Chapter 11: Founding Blyth, Witter & Co., & Marriage to Hazel Lawton (1912 – 1913)

** All Text on these chapter pages has been copied verbatim – with permission – from this book: “Shurtleff Family Genealogy & History – Second Edition 2005” by William Roy Shurtleff & his dad, Lawton Lothrop Shurtleff ** Text in pdf convert to word doc – any spelling errors from the book may or may not have been fixed. **

n July 1912, upon graduating from Cal, Roy went to work as a student bond salesman for Louis Sloss & Co, bond brokers of San Francisco. The sales manager there was Eugene R. Hallett, Roy’s good friend and former advisor. Roy’s pay was $50 a month, plus commissions. But he was trained for six months before he was allowed to go out and sell. Louis Sloss & Co., an investment company, was active in financing the development of the Sacramento Valley in California. Roy spent most of his time in the San Francisco office. There he worked with Charles R. Blyth and Hallett; Dean G. Witter and John D.

Hartigan (who were employed as salesmen in about 1910); and George C. Leib, who also joined the company in 1912. Roy had known Dean Witter from about 1907 since the Witter family lived only a block from the Lawtons, whom Roy had visited frequently while he was courting Hazle. Dean had been captain of the Cal crew and frequently went with the Lawtons to the Russian River during the summer.

In 1912 Roy bought his first automobile, an Overland touring car/roadster/convertible (not an Everett) with a cloth top and planetary drive (no gears, like the Model T) and with his initials monogrammed on the side. Don Lawton recalls that Roy bought the car from Spalding’s Garage on Telegraph Avenue at Bancroft. Sometimes the drive slipped so badly that the only way he could get up a hill was to back up. Roy needed this car for his work, as he went on the road to sell bonds 50 to 100 miles away in towns like Willows and Sacramento.

On 25 February 1913 Hazle Clifton Lawton and Roy L. Shurtleff announced their engagement. Several Berkeley newspapers ran prominent stories of the announcement and printed large pictures of Hazle. A detailed look at the engagement and wedding tells us a great deal about the Lawton and the Shurtleff families, and about Berkeley in 1913. The major Berkeley newspaper wrote:

On the couple’s wedding announcement the bride’s name was misspelled “Hazel” (not “Hazle”) Clifton Lawton and the groom’s as Roy Lathrop (not “Lothrop”) Shurtleff. Hazle always spelled her own name as it appeared in the announce­ment. Yet in every newspaper article during the period from 1913-16, Hazle’s name was spelled “Hazel.”

On Wednesday October 15, 1913 Roy and Hazle were married; he was 26 and she 23. The story of the wedding was again carried prominently in several Bay Area newspapers. They were married at 8:30 in the evening at the First Unitarian Church. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Frederick L. Hosmer. The wedding was described as “one of the prettiest church ceremonies that has taken place in Berkeley.” Five hundred invited guests attended. The church was lit with dozens of candles and was abloom with autumn foliage. The back of the church was hidden under a mantle of willow branches and maple leaves. Palm leaves met in a canopy overhead, forming a bower, where the couple exchanged their nuptial vows.

Harry Lawton, elder brother of the bride, was the groomsman (best man), while George Harlow, Murray Hunt, and James Arnold, three member’s of the groom’s class at college, served as ushers. The bride was preceded to the altar by a quartet of attractive attendants, including Mrs. Gladys Bush Henry as matron of honor, Miss Winifred Lawton as maid of honor, and Misses Helen Lawton and Alice Hiestand as bridesmaids. As the paper detailed it:

Mrs. Henry, a June bride, wore her own wedding gown, a pretty creation of white satin, elaborated with lace and pearl embroidery. The maid of honor was gowned in blue crepe de chine and lace, while Miss Helen Lawton wore pink crepe de chine, with a waist of shadow lace, and Miss Hiestand lavender silk crepe. All four attendants wore rhinestone bandeaus in their hair and carried armsful of maidenhair fern, tied with big bows of tulle of the same color as their gowns.

The bride, Miss Hazel Lawton, was escorted to the altar by her father, Frank H. Lawton, a well known realty man. She wore a beautiful gown of heavy white satin draped with rare old, filmy shadow lace and trimmed with rhinestones. A short length of tulle fell over her face, while a sweeping veil extended in graceful folds to the hem of the long train. The veil was arranged in Juliet cap effect caught with sprays of orange blossoms. A wreath of the same delicate flowers encircled the coiffure and the arrangement of the veil on the hair. She wore a handsome diamond pendant and carried a shower of lilies of the valley.

Following the ceremony, there was a reception for 200 guests at the Lawton home on Durant Avenue. Mrs. Lawton, mother of the bride, received in a hand­some gown of old rose satin while the groom’s mother, Mrs. C. A. Shurtleff, wore amethyst crepe de chine. Here, as at the church, the decorations were of autumn foliage and blossoms, and profusion of chrysanthemums and Oregon were employed in the scheme.

Shurtleff and his bride have left on a fortnight’s honeymoon in the south and will return to take apartments at Edlington Court on Telegraph Avenue Iin Berkeley]. Both Mr. and Mrs. Shurtleff are well known in college circles.

The couple spent their honeymoon (15-25 October 1913) “motoring in the Santa Cruz mountains and vicinity, including Brookdale, Del Monte, Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove, and Carmel.” They drove in a long and shining black car.