USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume II > Part 31
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WALTER EMERSON DENNISON.
During a residence of thirty-four years in California Walter Emerson Dennison has closely identified himself with many repre- sentative business interests in different sections of the state and his successful career has had an important effect upon the later advance- ment of the commonwealth. The projects with which his name has been associated have all been progressive and useful ones, varied in kind and in purpose but all alike in this, that their successful com- pletion has constituted an element in the general growth and develop- ment. As president and managing director of the Steiger Terra Cotta & Pottery Works he today holds an enviable position in busi- ness circles of San Francisco, where his name has come to be regarded as a synonym for business integrity and enterprise and for progressive citizenship.
Mr. Dennison was born near Kankakee, Illinois, August 17, 1856, and is a son of Walter Horace and Nancy Jane ( Ransom) Dennison, both natives of Indiana. The family is of old New England origin, the paternal grandfather, Timothy Dennison, having been born in Freeport, Maine, and having in 1818 emigrated to Indiana, where he settled in Ripley county. Mr. Dennison's mother is a daughter of Stillman and Eleanor Cole ( Parsons) Ransom, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of Maryland.
In the acquirement of an education Walter E. Dennison attended public school in his native community and later entered the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, graduating from that insti- tution in 1877 after completing the full classical course. Almost immediately afterward he turned his attention to teaching in the high school of Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and after one year was made
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superintendent of schools in that city. He resigned this office at the end of twelve months in order to enter the Cincinnati Law School, but he did not pursue the study of this profession, abandoning it in 1880, when he came to California, settling in Los Angeles, where he opened an agency for the Continental Oil & Transportation Com- pany. After one year he was transferred to Stockton and in recogni- tion of his former able and competent work was given charge of the Stockton and Sacramento agencies, winning advancement in 1882 to the position of general superintendent of all agencies, with head- quarters at San Francisco. Being a man of initiative, enterprise and constructive ability, he proved eminently well qualified for this diffi- cult and responsible position which he held until 1884, when he resigned, accepting the appointment of guardian of the Yosemite valley for the state of California. This position he resigned in 1887 to take charge of the Southern California agency for the Electric Development Company at Los Angeles, but in 1888 he severed this connection, turning his attention to mining, in which he engaged successfully until 1891. In that year he came again to San Fran- cisco and aided in the organization of the City Street Improvement Company, occupying the position of secretary until 1902, when he resigned this office, but remained as a director of the concern until the fall of 1912. While actively connected with the management of the City Street Improvement Company he took personal charge of the construction of the Humboldt Bay Jetty system, for which the national government appropriated one million, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This work covered the period between 1894 and 1899 and was very successful both from a financial and an en- gineering standpoint. In 1898 the Steiger Terra Cotta & Pottery Works were founded in San Francisco, and Mr. Dennison was made president and managing director. These positions he is now capably filling, evidencing in his discharge of the innumerable duties which fall to his lot as president of a great corporation an initiative spirit, a reorganizing power and a well-timed aggressiveness which have enabled him to make the business expand and grow until it is today one of the largest and best managed of its kind in the city.
Mr. Dennison married Miss Isabella Baxter Richardson, a daugh- ter of Israel J. and Estelle T. (Pettibone) Richardson, natives of Delaware, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Dennison have become the parents of four children: Isabel, aged thirty-one; Leonidas, twenty-nine; Margaret, twenty-one; and Walter Emerson, Jr., eighteen.
Mr. Dennison is well and prominently known in club circles of San Francisco, holding membership in the Pacific Union, the
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Bohemian and the Commercial clubs, in Beta Theta Pi and in the Sons of the American Revolution. He is in addition a member of the Merchants Exchange Club and the Commonwealth Club, and in the spring of 1907 was appointed a member of the board of state harbor commissioners, winning his reapointment in 1909. Along lines of his business he is second vice president of the National Terra Cotta Society. No progressive public movement, no project insti- tuted for the benefit or welfare of the city lacks his cooperation and hearty support, his influence being always on the side of right, reform and progress. He uses the wealth which he has acquired by his own efforts in a capable and consicentious manner, not only support- ing public institutions, but also giving a great deal to private charity, his hand being always outstetched to help the needy and affiicted. His friends in San Francisco are numerous and come from all ranks of life, the poor and lowly, who know his charity, esteeming him even more highly than his business associates, who respect his integ- rity and honor.
CARL H. ABBOTT.
Carl H. Abbott, one of the leading attorneys in Alameda county, prominently connected with important legal interests as a member of the firm of Fitzgerald, Abbott & Beardsley, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 4, 1867, a son of Granville Sharp and Susan (Davis) Abbott. The family moved to California in 1877 and set- tled in Oakland, where Carl H. Abbott attended school, graduating from Oakland high school. He later enrolled in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and received his degree of B. A. from that institution in 1888. Following this he became a student in the Hast- ings College of the Law, from which he was graduated in 1891, with the degree of LL. B. In the same year he was admitted to the bar of California and began the practice of his profession in Oakland. Four years later he entered into partnership with R. M. Fitzgerald under the name of Fitzgerald & Abbott and later moved to San Francisco, becoming a partner in the firm of Campbell, Fitzgerald, Abbott & Fowler. This association was dissolved in October, 1905, and Mr. Fitzgerald again became a partner of Mr. Abbott, the second firm of Fitzgerald & Abbott being organized in October, 1905. They practiced in San Francisco until April, 1906, and then moved their business to Oakland, where in 1913 they admitted
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Charles A. Beardsley into partnership, the firm being now Fitz- gerald, Abbott & Beardsley. It is considered one of the strong and important law firms of the city, connected through an extensive and representative patronage with a great deal of important litigation. Mr. Abbott is a powerful and able lawyer, and his professional attainments put him in the front ranks of the legal fraternity in this part of the state. He is a member of the Athenian Club of Oakland and gives his political allegiance to the democratic party.
HORACE AUSTIN JOHNSON.
Horace Austin Johnson, active in the insurance and real-estate field in Berkeley, is thoroughly conversant with the different phases of a business that is bringing him prominently before the public as a successful, enterprising and progressive man. He was born in Fari- bault county, Minnesota, in 1870, a son of Rufus and Coralinn (Wil- liams) Johnson, both of whom were natives of the state of New York, the latter being a direct descendant of Roger Williams, that great apostle of freedom who, that people might have the liberty of worshipping God according to the dictates of their conscience, founded in 1636, a few miles from the Massachusetts line, the town of Providence. "Religious freedom" were the words on the tongue of every man and woman of that day. It was a desire for that which had brought them to this new land and constituted the guiding star of their lives. Roger Williams' idea of freedom, which in that day was without parallel, was the positive separation of the state and church, a principle that is today regarded as the cornerstone in the foundation of our mighty republic. In recognition of the distinctly individual and advanced belief of Roger Williams and his success in establishing a colony where his theory might be put into practice he is accorded a position among the most prominent of those who have shaped the history of the nation.
Following the marriage of Rufus Johnson and Coralinn Wil- liams, which was celebrated in New York, they removed westward in 1857 to Minnesota, where they resided until 1871. In that year they crossed the plains to California and settled in Santa Clara county, where Mr. Johnson engaged in farming. There the family lived for many years. In the later years of his life Mr. Johnson retired and in March, 1896, wishing to be with his children, who were still in the east, he returned to Minnesota, where in the fol-
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lowing summer he passed away. Mrs. Johnson now resides with one of her daughters in Alberta, Canada.
Horace Austin Johnson began his education in the public schools of Santa Clara county, California, but received most of his educational training in Minnesota, his college work being done at Wheaton, Illinois, where he was graduated in 1899, with the degree of B. L. In the year 1899-1900 he took post-graduate work in science at the University of California. It was his purpose to engage in teaching school, but, abandoning that plan, he turned to other activities. Upon completing his studies he entered the real-estate field and, finding it most congenial, he has continued active in this line to the present time, confining his operations largely to handling Berkeley property. He also engages in the fire insurance business, representing the Springfield Fire & Marine Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, the Commercial Union of London and the Maryland Casualty Company.
