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 68
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
Francis Workman Temple, second son, named for his uncle, did not live to see many years, dying in his twentieth year. He is buried by the side of his uncle and namesake at the Temple burying grounds at La Puente.
The only daughter, Edith Christina Temple, has always lived with her father and mother.
Adrian Davoust Temple, twenty-five years of age at the time of this writing, has had a romantic life. He enlisted in the navy when a mere boy, and during his service of four years traveled practically all over the world. He and his comrades were received by the nobility of England, and visited such historic shrines as the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt and the Rock of Gibraltar. He and his fellow soldiers were in Sicily three days after the big earthquakes, and among them they raised a subscription of over two thousand dollars for the earthquake sufferers. He was stationed on the U. S. S. Vermont, being captain of one of the big guns, with sixteen men under him. As a rifle and all around shot he was considered one of the very best, receiving the gold medal for fine marksmanship. After serving his four years he was honorably dis- charged, and after extensive travels throughout the United States arrived in Los Angeles and lived quietly at home with his parents a year. Then came the war with Germany, and he immediately offered his services to the Government as an aviator. He was schooled at Pensacola, Florida, was sent to France, served on the allied lines about eight months, and was then transferred to England, where he was stationed at the time of this writing, in August, 1918.
George Harrison Temple, who like the rest of his brothers is a native of Los Angeles, pursued the quiet routine of home life until the outbreak of the war, when he enlisted, and received his military training at Camp Lewis, Washington.
Edmund Parker Temple, a graduate of the grammar schools, fol- lowed by a course at the Polytechnic School, was just past nineteen when the war broke out, but he volunteered his services to the Government like his other brothers. For several months he was stationed at Los Angeles as a recruiting officer, was then sent to Camp Pike, Little Rock, Arkan- sas, to qualify for an infantry officer.
Robert Palmerston Temple received his graduation certificate from the common schools and has taken up the driving and construction of automobiles. He is now in his twentieth year and expects soon to join the colors, and at his departure four of the Temple family will be enrolled in the United States service-a record of unqualified patriotism, but only what might be expected from the sturdy qualities exhibited by the Tem- ples in the various generations.
The youngest son, John Harrison Temple, named for his father, is in his seventeenth year at the time of this writing. He has his graduation certificate from the grammar school and is enrolled for the four years' course at the Polytechnic School.
WILLIAM WORKMAN, whose interests were among the very founda- tion stones of Southern California's prosperity and greatness, and whose
922
LOS ANGELES
life was run with the romance and endeavor of the pioneers, was born at Clifton, Westmoreland county, Enlgand, in 1800. When a young man he came to the United States and traveled much over the Indian country of the West. He stood up as best man at his brother David's wedding in Missouri in 1830. Soon afterward he crossed the range to New Mexico, then part of old Mexico, and formed a partnership with Mr. John Row- land, father of ex-sheriff William R. Rowland of Los Angeles county. They opened a general merchandise store, but gave tlieir attention prin- cipally to buying and selling furs and pelts. They also owned and oper- ated a flouring mill. The two partners, after remaining in New Mexico ten years and making a fortune, concluded to go to California.
Mr. Workman was sent on ahead to look up the situation, Mr. Row- land remaining to look after the firm's interests. Mr. Workman started from Santa Fe July 14, 1841. His passport given him by the Mexican authorities in 1841 is now in the possession of his grandson, John H. Temple, who has furnished most of the material for this article. After being on the road four months he arrived at Los Angeles Guy Fawkes Day, November 5th.
While crossing the Puente Valley he was irresistibly attracted by the fertility of the soil and the situation. He immediately began negotiations for purchasing the Puente property, containing 48,790 acres. He then sent for his partner, and the land was divided, Mr. Rowland taking the east half and Mr. Workman the west half. Mr. Workman immediately set himself to building a home, choosing a beautiful site, which even in this day brings expressions of admiration from all visitors as to the beauty of the spot. On this site he built after the fashion of the rich Don of old Mexico, Mr. Workman being as familiar with that country as he was with the United States. The dimensions of his house were 75x150 feet, and it was built of adobe walls three feet thick with a flat roof. The northern portion consisted of three immense rooms, the eastern room, occupied by Mr. Workman and family, the middle room, used as a dining room, and the west room, a reserve room. This reserved room subse- quently domiciled Mr. David Workman, his brother, when he arrived from Missouri in the early fifties. The southern part of the building consisted of two parallel wings, 75 feet long, making the length of the building 150 feet. The parallel wings were devoted to various uses. On the east the room next to the main building and to Mr. Workman's sleep- ing room was used by him as a smoking and rest room. It contained a large open fireplace, before which he spent his winter evenings. Next to that was the well room, where water was drawn for all domestic purposes. The excavation of the old well can be seen to this day. For drawing the water a large English pump was installed with a handle four or five feet long and a ball at the end weighing about ten pounds. The next room was the commissary room, for keeping clothing, boots, shoes, hats, blan- kets, as there were some fifty men always employed and whose wants were supplied from the ranch store. The next room was the butcher shop, where meats were cut up and sold to the ranch hands. A steer was killed every Monday and three or four wethers killed during the week. The last room was a blacksmith shop, where a man was always em- ployed in making bridle bits, spurs and doing general repairing for the ranch.
On the west wing and next to the extra or reserved room was Mr. Workman's sitting or reception room, where he received those having business with him. The kitchen was underneath this room and the food
923
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
was taken up one flight of stairs to the dining room. Next to the sitting room was the school room, in which Mr. Workman had all his grand- children receive their preliminary instruction before sending them out to college or other schools. The last teacher Mr. Workman employed was Mr. Frederick Lamborn, of the firm of Lamborn & Turner. He re- mained with the Workman family fifteen years, from 1860 to 1875. The teacher would board with the family and teach the children table manners as well as more formal learning. There were three other rooms in this wing, these being used to store saddle trees, saddles and all that pertains to a waquero's outfit, and also for the storage of grain. At the end of these two parallel wings was an extension at right angles to a large gate some fifteen or twenty feet wide, with a massive lock and which was shut every night. On top of the gate was an elaborate pigeon house, from which the family derived their squabs and pigeons.
Between these wings and the main building was a patio, an arbor of grape vine, and on either side orange trees, two of which are alive, thrifty and bearing every year, none the worse for their seventy-five years of use- fulness. Mr. Workman also set out some four thousand grape cuttings, manufacturing his own wine and brandy. He always had brandy on hand, running from a year to twenty years in age. This he stored in a large cellar immediately under his house. He also built three large wine cellars, one used for a crushing and fermenting cellar, the other for white wine and the third for red wine. These wines were sold all through the state, but the principal market was in Boston, Massachusetts. He not only manufactured his own wine, but bought hundreds of tons of grapes on the outside.
1863 and 1864 were extremely dry years. There was not much more than an inch of rain in the two years. This practically put an end to cattle raising in Southern California. Mr. Workman was compelled to kill some two thousand head to save their hides. The cattle were driven into a large corral from day to day and were shot. John H. Temple recalls seeing cattle go up to a cactus patch so weak that they could scarcely walk and in attempting to get something to eat would literally cover their heads and mouth with cacti. It was one of his greatest am- bitions to follow his grandfather through the corral and see him bring his bullock down. He was considered one of the best shots in the West, and proved it many a day, though he was sixty-three years of age. After the dry seasons of 1863-64 Mr. Workman turned his attention more to the cultivation of his ranch. He reserved five thousand acres for wheat rais- ing. This was known as the Wheatfield Ranch and was some five miles north of the house. One of the greatest difficulties he had to contend with was in keeping the geese, ducks and sandhill cranes away and trom destroying all his wheat. These birds would light in the field by the thousands, and men were employed continuously guarding the wheat. About the same time Mr. Workman began the construction of a mill about four miles west of the house to utilize the wheat, barley and corn grown on the ranch.
Mr. Workman was the real bank pioneer of Los Angeles, though seldom if ever appearing in the banking house of which he was the main- stay. He and his son-in-law, Mr. F. P. F. Temple, and I. W. Hellman opened the first banking house in Los Angeles in 1868. This company was dissolved, and in 1871 the Temple and Workman Bank was opened in the new and finely finished Temple Block, and on the same ground upon which Jonathan Temple opened his store in 1827. This company did
924
LOS ANGELES
business all through the western states as far as the city of Mexico, and had the confidence of the world. The two partners owned land aggregat- ing a hundred fifty thousand acres. Mr. Temple by nature was not a banker, was too easy in his business methods, and was taken advantage of at every turn. The Temple and Workman Bank failed in 1875. Mr. Temple was obliged to borrow money and mortgaged his own property as well as that of his father-in-law, Mr. Workman, at such exorbitant rates of interest that it swallowed up all their ranches. Mr. Temple died April 27, 1880, of a broken heart and was buried at the family burying ground at La Puente.
Mr. Workman is buried in his own graveyard, which he designated in 1850 as a family burying ground. He selected an acre of ground four hundred yards east of his house, had it walled in with a brick wall, built a chapel and in the center of this acre he had a lot 40x50 feet fenced in with an iron railing. Within the folds of this railing lie the mortal re- mains of pioneers who helped to make California history. Mr. Workman lies by his long life friend and partner, Mr. John Rowland, and by the side of his brother David, who was accidentally killed in 1855 while riding a mule in the northern part of the state, and was the first man buried in the little plot selected by his brother. His cherished daughter, Margareta, and his son-in-law, Mr. F. P. F. Temple, lie near him.
It is incalculable what these pioneers would command today if they should rise and own the property they once had. Mr. Temple alone would be valued at one billion dollars, as during the height of his prosperity he owned all the Montebello oil fields lands, and they are estimated to be worth over one billion dollars.
JOHN ROWLAND. The American pioneers of the Los Angeles district were a picturesque group of men, and some of them were also men of the finest character and eminently qualified for the duties of constructive pioneering. One of them was John Rowland, an intimate associate and fellow pioneer with such early Americans of Southern California as Wil- liam Workman, whose interesting life story and experience has been described on other pages. At death these two pioneers, the closest friends in life, were laid side by side.
John Rowland was born in Maryland and in early manhood went into the Southwest where he became associated in the mining industry at Taos, New Mexico, as a partner with William Workman. In 1841 the two partners set out for California in company with John Tete, Santiago Martinez, Thomas Belarde and others. The next year they returned to Taos for their families, so that their permanent residence in California dates from 1842. On their second coming they were accompanied by B. D. Wilson, D. W. Alexander, John Reed, William Perdue and Samuel Carpenter, all well known names in the early history of Los Angeles County.
Mr. Rowland and William Workman together obtained a grant of La Puente Rancho, comprising forty-eight thousand acres. On that beau- tiful and historic site they spent the rest of their lives. The property was divided by the partners in 1869, and about a year afterwards Mr. Rowland settled up his estate and divided his ranch among his heirs, giv- ing to each about three thousand acres of land and a thousand head of cattle. He lived there in peace and comfort to the end of his days, pass- ing away October 14, 1873, at the age of eighty-two. His first wife was Dona Incarnacion Martinez. Her children were John Jr., Thomas, Rob-
Jom Rawand
If RORowland
925
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
ert, Nieves who married John Reed, Lucinda who became the wife of James R. Barton, and William R. For his second wife John Rowland married Mrs. Charlotte Gray, whose husband had been killed by the In- dians while crossing the plains. She was the mother of a daughter, Mary A. Gray, who became the wife of Charles Forman of Los Angeles. Mr. Rowland's second marriage brought him two children, Albert and Vic- toria. The daughter became the wife of J. W. Hudson.
WILLIAM RICHARD ROWLAND is distinguished in the citizenship of Southern California principally because of his pioneer and long continued responsible connection with petroleum oil development.
The year 1884 is a really ancient date in the history of petroleum on the Pacific Coast. In that year Mr. Rowland and Burdette Chandler started to bore for oil in the hills of Puente Rancho. That rancho, in- cidentally, was Mr. Rowland's birthplace. After several attempts to discover petroleum, they met with success, and the Puente Oil Company, which has grown out and developed from these preliminary investiga- tions, is today one of the most successful and oldest companies in Cali- fornia. Mr. Rowland is president of the company and gives practically all his time to its affairs.
Mr. Rowland was born at the La Puente Rancho, in Los Angeles County, November 11, 1846, son of John Rowland and Dona Maria E. Martinez Rowland. As related in the story of his father and that of William Workman, the La Puente Rancho was acquired by these pioneers nearly eighty years ago.
William R. Rowland acquired his early education in the public schools, in the private school of William Wolfskill at Los Angeles, and during 1858-59-60 was a student in Santa Clara College. Until 1871 he managed his father's business, and then busied himself with his private affairs. He became interested in the petroleum oil industry through the discovery of an oil well on his ranch of twenty-six hundred acres, and as a means of developing the well commercially he had a pipe line con- structed to the railroad. One of the first industries to use the crude oil as fuel was the Chino Sugar Factory. The oil resources of the Puente hills, due to the enterprise of Mr. Rowland, became one of the corner stones of the colossal industry subsequently developed in Southern Cali- fornia.
Mr. Rowland for many years has enjoyed the esteem of his fellow citizens, and has been a man of prominence in the life of his locality and the affairs of state. In 1871 he was elected sheriff of Los Angeles County, and was re-elected, filling the office for about five years, during a period which tried the utmost resourcefulness, skill and courage of an official in that position. As a democrat he was appointed by Governor Budd a member of the Board of Trustees of the Whittier School and was influential in bringing that institution to a higher standard of ef- ficiency and usefulness. Mr. Rowland is a member of the California Club and is widely known in business and social circles.
He married Miss Manuela Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Rowland have two children, Miss Nina and Mrs. Clarence Moore, both of Los Angeles.
GEORGE MASON. Several of the best known sites in Los Angeles bear the impress of the ownership and development of the Mason family. The head of that family was the late George Mason, who, an experienced banker and business man, came to the city thirty years ago, and was soon recognized as one of the leading operators in real estate and building development, especially in downtown property.
926
LOS ANGELES
In 1894 Mr. Mason built a three-story building on the southeast corner of Fourth and Broadway for the Chamber of Commerce. That was the home of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce for twelve years, until that organization erected its own building. Since then the old property has been remodeled and increased in height. The interests of the Mason family are now handled through the corporation known as the Mason Company, which in 1914 erected a thirteen-story office building at 724 South Spring Street.
The late George Mason was born in Chautauqua county, New York, July 1, 1842, a son of John and Maria (Leet) Mason. He was educated in public schools and in an academy and lived at home and was chiefly employed on his father's dairy farm in New York State until 1870. Then began his progress westward and at Waterloo, Iowa, he was a loan broker for a number of years, and in 1883 removed to Plankinton in Dakota Territory, now the State of South Dakota. He was one of the early bankers there, establishing Mason's Bank. From there he came to Los Angeles in 1888. He was also actively identified with Whittier, California, and his estate owns the Mason Block in that city. From 1896 to 1904 he operated a sugar pine mill in Siskiyou County, and also owned extensive tracts of timber land in Klamath County, Oregon. His son Dean managed that timber property, and both the land and mill were subsequently sold to the Weyerhauser Lumber Com- pany. George Mason was president of the Central National Bank of Los Angeles from 1907 until his death on April 24, 1909. He was also president of the Magna Silica Company, a corporation owning and de- veloping an extensive and valuable deposit of diatomaceous silica in Santa Barbara County near Lompoc. George Mason was not only a successful business man but was extremely charitable and interested in many causes outside of his private affairs. In politics he was a democrat. February 25, 1863, George Mason married in Chautauqua County, New York, Harriet Brownell. They were the parents of four children, Dean, Wayne, Gertrude, now Mrs. J. P. Baldwin, of Los Angeles, and Pierre D.
