Joseph Pomeroy Widney - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Joseph Pomeroy Widney, M.D. D.D. LL.D (December 26, 1841 — July 4, 1938) was a polymath

Polymath

A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...

ic pioneer American physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

, clergyman, entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

-philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

, proto-environmentalist

Environmentalist

An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

, prohibitionist, racial theorist, and prolific author.

He was the second President of the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

and the founding dean of the USC School of Medicine. He was one of the founders and first general superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene

Church of the Nazarene

The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...

, and primary founder of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. One of the "most conspicuous Southern Californians of his generation", Widney was a cultural leader in Los Angeles for nearly seventy years,

Early life

Joseph Pomeroy Widney was born on December 26, 1841 in his grandfather's log cabin in Piqua, Ohio

Piqua, Ohio

Piqua is a city in Miami County, Ohio, United States. The population was 20,738 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area.Piqua was one of the cities that experienced severe flooding during the Great Dayton Flood of 1913....

in the forests of Miami County, Ohio

Miami County, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 98,868 people, 38,437 households, and 27,943 families residing in the county. The population density was 243 people per square mile . There were 40,554 housing units at an average density of 100 per square mile...

. He was the third son of John Wilson Widney (born 4 December 1809; died 1852) and Arabella Maclay Widney (born 1811; died 15 February 1880). He was the nephew of Robert Samuel Maclay

Robert Samuel Maclay

Rev. Robert Samuel Maclay, D.D. was an American missionary who made pioneer contributions to the Methodist Episcopal missions in China, Japan and Korea.- Early life :...

, a pioneer missionary to China; and of Charles Maclay

Charles Maclay

Charles Maclay was a California State Senator and the funder of the city of San Fernando, California in the San Fernando Valley.-History:Charles Maclay's heritage was from Ireland and Scotland...

, later a state senator of California. At the age of fifteen, Joseph became head of the family after his father died of pneumonia at the age of 42, as his two older brothers John Widney (born 14 March 1837; died 1925) and Robert Maclay Widney

Robert Maclay Widney

Robert Maclay Widney was an American lawyer, judge, and a founding father of The University of Southern California.He was born in Piqua, Ohio. He was the older brother of Dr...

(1838–1929) had migrated west to California. He had to provide for his mother, two younger brothers: William Wilson Widney (born 25 December 1850) and Samuel Alexander Widney (born 15 November 1852), and two younger sisters: Arabella Erwin Widney (born 1843; died 1917) and Elizabeth Widney (born 1848) (latter married to Joseph Leggett).

After graduating from Piqua High School

Piqua High School

Piqua High School is a public high school in Piqua, Ohio. It is the only high school in the Piqua City Schools district. Their nickname is the Indians. Their colors are Red and Blue. Their main rival is the Troy Trojans, but their other rivalry is Sidney Yellow Jackets. Grades range from 9th to...

, Widney entered as a sophomore at Miami University

Miami University

Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...

at Oxford, Ohio

Oxford, Ohio

Oxford is a city in northwestern Butler County, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern portion of the state. It lies in Oxford Township, originally called the College Township. The population was 21,943 at the 2000 census. This college town was founded as a home for Miami University. Oxford...

. Widney studied Latin, Greek, and the classics during his five months there. In 1907, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree for his Race Life of the Aryan Peoples. The poet-preacher David Swing

David Swing

David Swing was a United States teacher and clergyman who was the most popular Chicago preacher of his time.- Early life :Swing was born to Alsatian immigrant parents in Cincinnati, Ohio....

was one of his instructors.

In 1861 he enlisted in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army in the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. Though in frail health, Widney served in the field as a regular infantryman, and became a medical corpsman. He was trained to administer first aid to wounded soldiers. He was transferred onto steamers on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in a medical capacity. He was discharged from the Union army in 1862 due to physical and nervous collapse.

With the encouragement of his two older brothers and his uncle, Charles Maclay

Charles Maclay

Charles Maclay was a California State Senator and the funder of the city of San Fernando, California in the San Fernando Valley.-History:Charles Maclay's heritage was from Ireland and Scotland...

, who were in California, Widney sailed to San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

via the Isthmus of Panama

Isthmus of Panama

The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...

, arriving in November 1862, prior to his twenty-first birthday. He travelled throughout California on horseback, visited the missions and lived with the Spanish-speaking inhabitants, learning their culture and language.

He returned to university in 1865, receiving a Master of Arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

degree from the California Wesleyan College (later the University of the Pacific), (then located at Santa Clara, California

Santa Clara, California

Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...

). In January 1866, he moved to San Francisco and on June 4, 1866 began the third session of the medical course at the Toland Medical College (later part of the University of California, San Francisco

University of California, San Francisco

The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...

, graduating at the head of his class with a Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

(M.D.) degree on October 2, 1866. He was awarded a gold medal in recognition of his superior scholarship.

Marriages

Widney married twice. His first wife was Ida DeGraw Tuthill Widney (born November 17, 1844 in Orient in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York), whom he married on May 17, 1869 in San Jose, California

San Jose, California

San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

. They had three children, each of whom died in infancy: Ada, who died at the age of fourteen months in August 1870; an unnamed son who died in 1872; and another son, Joseph T. Widney, who died aged six months old in June 1874. They lived in a Victorian mansion at 129 S. Hill Street in the Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

Bunker Hill, in the downtown area of Los Angeles, California, is a short, developed hill with its peak located roughly around 3rd Street. It is located directly east of the Harbor Freeway...

area, next to his brother Judge Robert M. Widney. Ida died in Los Angeles on February 10, 1879 and is buried in the Los Angeles City Cemetery, in the family plot.

Widney then married on December 27, 1882 in Santa Clara, California

Santa Clara, California

to Miss Mary Bray (born April 26, 1845 in Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

), the daughter of the late John G. Bray, a pioneer merchant of San Francisco, and first president of the San Jose Bank. Mrs. Mary Widney was a respected artist prior to her marriage. They had no children. On February 18, 1884 flooding of the Los Angeles River

Los Angeles River

The Los Angeles River is a river that starts in the San Fernando Valley, in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and flows through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the western end of the San Fernando Valley, nearly southeast to its mouth in Long Beach...

resulted in the loss of 43 homes. "Widney lost the most expensive house in the area, built fifteen months before at the foot of Sainsevain Street [now East Commercial Street] at a cost of $2000". Dr. and Mrs. Widney then established their new home at 150 W. Adams Boulevard (formerly S. 26th Street), nearer the newly established University of Southern California. As the founder of the Flower Festival Society, Mary Widney was responsible for organising flower festivals that raised money to support the Woman's Home, a home for up to seventy poor working women. Mary Bray Widney died on March 10, 1903 at their home at 150 W. Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles. Dr Widney never remarried.

Later years

In 1929 Widney was injured by an automobile which was backing out from the curb. 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. He 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

Doctor of Divinity

Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....

(D.D.) degree from the University of Southern California in recognition of his life of scholarly contributions.

Widney died at 10:50 a.m. on July 4, 1938 in his home at 3901 Marmion Way, Highland Park, Los Angeles, California

Highland Park, Los Angeles, California

Highland Park is a neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles.-Geography:Highland Park is located along the Arroyo Seco. It is situated within what was once Rancho San Rafael of the Spanish / Mexican era...

, aged 96. After services held in his own home, he was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery at Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California

Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California

Boyle Heights is a neighborhood east of Downtown Los Angeles on the East Side of Los Angeles. For much of the twentieth century, Boyle Heights was a gateway for new immigrants. This resulted in diverse demographics, including Jewish American, Japanese American and Mexican American populations,...

on July 6, 1938 in his family plot. A replica of his Marmion Way bedroom is on display at the General Phineas Banning

Phineas Banning

Phineas Banning was an American businessman, financier, and entrepreneur.Known as "The Father of the Port of Los Angeles," he was one of the founders of the town of Wilmington, which was named for his birthplace...

Residential Museum in Wilmington, California.

In March 1939 the new Crippled Children's High School (located at 2302 S. Gramercy Place, Los Angeles) was renamed the Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney High School. This school is for those aged 13 to 22 with special educational needs. The historic Widney Hall Alumni House (now located at 650 Child's Way (originally W. 36th Street) at the University of Southern California) Widney Hall, the university's original building, was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 70) on December 16, 1970. The University of Southern California honors its distinguished graduates by presenting the Widney Alumni Award. His portrait was painted by American artist Orpha Mae Klinker (born 20 November 1891; died 23 May 1964), and a bust of Widney was sculpted by Emil Seletz (1907–1999).

Medical career

After his graduation from Toland Medical College (the only medical school at that time in California) on October 2, 1866, 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

Drum Barracks

The Drum Barracks, also known as Camp Drum and the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, is the last remaining original American Civil War era military facility in the Los Angeles area...

in Wilmington, California for a month in 1867, before being appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon for the Arizona Territory

Arizona Territory

The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....

during the Apache Wars

Apache Wars

The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States and Apaches fought in the Southwest from 1849 to 1886, though other minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. The Confederate Army participated in the wars during the early 1860s, for instance in Texas, before being...

. During this time he served with the 14th Infantry Regiment under General James Henry Carleton

James Henry Carleton

James Henry Carleton was an officer in the Union army during the American Civil War. Carleton is most well known as an Indian fighter in the southwestern United States.-Biography:...

