USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Men of achievement in the great Southwest Illustrated. A story of pioneer struggles during early days in Los Angeles and Southern California. With biographies, heretofore unpublished facts, anecdotes and incidents in the lives of the builders > Part 10
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Having early decided upon a professional career, he worked and saved with the one idea of obtaining the wherewithal to complete his studies. At the age of seventeen he had secured a teacher's certificate, and for the ensuing three years devoted his time to teaching, during his spare moments diligently studying, and saving his money with a view of going to college before completing his law studies. In 1862 he entered the sophomore elass of the University of the Pacific, at Santa Clara, and upon leaving the university accepted the position of principal of the Santa Clara public schools, holding the same until 1866. While teaching school he took up the study of law, and after completing a course of reading entered the law office of S. F. & J. Reynolds, in San Francisco, as a student. He returned to Santa Clara
CHARLES SILENT.
and was appointed one of the Deputy County Clerks, in which position he familiarized himself with pleading and practice, and with the public records of the county. In 1868 he was admitted to the bar, and immediately became a member of the law firm of Moore & Laine, one of the leading firms of lawyers of San José. After ten years of successful practice in San José, Mr. Silent was appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Arizona. In 1880, after having filled the position for two years, he resigned to commence practice at the bar in Tucson, where he established a successful and remunerative clientele, which he was obliged to relinquish in 1883, owing to failing health. After two years spent in travel and recreation, Judge Silent had so far recuper- ated as to again determine to enter the legal cireles, and selected Los Angeles as his home, where he has since resided and been ac- corded a prominent place among the most conspic- uous figures at the bar.
While living at San José he was ever active in public affairs which tended to the upbuilding of the commu- nity. He was the originator and became one of the owners of the street rail- road between San José and Santa Clara, which was one of the first street railroads constructed south of San Francisco. He was active in matters relating to the public schools, the widening and beautifying of the streets, the construction of capacious and permanent sewers, the establishment and construction of the State Normal School, the first in the State. He de- vised the plan and secured the passage of a law by which the city of San Jose constructed a beautiful drive a distance of six miles to its great public park. He was the head of a corpora- tion, which, under his supervision, constructed the railroad from Santa Cruz along the San Lorenzo River to the town of Felton, which is now a part of the railroad running from Santa Cruz across the mountains to Oakland. It was through Itis foresight that the Santa Cruz Mammoth Trees, which lie along this road, were saved from the sawmill and were pre- served as a pleasure resort.
Since removing to Los Angeles he has been identified with the best interests of his adopted home. He has long been a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and has taken a keen and active interest in the proceedings of that organiza- tion. When, in 1897, many unemployed men roamed the
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
streets seeking work, he organized a movement through the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association looking to their relief, and through his strenuous efforts a large sum was raised to furnish them with employment in beautifying the entrance to one of the city's show places, Elysian Park. The Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, in recognition of his good work in this connection, made him an honorary life member.
Aside from a most remunerative law practice, Judge Silent has evidenced a business ability that has redounded to the immediate benefit of the city and State, as well as to his own private fortune. In laying out Chester Place, he gave to the city one of the most attractive and beautiful residence tracts
influence of Judge Silent could have avoided drifting into polities. Few men similarly situated would have withstood the temptation, but if political honors were a temptation to Mr. Silent, we cannot say. Certain it is that there have been times in recent years that he might have accepted preference in the political realms with the warm sup- port of his fellow-citizens, regardless of party affiliation. Whatever his estimate of their value, he has not permitted political possibilities to defleet him from his chosen sphere of usefulness. From this it must not be inferred that he takes no interest in politics, for, on the contrary, he is a staunch Republican, and an able defender of the tenets of his party.
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RESIDENCE OF CHARLES SILENT, CHESTER PLACE.
in the city. Here he has his home, and the accompanying illustration will show its many architectural features in detail. Judge Silent is identified with numerous enterprises, that but for his liberal aid would never have been inaugurated, or, at best, would have proved failures. This brings into promi- nence the generous side of his nature, and it commands the admiration of the character student no less than the element which has made him eminent as a jurist. He is not the type of man to court or hrook ostentation.
It has been marveled that a man possessing the wealth and
America boasts no titled aristocracy. Her nobility are self- made men, whose careers emblazon the pathway to success, whose achievements are a stimulus to incentive, and emulation of whom is the sesame to fortune. Scores of names are inscribed upon California's seroll of fame, and few are better entitled to the distinction than the pioneers of the early '50's. In many respects the career of Charles Silent may well point the road to success to the coming generations of young men.
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
JOHN PERCIVAL JONES.
T HE following sketch brilliantly illustrates two things: the supreme value of personal character and native ability, and the equal opportunity every man enjoys under American institutions to achieve success whether he be rich or poor, or whether or not he has powerful family ties and personal friends to aid him in his career. The life here portrayed shows that a man of ability and steady purpose may reach the highest round on the ladder of fame with no support to rest upon outside his own God-given powers and unwavering efforts.
January 27, 1829, there was born in a small village, The Hay, in Herefordshire, England, a male child. There was little in the birth to in- dicate any promise of an unusual career. It was a birth not to exalted station, and whatever family influ- ence or the aids derived from personal friendship might avail the child in later years was taken away by the removal of the fam- ily to a distant land before the boy had reached the end of his first year. Bnt he came of the sturdy stock of the borderland between England and Wales, where sturdy stock grows. The family name, Jones, indi- cates a strong strain of the ancient blood of the Britains, Celts, Scots or Cambrians who inhabited the British Isles before Ceaser, Horsa, Kanute or any soul of other race set foot upon the soil.
The child was named John Percival Jones, and while still an infant in arms was transplanted to Amer- ica, the family settling in Ohio, near Cleveland. It was a rude community there and a hard life seventy-five years ago. Opportunities were not as now to gain knowledge of books or of life save in its less devel- oped conditions. But the desire for knowledge was a burning one in the race of which this child came. In early youth he had all the advantages the glorious public schools of the United States afforded to all the children who grow up beneath the flag, no matter how remote from great cities the home may be, or how straitened circumstances may be around the hearthstone. Twenty years had not passed over the boy's young head when the story of the discovery of gold in Cali- fornia reached his ears, as he performed his duties in a Cleveland bank. The fact that he had found employment in a bank indicates that he began to aspire at an early age, and that the aim of his ambition was high. But the tale of gold in mill sluices on the Pacific Coast instead of in bank trays
JOHN PERCIVAL JONES.
as in Cleveland excited the attention of young Jones as it did that of thousands of other venturesome and resolute souls. But the gold in the bank trays did not belong to the boy, and he had not a fortune in his pockets. To reach the mountain streams of California where the gold lay free for anyone to take who had the hardihood to bear fatigue and hunger was a long and costly journey, beset with many perils. The young bank clerk was not to be deterred by dangers nor held back by difficulties, however great. He and others of the same stamp procured at Cleveland a small bark, the Eureka, and set sail on the waters of Lake Erie, passed out the Welland Canal, down the St. Lawrence River into the broad and stormy North Atlantic. After many months of battling with the waters through countless hardships, including ship- wreck and exposure to the elements on sea and land, stormy Cape Horn was rounded in ice-bound mid- winter, and in undue time, for they were long on the way, the young argonauts cast anchor in the Bay of San Francisco. Jones did not linger among the pit- falls of the little town, but hastened away to the mines in the northern Sierras. This was in the spring of 1850. But "gold is where it is found " was a discov- ery .made by the young miner, and it is not in every stream nor on every hillside. For years a hard struggle was maintained in a search for the coveted treasure that would have proved hopeless to a less resolute spirit. Nor were the yonng miner's aims all for self. The interests of the community had a prom- inent place in his mind. In those rough davs the office of sheriff in a mining com- munity was not a sinecure, but John P. Jones was sought by the citizens of Trinity county to perform the strenuous duties of the office, and he performed them well. In another portion of the State his services on behalf of the public were sought and he went to Sacramento as a member of the Legislature. There were "bad men" in the mining camps of the white men, and troublesome and dangerous Indians in the moun- tain fastnesses. Many a hard experience Jones had with these elements, as had every honest, law-abiding citizen of the new State into which 80,000 people, mostly men, all strangers one to another, nearly all without family ties, and from all nations on earth, and all ranks of society, poured in a few months.
