Albert Snow Longley was born in Cincinnati on October 1, 1844. His mother was his father's second wife Sophronia Snow Bassett.
Longley family history records his middle name as "Sophronius". Sophronius was the patriarch of Jerusalem. It was also a play on his mother's name. But it would eventually later appear in records and articles as "Snow".
Losing his mom while an infant, he immediately became the youngest of 8 siblings when his father remarried. And he was also uprooted from Cincinnati and moved to Lebanon, Indiana. But, by age 16 he returned to Cincinnati and started learning the printing trade with his half brother Cyrenius.
During the Civil War years he joined his other half brothers Servetus and Septimius in their flag making business. At age 21 Albert graduated from Hughes High School.
During the Civil War years he joined his other half brothers Servetus and Septimius in their flag making business. At age 21 Albert graduated from Hughes High School.
Cincinnati Hughes H. S.
After the flag making business closed Albert went back to working with Cyrenius. But, the print trade wasn't for him. Albert started working as a reporter for the Evening Chronicle while attending the law school at Cincinnati College. It is the fourth oldest, continuously running law school in the United States — after Harvard, the University of Virginia, and Yale.
Cincinnati College
Before Albert graduated from law school in 1872 he married his girlfriend Alice S. Green and became a law reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer. In 1873 he was admitted to the Bar but didn't start a practice and stayed with his law reporting. Over the next 6 years he workd as a court reporter for the Enquirer and the Evening Gazette. In 1879 he finally decided to open a law practice.
Albert had learned shorthand to do his court reporting. Most likely he was taught by his half brother Elias, who was the expert. Albert became so good he was challenged to a friendly bet that he could not record a foreign language he did not know and then read it back perfectly. The bet was Homer's Iliad in the original Greek. After hearing the verses for the first time Albert recorded it in shorthand and then read the words correctly back in Greek and won the bet.
For the next few years Albert concentrated on his family and his law practice. The only exciting things going on in Cincinnati during this time was the Great Cincinnati Fire of 1881, the flood of 1883 (21 feet over flood stage) followed by 1884 (26 feet over flood stage). The last flood damaged his office building, but not his home.
Those floods were closely followed by the riot of 1884 that left 45-56 people killed and over 300 wounded. (You can read about the riot in a story I already have done)
By 1892 Albert was also serving as the Hamilton County Commissioner for Insolvency besides running his law practice. At this time the southern California land market was still booming and his half brother Elias was already living there for his health. Now one of Albert's daughters had been advised to move there for her health. With nearly 300,000 people in Cincinnati it was the state's largest city, and it had the country's densest population with an average of 37,143 people per square mile. It was a good time to move west. Soon his half brother Septimius followed him. Albert chose an area called Bellevue Terrace in Los Angeles to live.
In 1867 Los Angeles Prudent Beaudry – a French Canadian immigrant who would later serve as mayor – began snapping up hilltop parcels on the cheap from sellers who didn't share his vision. Soon he'd built an elaborate system of reservoirs, iron pipes, and steam pumps to irrigate the sun-baked hills. Suddenly land he'd bought for $1,500 was worth as much as $45,000.
To advertise the potential of his hilltop tracts, in the early 1870s he transformed two barren knolls into Bellevue Terrace and Beaudry Park – Edenic landscapes that, though privately owned, welcomed the public to visit. Here, the fragrance of orange blossoms mingled with that of eucalyptus leaves. Paths meandered through vineyards and fruit orchards and ocean views dissolved into the horizon. Perched atop a 70-foot hill that no longer exists vistas were certainly the highlight of Bellevue Terrace. (This is now part of the Los Angeles Fashion District)
To advertise the potential of his hilltop tracts, in the early 1870s he transformed two barren knolls into Bellevue Terrace and Beaudry Park – Edenic landscapes that, though privately owned, welcomed the public to visit. Here, the fragrance of orange blossoms mingled with that of eucalyptus leaves. Paths meandered through vineyards and fruit orchards and ocean views dissolved into the horizon. Perched atop a 70-foot hill that no longer exists vistas were certainly the highlight of Bellevue Terrace. (This is now part of the Los Angeles Fashion District)
1890 Los Angeles
Albert's home was on 9th Street near Wall Street. (Black Arrow)
Central Park is now known as Pershing Square Park (White Arrow)
Albert's home was on 9th Street near Wall Street. (Black Arrow)
Central Park is now known as Pershing Square Park (White Arrow)
Even though Albert relocated to Los Angeles his name did not appear in the 1893-94 city directories. Where was he? The family was in Los Angeles, but he was in Chicago. A Cincinnati newspaper article stated Albert was in trouble and had opened a bucket shop there.
A bucket shop was a business that allowed the common man to gamble on the prices of stocks or commodities. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling defined a bucket shop as "an establishment, nominally for the transaction of a stock exchange business, or business of similar character, but really for the registration of bets, or wagers, usually for small amounts, on the rise or fall of the prices of stocks, grain, oil, etc., there being no transfer or delivery of the stock or commodities nominally dealt in". The practice was eventually ruled illegal and largely disappeared by the 1920s.
A bucket shop was a business that allowed the common man to gamble on the prices of stocks or commodities. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling defined a bucket shop as "an establishment, nominally for the transaction of a stock exchange business, or business of similar character, but really for the registration of bets, or wagers, usually for small amounts, on the rise or fall of the prices of stocks, grain, oil, etc., there being no transfer or delivery of the stock or commodities nominally dealt in". The practice was eventually ruled illegal and largely disappeared by the 1920s.
A Typical Bucket Shop 1890s
In January 1894 the Western Mutual Building Association in Cincinnati was looking for Albert, for a mortgage loan he was involved in there. They posted a notice in the local newspapers looking for him, saying nobody knew his whereabouts. Strange, since he still had two half brothers in town to ask.
At that same exact time Albert was involved in a police matter in Chicago that was making headlines.
George N. Leighton, a friend of Albert's, was being accused of fleecing the Widow's Home of Chicago out of $12,000 ($400,000 today). The Widow's Home had taken out a loan to purchase two lots in Cincinnati. The signature on the paperwork had been forged and Leighton was the prime suspect. The property was already under a $21,000 mortgage by someone else and Longley had at one time represented the Cincinnati loan company involved. Plus, Albert was a longtime friend of Leighton and now they were together in Chicago. This seemed suspicious to some people since they thought he was Los Angeles.
At that same exact time Albert was involved in a police matter in Chicago that was making headlines.
George N. Leighton, a friend of Albert's, was being accused of fleecing the Widow's Home of Chicago out of $12,000 ($400,000 today). The Widow's Home had taken out a loan to purchase two lots in Cincinnati. The signature on the paperwork had been forged and Leighton was the prime suspect. The property was already under a $21,000 mortgage by someone else and Longley had at one time represented the Cincinnati loan company involved. Plus, Albert was a longtime friend of Leighton and now they were together in Chicago. This seemed suspicious to some people since they thought he was Los Angeles.
Albert and Leighton had re-connected in Chicago at the same time the law was closing in. Fearing his friend may do something desperate he took a doctor with him to Leighton's hotel room. Beating on the hotel room door his friend refused to let him in. After threatening to break down the door Leighton finally let the pair in. When the doctor saw him, he said they needed to get him to the hospital immediately and get his stomach pumped.
After Leighton recovered from his morphine suicide attempt Albert kept a closer eye on his old friend.
Even after Albert discovered a loaded pistol and more morphine in Leighton's desk drawer he assured Albert he would not attempt anything. When left alone the next evening Leighton turned on a gas valve in his room and closed the windows. The gas smell wasn't detected by a hotel staff member until it was too late. He left a note for Albert with $10 in it to have his body shipped back to Cincinnati for burial.
It turns out that Albert was not the one running the bucket shop, it was Leighton. Albert had just been in Chicago for a few days and was visiting his old friend when everything transpired.
After Leighton recovered from his morphine suicide attempt Albert kept a closer eye on his old friend.
Even after Albert discovered a loaded pistol and more morphine in Leighton's desk drawer he assured Albert he would not attempt anything. When left alone the next evening Leighton turned on a gas valve in his room and closed the windows. The gas smell wasn't detected by a hotel staff member until it was too late. He left a note for Albert with $10 in it to have his body shipped back to Cincinnati for burial.
It turns out that Albert was not the one running the bucket shop, it was Leighton. Albert had just been in Chicago for a few days and was visiting his old friend when everything transpired.
Returning to southern California Albert got involved in state politics like his half brother Elias's wife that was now active in the women's suffrage movement there. Albert was a very hard party worker in the 1897 state Republican political campaigns for the State legislature. He was rewarded for all his services by getting an appointment in the legislature as clerk of the judiciary committee.
That same year a newspaper article in Los Angeles appeared about Albert's character;
"He is the youngest brother of Elias Longley the shorthand author and an all around good fellow. He recently went into a barber shop on K street this morning to be shaved and got into a controversy with a barber over the civil rights bill now about to passed in the California State legislature which will allow any man the privilege of stopping at any hotel, getting shaved at any barber shop or eating at any restaurant that he chooses. The barber did not take kindly to the new law and declared that no law or legislature could make him shave a n____r or any other man. The barber undertook to combat that proposition and engaged in a lively argument while he was busy lathering his face. “Well, I will show you” said the barber “that I am right by putting you out”. He wiped the lather off Longley's face and fired him out the door. Longley now chooses to only be shaved by colored barbers who have no race prejudices against shaving a white man."
The Federal Civil Rights Bill of 1875 had been declared unconstitutional in 1883 by the U. S. Supreme Court. (The only judge voting for it had a bi-racial child) The court held that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments did not empower Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals. The national government was thereby declared impotent to secure African Americans equality of accommodations in public places.
"He is the youngest brother of Elias Longley the shorthand author and an all around good fellow. He recently went into a barber shop on K street this morning to be shaved and got into a controversy with a barber over the civil rights bill now about to passed in the California State legislature which will allow any man the privilege of stopping at any hotel, getting shaved at any barber shop or eating at any restaurant that he chooses. The barber did not take kindly to the new law and declared that no law or legislature could make him shave a n____r or any other man. The barber undertook to combat that proposition and engaged in a lively argument while he was busy lathering his face. “Well, I will show you” said the barber “that I am right by putting you out”. He wiped the lather off Longley's face and fired him out the door. Longley now chooses to only be shaved by colored barbers who have no race prejudices against shaving a white man."
The Federal Civil Rights Bill of 1875 had been declared unconstitutional in 1883 by the U. S. Supreme Court. (The only judge voting for it had a bi-racial child) The court held that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments did not empower Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals. The national government was thereby declared impotent to secure African Americans equality of accommodations in public places.
"To Thine Own Self Be True", from Harper’s Weekly, 1875
The burden for equality had then been thrown upon the States. Eighteen states outside the South responded by adopting bills which practically copied the language of the Civil Rights Bill of 1875. In 1897 California was one of those that had adopted civil rights bills or amendments. The bill guaranteed all citizens, regardless of color, access to accommodations, theatres, public schools, churches, and cemeteries.
For the next 15 years Albert was involved mainly with a number of companies in Arizona; the Copper Mountain Mining Company, the Members’ Fund & Trust Company dealing in stocks and bonds and the Commonwealth Mine & Milling Company.
Between 1915 and 1918 he spent his time serving as Secretary of the Trustees of his church, the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. But, he was also ill during all this time and passed away at age 83 on July 11, 1918.
Between 1915 and 1918 he spent his time serving as Secretary of the Trustees of his church, the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. But, he was also ill during all this time and passed away at age 83 on July 11, 1918.
Albert was buried in the Hollywood Cemetery. At the time it had only been open for 19 years. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles and is now known as the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The studios of Paramount Pictures are located at the south end of the same block, on 40 acres that were once part of the cemetery which held no interments. Individuals interred in the cemetery now include many prominent people from the entertainment industry, as well as people who played vital roles in shaping Los Angeles.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery