USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume II > Part 8
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"To the work which President Jonas takes up he brings special qualifications. He has served successfully as president of the Mer- chants' Exchange, has held high station upon all occasions of cere- mony and big commercial endeavor in the city's latter years. He has been a student of the city's conditions and her needs. He is pos- sessed of masterful executive ability, is self-reliant, courageous and alert. The plans which he speaks of for the Oakland forward move- ment will be carried out by him to the letter.
"Moreover, the Chamber of Commerce is an institution of estab- lished reputation. It is nation-wide in its acquaintanceship and influence. It has priority of claim to favor by reason of accomplish- ment already wrought. It stands today in the forefront of all matters related to Oakland's vital interests ; has in hand vast schemes for local advancement and deep-laid plans for yet further achievement.
"The Oakland Chamber of Commerce is non-political and entirely free from danger of being made use of to further the low ambition of individual exploiters. It is free and untrammeled in its commercial and industrial policy and beyond the reach of selfish
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combinations. It stands for the city's dignity, and wealth, and indus- try, and power.
"President Jonas takes the helm of the Chamber of Commerce at a moment fraught with portentous consequence to the welfare of Oakland. The immediate opening of the Panama canal, the con- struction of the Oakland harbor upon the Rees plans, the extension of the transportation facilities and centralization of terminals, the conquest of trade at home and abroad-the establishment of Oakland as the port of the Pacific-all these are possibilities and coming events of the highest importance. Upon the proper placing of this city in the rapidly approaching new situation depends its destiny for all time. If it is placed forward where it belongs it will outrun all other cities of the coast within ten years from the passage of the first commercial ship through the isthmus."
Mr. Jonas was for many years a director of the Merchants' Ex- change and in 1905 was elected its president, about which time the tunnel road was built. He took an active part in that movement, which connected Contra Costa and Alameda counties and which is the largest wagon road tunnel in the world. Mr. Jonas makes these connections with the different organizations mentioned the avenues by which he accomplishes important work of civic service, for he is at all times interested in the growth and welfare of Oakland and is untiring in his efforts to promote the city's advancement. For a number of years he has been a strong advocate of the consolidation of the city and county governments, has been chairman of the com- mission and has done everything in his power to bring this about as a means toward securing a "Greater Oakland." He has made a careful study of European and American conditions in city building and business development and believes in the concentration of power. So earnestly and steadfastly has he worked for such a consummation that he is often called "The Father of Consolidation." He hopes to live to see the consummation of the plan, which from the recent changes in the law may soon be realized.
A'man of wide charity, Mr. Jonas has of late years devoted much time to philanthropic work and during the San Francisco fire of 1906 he was vice president of the executive committee which had charge of the relief work and gave much of time and money to the cause. He is keenly alert to all measures for the relief of the worthy poor and in charities takes an active part. For years he has been a director in the Non-Sectarian Associated Charities. He is treasurer and a direc- tor of the Associated Charities and was appointed by Mayor Mott
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one of the five commissioners of the municipal wood yard, the pur- pose of which is the relief of the unemployed.
Mr. Jonas has extensive and important fraternal relations, being a member of the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is past grand president of the Indepen- dent Order of B'Nai B'rith, for the last fifteen years has been a supreme representative of the order and is the president of the syna- gogue of the First Hebrew congregation. For the last thirty-two years he has been a member of the board of directors and also treas- urer for years of Oakland. He was the incumbent at the time when the old synagogue was built in 1886, and he is now promoting the construction of a new synagogue of which the city of Oakland may well be proud and which will soon be dedicated.
Another important work in which Mr. Jonas has been engaged has been to some degree the assistance rendered Rabbi Friedlander in revising the Jewish prayer book, which as revised was afterward approved by the conference of American rabbis. This revised prayer book is now in use in the congregation and fills a long felt want in the interpreting of the modern spirit of religion.
In 1881, in Oakland, he was united in marriage with Miss Katie Hartman of this city, and they are the parents of four children: Gertrude, wife of Otto Hirschman of New York; Corinne, wife of Morris Goldtree of San Francisco; and Irving and Milton, pre- viously mentioned.
