Patrick Comerford
The wildfires in California have devastated large areas of Los Angeles and Hollywood in the past week or so and have dominated television news and newspaper reports in the US and around the world.
Many of the street names in Hollywood and Los Angeles in these reports have drawn my attention to the name of Camerford Avenue in Hollywood, and have reminded me that this street was originally supposed to be named Comerford Avenue, and how this is a misspelling.
The street is in a plush residential part in Los Angeles, just west of Paramount Pictures and close to Sunset Boulevard and the heart of old Hollywood. Many of the street names there, including Camerford Avenue, were created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by Senator Cornelius Cole in honour of the members of his extended family, including his grandson, Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945).
The story of Comerford McLoughlin, Camerford Avenue and the street names of West Hollywood is the story of a family network in which the Comerford name continues for four or five generations, and that includes a senator who was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and who once owned much of Hollywood; a publishing empire that pioneered children’s books and colour printing; an artist’s wife who had been a ‘society girl’ but whose tragic death by suicide became a nationwide sensation; her daughter who became a princess through her marriage to a Russian exile; and a publishing executive with Time and Fortune magazines.
Senator Cornelius Cole (1822-1945) was the founder of Colegrove, and named the area after himself. As he subdivided and developed the area at the beginning of the 20th century, Cole decided to name many of the streets after members of his own family.
In 1902, Cole decided to name one of these streets after his grandson, Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945). But it is not clear whether Granddad Cole did not know how to spell his own grandson’s name correctly or that the people who first put up the street signs got the spelling wrong. In either case, no-one every corrected the mistake, and Camerford Avenue, home to the stars, never became Comerford Avenue, as it was intended to be.
Senator Cornelius Cole was a New York lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in 1948 and moved to California in 1849 at the height of gold rush. He first practised law in San Francisco and then in Sacramento.
Cole was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and soon became involved in politics. He founded the California Republican Party, and served on the Republican National Committee (1856-1860). He was District Attorney (1859-1862), and moved to Santa Cruz in 1862.
In 1863, Cole became the commander of a Santa Cruz cavalry troop raised for the Union Army during the Civil War and he was commissioned as a captain. He was a member of the US Congress for one term (1863-1865) and of the US Senate for one term (1867-1873), and chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee (1871-1873).
As an attorney, Cole helped the brothers Henry and John Hancock secure their title to Rancho La Brea, and in payment received 483 acres of the ranch. He retired to his ranch in 1880, and in 1887, he began subdividing it as the town of Colegrove. The name was a reference to his own family name but also the family name of his wife Olive (1833-1918), which was also Colegrove.
Cornelius Cole honoured many of his relatives with street names in Hollywood, including Gregory Avenue, named after his grandson, the artist Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin (1889-1954) and Camerford Avenue, which he intended to name after his 11-year-old grandson Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945).
The town of Colegrove was annexed by the City of Los Angeles in 1909, and was renamed Hollywood. Some of Cole’s original street names were lost in renaming in the years that followed.
Olive Avenue, named after his wife, is now Romaine Street; Schuyler Avenue, named after one of his sons Schuyler Colfax Cole (1865-1926), is now La Mirada Avenue; Emelita Avenue, recalling his daughter Emma Cole Brown (1854-1926), became Lexington Avenue; while Townsend Street, named after Cole’s mother, is now Cahuenga Boulevard, the ‘heart of old Hollywood’, connecting Sunset Boulevard in the heart of old Hollywood to the Hollywood Hills and North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley.
On the other hand, many of Cole’s original street names have survived: Cole Street, Cole Avenue and Cole Place; Seward Street and Willoughby Avenue, for two more sons; Waring Avenue for Cole’s daughter Lucretia Cole Waring (1860-1953); Eleanor Avenue for his daughter-in-law and granddaughter; and the misspelled Camerford Avenue, as well as Barton Avenue and Gregory Avenue, named after his grandsons.
Oher original names that have survived from Cole’s naming system include El Centro Avenue, for the centre of his ranch; Lodi Place, for his hometown of Lodi in New York; and Hollywood’s famous Vine Street, for his vineyard.
Camerford Avenue in Hollywood, despite its incorrect spelling, was named in 1902 after one of Cole’s grandsons, Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945), the second son of Cole’s daughter Cornelia (‘Nellie’), and his son-in-law, James Gregory McLoughlin (1860-1918).
Comerford McLoughlin was a publishing heir who was born in New York on 20 February 1891. As a lieutenant in World War I, he helped command the all-black 369th Infantry – the ‘Harlem Hellfighters’ – and received the Distinguished Service Cross in 1923 for saving his men’s lives on the battlefield.
The citation said that while serving with 369th Infantry Regiment, 93d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, at Ripont, France, on 26 September 1918, Comerford McLoughlin was in command of a company during an assault on the enemy’s position. He ‘voluntarily exposed himself to a concentration of enemy machine-gun and artillery fire, made his way with great difficulty over rough and broken ground, and rescued his wounded battalion commander and his battalion adjutant and several wounded enlisted men, all of whom he carried to a dressing station, thus undoubtedly saving their lives.’ His ‘undaunted courage and devotion to duty’ inspired the men of his regiment ‘to great endeavours.’
Comerford McLoughlin lived in Rye, Westchester, New York. He drilled for oil around San Antonio, Texas, in the 1930s and returned to the US army during World War II, when he was posted to Germany. He died in the Bronx, New York, at the age of 54, on 20 August 1945, and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, Greenburgh, Westchester. So far, I can find no records for any children of Comerford McLoughlin and his wife Catherine.
Gregory Avenue in Hollywood was similarly named by their grandfather after Comerford McLoughlin’s brother, Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin (1889-1954). Their sister, Cornelia Beekman Rylee (1893-1938), was the first woman in California to obtain a pilot’s license. But she missed out on having a Hollywood street named after her by her grandfather, and ‘Cornelia Street’, a track on Taylor Swift’s album Lover (2019) refers to a street in Greenwich Village, New York.
In the case of this family and the frequent use of the name Comerford is successive generations, so far I can only trace the use of use of the Comerford name in the McLoughlin family back to John Comerford McLoughlin (1827-1905), and can only trace the McLoughlin family back to his parents.
John McLoughlin (1790-1870) was born in Ireland, and it appears his mother may have been a member of the Comerford family. He emigrated to New York, perhaps though Scotland. He was an unemployed coachmaker when he entered the New York publishing industry in March 1819. While working with the Sterling Iron Company, he met Robert Hoe, who manufactured printing presses. He became interested in printing and began working for the New York Times in 1827. He bought a used printing press and type in 1828 and set up his own business, writing and published McLoughlin’s Books for Children, a collection of semi-religious tracts.
McLoughlin formed a partnership with Robert H Elton, a wood engraver, in 1840 to publish toy books, comic almanacs, and valentines under the name Elton and Co.
John McLoughlin and his wife […] Swaine were the parents of:
1, John Comerford McLoughlin (1827-1905).
2, Edmund McLoughlin (1833-1889). He married Martha E Gouldy (1832-1897) and died in New York on 17 October 1889. They were the parents of one son, Edmund McLoughlin jr.
The elder son:
John Comerford McLoughlin (1827-1905) was born in New York on 29 November 1827. As John McLoughlin jr, he was an apprentice to the firm of Robert H Elton. When the senior partners for Elton and Company retired in 1850, the son took over the firm. He changed the company name to John McLoughlin, Successor to Elton & Co.
He obtained the printing blocks of Edward Dunigan, a successful New York toy book publisher, and reissued Dunigan’s titles as the ‘Uncle Frank’ series. The books contained stories of British origin, mostly from Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott. McLoughlin eventually became the leading publisher of brightly hand-coloured paper toy books as well as games, alphabet cards, and valentines.
The company moved after the original factory burned, John McLoughlin’s brother, Edmund, became a partner in 1855, and the company expanded. The McLoughlin brothers had opened the largest colour printing factory in the US by 1870, and they introduced American children to Kate Greenaway, Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane.
Edmund McLoughlin retired from the company in 1885 and died on 17 October 1889. John McLoughlin carried on the business with his sons, James Gregory and Charles. When John McLoughlin died in 1905, the firm the loss of his artistic and commercial leadership. His sons Charles and James Gregory took over the company. The company was sold to Milton Bradley, their chief competitor, in 1920. Today, McLoughlin books, games, Valentines, and other products are highly valued by collectors.
John Comerford McLoughlin married Ann Elizabeth Gregory (1835-1903). She was born on 24 January 1835 in Danbury, Connecticut, and died aged 68 on 15 May 1903 in New York; he died in New York aged 77 on 27 April 1905. They are buried in Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Connecticut. They were the parents of at least three sons and four daughters, of whom three children survived into adulthood:
1, Susan McLoughlin (born 1849).
2, Thomas McLoughlin (born 1851).
3, Mary McLoughlin (born 1854).
4, James Gregory McLoughlin (1860-1918), of Philadelphia, of whom next.
5, Mary McLoughlin (1861-1887), of New York; she was born on 5 March 1861, and died aged 26 on 11 December 1887.
6, Charles Swaine McLoughlin (1863-1913), of New York; he was born on 6 July 1863, died aged 50 on 8 November 1913, and is buried in Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Connecticut.
7, Katie McLoughlin (1870-1870), died in infancy.
The eldest surviving son was:
James Gregory McLoughlin (1860-1918), of Philadelphia. He was born on 28 March 1860 in Morrisania, a residential area in the Bronx, New York, and died aged 47 on 4 February 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was described as a publishing heir when he married Cornelia Cole (1863-1932) in Los Angeles on 3 October 1888. She was a daughter of Senator Cornelius Cole (1822-1924) and Olive A (Colegrove) Cole (1833-1888), of Hollywood, California. She was born on 1 June 1863, in Santa Cruz, California, and died in Los Angeles aged 69 on 19 October 1932.
James and Cornelia McLoughlin are buried in Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Connecticut. They were the parents of four children, two sons and two daughter, who grew up wealthy New Yorkers who could have peopled the novels of F Scott Fitzgerald:
1, Olive Cole McLoughlin (born 1885), named after her maternal grandmother.
2, Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin (1889-1954), of whom next.
3, Comerford McLoughlin (1891-1945), was born New York on 20 February 1891. He married Catherine […] before 1945. He gave his name to Camerford Avenue in Hollywood, but lived in Rye, Westchester, New York, and Manhattan. He died in the Bronx aged 54 on 20 August 1945, and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, Greenburgh, Westchester.
4, Cornelia Cole Beekman Rylee (1894-1938), was born in Manhattan, New York, on 22 February 1894.
The elder son of James and Cornelia McLoughlin was:
Gregory Van Sicklin McLoughlin (1889-1954), a landscape and still-life artist. He was born in Santa Monica on 27 September 1889, and educated at Harvard. He married Edwina Worthington Whitehouse (1894-1923) in Rye, New York, on 11 June 1913. Edwina was born on 5 January 1894, a daughter of Edward Whitehouse (1866-1899) and Constance Josephine Cozzens Sewell (1872-1957). She was 19 when she married and she was described at the time as a ‘society girl’.
Ten years after her marriage, on 2 November 1923, Edwina shot herself dead in Mount Kisco, Westchester. She was still not 30 and was the mother of three young children aged 9, 7 and 5. She left notes suggesting that, as a devotee of the Theosophical Society, she hoped to advance toward Nirvana, and that she believed her husband and his art career would be better off without her.
The tragic circumstances of her suicide made sensational news nationwide. The headline in the New York Times on 4 November 1923 declared: ‘Artist’s Wife Dies In Religious Mania; Mrs McLoughlin, Student of Theosophy, Thought She Was a Burden to Her Husband.’
Edwina and Gregory McLoughlin were the parents of three children:
1, (Princess) Kathleen Comerford McLoughlin (1914-1999). She was born in Briarcliff, New York, on 18 September 1914. She married Prince Alexis Pavlovich Scherbatow (1910-2003), a history professor, in 1941 and became Princess Kathleen Comerford McLoughlin or Принцесса Щербатов Кэтлин (Комерфорд Маклейфлин). She died aged 85 on 5 December 1999 and is buried at Holy Trinity Orthodox Monastery, Jordanville, New York. She is the subject of a separate profile on the Comerford Family History site (26 June 2009).
2, Comerford Whitehouse McLoughlin (1916-1987), of whom next.
3, Cornelia Edwina Whitehouse McLoughlin (1918-2006). She was born on 10 October 1918 in Colorado Springs. She married Edgar Beach Van Winkle II (1916-2002) at Christ Episcopal Church in Rye, New York, on 12 January 1939. They were the parents of two children, including a daughter Edwina Whitehouse Van Winkle who married William Hall Lewis III in Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, on 13 March 1971. Edgar Beach Van Winkle died on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on 31 July 2002; Cornelia died aged 87 on 15 August 2006 in Oxford, Connecticut.
Gregory McLoughlin married his second wife Hope Patterson (1907-1983) in Manhattan on 5 May 1931. He died aged 64 in New York on 13 February 1954, and she died in Santa Monica on 29 April 1983. Although the censuses in 1940 and 1950 show Gregory and Hope living separately, her obituary named her as his widow. They were the parents of one daughter:
4, Hope McLoughlin, who died in 1997.
Gregory and his first wife Edwina are buried in Wooster Cemetery in Danbury, Connecticut. The Comerford name continued with their only son:
Comerford Whitehouse McLoughlin (1916-1987), of Southbury, Connecticut. He was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on 27 January 1916. He joined the staff of Time magazine in 1939. During World War II, he was a captain in the US army (1941-1945). He took part in the campaigns in Northern France, Rhineland, and Central Europe, and was decorated with the Bronze Star.
He was market merchandising manager with Fortune magazine. He retired from Time after 35 years with the organisation, and lived in retirement in Southbury, Connecticut.
He married Elizabeth Merrill (1918-1983), daughter of (Judge) Maurice P Merrill of Skowhegan, Maine, in 1942, and they were the parents of three children, including a daughter Cornelia Whitehouse McLoughlin, who married Stephen Edward Post in the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Southbury, in 1977.
Comerford McLoughlin died at the Westerley Hospital, Rhode Island, on 26 June 1987.
