Austin Conrad Shafer (May 19, 1844 – August 15, 1944) was a schoolteacher, property owner and real estate agent who served on the Los Angeles, California, Common Council, the legislative branch of the city, in the 19th century and was president of that city's school board.

Personal

Shafer-and-Haskins-Grand-Army-of-the-Republic

Shafer was born May 19, 1844, in

Mount Ephraim, Ohio Mount Ephraim is an unincorporated community in Noble County, Ohio, United States. History Mount Ephraim was plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Unit ...

, the son of William Shafer of Virginia and Isabel Voorhies of New York. He came to California in 1872 and to Los Angeles in 1876. Shafer and Mary Harriot Harrold of Oak Ranch, San Joaquin Valley, were married on November 2, 1879, and they had three children, Roy V. Shafer, Effie Mae Wilgus and Callie Shafer, who died in 1896 at the age of 3.Luella Sawyer and Clare Wallace, Los Angeles Public Library reference file, from a personal interview and sources as cited there, 1935–36
/ref> After Shafer moved to Los Angeles, he built a "neat $1000 cottage on the hills near Ellis Villa College," where it was noted that "Considerable property has been sold . . . since the beginning of the Cable road" (a

cable railway Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

built east-west on Second Street over

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles Bunker Hill is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. It is part of Downtown Los Angeles. Historically, Bunker Hill was a large hill that separated Downtown Los Angeles from the western end of the city. The hill was tunneled through at Sec ...

). Shafer lived in the same house at 1801 Church Avenue (later 1801 South Kingsley Drive), from at least 1909 to the mid-1930s, in today's

Harvard Heights Harvard Heights is a densely populated, mixed-income neighborhood of 20,000+ people in Central Los Angeles, California. Within it lies a municipally designated historic overlay zone designed to protect its architecturally significant single-fa ...

area. Shafer died at the age of 100 on August 15, 1944, in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sawtelle. Interment was at

Rosedale Cemetery Rosedale Cemetery is a cemetery located at the tripoint of Orange, West Orange and Montclair in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Cyrus Baldwin drew up the original plan for the cemetery in 1840. Notable interments * Platt Adams (1 ...

."Austin C. Shafer, 100, Leader in G.A.R., Dies," ''Los Angeles Times,'' August 17, 1944, page A-8
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Education and vocation

As a child, Shafer was unable to get much education at the "

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a less finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first generation home building by settlers. Eur ...

school a mile from his home," which he attended only during the few winter months that he was not needed to help on the farm. After serving as a soldier in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Shafer went back to school and, side by side with 10-year-olds, he pursued his studies, later being able to teach school and earn money to pay his way through four years at Iowa State College. After his death, his daughter Effie said her father was a professor of Latin at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

when he came to Los Angeles for a visit and stayed. Shafer taught in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

and then moved to Los Angeles and worked at the first

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

in Santa Monica. He was the only teacher at Cahuenga School, which served the areas later known as

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

and the

Wilshire District Mid-Wilshire is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is known for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Petersen Automotive Museum, and the Miracle Mile shopping district. Geography City of Los Angeles bounda ...

. One of his students there was Los Angeles Mayor Charles E. Sebastian. Shafer also taught in Vernon and Spadra, California. During the real estate boom of 1886, Shafer gave up teaching and went into the

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

business, particularly in subdividing large estates into home sites. One of his endeavors, Shafer & Town, in 1887 purchased a 75-acre plot known as the Throop property at the corner of

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

and

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

streets, for $176,000. In 1894, Shafer was engaged in a new venture "on New Main street, three miles south of the City Hall"—"a young nursery of thirty acres" said to consist of "100,000 peach, 100,000 apricot and 20,000 plum trees, all a year old, and 20,000 apple trees that are 2 years old," all of them raised from seed. He retired in 1922.

Military

In the Civil War Shafer was in the

92nd Ohio Infantry The 92nd Ohio Infantry Regiment, sometimes 92nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (or 92nd OVI) was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 92nd Ohio Infantry was organized at Camp Marietta in Marietta and Gallipol ...

and took part in General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea and the

Battle of Chickamauga The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 19–20, 1863, between United States, U.S. and Confederate States of America, Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the end of a Union Army, Union offensive, the Chickamauga Campaign ...

. In 1895 he returned to the battlefield when it was dedicated as the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, and two years later he presented to the City of Los Angeles two pine-tree

sapling In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s that he had taken from the site—one of them "from a point east of the southwest corner of

Kelly field Kelly Field (formerly Kelly Air Force Base) is a Joint-Use facility located in San Antonio, Texas. It was originally named after George E. M. Kelly, the first member of the U.S. military killed in the crash of an airplane he was piloting. In ...

, over which the battle raged and swayed for two days with intense fury," and the other from "west of the tower on Horse-shoe Ridge, where at 2 o'clock of the last day's fight, the reserves of Granger and Stedman turned back the exulting foe just as complete triumph seemed to be within their grasp."

Public service

A Republican, Shafer was a member of the Los Angeles Common Council, the legislative branch of the city, in 1888–90. Elected from the 5th Ward in 1888, he was said to represent the city's "religious element," and it was he who successfully fought for Sunday closing of saloons. He was the only member of the Common Council to be reelected after the

city charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally the granting of a charter ...

of 1889 went into effect. He was elected to the Los Angeles school board on December 1, 1890, and resigned on August 7, 1891. Shafer returned to the board in 1891–92, was chosen as president and introduced the flying of the

U.S. Flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...

over the city's schoolhouses.

Memberships

Shafer was a

Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...

and a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

. In the mid-1930s was commander of the Southern California Veterans Association of Civil War Veterans. He held every elective office in Stanton Post of the

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...

, and in 1935 he organized the post's Last Man Club of members over 90 years of age.

Positions

In 1925, Shafer wrote a letter to the ''Los Angeles Times'' in which he decried a proposal by Stanford University President

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...

that a fund be gathered to put

John T. Scopes John Thomas Scopes (August 3, 1900 – October 21, 1970) was a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, who was charged on May 5, 1925, with violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee schools. He was trie ...

, the Tennessee teacher who was tried for the teaching of evolution. through college. "By making a hero out of a lawbreaker others are encouraged to disobedience of the law," he wrote."But Why Mr. Scopes?" ''Los Angeles Times,'' August 11, 1925
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References and notes

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