USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume II > Part 21
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Mr. Potter was born in Woolwich, Maine, August 20, 1868, and is a son of John B. and Julia S. Potter. After attending the public and high schools until fifteen years of age, Mr. Potter of this review went to sea and in the latter part of the year 1891 sailed for San Francisco around the Horn on the ship Susquehanna. He arrived in the harbor of the Golden Gate in 1892 and subsequently removed to Oakland, where his first position was that of a bus driver for J. Bartlett, who operated a bus line from Twenty-third avenue to the narrow gauge railway at Alameda avenue and Park street in Ala- meda. He held that position until 1893, when he entered the employ of the Alameda, Oakland & Piedmont Electric Railway, with whom he continued as motorman until 1898. In that year he was made receiver and cashier of the company and later became inspector of the Alameda division. His next rise made him division superintendent. During this period the company changed hands several times and by consolidation became the San Francisco-Oakland Terminal
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Railway. Mr. Potter is one of the most efficient officials of his company, standing high in the estimation of the officers and directors of the road and also with the general public. He has succeeded by the sheer force of his ability, his straightforwardness and his close application to all matters intrusted to his care.
In May, 1899, Mr. Potter married, in Alameda, Miss Eleanor N. Nebeker, and they have two children: Dorothy, aged thirteen, who, after graduating from the public schools, is now attending high school; and Donald James, aged ten, attending public school. Politically Mr. Potter is a republican, but he has never been active in political matters, although he discharges his duties as a citizen faithfully. He is deeply interested in the progress of his city and ever ready to give valuable help to worthy enterprises of a public nature. Fraternally he stands high in the Masons, having reached the Royal Arch degree, and is also connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Elks. Mr. Potter enjoys in full the confidence of all who know him and socially is popular. In his important position he renders valuable service to his company and the city of Oakland.
IRVING C. LEWIS.
Irving C. Lewis, vice president of the Grayson-Owens Company, is one of the strong and resourceful business men of Oakland, ready to meet any emergency, discriminating easily between the essential and the non-essential and making use of all those forces and situations which are most conducive to the results desired. Many important business enterprises of Oakland have profited by his cooperation and sound judgment, and the city numbers him among its representative business men.
Mr. Lewis was born in Medford, Dodge county, Minnesota, Sep- tember 22, 1862, a son of Dr. William Frisbie and Albertina (Cowhan) Lewis. It is interesting to note that the Lewis family can be traced to the very ancestor who emigrated to America. It was a Thomas Lewis who at the time of Cromwell's entrance into Ireland, 1650, came to New Amsterdam from Belfast and thereby established the family in the new land. Thomas Lewis was born in Belfast in 1628 and landed in New Amsterdam in March, 1650, and in that city became engaged in shipping and merchandising. In conjunc- tion with Frederick Philipse and Thomas Delaval he purchased the
IRVING C. LEWIS AND SON
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territory which became known as the Manor of Philipseburg, now the city of Yonkers, stretching sixteen miles along the Hudson river. This property remained in the family until after Mr. Lewis' death, which occurred in his home on the northeast corner of Han- over Square and Williams street, New York city, in 1686, his widow a year later selling out these interests.
His wife was formerly Geesje Barent, a native of Holland, who made her home in Beverwyck, now Albany, New York. Of their family a son, Leonard, who is the second in direct line of the family to reside in this country, was born August 3, 1667, and rose to prominence in New York city, serving in various public capacities, among them being that of the first treasurer of Dutchess county ; first representative to the colonial assembly; and the first judge of Dutchess county. He was associated with Johannes Hardenburgh in the purchase of the great patent of land in Ulster county, New York, where he made his home for sometime, the period of his residence extending from 1696 to 1700 at least, and perhaps longer. He was a man of much ability and of strong, upright character, winning and holding the esteem and confidence of all who knew him.
On December 23, 1772, by order of the New York legislature, he was awarded nine ounces and fifteen pennyweights of silver for his services at Albany in an expedition against the French in the Mohawk country.
He married Elizabeth Hardenburgh, the daughter of Gerrit J. Hardenburgh and his wife, formerly Jalpje Schepmore, both natives of Holland.
A son of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, Geradus, who also comes in the direct line of descent, was born January 2, 1698, and became allied through marriage with one of the oldest and most prominent families of the eastern states, his wife being in maidenhood Rachel Kip. Of their family a son, Gradus Lewis, married Angelica Gonsallus, of Spanish descent. A son of Gradus Lewis, John by name, married Ann Eliza Frisbie, a daughter of Dr. William and Elizabeth (Davidson) Frisbie, of Vermont. John Lewis graduated from Albany Medical College with the degree of M. D., after which he practiced in Clyde, Wayne county, New York, until his death at the early age of thirty-eight years. His wife, surviving him, married William D. Wylie. Her death occurred in Walworth, New York. By her first marriage she had two children, a son, William Frisbie Lewis, and a daughter who died at an early age.
Born October 3, 1829, in Clyde, Wayne county, New York, William Frisbie Lewis was reared to young manhood in that town Vol. HI 14
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and Phelps, receiving his preliminary education through attendance at the Phelps Academy, from which he was graduated. Deciding to take up the profession of his father, he spent the first two years in this study at Rush Medical College, Chicago, his third year being passed in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city. From this latter institution he was graduated in 1854 with the degree of M. D. and practiced for a time in New York city. Following this he visited the hospitals of Europe, where he went to Edinburgh, Scotland, and attended a course of lectures. In 1856 he located in Mankato, Minnesota, practicing medicine only a short time until he became interested in the land and banking business of that city. He was one of the first bankers of Mankato, his business being conducted for many years under the firm name of Lewis & Shaubut. On account of impaired health, he was finally forced to give up his many business interests. While a resident of that locality, in 1857, he was appointed captain of a company of forty men who went to quell the Indians that had taken part in the Spirit Lake Massacre. Their principal battle was fought near Mankato.
He left the impress of his individuality upon public thought and action, having aided largely in shaping public affairs. Seeking recuperation, Dr. Lewis came to California in 1887, since which time he has virtually retired from the cares of active life. The greater part of his time is spent in traveling, having been abroad four times, once around the world, and all through India, Asia Minor and Egypt, as well as in nearly every state in the Union. Interested in the state of his adoption he has purchased two fruit ranches in Tulare county.
In Vienna, Walworth county, Wisconsin, June 15, 1857, Dr. Lewis was united in marriage with Miss Albertina Cowhan, a native of New York city. To the Doctor and his wife were born the fol- lowing children: Irving C., the subject of this review; John Mell- gren, a prominent attorney of San Francisco, and Louise Bertina, the wife of S. E. Grove of Oakland. Dr. Lewis is a Royal Arch Mason and politically adheres to the principles advocated in the platform of the republican party. Mrs. Lewis is a member of the Presbyterian church. They reside at beautiful Palo Alto and on June 15, 1914. they celebrated the fifty-seventh anniversary of their wedding when then entertained many of their dearest friends and relatives.
In the pursuit of his education Irving C. Lewis passed through consecutive grades in the public and high schools of Mankato until he reached the age of seventeen years, when he went to Minneapolis and entered the employ of N. B. Harwood & Company, wholesale
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dry-goods merchants, with whom he remained for about a year. He then went to Iowa and became a partner in the firm of Abbee & Lewis in the conduct of a general mercantile establishment. Soon afterward, however, he disposed of his interests there and removed to Austin, Texas, where he entered the shoe trade as senior partner in the firm of Lewis & Peacock. This relation was maintained until 1885, when Mr. Lewis disposed of his interests in the south and removed to Denver, Colorado. There he began dealing in real estate and afterward re-entered the commercial field, but a little later came to California, where in 1887 he aided in incorporating the Market Street Bank of San Francisco, of which his father was president, while he became cashier. After disposing of his banking interests he became a member of the Healdsburg & Sonoma Commis- sion Company, engaged in the commission business, but his connec- tion therewith was brief, and he joined the Grayson-Owens Company, of Oakland, becoming vice president on its incorporation. In this connection he has since remained and the success of the undertak- ing is attributable in large measure to his efforts. Another business enterprise which profits by his cooperation, sound judgment and stimulus is the California Ice Company, of Oakland, of which he is the president. This company not only engages in the manufacture of ice, but conducts a cold storage plant, being the largest of the kind in Alameda county. Mr. Lewis has also made extensive investments in real estate and in connection with his father and brother has large holdings in Oakland and this part of California. To carry on their real-estate business the William Frisbie Lewis Company was organized, with Irving C. Lewis as vice president and the active manager of the business. In association with his brother he erected the fine three-story building, seventy-five by one hundred feet, at the corner of Ninth and Franklin streets in Oakland, and thus materially added to the improvement of that section. Whatever he undertakes is carried forward to successful completion and in his vocabulary there is no such word as fail.
