USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume II > Part 46
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From the age of seventeen years he has made a study of the occult and mental sciences. He is unbiased in his investigations and believes and accepts no theory or impressions for which he cannot find actual proof, preferring to explain psychic phenomena by matter- of-fact instead of spiritualistic premises. His object in pursuing these studies is to find the exact and whole truth, without fear or
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prejudice, in regard to the laws of nature governing these sciences and to demonstrate how they may be made of great practical useful- ness to mankind, in detective work, the diagnosis and cure of disease, the treatment of criminals and the insane, avoidance of accidents. etc. By means of his scientific investigations Mr. Still has discov- ered an entirely new, but reliable and accurate, method of long-range weather and earthquake forecasting, having demonstrated the possi- bility of making such entirely accurate forecasts in numerous in- stances, and is now seeking cooperation with capital to put the system into regular operation, it being quite expensive. He has also evolved a method of positively reforming criminals by means of phreno-mag- netism and hypnotic suggestion combined with ordinary methods, the idea being to stimulate and thus gradually enlarge these portions of the brain which tend to uprightness, higher ideals and love and sympathy for one's fellowmen, thus giving them self-control over the evil tendencies which, through heredity, prenatal influence and environment, have become overdeveloped. It is through the old and much-neglected study of phrenology that Mr. Still has made these discoveries, in which he will endeavor to interest the world's penologists and criminologists.
He has also made a scientific study of aeronautics, especially aviation, and has written a number of articles on the improvement of the aeroplane which have been published in such journals as London Aeronautics, New York Aeronautics and the Scientific American. Instead of patenting his discoveries in aviation he has concluded to give them to the world, explaining his ideas as to the safe and effi- cient flying machine of the near future, which he is convinced will be a "combined helicopter and back-stepped multiplane, with upper- surface wind-deflectors, automatically downward-turning hinged sections, right-angle, balance sets of variable-pitch propellers, and sets of very narrow, variable-angle planes just in front of the heli- copter and at each lateral side to the rear," for successfully coping with "air-holes" and accomplishing hovering, slow and vertical flight. He has patents pending on improvements in moving-picture machines and film, reference-book indexes, phonographs, talking pic- tures, two-cycle engines, automatic block-signals, etc.
Mr. Still is also interested in lexicography and has contributed to both the new Webster's and Funk & Wagnalls' dictionaries, furn- ishing, under contract, clippings of some one thousand five hundred new words and phrases, and in the 1913 edition of the latter diction- ary acknowledgment of his services in making suggestions and cor- rections is given in the preface.
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Although now an enthusiastic and successful newspaper man, Mr. Still expects, in a comparatively short time, to devote prac- tically all his time and energy to scientific research and invention. He is an independent republican, reserving the right to support any better-qualified candidate of another party and being always a strong advocate of non-partisanship in county and municipal elec- tions, which has now become a state law. He belongs to the Foresters of America and is well known through fraternal and journalistic connections, as well as through his scientific researches and investiga- tions. He is a student of the signs of the times and the breadth of his learning is indicated in the extent and variety of his connections and activities.
ALBERT H. MERRITT.
Albert H. Merritt is vice president and general manager of the Coast Manufacturing & Supply Company, doing business at Liver- more, California. A spirit of unfaltering enterprise actuates him in all that he undertakes and in his business affairs he quickly discrimi- nates between the essential and nonessential. He was born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1870, a son of James B. Merritt, now a retired capitalist of Oakland, of whom more extended mention is made elsewhere in this volume.