(1814–1873). The regiment camped for several weeks two miles (3 km) south of La Paz, Arizona

La Paz, Arizona

La Paz was a short-lived, early gold mining town along the Colorado River in La Paz County on the western border of the U.S. state of Arizona. It was the location of the La Paz Incident in 1863, the westernmost confrontation of the American Civil War. The town was settled in 1862 in what was then...

en route to Camp Date Creek, where they were based for several months where he helped reestablish that post. By July 1867 he was based near Apache Pass

Apache Pass

Apache Pass is a historic passage in the U.S. state of Arizona between the Dos Cabezas Mountains and Chiricahua Mountains, approximately 32 km E-SE of Willcox, Arizona.-Apache Spring:...

during the re-building of Fort Bowie

Fort Bowie

Fort Bowie was a 19th century outpost of the United States Army located in southeastern Arizona near the present day town of Willcox, Arizona.Fort Bowie was established in 1862 after a series of engagements between the U.S. Military and the Chiricahua Apaches. The most violent of which was the...

, where he supervised the building of the Post Hospital.

In December 1867 he asked for a discharge from the military. 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".

In late 1868, Widney was discharged from the military and he moved to the embryonic community of Los Angeles. Widney began his 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 were General William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...

and Mexican bandido Tiburcio Vasquez

Tiburcio Vasquez

Tiburcio Vásquez was a Californio bandit who was active in California from 1854 to 1874. The Vasquez Rocks, 40 miles north of Los Angeles, were one of his many hideouts and are named for him.-Early life:...

, as well as the indigent ill.

Before the passage of the "Anti-Quackery Law" by the California State Legislature on April 3, 1876, licenses were not needed for doctors. The medical profession was not regulated by the State before this date and medical practitioners would advertise their medical skills in the newspapers. Concerned about "medical quackery" in California, and also at the lack of legislation for licensing doctors, on January 31, 1871, Dr Widney became a founder of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, the oldest such association in California. Widney became known as "the Father of the Association".

The founders wanted to establish medical schools and publications, raise the standards in the practice of medicine, as well as the income and status of doctors. Widney advocated dispensing aid to "the sickly poor" as a key facet of public health and civic philanthropy. From 1876 to 1901, medical licensing was done by the State Medical Society. In 1901, the State Board of Medical Examiners was created. Widney was among the first licensed by the medical society. Dr Widney was elected its president in 1877. On May 12, 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.

Widney believed in scientific medicine. He opposed were faith healing or "mind cure" practitioners, such as Christian Science

Christian Science

Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...

and John Alexander Dowie

John Alexander Dowie

John Alexander Dowie was a Scottish evangelist and faith healer who ministered in Australia and the United States. He founded the city of Zion, Illinois, and the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church...

. In 1886, Widney, then professor of the principles and practice of medicine in the college of medicine of the University of Southern California, proposed a protocol for such studies.

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

In 1884, Widney helped re-organise the Southern California Medical Society. He served on the Committee on Medical Topography, Meteorology, Endemic

Endemic (epidemiology)

In epidemiology, an infection is said to be endemic in a population when that infection is maintained in the population without the need for external inputs. For example, chickenpox is endemic in the UK, but malaria is not...

s 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

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...

(1769–1859), that studied the relationship between the environment and disease. "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.

In 1886 Widney helped establish the Southern California Practitioner, the monthly journal of that society. He served as one of the editors for the first few years. 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.

Widney attributed the health of southern Californian residents to the climate and to the availability of fresh fruit. He was impressed with the therapeutic benefits of strawberries. Widney believed his own long life could be attributed to living simply and keeping busy. 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". He recommended at least eight hours sleep each night and short naps throughout the day.

Despite being "the most distinguished physician in the city", upon his election as the president of the University of Southern California in 1892, Widney discontinued his lucrative medical practice at age 51, continuing to treat a few personal friends.. When he was with the Los Angeles City Mission (1894) and the Church of the Nazarene (1895–1898), Widney offered free medical care for those unable to afford treatment.

The environment

While stationed at Drum Barracks and in the deserts of Arizona, Widney began a lifelong 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. Widney was concerned about conserving water and was one of the first to warn about what later came to be called smog

Smog

Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...

, identifying it as a concern in 1938 (some five years before it was officially recognised in Los Angeles).

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.

As early as January 1873, Widney advocated in print the flooding of the Colorado Desert to re-establish Lake Cahuilla

Lake Cahuilla

Prehistoric Lake Cahuilla was an extensive freshwater lake that filled the Coachella, Imperial, and Mexicali valleys of southeastern California and northeastern Baja California during the centuries prior to Spanish entry into the region...

. This marked his first appearance in print after his arrival in California. Widney believed that by diverting the Colorado River

Colorado River

The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...

into the Salton Sink

Salton Sink

The Salton Sink is a geographic sink in the Coachella and Imperial valleys of southeastern California. It is in the Colorado Desert subregion of the Sonoran Desert ecoregion...

that this would increase the rainfall in the area, eliminate the deserts of southern California, and create a new Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...

in what was renamed the Imperial Valley in about 1901. His creation would stretch from the Delta all the way to Palm Springs

Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...

, just as 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

O. M. Wozencraft

Oliver M. Wozencraft was a prominent early American settler in California. He had substantial involvement in negotiating treaties between California Native American Indian tribes and the United States of America...

and Arizona Territory Governor General John C. Fremont

John C. Frémont

John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...

, who travelled to Washington to convince Congress of the project's potential. George Wharton James

George Wharton James

George Wharton James was a prolific popular lecturer and journalist, writing more than 40 books and many articles and pamphlets on California and the American Southwest....

' book, The Wonders of the Colorado Desert, published in 1906, introduced the second volume with a whole chapter on Widney's arguments:

In 1873, a Los Angeles booster named JP Widney had proposed that the city create an artificial lake in the nearby Colorado Desert in order to moisten the atmosphere and free the region from the curse of aridity. A mere two decades later, there was more fear that Los Angeles might be blighted by the curse of humidity. In the summer and fall of 1891, heavy rainfall and flooding created the inland sea in question, and with rain continuing for some time, it seemed to be having the effects that Widney had promised. "

However, Widney's proposal was also criticized by Horace Bell in his Reminiscences of a Ranger. According to Lindsay,

A proposal to once again inundate the Salton Trough, by diverting the entire flow of the Colorado River, was made in 1873 by Dr. JP Widney. His scheme was named the "Widney Sea." His proposal lead to a lively discussion in Los Angeles newspapers until Gen. George Stoneman proved the impracticality of such a proposal.

In his 1935 book, The Three Americas, Widney argued that the fabled lost city of Atlantis

Atlantis

Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....

once existed in the area where the Bahamas are now located. He believed that Atlantis was a large semi-tropical island ("larger than Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

and Asia - [ Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

, now Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

]"), stretching west of Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

and east of the West Indies, inhabited by peoples from the Americas rather than from Europe. He believed that the Sargasso Sea

Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea is a region in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by ocean currents. It is bounded on the west by the Gulf Stream; on the north, by the North Atlantic Current; on the east, by the Canary Current; and on the south, by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current. This...

now covers part of the now submerged Atlantis. He argued that Atlantis was built up originally from the soil washed into the ocean from Africa and South America, and that it eventually subsided because "in the course of the ages the time came when the fissure in the earth's crust could no longer sustain the weight, and Atltantis went down". He also believed that there was a submerged lost continent in the South Pacific Ocean.

Author

In 1872, Widney helped to found the Los Angeles Library Association, 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) and Judge Benjamin Hayes (1815–1877), Widney wrote and edited the first history of Los Angeles County, 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

California Hospital Medical Center

California Hospital Medical Center is a hospital in Los Angeles, California, USA. It is currently operated by Catholic Healthcare West.-Services:The emergency department at CHMC is certified as a level II trauma center for adults.-History:...

, 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. He discussed such topics as the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

and its shortcomings; judicial reform (he advocated trials by judges rather than juries for criminal cases); and the future of modern civilizations. With the exception of his two-volume magnum opus

Masterpiece

Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....

, Race Life of the Aryan Peoples
Race Life of the Aryan Peoples
Race Life of the Aryan Peoples is a book written by Joseph Pomeroy Widney, published in New York by Funk & Wagnells in 1907, of the history of the Aryan race, a hypothesized race commonly described in the late 19th and early 20th century as consisting of native Indo-European Language-speaking...

, 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.

Widney revealed in his Civilizations and Their Diseases (1937),

I have never written for money. The sole object has been the carving out of broader lines for the human race. For more than fifty years of careful historical study, I have thought, and planned, and worked to this end. This ultimate purpose has run through all my publications.

Real estate

Widney had been impressed with the potential of Los Angeles since his first visit there in January 1867 when posted to Drum Barracks. He 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". Widney was the brother of lawyer (and later Judge) Robert Maclay Widney

Robert Maclay Widney

Robert Maclay Widney was an American lawyer, judge, and a founding father of The University of Southern California.He was born in Piqua, Ohio. He was the older brother of Dr...

(1838–1929), the city's first real estate agent and publisher of The Real Estate Advertiser, the city's first real estate paper, who had settled in Los Angeles earlier in 1868. 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. By 1900, the Los Angeles Times described him as "an extensive property owner in this city". At one time he owned the Widney Block on First Street (near the corner of Temple and Spring Streets), another Widney Block located at Sixth and Broadway, and a property at the corner of Ninth and Santee streets, where he erected the Nazarene Methodist Episcopal Church. Additionally, he owned a building at 445-447 Aliso Street, where the first college of medicine for the University of Southern California was located from 1885 to 1896.

Widney's speculation in land started early. Between April 29, 1869 and August 28, 1871, he purchased thirty-four lots in Wilmington near the San Pedro

San Pedro, Los Angeles, California

San Pedro is a port district of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was annexed in 1909 and is a major seaport of the area...

harbor area and another 60 acres (242,811.6 m²) near the San Gabriel Mission (Rand 28). He owned the parcel of land where the Los Angeles City Hall

Los Angeles City Hall

Los Angeles City Hall, completed 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council...

now stands, as well as most of Mt. Washington, Los Angeles, California

Mt. Washington, Los Angeles, California

Mount Washington is a neighborhood located in the hills of northeastern Los Angeles, California.-Geography:The boundaries of Mount Washington are roughly defined by Division Street on the west, El Paso Drive and Avenue 50 on the northeast, Marmion Way on the southeast, and Isabel street on the...

, on which his last home (a Victorian mansion at 3901 Marmion Way) stood.

During the Los Angeles real estate boom in 1885, Dr Widney purchased 35000 acres (142 km²) of land (located 75 miles (121 km) northeast of Los Angeles) comprising the relatively undeveloped township of Hesperia, California

Hesperia, California

Hesperia is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is located in the Mojave Desert north of San Bernardino. The locals refer to the surrounding area as the High Desert...

. Widney formed the Hesperia Land and Water Company to create a town. Hesperia was advertised as either the "New York, Chicago" and Denver of the West". This was one of the more controversial real estate ventures associated with Widney. Major Horace Bell, in his On the Old West Coast, a personal reflection on that period, critiqued the boomers, as a "speculative conspiracy against all that was honest." No houses were built in "Widneyville."

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.

The Los Angeles Times of June 2, 1887 reported that Widney had purchased a hotel and several bath houses in the town of Iron-Sulphur Springs (formerly known as Fulton Wells, and known today as Santa Fe Springs), fifteen miles (24 km) east of downtown Los Angeles. In 1886 the springs were purchased by the Santa Fe Railroad, which renamed the town after itself..

Progressive

Widney believed in progress. He was said, "We may look lovingly back on log cabin days, but the looking back must be done over a multi-lane highway, not along a cow track". He was still articulating grand plans for the development of Los Angeles after the age of 95. In 1937 he wrote "A Plan for the Development of Los Angeles as a Great World Health Center." To facilitate the development of Los Angeles, Widney proposed building a series of roads and tunnels that would transverse and pierce the Sierra Madre Mountains

Sierra Madre Mountains (California)

The Sierra Madre Mountains are a mountain range in northern Santa Barbara County, California, USA. They are a portion of the Inner South Coast Ranges, representing the southernmost part, which are themselves part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America. The Sierra Madre Mountains...

, thus linking the city and the interior desert. According to Carl Rand, Widney postulated:

The whole future of the city lies within our own hands. Los Angeles Harbor (which ought to have been larger and deeper); the great Desert City which may be; and the Colorado River water system; these are the three factors which will settle the future of the City of Los Angeles. And the time to strike is now!

Booster

Widney was a prominent booster

Boosterism

Boosterism is the act of "boosting," or promoting, one's town, city, or organization, with the goal of improving public perception of it. Boosting can be as simple as "talking up" the entity at a party or as elaborate as establishing a visitors' bureau. It is somewhat associated with American small...

of Southern California. 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". Widney envisioned Los Angeles "developing into the health capital of the world, a heliopolis of holistic health culture".

Widney was an active member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce

Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing the interests of more than 235,000 businesses in L.A...

since October 1888, and served as its chairman or secretary. Widney's first two books were written to promote (or "boost") California. In California of the South (1888), described by David Fine as "one of the earliest booster tracts" Widney and Walter Lindley wrote: "The health-seeker who, after suffering in both mind and body, after vainly trying the cold climate of Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

and the warm climate of Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, after visiting Menton

Menton

Menton is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.Situated on the French Riviera, along the Franco-Italian border, it is nicknamed la perle de la France ....

e, Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

, and Nice

Nice

Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

, after traveling to Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

and Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

, and noticing that he is losing ounce upon ounce of flesh, and his cheeks have grown more sunken, his appetite more capricious, his breath more hurried, that his temperature is no longer normal,... turns with a gleam of hope toward the Occident"—by which they meant Southern California. Many people followed that gleam and found it something more than hope".

Public service

Widney did much in outlining the railroad, maritime and commercial policy of Southern California. He and his brother Robert were prime examples of entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

ial professionals. They proved to be "effective lobbyists for the Southern Pacific [railroad] and for harbor improvements" and were especially "active in transport enterprises and in the development of the San Pedro harbor".

As early as 1871 Widney saw the need for Los Angeles to have its own harbor, and with Phineas Banning

Phineas Banning

successfully lobbied the United States Congress for funding for the establishment of the harbor at San Pedro, California (the Port of Los Angeles

Port of Los Angeles

The Port of Los Angeles, also called Los Angeles Harbor and WORLDPORT L.A, is a port complex that occupies of land and water along of waterfront. The port is located on San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles, approximately south of downtown...

). In 1881 Widney was described in the Los Angeles Times as the "prime mover of Wilmington Harbor". He was chairman of the Los Angeles Citizens' Committee on the Wilmington Harbor. He wrote the memorials to the U.S. Congress advocating the deepening of the harbor. He 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, ensuring these lands remained in public hands.

Widney was discussed the feasibility of dividing the state of California and establishing the commonwealth

Commonwealth

Commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has sometimes been synonymous with "republic."More recently it has been used for fraternal associations of some sovereign nations...

of Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

. He wrote on the subject, and was regarded as "one of the ablest and most enthusiastic advocates of the new 'California of the South'". For many years Widney advocated unsuccessfully for the division of the state of California into at least two (and later he advocated four) states, in order to maximise its representation in the U.S. Senate. He indicated in 1880 that "the topography, geography, climatic and commercial laws all work for the separation of California into two distinct civil organizations". In 1888, Widney contended that "two distinct peoples are growing up in the state, and the time is rapidly drawing near when the separation which the working of natural laws is making in the people must become a separation of civil laws as well".

In his book The Three Americas(1935), Widney suggested that the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa form an Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

federation

Federation

A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...

with freedom of migration and a common citizenship

Citizenship

Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...

.

While Widney was Republican in general politics, he was "an earnest worker in the cause of temperance". In an 1886 Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

op-ed

Op-ed

An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...

piece Widney suggested that the liquor question

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

- 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. He was interested in the progress of prohibition, and served as head of the city's nonpartisan anti-saloon league.

Educator

Widney is regarded as "the outstanding early educator of Los Angeles".

Widney was involved in the University of Southern California from its conception in 1879, and served as a member of the Board of Trustees of USC from 1880 to 1895.

Widney was the person most responsible for the creation of the USC College of Medicine in 1885 at the beginning of a three-year "boom" cycle in Los Angeles real estate, and served as its founding dean, a responsibility he accepted for the next eleven years until his resignation on September 22, 1896. According to Michael Carter, "the University Catalogue for the academic year 1884-85 declared that applicants to the medical school, as to the rest of USC, would not be denied admission because of 'race, color, religion or sex.'"

After the death of USC founding president the Reverend Marion McKinley Bovard

Marion McKinley Bovard

Marion McKinley Bovard was the first president of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. He held office from the school's founding in 1880 until his death in December 1891. At the time of its founding, the city of Los Angeles had only 11,000 people...

on December 30, 1891, the Board of Trustees elected Widney as the second president. He was reluctant to accept this responsibility, but after he "recognized a call of the Lord", 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 education.

The College of Liberal Arts was eighteen thousand dollars in debt. His 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. Widney himself went out on the streets and raised $15,000, giving his own personal security to back up the loans, saving USC from bankruptcy. The Southern California Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church increased its 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

Phineas F. Bresee

Phineas F. Bresee was the primary founder of the Church of the Nazarene, and founding president of Point Loma Nazarene University.-Early life and ministry:...

] 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". In the spring of 1895, Widney decided to resign after "four years of intensive unremunerated service to the university as its president". 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.

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

In October 1894 at the dedication of the Peniel Hall, Widney announced his intention to organize a Training Institute, in which Bible and practical nursing were to be the principal studies.

Religion

Widney was raised in the Greene Street Methodist Episcopal Church

Methodist Episcopal Church

The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...

in Piqua, Ohio

Piqua, Ohio

, where his father, Wilson Widney, was a steward. His uncle, Robert Samuel Maclay

Robert Samuel Maclay

Rev. Robert Samuel Maclay, D.D. was an American missionary who made pioneer contributions to the Methodist Episcopal missions in China, Japan and Korea.- Early life :...

(7 February 1824 - 18 August 1907, was the first Methodist missionary to China, as well as an early Methodist missionary to Japan and Korea.

He was an active lay leader of Los Angeles First Methodist Episcopal Church, and was close friends with one-time pastor, Rev. Phineas F. Bresee

Phineas F. Bresee

Phineas F. Bresee was the primary founder of the Church of the Nazarene, and founding president of Point Loma Nazarene University.-Early life and ministry:...

. The Widneys were mainstays of the "District Aid Committee," an organization devoted to securing better support for underpaid pastors. Dr. and Mrs. Widney and his sister, Arabella, were active in the evangelistic endeavors which Methodists carried on among the poor and unfortunate.

According to historian Timothy L. Smith, "all records agree that Widney was an honored citizen of both the city and the church he loved."

He was instrumental in the support and enlargement of the Los Angeles City Mission (the Peniel Mission

Peniel Mission

The Peniel Mission was an interdenominational holiness rescue mission that was started in Los Angeles, California on 11 November 1886 by Theodore Pollock Ferguson and Manie Payne Ferguson...

), especially from October 1894 when the 900-seat Peniel Hall located at 227 S. Main Street in Los Angeles was dedicated. The Peniel Mission, founded in 1886 (as the Los Angeles Mission) by Theodore Pollock Ferguson

Theodore Pollock Ferguson

Theodore Pollock Ferguson was a pioneer leader in the American Holiness Movement, a Christian evangelist and social worker who co-founded the Peniel Mission and Peniel Missionary Society.-Biographical Details:...

and Manie Payne Ferguson

Manie Payne Ferguson

Manie Payne Ferguson was a pioneer leader in the American Holiness Movement, a Christian evangelist and social worker who co-founded the Peniel Mission, and the author of several hymns, most notably "Blessed Quietness".- Early life :...

(born Carlow, Ireland, 1850; died 1932), was undenominational and nonsectarian. "Their entire work, like that of most of the city holiness missions, was oriented toward soul saving and the promotion of holiness".

According to Smith, "all the available evidence indicates that neither Bresee nor Widney was contemplating any change in his relationship with Peniel Mission or with the Methodist church". By early October 1895, Widney and Bresee were "frozen out" of the Peniel Mission. According to Smith, "Certainly J. P. Widney must have been disillusioned when A. B. Simpson, leader of the Christian and Missionary Alliance

Christian and Missionary Alliance

The Christian and Missionary Alliance is an evangelical Protestant denomination within Christianity.Founded by Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson in 1887, the Christian & Missionary Alliance did not start off as a denomination, but rather began as two distinct parachurch organizations: The Christian...

and reportedly an extremist on divine healing, appeared as a special worker at the mission in May [1895].

Bresee and Widney 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, October 6, 1895, in Red Men's Hall located at 317 S. Main Street in Los Angeles, a short distance from the Peniel Mission. A Los Angeles Times reporter wrote that the leaders "announced that although no name had been decided upon for the new denomination, its work was to be chiefly evangelistic and its government congregational".

After three weeks of meetings, on October 30, 1895, Bresee and Widney organised the Church of the Nazarene.

Widney was suggested the name of the infant denomination. Smith explains, "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."

In October 1898, Bresee and Widney each resigned as superintendent as they did not believe in life tenure in a church. The delegates from the various churches voted to limit the term of office for general superintendents to one year. They were subsequently re-elected to an annual term.

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.

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 his home at 150 W. 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. Widney met the entire costs of construction and ministered without compensation. The new building was dedicated on Sunday, June 3, 1900. The new facility incorporated on the ground floor a free reading room, a bath house for men to use, and two stores.

In 1903 this church was renamed the Beth-El Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregation soon relocated to a new property purchased by Widney at the corner of Pasadena Avenue and Avenue 39, as the Ninth and Santee Streets location was not successful in attracting non-churchgoers. Widney eventually resigned from the Methodist Episcopal church in 1911.

Widney advocated: "Man's religions must discard the impedimenta of wornout creeds and ecclesiastical forms, or else themselves be discarded. ... Abstruse creeds must go. Ecclesiastical shackles must be cast off. It [Christianity] must present to the world an understandable Faith, Church forms and rituals that are simple, a front not broken by the wrangling of sects: a Faith so simple and a Way of Life so plain.... Not until this is done can Christianity do its best work for the world" (All-Father, 2-3). 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".

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 and served later as co-pastor. Dr Widney played the violin during the services, while his brother Samuel played the violoncello, and Samuel's wife, Anna, played the organ.

Widney was regarded as "rather liberal in his religious views" 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."

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."

Widney was influenced by the teachings of accused heretical preacher David Swing

David Swing

David Swing was a United States teacher and clergyman who was the most popular Chicago preacher of his time.- Early life :Swing was born to Alsatian immigrant parents in Cincinnati, Ohio....

and Thomas Starr King

Thomas Starr King

Thomas Starr King was an American Unitarian and Universalist minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic...

, a broad-minded, religiously inclusive Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

minister, whose "style of liberalism was laced with a Transcendental mysticism and a grounding in love of nature... [who] laid a foundation for liberal Christianity in California tradition"; Widney described King as "as one of the few great and broad-minded spirits of the church" (Frankiel, p30.)http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft1z09n7fq&chunk.id=d0e464&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=eschol&query=widney#3. 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).

