Henry Clay Needham.
Pen Pictures From the Garden of the World,
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California, Page 575.
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1889.

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H. Clay Needham, Superintendent of St. John subdivision of the San Francisco Rancho, took charge of this business in 1889. The tract embraces 10,000 acres of land, on which the town of Newhall now stands. This land was bought some years ago by ex-Governor John P. St. John, of Olathe, Kansas; George B. Katzenstein, of Sacramento, California, and Jesse Yarnell, of Los Angeles, California.

This land has an altitude of 1,300 feet, in the beautiful foot-hills skirting the Santa Clara Valley, and only two miles north of the wonderful San Fernando Tunnel. It embraces every variety of desirable soil and climate to be found in Southern California. The purity of the water and the clear atmosphere makes Newhall and its surroundings one of the healthiest localities in the State.

Mr. Needham will be found at his post, clever and obliging, ready to attend to business in the most expeditious manner. He comes from Hardin County, Kentucky, and was born in 1851. He is a son of P.S. Needham, a farmer and miller, who died in Kentucky in 1886. The subject of this sketch was educated at Hamilton College, Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and subsequently went to Kansas, where he taught school for two years. Then he went into the coal business and bought and leased lands till 1884. From 1884 till 1889 he engaged in stock-raising and farming. He also engaged in the lumber and hardware business in Arcadia, Kansas, and while there served as mayor of that city.

He was married in Kansas, in 1878, to Miss Lillie F. Taylor. She is a native of Warren County, Kentucky. The following are the names of their children: Nellie May, Blanche Pearle, Russell Everet and Neal. Both Mr. and Mrs. Needham are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and earnest workers in the Sunday-school.

Mr. Needham is a recent acquisition to this State, but by his genial disposition and business qualifications he has won a place already in the hearts of his fellow-men; and through his ability as a salesman and the desirability of the lands, very many home-seekers ought soon to find places in the St. John's Prohibition Colony.