Los Angeles
County
Biographies
MABEL CROW BENNETT
A
former educator in Alhambra who came to that city as a small child in 1886,
Mabel Crow Bennett is a woman whose heart belongs to Alhambra, and her fondest
memories include her intimate connection with the city’s early days. She was born on June 15, 1884, in Norfolk,
Nebraska. In the “Boom of the 1880’s”,
her parents, S. D. Crow, of Illinois, and Emma (Gardner) Crow, also of
Illinois, bought a ranch of about five acres on which they hoped to have an
orange grove at the corner of Mission Road and South Granada Avenue. Mr. Crow did not remain a rancher for long,
as he had been in the furniture business in Nebraska and found that he was not
well suited to agriculture. However, the
family remained on the ranch long enough for Mrs. Bennett to have happy
recollections of it. Her brother,
Raymond H. Crow, who now lives in Altadena, was born on the ranch.
Opening
a furniture store in the old Pomeroy and Stimson Block, which formerly stood at
the corner of First and Main Streets, Mr. Crow discovered that he was in the
midst of the “boom’s burst” and that everyone in Alhambra was quite short of
money. He had been investing in several lots
in the promising Alhambra Tract. When
the final crash came, he had only two lots free of debt; one was located at the
corner of Main Street and Wilson Avenue – now Atlantic Blvd. – and the other at
the corner of Alhambra Road and Stoneman Avenue. He had to sell one of the lots, both of which
were considered to be of equal value, to build a home for his family. He chose to build on the lot on Alhambra Road
because his children could attend Garfield School, just a block away.
S.
D. Crow and William J. Drake then operated a store for many years under the
firm name Crow and Drake, at the corner of Garfield and Main Streets. At first it was a general merchandise store –
groceries, fuel, feed, and the like – and later became a large grocery store. While Mrs. Bennett was attending Alhambra High
School she received some training in mathematics by working at the store on
Saturday mornings posting the charge slips in the ledgers and making out the
bills.
Mr.
S. D. Crow and Dr. F. B. Elwood, the father of Miss Roby Elwood, Mrs. Bennett’s
life-long friend, were members of the board of freeholders who drew up the
charter of the City of Alhambra. It was
adopted by the State Senate in January, 1914.
Mrs. Bennett and Miss Elwood, who had also come to Alhambra during the
boom, both graduated from Alhambra High School in 1903, the year that Alhambra
was incorporated as a city of the sixth class.
After
attending Stanford University for one year, the former Mabel Crow eloped on
October 26, 1905, with James H. Bennett, a mining man, assayer and engineer, who
had grown up on his grandfather’s ranch, the Richardson Ranch, in the
northeastern section of Alhambra and what is now known as San Marino. After her marriage Mrs. Bennett lived in the
mining country of Arizona, Nevada, at the Yellow Aster Mine, Randsburg, Kern County, and the Mother Lode, south of
Placerville. The Bennett’s had one
daughter, Winifred, who was graduated from Alhambra High School in 1926. She attended Pomona College for one year and
was a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and a member of
Phi Beta Kappa. Winifred Bennett died in
1936, while studying for her doctorate at the University of Illinois. Mr. Bennett passed away in 1950.
Mabel
Crow Bennett returned to Alhambra in 1918 to teach at Ynez School; she used to
ride a bicycle to and from the school, all the way down Garfield Avenue from Monterey
Street in Alhambra. From 1919 – 1927,
Mrs. Bennett taught at Granada School where one of her fourth grade pupils was
Tyrone Power, the late motion picture star.
For the next six years Mrs. Bennett was in the Research and Guidance
Department of the Alhambra School System.
In 1934 she became a supervisor in instruction and curriculum, remaining
in that position until her retirement in 1950.
She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in education in 1933 at the
University of Southern California, graduating Cum Laude. She has written handbooks on organization,
planning, and instruction. She was one
of the writers of a series of six books composed of two books on each of three
reading levels, “Tom’s America” and “Tom Travels the Trail”, social study
readers of the western movement for the fifth grade.
Serving
as juror in the Alhambra Municipal Court in 1959 – 1960, Mrs. Bennett has also
worked on the San Gabriel precinct board for the Republican Party for the past
five years. She is a life member of the
Order of the Eastern Star, Alhambra Chapter No. 193. She is a member and a past president, in 1932,
of the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Alhambra, and a member of the
San Gabriel Woman’s Club as well as of the American Association of University
Women. She is affiliated with Delta Kappa Gamma, a national and international
honorary sorority for women in education, and with Gamma Phi Beta, social
sorority.
Before
her retirement, Mrs. Bennett was a member of the Supervisors’ Association of
California, southern section, the National Education Association, and the
National Supervisors’ and Child Welfare Association. She is now a member of the California Retired
Teachers’ Association, the Pasadena-Foothill Chapter, and the San Gabriel
Retired Teachers’ Group.
A
favorite pastime of Mrs. Bennett’s is playing contract bridge; she also enjoys
gardening. She has long found enrichment
in traveling, and still travels quite a bit, when her health permits. She hopes to take a trip on a ship to the
South Pacific early in 1962.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 749-751, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES