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.
John J. McClellan (page 291)
There is something about a pipe organist that seems
to lift him out, as it were, from among the rest of mankind.
Undoubtedly this something is his art. A man who can bring forth from a
keyboard of endless intricacy tones that will move the thousands to tears,
or hold them spellbound veritably for hours-there is in this man the sublimity
of profound genius. He is like the novelist, the artist, only more so.
For music appeals to our primal emotions as words or colors never can.
John Jasper McClellan, who appeared in five wonderful
recitals in Festival Hall at the Panama-Pacific Inter-National Exposition,
is a pipe-organist. He is such in the fullest sense. Music to him is life
itself. As organist at the famous Mormon Tabernacle at Salt Lake City he
is accustomed to do frequently what he did in San Francisco--sway a throng
as it never was swayed before by the
mere movement of a finger.
"Professor McClellan," to quote a critic, "understands
an organ as others understand a person. To him it is something more
than a collection of pipes. It has life. It breathes. It talks
to him. He is a master which it obeys and he caresses it as others would
a pet. He talks to it with his hands and it
responds in the language of music. It becomes eloquent under his touch.
People flocked to hear its oratory."
John J. McClellan was born at Payson, Utah, April
20, 1874. At the age of ten he began his study of music. Later he went
to Saginaw, Michigan, and studied two years with A. W. Platte; then to
Ann Arbor and was graduated from the University of Michigan School of Music,
where he was a pupil under Professors A. A. Stanley, Johann Erich Schmaal,
Alberto Jonas and Xavier Scharwenka. He
also was a pupil of Ernst Jedliczka of Berlin, Germany. "While
at Ann Arbor Professor McClellan organized and directed the first large
orchestra there. He also was organist of St. Thomas Catholic Church
and pianist of the University Choral Society. In 1893 he was assistant
to Professor
Stanley on the great organ used at the World's Columbian Exposition
at Chicago, which later was installed at Michigan University. Following
this he became assistant to Professor Jonas in the Michigan School of Music
and during 1895-96 taught musical theory there. He was professor o£
music in the Brigham Young University at Provo, Utah, in 1900-01 and in
the latter year became a member of the faculty of the University of Utah.
Since October 1, 1900,Professor McClellan has been
organist of the Mormon Tabernacle, which has the second largest pipe organ
in the world; conductor of the Salt Lake Opera Company since 1902, and
director of the Salt Lake Symphony Orchestra since 1908. He founded the
Utah Conservatory of Music at Salt Lake in 1911 and remains dean and head
of the pianoforte department. He is now at work on an original course for
the study of the piano. Today he is regarded as the leading musician of
Utah and more students have gone from his studio to European and Eastern
art centers than from any other studio in the State.
Professor McClellan's reputation as a concert organ
recitalist is international. He has "opened" pipe organs in nearly every
State. He gave four recitals at the World's Fair in St. Louis and ten on
the great organ at the Jamestown Exposition, besides those at San Francisco's
great fair. Everywhere, music lovers and critics have considered
him one of the most thorough musicians and
artists of his generation.
Not only is Professor McClellan an exponent of melody-he
creates it. In addition to several songs, anthems and instrumental compositions
he composed the "National Ode to Irrigation," which has been sung at the
National Irrigation Congresses of Portland, Sacramento and Boise by the
Ogden (Utah) Tabernacle Choir of 200 voices. each rendition costing $12,000.
In 1911 he was official accompanist of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's triumphal
tour from Salt Lake to the New York City Land Show, during which they sang
his ode more than thirty times at a cost exceeding $50,000. He is
Utah State President of the National Association of Organists and a colleague
of the American Guild of Organists as well as secretary of the Clayton
Music Company of Salt Lake City.
Professor McClellan is essentially an artist. And
his devotion to this art is one of his most noticeable characteristics.
Wendell P. Hammon (page 273)
The name of Wendell P. Hammon is as naturally associated
with the idea of the development of Northern California as the name Calif-ornia
itself is associated with the idea of a domain of gold and prosperity,
of fruit and flowers, of sunshine and health. Oroville knows him as a man
who did
much to bring the town out of the lethargy that followed the mining
boom, and make it a solid, progressive community; San Francisco and the
rest of the State know him as a business man of high enterprise and unimpeachable
integrity.
It is, perhaps, as a pioneer in the field of gold
dredging that Mr. Hammon is the best known. Not that he has confined
himself to this, however. He has been, and is yet, deeply interested
in the growing of fruit, particularly of oranges, and is connected in one
way or another with a number of corporations of varied scope.
Born May 23, 1854, at Conneautville, Crawford County,
Pennsyl-vania, Mr. Hammon is the son of Marshall M. Hammon and Harriet
S. (Cooper) Hammon. His paternal ancestors settled at Providence, R. I.,
about the year 1726. Following a course in the primary and grammar schools
of his birthplace Mr. Hammon attended the State Normal School at Edinboro,
Erie County. He left the institution in 1875, before graduation, however,
to come to California.
Arriving here, looking for an opening, Mr. Hammon
secured a position as salesman for the fruit importing concern of L. Green
& Sons of Perry, Ohio. He took a keen interest in the fruit industry
and two years later, seeing the opportunity of launching out for himself,
engaged in the nursery business. Meanwhile he studied the subject deeply
and in a few years he was being spoken of as an authority on horticulture.
His removal to Butte County, which was to be the scene of most of his future
operations, came in 1890, when he planted a large orchard about ten miles
below Oroville near the Feather River. He devoted most of the next ten
years to fruit growing, although he had begun to investigate mining and
operated in a rather small way in Eastern Oregon, Idaho and Arizona.
Ever since the days of the Argonauts it had been
generally known that there was gold in Butte County. Oroville was at one
time an important mining center; but then came the slump and the field
was practically abandoned. The Chinese had worked the flats along the Feather
River by their crude methods, but even they had given it up as not commercially
profitable.
Mr. Hammon was astonished, when a well was being
sunk on his property, to discover excellent pay gravel. He looked further,
then secured an option on about a thousand acres and prospected it thoroughly.
The result was gratifying, but there remained the question of how mining
could be carried on, on a large scale. Gold dredging had never been successful
on the Pacific Coast up to that time, and this method appeared impractical
until Mr. Hammon ran across a new type of dredger then in use on the Chicago
drainage canal. He had a similar dredger built, organized the Feather River
Exploration Company, and began operations March 1, 1898.
As in the case of nearly every new enterprise, progress
in the gold dredging was difficult. There were those who scoffed, who declared
the project was certain to fail. For a time it was all expenditure, with
no returns. But the dredger was gradually improved until success was assured.
The rest of the story is so well known as not to need the telling. Let
it suffice to say that today W. P. Hammon directs the largest gold-dredging
operations in the world, and that his companies have control of more than
10,000 acres of land in California and Oregon—with more than thirty dredgers
at work. Among his corporations engaged in this industry are the Yuba Consolidated
Gold Fields, Calaveras Dredging Co., and Powder River Gold Dredging Co.
He continues to be a big factor in the fruit growing
industry, as president of the Oroville Orange and Olive Groves, and operates
his own packing plants. Besides this he is interested as officer or director
in the Finnell Land Co., Hammon Engineering Co., Plumas Investment Co.,
Santuario Co., the Yuba Construction Co. and Sierra Pacific Electric Co.
One of Mr. Hammon's latest achievements was the
organization of the Ventura Consolidated Oil Fields, whose stock is listed
on the Boston Stock Exchange. Subsidiaries of this are the Montebello Oil
Co. and the Ventura Refining Co.
Thomas L. Miller (page 298)
How forcibly, sometimes, do little things or a combination
of little things, react upon and shape our future destinies. A single
action, a spoken word, even a thought has swerved men from the path they
were treading and made their lives something entirely different from t
h a t o n which they had planned.
Thomas L. Miller, president of the West Coast-San
Francisco Life Insurance Company, owes his entrance to the insurance field
largely to the fact that as a youth he was attracted by the sea and spent
a great deal of his time on and about the water. In this way he picked
up a fund of first-hand, practical information of things maritime; and
when the old Commercial Insurance Company of California wanted a man to
take charge of its marine department, Mr. Miller, by reason of his knowledge
and experience, was given the job.
In 1875, following a course in Urban Academy of
San Francisco, an early day school which then took the place of a college,
Mr. Miller had secured a place as bookkeeper in the old Merchants' Exchange
Bank. He remained there several months, until the bank went into the hands
of a receiver. Then, casting about for another job, he landed the one with
the Commercial Insurance Company.
For something like nine years Mr. Miller remained
with this concern. At first he had charge of the marine department. Later
on he went to Portland, Oregon, and with J. W. G. Cofran represented the
Commercial Insurance Company and the Hartford Fire Insurance Company as
general agent in the Pacific Northwest. Resigning from this agency in 1885,
he returned to San Francisco and for the next four or five years managed
his own interests.
At the end of this period Mr. Miller entered the
insurance field again and, in association with L. L. Bromwell and M. A.
Newell became general agent of the People's Fire Insurance Company of Manchester,
N. H., and of the Amazon Insurance Company of Cincinnati. After a couple
of years he sold out his interest in the agency and took over the Pacific
Coast agency of the Southern Insurance Company of New Orleans, remaining
so until the company retired from the Coast.
