Meeting # 1511

4:00 P.M.

November 5, 1992

The Quest of Fortnightly Biographies

by

James A. Fallows M.D.

Assembly Room, A. K. Smiley Public Library

SUMMARY

The presentation of November 5, 1992, describes the fascinating quest of Fortnightly biographies. There had been no previous similar compilation. The Fortnightly Club of Redlands has met continuously since 1895. Inspired by the excellence and varied backgrounds of its members, I gathered information for a thick notebook to be given to the A. K. Smiley Public Library.

Several people were helpful in giving leads to sources in the Smiley Library, the Hillside Cemetery files, the Armacost Library of the University of Redlands, and the Loma Linda University Medical Library. For limits of time and space complete biographies of individuals were not attempted. Published information was used for previous members. Biographical forms, completed by current members, were included.

Computer technology allowed collection and organization of the material and its formatting and printing. The "Quest" paper that is to be stored with other library Fortnightly papers is printed in the prescribed usual format. Additional copies appended to the Biography notebook and also those three copies distributed to members for reading at the meeting are formatted by current styles not readily available before computerized printers. The Smiley Library will have a powerful computer within two years.

The Quest has resulted in a loose leaf notebook to be stored in the A. K. Smiley Public Library available for reference and for future updating. A few of the many interesting side-lights of the quest of Fortnightly biographies are described.

Keywords: Fortnightly, members, biography, biographies, Smiley Library

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

James A. Fallows M.D. is a retired physician, having practiced Internal Medicine at the Beaver Medical Clinic for 35 years until retirement in 1990.

He was born in Abington, Pennsylvania, in 1925. After graduation from Harvard Medical School, he trained at hospitals in Philadelphia, and served in the U.S. Navy at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center, and first came to California to be on the staff of the U.S. Naval Hospital in Corona, California. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Cardiology.

In Redlands he has served on the School Board, headed the Intensive Care Unit for its first fifteen years. At times he has been active with The Redlands Racquet Club, Redlands Mounted Police, Rim-of-the-World Riders, Redlands Symphony Orchestra, Trinity Episcopal Church, the Fortnightly club, the Beaver Medical Clinic Foundation, and others. In his medical practice and subsequently he has been interested in and aided by computers.

His wife, Jean, his four children and their families have always been a joy to him.

The Quest of Fortnightly Biographies

Reason for the Quest

In 1316 Mundinus at Bologna issued his work on anatomy, which served as a text-book for two hundred years. He quoted from Galen the amusing reasons why a man should write a book: "Firstly, to satisfy his own friends; secondly, to exercise his best mental powers; and thirdly, to be saved from the oblivion incident to old age." I share with other Fortnightly members these reasons for writing a paper.

No previous compilation

Even before I was a member of the Fortnightly Club, I enjoyed reading Fortnightly papers. At the reference desk of the Smiley Library I would choose a page from the notebook listing paper titles. I would peruse the six papers which would be brought up from the basement. The quality and variety of their content impressed me and led me to want to know more about the writers than I could find in the brief biographies that accompanied some of the papers. I sensed a need for a collection of biographies of all the members of Fortnightly since its start in 1895.

During the last year I have pursued various methods for this goal, yielding a notebook, the papers of which have become more than 3 inches thick. The information about any one member is far from complete, but something about each member is included. Aside from the forms that have been completed by present members, the data were mostly obtained from public sources. Obviously the summary of the life of any one of the members would fill one meeting’s time allowance. Therefore the subject of this paper is the fascinating search and acquisition of these data, rather than the material itself, the "Quest of Fortnightly Biographies."

Sources of information

People sources of information

First I talked with President-Elect George Riday and President Harley Tillitt, who agreed a compilation by me would be helpful.

After Larry Burgess on October 24, 1991, gave me leads about sources for biographies, I spent many weeks in the Smiley Library.

Our present Secretary, Albert Clark, has been methodical and complete in collecting records, and has passed on to me lists of members as well as available minutes of recent years. I photocopied those biographies obtained from Albert Clark.

Marjorie Gifford is the grand-daughter of Fortnightly founding member A.R. Schultz and the daughter of member, A.R. Schultz Jr. She was helpful in providing family albums containing documents and pictures of old Redlands. Donald S. C. Anderson kindly provided me with four labeled group pictures of Fortnightly members, enabling identification of those in another photo.

I have compiled from many sources a list of names of all Fortnightly members, with dates of entry. Those with rare last names often had complete first and second names. How surprising and frustrating that, in the early years, only initials were listed for many of those with the most common names, such as Porter, Johnson, Miller, Richardson, Smith, Thompson, Warren, and Williams. Marc Jack Smith happily has left that tradition. Therefore an occasional biography may be incorrect, although matching for approximate age at the time of entering Fortnightly and location feasibility have been helpful in the identification process.

Smiley Library Sources

Types of articles sought for biographies

I looked for Fortnightly members’ names in articles with titles such as came to town, returned from trips, promoted, hired, honored, retired, became sick, or died.

Papers presented at meeting were said to be printed in the Facts from 1896-1925. In my search, this turned out to be infrequent.

My review of each page of the Citrograph led to some citations of Founding members and early members of the late 1890’s and early 1900’s. There were almost no obituaries in the Citrograph of the early years of the Fortnightly Club, presumably because the Redlands boosters wanted to create the impression that Redlanders lived forever.

Indices of Citrograph and Daily Facts

On November 20, 1991, I began to use the Viewer-Printer at the library (donated by Frank Moore) to gather items found from the Daily Facts indices (1919 to present) to collect biographies. The years from 1919 to the present have been catalogued so that names of previous Fortnightly members can be sought on index cards. The index card tells what date the name appeared in a Facts article. The Facts issue of that date can be inspected for the article. Then the Microfilm Reader’s screen showing the appropriate information can be photocopied.

Picture of the viewer-printer

Catherine Williams at the Smiley library’s reference desk was patient and helpful in retrieving Fortnightly papers for me and giving advice about using the viewer-printer. Because I felt it would be helpful to other users (and for the fun of doing it), I created with my personal computer’s Draw Perfect software, a diagram with instructions . These are available at the reference desk. An illustration is included with this paper.

Notebook of Fortnightly papers at the reference desk

I tried taking a random page at a time of paper titles and having these retrieved from the basement. I found that this had a relatively low yield of biographies except for those written in recent years. For example, during a week in November, 1991, I reviewed papers through 1910, yielding no biographies.

On May 7, I photocopied additional Fortnightly papers that were informative about the club's history, and I used these papers as additional sources for biographical data.

Fortnightly minutes from the distant past are not available

I had seen Fortnightly minutes in the basement stacks in the 1960’s, but the library did not have ownership of them, and they were probably removed by a Fortnightly member.

Card catalog of Fortnightly papers and authors

On May 4, 1992, I had searched the card indices for Fortnightly papers written by members whose biographies I had not yet found, in the hope that biographies would be in some papers. Some members had no Fortnightly papers in the library’s index. Others had biographies which I copied to fill out the collection.

Heritage room of Smiley Library

Christie Hammond, the Heritage room archivist, was helpful in guiding me to the reference materials. Jo-Anna McCrary, at the desk, provided me with change for much photocopying.

In February, 1992, I reviewed multiple scrapbooks, and other files and documents, and books, most of which are listed in the Bibliography. Index cards in the Heritage Room led to more information.

Lawrence Nelson’s historical papers were valuable sources.

Cemetery Files

Previous Daily Facts editor and Redlands historian, Frank Moore, gave me helpful ideas of sources in the library and he also advised that I use the cemetery file cards for dates of interment.

On April 15, 1992, I completed looking though the index of interments at Hillside cemetery as an aid to selected library search of newspapers. There I was helped by Janet Patten and Barbara Roller. The index cards there go back to 1897. Subsequently I used the microfilm reader to search for obituaries in the newspapers proximate to the dates of interment.

University of Redlands Sources

Fred Hearth, the director of the University of Redlands library, reviewed the list of remaining members and was able to come up with some biographies. He found six names in Who Was Who in America, and he gave me helpful leads and advice to reference volumes in that library.

Loma Linda University Medical Library

Some names that had been difficult to find were located through additional reference volumes of past national biographies in the Loma Linda University Medical Library.

Computer application of the quest

Styles

Although I have followed the format prescribed by the club in preparing the paper for submission to the library files, I have formatted the three distribution copies in styles that have not been available with typewriters but in my opinion yield attractive copy.

Two columns offer readability.

The Romans were the first to use codices. Looking to the tail or head of a papyrus roll was inconvenient and distracting. Instead the roll was folded into pages with the text in columns. Roman biographer and historian Suetonius tells that Julius Caesar was the first to do this, in dispatches to his troops.

Most modern magazines have adopted the two or three column format for readability.

The computer with its word-processor has made simple a format that would be difficult or impossible with a typewriter.

Outlining

The word-processor allows the organization of material into outline form and the optional visualization of major categories. Then the text can be converted to paragraph form by pressing a few buttons and editing.

Strike-outs

With the computer, member names can be defined with a line struck through them to indicate that biographical data has been obtained for that member.

Dropped letter

In the Middle Ages devoted scribes illuminated manuscripts with large, and often decorated, initial letters. Now a word-processor can create a dropped letter at the touch of a few keys.

Print size

About 1300 A.D., eyeglasses became available, allowing both scribe and reader more access to manuscripts. The modern computer allows quick magnification on the viewer screen for the writer. The Laser printer with scalable fonts allows easy adjustment of print size for the reader’s convenience.

Computer software

Word for Windows

Serendipity prevailed when my wife, in a charitable spirit at a YWCA auction, bought Word for Windows for me despite my claims that I already had an adequate word processor. It awes me with its capabilities, handling long lists of names with ease. It created lists of all members, sorting them by date of first membership or alphabetically by name. As information was obtained, the names were deleted in one file, making it clear what previous members still lacked biographical data.

For quite a few present members there were brief or no biographical data. A format was created by Word For Windows and then approved by the Fortnightly Club board for present members’ biographies and a similar form for new members’ proposals.. On April 23, 1992, I handed out biographical forms to the members in attendance - to be filled out and returned to me. On April 24, 1992, I sent biographical forms to the members who were not in attendance. Almost all members responded.

With the word processor, the sorting of the current membership list by name or by birthday or by age or by date of membership can be easily done. I have provided copies to Al Clark, our secretary.

Agenda, a database

Using Agenda, a database type of software, I have listed all (more than 1500) papers presented at the Fortnightly meetings. The papers are listed by title, author, date, Dewey decimal number, and they can be found by date or author or key words from their titles. It is quick and easy to find what papers have been written by a certain member or what papers have been written about a subject. I will be glad to search my files to aid Fortnightly members at any time.

Magellan, a sorting software

Magellan allows easy seeking, not only file-names but also text within files, using single or multiple keywords, so-called Boolean searches.

Smiley library will have a powerful computer within two years

This will allow the finding of Fortnightly papers by Title words or by author or by subject. Searches will be much quicker than by the present index cards. It may be that a future member will have the option of providing a computer diskette of his paper for easy copying to the main computer for electronic storage, or the option of using a modem at home to send the information by telephone directly to the library’s computer.

Scanning

In the future it is likely that the pages of past Fortnightly articles will be scanned, allowing their text to be entered into the computer’s memory without the necessity of its being laboriously re-typed from a keyboard.

Results of the quest

Loose-leaf notebook

A loose-leaf notebook of Biographies of Fortnightly Members will be maintained in the Smiley Library. The pages are alphabetically arranged by last names, sometimes one page, sometimes more than one. It will be helpful for casual reference or as starting point for more detailed reference. It makes no claims to completeness inasmuch as a description of any one of the members could fill a book and still fall short. Additions or corrections of pages over the years are anticipated.

Some names on some lists of previous members have no record of Fortnightly papers and cannot be found on search for biographies. They have not been included in this list of members. The names are W. C. Allen 1912, John Alman 1920, Edward Barrows, Carey K. Berger 1958, W.A. Clatworthy 1910, N.L. Coleman 1911, Elbert L. Decker 1958, Donald D. Donovan 1966, H.H. Fiske 1919, Norman B. Henderson 1926, George H. Hunter 1902, George Kent 1947, S.F. LeFroy 1896, H.T. Miller 1897, Herbert E. Murkett 1914, Harcourt W. Peck 1913, A.M. Porter 1904, A.S. Porter 1900, J.F. Richardson 1896, Charles F. Seitter 1921, Charles Severns 1942, Stacy Smith 1928, Henry Studniczka 1917, C.F. Tambling 1937, John Ven Peursen 1947, Mark Walker 1919, L.W. Warren 1907, Arthur L. Washburn. They may have been guests.

Unusual formats of papers

Most papers were in good form, especially those written in recent years. One was surprisingly casual¾ typed with many cross-outs onto the back of American Legion writing paper. The most frugal cover was a used manila envelope with address to the author and canceled stamp in place. Both sides of the envelope had been slit to create a cover for the Fortnightly paper.

Interesting side-lights

For me the quest has been satisfying. I have become better acquainted with those who started the club almost 100 years ago, with those talented men over the years whose papers live on, and with those now-dead who were vigorous and bright as friends and patients of mine as long as 37 years ago..

While seeking Fortnightly information, I came across many diverting bits of news, not of Fortnightly members,

Tom Mix in 1926 had an appendectomy in Los Angeles. When he received the surgeon’s bill for $16,000, he offered to pay $600. The courts settled it at $1600. I learned in my childhood movies that you don’t push around Tom Mix.

In the early days in Yucaipa the father of a molested daughter went, gun in hand, to the offender’s hut and told him to leave town. When the offender himself reached for a gun, the father shot him dead. Subsequent newspapers reported the father was freed with a verdict of self-defense.

In 1915 J.N. Noble of Temecula on Center Street and Clifton in Redlands was "thrown violently to the ground when the horse slipped on the pavement and fell heavily." Dr. R. H. Folkins treated Mr. Noble’s bruises and contusions, and Mr. Noble insisted on proceeding on his journey (to Temecula?).

I’ll name a few of the surprising stories about previous Fortnightly members.

A. Holtby Meyers, a 1905 member, lived on the southwest corner of Fourth Street and Home Place. While practicing as an attorney in Redlands, he provided financing for Vernon Johnston to go to Arabia and to bring to a town called Walters (which Meyers renamed Mecca) the first date trees grown in this country This was the start of the Coachella Valley date industry.

Charles C. Putnam, was a charter member, who lived on the northwest corner of Center and Crescent. In the Battle of Mobile Bay he had fired the last naval gun shot of the Civil War. In Redlands he succeeded Alfred Smiley as head of the library board from 1903 until his death in 1918, and he gave his Egyptian collection to the library. He built for his daughter, Lucy, the house where I live at 728 West Crescent Avenue.

Alfred E. Lee, a 1901 member, had entered the Union Army in 1861 as a private. As a lieutenant, he was in the Battle of Gettysburg where all but two of its 22 commissioned officers were killed. He was severely wounded and captured. Restored to health by the confederates, he rejoined the Union Forces, fought in many battles, and rose to the rank of Adjutant General. After the war he resumed law practice and became a writer and editor and held political office. He died in Redlands in 1905.

Coda

Much more could be written about any one of the Fortnightly members than I have included in the notebook that will remain in the Smiley Library. I believe you will find pleasure in reading about the fine men who have been Fortnightly members over the last almost 100 years.

Bibliography

• 1938 Jubilee edition of 1888-1938.

• A History of California and an Extended History of its Southern Coast Counties, James Miller Guinn, 1915.

• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

• Biography and Genealogy Master Index.

• Biography Index(3 volumes: Jan. 46-Aug. 55 and through the latest supplement of May, 1992).

• California People, Carol Dunlap.

• Constructive Californians, Sam Clover T.

• Dictionary of American Biography, 1928-1936 (20 volumes), and Supplements 1-8.

• Illustrated Redlands, Redlands Daily Facts, 1897.

• National Cyclopedia of AmBiog (cumulative index),1984.

• Personal Sketches of California Pioneers I Have Known, Rockwell Dennis Hunt.

• Redlands, Biography of a College, The First 50 Years of the University of Redlands, L.E. Nelson, 1958.

• Redlands, ‘Tween Mountains, Desert, and the Sea, Bruce William McDaniel.

• Redlands and Certain Old Timers, Edith Barrett Hinckley, 1970.

• Redlands California 1907, John P. Fisk.

• Redlands City Directory, 1896, Published by William Newton, (signed by owner Kirke H. Field).

• Redlands Report, University of Redlands.

• Redlands Review, University of Redlands.

• Redlands Yesterdays, William G. Moore, 1983, Moore Historical Foundation.

• Redlands: Our Town, Frank E. Moore, 1987, Moore Historical Foundation.

• Redlands: Remembrance and Reflection, Larry E. Burgess, 1981.

• The New York Times.

• Who’s Who in America.

• Who’s Who in California.

• Who’s Who in U.S.

• Who Was Who.

• Who Was Who Among North American Authors.

• Who Was Who in America Vol. 1 & 2.

• Who Was Who in Literature.