San Francisco County
Biographies
Hon. Jewett William ADAMS. In the far-away days when California and other states of the Western Coast were in the processes of development, many were the opportunities for the acquirement of great wealth by men possessed of sufficient initiative and vision to stake their all upon an investment whose outcome to those less optimistic seemed decidedly problematical. One of those pioneers whose rewards were commensurate with the great risks he ran, and who won public commendation and high office, was the late Hon. Jewett William ADAMS, whose activities covered many fields and bore him to the gubernatorial chair of a great state.
Governor ADAMS was born on a farm in the vicinity of Burlington, Vermont, August 6, 1834, a son of William and Nancy (BOARDMAN) ADAMS, both of whom belonged to old and honored families in the East. After receiving an excellent education in his native state, Jewett William ADAMS came West, and arrived in California in 1852, where he entered the mines, and was fortunate to become a protege of General Fremont, and was engaged in working the Old Fremont grant.
Subsequently he was attracted to Nevada, where he went into the teaming business, and in connection with it laid the foundation of his great fortune. It was while building up this large enterprise that he invented and put to practical use the iron hub, which gave him the nickname he held throughout life, of “Ironhub” Adams. While this is the most important manifestation of his inventive genius, he produced a number of appliances, and took in this kind of work, especially in after life, a relaxation that was much needed. The cattle business next attracted him, and in partnership with Mr. MAGGILL, under the firm name of ADAMS & MAGGILL, built up one of the largest cattle industries in Nevada. This firm also handled sheep, but were best known as cattleman. Governor ADAMS was also the pioneer of the plaster business at San Francisco, and controlled the Empire Hardwall Plaster Company, which was a source of extensive profits. In fact, it would be difficult to mention anything with which he became interested that was not lucrative, for his was the genius which knew how to develop any business to paying proportions. Entering politics at Carson City, Nevada he became one of the dominating factors in the democratic party, and was elected lieutenant governor, under Governor BRADLEY, and really acting governor for practically all of the term, and was elected governor on his record.
On January 16, 1878, Governor ADAMS married Miss Emma E. LEE, a native of Philadelphia and a descendant of the Virginia LEEs. They had one daughter, Frances. She married George CORSE Jr., of San Francisco, and they have two children; Jean and Frances May. After years of great activity in varied lines Governor ADAMS and his contemporaries are no more. They have passed the torch of life to other and younger hands, but the results they accomplished remain. They were the empire builders of the West, who, while strenuously working to honestly and legitimately amass personal fortunes, created something so wonderful and overwhelming that posterity will continue to enshrine their names into the far-distant ages.
Transcribed by Deana Schultz.
Source: "The San Francisco Bay Region" Vol. 3 page 264-267 by Bailey Millard. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.
JOSEPH WILEY AIKEN D.D.S.
Joseph Wiley Aiken, D.D.S. gained high reputation and distinct success in the work of his chosen profession, but did not engage in active practice after coming to California, he having lived retired in the City of San Francisco from the time of coming to this state until his death.
Doctor Aiken was born at Independence, Missouri, November 7, 1850, and was reared and educated in his native state, where he was graduated from a leading college of dentistry and where he became one of the leading dental practitioners in Kansas City. He gained special reputation for the excellence of his laboratory production of plate work, and there are a number of residents of San Francisco who are still wearing plates manufactured by Doctor Aiken while he was engaged in the practice of his profession in Kansas City, that place having continued his place of residence until he came to California. The Doctor was a democrat in political allegiance and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as is also his widow, who still resides in San Francisco.
In the year 1876 was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Aiken and Miss Celeste Francesca Houch, who likewise was born and reared in Missouri, and of the nine children of this union all are living except one, their names being here entered in respective order of birth: Samuel (a resident of the State of Washington), Thomas C., Lottie Cameron, Joseph Francisco, Mary (deceased), Sila Houch, Rachel H., Marie Louise and George Houch.
Louise E. Shoemaker, Transcriber February 23, 2004
Source: "The San Francisco Bay Region" by Bailey Millard Vol. 3 page 103. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.
Wallace McKinney ALEXANDER. One of the qualities most frequently attributed to the San Francisco business man is the cosmopolitan character of his interests. His viewpoints are world wide, and his standards of judgment are based upon dealings limited by none of the ordinary conventions of commerce and trade. One of the men who exemplifies this quality is a high degree is Wallace McKinney ALEXANDER, president of the great firm of ALEXANDER & BALDWIN, Limited of Honolulu. Mr. ALEXANDER is himself a native of the Hawaiian Islands, and his family were pioneers in the sugar planting and refining industry of the Pacific.
Mr. ALEXANDER was born on the Island of Maui, Hawaiian Islands, November 10, 1869. His mother, Martha Eliza (COOKE) ALEXANDER, was born in Honolulu, both her parents being of Revolutionary stock and English descent her father being a native of the State of Connecticut. Her parents went around Cape Horn in a sailing vessel to Honolulu, and for some time had charge of the Royal School, where the Hawaiian chiefs and wives were educated.
Samuel Thomas ALEXANDER, father of Wallace M. ALEXANDER, was also a native of the Hawaiian Islands, born of American parents. His father, William Patterson ALEXANDER, landed on the Hawaiian Islands in 1830, a missionary. The ALEXANDER family is of American Revolutionary stock and of Scotch-Irish descent, coming to America on account of religious prosecution, and settled in Virginia and Maryland. Samuel T. ALEXANDER with his brother-in-law, the late Henry P. BALDWIN, his nephew, Joseph P. COOKE, and his son Wallace became factors in the sugar industry of the Hawaiian Islands, founding the concern of ALEXANDER & BALDWIN, Ltd. Samuel T. ALEXANDER, was a great traveler and hunter. He went around the globe, exploring and traveling over South America and Europe, the Orient, Australia and the South Sea Islands. His daughter, Anne M. Alexander, accompanied him on his last trip to Central Africa and later to the southern part of Africa. He was accidentally killed at Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in 1904. Samuel T. ALEXANDER was a man of real world spirit, active, broad gauged, chivalrous.
Of the three sisters of Wallace McKinney ALEXANDER, mention has just been made of Miss Annie M. ALEXANDER, who was her father’s traveling companion and who for many years has been noted as a collector. She donated a museum of paleontological specimens to the University of California. She is now interested in ranching on Grizzly Island in the Sacramento River. The two other sisters are Miss Juliette ALEXANDER, a resident at Piedmont, California, and Martha, the wife of John WATERHOUSE, of Honolulu.
Wallace McKinney ALEXANDER completed his education in Yale University, graduating with the Bachelor of Arts of degree in 1892. In 1894, thirty years ago, he assisted in the organization of the firm of ALEXANDER & BALDWIN, Ltd., of which he is now president. It is one of the largest firms in Honolulu, representing a number of plantations and handling approximately 135 tons of sugar annually. The firm is a member of an organization in Honolulu known as the Sugar Factors Company. The greater part of the raw sugar controlled by the Sugar Factors Company is sent to the California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Company at Crockett on the Carquinez Straits, opposite Vallejo. This is one of the largest sugar refining plants in the world.
Mr. ALEXANDER is also a vice president of the Matson Navigation Company, vice president of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company, Ltd., a vice president of the Honolulu Consolidated Oil Company of California, a director of the California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Company, and a director of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and a director of the Columbia Steel Corporation.
At one time or another he has had some influential connection with nearly all the movements and organizations designed to influence and aid the commercial life of the Pacific and the far West. He served as chairman of the commission from San Francisco that visited Japan in 1920, and is chairman of the Japanese Relations Committee of California. In 1921-22 he was president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and it was during his presidency that the Community Chest was organized to centralize most of the charitable and social welfare work of the city. He is a director of the Californians, Inc., perhaps the most distinctive publicity organization ever promoted, and is a director and member of the executive committee of the San Francisco Industrial Association. He was a member of the Theta Xi college fraternity, belongs to the Pacific Union Club at Honolulu, and the Yale Club of New York. He is a republican and a member of an interdenominational church.
Mr. ALEXANDER married at Oakland, California, August 16, 1904, Miss Mary S. BARKER. Mrs. ALEXANDER is a native daughter and has been prominent in many social and civic movements. During the World war she was captain in charge of the canteen work at the end of the Oakland Mole. She has been active in the Red Cross and Community Chest movement in Oakland and in the Piedmont Interdenominational Church. She was born at San Francisco. Her father, the late Timothy L. BARKER, was attracted to California from Auburn, New York, during the gold rush, arriving in the state in October, 1849. His name is associated with the pioneer history of the City of San Francisco. He was associated with Governor BOOTH in the wholesale grocery business in Sacramento and with Wellman PECK & Company in San Francisco.
Mr. and Mrs. ALEXANDER have one daughter, Martha Barker ALEXANDER.
Transcribed by Deana Schultz.
Source: "The San Francisco Bay Region" Vol. 3 page 249-251 by Bailey Millard. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.