The nucleus of the company of which Albert H. Merritt is now the head was a little New England enterprise. The business was founded in Connecticut in 1836 by Joseph Toy, who came from Eng- land and settled at Simsbury, Connecticut, where he embarked in business under the name of Toy, Bickford & Company. In 1868 a branch of this business was established in California. Their plant was located in what was then known as Fitchburg but is now a part of Oakland. James B. Merritt assumed the management of the busi- ness, which he successfully conducted for thirty years. Following the demise of his stepfather, Joseph Toy, the name of the company was changed to the Ensign-Bickford Company. Prior to 1903 there were in operation in and near Alameda county four independent fuse manufactories. These were the Ensign-Bickford Company, the California Fuse Works, the Western Fuse & Explosive Company. and the Metropolitan Fuse & Match Company. This existing con- dition was not productive of prosperity for any of the parties con- cerned and in that year Mr. Merritt together with others succeeded
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in bringing about a consolidation of these interests, which resulted in the organization of the Coast Manufacturing & Supply Com- pany. All of the plants were operated for a time but one by one the three smaller ones were closed and in their closing they were all virtually merged into the one big enterprise. In the fall of 1912 they purchased a tract of one hundred and fifty acres at Trevarno, one mile east of Livermore, to which their huge plant in Oakland was removed in the summer of 1913 without the loss of a day's time, and the whole move was made by motor truck, no part of the machin- ery or equipment being sent by rail. The little town of Trevarno, which has been upbuilt by this industry, embraces a group of twenty- seven factory buildings, offices, several cottages for the foremen and three handsome homes for the men who guide and promote the suc- cess of the company.
As vice president and manager Albert H. Merritt is the sole head and director of the company on the Pacific coast and his authority is unquestioned. The secretary is T. W. Morris and the technical rep- resentative is Grant H. Todd. The output is confined exclusively to one product, that of the Safety Fuse.
Mr. Merritt was an infant of but sixteen months when brought to California. After mastering the regular educational course fur- nished by the Oakland grammar and high schools he attended the California Military Academy and later on the University of the Pacific at San Jose, where he remained for two years. Immediately afterward he became associated with the business of his father was for thirty years the active head. He is remarkably well equipped by experience and training for the conduct of the extensive and im- portant enterprise that is now under his guidance. In the course of his experience he has worked in every part of the factory and under- stands every phase of the industry. The machinery used in the plant is not of a nature that can be purchased, so it has been improved on and manufactured by Mr. Merritt in the company's plant. Since the consolidation of the business in 1903 Mr. Merritt has been man- ager and since 1905 has been vice president. He is a director of the First National Bank of Livermore and a director of the Luther Bur- bank Company, of which he was one of the organizers in 1911 and 1912. His judgment in business, his keen sagacity, his unfaltering activity and determination are valuable assets to the commercial growth and development of the west.
In San Jose, on the ist of August, 1892, Mr. Merritt was married to Miss Florence Burnham, a resident of Oakland, and they have a son and daughter, Ralph and Vera. The former is a senior in the
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University of California. He has been very active in athletics and has won high honors in rowing ever since his freshman year.
In his political views Mr. Merritt is an earnest republican. He served as a member of the school board of the Fremont high school district from the time the Fremont district was organized until the annexation and was president of the board at the time of the erec- tion of the Fremont high school. He also served for three terms as a member of the board of the Lockwood school. Aside from his activity along educational lines he has neither sought nor desired public office, although an active worker for the party. For many years he attended both county and state conventions.
He is very prominent in Masonic circles and is a life member of the various branches of the order with which he is now connected. He belongs to Oakland Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; is a past high priest of Oakland Chapter, R. A. M .; and past vice illustrious master of Oakland Council, R. & S. M. He has been past grand master of the council of the state of California and is a member of Oakland Com- mandery and a past commander of De Molay Council of the thir- tieth degree of the Scottish Rite. He likewise belongs to the Knights Commander of the Court of Honor of the Scottish Rite and to Aahmes Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a past patron of Golden Wave Chapter of the Eastern Star, of which his wife is a past matron. He is a member of Cherry Camp, W. O. W., of San Leandro, and of Alameda Lodge, No. 1015, B. P. O. E. For years he has been a member of the Manufacturers Committee of the Oak- land Chamber of Commerce and is a cooperant factor in the well formulated plans of that organization for the upbuilding, develop- ment and improvement of the city. Contemporaries and colleagues speak of his business ability in high terms and are equally cordial in their indorsement of him as a man and citizen.
