Extractions from
JOURNALISM IN CALIFORNIA
by John P. Young
Pacific Coast and Exposition Biographies
CHRONICLE PUBLISHING COMPANY
San Francisco, California, 1915
Thank you to Beth Humphrey for transcribing and submitting this material.
During the more than a quarter of a century
in which Samuel Rosenheim has been engaged in practicing law he has widened
his field to a really remarkable extent, considering the many branches
of his profession in which he has successfully practiced. He can
hardly be said to have specialized, as do the majority of lawyers.
He has been, and is, equally at home in all law’s subdivisions.
Mr. Rosenheim is the son of A. Rosenheim and
Pauline (Schwab) Rosenheim. He was born November 17, 1863, in Portland,
Oregon, and secured his education in the Portland and San Francisco public
schools. In 1886 Mr. Rosenheim began studying law in the offices
of Williams, Ach & Wood in Portland, of which firm George H. Williams,
United States Attorney General under President Grant, was senior member.
A year later, in 1887, Mr. Rosenheim removed
to San Francisco and entered the law offices of Rothschild & Ach.
He was admitted to the bar in 1889 and thereafter had his office with those
of the firm until 1900. From then on until 1906 he practiced alone,
but in later years formed an association with Albert M. Johnson, brother
of Governor Hiram Johnson of California. Johnson died soon afterward,
however, and since then Mr. Rosenheim has practiced entirely alone.
As heretofore stated, Mr. Rosenheim is engaged
in all branches of civil law, with even some work in the criminal courts.
Throughout his professional career he has been consistently active cases
of note was the Agacio divorce suit, which involved more questions of international
law than perhaps any other divorce action on record. It lasted over
a period of two years.
Agacio, who at the time was the Republic of
Salvador’s minister to France, sued for divorce in San Francisco, claiming
American citizenship.. His true identity was established, however,
after he had cut off the allowance of his wife, who then resided in England.
The wife consulted a number of lawyers of international fame, among them
Sir Charles Russell and Sir George Lewis of London and Frederick R. Coudert
of New York and Paris, who advised her that she could do nothing.
Mr. Rosenheim, however, representing Mrs. Rosenheim, secured a decree in
her favor after a money settlement had been arranged in Paris. The
case attracted a great deal of attention, both in America and abroad.
In 1907, and subsequently, Mr. Rosenheim was
of counsel of the Creditors association in suits against the directors
and stockholders of the defunct California Safe Deposit & Trust Company,
whose failure involved $12,000,000. His success in this litigation
may be measured by the fact that the Creditors’ association has paid its
members as much, to dare, in recoveries from the directors and stockholders
as has the Trust company receivers.
If Mr. Rosenheim has laid stress on any particular
kind of law practice, it has been on corporation, liability insurance,
bankruptcy and probate matters. He has defended hundreds of damage
suits brought against assured under their policies, and almost invariably
has won a complete victory or has arranged satisfactory adjustments.
He has played a considerable part in the past
few years in reconstruction work arising from the failure of railroads
or other public service corporations. In fact he is consulted in
nearly all-important cases of industrial or public service corporation
difficulties that occur locally. He has often been called in to assist
corporations in danger of financial ruin, and has usually succeeded in
tiding matters over until difficulties have been readjusted. Along
this line he has done considerable work for insolvent financial institutions,
being considered an authority on failures involving intricate questions
of directors’ liability or questions going into figures and counting.
Also has he had much practice in mechanic’s lien and admiralty matters,
and even in mining cases. But throughout he has counseled against
long drawn-out litigation, believing that this is hurtful to client and
lawyer alike.
Mr. Rosenheim has been too busy with his legal
work to take much active part in polities, although he is a strong Republican
in sympathies. Not long since he was recommended by Governor Johnson
to the Industrial Accident Commission as its attorney, but finding the
position would command all of his time, Mr. Rosenheim declined an appointment.
Besides belonging to a number of charitable
organizations, Mr. Rosenheim is a member of the B’nai B’rith, Masonic Order,
Traffic Bureau of the Merchants’ Association, Fly-casting Club and Civic
League of Improvement Clubs and the Bar Association. He was married
September 18, 1901, in San Francisco to Mrs. Fannie Myer.
Every business or professional man who is kept
close to his duties is in need of some form of physical relaxation.
He leaves his office or establishment, forgets it for a time and comes
back refreshed not only in body but in mind as well.
John Webster Dorsey, for many years a practicing
attorney of San Francisco, takes his relaxation in fishing and hunting.
And, as is his habit in other lines, he excels in both. When he goes
after game he usually seeds big game – and gets it. When he fishes,
he casts his line into the deep sea and hauls outs something a little smaller
than a whale.
Most of Mr. Dorsey’s fishing is done off Santa
Catalina, and Clemente islands. He is a member of the Tuna Club and
catches, besides tuna, sword-fish, yellow-tail, black sea bass and jew-fish.
In 1912, with William B. Sharp, he effected the biggest catch of sword-fish,
ranging in weight from 155 to 260 pounds apiece. When one takes into
consideration the real danger that lies in this sport, the feat may be
appreciated.
In trap-shooting and hunting Mr. Dorsey has
captured numerous medals and trophies. He belongs to the Empire Gun
Club for duck shooting, and every organization of this nature in California.
Hunting trips to Alaska have brought him many trophies in the way of moose,
caribou, deer, antelope and other big game.
Mr. Dorsey was born June 4, 1852, on a farm
in Harford County, Maryland. His father, Algernon Sidney Dorsey,
was in the cattle and ranching business in California in the early fifties,
later retuning East. His mother was Mary Alice (Webster) Dorsey.
His maternal grandfather was John A. Webster, a cousin to Daniel Webster.
John S. Webster distinguished himself in the war of 1812 by defending the
City of Baltimore from the British. He was a captain in the Navy, as was
his son, John A. Webster, Jr., subsequently.
Following his attendance at the public schools
of his birthplace, and of Baltimore, Mr. Dorsey entered Delaware College
at Newark and was graduated in 1875. The same year he came West and
settled in Elko, Nevada, taking up the study of law in the office of Rand
& Van Fleet, the latter now Federal Judge at San Francisco. He
was admitted to the bar in 1877 and practiced law in Elko until 1891, the
latter part of the time with George Baker and J. L. Wines. In 1891
the firm opened offices in San Francisco also and Mr. Dorsey came here,
continuing until 1893, then 1895 was in partnership with George Maxwell
and R. M. F. Soto. From 1897 until 1906 he was with the late R. R.
Bigelow, former justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada, and since 1911
has been a member of the firm of Dorsey and Henderson.
Mr. Dorsey’s practice has largely been in
mining and water litigation, with considerable corporation work also.
He has been general counsel for a number of concerns, among them the Pacific
Hardware & Steel CO., Johnson-Locke Mercantile Co. and Atlas Paving
Brick Co. One of his recent important litigations was a suit he brought
in 1904 against the Silver Peak Mining CO. to enforce specific performance
of a contract for the purchase of mining property estimated to be worth
$10,000,000. The case has been appealed several times and is still
pending in both State and Federal courts. Perhaps Mr. Dorsey[s most notable
work in criminal law was his long defense of “Diamond Field Jack” Davis.
Davis was convicted and three times sentenced to hang for the killing of
two sheep herders in Cassia County, Idaho, in 1892. As a matter of
fact, though he thought he might have been responsible for the herders’
deaths, having had a gun-fight with unknown assailants, he was 15 miles
from the real killing. Mr. Dorsey hinged his case on the fact that
a 44-caliber cartridge cannot be fired in a 45 revolver with it being indicated
by the selling of the shell. After seven years of effort Mr. Dorsey
got Davis free through the Idaho State Board of Pardons.
Although he has not been active politically
in California, Mr. Dorsey was prominent in Democratic politics in Nevada.
He served two terms as district attorney of Elko County, Nevada, 1883-5
and 1887-9. And he was chairman in 1888 of the Nevada delegation
to the St. Louis convention which nominated Grover Cleveland for the presidency.
Mr. Dorsey belongs to a number of social organizations
among them the Family and Holluschickie clubs.
That man’s work live after him is a truth that
is plainly apparent. Especially does it apply to those works, which
have to do with the earth’s surface to meet the needs of civilization.
Digging here and there to remove certain landmarks, and employing wood,
stone or concrete with steel and iron to rear certain other landmarks,
man has changed things to suit himself, and he has done it well.
The construction man, perhaps more than anyone
else, has builded (sic) for himself permanent monuments. Generations
that come after him may gaze for decades or centuries upon his handiwork,
and may make use of the things that have cost him brains and money to make
possible – without giving more than a passing thought to what it means
to them.
Anson S. Blake, president of the Blake Brothers
Company and officer in a number of other concerns of a similar nature,
is a man who has spent all his adult life in the upbuilding of the communities
in which he has moved about. He has to his credit and number of projects
important to the San Francisco bay district, and is one of those stanch
business men on whose shoulders much public responsibility rests.
A native of San Francisco, born August 6,
1870, Mr. Blake is the son of Charles T. Blake, himself a prominent contractor
in his time, and Harriet (Stiles) Blake. He went though the public
grammar schools of this city, was graduated from the Boys’ High School
in 1887, and subsequently in 1891 finished at the University of California
with the degree of A. B.
Almost immediately after leaving school Mr.
Blake entered uon his business career. He became secretaray of the
Bay Rock Company, in which his father was interested, and after two years
there accepted a cclerkshi[ with the Oakland Paving Company. In 1897
he became the latter conersn’s secretary and in 1899k its, president.
In 1904 Mr. Blake organized with Frank W. Bilger the Blake & Bilger
Company, which dealt in building materials and conducted a quarry.
Two years ago MR. Blake sold his interests in the Oakland Paving Company
to Mr. Bilger, who retired from the Blake & Bilger Company, and the
present designation of Blake Brothers Company. Mr. Anson S. Blake
is still head of the business which is of a general contracting and quarrying
nature.
One of Mr. Blake’s important construction
projects was carried out as receiver of the Scofield Construction Company,
when he completed the $1,500,000 Government dry dock at Mare Island Navy
Yard in 1910. Two Contracting concerns failed in the endeavor to
carry through the work, which lasted over a period of seven years.
An idea of the huge task that confronted the
engineers can be gleaned from the fact that the bottom of the dry dock
consists of concrete nine and half feet thick and that it rests on 12,000
piles. Excavation on the big receptacle was started by a company
which, after heroic but unsuccessful attempts to stop the seepage that
continually damaged the labor as fast as it was preformed, threw up the
contract in despair. The Scofield Company then took hold of it, and
finally Mr. Blake completed it.
In building the dock it was necessary to use
15,000 piles, 90,000 yards of concrete, 1500 cubic yards of stone and 3,000,000
feet of lumber. The length of the dock is 791 feet. The width
at the bottom is 76 feet and at the to 120 feet. It will hold a vessel
drawing 34 feet. The United States Government formally accepted it
Mary 17, 1910, and it’s the same day the U.S.S. California entered the
dock for repairs. This project has since played a big part in making
the Mare Island yard the important naval base it is today.
Mr. Blake is also president of the Venice
Island Land Company, which has a 3,400 acre reclamation project on the
San Joaquin river between Stockton and Antioch. The land has proved
valuable for the growing of vegetables and grain. Again, Mr. Blake
is vice-president of the Union Dredging Company, which engages in important
operations in San Francisco bay and about the deltas of the Sacramento
and San Joaquin rivers.
Mr. Blake was married in San Francisco May
17, 1894, to Anita Day Symmes, daughter of Frank J. Symmes. He is
a member of the University Club of San Francisco, the Athenian Club and
Claremont Country Club of Oakland and the Faculty Club of Berkeley.
Forty strenuous years has Judge John Bertrand
Clayberg spent as a member of the legal fraternity – him manifold honors
and a varied experience. One-time chief of the Supreme Court Commission
of Montana, he is also considered an expert on mining and irrigation laws
and for years has lectured on those subjects in some of the leading universities
of the country.
Judge Clayberg was born October 8, 1853, at
Cuba, Illinois. He father was George Clayberg, a farmer, and his
mother Elizabeth (Baugham) Clayberg. He was educated in the public
schools of his birthplace and in 1875 was awarded the degree of LL. B.
by the University of Michigan. From 1874 until 1876 he was in the
office of Thomas M. Cooley of Ann Arbor, the eminent judge and author and
at that time dean of the law department of the University of Michigan,
employed in writing notes and preparing memoranda for Judge Cooley’s works
on Taxation and Torts, which have been considered authority on those subjects
for many years.. He was admitted to the bar at Ann Arbor March 20,
1875.
Upon leaving Judge Cooley’s office, Judge
Clayberg opened law offices in Lansing, Michigan, in partnership with S.
L. Kilbourne. A year later he removed to Alpena, Michigan and formed
a partnership with Robert J. Kelley. This continued five years, when
it was dissolved and Judge Clayberg went into association with George H.
Sleator.
In the fall of 1884 Judge Clayberg came west
to Helena, Montana, and became a law partner of Thomas H. Carter.
When Carter went to Congress, in 1889, Judge Clayberg formed a new association
with N. W. McConnell, Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court.
The same year, 1889, Judge Clayberg was honored by the appointment, coning
from Governor Preston B. Leslie, to the office of Attorney General of the
Territory of Montana.
After admitting to the partnership, M. S.
Gunn, Judge Clayberg’s firm in 1894 opened a branch office in Butte.
Then followed various changes until September 1912, when Judge Clayberg
removed to San Francisco, where he continues to practice in partnership
with Welles Whitmore.
Judge Clayberg has appeared in various cases
of great importance, particularly in Montana. He was in the famous
Drum-Lummon mining litigation, which was litigated most vigorously by many
prominent mining lawyers of the United States for twenty-seven years, and
different phases of which went to the United States Supreme Court six or
seven times. In this litigation the Supreme Court finally established
many important points in mining law. He also was in the A. J. Davis
will case at Butte, wherein was involved an estate valued at about $10,000,000.
Bob Ingersoll was associated with him as one of the attorneys. This
litigation extended over 22 years and in its various phases was before
the Supreme Court of Montana some ten or 12 times. Several millions of
dollars also was involved in the long drawn-put litigation between F. Augustus
Heinze and the Amalgamated Copper Company, covering a period of ten years.
During this entire litigation Judge Clayberg was counsel for Heinze.
In 1903 Judge Clayberg was appointed chief
of the Supreme Court Commission of Montana, which was organized for the
purpose of assisting the Supreme Court in deciding a great accumulation
of cases and in clearing its calendar. During the two-year existence
of this commission Judge Clayberg wrote some 87 of the opinions of this
court, which may be found in volumes 28 to 32 of the Montana reports.
In 1891 Judge Clayberg was called to lecture
on
mining law in the law department of his alma mater, University of Michigan,
and for 24 years continued as non-resident lecturer there. About
1903 he added to his course lectures on irrigation law. He also lectured
on mining law at Columbia University, and from 1903 to 1905 at the Montana
School of Mines at Butte. He gave Stanford University a course of
lectures on extra-lateral rights in 1913 and in 1914 lectured on the Drum-Lummon
mining litigation before the law department of the University of California.
By invitation, he read papers on the law of “Percolating Water” before
the San Francisco Bar Association. HE is the author of the
article on “Mines and Minerals” published in the Cyclopedia of Law and
Procedure (commonly known as “Cyc”), which is considered as authority on
the subjects. He has contributed liberally to legal publications
for the past quarter of a century.
Judge Clayberg organized a law department
at the University of Montana in 1911 and was made honorary dean, filling
the chair of mining law and code pleadings until 1912. He is still
consulting dean and lecturer on mining law for the institution.
Considering that Cassius A. Hutton, with an
education obtained by the sweat of his brow, was one time the youngest
national bank cashier in the United States – with this in view one needs
no explanations of how Mr. Hutton has been able to build up from nothing
the largest flour jobbing business west of the Mississippi River.
Strenuous and persistent effort, and close
application to business – this is the secret of his success, of every success.
He has struggled against competition as keen as that in any other commercial
pursuit. There have been times when the future looked dark, when
it seemed that all his efforts were in vain. But fortitude and persistence
on every occasion carried the day, as such attributes nearly always will.
C. A. Hutton was born September 4, 1867, on
a farm at Algonac, Michigan, the son of William H. Hutton and M. J. (Higgins)
Hutton. When twelve years old he left home and made his way through
the public schools of Attica, Michigan. Following his graduation
from the high school of Lapeer, Michigan, he attended business college
at Bay City.
With the world before him, and the necessity
of putting his knowledge to account in his mind, Mr. Hutton entered a railroad
office and pursued the study of telegraphy. At the age of nineteen
he started as a telegrapher with the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railroad
Company. The year 1888 brought him to Cheney, Washington, where he
took a position in the station office of the Northern Pacific.
Two or three years more as a railroader and
Mr. Hutton began looking about him for an opportunity for more rapid advancement.
He was offered a position as bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Cheney
and accepted it. As he labored over his figures Mr. Hutton kept his
eyes open for knowledge of the business in which he had cast his lot.
This desire to learn was noticed and it was not very long until he was
given the position of assistant cashier. He was still in his early
twenties when he secured the cashiership.
After several years in banking, Mr. Hutton
left it to become business manager for a four milling concern of Cheney.
This was his first introduction to the business in which he was later on
to become so forceful a figure. In 1898 he came to San Francisco
to represent the firm as sales agent, and a short while later he opened
in the flour jobbing business for himself in a small way.
When he started out in his new field as an
independent jobber, Mr. Hutton had only about $3,000 in capital.
He steadily enlarged his business, however, until in 1908 he organized
the C. A. Hutton Flour Company, with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles,
and incorporated. The present volume of business runs between $1,500,000
and $2,000,000 a year, with capital and surplus of $300,000. The
corporation, which Mr. Hutton owns and controls entirely with the exception
of a few shares issued for organization purposes, confines itself to domestic
trade in California.
In a civic way Mr. Hutton has been active.
He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, the San Francisco Commercial Club,
and the Olympic and Transportation Clubs. Fraternally, he is a past
master of the Masons and is a member of Mission Lodge No. 169, A. F. &
A. M.
Mr. Hutton is married and has one son, Harold
P. Hutton, who is associated with him in business. He is a lover
of home and his new residence at 95 West Clay Park, representing an outlay
of $50,000, is one of most attractive in the city.
California is essentially a land of industrial
enterprises. Time was when it produced little of the real necessities
of life. Its rich deposits of gold distracted the settler and left
him but little interested in anything but the wresting of a fortune from
hits hills and river beds. Today, what with the directing of attention
to the “gold” that can be made to grow upon its fertile acres, other interests
claim the populace, and California has become a little country within itself
– self supporting.
One of the most important of these industries of
today is the flour business, and in this C. A. Hutton has played, and is
destined to play in the future, an important part.
“In my opinion, A. E. Vandercook is the Edison
of mining. He has invented what will prove one of the greatest boons
California has known. And, withal, he is one of the most ‘human’
men I have ever met.”
That is what L. B. McMurtry, president of
the California Extraction Company, thinks of the inventor of the Vandercook
System of Ore Treatment, a system he is developing in a commercial way.
And when one considers the results that already have been attained with
the Vandercook Treatment, the reason for the encomium is plain.
From the very first, almost, Mr. Vandercook
had mining mapped out for him as a career. That he has followed it
steadily and consistently is perhaps one reason why he has been able to
invent and prefect a treatment of ore extraction, which not only upsets
old chemical theories but has proved itself more than 98 per cent perfect
in practical operation.
Mr. Vandercook is a native of Jackson, Michigan,
born June 12, 1874, the son of Oscar Vandercook, mining investor and at
one time Chief United States Marshal for Utah. Following his graduation
from the common schools of Salt Lake City, Mr. Vandercook spent three years
studying under Charles Wyman, a well-known mining engineer. Subsequently
he spent two years in special courses in mining at the University of Utah,
and specialized in chemistry for another year at the Ogden Military Academy
at Ogden, Utah.
In 1894, when twenty years old, Mr. Vandercook
became chief assayer in John McVicker’s assay office at Salt Lake City.
After a little more than a year he became an assayer on the properties
of the Cedar Valley Gold and Silver Mining Company in Arizona, near Kingman.
While there he evolved a plan for the cyanidation of mine tailings and
tried it out, with success, at the Southwestern Mining Company’s workings
at El Dorado Canyon, Nevada, owned by Joseph Wharton of Philadelphia, the
“Nickel King”. Mr. Vandercook, after erecting this plant, the first
ever built in that section, became its superintendent. He then was
22 years old.
From El Dorado Canyon Mr. Vandercook went
to Bohemia, Oregon, and for one winter operated the Champion mines.
Coming back to San Francisco, he was attracted by a property originally
operated, but then abandoned, by Alvinza Hayward. Mr. Vandercook,
finding the mine had not been opened up properly, acquiring it, spent some
months developing it along the right lines and incorporated the Dairy Farm
Mining Company, in which L. C. Trent became interested. Three years
later the property, now known as Vantrent, was sold to the Guggenheims.
His present association with L. B. McMurtry and E. W. Kay in the California
Extraction Company began in 1911; a laboratory and a complete working model
plant has been operated by them since July, 1913, in East Oakland.
In the Vandercook cyanide treatment the ore
is slimed and classified to the required fineness directly in the cyanide
solution, while at the same time amalgamation is effected. This does
away with long hours of agitating the pulp and completes the extraction
while the crushing is going on. The metallic mercury, as thus employed,
prevents any fouling of the solution, which may be re-standardized and
used over again, at a great savings. After the amalgamation process
a large part of the solution is removed through the Vandercook thickener;
then the thickened pulp is passed on to the Vandercook filter for the washing
out and retaining of its pregnant solution. This solution then is
in an absolutely clear state – a condition not the case in other processes
– and is precipitated on zinc shavings.
So epochal is the Vandercook process that
miners must be shown before they will believe it possible to secure a 98
or 99 pre cent extraction. The secret lies largely in the combination
of the cyanide and amalgam systems, which ordinarily are used separately.
Even the most conservative have characterized the system as revolutionary,
inasmuch as with it tailings of abandoned mines and ores considered of
prohibitive low grade may be worked with profit.
