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.
Hyrum Smith Woolley (page 339)
Everything that Hyrum Smith Woolley has undertaken
in the way of business has been on an unusually large scale. When he was
ranching in Idaho he had a place of 15,000 acres; when, later on, he furnished
the timber for the construction of the Oregon Short Line, he furnished
all the timber; today he is back of a big mining development project in
which 40,000 acres of rich alumna nitrate bearing lands are involved.
Mr. Woolley is a native of Salt Lake City, Utah.
He was born July 16, 1852, the son of Edwin D. Woolley, merchant and farmer,
and of Mary Ellen (Wilding) Woolley. Between the ages of seven and sixteen
Mr. Woolley attended school in the winter and worked during the summer
months. Circumstances made it necessary that he begin earning a livelihood,
and the remainder of his education he has gained in the great school of
business
Upon striking out for himself, Mr. Woolley determined
to learn the blacksmithing trade. He secured a position as apprentice,
and so rapidly did he advance himself that six months later he was doing
a journeyman's work, and in two years had become a full fledged journeyman.
He broke all records and took the State prize by completing the building
of a wagon within a year after he entered the business.
For four years Mr. Woolley carried on his trade.
Then, seized with the wanderlust, he went to the Sandwich Islands. He became
proficient in speaking the Hawaiian language and for four years was in
charge of a sugar factory on the plantation of Laiea, Island of Oahu. Returning
to the continent in 1877, he took over a 15,000-acre ranch in Bannock County,
Idaho, and began operating it. At the same time he started a general merchandise
store at Paris, Bear Lake County, Idaho.
When the construction of the Oregon Short Line began
in 1882, from McCammon, Idaho, to Ham's Fork, Wyoming, Mr. Woolley secured
the contract to furnish all the necessary timber forties and bridges. The
right to cut timber from along the 180-mile right-of way was vested in
him by the Government. Mr. Woolley delivered every stick of the wood
by wagon. He had as high as 150 teams of horses going at once on hauls
ranging from 10 to 150 miles, and had seven portable sawmills in full operation.
He did not complete his work until 1883,
In 1885 Mr. Woolley's store was burned
down and thereafter for ten years he confined himself to ranching.
He handled from 5,000 to 10,000 head of cattle each year, and when
Colonel W F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill") opened his Wild West show
at the Chicago World's Fair, Mr. Woolley furnished him his initial 150
head of horses. Leaving Idaho in 1895, Mr. Woolley went to New York City
and engaged in mining and land promotion. In 1900, the year of the
big gold rush to Nome, he organized, with Jacob Furst of Seattle, the Pacific
Abstract Title & Trust Company, with headquarters at Nome. He had charge
of this business until 1901, when Illness compelled him to give it up and
return to New York.
In 1901 Mr. Woolley invented the Woolley Smokeless
Furnace, which is still the best smokeless furnace in the world which acts
by natural draft. Between 800 and 1,000 of the furnaces are in use in Pittsburgh
alone today. Mr. Woolley disposed of his patent, however, some years ago.
Mr. Woolley returned west to Nevada in 1907, and
was interested in mining there until 1910, when he went to Portland and
from there came to California, settling near Crescent City, where he has
remained most of the time since and where he at present has a large land
project.
It was while investigating a placer mining property
in Harney County, Oregon, that Mr. Woolley discovered a vast deposit of
40,000 acres of alumna nitrate. Under his direction the land has been located
for development. From present indications this is the largest and highest
grade deposit of its kind ever found in the United States, and the discovery
is considered of particular importance because it is believed it will make
the United States Government entirely independent of Chile and the German
Empire for its supply of nitrates and related products, so necessary in
the manufacture of explosives. Chemical analysis of the Harney County ore
has shown a conceit of 20 per cent potassium nitrate and 23 per cent alumna,
and even the residue, red oxide of Iron, is of commercial value. Mr. Woolley's
time is at present de- voted to the development of this project.
In 1873 Mr. Woolley was married in Salt Lake City
to Minerva Rich. He is the father of nine children, eight of whom are still
living.
Edward H. O’Brien (page 310)
Back of the name "C. E. Bickford & Company,"
a name known in every coffee market of the United States, is a reputation
for honesty of purpose and straight dealing that has come as the result
of half a century of upright work. And back of this is the evergreen
memory of Clarence E. Bickford, and the forceful personality of Edward
H. O'Brien, who since Mr. Bickford's death in 1908 has carried on the concern's
business.
