Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Widney, Robert Maclay December 23, 1838 - November 14, 1929 ************************************************ 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: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 30, 2010, 4:06 pm Source: California and Californians, Vol. IV, Published 1932, Pages 96 - 99 Author: The Lewis Publishing Company ROBERT MACLAY WIDNEY. For over half a century Robert Maclay Widney participated in the wonderful growth of Southern California. In 1868 he rode over all of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. At that time he was so convinced of the wonderful future of this region that he wrote and published in the newspapers of the United States and in Europe the facts on which the present and future of Southern California rests. He opened the first real estate office and started the boom that has never stopped. His efforts, however, were not confined to the above, for he was an attorney, and an educator, and worked along all of these lines to produce results that are not only most remarkable, but admirable. Robert Maclay Widney was born in Miami County, Ohio, December 23, 1838, a son of Wilson and Arabella (Maclay) Widney, the former of whom was born on the same homestead, during the days of the Indian occupation of Miami County. The father was a successful farmer and commanded the respect and confidence of all who knew him. The wife and mother was born at Concord, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Of her it can be said that she was a noble, refined, highly intelligent, kind and lovable woman. His education during his childhood and youth were secured in the log schoolhouse of the neighborhood, and at the family fireside. Imbued with the pioneer spirit for adventure he, in 1855, went to the great plains west of the Missouri, where ranged the herds of millions of buffalo, antelope, deer, wolves, and other game. The Indian tribes possessed the lands and roamed, hunted, fought and scalped as occasions offered. The white man settler was only visible on the eastern horizon of this vast wilderness. He was just crossing the western banks of the Missouri River. North, South, West and East; sometimes alone, sometimes with others he crossed and recrossed this primeval land, living on the wild game that the sure rifle, or Colts revolver brought down. These weapons alone stood between death from starvation or from wild men or beasts. Sleep came at whatever place the day ended; the earth a bed; a blanket for covering and spread over all, the starry canopy of the skies. In 1857, joining an emigrant train for California, he came to the land that knew no "farther west." His feet had trodden every foot of the old emigrant trail. For a time he placer mined; cut cord-wood at $1.50 per cord, cooking and sleeping under the pines, by the side of the cool crystal stream flowing from the snows of the Sierra Nevadas. He worked for $1.00 per day and grub with pick and shovel constructing a mountain road; sitting on the ground; eating from a tin plate, with a knife and fork, tin teaspoon and tin cup for service. In 1858 he entered the University of the Pacific at Santa Clara, California, and was graduated therefrom in 1863 as valedictorian with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, later degrees A. M., LL. D. At the time of his graduation he was elected to a professorship in that university. The institution was in severe financial straits, and the directors voted to suspend the educational work. Mr. Widney offered to take over the work and divide the meager receipts among the other professors and thus keep the university active. His offer was accepted and Mr. Widney and his associates struggled along as best they could, making untold personal sacrifices until financial relief was secured for the university. Owing to the shortage of instructors Mr. Widney heard nine classes each day, teaching all mathematics from arithmetic to calculus, and also heard the classes in geology, chemistry, mineralogy, zoology, ichthyology, conchology, botany, astronomy and civil, hydraulic and electrical engineering. The classes graduated regularly, and the graduates of that period have held honorable positions as Federal and State judges, legislators, and other officers and have been an honor to themselves and to their education. During the period he was thus working in behalf of the University of the Pacific, he was studying law, and in 1865 he was admitted to the bar of California. Subsequently he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. For several years he was engaged in practice in the state of Nevada as a geologist and mining engineer, and then, in 1868, he located at Los Angeles. On request of the Los Angeles Bar Association, in December, 1871, Governor Booth appointed him Judge of the District Court of the Seventeenth Judicial District of California, in and for the counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego. During the following two years judgments were entered in over five hundred cases, and only one of these was a civil jury case. Only thirty-five cases were appealed and of these all were affirmed except five. In these five the law was so conflicting that a decision was not possible on either side. Interesting in connection with Judge Widney's experience on the Bench were the strange forms of oaths administered to Chinese witnesses, requiring the beheading of a live chicken. Mr Widney organized and incorporated the first Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in 1873. He drew the original plans and specifications for the construction of the United States breakwater from Rattlesnake Island to Dead Man's Island at San Pedro Harbor. The California State Legislature, in 1873, passed a concurrent resolution requesting Congress to make an appropriation for the work. This Congress did, and the breakwater was constructed on the plans he had prepared without a perceptible change. In May, 1879, Mr. Widney invited E. F. Spence, M. M. Bovard, Rev. A. M. Hough and Dr. J. P. Widney to meet with him at his residence. He there proposed that a university work for Southern California should be started, and presented a deed of trust conveying a campus site and a large number of residence lots to be sold for the promotion of the university. It was named in the deed of trust as The University of Southern California. Those present concurred in his plan and Mr. Widney inserted their names as trustees in the deed. On July 29, 1879, the deed was duly executed by Ozro W. Childs, John G. Downey and Isaiah W. Hellman, recorded in Book 69, page 86 of Deeds of Los Angeles County. On August 5, 1880, Mr. Widney drew up the Articles of Incorporation for the University of Southern California, naming as the first directors A. M. Hough, Charles Shelling, E. F. Spence, P. Y. Cool, S. C. Hubbell, E. S. Chase, P. M. Green, J. A. Van Anda, F. S. Woodcock, John G. Downey and R. M. Widney. These articles were duly filed with the county clerk and with the Secretary of State, and the usual certificate of incorporation was issued by the Secretary of State. The date of the deed of trust, July 29, 1879, is the official date of the establishment of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. By deed dated June 21, 1886, recorded in Book 204, page 400 of Deeds of Los Angeles County, California, Mr. Widney conveyed a $100,000 interest to H. Sinsabaugh, et al., trustees for the benefit of the university. This was an interest in the 20,000 acres Maclay Rancho in the San Fernando Valley, now worth over $500,000. The magnificent work that was accomplished by Rev. M. M. Bovard, the first president of the educational work, and by his successors, Dr. J. P. Widney, Rev. George F. Bovard and Dr. Von Kleinsmid, is best witnessed by the educational buildings and the list of 10,000 students. The university stands an everlasting monument to those who served, as well as to those who stand and wait. Its benefactions to Southern California and to civilization past, present and future, are beyond calculation or comprehension. Its foundations are on earth, its work pierces eternity. From it will go forth strong men and women to maintain the highest ideals of the human race. Mr. Widney died November 14, 1929. Some of his other important achievements were: In 1874 he secured a franchise from the City of Los Angeles and constructed and operated the Spring and Sixth Street Railroad. This was the first street railroad constructed in Southern California. With four others he purchased 2,000 acres and laid out, named and placed upon the World's map, and developed the beautiful seaside resort, Long Beach, now a city of over 30,000 inhabitants. He, with the Chaffee Brothers, changed the nameless desert of cactus, brush and stones into the colony of Ontario, one of the wonder places of Southern California. Twenty thousand acres of the Maclay Rancho in the San Fernando Valley, now a part of Los Angeles City was by him and four others, purchased, subdivided and populated with thriving towns and orchards of orange, lemon, olives, fruits and flowers from every land. In 1868 Mr. Widney married Miss Mary Barnes, a former student of the University of the Pacific. In 1857 she crossed the plains in "The Covered Wagon," her father's family train. Her work in upbuiiding and developing Los Angeles would in itself require many pages to recount. The highest type of Christian lady, she graced every walk of life. The children are Mary Helen (Mrs. Harry W. Watson); Robert Johnston; Martha Frances (Mrs. Boyle Workman): Joseph Pomeroy; Arthur Barnes Widney: (wife, Thekla Metens Widney) residing in Los Angeles City. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/losangeles/bios/widney1070gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 10.1 Kb