Then, in 1895, Mr. Miller went with the Pacific
Mutual Life Insurance Company as assistant secretary and manager of its
industrial department. The Pacific Mutual, in September 1901, said its
industrial insurance business to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company,
and early in 1902 Mr. Miller went with the Metropolitan as superintendent
of agencies at the home office in New York. He served in this and other
capacities until 1905, when he broke down in health and returned to San
Francisco for a much-needed rest.
The organization of the West Coast Life Insurance
Company was brought about by Mr. Miller in 1905, in association
with Dr. George A. Moore, former president of the Pacific Mutual. Dr. Moore
was made the first president of the new concern, and Mr. Miller vice-president.
The organization was effected just in time to be swept away by the fire
of April 1906, which destroyed offices, statistics and the best insurance
library west of the Missouri river. Almost before the smoke had cleared
away the company had rented a flat on Ellis Street and had resumed business.
No furniture was to be had and Mr. Miller sat on a box, using a packing
case for a desk. It was not until July 1907, that a downtown office could
be secured.
On February 16, 1915, occurred an event important
in local insurance circles. This was the consolidation of the West Coast
Life with the San Francisco Life Insurance Company, incorporated in 1910.
Mr. Miller became president of the new West Coast-San Francisco Life Insurance
Company.
The new concern, with a capital stock of $350,000,
strengthens the security of policy holders and makes a strong influence
in Northern California. Life insurance companies are the biggest gatherers
and centralizers of money in the country today. And the fact that Mr. Miller
is and has been for a long time a leader in Pacific Coast insurance circles,
augurs that the West Coast-San Francisco Life will become the dominant
factor in the Northern California investment field.
Mr. Miller belongs to the Burlingame Country Club,
San Francisco Commercial Club and the Masonic order. Knights Templar and
the Shriners. He was married in 1S85 in San Francisco to Eleanor L. Laidley
and has one son, Thomas Nuttall Miller, a mining engineer at present in
Korea.
John R. Hanify (page 274)
Nearly every businessman has some sort of relaxation—some
sport or hobby which brings him rest and change from the daily routine
of work. For some it is athletics, for others reading, for others the making
of collections of one kind or another. For John R. Hanify, founder and
head of J. R. Hanify Co., lumber manufacturers and dealers, it is yachting.
"When, just a few weeks ago, Mr. Hanify won with
his racing sloop Westward the magnificent gold cup offered by King George
V of Great Britain he but demonstrated again his prowess as a sailor of
yachts. He did not gain for himself by this latest coup a reputation as
a yachtsman. The reputation was already his.
Throughout, the career of John R. Hanify has been
a succession of personal efforts rightly directed. Born in New York City
Sep-tember 15, 1862, his father was Francis Hanify, at one time in charge
of the damage claims department of the Inman line of steamships, and his
mother was Bridget (Ryder) Hanify. He attended St. Francis Xavier College
in New York, but in 1876, following his mother's death, accompanied his
father to California. The intention was to return to New York, but the
elder Hanify passed away a few months after his arrival on the Coast and
the boy was left to shift for himself. He was not quite 14 years old.
Mr. Hanify succeeded in landing a position as office
boy with the Moore & Smith Lumber Company. Thus began a successful
17 years' connection with this firm. He rose from office boy to book-keeper,
to cashier, to office manager and finally became general manager of the
concern, and gained valuable practical experience in the manufacturing
end of the industry.
In 1893 Mr. Hanify went into business for himself
under the firm name "J. R. Hanify," accepting the selling agency for various
sawmills. After three or four years he took in as a partner Albert C. Hooper,
son of John A. Hooper, and changed the firm name to J. R. Hanify &
Co. At the same time he became interested in the manufacture as well as
them sale of lumber, and began building sailing vessels and steamers for
the transportation of their products. The firm also became owners of a
substantial tract of timberland in Humboldt County, and of 50 per cent
of the stock of the Bucksport & Elk River Railroad Co., connecting
the Elk River lumber mill with the shipping point on Humboldt bay.
Mr. Hanify purchased the assets of the co-partnership
in 1905 and Mr. Hooper retired from the firm. For a little more than a
year Mr. Hanity operated alone, but in April 1907, incorporated under the
name of the J. R. Hanify Co., allowing each of his older employees to acquire
a substantial interest in the business. He has built six steamers, although
he now operates but three, having disposed of the smaller ones. One of
his largest vessels is the Francis Hanify, a combination tanker and lumber
carrier designed for coast-to-coast trade through the Panama Canal. He
also has built eight sailing vessels, three of which he now operates.
In civic affairs Mr. Hanify has been actively interested.
For a number of years he was a member of the appeals committee of the San
Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He also was a member of the Commerce Chamber
party that about three years ago visited Japan to further the commercial
relations between San Francisco and the Orient.
Ever since he was 15 or 16 years old Mr. Hanify
has been deeply interested in amateur yachting. The first sloop he owned
was the Myrtle, a 32-foot boat. Since that time he has built three schooner
yachts, although the only one he owns at present is the Martha. He has
built two motorboats and still operates one of them, the Scout.
The sloop "Westward is Mr. Hanify's pride. It was
built especially for the Panama-Pacific Exposition races and was designed
by William Gardner of New York, designer also of the Vanitie, which has
been competing with the Resolute as a candidate for the defense of the
American cup. The Westward has won every time she has started. She has
won one race for the Sir Thomas Lipton cup, which must be won three times,
and also brought to her owner the beautiful King George cup last August.
Mr. Hanify was for two years commodore of the San
Francisco Yacht Club, in 1909-10, and is a member also of the Corinthian
Yacht Club of New York. He is a director of the Olympic Club of San Francisco,
and a member of the Pacific Union, Bohemian and others.
Jeremiah Lynch (page 289)
He has swum in Alaska's river Yukon, in the Nile
of mystic Egypt and has written gripping books about each. In the capitals
of the Old World and the new he is equally at home. He is as well known
in Cairo, to use the words of the famous Lord Kitchener, as in his own
San Francisco. And between the two world extremes one finds his footsteps
everywhere.
It is condensation, not elaboration, that is difficult
in telling the story of Jeremiah Lynch, author, club- man and world traveler.
His has been a well-rounded life, tinctured with just enough hardship to
make the pleasant side the more appreciated.
Jeremiah Lynch, a native of Massachusetts, came
to California with his parents in 1858, when he was quite a child.
The family settled in Shasta, then a flourishing mining town, where Mr.
Lynch's boyhood was spent. The boy attended the common schools of Shasta,
then for one year was enrolled in the San Francisco High School—but his
formal education was discontinued when he was sixteen years old. In the
world's school he has gained all the rest of that learning which has enabled
him to become the recognized authority in literature and other subjects
that he is today.
In 1870 Mr. Lynch came to San Francisco to remain.
In 1876, during the bonanza excitement when fortunes were being made on
every side, he became a member of the San Francisco Stock Exchange, with
which he remained affiliated for twenty years. He was elected president
of the Exchange in 1888 and at the end of his first term was re-elected
by unanimous vote.
Although he always had taken a keen interest in
politics, Mr. Lynch did not enter the political arena until 1882, when
he ran for the State Senate on the Democratic ticket and won the seat by
a majority of five thousand votes. During the two regular sessions
of the Legislature and a special session called by Governor Stoneman in
1885, Mr. Lynch made a persistent and determined fight against every unnecessary
appropriation and measure of extra-vagance. During this and two other
terms Mr. Lynch was closely connected with the many attempts at legislation
against the railroads. In fact he introduced several measures to prevent
railway aggression, but all were defeated by the corporation hirelings.
Jeremiah Lynch, to quote from The San Francisco Chronicle, is the man "who
made San Francisco too hot to hold Boss Buckley." The senator's fight against
Christopher Buckley, unscrupulous Democratic blind boss of the eighties
and nineties, had its inception while Mr. Lynch was in the State Legislature,
when he saw in all their force the evils of "the system." Senator Lynch
wrote a little monograph entitled "Buckleyism," which subsequently became
famous for its scathing denunciation of the blind politician and his myrmidons.
The pamphlet received a column and a half review in the London Times and
was noted by Professor Bryce in his "American Commonwealth."
With the publication of "Buckleyism" the fight was
on. It was the first open and independent cry against bossism. But it was
not until after he had spent some time abroad that Senator Lynch brought
his campaign against crooked politics to a decided victory.
Returning to San Francisco he became a member of
the Wallace Grand Jury and was largely instrumental in causing that body
to indict Chris Buckley and his fellow boss, Sam Rainey.
The political career of Senator Lynch closed with
his race for the United States Senate, soon after his Grand Jury work.
He was given a consider- able number of votes in the caucus. Stephen J.
White secured the nomination, however, and was elected. Since that time
Senator Lynch has been in politics simply in an advisory sort of capacity.
The rush of gold seekers to the Klondike carried
Mr. Lynch along with it, and in the fall of 1898 he found himself in the
frozen north at the head of large mining operations. He remained in the
Klondike three years. At times he had as many as a hundred men working
under his direction, and he returned to civilization in 1902 with a handsome
fortune.
He is well remembered in Alaska as the man who invented
a new method of thawing the ground to work it for gold. He evolved and
perfected a hollow drill through which steam is fed, thawing as it goes,
and by which work that formerly took three or four men eight hours to perform
can be done in twice as many minutes. Mr. Lynch never has patented his
process. He saw that the mining community needed it and he gave it willingly
for the general good.
