Los Angeles-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Weid, Ivar A. October 23, 1837 - August 25, 1903
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com August 15, 2010, 9:44 pm

Source: California and Californians, Vol. IV, Published 1932, Pages 68 - 69
Author: The Lewis Publishing Company

     IVAR A. WEID was a native of Denmark, born on his father's farm near 
Odense October 23, 1837, a son of Henning Hviid. Ivar Weid after coming to 
America changed the difficult Danish spelling of his name to one more easily 
pronounced. He grew up on the homestead, and after the common schools began an 
apprenticeship in a dry goods firm, serving seven years with one employer. He 
enrolled in the Danish army and was given a commission. It was partly to seek 
a fortune in the new world and also to put to test the experience and training 
he had gained as a soldier that he came to America at the outbreak of the 
Civil war. Having some knowledge of the English language, he readily found a 
place for service in the Union army in which he was enlisted September 21, 
1861, and mustered into the Third Missouri Infantry. He was promoted to 
sergeant and on August 30, 1862, was elected captain of the Eighty-second 
Illinois Infantry and went with the regiment to the Army of the Potomac. After 
the battle of Fredericksburg, because of rheumatism brought on by exposure, he 
resigned his commission, took an honorable discharge, and came at once to 
California, traveling by way of Panama and arriving in San Francisco in 1863. 
In San Francisco at that time all the trades and occupations had a surplus of 
applications for employment, and he spent some months at Virginia City, 
Nevada, returning to San Francisco in 1864. He was employed as an accountant 
by Miller & Cutter, who operated a store carrying men's furnishings and also a 
laundry. Mr. Weid acquired a half interest in this business.

     In 1868 he spent a short time at White Pine, Nevada, and during the same 
year married Miss Marie Magnus at San Francisco. In 1870 Mr. and Mrs. Weid 
came to Los Angeles. Four miles west of the courthouse Mr. Weid had 640 acres 
of Government and railroad land, with a mile frontage along what is now 
Western Avenue from Santa Monica Boulevard to Beverly Boulevard, which he 
transformed from a wild estate to agricultural production. He planted a great 
many trees and shrubbery and otherwise adorned the tract. A portion of this 
land was sold during the boom days of the late 1880s at a thousand dollars an 
acre. This he reinvested in city property, acquiring a large amount of 
holdings in the Hollywood district and also the Cahuenga Valley.

     The name of Hollywood originated in the suggestion of Mr. Weid, who, 
impressed by the abundance of holly trees and the beauty of the holly berries 
in Weid Canyon, suggested the name of "Hollywood."

     Mr. Weid started the first school in Cahuenga Valley in a small one-room 
building located in his orchard on his homestead. This building served while a 
permanent school building, known then as the Cahuenga School, was being 
erected. This old school, long since gone, stood at what is now Beverly 
Boulevard and Normandie Avenue. Mr. Weid was one of its first three school 
trustees.

     It was largely through Mr. Weid's untiring energy and liberality that the 
Little Dummy Line was built to Hollywood. Later he was associated with H. J. 
Whitley and Colonel Griffith in the construction of the Hollywood branch of 
the electric line out to Prospect Boulevard, now Hollywood Boulevard. Thus 
subsequently was incorporated in the properties of the Los Angeles and Pacific 
Railway Company.

     Mr. Weid was thoroughly public spirited in everything he did, was 
generous, a man of temperate habits and mild disposition. He believed ardently 
in good roads, and used his influence and means to promote both railroad and 
highway construction. He was one of the promoters of Sunset Boulevard, and he 
built the Weid Block on the corner of Eighth and Spring streets. At the time 
of his death he owned two business blocks on Los Angeles Street between First 
and Requena streets.

     Mr. Weid died at Copenhagen, Denmark, August 25, 1903, while on a visit 
to his native land, accompanied by his wife and youngest son, Axel. For 
several years before his death he had been in the employ of the United States 
Internal Revenue Bureau as a gauger.

     Mr. and Mrs. Weid had a family of five children: Otto, a well known 
business man of Los Angeles; Ovidia, residing at Venice, California; Selma 
Taliaferro, of Los Angeles; Victor, now of Denver, Colorado; and Axel, of Los 
Angeles. These children were born in California, except Axel, who was born 
while his parents were on an extended visit of three years in Europe. The late 
Ivar Weid was a member of the Royal Arch Chapter of Masons and also belonged 
to the Loyal Legion. Mrs. Weid survived her husband a number of years, passing 
away at Los Angeles November 2, 1918.

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