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 51
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Mr. Mesmer is the active head of the St. Louis Fire Brick and Clay Company, manufacturers of high-grade fire brick and fire clay products, now so favorably known through the entire West and the Orient. Mr. Mesmer was born in Tippecanoe City, Miami County, Ohio, November 3, 1855. He was not quite four years of age when his parents, Louis and Catherine (Forst) Mesmer, came to Los Angeles. By steamer they made the journey by way of the Isthmus of Panama to San Fran- cisco, arriving in that city in June, 1859. After a stay of three months, they embarked on a steamer for Los Angeles. Steamships between Los Angeles and San Francisco then made bi-monthly trips. It was a three days' voyage down the coast to San Pedro. The family was transferred from steamer to a tugboat and was landed at Wilmington, and a stage coach carried them to Los Angeles. They arrived here in September, and put up at the Lafayette Hotel, then conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Louis Everhardt. Mrs. Everhardt after the death of her husband became the wife of Jolin Lang, who passed away two years ago.
Joseph Mesiner acquired his primary education in the public schools of Los Angeles, but was sent abroad to complete his training in the college of Strassbourg, France. On returning home he became a mer- chant and in 1878 established "The Queen" Shoe Store in Los Angeles. He conducted a large and prosperous business in that line for twenty- eight years, selling out in 1906, and then spent over a year with his family traveling abroad. He established the first one-price store west of the Missouri River.
Soon after his return to Los Angeles Mr. Mesmer joined his per- sonal resources and talents to the St. Louis Fire Brick and Clay Com- pany, which today by his business ability has been put in the front rank of the fire clay manufacturers of the state.
Mr. Mesmer for years has been a foremost advocate of development work in Southern California, particularly in Los Angeles city and county. Probably no citizen has been more liberal of his time and study in behalf of various plans and movements to beautify and improve the city. He assisted in maintaining the annual feature of the Sixth District Agri- cultural and Industrial Fair and was one of the thirty annual guarantors to make up the deficit. For many years he contributed to the enter- tainment of every committee of the Legislature visiting Southern Cali- fornia, including those for the selection of the Normal School site, the Whittier Reform School site, and the Patton Insane Asylum site. His financial and personal aid has been given to the great work of advertis-
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ing to the world the climate of Southern California, the resourcefulness of its soil, and the opportunities of the homeseeker and industrious farmer in this region. No one could take greater personal satisfaction in secing Los Angeles develop as a home city of high-class citizenship, beautiful homes and churches and parks, school advantages, superior transportation facilities both steam and electric, well regulated fire and police systems. Mr. Mesmer has contributed liberally toward the build- ing of churches regardless of denominations, and also to the practical work of charity and charitable institutions. He was on the subscription committee which raised thirty-two thousand dollars for the purchase of the lot on which the Chamber of Commerce Building now stands, and was one of the large individual contributors to that fund. Through his efforts also funds were raised by which a block of land was purchased and then donated outright to the United States government for postoffice and court house. To Mr. Mesmer has been awarded the warrant and certificate of acceptance by the United States government of this site, on which stands the handsome Federal Building, six stories of granite and stone construction, built at a cost of over a million dollars.
Mr. Mesmer was the leading spirit of the property owners' com- mittee which secured the block bounded by Main, Temple, Spring and Market streets known as the Temple Block as a proposed site for the City Hall. The acceptance by Mayor and Common Council had been secured upon the condition that property owners contribute a hundred twenty-five thousand dollars toward the purchase price of five hundred thousand dollars asked by the owners of the Temple Block site. This sum has been subscribed and the city is expected to begin the building of the City Hall at an early date.
Mr. Mesmer served one term as park commissioner, was president of the North Los Angeles Development Company and other improve- ment societies for more than twenty-eight years continuously, and was twice a member of the Freeholders' Charter Commission to frame new charters for the city. He was largely responsible for giving the city a central purchasing agency, by which unprecedented economies have been introduced in the purchasing of supplies, amounting at times to dis- counts of as high as forty per cent. The index of his entire career in Los Angeles has been one of public spirit and public service.
Certainly no one has done more to educate and secure public consent to many plans for the broadening and beautifying of the city's thorough- fares. Through his efforts Los Angeles street was cut through a hun- dred feet in width from Arcadia to Alameda. Similarly he tried to secure the opening and widening of the same street to a hundred feet in width from First street south to Jefferson street, then the southern limits of the city, but was balked in this by the opposition of two prominent property owners. Since then the street has been widened to seventy feet from Third street to Fifth street, and the expense of the proceed- ings for these two blocks alone cost more than the entire opening and widening to the hundred-foot width would have cost when Mr. Mesmer first petitioned for the improvement.
Largely through his efforts Third street was opened and widened to eighty feet from Los Angeles to Omar avenue; Fourth street to eighty feet from San Pedro to Omar; Boyd street to sixty feet from San Pedro to Omar; First street west from Hill street, Hill street from First street to Second street, San Pedro to eighty feet width from Fifth street north to Aliso street ; Macy opened and widened to eighty feet from Alameda
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east to the Los Angeles River. He was also one of the prime movers in the opening and widening of Central avenue to one hundred feet in width from Third street south to the city limits; the widening of Mission boulevard from sixty to one hundred feet width from Macy north and east to the city limits; the widening of Lincoln Park avenue from sixty to eighty feet from Downey avenue south to Mission boulevard; the opening and widening of Thomas street from thirty to sixty feet width from Barbee south to Mission boulevard. On his initiative petitions were circulated asking for the proceedings to be commenced and the work prosecuted for the opening and widening of Sunset boulevard a hundred feet wide from Marmion Way to the Plasa, now an accomplished fact.
Some years ago Mr. Mesmer broke the iron clad monopoly hitherto exercised by the Alcatraz Paving Company on all asphalt street paving, thus reducing the cost of that improvement nearly one-half. Mr. Mesmer has always expressed a willingness to give time and money to promote the "City Beautiful" movement. He believes that no time is so good as the present, and that any work that now costs hundreds of dollars will in later years involve similar thousands to properly carry it out. The ambitious program which he has considered again and again advocated proposing the widening to a hundred twenty feet of Main, Olive, Grand avenue, Hoover, Fifth, Ninth, Pico, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, San Pedro, Central avenue, Soto and Griffin avenue, with incidental improve- ment of parkways and tree banks. First street should be widened to one hundred forty feet from the eastern to the western limits of the city and to have four tracks of car lines for travel, the two inside tracks to be given over to express service, and the two outside tracks for local travel. Mr. Mesmer reasons that in case of any great conflagration any of these wide streets would prove a powerful and probably effective fire break.
Mr. Mesmer was chairman of the Merchants and Manufacturers Committee appointed to investigate the possibilities of the Owens River as a source of pure water supply, this investigation proving the prelim- inary of the greatest single construction enterprise for Los Angeles.
The crowning feature of his plans for a great and beautiful city proposes the improvement of the Los Angeles River bed. No other work, declares Mr. Mesmer, "could be projected that would have such beneficial results and mean so much to the city. It would transform the most un- sightly feature of Los Angeles into a beautiful parkway, chain of lakes and esplanades such as would charm every beholder by the picture of a park six miles long in the center of the city. It would mean facilities immediately at hand for outing and recreation, walking over the serpen- tine paths amid shady trees and flowers, with facilities for boating and sailing in the six lakes each three thousand feet long, while the river bed and sides would be lined solidly with concrete and the parapet sidewalks above the surface level would be molded in artistic design, on the top of which would stand at every thirty feet a beautiful electrically lighted gondolier." Mr. Mesmer firmly believes that Bunker Hill should be removed and brought down to grade level, and that in this territory a very high-class retail and shopping center could be developed through the widening and opening of such thoroughfares as Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth streets, leading from the high-class home section lying to the west and Hollywood sections.
Mr. Mesmer also advocates the acquisition of several acres of land
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lying near and adjoining west of New High street from Republic street north to the proposed opening and continuation of Sunset boulevard. That land, together with the site of the high school and city cemetery, could be converted into an ideal park, to be known by the historical name of Fort Moore, the high school building, cemetery grounds and miniature fort forming attractive settings to the landscape. Fort Moore Hill is sometimes called Buena Vista Hill, and would lend itself to beautiful decorative floral terraces.
Mr. Mesmer is a member of the Los Angeles County Pioneer So- ciety, the California Club, a life member of St. Vincent de Paul Society and is affiliated with the Elks, Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Knights of America. April 22, 1879, he married Miss Rose Elizabeth Bushard of Los Angeles. Six children were born to their union: Louis Francis, Marie Josephine Perier, Clarence Woodman, Junietta Lucille, Beatrice Evalynne and Aloysius Joseph Mesmer. His son Louis was commissioned captain in the Engineer Corps, and his son Aloysius was ensign, doing duty in the late great war.
MISS EDNA PURVIANCE. A casual social introduction to Charles Chaplin is also the introduction of Miss Edna Purviance to the history of the movie stage. The happy accident occurred in 1915. The famous comedian asked her "if she would like to try." Though diffident and rather distrustful of her own ability, she was more than delighted to make the effort.
, The trial proved one of those instantaneous successes. Ever since her fame has been growing, and her most fortunate part and the one she enjoys most is playing the opposite to Charles Chaplin. Her first picture was "His Night Out." She has played in many more, the most popular perhaps being "The Adventurer," "Shoulder Arms," "Easy Street," "A Dog's Life" and "Sunnyside."
Miss Purviance says she loves the work, particularly her part with Mr. Chaplin, since he directs his own pictures and thus eliminates the presence of a director in front. Miss Purviance testifies that Chaplin is constantly improvising little tricks so popular with the public as he goes along.
Miss Purviance was born in Paradise Valley, Nevada. She grew up among the lovely hills of that state, always had a horse and dogs, and was extremely fond of them as a child, preferring, them to dolls, with which she never cared to play. Her life developed as she rode all day among the hills on her horse, enjoying the bigness of outdoors and the poetry of a magnificent environment. Then, too, she was always getting hurt, but never sufficient to discourage her from riding and adventuring in the open.
JOHN LLEWELLYN. A notable figure was removed from Los An- geles industrial circles by the death of John Llewellyn in April, 1919. Mr. Llewellyn was a member of a family of prominent ironmasters, the industry having been an intimate part of the family history for several generations in Wales. John Llewellyn was associated with his brothers, Reece, William and David, in the Llewellyn Iron Works at Los Angeles, and was vice president of that corporation at the time of his death.
. He was born in Wales, May 27, 1873, son of David and Hannah (Janes) Llewellyn. His father was an expert iron worker and when John was eleven years of age brought his family to America and estab-
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lished his home in San Francisco, where he had an iron foundry. In 1888 the mother brought her children to Los Angeles, where John Llewellyn finished his education under private tutors. He became asso- ciated with his brothers in founding the iron works, and in 1892 gradu- ated from the Los Angeles Business College. For over a quarter of a century he was active in the Llewellyn Iron Works, serving in various capacities, and a few years ago was promoted from assistant secretary to vice president. While experienced in all branches of the business, he was especially regarded as an expert in elevator construction and installation, an important feature of the business. After the fire and earthquake in San Francisco he installed the first elevator constructed in a building subsequent to that disaster. He supervised the installation of elevators in most of the large buildings at Los Angeles, including the Alexandria Hotel and the Los Angeles Athletic Club. During the great war he spent all his energies toward getting government contracts han- dled by his company completed in record time, and had gone East in the best of health in connection with some business of the company in con- nection with the Shipping Board, and while in New York his death occurred after a minor operation.
A master of the technique of the iron industry, John Llewellyn also excelled in the ability to work with and lead men, and time and again succeeded in carrying out important contracts because he was able to adjust labor difficulties. This feature of his character was testified to by the employes of the Llewellyn Iron Works after his death, who in a formal tribute said: "In life and through every trial and in the years of our association he has been to us a man and a companion, one of us and part of us, and in his death we feel the loss of a true friend; and his passing is to each of us a personal loss which can not be compensated and will not be forgotten."