ZACHARIAH MONTGOMERY.
Amongst the early pioneers of California none stand out more prominently for honesty, integrity and ability than Zachariah Mont- gomery, better known to the early settlers of California as "Zach" Montgomery.
Mr. Montgomery was born on the 6th of March, 1825, near Bardstown, Nelson county, Kentucky. He came by inheritance to those qualities which distinguished his eventful career, being the
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descendant of a Norman family that accompanied William the Con- queror to England. According to tradition it is two hundred years since the Montgomerys came over to America with Lord Baltimore and settled in Maryland, later descendants following the westward trend of population and locating in Kentucky.
Zachariah Montgomery died in the city of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, September 3, 1900.
He was educated at St. Mary's and St. Joseph's colleges in his native state and graduated from the last named institution with high honors. In 1850 he was admitted to the practice of law in Kentucky and July 31, 1850, crossed the plains to California. On reaching California he essaved the occupation of a miner but shortly after- ward took up the practice of law in which profession he continued with but little intermission until the close of his brilliant and honor- able career.
In the early 50's he married Ellen Evoy who together with her mother was an early pioneer of the state of California. Mrs. Mont- gomery is a true type of the heroic women who crossed the plains to the wild and unknown West and are the mothers of the builders of this great and incomparable state. The fruit of this marriage was : John J. Montgomery, who became afterwards noted as an early pioneer in aerial navigation and a scientist of world wide renown; Zachariah Montgomery, who died in infancy; Mary C. Mont- gomery; Margaret Montgomery; Rose Montgomery, who died in infancy; Richard Montgomery, who has been prominently identified with the development of the city of Oakland ; Jennie E. Montgomery; and James P. Montgomery, an attorney who has been actively iden- tified in the civic uplift of his native city, Oakland.
In the early history of California Zachariah Montgomery was an active and vigilant worker for the interests of his state as well as the interests of the entire country. He was elected to the assembly of California in the early 50's and was one of the stalwart figures in this great state in the development of its laws and in the formulating of its destinies. Mr. Montgomery was a strong democrat and a fear- less and conscientious supporter of all that tended to the uplift of his adopted state. In 1884 he was called upon by Grover Cleveland to act as assistant attorney general of the United States and in this office performed invaluable services for his country and stood as a bulwark against the greed and avarice of corruptionists in their endeavor to make way with the public lands.
As a man his word was never questioned; as a lawyer he enjoyed national reputation ; as an orator he had few equals; and in his pass-
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ing away his adopted state and his country lost a brilliant statesman, a great orator and a man on whose tomb might well be written the word "Just."
JAMES P. MONTGOMERY.
The subject of this sketch is the youngest son of Zachariah Mont- gomery, whose fame as a lawyer and statesman was nation-wide, and a brother of the late Professor John J. Montgomery of Santa Clara College whose advancements in the world of science gave him a position and recognition equal to that which his father had held in jurisprudence and civil government.
James P. Montgomery was born March 1, 1865, in the city of Oakland, where he attended the Christian Brothers School in his boyhood, afterward attending St. Ignatius College in San Francisco, and Santa Clara College, and finally completing his college course, including a course in law, in 1889, in the University of Georgetown, District of Columbia.
After completing his collegiate education he returned to his native state and engaged in the practice of law in partnership with his father, first in San Diego and later in Los Angeles. In 1897. allured by the call of the Klondyke gold fields, he gave up for a while his professional career, in which he had already gained con- siderable distinction, and undertook the pursuit of gold mining which he followed for the next ten years, and in which he frankly con- fesses he acquired much more experience than wealth. In Decem- ber, 1907, he returned to his native city and resumed the profession of law, demonstrating by his success and his devotion to the profes- sion in its higher and broader aspects, not only the ability of man trained in the profession to make good after ten years spent in other pursuits, but also that he himself is "a chip of the old block" of whom his distinguished father, if still living, might well feel proud.
Mr. Montgomery is known throughout his native county, Ala- meda, and far beyond its boundaries as a progressive citizen, active in every movement for the uplift of society and the promotion of civic virtue and public welfare, and fearless in his stand for the right upon all questions affecting the public weal regardless of par- tisan or personal considerations. He was chosen as a member of the board of freeholders who framed the present charter of Oakland and during the deliberations of that body he was indefatigable in
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his efforts to embody in it the reforms which the general advance- ment of the city had made necessary, and from the time of its adop- tion he has been one of the most alert and active among those who have shown a determination to see that the charter should be lived up to and enforced in its spirit as well as in its letter. Among the many improvements in civic development for which the charter opened the way, and which have received special help from Mr. Montgomery, may be mentioned the annexation of the district east and southeast of the city, the provision of playgrounds in various sections of the city and the recent election for an issue of bonds to complete the Audi- torium. In all of these matters he put his shoulder to the wheel in aid of the city administration, and to his efforts as much as to those of any other individual the people owe the success that was achieved in each case.
Though he has been a fearless and sometimes a severe critic of the management of the city government, he has been at all times ready to give the administration the heartiest and best support of his abili- ties when its policy has seemed to move in the direction of higher ideals and better service to the people.
ILO RAFENEL AIKIN, M. D.
Dr. Ilo Rafenel Aikin, a practicing physician of Oakland, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 26, 1876, a son of N. J. and Edna J. (Gates) Aiken, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Canada. The father passed away many years ago, but the mother survives and now makes her home in Oakland.
Dr. Aikin was a lad of twelve years when he arrived in the city where he now resides. He acquired his education in the public schools of Grand Rapids and of Oakland, pursuing the high-school course here. He entered upon the study of medicine in the Hahne- mann Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and com- pleted his course in the Hahnemann Medical College of the Pacific at San Francisco, winning the degree of M. D. in 1898. He then practiced for a few months and in February, 1899, at the opening of the Masonic home at Decoto, was appointed medical superintendent of that insitution and continued in that capacity for five years. He next accepted the position of chief surgeon for the Miller Planta- tion Company at Cautotolapan, in the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, where he continued for one year. Returning to California, he located
DR. I. R. AIKIN
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at Niles, Alameda county, where he practiced for eight months and then went to New York city, where he pursued a post-graduate course for six months. On the expiration of that period he returned to Oak- land, where he entered upon practice, continuing active in the pro- fession in this city to the present time. He has built up an extensive practice and his increasing ability enables him to successfully cope with many of the difficult and intricate problems which continually confront the physician.
In Oakland, in the fall of 1907, Dr. Aikin was married to Miss Annie Welling, of Troy, New York, and they have become parents of two sons, Ilo Rafenel and John Stewart. The parents attend the Episcopal church and Dr. Aikin holds membership in Oakland Lodge, No. 171, B. P. O. E. His political support is given to the republican party, although he is not an active worker in party ranks. Along strictly professional lines his membership is with the Alameda County, the California State and the American Medical Associations, and thus he keeps in touch with the advanced thought of the profes- sion and with the latest scientific research and investigation. He makes his professional duties his first interest and is a most conscien- tious and capable practitioner of medicine.
E. NELSON MABREY.
E. Nelson Mabrey has for a number of years been connected with educational work in Hayward. He is supervising principal of the Hayward school, having held that position since 1906, and has not only proven himself a most successful teacher but also a man of re- markable executive force, who deals strictly with teachers and pupils, at the same time maintaining the most harmonious spirit in his school. He was born Friday, December 13, 1867, at Eagletown, Indiana, and it seems that this day was for him a particularly lucky omen, for, like President Wilson, he has ever since considered the thirteenth as a day on which the stars would be most favorable to him. His parents were James M. and Sarah Melvina ( Hoskins) Mabrey, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Ohio. The father enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and First Indiana Volunteers, Captain Jay commanding and served in the Civil war, for two years and eleven months. He died in the latter part of 1870.