In December, 1890, occurred the marriage of Mr. Lewis and Miss Clara Eliza Phillips, daughter of J. W. Phillips, president of the Grayson-Owens Company, of Oakland. Following their mar- riage they entered upon a tour around the world, spending eight months in visiting many points of historic, ancient and modern, inter- est, Mr. Lewis' father giving them this trip as a wedding present. To them was born one son, Phillip Frisbie Lewis, now a successful young artist of Oakland. The wife and mother passed away April 1, 1907.
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Mr. Lewis is well known in club circles, holding membership with the Athenian, the Home and the Claremont Country Clubs, and also with the Oakland Commercial Club. He is a loyal member of Brooklyn Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and of the First Presbyterian church. His political views are in accord with the principles of the republican party, but he has never sought nor desired office, pre- ferring to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs, which are of growing importance, constituting him a leading representative of the commercial and financial interests of Oakland.
ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, OAKLAND.
Under date of July 9th, 1863, the Most Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany, D. D., O. P. (1814-1888), Archbishop of Upper Cali- fornia, made entry in his diary: "I blessed the chapel of the College of St. Mary beyond the Mission Dolores." Simply that and nothing more. But it was significant; it marked an epoch in the history of Catholic education in the west.
San Francisco was growing fast; its El Dorado fascination had not yet waned. A sprinkling of the population had the faith and its children were maturing with few men to break the word to them. To develop a native priesthood, the saintly Bishop had established St. Thomas Seminary at the old Mission Dolores, placing it in charge of Monsignor J. Prendergast, the present Vicar General of the Arch- diocese. To preserve and cultivate the old faith he founded St. Mary's College on the Mission Road to San Jose, about three miles west of the seminary. On the scroll that went into the cornerstone was written : "# Joseph Alemany, Archbishop of California, laid the cornerstone of this college under the title of St. Mary, for the instruction of the youth of California, not in literature only but what is greater, in true Christian knowledge."
The founding of St. Mary's College was a gigantic undertaking in those days and the event is enshrined in names that will forever adorn the history of the Catholic church on the Pacific coast. Some of these names are Patrick Manogue ( 1831-1895), subsequently Bishop of Sacramento, who took a handful of clay from the proposed site and carried it to town for chemical analysis (it proved fit and the brick that went into the beautiful Gothic pile was manufactured on the ground) ; James Croke, V. G. (1829-1889), a brother of the Archbishop of Cashel, Ireland, who collecting thirty-three thousand
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dollars among the miners of California is immortalized in the above mentioned scroll with these words: "It has been erected by the offer- ings of the miners and the faithful of California, through the exer- tions of Rev. James Croke, V. G .; " William Gleason, M. A. ( 1827- 1903), author of "Trials of the Church" ( 1880), and "History of the Catholic Church in California" (1872), and Richard Brennan (1835-1905), Chancellor of the Archdiocese, both of whom professed the ancient classics in the institution; and Patrick J. Gray ( 1822- 1907), its first president.
The site comprised sixty acres of the Salinas Y Viejo Potrero Ranch and was purchased for fourteen hundred dollars. The fact lends a tinge of romanticism to the establishment. Though exposed to the wind and fog of the Pacific ocean the site was long known as University Mound and lay on the western slope of Bernal Heights, named after the original grantees. The name and a few city lots near Mission Dolores is all that is left of that generous Spanish Grant. The Bernals have deserved to fare better. They were liberal bene- factors to Archbishop Alemany; the boys received their early educa- tion at St. Mary's College; but time and "squatters" have dealt hard with their descendants. The old college building too has disap- peared, having been sold and razed in 1910.