C. E. Bickford & Company is one of the largest
coffee brokerage houses outside of New York City, and, in volume of business,
one of the most important in the Nation. It is the only statistician in
this market on the coffee trade of the world, and comes as near being an
exchange as the business of the port warrants. It is the controlling factor
in its field on the Pacific Coast, and handles more Central American coffee
products than any other brokerage organization in the United States.
On April 27, 1908, in memoriam to Clarence E. Bickford,
there was drawn up and signed by practically every coffee dealer in San
Francisco an appreciation which, in scope, is unique. One para-graph in
particular, which explains the standing of the late Mr. Bickford and his
concern, is as follows: "Mr. Bickford has so possessed the confidence
of the coffee trade that he has been, by common consent, the arbiter and
adjuster of all questions arising between importers on the one hand, and
all dealers on the other. His decisions have been so just, so considerate
of the rights of the disputants, that acquiescence has always followed
the decision; thereby litigation and quarrels have been avoided and good
feeling and good fellowship have existed where there might have been bitterness
and recrimination."
There is a great deal that is romantic in the history
of C. E. Bickford & Company, and in the manner in which Edward H. O'Brien
came to be its head and principal owner.
The business was established in 1854, when San Francisco
was still the Mecca for gold-seekers, by B. Hockhofler, then Consul for
Austria. Clarence E. Bickford was engaged as office boy when he was thirteen
years old, and so worked and advanced himself that in 1883, on the demise
of Mr. Hockhofler, the business was turned over to him. The name was changed
to "C. E. Bickford," and
thus it continued until 1908, the year of Mr. Bickford's death.
Edward H. O'Brien was born in San Francisco in 1876.
He left school when he was twelve years old and secured a position with
the Castle Brothers coffee house, with whom for the next five years he
served his apprenticeship in the coffee business. When he was twenty years
old he became a salesman for C. E. Bickford. Like Bickford himself, Mr.
O'Brien plunged into his work with such a will that soon his employer made
him chief clerk, and he remained in this capacity about seven years.
For about two years before his death Mr. Bickford
was practical-ly confined to his home by illness, and during this period
Mr. O'Brien ran the business. By will Mr. Bickford left his entire
business to Mr. O'Brien, with the legal right to continue the business
name. Then two years ago Mr. O'Brien took in, as his junior partners, P.
W. Holmes and J. 0. Falkinham, who also had been with Mr. Bickford in the
business for ten years or more.
C. E. Bickford & Company has as high a commercial
i standing as any brokerage house in the United States. For many years
it has tested for their drinking qualities coffee samples submitted on
bids to all public institutions in California. Several of its clients among
the wholesale coffee dealers have dealt with it for as long as fifty years,
and today it has the exclusive representa-
tion of more than 90 per cent of the Central American coffees shipped
into the port of San Francisco.
Since the awarding of the grand prize at the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition to Guatemalan coffees, as the best grown anywhere
in the world, Mr. O'Brien has conceived the project of making Guatemalan
coffees of more importance in the United States. In the course of his career
he has visited Europe, Brazil and Argentine Republic to further his knowledge
of coffee growing, and expects soon to visit Guatemala to complete plans
for his forthcoming campaign.
This should result in not only the popularizing
of Central American coffees in the Eastern States, but it should vastly
increase the importance of San Francisco as a world market.
Randolph V. Whiting (page 333)
A native son of the Golden-West, mingling with the
broad optimistic outlook of the Westerner the traditions of his distinguished
Southern ancestry, no history of San Francisco or California would be complete
without the name of Randolph V. Whiting, lawyer, editor, politician—in
the highest sense of the term—and gentleman.
A descendant of the famous Carter and Braxton families
of Virginia, who in the days before the Civil War occupied princi- palities
in that State, Mr. Whiting was born in Quincy, Plumas County, California,
and received his early training in the schools of that community. His later
education was obtained in Bowens Academy, Berkeley, whence he entered the
University of California and afterward Hastings College of the Law, receiving
his degree from the latter institution in 1895.
While in college, Mr. Whiting distinguished himself
in athletics and held several coast records for a number of years.
Upon leaving college and being graduated from Hastings in 1895, he took
up the practice of his profession in this city.
In 1900 he was appointed Assistant District Attorney
of San Francisco under Lewis F. Byington and served in that capacity until
1906, when he entered private practice again. It was during his term in
the District Attorney's office that Mr. Whiting won a remarkable victory,
when he served as an expert on California law in the extradition of George
D. Collins, accused of bigamy and perjury, who had made his escape to Canada.
Mr. Whiting is today one of the foremost lawyers
in San Francisco. For ten years he has been very prominent in State and
County politics and has been mentioned for high offices, although he has
refused steadfastly to accept the urgings of his friends in this direction,
among the offerings were those for the offices of Superior Judge, United
States Attorney and District Attorney. He was a member of the Democratic
State Central Committee and of the County Central Committee and was one
of the four men appointed to represent San Francisco at the inauguration
of President Wilson, the other three being M.H. de Young, Theodore Bell
and Congressman Julius Kahn.
A well-known and able law writer, Mr. Whiting is
noted for his grasp of legal decisions and the points involved. For many
years he has been editor of two legal publications, "California Decisions"
and "California Appellate Decisions," which are the advance publications
of the Supreme and Appellate Court decisions.
On February 1, 1915, Mr. Whiting had conferred upon
him the honor of being appointed by the Supreme Court of California to
the position of assistant reporter of State Supreme Court decisions as
well as of decisions of the District Court of Appeals. This position involves
the digesting and preparation of syllabi of the decisions of these two
courts.
Mr. Whiting is prominent in the Masonic order and
has been closely identified with the extensive charitable work of that
organization. He is past master of King Solomon's lodge, having filled
all the chairs of the lodge one after the other. He is also a member of
California Commandery of Knights Templar and of the Scottish Rite bodies,
as well as of Islam Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine
of San Francisco.
In 1900 Mr. Whiting married Miss Mary Rosselet Bowens,
daughter of the late T. Stewart Bowens and Mrs. Bowens of Oakland and Berkeley,
a belle of the east bay community and at the present time prominent in
the club and social life of Oakland and San Francisco.
Milton L. Schmitt (page 320)
Great responsibility devolves upon the man sent
to the State Legislature to become his neighbors' voice in the framing
of laws affecting their interests, in the remedying of evils and in the
promotion of the general welfare. It has been said that to become a legislator
is not the really difficult thing—it is to secure re-election on the strength
of past performances rather than future promises.
Four times has Milton L. Schmitt been sent to the
Legislature of California and each re-election has placed the mark of approval
upon his record. Ever in the forefront in the fight for adequate, sensible
laws, he has fathered dozens of bills of lasting good through the tortuous
course to the signature of the chief executive.
Before he entered his so fruitful public career
Mr. Schmitt sought and attained success in the practice of law. He was
born in San Francisco February 4, 1877, son of Maurice Schmitt and Ella
(Lewis) Schmitt, and acquired his education in the public schools, the
University of California and the Hastings College of Law, being graduated
from the latter in 1899 and gaining admittance to the bar. He entered the
offices of Naphtaly, Freidenrich & Ackerman and following the deaths
of Naphtaly and Ackerman formed with Freidenrich an association that still
persists. He has gained an enviable reputation in general civil practice.
In 1907 Mr. Schmitt was a delegate to the Republican
convention in San Francisco and in 1908 was nominated as Republican candidate
for the State Assembly from the old fortieth district. He secured a comfortable
majority and held office from January 1, 1909, to December 31, 1910.
Assemblyman Schmitt did not forget the University
of California. As chairman of the Assembly committee on universities he
promoted a bill increasing the State institution's income from two cents
to three on each $100 valuation. Also he secured passage of several bills
amending the McEnerney act, for the restoration of land titles lost in
the San Francisco fire of 1906; and was official California representative
at the Alaska Yukon-Pacific Exposition at Seattle in 1909.
In 1910 he was re-elected from the fortieth district.
More hard work followed. He was a candidate in 1911 for speaker of the
Assembly, but withdrew, to his friends' disappointment. In February, 1911,
he evolved a bill which, had it passed, would have brought three-quarters
of a million dollars additional automobile tax to the State annually. As
chairman of the Assembly -committee on commerce and navigation he had passed,
at the 1911 session, bills giving waterfront control to the cities of Oakland,
San Diego, Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The Panama-Pacific Exposition had a champion in
Mr. Schmitt from the start. In the special 1910 Legislature session, called
to raise funds for the exposition, he introduced Assembly Constitu-tion
Amendment No. 33, giving San Francisco the right to bond itself for $5,000,000
for fair purposes. This was the first legislation to make the exposition
a possibility. At the same session he aided in the passage of a measure
by which the State was empowered to bond itself to a similar amount for
the same cause.
Following the reapportionment of the State, Mr.
Schmitt was elected by a majority of 2,280 votes to the Assembly from the
newly formed thirty-first district. He gained a similar victory at the
1914 election and 'entered upon his fourth term. It would require a volume
to enumerate all his fights on behalf of the people of San Francisco.
At the 1915 session Mr. Schmitt was particularly
active. He led the minority's fight against the administration's non-partisan
bills, -which, designed to wipe out political party lines in State affairs,
he believed to be the initial step toward eliminating parties in the Nation.
