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 56
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In order to avail himself of every possible opportunity to study theatrical architecture and arrangement he went abroad in 1907 and made detailed studies of the planning and operation of theaters, visiting every city of importance from Hamburg to Naples. He then crossed the Mediterranean to Algiers, toured northern Africa, and in May, 1908, sailed from Gibraltar coming direct to Los Angeles and thus beginning a connection with this city that has continued for twelve years. Here he incorporated one of the first scenic studios of the city, and that has been steadily developed until it is now the largest theater and school stage equipment establishment in the world, employing more artists and ar- tisans than are employed in all other scenic studios west of the Missouri River combined.
More recently Mr. Flagg has been able to give most of his time to the subject in which he has been most keenly interested, the planning of theaters, and some of the noted theaters of the country exemplify his work, prsenting a combination of utility, harmony of desire and color, comfort and economy with special thought to safeguarding of life in emergencies. To this work and profession he is earnestly devoted. and has achieved a recognition that must be highly gratifying.
THOMAS J. FLEMING, general manager of the California Portland Cement Company and former county treasurer of Los Angeles County, has been a resident of Southern California over thirty years. His busi- ness activities have been of a constructive character, and the success he has achieved in business has enabled him to follow out constructive ideas in developing a wonderful country place in the San Jacinto moun- tains.
Mr. Fleming was born December 18, 1860, at Ithaca, New York,
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in the same house in which his father was born. His family is of old and honored American stock, and through his ancestors Mr. Fleming holds membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. His great- great-grandfather came to the United States from England in 1700 and spent the rest of his life as a farmer and planter in Virginia. His great- grandfather, William, left Virginia early in life, settling near Auburn, New York, where he developed a place now known as Fleming Hill and there engaged in farming. The grandfather, Thomas Fleming, a native of Virginia, spent his mature years as a farmer at Ithaca, New York
Thomas J. Fleming is a son of James and Jane (Nelson) Fleming. His father was born at Ithaca in July, 1827, and up to the age of twenty- one his environment was that of a farm. At that time his father gave him some money and he crossed the plains to California, taking the south trail. While en route he was attacked by a grizzly bear, and the injuries were such as to keep him from active mining, the purpose for which he had come to California. He contrived another business, conducting a supply station for teamsters who hauled supplies to the mines. This business was located near Indian Gulch, in what was then a part of Fresno, now Merced county, and the original building is still standing there on the bank of Bear Creek. James Fleming went back to New York by way of the Panama Canal in 1856, and in 1857 was married at Ithaca. The rest of his life was spent quietly in farming at Ithaca.
Thomas J. Fleming spent his early life in New York State, atten- ing grammar and high schools to the age of eighteen. The next three years he was clerk with the George Small Lumber Company. He resigned on account of ill health and later came to San Francisco and soon after- ward to Los Angeles. His first business connection in Los Angeles was as secretary for the Exchange Block Company. This company built the first three story brick office buildings in Pasadena. He was with that concern three years, and then became chief deputy county treasurer under Colonel Jabez Banbury, and continued under J. DeBarth Shorb, successor of Colonel Banbury. Mr. Fleming was deputy until appointed county treasurer to fill an unexpired term, and at the next regular election was chosen county treasurer, an office he capably filled four years.
On leaving office Mr. Fleming engaged in the building material business, organizing the Oro Grande Lime and Cement Company, of which he is still president. Subsequently he took over the management of the California Portland Cement Company, and is now one of the chief stockholders, and besides general manager is also secretary and treasurer of the company. The plant is located at Colton, California. Mr. Fleming is also a director of the Western California Land Company and the Hellman Commercial Trust and Savings Bank. During the war he served as Director of District No. 14 of the War Service Com- mittee, War Industries Board.
He is a member of the California Club, Midwick Country Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Automobile Club of Southern California, an Elk and a Mason, and in politics a republican. He married at Los Angeles Ella Thompson, Their two children are Margaret, now Mrs. Asa Call, and Louise, Mrs. Ernest Duque, both of Los Angeles.
It has been the good fortune of Southern California that many wealthy men have used their wealth in conjunction with good taste to give increased beauty to the natural charm of the landscape. The place
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selected by Mr. Fleming for his country home is a nine hundred and fifty acre ranch in the San Jacinto mountains of Riverside County. Besides his own land he leases four thousand acres from the United States Government. Much of it is wild and picturesque, the woods and moun- tain retreats containing many wild cats, gray fox, raccoon, mountain quail and large gray tree squirrels, besides deer and mountain lions. Mr. Fleming is now negotiating with the Government to secure official recog- nition of this as a game refuge. While Mr. Fleming has made some of his property productive in a commercial way, he regards the chief assets of the region the work of nature itself. Mr. Fleming is an ardent out- door man, and a few days or a few weeks in the mountains completely recreates his energies for business. In his beautiful mountain retreat he keeps a cook and several Indians employed all the year around.
Just recently his country home was completed. It is known as "Tahquitz " His familiarity with old Indian legends supplied him with the name. The story goes that an old Indian chieftain of ancient times became an outlaw, and secluding himself in this valley of the San Jacinto mountains made periodic raids upon women and children. Finally he was subdued by the chief of the Saboba Tribe, and his spirit has been confined by chains in subsequent ages. Whenever he rouses himself and attempts to break the chains he causes earthquakes. Henceforth "Tahquitz" is destined to be a name of wide significance applied to one of the most unique country estates in California.
GEORGE FULLER, whose death occurred March 16, 1918, at his beauti- ful rancho at Buena Vista, gained distinguished position as one of the representative members of the California bar, served on the bench of the Superior Court of San Diego County and was retained as counsel for important corporations. He became widely known as an authority on corporation and international law, and by his sterling character and high professional achievement as well as by reason of his exalted patriotism and civic loyalty he honored the state of his adoption the while he gained the respect and high regard of the people of California.
Judge Fuller was born in New York City on the 3d of June, 1850. and was a son of Thomas and Henrietta (Turner) Fuller. He was of the sixth generation in descent from Dr. Samuel Fuller, who came to America on the historic ship "Mayflower" and who became one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Judge Fuller acquired his early education in the public schools of his native city and in preparation for his chosen profession he entered the law department of the Uni- versity of New York, where he applied himself to his studies with char- acteristic diligence and ambition. In 1871 he went to Madison, capital of the State of Wisconsin, where he entered the law office of Hon. John Coit Spooner, who long served as United States Senator from that state. He continued in the practice of law at Madison until 1878, when he removed to Providence, Rhode Island, where he became associated with the well known law firm of Turston & Ripley, and where also he became a professional associate of Carter Woods and J. Carter Brown.
In 1883 Judge Fuller came to the West and established himself in practice at Tacoma, Washington, where he built up a representative law business and where he served as city attorney. In his office in Tacoma Hon. J. Hamilton Lewis, who later became United States Senator from
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Illinois, initiated his career as a lawyer, and the two continued close friends until the death of Judge Fuller. In 1887 Judge Fuller came to California and established his residence at San Diego, where he became general counsel for the International Company, of Ensenada, Mexico. Thereafter he continued to serve in this capacity during five administra- tions of the English syndicate that succeeded the International Company. He resigned this post in 1905, in which year he came to Los Angeles and engaged in private practice. He had in the meanwhile passed much time in Mexico, and incidental to his legal activities in connection with Mexican corporations he became strongly fortified in the minutiae of international law. He organized the Mexican Land Colonization Com- pany and the Lower California Development Company, and served with characteristic ability as counsel for the important DeBaker estate. In 1899, while a resident of San Diego, Judge Fuller formed a law partner- ship with Judge Ernest Riall, and this alliance continued five years. In 1903 he was appointed to the bench of the Superior Court of San Diego County by Governor Gage to fill out an unexpired term. He served about eleven months on the bench and was regarded, as vouch- safed by his former law partner, Judge Riall, one of the best judges who ever sat on the local bench. He did not appear as a candidate for the office at the expiration of the term for which he had been appointed.
Judge Fuller retired from the active work of his profession in 1917 and in the meanwhile he had passed much of his time on his fine ranch. He was a man of fine presence, genial, urbane and kindly, was possessed of marked literary ability, as shown in both his prose and verse produc- tions, and in all of the relations of life he so bore himself as to retain the confidence, respect and good will of his fellow men. His political allegiance was given to the republican party and he was an effective advo- cate of its principles. He was long and prominently affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, held membership in the American Bar Association, the California Bar Association and the Los Angeles County and San Diego County Bar Associations. For years he was one of the leading and most popular members of the Cuyamaca Club of San Diego.
At Los Angeles on the 12th of January, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Fuller to Mrs. Ysidora F. (Couts) Gray, and she still maintains her home in this city. By her former marriage to William D. Gray, a native of Virginia, Mrs. Fuller has one son Chalmers Gray who was educated at Santa Clara College and who thereafter assumed charge of his mother's fine ranch property in San Diego County. He entered the United States Navy when the nation became involved in the World war, and since the close of the war he has established himself in the automobile business in Los Angeles. Mrs. Fuller's attractive home is at 358 Van Ness avenue, and as its popular chatelaine she has made it the center of distinctly representative social activity in Los Angeles.
MRS. NANCY TUTTLE CRAIG. While Los Angeles has a number of women of exceptional talents and business arts and the professional fields, Mrs. Craig has the unique distinction of being the only wholesale grocer, and is the only woman member of the National Wholesale Gro- cers' Association.
In 1888 the Howell & Craig Company entered the wholesale grocery field at Los Angeles. Later this was the Craig, Stewart & Company, but for over nineteen years it has been R. L. Craig & Company. Soon after
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its organization under the present title R. L. Craig died suddenly in 1901, and the momentum and progress of the firm without its leader would soon have been lost had not Mrs. Craig, though altogether without ex- perience, stepped in to take her husband's place. She at once manifested the ability and wisdom of her business judgment, and for over seventeen years has directed the affairs of the R. L. Craig & Company until it is now one of the larger concerns of the Pacific coast.
Mrs. Craig is of the fifth generation of her English and Scotch an- cestors in America and is a typical western woman. She was born in Iowa, daughter of Owen and Mary (Burns) Tuttle. Her father moved to Iowa from Ohio, and was a California gold seeker of the days of '49. Later he returned east, and finally brought his family out to California, where his widow is still living. Mrs. Craig's mother was one of the early active advocates of woman suffrage in California, and enjoyed the friend- ship of two of the nationally known leaders in that cause, Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe.
Mrs. Craig accompanied her parents from Van Buren County, Iowa, to Santa Cruz County, California, in 1873. She received her early edu- cation in the public schools of Watsonville, and in 1885 graduated from the State Normal at San Jose. She became a teacher, and had a great love for the work, and was peculiarly successful. When she married she gave up teaching, but her interest in education continued. Notwithstand- ing the hard work and constant care required in the development of the R. L. Craig & Company, she consented to run as a candidate for a mem- ber of the Board of Education of Los Angeles and was elected in 1911 and re-elected, each time by a good majority. Her great interest in child welfare and her other qualifications made her a most valuable member of the Board, and she served on numerous committees.
Mrs. Craig is also a member of the Friday Morning Club. In the management of the wholesale grocery business she has a valuable asset in her younger brother, Victor H. Tuttle, and also in her son, Robert H. Craig, who during the war was a member of the Naval Reserves.
CAROLYNE WOOD came to Los Angeles about fifteen years ago on a visit, and became a permanent resident, widely known for her work in various artistic fields and as an educator. She recently established the Westlake Art Studio School, which now represents a complete and splendid organization of diversified talents under the direction of Mrs. Wood, for instruction and training in music, drama, languages, dancing and the best of the fine arts.
Mrs. Wood was born at Gloversville, New York. Her grandfather, Isaac G. Fox, established the glove industry at Gloversville when the town was called Stump City. He sent men peddling gloves in covered wagons over the country before the New York Central Railroad was built. Mrs. Wood's mother was the oldest of thirteen children, and Mrs. Wood was one of seven children and the only one now living. Mrs. Wood has a daughter, Dorothy, who is on the stage. She was trained personally by Mrs. Wood until she was sixteen, at which time she entered the Belasco School in New York and later the American Academy of Dra- matic Art. She has played in many of the largest companies in all the leading cities of the United States.
