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.

 

 

 

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