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 62
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He is a member of the Jonathan Club and is a republican in politics. At Saginaw, Michigan, September 10, 1912, he married Miss Allaseba Bliss. They have one child, Allaseba, born in 1917.
CARL E. ROSENBERG has an enviable record as a sales manager and expert in selling methods as applied to the broad and varied' field of commercial enterprise. He is the one man out of a thousand who have the intuitive commercial sense and the equipment of ideas and abilities which constitute the born salesman.
Before getting into his real work he was well trained as a banker. Born in New York City October 7, 1876, son of Victor and Sarah (Wald) Rosenberg, he was educated in his native city until the age of eleven, when his parents removed to Chicago. Not long afterward he secured his first job earning money for himself as bundle boy with the P. F. Pettibone stationery store. A year later he was made a messenger with the First National Bank of Chicago, and was employed by that institution eight and a half years. He was then given the opportunity to install the clearing house system, and managed it for the Corn Exchange National Bank of Chicago four and a half years.
By that time he had become convinced that banking was not the business best suited for the full scope of his talents. He joined the Rockwell-Wabash Company, sales systematizers, as their salesman two years. For another year he was sales correspondent with the Yawman- Erbe Manufacturing Company at Rochester, New York. He was then sent West as assistant manager of the San Francisco branch of this well-known firm, manufacturers of office furniture and equipment, and at the end of a year was transferred to Los Angeles to succeed the man- ager of the Los Angeles branch. The business of this branch was in a very poor way and the company was inclined to abandon it altogether. Mr. Rosenberg sought the opportunity to give this territory a thorough test, and after reorganizing and instituting a thorough canvass of the field, he had the Los Angeles branch showing prosperous returns at the end of a year, and today it handles more business than any other house of its kind in the city. In 1914 Mr. Rosenberg resigned from, the Yaw- man-Erbe Company to become sales auditor for the Globe Grain & Mill- ing Company. Nine months later he was made sales auditor for the Los Angeles Ice and Cold Storage Company, and during the eighteen months he was with this enterprise he completely reorganized its selling methods. After that he became director of sales for the Chocolate Shop, Incorporated, and it has been his resourcefulness and novel ideas that have been largely responsible for the growth of this distinctive Los Angeles business into national fame and appreciation.
Mr. Rosenberg served as president of the Los Angeles Rotary Club from June, 1917, to June, 1918. He is past president of the International Sales Managers' Association, a member of the Sierra Madre Club, and in politics a republican. At Oakland, California, December 5, 1910, he married Miss Marie Frances Hammer. They have two chldren : Victor, born in 1911, and Portia, born in 1914.
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WILLIAM MAY GARLAND has been a resident of Los Angeles since 1890. His ability and enterprise have impressed themselves upon some of the most attractive residence sections of the city, and particularly in the business district, which he has promoted and developed from the realty standpoint. He is a citizen of prominence, of great influence, and car- ries a weight of responsibilities that only a man of great energy and re- sources could.
A feature of his record, gratifying now and destined to be even more so in the future, was his active relationship with many wartime ac- tivities. A Los Angeles paper recently called him "one of the busiest men in the country," with a one dollar a year job in Washington as gov- ernment negotiator and expert on real estate necessary to carry on war work, for the various government departments. He represented the National Association of Real Estate Boards, of which he has twice been elected president, and which includes ten thousand realtors and one hun- dred and fifty Real Estate Boards in as many cities in the United States.
His duties with the government required his assistance in buying and appraising property for all departments of the government throughout the United States.
Mr. Garland is a native of the Pine Tree State, born at Westport, Maine, March 31, 1866, son of Jonathan May and Rebecca Hagan (Jewett) Garland. He is of stanch New England ancestry. He was educated in the public schools of Waterville, Maine, and from its high school entered upon an active business career at Boston. For a time he was employed by a retail and wholesale crockery house, and from there went to Daytona, Florida, where until 1884 he was in the employ of his father, an orange grower, and operated a stage line from the St. Johns River to Ormond and Daytona. From Florida Mr. Garland removed to Chicago, and in six years advanced from the position of messenger in the Merchants National Bank to receiving teller in the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank.
It was a matter of health and on the advice of his physician that Mr. Garland came to Los Angeles in the winter of 1890. His first work here was as auditor of the Pacific Cable Railway Company, then the chief factor in supplying urban transportation. Three years later he entered the real estate field, where his activities have been so pronounced. Through his experience he has accumulated probably as great a fund of definite data, faith and enthusiasm about Los Angeles as any other resi- dent. He has been identified with many large real estate transactions. One of the most notable as well as one of his earliest was developing in 1896 the subdivision of the Wilshire Boulevard tract. He took a district of the city wholly unimproved, somewhat remote, and kept urging its merits until now it is reputed the finest residence section of Los Angeles.
Mr. Garland was one of the organizers of the Los Angeles Realty Board, and has served three terms as its president. He is a director of the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank, has been a member of the Los Angeles Board of Library Directors and the Board of Education, and in 1918 was chosen president of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, as successor to the later Robert A. Rowan. He had served as a director of the club many years. He was also president of the California Club in 1908, member of the Jonathan and Bolsa Chica Gun Clubs, is presi- dent of Crags Country Club, and a member of the Los Angeles, Pasadena and Annandale Country clubs. Mr. Garland is a republican, was a dele-
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gate to the National Convention of 1900 which nominated Mckinley and Roosevelt and served on the staff of former Governor J. N. Gillett.
At Dunkirk, New York, October 12, 1898, he married Miss Blanche Hinman. He has two sons, William Marshall and John Jewett Garland, the former in Harvard University and the latter in Hotchkiss Preparatory School, Lakeville, Connecticut.
CHARLES ADELBERT CANFIELD, who died August 15, 1913, at his home in Los Angeles, California, was a pioneer and one of the most conspicuous factors in the development of the great oil fields of Southern California and Mexico with which his name will be forever predominantly associated. Before that he had been a miner in Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, California, and always and everywhere he had played the game fair. All his life long, in business and out, he stood for the square deal and never failed to keep his word in small as well as in big things. A gentle, kindly spirit masking a brave heart and a prodigious strength- he gave generously, unostentatiously, almost surreptiously, and never shunned a task however formidable.
Life to the late Mr. Canfield was a continuous adventure. Resolute in his purpose, ever hopeful of attainment though again and again at the bottom of his resources, he never sounded the depths of discourage- ment because his was the spirit which rises upon the ashes of failure.
He was born at Springfield. Erie County, May 15, 1848, on a farm which is now part of the city of Buffalo, New York, but the westward immigration of his parents in 1863 carried him to Minnesota where he finished his schooling. After a couple of years of farming and local business experience he left home in 1869 for Colorado where in the Boulder district he got his first job in a twenty stamp mill of the "Ni Wot" mine and his first lesson in the field in which later he became so commanding a figure.
For nearly five years he worked in Colorado mines taking advantage of every opportunity to improve his practical skill and to extend his knowledge of lead mining, and when he went into the Eureka Con- solidated Mine at Ruby Hill, Nevada, 1874. there were few so expert as he in placing a charge or driving a tunnel, and fewer still among his companions with his keen and appreciative judgment of ore. It was in fact a common saying around the camps that "Charley Canfield didn't need any assayer to tell him if his 'prospect' had a pay streak."
On January 22, 1879, at Grand Island, Nebraska, he married Chloe, (laughter of Oscar U. Wescott, whom he had first seen on a visit home fout years previously, and took her to Ruby Hill where they continued to live until the birth of their first child, Florence, a year later, and on to the spring of 1881 when reports of rich discoveries in the Southwest swept them to Chloride, New Mexico.
Here Mr. Canfield entered upon a period of indefatigable and in- telligent prospecting, contracting, leasing, which stretched over a long five years of ups and downs such as would have used up a less hardy man and utterly disheartened a less determined and courageous one, but which lead finally to his discoverey of some very rich surface prospects adjoining an undeveloped claim known as the "Comstock." Believing these surface indications to be worth following up he secured a six months lease on the claim giving a one-third interest each to a couple of local miners-Barton and Rugg-who were to find the money for the de-
OH Canfield
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velopment work. Little money was forthcoming however and nearly three months passed with nothing to show for their hard work but a bill for powder and fuse which threatened to close them out.
The partners were for quitting but Canfield persisted in his reliance on the promise of the prospects he had uncovered and would not quit. So together the three went to the Percha Bank, at Kingston, where Norman C. Raff, its cashier and part owner, loaned them on their joint note the $100 needed to pay their bill and give them fresh credit for more powder and grub.
Within the week they had "struck it" and within the month these men who had experienced such difficulty in raising $100 were taking $10,000 a day out of an ore chamber they had opened up, and which became known throughout the greatly excited Black Range mining dis- trict as the "Canfield Bonanza."
Probably half a million dollars in bullion was taken out of this chamber within the remaining three months, and when the lease had expired Mr. Canfield moved with his family early in 1887 to Los Angeles.
He had great faith in the future of this town and, as was his habit, backed his judgment with his money, in this instance so heavily that in the depression following the burst of a real estate boom Mr. Canfield was unable to save his holdings or more than a comparative few dollars of the comfortable fortune he had brought from New Mexico only two years before.
The fact that Mr. Canfield's investments in 1888 included the block at Seventh Street and Grand Avenue (now occupied by J. W. Robinson & Co) suggests his remarkable judgment, his vision and his faith in the future of Los Angeles.
Fortune had dealt him a terrible blow, but not a knock out; he was "broke," but not in spirit. With unfaltering faith in his ability to win out, heartened by the courageous spirit of his plucky wife who remained in Los Angeles to care for the five children, he took up again in 1890 the arduous trail of the prospector with its hopes and its hardships and its disappointments, and followed it for two years in the Mojave Desert, California, locating one or two mines which paid expenses but from which no considerable money was ever taken.
It was during this period that Mr. Canfield ran across Edward L. Doheny, an old mining friend of New Mexico days, on his way from New Mexico to Los Angeles, who, late in 1892, noticed oil exudes on the west borders of Los Angeles and told of his discovery to Canfield because, as he said years later, "I always had great faith in his general mining knowledge, and when Canfield said they looked good he and I, in November, 1892, began sinking the first well on the Pacific Coast with simple picks and shovels at the corner of the present Lake Shore Avenue and Patton Street."
This was the beginning of the business association-which con- tinued to Mr. Canfield's death-of these two men so dissimilar in tem- perament, yet so complementary one to the other and to the success of the immense and daring projects upon which they subsequently em- barked, and from this modest start it was too that these two men grew in a few years to a commanding position in the oil producing world.
Later Mr. Canfield located, alone, and developed the Coalinga field and then with Mr. Doheny opened the wells of Bakersfield. Still later other companies were organized, Mexico unfolded a wealth of oppor-
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tunity and much outside money became a necessity to capitalize their extended working plans and thus fully to realize upon the glowing pros- pects of the new fields. In this undertaking Mr. Canfield's well known judgment and established reputation of accomplishing what he set his hand to do proved a mighty help in making it possible to finance opera- tions on such gigantic scale.
At his death he shared with Mr. Doheny control of the Mexican Petroleum, Huasteca Petroleum, American Oil Fields, California Petro- leum, Bankers Oil, Mexican Paving and Mexican Gas companies, besides being the dominant figure in a number of other small companies.
His acknowledged business acumen and faith in the future of South- ern California made him an eagerly sought stockholder and director and his interests outside of oil grew gradually to be many, embracing well nigh every new enterprise of merit launched on the southern coast. He had an abiding love for land and was ever accumulating it and sup- porting land developing companies until his acreage mounted into the thousands scattered over the state, while his stock holdings included the South Coast, Dolgeville, Harbor View, New Richmond land companies, the Rodeo Land & Water and the Pacific Wharf & Storage companies. In addition he was in a number of the more important banks of Southern California including the Citizens National, Security Trust and Savings, Farmers and Merchants of Los Angeles and the Southern Trust and Commerce of San Diego, as well as the Merchants National Bank of San Francisco, all of which constituted an extensive and valuable aggre- gate and most of which expressed the builders impulse that held Mr. Canfield so completely in possession.