His business career has been actuated by laudable ambition and characterized by unfaltering industry, combined with a close adher- ence to a high standard of business ethics. It would be difficult to point out any one characteristic as his most pronounced trait, for his is a most evenly balanced character, in which business capacity and power are matched by the recognition of life's purposes and the obligation of man to his fellowmen. The importance of the work he has accomplished along commercial, civic and moral lines in Oak- land cannot be overestimated.
JOSEPH EUGENE BAKER.
Joseph Eugene Baker was widely known on the Pacific coast as editorial writer for the Oakland Tribune, remaining in that connec- tion for sixteen years. He was born near Conyers, not far from Atlanta, Georgia, January 10, 1847, and in his boyhood accompanied
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his parents to Texas. He supplemented study in private schools by a course in a local academy, which he attended to the age of sixteen years. Soon afterward he joined the Confederate service as a soldier in the Army of the Tennessee, in which his uncle, Brigadier General Alpheus Baker, commanded a brigade. He followed the fortunes of war with his command and during the progress of hostilities it was said that although a boy in his teens he took an active part in compelling the proper and humane treatment of Union prisoners.
After the close of the war he visited Mexico, then in the throes of the republican revolution against the misguided and unfortunate Emperor Maximilian. Being equipped with letters from both im- perial and revolutionary authorities granting him free transit, he traversed the country at will and witnessed the fluctuations of the tide of war which ended in the tragic death of Maximilian at Quera- taro and the birth of the republic of Mexico under the presidency of Juarez. Subsequently he visited Brazil and ascended the Amazon river to the highest point which had then been reached by a white man, his purpose being to study the agricultural possibilities of that region. With the same purpose in view he went to Rio de Janeiro and explored the interior of southern Brazil. In 1868 he entered the employ of a St. Louis tobacco house, which he represented as traveling salesman in the central part of Texas until 1870. He after- ward drove a herd of cattle from Texas to the Laramie plains of Wyoming and while enroute camped upon the present site of Okla- homa City. From the Laramie plains he drove a herd of cattle to Salt Lake City, where he remained until March, 1873. Subsequently he went to Pioche, Nevada, where he engaged in mining and after- ward turned his attention to newspaper work. In 1877 he removed to Tybo, Nevada, where he became a smelter in a mining camp, while afterward he was connected with a weekly newspaper until the spring of 1879.
While with the Meadow Lake Mining Company he had with him a crowd of fellow workers who afterward became very distin- guished, including Judge Beatty, George Story Curtis, grandson of Justice Story of the United States supreme court, and Henry T. Creswell, one of the best known members of the San Francisco bar. His association with these distinguished men greatly influenced his future life and turned his thoughts into a literary channel, bringing him at last to a position as one of the best and most versatile and accomplished writers of California. From Pioche Mr. Baker went to Belmont and thence to Tybo, Nevada, and after working in a smelter there became interested in a small newspaper. During that
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period he read thoughtfully the works of Addison, Carlyle, Ma- caulay and other standard essayists and also spent many hours with Hume's History of England. In fact, his reading was broad and of a most excellent character. Possessing a wonderfully retentive mem- ory, he gathered a store of material from which he could draw at will in future years, finding on almost every occasion something that applied to the subject matter in hand. In writing of this period of his career the Oakland Tribune said, following his death: "When the mining company operating the smelter at Tybo closed down Mr. Baker moved to Bodie, Mono county, which at that time was one of the richest quartz mining camps in this state, and he lived there and thereabouts for some time. During a winter spent in a mountain cabin near the shore of the lake Mr. Baker witnessed the slide of an avalanche of snow down the flank of the Sierran peak and with a deafening roar tearing a great gap through the forest of gigantic pines fringing the shores of the lake, grinding them into kindling wood on its way and moving with such tremendous velocity that when it struck the frozen surface of the lake the floe swept swiftly over the ice and ascended far up the flank of the mountain at whose base his own cabin was located, ripping out in its course the big pines by the roots and incorporating them in the wreckage it created. The scene was so extraordinary and impressive that Mr. Baker wrote an account of it for the newspaper, which revealed his great descrip- tive powers. It has been described as the most graphic description of an avalanche ever published, not in any sense equaled in vividity by any of the numerous productions of distinguished writers who have described in their works the great snow avalanches which have periodically swept down the flanks of the European Alps, carrying death and disaster into the valleys at their feet."
At a later date Mr. Baker was employed for a time as a writer on one of the Reno, Nevada, newspapers. He afterward removed to Bodie, California, and for a short time was connected with the Bodie Daily News and afterward had charge of the Bodie Standard until 1881. In that year he removed to Lundy, California, where he began the publication of a weekly paper. While thus engaged he was offered and accepted a position in a surveying party, which work took him across the mountains to the town of Sonora and it was dur- ing his residence there that he met the lady who afterward became his wife and the mother of his three children, a son and two daugh- ters. He was editor of the Sonora Union Democrat until 1885, in which year he spent a few months on the local staff of the Chronicle and later on the local staff of the Examiner, where he remained until
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1887, when he became city editor of the Alta California, which posi- tion he held until 1891. He then became managing editor of the Oakland Times, with which he was connected until the summer of 1892, when he took editorial charge of the Fresno Expositor. After a year spent in Fresno, California, he returned to San Francisco and engaged on the special staff of the Chronicle until 1893. He then became managing editor of the Oakland Times, but resigned in 1895 to become general overseer of the state prison at Folsom. He retained that office until June, 1900, when he tendered his resignation. He was for sixteen years editorial writer on the Oakland Tribune, which position he held at the time of his demise.
In every place where Mr. Baker resided he made many friends and his friendships comprised invariably the brightest men in each community, by whom he was held in the highest respect for his native ability, sterling integrity, great mentality and strength of character. He always took an active interest in politics and as a stanch democrat ranked among the leaders of the party in this state and in Nevada. "But," said one of his closest friends and greatest admirers in speaking of Mr. Baker's career, "he was not a hide- bound democrat. He was a democrat with sound discrimination, which was exemplified by the support he gave Judge Beatty during his two candidacies for a position on the bench in Nevada and when he was a candidate for the chief justiceship of the supreme court of this state, to which he was elected and which position he has since held with ability, honor and distinction. But while he was an ardent democrat, Mr. Baker was not an office seeker. When Governor Budd was elected he appointed Mr. Baker to a position at the Fol- som state prison, which he accepted and held during Governor Budd's term. It was the only public office he ever held and that came to him unsolicited and unsought."
Following the death of Mr. Baker, which occurred at his home in Oakland on the 19th of March, 1914, papers in this and adjoining states commented upon his career and from these the following excerpts have been made: "Baker was ever loyal to the craft. He believed the newspaper was the greatest power on earth and the paper he attached himself to was dominant authority in the locality where it was published and if it was not he generally aided in making it such. Baker was brusque but kind. His friendship rang true. He ranks with Frank M. Pixley, Arthur McKewen and John P. Irish as a leader among editorial writers of this generation. He was direct, powerful and caustic in his style and he was a general in
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command of the English language." Another said: "In the death of Joseph Baker of the Oakland Tribune California newspaperdom loses one of its strongest and most trenchant writers. Baker was no ordinary man. His erudition covered a wide field. His memory was a veritable storehouse of facts, on which he was able to draw for any subject at any time." The Woodland Democrat writes: "He was one of the ablest editorial writers in the state and was such a careful student of public questions that his ambitions were regarded with the greatest respect by his contemporaries. Although editor of a republican paper he was a democrat of the old school and through- out his whole life he was an ardent supporter of democratic prin- ciples, having a record for loyalty, devotion and integrity that is stainless and unblemished. His journalistic career was brilliant, full of years and honest achievements, and his private virtues were worthy of emulation." The personal note is touched in the words of a writer in the Contra Costan, published at Richmond, California : "In the death of Editor Joe Baker this writer feels that he has lost a good friend, but there are thousands of others who feel the same way, for he had friends everywhere by the countless hundreds. We seldom ever went to Oakland that we did not drop into the Tribune office and chat a few moments with Colonel Joe, and they were always bright moments, for he was a good man and a man of noble instincts and fine traits of character. It was a pleasure and a privi- lege to know him and to be counted among his friends. He was a broad and liberal-minded man, with a big brain, a big heart and lots of soul." Still another said : "Baker was as big of heart and mind as the great west which developed him. That he worked in the mines in commonplace positions even into his young manhood might seem strange in one so extraordinarly gifted intellectually, but while thus employed he was burning the candle into the morning hours, putting away for future use a treasure store of information that finally brought him distinction and honor in the profession he so splendidly adorned. His paragraphs were as fresh and clean as the fine man- hood he typified, while his more profound observations were as logi- cally powerful as they were entertaining and instructive."
A well merited tribute to his memory was paid by the Oakland Observer in the following: "An American man of the old school is dead. The customary phrase is 'a gentleman of the old school'-and few ever held in ampler measure the finer qualities of the gentleman than Joseph E. Baker-but, as the tribute to his memory from all his associates is not perfunctory, I think it is beter to speak of him in the more enviable and descriptive words, 'an American man of the
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old school.' Baker was an American of the period when men were needed. He was embrued in the Civil war. He was a pioneer and adventurer into far places. He had the Ulyssean spirit that has made this nation. He sought the sources of the Amazon. He was in Mexico during the days of Maximilian. He trekked to the west in the times that we know now only through the record of Remington. He lived the life of the frontier American. In journalism he was vigorous, sometimes intemperate, but always true to his convictions, right or wrong though they might have been. But his adversaries always respected his manly qualities, as he always respected the manly qualities of his adversaries. In his enmities he was severe and uncompromising; in his friendships sincere and unreserved. He belonged to the type that made his country-the basic type of initia- tive, courage and vigor. He is a type that cannot be replaced ; it remains only as an inspiration to the coming generation. We mourn to see another gap in the ranks of the Old Guard of real Americans, but our sorrow is subordinated to the pride we possess in what these men have done. Baker would not have us sentimentalize over him. He deserves the plain, untearful tribute of respect that the soldier accords to the comrade who falls in the van of the charge."
EMIL LEHNHARDT.
A man whose force of character, business insight and genius for organization made him one of the leaders in the business develop- ment of Oakland was Emil Lehnhardt, well and prominently known as the founder and upbuilder of one of the largest candy, confection- ery and ice cream manufacturing establishments in the bay cities. During practically the entire period of his active life he gave his energy and attention to this enterprise, with the result that it devel- oped from small beginnings to its present large proportions.
Mr. Lehnhardt was born in New York city and is of German ancestry, his father having been a native of Mainz on the Rhine and his mother of Westphalia, Germany. In that country his grand- father started the first lithograph establishment and for a number of years served as lithographer to the crown, some of the official maps of his making having been in the possession of the subject of this review. His son, the father of our subject, came to America in the early 'sos and was one of the founders of the German Turners Society in New York city.
EMIL LEHNHARDT
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Emil Lehnhardt came to California in 1868 and after complet- ing a course in the public schools of San Francisco learned the trade of watchmaking. He afterward became connected with a large wholesale jewelry house, acting as traveling representative of that concern for five years, during which he journeyed along the coast as far south as Mexico and as far east as the Rocky mountains. When he severed his connection therewith he turned his attention to the candy and confectionery manufacturing business, opening a small plant on Fourteenth street, near the city hall in Oakland. Being a conscientious, energetic and capable worker, he met with immediate success in the conduct of his business and the enterprise grew so rapidly that in 1895 he was obliged to seek larger quarters. He established his second plant at 1309-13 Broadway and year by year enlarged this as the business expanded. The concern now gives employment to one hundred and forty people, this working force having gradually developed from the time when Mr. Lehnhardt employed only four men and did himself as much work as five. The factory and parlors are as complete as those of the leading confectionery firms in the east and the equipment is modern in every detail. Mr. Lehnhardt con- tinued in active business until his death, which occurred January 26, 1911, after which his wife assumed charge. Under her able manage- ment the concern has continued its phenomenal growth, for she has proven a woman of executive ability and keen business insight and has held the concern to its enviable position among the leading enter- prises of its kind on the coast. She and her husband had planned a new factory and after his death she carried out the plans, completing the fine modern factory at Twenty-fourth and Grove streets.
