USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume II > Part 15
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In addition to his other interests, Mr. Fulcher is president of the Teddy Jam Pulverizer Machine Company, in which the rock is crushed to a sand. This will produce a material superior to any
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other kind, for seaside sand rounded by the waves does not hold, while the crushed rock, having a rough edge, does, sustaining fifty tons' pressure, and this quality of the sand made from crushed rock insures the solidarity of the building materials made therefrom. The sand is pure, all vegetable matter being removed. Twenty mil- lion dollars is now invested in the manufacture of concrete blocks in the United States and no competition exists in this line except in the hydraulic press. What Mr. Fulcher has accomplished along business lines places him with the foremost representatives of indus- trial and commercial activity upon the Pacific coast, and his efforts are of untold value, not only as a source of individual success, but as a feature in the prosperity of the district.
Mr. Fulcher was united in marriage, in Lodi, to Miss Mary McGill, a native of California, and unto them were born four children: Ruth, who is now deceased; William H., acting as surveyor in Alameda county; Jeannette, who is head stenographer with a lumber company, which position she has occupied for four years ; and Marguerite, who is attending the Fremont high school.
In politics Mr. Fulcher is a republican of the progressive type. His study of political conditions has led him to take this advanced step, and he keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day, yet does not seek nor desire public office, preferring to concen- trate his energies upon his business interests, which are of growing importance.
FRED L. BUTTON.
The bar of California numbers among its most progressive, able and successful representatives Fred L. Button, of Oakland, who is not only in control of a large and lucrative private practice but has also rendered valuable public service along professional lines. He was born in Pontiac, Michigan, in March, 1856, and came to Cali- fornia with his parents in 1863. The family settled in Oakland and Mr. Button acquired his early education in the public schools of this city. He was afterward for a time employed in the office of the Daily Transcript, learning the printer's trade, and he also attended Brayton College. He later entered the State University, from which he was graduated with high honors in 1876, receiving the university gold medal for excellence in scholarship and also a prize for the most meritorious scientific essay. Having at that time served one year as assistant instructor in mathematics under appoint-
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ment by the regents, he continued in that position during the suc- ceeding year.
Mr. Button studied law in the office of Vrooman & Davis and in 1879 was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of California, after which he remained with Vrooman & Davis until 1881 and then established an office in Oakland, where his ability has brought him a large and representative clientage. Mr. Button stands in the front ranks of the legal fraternity in this part of the state and his profes- sional opinions are considered authoritative. In 1888 he rendered the city valuable service as secretary of the Board of Freeholders, who drafted the charter of the city of Oakland, and he later three times codified the city ordinances for publication. He is also the author of the second edition of "Harlow on Sheriffs," a standard law text-book. Mr. Button has a comprehensive and exact knowl- edge of the law and is a strong and forceful practitioner, possessed of the insight, coolness and resourcefulness necessary to success in this field.
On November 5, 1899, he was appointed by the board of educa- tion as school director for the second ward, an office to which he was afterward elected and filled for one term with credit and ability. His attention is given largely to a general office and probate practice, and in a field where success is largely the result of individual merit and ability, has made rapid and steady advancement, standing today in the front ranks of progressive and successful attorneys. He gives his political allegiance to the progressive republican party.
A. L. WAGNER.
A. L. Wagner is engaged in business in Oakland as the senior member of the real-estate firm of Wagner & Pugh, dealing in city and country property. His birth occurred in Detroit, Michigan, in June, 1868, and in the acquirement of an education he attended the public schools of Detroit and Saginaw, Michigan, until sixteen years of age. He then secured a position as salesman with a hardware house and subsequently went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he acted as salesman for the Dodson, Fisher & Brockman Hardware Company. Mr. Wagner next went to Boston, Massachusetts, and was there employed as salesman by the Campbell, Bosworth Ma- chinery Company until January, 1906, when he came to San Francisco to take charge of their Pacific coast business. In March,
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1911, he resigned that position to embark in the real-estate specu- lating business in Ventura county, California, there remaining until January, 1913, when he came to Oakland and here entered a similar field of endeavor. In the Ist of October, 1913, he formed a partner- ship with Mr. Pugh, under the firm style of Wagner & Pugh, and is now engaged in dealing in city and country property. Their undertakings, though so recently begun, have already been attended with results which augur well for the future.
In Ventura, California, on the 18th of March, 1911, Mr. Wag- ner was united in marriage to Miss Elvira Solari. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, while fraternally he is identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
MARTIN KATICH.