Society or club life has never found in Mr. Johnson a follower, but uppermost in his heart at all times is the cause of prohibition. From the period when he took up his residence in Berkeley he has been active in the behalf of that movement endeavoring in every possible way to promote and establish prohibition in his city and county. He is treasurer of the northern California executive com- mittee of the prohibition party and in 1908 was a candidate for presi- dential elector on that ticket. He has in many campaigns taken the platform and never hesitates to lend every possible assistance in the war that is constantly being waged against the liquor traffic. At one time he was president ofthe Anti-Saloon League of Berkeley and was one of the committee of six chosen by the reform element to supervise the enforcement of the law when the new plan of city government was inaugurated. Mr. Johnson is a trustee and is secretary of the Baptist Seminary of Berkeley, which is conducted under the auspices of the Baptist Theological Union. He has been a member of the First Baptist church of Berkeley since its organization and is one of its trustees.
In 1904, at Wheaton, Illinois, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Johnson and Miss Helen Kennedy, a daughter of Thomas E. Ken- nedy, who was for many years connected with the departments of education of San Jose and San Francisco, having been interested in those matters until his death, which occurred in 1892. Mrs. Johnson is a native daughter of California. By her marriage she has become the mother of two children, Olive Coralinn and Rufus William. Mrs. Johnson holds membership in the same church as her husband
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and is active therein. In fact, their influence is always on the side of right, progress, truth and reform. They have never been content to choose the second best in anything, but have held to the highest ideals and the loftiest principles in personal conduct, in business and in citizenship.
THOMAS DYKES BEASLEY.
Thomas Dykes Beasley was born at Woodbury, Cambridgeshire, England, June 23, 1850, and was educated at the Grantham grammar school, in Lincolnshire. In 1868, with two sisters, he came to Cali- fornia, crossing the Isthmus of Panama shortly after the completion of the railroad, and arriving in San Francisco just in time to be impressed by the big earthquake whih occurred in the spring of that year, but which he, viewing it as "the custom of the country," accepted as a matter of course.
His first experiences were on a sheep ranch at Jolon, Monterey county, owned by his father, to join whom, he and his sisters had left the old country. His father being anxious to make a lawyer of him, at the end of a year, he came to San Francisco and studied faithfully in a lawyer's office, doing office drudgery the while, for two years, when arriving at the conclusion that the law was the profession for which he was the least suited, he abandoned Blackstone and Kent. After various experiences which included acting as tutor to the three sons of Mr. Edward Taylor of San Mateo, for many years and at the time of his death cashier of the Pacific Mail Company, he took up a timber claim in the heart of the Santa Cruz mountains, situated on the divide between Bear creek and the San Lorenzo river, becom- ing at the same time a citizen of the United States.
Here he lived the life of a backwoodsman for seven or eight years, in a climate unsurpassed the world over for invigorating quali- ties, with the result that a somewhat weak constitution and slender physique, were toughened and rendered fit to cope with life's strug- gles. By the advice of friends he was induced to take a step, since much regretted, of abandoning a life which, but for occasional loneli- ness, he much enjoyed and, returning to San Francisco, became in 1881 a draughtsman in the office of the United States surveyor general. The coming into power of the democrats under Cleveland led to the speedy decapitation of himself with many others in the office. After an interval of a few weeks spent in roaming the coun-
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try afoot he was employed by the Coronado Beach Company, among other things making the plat of the town of Coronado. This work led to making the official map of San Diego county, followed by that of San Bernardino county.
Becoming interested in literary work, in partnership with F. E. A. Kimball he founded in San Diego, and for four years edited a weekly illustrated journal, The Seaport News. The town, however, at this time, just after the collapse of the "boom," was little short of moribund. Greatly to his disappointment he was forced to abandon the enterprise and accepted the editorship of a new evening daily, The Tribune, still in existence. Being unable to accept corporation dictatorship, after a six months' experience, he resigned the editor- ship and though it was twice offered him at intervals of time with the positive assurance he would be given a free hand, he abandoned journalism for good having found by bitter experience the tempta- tions that beset a man who tries to do his duty by the people, his con- science and his employers.