The beginnings of St. Mary's were quite modest. Five lay pro- fessors and two priests composed the faculty. They were assisted by pupil-teachers-men who attended class sessions three-fourths of the time and taught the other fourth. The curriculum embraced the three R's, English, grammar and rhetoric, mathematics to quad- ratics, Euclid's geometry, logic and philosophy, modern languages, music, physical culture, and a rather extensive course in classics and religion. Students flocked to it from all quarters. The first year registered four hundred and seventeen, but hard times succeeded the season of prosperity. Father Grey was an earnest and stern man of the old school. He worked hard and zealously but the proverbial Californian writhed under restraint. Though the opportunity was offered him to get an education at one hundred and seventy-five dollars a year he began to shun St. Mary's and the registration in 1868 ยท fell to less than one-fourth the initial number.
Archbishop Alemany felt keenly the diminution in numbers and finances. When one of the professors in 1864 asked about his salary for the ensuing year his Grace wrote in reply: "I regret very much to have to state-that I must back out from the engagement made with you. Poor old St. Mary's has lost too much these last two years *
** If you continue acting as professor-it will have
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to be at what Father Grey can afford, which may be a fraction less than what he generally gave last year." Father Croke, who was absorbed in the success of the college, wrote to the same professor in a similar but more hopeful strain, from Mission San Jose, where he was confined with a fractured knee: "From what I heard of the last examination I think we have reason to be proud of St. Mary's as a literary establishment. Its advantages to the public are not duly appreciated, but time will effect a change. Then I hope St. Mary's can afford to be generous toward those who labor with zeal and profit in the noble cause of education. Meanwhile they must be satis- fied with a moderate supply of United States coin and plenty of prayers."
From the inception of the institution it was the Archbishop's inten- tion to have it conducted by Brothers. In December, 1863, he wrote to Archbishop Spaulding at Baltimore and to the Bishop of Bruges, Belgium, asking if they could provide him Brothers. During the same year he visited Montreal, New York and Paris in an effort to secure them. In 1867 Cardinal Bornabo wrote to the Superior of the Salesians at Bruges, and of the Christian Brothers at Dublin, Ireland, inquiring if they could supply subjects to the Archbishop of San Francisco to take charge of a boarding college. In 1868 the untiring Alemany again visited Montreal, New York and Paris, but in vain. As a court of last resource he applied to Rome. The Holy Father, Pius IX, immediately ordered Brother Phillipe ( 1806-1874), Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools at Paris, to give Archbishop Alemany enough Brothers to open a boarding college. On the evening of August 10, 1868, eight Brothers under the direction of Brother Justin ( 1834-1912) landed in San Fran- cisco. On the following day they dined with his Grace and in the afternoon rode in carriages out the Mission Road to the college, where they were installed without ceremony.
The building was amply large for two hundred students though but thirty-four greeted the new tutors. Brother Justin with charac- teristic energy immediately sent broadcast the first prospectus of St. Mary's, a quarto-sheet, and his Grace sent urgent letters to all the priests of the archdiocese asking them to encourage Catholic parents to send their children to the college for a Christian education. The result was beyond expectations. The register swelled to three hundred and twenty-seven names the first year, though the tuition had been advanced to two hundred and fifty dollars. In 1872 the institu- tion was incorporated. That year was graduated the first Bachelor in Arts and Letters, J. Alpheus Graves, and since that year three hundred
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and twenty-five men have received their degrees from St. Mary's be- sides five hundred and seventeen who have been awarded diplomas in accounting by the commercial department. A record for collegiate work on the Pacific coast.
Fulfilling admirably the fondest hopes of Archbishop Alemany, his Grace felt most kindly towards St. Mary's. He honored it on many occasions with his presence and was proud to make it an objec- tive point for all his distinguished visitors. Several times was he the recipient of words of respect and devotion from the students of the college. The bond of union that naturally grew between the clergy and the Brothers has been strengthened with time, and his present Grace, Most Rev. P. W. Riordan, D. D., has fostered it with untiring vigilance. He it was who annually administered the Sacrament of Confirmation in St. Mary's since 1884, who dedicated and rededi- cated the building in Oakland in 1889 and 1895, and who opened the first course of lectures in the new institution with "Books and How to Use Them," October, 1889. Other members of his clergy who also lectured in the course were the late Most Rev. George Mont- gomery, D. D., Rev. Thomas McSweeney, and Rev. Joseph Sasia, S. J.
Brother Justin was succeeded in 1879 by Brother Bettelin, who in 1889 transferred St. Mary's to Oakland, where a massive building had been erected at a cost of three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Owing to the duties devolving on him through the provin- cialship of California, Brother Bettelin placed the guidance of the college under one of his subordinates, called director. This title was maintained until 1900 when the director became president of the college and the provincial, president of the board of trustees.
The Brothers early realized that they were not organized to make money and St. Mary's has been no exception. The debt that hung over it on August 11, 1889, has never been raised; in fact it has grown with age. In 1894 the building was burned and the walls of the old college in San Francisco once again resounded with teachers and pupils in battle array. Eighteen months passed before the Oak- land building was reoccupied. The earthquake of 1906 again enhanced the debt when fifty thousand dollars were expended in repairs and in the enlargement of accommodations. Then during the active prefectship of Brother Joseph, thirty thousand was spent in the erection of a completely equipped gymnasium, a swimming tank, and the construction of a regulation stadium. Withal the equipment of the institution has steadily improved. Assaying, chemical and physical laboratories were added in 1900-1903, a pre-medical course
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introduced in 1910, while the first graduates in civil engineering had been given their sheepskins in 1905.
St. Mary's College upholds the old system of non-electives. The courses are prescribed and students must fall in line. Some time ago it was considered antiquarian, but universities have reverted lately to it as the savior of their standards of scholarship. Even in the matter of religion all students must follow the religious exercises of Holy Mother Church, and listen to the exposition of Catholic doctrine though non-Catholics are dispensed from recitation. The result is that St. Mary's has fitted men for this world while it trained them for another. The thirst for knowledge acts for and by itself and makes its own way; but the art of living must be learned by instruc- tion and developed by regular systematic practice. As evidence of this idea in education, St. Mary's already numbers amongst its grad- uates, twenty-eight priests, thirty-three doctors, fifty-seven lawyers, and twelve judges. Further, as orators, its men are called into requi- sition on all occasions and never does a St. Patrick's Day or a Fourth of July pass without the alumni of the college upholding the tradi- tion emanating from the great Brother Justin. The standard of a nation's greatness is set by the number of its great men; may not the criterion apply to institutions as well? It is substantiated in the Catholic church, and like wheels within a wheel it is lived in the institutions which she fosters.
St. Mary's great work on the Pacific coast will stand. It will also grow because its ideal is set down in the scroll that went into the head of the corner. On subserviency to this ideal alone does it bank its continuity for good. Men must get a moral, physical and intel- lectual education, to attain the right standard of true citizenship. The influence of such men on the body politic is known to God alone. Communicative, it enlarges in an ever increasing circle.
FREDERICK KAHN.
In all the Bay cities no firm is more conspicuous for progress and fair dealing, nor has done more for the beautification of the city, and for the development of the commercial interests of Oakland, than has the house of Kahn whose recognized leader and president is the subject of this review.
His father, Israel Kahn, a native of Germany, arrived in New York in the year 1849, where he lived until 1877. In the latter year,
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taking with him his wife and nine children, he migrated to Cali- fornia. Israel Kahn was not a wealthy man; on the contrary his means were extremely limited but he was possessed of those fine quali- ties, energy, thrift and conservative progressiveness. He was quick to sense a business opportunity and to take advantage of it but in connection therewith he always manifested precaution not to overstep the needs of the present so far that it would place an element of risk in his path. Mr. Kahn's entry into business upon his own resources was in small quarters at 908 Market street, San Francisco, the same year that he arrived on this coast. He was not there long, however, until he became acquainted with conditions and began to look into the more distant future. It was then, by most careful study of the situation, that he became convinced that the continental side of the Bay would soon gain the foothold, growth and prestige to which, as the logical terminus for all overland transportation, it was entitled.
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