Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/202

 Tavern, its casinos and railroad office. He was instrumental in preserving the lake as a beautiful recreation spot when a proposed canal for irrigation and power purposes threatened to lower the shoreline and expose unsightly mud banks.

Francis W. Bridges is a graduate of the University of California and of the Harvard Business School, His maternal grandfather, John Wilson, came to San Francisco in 1854 from Nova Scotia and New Zealand, went north to British Columbia after the dis- covery of gold there, then around the world to New Zealand, and back to California in 1870. His paternal grandfather came to the Bay region from Massachusetts in the early 1870's and was one of the engineering party that led the construction of the Southern Pacific over the Siskiyou Mountains.

C. L. Guthrie is a member of the California State Assembly from Tulare County, a director of the Farm Credit Administration, and an authority on stock horses, judging them at horse shows and county fairs. His grandfather, Washington Guthrie, came from Kentucky in 1 848, bringing with him thoroughbred horses. The family moved to Tulare County in 1872 and raised horses and cattle on their ranch near Porterville. Guthrie horses figured in quarter-horse races all over the Western states and one even went to England as a polo horse.

Hildegarde Hawthorne* (Mrs. John Milton Oskison), well-known author of many books, poems, and stories, is the daughter of Julian and granddaughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Dr. George Curtis Martin* has held various positions in geological and paleontological fields with the U. S. Geological Survey, Maryland Geological Survey, Johns Hopkins University, and in Alaska and Mexico. More recently he has been with the United States Board on Geographic Names.

Eugene O'Neill* noted playwright, is the son of the actor, James O'Neill, who first came to San Francisco with the Hooley Comedy Company in 1875 and later became famous as "The Count of Monte Cristo" in the play of that name.

Mrs. William L. Pattiani (Evelyn Craig) is the eldest daughter of Hugh Craig who came to San Francisco from Australia in the early 1870's, entered the insurance business, and built one of the early homes in the Piedmont hills, moving into it in 1880. The house is still owned by Mrs. Pattiani. Hugh Craig was largely responsible for the compiling of the present city charter of Piedmont and served as mayor of that city for seven years. Mrs. Pattiani's maternal grandparents, the Samuel Fleming Gilcrests, arrived in Oak- land in 1864, having come "across the plains" from Ohio in covered wagons. Mrs. Pat- tiani is collecting data for a book on the Piedmont district.

A. Porter Robinson is the grandson of Alfred Robinson, author of the famous Life in California (New York, 1846), who first came to California in 1829. His other grand- father was Horace Hawes, pioneer of 1847, prominent lav^yer and author of the Con- solidation Bill which in 1856 united the City and County of San Francisco.

R. A. Sperry, vice president of the General Petroleum Corporation of California, has been in the oil business since 190 1, the year after the discovery of oil in Kern County. He comes from the family that started the Sperry Flour Company in the very early days, and is the grandnephew of James L. Sperry who was in the hotel business at Angel's Camp and Murphy's and afterwards built and ran the hotel at Calaveras Big Trees Grove. His mother's family, the Ashes, did not come to California until after the Civil War, but they were related to Dr. Richard P. Ashe who came in 1849.

Miss Jeanne Elizabeth Wier*, founder of the Nevada Historical Society, has been its secretary since its organization in 1904. A graduate of Stanford University, she received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Nevada in 1924, at which institution she has taught history since 1899 and has been the head of the Department of History and Political Science since 1901.
 * For further information see Who's Whoin America.