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."

Racial beliefs

Mike Davis describes Widney as "an ardent Aryanist" (who "called upon Los Angeles' captains of industry to become "the first Captains in the race war". 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)".

Widney lamented the erosion in numbers, influence, and power of the original Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

(generally referred to as "Mexican") population of California. Widney observed, "you could visit the hospitals and almshouses in the late 'eighties and look in vain for the Mexican or the Spaniard." He suggested that the old Mexican life of the province had retreated southward along the coastal plains that reach from Los Angeles to Acapulco

Acapulco

Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...

. Retreating before the Anglo invasion, the old life had never wholly vanished. "Whether they will or not," wrote Widney, "their future [that is, the future of the two groups] is one and together, and I think neither type of race life will destroy the other. They will merge. The tropic plains will help in the merging. Out of it will come a type, not of the north, not of the south, but the American of the semitropics."

Widney in his 1876 History indicates: "In the spring of 1850, probably three or four colored persons were in the city. In 1875, they numbered 175 souls, many of whom hold good city property acquired by industry. They are farmers, mechanics, or some other useful occupation, and remarkable for good habits".

African-American activist W. E. B. Du Bois used Widney's Race Life of the Aryan Peoples
Race Life of the Aryan Peoples
Race Life of the Aryan Peoples is a book written by Joseph Pomeroy Widney, published in New York by Funk & Wagnells in 1907, of the history of the Aryan race, a hypothesized race commonly described in the late 19th and early 20th century as consisting of native Indo-European Language-speaking...

to support his own view of the significance of the contributions of blacks to the development of modern civilization. Widney wrote "They [the Negroes] once occupied a much wider territory and wielded a vastly greater influence upon earth than they do now. ... The first Babylon seems to have been of a Negroid race. The earliest Egyptian civilization seems to have been Negroid. ... The Black seems to have built up a great empire, such as it was, by the waters of the Ganges before Mongol or Aryan. Way down under the mud and slime of the beginnings ... is the Negroid contribution to the fair superstructure of modern civilization.

In The Three Americas(1935), Widney suggests that the United States buy British Guiana

British Guiana

British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...

from the United Kingdom and give it to the African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s as reparations for slavery

Reparations for slavery

Reparations for slavery is a proposal that some type of compensation should be provided to the descendants of enslaved people in the United States, in consideration of the coerced and uncompensated labor their ancestors performed over several centuries...

. 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

Soil

Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...

and climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

, and thus he thought that African Americans would be happier living in a tropical climate

Tropical climate

A tropical climate is a climate of the tropics. In the Köppen climate classification it is a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures above...

.) Widney's primary motivation was to provide territory for the "rapidly multiplying black population of our land." However, he believed that the "negro

Negro

The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...

es" should not be compelled to migrate, but would desire to do so for climatic and economic reasons.

Books (co-authored)

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
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 was added an introduction by Dr. J. P. Widney.Los Angeles: O. W. Smith, Publisher, 1936. 10-159 pp.

Books and pamphlets (authored)

Ahasuerus: A race tragedy. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1915.
All Fader. [1909]
All-Father. [1933] Privately published eight-page pamphlet.
Civilizations and their diseases and Rebuilding a wrecked world civilization. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Pub. Co. [1937]
Conversational Gems of Doctor JP Widney. 1938.
The faith that has come to me. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1932.
The genesis and evolution of Islam and Judaeo-Christianity. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Pub. Co. [1932]
The greater city of Los Angeles: A plan for the development of Los Angeles city as a great world health center [1938]
A greater harbor of Los Angeles. [1938]
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?].
The lure and the land;: An idyl of the Pacific. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1932.
A New Europe. [1937] Issued separately, but also included in Widney's Civilizations and their Diseases.
A New Orient. [1937] Issued separately, but also included in Widney's Civilizations and their Diseases.
Race life and race religions;: Modern light on their growth, their shaping and their future; a survey. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1936.
Race Life of the Aryan Peoples. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1907 In Two Volumes: Volume One--The Old World Volume Two--The New World ISBN B000859S6O
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]
The Three Americas: Their Racial Past and the Dominant Racial Factors of their Future. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1935.
To the Engle peoples of the world. [1903]
The Transportation Problem. Evening Express Newspaper and Printing Company, 1877.
Via Domini. [1937]
The Way of Life; Holiness Unto the Lord; The Indwelling Spirit; The Baptism of the Holy Ghost Los Angeles, 1900 - http://www.archive.org/stream/wayoflifeholines00wind#page/n9/mode/2up
Whither away?: The problem of death and the hereafter. Los Angeles, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1934.