Los Angeles
County
Biographies
IDA MARGUERITE HALSTED
(Deceased)
The
death of Ida Marguerite Halsted on April 16, 1960, ended her eighty-two years
of residence in Alhambra which she began in 1878, at the age of five
years. Her passing was recorded in the
minutes of the Commission of the City of Alhambra and the outstanding services
which she had rendered to the city were noted.
Not only had she lived in Alhambra longer than any other citizen, but
she had been a charter member of Alhambra’s First Methodist Church and a member
of its choir for fifty-five years. Miss
Halsted was a former member of the Alhambra Women’s Club and the Business and
Professional Women’s Club, as well as belonging to the Alhambra Music
Club. She was also a member of various
other civic and musical organizations.
She is widely remembered for her pioneer work with the Girl Scouts in
the area; she became the second director of the Girl Scouts in Pasadena,
serving at the head of the movement from 1925 - 1932, and instituting the
still-continued garden tours. An expert
horseback rider, Miss Halsted rode horseback several
times in the early Tournament of Roses Parades.
She attended Hanna College for Girls in Los Angeles, commuting on the
Southern Pacific Railway from San Gabriel.
Miss
Halsted was born in New York state in 1873, the
daughter of Samuel M. and Ida (Russell) Halsted. The Halsted family came to California in 1877
and in the following year, purchased ten acres of land at one hundred
twenty-five dollars an acre near what became the boundary line between San
Gabriel and Alhambra; later seven more acres were added to the ranch. Houses on Halsted Circle in Alhambra stand
today on the site of the old Halsted homestead and orange orchard; the ranch
house was at the intersection of five roads, or paths, one of which was El
Camino Real, over which the padres trod from mission to mission nearly two
centuries ago.
Samuel
M. Halsted lived but a year and eight months after his arrival in Alhambra, but
he left his mark on the community. He
and his wife aided materially in the establishment of the First Methodist
Church, originally built in 1878, on what became Chapel Street. They were two of the seven charter members of
that church; Mr. Halsted was the first Sunday school superintendent. The present church was erected at Main and Almansor Streets in 1926.
After her husband’s death, Mrs. Halsted continued to run the ranch,
where Marge, as she was known to her friends, and her brother, Abel Stevens
Halsted, grew up. Mr. Halsted attended
Los Angeles High School and studied law.
He practiced his profession for thirty-five years in Los Angeles and
became general counsel for the Union Pacific Railroad west of Salt Lake City,
Utah. He was a member of Pasadena’s
Valley Hunt Club and of the Sunset Club and of the California Club of Los
Angeles. He died in 1932 and is survived
by a son, Abel Stevens Halsted, Jr., also an attorney, who resides in Pasadena.
Ida
Marguerite Halsted’s mother lived until 1920.
Shortly after her death, the old ranch was subdivided and Halsted Circle
was created.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 748-749, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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