He was chosen to lead this fight by Republican, Democratic and Progressive
sympathizers alike. Mr. Schmitt also led the battle
against the constitutional amendment eliminating constitutional taxation
restrictions and leaving to the Legislature the fixing of tax rates as
it saw fit. Both, these measures Mr. Schmitt considered iniquitous.
Maurice Schmitt, father of Milton L. Schmitt, was
a partner with his two brothers in the brokerage film of J. L. Schmitt
& Company, which at one: time was heavily interested in the Sutter
Street Railroad. Milton L. Schmitt was married February 12, 1900, to Miss
Helen Alexander, daughter of the late S. 0. Alexander, founder of the firm
now known as Hoffman, Rothschild & Company.
J.E. White (page 227)
Every man has his personal convictions. He knows
certain things are right and that their growth should be fostered, and
that certain other things are wrong and should be rooted out. But so prone
is mankind to evade its responsibility that the one who shows the courage
of his convictions is the exception, perhaps, rather than the rule.
J. E White, attorney at law and one of the greatest
champions
of good in the State of California, has shown tthis sort of courage to
an unusual degree. He believes that anything that lowers the standard of
morality, anything that tends to beset the youth of the land with temptations
and dangers, is a menace to society and that it is the duty of honest individuals
to pool their efforts toward effecting a change for the better. Believing
thus, he has for the past dozen years or more been in the thick of the
fight for the better life and has not spared his efforts in anything worthy,
despite the fact that his activities have worked a great personal loss
by taking him away from monetary pursuits.
Away back in 1902, with others, Mr. White organized
the Higher License League and launched a campaign to raise the saloon license
in San Francisco from $84 a year to $500 a year. The project was defeated
at an election in the fall of 1905 by about 3,000 votes, but following
the fire the organization went before the Board of Supervisors and secured
the ordinance they desired. This included provisions making it unlawful
to conduct a saloon within 150 feet of a school or church and also divorcing
the saloon from the grocery store. Up to that time nearly all the groceries
had bars, but by means of the ordinance the number of bars in the city
was reduced by about 1,200. Since then Mr. White has represented about
90 per cent of the Protestants against the location of saloons in districts
where they were not desired. He also has been called upon .to assist other
cities in a similar work. Among others he led a campaign in 1906 in Vallejo
which reduced the number of saloons by one-half. He has been attorney for
the Anti-Saloon League in Northern California for ten years.
In 1909 Mr. White led the campaign that did away
with slot machines in San Francisco, a campaign backed by the San Francisco
Church Federation, which he has represented in its civic activities for
the past eight years. In 1911 Mr. White led the fight before the State
Legislature which spelled the doom of slot machines throughout California.
About the same time he did considerable campaigning on behalf of woman
suffrage, which finally won.
About eight years ago Mr. White started, with others,
a movement to abolish prize fights in San Francisco. He succeeded, in 1910,
in blocking the Johnson-Jeffries fight that was to have been held here.
After failing to get an anti-prize fight bill through the 1911 Legislature
he helped pass one under the initiative in 1914 and it went into effect
last December. He was secretary of the State campaign committee
in 1914 that worked for the Redlight Abatement Bill, which became a law,
and in the subsequent test case Mr. White represented the people of California.
He also campaigned all over the State in 1914 on behalf of the prohibition
amendment, as chairman of the citizenship and temperance department of
the State Christian Endeavor "Union. He is aiding the "dry" campaign
now under way for the 1916 election.
Mr. White was born November 8, 1870, on a farm in
Grundy County, Iowa, the son of Robert White and Rosa (Zeran) White. He
attended the public schools of Rockford, Iowa, was graduated from the High
School in 1889 and received his A. B. from Cornell College in 1895. He
worked his way through school almost from the beginning. For some time
he was employed at nights as callboy for a railroad, pursuing his studies
in the daytime. Later, during his vacations, he worked as chore boy in
a law office. In 1896 Mr. White went to Riverside, California, and
taught in a business college besides conducting a private preparatory school
for teachers. He came to San Francisco in 1899, entered the Hastings College
of the Law, through which he worked his way, and received his LL. B. in
1902. He at once began practicing his profession independently, specializing
in probate and corporation matters. Politically he is an ardent and active
Progressive.
Mr. White belongs to the Commonwealth Club and is
a stanch member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is general
State counsel.
William Sea, Jr. (page 321)
That there is a limit to the work a man can accomplish
is pretty generally conceded. Up to a certain point he can hold his own,
but past this point the load is too heavy for his shoulders and something
gives way—either the man or the work, but always one of the two.
But there is no certain limit of accomplishment
that can apply to all men, universally. Were there such, we would all of
us rest at a certain level or beneath it, but never above. Ambition and
the willingness to expend brain and brawn in advancement would count for
naught. The work limit would hurl us back with the doged-ness of a stonewall,
despite ability or any other distinc-tive qualification we might possess.
Never yet has a man really done big things without
work and plenty of it. And it is such men to whose efforts
the building up of the commonwealth is due.
"William Sea, Jr., attorney at law, has before him
one of the brightest futures of any young man in California He has already
demonstrated that what he goes after he gets, and it is no idle prediction
that the passage of years and the concomitant oppor-tunities will bring
out even greater displays of this winning attribute.
A native of San Francisco, born here November 10,
1883, Mr. Sea is the son of William Sea and Anna Helen (Jordan) Sea. On
his mother's side he comes of old English-Irish stock, one of his ancestors,
a grand-uncle, having been knighted. This one was Sir John Pope-Hennessy,
M. P., of Innesfallen Castle, County Cork, Ireland. He purchased the house
of Sir Walter Scott with the intention of bringing it to America, but death
came before the plans were completed. Mr. Sea's grand-uncle on his father's
side was Premier of Australia.
After attending the local grammar schools Mr. Sea
entered Lowell High School, and following his graduation from that institution
he entered Hastings College of the Law, which awarded him his degree of
LL.B. May 13, 1908. Prior to this, however, he had advanced so far in his
legal studies that he gained admittance to the bar January 18, 1907, the
first member of his class to secure such recognition.
In February 1905, along about the time he entered
Hastings Law College, Mr. Sea began studying in the offices of the well-known
firm of Maguire, Lindsay, Wyckoff, Houx & Barrett. At first he was
merely one of a number of clerks but following the fire of April 18, 1906,
when his associates refused to stay on in their positions, Mr. Sea became
chief and only clerk of the firm.
From 1906 until May 1910, was a period of real labor
for the young law student. Not only did he handle the clerical work of
the law association practically unassisted, but he carried on his college
duties and even managed to find time enough to practice following his admittance
to the bar in 1907. Nights, Sundays and every day in the week and every
week in the year he kept plugging away at his three-fold task, astonishing
him-self as well as others by his capacity for accomplishment. It was effort,
and long-sustained effort, but it gave Mr. Sea a fine groundwork in the
law and for this reason carried its own reward.
After leaving the office of Judge Maguire and his
associates, Mr. Sea became assistant secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.
In line with this position he drafted a number of memorials to the State
Legislature, to Congress and to the President, the last one being directed
to President Taft and asking that a fleet of war vessels be stationed permanently
in the Pacific Ocean.
Until the first part of 1911 Mr. Sea remained in
the assistant secretary ship. From then on until June 1912, he was
associated in the practice of law with Samuel T. Bush; after that he practiced
independently until September 1913, when he formed the firm of Sea &
Fanon with Joseph P. Fallen. Since October 1914, Mr. Sea has practiced
alone, almost exclusively in the Federal courts, specializing in criminal
cases. He has been admitted to practice, however, in all the State
and Federal courts of California.
In politics Mr. Sea is an active Republican. In
1910, at the first primary election under the new law, he was a candidate
for justice of the peace, but although he qualified, was defeated at the
subsequent election.
Mr. Sea was married June 22, 1910, at Mill Valley
to Lorena Florence Barnes. He has one son, William Francis Sea.
A. Wenzelburger (page 331)
There are two ways, from the psychological viewpoint,
of living with satisfaction to ourselves, one way is to set ourselves no
goal whatsoever, to let intellectuality and personal attainments go for
naught and we are happy and satisfied through ignorance; The other, and
the better, way is to choose our goal, then as we struggle constantly compare
our "success" with our "pretensions" until the two balance; and when they
do, then have we lived, then have we attained inner satisfaction, indeed!
Measured by such a standard as this, A. Wenzelburger,
expert public accountant and head of a large corps of workers, has gained
satisfaction in his success. He has become what he set out to become; and
though that does not mean that he has ceased to advance, still he has reached
his original goal and more.
There are many reasons why Mr. Wenzelburger
should secure recognition in the story of San Francisco and California.
It is on the shoulders of such men as he stanch and dependable, that has
fallen the burden of this State's development.