Today the drill is being used all over Alaska.
Since his return from Alaska Mr. Lynch has had no business pursuit. He
has spent his time in extensive travel, has been to Europe and Egypt a
dozen times or more and has circled the globe.
As an author Mr. Lynch has gained particular note.
His friends were so surprised .at the literary excellence of his first
production, "Buckleyism," that they couldn't believe he, a man who had
never displayed his talent in this direction, wrote it. So he wrote another
book to prove he did.
This second book was the famous "Egyptian Sketches,"
a work that the book reviewers promptly termed a classic. It is well written
and as popular today as when it first was issued. It was commented upon
widely by the Athenaeum and the London Spectator for its vivvid portrayal
of true Egyptia life and scenery. The work, was produced in 1891, after
Mr. Lynch had spent a year in the lotus land.
While in Alaska, Mr. Lynch wrote and had published
in London another interesting book, "Three Years in the Klondike." This
excited such comment as to cause it to be translated into both French and
Spanish. It, like "Egyptian Sketches," is a faithful portrayal of a certain
spot on the earth's surface. One can "feel" the cold when one peruses its
pages.
What is considered by many Mr. Lynch's chief work
is the latest book, "A Senator of the Fifties," published, in 1911. This
is the story of one of the most exciting decades San Francisco and California
have known, told with the brilliant but ill-fated David Broderick, one-time
political boss and United States Senator, as the principal character. The
book is considered one of the most valuable additions to the history of
California of recent 'years.
During these years in which his larger books have
appeared, Mr. Lynch has written a number of miscellaneous poems of acknowledged
worth which, if collected, would fill a volume. Lately, however, he has
done nothing serious in this line, although his friends are importuning
him to take advantage of good health and a clear brain to produce something
more and give the reading world the benefit of his wide experience, his
quaint humor and his ability as a story teller.
Mr. Lynch is no longer a senator. He has not been
for twenty years. But his friends persist in calling him such, and as "Senator"
Lynch he undoubtedly will go down to posterity. He has never married. He
is one of the "old guard" of the Bohemian Club, where he makes his home
when in San Francisco.
On two occasions Mr. Lynch has written and produced
a high jinks for the Bohemian Club. One of these, still vivid in
the minds of the Bohemians, was the presentation of "The Lady Isis in Bohemia"
on the evening of May 5, 1914. The occasion was the giving of a precious
mummy to the club by Mr. Lynch.
During the year 1890, while in Egypt, Mr. Lynch
procured a mummy which he presented to the Bohemian Club. The mummy was
that of a female member of the regal family representing the twenty-fourth
Egyptian dynasty and was discovered at Girgeh on the Nile just prior to
the arrival there of Mr. Lynch and United States Consul-General Schuyler
on their way to Thebes. Two other mummies he brought back, those of high
priests, later found their way into the Golden Gate Park Memorial Museum.
These were destroyed, as was that of the princess, in the fire of April,
1906.
So highly prized had the mummy been by the Bohemian
Club that Mr. Lynch set out to secure another to replace the one that was
lost. One thing and an- other came up and it was not until seven years
later that he journeyed to Cairo. There he found that no mummies were to
be had. When found, they were in most instances claimed by the Cairo Museum.
About to give up in despair, Mr. Lynch learned of
the existence of the mummy of a royal princess, a worshipper of the great
goddess Isis, in the palace of a Pasha where it had rested many years.
The Pasha was dead but his relatives, not regarding the ancient relic with
the same veneration, agreed to part with it. It was only by the intervention
of certain high potentates in Cairo, however, and the winning over of Lord
Kitchener, present warlord of Great Britain, that Mr. Lynch obtained permission
to transport his prize to San Francisco.
The Lady Isis was installed in her present resting
place in the Bohemian Club with lavish ceremony and after the presentation
of the sketch which Mr. Lynch had written for the occasion.
Not the least striking attribute has Mr. Lynch and
a bio-grapher, to be just, must be complete—is his versatility. He is one
of the best amateur billiard and chess players in California. He can swim
all day and ride all night, even now. He has read pretty much of everything
worth reading and remembers most of it. He can read Egyptian hieroglyphics
easily.
Socially, Mr.Lynch maintains his reputation for
cosmopolitanism for he is a member of fifteen clubs from Cairo to San Francisco,
including Paris, New York and London, among those of the latter the Authors
Club and the Royal Geographical Society.
Carl A. Henry (page 275)
In an adage of such long standing that its inception
goes far back into the mists of antiquity, young men are solemnly advised
that in order to attain eminence in this world of competition they must
begin at the very bottom in some line of work and struggle upward by degrees.
Then, once up, they will remain up.
