Elijah H. Workman (1835–1906) was a pioneer agriculturist in Los Angeles, California, and co-owner of a saddlery there. He also served on the Los Angeles Common Council, the legislative branch of city government in that era.

Personal

Family

Workman was born October 20, 1835, in Missouri, the son of David Workman of Clifton-Penrith, England, and Nancy Hook of Virginia. He had a brother,

William H. Workman William Henry Workman (January 1, 1839 – February 21, 1918) was an American politician, banker and businessman. He served two terms as the 18th Mayor of Los Angeles, California. Early life Workman was born in New Franklin, Missouri, the son o ...

. Around 1854 the family crossed the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

to settle in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Public Library reference file, with sources as noted there He was married three times—first, in Boonville, Missouri, Booneville, Missouri, shortly after the Civil War, to Julia C. Benedict (his childhood sweetheart), who died in 1876; then to Gilla Maria Corum of Boonville, in 1878 in Los Angeles; and finally, in 1884, to Anna K. Webb of Los Angeles; she died in 1900. He had two daughters, Gilleta M., and Laura (Mrs. Conrad Krebs).

Personality

His biography in the Los Angeles Public Library states that:

Elijah H. Workman was of the
pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...
type of public figure: he wore boots to his dying day and lacked the more formal education of our times. With the conscientious fulfillment of his public duties he combined the pioneer spirit of enterprise and development.

In politics he was a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, and in religion a Protestant.

Death

Workman died July 17, 1906, at the age of 71 in his home at 1815 East Second Street, Boyle Heights."Passing of a Pioneer," ''Los Angeles Times,'' July 18, 1906, page II-4
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Vocation

Workman was in the harness and saddlery business with his brother,

, at 76 Main Street. They also dealt in hides, which were recognized as a medium of exchange throughout the Southwest. Returning from his trip to Missouri, Workman brought back seeds for trees and plants that he propagated in his own yard, getting the reputation of a "pioneer agriculturalist." His property, surrounded by

10th 10 (ten) is the even natural number following 9 and preceding 11. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. It is the first double-digit number. The rea ...

and 11th streets, Hill and Main streets, was planted with orange trees and flowers.
Location of the Workman property on ''Mapping L.A.'' He sold that land and moved to Boyle Heights after the death of his third wife.

Public service

Workman was a member of the Los Angeles Common Council, the legislative branch of city government, in 1866–67, 1869–70, 1871–72 and 1874–75. He was on the city

Board of Education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

in 1879–80 and on the Board of Equalization in 1869–70. In 1870 Workman was a member of a committee to establish a public park, which was accomplished between Fifth and Sixth streets, and Workman planted seedlings from his own garden and nursed them from water hauled in barrels from his property a few blocks away. He planted

elms Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of Nor ...

, maples and

rubber trees ''Hevea brasiliensis'', the Pará rubber tree, ''sharinga'' tree, seringueira, or most commonly, rubber tree or rubber plant, is a flowering plant belonging to the spurge family Euphorbiaceae originally native to the Amazon basin, but is now pan ...

on the park site, first known as Central Park and then as Pershing Square.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Workman, Elijah H American agriculturalists Businesspeople from Los Angeles Los Angeles Common Council (1850–1889) members 1906 deaths 1835 births 19th-century American politicians 19th century in Los Angeles 19th-century American businesspeople