"Mr. Llewellyn was unmarried and lived with his mother at 7 Berke- ley Square, enjoying the home life with his brothers, Reece and William. He was also survived by a sister, Mrs. John Milner. John Llewellyn was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and was a member of the California, Jonathan, Los Angeles Athletic and Los Angeles Country Clubs.
WILLIS DOUGLAS LONGYEAR. A vice-president of the Security Trust & Savings Bank, and prominent in the civic and business affairs of the city, as well as in the banking circles of the state, Mr. Longyear ranks among the bankers of longest experience in Los Angeles. For more than thirty years he has been connected with the Security Bank, which when he first entered its employment occupied a single small room on South Main Street.
On his father's side Mr. Longyear came of Holland stock, his grand- parents coming to Michigan from New York, where they had emigrated from across the Atlantic. His maternal grandfather, Eli Douglas, was born in Vermont in 1810, coming of Scotch ancestry. He emigrated to Michigan in the early thirties, when this was the ultimate frontier of the United States, and developed a home in the wilderness .. His daughter, Maria Douglas, married Moses Longyear, and from this combination of sturdy, thrifty, courageous, pioneer stocks came the future banker, born at Grass Lake, Jackson County, July 2, 1863.
Moses Longyear, his father, prospered as a merchant and later as a farmer. At the time of his death he was reputed the largest sheep
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owner in southern Michigan. He was a pioneer in efficient, scientific farming, a promoter of pure bred cattle, county supervisor and super- intendent of the poor at the time of his death. He died when "W. D." was nine years old, and the boy soon afterward went to live with his grandfather, Eli Douglas, at Kalamazoo, where he received his education in the public schools. At the age of eighteen he became registry clerk in the Kalamazoo postoffice, but in 1884 took up banking as a clerk in the Kalamazoo National Bank, where he remained five years, getting a thorough training in all departments.
In 1889, the year the Security Bank was established, young Long- year left Kalamazoo for Los Angeles, and the next year found him behind the one teller's window of the little institution, and, with the cashier, was practically the entire clerical force. But the bank grew and Longyear grew with it, continuing to have in charge the practical details of the internal management. In 1893 he was assistant cashier, in 1895 he became cashier and secretary and in 1917 was elected a vice- president of the bank, which had by that time grown to be the largest financial institution in the Southwest.
Identified with the California Bankers Association for several years, Mr. Longyear became president in the summer of 1918, and had the distinguished honor of being its war president, guiding its work during most of the liberty loans and other activities to which all the energies and resources of the California banks were summoned. In 1919 he was chosen to represent the California Bankers upon the Executive Council of the American Bankers Association for term of three years.
Besides banking, Mr. Longyear has been steadily identified with the growth and development of Los Angeles and Southern California. Al- ways interested in agriculture, he was prominent in the development of the San Fernando Valley. With his son Douglas he has developed and stocked with a fine herd of pure blood Hereford cattle one of the largest ranches in the Owens River Valley ; is a stockholder and director in successful manufacturing and real estate holding companies.
February 8, 1893, at Los Angeles, he married Miss Ida Agatha Mackay, whose father, Captain A. F. Mackay, a building contractor, erected some of the most substantial buildings in the early development of Los Angeles. The Longyear home was one of the first built upon Wilshire Boulevard west of Vermont Avenue, when that beautiful thoroughfare was first laid out. Mr. and Mrs. Longyear have two chil- dren, Douglas M. and Gwendolyn C.
Mr. Longyear is a Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Al Malakaih Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and is a member of the California Club, the Crags Country Club and the Los Angeles Country Club.
BERTHA LOVEJOY CABLE. Perhaps no woman in public life in Cali- fornia is more sincerely admired or more thoroughly trusted than Mrs. Bertha Lovejoy Cable, who is president of the California Federation of Women's Clubs. She fills this, as she has other high offices, with in- telligence, poise and good judgment, while her particularly engaging per- sonality but adds to her general efficiency. Destiny has placed her hap- pily. Coming of noted ancestry, with early intellectual environment and social advantages, ere she reached maturity she developed a questioning interest in progress and reforms that only mildly disturbed many of her friends and associates. She read intelligently, studied conscientiously, traveled, investigated and exchanged views with other earnest women.
