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 58
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Aside from his professional career he finds time to devote to club life and outdoor sports as golfing and hunting.
WILLIAM WOLFSKILL. Of that notable group of American pioneers who arrived in Los Angeles about the year 1830 and afterward became permanent and influential citizens of this then almost exclusively Spanish speaking province, one of the most conspicuous was William Wolfskill. His biography in fact might properly grace the annals of American path- finders, backwoodsmen and pioneers who opened up and began the de- velopment of the great west from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast.
William Wolfskill was born in Madison County, Kentucky, March 20, 1798, son of Joseph and Sarah (Reid) Wolfskill. His grandfather, Joseph Wolfskill, was a native of Germany, and lived in Philadelphia, in North Carolina, and afterward moved to Kentucky. The maternal grandfather, John Reid, was a native of Ireland, and was taken a prisoner by the British at Charleston in the Revolutionary war, and also later settled in Kentucky. In 1809 the Wolfskill family moved to Missouri and settled at Boone's Lick in Howard County. They and the other settlers there were exposed to much danger from hostile Indians during the period of the War of 1812. In 1815 William Wolfskill went to Kentucky to attend school. In 1822, at the age of twenty-four, his career of adventure began, and less than ten years later he had become permanently identified with California.
He was one of the early voyagers over the famous Santa Fe trail, spending the summer of 1822 in that far southwestern community. Then ensued a period of adventure as a trapper and hunter along the Rio Grande Valley, containing many memorable incidents, though not re- lated here, since they were no part of his California experience. For five or six years William Wolfskill operated as a trapper, hunter and trader in the Mexican country, then including Texas, and various south- ern states. In 1828 he finally left his Missouri home, once more bound for Santa Fe. In the summer of 1830 he became leader of a com- pany of about twenty-two men, whom he had raised as an expedition to
California to hunt beaver. Mr. Wolfskill arrived with this party at Los Angeles in February, 1831. He and his associates built a schooner and made one voyage hunting otter, though with indifferent success. Mr. Wolfskill then directed his attention to vineyarding and general horticulture, and his enterprise in this line proved the foundation of his greatest success and also an inestimable benefit to what is now one of the greatest sources of wealth in California. In March, 1838, he bought and moved to his homestead vineyard, afterward known as the Wolf- skill orchard tract. Subsequently the growth of the city compelled the dividing of these extensive orchards, and that land is now practically in the heart of Los Angeles.
In 1841 William Wolfskill planted an orange orchard, the second in California, the first being planted by the Mission Friars at San Gabriel. In the same year he and his brother John prospected over northern Cali-
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fornia, and as a result of subsequent negotiations acquired a grant of four square leagues in what is now Yolo and Solano counties. This land was developed as a ranch, with John Wolfskill in charge. Altogether there were five Wolfskill brothers who were California pioneers, and the last survivor of them was Milton Wolfskill of Los Angeles.
William Wolfskill, who died October 3, 1866, married Magdalena, daughter of Don Jose Ygnacio Lugo and Dona Rafaela Romero Lugo of Santa Barbara in January, 1841. She died in 1862. They were the parents of six children, Juana, the oldest daughter, dying in 1863, while Louis, the youngest son, died in 1884. One son was Joseph W. Wolfskill. A daughter was Mrs. Francisca W. de Shepherd. The other daughter was Mrs. Magdalena W. de Sabichi, wife of the late Frank or Francisco Sabichi, whose life as a pioneer resident of Los Angeles has been else- where described.
From a biography of William Wolfskill read some years ago before the Los Angeles Historical Society, the following sentences constituting a character sketch are appropriately taken:
"William Wolfskill, who was of German-Irish ancestry, had a strong physical constitution and an immense amount of vital energy. During his long and useful life he saw a great deal of the world and picked up not a little of hard, sound sense. He was an extensive reader, and being possessed of a wonderfully retentive memory he gained a store of information on most subjects of practical human interest that would not have shamed those who have had a more liberal education and who may have passed their lives with books, instead of on the frontier. He was a man of no mere professions ; what he was, he was, without any pretense.
