Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOSEPH
VICENTE De La OSA & MRS. FLORESTINA De GILBERT
Mrs. Florestina Gilbert, descended from honored California families who settled in this state as early as 1764, is a highly esteemed resident of Los Angeles. She is the widow of Harlow Gilbert, a native of New York, New York, who acquired his education in the public schools of the eastern metropolis and came to California in the early ‘80s. Mr. Gilbert first located in San Diego, where he embarked in the construction and marble business, conducting the first enterprise of its kind in the city. Like many other citizens of that period, he saw greater possibilities in Los Angeles and accordingly took up his permanent abode here in 1883. Resuming his operations in the construction field, he erected some of the largest buildings in Los Angeles at that time, and he was also one of the first men to engage in the marble business in this city. He retired from active business and a year later passed away on the 20th of June, 1920, after forty years’ residence in Los Angeles, where he had become widely known as a substantial and highly respected citizen.
On the 6th of March, 1887, in San Gabriel, California, Mr. Gilbert was united in marriage to Florestina de la Osa, daughter of Joseph Vicente and Rita (Guillen) de la Osa. Her paternal grandfather, Don Jose de la Osa, was a Spanish grandee who as an envoy to this country after the conquest of Mexico brought the Encino grant of land which now includes Studio City and Burbank sites and included about five thousand acres. The grandmother of Mrs. Gilbert in the maternal line was Eulalia Perez de Guillen, who figures in the historical annals of the state by reason of her effective efforts in the cause of education and the betterment of living conditions among the less fortunate classes. Even at the advanced age of ninety years she had not ceased her activities in this connection and she was primarily responsible for the demand that Don Jose Chapman build a mill at the San Gabriel Mission. The official records of San Gabriel attest the fact that she attained the remarkable age of one hundred and fifteen years, while her daughter, Rita (Guillen) de la Osa, had reached the age of ninety years when she passed away in San Gabriel. The American progenitors of the Perez and de la Osa families were natives of Spain who settled on the Pacific coast in 1764 and were at one time among the largest landowners in California. Mrs. Gilbert has a brother Charles de la Osa who resides in San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert became the parents of two children: Desell, who died in infancy; and Ynez, now the wife of Roger J. O’Shea, of Los Angeles. Mrs. Gilbert is a member of Los Angeles Parlor of the Native Daughters and A. la. California Club and has an extensive circle of warm friends in Los Angeles and this part of the state.
Transcribed
3-13-13 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
675-676, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES