Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


STEPHEN TOWNSEND, 
 
one of the chief business men of Pasadena, moved from Hamilton County, Indiana, 
his birthplace, to Iowa, when very young, and lived on a farm near Iowa City 
until he arrived at the age of legal majority. On coming to California, in 1867, 
he entered the fruit business; but about seven years ago he began taking 
contracts for
street and railroad work, and has had some of the largest contracts in Los 
Angeles and San Bernardino counties, handling over $250,000 cash. He secured the 
first franchise for a street railway in Pasadena, organized the Pasadena Street 
Railway Company, and built the road; also built nearly all the street railroads 
in the city, as also the Alhambra and Altadena Street Railroad. He is now 
president of the company named, and is sole proprietor of the mills of the 
Pasadena Milling Company, which do a prosperous business. At present he has some 
large contracts for street grading in the city of Los Angeles. He is a member of 
the city council. In short, Mr. Townsend is one of the most active business men 
in the county. In 1869 he married Annie Carroll, and his family consists of two 
daughters and a son.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 821
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler