Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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S. W. LA DOW, 
 
farmer, five miles southwest of Los Angeles. Of all who are represented in this 
work, none are more deserving, none are more worthy, than he whose name stands 
at the head of this biographical notice. He was born in Milton, Saratoga County, 
New York, in 1824. His parents were Daniel and Laura (St. John) La Dow. His 
grandfather had twenty-three children, by two wives, and his father was a native 
of France. Mr. La Dow's maternal ancestors were of English origin. The subject 
of this sketch is the fifth of seven children. His mother was a first cousin of 
P. T. Barnum, her mother, Ruhanna Taylor, being a sister of Barnum's mother. 
Laura St. John had but one brother, Taylor St. John, a well-known clergyman in 
New York. He had four sons, all of whom occupy honored positions in Albany, New 
York, in educational and scientific circles. Mr. La Dow was married in 1846, in 
his native State, to Margaret McWilliams, of Galway, New York. By that marriage 
he had two sons, Charles and John. In 1852 he left his family at the old home 
and came to California via Panama as a seeker of gold. He arrived in Los Angeles 
in May, and in July received the sad intelligence of his wife's death. His home 
was then broken up in the East, and his boys were taken care of by their 
grandmother, Mrs. McWilliams. Mr. La Dow went to the northern part of the State 
where he engaged in mining till 1863, when he returned and bought twenty-five 
acres of land near Los Angeles, and soon added to it thirty-five acres more. On 
this farm he lived until 1868, when he pre�empted 160 acres where he now lives, 
near the southwest limits of the city of Los Angeles. He has recently erected a 
new residence near the La Dow school-house. In 1860 he married Miss Harriet 
Dorman, of Stanford, Maine, and they have one daughter, Hattie M., who has 
recently graduated at the Los Angeles High School. It is altogether proper, in 
this connection, to state that Mr. La Dow's sons by his first wife are very 
successful business men. Charles, the elder, is an inventor and machinist well 
known throughout the country. He is at Albany, New York; has accumulated 
considerable wealth, and has recently beautified the old homestead in New York. 
John is an inventor, now located at Denver. Mr. La Dow is one of the best 
citizens of Los Angeles County; is now well along in years, and can look back 
over a life well spent, and with a clear conscience enjoy the prosperity which 
he has so well earned.  Mr. La Dow gave one acre of land to the school district 
in which he lives, and which was named in his honor, the "La Dow District;" and 
he has been a trustee of the district twelve years and upward. He was the first 
person to take water for irrigating purposes to that locality, which had a very 
beneficial effect on the material prosperity of the community living there. 
Though Mr. La Dow has lived a quiet and rather uneventful life, it has been an 
industrious and useful one.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 540
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler