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 44
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JOHN C. AUSTIN. The old idea that America is an inartistic nation no longer prevails as to the United States, having been dissipated by notable achievements along many lines, not the least of which is modern architecture. Some of the finest work of American architects can be found in Southern California. Those familiar with the development of architectural ideas in seeking to harmonize the building lines with the unique symmetry of nature have no difficulty in recognizing the work- manship of John C. Austin, one of the well known architects of Los Angeles and one of the oldest members of his profession in Southern California.
Mr. Austin was born February 13, 1870, near Banbury, Oxford- shire, England. His parents, Richard W. and Jane Elizabeth Austin, were also natives of England. Early in life he had the advantage of private tutors, and when his artistic talent became unmistakable, he served an architectural apprenticeship as a student in the office of Wil- liam S. Barwick, a leading English architect. Coming to the United States in 1891, he remained one year with Benjamin Linfoot, a prom- inent Philadelphia architect, and then returned to the Barwick firm in England. His brief residence had convinced him that America was the
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real field for his future work, and after six months he came again to the United States, this time locating at San Francisco, where for two and a half years he was with the firm of William Mooser & Son. Then, in 1894, he established himself in Los Angeles, his business judgment leading him to believe that in the upbuilding of this city he would find ample opportunity for the exercise of his talents. That belief has been thoroughly justified by the facts connected with a quarter of a century of residence. In that time it can be confidently asserted 110 other mem- ber of his profession has designed and constructed a greater variety of buildings, all of which, however, express such essential features that stamp them as products of Austin, the architect. His professional work has acquired an extensive range, including all the important towns and cities of Southern California, in other states and in British Columbia. One of the largest commissions assigned Mr. Austin was the designing and building of the new Los Angeles High School, in the western sec- tion of the city, a building complete in arrangement. costing more than $750,000.
A partial list of the buildings designed in recent years by Mr. Austin include the following: The Wright, Callender & Andrews Build- ing, at Fourth and Hill streets; the Belvidere Hotel, at Santa Barbara ; the Virginia Hotel, at Long Beach; many local schools and churches, including in the latter the First Methodist Episcopal Churches of both Los Angeles and Pasadena; the residence of Madam Erskine M, Ross, at Vermont and Wilshire boulevards; the California and Angelus Hos- pitals ; every building constructed in Del Mar; the Darby, Fremont, Leighton and Hershey Arms Hotels, and scores of other structures.
A man of large affairs and always busy, Mr. Austin finds oppor- tunity for social relaxation in the Jonathan Club, which he served two years as president, is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner, has long been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, England. Worthy enterprises and benevolent movements have always gained his support and he has been particularly interested in the Los Angeles Humane Society for Children, serving as president of that organization. Taking only a good citizen's part in the field of politics, he has maintained a consistent attitude.
In 1902 Mr. Austin married Miss Hilda Violet Mytton at Los Angeles. Their children are Marjorie, Gwendolen, William, Violet. Angela, Harold and Phyllis. Mr. Austin has a daughter from a former marriage, Miss Dorothy Austin.
PASADENA MILITARY ACADEMY. Founded during the first year of America's participation in the World war, but only incidentally thereto, as a matter of fact, as a result of a long cherished vision and ideal, the Pasadena Military Academy owes its birth and healthy growth solely to the determined efforts and executive ability of one woman, Mrs. John H. Henry of 1199 Oak Knoll avenue.
Mrs. Henry is a Bostonian, a member of the Coolidge family, dis- tinguished in many generations in that state. She grew up in the cultured atmosphere of Boston and, with her husband, has long been interested in charities and education. Coming to Pasadena about 1910 to make their home, she early recognized a lack of schools in and around that beautiful suburb. Having a boy of her own for whom she had definite ideas of schooling and not wanting to
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send him away from home, she finally determined to put her ideals into concrete form and build a school such as she had in mind for her own son. It did not require the lesson of the great World war to con- vince her that one of the fundamentals of her ideal school was a military character, but it was to be more than a formal military school, and equally indispensable were the sweet home influences and the moral atmosphere which are so notably absent in many military academies. Other things upon which she placed great emphasis in her plans was a perfect cuisine, a clean dormitory, and a wholesome environment in every respect. Securing the property and grounds of the Annandale Country Club of sixteen acres, a dormitory was added for the accommo- dation of forty pupils. The school was opened October 8, 1917, with an original enrollment of eighteen pupils. The first curriculum provided for instruction beginning with the third and ending with the eighth grade. Soon it was found necessary to enlarge this scope so as to include the first and second years of high school. The original faculty consisted of six members, with Captain Thomas A. Davis, B. A., in charge. Captain Davis remained through five semesters. Until recently the school was called the Pasadena Army and Navy Academy, but in the early part of 1920 a reorganization was effectcd and the name changed to the Pasadena Military Academy, with C. M. Wood as superintendent.
