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Inventory of the Dockweiler Family Papers
CSLA-12
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Title: Dockweiler family papers
Dates: 1827-1996
Bulk Dates: 1890-1950
Collection number: CSLA-12
Creator:
Dockweiler, Isidore B. (Isidore Bernard),
1867-1947
Collector:
Dockweiler Family
Collection Size:
18 archives document boxes, 19 oversize boxes
Repository:
Loyola Marymount University. William H. Hannon Library. Department of
Archives and Special Collections
Los Angeles, California 90045-2659
Abstract: The Dockweiler Family Papers, CSLA-12, includes both textual
and non-textual materials, and runs from 1827 to 1996, with the bulk dates between
1890 and 1950. The holdings on Isidore B. Dockweiler anchor this collection; most
material after 1950 concerns Mary Dockweiler Young or Frederick C.
Dockweiler.
Physical location: Collection stored offsite. Research use requires both
an advance notice of intent to use the collection and an appointment. To schedule an
appointment, please contact the Department of Archives and Special Collection,
William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University: 310-338-2780, 310-338-5357.
When scheduling an appointment researchers should have the series and box number of
the materials that they wish to consult, so that they may be paged.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:English,
German
Collection is open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives
and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University. The Dockweiler Family Papers
are part of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles
Research Collection, a program of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study
of Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University. The Research Collection is administered
by the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount
University.
Materials in the Department of Archives and Special Collections may be subject to
copyright. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, Loyola Marymount University does not
claim ownership of the copyright of any materials in its collections. The user or
publisher must secure permission to publish from the copyright owner. Loyola
Marymount University does not assume any responsibility for infringement of
copyright or of publication rights held by the original author or artists or his/her
heirs, assigns, or executors.
[Identification of item], Series number, Box and Folder number, Dockweiler Family
Papers, CSLA-12, Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon
Library, Loyola Marymount University.
Gift of Frederick Dockweiler, with the assistance of Quinn Brady, Jr., and Marcus
Crahan, Jr. (1999).
The Dockweiler family story has been closely intertwined with the course of Los
Angeles and consequently California history. The great Gold Rush was instrumental in
bringing the first Dockweiler to Los Angeles, Henry Dockweiler
(1824-1887), who settled here by 1852 after trying, apparently without success, his
hand in the gold fields of northern California. Part of the American story of
immigration, Henry and his wife Margaretha (1827-1924) were both immigrants, he from
Bavaria, she from Alsace. They married in Los Angeles in 1861, after meeting in the
Buffalo, New York area, their chief residence in the United States before making Los
Angeles their home
Henry established the Dockweiler reputation in Los Angeles religious, political, and
civic life, areas in which his offspring would also distinguish themselves and
perpetuate the family name. Henry was one of the owners of the La Fayette (sic)
Hotel, a major social center in Los Angeles, and he also ran other businesses, such
as a saloon. More importantly for Dockweiler family history, Henry took up politics,
which his youngest son Isidore would also successfully pursue. An active Republican
because of his opposition to the secession of the South, Henry held public office,
serving the Third Ward as its representative on the Los Angeles City (or Common)
Council from 1870 to 1874. Henry also became involved in such reform groups as the
People's Independent Party, holding council office for the Third Ward in 1873 as a
member of this party.
Henry was noteworthy not only for his secular pursuits in Los Angeles. Characteristic
of the Dockweiler family, Margaretha and Henry were devoutly Roman Catholic:
Margaretha's obituary in the Roman Catholic newspaper
The
Tidings
praised both her and her husband's piety and especially singled
out her relationship with the Sisters of Charity.
Margaretha and Henry had four sons, one of whom, John Joseph, died in infancy. The
three surviving brothers were John Henry (1864-1941), Joseph Aloysius (d. 1918), and
Isidore Bernard (1867-1947). The middle son would not distinguish himself, at least
not in the way that his brothers John Henry and Isidore did: the two would achieve
prominence in Los Angeles and California, and in Isidore's case, the nation.
John Henry Dockweiler's professional expertise lay in engineering, and
noteworthy is his major role in the erection of the infrastructure of modern Los
Angeles. Henry, as he was called, served as the City Engineer of Los Angeles for two
terms: 1890-1894, and 1896-1898. Both stints were eventful. In the first Henry built
the city's first outfall sewer, bringing the project in under cost. In the second,
Henry was a key player in the transfer of the city water system from private to
municipal ownership: he appraised, at the order of the Los Angeles City Council, the
property of the Los Angeles City Water Co., the private company that owned the city
water system. His appraisal would play a role in a board of arbitration's decision
on the price of the transfer of the water system from the private company to the
City.
Henry was also important in the development of other parts of water systems in
California. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, Henry would live in
the Bay Area, where he ran an engineering firm that consulted on water works and
irrigation systems for, among other local governments, the Cities of San Francisco
and Oakland. Henry also had a military career, serving as a major and engineer
officer in the California National Guard. Married to the widow Margaret ("Mattie")
Ameila Dockweiler, the couple had no children; Margaret followed Henry in death in
1952.