When Mrs. Wood was a very young girl she was a member of a strict Presbyterian family. Her longing for the stage was suppressed
av andre er.
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by her parents, who considered the calling of the stage a blot on the family. Her father was Thomas McLeish, who was born at Wilmington of Scotch descent. Mrs. Wood having felt that her own youthful talents were perverted and suppressed, was determined that her own daughter should have full horizon of opportunity and choice. At the age of. three her daughter took part in a little opera and since that time was trained by her mother for the stage.
Mrs. Wood was educated in a seminary at Gloversville, and has taught painting, modeling, dramatics, and in founding the Westlake Art Studios School she has aimed to express the ideals of a lifetime in artistic instruction and service.
Mrs. Wood nearly lost her life in a fire at the old Van Nuys Hotel, being trapped in the hotel an hour and a half after other guests had escaped. Eight years ago she bought a home on Carondelet Street, which she still owns. The locality of the Westlake is a splendid one, being opposite the beautiful Westlake Park. She has already acquired a splendid personnel of talent to preside over the different departments of her school. The Spanish language teacher, Madam Concha de Rod- requez, wife of a former consul from Gautemala, is an exile. Hague Kiusil, the piano teacher, has international fame, is the winner of many prizes, holding the gold Clemson medal of the American Guild of Or- ganists for composition ; the prize awarded by the Baton Club of Chicago for the best church anthem; and the Matinee Musical Club of Los An- geles prize for the best instrumental solo. He teaches pipe organ and piano. The vocal teacher is Fred G. Ellis, a prominent baritone, and the teacher of French is Madam Corte, wife of a consul to Italy.
A. V. ANDREWS was born in Richland Center, Richland County, Wis- consin, on October 16, 1861. He is the second son of Lindley M. An- drews and Elizabeth W. Andrews. He is of Yankee and Quaker stock. He was educated at the high school at Decatur, Illinois, from which he graduated in 1881, and at the University of Cincinnati, from the Law School of which he graduated in 1883. Mr. Andrews also taught school four terms, and values the training thus gained as of the highest im- portance. Between terms of teaching he worked on a farm, and ac- quired that intimate touch with common things and that deep respect for hard labor so necessary to success.
At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Andrews was admitted to the bar of Ohio, and immediately began practice at Norwalk, Ohio, in partner- ship with his older brother, Horace, under the firm name of Andrews Brothers. For eighteen years this partnership continued and a large practice was built up. In 1902 Horace Andrews removed to Cleve- land, where he entered the firm of Hoyt, Dustin, Kelley, McKeehan and Andrews, and has ever since been in that organization and one of the leading lawyers of Ohio. A. V. Andrews continued in the practice of his profession at Norwalk until February, 1914, having associated with him W. R. Pruner, making the firm name of Andrews and Pruner. A large and desirable business, both in the trial of cases and in the busi- ness side of the law was the result of Mr. Andrews' career at the bar in Ohio. He was also a valued and respected factor as a citizen. He ยท became identified with several banks as a director and attorney and many other successful business enterprises employed him as counsel and elected him to their directorates. In February, 1914, Mr. Andrew's
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was offered a larger field of labor and usefulness in Los Angeles, and after twenty-nine years of successful practice in one city and one office, he decided to cast his lot with the West and removed to Los Angeles, leaving a host of warm friends in northern Ohio. With his brother, Lewis W. Andrews, and Thomas O. Toland, he formed the law firm of Andrews, Toland and Andrews, which by the admission in 1920 of Mr. Paul M. Gregg has become Andrews, Toland, Gregg and Andrews. Mr. Andrews has devoted much of his time and abilities during the past six years to the litigations and legal affairs of several large and growing corporations. He is a member of the State Bar Association of California and of the Los Angeles Bar Association. He has for many years belonged to the Masonic bodies, including the Blue Lodge, the Knights Templar and the Scottish Rite degrees. He is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club. In religion he is a Unitarian and a trustee of the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. In politics he is a life- long republican, but in 1912 followed Roosevelt.
In 1888 Mr. Andrews married Edna G. Hayden, daughter of Hon. George Hayden, of Medina, Ohio. Of this marriage there have been born six children, Gertrude H., Marion L., Ruth S., George L., Lewis M. and A. V., Jr. Since July, 1914, the family home has been at 238 South Andrews Boulevard, Los Angeles.
PATRICK C. MULQUEENEY has been one of the popular citizens of Los Angeles for nearly twenty years, has rendered valuable service for the greater part of that time as deputy tax collector, and is also past department commander for the State of California of the Spanish War Veterans.
He was born in County Clare, Ireland, March 11, 1875, son of John and Mary (Kenney) Mulqueeney, farmers of Ireland and both now deceased. He was the youngest in the family of eight children, five sons and three daughters. As a boy he attended the Irish National schools. and he also had some further education in the public schools of New- port, Rhode Island, after coming to this country. For several years he followed various lines of employment in Newport until at the out- break of the Spanish-American war in 1898 he volunteered in Company F of the First Rhode Island Infantry. He was with that command eleven months, and upon being discharged he took service with the 26th Regular Infantry, and was with that regiment in the Philippines. He received his honorable discharge in San Francisco. The Philippine service had been a severe tax upon his health and strength, and for several months he recuperated in New Mexico. In 1900 he located in Los Angeles, and for the past thirteen years has attended to his duties as deputy tax collector for the county.
Mr. Mulqueeney married Miss Ida T. Pearce, of Pennsylvania. In politics he is a republican, is a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus, a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood, and while active in various fraternities, his special interest has been in the Spanish War Veterans.
GENERAL HARRISON GRAY OTIS. The conventional statistics of biography have little significance when applied to such a man as the late General Harrison Gray Otis. While he was a fighting figure in some of the most dramatic events of the nation's life for half a century, those who knew him best realize that action and achievement were inadequate
A.G. Otis.
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alone to express the strength and quality of his character, and it was his character that molded the men and events around him and is deserv- ing of longest memory.
These words of apology are necessary at the outset in attempting to review briefly a career which deserves a volume and which might well serve to interpret several of the greatest epochs in our national life.
Harrison Gray Otis was born near Marietta, Ohio, February 10, 1837, and died at Los Angeles July 30, 1917, in his eighty-first year. His paternal grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier. His parents were Stephen Otis and Sarah Dyar Otis, and he was the youngest of the sixteen children of his father's two families. The Otis family has been prominent in New England from colonial times. Prominent members of the family were James Otis, famous as a Revolutionary patriot and orator, and the first Harrison Gray Otis was once a United States senator from Massachusetts.
The father of General Otis migrated from East Poultney, Vermont, in 1800, at the age of sixteen, and located in the Ohio Company's Pur- chase at Marietta. Settlement in that locality had begun only about a dozen years before. The mother of General Otis was a native of Nova Scotia, and her family were likewise early settlers in southern Ohio.
For several months every winter General Otis attended the common schools of his native state. At the age of fourteen he left home to learn the printing trade. During 1856-57 he was a student in Weatherby's Academy at Lowell, Ohio, and later graduated from Granger's Commer- cial College at Columbus.
June 25, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the 12th Ohio Volunteers. His army record in brief is as follows: Promoted to first sergeant March 1, 1862; second lieutenant November 12, 1862; first lieutenant May 30, 1863; captain July 1, 1864, on which date he was transferred to the consolidation of the two regiments to the 23rd Ohio Veteran Volun- teers and was promoted to captain July 15, 1864; March 13, 1865, he was brevetted major and lieutenant colonel of volunteers "for gallant and meritorious services during the war." He was twice wounded and was honorably mustered out July 26, 1865. Of the 23rd Ohio Veteran Volunteers Rutherford B. Hayes was colonel and William Mckinley captain. General Harrison Otis was seven times promoted during the war. He first saw service in the West Virginia campaign in the summer of 1861, and during his forty-nine months in the army, in the field and camp, participated in fifteen engagements, including South Mountain, Antietam and many other less well known battles during the terrific fighting on the soil of old Virginia and in that theatre of the war.
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