Experience has thoroughly approved the military nature of the school. Apart from the patriotic value of such training, military dis- cipline is the best so far devised to insure system, regularity, all-round physical development, obedience, promptness, neatness and alertness, and even parents most strongly opposed to militarisin recognize the benefits of the military system in early education.
To leave nothing undone that may complete her ideal, Mrs. Henry contemplates extensive improvements in equipment and buildings, involv- ing expenditures of about sixty thousand dollars. Architects are now drawing plans for a gymnasium and indoor swimming pool. It is planned to erect a group of attractive cottages on the campus for the use of the faculty, also build a new dormitory, thus providing room for a hundred boarding pupils. Mrs. Henry's ambition is to make the Pasadena Mili- tary Academy the finest school of its kind in the West, and the demon- strated results of her first experience and her well-known determination make that achievement hardly a matter of doubt. After the school vear ending in 1920 the elementary grades will be dropped and it will be a strictly preparatory school, no boys being taken under the fifth grade. and the age limit being extended from ten to eighteen, instead of from eight to fourteen. The highest standards of scholarship have been set, and a definite curriculum has been planned by one of the foremost edu- cators of the state. The entire school will be thoroughly graded. It is undenominational, but even a casual visitor at once recognizes the Chris- tian and moral influences thrown about the cadets.
Mrs. Henry feels that the reputation of the school is yet to be made, but that the results already obtained are contributing to such a reputation, and justify the wisdom of her plans and efforts. The class of pupils sent to the school is a good index of its character. The school is not a reformatory, nor are its advantages designed for the unselected and unclassified body of students that a public school must serve. It is a school for wholesome, normal, healthy and intelligent boys where every possible influence is exerted to impress upon them the value of thorough scholarship, good moral discipline, and exalted ideals of life. Mrs. Henry
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is vitally interested in the welfare of the school and personally attends the faculty meetings, but otherwise her relationship is a nominal one, best expressed in the word "godmother," by which she is affectionately known among the boys.
The property was originally purchased from funds donated by Mr. Henry, but whether the school becomes self-supporting or is supported by donations or otherwise, the plans for its future growth will be carried out systematically. There is a significance that should not be overlooked in the fact that the school from the first has been designedly military and for the education of the coming manhood of the country, and yet was founded and fostered by a woman, with no man concerned with its inception.
SAMUEL L. KREIDER, one of the prominent foreign shipping men of Los Angeles, maintains offices in the Pacific Electric Building in the furtherance of the foreign trade of Southern California.
A native of California, he was born at San Francisco July 4, 1882, a son of Frank L. and M. M. Kreider, of Pennsylvania and New York states, respectively. The father is a veteran of the Civil war and past commander of Stanton Post, G. A. R., of Los Angeles. The family moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 1887, and are still enthusias- tic residents of the City of Los Angeles.
Samuel L. Kreider was educated in the public schools of Los Angeles, graduating from the Los Angeles High School in 1899. Between the years 1900 and 1916 he was with the Southern Pacific Railroad, Grand Trunk Railroad and the Salt Lake Railroad in both freight and passenger work. For six years immediately prior to 1916 he was secretary and general freight agent of the Independent Steamship Company. This company closed its affairs by sale early in 1916.
In March, 1916, he began what is now perhaps the most prominent foreign shipping and export foreign trade in the city of Los Angeles. He was instrumental in placing Los Angeles Harbor on the same basis with other Pacific ports in the matter of trans-continental export foreign rates. He also aided in the formation of the Los Angeles Pacific Navi- gation Company, which has great possibilities in aiding Los Angeles Harbor and manufacturers and exporters generally. He was chosen to act as agent of the Luckenbach Steamship Company, Incorporated, upon its return to foreign service between Atlantic and Pacific ports.
Mr. Kreider has been three times commander of Stanton Camp, Sons of Veterans, and for the year 1920 is chairman of the Foreign Trade Committee of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. He is affiliated with all Masonic bodies, including the Scottish Rite Consistory and the Shrine, and is a member of the Rotary Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Chamber of Commerce, Automobile Club of Southern California, World Traders of Los Angeles and the Transportation Club of San Francisco. He is politically independent.
July 24, 1919, at Los Angeles, Mr. Kreider married Miss Florence Gardiner Moore. Los Angeles was her birthplace, she was educated through the public schools and graduated from the Los Angeles High School in 1899. She is a member of the Friday Morning Club and Playground Commission of Los Angeles, and interested in all educational and charitable activities in Los Angeles.
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CAPTAIN WILLIAM THOMAS HELMS had a long and distinguished service with the United States Navy before he came to Los Angeles in 1906 to practice law. He has gained a high place in the legal profession, and the rewards or honors of his later years seem peculiarly appropriate in view of the financial sacrifices he so cheerfully accepted as a young man.
Captain Helms was born in Marshall County, West Virginia, Janu- ary 11, 1869, son of Martin B. and Lucinda (Fish) Helms. His father served as a lieutenant in the Civil war and several other ancestors helped make military history in the United States.
Captain Helms attended public school to the age of seventeen, and then entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, where he was graduated with the A. B. degree in 1893. He at once entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his first service was in covering the Martinsville Circuit in West Virginia. He had ten appointments, and preached at every appointment every three weeks. In order to cover his circuit he had to travel two hundred miles between the most remote missions and churches. Even now it taxes Captain Helms' memory to understand how he was able to live on his salary of two hundred twenty- five dollars per year. In spite of that meager income, he refused an offer made him to teach elocution in an Eastern university at a salary of three thousand dollars annually. While in the Martinsville Circuit he conducted four revivals, which resulted in seven hundred fifty conversions to the church. After the first year he was made minister at Malden, West Virginia, and during the year of his work there had a hundred fifty converts. He then spent another year at McMechen, West Vir- ginia, and while there declined an offer to attend a theological seminary. His last work as a Methodist minister was done at Rahway, New Jersey, where he was pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, at a salary of four hundred dollars the first year, and six hundred dollars the second year.
President Mckinley, on the recommendation of the late Colonel Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, appointed Rev. Mr. Helms a chaplain of the United States Navy. No one worked harder and endured danger and responsibility more cheerfully than Chaplain Helms. At different times he was stationed on the battleships Wabash, Lancaster, Niagara, Oregon, Newark, Brooklyn, and during the Spanish- American war was on Admiral Schley's flagship Brooklyn. He par- ticipated in the reception given Admiral Schley at New York City after the war. He was then on the Buffalo and the Kearsarge, and in 1904 was transferred to duties at the New York Navy Yard. In June, 1906, he was ordered to the Philippines, and was on duty in the Far East from July 1, 1906, to July, 1908. In 1908 Captain Helms was awarded a medal of honor by the Navy Department for services during the Boxer rebellion in China. His post of duty during that rebellion was on the Buffalo.
While stationed at the Navy Yard Captain Helms took up the study of law in the Brooklyn Law School of St. Lawrence University, and in 1905 graduated as an honor man, standing third in a class of a hun- dred sixty. On leaving the navy he at once came to Los Angeles and engaged in the practice of law. December 6, 1910, he was appointed deputy district attorney under Captain Fredericks, and held that post until July 3, 1916. Since then he has been busily engaged in a private practice.
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Captain Helms is a member of the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias and is a republican. At Ravenswood, West Virginia, July 5, 1893, he married Helen Osborne. They have two children, Jack, born July 12, 1902, at Cameron, West Virginia, now a student in the University of Southern California, and Jolm H. Clancey, who is employed with the Llewellyn Iron Works.
