USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > Men who made San Francisco > Part 4
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Henry H. Meyers
H ENRY H. MEYERS, by profession an architect, is a native of California, born in 1867. His father, J. F. Meyers, comes from Pennsylvania, and his mother, Mary E. Meyers, was born in Germany.
After graduating from the high school, Mr. Meyers served a carpenter's apprenticeship to secure a practical foundation for his profession, and then entered the office of Percy & Ham- ilton, architects, succeeding to their practice in 1900.
In 1902 he formed a partnership with Clar- ence R. Ward, the firm being known as Meyers & Ward. This was dissolved in the latter part of 1909.
Mr. Meyers has had charge of the erection of many structures in San Francisco, including the Kohl building, Wells Fargo building, Alaska Commercial building, Samuels' Lace House, Winchester Hotel, Friedman's Furniture House, and many others.
He has also erected the Alexander Young Hotel, Honolulu, Stockton Savings and Loan Society, Stockton; People's Savings Bank, Sac- ramento; First Presbyterian Church and First Methodist Church, Alameda.
Mr. Meyers was married to Miss Bertha S. May in 1894 and has three children.
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Charles Henry Oatman
C HARLES HENRY OATMAN was born in Sacramento, California, January 20, 1862. He graduated from the University of California at the age of 20 years, and has assiduously applied his learning in the practice of his profession as attorney. Today his name stands among the foremost who have fought for law and order in San Francisco and the develop- ment of the city.
His father, Ira E. Oatman, crossed the plains to California in 1849.
With the virile blood of the pioneer in his veins, and endowed with an exceptionally bright mind, it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Oat- man should be placed on the roll of fame in the making of San Francisco.
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JAMES S. HORSBURGH
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Will D. Shea
W JILL D. SHEA is one of San Francisco's home product architects, and for three years held the position of city architect in the city of his birth. He has been a prominent fraternal and club man for years. He was a director of the Olympic Club for five years, is a member of California Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and for a long time was a member of the Grand Parlor. He also belongs to the San Francisco Lodge of Elks, to the Knights of Columbus, and to the Young Men's Institute, besides being a member of the Menlo Country Club. Mr. Shea is a Democrat in poli- tics. He is married and has two children, a girl of eight years and a boy of seven.
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William B. McGerry
S AN FRANCISCO'S real estate men, by their faith in the city and their untiring work in the promotion of its properties, have played a big part in its making and in investing it with never-dying prosperity. William B. Mc- Gerry ranks among the realty men who have never lost their confidence and who have had their belief in their home city justified in ten- fold measure.
Mr. McGerry has been prominent in his field of operation for several years. He came to the West from New York, where he was born.
Like many another successful business man in San Francisco, he has a college degree that fitted him originally more for the life of the stu- dent than the life of the money maker. Heis a graduate of St. Lawrence University in New York.
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P. H. McCarthy
P H. MCCARTHY, ex-Mayor of San Francisco, was born in County Limerick, Ireland, March 17, 1863. He was apprenticed to a builder, under whom he became a journey- man. In 1880 he came to America, locating first in Chicago, and later removing to St. Louis, where with six other artisans he organized the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of Amer- ica. It was in 1886 that he came to San Fran- cisco, where he soon began his efforts to bring the mechanics of the building trades into closer affiliation. In 1894 the San Francisco Building Trades Council was launched, and Mr. Mc- Carthy has ever since been its president. He has also been a member of the executive board of the National Brotherhood. He took an ac- tive part in framing the charter under which San Francisco is now governed, and in the debates of 1896, when the charter was framed, surprised the public by his knowledge of municipal law. He was responsible for the eight-hour day for city labor, and the $2 minimum wage clause in the charter. Upon the adoption of the chartel, Mr. McCarthy was appointed Civil Service Commissioner by Mayor J. D. Phelan, serving four years and accomplishing much for the wage- earners.
On November 2, 1909, Mr. McCarthy was elected Mayor of San Francisco by a majority over two opponents of more than 10,000, carrying with him into office almost the entire Union Labor ticket.