Vol. II-30
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E. Nelson Mabrey came with his mother and brother in January, 1881, to California, the family establishing their home near Chico, Butte county. In December, 1886, when only nineteen years of age he began to teach school, continuing so for some time. In the fall of 1897 he entered Leland Stanford, Jr., University, graduating from that famous school in June, 1901, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In July, 1906, he received a call to accept the principalship of the Hayward school, being then at the head of the Eldorado county high school, which he organized. During the seven years in which he has had charge of the Hayward school he has introduced a number of new studies and has made other changes in the system which have been of the utmost value to the school. He introduced the study of domestic birds-those of the neighborhood- the work being continued in the grades up to and including the high fourth. The fish and game commission of California pronounced this work superior to any which was done in the state in the preservation of bird life. A cabinet of two hundred birds has been collected during the last six and a half years. The commission form of government was established among the pupils of the school nearly three years ago and "Daddy" George said that he had witnessed no finer government on his western trip. The interest in this government is largely stimu- lated by principal Mabrey and the pupils take the greatest interest in that work. Those who are officers wear beautifully designed badges to designate their rank. Departmental work among the more advanced grades was inaugurated seven years ago and has been a very great success in almost every way. Expert service has been the result, as each teacher now instructs in just one particular subject. A veritable art gallery has also come into existence. In less than seven years there have been placed in the building : one hundred and sixty-six reproductions of the world's best paintings; fifty feet of plaster frieze, representing Alexander the Great's Triumphal March into Babylon; twelve plaster busts; a representation of the victory of Samothrace; a winged Mercury on a Roman pedestal; two Gothic pedestals; a brass tablet in honor of the principal's energy and en- thusiasm; an exquisite picture of the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, which was hung in honor of Miss Clara E. Ketelsen, the vice prin- cipal; and four jardinieres of great artistic value. The above men- tioned collection has cost over fifteen hundred dollars and it is said that this sum represents about three-fourths of the actual retail value. Under the enthusiastic leadership of Professor Mabrey the Hay- ward school has become one of the best of its kind in the state accord- ing to the judgment of eminent educational authorities, among them
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superintendent of schools, George W. Frick. The school is credited with having completely satisfied the county board of education. Al- though many of the measures which were considered sound by Mr. Mabrey were first strongly opposed, he went ahead undauntedly and after years of forward movement he has now the satisfaction of hav- ing realized his ideas and ideals and having proven their value to those doubting Thomases who are to be found at any time and any- where and who will never depart from the grooved road of habit and who will never acknowledge that any new ideas are of value until confronted with results.
E. Nelson Mabrey married on August 23, 1887, in Biggs, Butte county, California, Miss Mattie Streeter, a native of the Golden state and a daughter of Daniel Streeter, a pioneer of Biggs. In their family are two children: Charles Streeter, of Sacramento; and Harold Monroe, attending the State Normal School in Oregon. Mrs. Mabrey is deeply interested in charitable and betterment work and is financial secretary of the Hill and Valley Club. Not only has Professor Mabrey contributed to educational advancement, but he has ever taken an active part in other forward movements which make for a higher plane of intellectuality and for a better citizenship.
Dr. W. A. SEHORN.
Dr. W. A. Sehorn, town trustee of San Leandro, was born in Richmond, Virginia, September 1, 1858, and after pursuing his studies in public and high schools took up the study of dentistry at Stanton University in Richmond, Virginia. In 1877 he went to Texas, where he remained for a short time, and in 1879 he removed to Princeton, California, where he engaged in the practice of his profession tor five years. He next located at Red Bluff, where he remained for only a brief period, and in 1886 he took up his abode at Glen Willows, where he established the Willows Journal, the first newspaper ever pub- lished in that town. Dr. Sehorn continued as proprietor and editor for twelve years, but then went to San Francisco, where he resumed the practice of dentistry. He was not long in building up a good business and continued there until the fire of 1906, having his offices in the Press Club building. He next removed to San Leandro, where he entered upon active practice, but is now living retired. For an extended period he ranked with the leading representatives of his profession in this part of the state and his pronounced ability and
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