RALPH ARNOLD. California's foremost authority as a consulting geologist and petroleum engineer came to Pasadena with his parents when he was five years old and has always regarded that city as his home, though probably no Californian has been called by his studies and scientific investigations to more remote sections of the world.
(On the basis of his achievements, Ralph Arnold is one of America's most eminent scientists. To account for that prestige, gained at the age of forty, a significant fact is that his father, a man of scientific mind and training, lent every encouragement to the interests of the boy in scientific lines when the normal child would have been dissipating his energies and attention over a wide variety of subjects included in a school curriculum.
Ralph Arnold was born at Marshalltown, Iowa, April 14, 1875, son of Delos and Hannah Richardson (Mercer) Arnold. His father was a native of New York State, and his mother of Ohio. His father was an early settler in Iowa and later in life was known for his attainments in scientific and political circles.
Ralph Arnold was about five years old when his parents moved to California and located at Pasadena. As a boy he traveled much with his parents, and his instinctive interest in observing and accounting for the facts of nature received every encouragement from his father and mother, so that it might be said truthfully that his entire life has been devoted to science. His first efforts were along the lines of ornithology and geology. As a result of those early studies he still retains one of the finest collections of California birds and eggs in that state. From what has been said, it should not be inferred that his general education was neglected. He attended the grammar schools of Pasadena, gradu- ated from the Pasadena High School in 1894, from the Throop Poly- technic Institute in 1896, and has several degrees from Leland Stanford Junior University, A. B. in 1899, A. M. in 1900, and was awarded the hood of a Doctor of Philosophy in 1902.
For about ten years Dr. Arnold gave much of his time to teaching and work in the Government service. He was Assistant in Mineralogy in 1898-99 and assistant in geology in 1900-03 at Stanford University, and was physical Director and Instructor in Physics and Chemistry at Hoitt's School, Menlo Park, California, in 1899-1900. During the period 1900-03 he also held an appointment as Field Assistant on the United States Geological Survey, and beginning with 1903 gave his entire time to that bureau, being Geologic Aid in 1903-05. Paleontologist in 1905-08, Geologist in 1908-09, and since 1909, in connection with his private prac- tice, has served as Consulting Petroleum Engineer with the United States Bureau of Mines. His work for the Government included a reconnais- sance of the Tertiary formations of the Pacific Coast of the United States, and following this he was put in charge of the Government's in- vestigations in the California oil fields. Mr. Arnold resigned from the Government service except as consulting engineer on June 1, 1909, and since that date the sphere of his professional activities has gradually ex- panded to include most of the oil fields of the United States, Mexico and South America.
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In the economic field his more important work might be judged from the preparation of reports and appraisals used in financing the following : Union Oil Company of California, Esperanza Consolidated Oil Company (now the General Petroleum Company), Palmer Union Oil Company, Midwest Oil Company of Wyoming, various companies controlled by W. P. Hammon in California and John Hays Hammond in Mexico, and properties held under option by the South African Gold Fields, Ltd., in Trinidad, British West Indies.
The most important single enterprise Mr. Arnold has yet under- taken is the organization and direction of an economic geologic survey of the oil resources of Venezuela for the Caribbean Petroleum Com- pany, a subsidiary of the General Asphalt Company. This is no doubt the most extensive operation of its kind ever undertaken in South America, no less than twenty-five American geologists and numerous natives being employed in the investigation. Mr. Arnold has served as Consulting Geologist and Engineer for the General Asphalt Company and its subsidiaries, the Bermudez Company, Trinidad Lake and Caribbean Petroleum Companies, the Ventura Oil Fields Company, Oak Ridge, Montebello, Alliance, Esperanza Consolidated and many other California oil companies.
While so much of his time has been devoted to the economic phase of scientific investigation, Mr. Arnold is.equally well known as a devotee to "pure science," and despite the multiplicity of his duties, he still shares the enthusiasm for advancement of knowledge in the entire realm of the geologic and related sciences. He has been a prolific writer on technical subjects. Some of his more important contributions are: "The Paleon- tology and Stratigraphy of the Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of San Pedro, California," a memoir of the California Academy of Sciences, con- sisting of four hundred pages and fifty plates; "The Tertiary and Quater- nary Pectens of California," professional paper No. 47, United States Geological Survey; "Paleontology of the Coalinga District, California," bulletin No. 396, United States Geological Survey. He was also co- author in collaboration with George H. Eldridge, Robert Anderson and H. R. Johnson, of seven bulletins of the United States Geological Survey. Nos. 309, 317, 321, 322, 357, 398 and 406, descriptive of the California oil fields and various phases of the oil industry. In addition, he has written more than fifty other articles and papers relating to the geology, paleontology, oil and other mineral resources of California, Oregon, Washington and Trinidad, published in various scientific and technical publications. In connection with his work for the Treasury Department he has written a paper, "Taxation as Related to the Oil and Gas In- dustry," and others.
Mr. Arnold was a member of the Jury of Award, Committee on Petroleum, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, at San Francisco in 1915, was a member of the War Excess Profits Tax Board from February to September, 1918; chief of the Oil and Gas Section Internal Revenue Bureau of the Treasury Department, September, 1918, to July, 1919, and was representative of the Treasury Department at the National Chamber of Commerce Reconstruction Conference held at Atlantic City in December, 1918; is a member of the Section of Geology and Geogra- phy, National Research Council, 1919-21, and chairman of the Finance Committee of the section.
Dr. Arnold was a trustee of Leland Stanford Junior University from 1915 to 1917. He is associate editor of "Economic Geology" and
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represents this publication as a member of National Research Council. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the Paleontological Society of America (vice president of Pacific Coast Section), the Amer- ican Association for Advancement of Science, the Geological Society of London and of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain. He is a member of the California Academy of Sciences, National Geographic Society, the Academy of Sciences at Washington, D. C., the Geological Society of Washington, Biological Society of Washington, Seismological Society of America, Malacological Society of London, Cooper Orni- thological Club, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, LeConte Geological Club. American Society of Petroleum Geologists, American Institute of Mining Engineers (being chairman of the Petroleum Committee in 1919, and chairman of the Southern California Section 1918-19) and the Min- ing and Metallurgical Society, of which he was councillor for 1919. His membership in clubs includes Cosmos Club of Washington, Rocky Moun- tain Club of New York, Engineers Club of San Francisco, Los Angeles Athletic Club and the University Club of Los Angeles. He was special lecturer on petroleum at the University of Chicago in 1914, and at Har- vard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1915.
July 12, 1899, Dr. Arnold married Frankie Winninette Stokes, daughter of Frank and Oraletta (Newell) Stokes of South Pasadena. They have one daughter, Winninette, born May 13, 1918.
DR. FREDRICK P. HOWARD was for many years identified with the citizenship of Los Angeles, was well known in business, and was a man of rich and rare experience in the activities of the world. His associa- tions were with many countries and many peoples.
An Englishman by birth, he was a native of Devonshire, born March 16, 1836. He attended Harrow University, graduated in medicine, was connected with the London Hospital for a time, and during the Crimean war, in which England fought Russia, he was in the government service as a physician. Later he practiced medicine at Trinidad, in the West Indies, at the mouth of the Orinoco River in South America, also for a time at Georgetown, in British Guiana, and then crossed the Isthmus of Panama and by ship reached Vancouver, British Columbia. For a time he was in the service of the Hudson Bay Company as a physician and surgeon. Later he made a personal survey of practically the entire Pacific Coast in search of oil, coal and precious metals, and wrote a book on geology, covering some of his principal observations. At San Fran- cisco he again followed his profession, and in that city established the first gas works. From San Francisco he came to Los Angeles, and shortly after his arrival joined the government forces, traveling by saddle from Los Angeles to Arizona, covering the greater part of that territory during the height of the Apache Indian outbreaks. After his return from Arizona he opened one of the first drug stores in Los Angeles. The ground on which it was located is now occupied by the main Los Angeles postoffice. He also maintained a drug store at Independence, Inyo County, and at about that time he became associated with an English syndicate in the manufacture of paper from the fiber of a variety of Yucca which abounds on the Mojave Desert. For the purpose of carry- ing out experiments in that connection, he built a paper mill at Ravena, which was operated by water power. The old paper mill was a land- mark for many years in that section.
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