"In religion he believed in the teachings of the New Testament, and at the last he received the consolations of the Roman Catholic Church. But in all things he loved those prime qualities of human character, simplicity and sincerity. He was of that large number of whom there are some in all churches, and more in the great church of outsiders, who believe that a loyal, honest heart and a good life are the best prepara- tion for death. He was disposed to as great an extent as any man whom I ever knew to always place a charitable construction on the acts and words and motives of others. He believed (and acted as though he believed) that there is no room in this world for malice.
"William Wolfskill was one of the very few Americans or foreigners who came to California in the early times, who never, as I firmly believe, advised the native Californians to their hurt or took advantage of the lack of knowledge of the latter of American law or of the English lan- guage to benefit themselves at the expense of the Californians. As a consequence, the names of 'Don Guillermo' Wolfskill and a very few other Americans of the older time, were almost worshipped by the former generation of 'Hijos del pais' who spoke only the Spanish language and who, therefore, in many, many important matters needed honest and disinterested advice.
"Mr. Wolfskill was one of the most sociable of men. In his inter- course with others he was direct, and sometimes blunt and brusque ; but in language of Lamartine, 'bluntness is the etiquette of sincerity.' In reality he had one of the kindest of hearts. Finally, in honesty, and in most of the sterling qualities that are accounted the base of true man- hood, he had few superiors."
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JOHN REID WOLFSKILL, who was a younger brother of William Wolfskill, the pioneer American settler, vineyardist and horticulturist of Los Angeles, also had a distinction in California annals as perhaps the first American settler in the Sacramento Valley.
He was born near Richmond, Kentucky, September 16, 1804, and grew up at the family home in Booneville, Howard County, Missouri. In 1828 he followed his brother William over the trail to Santa Fe, and as a trader and livestock man he had many varied experiences in the southwestern country. Finally, in 1836, Indians stole from him a large drove of mules, and he was left almost naked and practically bankrupt. On being furnished an outfit by a Santa Fe trader, he started for Cali- fornia, and arrived in Los Angeles in February, 1838. He was heartily received when he made himself known as a brother of William Wolf- skill, who was a man in high favor among Southern Californians. John Wolfskill in 1840 prospected over the public lands in the North, and after much opposition and many delays in his negotiations with General Vallejo, the military commandante, a grant of four leagues, about seven- teen thousand acres, was finally approved by the Governor to William and John Wolfskill. This land was located on Puta Creek, in what is now Yolo and Solano counties. In 1842 John Wolfskill occupied the new rancho, and began stocking it, and for the first two years lived without a building of any kind. While William Wolfskill had acquired citizenship as a Mexican, John Wolfskill was looked upon as a foreigner, and almost to the end of the Mexican regime in California had to suffer inconveniences and loss through the delays and injustices of the Mexican system.
In 1851 John Wolfskill began cultivating a few crops on his ranch, planting an orchard and vineyard. However, the rancho was devoted to stock raising mainly, and very profitably at that, during the early mining period until the sixties. After that much of the domain was fenced and the area was given over to the growing of wheat. About that time John and William Wolfskill divided their interests, each taking one-half. In some years the total amount of grain raised on the John Wolfskill ranch aggregated eighty thousand sacks. Still later fruit cul- ture became the principal feature of the ranch, and finally a railroad was built across the land not far from John Wolfskill's old home.
In 1858 John Wolfskill married a daughter of Major Stephen Cooper. Major Cooper was an historical character in the early annals of California, and with his daughter had come West with the ill-fated Donner party, but left it and reached safety. John Wolfskill had one son, Edward. His three daughters were: Melinda, who married Clay Goodyear ; Jennie, who married Frank Bonney; and Frances, who mar- ried Samuel Taylor.
ALBERT JOHN PICKARTS secretary of the Harris & Frank clothing house for men, is one of the distinctive business men of Los Angeles, and has been very prominent in organizing and developing an efficient credit association for the city and is a real leader among local business men and citizens generally.
Mr. Pickarts was born at Leavenworth, Kansas, December 31, 1861, a son of John and Thekla (Wey) Pickarts. He acquired his grammar schooling and also attended high school at Leavenworth, finishing his education with a business college course. At the age of eighteen he
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went to work as a bookkeeper in a hardware house. A year later he became associated with his father in a local manufacturing business and subsequently was made junior partner. The business was sold in 1893, but Albert J. remained with the new firm under contract for three years, giving the new management the benefit of his experience and knowledge of the enterprise.
Leaving Leavenworth in April, 1896, he had some varied exper- ience in different parts of the west, eventually locating at Deming, New Mexico, being in the wholesale and retail grocery business until 1902. In August of the latter year he came to Los Angeles and for several years was associated with the wholesale grocery firm of Barkley-Stetson- Preston Company.
Mr. Pickarts became interested in the clothing house of Harris & Frank in August, 1905, and has given that firm the benefit of his execu- tive services as secretary. This is one of the city's leading clothing stores for men. It is one of the oldest business houses of the city, founded in 1856 by Leopold Harris, a pioneer business man. His first store was at Temple and Spring, and he saw his enterprise grow steadily, seek new quarters from time to time, gradually moving south until it found its present location at 437 South Spring. This is a very attractive site, and the store is handsomely arranged as to lighting and equipment for a perfectly appointed service to its patrons.
Mr. Pickarts had been with the Harris & Frank firm only a short time when he realized that the local merchants were doing business with a handicap imposed by the lack of proper credit accommodations. His personal interest he succeeded in extending to other business men, and out of this grew the first real credit association known as the Asso- ciated Retail Credit Men of Los Angeles. Mr. Pickarts served as the second president of the organization. He was also vice-president of the Retail Credit Men's National Association. He deserves much credit for the organization known as the Retail Merchants Credit Association, owned and operated entirely by Los Angeles merchants, and has served as secretary of the association three terms, two terms as president, and is now a director. The R. M. C. A. now employs more than thirty clerks to look after the constantly increasing business.
Mr. Pickarts is a fine personal type of the able business man, tall, of splendid address, perfect physique, and his head is crowned with white hair. He is a member of no clubs but is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masons.
Mr. Pickarts has been twice married. His first wife was Minta Logue, of Leavenworth, who died in May, 1915. August 25, 1917, Mr. Pickarts married Miss Rosa E. Hopkins. Mrs, Pickarts was very active in Los Angeles in behalf of the various war auxiliary movements, particularly the Red Cross. Mr. Pickarts has two sons, Walter A., born in 1886, and Harold F., born in 1890. Walter is secretary and manager of a large cigar business at Los Angeles. He married Blanche Mooney and has two children, Frances, born in 1907, and Albert, born in 1913. Harold Pickarts, an employe of the Standard Oil Company married Mar- garet Fowler of Los Angeles and their two children are Jack, born in 1911, and Robert, born in 1913.
MADAM PICHE WOODE. The early years of her experience as a worker and instructor in the field of Fine Arts Madam Woode has
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turned to good account in commercial lines at Los Angeles, where she has two handsome and exclusive shops for French millinery.
She is the daughter of French parents who immigrated to this country from St. Ranei, and were the only ones of either family to become Americans.' Her father was a man of excellent culture and spent many years of his life at Stillwater, Minnesota.
The daughter was educated in Minnesota and for six years was a student of art, taking her training in the School of Fine Arts at St. Paul, also studying under Professor Alick in Chicago, Professors Lyckof and Bichoff in Detroit, and for a time was also engaged in study in New York. She worked entirely from life and nature and did many landscapes and modeled in clay
After several years of work as a teacher she gave up her art and entered the business world. Her motto was "success depends upon integrity, ability and good health," and she was blessed with all three.
She opened a French millinery shop at 1721 West Seventh Street, and from her success was able to open another shop at the very desirable location in the heart of the finest shopping district, at 704 West Seventh Street. Both shops are artistic in their environments as well as their products, and Mrs. Woode enjoys the patronage of an exclusive clientele.
GERTRUDE COHEN. While she completed her education abroad and gained her first triumphs as an artist in Europe, Gertrude Cohen is a native daughter of Southern California, and the mature achievements she has expressed at the piano have largely been in Los Angeles, where she received her earliest training.
Her father, Isaac Cohen, who came to California in 1868, is one of the oldest residents of Los Angeles. A native of Germany, he came to the United States and joined some friends from the Fatherland in Kentucky. There he made the acquaintance of several young men who had relatives in San Francisco, and finally a party came out to Cali- fornia.
In San Francisco on May 2, 1887, he married Miss Emma Stencel, also a native of Germany. After living at Los Angeles for several years he was for five years connected with the Internal Revenue Office all along the coast. Isaac Cohen removed to Redondo, where he servd as mayor two years, and during a residence at Anaheim was similarly honored with the office of mayor two years. Since returning to Los Angeles he has been engaged in the clothing business and is the oldest clothing merchant today in Los Angeles. Isaac Cohen and wife have three children, Gertrude, Herbert and George. Herbert after leaving school went to work for his father in the clothing business, and in 1914 established a stock of furniture. When the war broke out he sold his business, enlisted in the infantry, but subsequently was transferred to the spruce department of the aeroplane division, and was on duty at a camp in Oregon. After the close of the war he returned to Los Angeles and has resumed business at 137 South Spring Street. He is a native son and a thirty-second degree Mason. George Cohen was attending the University of California at Berkeley and was president of the Senior Class, 1917, when war was declared, enlisted in the infantry, received a second lieutenant's commission at the Officers Training Camp at The Presidio, and subsequently was at several different training camps and in different departments and was frequently promoted. At the end of
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the two years he was a captain in the Quartermaster's Corps at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, being then only twenty-two years of age. He was on the water enroute to France when the Armistice was signed. He is at this writing (1920) a law student at Harvard University and was the winner of the Carnot Medal for debating.
Gertrude Cohen began the study of piano at home at the age of seven years. One of her early instructors was Mr. Wilhartitz, and subsequently she was a pupil of Professor W. F. Chase of Los Angeles. Paderewski on one of his visits to Los Angeles heard her play and has declared that she was one of the most talented young pianists he ever listened to. It was at his suggestion that she carried on a professional career and went abroad to study. At the age of fifteen, with her mother as chaperon, she went to Berlin and studied with Leschetizky at Vienna for three years, securing her introduction to that famous master through Pade- rewski. At Berlin she studied one year under Leopold Godowsky. She was also a pupil of Harold Bauer at Paris. Leschetizky said of her: "Miss Gertrude Cohen has studied with me for several years, and by her noble ambition and talent has attained a height in the art of piano playing which entitles her both in concert work as well as teaching to the greatest success."
Later, at Budapest, Miss Cohen appeared in concert with such artists as Frida Hempel, Henrich Knote and others of like distinction. She visited Paderewski at his home on Lake Geneva. After many suc- cessful concert appearances in Europe she returned to America and made a successful debut in New York in a recital programme which displayed to the entire satisfaction of the exacting critics of the metropolis the exceptional gifts which have been bestowed upon her. It is only an artist of true distinction who could earn such discriminating and posi- tive expressions of praise as have been paid Miss Cohen by critics both at home and abroad.
In this country she accepted concert engagements under the manage- ment of Wolfsohn Musical Bureau and the L. E. Behymer Agency. She also accepted an invitation to Washington to play for a Musical Tea at the White House for Mrs. Taft. Since her return to Los Angeles Miss 'Cohen has played with orchestra as well as in concert and recital under the auspices of schools, clubs and at many private musicales. She is a member of the Monday Musical and the Dominant Club.
WESLEY WILBUR BECKETT, M. D. While Los Angeles has been his home and the center of his work for over thirty years, the well deserved fame of Dr. Beckett as a physician and surgeon has brought him many state-wide and national distinctions. The profession generally recog- nizes him as a most scholarly man of medicine, an able and original worker in surgery, and a leader who has always sought the best interests of the profession, both as an individual and as a teacher and officer in medical organizations.
Dr. Beckett has spent most of his life in Southern California, but was born in Portland, Oregon, May 31, 1857. His parents were Lemuel D. and Sarah Springer (Chew) Beckett. His father was an Oregon pioneer and served as the first justice of the peace at Portland.
Dr. Beckett was educated in the public schools of California, and for over six years was a teacher in San Luis Obispo county. In the spring of 1888 he received his M. D. degree from the Los Angeles
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Medical Department of the University of Southern California, and for one year did post-graduate work in the Post Graduate Hospital of New York City. He then returned to Los Angeles, and has been busied with his professional duties here for thirty years. Dr. Beckett is now and for some years past has been vice-president, a director and medical director of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company. He has held the chair of Professor of Gynecology and Surgery in the Los Angeles Medical Department of the University of California and is treasurer and director of the California Hospital.
Dr. Beckett holds the rank of first lieutenant in the Medical Re- serve Corps of the United States Army, having been appointed to that position by President Taft in the spring of 1911. Various professional bodies have honored him with the offices of president, including the California State Medical Society, the Southern California Medical So- ciety, Los Angeles County Medical Society and the Los Angeles Clinical and Pathological Society. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Pacific Association of Railway Surgeons and the Asso- ciation of Life Insurance Medical Directors. He is also a trustee of the University of Southern California, and in 1901-02 was a member of the Los Angeles City Board of Health.
While all these connections would seem to indicate an ample fulfill- ment of any man's ambition for useful work, Dr. Beckett has also been prominent in business affairs. He has served as director of the Cali- fornia Delta Farms Company, the Seaside Water Company, the Sinaloa Land and Water Company, the Citizens. Trust and Savings Bank, the Central Business Properties of Los Angeles.
Dr. Beckett is a republican, a Methodist, a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the California and Athletic Clubs of Los Angeles and the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. January 1, 1882, he married Miss Iowa Archer, of San Luis Obispo. They have two sons, Wilbur Archer and Francis H. Wilbur Archer Beckett received his M. D. degree in June, 1919. He then took a post-graduate course in New York City. He is now located in Los Angeles practising his chosen profession. Francis H. Beckett resides in Los Angeles and is associated with the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California.
JOHN M. BOWEN came to Los Angeles in 1912, while with the United States Secret Service, but for the past five years has been busily engaged in private practice as a lawyer, and has formed many influential connections with the law and civic affairs of this city.
He is a native of Old New England, born at Boston September 10, 1881, and comes of a prominent family there, son of Marcus A and Josephine H. (Lane) Bowen. Marcus A. Bowen, who died at Boston in 1916, was a graduate A. B. from Yale University in 1872, began railroading with the Old Colony Railway, and for over forty years was connected with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Com- pany. He was fourth vice-president of that corporation at the time of his death. He was seventy-two when he died. His wife also died in Boston, in 1907, and both were natives of that city. Their family con- sisted of three sons and three daughters. One brother and two sisters are still living, all but John M. Bowen residents of the east. Mr. Bowen's brother was in the ambulance service with a group of men trained at Harvard University, was later in the Aviation Corps, and for his work overseas received the French War Cross.
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John M. Bowen was educated at Boston, graduating from the English High School in 1897. Later he attended the University of Michigan, graduating with the A. B. degree in 1904. He received his law degree in 1906 from the Georgetown University Law School at Washington. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, and from 1908 to 1914 was in the Government Secret Service, and in connection with that work was admitted to the bar of practically every state in the Union. His duties in that service brought him to Los Angeles in 1912, and in 1914 he resigned and began general practice. His offices are in the Van Nuys Building.
He is a republican in politics. He is a member and president of the Jonathan Club, is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Automobile Club, the Southern California and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Mr. Bowen is unmarried.
THOMAS HUGHES. Prominent among the big men of Los Angeles who have so directed their activities and fashioned their careers that they have been able to combine great business accomplishment with marked and constructive civic service is Thomas Hughes, a resident of the city for thirty-six years, and now president of the Hughes Manu- facturing Company, one of the largest concerns of its kind in the West. His career is intensely typical of the spirit of many transplanted east- erners who have found their opportunities in the west, and his rise from obscurity to prominence forms an interesting page in the business history of his adopted city.
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