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Thus prepared, she has fulfilled the duties of high position well. She is not only an honored and influential club woman, but is also a happy wife and mother and a charming hostess.
Bertha Lovejoy was born in Iowa. Her parents were John Elling- wood and Joanna (McBeath) Lovejoy, her father being of English extraction and a native of Maine, and her mother of Canadian birth and Scotch ancestry. The name Lovejoy belongs to the nation's history. The father of Mrs. Cable was a journalist and a diplomat, and during the administration of President Lincoln he served as United States consul to Peru. It was his uncle, Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was killed by a mob at Alton, Illinois, in 1837, because he persisted in declaring his anti- slavery sentiments in his newspaper. Owen Lovejoy, United States senator during President Lincoln's administration, was also a man of courage and conviction, and the page of his life reflects distinction on his time and country.
Miss Lovejoy became the wife of Herbert A. Cable, deputy state labor commissioner of California. They have two sons, Arthur Lovejoy and John R., aged respectively twenty and thirteen years. The elder son entered the National Army as a volunteer in September, 1917, accom- .panied the American Expeditionary Forces to Europe and was in France, a sergeant at General Headquarters. The beautiful family home is at 1906 West Forty-second Place, Los Angeles.
Mrs. Cable was president of the Averill Study Club for two years, 1912-1914 ; president of the Los Angeles District Federation of Women's Clubs for two years, 1914-1916; president of the Women's Legislative Council of California, 1916-1917; president of the California Federa- tion of Women's Clubs, 1917-1919; appointed a member of the State Council of Defense by Governor Stephens, one of three women members, in May, 1917, and in the same month was elected chairman of the Women's Committee of Councils of National and State Defense.
MRS. M. HENNION ROBINSON (BLANCHE WILLIAMS). Probably no artist meets more of the difficult tests of true musicianship than the accompanist. Of musicians there is a legion and host, but real accom- panists are comparatively rare. It is in this difficult field of music that Mrs. M. Hennion Robinson of Los Angeles has achieved her greatest reputation, though in recent years her work as a composer has attracted notice and encouragement from those competent to judge, and during 1920 she abandoned some of her professional engagements in order to be in New York to look after her compositions.
She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. D. Williams and was born in Emporia, Kansas, attended public school in that city and also the Kansas State Normal. Her grandfather was a singing master, and all her family were musical. Older members of the family say that when she was a child of three years she would pick out airs on the piano. At the age of five she started regular work on the piano at the Chase Con- servatory at Emporia.
At the age of nine her family moved to Chicago, where she was fortunate in having eight years of scholarship with W. C. E. Seeboeck, a pupil of Rubenstein. Soon after she began accepting engagements in concert work, and under the management of Mr. Pardee and Miss Weber toured the Middle West in recital as concert pianist. In 1901 her father's business called him to California, and the family moved to Los Angeles.
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For nearly three years after coming to Los Angeles Mrs. Robinson did concert work and was soloist on many notable programs. Since then she has specialized exclusively in accompaniment. She has played for such well-known artists as George Hamlin, Jeannie Jornelli, Marcella Craft, Maggie Teyte and Pavlowa, Franz Wilcez and Hugo Herrman, besides many local singers. For nine years she was the accompanist for the Woman's Lyric Club, and for five years of the Ellis Club, and during the past two years has found time to do much composition.
Mrs. Robinson is a pupil in composition of Frederick Stephenson. Her "The Woman at Home," a chorus for women's voices, has been sung with much success by the Lyric Club. Among her better known compositions are "Songs of You," "The Mystic Hour," "Youth," "Fair- ies," "Butterflies," "The Dawn of Dawns," and a chorus for men's voices, "A Song for Heroes." She is kept busy under the management of Mr. Behymer in concert work, and also finds time to play for the Ebell Club, the Friday Morning Club, the Gamut Club, and for many of the leading artists who come to Los Angeles.
In 1904 she was married, and has a daughter, Dorothy, now thir- teen years of age, who has shown considerable talent both at the piano and in interpretive dancing. Mrs. Robinson's season is from October to June, and her program is always full. She is a member of the Dominant Club and one of its charter members.
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