Los Angeles County
Biographies
EDWARD SALISBURY FIELD
FIELD, EDWARD
SALISBURY, Real Estate, Los Angeles, California,
was born in Leverett,
Massachusetts, October 30, 1840, the son of
De Estang Salisbury Field and Editha
(Crocker) Field. He married Sarah M.
Hubbard, daughter of one of the pioneers of Indianapolis, Indiana,
at Indianapolis, June 6, 1866, and
to them there were born three sons and four daughters. Two of the sons died in infancy and the
remaining one, Edward Salisbury Field, Jr., is a noted author and artist, known
as an artist by the nom de plume of “Childe Harold.” The eldest daughter, Helen, is the wife of
Murray M. Harris of Los Angeles; the second daughter, Edith, is the wife of
Howard L. Rivers, a Los Angeles merchant; the third daughter, Carrie, is unmarried,
living with her parents at 685 Coronado street, and the youngest, Florence, is
the wife of Harold L. Wright of San Francisco.
Mr. Field is
descended from a notable New England family whose members
on both sides of the house have played a prominent part in the development of
the country. His father was born on the
homestead at Leverett, August 24, 1813, and died at
the residence of his son in Los Angeles,
March 7, 1900. His mother died at Monson, Massachusetts,
January 17, 1888, and he is the only survivor of five children born to them.
Early in his life
Mr. Fields’ family removed from Leverett to Amherst,
Mass., where he received fair education in
the public schools. At the age of
eighteen he entered upon a five-year apprenticeship to learn the book and paper
business. For the first year he received
$50 and the second year $75, out of which he had to keep himself. A part of the five years he was at Amherst
and Springfield, Mass., and the
balance of the time at Troy, New
York.
In 1864 Mr. Field
went to Indianapolis, Ind.,
and for a number of years was a partner in the firm of Merrill & Field, law
publishers and booksellers. He was
active in Christian work there, serving as an Elder in the Second Presbyterian
Church, and as President of the Young Men’s Christian Assn.
Leaving Indianapolis
in June, 1883, Mr. Field transferred his home to Los
Angeles and has lived there since, taking a prominent
part in the civic life and upbuilding of that part of
the country. He served two terms on the
Board of County Supervisors, being elected the first time in 1894, and the
second time in 1898, he being the fist Republican supervisor elected to succeed
himself. He was chairman of the board
for two years and chairman of the County
Hospital for six years, during two
years of which he also served on the County Farm Committee, the two most
important in the board.
Mr. Field has
been in the real estate business since locating in Los
Angeles and is today one of the active operators,
despite the fact that he is past seventy years of age. In 1886 he subdivided what is known as the E.
S. Field Occidental
Heights tract, ten acres of which was given to Occidental
College, a Presbyterian
institution. Upon this land the first
buildings of the college were erected, Mr. Field being one of the incorporators
and, for several years, President of the Board of Trustees of the college.
In his realty
operations Mr. Field has been interested in the development of numerous
beautiful residence sections in and around Los Angeles,
among them the Hollywood Ocean View tract, Arlington Heights tract, and the
Short Line Beach Land Company, of which latter he is President; and the Pacific
Wharf & Storage Company, of San Pedro, California. He is or has been connected with various
other enterprises of a development nature.
Mr. Field, who
cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for President of the United
States, has always been a Republican in
politics, and has been a pioneer in business, moral and educational enterprises. As in the days when he was in Indianapolis,
he has been an ardent worker in the cause of Christianity. For several years he was an Elder in the
First Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, a Director in the Young Men’s
Christian Association and a member of the State Executive Committee of the
Young Men’s Christian Association. His
voice has often been heard from the platform in the interest of the Association
and he has often been helpful in laying foundations upon which others have
built and largely received the reward.
Mr. Field’s only
affiliations outside of his business and Christian associations,
are those of the Union League Club of Los Angeles, and the Royal Arcanum.
Transcribed 7-4-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 105,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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