Joseph Widney

Joseph P. Widney during his tenure as President of USC

Joseph Pomeroy Widney, M.A., M.D., LL.D., D.D. (1841-1938) was a pioneer American physician, medical topographer, scholar-educator, clergyman, entrepreneur-philanthropist, proto-environmentalist, prohibitionist, philosopher of religion, controversial racial theorist and prolific polymathic author who served as the second President of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California and as the founding dean of the USC School of Medicine,[1] and who was one of the co-founders and first general superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene, and the primary founder of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. One of the "most conspicous Southern Californians of his generation",(Starr 78) Widney was a cultural leader in Los Angeles for nearly seventy years(Frankiel, 95) and the "mystic seer in residence and prophet of Southern Californian Anglo-Saxonism."(Starr 90)

The Dr Joseph Pomeroy Widney High School (051685), a school for those aged 13 to 22 with special educational needs, located in Los Angeles is named in his honour, as is the historic Widney Hall Alumni House (now located at 635-650 Child's Way)[2] at the University of Southern California (the university's original building declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument on 16 December 1970 (No. 70).)[3][4][5]. The University of Southern California honours its distinguished graduates by presenting the Widney Alumni Award. His portrait was painted by American artist Orpha Klinker,[6][7] and a bust of Widney was sculpted by Emil Seletz.[8]

Biographical Details

Widney was born on 26 December 1841 in a log cabin in Piqua, Ohio in the forests of Miami County, Ohio, the son of Wilson and Arabella Maclay Widney. At the age of fifteen, Joseph became the head of family after his father died, as his two older brothers John Widney (1837-1925) and Robert Maclay Widney(1838-1929) had already migrated west to California. He had the responsibility of providing for his mother, two younger brothers, and three sisters.

After graduating from Piqua High School, Widney was granted advanced placement as a sophomore at the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. At University, Widney studied Latin, Greek and the classics. His entire collegiate career only last five months. In 1907, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree in recognition of the scholarship as revealed in his Race Life of the Aryan Peoples.

In 1861 he discontinued his studies to enlist in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army in the Civil War. Despite his own frail health, Widney served initially in the field as a regular infantryman, but later became a medical corpsman. He was trained to administer first aid to wounded soldiers, and served an apprenticeship in both medicine and surgery. He was transferred onto steamers on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in a medical capacity. Widney was discharged from the Union army in 1862 due to a physical and nervous collapse after a year of working with casualties.(Rand, Starr 90)

Desiring restoration of his health, and with the encouragement of his two older brothers who had migrated to Califonia, Widney sailed to San Francisco, California via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in November 1862, prior to his twenty-first birthday. During the next two or three years, Widney travelled extensively throughout California on horseback. During this time he visited the Missions, lived with the Spanish-speaking inhabitants, learning their culture and their language. As his health improved, one night he had an encounter with God, while camped out in the Redwoods. He recalled, "That night I reached out and touched God's infinite."(Rand 9)

He returned to university in 1865, completing a Master of Arts degree from the California Wesleyan College (later the University of the Pacific), (then located at Santa Clara, California). In January 1866, Widney moved to San Francisco and on 4 June 1866 commenced the third session of the medical course at the Toland Medical College (which later became part of the University of California, San Francisco [9][10][11], graduating at the head of his class with a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree on 2 October 1866. He was awarded a gold medal in recognition of his superior scholarship.

Widney was married twice. His first wife was Ida DeGraw Tuthill Widney (born 17 November 1844 in Orient in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York), whom he married on 17 May 1869 in San Jose, California. Together they had three children, each of whom died in infancy: Ada, who died after convulsions at the age of fourteen months in August 1870; an unnamed son who died in 1872; and another son, Joseph T. Widney, who died after convulsions aged six months old in June 1874. His first wife, Ida D. Widney died in Los Angeles on 10 February 1879 and is buried in the Los Angeles City Cemetery, in the same family plot as the children who preceded her in death. [12][13][14][15]

Widney re-married on 27 December 1882 in Santa Clara, California to Miss Mary Bray (born April 1844 in Missouri),[16][17] the daughter of the late John G. Bray, a pioneer merchant of San Francisco,[18][19]and the first president of the San Jose Bank.[20] Mrs Mary Widney had been a respected artist prior to her marriage. They had no children. Mary was well-regarded as "a cultured and accomplished lady" (SCQ 137). As the founder of the Flower Festival Society, which she started in 1885, she was responsible for organisiing flower festivals that raised enormous sums to support the Woman's Home, a home for up to seventy poor working women that they had opened in 1st March 1887 on 4th Street (between Los Angeles and Main Streets); and the Woman's Exchange.(Jaher 640)[21][22][23] Mary Bray Widney died on 10 March 1903 at their home at 150 West Adams Street, Los Angeles. Dr Widney never remarried.

In 1929 Widney was badly injured as a result of being struck by an automobile as it was backing out from the curb. According to Widney,

an automobile accident left me with a fractured skull, fracture of the cervical spine, several broken ribs and some injuries of the skull, leading to blindness and defective hearing with severe and continuous pain about the base of the skull which, even yet, has hardly ceased. (Rand 86)

His hearing was severely impaired. By 1937 he was blind. Widney's biographer, Dr Carl Rand, believes that the failure of his eyesight in latter years was due to the development of senile cataracts, which Widney refused to have removed.(Rand 37 and 88) Nevertheless Widney wrote four books in this period with the assistance of his sister-in-law, Mrs Anna Elizabeth "Hettie" D. Jenkins Widney and her sister, Mrs Rebecca Davis Macartney. In 1935 Widney was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) degree from the University of Southern California in recognition of his life of scholarly contributions.

Widney died at 10.50am on 4 July 1938 in his home at 3901 Marmion Way, Highland Park, Los Angeles, California, aged 96. Dr Seletz believes that his final illness was caused by "occlusion of a posterior cerebellar artery" (Rand 39) (also known as a Posterior cerebral artery Stroke).[24] After a funeral held in his own home, he was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery at Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California on 6 July 1938 in his family plot. [25][26] A replica of his Marmion Way bedroom is on display at the General Phineas Banning Residential Museum in Wilmington, California. (Cooper, A2) [27]

Widney and Medicine

Widney as Military Surgeon

After his graduation from Toland Medical College (the only medical school operating at that time in California) on 2 October 1866, Dr. Widney re-enlisted in the army as a military surgeon in January 1867 for a two-year tour of duty. He was posted to Drum Barracks [28] in Wilmington, California for a month in 1867, before being appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon for the Arizona Territory during the Apache Wars. During this time he served with the 14th Infantry Regiment under General James Henry Carleton (1814-1873)[29]. During this period the regiment camped for several weeks two miles south of La Paz, Arizona en route to Camp Date Creek (sometimes known as Camp Date Post), where they were based for several months where he helped re-establish that post [30][31][32]. By July 1867 he was based near Apache Pass during the re-building of Fort Bowie [33][34][35], where he supervised the building of the Post Hospital.(ETW 44:4, 292)(Rand 13-23)

In December 1867 he requested the Medical Director grant his discharge from the military. There was little fighting during his tour of duty and very few wounds to attend.(Rand 14) Consequently, while in the military, his interest in climatology increased. He sent detailed reports regarding the region's rainfall, topography, and climate. Rand concludes that the Arizona Campaign "contributed much more to his appreciation of life in general than to his medical career."(Rand 19) During his time in the desert Widney "found God, in a way that transformed his life,"(Rand 21) and so "returned from Arizona a changed man". (Rand 23)

Widney as Private Physician

In late 1868, Widney was discharged from the military and moved to the embryonic community of Los Angeles. Widney began private medical practice on 8 October, 1868, sharing offices with Dr John Strother Griffin (1816-1898), in the old Temple Block (corner of Temple and South Main Streets, Los Angeles). Among those he treated in the next few years was General William Tecumseh Sherman and Mexican bandido Tiburcio Vasquez.(ETW 44:4, 294), as well as the indigent ill.

Prior to the passing of a bill to regulate medical practice (known popularly as the "Anti-Quackery Law") by the California State Legislature on 3 April 1876,[36], it was possible for anyyone to practice medicine in California without a license. The medical profession was not recognized legally by the State before this date and it was common for medical practitioners to advertise (and exaggerate) their medical skills in the newspapers.[37] Concerned about the "medical quackery" proliferating in California, and also at lax local health and state licensing legislation, on 31 January 1871, Dr Widney was the one most responsible for the founding of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, the longest-serving medical association in California. In fact, Widney became known as "the Father of the Association".(Rand 31)[38] The desire of the founders was to establish medical schools and publications, lift the standards in the practice of medicine, as well as the income and status of doctors. Widney advocated dispensing aid to "the sickly poor," which he saw as a key facet of public health and civic philanthropy.(Jaher 637) After 1876, medical licensing was done by the State Medical Society until 1901 when a State Board of Medical Examiners was finally created. Dr. Widney was among the very first licensed by the new board in 1876. Dr Widney was elected its president in 1877(Charnock 458)(ETW 44:4, 294-295). On 12 May 1937, a bust of Dr Widney sculpted by Dr Emil Seletz and commissioned by the Los Angeles County Medical Association was unveiled and placed in the lobby of their headquarters.[39]

Widney advocated the organization of both the Los Angeles and California Boards of Health, and was Los Angeles' first public health officer.(Pitt 546)

In 1884, Widney helped re-organise the Southern California Medical Society. Dr Widney served on the Committee on Medical Topography, Meteorology, Endemics and Epidemics that reported frequently to the Medical Society of the State of California. Widney was a pioneer physician-meteorologist who was an active exponent of medical topography, a nineteenth century medical specialty influenced by Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), that studied the relationship between the environment and disease. Linda Nash explains that

medical topography sought to understand geographic locations through the diseases they produced.... To do so, physicians needed to engage not only the medical sciences but also geography, meteorology, geology, and hydrology. Practicing medical topographers endeavored to record all the environmental factors that might affect health in a particular place, and the list was often long: Temperature and altitude were the most critical variables, but also relevant were water quality, the amount and intensity of sunlight, the timing and amount of rainfall, barometric pressure, wind direction, stream discharge, electrical air currents, soil types, dew point, the timing of frosts and spring growth, the temperature of wells, the timing of fish runs, and the occurrence of "causal phenomena"—such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, hailstorms, and meteor showers. In this world, the quest for health required not merely careful attention to the human body but "patient, plodding work with the thermometer, psychrometer, wind vane [and] rain gauge....In comparison to other western regions, a "scientific" medical topography developed quickly in California. Both the strangeness and the variability of the California landscape dictated the need for prodigious amounts of local medical study. In contrast to the more homogenous landscapes of the Middle West, California struck doctors as a place of many different environments, each one with its own effect on health. "If we would make our work and our statistics of any true or permanent value," wrote Dr. Joseph Widney of Los Angeles, "climatic belt must be differentiated from, and contrasted with, climatic belt. It is only thus that our work will lead to a clear understanding of the varied pathological peculiarities of the State....A complicated geography offered not only a scientific challenge but also new possibilities of cure.(Nash Finishing)

In 1886 Dr Widney helped establish the Southern California Practitioner, the monthly journal of that society. He served as one of the editors of the first few years. In addition to the discussion of the usual subjects found in such a publication, there was a focus on the climate of Southern California in almost every issue. According to the Illustrated History of Los Angeles County(1890), the Southern California Practitioner, which Widney helped establish and edit, there were compelling reasons for this journal to focus on the climate of southern California.[40]

The Practitioner, while treating of all matters pertaining to the science of medicine and surgery, has mapped out for itself as a specialty one particular field, viz.: the careful investigation of the climatic peculiarities and climatic laws of Southern California, and of that great inland plateau which embraces Arizona, New Mexico, and the elevated portion of the interior of Mexico; the effect which these climatic peculiarities may have upon race types, race development, and race diseases; the local changes which through human agency—such as irrigation, drainage, cultivation, planting or clearing of timber—may be produced in climate; the question of race habits, of food, drink and manner of life; the physiological and pathological effects of the crossing of bloods; and all of these questions as affecting the Anglo-Teuton in taking up his abode in this, to him, new climate. This is a new, a broad, and a hitherto unworked field; and the Practitioner hopes to add somewhat to the stock of human knowledge in this direction, and to help toward the solution of these problems. It will also endeavor to present the salient features of various sections of this now widely-known climatic belt, so that physicians in the Eastern States and abroad, who may be recommending a change of climate to invalids or persons of delicate constitutions, may have accurate information upon which to base a selection. In carrying out the plan of work thus outlined, the Practitioner, which is the pioneer in the field, has hardly issued a number without some valuable climatic article; and it has become standard authority throughout the continent in this new line of climatic and disease study.

Dr. Widney attributed the health of southern Californian residents to the climate and to the availability of fresh fruit, as it was the leading article of their diet. Widney seemed especially impressed with the therapeutic benefits of strawberries(Nash 72). He believed his own long life could be attributed to living simply and keeping busy.(Rand 97, 98) He believed that people should eat plain simple food and to not eating too much or too often. His own personal health practices were eating a raw onion each morning before breakfast and eating potatoes and salt-pork for breakfast. At age 94, Widney advocated: "No liquor, no tobacco, no drugs. I'm not a fanatic on liquor, but to me it is a medicine. I keep it around and take it when I need it. But there is no excuse whatever for tobacco or drugs."(Rand 99) He recommended at least eight hours sleep each night and short naps throughout the day. (Rand 97-99)

Despite being "the most distinguished physician in the city," (Smith 81) upon his election as the president of the University of Southern California in 1892, Widney discontinued his lucrative medical practice at age 51, only treating a few personal friends in future (ETW 2: 398-399). However, when he became involved with the Los Angeles City Mission (1894) and the Church of the Nazarene was started (1895), Dr Widney offered free medical care for those unable to afford treatment.

Widney and the Environment

While stationed at Drum Barracks and in the deserts of Arizona, Widney began a life-long interest in climatology and conservation. Widney served as chairman of the Los Angeles Meteorological committee for several years. Widney credited white settlement with several improvements in the Southern California climate, including less variation in temperature, milder winds, and increased rainfall.[41] Widney was concerned about conserving water and was one of the first to warn about what later came to be called smog, identifying it as a concern in 1938 (some 5 years before it was officially recognised in Los Angeles).(LA Times 3 April 1955)[42]

Additionally, Widney argued successfully for the setting aside of three great forest areas for the benefit (in a conservation of resources) of generations to come thus giving impetus to the great work of securing the present water supply for Los Angeles. (ETW 44:4, 294) (ETW 44:5, 400)

Widney and the Salton Sea

As early as January 1873, Widney advocated in print the flooding of the Colorado Desert to re-establish the Salton Sea. This marked his first appearance in print after his arrival in California. Widney believed that by diverting the Colorado River into the Salton Sink that this would increase the rainfall in the area, eliminate the deserts of southern California, and create a new Eden in what was renamed the Imperial Valley in about 1901. His creation would stretch from the Delta all the way to Palm Springs, just as the prehistoric Lake Cahuilla once had. The huge body of water would create drastic changes in the climate of Southern California, making it “similar to that of the Hawaiian or Bahamian Islands.” His plan was cause for great excitement in the press. Widney's proposals strongly influenced those of Oliver Wozencraft and Arizona Territory Governor General John C. Fremont, who travelled to Washington to convince Congress of the project’s potential.[43] George Wharton James’ book, The Wonders of the Colorado Desert, published in 1906, introduced the second volume with a whole chapter on Widney’s arguments.[44]

Widney as Author

In 1872, Widney helped to found the Los Angeles Library Association (Pitt 300), and served on its board of governors for the next six years.

Along with Jonathan T. Warner (1807-1895)(better known as J.J. Warner)[45] and Judge Benjamin Hayes (1815-1877),[46] Widney wrote and edited the first history of Los Angeles County,(Frankiel 96) which was the so-called Centennial History of Los Angeles, published in 1876. In 1888, he collaborated with Dr. Walter Lindley (1852-1922), the founder of the California Hospital Medical Center, in producing California of the South, one of the first tourist guides promoting the region. Both of these volumes were produced to extol the benefits of California and its climate. They were commercially available and were popular.

Also from Widney's prolific pen, came many books, pamphlets, and magazine and newspaper articles upon various topics - industrial, racial, scientific, climatic, professional, historical, political, educational, national, international and religious issues.(ETW 2:400) He discussed such topics as the League of Nations and its short-comings; judicial reform (he advocated trials by judges rather than juries for criminal cases); and the future of modern civilzations. With the exception of his two volume magnum opus, The Race Life of the Aryan People, published in 1907 by Funk and Wagnall, Widney chose to have all his other writings published at his own expense and donated to influential people, personal friends and libraries and other public reading rooms to ensure maximum availability of his ideas.(Rand 95)

Widney as Real Estate Investor

Dr. Widney had been impressed with the potential of Los Angeles since his first visit there in January 1867 when posted to Drum Barracks. Widney apparently said to himself then: "There will be a harbor made here, and a great city will be built about it. I will put some money here when I come back from the front."(Rand 28) Widney was the brother of lawyer (and later Judge) Robert Maclay Widney (1838-1929), the city's first real estate agent (Roseman 90) and publisher of The Real Estate Advertiser, the city's first real estate paper, who had settled in Los Angeles earlier in 1868. Dr Widney made many lucrative investments in real estate in Los Angeles and surrounding areas (often in collaboration with Judge Widney), which were to make him financially independent, allowing him to retire from the practise of medicine at the age of 55, and allowing him to devote the following 42 years to his business, literary and religious pursuits.

Widney's speculation in land started early. Between 29 April 1869 and 28 August 1871, he purchased thirty-four lots in Wilmington, and another sixty acres near the San Gabriel Mission. (Rand 28) He once onced the parcel of land (the old Temple block at the corner of Temple and Main Streets, Los Angeles) where the Los Angeles City Hall now stands, as well as most of Mt. Washington, Los Angeles, California, on which his last home (3901 Marmion Way) stood. This section included a group of neighboring homes, and stores, as well as a rooming apartment for girls. Additionally, in 1885 Widney purchased 35,000 acres of land (located 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles) comprising the relatively undeveloped township of Hesperia, California. Soon after, Widney formed the Hesperia Land and Water Company for the purpose of creating a town. Hesperia was advertised as the Denver of the West. Widney's subdivision crews laid out what was known as the Old Townsite. In 1887, Widney began construction of the Hesperia Hotel, a three-story brick building consisting of 48 rooms and hot and cold running water, baths and a water closet on each floor. The hotel, which took 2½ years to build, even had communication tubes between floors; thus enabling room service.[47][48][49]

Widney and Public Service

Widney as Booster

Dr Widney was a prominent booster of Southern California and, most especially, of Los Angeles. Jaher identifies Dr Widney as among those successful Los Angeles entrepreneurs who were the "most avid civic boosters...[who] made sanguine by their triumphs, they expect urban growth to bring further gains...[who] predicted that the city would become a great metropolis."(Jaher 628) According to one report, Widney "was a zealous promoter, for several decades, of every public enterprise in Los Angeles." (ETW 2:398)

Widney was an active member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce since its resurrection in October 1888, and served occasionally as its chairman or secretary.

Widney and San Pedro Harbour

Dr Widney did much in outlining the railroad, maritime and commercial policy of Southern California. (History LA County, 201) Dr Widney and his brother Robert were prime examples of entrepreneurial professionals. They proved to be "effective lobbyists for the Southern Pacific [railroad] and for harbor improvements"(Jaher 595) and were especially "active in transport enterprises and in the development of the San Pedro harbor."(Jaher 606)

As early as 1871 Widney saw the need for Los Angeles to have its own harbour, and with Phineas Banning successfully lobbied the United States Congress for funding over many years for the establishment of the harbour at San Pedro, California (now known as Port of Los Angeles). In 1881 Widney was described in the Los Angeles Times as the "prime mover of Wilmington Harbor."(28 December) He was chairman of the Los Angeles Citizens' Committee on the Wilmington Harbor. He wrote the memorials to the US Congress advocating the deepening of the harbor. He also successfully opposed the attempt of the railroad interests of Collis Potter Huntington and his partners from claiming the state tidelands of the harbor for their own corporate purposes, thus ensuring these lands remained in public domain. (ETW 2:399)

Widney and Southern California Statehood

Dr Widney was one of the first to discuss the feasibility of dividing the state of California and establishing the commonwealth of Southern California. He wrote prolifically on the subject, and was regarded as "one of the ablest and most enthusiastic advocates of the new 'California of the South.'"(History LA County 200) For many years Widney advocated unsuccessfully for the division of the state of California into at least two (and at times he advocated four) other states, in order to maximise its representation in the United States Senate.(ETW 2:399) Widney indicated in 1880 that "the topography, geography, climatic and cimmercial laws all work for the separation of California into two distinct civil organizations." (Workman, SQR 145)

Widney and American Imperialism

Dr Widney is credited as the one who originated and made the first public movement looking toward the acquisition of the Peninsula of Lower California by the United States. (History LA County 201) Additionally, he proposed in an article published in the Los Angeles Times on 3 January 1932, that "Europe should simply be bought out of the Western Hemisphere," with the European nations ceding their territories in Central and South America and the West Indies to the United States to cancel their debts to the American people. Such an action would give the British colonies of Belize, and British Guiana (now Guyana), the French colony of French Guiana, and the Dutch colony of Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) to the USA, thus expanding her empire by 195,092 square miles. Widney's primary motivation was to provide territory for the "rapidly multiplying black population of our land." However, he believed that the "negroes[sic] should not be compelled to migrate, but would desire to do so for climatic and economic reasons. Further, he believed that the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea ought to be "American seas", and that"the power that controls the American interoceanic canals must be an American power, and among the American nationalities none but ourselves has the strength to do this work, and to enforce the peace."

In The Three Americas(1935), Widney suggests that the United States buy British Guiana from the United Kingdom and give it to the African Americans as reparations for slavery. British Guiana would only be for the "natural increase" of the African American population, he stated; no one would be forced to go there if they didn't want to. (Widney felt that racial characteristics were determined by soil and climate, and thus he thought that African Americans would be happier living in a tropical climate.)

Widney and Prohibition

While Widney was Republican in general politics, he was "an earnest worker in the cause of temperance." (History LA County 201) In an 1886 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece Widney suggested that the liquor question - the restriction of its manufacture and sale - should not only become the subject of a Republican party platform plank but should be the issue around which the party rebuilt itself.[50] Widney had been greatly interested in the progress of prohibition. He served as head of the city's nonpartisan anti-saloon league, and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Los Angeles on the Prohibition ticket in 1894. (Smith 82)

Widney and Education

Dr Widney is regarded as "the outstanding early educator of Los Angeles."(Jaher 644)

Widney and the University of Southern California

Dr Widney served as a member of the Board of Trustees of USC from 1880 to 1895, serving as founding dean of the USC School of Medicine from 1885 to October 1896, and President of USC from 1892 to 1895. The USC College of Medicine held classes for its first ten years rent-free in a building (located at 445 Aliso Street) owned by Widney. Widney donated a large sum to establish the College of Medicine, including donating the property where it was initially located, frequent large contributions since, and arranged to give a larger amount in providing new and more commodious college buildings for permanent occupancy. (History LA County 201) Widney attracted a strong faculty to the Medical School, which he headed, and had kept that arm of the university solvent by the simple expedient of paying the bills himself.(Smith 81)

In addition to his responsibilities in the school of Medicine, Widney was also for several years Professor of English Literature at the College of Liberal Arts at USC until, with the establishment of the College of Medicine, he was compelled by lack of time to concentrate his labors it. (Charnock 458)(Mathies & Ball 441)(History LA County 201)

Widney as President of USC (1892-1895)

After the death of USC founding President Rev. Marion McKinley Bovard on 30 December 1891, the Board of Trustees elected Dr Widney as the next president. Widney was reluctant to accept this responsibility, but after he "recognized a call of the Lord,"(ETW 2:397), he accepted the presidency at a difficult time in the history of the embryonic institution. At that time USC had only twenty-five undergraduate students, and its focus was on providing secondary eduxcation.(Jaher 645) According to E.T.W., "Everything was in confusion; they were in the midst of the bank crash of '93, and no one knew what property the university had, or what it was worth. The professors had not been paid for months, and relief was not to be had through the banks, which withdrew credit." (ETW 2:397)

"With finances in a precarious state and the administrative system almost completely shattered by his death, the University of Southern California faced the great crisis of its existence. It was a physician who proved to be the man of the hour to heal the university of these blows. Under the vigorous and cheerful leadership of Dr. J. P. Widney, a brother of the founder, the drooping spirits of faculty and students were revived." (Six Collegiate Decades) The College of Liberal Arts was then eighteen thousand dollars in debt. Widney's first step was to set up a separate governing board for the College of Liberal Arts, both as a means of refinancing the debt and of tying that branch of the institution more closely to the spiritual leaders of California Methodism.(Smith 81) Dr Widney himself went out on the streets and raised $15,000, giving his own personal security to back up the loans, thus saving USC from bankruptcy. The Southern California Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church increased their support for USC in 1893. The Conference "enthusiastically adopted Widney's new financial program for the institution. Two of the church's most distinguished and trusted leaders [Widney and Phineas F. Bresee] were at the helm. By the time of the annual conference of 1894, the university had passed through its financial crisis, and Widney's principal work was done."(Smith 82)

In the spring of 1895, Widney decided to resign after "four years of intensive unremunerated service to the university as its president"(Workman 98). He announced his intention to spend a year studying in the East. The board finally accepted the resignation, after their benefactor had turned aside repeated requests that he reconsider his decision.(Smith 84)

Jaher indicates that "Shortly after retiring as USC President, he [Widney] articulated a philosophy of education that emphasized democracy over elitism, pragmatism over scholarship, the present over the past, the California college over the eastern and European university, and the Pacific over the Atlantic Coast.(Jaher 644) According to Widney, "the distinctively American mental life is to be found west of the Appalachians, in the memory of the log schoolhouse and the smaller colleges."(Jaher 644)

Widney and the Los Angeles Board of Education

In addition to his responsibilities at USC, Widney served several years as a member and president of the Los Angeles Board of Education.(Smith 82)

In October 1894 at the dedication of the Peniel Hall, Dr Widney announced his intention to organise a Training Institute, in which Bible and practical nursing were to be the principal studies.(Smith 40, History LA County 201)

Widney and Religion

Widney and the Methodist Episcopal Church (1841-1895)

Widney had been raised in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was an active lay leader in that denomination. Widney, was a member of Los Angeles First Methodist Episcopal Church, and was close friends with one-time pastor, Rev Phineas F. Bresee. The Widneys were the mainstays of the "District Aid Committee," an organization devoted to securing better support for underpaid pastors. (Smith 77) Dr. and Mrs. Widney and his sister, Arabella, had long been active in the evangelistic endeavors which Methodists carried on among the poor and unfortunate. The two women pioneered the organization of deaconess work in southern California in 1889. Bresee and Widney were members of the first executive board. The only question Methodists ever raised against Widney came in 1892, when he employed a critical approach to the Scriptures in a series of articles aimed to rebuke an extreme doctrine of divine healing.(Smith 82)

Widney and the Peniel Mission (1894-1895)

According to noted historian Timothy L. Smith.

[a]ll records agree that Widney was an honored citizen of both the city and the church he loved. But, like Bresee, his abiding passion in recent years had been the evangelization of the poor and the extension of the ministry of scriptural holiness to classes which the church might otherwise miss. Few were surprised, therefore, when he joined the group which was sponsoring Peniel Hall. ... [T]his work soon became more important in Widney's eyes than the presidency of the infant university which he had so recently and so nobly served.(Smith 82)

Widney was instrumental in the support and enlargement of the Los Angeles City Mission (Later referred to as the Peniel Mission), especially from October 1894 when the 900 seat Peniel Hall (funded largely by an anonymous donation by C.T. Studd) was dedicated. The Peniel Mission, founded in 1886 (as the Los Angeles Mission) by Theodore P. and Mamie Ferguson, was undenominational and non-sectarian. "Their entire work, like that of most of the city holiness missions, was oriented toward soul saving and the promotion of holiness." (Frankiel 107) Despite Widney's active involvement in the Peniel Mission, there was no thought to resigning from the Methodist church. (Smith 83) According to Frankiel, "The mission was not a church...; converts were supposed to join one of the regular denominations. It was, rather, a holiness revival station spreading the message of Christian perfection." (Frankiel 107)

According to Smith, "[a]ll the available evidence indicates that neither Bresee nor Widney was contemplating any change in his relationship with Peniel Mission or with the Methodist church" (Smith 84). However, by early October 1895, Widney and Bresee, were "frozen out" of the Peniel Mission. According to Smith,

[t]he immediate cause for the organization of the Church of the Nazarene ... is not so much to be found in Bresee's differences with the Methodists as in those which developed between him and the proprietors of Peniel Hall. Certainly J. P. Widney must have been disillusioned when A. B. Simpson, leader of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and reportedly an extremist on divine healing, appeared as a special worker at the mission in May [1895]. Bresee on his part disagreed with Mr. and Mrs. Fergusons' insistence upon the use of young women in rescue work, and their growing interest in foreign missionary schemes.(Smith 84)

Widney and the Church of the Nazarene (1895-1898)

During the summer of 1895, Widney had changed his plans to study for a year in the East and had remained in Los Angeles. With characteristic decisiveness, these two fast friends determined to form a new organization in which their program of a church home for the poor might be fully carried out. They announced a service for Sunday, 6 October 1895, in Red Men's Hall located at 317 South Main Street in Los Angeles, a short distance from the Peniel Mission. A Los Angeles Times reporter gave us the only extant firsthand account of this meeting. The leaders, he wrote, "announced that although no name had been decided upon for the new denomination, its work was to be chiefly evangelistic and its government congregational." (see Smith 85) Bresee declared that the only thing new in the movement was its determination to preach the gospel to the needy, and to give that class a church they could call their own. (Smith 85)

After three weeks of independent meetings in the Red Men's Hall, on 30 October 1895, Bresee and Widney formally organised the Church of the Nazarene, the west coast ancestor of the denomination that now bears that name, with 82 charter members. While several distinguished Methodists joined, most of the membership, however, was made up of recent converts from the poorer sections of Los Angeles. On the day of organization Widney preached on the words of Christ, "Follow me." Widney "pointed out that the essence of Christianity was not to receive a creed or to observe church forms and rituals, but simply to accept the Christ life, to make Christ himself the Lord of one's heart. After an interesting reference to the novelist Tolstoy's recent decision to abandon his high position and go to serve the peasants of a Russian village, Widney attempted to explain why a new denomination was required. The reason, he said, was that the machinery and the methods of the older churches had proved a hindrance to the work of evangelizing the poor." (Smith 85-86)

Widney also explained the choice of a name for the new denomination:

The word "Nazarene" had come to him one morning at daybreak, after a whole night of prayer. It immediately seemed to him to symbolize "the toiling, lowly mission of Christ." It was the name which Jesus used of himself, Widney declared, "the name which was used in derision of Him by His enemies," the name which above all others linked Him to "the great toiling, struggling, sorrowing heart of the world. It is Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, to whom the world in its misery and despair turns, that it may have hope.(Smith 86)

At the outset Widney and Bresee saw this church as

"the first of a denomination that preached the reality of entire sanctification received through faith in Christ. They held that Christians sanctified by faith should follow Christ's example and preach the gospel to the poor. They felt called especially to this work. They believed that unnecessary elegance and adornment of houses of worship did not represent the spirit of Christ but the spirit of the world, and that their expenditures of time and money should be given to Christlike ministries for the salvation of souls and the relief of the needy. They organized the church accordingly. They adopted general rules, a statement of belief, a polity based on a limited superintendency, procedures for the consecration of deaconesses and the ordination of elders, and a ritual. These were published as a Manual beginning in 1898. They published a paper known as The Nazarene and then The Nazarene Messenger."[51]

Among the first to be ordained by the new church was Joseph P. Widney. Bresee and Widney were appointed to life tenure as pastors and superintendents in the infant denomination,(Frankiel 107) but their power was "more personal than legal." (Smith 87)

However, late in 1898, Widney resigned from the Church of the Nazarene. Apparently, the growing frequency of services of great emotional power at the tabernacle became at last too much for him. Smith reports, "It happened that one night, after a great "outpouring of the Spirit," some of the most prominent members of the church went to the altar. Several were overcome completely, and a good deal of noise and confusion resulted. Widney, a quiet-mannered man, decided that he could not be happy any longer amidst such scenes." (Smith 95) According to Smith, "there is no evidence at all of any hard feelings between Bresee and Widney. Their parting was most friendly." (Smith 94) Additionally, according to Frankiel, there were theological differences between Widney and the Church of the Nazarene. Widney "believed in gradual spiritual growth rather than an identifiable experience of [entire] sanctification." (Frankiel, 96) In October, 1898, delegates from the various churches voted to accept the resignation Widney and Bresee from their lifetime tenure, and to limit the term of office for general superintendents to one year. Shortly afterward Widney returned to the Methodist church as a minister and was appointed to the church's City Mission of Los Angeles (formally organized in 1908), where he ministered to thousands over the next several years. [52]

Widney and the Methodist Episcopal Church (1899-1938)

After his departure from the Church of the Nazarene, Dr Widney eventually returned to the Methodist Episcopal Church, as an ordained minister. In 1899 the Southern California Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church accepted his credentials. He was appointed the superintendent of the city missionary work of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, and was also listed as the pastor of the Nazarene Methodist Episcopal Church, which met initially in Widney's home at 150 West Adams Street. Growth of the congregation necessitated the construction of a 500 seat building at Ninth and Santee Streets on a property owned by Widney. Dr Widney met the entire costs of construction and ministered without compensation. The new building was dedicated on Sunday 3 June 1900. The new facility incorporated on the ground floor a free reading room, a bath house for men to use, and two stores.(LA Times 4 June 1900) In 1903 this church was renamed the Beth-El Methodist Episcopal Church due to increased confusion with the rapidly increasing Church of the Nazarene led by Phineas F. Bresee. The Los Angeles Times announced on 28 November 1906 that the congregation was soon to be relocated to a new property purchased by Widney at the corner of Pasadena Avenue and Avenue 39 (now 3901 Marmion Way, Highland Park), as the Ninth and Santee Steets location was not successful in attracting non-church goers. The original property was converted into a rooming house.

Widney and the Beth-El Chapel

In 1907 Dr Widney started construction of the Beth-El chapel (sometimes known as the Beth-El Mission or the Church of the All-Father) on a property he purchased at the corner of Pasadena Avenue and Avenue 39 (now 3901 Marmion Way, Highland Park). Dr Widney built his own home next to the new chapel. He called it Beth-El ("House of God"), dedicated it to the "All-Father." Widney indicated in a 1924 interview published in the Los Angeles Times that "Beth-el was built as a neighborhood place of worship....in a growing section of the city, where the benefits of a church were sadly lacking." (6 January 1924) The chapel seated 100 people, and had an adjoining Sunday School room for 30 children.

Beth-el was essentially a private chapel, which he funded entirely from his personal wealth. No offerings were collected at the services, and no financial assistance was ever received. Its focus was deliberately non-sectarian, attracting attenders from several denominations. Widney indicated in the same 1924 interview:

We have in our attendance members from all denominations. We have them come here from all churches. We do not urge their attendance. We do not seek to increase our membership. Anybody who is doing the best they can to lead a clean life and if they believe in keeping peace and harmony with their neighbors those persons are eligible to aqttend Beth-el. Even if Mohammed lived up to these ideals, he could join this chapel.

According to Frankiel, "his attempt to unite all religions around faith in the "All-Father" was also a return to what he saw as his own root in the American West, via the desert; to the roots of Western culture; and to the roots of humanity in a primitive sense of nature and life." (Frankiel 99)

Believing that Sunday should be a day of rest, and that "those who spend all of their Sundays in churches are guilty of breaking the commandments", Beth-El had only one service each Sunday - a morning service. Dr Widney conducted the Sunday services there for thirty-six years, while one of his younger brothers, Rev. Samuel A. Widney, led the Sunday School. (Frankiel, 96; Cooper A2) Dr Widney played the violin during the services, while his brother Samuel played the violincello, and Samuel's wife, Anna, played the organ.

Widney was regarded as "rather liberal in his religious views" (LA Times 6 January 1924) because

He holds no respect for ministers of the gospel who continually seek publicity, who dabble in politics and are always raising a rumpus. Nor does he believe in fads or freak religion. He simply teaches the old-time Bible religion.

The Origins of Widney's Religious Beliefs

Widney was profoundly affected by 'an experience that he described retrospectively as focal for his religious life. Neither a conversion nor a sanctification, neither a healing by the Divine Mind nor a floating on the Infinite, it was nevertheless peculiarly Californian in the independent style that Widney had adopted. Afterward Widney claimed it was his revelation of God. While an army surgeon during the Arizona Indian wars, he rode out one day into the northern desert and stayed alone much of the day. In the "utter hush" of the desert noon, he recalled,

as I sat looking out over the brown, dry plain to the simple outline of the far-off mountains, a strange sense of a new life seemed to come to me. I somehow seemed, as with a new-born perception, to awake to a sense of life about me: intangible, unseen, but Life. . . . I seemed somehow to have stepped out of the old, narrow bounds and bonds of the flesh, and to stand within the portals of a new and broader existence. . . . I had found the desert—and God.

Afterward Widney was never the same. He saw modern urban civilization as the true desert, while knowing that the desert itself—to which he never returned—was life. Often in his later works he referred to the God of the desert and of "the Open," identifying his experience and his faith with that of the ancient Semites from which Judaism later sprang, and with the religion of primitive man generally." According to Frankiel, Widney "claimed that a distant forebear of his, from the late Middle Ages, was Jewish; and he spoke out against anti-Semitism and for the Jew (though in a rather condescending way)" (Frankiel n.55) in The Faith That Has Come to Me (228-33). In Genesis , he argued that the desert breeds monotheism, while the diversity of the plains and the coast breeds polytheism (17-18). "From the time of his transformative experience in the desert, he increasingly rejected dogmatism in anything. Unlike some of his fellows, he was not a likely candidate for any single system of thought; but like the other metaphysicians of southern California, Widney forged a California theology of his own." (Frankiel 100)

Widney's Evolving Religious Beliefs

In his book The Genesis and Evolution of Islam and Judaeo-Christianity, published in 1932, Widney explained

The central thought of the work is The evolution of one general world-faith out of many, and too often hostile, racial religions of mankind. The world was once civically racial. It is so no longer. The economic laws of commerce have welded it together as one. It was once politically discordant. It is now, more and more, tending to one type of government Race lines are fading away. Shall the religions of men alone stand aloof from the working of this broad law of unification; or shall they, too, find a common ground upon which all may meet? Is the spiritual side of man's being less able to adapt itself to growth than his material nature? Every race upon earth has contributed, and is now contributing to the material upbuilding of man. Some give more. Some give less. But all give; and with the gradual fading of racial lines, this law of unification should work to the same end with man's religions. What can each give? From the Hymns to the Maruts of old-time Aryans the freshness of the morning: from Brahmanism, hoary with age, the stored wisdom of centuries: from Buddhism, the weariness of life but withal the undying longings: from the faith of Zarathustra the unending battle of light and darkness in the human soul: from the Islam of the Desert Peoples the Allah il Allah of the great wastes, and the night wind, and the stars : from the Jew a code
of laws which has made the race of Sinai imperishable: from Christianity The Gospel of Love: from modern civilization the duty and the task of blending these into one, the religion of Humanity.

Widney was also influenced by the teachings of accused heretical preacher David Swing and Thomas Starr King, a broad-minded, religiously inclusive Unitarian minister, whose "style of liberalism was laced with a Transcendental mysticism and a grounding in love of nature... [who] laid a laid a foundation for liberal Christianity in California tradition," whom Widney described King as "as one of the few great and broad-minded spirits of the church." (Frankiel, p30.)[53]. According to Widney , these two felt "called upon to step over the ecclesiastical lines which we have drawn about the simple, kindly, trusting life and teachings of Him we call Jesus of Nazareth." (Three Americas, 65)

Sandra Frankiel considers Widney to be "a dramatic example of a midwestern Protestant who turned away from church and creed toward an independent religious system that had some affinities with New Thought." (Frankiel 97) "Widney seems not to have been attracted to the mind-cure traditions; as a physician, he upheld the value of physical care and natural cures. With his interest in many religions, he may have been attracted to Theosophy; but with his firm grounding in Christianity, he wanted to remain true to Western traditions. He was striving to be an independent thinker in religion. Despite his criticism of so-called 'faith cures' in an 1886 article, in which he denied that healing was a sign of true Christianity, "he was very much interested in health issues and wrote in cooperation with other authors ... about the healthful geography, climate, and natural advantages of the Los Angeles area" (Frankiel) in such books as California of the South: Its Physical Geography, Climate, Resources, Routes of Travel, and Health-Resorts Being a Complete Guide-Book to Southern California (1888; reprinted 1896). (Frankiel 99)

Widney , "with his grand aspirations to be a universalistic thinker, embraced the general truths of all faiths; yet he validated his stance in a way closer to his Methodist and holiness predilections, through personal mystical experience. Consistent with that position, he urged all to become "seers."" (Frankiel 101) Especially in religion, Widney believed that all could be united. Widney argued that "the exclusivism of Christianity had blinded us to other forms of revelation, such as had come to Socrates, Confucius, or Gautama the Buddha. He suspected that Jesus and Paul had been influenced by non-western wisdom themselves." (Frankiel) For Widney, "the event of Calvary was not the central fact in the divine plan of the universe, but merely a passing episode, however dramatic, affecting one portion of human history. Now the traditional Christian creeds and the older churches were dying away. The "Teuto-Aryan," he said, was letting doctrinal controversies pass by, "while he turns more and more to the kindly life of the Christ who walked the troubled earth as the helpful Brother of Man." Jesus, in short, was not the ultimate Savior, but our "Mystical Elder Brother." He was one of those "men with a Message" who appear in various places and epochs with news from the beyond. We cannot say definitely who Jesus was, nor can we say any more about God than that he is "the One Great Central Life-Force of all," the one who has said "I AM." We would do better to drop our creeds and theologies and turn to a different kind of religion."(Frankiel)

As Sandra Frankiel summarises: "Widney's new religion would recognize that all religions are essentially one. Its basic principles included a positive view of human nature: "more of the self-respecting manhood of one made in the divine image; less of that old monkish idea of an utter and unworthy self-abasement which dishonors God in dishonoring His handiwork." It recognized that heaven and hell are "essentially conditions," that "man makes his own heaven and hell." This view provided a foundation for basic ethical principles such as justice and love, and a few basic beliefs that Widney assumed all religions already had: belief in God; in sin, repentance, and forgiveness; in a life beyond the grave with just rewards for all; and in the common brotherhood of man. All existing religions should strive to peer beyond their myths and images "to the calm, clear face of the All-Father himself.""(FRankiel)

"In advocating the unity of all religions, in viewing Jesus as human yet mystically in tune with higher forces, in understanding God as the great Life-Force, and in relativizing the concepts of heaven and hell, Widney sounded much like a New Thought philosopher. Yet he held onto the "All-Fatherhood" of God and traditional Protestant concepts of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. He did not mean something entirely traditional by these, but neither did he hold that humans are already essentially divine."(Frankiel)

Widney's Controversial Views Regarding Race

Influenced by decades of voracious reading and in part by the writings of Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859-1928), who was convinced that "[t]he Anglo-Saxon stock was improving"(Starr 91) and that Southern California was "the new Eden of the Saxon home-seeker"(Starr 89), Widney provided Southern California with "the full implications of Lummis's theories" (Starr 90) in his two volume Race Life of the Aryan Peoples published in 1907. In 1913, William Henry Ferris described this book as "the prose epic of the Aryan race."(Ferris 505) This tome was regarded as "one of the most influential books of the 1920s"[54] Widney's alma mater, Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1907 due to its perceived scholarship. However, despite its wide-spread acceptance and popularity in the early part of the twentieth century, it has since been regarded as rather controversial or ignored as hopelessly out-dated. For example, Jean-Daniel Plüss describes Widney as an Aryan supremacist,[55] while Kevin Starr opines that "perceived from one point of view, he was a harmless eccentric; from another angle, however, he can be considered an incipient fascist."(Starr 92)

In this book Widney "saw Anglo colonization west of the Mississippi as a triumphant procession that had begun centuries ago in Eurasia. From this distant region, the Aryan began his journey to the New World and eventually to Los Angeles, which, he argued, would become the world capital of white World domination. Consequently, Widney advocated the Aryanization of the entire Pacific coast of the United States (p.121), believing that the genetic composition of the Teutonic people better fitted them to rule the New World than the Latin people (p.129) "The Engle people, Widney argued (by which he meant the Angles or Anglo-Saxons), were destined by divine providence to flourish in Southern California and the American Southwest."(Starr 91)

"His great passion was to understand and explain the direction of history from the remote past into the future. His explorations in the history of the Aryan race and the American continents were all part of an effort to map the human cosmos with its amazing diversity of present and past peoples. On his map the Aryans had the central place, while the other races—black, yellow, red—were passing from the scene. Among the Aryans he selected the Scots-Irish and English for special attention as representing the ultimate in the Aryan conquest of the planet....His otherwise glowing account of the Scots-Irish is dampened only when he notes their tendency to hold onto Calvinism. Methodism, he said, with its "hopeful hymns and scant theology" was a better way. Nevertheless, ecclesiasticism was growing even in the Methodist church. "But," he declared firmly, "the current of Teutonic spiritual life is going the other way"(Frankiel 107-8)"

In Race Life of the Aryan Peoples, Widney saw that in Los Angeles “the Captains of Industry are the truest captains of the race war”(page 7). According to Bokovoy, Widney

placed the fledgling west coast city as the world epicenter of Aryan supremacy. For civic promoters, Los Angeles stood as a redeemer metropolis, especially in contrast to other U.S. cities apparently overrun with African Americans, southeastern Europeans, and Asian immigrants. These boosters created a national, eugenic brand for Los Angeles: a city bathed in sunlight and steeped in the cult of vitality, a city that offered restoration of the white body politic under threat of “racial amalgamation” and race suicide. Los Angeles eventually emerged in the minds of many Americans as a healthy alternative to modern, urban chaos and ethnic diversity of cities in the Northeast, Midwest, and South. But in order to achieve this feat, L.A. leaders from the infamous, vigilante-style Chamber of Commerce found it necessary to remove and isolate its large ethnic Mexican population, even as industrial L.A. required the labor of ethnic Mexicans to build the Aryan future. At the same time, the city recast the locale’s Spanish history and heritage to establish European roots for the city." (Bokovoy 96)

According to Sandra Frankiel,

In large part, his 1907 volumes can be understood as a defense of the imperialistic attitudes held by many Americans, and attacked by some, at the turn of the century. Imperialism, he declared, was a "bogy" [sic] that Americans used to frighten themselves away from fulfilling their destiny. In fact, the "resistless working of the higher law of race expansion" overrides any protests and any treaties or agreements between countries; it is best simply to recognize the facts. The strong and highly civilized must and will replace the weak and barbarous peoples.(Frankiel 97)

Recently Paul Brennan discussed Widney's racial views in the OC Weekly:

No one in Pasadena exemplified the Southland’s interest in racial questions better than prominent physician Dr. Joseph Widney. According to Widney, while he was serving as an army surgeon in the Arizona territory in the late 1860s, God revealed to him His plan for the white race. The Southwest would become the homeland of the Aryan people, and Los Angeles would be its capital. Widney spent 40 years working out the details of his vision, and in 1907, he published his magnum opus, Race Life of the Aryan Peoples. It must be stressed that Widney was not considered a crank. Some people might have found his evangelical fervor, or his advocacy of polygamy, or his habit of eating a raw onion every morning to be off-putting, but Widney was a respected member of society. He was the first dean of USC’s medical school, after which he became the university’s second president. His racial views may have been extreme, but in his day, they were not considered bizarre.[56]

In Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding(2005), Alexandra Minna Stern indicates that Widney was similar to many other prominent Californians of his time, such as David Starr Jordan or Paul Popenoe, in espousing eugenic opinions. Kevin Starr opines that Widney "came dangerously close to being a crank, yet...a streak of hardheaded practicality and a flair for entrepreneurial success qualified his utopianism."(Starr 90)

"Many prominent southern California boosters and supporters of the Landmarks Club such as Joseph Widney (a medical doctor and ordained Methodist minister who was an early president of University of Southern California) and Harrison Grey Otis (owner of the Los Angeles Times and famous union-buster) championed the restoration of the Catholic missions and the rights of Native Americans and also believed that southern California was destined to become the capital of New World Anglo-Aryan culture."(Giggie 96)These seemingly incongruous causes and beliefs were linked by a common interest in southern California's developing regionalism, strong antimodernism, and eugenic theories about the influence of climate on race. Writers such as Widney promoted the idea that after centuries of westward movement, Anglo-Aryan peoples had finally fulfilled their destiny by arriving at California's Southland."(Giggie 96)

In 1935, only three years before his death at age 96, Widney wrote The Three Americas, reasserting his previous predictions of inevitable Aryan ascendancy.

Bibliography

Books by Widney

Lindley, Walter and Joseph Widney. California of the South: Its Physical Geography, Climate, Resources, Routes of Travel, and Health-Resorts Being a Complete Guide-Book to Southern California.D. Appleton and Company: 1888; 3rd edition; 1896.
Warner, J.J.; Benjamin Hayes; and Joseph Widney. An Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, California: From the Spanish Occupancy, By the Founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, September 8, 1771, to July 4, 1876. Prepared by a committee appointed by the Literary Committee of the Los Angeles Centennial Celebration. Louis Lewin & Co.: 1876; Reprint ed. O. W. Smith: 1936). "The three authors were members of the literary committee of the Los Angeles Centennial Celebration. This work is the first published history of Los Angeles." [57]
Warner, J.J.; Benjamin Hayes; and Joseph Widney. An Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, California from the Spanish Occupancy, by the Founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, September 8, 1771, to July 4, 1876.. Prepared by a committee appointed by the Literary Committee of the Los Angeles Centennial Celebration. Louis Lewin & Co.: 1876. Second Issue which was printed in the same year as the first, 1876, but includes an Appendix with an account of the Centennial Celebration of the Declaration of Independence in Los Angeles, the first history of Los Angeles authored by three important pioneers. First Edition.
Warner, J.J.; Benjamin Hayes and J.P. Widney. An Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, California from the Spanish Occupancy, by the Founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, September 8, 1771, to July 4, 1876. A Reprint of the Original Edition...to Which Is Added an Invaluable Introduction Written by Dr. J. P. Widney, the Surviving Member of the Trio.Los Angeles: O. W. Smith, Publisher, 1936. 10-159 pp. Frontispiece portraits of the three authors. "Widney came to Los Angeles in 1868 as a physician and was a youth of only 35 when he participated in the authorship of the original historical sketch of Los Angeles County. However he stated that he took care of many of the native Hispanic Californians in his practice and laments the passing of their culture. He was 95 when he wrote the poignant introduction to this reprint. In those 60 years between the first printing and this one, the population of Los Angeles County went from ten thousand to 1.2 million." [58]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. Ahasuerus: A race tragedy. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1915.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. All Fader. [1909]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. Civilizations and their diseases and Rebuilding a wrecked world civilization. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Pub. Co. [1937] On-line edition: PDF: [59] TXT: [60]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. Conversational Gems of Doctor JP Widney. 1938.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. The faith that has come to me. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1932.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. The genesis and evolution of Islam and Judaeo-Christianity. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Pub. Co. [1932] On-line edition: PDF file: [61]] TXT file:
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. The greater city of Los Angeles: A plan for the development of Los Angeles city as a great world health center [1938]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. A greater harbor of Los Angeles. [1938]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. Life and its problems, as viewed by a blind man at the age of ninety-six, edited by T. Cameron Taylor. Hollywood, CA: Joseph P. Widney Publications, [1941?].
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. The lure and the land;: An idyl of the Pacific. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1932.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. A New Europe. [1937] Issued separately, but also included in Widney's Civilizations and their Diseases.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. A New Orient. [1937] Issued separately, but also included in Widney's Civilizations and their Diseases.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. Race life and race religions;: Modern light on their growth, their shaping and their future; a survey. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1936.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. Race Life of the Aryan Peoples. New York: Funk & Wagnells [1907]. ISBN B000859S6O In this massive best-selling two volume work, Widney describes in Volume One the origin of the Aryans (i.e., the Proto-Indo-Europeans) in what is now Ukraine about 5000 BC, and how they spread out and formed the great Aryan empires such as the Hittite empire, Persian empire, Mauryan empire, Macedonian empire, Roman empire, Gupta empire, Spanish empire, French empire, and British empire; in Volume Two is described the major present-day subraces of the Aryans (i.e., the Indo-Europeans) and their varying racial characteristics, i.e., the Indo-Aryans (including the Sinhalese and Maldivians), Indo-Iranians (including Armenians), Balts, Slavs, Gypsies, Albanians, Greeks, Romanics, Nordics, Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Americans, North American White Hispanics, White Latin Americans, Anglo-Australians, Anglo-New Zealanders, Anglo-Africans, and Boers.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. The song of the Engle men;: And an appeal to the widely-scattered Engle men of the world. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Pub. Co. [1937]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. The Three Americas: Their Racial Past and the Dominant Racial Factors of their Future. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1935.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. To the Engle peoples of the world. [1903]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. Via Domini. [1937]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. The Way of Life; Holiness Unto the Lord; The Indwelling Spirit; The Baptism of the Holy Ghost Los Angeles, 1900.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. Whither away?: The problem of death and the hereafter. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1934.

Articles by Widney

Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "And They Sang as It Were a New Song." Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 14: 83 (Nov 1889): 548. [62]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Cain." Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 13: 1 (July 1874): 30-37. [63]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "The Chinese Question." Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 2: 12 (Dec 1883) 627-631. [64]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Climatic Changes Which Man is Working in Southern California." The Southern California Practitioner 1 (October 1886): 389–93. Widney credited white settlement with several improvements in the Southern California climate, including less variation in temperature, milder winds, and increased rainfall.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "The Colorado Desert." Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 10: 1 (Jan 1873): 44-50. [65]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "The Communist's Baby." Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 12: 2 (Feb 1874): 138-140. [66]See also *Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. 'The Communist's Baby,' pages 255-260 in The City's Voice: Pioneer Prose And Poetry From The Overland Monthly (Early California Writers Series), edited by Devorah Knaff . Santa Ana River Press, 2004. See also p. 332.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "The Faith Cure Fallacy," Southern California Practitioner 1 (1886): 118-22.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "A Historical Sketch of the Movement for a Political Separatrion of the Two Californias, Northern and Southern, Under the Spanish and American Regimes." Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California 1 (1888-1889): 21-24.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Irrigation and Drainage," in California State Board of Health: Seventh Biennial Report, 1880-1881. Sacramento, CA: 1882. Pages 104-6.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Letter from Ft. Bowie, 1867." Kiva: Journal of Southwestern Anthroplogy and History 30:3 (c.1965):87-90. [67]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Mr. James Nesmith." Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 13: 4 (Oct 1874): 315-318. [68]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "A New Europe." Calif West Med. 48:2 (February 1938): 78-79.
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "A Pacific Coast Policy." Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 13: 78 (June 1889): 619-622. [69]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Pepita." Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 12: 1 (Jan 1874): 18-20. [70]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Rational Medicine: A “Fifty-Year-Ago” Article." Calif West Med. 44:6 (June 1936): 461. [71]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Rational or Liberal Medicine: As Understood some “Fifty Years Ago”: Part II." Calif West Med. 45:1 (July 1936): 58-61. [72]
Widney, Joseph Pomeroy. "Report of Committee on Medical Topography, Meteorology, Endemics, and Epidemics." Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of California, Session of 1889 [19th], 15–16.

Archival Material

Collections held at The Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, CA 91108 Phone: 626-405-2180
Email: jwatts@huntington.org

Title: Automobile Club of Southern California Collection of Photographs and Negatives
Dates: 1898-1982
Dates: bulk 1920s-1930s
Quantity: 58 boxes, 45.36 linear feet
Abstract:
The collection consists of 6240 black-and-white and color photographs, pen and ink drawings, and postcards, 1412 black-and-white and color negatives, 2606 black-and-white and color slides, and ephemeral materials, 1898-1982 (bulk 1920s-1930s). The Automobile Club of Southern California collected the materials, and they form a general photographic reference collection as well as a broad visual survey of topics of interest to California motorists. Included are images of sites in North and Central America (with an emphasis on California), Europe, the Pacific Islands, and portraits, as well as images related to other subjects of interest to the Club's membership. Many of the images were published as illustrations for articles in the Club's first member magazine, Touring Topics. Includes material relating to Joseph Pomeroy Widney [101]
Identification: photCL 375

Title: Historical Society of Southern California Collection of Portrait Photographs
Dates: ca. 1850s-1997
Dates: (bulk 1860s-1930s);
Quantity: 12 boxes, 13.92 linear ft.
Abstract: The collection consists of 809 photographs in a variety of formats, circa 1850s-1997 (bulk 1860s-1930s). It is a reference collection of individual and group portraits and contains portraits of both prominent and lesser-known Los Angelenos and Southern Californians from both the 19th and 20th centuries.
Location: Box 9 Item 689 Rufus von Kleinsmid and J.P. Widney, undated
Collection no.: photCL 400 volume 31

Title: Otis R. "Dock" Marston Papers
Creator: Marston, Otis
Extent:
ca.432 boxes, 251 albums, 163 motion picture reels, 38 D2 videotape cassettes (with S-VHS and VHS dubs), 60 photo file boxes. A partial list of printed items transferred from the Marston Collection to the Huntington's general book collection is available on request.
Location: Box 251 Folder 26 Joseph P. Widney
Location: Box 355 Folder 8 Imperial Valley: early irrigation and water projects - J.P. Widney and Oliver Meredith Wozencraft

Title: Solano-Reeve Papers, 1849-c.1910
Creator: Solano, Alfred and Reeve, Sidney B.
Extent: 3225 pieces, including over 2100 maps and sketch maps
Location: Volume 178 Goldsworthy, John. 1883(1/31-6/19) Book 59: Widney, Dr. J.P., N. Side 1st Street;
Location: Volume 201-A Goldsworthy, John. 1884(5/20)-1885(3/14) Book 66: Dr. Widney , Olive & 4th & Charity St.;
Location: Volume 222 Goldsworthy, John. 1887(9/6)-1888(7/12) Book 36; 2; Gavin: Dr. J.P. Widney lot;
Location: Volume 236 Goldsworthy, John. 1887(9/23)-1889(8/5) Book 34: J.P. Widney (J.P. Widney) Fort & Sixth St.s;
Location: Volume 244 Field Book 361: 1904-1906 Dr. J.P. Widney;

Collection held at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90007 (213) 763-DINO:
Number 1127 Joseph Pomeroy Widney Scrapbooks, 1870-1890 (Boxes: 1 ½-width legal, 1 ov) Scrapbooks contain correspondence and clippings, including many speeches made by Widney, on a variety of topics. Includes material pertaining to proposals to divide California into two states, Wilmington/San Pedro harbor improvements, education (including a proposal of a State university at Elysian Park), medicine and climate in California, and transportation development in Southern California. Correspondents include Leland Stanford. [102]

Collection held at The Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, UCLA, Box 951575 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. Box 191 Folders 2-4 Widney, Joseph Pomeroy Folder 2 Correspondence. 1931-1940 Folder 3 Photographs. n.d. Folder 4 Magazine articles and published materials. 1895 & 1936-38 Articles from University Courier & Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine and various publications. [103]

'Collections held at the UCLA Library Department of Special Collections The California Ephemera Collection, 1860-' Collection number: 200 Creator: Collection assembled by the UCLA Library Department of Special Collections. Extent: 216 boxes (108 linear ft.) 5 oversize boxes 5 oversize folders Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections. Los Angeles, California 90095-1575 Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information. Language: English. Box 109 Widney, Joseph Pomeroy, 1841-1938. [104]

Collection Title: Misc. Manuscripts Collection Contributing Institution: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections. Collection Dates: ca. 1750- Items Online: None online. Must visit contributing institution. Summary: Collection consists of miscellaneous 18th, 19th, and 20th century manuscript materials, typewritten transcripts, holographs, and facsimiles. Includes literary manuscripts, correspondence, letters, diaries, scripts, legal documents, photographs, and audio tapes related to various prominent literary, political, and intellectual figures.... Search terms in context: Card under H. Miller. 191 2-4 Widney, Joseph Pomeroy 191 2 Correspondence. 1931-1940... [105]

Collection held at Tennessee State Library and Archives, 403 Seventh Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37243-0312
JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE (1858-1929) PAPERS (1849 - 1957)
Box 16
9. Correspondence – J. P. Widney to John T. Moore
14. Correspondence – John T. Moore to J. P. Widney, 1920-1921
The figures in parentheses immediately following each name denote the total number of letters from that person in the collection; the dates are for the period covered by the letters; identification of the writer is included whenever possible; and the last numbers given refer to the box or boxes in which the correspondence may be found.
Widney, J. P. (14), 1920-1929, 16 [106]

Collection held at Northern Arizona University (NAU) Cline Library Manuscript Collections The Arizona Historical Society/Northern Division [AHS-NAD] Manuscript Collections listed within the NAU Manuscripts Collections Inventory are accessible at the Northern Arizona University Cline Library Special Collections and Archives department. For questions regarding the Arizona Historical Society/Northern Division collections call the AHS-NAD Archivist at (928) 774-6272. FORT BOWIE, ARIZONA COLLECTION NAU manuscript collection #66 Xerox of a letter written by J.P. Widney an officer stationed at Ft. Bowie, Arizona in 1867. Also describes southern Arizona, particularly Tucson. Photostat copy. 1 file folder [107]

Collection held at Arizona Historical Society. Southern Arizona Division. Library and Archives. Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, Carnegie Center · 1101 W. Washington · Phoenix, AZ 85007 Ph: 602.255.2110 | Fax: 602.255.3314 Creator: Schneider, Gustav van Hemert (1885-1951) Title: Personal documents and photographs. Date: 1903-1930. Call Num: MS 0715 Extent Description: N/A Description: Correspondence, blueprint caricatures of coworkers, maps, ephemera, certificates and photographs concerning Schneider and his collecting interests. Includes health department certificates, a list of Tucson's Gay Alley prostitutes, 1910 to 1917, and letters from J.P. Widney, U.S. Army surgeon. [108]

History of USC, USC.edu

Additional Resources and Links

Google Maps of Locations in Life and Ministry of Dr Joseph Pomeroy Widney (1841-1938)

Preceded by Marion M. Bovard	President of the University of Southern California 1892-1895	Succeeded by George W. White

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