Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Petsch, Adolph 1852 - ************************************************ 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 January 1, 2006, 1:42 am Author: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908) ADOLPH PETSCH, retired, Santa Monica, was born in the city of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Germany, August 12th, 1852. He was educated in the Frankfurt public schools and pursued a course of study in a business college. When, in 1866, the free city of Frankfurt lost its independence and was annexed by the kingdom of Prussia, young Petsch, although a lad of only fourteen years, believed that government without the consent of the governed was a mistake to which he could not submit. In 1869, rather than submit to the newly imposed degradation of military service, he left, as a political exile, the home in which his family had been prominent for a period of six hundred years. In October, 1869, he landed in New York and went directly to St. Louis, where two uncles, also political exiles, had settled in 1831. After a short stay he returned to Europe intending to locate in Southern France, but the Franco-Prussian War drove him to Switzerland. He also visited Metz in Lorraine and there the Prussian government found and exiled him in 1872. He then went to Belgium where he remained about five years in the city of Verviers, engaged in the banking business, but being without citizenship, and Belgium, like Switzerland, accepting no foreigners, he was led to seek a new home. He again came to America and to St. Louis, Mo. On April 11th, 1877, the Southern Hotel in that city was destroyed by fire and Mr. Petsch only saved his life by escape from a fifth story window by means of a rope made from sheets from the bed. Injuries sustained in this fire made him an invalid for two years, which fact brought him to Southern California, after a short stay in San Francisco. He was naturalized in 1882 and has since left the state only to pay two short visits to parents and the old home in Europe. In Pasadena, in the early part of the year 1878, he obtained his first ideas of horticulture and viticulture. At this period the Pasadena colony was short of water and Mr. Petsch began to look around for an abundant irrigation supply. During the summer of 1880 he spent, in company with Judge Benjamin S. Eaton, the pioneer of Pasadena, several months in traveling over the southern counties. In one of these trips he bought an interest in the Day Canyon Water Company and also made filings under the desert land act on some government land. Soon after he sold this to the Chaffey Brothers, and upon it they founded what is now a portion of the beautiful Etiwanda. Mr. Petsch then purchased one hundred and sixty acres pre-emption claim of Henry Reed, together with available water rights in nearby canyons, and the first steps to the founding of what became the Hermosa Colony were taken. He added some four hundred acres to his original purchase, organized a water company, platted his holdings into lots of convenient size for small farms, bordered the streets with ornamental shade trees and wind break, planted some of the tract to orange and other citrus fruit trees, and eventually disposed of the entire tract to homeseekers. The enterprise was beset with some difficulties, but none so formidable as to deter the indomitable Petsch from the execution of his plans. Wild jack rabbits raided his orchards and girdled his trees and Mr. Petsch made a characteristic move against them by building a solid stone and cement wall with iron gates around the tract to shut them out. While this was, in a measure, a failure as a rabbit tight fence, it was so much talked and written about as to make Hermosa famous, and proved to be valuable advertising. The phenomenal success of Hermosa led, in 1883, to the establishment of the Iowa colony on adjoining lands. The two names were finally blended into that of "Ioamosa," an occurrence for which Mr. Petsch disclaims any responsibility. In 1884 Mr. Petsch married a native daughter of California, whose father, John L. Frese, was a pioneer of Oakland. In 1892 he retired from Hermosa to Los Angeles and there became popularly known as the tireless promotor of La Fiesta de Los Angeles. His great energy and enthusiasm fired all Los Angeles with the Fiesta spirit from year to year. The marvelous beauty and uniqueness of its floral parade, made by the numerous and costly floats, were the direct outcome of his own designs and personal oversight in construction. For several years the family home was at Figueroa and Twenty-first Street, until they made a trip to Europe in 1894 Upon their return, they purchased property, built a home and settled in Santa Monica. Mr. Petsch is an active member of the Santa Monica Board of Trade, and the novel, original and strikingly appropriate interior decorations and furnishing of the Board of Trade rooms are due to his genius. Mr. and Mrs. Petsch have one son, Carl. 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/petsch239bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 5.7 Kb