Martin Katich, a resident of Oakland for more than a quarter of a century, has for the past eight years been successfully engaged in business as sole proprietor of the Avenue Cafe, a high-class restau- rant located at the corner of Sixteenth street and San Pablo avenue. A native of Dalmatia, Austria, Martin Katich, however, came with an uncle to California when he was but thirteen years of age, in 1887. Thus his early schooling was obtained in Oakland, where he remained with relatives when his uncle, a retired sea captain, returned to Austria. After graduating from the grammar grades, Martin Katich entered the Oakland high school, then situated on Market street. It was destroyed by fire before he had completed his course and he did not return to school, preferring to work instead. In 1890 he entered into business on his own account with a partner in the conduct of a restaurant on Seventh street. That street was then a busy location and the business prospered. Mr. Katich was, however, possessed with an unusual amount of ambition which always induced him to strive for better things, so in 1906 he dis- solved partnership and removed to San Pablo avenue, there to embark on a business alone. After the disaster of that year he removed to his present location and from a somewhat modest begin- ning has developed his enterprise to admirable proportions, so that now the Avenue Cafe is second to none in the city in excellence of appointments and cuisine.
Meantime Mr. Katich made a journey back to his old home in Dalmatia to visit his parents and there, in 1899, he married Miss
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Annie Urlovich. Two years thereafter the young couple spent in their native land, where a daughter, Annie, was born to them. Then Mr. Katich brought his wife and their little daughter to California, but Mrs. Katich died two years later. Martin, Jr., the only son of the couple, was then but three months of age. Later Mr. Katich and the sister of his late wife were united in marriage and by this union there is a daughter, Lucille, named for her mother.
Throughout his career Mr. Katich has been successful in his business enterprises and has gained an enviable reputation for fair dealing and uprightness among all with whom he has come in con- tact. Never afraid to venture, he has met with success, and, though his career has not been without its vicissitudes, he has now reached a position of undoubted security.
Prominent in commercial and civic affairs, he is a member of the Commercial Club, Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Exchange of Oakland. In fraternal circles he is also active and is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Loyal Order of Moose, Royal Arch and the United Slavonian Society. Politically he is a progressive. He owns a handsome home at Twentieth and Webster streets and socially both Mr. and Mrs. Katich are popular and noted for their hospitality.
H. A. MAKINSON, M. D.
Dr. H. A. Makinson is a prominent and successful representa- tive of the medical fraternity in Oakland and enjoys an enviable reputation among his professional brethren here. He was born in Ohio in 1873 and acquired his early education in the graded and high schools, while subsequently he pursued a course in Latin and English at the Salina Normal University of Salina, Kansas, gradu- ating from that institution in 1897. He then followed the profession of teaching at Smith Center, Kansas, for a period of four years. Having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he entered the College of Medicine of the University of Minnesota and in 1903 won his degree. He came to California the same year and for two years practiced his profession in Sonoma county, while in 1905 he opened an office in Oakland, Alameda county. For a period of five years he taught hygiene and public health in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at San Francisco. He is now engaged in
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the general practice of his profession at Oakland and is accorded an extensive and lucrative patronage in recognition of his skill and ability in the line of his chosen vocation.
As a companion and helpmate on the journey of life Dr. Makin- son chose Miss Grace M. Cassidy. His fraternal relations are with the Woodmen of the World, the Knights of Pythias and the Masons, and he acts as examining physician for the local lodges of these organizations. He is well known throughout the city and has won an enviable reputation in both professional and social circles.
CHARLES W. SHAW.
Charles W. Shaw is secretary of the Alameda County Milk Dealers Association, a business organization which has been of im- mense value to the county in many ways, improving sanitary condi- tions and promptness in the delivery of milk and securing reduction in prices.
Mr. Shaw is a native of New Gloucester, Cumberland county, Maine. His youthful days were passed in the Pine Tree state, and in the acquirement of his education he passed through various grades to the high school, from which he was graduated at the age of seven- teen years. He then took a practical course in cotton manufacturing and when nineteen years of age was given charge of a department with one hundred and fifty men under his supervision. He con- tinued in that position of responsibility until he reached the age of twenty-five, after which he traveled through the southern states with a gang of men, installing machinery in cotton mills for two years. He then returned to Lewiston, Maine, where he continued for a year, after which he came to Oakland and engaged with the Hook Brothers Furniture House as salesman for eight years. Since that time he has conducted a dairy business which is one of the extensive and important enterprises of the kind in the city. In 1908 he became secretary of the Alameda County Milk Dealers Association, which was organized about 1903 for the purpose of bettering milk condi- tions in Alameda, Oakland and Berkeley, some of the objects of the association being to prevent an advance in prices, the improve- ment of the quality of milk and the methods of its handling. This association now handles about ninety-five per cent of the milk sold in the three cities, and the fact that it controls this product is a guar- antee that the milk is handled in a sanitary manner.