Seventeen years of this life full of trials, toils, dangers,
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
disappointments passed, and the young head began to be less glossy, less full of the glorious locks of youth. John P. Jones was now thirty-eight years old, in the prime of life, ripe in various experiences of the most varied character, but far from a millionaire. The news of the discovery of the great Comstock Lode in Nevada floated over the Sierras, and Jones sought there new fields of adventure at an early date in their history. Fortune seemed to have decided to smile more favorably on the persistent spirit which wrestled with the fickle goddess as Jacob did with the angel and would not let go until he attained the coveted blessing. Senator Jones is not given to talking freely about what he has had or has of this world's goods, but those who are conversant with the history of the Pacific Coast know that he has made half a dozen large fortunes in his day. But John P. Jones is not the kind of man to hold onto money like a pawnbroker. He has never passed as a professional philanthropist, but he has been a practical one. He has realized that money has
most skillful parliamentarian in the Senate. His part in the debates on the tariff discussion is a memorable one, and there was probably no other Senator more respected by the Free Traders than he. For Jones to cast his gauntlet down in the Senate caused dismay among the ablest men in the Democratic ranks. He was not an orator in the usual acceptation of the term, but he was surcharged with facts which he arrayed with masterly skill and consummate force in so practical a manner as to make successful contention impossible. He carried conviction to the minds of his hearers. The injection of the Free Silver discussion into politics in 1896 caused Senator Jones to break with his old- time party alliances and join the hosts of his former political antagonists. Republicans who arraign Senator Jones for this would do well to remember that he was a Free Silver advocate before it became a party measure, when many others on his side of the Senate leaned the same way.
Senator Jones was from a great silver State, although his
RESIDENCE OF SENATOR JOHN P. JONES AT SANTA MONICA, CAL.
little good unless, like the mountain stream in vigorous mo- tion to bless the valley below, refreshing it in every way, it is put to some good use where men may enjoy its blessings.
In 1860 Mr. Jones and Col. R. S. Baker came into pos- session of the San Vincente Rancho at Santa Monica. A good wharf was constructed there soon after and a railroad begun to pass through Los Angeles to Salt Lake. The Jay Cook failure a few years after brought this great public enter- prise to an end, and Senator Jones lost a large sum in the col- lapses that followed. But the loss of a fortune meant little to so capable and energetic a man. He made another before long.
The title used above, " Senator," may seem premature in this case, but it is scarcely so. In 1873 the people of Nevada sent John P. Jones to the United States Senate, and he has worn the toga continuously from that time to a year ago. He sat in the august body, the Senate of the United States, for thirty years, rivaling the career of Thomas H. Benton of Missouri in older days. In politics Senator Jones was a Republican and was one of the most powerful debaters and
own interests were wrapped up in gold mines to a large extent. It is not intended here to convey the idea that self- interest led him to espouse a cause. But we should not for- get that our opinions are influenced by our environment in spite of all we can do to guard against that influence.
In business one of Senator Jones' more great enterprises has been with two or three others, to make the first opening of the great Treadwell mines in Alaska.
Now at the ripe old age of seventy-five Senator Jones enjoys a well-earned retirement from the turmoil of political life. His distinguished career is a full justification of Amer- ican institutions. Without an elaborate education, by native talent and personal effort he was able to develop into a states- man of the first rank; a most effective parliamentary debater and a recognized authority on economic subjects. Without family or friendship except such as his own qualities of character secured, he rose to the highest political honor in the country excepting the Presidency, for which he is debarred by birth.
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THOMAS R. BARD.
T HOMAS ROBERT BARD was born at Chambersburg, Pa., December 8, 1842, his parents being Robert M. Bard and Elizabeth Little Bard of that place. The boy was educated in the public schools of his native town and in the Chambersburg Academy, from which he was graduated at the head of his class at the age of eighteen. He then took a course in law with a firm in his home town. He did not, however, follow the practice of his profession, but in 1861 was appointed transportation agent of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, with headquarters at Hagerstown, Md. This was the year of the breaking out of the Civil War, and young Bard was right in the storm center of the eventful struggle in this border State. He from sturdy North of Ireland stock, and did not hesitate for a moment as to his course. His moral na- ture and sense of re- sponsibility had been too well developed at the knee of his relig- ions parents to permit him, young though he was, to flinch from duty. He was a staunch and openly-declared Union man, in the midst of an excited population torn in two by the conflicting pas- sions of the strife.
In 1864 Thomas R. Bard was selected by the late Col. Thomas A. Scott to send to California to look after his many land interests in this section. Here has been his home ever since. It was not his first visit to the Pa- cific Coast, for he had previous to this mar- ried Miss Mary B. Gerberding, of San Francisco, whose father was heavily interested in lands in Ventura county.
there were efforts to develop the oil deposits thought to exist near Santa Barbara. These efforts proved futile. But before 1880 the Pacific Coast Oil Company, operating in Pico Canon near Newhall, succeeded in finding oil at that place. Later work was begun in the Puente field, in the eastern part of Los Angeles county, and with encouraging results. This success gave great impetus to an industry now so flourishing, which has been of so great importance to Southern California. Work was begun in Ventura county soon after 1880, and a year or two later Lyman Stewart and others organized the Sespe Oil Company, to operate in the canon of that name in the mountains of Ventura county. Mr. Bard and Mr. Stewart were friends and neighbors, with confi- .. dence in each other, and Mr. Bard at once joined his friend in this important enter- prise. It called for supreme courage to go on with this work and achieve success. The ground was difficult to bore in, and the wells had to be sunk as low as 2700 feet to reach the oil. In 1886 the same operators, Mr. Bard one of them, in- dertook similar work in Torrey Cañon and with similar success. By this time the oil business had become very important, and the promise for the future was bright. The Mis- sion Transfer Com- pany was bought out by the Sespe and Tor- rey Cañon Company to convey the oil from the wells to tide wa- ter. It was now
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THOMAS R. BARD.
For forty years Mr. Bard has been a very prominent figure in all that was done to develop that part of the State. In the early days he was active in sheep raising and wool production. This naturally led to the building of wharves and warehouses at Hueneme, which largely owes its existence and growth to Mr. Bard's enterprising methods of business. And the natural concomitant of the development of Hueneme and Ventura was the banking business, and in the organizing of substantial and conservative banks he was most active.
Soon after the advent of Thomas R. Bard into the State,
thought well to reor- ganize the three com- panies into one, to be - known as the Union Oil Company, to take over the business of the others. In all the development of the oil industry in California the Union Oil Company has played an important part. A pipe line was built to Hueneme and a tank steamer constructed to carry the oil to the refinery near San Fran- cisco. Attention was turned to the by-products of petroleum, and the Union Oil Company, at great cost and with much patience in the face of partial failure sure to be met in such enterprises, secured the services of Dr. Salathiel, a Swiss chemist, put in a plant at Santa Paula and conducted careful experiments, out of which came very important discoveries.
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
Mr. Bard gave liberally of his means and time to these experi- mental investigations, as he had to the work of uncovering the oil sands in the canons, being a large stockholder and efficient director in the Union Oil Company during these years.
Thomas R. Bard has been an ardent and consistent Repub- lican at all times since his early years during war times in Maryland. He never sought office for himself, but all polit- ical honors have sought him, not he them. He was always content to be a faithful, hard-working private in the ranks. In 1892 he was one of the electors on the Republican Presi- dential ticket, and while, in that year, so memorable in na- tional politics, the State went Democratic, Mr. Bard reached the remarkable distinction of being the exception to the rule, and was the only Republican elector chosen by the people. It is not often that any man's popularity with the people carries him so far ahead of his colleagues in a national election.
In 1900, when the California Legislature met at San Fran- cisco, a peculiar condition existed. The war with Spain had been fought and won. President MeKinley's administration had been very satisfactory to the people, nowhere more so than in California. Few thoughtful, intelligent people of the State desired a change in the national administration. · The Legislature was largely Republican in both houses, and the successor to United States Senator Stephen M. White
was sure to be a Republican. Powerful influences had been put forth to secure a Legislature favorable to a certain citizen of the State. This citizen was bitterly opposed by a large portion of the party, and it may be said the better, more patriotic majority of the Republican voters. Democratic politicians were very generally on the side of this candidate. A protracted conflict took place, and several candidates entered the lists in hopes of winning the greatly-coveted prize. Thomas R. Bard remained at his home in Ventura county, attending to his many absorbing business interests connected with his great ranch, and probably thinking less of being United States Senator than of any other possible event. But his name was known to all the members of the Legislature; his integrity was a thing beyond dispute or question. When the Legislature became weary of the prolonged contest, it was a great relief to the people of California, and in no sense a surprise, that they should turn to the successful Ventura business man, and by a unanimous vote elected Thomas Robert Bard to the high office he now occupies.
Senator Bard has worn the toga with dignity during the three years since then. He has won an enviable distinction as a member of that august body composed of men of over- towering ability and influence. So well has Senator Bard borne himself that he has won the esteem and enthusiastic applause of his constituents.
AN ARTISTIC LOS ANGELES HOME.
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
M. H. SHERMAN.
"T HE schoolmaster is abroad," said Lord John Russell, more than fifty years ago. He has been very much abroad in all the years that have passed since then. He is abroad today more than ever before. Nor is there any sane and intelligent man who will question the statement that the world has been very greatly the gainer by the pres-
of a schoolmaster should be a motive for rejoicing to all of us who have been so greatly benefited by the high and un- selfish labors of the guild. This little sketch is to tell of the successes achieved by a schoolmaster in high and arduous paths that have led his footsteps far from the schoolhouse door.
GEN. M. H. SHERMAN.
ence of the schoolmaster in all the best and most progressive portions of this old world of ours. Life has been sweetest and its joys brightest wherever the influences of the school have been felt most. The recognition of a schoolmaster's merits and any good luck or success that may fall to the lot
Moses H. Sherman was born in the town of West Rupert, in Bennington county, Vermont, in 1854, just half a century ago. He was of sturdy, thrifty, prosperous New England stock. His father had the New England idea of the great value of a liberal education deeply rooted in his convictions.
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The boy had about as good educational advantages as the day afforded. He made good use of his opportunities. His school course finished, he went to Western New York and engaged in the business of teaching school and giving to other boys the advantages he had enjoyed. He made so good a record as an educator that when A. P. K. Stafford was appointed Governor of Arizona and found the school system of the Territory in rather a chaotic condition, and cast about for a man capable of organizing a thoroughly modern sys- tem of public instruction for the Territory, the name of Moses H. Sherman came to his ears as that of the most likely man to perform this hard task. He was just past twenty, little more than a boy, but a Yankee boy with a clear mind - and much pluck. So the carly '70's saw Prof. Sherman duly installed at Prescott, the capital of Arizona, polishing the young and sometimes rough elements of frontier society into intelligent and upright American citizens. Then came Gen. John C. Frémont as Governor of the Territory, and he saw Sherman was too bright and competent a man to confine within the narrow limits of one school or one town; so he made him Superintendent of Public Instruction, in order that he might devote his time and talents to the work of evolving a system of school work for Arizona. When his term of appointment expired, the people elected him to another term in the office. During the next few years Prof. Sherman went over the whole Territory, organized a complete school sys- tem, from the primary school to the university course. and all on so broad, firm and modern a basis, that the system remains today practically what he made it nearly thirty years ago. It was hard work, and its completion found Sherman tired out. He determined that as his work in this line was done, to give up school teaching for good.
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