Mesmer family of California

He initially worked in Ohio[2] and then along the Fraser River in British Columbia, where he tried his hand at mining[2] and then baked for the Hudson Bay Company.

[6] His son Joseph’s wedding there in 1879 to Rose Elizabeth Bushard was the “first marriage solemnized in the cathedral.”[7] The family home, which he purchased from “Mr.

[9] According to his Los Angeles Herald obituary, “In 1880 he had put down the first regular cement squares sidewalk, for which he was arrested for an infringement of the Schlinger patent.

His second wife, Jennie E. Swan, was many years his junior and their marriage by elopement triggered several weeks of breathless “scandal sheet” coverage in the Los Angeles Times.

[2] His estate was valued at $350,000 and was left in large part to Joseph Mesmer, with stipulations that the other heirs would only receive bequests if they did not contest the terms of the will.

Mesmer for years has been a foremost advocate of development work in Southern California, particularly in Los Angeles city and county.

Probably no citizen has been more liberal of his time and study in behalf of various plans and movements to beautify and improve the city.” He seems to have organized fundraising to buy the second federal courthouse and post office building (later replaced by the Spring Street Courthouse), the Temple Block that became the Los Angeles City Hall site, and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce building.

[17] He also was involved in expanding and extending several streets downtown and advocated for the “demolition and grading of Bunker Hill.” His main commercial interests were the Queen Boot and Shoe Store (which he operated from 1878 to 1906)[17] and the St. Louis Fire and Brick Clay Company.

It would transform the most unsightly feature of Los Angeles into a beautiful parkway, chain of lakes and esplanades such as would charm every beholder by the picture of a park six miles long in the center of the city.

with facilities for boating and sailing in the six lakes each three thousand feet long, while the river bed and sides would be lined solidly with concrete and the parapet sidewalks above the surface level would be molded in artistic design, on the top of which would stand at every thirty feet a beautiful electrically lighted gondolier.Mary Agnes Christina Mesmer Griffith (February 29, 1864 – August 11, 1948), called Tina, was the oldest daughter of Louis and Catherine Mesmer.

While her parents and husband were wealthy, “Katarina Mesmer” was also heiress to a valuable piece of property at San Pedro and Washington that had been left to her by family friend Andres Briswalter.

The testator explains that the reason of the bequest being so small was that, prior to his death, he had secured for his daughter a handsome bequest which would have come to him from the estate of the late Andre Briswalter.” After 16 years of marriage, on Friday, September 4, 1903, at the Hotel Arcadia in Santa Monica, apparently motivated by a combination of chronic alcohol abuse, paranoia, religious bias, and sheer greed, Griffith shot Tina in the face.