Of particular interest at this time, Spring Valley
Water Company has been brought into the limelight by the proposed purchase
of its properties by the City of San Francisco, is the tact that it was
Mr. Wenzelburger who made the examination of the water company's affairs
for the city in 1904 This was in connection with the municipality’s suit
against the corporation and involved an investigation of the cost of operation
of Spring Valley from the date of its organization in 1854. The work, done
under the direction of City Engineers Dockweiler and Grunsky, took nine
months of close an application and tedious labor; it was the
most extensive examination ever made the city of the affairs of a public
utility. Mr. Wenzelburger's appointment carried with a salary of $1,000
a month.
Mr. Wenzelburger was born in 1847 in southern Germany,
the son of the Rev. John George Wenzelburger a Lutheran minister who acted
as director of the diocese of Braunsbach in the kingdom of Wurtemberg.
Mr. Wenzelburger was graduated, in 1865, from the Latin school of his native
city a school graded somewhat higher than the high schools of the United
States. For the succeeding three years he engaged in mercantile pursuits,
but in 1868 came to the United States. This he was prompted to do partly
because he felt that military service, which would have been compulsory
had he remained in Germany, would retard his progress in a career which
had far more attractions to him than that of bearing arms.
The spring of 1868 witnessed Mr. Wenzelburger's
arrival at Philadelphia. He visited relatives there a few months, then
came across country to San Francisco. A week spent here and he went to
Eastern Nevada, where he became accountant for a large mining concern.
In those days mining operations in Nevada were sometimes of rrather short
duration so that Mr. Wenzelburger was obliged to change his position frequently
and at times seek employment with commercial firms. At length he started
out independently in the hardware business at Hamilton, Nevada remaining
in this pursuit until 1876, when he returned to San Francisco, this time
to remain.
An active business association with the late Jullus
Jacobs began when Mr. Wenzelburger became cashier and accountant of the
Germania Life Insurance Company. Mr. Jacobs was then general agent for
the Germania Company. Afterward he was made Assistant United States Treasurer
under President McKinley, but passed away before his term of office expired.
Mr. Jacobs was a member of the firm of Jacobs Eastern & Company, to
which Mr. Wenzelburger was admitted to partnership in the late eighties,
when it was the largest insurance concern in San Francisco.
Following the passing of the Public Accountancy
Act by the State Legislature, Mr. Wenzelburger was appointed by Governor
Pardee a member of the state Board of Commissioners of Public Accountants
and during the second year of the board's existence served as its president.
Since that time, however he has devoted his entire attention to private
practice and has built up a strong clientele. He is auditor for a number
of large local concerns.
Mr. Wenzelburger was married in 1878 in San Francisco
to Miss Ella Carter. The couple have two daughters; Elisa, wife of Judge
A. E. Graupner, and Lalla, wife of First Lieutenant William H. Shea, U.
S. A. Mr. Wenzelburger is a member of several fraternal orders, among them
holding the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and in matters pertaining
to civic betterment is especially active.
Frank H. Short (page 322)
The man who declared that he would rather be "a
big toad in a small puddle than a small toad in a big puddle" had not that
self-confidence so necessary if one is to become really "big." A man may
acquire neighborhood fame. It is quite another thing to extend one's sphere
to take in the entire nation—this is only for the valiant, who has the
courage to try to make of himself "a big toad in a big puddle."
Frank H. Short—he probably will be recognized more
readily if we speak of him as the Honorable Frank H. Short of Fresno—has
never been held back. In his career by fear. Aggressive, capable, a close
thinker and a fluent speaker, he has locked horns with some of the greatest
statesmen in the land on questions of public import and successfully.
When Mr. Short stepped forth to encounter former
President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot in public debates on water
conservation, it was with a deep and first-hand knowledge of his theme.
And this and his other activities have brought him national recognition
as an authority on the constitutional law as it affects the relation of
the Federal Government to the rights of the sovereign States.
Judge Short was born September 12, 1862, in Shelby
County, Miss-ouri, son of Joshua Hamilton Bell Short, who came of a family
noted in the literary and legal history of the United States, and Emily
(Wharton) Short. After attending the public schools of Missouri and Nebraska,
Mr. Short came in 1881 to California. For some time he taught school in
Fresno, as he had done in Nebraska, meanwhile studying law.
Judge Short was only twenty-two years old when,
in 1882, he was elected Justice of the Peace in Fresno. He was admitted
the following year to practice in the State courts and in 1901 to the Supreme
Court of the United States. For a decade he carried on a general legal
practice, gradually broadening his field and taking part in civil actions
relating to irrigation, mineral rights and light and power and other corporations.
He built up a reputation for keen retort and strong mental grasp of his
cases, a reputation that has since grown amazingly.
In railroad rate litigation Mr. Short appeared as
special counsel for the State of California in the Fresno rates case and
the oil rates case as well. He represented the oil operators of California
in the Scrippers case, involving title to a large area of oil-bearing lands.
This took him to Washington to appear before the United States Supreme
Court and the Interior Department, and he won a notable victory. Later
Judge Short went to Washington as chairman of the California oilmen's delegation
and it was largely due to his persuasive powers that Congress in 1911 enacted
reme-dia1 legislation permitting the issuance of patents to cor-porationsas
assignees of oil land locators.
In matters pertaining to water and irrigation, Judge
Short has long been active. As counsel for Miller & Lux and other corpo-rations
he has appeared in the leading water cases in the Cal-ifornia courts.
Judge Short has opposed radical conservation movements
for the past fifteen years. He has debated before several large public
meetings, including the Irrigation Congress and the Conservation Congress
of 1910. He debated with Roosevelt before the Common-wealth Club of San
Francisco in 1911 and caused the former president to be visibly disconcerted.
Judge Short is an active Republican. He has been
a delegate to most of the State Republican conventions since 1884 and to
the national conventions of 1896 and 1904, and has represented the party
in many other ways without seeking any remunerative offices. He was one
of the three representatives from California in the Governors' Conference
of 1908 at the White House in Washington. He has taken part in the National
Geographic Society, National Civic Federation and Economic League and was
commissioner of Yosemite National Park from 1898 to 1908.
Judge Short is interested in various California
corporations as general counselor, director or officer, being general counsel
for the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation and Its allied corporations,
Fresno Water Co., Fresno Canal & Irrigation Co., Consolidated Canal
Co. and others; general counselor and director for Fresno National Bank,
Fresno County Abstract Co., Mount Diablo Oil Co., Bakersfield & Fresno
Oil Co., Netherlands Oil Co., San Juan Oil Co., 401 Orchard & Land
Co. of Medford, Oregon, and California Raisin Growers' Association.
He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for
many years and belongs to the Fresno Country, Fresno Sequoia and Fresno
Commercial Clubs, and Pacific Union, Bohemian and Union League clubs of
San Francisco.
Frank R. Short (page 323)
It takes all sorts of men to make a world. Some
remain in the place where they were born, g-row up with it, shape their
careers to it and at length die in it, perfectly contented with their rather
blasé life. For others there is ever a sensation of being crowded
if they attempt to remain in one community. The world is their stamping-
ground, and when their career draws to a close they have the satisfaction
that comes with a life well spent.
Such a man as the latter sort is Frank R. Short,
expert mining-engineer and world-traveler. From his main offices,
now located in the Hobart building in San Francisco, he flits from one
place to another, as his duties call him, and is as much at home in, say,
Peru, as he is in any part of the United - States.
Born in San Francisco, August 8, 1876, Mr. Short
is the son of Josiah M. Short and Sarah (Blanchard) Short. His father came
across the plains in 1850 from Illinois and was -well known in this city
in the early days as a miner, merchant and capitalist.
The early schooling of the present Mr. Short was
obtained in the public schools, after which he for some years attended
Napa Academy at Napa. In 1894 he entered Stanford University, specializing
in geology and mining, and was graduated in 1898 with the degree of A.
B. His interest had been directed toward mining as a career by his father's
success in the same sort of pursuit.
Almost at once, after he left the university, Mr.
Short went abroad. For two years he traveled extensively over New Zealand,
Australia and South Africa, examining properties of a general mining nature.
In 1900, finding himself In South Africa with the Boer War in full blast,
he joined in the excitement by aligning himself with the forces of the
Colonial defense. At first he was a
scout, but later on his commanders placed him in charge of transportation
and supply stations for the British army. He did not lack for adventures.
On one occasion he was made prisoner by Theron, a Boer commandant, but
after a few days succeeded in escaping and rejoining his comrades.
For about a year Mr. Short remained-with the Colonial
forces. Then he went to the Transvaal and resumed his profession of mining
engineer. He was overseer in various gold mines until1907, when he returned
to San Francisco and opened offices. Since that time he has carried on
the business of consulting mining engineer. He has remained independent
in his practice, but his clientele is large and he finds his services much
in demand.
From 1907 until 1912, though he made San Francisco
his head-quarters, Mr. Short traveled extensively in New Zealand, Australia
South America, Mexico, Canada, Yukon Territory, Alaska, and throughout
the "Western United States. He specialized in the examination of auriferous
lands and in gold dredging.
The revolution in Mexico drove him out of that country
in 1912. He was forced to flee for his life from the outlaw bands that
were terrorizing the country. A part of his party was captured, the natives
slain and the others robbed of their every possession. Subsequently, in
1912 and 1913, Mr. Short was technical adviser to the Natomas Consolidated
on its properties near Sacramento.
During the past four years Mr. Short has done considerable
-work in various parts of the world for the Guggenheim interests, particularly
the Yukon Gold Company, and has recently traveled ex-tensively in Alaska
for this concern. He has just returned from a trip to Peru, during which
he investigated the development of a placer mine for gold operations.
His journeys also have taken him to Europe, particularly to England and
France, although not in a professional capacity. At times, also, he has
varied his work by operating gold mines on his own account.
By reason of his extensive traveling Mr. Short has
found little time to mingle in social or fraternal activities. He confines
himself, in fact, in this regard to membership in the San Franciscco Press
Club and the America Institute of Mining Engineers, and in the Masonic
order.
P. J. Moran (page 301)
Everything that has come to P. J. Moran, Salt Lake
City capitalist and industrial promoter, has been the reward of stern,
honest, unremitting effort. Riches have not been handed him.
His career he has carved by the sweat of this brow - and he has carved
it well.
P. J. Moran did not come to the great West in the
days known as "pioneer"; yet he has made himself a pioneer in the true
sense of the word - for he started out as a leader and he has remained
such ever since.
When he was but seven years old Mr. Moran was left
father-less. He was born in Yorkshire, England, January 23, 184,
the son of Laurence Moran of County Mayo, Ireland, and Bridget (Durkin)
Moran of County Sligo, Ireland. Ten years old he was, a mere
child, when he stated to seek an independent living. Of schooling
he had but little. His education he acquired in the
workshop, supplemented late by individual sturdy when the day's work
was done.
Bidding his birthplace good-bye when he was fourteen
years old Mr. Moran crossed the Atlantic and in April, 1878, landed in
Baltimore, where he spent four months. He then went to Cincinnati,
where he became apprentice to a steam-fitter, mastering his trade and working
at it in Chicago as a
journey-man until 1887. Removing to Omaha, he remained there
several months and then came still further westward to Salt Lake City,
where he has since lived and prospered.
Mr. Moran worked about two years at his trade in
Salt Lake City, then started in as a steam heating and ventilating contractor.
He furnished and installed most of the heating plants in the city's public
schools as well as those in the State University at Salt Lake City and
in the State Agricultural
College at Logan. He also fitted a number of office buildings,
residences, churches and schools in various parts of Utah.
As he went along he enlarged his field. In
1900 Salt Lake City awarded him the contract for the installation of a
new and modern waterworks costing several million dollars. One part
of the work in particular, the Big Cottonwood conduit, ten miles long,
has since been pronounced one of the fines of its kind in the United States.
In 1903 Mr. Moran branched out again and became
a paving contractor. His company has laid many miles of asphalt on
the streets of Salt Lake City, Ogden and other cities of the West and Middle
West. Hundreds of men are given employment at the Moran asphalt plant,
one of the largest in the country.
In concrete construction he has excelled. He put
in the masonry for the American Smelting and Refining Company's plant at
Garfield, Utah, and also built the power plant of the Utah Light and Railway
Company in Weber Canyon. In the past twelve or fifteen years he has
built practically all the enlargements to Salt Lake's water supply system.
He constructed the immense water conduit leading from City Creek Canyon,
as well as the irrigation dam of the Pacific Reclamation Company by which
the water of Bishop Creek near Wells, Nevada, has been conserved and a
vast acreage about the new town of Metropolis has been made to blossom.
One of Mr. Moran's greatest enterprises of recent
years was his purchase, as head of a syndicate, of the Utah Portland Cement
Company, of which he is president and controlling stockholder. The
corporation's plant in Parley's Canyon near Salt Lake City is one of the
largest in America, and supplies a market in which cement formerly was
scarce.
It would require pages to enumerate all of Mr. Moran's
successful industrial enterprises. He organized and incorporated
the Federal Coal Company of Utah, of which he is vice-president and general
manager; he is director fo several realty concerns that handle his vast
land holdings; he is
director and one of the incorporators of the National Copper Bank of
Salt Lake City; he is president, general manager and sole owner of the
P. J. Moran Contracting Company, his original concern, and is a director
of the Keith-O'Brien Company, which operates Salt Lake City's largest department
store, in addition to his presidency of the Portland Cement Company of
Utah.
They like J. P. Moran in Utah. Every year
there is set aside a "Moran Day," when his thousands of employees take
their wives and children and friends for a picnic and outing. And
by this they give him the strongest testimonial for honesty and right dealing
that any man can receive.
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