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 6
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Max Lowenthal
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Just then my dream was ended, I was startled by a scream, A crashing door, a blue coat, a familiar form I seen. 'Twas Lee, the Chink who ran the joint, he sprawled upon the floor, As the copper's fist had leveled him when he crashed against the door. The harness bull was standing and looking all around, He called to Lee to tell him if the girl was under ground. I saw him draw his pistol as the Chink reached for his knife, I saw Lee get upon his knees and beg to spare his life.
He led the way to a darkened room and told him she was there And when they brought her past me, I saw the golden hair. I made one jump and landed a way out from my bunk, I reeled and tried to hold my feet but it seemed that I was drunk. Yet my head was clear and I seemed to know that I had left my bed. I called to them to stop and wait and tell me, was she dead. They went right on and let me stand and didn't seem to care That I had known that little girl with the mass of golden hair.
You see I used to write to her and she knew what I meant, when I told her how I loved her and what a life I spent.
Next day I learned the awful truth of what had come to pass, Of how my little village sweetheart had waited till the last. Of how she wandered into town to find me if she could, And help me lead a better life and bring out all the good. And when she couldn't find me I guess she lost her way, They say she hit the dope route and like others, had to pay.
They buried her away up State, in that little country town Where childhood days were happy and the school was painted brown. You asked me now why I don't stop and lay off of the stuff, For I should know my life is dead and I am just a bluff. Why man alive, I only live to go back to my den And hit the pipe and dream of her and dream what might have been. Why man, I long to see again that garden of the gods I told you of a while ago that had the diamond pods,
Where the angel came and joined our hands and where my love was boru.
Yes, man, that's where I want to stay 'til Gabriel blows his horn, Or would that God would take me now, and tear me from this weed That's caused such hell and sorrow and bears its filthy seed, That I may make amends to him and pray him to forgive my sins of other days, and a new life let me live.
So don't feel hard if I must leave and have to say good-bye, Because I want just one more dream like that before I die. For my little pal still waits for me, I think I see her there Away up with the angels with that mass of golden hair. (Signed) NICK HARRIS.
MAX LOEWENTHAL. A Los Angeles lawyer since 1886 Max Loewen- thal has been generally recognized by the bench and bar and by legal interests for many years as a profound lawyer and as one of the most substantial and reliable members of the bar and has always enjoyed an exceptionally large and choice practice.
Mr. Loewenthal was born in Germany, October 15, 1858, a son of
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Rev. Henry Phillips and Natalie (Schoenberg) Loewenthal. The family came to California in 1867 direct from Germany when he was nine years of age. His father was a rabbi and for eleven years was in charge of the congregation at San Jose and for a similar period at Sacramento when he retired and made his home with his son at Los Angeles until his death.
Max Loewenthal attended the Sacramento public schools, gradu- ating from the high school in 1877, received his A.B. degree from the University of California in 1881, and in 1884 graduated with the degree of LL. B. from the Hastings College of Law at San Francisco, where he was admitted to the bar the same year and practiced until coming to Los Angeles in 1886. For many years in Los Angeles Mr. Loewenthal was associated with George J. Denis under the firm name of Denis & Loewenthal, and for sometime thereafter with the firm of Loewenthal, Loeb and Walker. He is now at the head of a large law business, with offices in the Van Nuys Building. His junior associates are his son Paul Loewenthal, Victor Ford Collins and Ernest C. Griffith.
Mr. Loewenthal is a director in the Consolidated Realty Company, and has been attorney for and an officer in many other corporations during the past. He is a democrat, and is a member of the University Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Rod and Reel Club (of which he was for many years the president), Phi Delta Phi college fraternity, Ameri- can Bar Association, California State Bar Association and Los Angeles County Bar Association, also the Automobile Club of Southern Cali- fornia. He is interested in public affairs but has never held public office. He has devoted much time and service to charities, is a lover of outdoors, and was for many years an officer and director of the Tuna Club.
At Los Angeles, July 7, 1889, he married Laura Meyer, who was born and raised in Los Angeles and is a daughter of Samuel Meyer and a member of the pioneer Meyer family of Los Angeles. They have two children, Paul and Natalie Loewenthal, both natives of Los Angeles. Paul graduated from the Los Angeles High School in 1909, received his A. B. degree from the University of California in 1913, and graduated J. D. from the College of Law University of Southern California, in 1916, being admitted to the California bar the same year. On the out- break of the war he enlisted in the navy, and received his commission as ensign. He is now associated with his father in practice. Paul Loewenthal married November 14, 1918, at Los Angeles, Miss Alice Schwob and they reside at 1724 Westmoreland Boulevard. They have one son, Robert B. Loewenthal. Natalie Loewenthal is a graduate of the Girls' Collegiate School of Los Angeles and is now a student in the University of California. Max Loewenthal and family reside at 1833 South Flower Street.
LUTHER G. BROWN. One of the able members of the Los Angeles bar, Luther G. Brown, during his long residence in Southern California, has also become widely known for his work as an educator, for his activity in public affairs, and even more so in his organization and man- agement of large business and development companies.
Mr. Brown is from old pioneer Quaker stock; his ancestors helped build the earliest houses in Philadelphia; their descendants thence pio- neered to Guilford Creek, North Carolina, and from there his great- grandparents on both sides moved to the primitive forests of Indiana in the latter part of the eighteenth century-and on October 22, 1868,
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he was born in a log cabin in the old Quaker settlement known as Sugar Plain on the banks of Sugar Creek, Boone County, Indiana. William P. and Mary M. Brown, his father and mother, were both well known as teachers in Indiana and Iowa, and later were in charge of the gov- ernment Indian schools for the Pottawatomie Indians in the Indian Territory.
In 1885, William P. Brown moved his family and all his earthly possessions to Southern California, where he lived till his death in 1908. As a result of his efforts, more than two hundred of his friends and relatives in the east moved to California.
Luther G. Brown is a graduate of the old Quaker or Friends Col- lege, known as Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana, from which he received his A. B. degree in 1891. For several years thereafter, he was principal of the Washington School in Pasadena and for three years teacher of English and commercial law in the Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles. In 1899-1900 he was president of the Los Angeles County Board of Education. In 1899, he began the active practice of the law.
In 1913, he secured an option from the Southern Pacific Land Com- pany on some 50,000 acres of the best land in Imperial Valley and organ- ized the Imperial Valley Farm Lands Association which purchased this land and has brought the greater part of it to a high state of produc- tion. Mr. Brown has been secretary, attorney and director in charge of the work of this company since the time of its organization.
In 1917, he served as chairman of the Los Angeles City Home Garden Committee, and promoted this work to such an extent that more than 75,000 home gardens were planted in the city that year. His plans and methods were adopted all over the United States.
For many years he has made an especial study of trade conditions in Western Columbia, and in the summer of 1919 traveled through that region and made a thorough personal examination. As a result he has recently organized a trading company to do business with that country and to develop closer business and social relations. This enterprise has already developed to such an extent that Mr. Brown intends to give it the greater part of his personal attention until his plans have been put into effect.
Mr. Brown is a past master of Pasadena Lodge of Free Masons, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. He is a mem- ber of the Jonathan Club, of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and a republican in politics.
MISS GRACE ADÉLE FREEBEY is a Los Angeles artist who has de- · pended upon her work, rather than the skill of a press agent for her fame. To achieve recognition in this way is real fame, though obviously work and time are the chief factors in the process.
Miss Freebey is an all American artist, and her great reputation as an accompanist and as a composer is particularly gratifying to Americans because an added proof of the fact that it is not necessary to go abroad for instruction and inspiration.
Although born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Miss Freebey, the youngest of seven children at that time, came to Los Angeles with her parents when only a few months old. The family at first purchased property on Sunset Boulevard, then later moved to 1666 Girard Street, where they have lived for twenty years.
Miss Freebey was educated in the public schools of Los Angeles.
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She studied music first at Los Angeles for eight years under A. J. Stamm of the Philharmonic Orchestra, and recently composition with Henry Schoenfeld.
In 1905 she went to Washington, D. C., and studied piano with Louis Bachner and Ernest Hutcheson, both from the Peabody Conserva- tory in Baltimore. While there she lived with her sister Harriet Free- bey, now a prominent lawyer of that city.
Until 1912 she did much teaching and concert work in and near Washington, playing in the homes of the leading diplomats then located at Washington, D. C. She was official accompanist to Kate Wilson- Greene, playing in concert for many great artists, among them Campanari, May Mukle, Mme. Schumann-Heink, Reinald Werrenrath, Ellen Beach- Yaw and others.
Miss Freebey was also head of the piano department in the Martha Washington Seminary, and a teacher of piano in the Wilson-Greene School of Music. Later she toured the United States in joint recitals with Alfred Wallenstein, the celebrated young cellist.
Miss Freebey started her career with the ambition of being a soloist, but has realized the triupmh of her art in the specialty of accom- panist to all instruments and the voice. Her efforts have been directed · as much to the elevation of the standard of accompaniment as a dis- tinctive art as to her individual eminence therein. Probably only great artists and the inner circle of music lovers appreciate the quality of such a musician as Miss Freebey and the amount of skill and intelligence and feeling required for her art. She is really seeing her dreams come true in regard to the greater importance of the accompanist and the recognition paid her is only a just tribute to many years of untiring effort.
Doubtless, however, her lasting reputation in musical circles will be based upon her work as a composer. In 1912 Gadski introduced her first song, "O Golden Sun." Since then she has been writing songs which have been recognized by the best European and American artists and are finding their place among the best music of the day. The "Four Winds," a cycle of four short dramatic songs, is considered by our best critics to be among the foremost American songs. The words to the wind songs were written by Charles Lucas.
The words of Miss Freebey's latest songs were written by Elizabeth A. Wilbur, a brilliant young California writer. Among them are "Just You and My Homeland," that has met with instant success, also "Calling You" and Love's Resignation," now in press.
The Heffelfinger Publishing Company, of Los Angeles, recently purchased by the Schirmer Company, of New York, has brought out many of Miss Freebey's songs.
SEELEÝ WINTERSMITH MUDD. A resident of Los Angeles since 1903, Mr. Mudd had then for ten years been one of the leading mining engineers of the country, and his prestige in that field has been steadily increasing with every successive year.
Mr. Mudd was one of many prominent technical men called to the service of the government during the late war. On February 12, 1917, he was commissioned major of engineers, Officers Reserve Corps. Jan- uary 14, 1918, he was called to Washington where he acted as assistant director of the United States explosive plants, a separate administrative unit set up by order of the Secretary of War. May 24, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the United States Army, and received his honorable discharge January 20, 1919.
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Colonel Mudd was born at Kirkwood, St. Louis County, Missouri, August 16, 1861, a son of Henry Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth (Hodgen) Mudd. His parents are now deceased. Colonel Mudd is a member of the Society of Sons of the American Revolution and the Society of Colonial Wars. His eligibility to these societies is based upon the rec- ords of his Mudd and Street ancestors. Colonel Mudd is a brother of one of the eminent surgeons of America, Harvey Gilmer Mudd, who for the past twenty years has been chief surgeon and director of St. Luke's Hospital, of St. Louis.
Seeley Wintersmith Mudd received his early education in the public schools of his native town of Kirkwood, attended the St. Louis High School, and took his degree Engineer of Mines at Washington Uni- versity, St. Louis, in 1883. Immediately on leaving school he took up the practice of his profession as Engineer of Mines and until 1885 was assayer and superintendent of the copper department of the St. Louis Smelting & Refining Company. Mr. Mudd was almost a pioneer in the famous mining district of Leadville, Colorado, where he located in 1885. From 1887 to 1912 he was manager of the Small Hops Consolidated Mining Company and the Boreel Mining Company of Colorado, was also manager from 1899 to 1902 of the Ibex Mining Company (Little Johnnie Mine). During 1902-04 Mr. Mudd was Consulting Engineer in the West for the New Jersey Zinc Company.
Since making his home and headquarters at Los Angeles he was Consulting Engineer on the Pacific Coast for the Guggenheim Explora- tion Company and the American Smelting and Refining Company, 1904- 05, and from 1904 to 1909, was president and manager of the Queen Esther Mining and Milling Company of Kern County, California. He is largely interested in mining and other enterprises and is a director in several mining companies.
Mr. Mudd is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engi- neers, the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America, the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy of England. He is a member of the California Club, Sunset Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Los Angeles City Club, and Rocky Mountain Club of New York. In politics he is a republican and is a member of the Congregational Church.
February 24, 1887, in Colorado, he married Miss Della Mulock, daughter of E. P. and Amanda C. Mulock. She is a member of the old and prominent Mulock and Greenleaf families. Mr. and Mrs. Mudd have two children : Harvey S., who married Mildred H. Esterbrook, and Seeley G., unmarried.
THOMAS E. NEWLIN came to Southern California in the spring of 1887. and shortly after his arrival became one of the incorporators of the company that bought the tract of land on which the City of Whit- tier now stands, and founded and laid out that prosperous city. He was not only identified with the founding of that community, but also with its early history and subsequent growth and development, as he became president of and directed the policies of the fostering company until 1894.
During most of his life Mr. Newlin has been actively engaged in banking, and for a number of years has been a prominent figure in the financial life of Southern California, being at the present time vice president of the Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles.
He was born in Howard County, Indiana, June 20, 1850, a son of Mahlon H. and Mary E. (Maxwell) Newlin. He attended District
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and Friends' private schools in his native city until he was seventeen years of age, when he moved with his family to Leavenworth County, Kansas. After completing his preparatory education in private insti- tutions there and in Indiana, he entered Earlham, the leading Quaker College in the middle west, situated at Richmond, Indiana, remaining there for two years, and then was for one year a student in the University of Kansas.
Shortly after leaving college he was appointed by President Grant a licensed Indian trader and engaged in that business in Western Kan- sas and Indian Territory until 1874. He then entered the First National Bank of Council Grove, Kansas, where he worked six months without pay and obtained his first practical knowledge of banking, in which dur- ing the succeeding forty-five years he has been chiefly interested and practically constantly engaged as a profession. His interest in and natural aptitude for the profession was so great that shortly after the close of his apprenticeship he was made cashier of the bank, serving in that capacity for two years, and then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, to accept the assistant cashiership of the First National Bank of that city, which position he held until coming to California.
In 1894 Mr. Newlin was elected county clerk of the County of Los Angeles, which position he efficiently occupied for the full term of four years. He moved with his family to the City of Los Angeles during his term as County Clerk, and after its expiration, for one year devoted him- self to the improvement of some of his land near Whittier, and then again actively became engaged in the banking business as vice president of the California Bank. Mr. Newlin was one of the organizers and vice president until 1903 of the American National Bank, which absorbed the California Bank, and in that year resigned to become a vice president and director of the Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles. He is also a director of the Security Trust & Savings Bank, and was one of the organizers and a director of the Rivera State Bank at Rivera.
Mr. Newlin's contribution to the growth of Southern California has not, however, been confined solely to distinctly financial matters, as he has also been actively and constantly engaged in the development of its agricultural resources. While banking has been his vocation, his avocation has been the taking of raw land and bringing it to a high and intensive stage of production. He is the owner of splendid orange and walnut ranch property in the San Gabriel Valley, near Whittier, and has materially contributed to the development of that section.
Mr. Newlin is a republican in politics, a birthright member of the Quaker or Friends Church, and a member of the California Club He married Laurie Hadley at Lawrence, Kansas, on October 30, 1878. Their three children, Gurney E., Helen (the wife of Dr. Hill Hastings), and Emilie (the wife of George R. Bell), all reside in Los Angeles.
LAYNE AND BOWLER CORPORATION. The business of the Layne and Bowler Corporation, one of the largest manufacturing enterprises in the West, is based primarily on the Layne and Bowler pump for irriga- tion and municipal service and the dewatering of mines. This pump was designed and patented by M. E. Layne, April 28, 1903, and was first operated in the rice fields of Southern Texas. The first factory for its manufacture was at Houston, Texas.
In 1911 a company was organized in Los Angeles under the name of the Layne & Bowler Company of California, having the exclusive rights to manufacture the Layne Patent Pumps and the Layne Patent screen for the states of California, Arizona and New Mexico.
HU Lerman
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In 1912 this company was reorganized as the Layne and Bowler Corporation, with a personnel of about twenty. Since the reorganiza- tion there has been a rapid growth, branches having been established at San Francisco, Willows, Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Riverside and San Jose, in California, and at Phoenix, Tucson, and Casa. Grande in Arizona. The personnel has gradually increased until at the present day it consists of over two hundred fifty-five members, with M. E. Layne as head of the corporation. For the first few years of its exist- ence the corporation drilled wells in addition to manufacturing and installing pumps and oilwell and water well screens. In 1914, however, the manufacturing end of the business became so important that the drilling was abandoned and all the energies of the corporation devoted to manufacture. Numerous new inventions and improvements have been made on the pump from time to time, keeping it always in the lead for this type of machinery, so that it is now used as a standard by municipalities, railroads, etc., when asking for bids.
The deep well Layne and Bowler turbine pump, installed at the City of Glendora water plant, was at that time (1914) the de pest of that type in the world, pumping water from four hundred feet below the surface of the ground. Since that time they have built pumps for in- stallation in mines in Missouri, for total lifts of eight hundred feet, thus breaking their own record.
In some cases these pumps serve a two-fold purpose. For in- stance, the Inspiration Consolidated Copper Company, at Miami, Ari- zona, utilizes the water it pumps from its mines for its mills, while in some localities wells are utilized in draining the low marsh land and pumping the water to the high arid land for irrigation.
In 1916 the first machinery ever manufactured in California for eastern use was built by the Layne and Bowler Corporation and shipped to the American Zinc Company at Mascot, Tennessee. This shipment was made in three carload lots and consisted of five high capacity pumps, which were used for the dewatering of mines. A spectacular feature of the transaction was that shipment was made by express and delivery made in five days from receipt of order, the express charges alone amounting to $13,500.
During the seven years of its existence approximately 3,300 com- plete pumping plants have been manufactured and installed by the Layne and Bowler Corporation. These are located mostly in California, although there is also a large number in Arizona and New Mexico. These pumps irrigate some 300,000 acres of land, which is a large percentage of all the land now under irrigation from pumps, and producing food supplies in the Western States. The production of grain, citrus fruits, cotton, etc., is thus made possible.
Various medals have been awarded the Layne and Bowler pump and screens, the most recent being the ones awarded at the Panama- Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco on the turbine centri- fugal pump and oil and water well screens, no higher award having been given.
FRED H. HERMAN has a prominent place on the active list of Los Angeles manufacturers and business men. He has been a resident of the city since 1902.
Mr. Herman was born in Kent, Ohio, December 16, 1872, son of Edward and Mary Adeline (Caris) Herman. Leaving high school at the age of sixteen he went to work for the Erie Railroad Company
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in the yard master's office. Three years later he went into the railroad machine shop, and after spending four years in the various departments of the railroad shops he made up his mind that he did not wish to follow the line of work which his father was following so took up the hotel business which he followed until coming to Los Angeles in 1902.
On coming to Los Angeles, Mr. Herman took up an entirely different line of business. In June, 1902, he was made Los Angeles Sales man- ager of the Madary Planing Mill and Bee Keepers Supply Company of Fresno. He resigned his position with them in 1912 to become treasurer and director of the Layne and Bowler Corporation, and in January, 1916, was elected vice president, treasurer and assistant general manager of the corporation.
He is a member of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, of the Los Angeles Credit Men's Association, the Chamber of Com- merce, the Southern California Antomobile club, the Commercial Fed- eration of California and the Rotary Club. He has also been a very active member of the Methodist church since coming to California.
Mr. Herman is a republican. He married at Canton, Ohio, June 26, 1900, Elizabeth Berg. They have one son, Jack, born August 4, 1912, who is now in the public schools.
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