Los Angeles County
Biographies
DANA
WEBSTER BARTLETT, D.D.
BARTLETT, DANA WEBSTER, D.D., Clergyman, Los Angeles, California, was born at Bangor, Maine, October 27, 1860, the son of Daniel Webster Bartlett and Mary (Crosby) Bartlett. He married Mattie McCullough at Socorro, New Mexico, Sept. 12, 1887, and to them there have been born five daughters, Margaret (Mrs. I. C. Louis), Eloise, Lucille, Esther and Beulah. They also have an adopted son, a Hualapai Indian child.
Dr. Bartlett received his early education in the schools of Grinnell, Iowa, and was graduated from Iowa College at Grinnell in 1882. He then started the Park Academy, at Park City, Utah, and conducted it as principal until 1884, when he gave up teaching to enter Yale Theological Seminary, at New Haven, Conn. In 1886 he went to Chicago Theological Seminary, and upon graduation in 1887, went to St. Louis, Mo., where he took charge of the Union Church in the tenement district of that city.
In 1892, Dr. Bartlett gave up his work in St. Louis and went to Salt Lake City, Utah as pastor of Phillips Church. He filled this charge until he removed to Los Angeles in 1896.
From the time of his arrival in Los Angeles, where he took charge of the Bethlehem Institutional Church, Dr. Bartlett has been continually engaged in uplift work, with such good effect that he has been referred to in public as “the most useful citizen in Los Angeles.”
From Bethlehem Institutional Church, a comparatively small affair, Dr. Bartlett has developed the Bethlehem Institute, one of the most effective rescue projects in the United States, and for more than fifteen years he devoted himself unselfishly and tirelessly to his work. His object throughout his work has been to assist the unfortunate and help the “down and out” to another chance; to reclaim as many as possible from the human drift and wreckage to lives of usefulness; to drain the slums and prevent their re-establishment; to keep young and old from sinking into what has been termed “the submerged tenth.”
To prove the sincerity of his purpose, Dr. Bartlett has made his home among the people he serves, raising his family in the environment he seeks to abolish; and the success of Bethlehem Institute is his reward. From almost nothing the Institute has grown until it covers six city lots, maintaining a free dispensary, bathhouses for men and women, a shoemaker shop, free employment bureau, a Coffee Club, reading room, library and social hall and Boys’ Athletic Club. It maintains night schools for Mexicans, Russians, Japanese, Greeks, Italians and other foreign peoples. Dr. Bartlett is (1913) planning to widen the scope of the Institute until it meets an ideal which he has long cherished.
Dr. Bartlett’s work in the eradication of poverty and suffering and the abolishment of slums in Los Angeles has placed him among the leading social uplifters of the country and also has served to place his adopted city among the most advanced municipalities.
Aside from his work in connection with Bethlehem Institute, Dr. Bartlett also has been an active force in civic affairs of Los Angeles and has aided largely in the moral progress of the city. He also has been among the practical workers, being one of the Directors of the Municipal Housing Association of Los Angeles and Chairman of the City Planning Committee, to which position he was appointed by Mayor George Alexander of Los Angeles in 1910 and continues to fill. He also is a Director of the National City Planning Commission and his efforts in this work have been largely directed to the elimination of slums, although in Los Angeles these have been practically wiped out.
In 1906 Dr. Bartlett was persuaded, on account of his activity for civic betterment and his advocacy of cleanliness in politics and government, to accept the nomination on a non-partisan ticket for the City Council of Los Angeles. He failed of election, but in his campaign implanted various progressive ideas which have since played an important part in the direction of the city’s destinies.
Owing to his intimate knowledge of the foreigners within the State of California and his abilities to aid their conditions of living, Dr. Bartlett was appointed in 1912 to a position on the California State Immigration Commission by Governor Johnson and the same year was chosen Chairman of the Pacific Coast Immigration Study League, which he helped to organize at Tacoma, Washington, and which it is hoped will do a great deal towards solving the many problems encountered daily.
Dr. Bartlett, upon whom Grinnell College conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1911, is recognized as one of the most forceful men of the Congregational Church and has attained distinction both as orator and lecturer. He also has been a prolific writer on social and economic subjects and is the author of two notable books, “The Better City,” published in 1908. and “The Better Country,” published in 1911. Both these works have been welcomed as splendid inspirations to social workers and humanity in general for a future ideal civilization.
Dr. Bartlett is democratic in his views and enjoys widespread popularity among all classes.
He is a member of the City and of the Federation Club of Los Angeles.
Transcribed 2-21-11 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 599, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.
1913.
© 2011 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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