SAN FRANCIS 1911
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Willard O. Wayman
A MONG the leaders in the in- surance business in San Fran- cisco is Willard O. Wayman, who was born in this city in 1871, and who began his business career with the Alta Insurance Company at Stockton in 1899. Later he took up general agency, representing the British America, Michigan Fire and Marine, and the People's of New Hampshire. In 1897, at the age of 26, he was appointed manager for the Coast of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co. of Newark, and later of the Girard Fire and Marine of Philadelphia. In 1901 the firm of McNear & Wayman was estab- lished, being at present general agents for the National Fire Insur- ance Co. of Hartford, the Colonial Fire Underwriters' Agency, and the Mechanics and Traders' Insurance Co. of New Orleans. The firm has progressed with remarkable suc- cess. In 1898 the year's premium income was $67,000, ninety odd companies surpassing this business 01. the Coast. In 1909, the prem- iums were more than $1,218,782, the firm ranking fourth in the list of general agencies on the Pacific Coast, as regards premium income.
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C. A. HENNING
ANN ARBOR
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Wiley F. Crist
O NE of the progressive young Republican attorneys of San Francisco is Wiley F. Crist, who has offices in the Monadnock building. He was born in Victoria, Illinois, in 1878, belonging to an old Illinois family and descended from ancestors who came to America in the historic Mayflower. He is a graduate of George Washington University with the class of 1899, and has been prac- ticing his profession in San Fran- cisco for seven years. He was mar- ried in February, 1909, to Miss Frances Warner, and has an infant son, Wiley F. Crist, Jr. Mr. Crist has taken an active interest in civic and party affairs in San Francisco, as well as in the affairs of the Ma- sonic order, of which he is a mem- ber. He has a large legal practice, and his standing at the California bar is the envy of many an older practitioner.
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Cyrus Peirce
YRUS PEIRCE. banker, declares there are no records extant to prove that he was ever blessed with ancestors. His father was Joshua Peirce, and his mother Mary E. T. Peirce, and he was born in Bristol, Pennsyl- vania, the Peirces being all of old Quaker stock. But farther back than this Mr. Peirce has not followed the genealogical tree. Until recently Mr. Peirce was a Republican, but says he is not sure now whether he belongs to any party or not. In a more serious biographical vein, however, Mr. Peirce is a prominent figure in bus- iness circles, being Pacific Coast manager of the N. W. Halsey Company, and director as well in a number of corporations. His wife was formerly Miss Maud Rowan Reid, and they have one child, about seven years of age.
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W. L. McGuire
W ILLIAM L. McGUIRE, attorney at law and oil operator, is a young man who has risen to prominence both in the business and ofhcial life of California. Born in Missouri in 1874, he moved with his parents to New York a year later, and came with them to California in 1885. He graduated from Stanford Univer- sity in 1896 and at once began the practice of law, which he pursued for ten years.
For twelve years he has been actively engaged in oil production, being one of the first operators in the Coalinga field, and being heavily interested in the Coalinga, Midway, Lost Hills and Mari- ccpa districts. He holds important positions with several of the biggest oil companies, and is vice- president of the Portola Improvement Co., owning townsites along the Western Pacific.
Mr. McGuire was a member of the California Legislature from 1907 to 1909, and was Secretary of the State Bank Commission under Governor Gillett. He is a Republican in politics. Mr. McGuire was married six years ago to Miss Mabel Agee, and has one daughter, Wilma. He is partner of C. H. Holbrook, Jr., in handling high-class oil and mining investments.
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J. Charles Green
J. CHAS. GREEN has been aptly described as a compact bundle of energy and enthu-
siasm. It is these qualities that have placed him among San Francisco's most progressive busi- ness men. Largely through his efforts since the fne of 1906 the city has been enriched by the building of the Princess and Garrick Theatres in Ellis Street, the Auditorium building at Page and Fillmore, and the Valencia Theatre in Valen- cia Street, one of the largest and best equipped playhouses in the West. He will shortly con- struct an office building for what is said to be the best equipped outdoor advertising plant in America.
Mr. Green has been in the outdoor advertis- ing business for twenty years, and has succeeded by perseverance and enthusiasm, by his sense of values, by his technical knowledge of his busi- ness, and by his ability to solve knotty problems for the merchants making outdoor advertising dis- plays.
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Theodore W. Lenzen
M ANY beautiful California buildings that stand as landmarks in their communities are monuments to the architectural skill of Theo- dore W. Lenzen, whose offices are at 709 Hum- boldt Bank Building. Mr. Lenzen was born in San Jose in 1864. He is a son of the late Jacob Lenzen, with whom he was associated until 1900. During the fifteen years of this association he supervised the erection in San Jose and surrounding cities of many public buildings and residences, prominent among them being the Hotel Vendome and the Paso Robles Hotel. He visited Europe in 1886, spending the year abroad in travel and study. In 1890 he was married to Kate A. Berlingen. Two sons and a daughter have been born to them. Since com- ing to San Francisco he has supervised the construction of many flats and apartment houses, as well as business buildings. Among them are the Old Homestead Bakery, the Pacific Motor Car Company's three-story building at Golden Gate Avenue and Polk Street, and a three-story build- ing for the American Foresters at Salinas. In politics he is a Republican.
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Oscar T. Luning
O SCAR THEODORE LUNING, ranked among the leaders in the real estate and insurance field in San Francisco, was born in this city on December 11, 1861. His father was born in Germany and his mother in Dub- lin, Ireland. Mr. Luning was educated in Europe, graduating from college at Geneva. Switzerland, in 1879.
He entered business life in San Francisco as a young man and has been tremendously successful, as his standing in San Francisco commercial circles will bear testimony. Mr. Luning's wife was formerly Miss Mary Jose- phine Philippe. They have one child, a son, thirty years old.
While he has never held public office or done more politically than his duty as a con- scientious citizen, he has always been a Re- publican.
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Lewis F. Byington
L' EWIS F. BYINGTON was born in the old historic mining town of Downieville,! Sierra County. His father, Hon. Lewis By- ington, a member of the Legislature of 1878, one of the best known pioneers of Northern California, was a native of Connecticut, but raised in Cincinnati, his parents moving west- ward to Ohio when he was a child. Lewis! F. Byington received his early education in the public schools at Downieville, but was graduated from Santa Clara College, with high honors, at the age of eighteen, and later took the degree of Bachelor of Laws at Hastings College of the Law. He then took up his residence in San Francisco and was elected a member of the Board of Supervisors. His firm stand for honesty and improvement in civic affairs led to his election as the first district attorney under the new charter. He was three times elected to this office the last" time by a majority of 25,000 votes, carrying every one of the 303 precincts in the city, an unprecedented achievement. He personally prosecuted every important case and secured the greatest number of convictions of any dis- trict attorney in the history of San Francisco. Mr. Byington is a Past Grand President of the Native Sons, a member of the Elks, and known and respected throughout the state.
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DANIEL A. RYAN Mr. Ryan is one of the leading Attorneys of San Francisco.
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Lester Herrick
L ESTER HERRICK, certified public ac- countant, is a son of the late E. M. Her- rick, president of the Pacific Pine Lumber Co., and was born at Newark, New Jersey, March 6, 1872. After graduating from McClure's Military Academy, he was associated with his father in the wholesale lumber business, and since 1898 has been a certified public account- ant, forming a partnership with his brother, Aaron Herrick, in 1905.
Governor Gage appointed him on the first State Board of Accountancy. He was re- appointed by Governor Pardee. He had charge of the accounts of the Red Cross and Relief Funds following the disaster of 1906, his final report rendered August 16, 1909, showing receipts and disbursements of $9,673,057.94. He has been employed by the government, by the city of San Francisco, by Seattle, and by many big corporations to expert books. Mr. Herrick is a member of the Merchants' Exchange, the San Francisco Commercial Club, the Bohemian Club, and the Rainier Club of Seattle.
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John J. Gleason
E VERYBODY who reads the sporting pages of the daily press-and that means nearly everybody who reads at all-knows John J. Gleason, who is universally called "Jack." Aside from an occasional plunge into the promotion of ring encounters, notable among which was the Jeffries-Johnson battle at Reno in 1910. Mr. Gleason devotes his time to baseball. He has for several years been asso- ciated with the management of the San Fran- cisco "Seals." He was once leader of the Olympic Club.
Mr. Gleason is a son of John and Bridget Gleason, and was born in the state of Wash- ington in 1871. He is a graduate of the College of the Sacred Heart in San Fran- cisco.
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Richard W. Costello
R ICHARD W. COSTELLO is vice-presi- dent and manager of the big dry goods firm of O'Connor, Moffatt & Co. He was born in New Jersey in 1878, his father being a native of County Limerick, Ireland, and his mother a native of London, England.
Mr. Costello was educated at St. Xavier's College, Cincinnati, and Santa Clara College, California.
He has been engaged in the dry goods busi- ness for many years and is a director of the Merchants' Association of San Francisco.
He was married in 1902 to Miss Mary Welsh. They have five children.
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George H. Strong
I T IS a pleasure lo present a few facts about George H. Strong, who, in a quiet and unobtrusive way, has done much for San Francisco. Mr. Strong was born at North- ampton, Mass., and is a graduate of Dart- mouth College. He is a descendant of the early Pilgrim Fathers, tracing his ancestry back to that John Strong who landed on the bleak shores of Massachusetts in the year 1630.
His profession is that of Patent Solicitor and Attorney, but he has given much of his time to the promotion of athletics. He was for years a member of the directorate of the Olym- pic Club, the Pioneer Rowing Club, the San Francisco and Oakland Bicycle Club, and the Alameda Automobile Club.
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Harry L. Roff
F ORTY years of insurance work in the neighborhood of San Francisco bay is the record of Harry L. Roff, general agent of the Home Insurance Company. Born in St. Louis, Mo., more than sixty-eight years ago, Mr. Roff came to California in a prai- ne schooner, and began to be a money earner as one of the riders of the famous pony ex- press. Subsequently he worked for the Wells Fargo Express Company, and on May 7, 1870, settled in Oakland as local agent for the Home Insurance Company. He has been in the one company's service ever since, hav- ing been made general agent of the San Fran- cisco office in 1898. The company's success is testimony of his energetic labor.
John J. Sheahan
S HARING office responsibilities with Harry L. Roff. general agent of the Home In- surance Company. is John J. Sheahan, who is assistant general agent for the same company. Beginning as a special agent in June, 1892, Mı. Sheahan has climbed through every de- partment to his present position of import- ance.
Mr. Sheahan is a native of Toledo, Ohio, where he was born January 29, 1866. He is married and has two children.
To his efforts and to those of General Agent Roff have been due the success of the Home Company, which, having acquitted itself with credit in the days following the great fire, is now back again in a fine building in the heart of the underwriting district.
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William Valentine MacNevin
W ILLIAM VALENTINE MacNEVIN, vice-president of the firm of Landgrebe, MacNevin and Jones, one of the foremost of real estate and insurance agencies in San Fran- cisco, with offices in the Clunie Building, 525 California street, was born in San Francisco in 1882. He is a great grandson of William James MacNevin, the Irish patriot, who was an associate of Robert Emmett. His grand- father was agent for the vast estates of Lord Rosse in Kings County, Ireland, and was a noted astronomer; while his father, Henry P. MacNevin, was until his death in 1885 one of the prominent civil and mining engineers on the Pacific Coast.
William V. MacNevin has been actively engaged in the real estate business for the past thirteen years, and is recognized as one of the most conservative real estate experts in San Francisco. His thorough acquaintance with the business and the esteem in which he is held by bankers and other business men, has inspired great confidence in his judgment upon the buying and selling of real estate.
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MILTON C. CLARK
MILTON CLARK CONTRACTOR
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William M. Abbott
T O BE successful in whatever calling he may adopt may well be the ambition of any man. Among the overcrowded profes- sions open to the young man of the present there is probably none in which success is harder of attainment than that of the law.
William Martin Abbott is one of those individuals whom the difficulties besetting the path of success serve only to stimulate to further effort, as his present position in San Francisco will demonstrate.
Mr. Abbott was born in San Francisco on March 17, 1872. In 1893 he grad- uated from the Hastings College of Law. From 1899 to 1902 he was Deputy Attorney General for the state of California. At present he is general attorney for the United Railroads of San Francisco, and is recognized as one of the foremost members of the legal fraternity of San Francisco.
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W. H. METSON
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D. E. Alexander
D ANIEL EARP ALEXANDER, attor- ney and counsellor at law, son of Ben- jamin Franklin Alexander and Caroline Way Hiveley Alexander, was born at Jackson, Miss., February 7, 1845, but has lived in California ever since he was nine years old. He grad- uated from the Sacramento High School in 1866, and a few years later began the prac- tice of law. Being a Democrat, and his party not being permanently dominant in the govern- ment, Mr. Alexander has never sought any political preferment, being content to vote at each election and to follow steadily the prac- tice of his profession. For more than twenty years Mr. Alexander has been a resident of San Francisco. He was married on November 13, 1881.
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W. L. Hathaway
L. HATHAWAY, manager of the
W . San Francisco office of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, has been in the employ of that concern for twenty-two years, having spent practically his entire busi- ness life with it. Born in Providence, R. I., in 1867. Mr. Hathaway comes from an old New Bedford, Mass., family, his ancestors dating back to the early Puritan settlers of that district. In 1893 he was married to Miss Caro L. Paulson, of Copenhagen, Denmark, and has two daughters, the Misses Marie and Mabel Hathaway, the family residing at the St. Regis apartments, 1925 Gough street, San Francisco. Mr. Hathaway is an active member of the San Francisco Chamber of Com- merce, the World's Fair Committee, and various other organizations concerned with civic and public affairs.
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JUDGE W. P. LAWLOR
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Robert Forsyth
F EW men can boast a more thorough equip- ment for their special line of work than Is possessed by Robert Forsyth, consulting en- gineer. Mr. Forsyth has offices in the Mer- chants' Exchange Building.
Born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1846, he received his training in the shipbuilding and en- gineering works of Randolph. Elder & Co., ol Glasgow, and saw service later with the Pacific Navigation Steamship Co. He was also in the service of the Pacific Mail Steam- ship Co. for a number of years.
Mr. Forsyth was with the Risdon Iron Works for seven years and was for a long time engineer-in-chief to the Union Iron Works. San Francisco. He also served as president of the Union Iron Works Company.
He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and the Technical Society of the Pacific Coast.
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Charles Kean Harper
C HARLES KEAN HARPER was born in San Francisco on April 4, 1876. His father and mother were both of English birth. He spent his youth in the country and obtained his early education in the country schools. For a time he taught school, subsequently attend- ing the University of California, entering with the class of 1904. For four years after leav- ing college he was on the road as a commer- cial traveler. During this time he studied law and immediately after passing the California Supreme Court examinations he began practice in San Francisco, having risen rapidly to the enjoyment of an excellent practice and a posi- tion of standing before the bar of his state. Mr. Harper is a Republican in politics. He is unmarried.
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Will L. Greenbaum
W ILL L. GREENBAUM, San Fran- cisco's leading impressario, was born in Sacramento in 1866, and was raised and edu- cated in the city of San Francisco. Graduat- iag from the Boys' High School, he made d study of perfume chemistry and for many years was head of the largest perfume manufactur- ing company west of Chicago. An accom- plished musician, he organized the Hinrichs- Feel Symphony Orchestra, which later became the San Francisco Symphony Society, with Fritz Scheel as conductor. Gradually he drifted into the managerial profession, associating in business with Alfred Bouvier. After the death uf Bouvier. Mr. Greenbaum gave up the per- fume business and devoted himself to theatrical. operatic and concert attractions. He has brought to this city Pietro Mascagni, the Metropolitan Opera Company, the Melba Com- pany. the San Carlos and Milan Opera Companies, the Damrosch Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Nordica, Calve, Eames, Gadski, Paderewski, Hoffman, Y'saye, Kreisler, the Ben Greet Shakespearian Players, Miss Maud Allan and many other attractions of equal note.
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STANLEY MOORE Mr. Moore is a prominent Attorney of California
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Patrick J. Calhoun
P RESIDENT of the United Railroads and one of the most prominent street railway men in all America, Patrick J. Calhoun stands as a type of the ever-resourceful, energetic and capable business leaders of the day. Born in South Carolina, March 21, 1856, the fifth and youngest son of Andrew Pickens Calhoun, who was the eldest son of the great states- man, John C. Calhoun, the subject of this sketch was left a penniless orphan at the age of nine. The best of American blood flows in his veins, his mother being a descendant of Mildred Washington, aunt of George Wash- i.1gton.
With characteristic determination of his fam- ily. he set to work to educate himself. He wasadmitted to the practice of law at the age of nineteen, and began practice in St. Louis. Becoming interested in problems of street railway tr .. ffic, he abandoned law practice to engagein this work. He effected the amalgamation of various railroads in the Southern states, andafterward brought the control of practically all public utilities into the hands of one companyin Pittsburg. He gathered the railroads of St. Louis into one company and then accomplishedthe same thing in San Francisco.
Mr. Calhoun has four homes, one in San Francisco, one in Charleston, South Carolina, one in Cleveland, Ohio, and one in New York. He was married in 1885 to Miss Sarah Porter Williams of Charleston, and has eight children, four boys and four girls.
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