Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Kimball, Myron H. 1827 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com December 12, 2005, 10:55 pm Author: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908) MYRON H. KIMBALL, well known in Santa Monica and Los Angeles as a substantial and staid pioneer, was one of the earliest denizens of the Angel City to discover the beauties and desirability of Santa Monica by the sea as a place for retirement, in which to spend the declining years of a business life. He is a native of Oneida County, N. Y., born in the town of Verona, September 13th, 1827. His father, David Kimball, was a native of New Hampshire, a contractor and builder. He came west in 1837, and located in Monroe County, Michigan, and for many years was in the employ of the Michigan Southern Ry., as a bridge builder. He later retired to his farm neat Adrian, Michigan, where he spent many active years of his life, and finally returned to Oneida, N. Y., where he died at seventy-three years of age. Young Myron, early in youth, acquired a burning desire to see the world and lead a free and independent life and accordingly at ten years of age left home and obtained a situation in a grocery store at Toledo, Ohio, which was then a small town of about fifteen hundred people. He remained there about seven years and in 1844 went to Lafayette, Ind., where he clerked in a general store. His employer's father, Captain Brayton, was owner of a steamboat that navigated the Wabash River between Lafayette and Terre Haute, and young Kimball. then seventeen years old, was offered, and accepted, a position as clerk on the steamer and at times was its commander. He then went to Cincinnati and traveled from that city as a salesman for a wholesale tea and tobacco house. He made his way east to New York city, via Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis. He spent about five years in and out of the city of Cincinnati. The art of making Daguerreotype pictures had just been perfected, the beauty and utility of which appealed to young Kimball as at once a most attractive and practical means of making money and he placed himself under a thorough course of training and mastered the art. The year 1853 found him again in New York City as World's Fair correspondent of the Philadelphia Enquirer. This was the first World's Fair that ever took place on the American continent and was held in the famous Crystal Palace, erected for the purpose on ground now occupied by a public square at Sixth Avenue and Forty-first and Forty-second Streets. Mr. Kimball spent six months at the Crystal Palace and his descriptive articles so widely portrayed the wonders of the great fair as to bring to the Enquirer an extended reputation and wide popularity, for which he was liberally compensated. While a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Kimball took a course of instruction in the new art of Daguerreotype picture making from E.G. Hawkins, a pupil of Samuel F. Morse, the inventor of telegraphy. Mr. Morse had obtained a knowledge of the art from Daguerre himself while on a visit to exhibit his own wonderful invention. After relinquishing his duties as correspondent to the Enquirer, Mr. Kimball opened a picture gallery in New York City, on Broadway near Canal Street, where he promptly built up a profitable business. The Deguerreotype proved, however, to be only the forerunner of something better, as Mr. Kimball and others were quietly experimenting along lines that eventually produced a superior picture, known as the Ambrotype and superseded its predecessor. About this time the photographic picture process made its appearance and Mr. Kimball was one of the first to adopt and introduce it in New York. He sold his gallery and opened on a much more extended scale as No. 477 Broadway, near Broome Street, which was then in the heart of the uptown business center of the city. He did business there about five years. The Civil War had broken out in 1860. In 1863 Mr. Kimball was employed as a government photographer at Port Royal, South Carolina, and Jones Island in front of Charleston. He spent upwards of six months at the seat of war when he returned to his business in New York. In 1864 he was appointed official photographer for Princeton College, the work of which amounted to thousands of dollars and he acted in the same capacity for the Freedman's Bureau. He spent in all about twenty-five years in New York City and owned a fine country seat on Long Island. He also at one time owned and conducted a wholesale and retail confectionery business in Fulton Street, Brooklyn. In 1874 he closed out all his interests and started for California, via the Isthmus of Panama, and arrived in San Francisco February 25th, of that year. He soon embarked for San Pedro and Los Angeles. Los Angeles was then a small city of about nine thousand people. It had no railway connection with the outside world save the local line to Wilmington and the first street railway, a mule car line, was that year constructed. The city was inadequately supplied with hotels, the Pico House being the leading public stopping place and that was over crowded. The St. Charles (old Bella Union) and the Lafayette (now St. Elmo) were also full to their limit. Mr. Kimball in quest for an opening for business decided to erect a first class family hotel and accordingly purchased property on New High Street, north of Temple Street, and erected what was for years the leading hostelry of its class in the city, known as the Kimball Mansion. It became the home of many of the leading people of Los Angeles and prominent tourists from the east and abroad. Helen Hunt Jackson made it her home while in Southern California, and it was there that she did much of the literary work on famous story, Ramona. He relates many interesting reminiscences of his acquaintance with this delightful guest. Mr. Kimball's residence of nine years in Los Angeles was crowded with business activities. Besides building the Kimball Mansion he made other investments in realty. He took an active interest in the progress of Los Angeles and Southern California and became superintendent of the Southern California Horticultural and Agricultural Societies and it was under his direction and management that the joint exposition of 1878 and also 1879 were held. The Board of Directors accorded him full credit for the phenomenal success of an enterprise entered upon with misgivings as to its feasibility and outcome. Mr. Kimball was married at the old Episcopal parsonage in Hudson Street, New York City, by Rev. Mr. Tuttle, June 26th, 1857, to Miss Eliza, a daughter of William Robb, a Scotchman. He was a capitalist and a member of Rob Roy clan, famous in the sixteenth century history of Scotland, and the hero of one of Sir Walter Scott's novels. Mrs. Kimball was a lady of exceptional social attainments, amiable temperament and domestic tastes. She became widely known and popular during their residence in Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Kimball purchased a fine residence in Santa Monica in 1882 at No. 225 North Second Street. She died in the seventy-fifth year of her age, April 18th, 1903. Mr. Kimball is a man of great kindness of heart and popularity as one of the best known Los Angeles pioneers. He is a life-long Democrat, of the old Andrew Jackson school, a thorough adherent to the doctrines and precepts of American government that made the old party the bulwark of our nation's greatness. He has lived to see his party side-step many times to its lasting discredit and chagrin of its oldest adherents. Mr. Kimball is an almost life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was Mrs. Kimball. He was very active in the old Central Methodist Episcopal Church, in Los Angeles, and has for years been one of the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Santa Monica. He is a Free Mason of over fifty years standing. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities: prefaced with a brief history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County, 1542 to 1908: supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and embellished with views of historic landmarks and portraits of representative people. Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/losangeles/bios/kimball150bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 8.6 Kb