His heart however was always with the oil game because it satisfied that very impulse and represented to him the adventure and the energy it had rquired to develop their properties at a time when eastern oil interests were actively hostile and capital was exceedingly difficult to obtain. In no sense was Mr. Canfield a "dollar chaser," and even after great wealth had come to him he retained his democratic simplicity and found more gratification in constructive labor itself than in the mere money fruits of those labors.
He loved flowers and was proud of his fine gardens; he loved animals, especially driving horses, of which he had several finely bred ones in his own stables ; he was a member of the Los Angeles Driving Club and a generous patron of local matinee racing or amateur trotting, for the encouragement of which he donated a large and handsome grand stand at Exposition Park.
Mr. Canfield exemplified by his own life the principles that the man of wealth owes a duty to his fellows. Always on the outlook to lend a helping hand, his chief concern was the youth that had not had a fair chance and the worthy who had been bowled over by hard luck. He was one of the two chief supporters of the Mckinley Home for Boys, and in his will made generous provision for an especially equipped school of training and research which his trustees are about to establish for defective children.
Mr. Canfield's was the builder's vision. He walked in realms beyond the comprehension of his associates. In the mines, the oil fields, the directors room he was a clear headed advisor of remarkable constructive ability, and everywhere he went was always a mighty agency for right. He had a rare philosophy, a dry, delightful humor, a deeply rooted sense
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of justice. He was a man to be loved and trusted. In the words of the Memoriam issued by his Mexican Petroleum associates: "He was more than a partner, more than an associate in business, more than a fellow worker ; he was a friend-kindly, serene, warm hearted and unfailingly dependable."
Mr. Canfield was survived by the following children: Mrs. Caspar Whitney, of New York; Mrs. J. M. Danziger, Mrs. S. M. Spalding and Charles O. Canfield, of Los Angeles ; Mrs. J. H. Himes, of Canton, Ohio, and also by an adopted daughter, Mrs. Raymond Cheseldine, of London, Ohio.
LOIS WEBER. Those in a position to understand some of the many forces at work in developing the destiny of the moving picture during the past two decades have no hesitation in crediting Lois Weber with some of the most forceful influences in realizing that stage of development which this unique art has reached. Lois Weber belongs to Southern California. and the headquarters of the "Lois Weber Productions" are at 4634 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles.
She was born at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and was educated for a musical career. After four years of work and study on the legitimate stage she came to the screen and early in her career met and' married Phillips Smalley, who co-directs with her. He is the oldest son of G. W. Smalley, a former well-known war correspondent of the London Times, and Phoebe Garnant, an adopted daughter of Wendell Phillips. The only daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. Phillips Smalley died in early childhood.
Lois Weber and her husband were pioneers in motion picture screen work. Miss Weber has written ninety-five per cent of all the screen plays in which she has appeared or which she has directed during the past thirteen years. The older devotees of the motion picture will take pleasure in recalling the "Rex" brand of motion pictures which she and her husband made famous.
Success in her work and profession have a distinctive meaning with Miss Weber. Her greatest hope is that the screen will shortly be rec- ognized and used as the best and finest medium for education, and accord- ingly she has never been content to make pictures of a purely entertaining quality, but has exerted every effort to uncover and correct many existing evils, and has braved criticism and persecution in her steadfast portrayal of "Truth" on the screen as she understands it.
Some of the more notable of the recent Lois Weber productions bear the following titles: "Where Are My Children," "Scandal," "Hypocrites," "Shoes," "Idle Wives," "The Price of a Good Time," "For Husbands Only." Her latest production answers a pertinent ques- tion in a manner calculated to argue away discontent. Its title is "What Do Men Want."
TIMOTHY JOHN KELEHER is a man who knows life, who knows business, especially the insurance business, has been working for or representing prominent fire insurance companies since early manhood, and a few years ago, after suffering disaster when a bank in which he had his funds deposited at San Francisco failed, he came to Los Angeles and has built up a splendid business. His business headquarters are in the Citizens National Bank Building.
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Mr. Keleher was born at Chicago November 23, 1884, a son of John Timothy and Augusta (Garske) Keleher. His mother was born at Berlin, Germany, and was about twelve years of age when she came to the United States with her parents. The town of Garske in North Dakota is named for an uncle who lived there. John Timothy Keleher was born at Toronto, Canada, and for over thirty years has been in the employ of the famous Simmonds Saw Manufacturing Company of San Francisco. He was with that firm in Pittsburgh, later in Chicago, and eighteen years ago became their special representative as superintendent at San Francisco. He and his wife were married in St. Patrick's Cathe- dral in Chicago and both are residents of San Francisco. They have two children, Timothy John and Frances, the latter Mrs. C. H. Edwards of San Francisco.
Timothy John Keleher acquired his education in Chicago and at Wausau, Wisconsin, being a graduate of the Wisconsin Business College in the latter city. For about four years he worked in the Chicago offices of the Continental Fire Insurance Company of New York City. On coming to the Pacific Coast he was at San Francisco with the German Fire Insurance Company of Freeport, and at the time of the earthquake and fire engaged in business for himself in that city. He "went broke" when the California Safe Deposit Company failed.
Seeking a new field and a new start Mr. Keleher came to Los An- geles in June, 1908, and his thorough knowledge of the business and aggressiveness have put him in the possession of the state agency for seven fire insurance companies, including the North River Insurance Company, New Brunswick Fire Insurance Company, United States Fire Insurance Company, Merchants Fire Assurance Corporation, New Jersey Fire Insurance Company, United British Insurance Company, Ltd., and Richmond Insurance Company.
Mr. Keleher is a republican in politics, a member of the Los An- geles Athletic Club, is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Glen- dale parish of the Catholic Church.
Mr. Keleher was happily married April 24, 1910, in the Cathedral at San Francisco. James Jordan was an Iowa farmer, and lost his life when his team of horses ran away. His widow is now living at the little town of Wagner in North Dakota. When James Jordan died he left a daughter, Katherine J., fourteen years old. From that time forward she became the sole support of her widowed mother and other children. She taught school three years and later went to Chicago and was employed by the Fisk Millinery Company. On one of her vacations she visited the Yukon-Pacific Exposition, and on going back to Chicago she became definitely committed to engagement for marriage with the "wild Irish- man," as she affectionately calls her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Keleher enjoy complete harmony of tastes as well as home associations. Mr. Keleher is extremely fond of his home, and his hobby is flowers and shrubbery. Their residence is at 528 North Louise Street in Glendale. Mrs. Keleher is a member of the Ebell Club and also belongs to the Auxiliary of the Elks and the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Their two children were both born at Glendale, Geraldine Katherine and Virginia Frances.
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MRS. MATTHEW S. ROBERTSON is one of the prominent woman lead- ers in Los Angeles society and club affairs. She is president of the larg- est women's club of the city, the Ebell Club. She is also a member of the Friday Morning Club, and has three times been elected president of the Galpin Shakespeare Club. She carried the invitations of Los Angeles from the Mayor, the Chamber of Commerce and various clubs to Mil- waukee to the biennial of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in 1900, and personally brought back the answer to her home city. Every civic affair of importance enlists her keen interest and co-operation, and her name is identified with a number of charitable organizations. Mrs. Robertson has recently been appointed on the Executive Committee of the City Planning Commission, and is the only woman on this committee.
Mrs. Robertson comes of a fine old Southern family, and for six years was president of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Several years ago she was a director of the Atlanta Exposition in her home state. Mrs. Robertson was born at Calhoun, Georgia. Her father, Thomas W. Skelly, was a graduate of Trinity College at Dublin, Ireland, and for a number of years was connected with editorial staff of the New York Sun. He was a man of great literary ability, distinguished as an educator, and married into one of the aristocratic southern families. His wife was Miss Anne Isabel Ardis, of Beach, Island, South Carolina.
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