Having by these ventures lost all the money he had accumulated by many years' hard work, he once more became a wanderer, spend- ing a year in the Hawaiian islands just after annexation. While there he made what is now the official map of the island of Oahu. Finding that the languid climate was sapping his strength, he aban- doned excellent opportunities and returned to California, vowing mentally he never again would forsake "God's country."
Gradually he became absorbed in the drama, having written while in San Diego, in collaboration with a friend, a little Chinese tragedy, "The Golden Flower," afterwards successfully produced in Albany, New York, Miss Miriam Nesbit playing the heroine. Some years ago it was produced by the Century Club of San Fran- cisco to a fashionable audience of ladies only, all the parts being played by members of the club. It has also been produced by the Larchmont Club, New York.
About this time, he wrote the libretto of a musical comedy, "The Ahkoond of Swat," for Gerard Barton, a well known composer, at that time organist of St. Stephen's Church, San Francisco, and later an organist of the Episcopal Cathedral, Honolulu, and professor of music at the Oahu College. This musical comedy under Mr. Barton's direction was produced in Honolulu with great success, the parts being taken by the leading society people of that city.
The premature death of Gerard Barton-a cousin by the way, of Fitzgerald, who wrote the beautiful translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam- a year later at Toronto, Canada, was a great blow
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to Mr. Beasley; for apart for his friendship for a man beloved by all who knew him, Mr. Barton was, when carried off by a sudden attack of pneumonia, arranging for a professional production of "The Ahkoond of Swat" at Toronto.
Mr. Beasley had by this time reentered the service of Uncle Sam in his former capacity as a draughtsman in the office of the United States surveyor general, where he is, in fact, today employed. Dur- ing the past ten years he has worked steadily during spare hours on literary subjects, having among other things written two librettos of comic operas, to one of which, the music has been recently writ- ten by a composer of great professional experience. An inherent love of nature and an out-door life led to tramping as his chief form of exercise, amusement and study of human nature. A little volume, "A Tramp Through the Bret Harte Country," recently published by Paul Elder & Company, San Francisco, which is meeting with favor both from the press and the public, was a natural outgrowth of his love for "hiking" and the "hard highway."
Shortly after the big fire Mr. Beasley was married to Miss Mar- garet Isabella McKellar, who was born in New Zealand, but came as a child, with her parents and brothers and sisters, to the United States. Mr. McKellar made his home in New Mexico, going into sheep-raising on a large scale. His surviving sons and daughters still reside in that state. Mr. Beasley's father died in England many years ago. His sisters are living in Berkeley, the elder, now the wife of Charles W. Jackson, has a beautiful home at Claremont Court; with her, his younger sister, Mrs. Dora Amsden, well known as the author of two books on Japanese art, is now residing. His own home is in Alameda, where he had resided for years previous to his marriage. There are also two sisters in England whom he has not seen for nearly half a century, but the fates permitting, he still hopes to at least bid "hail and farewell."
DR. MEADORA AUSTIN-DERR FRITZ.
Dr. Meadora Austin-Derr Fritz, physician, lecturer, author and educator and well known throughout the United States for her suc- cess in the treatment of diseases peculiar to women, is a native of New York state and a daughter of Dr. Benjamin Austin, a prominent physician and surgeon of Rome, New York. In early life she was united in marriage to Dr. A. D. Fritz, of Michigan, and under the
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guidance of her husband studied medicine, afterward practicing with him for some years. During practically her entire life she has been associated with physicians and is herself a competent, able and successful practitioner, as her large and representative clientele plainly shows. Dr. Fritz engaged in professional work in Phila- delphia, Chicago and Boston with steadily increasing popularity and at the time she closed her office in the last named city she had seven hundred and eighty-three people under treatment. Her husband died in 1901 and four years later she left the east and came to Cali- fornia, settling in San Francisco, where for some time she was at the head of a large and lucrative practice. She has made her home in Oakland since May, 1913, and has already become well established in practice, her reputation as a skilled and successful physician hav- ing preceded her. Dr. Fritz has some original theories regarding the cause and treatment of disease-theories which have been splen- didly upheld by the remarkably successful results which have attended her labors. She uses no medicine, curing by purifying mind and body and treating the latter through the medium of the former.
Dr. Fritz is spoken of as a "counsellor to women" and a large proportion of her patients are women. She is an authority on sex hygiene and has studied the subject of marital happiness in its rela- tion to this science. She believes in physical beauty, in body poise and, being a fluent and forceful speaker, promulgates her belief from the platform. She has a large and enthusiastic following in California and her recent lectures in the Scottish Rite Temple in San Francisco were attended by over three thousand women. Dr. Fritz is a well known lecturer and her talks on Sex, its Functions and its Bearing upon Health, Happiness and Longevity, have added greatly to her reputation as a speaker and a thinker. In addition to this she is an author of great power and insight and has published many books of vital interest and significance. Among them may be mentioned "Do Men Understand Women?" "All Motherhood Divine," "Self- hood vs. Success," "Strength in Silence," "Girlhood Ignorance," "The Pirates Who Prey," "The Human Race," "Degenerates, and Why," "Basic Principle of Life," "The Science of Sex," "Self-re- liance," "Hope Without Fear," "Mind and Body Poise," "Mind Serene," "Troublesome Nerves are Monitors," "Obesity, its Develop- ment" and "A New Interpretation of the Birth of Christ and its Mes- sage."
Dr. Fritz is also a composer of merit and ability and has written a number of popular songs, including the campaign song, "Sixteen
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to One," endorsed by the National Democratic Association and used during William Jennings Bryan's first race for the presidency. Among the sentimental songs she has written are some that have become very popular, her latest being "No Sweeter Then, Than Now," which is classed by leading authority as being equal, if not superior, to "Silver Threads Among the Gold," and the orchestra- tion of which is most beautiful.
However, the Doctor gives most of her time to her professional work and to her lectures, these and her large practice leaving her little leisure for outside interests. However, she is vitally interested in woman's sovereignty and she has confidence in her own sex in their ability, integrity and in that greatest of all understanding- mother consciousness. She is also interested in economics and has spoken most forcefully on this subject. Her address upon "National Referendum" has startled the thinking world, and she is an ardent advocate of municipal and governmental ownership. Her religious belief is clearly outlined in the following: "Do not bow thy head. Stand upright in thy glory. Beest thou what thou wilt be. Glory in thy strength. Bow thy head to no man less. divine than spirit and goest thou outward into the all divine." Her religion is also ex- pressed in the following beautiful lines: "Love is the king of the ages ; patience is the throne; fidelity and sympathy united make us one. Through love we help each other in life's near race to win; there is no blood to separate, for we are all one kin." To know Dr. Fritz is to love her; to call her friend is to be enriched.
CHARLES HADLEN.
Charles Hadlen is numbered among the pioneers of West Berke- ley, where since very early times his activities have been a force in progress and his citizenship a valuable municipal asset. He first came to the city in 1868 and since 1875 has been identified with busi- ness interests. He is now proprietor of one of the largest grocery, hay and grain establishments in the city and controls an important and representative patronage.
Mr. Hadlen was born in Hanover, Germany, and came to the United States a poor boy when he was nineteen years of age, making the journey by way of the Panama route. . He settled in San Fran- cisco in 1866, and at the end of two years moved to West Berkeley, finding employment in the old starch works. From 1873 until 1875
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
he mined in Alaska and Montana, but in the latter year returned to West Berkeley, where he engaged in the express business, conducting an express route between Oakland and Berkeley before the days of railroads. Afterward he worked in a planing mill and later became identified with the grocery firm of D. H. Burns & Company, under whom he learned the grocery business. In 1896 he opened an estab- lishment of his own at No. 945 University avenue, and he has since conducted this enterprise, dealing in groceries, hay and grain. He follows always the most practical and progressive business methods and in the conduct of his interests has met with constantly increasing success, being numbered today among the leading merchants of the community.
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