And the invention is no longer in the experimental stage. It
has been fully proven. Patents have been secured, plants are now
being, or about to be, erected for a number of mining companies, and the
way is opened for universal exploitation.
When the fire of April 1906 swept over San
Francisco, all but razing the city to the ground, it destroyed, along with
hundreds of others, the business of Russell W. Cantrell, who at that time
conducted the Sterling Jewelry Company. It also marked a turning
point in Mr. Cantrell’s life and career.
For some time before the conflagration Mr.
Cantrell had been planning to take up the study of law. The fire
decided him. From then on he was determined he would carry his stock
in trade “under his hat,” where it would least comparatively safe.
Accordingly he studied, was admitted to the bar, began practicing – and
more and more each year since has he had cause to congratulate himself
on the change.
Mr. Cantrell is a native of San Francisco.
He was born August 28, 1881, the son of Joseph B. Cantrell, who was in
the mercantile business here, and Catherine T. (Shea) Cantrell. He
attended the public schools and in 1898 was graduated from the San Francisco
Polytechnic High School.
By this time Mr. Cantrell was looking forward
to one day becoming an attorney at law. He was restrained from entering
the profession at once, however, by the advice of his father, who believed
that no man can understand the law thoroughly unless he be at least 25
years old. This view was the same as that of a chief justice of the
Supreme Court, who had himself abided by it and whose own career he offered
as proof of his argument.
At the time he left school Mr. Cantrell was
still a youth. In casting about for something to occupy his time
until the right moment for a law career should be at hand he saw an opportunity
as traveling salesman for a firm of diamond importers. He embraced
the chance and for the next seven or eight years traveled about on the
Pacific Coast, from Alaska as far south as Mexico. This gave him
a broad experience in business, which has since proved extremely useful
to him.
In 1905 Mr. Cantrell launched the Sterling
Company, dealing in imported diamonds, fine watches and jewelry, and continuing
so until the wiping out of stock and store by the fire. Before the
end of the same year he entered Stanford University, where he specialized
in law. Two years later, after accomplishing a three-year course
– by dint of close application and by attending the summer sessions at
the University of California – in two, he returned to San Francisco, took
the bar examination and was admitted to practice.
During his second year at college Mr. Cantrell
paid his own way by working as an expert accountant for a number of mercantile
firms. He had taken up accountancy immediately after leaving high
school and had perfected himself in it.
Mr. Cantrell has had practically no practice
in the criminal courts. He has confined himself to civil law, specializing
in corporation and like work. He also has appeared in numerous cases
in the probate courts. At present he represents a son of William
A. Nivells, a pioneer miner o Amador and Trinity Counties who died in 1912
leaving an estate supposed to be worth something in the neighborhood of
a million dollars. A contest of Nivells’ will is shortly to be brought
to trial. Mr. Cantrell is general counsel for a number of real estate
and other corporations.
What with the stress of his legal practice,
Mr. Cantrell has not found time to be active in politics, although he is
a stanch supporter of the Democratic cause, and belongs to the Iroquois
Club. He also holds membership in the San Francisco Bar Association,
the San Francisco Commercial Club and the National Union.
Mr. Cantrell was married February 22, 1908,
in San Francisco to Miss Louise Bacigalupi. His home is at 2201 Larkin
Street.
It is quite as important to retain something
that has come into one’s possession as to possess it in the first place.
And this is particularly true when it applies to an estate, on which work
must be constant if it is to be kept up to its original status or value.
Vincent Whitney has found his life’s work
in the management of the properties acquired and partially built up by
his noted father, the late J. Parker Whitney. Even before his father’s
death, which occurred in January 1913, Vincent Whitney had been placed
in charge of the Whitney interests, and these he has strengthened and increased
in a most capable manner.
Born May 13, 1880, in New York City, the younger
Mr. Whitney secured his early education at St. Paul’s school of Concord,
New Hampshire. He afterward attended Harvard University and specialized
in engineering. The knowledge thus grained has proven decidedly useful
to him, as he has applied it since to the practical side of ranching.
In 1903 Vincent Whitney came to California
and lived for three years in Los Angeles and at other points in Southern
California. He has taken a keen interest in matters having to do
with the advancement of the City of his choice and has been active in a
number of pubic movements. One of these was the 1909 Portola Festival,
which came near being an international celebration, and in which Mr. Whitney
was one of the leading spirits. He has long been prominent also in
sports, particularly in golf.
The Whitney Estate Company’s holdings are
by no means confined to California, although the bulk of the properties
is in this State. There is included the 18,000-acre Whitney ranch
in Placer County at Rocklin, other real estate, town lots in San Francisco
and elsewhere, the Congress Hotel property at Pueblo, Colorado, and various
other interest of one kind and other.
The late J. Parker Whitney, whose work his
son is carrying on, was a sturdy California pioneer. In all forms
of Western enterprise – in mining, fruit raising, land reclamation, live
stock breeding and ranching – the of Whitney has been widely known, and
in each of these subjects he was an authority.
The son of a prominent New England family,
Mr. Whitney the elder was but seventeen years old when he made his first
trip to California by water around the Horn. Later he crossed the
plains no less than five times. In 1865 he went to Colorado and was
for a long time active in mining. During this period, in 1867, he
was appointed United States Commissioner to the Paris International Exposition.
Some time after this he went to New Mexico, where he built the Silver City
Railroad, connecting Silver City with the Santa Fe Railroad at Deming.
For half a century the late Mr. Whitney was
active in agricultural, horticultural and stock raising pursuits, and in
each of these three he was a pioneer. He was the first to import
thoroughbred Merino sheep to California from Spain; it was he who first
demonstrated that not only could oranges be grown in northern California
but that they ripen here from six weeks to two months earlier than those
grown in the Southern section of the State; and he it was who shipped the
first carload of raisins out of California. He did notable land reclamation
work at Roberts Island in the San Joaquin river.
Like father, like son, the Whitneys have ever
been stanch believers in San Francisco and California and have lent a hand
at every opportunity toward the upbuilding of both. Following the
San Francisco fire of 1906 the Whitneys were among the first to start rebuilding,
with the erection of the Whitney building at 133 Geary Street.
The elder Whitney, besides his business accomplishments,
was a sportsman and a writer of far more than ordinary note. His
exploits with the rod and gun extended over two continents. Among
the works of which he was the author are: “The Reminiscences of a Sportsman,”
“Fresh-Water Tide Lands,” “Colonization of Lands,” “Citrus Cultivation”
and “The Greater Future and Welfare of California.”
Vincent Whitney is active in a number of social
organizations. He was married in San Francisco to Miss Pearl Landers,
daughter of Mr. Mrs. John Landers of this city, at a brilliant social wedding.
On December 28, 1912, when the first street
car was operated on the Geary street line of the Municipal Railways, the
new traction enterprises boasted of but 10.90 miles of single track roadway,
9 cars and 56 employees of all kinds. During the four remaining days
of the first month the receipts totaled $3,300.60.
On July 1, 1915, a little more than two years
and half later, the Municipal Railways was operating over about 44 miles
of single track, and had 168 large type and 29 small type cars and 850
employees of all classes. The first four days of the month brought
into the corporation’s coffers $26,096.50.
When one considers that the Municipal Railway
system was placed almost at once on a paying basis under the management
of Superintendent Thomas A. Cashin, there is reflected on Mr. Cashin not
a little honor and credit. In fact the success of the municipal enterprise,
which has attracted world-wide attention, is attributed in a large degree
to Superintendent Cashin’s practical experience and his unremitting efforts
toward enlargement and betterment of the city of San Francisco’s project.
Thomas A. Cashin is a native of San Francisco.
He was born here June 19, 1879, the son of D’Arcy M. Cashin, mining promoter
and at one time engaged in the ice and cold storage business, and of Kate
E. (Taylor) Cashin. Mr. Cashin attended the grammar schools, the
Boys’ High School and the Polytechnic High School, afterward studying law
in the office off A. P. Van Duzer. This was in 1897.
A better opportunity then presenting itself,
Mr. Cashin went with the old Market Street Railway Company in the capacity
of stenographer and timekeeper in the maintenance of way and construction
department. From this he went into the accounting department, later
becoming material clerk in charge of all materials, and finally became
assistant engineer of way and construction.
In 1909 another opportunity for advancement
was placed before him. This was the superintendency of the Fresno
Traction Company at Fresno, California, and Mr. Cashin accepted.
Here his capability and progressiveness manifested itself and he soon had
gained an enviable reputation as a practical director of street railway
affairs. The result was that when the Municipal Railways of San Francisco
became a reality, railway experts recommended Mr. Cashin as superintendent
and he was appointed such October 7, 1912.
And let it be said here that the appointment
was not involved with politics in any way. Mr. Cashin is a Republican
but he is not a politician. He stood on his record, as he stands
today, was chosen for the place from among six aspirants and at the time
of is appointment knew none of the Supervisors nor was he acquainted even
with Mayor Rolph.
Starting in with practically nothing, Superintendent
Cashin has built up the Municipal Railways in a remarkable manner.
In the first year of its operation the Geary street road paid into the
city treasury the total profit above all expenditures of $85,345.80.
The Geary street line, which originally ran
from Geary and Market streets to 33rd avenue and Geary and to 10th avenue
and Fulton, was extended to the ferry and to the beach. Then was
added the Van Ness avenue line to the exposition, then the Stockton street
line, the Columbus avenue, the Presidio and Ferries, the California street
and the Chestnut street, the skirting the exposition.
San Francisco’s Municipal Railways probably
hold the record in the United States for rapid and substantial growth.
Today the road is in a healthy financial condition, and in, fact I has
never known a deficit. Its accounts are kept absolutely according
to the system prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission and approved
by the State Railway Commission, and it is run on a strictly civil service
basis. After indicating what the road would pay in taxes and other
expenses if privately owned, it is till shown that it is making money.
Already it has redeemed $101,000 worth of its outstanding bonds.
Mr. Cashin, the superintendent, belongs to
the Elks, The Fresno Sequoia Club and the Indoor Yacht, Transportation
and Olympic Clubs of San Francisco. He is unmarried.
George Oliver Bradley, chief consulting engineer
to Colonel Daniel C. Jackling, has designed and constructed mining and
metallurgical plants of a greater combined tonnage capacity than has any
other on engineer in the world. And for Colonel Jackling alone he
has built plants that will exceed in capacity those of any other five metalliferous
mining interests in the world put together.
Few persons, perhaps, aside from those personally
acquainted with Mr. Bradley, or those whose interests lie in the mining
or engineering field, know this important fact. And the reason they
do not know it is simply that Mr. Bradley has not told them. Working
quietly and without ostentation, sticking close to his duties and making
them his paramount interest, he has shunned publicity rather than sought
it.
And these are the very reasons why he has
been able to accomplish so much in so comparatively in a few years.
Mr. Bradley is a native of Colorado.
He was born at Arvada January 17, 1867, the son of William C. Bradley,
a pioneer in the Western transportation field, and Emily F. (Graves) Bradley.
After receiving his education in the public schools of Golden, Colorado,
MR. Bradley, while still a youth, served a four years’ apprenticeship in
machinery and mechanical engineering at Denver.
Immediately following this period of training
Mr. Bradley accepted a position as draughtsman for the Moffat mining properties
at Leadville. Ever since then he has been associated constantly with
the development and advancement of the mining industry in the various districts
of the country.
For eighteen years now Mr. Bradley has been
associated with Colonel Jackling. Something like a dozen years ago
began those famous experiments with low-grade copper ores that marked a
new epoch in the growth of the country’s copper production. Mr. Bradley
worked throughout that campaign which has placed Bingham, Utah, on the
made of the Utah Copper Company one of the controlling factors in the copper
industry of the United States.
At Bingham was discovered a veritable mountain
of low-grade porphyry. The ore was comparatively easy to mine, but
a deterrent was found in the inability of the miners to make the working
of the porphyry commercially profitable. Some of the foremost mining
engineers of the nation declared that the ores could not be made to pay.
At Copperton Mr. Bradley designed and built
for the Utah Copper CO. a 500-ton experimental reduction plant. Here
was taken ore from Bingham, nearby, and here the experiments were carried
on. Data collected by means of these experiments not only made possible
the project for working the Bingham ores, but it was used in the construction
of a plant at Garfield, Utah, with 12,000-ton daily capacity. This
plant is now handling 26,000 tones a day.
The mine at Bingham is today world-famous.
In character it is unique. By reason of the process which makes it
possible to work with profit the low-grade ores, it is also possible to
mine with steam shovels. Round and round the mountain of ore the
shovels have eaten their way, lessening slowly but none the less surely
the vast mineral deposit.
Previous to all this, Mr. Bradley built the
plant of the Anaconda Copper Company in Montana. From there he went
to Bisbee, Arizona, and erected the copper converting plant of the Copper
Queen Consolidated Mining Company. After the completion of this work
there followed the designing and building by Mr. Bradley of the reduction
works of the Ray Consolidated Copper Company in Arizona and the Chino Copper
Company in New Mexico.
Following his construction of the plant of
the Butte & Superior Copper Company, Ltd., at Butte, Montana, Mr. Bradley
in 1912 went to Alaska and built the works of the Alaska Gold Mines Company.
At the present time Mr. Bradley is designing another gold reduction plant,
one of 10,000 tons daily capacity for the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining Company,
a concern controlled by San Francisco and New York interests.
Through all these years Mr. Bradley has worked
early and late, without even so much as a vacation. Considering this,
his record is easily accounted for.