Albert Fenner Kercheval

Albert Fenner Kercheval was a fruit grower and poet in Los Angeles County, California, and a member of the Los Angeles Common Council during the 19th Century.

Biography

Kercheval, who was referred to as a "Will County boy" by one newspaper,[1] crossed the continent with a company of American pioneers from Peoria, Illinois, leaving from St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 20, 1849.[2] He settled in Los Angeles in the 1880s.[3]

His wife, Sarah Adelaide Kercheval, died in the family residence on Lemon Street[4] on April 13, 1892.[5] They had a daughter, Rosalie W. Kercheval.[6]

Kercheval was a miner in the Mother Lode and in Arizona but later became one of the leading horticulturalists in the Los Angeles area. He sold his orchard at Santa Fe and Ninth streets for subdividing in 1887.[3]

He was a poet whose poems were published in the Los Angeles Times [6] or were read at meetings of local organizations. His 532-page book, Dolores and Other Poems, was published in 1883 by A.L.Bancroft & Company of San Francisco.[6] The book included poems by daughter Rosalie.[6][7]

Public service

Kercheval was elected on December 3, 1877, to represent the 3rd Ward on the Los Angeles Common Council, the governing body of the city, for a one-year term, ending December 6, 1878.[8]

In 1890, he was a member of the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commission[9] and served as its president. Historian Ralph E. Shaffer wrote that: "To some growers he would come to represent a bureacratic establishment that did not know what to do about the problem facing the industry yet dictated unreasonable solutions to which the growers must conform."[3]

References

  1. ↑ Joliet (Illinois) Daily News, reprinted in "The Poet Kercheval," Los Angeles Times, February 5, 1885, page 3
  2. ↑ "List of a portion of those Pioneers who crossed the continent for California in 1849."
  3. 1 2 3 Ralph E. Shaffer, Letters From the People: Los Angeles Times, 1881–1889
  4. ↑ Location of Lemon Street on Mapping L.A.
  5. ↑ "Died," Los Angeles Herald, April 17, 1892, image 5
  6. 1 2 3 4 "A Sun-Land Poet," Los Angeles Times, November 25, 1883, page 2 With an excerpt from "Dolores."
  7. ↑ Text of the book from the University of California, Berkeley, Library
  8. ↑ Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials,1850-1938, compiled under direction of Municipal Reference Library, City Hall, Los Angeles (March 1938, reprinted 1966). "Prepared ... as a report on Project No. SA 3123-5703-6077-8121-9900 conducted under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration."
  9. ↑ " 'The Cass Bug,' " Los Angeles Times, February 16, 1890, page 2
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