These first two photos are of my grandfather, James Leonard Jeffrey. He was born on August 8, 1895 in North Tonowanda, New York. His parents were Henry Jeffrey and Jenny MacFadden. James was a veteran of World War I. He served as a Sergeant 1st Class in the Medical Detachment 182nd Field Artillery, and was stationed in Dijon, France from July 1917 - June 1920. After the war, he worked as a furniture salesman and served in the Mighigan National Guard. He then began working for Schwabacker & Frey Paper Co. as a salesman, and was so successful that he was promoted to West Coast Sales Manager, and moved to Seattle, Washington in 1924.
He met his wife, Agnes Morck, in Seattle, where they married and had their first son, James Warren (my father) in 1929. He moved with his young family to southern California in 1930 and lived in Santa Monica, and then Los Angeles. In the early 1940s, James left Schwabacker & Frey, and entered in partnership with two other men, building houses . Their company was called C & M Homes. They built their first tract of homes in what is now Watts in Los Angeles. They built many new homes in southern California, in cities such as South Pasadena, Ontario, Arcadia and West Covina.
James left c & M Homes in 1953, and sold homes for Brummett & Demblon Builders for a brief period. He then opened his own Real Estate office in Whittier, California in 1954. In addition, he started selling lots in the new city of Hesperia in the California high desert. He had a very large office on Main Street in Hesperia, with 20+ sales people working for him.
James and Agnes had three sons: James Warren, Robert Morck, and William Keith.
He died of emphysema on October 22, 1974 in Los Angeles.
2 comments:
Very interesting, Dad! I look forward to learning more about my ancestors! You are so good at this!
Dad, this is so cool! The pictures look great. How fun to be able to "get to know" our extended family. I would love to do this with Travis's side too. Looking forward to more...!
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