Los Angeles County
Biographies
FREDERICK C. MARTIN
Frederick C. Martin was for many years one of the loyal employees of the Southern Pacific Railway System, and also had a prominent part of the business and civic affairs of several communicates of the Los Angeles Metropolitan district, where he spent most of the active years of his life.
Mr. Martin was born in Franklin County, New York, August 26, 1870, son of Col. Russell C. and Sarah A. (Gibson) Martin. His father Colonel Russell C. Martin was born in Vermont in 1848, representing a line of Colonial ancestry, and the first important event of his life was to respond to the call of patriotism at the time of the Civil war. At the age of fourteen, he enlisted in the Calvary and served until the end of the hostilities. For some time after the war he lived in New York where he operated a sawmill, but left that business to purchase the drug store of his father, Dr. Norman R. Martin, and he continued active in the business until 1881 when he brought his family to California and settled at Los Angeles. He was an engineer with the Southern Pacific Lines for about thirty years. For five years he was stationed as Commandant of the Veterans Home at Yountville, Napa County, and is a former department commander of California and Nevada Grand Army of the Republic. His wife died April 25, 1925. There were two sons, Frederick C. and Norman R. Norman for many years was County Superintendent of Charities at Los Angeles.
Frederick C. Martin was eleven years of age when his family came to Los Angeles. He finished his education here. He finished his education here and for five years was in the grocery business. He left merchandising to take up railroad work and for over twenty-seven years was in the service of the Southern Pacific Railway as a locomotive engineer. He had been a resident of Los Angeles for more than forty years when he died May 5, 1924.
At one time he owned property in Glendale, but later bought real estate in Beaumont and was very active in the building up of that community. He erected the home still owned and occupied by Mrs. Martin there, and was one of the promoters of and a stockholder and director in the Beaumont Bank, and also assisted in organizing the Beaumont Gas Company of which he was president. He had much to do with giving Beaumont good school facilities and was chairman of the Board of Education and instrumental in bringing about the erection of adequate new school buildings. Mr. Martin died while temporarily living at 423 College Street in Los Angeles at the home of his mother and father. He had been ill for about eight years before his death. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.
Mr. Martin was a republican, member of Los Angeles Y. M. C. A., the Jonathan Club and his chief hobby was a sound taste and appreciation of music. From boyhood he had played the flute and was a member of the Philharmonic Society and similar organizations. In Masonry he was affiliated with San Jacinto Lodge No. 338, F. and A. M., Royal Arch Chapter No. 83, St. Bernard Commandery No. 23, Knights Templar at San Bernardino and he and his wife were members of Los Angeles Victoria Chapter No. 241, Eastern Star.
Mr. Martin married April 29, 1901, Miss Harriet M. White, a native daughter in San Francisco, daughter of William M. White, a California pioneer. Mrs. Martin attended school in San Francisco, and completed her education at Los Angeles where she taught in the public schools until her marriage. She was formerly chairman of the civics department of the Southern District Federation of Women’s Clubs, and one of the organizers of the Woman’s Clubs of Beaumont and its president two years. During 1926-27 she was patriotic instructor for the Woman’s Relief Corps for the Department of California and Nevada. She served six years as president of the Library Board at Beaumont, and is a member of the Daylight Chapter of the Eastern Star, the supreme Council of the Order of Amaranth of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Parlor No. 124, Native Daughters of the Golden West. She is a member of the Historical Society of Southern California. Mrs. Martin spent six years in the public schools at Los Angeles as a teacher.
The late Mr. Martin was affiliated with the Redlands Lodge No. 583, B. P. O. Elks, and was a Senior Vice-Commander of the Department of the Sons of Veterans, Division of California and Pacific at the time of his death.
Transcribed
By: Michele Y. Larsen on November 16, 2012.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 495-497,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Michele
Y. Larsen.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES