W.E.G. Saunders d. 1947

SAUNDERS, DEL VALLE

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 10/12/2007 at 07:42:03

W.E.G. SAUNDERS
Iowa Ex-Banker Developed on Coast 100,000 Tract

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 - A private funeral was held yesterday in Forest Lawn Memorial Park for William Ewart Gladstone Saunders, wealthy Iowa banker, land-owner and legislator who first came to California nearly half a century ago. He died in a hospital here Thursday after a long illness. His age was 81

In 1899 Mr. Saunders and his partner, the late L.A. Nares, began the development of the 100,000 acre Laguna de Tache, old Spanish grant, near Laton, south of Fresno, Calif. They made in 1904 the first official road record from Los Angeles to San Francisco in an automobile, covering the distance in twenty-six and one-half hours in a Pope-Toledo, going over the Tehachapi Pass.

Mr. Saunders returned to his Emmetsburg, Iowa, home in 1908 and served several terms in the Iowa Legislature but after his retirement came here again in 1939 to make his home in Altadena.

He leaves a widow, Vina; four sons, George E. Saunders, Bank of America vice-president, and David Saunders, attorney, both of Los Angeles; Ewart Saunders of Altadena and Stewart A. Saunders, airlines official of Berkeley; a daughter, Mrs. William Del Valle of Seattle, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

--New York Times; New York, New York; 20 Jan 1947