Making a Statement With a “Report of Receipts and Expenditures of Walter P. Temple,” 15 December 1922 to 16 January 1923

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

A major donation in 2009 from the daughter of the second husband of Gabriela Quiroz Temple, widow of Thomas W. Temple II’s, is a treasure trove of Workman and Temple family documents, with some dating as far back as the 1840s and a majority related to Walter P. Temple and his business interests, including in oil and real estate.

It is hard to overstate how important much of this material has been to improving our understanding of the family history and we have frequently shared objects from it for posts on this blog. This is the case for the “Making a Statement” series, with several of Walter Temple’s financial statements and reports of income and expenses shared. Here we take a look at the “Report of Receipts and Expenditures of Walter P. Temple” from mid-December 1922 to mid-January 1923.

While there are the expected business and personal items listed here, by far the most significant is the receipt of $50,000 for a claim made to the National Life Insurance Company of Vermont following the death of Laura González Temple at the end of 1922. Behind the names, amounts and explanations, the tragedy of her passing from colon cancer and an intestinal blockage goes well beyond facts and figures and, of course, altered the trajectories of the lives of her widow Walter and children Thomas, Agnes, Walter, Jr., and Edgar.

Fully 60% of the income for that month came from the insurance payment and another quarter comprised the oil and gas royalties totaling nearly $16,000, as well as a $5,000 bonus, provided by Standard Oil Company, California from the wells at the Temple lease in Montebello. As stated here many times, the royalties from the highly productive, but shallow wells on land formerly owned by Walter’s father F.P.F., purchased by the former in October 1912 and then with crude discovered by Walter’s 9-year old son Thomas a year-and-a-half later, were as high as nearly $50,000 a month at the peak, but slowly decreased in succeeding years.

Nearly 10% came from the redemption of Liberty Bonds (called “Victory Bonds” in the report), which were instruments sold by the federal Department of the Treasury to raise funds to carry out America’s participation in the First World War. A financial statement from April 1921 showed that, among Temple’s $1.4 million in assets, over $128,000 were invested in these bonds. The nearly $7,400 in receipts from these were almost certainly from the coupons that could be redeemed semi-annually.

There were several small amounts remitted to Temple for loans made to family and friends, including Laura’s sister Luz Vigare; Walter’s niece Marguerite Guthrie; James E. Bassity, whose wife, Modesta (Maud) Romero, helped care for Laura in her illness and who then left her husband and became Walter’s significant other; and Walter’s attorney and business partner George H. Woodruff. Arthur Blackman, a lifelong Altadena resident, remitted $900 as payment of the principal of a loan.

Rentals by merchants and others running businesses owned in buildings built by Walter comprised most of the rest of the income, including “Hamburger Slim;” the postmaster at San Gabriel, where much of Temple’s activity was then concentrated, with a large commercial property across from the historic mission; and a variety of figures in Monterey Park and Alhambra, with the largest amount of nearly $370 paid by Otto H. Schleusener, who leased the Temple Theatre, Walter’s first major real estate project in the latter city, which grew rapidly during the period with the latest boom in greater Los Angeles peaking in 1923.

Another bit of income was from General Petroleum Company, which produced oil from the Cruz Lease, a short distance east of the Temple Lease and on land sold by F.P.F. Temple to Venancia Peña Davis, a close friend of the family and a Luiseño Indian from northern San Diego County. After Davis died, the land was inherited by her children, principally Julia Davis Cruz (1851-1917), who lived with the Temple family as a young woman. She died just before the well came in on her lease that provided a small remittance to her surviving brothers. On the expenditures portion of the report are the payouts to six interested parties, including the smaller share for Temple. Speaking of oil, another figure paying interest on a loan to Temple was William Harmon Taylor, who was a partner with Temple in the Argonaut Oil Company, prospecting in Huntington Beach and recently absorbed into the Holly Oil Company.

There were, of course, many more expenditures than receipts. The largest amounts tended to involve the real estate side of Temple’s activities, including more than $4,500 to California National Supply Company, which provided oil materiel and which, naturally, sold a good deal of items for the Walter P. Temple Oil Company projects. About half that sum was paid out to the Keyless Lock Company for equipment and another $400 spent on a safe for the post office in San Gabriel, for which Temple also provided a truck as there were several small expenses related to the vehicle. 

A $2,000 payment was also made on a loan tendered by Monterey Park business figure William Stone, while $756 was paid to the prominent Los Angeles architects Walker and Eisen, who drew up building plans for La Casa Nueva, then in its early stages of construction, and most of Temple’s commercial buildings, including the “New Temple Bldg.” in San Gabriel. Another expenditure of just north of $500 was remitted to Elmer A. Potter, an employee of Temple for insurance for the Alhambra movie theater. Otherwise, there were a number of small expenses for office buildings in terms of repairs, utilities and others. Nearly $900 was drawn from an Alhambra bank, probably for payments of acquired property.

For the 92-acre Workman Homestead, 75 of which was acquired over five years prior once the oil revenue began to grow significantly, there were a trio of remittances totaling $2,000 with some interest that was likely part of the payment plan for the $40,000 purchase. A payment of $177.31 to the Rodeo Land and Water Company, the developers of Beverly Hills (William Workman, for several years in the 1860s, owned by part of the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas that comprised that area) might have been for some of the additional 17 acres that Temple purchased. Other amounts included trees purchased from the Pasadena Nursery Company and tractor repairs conducted by an Alhambra Ford dealer.

Salaries were also paid out to several people with Potter getting his $150 monthly amount at one time. Stanley C. Benson was a chauffeur for the Temples, though he soon after got into the real estate and finance games and Everett G. Seely, previously a motorcycle mechanic, had the same position, though one or both probably also served that function for Milton Kauffman, Temple’s business manager. The 1923 Alhambra City Directory listed him as an “auto operator” and, later, Seely became an auto and airplane mechanic. Both men were also paid $20 bonuses, likely for the Christmas holiday.

Marguerite Martin and Sara H. Murphy were likely office workers for Temple and it appears the former left his employ and the latter succeeded her. Manuel Zuñiga, the husband of Walter’s sister Lucinda, received a $100 salary and was listed in the 1920 census as a gardener while he and Lucinda lived at the Temple home in Alhambra. Kauffman was not paid a salary, but had many expenses covered by Temple, totaling about $1,300 for the month. 

Advances were remitted for Nettie Temple, the widow of some thirty years of Walter’s eldest sibling, Thomas, and for Charles P. Temple, Jr., the 18-year old son of Walter’s younger brother Charles, Sr., who died four years before, and whose expenses at the Los Angeles Military Academy and, following graduation there, at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry, were paid by his uncle. Christmas checks were sent to Richard Youngquist, who seems to have worked for Temple’s oil company, to Kauffman’s wife Maude, and to Walter’s older brother John.

A recent post here discussed a letter to Walter from his son Thomas, who turned 18 in early January, while he was trying to deal with his mother’s passing while he returned for his second semester at the California Institute of Technology, where he was an engineering major with the idea he’d help his father in the oil business. Tuition and board for the semester was all of $124.90—a slight difference from today’s costs, which includes north of $30,000 for tuition, over $5,500 for housing and more than $4,100 for meals, not to mention above $1,200 in fees! As that post noted, however, Thomas left CalTech to return to the University of Santa Clara, where he’d graduated from the preparatory high school, to continue his education.

Memberships to Temple, Kauffman and Woodruff for the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce and for Temple at the San Gabriel Country Club; $250 ascribed to “Rust for trees,” but which, instead of treating a plant disease, was almost certainly payment to the well-known Horatio Rust and Son nursery of Pasadena; a number of automobile related expenses, including payment to Don Lee, the prominent Los Angeles Cadillac dealer; and $60 in Christmas provisions and decorations, presumably for the family celebration at the Homestead, happening just a few days before Laura passed away, were also of note.

The expected personal expenses included almost $3,000 worth which were not itemized, while those that were included $275 for a drug store and $300 for shirts on Walter’s accounts; accounts for Laura at a bakery, florist and some merchants; merchandise from drug, hardware and grocery stores; and others.  Also, expected were several expenditures that were almost certainly pertaining to the death of Laura Temple, such as taxi service, likely to the Angelus Hospital where she died; flowers; the Utter and Son Mortuary; and a monument works company for the crypt at the mausoleum in El Campo Santo Cemetery at the Homestead. The net result was cash on hand of just above $61,000, though the insurance payment obviously inflated the liquidity, which would have been not that far over $10,000 otherwise.

This financial report came at a particularly challenging time for the Temple family and doesn’t include Walter’s significant investment in upcoming projects, including a commercial building in Los Angeles, further work in Alhambra, El Monte and San Gabriel, and, within several months, the establishment of the Town of Temple (Temple City.) Having access to these documents, as mentioned at the outset, really helps get a fuller picture of what was happening with the Temple family’s economic situation and we’ll look to offer summaries of more of them under the “Making a Statement” banner.