodgdon represents an old New England family and was born at West Milan, New Hampshire, one of twelve children. Her father, Samuel F. Hodgdon, was a native of Parsonfield, Maine, a lumberman. and of early pioneer stock, the Hodgdons having come from England about the time of the Revolution. The Hodgdon coat of arms bears the words, "Animo et Fide," and "Hodgdon of Hodgdon."
Marie Carolyn Hodgdon attended public schools at West Milan, also the Tilton Seminary at New Hampshire, and trained for her profession in the Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital at Concord, New Hamp- shire. She did a year of private duty work in nursing at Concord, and in 1907 first came to California to visit relatives. Returning East, she took a course in institutional nursing and hospital economics at Grace Hospital in Detroit, and in the meantime the position of superintendent of nurses at the Clara Barton Hospital of Los Angeles was offered her and held open until she could take charge. Dr. H. P. Barton is manager of the hospital, which is situated in the heart of the business district and is one of the leading institutions of its kind in Los Angeles. The nursing force when Miss Hodgdon took charge consisted of a night supervisor and of one graduate nurse in surgery. At the present time there is an assistant superintendent of nurses and three graduate head nurses, an instructress, an operating room nurse and night supervisor. Miss Hodgdon has also done much to develop and improve the training school and a nurses' home has been built. In 1914 the hospital had an average daily attendance of sixty-six patients and thirty operations weekly, while in 1919 the daily average was seventy-nine patients, and forty-three weekly operations.
HIRAM WATSON TEBBETTS, M. D. Many Southern Californians will long treasure their associations with the home, family and the person of the late Dr. Hiram Watson Tebbetts and his cultured wife, Lucy Jane Morrill Tebbetts. Apart from the material good they did, their lives were a benediction to all who came within the scope of their influence.
Dr. Tebbetts was born at Lake Providence, Louisiana. It was tra- ditional in the Tebbetts family for generations that the oldest son should choose a medical career. Hiram Watson Tebbetts was prepared for college at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from Dartmouth College with the class of 1867. He then studied medi- cine, practiced for some years in Rockford, Illinois, and finally came to California and made his home in Los Angeles. His death, after a pro- longed illness of several years, occurred January 6, 1918. He was a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. At Concord, New Hampshire, October 20, 1875, he married Lucy Jane Morrill. Mrs. Tebbetts represented old American stock. Her great-uncle, Colonel James B. Varnum of Springfield, Massachusetts, was speaker of the House in the Sixteenth Congress. Her father, Elijah
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Morrill, was an Illinois pioneer and owned thousands of acres of land in that state. Mrs. Tebbetts' uncle built one of the first log cabin homes on the prairies of Illinois. Mrs. Tebbetts was educated in Bradford Seminary in Massachusetts, and in Brook Hall in Philadelphia. She was a most devoted mother, an active member of St. John's Episcopal Church, being one of its earliest communicants. For years she inter- ested herself in the welfare of Los Angeles as a community. She had been an invalid for three years before her death, though under the stimulus of the World war she kept up work at home, and turned out a sweater every week. Her interests were centered in her home and family, and her children loved her with all the devotion which her beau- tiful character inspired. She had been a resident of Los Angeles for twenty-nine years and practically reared her family in this city. The children, five in number, all educated in Los Angeles, are Dr. Hiram B. Tebbetts, Dr. John H. Tebbetts, William W. Tebbetts, Francis W. Teb- betts and Lucy E. Tebbetts.
B. F. YARNELL, who died at Los Angeles, August 1, 1918, had been a resident of Southern California for over forty years, coming here in early childhood. Born at Lewistown, Iowa, December 24, 1872, he was three years of age when his parents came to California. At the time of his death he was probably the oldest and best known contractor and appraiser in the city. He had been engaged in that line of business for fifteen years, and was considered an authority on all matters relat- ing to appraising and adjusting of fire losses. His father was a pioneer builder at Los Angeles and the son took up and developed the same line of business.
Mr. Yarnell was reared in Los Angeles, was a graduate of the City High School and from that school joined his father in the building and contracting business.
Mr. Yarnell had a genius for friendship. He had those personal qualifications, more particularly an unselfish interest in others, which brought him hosts of admirers, not only from among his business asso- ciates but all classes of men. Few representatives of the prominent families of this State were better known than B. F. Yarnell. His works of commerce and charity will long stand as a monument to his memory and the vacancy in many circles will not soon be filled. For one term he served as a member of the Los Angeles Board of Education, was a member of the Union League Club, Merchants and Manufac- turers Association, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Blue Goose and other social and business organizations. He was buried under the auspices of the Masonic Order.
Besides the business and good name he left to his family a wonder- ful ranch of eight hundred twenty acres in San Diego county. The B. F. Yarnell Company since the death of its founder has been continued by Mrs. Yarnell, with the assistance of her son William G. and Mr. W. L. Wolfskill, an associate of Mr. Yarnell for a number of years.
February 1, 1899, Mr. Yarnell married Miss Laura A. Griffith at Riverside, California. She was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, was edu- cated there to the age of twelve years, when she came to California with her parents Mr. and Mrs. U. Griffith, and here finished her education. Her father was a prominent business man of St. Joseph, Missouri. At the death of her husband Mrs. Yarnell was left with four children, two sons and two daughters: William G., Lillian R., Burtron F., Jr., and
13. For yarnell.
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Virginia L., all of whom were born in the old family home at Los An- geles on South Union avenue. This residence was built by Mr. Yar- nell, and besides it he owned considerable local real estate including two beautiful summer homes, one at Sierra Madre at the foot of Mount Wilson, and the other at Hermosa Beach.
CHARLES E. VAN LOAN. It was the opinion shared by his contem- poraries in the realm of fiction writing and the reading public at large that the late Charles E. Van Loan had no superior as a writer of enter- taining stories pertaining to the world of sport. While his was a versa- tile pen, capable of interpreting the thoughts and fancies of an exceed- ingly active and facile brain, it was, perhaps, in embodying his concep- tion of the principles of manly pastimes and connecting them with highly interesting story plots that he was found at his best, and endeared him- self to thousands of readers.
Charles E. Van Loan was born at San Jose, California, June 29, 1876, a son of Richard and Emma (Blodgett) Van Loan, the latter a native of California. His father was born in New York state, and as a young man came to California. The public schools of Californ'a fur- nished Charles E. Van Loan with his educational training, and when he graduated from high school he secured a position with the Standard Oil Company, in the offices of which he worked for seven years at Los Angeles. From early youth he was intensely fond of sports and outdoor life, and eventually he secured a position as a sports writer with the Los Angeles Herald. He was later on the sporting staff of the Los Angeles Examiner for about five years, and was connected with the Denver Post for one year, and the New York American for two years. During this time he stored up much of the information that gave him the plots for the stories which later made him nationally famous. He traveled extensively in the interests of his papers, for some years accompanying big league baseball teams as special newspaper correspondent, and it is doubtful if there has ever been a writer who has so thoroughly understood and ap- preciated the professional athlete. Mr. Van Loan's stories soon began to appear in Munsey's, the Popular, Collier's and finally the Saturday Eve- ning Post, in the last named of which he gained his largest audience, and when he had become fully recognized as a fiction writer he gave up newspaper work to apply himself to magazine writing. Four volumes of short stories were published by Small, Maynard Company, and a like number by George H. Doran Company.
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