Glancing over the careers of men who have gained
eminence in their respective lines in San Francisco and California, it
is wonderful to note to how many of them this ancient rule applies. The
number that started in as office boys is staggering. There seems to be
another rule- less thought of as such but nevertheless true—that a youth,
if he has it in him to be a first-class office boy, has it in him also
to develop into a first c1ass businessman. And most of them do develop
thus.
Carl A. Henry, one of the most widely known businessmen
on the Pacific Coast today, started his career as an office boy. That is,
he really started out as a newsboy. Before and after school he delivered
newspapers in San Francisco's financial section. This lasted some time,
until he was about 14 years old in fact, when he secured a position as
office boy with one of his customers.
Just about thirty years have passed since Mr. Henry
left the Boys' High School and began shifting for himself. Today he is
one of the joint agents in the Pacific department of several of the world's
leading fire insurance companies; and, besides this, he is vice-president
of the Owl Drug Company, one of the foremost concerns of its kind in the
United States.
Mr. Henry was born May 21, 1872, at San Jose, California.
When Mr. Henry was still a small boy his parents moved to San Francisco
and it was in the public schools of this city that he gained his education.
From office boy in an insurance firm Mr. Henry rose
steadily until he was placed in charge of the office work. About 1893 he
saw an opportunity to engage in the insurance business for himself, and
embraced it. He became local agent for a number of important fire insurance
companies, and built up the business until he had the largest agency of
its sort in the city.
Until 1899 Mr. Henry retained these agencies, but
in the latter year he dropped them and took over instead the general agencies
of the Sun Insurance Office of London founded in 1710 and the oldest insurance
ccompany in the world Sun Underwriters Agency of London, and the Michigan
Fire and Marine of Detroit.
A few years ago Mr. Henry merged his business with
that of Willard 0. Wayman, representing as general agent the National of
Hartford, Colonial Fire Underwriters Agency and the Mechanics & Traders
of New Orleans. The concern does the largest fire insurance business west
of Chicago. The combined resources of its six companies is $52,000,000.
Its territory extends as Far East as, and including, Colorado, and embraces
California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana,
Hawaii, Alaska and British Columbia. Branch offices are maintained in Los
Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Spokane and Denver.
For the past seven years Mr. Henry has been vice-president
of the Owl Drug Company, and with R. E. Miller, the president, controls
the concern. He has injected his personality into the "Owl"
as he has injected it into the insurance field, and the results have been
equally as apparent. He is a vital force in the conducting of the company's
business affairs, acting chiefly in an advisory capacity. His enthusiasm
for doing things well, for accepting nothing short of the very best, is
almost proverbial.
Mr. Henry belongs to a number of social organizations,
among them the Claremont Country Club and Athenian Club of Oakland, and
the Olympic and Bohemian Clubs of San Francisco, as well as to Yerba Buena
Parlor of the Native Sons. Fraternally he is a Mason holding membership
In Golden Gate Commandery, K. T., and in Islam Temple of the Shrine.
As a relaxation from business Mr. Henry indulges
in deep-sea fishing, principally at Monterey and Santa Cruz.
He also owns a number of fine Airedale terriers, some of which
have won blue ribbons.
Jay Monroe Latimer (page 288)
The largest verdict for personal damages ever awarded
by a jury in a California court was won by Jay Monroe Latimer, San Francisco
attorney at law, on behalf of a client.
Such a record, in itself, is sufficient to establish
the reputation of a practicing lawyer. But in the case of Mr. Latimer it
merely strengthened a reputation already gained by reason of a long continued
and consistent success in the field of his chosen profession.
The suit in question was that of Elsa U. Arnold
et al. vs. the San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railways. The plaintiff,
widow of Joseph Charles Arnold, a civil engineer killed when a train of
the defendant corporation struck the automobile in which he was riding,
asked damages of $75,000 for her husband's death.
The trial, held in the Superior Court of Contra
Costa County at Martinez in February 1914, lasted eight days and a night.
Attorney Latimer, by stipulation, spoke less than an hour in his address
to the jury, but in this hour he displayed such power of oratory—as described
in the newspapers of the next day—and drew such colorful word pictures
of fie widow and three children, suddenly bereft of husband and father,
as to elicit tears from jury and courtroom spectators alike. After being
out only about an hour the jury returned a verdict in which Mrs. Arnold
was awarded damages of $30,000—a record figure.
To glance over Mr. Latimer's career from the beginning,
he was born August 12, 1875, on a farm near Le Roy, Medina County, Ohio.
His father was Julius A. Latimer, a retired lawyer, and his mother Mary
Elizabeth (Leonard) Latimer. Mr. Latimer attended the public schools of
Le Roy, meanwhile doing his allotted work at home in the mornings and evenings,
and in the summer season taking his place in the fields with the men.
"When he was eighteen years old he was graduated
from the Le Roy High School. Thereafter he entered upon a combined teacher's
and business course at "Wayne Normal College at Wayne, Nebraska, but left
before graduation to read law in the office of his brother, George A, Latimer,
at Norfolk, Nebraska. He remained with his brother until 1896, when he
removed to Butte, Montana.
In 1899 Mr. Latimer entered the law department of
the University of Washington at Seattle. The next year, how- ever, he heard
the call of the North, with the result that he gathered together his belongings
and went to Nome, Alaska. He began there the practice of law, continuing
for three years, with the exception of one winter when he returned to Seattle
and pursued his studies at the law school. He built up a clientele rapidly,
doing a general civil law business and specializing in mining law. In fact
he tried some of the most important mining cases that came up in Alaska
while he made his residence there. In 1902 he was defeated, in the contest
for appointment as United States Attorney at Nome under President Roosevelt.
Mr. Latimer spent eight or ten months in 1903 in Juneau, then removed to
Fairbanks, Alaska, and practiced his profession there until 1908, when
he came to San Francisco. He has remained here ever since.
While living at Fairbanks, Mr. Latimer sought relaxation
in authorship. The result was an ably written and profusely illus-trated
article entitled, "Our Riches of the Far North," published - in Metropolitan
Magazine of November 1907.
At present Mr. Latimer, in view of the volume of
such business that he is asked to handle, might be said to specialize in
actions for damages. He also does considerable work of a probate nature,
and has settled a number of goodly estates in the past few years.
Although he is a strong Republican, and is ever
actively interested in furthering the party's cause, Mr. Latimer could
not be termed a politician. At the instance of his friends he became a
candidate, in 1914, for the short term as Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of California, to fill the position made vacant by the death of Chief
Justice Beatty. The office was won, however, by Matt I. Sullivan.
Mr. Latimer confines his fraternal, activities to
membership in American Lodge No. 5, Knights of Pythias of San Francisco.
E. J. Miley (page 297)
Never does a man gain success, in this world without
there being a good reason for it. Analyze, his career and you will find,
invariably, honest expenditure of effort and a consistent struggle against
reversals on the high road to achievement.
When circumstances over which he had no control
forced him into inactivity in one line, Emmor Jerome Miley turned to another
and developed himself in that. Today he is president and general manager
of the State Consolidated Oil Company, with offices in Los Angeles, and
a commanding figure in the oil industry of the nation.
Born October 22,1873, in St. Clair County, Illinois,
son of George C. Miley and Nancy (Wildermann) Miley, he was orphaned when
still young. When seventeen years old he came to California, was graduated
from the San Francisco High School in 1895, and on this foundation began
building his career.
His start was in the fruit growing business, of
which he had learned a great deal during his school vacations. He leased
deciduous fruit orchards in Solano County and for the next five years shipped
his product, with prevailing success, to outside markets. During the same
period he also raised citrus fruits in Southern California.
About this time interest was being awakened in California's
possibilities as an oil producing State. In 1900 Mr. Miley sold his fruit
holdings and became interested with Joseph B. Dabney in oil. The two leased
a tract of land in the McKittrick district in the San Joaquin Valley and
drilled ten wells the first year. Later the Dabney Oil Company was formed
and Mr. Dabney and Mr. Miley sold out their holdings to the new concern.
Mr. Miley then turned about and became interested
in the Silver Bow Oil Company, with holdings in the McKittrick and Midway
districts. The Midway has since become one of the most famous oil sections
in the world, but at that time it was undeveloped and Mr. Miley was one
of its pioneer prospectors. The Silver Bow was a Montana corporation and
Mr. Miley was its general manager for California. Independently, he drilled
and brought in the first commercial well in the extreme north end of the
McKittrick district.
In 1903 came a slump in the oil industry and Mr.
Miley's company ceased operations. He started out for himself and drilled
several wells, but the market failing to relax he went to Nevada and interested
himself in mining. He began developing copper mines, only to run into another
period of financial depression following the San Francisco fire of 1906.
Then he returned to San Francisco and associated himself with the Summit
Construction Company in the rebuilding of the city.
The year 1908 brought new vitality to the oil industry
and Mr. Miley again invaded the McKittrick fields, forming, with David
J. Graham, the State Oil Company, with Mr. Miley as president and general
manager. The concern operated until March 1911, then took over personal
holdings of Miley and Graham and was reincorporated as the State Consolidated
Oil Company, with Mr. Miley still at its head. With Joseph B. Dabney, in
1913, Mr. Miley developed properties in Ventura County under the name of
the Hidalgo Oil Company, but sold out in 1914, although the State Consolidated
still operates there. Early in 1914, again with Mr. Dabney and under the
name of Joseph B. Dabney & Company, he began development once more
in the Midway fields, where the concern at present has 15 producing wells.
Mr. Miley retains valuable holdings also in the McKittrick, Bellridge and
Front fields.
Mr. Miley became a national figure in the oil business
when, in 1910, he was one of the first chosen as member of the California
oil men's Washington delegation. He gave valuable aid in com- piling data
for presentation to Congress and was rewarded by a personal compliment
from the Congressional committee that was investigating the industry. Also
the report, which followed the withdrawal of millions of acres of oil lands
by the Government, brought about new laws clearing up titles and protecting
investors against loss.
Fort Miley, San Francisco, is named in honor of
Mr. Miley's brother, John David Miley, who gained heroic renown in the
Spanish-American war. From First Lieutenant he became chief aid to General
Shatter, was brevetted Brigadier-General and given the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel in the volunteer army. Later, while Inspector General in the Philippines,
he died.
E. J. Miley was married in 1898 to Beatrice M. Butler,
daughter of A. B. Butler, former Fresno vineyardist and oil operator. They
have 3 sons, Emmor Jerome Jr., 15; Alban Butler, 7; and David, 3.
J. E. Manning (page 294)
The truly useful citizen, in any community, is he
who is willing at any time to serve either his city, his State or his country
in any way in which he can accomplish the most good. J. E. Manning, attorney
at law, has in at least two ways given this service. He enlisted for the
Spanish-American War and helped fight for his country in the Philippines,
and he represented Marin County at the last session of the State Legislature
and was a stanch de- fender of his constituents' rights.
A native of California, Mr. Manning was born in
Oakland, October 3, 1873, the son of Andrew Manning, a farmer, and Mary
(Kehoe) Manning. After securing his preliminary education at Sacred Heart
College of San Francisco, he at- tended for a year at St. Mary's College,
Oakland, and was graduated in 1892 with the degree of B. S.
The same year, with his mind set on the study of
law, Mr. Manning entered Hastings College of Law. His spare time he spent
in the law offices of Fisher Ames, furthering his knowledge of the
profession. Hastings awarded him his LL.B. in 1895 and at once he was
admitted to the bar and commenced practice in association with Mr. Ames,
his preceptor.
This continued until June 1898, when, the United
States of America calling for volunteers in its war with Spain, Mr. Manning
enlisted as a private in Battery A, 1st Battalion, California Heavy Artillery,
U. S. V. He saw service In the Philippines from November 1898, to July
1899, when his command returned to San Francisco, where he was mustered
out. He was a non-commissioned officer at the time his organization was
discharged from the service.
Upon doffing the khaki for "civilians" once more,
he resumed his professional association with Mr. Ames, and, following the
San Francisco fire of 1906, became a member of the law partnership of Ames
& Manning, a partnership which continues to this day. Since 1903 Mr.
Manning has made his home in San Anselmo, Marin County, although his offices
are in the Pacific building, San Francisco. In 1908 he was chosen city
attorney of the town of San Anselmo, Marin County, and filled this position
with credit until May 1914.
At the general election on November 3, 1914, Mr.
Manning was chosen as State Assemblyman from the 17th Assembly district,
Marin County, on the Republican ticket. Subsequently he fathered a number
of important bills. While at the Legislature he was characterized by his
fair and impartial attitude toward labor, as well as by his refusal to
take the labor program—or any other program, for that matter—right down
the line. When an attempt was made, just before the election, to get him
to bind himself to one fixed policy, his answer was that on all important
questions a lawmaker must consider carefully all arguments, pro and con,
before he can arrive at a conclusion that satisfies his conscience that
he is right. This attitude he maintained in the face of all who approached
him with the idea of attempting to swerve him from his policy of justice.
One of Mr. Manning's bills, which was passed and
approved, places the street improvement bond on a solid basis and it makes
it merchantable and one that a bank will accept. Instead of the contractor
making collections on the bonds the amounts of the interest and redemption
are placed on the tax bills, and all the banker need to do is to go each
six months to the city treasurer and collect his accumulated interest,
and each year, from the same office, collect installment redemption payment
on the bonds he holds.
Another bill prepared by Mr. Manning which passed
both houses and was vetoed, provided for the improvement of streets and
roads in unincorporated towns by the County Board of Supervisors. As it
is at present, a town must incorporate before it can do street work, and
in many cases the expense is prohibitory. The bill, if it became a law
would make incorporation unnecessary.
In addition to his other public services, Mr. Manning
has been secretary of the sanitary board of sanitary district No. 1 of
Marin County for the past eleven years.
His law practice is almost entirely of a civil nature.
He is general counsel for a number of corporations and has also done considerable
work in the probate courts.
Mr. Manning is a member of the B.P. 0. Elks, the
Native Sons of the Golden West and the United Spanish War Veterans.
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