Isidore B. Dockweilerwould gain even greater stature than that won by
John Henry Dockweiler. The younger brother's life mirrored that of his father and
older brother. This meant an active faith, and political interests, and like his
older brother, a Roman Catholic education at old St. Vincent's, from which he
received the first A.B. Law was Isidore's professional calling, studying the subject
with the Los Angeles law firm of Anderson, Fitzgerald, and Anderson, and passing his
bar examination before the California State Court in 1889. How his legal practice
grew after this point is uncertain. Isidore partnered with various lawyers,
eg,John Mottin the 1920s, and his sons would join him in these
partnerships. No doubt, though, by the decade of the 1910s, the Dockweiler law firm
was powerful in Los Angeles, eventually counting among its many clients John
Paul Getty, Hollywood celebrities, the government of the Mexican state of
Baja California, and such business corporations as Security-First National Bank.
Intertwined with the growth of Isidore B. Dockweiler's legal practice was
participation in Democratic Party politics. As a teenager, Isidore had rallied to
the candidacy of Grover Cleveland, leading to further involvement in local
Democratic politics. By 1896 he was prominent enough in the Democratic Party that he
oversaw William Jennings Bryan's presidential campaign swing through southern
California. Isidore's status as a delegate to the county and state Democratic
conventions had probably paved the way for this leadership. In 1902, his stature in
the party meant his placement as lieutenant-governor on the gubernatorial ticket of
Franklin Lane. The Lane-Dockweiler candidacy lost, but barely, to
the Republican George C. Pardee. In 1926, reacting to the power of William McAdoo in
the California Democratic Party and his pro-Volstead Act sentiments, anti-McAdoo
Democrats, such as James Phelan, would draft Isidore Dockweiler to run
for senator in the Democratic primary against John B. Elliott, whom McAdoo
supported. Isidore would lose, but Elliott lost the general election to the
Republican Samuel M. Shortridge.
Isidore B. Dockweiler would also participate in national Democratic Party activities,
serving on the Democratic National Committee from 1916 to 1932. He was a delegate to
the Democratic National Conventions in 1908, 1936, and 1940, and in 1932 read
Jefferson's Inaugural Address to the Democratic National Convention. Isidore's
influence proved critical in the Democratic Party's decision to hold its national
convention in 1920 in San Francisco.
Both as a lawyer and as a Democrat Isidore B. Dockweiler was influential, resulting
in his membership on numerous corporate boards, such as the Lincoln Building and
Loan Association, the Security-First National Bank, and the Los Angeles Union
Terminal Company. In education, he served as trustee of the State Normal School in
San Diego and of St. Vincent's College. Isidore Dockweiler was instrumental in the
growth of the Los Angeles Public Library, holding office as its president
(1901-1911). He served on the state board of parks and beaches; after his death
Venice-Hyperion Beach was renamed Dockweiler State Beach in his honor. To stimulate
Roman Catholic culture in Los Angeles, he helped found the Newman Club; his
overall
devotio fidelisto Roman Catholicism made him
a Knight of St. Gregory, at the command of Pope Pius XI in 1924. In national
politics, his relationship with PresidentWoodrow Wilsonled to his
appointment to the Board of Indian Commissioners.
Isidore B. Dockweiler married Gertrude Reeve Dockweiler (1871-1937) in 1891. Gertrude
was English by birth, her father the well-known architect Burgess Reeve (d. 1936),
designer of the old Episcopal Pro-cathedral and old St. Vincent's Church in Los
Angeles. Thirteen children were born to this marriage, eleven of whom survived
infancy. Of these, John Francis Dockweiler (1895-1943) followed in his
father's political, Democratic footsteps. He was a Democratic U.S. Congressman and
District Attorney of Los Angeles County (1940-1943), and ran unsuccessfully for
governor of California in the 1938 Democratic primary. Henry Isidore
Dockweiler (1893-1970) served in the U.S. diplomatic corps in Japan,
Spain, and China. Daughter Mary Dockweiler (1894-1988) was a prominent
Los Angeles socialite, also very active in such charitable causes as the Los Angeles
Orphanage Guild. She married twice, first to lawyer Willam Kenyon
Young, son of the prominent California Democrat Milton K. Young,
and after the former's death, she married Dr. Daniel Sooy. Edward
Vincent Dockweiler (1901-1961) retired from the U.S. Navy as a rear
admiral and earned the Bronze Star for his heroism in Japanese POW camps during
World War II. George Augustine Dockweiler (1898-1983) was a well-known
Los Angeles judge, and Frederick Charles Dockweiler (1909-2000) was a
lawyer active in Los Angeles and California political issues. The other Dockweiler
children were Louis Bernard Dockweiler (1911- 1944); Ruth
Dockweiler (1903-1992), who married Quinn Brady; Rosario
Dockweiler (1896-1972), who married Marcus Crahan; Thomas Aloysius
Joseph Dockweiler (1892-1959), prominent Los Angeles lawyer and member of
the City Social Service Commission; and Robert Dockweiler
(1906-1941).
| 1824 | Henry Dockweiler born inBavaria,Germany. |
| 1852 | Henry Dockweiler arrives in Los Angeles, California, via the Panama Canal from New York state. |
| 1861 | Henry Dockweiler marries Margaretha Sugg. |
| 1867 | Isidore Bernard Dockweiler, son of Margaretha and Henry, born. |
| 1870-1874 | Henry Dockweiler member of Los Angeles Common Council. |
| 1887 | Henry Dockweiler dies. |
| 1889 | Isidore B. Dockweiler passes California State Bar Examination. He will eventually establish a leading legal practice in Los Angeles, along with sons Henry I. Dockweiler and Thomas Dockweiler. |
| 1891 | Isidore B. Dockweiler marries Gertrude Reeve. |
| 1902 | Isidore B. Dockweiler runs for lieutenant-governor on Franklin Lane's Democratic gubernatorial ticket. |
| 1924 | Isidore B. Dockweiler made Knight of St. Gregory, at the command of Pope Pius XI, in 1924. |
| 1916-1932 | Isidore B. Dockweiler serves on Democratic National Committee. |
| 1908, 1936, 1940 | Isidore B. Dockweiler serves as delegate from California to Democratic National Convention. |
| 1933-1938 | John F. Dockweiler, son of Isidore B. Dockweiler, serves as Democratic congressman from California. |
| 1940-1943 | John F. Dockweiler serves as Los Angeles District Attorney. |
| 1942-1945 | Edward Vincent Dockweiler, son of Isidore B. Dockweiler, is prisoner of war in Japanese POW camps. Wins Bronze Star for heroism in captivity. |
| 1947 | Isidore B. Dockweiler dies. |
The Dockweiler Family Papers, CSLA-12, includes both textual and non-textual
materials. The latter consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks,
legal briefs, telegrams, pamphlets and booklets, legal documents, receipts, and
account and appointment ledgers. The non-textual material includes photographs,
scrolls, certificates, and such political ephemera as campaign posters, buttons, and
ribbons. Chronologically, the collection runs from 1827 to 1996, with its bulk dates
between 1890 and 1950. The holdings on Isidore B. Dockweiler anchor this collection;
most material after 1950 concernsMary Dockweiler YoungorFrederick
C. Dockweiler.
Some of the materials Isidore collected on his family's history and on his children
were part of an office filing system, most likely that of his firm, where these
materials were also undoubtedly stored. The arrangement of this file order has been
preserved: the entries in the box and folder list note the original filing system
where appropriate, and the arrangement of the materials in the Dockweiler filing
system has been maintained, as it has come to the Research Collection. Because a
large quantity of the holdings come from the record keeping system of the Dockweiler
legal firm, the majority of material is copies made as records for the firm and for
the Dockweilers' personal information.
Names of note in this collection include Frank Knox,
James Phelan, Franklin Lane,
William Mulholland, Will Rogers, Jr.,
William Jennings Bryan, Jr., Woodrow
Wilson, and Joseph Scott.
Based on subject or form of material, CSLA-12 has been arranged in seven series:
1. Family Members:
- Subseries A: Isidore Berard and Gertrude Dockweiler
- Subseries B: John Henry Dockweiler
- Subseries C: Edward Dockweiler
- Subseries D: John Francis Dockweiler
- Subseries E: Thomas Dockweiler
- Subseries F: Henry and Margaretha Dockweiler
- Subseries G: Louis Dockweiler
- Subseries H: George Dockweiler
- Subseries I: Robert Dockweiler
- Subseries J: Robert Dockweiler
- Subseries K: Frederick Dockweiler
- Subseries L: Mary Dockweiler Young
2. Political Activities
3. Photographs
- Subseries A: Individual Portraits
- Subseries B: Dockweiler Group Pictures
- Subseries C: Locations
- Subseries D: Miscellaneous Photographs
- Subseries E: Photograph Albums
4. Scrapbooks
5. Clippings
6. Ephemera
7. Legal Briefs.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Civic leaders -- California -- Los Angeles --
Biography -- Sources
Dockweiler, Isidore B. (Isidore Bernard),
1867-1947
California -- Politics and government -- 1850-1950
-- Sources
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Politics and government --
Sources
Besides the material on the Dockweiler family in CSLA-12, the CSLA Research
Collection also houses an additional collection related to the family, CSLA-13. The
latter was not processed with CSLA-12 because of matters related to provenance. An
on-line guide to CSLA-13 can be consulted by clicking on this link:
Dockweiler Family
Collection (CSLA-13)
.