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Mr. Shaw is president of the Business League of Alameda county and is regarded as one of the most enterprising citizens of the county, looking at all times to the betterment of trade conditions and the substantial growth of his part of the state. In politics he is not guided by party rule but votes independently. His religious belief is that of the Spiritual Society. Fraternally he is connected with the Moose, and he is secretary of the Oakland Stadium Club. The width of the continent separates him from his birthplace. Attracted by the opportunities of the west, he has here advanced and is now numbered among the successful men of Oakland as the result of his enterprise, keen discernment and unabating industry.
L. N. COBBLEDICK.
Many, indeed, were the warm friends of L. N. Cobbledick. An analyzation of his life work shows that the high regard in which he was held was the logical sequence of a life of activity, integrity and honor. He possessed in large measure a sense of that growing com- munity spirit which is manifest throughout the country and which is but a keener, stronger recognition of the brotherhood of man and the obligations of the individual to his community.
A native of California, Mr. Cobbledick was born in- Oakland, February 15, 1867, his parents being James and Isabelle (Newsom) Cobbledick, the father a native of England and the latter of To- ronto, Ontario. James Cobbledick came to San Francisco about 1849 by way of Cape Horn and was one of the pioneer residents of East Oakland, settling there at a time when there were but two houses within a radius of several miles. He engaged in the whole- sale hardwood business and was also a builder of fancy carriages and stage coaches. In addition he operated or was interested in many of the pioneer stage lines in and around the Bay cities, at a period which long antedated the construction of railroads. In pol- itics he was a strong republican, and was a factor among the polit- ical leaders of the embryo town. Fraternally a Mason, he became a charter member of Brooklyn Lodge, and in his life exemplified the principles and beneficent spirit of the craft. He was also a charter member of the Mountain View Cemetery Association. His religious faith was evidenced in his membership in the Seventh Avenue Methodist church, in the work of which he took a very active and prominent part, as did his wife, who was a recognized
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leader not only in church circles but also in the social life of the community. They were the parents of eleven children. The death of James Cobbledick occurred in 1904, when he had reached the age of seventy-six years, while his wife survived him until August, 1912.
L. N. Cobbledick, having attended the Franklin grammar school, continued his education in the Oakland high school, and with his entrance into business circles became connected with the Whittier-Fuller Company, with whom he remained until twenty- three years of age as a most trusted employe. On the ist of March, 1890, after nine years' experience in the paint and glass business, he embarked in business on his own account, opening his first store at No. 358 Twelfth street, Oakland. In this general business of paints, oils, glass, wall paper, etc., he continued until 1906, in which year he closed out all departments save the glass. He then enlarged his activities in that line and after that confined his attention solely to handling glass and mirrors. The business is now conducted under the name of the Cobbledick-Kibbe Glass Company and is one of the leading concerns of its kind in Oakland, while the mirror silver- ing plant is one of the largest on the coast. The company also has a department given to the exclusive manufacture of leaded art glass and the trade along this line is also extensive and gratifying. MIr. Cobbledick was president of the company, which until his death was known as the L. N. Cobbledick Glass Company. His keen busi- ness discernment and unfaltering energy proved the salient features in the attainment of substantial success, and his plans and methods constituted the foundation upon which later prosperity has been builded.
In his political views Mr. Cobbledick was a republican and from early manhood took an active part in politics and in civic affairs. He was an officer in the Clinton Improvement Club, which organization did much toward improving and modernizing East Oakland. The vast amount of effective work which he did in that connection attracted the attention of Mayor Mott and the people of his community, and he was induced to become a candidate for the city council in ward 7. He won by a large majority and served throughout the life of Oakland's last city council. When the new form of government was established he was appointed a member of the civil service board for a term of two years. At the close of that period, in July, 1913, he was reappointed for a term of six years. Throughout the period of his active connection with civic affairs he maintained a remarkably helpful attitude toward movements for
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the public benefit, and the drastic measures which he introduced and carried forward will ever be remembered. Very soon after his elec- tion to the council and even before this time he labored incessantly and untiringly to have the marsh between Eighth street and Lake Merritt filled in. He also labored just as earnestly for the abolish- ment of the old wooden bridge on Eighth street and the reopening of that street as a thoroughfare. Although he was strongly opposed in many measures, his work was ultimately successful and its value has been proven by time. He was one of the prime movers in for- warding the plan of building the immense auditorium on that newly built site to fill the long-felt want of Oakland for such a building.
