Los
Angeles County
Biographies
EDWARD McFADYEN
For twenty-three years a resident of
Long Beach, Edgar McFadyen was accounted one of the city’s leading businessmen
and established an enviable reputation as a funeral director. A native of the Golden state, he was born in
Dixon, Solano County, and was a son of John W. and Prudence (Hamilton)
McFadyen, the former born in Connecticut and the latter on Prince Edward
Island. At the age of eighteen the
father responded to the call of the west, coming to California, and engaged in
the trucking business, one of considerable importance in those early days. In his family there were five children, four
sons and one daughter.
In his native village Edgar McFadyen
acquired a public school education, which was supplemented by attendance at
Heald’s Business College in San Francisco.
When his course was completed he returned home and entered the Bank of
Dixon, with which he was connected for eleven years, advancing to the position
of assistant cashier. The experience
thus gained well qualified him for the duties of cashier, which he assumed at
the time he became identified with the Placer County Bank at Auburn, California,
and for nine years he represented the institution in the capacity, exerting
every effort to safeguard its funds and insure its stability. With his removal to Long Beach in 1906, Mr.
McFadyen entered a new field of activity, becoming a mortician, and
successfully engaged in that line of business until his death on the 4th
of August, 1929. He had reached the age
of sixty-one years and was laid to rest in Angelus Abbey.
In young manhood Mr. McFadyen
married Miss Kate Snyder, who was also born and reared in Dixon,
California. Her father, Paul Snyder, was
a native of Alsace-Lorraine and immigrated to America when a youth of sixteen,
settling in Missouri, where he followed the occupation of farming. In that state he married Miss Mary Willott, and came with his wife to California in 1852. Besides his widow Mr. McFadyen is survived by
two sons and a daughter: Dwight S., who
has long been manager for the Owl Drug Company at Long Beach, and who married
Miss Marguerite Hiskey and has one child; Marie,
formerly a teacher, who is the wife of Frederick Monroe and the mother of two
children, Edgar and James; and Paul, who was graduated from the University of
California and resides with his mother in Long Beach.
In local fraternal circles Mr.
McFadyen was well known through his affiliation with Long Beach Lodge, No. 888,
B. P. O. E., and Long Beach Lodge, No. 210, K. P. He had passed through the chairs of these
organizations and had served as district deputy. He also belonged to the Long Beach Lions Club
and Long Beach Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West. He was greatly attached to his city and state
and considered Long Beach an ideal place of residence. He regularly attended services at the First
Congregational Church and its teachings guided him in the relationships of
daily life. Honest, progressive and
public-spirited, Mr. McFadyen stood high as a businessman and as a citizen and
his passing was deeply regretted by all who knew him. Mrs. McFadyen is a devout communicant of St.
Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church, a regent of the Catholic Daughters, and a
member of the association of Native Daughters of California. A capable executive, she has successfully
continued the business since her husband’s death, maintaining an establishment
which for more than twenty years has stood for the best in funeral equipment
and service in Long Beach.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 207-208, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN
NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES