Glendale, California Biographies

Fred Deal

Fred Deal, who recently rounded out a quarter of a century of continuous service as an employee of the Telephone Company, now is the proud possessor of a jewel, which the company gives for such service. He was born at Bucyrus, Ohio, February 12, 1869, a son of Martin and Sarah (Lilly) Deal. Both parents were natives of Pennsylvania; the father of Gettysburg and the mother of York. During the Civil War Martin Deal was a railroad employee and, as such, was not allowed to enlist in the service. After the war he moved to Bucyrus, Ohio, where he was successful in the manufacture of mill machinery for many years. A man of deep religious conviction, he gave liberally of his wealth to the support and building of Methodist Churches. He was an early and ardent advocate of prohibition.

The subject of this review was the eleventh of a family of fourteen children, and after attending the public schools set out to make his living which he did by taking up telephone and electric light work. Being of a roving disposition and desirous of seeing the country, the year 1893 found him in San Francisco in the employ of the General Electric Company. He was ordered to go to Chicago and report to the World’s Fair Commission, which consigned him to the electrical department for the duration of the fair. He was superintendent of the Missouri Power & Light Company at Marshall, Missouri, for two years, and then went to Marshalltown, Iowa, where he was assistant manager for the Iowa Telephone Company until he came to Southern California in the summer of 1905, to become manager of the telephone exchange at Santa Monica. In March of the following year, he was transferred to Glendale to build up the business there, and on June 6, 1906, an exchange was installed with sixty subscribers. Mr. Deal has been manager of the exchange ever since, comprising a territory of twenty-eight hundred square miles in the San Fernando and Antelope Valleys. The district furnishes employment for nearly half a hundred people and the monthly payroll approximates seven thousand dollars. The building on South Brand Boulevard, owned and occupied by the Telephone Company, is of fireproof construction and the equipment throughout is the best, giving Glendale and vicinity telephone service second to none.

At Marshalltown, Iowa, on November 4, 1897, Mr. Deal married Cora Anson. Her grandfather, Henry Anson, was the father of Marshalltown, its first mayor, and his principal business was a large brick manufacturing plant of which Mrs. Deal’s father was in charge for many years. Capt. Anson, of National League baseball fame, was an uncle of Mrs. Deal. She is a member of Glen Eyrie Chapter, Order Eastern Star, the Royal Neighbors and the Tuesday Afternoon Club. Fraternally Mr. Deal is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight of Pythias, a modern Woodsman of the World, a charter member of the Kiwanis Club and a member of the Eastern Star. Their residence, which was built by Mr. Deal in 1908, is at 237 North Louise Street.

From “History of Glendale and Vicinity” by John Calvin Sherer. The Glendale Publishing Company, c. 1922 F. M. Broadbooks and J. C. Sherer. p. 408-411.