This by no means comprised the extent of the activities of Mr. Cobbledick in behalf of all that pertained to the welfare, progress, upbuilding and improvement of his city and state. He conceived the idea and secured the passage of laws doing away with slot machines and with closed boxes in saloons and cafes. He was also interested in the measure providing.for a board of censorship for all films to be shown in the moving picture houses. One of his hardest fights was forcing the equipment of proper fenders on street cars. He was ever constantly on the alert for ways in which the public might be benefited and municipal progress advanced. He readily recognized a public need and sought at once to meet the need by the adoption of such measures or actions as would accomplish the purpose. Never tiring in his efforts to advance the public welfare, Mr. Cobbledick again and again gave his services where the inter- ests of the community were at stake. He was one of the committee selected to investigate the rates of the Peoples Water Company and report upon the same. On the expiration of the franchise of the Southern Pacific Railway for their right of way on Seventh street he was the leader of the opposition, taking the stand that it should not be renewed for fifty years and almost without compensation, but that such a lease should not be given for more than twenty-five years. He was successful in this to quite a degree, for finally the concession was made for thirty-five years, and the company also pays the city a handsome rental, as well as keeping the street in good repair and the maintenance of the lighting system along that thoroughfare. While a member of the city council Mr. Cobbledick represented his ward in most admirable and commendable manner, and although it was the largest ward in the city, he overlooked no point that would help to improve or beautify it. One phase of his work not to be forgotten was his successful effort in securing the building of Hop- kins boulevard from Lake Merritt to Foothill boulevard, which
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furnishes Oakland with a perfect thoroughfare from the heart of the city into the beautiful valleys that lie to the southward of the Bay cities.
Another notable line of Mr. Cobbledick's activity arose from his great interest in poultry. For many years he kept a prize flock of Barred Plymouth Rocks and other pure bred fowl. He was an exhibitor at the Buffalo and St. Louis expositions and many shows of less fame, and on all occasions carried away the highest prizes awarded to poultry. He was also to have been an exhibitor and official of the poultry division at the Panama-Pacific exposition, but death frustrated this plan.
On the 20th of February, 1890, Mr. Cobbledick was married to Miss Florence White, a daughter of Wilson and Elizabeth (Raw- lings) White, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of Ho- bart, Tasmania. Mr. White went from his native country to Aus- tralia as a young man and there, following sheep-raising and mining, acquired a large fortune. He owned a large estate and palatial home, known as Eurella, at Launceston, Tasmania. Thirty-five years ago he went to San Francisco, and not long afterward came to Oakland, where he established the California Jute Mill Com- pany, which enterprise he successfully conducted for many years, becoming known throughout the coast region as the "Bag King." He died about 1889 and his wife passed away in 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Cobbledick had two sons. Lloyd N. was graduated from the Oakland high school with the class of January, 1914. He was pres- ident of the student body of the high school and is now a director in the Cobbledick-Kibbe Glass Company. The younger son, Wilson R., is in the branch office of the glass company which is maintained in San Francisco.
The military record of L. N. Cobbledick was a long one for a man of his years and notable in that during his fifteen years of mem- bership in the California National Guard he won many medals for United States army shooting. He was the organizer and captain of the Boys' Brigade of the Eighth Avenue Methodist Episcopal church and also established the Cadet Corps of the First Congre- gational church, of which he was captain for many years. He was a member of the First Congregational church and of its Men's League. His death occurred February 18, 1914, after a serious operation. He was confined by this for about six weeks and it was believed that he would recover, so that the news of his demise came as a great shock to his many friends and business associates. The funeral was held in the Scottish Rite Cathedral, under the auspices
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of the Scottish Rite bodies. The pallbearers included Mayor Mott and others of his lifelong friends. Mr. Cobbledick belonged to Rose Croix and Brooklyn Lodges, F. & A. M., to the branches of the Scot- tish Rite and to Aahmes Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He was a past president of Oakland Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West and belonged to the Woodmen of the World and the Oakland Commercial Club. The nature, breadth and variety of his interests showed him to be one of the most forceful and valued citizens of Oakland. Through his important business interests he contributed to its material development and, prompted by his patriotic spirit, he largely promoted the public welfare. His record is that of a man faultless in honor, fearless in conduct and stainless in repu- tation.
MAY H. SAMPSON, M. D.
Dr. May H. Sampson, since 1907 in active and successful practice of medicine in Berkeley, is a native Californian, born in Mendocino county. Her father, Eugene Sampson, was born in Maine and fol- lowed a seafaring life for many years, coming in the bark Olive Jane around the Horn to California in pioneer times. The mother was also a native of Maine and a pioneer in California, having crossed the Isthmus and come to this state at a very early date.
Dr. Sampson was reared in Mendocino county and acquired her preliminary education in the public schools. She afterwards en- gaged in teaching there until 1895 when she came to Berkeley, where she followed the same occupation in the schools of this city. Later she took up the study of medicine, a profession which had always attracted her, entering Cooper Medical College, from which she was graduated, M. D. in 1966. In order to supplement her knowl- edge by practical experience she served one year as interne in the Children's Hospital in San Francisco, and then began the active practice of her profession, coming to Berkeley, where she has since resided. In recognition of her knowledge of medicine and her skill and ability in the application of it she has been accorded a liberal and representative patronage and has gained a high place among the leading physicians in the city where she makes her home. She keeps in touch with the most advanced professional thought through her membership in the state and county medical societies and has remained always a close and earnest student of the medical science,
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