On the 5th of July, 1883, Mr. Lehnhardt was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Marcus, a native of New York city, who came to California with her parents when she was still an infant. Her father engaged in general merchandising in San Francisco in the early '70s and continued there until his death, building up a large and important enterprise. Mr. and Mrs. Lehnhardt became the parents of two children: Edna Anita, who married E. J. Cowing, of Oakland, by whom she has two children ; and Emil, attending school.
Mr. Lehnhardt was a member of the Athenian and Nile Clubs of Oakland and was very active in the Masonic fraternity, holding membership in the lodge, chapter, commandery and shrine. He gave his political allegiance to the republican party but, although he was interested in public affairs as a progressive and public-spirited citizen, he was not active as an office seeker, constantly refusing all political honors and emoluments. For a number of years he was a Vol. II . 1
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director in the Unitarian church of Oakland and was known as a man of broad but unostentatious charity, giving largely of his time and means to the help of the needy and afflicted but adhering closely to the Bible maxim of "never letting his right hand know what his left hand did." He was a man whose merit and ability carried him forward into important relations with many phases of community life and during the course of a long and active career his integrity remained unquestioned and his popularity unbounded. His death was sincerely mourned by a wide circle of friends.
WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER WOOD.
William Christopher Wood, who since January 1, 1914, has been state commissioner of secondary schools, was connected with educational interests of Alameda as city superintendent of schools for a period of five years. He is a native son of California, born in Elmira, Solano county, December 10, 1880. His father, Emerson Wood, was born in East Smithfield, Pennsylvania, in 1844, and after graduating from Abingdon College, Illinois, turned his attention to teaching, following this occupation in Illinois and Kansas. He was a soldier in the Civil war, marching with General Sherman from Atlanta, Georgia, to Raleigh, North Carolina, and upon the organi- zation of the Grand Army of the Republic identified himself with the affairs of the association, becoming commander of J. W. Geary Post. He came to California in 1875 and in Solano county engaged in farming until his death, which occurred in May, 1898. The paternal branch of this family is one of the oldest in America, being descended from Sir William Wood, who visited the northern Atlan- tic coast in 1632, wrote an account of his observations and called it "The New England Prospect." The great-grandfather of the sub- ject of this review was born at Westminster, Massachusetts, in 1761. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the Continental army and served in the defense of Boston in 1780. He died in 1825, at East Smith- field, Pennsylvania. His son, Joel Wood, the grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in Massachusetts in 1810 and when he was two years of age was brought to East Smithfield, where he grew to manhood. He became a minister and a farmer, following both occupations in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Kansas and dying in Thurman, in the latter state, in 1907. Emerson Wood married
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Miss Martha Turner, a daughter of Jackson and Mary Turner, of Missouri.
In the acquirement of an education William C. Wood attended public school in Solano county and was afterward a student in the Leland Stanford University and the University of California. He immediately identified himself with educational interests, becoming principal of the Fairfield schools and in 1906 principal of the Lin- coln school of Alameda. Having proved himself an able educator, he was called upon on the ist of January, 1909, to fill out an unex- pired term as superintendent of schools of this city and in recogni- tion of his effective and far-reaching work was elected to the posi- tion in May, 1911, for a term of four years. In January, 1914, he resigned his position to assume his duties as state commissioner of secondary schools. He has proved efficient, conscientious and capa- ble in the discharge of his duties and has already left the impress of his work and personality upon the educational history of the state.
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