Dean Mason, who has long been prominently known in Los Angeles business circles, was born in Chautauqua County, New York, November 27, 1863, began his education in the schools there and continued in Waterloo, Iowa, until 1883, when he went to Plankinton, South Dakota, and was associated with his father in Mason's Bank. In 1888 he came to Los Angeles with his father and they were closely identified in their many real estate interests. Since his father's death he has handled much of the business of the estate. He is also a director of the Security National Bank and a member of the Los Angeles Country Club. At Los Angeles January 14, 1893, he married Mary Strong.
Wayne Mason, who was also born in Chautauqua County, was edu- cated in the public schools of Waterloo, Iowa, and has also been actively associated with the family business affairs since 1883. He was in his father's bank at Plankinton and has since remained in that state looking after the family interests. He spent only a few years in California. At Plankinton he married Myrtle Hepner, and they have seven children.
Pierre D. Mason, the youngest of the family, was born at Plankinton, was educated in the public schools of Los Angeles and Kiskinemea Academy at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is also one of the managers of his father's estate. He is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club. In this city he married Azubah Higgins.
927
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
TRACY E. SHOULTS, the executive head of the firm of Tracy E. Shoults & Company, with offices in the City of Los Angeles, at Third Street and Larchmont Boulevard, is a native Californian who is making a splendid record of progressive enterprise in the domain of real estate operations, in which his firm handles both city and farm property and has been specially prominent in the development and upbuilding of a number of attractive small city tracts into beautiful residential districts of Los Angeles.
Mr. Shoults was born at Santa Barbara, this state, on the 3d of June, 1875, and is a son of John W. and Mary (Alvord) Shoults. His great-great-grandfather in the paternal line was William Shoults, who established a home in North Carolina in 1732. Ancestors and kinsmen of Tracy E. Shoults have been found represented in every war in which the nation has been involved, from the early Indian conflicts and the Revolution, along through the War of 1812, the Mexican and Civil wars, the Spanish-American war and finally the Great World war.
John W. Shoults, father of him whose name initiates this review, was born at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in the year 1842, and was but seven years old when he became a member of a party which set forth on the hazardous trip across the plains to California, soon after the ever memorable discovery of gold, in 1849. The boy adventurer arrived in San Francisco in 1851, and thereafter continued to be associated with gold mining in the northern part of the state until 1867, when he estab- lished his residence in Santa Barbara County and engaged in the cattle business. He became an extensive and successful exponent of this line of enterprise, accumulated a large landed estate and continued his active association with the cattle business until 1906, when he retired and estab- lished his home in Los Angeles, where he and his wife still reside as honored pioneer citizens of this great commonwealth.
In 1870, at Santa Barbara, was solemnized the marriage of John W. Shoults to Miss Mary Alvord, who was the first white child born at Marysville, this state-nearly seventy years ago her father having settled in 1852, after coming across the plains from the State of Kentucky, and he having become editor and publisher of a pioneer newspaper at Marys- ville.
Tracy E. Shoults continued his 'studies in the public schools of Santa Barbara until his graduation in the high school, when seventeen years of age. Thereafter he continued to be associated with his father in the cattle business until 1896, when he came to Los Angeles and entered the employment of A. G. Bartlett, as a piano salesman. He thus continued his activities four years, and thereafter he gave his attention to the fire insurance business until 1905, when he engaged in the real estate and insurance business, of which important line of enterprise he has since continued a prominent and successful representative. He has shown marked initiative in the selection and developing of small city tracts, besides handling country property and also giving special attention to the erection of houses of excellent grade. His largest development pro- ject was instituted in 1919 when he placed on the market the Windsor Square, the Windsor Heights and the Marlborough Square residential districts in Los Angeles. All of these are restricted sections in the most exclusive residential districts of Los Angeles, and in this metropolitan section of Southern California are. to be found today no subdivisions that can rival in attractiveness for the building of homes of the higher
928
LOS ANGELES
class the properties that are thus being effectively developed and exploited under the careful and discriminating direction of Tracy E. Shoults & Company. The firm has excellent descriptive literature that may be had upon application, and these splendid tracts should challenge the attention of prospective home-seekers whose requirements are in consonance with appreciative estimate of real values.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.