Los Angeles
County
Biographies
ISABEL
LOPEZ DE FAGES
Many
of California’s native daughters have gained prominence in the fields of
literature and art and in the latter connection Isabel Lopez de Fages is well
known. She resides at 802 North Sweetzer Avenue, Hollywood, and is a member of one of the
first families of Los Angeles. Her
forbears were among the largest landowners in southern California. In the paternal line she traces her ancestry
to Ygnacio Lopez, who was the founder of the family in California, coming here
with Portola’s expedition in 1769. He
died in 1781 and his remains were interred in a cemetery at San Gabriel, as
shown in the death records there. His
wife was Maia Fecunda Mora. They were the parents of Claudio Lopez, the
great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Called to public office, Claudio Lopez became
the second mayordomo of San Gabriel and mayor of Los Angeles in 1826. He was the owner of the Santa Anita Rancho,
which he acquired as a land grant. He
married Luisa Cota.
The great-grandfather was Esteban Lopez and his wife bore the maiden
name of Sacramenta Quintero. Jose Antonio Lopez, the grandfather, married
Maria de la Cruz Avila, whose ancestor, Cornelio Avila, became the founder of
his family in California in 1771.
William
Henry Thomas Lopez, a son of Jose Antonio Lopez and Maria de la Cruz Avila and
the father of Isabel Lopez de Fages, was born April 1, 1869, in Los Angeles
County, where he attended public and private schools. He followed the profession of teaching in
Texas and became principal of an El Paso high school which was named for
him. Subsequently he was sent to the
Philippines and after spending about six months on the islands returned to the
United States. He was a resident of San
Bernardino, California, at the time of his death which occurred May 5, 1904,
when he was a young man of thirty-five.
On
July 18, 1897, William Henry Thomas Lopez had married Nancy Olive Waite, who
was born February 24, 1872. Her father,
James Alonzo Waite, was born in Portland, Maine, November 10, 1837. Of Scotch and English lineage, he traced the
genealogy of his family in this country to four brothers who came to America as
maritime captains. Left an orphan early
in life, he was forced to struggle hard for an existence but possessed that
indomitable spirit which spurs the individual ever onward and upward, enabling
him to become a power in his chosen field.
At the age of sixteen he started for the west and when he arrived in Los
Angeles had but seventy-five cents. His relatives
lived in San Gabriel but he had considerable difficulty in finding them as he
was unable to speak Spanish. Starting as
a printer’s devil on the Star, one of the early newspapers in Los Angeles, he
soon proved his worth and in time was admitted to a partnership. Determined to secure an education, he studied
much of the night, becoming fluent in the Spanish language, as well as a fine
mathematician, and was a self-made man in the fullest and best sense of the
term. Continuing in the publishing
business, he started the Los Angeles or Southern News, which was in turn a
weekly, semi-weekly and tri-weekly enterprise.
During the Civil War he had many thrilling experiences, as his was the
only Union paper in southern California, which was largely Confederate in its
sympathies. After the War the News was
the only paper permitted to continue publication and thus was southern
California’s sole periodical for a time.
James Alonzo Waite owned the Downey Courier, and also conducted the
first sheet in Orange County, the Herald, until his death at Santa Ana, July 5,
1889. A son, Edward, and a daughter,
Nancy Olive Waite, published the Herald until the following year when it was
sold to a preacher named Mac Gill, who in turn disposed of it to Lynn
Shaw. From him Horace McPhee acquired
the paper, which he issued for many years.
The next owner was George Clarkson, who finally sold the publication to
the Santa Ana Register.
In
1858 James Alonzo Waite married Louise Jane Fox. She was born February 18, 1843, in Columbus,
Georgia, where her parents owned a large hostelry, and passed away April 17,
1921. Her father, John Fox, was a native
of France and in infancy was brought to New England. In young manhood he married Margaret Clare, a
native of Philadelphia and of French descent.
She was a member of a large family and after losing her parents was
reared by an aunt. John Fox conducted a
hostel that was a credit to his city and prospered in business. Fire destroyed his hotel and he decided to
seek the opportunities of the growing west.
On leaving his family in Columbus he took passage on a ship which sailed
around Cape Horn, hoping to make his fortune in California and send for
them. But months passed and no word came
from him, so at the end of a year the Fox family returned to Philadelphia.
After
a long and hard journey John Fox reached San Francisco, where he embarked in
business and success attended his efforts.
Soon he was able to send money to his wife in Georgia, but as she had
returned to the Quaker city it was months before she could establish her
identity and receive the amount. At the
close of another year funds arrived for the journey west by way of the Isthmus
of Panama, and the children thought it great sport to be carried from the boat
on the shoulders of the natives but their mother was greatly concerned, as the
carriers were intoxicated and set them down in the mud. The family resided for several years on
Pacific Beach, San Francisco, before removing to Los Angeles, where John Fox
passed away.
Louise
Jane Fox was one of five children and by her marriage to James Alonzo Waite she
became the mother of seven children, four of whom survive. The daughter, Nancy Olive Waite, became the
wife of William Henry Thomas Lopez, as before stated, and of the three children
born to them two are now living, Olive Eleanor Le Blanc and Isabel Clare de Fages, the latter born in Santa
Ana, July 23, 1902; Alonzo William Lopez, the only son, died in November, 1932. Endowed with literary talent, Mrs. Isabel de Fages has contributed historical articles to the Los
Angeles Time and other publications and is now engaged in writing a book on
adobe houses of California for the Southwest Museum. She is one of the Native Daughters of the
Golden West, who, under the direction of Mrs. George Parris, president of Californiana Parlor, N. D. G. W., Hollywood, are interested
in preserving historic landmarks in California.
She is chairman of hostesses of the Casa Adobe, of the Southwest Museum.
On
February 25, 1932, Isabel Lopez married Alphonse B. de Fages,
a native of California, of Spanish and French descent. He is an artist and singer. Mrs. de Fages’
hobby is collecting historical costumes of California origin.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 385-388,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES