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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
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Andrew and James DeBarth Shorb
go west, young men — Part 2 of 2

Homeopathy, early Los Angeles history & the doctor's shocking record revealed

A balloon photo taken above Los Angeles on June 27, 1887, looking north, with the Los Angeles River crossing mid-frame. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Andrew S. Shorb goes west, young man [Journal Ed. note: we continue profiling Dr. Andrew S. Shorb and Mrs. Martha "Mattie" Shorb, who were successfully sued by Daniel J. Harris's estate in 1891 to recover money they allegedly misappropriated by deceit.] The 1915 Biography of Dr. Andrew S. Shorb below cited some details of his younger years, but left some gaps that we had to research. After graduating from high school in 1854, Andrew moved to the Midwest and joined William Edward Shorb, his older brother by eight years, who had settled in Clinton and Vinton, Iowa. Andrew apparently studied medicine there at an unknown college and ranged back and forth between there and Canton for the next six years. He married briefly in 1860, maybe in Iowa, and his unnamed wife died sometime in the mid-1860s, leaving one son, Orrie, who was born in 1861 in Ohio. William enlisted in the U.S. Army at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Aug. 14, 1861, the only person in Andrew's family who service in the Civil War we confirmed. William settled in Indiana after the war.
On March 5, 1867, Andrew re-married, this time to Martha L. Blanchard, at Newark, Licking County, Ohio. Her parents, George A. and Mary A (Rankin) Blanchard, moved the family there from Illinois. Martha, sometimes referred to as Mattie, was ten years younger. Andrew apparently finished his studies for some kind of medical degree at Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati during the 1860s. We will explain more about Pulte in the Homeopathy section below. The newlyweds moved almost immediately to Topeka, Kansas, where he set up a practice in the rollicking town that was experiencing rapid growth in the decade after the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe Railroad laid tracks through the town. He practiced there for three years until 1871, when they were drawn to California. They raised his son by the first marriage and their daughter, Lillie, was born in about 1870 while they were in Kansas. Did Andrew know that distant-cousin DeBarth had become a successful mining engineer in California already? We do not yet know.
The Shorbs originally arrived in the village of Vallejo in California, but they soon took a steamer south later in 1871 and settled in the growing city of Los Angeles. The Shorbs just barely settled in when one of the most shameful incidents in Los Angeles history occurred on Oct. 24, 2001, just two blocks east of Shorb's office and in Chinatown, which was spread out in old Los Angeles on Calle de los Negros, known then colloquially as Nigger Alley, now Los Angeles Street. Two Chinese men argued over a Chinese girl, a fight ensued — resulting in the accidental slaying of a Caucasian man in the crossfire, and before the night was over, 500 white men rumbled into the area and 19 Chinese men and boys lay dead in what was the city's first race riot.
Shorb hung out his shingle as a physician downtown at the corner of Spring and Market streets, which would soon become a fashionable district with theaters and hotels. When we consulted author and researcher Brent C. Dickerson in Los Angeles, we were surprised to learn that Andrew's office location is now beneath the corner of the Los Angeles City Hall complex. When the Shorbs arrived, the city was 90 years old, founded in 1781 by Spanish Captain Rivera y Moncada, who guided about 50 pobladores (mainly South African Dutch settlers) south on foot from the San Gabriel Mission, through what is now Elysian Park, to a site located on what is now the Los Angeles River. Two Franciscan padres from the mission, Junipero Serra and Juan Crespi, chose that site for a village that Crespi named El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora Reina de Los Angeles sobre El Rio Porciuncula, Spanish for "The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels." They were inspired by a town near Assisi, the Italian hometown of St. Francis.

This old postcard is from Brent C. Dickerson's site, a virtual tour via photos, of Old Los Angeles. Dr. Shorb's office — where Los Angeles City Hall now stands, and Dan Harris's residential hotel were nearby on Spring Street. The caption reads: "Here's the rear of the same building as we look east from the Court House on Pound Cake Hill to the west. We can see a little of the east face of Main Street beyond the International Bank Building; the structure with the conical tower mid-way between the right edge of the view and the edge of the International Bank Building would be the Amestoy Block at the corner of Main Street and Market Street. Mr. Amestoy started in Los Angeles as a Basque sheepherder in 1858, his wife meantime taking in washing to bolster the family income."

In 1871 the total population of the town was about 6,000 and it doubled over the next decade. In his eBook, The Glory That Was Spring Street, author Marshall Wright describes the scene:

Although the lawless aspect which often dominated and doomed El Pueblo, where anarchy flourished, the pioneers ultimately began to shake the dust off their boots, don their Sunday suits and eagerly support meager social events of local inspiration. Inasmuch as Los Angeles was really the end of the geographical line, it was accessible only by steamer from San Francisco, stage coach or wagon train across the continent or via steamship around the Cape Horn. Not until 1876 was the remote Southland connected to San Francisco by railroad. So intense were the needs of the El Pueblo founders and followers that they were suckers for any kind of diversion including touring tank troupes, evangelistic tent meetings, deadbeat carnivals and medicine man shows.

Dr. Shorb and Homeopathy Sometime in the late 1870s, Andrew moved his family back to Cincinnati temporarily, where he completed work for an advanced degree in Homeopathy at Pulte Medical College. Andrew seems to have been a bit of a prodigy, having studied as young as 11, through his teen years, in the laboratory of Dr. Caleb B. Matthews. Matthews is prominently featured in William Harvey King's (M. D., LL. D.) 1905 authoritative book on the field, History of Homeopathy and its institutions in America. As far as we know, Shorb did not complete his homeopathic studies before that time, but that branch of medicine was then rising in popularity across the country.
Dr. King noted in his book that "It is known, however, that Dr. Benjamin Ober was the pioneer of Homeopathy in California; that he crossed the "Rockies" in the early summer of 1849, arrived in San Francisco July 3, and was a part of the subsequent life of that city and the state until the time of his death, May 13, 1867." In December 1849, Ober sent a letter to Dr. Kirby of the American Journal, in which he said: "Dr. Weisecker introduced Homeopathy in Los Angeles and Dr. Eady Stevenson was the second practitioner there. Dr. Andrew S. Shorb went there in 1871. In 1899 there were fifty-seven homeopathic physicians in Los Angeles."
Dr. Joseph H. Pulte was the second homeopathic physician in Ohio. A German like the Shorbs, Pulte earned his degree in Europe in 1833 and then emigrated to New York City, where he translated into English the writings of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the most famous founder of Homeopathy. Dr. Pulte was one of the founders of the Allentown Academy in 1848, which was the precursor of the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. He established a practice in Cincinnati in 1840, a year after Dr. William Sturm became the first practitioner there. In the following three decades, as Homeopathy gained adherents, nearly a dozen Cincinnati physicians specialized in it. In 1872, Pulte bought the Maxwell's Young Woman's Academy at Seventh and Mound streets and the resulting medical college at that location was named in his favor
Without going into great detail, Homeopathy was coined by Hahnemann from the Greek words, hmoios (similar) and pathos (suffering). From its inception it drew scorn from other medical doctors who mocked its adherents for basing treatment on "similars," or treatment of "like with like." Hahnemann promoted an immaterial, vitalistic view of disease: "Homeopathy . . . can easily convince . . . that the diseases of man are not caused by any substance, any acridity . . . any disease matter, but that they are solely spirit-like (dynamic) derangements of the spirit-like power (the vital principle) that animates the human body." Some have noted that Hahnemann made Homeopathy respectable in the first half of the 19th century by contrasting it to standard medical practices of the day such as phlebotomy and bloodletting. He argued that, instead of physicians purging the patient's body of disease, disease should be treated by helping the vital force restore the body to harmony and balance.
Those of you who recall the satirical movie, Dr. Strangelove, will remember the famous Colonel Jack D. Ripper, who made fun of homeopathic theories by expounding on Purity of Essence and Precious Bodily Fluids. As Homeopathy rose in popularity, physicians who studied extensively the disciplines as anatomy, physiology, chemistry and empirical observation disputed Hahnemann's teaching of non-empirical methods that involved the appeal to metaphysical entities and processes. Homeopathy became more popular in the United States than in any other country in the world and peaked in its popularity from 1870-90. During that period, nearly every city over 50,000 in population had a Homeopathy school of some sort, until in 1900 there were 121 regular medical colleges nationwide and 22 homeopathic colleges. Shorb earned an unspecified degree from Pulte in 1880.
When the Shorbs returned to Los Angeles in the early 1880s, he became very active in medical societies and when the Los Angeles Homoeopathic Society was organized February 6, 1885, Dr. Shorb was elected the first president. As noted above, he was not the first homeopathic physician to settle and practice in Los Angeles, as is claimed in some of his profiles. By the time of his death in 1912, there were at least thirty practitioners in the city. Although many disparaged homeopathic doctors as quacks back then, we initially found no evidence from Shorb's professional life that led to the conclusion that he did anything illegal. Note the word "initially."

This webpage is the result of research conducted all over the country. We especially want to thank Los Angeles sources Martha Graham — who has spent years assembling biographies of Southern California pioneers, and Brent C. Dickerson, whose vast collection of postcards and photos illuminate Old Los Angeles and provides background for where Dr. Andrew S. Shorb had his office and where Dan Harris briefly lived. In addition, we especially thank Lorraine Shorb, a family descendant who helped us wade through the labyrinth of the Shorb family tree. We hope that other descendants will right any wrong turns we made.

The character of Dr. Andrew S. Shorb As we stated above, we conducted all this extensive research to answer the simple question: what in the Shorbs's character or background explained the extensive accusations in court about bilking Dan Harris of his fortune? But we found no such answer, especially in the profiles that we share below. One strange inconsistency does stand out. Evidence was presented in court about how Dr. and Mrs. Shorb introduced Harris to the bright lights of Los Angeles, including extensive bouts with champagne and gourmet meals, so much so that Harris's health deteriorated rapidly. In other stories in this section, you will find testimony to his robust good health and his demonstrated strength and stamina, but he died at age 58 (or possibly 64), a broken man. Equally interesting is that Mattie Shorb was accused in court of having been an active participant in relieving Dan of his fortune. Yet here is the segment of Doctor Shorb's biography that on the face of it disputes the evidence in court:

The profession of physician had taught him the necessity of proper care of the body, hence he was a man of irreproachable habits. Not only did he habitually refused to partake of intoxicating liquors and tobacco in any form, but he even avoided the milder stimulants of tea and coffee, believing them to be deleterious to the body. Although perhaps less rugged than many, by the exercise of common sense in diet and sagacity in exercise and the care of the body, he prolonged his life to the age of seventy-five

We do know that the Los Angeles Social Register of 1899 lists both Dr. and Mrs. Shorb, residence at 665 E. Adams, corner S. Pedro. We also found a listing for Dr. J. deBarth Shorb Jr., address at 352 Buena Vista, which was possibly his "city home," a location near the old Sonoratown, which is now near where the Hollywood Freeway cuts through between the Valley and Hollywood proper. We found 665 E. Adams considerably south of downtown, east of the USC campus and Exposition Park. Author and researcher Brent Dickerson, in Los Angeles, observes that today that area is devoted to light to medium industry, and looks rather forlorn. "In 1872, [it would] have been quite decidedly out of the urban area and in an area verging between suburban and rural . . . an area of orchards, farms, nurseries, and the occasional large home set in spacious landscaped acreage."
At the point where we were writing the draft of this story, we thought we knew the answers to the questions about Dr. Shorb's character, but then, just as we were about to publish, three weeks ago, the dam burst and damning evidence revealed itself to us, resulting in a complete rewrite. Before we share that, however, we profile his famous and well-connected cousin who could still turn out to be a key to the case.

James DeBarth Shorb's fame Although DeBarth Shorb's life is tangential to our story of the bilking of Harris, aspects of it will be intriguing to those who study both Los Angeles history and military history, as we will show, and his political and legal "grease" becomes self-evident and could have been a factor in Doctor Andrew's legal troubles. Usually profiled in California as J. DeBarth, he lived in the San Gabriel Valley for ten years before Dr. and Mrs. Shorb arrived in Los Angeles. In 1861 the Philadelphia and California Oil Company sent him to the San Gabriel Valley as an assistant superintendent, specifically assigned to their mining ventures. The firm was seriously overextended and his two assignments with them were relatively brief as they struggled to stay afloat. After living six years in the state, Shorb made two wise decisions. First he purchased the tenure of the Temescal Grant and began mining in that section. Second, he married Maria Dejesus "Sue" Wilson, the daughter of Benjamin D. Wilson (1811-1878), a trapper and trader originally from Tennessee who became one of the most significant landowners in southern California.
Wilson came to California in 1841 when he planned to sail to China. After he failed to gain passage, he eventually became a naturalized Mexican citizen as he settled in what is now Riverside County and soon married Ramona Yorba, daughter of a prominent Spanish-Mexican landholder of Rancho Jurupa and Rancho Santa Ana. In 1843, Wilson bought the Jurupa Ranch, the site of present-day Riverside, for $1,000 a league (three statute miles) and thus became one of the first Anglo ranchers who earned great esteem. He was often asked to assist with Indian affairs and then became Justice of the Peace of the Inland Territory, which led to his nickname of Don Benito in honor of his work with Indians.
In 1843, while chasing renegade Indians, Don Benito was the first white settler to discover Big Bear Lake. After that he became the first Anglo owner of Rancho San Pascual (or Pasqual), which encompassed today's cities of Pasadena, Altadena, South Pasadena, Alhambra, San Marino and San Gabriel and he built another home there. When war broke out with Mexico in 1846, Wilson initially refused an order to serve in the U.S. Army but when the beleaguered American commander of the Los Angeles garrison sent a message, Wilson joined up, only to be captured by the Mexicans in the Battle of Chino, where he surrendered. Although his execution was ordered, Mexican officers rescinded it and in 1847 he was released from prison. Wilson was important in Los Angeles history for two reasons. First was his extensive land holding, which also included all or parts of present-day Westwood, UCLA and San Pedro. Second, he became the second mayor of Los Angeles in 1851, a year after California became a state and the city incorporated, and later served three terms as a California state senator. In addition, Wilson constructed a burro trail up the Sierra Madre mountain peak that today bears his name and on which Mt. Wilson Observatory is located.
There were originally no orchards or vineyards in San Gabriel Valley, which stretched from the Mission San Gabriel and the present site of Alhambra to the small Indian village called "Yang-na," which later became Los Angeles. The land was marked by dry uncultivated fields broken by arroyos and low-lying hills. After DeBarth Shorb worked for his father-in-law for six years, without amassing anything of real value to call his own, DeBarth's wife urged him to request from his father-in-law a "half interest" in some San Gabriel land and the water rights to same, a very wise move. Don Benito agreed and incorporated the partnership. Shorb named his portion "San Marino" — located today between Pasadena and San Gabriel, named for his grandfather's plantation in Maryland. Shorb soon had his hands full developing the 1,800 acres of what is called the Lake Vineyard and Mound Vineyard and building their home, which is today the site of the Huntington Library Art Gallery.
The partnership of Wilson and Shorb turned out to be a very good fit. Even after the boom years ended in 1876 and left Wilson land-rich but cash-poor, Don Benito and DeBarth worked together to pipe water from the San Gabriel River to large reservoirs that they constructed on the plains near the Mission San Gabriel. Those reservoirs stored four million gallons of water that supplied water for the Alhambra Tract, which his daughters named for an area in Moorish Spain and which eventually became the home of wealthy, refined families. The financial setback did not last long. The Southern Pacific Railroad started building through San Gabriel Valley in 1873 and good investments on the rail route led to a $300,000 profit for Wilson and Shorb. They also planted the first extensive tract of the Eucalyptus, or blue gum, but that proved to be a questionable investment for timber, just as Jack London learned in the Sonoma Valley.

Don Benito Wilson and his second wife, Margaret Hereford. Courtesy of this City of Alhambra website, a tremendous resource about the area north of Los Angeles, the Shorbs and the the Wilsons.

Along the way, Shorb became a noted horticulturist, especially with his cultivation of orange groves on their land. After Wilson died in 1878, Shorb continued with the development of Alhambra by subdividing another portion of the ranch, once a barley field, and named it "Ramona." The streets there were named for Shorb's children: Ethel, Ynez, Carlos, Benito, Campbell and Marguerita and other streets named Yorba and De Barth, but they no longer exist. In 1886, the Southern Pacific added Shorb Station on their rail line near Ramona. Shorb invested in another rail project when Senator John P. Jones selected the village of Santa Monica as an ocean terminus for the rail line through Cajon Pass to Independence that ultimately connected with Union Pacific and Santa Monica became a prosperous seaside town. DeBarth Shorb was elected Los Angeles County Treasurer in 1892 and had a heavy burden as dozens of banks failed the next year when the nationwide Depression leveled the economy.
After Shorb died in 1896, his family lost much of their land during the nationwide Depression that began in 1893, and some of their holdings were purchased by Henry E. Huntington. Henry was the nephew of Collis P. Huntington, one of "The Big Four," the men instrumental in the creation of the first transcontinental railway. Huntington held several executive positions working along side his uncle with the Southern Pacific.
Military historians will likely be intrigued by another of Shorb's relatives by marriage. After Wilson's first wife — the mother of Sue and her brother, died in 1849, Don Benito married a widow, Mrs. Margaret Hereford in 1853 and one of their four children was Ruth Wilson. Just as happened with sister Sue, Ruth's marriage also benefited her new husband. Elected as the first City Attorney for the city of Pasadena in 1877 and as L.A. County District Attorney in 1886 and later as the first mayor of the city of San Marino, he was the son of a slain Civil War general and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 1877, just before moving west. His name was George S. Patton Sr. (born George William) and his son was of course the famous World War II general, George S. Patton Jr.

The James DeBarth Shorb family (including his wife, Maria) at home on their San Marino estate.

Finally, wine and vineyard historians will be interested in DeBarth's Shorb most famous project, the San Gabriel Wine Company, located near the present intersection of Main Street and Palm in Alhambra. Local historians note that it was probably the earliest business enterprise in what is Alhambra today. Shorb hired Chinese and Mexican laborers to blast the site out of a hillside and the walls were constructed of bricks made on the spot. It processed grapes not only from the Shorb vineyards but also those of other ranchers and the winery's cellar reportedly held a million and a half gallons in its huge oak tanks. By 1889, Shorb boasted that his capacity of 15 million gallons made San Gabriel the largest winery in the world. But during the 1890s, problems arose when blight disease affected the vines and many were lost and when more modern technology employed by the vineyards of Northern California enabled vintners there to undersell the San Gabriel Winery. Shorb tried to keep going by mortgaging buildings and properties to such an extent that the firm was taken over by I. W. Hellman through the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles. By 1903, when Huntington bought many of Shorb's holdings after his death and the old winery complex was converted to a felt factory.

Epilogue: Dr. Shorb's dark side The aforementioned Lorraine Shorb turned out to be a terrific researcher. We merely mentioned that we were frustrated in our search of court records regarding the complaint against the doctor and within a week she found the first of several records that did not address the Harris case but certainly did add dark colors to the portrait of Dr. Shorb and his practice in Los Angeles.
She found a short, obscure story in the Aug. 8, 1896, Fort Wayne News in Indiana,and the headline read: "Sensational Arrest of a Prominent Physician of Las Angeles, California." That was just the beginning. The item read: "A sequel to the double tragedy of Thursday last in East Los Angeles, involving the death of Mrs. Jennie Snyder, late of Seattle, Wash., and the suicide of her paramour, Wm. J. Ireland [actually William J. Relland], was the arrest here last night of Dr. Andrew S. Shorb; the most prominent and respected physician in the city on the charge of murder. The warrant was issued at the instance of the health officer and is the result of the coroner's inquest, the verdict being that Mrs. Snyder died from the effect of a criminal operation performed by Dr. Shorb. The alleged criminal has practiced in Los Angeles for many years and is quite wealthy. He was released on $15,000 bail." You can imagine our excitement when Lorraine shared that.
That sensational story was followed by items from the Los Angeles Times and even a story from another weekly in Pennsylvania that leads us to conclude that this story burned up the telegraph wires in 1896, probably because it concerned a Doctor of Homeopathy, one of the most controversial fields of medicine at the time. The first story that we found from the Los Angeles Times was dated Aug. 8, 1896: "Accused of murder . . . Another chapter in the East Los Angeles tragedy was unfolded when Dr. Andrew S. Shorb was arrested late yesterday afternoon by Detectives Hawley and Auble on a charge of murdering Jennie Snyder . . . Dr. Shorb Arrested on Complaint of Dr. Steddom. Was Arraigned Before Justice Morrison and Gave Bail. Another Chapter of the East Side Tragedy--The Inquest on [William J.] Relland's Body Develops the Fact that Suicide Was Premeditated. At the morgue . . . another doctor's experience." Now we knew that Lorraine was onto something big. Could Dr. Shorb, the upstanding, wealthy member of the community have also been a back-alley abortionist? Where was this leading?
Then the reference librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library sent us a copy of the Aug. 7, 1896, Times story that reviewed the evidence as well as the expected defense:

The most shocking tragedy that has startled this community for a long time occurred in East Los Angeles yesterday. Lying cold and stiff in death in Paul's morgue on Downey avenue are the bodies of Jennie Snyder and William James Rellands [yet another spelling of his surname] and a babe that came to the light of day five months before its time.
The woman's death was caused, according to the verdict of a Coroner's jury, "by an external hemorrhage caused by a puncture of the uterus by an instrument in the hands of Dr. A.S. Shorb." Rellands blew his brains out evidently while in a fit of insanity, superinduced by the horrible events leading to the woman's death.

The reporter goes on in somewhat lurid fashion, in the "yellow journalism" fashion of the day, to describe how Relland was a paramour of Jennie Snyder and had convinced her to run away and bring her children to accompany him to some foreign county. At first I wondered if she was a member of the Tarheel Snyder family who lived in the upper Skagit River area, but that article explained that the Snyders had come out from Wisconsin in early 1895, but the husband could not keep a job in Seattle, so he returned home and Jennie stayed in Seattle and opened a millinery business. Then she met Relland and Cupid struck.
After Jennie died on August 6, Relland "with a remarkable display of cheek, telegraphed to Snyder the information that his wife was dead, and asked for money to bury her." A Los Angeles judge, Josiah N. Phillips, testified that his family had known the Snyders in Wisconsin. Her husband telegraphed the judge and asked him to take care of their daughter who was with the couple in Los Angeles when they rented a house a few days before Jennie's death. Phillips hinted at what the defense would be by noting that when the judge met with Rellands, "he went on to say that she had had a miscarriage, and a physician had been called in Monday." Shortly after Phillips's visit the Coroner visited Relland's house, Relland took him to the back yard where he revealed that he had buried the fetus. Later, after they went to a neighbor's house and Relland seemed rational, the Coroner turned his back just long enough for Relland to take out a concealed pistol and shoot himself fatally.
The Coroner called for immediate autopsy of Jennie by the Health Officer, Dr. Steddom, and two other physicians. "After the body had been opened a most revolting case of butchery was brought to light. Even the surgeons, inured to the most horrible of sights, were astonished. The body had been lacerated in a horrible manner, to be described only in a technical publications for physicians alone to read. The inquest was held immediately afterwards in the lower floor of a dance hall where "could be hear the rhythmic tap of the dancers' feet as they glided over the polished floor, unconscious of what was going on below. A Dr. Lasher testified that death had been caused by puncture wound "made with an instrument of considerable size . . . without much of a point."
Dr. Shorb then testified that he visited Snyder twice and that on the second visit, "made an examination and used placental forceps . . . all to the effect that what he did was quite regular and designed to relieve suffering and save the life of the patient who was already seriously injured by torture she had inflicted upon herself . . . . The woman's condition was brought about by some one other than myself before I was called into the case. I have no fear as to the outcome of the matter." Although the doctor was confident, the story made clear that the reporter and/or observers thought differently.
In subsequent articles, the direction became clear. Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22, 1896: "Shorb examination: the physician charged with killing Jennie Snyder . . . Preliminary Hearing Begun Before Justice Owens--A Number of Doctors Give Expert Testimony. Witness Phillips Found a Crochet Hook (!) . . . Dr. Andrew S. Shorb's preliminary examination on the charge of murdering Mrs. Jennie Snyder in East Los Angeles some time ago was begun before Justice Owens in the Police Court yesterday morning." The clue of crochet hook was a press-stopper and it proved to be a key part of the Senator's defense of Shorb, that Relland used the crochet hook to abort the fetus, instead of Shorb committing the act. The Library also sent us a copy of the article, from which we learned some gruesome details and one surprising fact:

John R. Paul, the undertaker, was next called. He testified to having searched the premises where Mrs. Snyder died and to having found a little baby in the back yard. Dr. F.W. Steddom, the Health Officer, then took the stand and described the horrible condition of the woman's body which the autopsy had revealed. He was followed Drs. S.S. Salisbury and J.K. Carson, who assisted at the autopsy, and they testified substantially the same as did Dr. Steddom.
Dr. A.G. Forget [Sic] was the first witness called at the afternoon session. He said that he had examined the intestine which Dr. Shorb had brought to him, and found no evidences of gangrene, indicating that it had not protruded naturally, but had been drawn from the abdominal cavity. Dr. Carson was recalled to answer certain technical questions, and then Coroner Campbell took the stand and testified that Dr. Shorb had told him that he had taken out the intestine and also as to the autopsy at which he was present.
United States Senator Stephen M. White and Attorney [Charles] Monroe [the senator's law partner] appeared for Dr. Shorb and Deputy Dist.-Atty. James represented the State.

That's right; Shorb's defense counsel was the sitting U.S. Senator. Even his presence, however, was not enough to sway the judge to accept his argument for dismissing Shorb altogether. If we needed proof that the wealthy doctor had political grease, his counsel dispelled any doubt. Then we received a copy of the earlier August 8 Times story and the facts presented were also alternately gruesome and shocking:

Health Officer Steddom yesterday swore to a complaint before Justice Morrison charging Dr. Shorb with the murder. The language of the complaint is emphatic and reads that: "A.S. Shorb did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously and with malice aforethought, kill and murder one Jennie Snyder, a human being.

Coroner Campbell explained how her "paramour," William J. Relland, killed himself in the presence of Campbell, which was ruled "a suicide by shooting" and premeditated. Those facts were attested to by the fact that he left a suicide note that explained why he was so despondent about Snyder's death the day before. Following that, the landlord of the apartment where Snyder and Relland lived together — apart from her husband back in Seattle, testified to hearing a gunshot and rushing in to find Relland dead. The landlord's daughter also testified that "the couple were very reticent and made few acquaintances." A neighbor then testified that she was present "when Mrs. Snyder died and that Dr. Shorb came in looking surly. Relland had told her that the doctor was angry because there was some one there." The next testimony was a shocker:

Dr. J. de Barth Shorb, who is not related to Dr. A.S. Shorb, said to a Times reporter yesterday: "Eleven days ago, while at my house, I received a telephone message from my office about 8 o'clock in the morning, saying that a man wanted to see me on urgent business. When I reached the office I found there a young man [Relland], who said that he wanted me to go and see his wife . . . .
I asked him what was the matter with his wife, and he replied that she was pregnant. He said she was suffering no unusual pain and also said he did not want her to be confined, that he wanted her to be rid of it. I told him I was not an abortionist and would do nothing for him. He then asked me if my name was not A.S. Shorb, and I told him, no, he had made a mistake." [He then described Relland's subsequent telephone conversation with Andrew while still at the office.] "When I read of the East Los Angeles case, I thought it might be the same, and went to the morgue this morning, where I identified Relland as the young Man who had called on me."

Finally a policeman testified that Mrs. Snyder's husband from Seattle, in addition to her father, made inquiries in Los Angeles in early August about the whereabouts of the two deceased, but since the letter included no physical description of either, the police could not locate them.
The testimony by Dr. J. de Barth Shorb that he was not a relative of Dr. Andrew S. Shorb at first notice seems strange. But that was not DeBarth, the father. It was his son, who had become a physician like his grandfather. DeBarth Shorb, the father, died on April 16, 1896, four months before Shorb's trial. J. DeBarth "Barty" Shorb Jr. was the second of nine children, apparently born in 1869 and died very young in 1907. He set up his practice in the San Gabriel valley and he married his childhood friend Louise Glassell in an unknown year. We will explain his background briefly because he brings us full circle to two of our featured families.
First, it is important to note that Louise was the daughter of Andrew and Lucy (Toland) Glassell, and that Andrew's sister, Susan Thornton Glassell, married George S. Patton Sr., whom we already profiled. We know very little about Barty and Louise, but we know a lot about Andrew Glassell (IV), who was as colorful a character as his friend and neighbor Don Benito Wilson, along with being almost as important as an early landowner. The Patton and Glassell families were neighbors back in Virginia; and later on, Andrew Glassell took on Patton as a junior partner in his law firm. Andrew arrived in San Francisco in 1853 as a 25-year-old lawyer and practiced there and in Sacramento until the Civil War broke out in 1861, when he refused to take a loyalty oath. A son of the Confederacy, he went against the grain and had to resign from the California Bar for the rest of the War. In 1857, Andrew married Lucy Toland, daughter of Dr. H.H. Toland, a pioneer physician of San Francisco and founder of the Toland Medical College, which evolved into the medical school of the University of California. He resumed his practice after the war and moved his family to Los Angeles in 1865, where Wilson was already a substantial land owner.
He formed a partnership with Alfred Chapman and Colonel George H. Smith, a former Confederate Army officer, the firm becoming known as Glassell, Chapman & Smith. After Smith left, the Glassell & Chapman law practice was confined chiefly to real estate transactions and they looked after the interests of the Yorba family — Wilson's wife's parents who owned Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. During the famous severe drought of 1872 the Yorba family became cash-poor and Glassell and Chapman accepted in payment part of the Yorba land surrounding the village of Richland, where the City of Orange stands today. When I worked in Hollywood in 1971, I first heard of Glassell because of the most famous story about him, which is possibly apocryphal but ingrained into Orange County history after publication in the book, California from the Conquistadores to the Legends of Laguna, by Roger W. Jones. According to Jones, four men played a poker game in 1873 and the big winner would rename their town since the U.S. Post Office refused the name of Richland for being redundant. Alfred Chapman favored "Lemon;" Andrew Glassell favored "Orange;" and the other gentlemen favored "Olive" and "Walnut." Glassell won the pot and since his birthplace was Orange County, Virginia, he prevailed in January 1875 when Richland was renamed Orange, but he paid homage to his poker partners when principal streets were named for their choices. Glassell's younger brother, William T. Glassell, who led a Confederate attack on the Union's armored Ironsides and was subsequently imprisoned during the Civil War, platted the town.
Back to the 1896 trial of Dr. Andrew S. Shorb, we are puzzled as to Dr. Barty Shorb's denial about being related to Andrew, when they were clearly cousins, even if distant ones. We know for sure that Andrew and Barty and their wives were listed on the Los Angeles Social Register, so that fact alone disputes the report. Was he committing perjury or did the reporter misunderstand? Andrew's attorney, the sitting U.S. senator at the time, was an associate of Barty's father and specialized in irrigation matters in the U.S. Senate. We may never know the answers, but we hope a family member will have some memory to share of whether the cousins Shorb did or did not communicate.

The verdict was announced . . . and Andrew's record is revealed After that preliminary hearing, the case then moved to Superior Court and the investigation dragged on until . . . Los Angeles Times, Dec. 3, 1896: "At the Court House: Dr. Shorb's case beginning of the trial on a charge of murder . . . The Defense Likely to Be Based on the Contention That Mrs. Snyder's Death Was Caused by W. J. Reliend [actually William J. Relland] . . . The Shorb murder trial was commenced yesterday in Department One of the Superior Court. It is the case wherein Dr. A.S. Shorb is accused of murdering Mrs. Jennie Snyder last August by means of a criminal operation."
Attorney/Senator White must have performed quite a dance to shift the blame for Mrs. Snyder's death onto her paramour, considering the evidence and testimony initially presented. Cutting to the chase, the jury finally returned a verdict. The Los Angeles Times of Dec. 6, 1896:

At the Court House: Dr. Shorb released. It took the jury in Judge Smith's court just five minutes late yesterday afternoon to declare that Dr. A.S. Shorb was not guilty of the murder of Mrs. Jennie Snyder." . . . Deputy District Attorney McComas made the opening address to the jury, and he pleaded for the conviction of the defendant in his most masterly manner. He carefully reviewed the evidence and pointed out that it was an indisputable fact that the woman died; that her death was caused by a criminal operation, and that Dr. Shorb was the surgeon in attendance.

Then we note an oddity that a courts expert will have to explain. Judge Phillips, who was noted above as a witness in the preliminary hearing, had replaced Senator White's law partner and gave the introduction to the final summation.

[Phillips] opened the argument for the defense. He attracted considerable attention from the large crowd of spectators by this manner of attacking the evidence of the prosecution. He was followed by Stephen M. White, Esq., who certainly made one of the best pleas ever heard in a criminal court. Final argument was made by Attorney McComas, Judge Smith charged the jury and in five minutes thereafter the case was a thing of the past. Dr. Shorb was found not guilty on the first ballot.

Since we do not have access to the full transcripts, we still could not determine what all those accounts meant about Shorb the man, even though the facts certainly are worrisome. But we do still wonder if that 1896 arrest and trial could be just the tip of the iceberg. Lorraine Shorb soon confirmed that the chunk of ice was much bigger. That case in 1896 was not the only one resulting in the death of a patient after a botched abortion.
Articles from 14 years before showed a pattern. Reno Evening Gazette, Nevada, Feb. 21, 1882: "Held for Murder . . . Los Angeles, February 21 — The examination of Dr. A.S. Shorb, charged with causing the death of Guadalupe Garcia, by abortion, which has been in progress before City Judge Adams since the 11th inst., was concluded at noon to-day, and the accused committed for trial on a charge of murder. The case will probably come before the Supreme Court tomorrow, on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus." Here we go again.
Then a series appeared from Los Angeles that seemed like deja vu. Los Angeles Times, Feb. 14, 1882: "Shorb in court. How a Times Reporter is Fired, but is Assisted by a Ghost. Only Two Witnesses Examined Yesterday . . . The Probable Line of the Defence . . . A Long Siege Ahead . . . Yesterday morning at 10 o'clock every inch of room in Judge Adams' court room was taken up by curious spectators waiting for the examination of Dr. A.S. Shorb to begin. But the wise counsel who appeared for the defendant . . . "
Los Angeles Call, Feb. 16 1882: "The examination of Dr. A.S. Shorb, on the charge of malpractice on Guadalupe Garcia, who died from the effects, has been in progress before City Justice Adams, with closed doors, since Monday, and promises to consume the balance of the week. The examination, so far, has been principally confined to medical testimony." And in the same newspaper, Feb. 24 1882: "Los Angeles. Feb 23 Application for Habeas Corpus Denied In the case of Dr. A.S. Shorb, held on a charge of causing the death of Guadalupe Garcia, by abortion, Judge Hunt, of San Francisco, presiding, in Judge Sepulveda's branch of the Superior Court, to-day denied the application of the accused for a discharge on the writ of habeas corpus, and held him in $8,000 bail."

This menu is from Brent C. Dickerson's site, a virtual tour via photos of Old Los Angeles. It shows a typical menu of the times, from which Dan Harris may have ordered his first-class meals, which included both food and beverages that were much richer than his fare of clams and natural bounty back in old Fairhaven.

Then the verdict was announced, continuing the deja vu. Los Angeles Call, Apr 2, 1882: "Dr. Shorb Acquitted . . . Los Angeles, April 1--The jury in the Shorb case at 8 o'clock this morning brought in a verdict of 'not guilty.' " And The Fresno Republican, California, April 8, 1882: "Dr. A.S. Shorb has been acquitted at Las Angeles on a charge of murder. He was accused of producing an abortion on a young woman who died from the effects of the proceeding."
First of all, if you are curious about why the stories about the 1882 arrest and trial were from the Call newspaper and the 1896 stories were from the Times, that is because the Call was a much stronger alternative at that time, with much more circulation. The Times only started publishing in December 1881 and promptly went bankrupt. The Mirror Company, which printed the fledgling publication, took it over and appointed former Union Army Lt. Col. Harrison Gray Otis as the editor. After turning the Times around, he bought it in 1884 and formed the Times-Mirror Company. Otis and his descendants became the most powerful force in southern California outside the government itself for a century to come.
In regards to the doctor's multiple arrests and how he may have manipulated the system to escape conviction, we know that his very powerful attorney successfully swayed the jury by diverting their attention from the doctor's criminal charge and focused them on the claim that the abortion was actually committed by her paramour, Mr. Relland. That obviously worked. An unanswered question is: how many times did his patients die gruesomely, besides 1882 and 1896 and did he need high-powered political and legal help each time to avoid jail? We are not going to address the morality of his abortion practice, an operation that resembled butchery at the time. We will let the reader form his or her own conclusion and we especially hope that will receive feedback from a reader who either knows more about the family or knows more about Los Angeles courts of those days. We merely observe that the wealthy doctor seems to have led another life that contradicts the praise and respect shown in the biographies and profiles of the time. And his actions certainly make us wonder once again if he and his wife did bilk Dan Harris of his fortune and lead him down a path that led to his relatively early death. We suspect that there is much more to this story, so it will evolve as we uncover more evidence. We trust that author Ralph W. Thacker and others will help illuminate that 1991-trial part of this roller coaster of a story.
The natural question arises: did Dr. Shorb have some special "grease" that helped him maintain his freedom and his wealth? We leave you with our discovery of a clue that may explain how all three of these court cases involving the doctor eventually turned in his favor. We still have not found the social or legal connection between Dr. Shorb and his famous cousin, DeBarth Shorb. But if James came to his cousin's aid, he carried with him the ultimate political grease. Not only did he have the political connections that we outlined above, but we found an obscure reference to how much pull James had with the judicial system and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Erskine Ross served on the court for 30 years. This passage comes from the California Digital Library:

Ross's resignation from the California Supreme Court made him a tempting candidate for President Grover Cleveland to appoint to the judgeship for California's southern district. J. D. Bicknell, a distinguished Los Angeles lawyer whom Ross himself had recommended for the judgeship, was the early front-runner for the position, but friends of Ross enthusiastically pressed his nomination with the president and with Justice Field, who retained some influence in questions of California judicial politics. Francis G. Newlands, a lawyer in San Francisco and later a Nevada representative to Congress, for instance, sent a telegram to Justice Field on December 10, 1886, lauding Ross as the best candidate for the district judgeship. . . . Despite the fact that most of the Democratic organization and California's congressional delegation, including Leland Stanford, had come out for Bicknell, Ross was held in such high esteem that when word of his availability for the district judgeship was made known, dignitaries throughout the state began to communicate their support to the Democratic administration. But it was no sure thing that Ross would accept the nomination if it were offered. Newlands telegraphed Ross's friend James de Barth Shorb: "Have received telegram that President has offered position to Ross. See him immediately & urge acceptance answer." Though met with surprise by the press, the appointment of Ross was praised, and he earned a national reputation as district judge by his handling of several important cases.

Judge Ross was one of James DeBarth's pallbearers after his death in April 1896. That is indicative of what most would call the ultimate political and legal "grease." Can you help us connect the dots between cousins Andrew and DeBarth? And if you are in California, do you have library or online access to court, newspaper and book records that will help explain how the Shorbs won the Harris case on appeal?

Andrew Stephen Shorb, M.D.

This drawing of the Downey Block, corner of Spring and Temple streets, shows what a street scene resembled in old downtown Los Angeles, circa 1880. Courtesy of Brent C. Dickerson's site, a virtual tour via photos, of Old Los Angeles website. (Click on thumbnail to see a full-sized original).

A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles & Environs, James Miller Guinn
(Historic Record Company: Los Angeles, Cal., 1915)
The genealogy of the Shorb family is traced back to Prussian nobility. The great-grandfather of Dr. Shorb married a sister of Emperor William I and thus all of the descendants were of the royal blood of the Hohenzollerns [that is an error, as noted]. The first to establish the name on the western hemisphere was Jacob M. Shorb [another error], a man of considerable wealth, but whose alliance with the reigning house of Prussia was an influence not sufficiently powerful to retain his citizenship in Germany.
The large fleet of trading vessels which he owned carried the royal coat of arms and evidence of his kinship with royalty appeared in many of his personal belongings. A few of these have been preserved through all the passing years and now form prized souvenirs in the possession of descendants. When Prince Henry, a brother of the present reigning Emperor was entertained on a visit of sate to this country, he met at the White House a member of the American branch of the family and recognized her identification with the Hohenzollern line through certain distinguishing marks characteristic of the men and women of the race.
Two generations of the Shorb family lived in the upper part of Maryland [actually a majority lived in Pennsylvania] and were leaders of thought and commerce there. The name in a later generation became transplanted to Ohio, where Andrew Stephen Shorb was born at Canton, Stark County, April 12, 1837, a son of Adam L. and Maria L. (Bowen) Shorb. All through the American residence of the family they had belonged to the cultured, aristocratic class, knowing little of the privations and sufferings of poverty except through observation. In this respect, Dr. Shorb was unusually fortunate.
Advantages were given to him from the first and his early aspirations to study medicine were not thwarted by lack of means. From the time he was eleven until he was nineteen years of age he was a student in the laboratory of Dr. Matthews. Another well-known surgeon of Canton, Dr. Estep by name, also aided him in gaining a rudimentary knowledge of therapeutics. His diploma and the degree of M.D. were received from the Pulta [actually Pulte] Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio.
On selecting a location for the practice of medicine he chose the city of Topeka in Kansas, a growing town whose opportunities for professional work were fully equal to his anticipations and whose ready appreciation of his skill gave him a foremost place among local practitioners. Believing, however, that an even greater professional opportunity awaited him in Los Angeles, he came to this city in 1871 (at which time but four American physicians had preceded him), and from that time until his retirement two years before his death he was probably the leading local representative of the school of Homeopathy.
The marriage of Dr. Shorb and Miss Mattie [also addressed as Martha] L. Blanchard was solemnized in Newark, Ohio, March 5, 1867, and was blessed with a daughter, Lillie Belle, Mrs. F.A. Barnes, there being one granddaughter, Andrea Barnes. The Blanchard family comes of ancient and honored English ancestry, but several generations have lived in the United States, and George A. Blanchard, father of Mrs. Shorb, was a prominent and wealthy citizen of Newark, where she was born and educated.
Both in Kansas and California, Dr. Shorb maintained an intimate identification with various medical societies. From early life he was a constant student of the profession. Every phase of its advancement was of deepest interest to him. Although a disciple of Homeopathy, he was not unwilling to note any development in other schools of medicine, but on the contrary he quickly availed himself in his practice of any remedial agency or discovery of value to the world. The science of medicine interested him as a practitioner and as a constant student of its mysteries. His love of the profession led him to study medical literature, current professional periodicals and reports of clinics, as well as to associate himself with societies whose members were those who like himself aimed to be worthy of their high calling.
For sixteen years Dr. Shorb officiated as treasurer of the Unitarian Church and his contributions to that organization were generous, as indeed were his donations to other movements for the uplifting of humanity. Probably none of his charities, however, were more far-reaching or were received with more gratitude than those bestowed upon patients unable to remunerate him for his services.
For years he kept in close touch with Masonry. Its principles of brotherhood appealed to his broad philanthropic spirit. No meetings were more enjoyable to him than those of Pentalpha Lodge No. 202, F.&A.M. and Acacia Chapter No. 32, R.A.M., and he was also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason.
The profession of physician had taught him the necessity of proper care of the body, hence he was a man of irreproachable habits. Not only did he habitually refused to partake of intoxicating liquors and tobacco in any form, but he even avoided the milder stimulants of tea and coffee, believing them to be deleterious to the body. although perhaps less rugged than many, by the exercise of common sense in diet and sagacity in exercise and the care of the body, he prolonged his life to the age of seventy-five, and his death, which occurred May 13, 1912, occurred only after two years of retirement from a fatiguing round of professional duties, civic responsibilities, the care of business investments and the supervision of ranch holdings; nor indeed did these last two years mark a complete cessation of activities, for to one of his forceful energies the happiest hours were those of responsibility rather than rest.
To his wife he left city and ranch property, bank stock and various other holdings that were the result of his sagacious investments and wise provision for her physical comfort in the twilight of her life. To other physicians and to friends of the past his memory is dear as that of a man who gave his best to the alleviating of suffering and remedying of those physical ills to which flesh is heir.
Obituary for Martha "Mattie" (Blanchard) Shorb Oxnard Daily Courier, Dec. 1, 1926, Wednesday
(Historic Record Company: Los Angeles, Cal., 1915)
The funeral of Mattie L. Shorb, widow of Dr. Andrew S. Shorb, who died suddenly in Los Angeles Monday, will be from the Strothers Parlors, Hollywood, today at 2 p.m. with interment in the Forest Lawn Memorial cemetery at Glendale. The sudden death of Mrs. Shorb, who had been in fairly good health, came as a shock to her relatives and friends. She leaves her daughter, Mrs. Frank A. Barnes, and a son, O. A. Shorb, both of Los Angeles, and a granddaughter, Mrs. Robert Kinsey of Oxnard. She was born at Springfield, [Illinois] and in 1871 came to Los Angeles with her husband, who practiced medicine there until his death 15 years ago.

Biography of James DeBarth Shorb

One of James DeBarth Shorb's 11 children, Edith, was sent to Lake Merritt, Oakland, to attend school at the Convent of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. While her father was subdividing his new Shorb Tract, he decided to donate 15 acres of land to the Holy Name Sisters if they would build a school on the site so his children would not have to go north to school. Edith asked for the hill, "the adobe hill", where Ramona Convent was built in 1889. The site is still in use as a private boarding school for girls. Courtesy of City of Alhambra website.

From An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California,
(Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1889)
James DeBarth Shorb, President and general manager of the San Gabriel Wine Company, was born April 4, 1842, in Frederick County, Maryland, a son of Dr. James A. Shorb, who also was a native of that State; and the grandfather of De Barth, also a native of that State, died in Pennsylvania, at the age of 104 years!
Mr. Shorb's great-grandfather came from Alsace, France, to this country, and became a large landowner in Maryland, North Carolina, Delaware and Pennsylvania, settling in the latter State, near Hanover. Mr. Shorb's mother, also a Marylander, was of a Scotch-Irish family, being the daughter of Captain Felix McMeal, whose name appears in the first directory published in Baltimore City.
He was one of the very first officers in the merchant marine service, which antedates the American navy; he died during the '60s. Dr. Shorb, our subject's father, was also the owner of a large amount of real estate, a part of which was the well-known San Marino plantation. Mr. Shorb graduated in 1859, at the old classical college of Mount St. Mary's, at Emmettsburg (actually Emmittsburg), Maryland, where also Cardinals McClosky and Gibbons and Archbishops Hughes and Bailey, of New York, and Kendrick and Carroll, and others, most of whom are eminent divines in the Catholic Church, graduated.
After graduation Mr. Shorb commenced the study of law in the office of W. W. Dallas, nephew of George M. Dallas, Vice-President of the United States, 1845-'49. Upon the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, Mr. Shorb came to California as assistant superintendent of the Philadelphia and California Oil Company, of which the late Thomas A. Scott, of Pennsylvania railroad fame, was president.
In 1867 he purchased the tenure of the Temescal grant and began mining operations; and the same year he married the daughter of Don Benito Wilson, one of the best known men in Southern California, and at his request he entered the wine and grape business, as a member of the San Gabriel Wine Company, who now own 10,000 acres, and cultivate 1,300 acres of the best varieties of grapes; indeed the vineyard, both in respect to quality of vines and equipment, is said to be the best in the world, by such judges as Henry Grosjean, who was here as the French Commissioner of Agriculture, and who is a member of the Institute Agronomique.
The product of this vineyard bears the highest reputation in the Eastern markets. The winery comprises a ferment room 120 x 260 feet in dimensions, and two stories high, with a capacity of 900,000 gallons; actual fermenting capacity of upper and lower floors, 2,640,000 gallons. The storing cellars are in a two-story brick structure 147 x 217 feet. The distillery, 43 x 46 feet, attached to the building, has a large Sherry room with a capacity of 200,000 gallons annually, with a portion partitioned off for bonded warehouse. The buildings are so situated, arranged and equipped with the most approved and complete machinery that the work is all done at the lowest minimum of expense from the moment the grapes are received in the fermenting room until the wine is ready for shipment.
A track half a mile in length connects the building with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Shorb's Station, thus placing the wines immediately upon one of the greatest thoroughfares in the Union, and at a point also that is only twenty-two miles from a seaport. Shipments are made to all parts of the world. The company have also within their enclosure 1,100 orange trees of the Washington Navel variety, and they have apple and pear orchards, on a large scale, all furnished with the finest water system to be found in California. These great enterprises — many in one — were brought to their present state of perfection by Mr. Shorb, the president and general manager.
He has given to these matters twenty years of study; is identified with all the leading agricultural enterprises in the State. He is commissioner for the State at large of the State Viticultural Commission. He was the first president of the San Gabriel Valley Railroad, of the Pasadena & Alhambra Railroad, and former president of the Chamber of Commerce and several other corporate enterprises. He is one of the best-known and most public-spirited citizens on the Pacific Coast. Mr. and Mrs. Shorb have nine children, five sons and four daughters.

Return to Part 1: short history of the Hohenzollerns; Shorb homeland in Germany/France; Shorbs settle in Pennsylvania; Dr. Andrew's ancestors moved west to Ohio; James DeBarth Shorb's branch settled in Maryland; Dr. James A. Shorb comes down with '49er fever.

Links, background reading and sources

Introduction Portal to Daniel J. Harris series, including his biography and a consensus timeline.
Three newspaper stories by veteran editor Frank Teck, published in the Fairhaven Evening Herald, April 4, 11 and 25, 1903, which cover the Dan legends and debunk some of them. Fully annotated, with pioneer bios.
Two-part Journal research into Dr. and Mrs. Andrew S. Shorb of Los Angeles, sued for bilking Dan of his fortune. Includes Andrew's famous cousin, J. DeBarth Shorb, history of Hohenzollerns, Pennsylvania Dutch, Homeopathy, early Los Angeles History, Don Benito Wilson, George S. Patton and the San Gabriel Winery.
Schedule for Dirty Dan Harris days, Fairhaven, April 26-27, 2008
Portal to all Whatcom County photo features, resources and links.

Story posted March 31, 2007 . . . Please report any broken links so we can update them
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Andrew and James DeBarth Shorb go west, young men — Part 2 of 2

Andrew and James DeBarth Shorb
go west, young men — Part 2 of 2