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 52
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ROBERT MARSH. Among Los Angeles business men Robert Marsh has been distinguished by his ability to plan and carry out exceptionally large undertakings, many of them along new and untried lines and in new fields. In the upbuilding and extension of modern Los Angeles within the last twenty years he shares high and conspicuous credit.
Mr. Marsh has been a resident of Southern California since child- hood, but was born at Charleston, Illinois, January 20, 1874, son of Joseph E. and Martha J. (Atwood) Marsh. His parents came to Los Angeles a few years later, living at San Diego from 1888 to 1891, and then re-establishing their home in Los Angeles. Robert Marsh acquired his first schooling at Little Rock, Arkansas, and afterwards attended school in Los Angeles and San Diego. He was impatient to get into a business career, and in 1892 left high school before graduating. The following seven or eight years were largely a matter of apprenticeship, waiting, discipline and development. For four years he was employed in a local book store, and for about two years by a men's furnishing house. In 1898 Mr. Marsh went to New Orleans and was identified with the wholesale and retail coal business nearly two years. He re- turned to Los Angeles late in 1899, and early in the following year went into the real estate business. At the very outset he considered big plans and big undertakings, and the scale of his operations is well known to all real estate men in Southern California. His chief interest probably has been in developing suburban properties, constituting part of the greater Los Angeles. Several magnificent resident districts in and around Los Angeles owe their primary development to Mr. Marsh. Among these may be mentioned Country Club Park, Western Heights, Westchester Place, Country Club Terrace, Arlington Heights Terrace and Mt. Wash- ington.
Mr. Marsh is in business under the name of Robert Marsh & Com- pany. His well-known energy and judgment have again and again been called into service for the larger interest of the city. In 1908 he became
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a member of the Chamber of Commerce committee to solve the difficult problem of securing a Union Depot. He was one of the leaders in the campaign for the annexation of San Pedro, giving Los Angeles its harbor frontage and connection with the ocean. Mr. Marsh has served as vice president of the Los Angeles Realty Board, and is also a member of the Jonathan Club, California Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Crags Country Club, San Gabriel Valley Country Club, Bolsa Chico Gun Club, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and a member of the Elks.
April 12, 1898, at Alhambra, California, Mr. Marsh married Miss Cecile Lothrop. They have two children, Florence L. and Martha J.
FRANCIS M. POTTENGER. Medical men everywhere recognize Dr. Pottenger as a physician of real eminence. His great work has been as a student and investigator of diseases of the chest, and he is one of the most skillful physicians in the country in combating tuberculosis.
Dr. Pottenger's special interest in the subject of tuberculosis is more than professional. It was for the purpose of improving the con- dition of his tuberculous wife that he came to California twenty-five years ago, and from the time of her death a few years later he has regarded the world-wide fight against tuberculosis as peculiarly his own life work.
Dr. Pottenger was born at Sater, Ohio, September 27, 1869, son of Thomas and Hannah Ellen (Sater) Pottenger. He spent his early life on a farm, attended local schools and acquired his collegiate educa- tion ac Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. He was graduated with the degree Ph. B. in 1892, and that institution has since taken note of his career and honored him with the degree A. M. in 1907 and LL. D. in 1909. In 1892-3 he was a student in the Medical College of Ohio and in 1894 graduated with the highest honors from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery. Two days after his graduation he married and he and his bride went to Europe, where he did post-graduate work in the leading hospitals, especially at Vienna. He has since been abroad three times, and also did post-graduate study in New York in 1900. For a time he practiced at Norwood, Ohio, and was assistant to Dr. Charles A. L. Reed, a noted physician and surgeon, and was also assistant to the Chair of Surgery in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery.
Dr. Pottenger gave up these bright prospects in the east to bring his wife to California in 1895, and located at Monrovia. Later he took Mrs. Pottenger back to her home near Dayton, where in spite of all care she died in 1898. Dr. Pottenger as a result of his first associations with the medical profession had decided to specialize in diseases of children and obstetrics.
After the death of his wife he returned to Monrovia, California, and since 1901 has also had offices in Los Angeles. He was the first ethical physician on the Pacific Coast to specialize in tuberculosis. In 1903 he established the famous Pottenger Sanatorium for diseases of the lungs and throat, of which he is president and medical director. Because of the distinguished abilities of its head this is probably the foremost institution of its kind in California. By successive additions and growth it now has accommodations for one hundred and twenty-five patients. Dr. Pottenger is not a faddist, but aims to treat tuberculosis by all means that will aid in cure.
Outside of his private practice and his sanatorium Dr. Pottenger has neglected no avenue through which his influence might be used for
Aramón In Pollange
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the good of his profession and humanity. From 1905 to 1909 he was professor of Clinical Medicine in the University of Southern California, and from 1914 was professor of Diseases of the Chest at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the same institution. He is the founder and for three years was president of the Southern California Anti- Tuberculosis League. In 1906-08 he was chief of helping station of Southern California Tuberculosis League. He is a member and served as president in 1906-07 of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, was president in 1912-13 of the Southern California Medical Society, is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Medicine, is a member and was president in 1914-15 of the American Therapeutic Society, is a member of the American Climatological and Clinical Association, and in 1917-19 was president of the Mississippi Val- ley Medical Association. He is now secretary of the Association for the Study of Internal Secretions, and also belongs to the American Associa- tion of Immunologists and the American Public Health Association, and the various local, national and international associations for the study and prevention of tuberculosis. He is a member of the American Sana- torium Association. During the war he was on the Medical Advisory Board of the Selective Draft.
Dr. Pottenger's published works and contributions to medical knowl- edge are chiefly the following: Pulmonary Tuberculosis, published in 1908; Muscle Spasm and Degeneration in Intrathoracic Inflammation and Light Touch Palpitation, published in 1912; Tuberculin in Diagnosis and Treatment, 1913; Clinical Tuberculosis, two volumes, published in 1917, and Symptoms of Visceral Diseases, published in 1919. He has con- tributed more than one hundred papers to medical journals. Dr. Potten- ger has given addresses before many medical societies, both in this country and abroad.
Dr. Pottenger is a member of the California, University and Gamut clubs at Los Angeles. His first wife was Carrie Burtner. On August 29, 1900, he married Adalaide Gertrude Babbitt, of South Pasadena, and on September 15, 1917, he married Caroline M. Lacy of Philadelphia. Dr. Pottenger by his second marriage has three children: Francis Marion, Jr., Robert Thomas and Adalaide Marie. -
ELIZABETH JORDAN EICHELBERGER. A concert pianist whose work has been commended by audiences of most exacting standards and tastes both in this country and abroad, Elizabeth Jordan Eichelberger is a per- manent resident of the Los Angeles musical colony and is one of the few foremost artists in this city who received their carly education here.
As Elizabeth Jordan she was born at Fairfield, Iowa, and attended public school there to the age of eleven. She then came to California with her parents and grandparents, who located at Pasadena. The family came West for the benefit of her grandmother's health. In Pasa- dena she attended the Marlborough School for Girls. A year and a half later her parents moved to Los Angeles, and at the same time Mrs. Cas- well moved her school to that city, so that her literary education was practically completed in the Mariborough School.
Mrs. Eichelberger can not remember when she did not play. Her serious study of the piano began at the age of seven. Her first teacher was Mr. Piutti, who was a pupil of Liszt. Later she worked with Mr. A. J. Stamm until the latter went to Europe to study, and under his able instruction laid the foundation of a knowledge of playing accompanists
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to other instruments which later proved of great value to her in her career as a concert pianist. She studied with Mrs. Marygold, and her last instructor in this country was Thilo Becker, with whom she remained a pupil four years.
Mrs. Eichelberger went to Europe in 1900, and for four years was a pupil under Moritz Moszkowski. During the summer months she made trips into Germany and Austria. One summer she went as accompanist for Madam Regina de Sales, who was coach for operatic pupils and took her class to Germany. Among noted singers for whom she played while on this tour were Francis de Zara, Robert Blass, Lillian Nordica, and others whose names are famous in Europe. While in Germany, Austria and Paris she played both in concert and in the salons before many well-known artists and critics and received very flattering European press notices.
Since returning to America in 1905 Mrs. Eichelberger has played in many Eastern cities with great success, and after a series of triumphs returned to Los Angeles. Here almost immedately she was engaged as soloist with the Symphony Orchestra and also with the Woman's Orchestra. Under the management of Mr. Behymer she played in many concerts and recitals in Southern California.
In 1908 Miss Jordan became the wife of Harry Eichelberger. Their two children, Harry and Margaret, are both musically inclined and doing well in that subject as students of the piano. Harry is playing the drums in two school orchestras, while Margaret has a voice of good quality. and Mrs. Eichelberger plans its proper cultivation. She has also developed considerable talent as an aesthetic dancer.
Mrs. Eichelberger combines a great technical ability with high artis- tic culture and hier powers are now estimated at their very prime. Since her marriage she has given many recitals in company with Mrs. Mary- gold for two pianos, and also appeared in ensemble concerts. She is a charter member of the Dominant Club and the Los Angeles Music Teachers' Association. She stands for what is loftiest and best in music and hopes that Los Angeles will achieve its proper destiny as the great artistic center of the world. Some of her pupils reflect the careful guidance of her instruction. One is Kathleen Lockhart Manning, a pianist and composer who has written several French songs considered the best written by any American composer, and is now at work on comic opera. Another is Mildred Dunham, a very talented pianist, and Alpha Allen should also be named among her pupils.
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MARTIN HENRY MOSIER grew up in western Pennsylvania, was a small boy when the first crude petroleum was discovered in the Drake well, and in 1876 he began operating as an oil producer. Since that time both in oil and natural gas he has been one of the prominent figures not only in Pennsylvania, but in the mid-continent fields, and now in the Pacific Coast district. Mr. Mosier still has extensive interests in oil scattered from Ohio to the Pacific Coast, but for the last ten years he has made his home in Los Angeles.
He was born near Pittsburgh, June 21, 1856, a son of Daniel and Ann E. (Stewart) Mosier. His parents were life-long residents of Pennsylvania. His grandfather spelled his name Moser and came from the border of Alsace-Lorraine to America. The Mosiers originated in Alsace-Lorraine, and of those that came to America some came through Germany and others through England. Originally the name "Mosier"
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meant "The Lord of the Moss," in keeping with the custom of the times. This branch of the family in America were the original owners of the large tracts of land in the anthracite coal district of Pennsylvania, before the value of anthracite was known. The Reading Coal and Iron Company own it now.
Mr. Mosier's father was a farmer and he died about twenty-five years ago on the farm secured from the Holland Land Company by Henry Mosier, the grandfather, in 1832. Martin Henry was only two years of age when his mother died. He was her only child. By his father's second marriage he has three brothers and a sister.
Mr. Mosier was educated in the Glade Run Academy near Pitts- burgh, and began teaching school when sixteen years old. During the four succeeding winters he taught school and returned to the farm for the summer. In 1876 he went into the oil country, and has been an oil producer since that time. In 1880 he did some of the first work in bringing into use the then wasting natural gas of Pennsylvania, and in the East he became known as an expert in natural gas production, transportation, distribution and the necessary appliances.
In 1881, as superintendent of the Bradford Gas, Light and Heating Company, he built the first natural gas pumping station in the world near Bradford, Pennsylvania. That was before Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, utilized natural gas, and the success of this enterprise made it possible for all of the large cities surrounding the oil fields to secure natural gas for fuel and lighting purposes in winter as well as summer. Later he assisted in developing the use of natural gas in Indianapolis, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, and for the Carnegie Natural Gas Company in Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, who furnished the Carnegie Steel Company with their natural gas requirements.
On August 8, 1883, Mr. Mosier married Miss Maud Isabel Adams, of Franklin, Pennsylvania, where she was born and educated. Her father was the late William Adams, and his only son, William B. Adams, still owns the old farm where Mrs. Mosier was born, and this farm since 1860 has been a scene of active oil operations. Mrs. Mosier traces her family tree back to John Quincy and John and Samuel Adams of Revolutionary times and farther back to William Adams of England, prominent there in his time.
Mr. Mosier was one of the pioneer operators of the great Mid- Continent oil field. He went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1905, when the little box car at the railway station served about all there was to eat. At that time all the banks of Tulsa did not have two hundred thousand dollars in deposits whereas now the resources of the banks in that pro- gressive city aggregate more than sixty million. In the early days he was a prominent factor in every enterprise of Tulsa as a city and indus- trial center. He served as president of the Chamber of Commerce of Tulsa in 1909, and in 1910 an honorary position of Grand Chairmanship of the Chairman of the Twenty-one Public Improvement Committees was voted him by the directors and members of the Chamber of Com- merce.
Mr. Mosier first visited California in 1909, and in finding Cali- fornia climate and business opportunities to his liking, he made appro- priate arrangements for the conduct of his business in the East and located here permanently in July, 1910. Since then he has organized three close corporations and has served as director and president of all of them
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since their incorporation. He is president of the Petroleum Company, a California corporation, with a paid up capital of two hundred fifty thousand dollars, whose home is in the Consolidated Realty Building of Los Angeles, California. He is also president of the Carpathia Petroleum Company of Oklahoma, whose home is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Perhaps his chief interest now is in the Sunshine Company, a big Los Angeles enter- prise with a capital stock of one million two hundred fifty thousand dollars, engaged not only in the production of citrus fruits and general farming but also is interested in petroleum. This company owns the celebrated Sunshine Ranch of forty-two hundred acres, located at the foothills on the north side of the San Fernando Valley. In the citrus groves, in the fields of grain and alfalfa, with the cattle, dairy, hogs and poultry on this ranch Mr. Mosier spends much of his time, finding the business both a recreation as well as a source of profit. Individually he still conducts oil operations in Ohio and Oklahoma.
His family home is at 55 Fremont Place, between the Los Angeles High School and Wilshire Boulevard, and is considered one of the beau- tiful residences in the fashionable Wilshire district.
Mr. Mosier is a member of the Mid-Continental Oil & Gas Asso- ciation, a member of the American Petroleum Institute, a member of the Automobile Club of Southern California, a life member of the Press Club of Los Angeles, a member of the Los Angeles Country Club, a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and is a director and president of the newly organized Los Angeles High School Com- munity Center, which organization has on its membership list nearly all of the people residing in the west end of the city, who individually and collectively have pledged themselves to make of that part of the city the best location for homes for good American citizens whether they are old or young.
Mrs. Mosier is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is frequently on committees whose business it is to take care of the deserving poor. Mr. and Mrs. Mosier did their first house-keeping at Gaston, Pennsylvania, the first natural gas town in the world. Their first child was born there and they named him Earl Gaston Mosier. They have two sons living, Earl Gaston and Harold Adams, and one daughter, Laura Ethel, married to Edward L. Moorehead of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Moorehead have a daughter, five years old, that they call Maud Isabel, for her grandmother.
Another son, Martin Henry, Jr., was born in Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, in 1900, graduated as president of his class of the Los Angeles High School in 1919 and entered Cornell University, without examina- tion, for the 1919-20 term. He was injured on November 21, 1919, and died Good-Friday morning, April 2, 1920, at the family home, Los Angeles, California.
THEODORE SUMMERLAND. A resident of Los Angeles forty years, the son of a California forty-niner, the late Theodore Summerland was the type of citizen who deserves a long memory, not only for his use- fulness in business, but for the friendships he enjoyed and the generosity that characterized every motive and action of his career.
He was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and died at the age of sixty- six on November 8, 1919. He was only nine years of age when he came to California. His father as a forty-niner had crossed the plains
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with team and wagon and lived for a time in Maryville. Theodore Summerland was educated in the schools of Santa Clara. His father was a merchant, and both parents were very devout Presbyterians. His father died while engaged in his usual occupation of reading the Scrip- tures.
Theodore Summerland as a young man took up the life insurance business and followed that for many years. Though he acquired a for- tune in business, he had dispensed practically all of it before his death. He was a natural philanthropist. He did not study out big plans for using his wealth, but gave freely, without special consideration for his own needs, and his life was one long exemplification of unselfish charity.
Mr. Summerland was also long a noted political leader. He served as a member of the City Council in 1891-92, and from 1903 until 1906. The last two years he was president of the Council. He also served one term as county assessor of Los Angeles County, and for one term was a member of the old State Railroad Commission, just before that body was reorganized by Governor Hiram Johnson.
Mr. Summerland married Mrs. Unger in 1907. She survives him. Theodore Summerland was a prominent member of the Elks Order and was one of the founders and the first exalted ruler of Los Angeles Lodge No. 99, B. P. O. E. He took a prominent part in the affairs of the Elks Club and was one of the leaders in the recent campaign to raise a large fund for the building of a new Elks Club home. He was laid to rest with the impressive services of his Elks Lodge.
LOUISE MARIE FAZENDA. Unselfishly, and with the wholesome sweetness of her nature unspoiled by success, Louise Marie Fazenda is one of Southern California's celebrities who make the world better by laughter.
Miss Fazenda, who for several years has been one of the leading commediennes of the moving picture world, was born at Lafayette, Indiana, and was six months old when her parents came to Los Angeles. Her father, Joseph Altamar Fazenda, is a native of Mexico, of French and Italian ancestry. He is a merchandise broker, and in California owns an oriental shop, doing a large Mexican and foreign trade. He is conversant with many languages. Miss Fazenda's mother was Nelda Schilling, a native of Chicago. Louise was educated in public and pri- vate schools in Los Angeles, and her ambition for a college education was denied her for lack of funds. As was true of many American children of the past generation, the atmosphere in which she was reared was that of restraint rather than encouragement to expression. She recalls Sunday as one day in the week when the family had roast meat. She was dressed in calico and frequently attended missionary meetings. As a small girl her ideal was Bernhardt. In not realizing the lofty heights represented by that figure of the tragic stage, her individual at- tainments have been greater than hier modesty will lead her to confess. Her rather lonely girlhood made her the more determined to have the things her family thought should be denied. One day a friend asked her if she would like to make some money for Christmas. A picture com- pany had use for a number of extras, and that would be an opportunity for Louise. A family discussion followed, and not so much to encourage the aspiring artist as to get her away from the house with her dramatics, she was allowed to accept the humble role offered. She immediately found favor and was soon doing everything from blackface to ingenue
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with curls. While at work on the field one day she attracted the atten- tion of Mack Sennett, and has been with his company of celebrated mo- tion players ever since. Miss Fazenda is one of the few women able to do Sis Hopkins' tricks. It goes without saying that her salary and posi- tion have steadily improved, and she is today the star commedienne of the Sennett Studios.
Miss Fazenda has had another ambition, and much of her early work for an education was performed largely out of a desire to do some- thing in journalism and literature. She spent a great deal of money studying the newspaper art, Several of her stories were accepted by magazines, and the pleasure of seeing her work in print was probably greater than that derived from her appearance on the movie screen. She now contributes regularly to several motion picture magazines. Her favorite poetry is that of Byron, and a copy of Byron is always on her table. Miss Fazenda is also very fond of out-of-door sports, her favorites being hiking and swimming. She is a liberal contributor to the King's Daughters, also to the County Hospital for Old Ladies, and during the war gave much of her time to auxiliary movements, being captain of the Red Cross work at the Sennett Studios.
MISS WINIFRED KINGSTON. Since her entrance into the world of moving pictures, some six years ago, Miss Winifred Kingston has made rapid advancement in her art and now has a large and loyal following all over the country. Combined with much natural talent is a nature in attune with her surroundings, the two serving to give to her acting a freshness and vividness that goes at once to the hearts of those who witness the productions in which she appears.
Miss Kingston has been the architect of her own success and for- tune, for she was still a child when her father, a brilliant man and great lover of all English sports, died, leaving his family little save the legacy of an honorable name. She was born in England, went to Scotland as a child, and at the age of fourteen years settled in Belgium, where she entered Paliceul Convent in the Ardemus. When her father died it was found necessary that she become self supporting, and; having a natural talent for dramatics, chose that field as the one in which to make her way. In 1910 Miss Kingston came to the United States, where she first taught French-then the stage, then pictures in 1914 under the direction of Augustus Thomas. Her first picture of importance , was "Soldiers of Fortune," with Richard Harding Davis as a director, and Dustin Farnum in the lead, in the making of which the company went to Santiago, Cuba, and in which Miss Kingston played the part of the Spaniard. She next had important roles, always with Dustin Far- num, in "The Squaw Man," which was a Lasky production as were "Brewster's Millions," "The Virginians," "The Call of the North," "Where the Trail Divides," "Cameo Kirby," with Dustin Farnum and Robert Edeson, and "The Love Root," with Famous Players starring. She then became a member of Lasky's Famous Players Company, playing in "The Gentleman from Indiana," "The Call of the Cumberlands," "David Garrick," "Ben Blair," "David Crockett" and "A Son of Erin." Changing to Fox, she played in "The Spy," "The Scarlet Pimpernel," "Durand of the Bad Lands" and "North of 53." Her latest picture, "The Light of Western Stars," was made with United Picture Theaters.
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