Vol. 2, Iss. 4 – March 2019 (II)
This article is being re-published in Mentone Matters with permission of its author, Marie Reynolds, Vice President of the Redlands Area Historical Society, whose grandfather-in-law published the Mentone News in the 1930s and ’40s. The original title was “William Winter Residence – Mentone Boulevard & Crafton (formerly Ruby) Avenue.” Thank you, Marie! –MM
Photos courtesy of Marie Reynolds 
William Winter. Photos courtesy of Marie Reynolds 
Elsie Leslie Weds William Winter 
“Winter Coming West” 
“News Notes from the Infant Wonder City” 
“Child Escapes Rattler’s Fangs Near Redlands” 
“Spot That Charmed Famous Poet Returns to Its Original Owner” 
“Daughter of Famous Critic is Given Divorce” 
Celebrated New York drama critic, poet and author William Winter (1836-1917) purchased a ranch property from Mentone co-founder William B. McIntosh and built his California retreat on the southwest corner of Mentone and Crafton avenues in 1893. It was christened Ederline Cottage, after the New Brunswick residence of his Scots-born wife, Elizabeth Campbell, an authoress whose pen name was Isabelle Castlebar.
They had five children; son William Jefferson Winter, an actor, married his co-star, renowned child actress Elsie Leslie, in 1901. She had starred with the great actor Joseph Jefferson -who along with such personages as Richard Mansfield and Madame Helena Modjeska stayed at the Hotel Mentone.
The Winter family visited the ranch frequently until they moved to Mentone year-round due to the poor health of their son, Louis. During that time William Winter, a Shakespearean authority, continued his position with the New York papers and traveled frequently to their home on Staten Island for work.
Son Jefferson had successful surgery at the nearby Mentone Sanitarium (previously Hotel Mentone). Several family members died at the property, including son Louis Victor Winter in 1905 and Miss Isabel M. Campbell. Louis’ son was nearly bitten by a rattlesnake on the ranch in 1901.
“From across the continent came in 1893 the most famous dramatic critic of his day, William Winter, and settled upon the outskirts of Redlands, at Mentone. For forty-four years the critic of the Tribune, to which he had been appointed by Horace Greeley himself, and author of many volumes, he published his elegy for his son Louis not in the New York Tribune, but in the Redlands Citrograph,
A kingly name! a name of grace! my heart repeats it, o’er and o’er,
With love and pride – but his dear face I see no more.
Lured by Winter’s eulogies of Redlands, Shakespearean Actor Richard Mansfield bought an orange grove at Wabash and Lugonia, planned to erect thereon a stone castle (perhaps using such Mentone and Crafton stones as the Southern Pacific had not hauled for the paving of Los Angeles streets and the building of San Pedro’s breakwater) but never accomplished his dream.”
“Scarce a quarter of a century has passed since all this region was wilderness. Today there is not in the world a scene of softer grace or more radiant promise.” William Winter, 1893.
W. P. McIntosh re-acquired the property from the Winters in 1920. In interview with Barbara Bristow, descendant Betty McIntosh Shirley shared her memories of the property:
” My father, George McIntosh, was the first postmaster. I was raised on the 40 acres where the antique shop is now.
Across the street was the small house built by Gordon Donald for the Byron Starkweathers; probably about 1920 or so.
The rock store was owned by Mrs. Hill and Miss Morrison, who were sisters of Mrs. Velardo, whose husband was the barber in the rock store on the other corner. Across on the boulevard was the Hallett family. At one time they had a big orange-shaped stand.
Every 4th of July my Dad sent for a big crate of fireworks and we’d have a wonderful celebration. There was a large reservoir on our front yard. Homer Blackmore (a grocer who later sold to Lehman’s) would bring a dozen watermelons up early in a.m., put them in that ice cold Bear Valley water, and by evening they were cold.
My Dad built small rafts and put Mt. Vesuvius things on them. There were sky rockets and all sorts of things. All up and down the Blvd. there were cars and people watching the display.
Our house was on the Blvd., but there was an almost exact replica of it on the s/w corner of the 40 acres – that our grove man lived in. It had no electricity, I recall and I never knew why it was built or for whom in the family.
The Lindsay Olive people bought our olive crop every year. They came with big trucks and barrels – usually at night. The pickers slept under the trees. The green home-style olives were my Dad’s recipe.
We had mandarin – tangerine trees. Every year the Chinese would come and pick them for their New Year’s.”
In more recent times the house was used as a cafe and antique store. It is currently the residence of Arthur and Shirley Dodge.
Elsie Leslie (August 14, 1881 – October 31, 1966) was an American actress. She was America’s first child star and the highest paid and most popular child actress of her era.
Leslie’s first role in 1884 was Little Meenie in Joseph Jefferson’s production of “Rip Van Winkle”. In 1887, she was recognized as a star with her performance in “Editha’s Burglar” opposite E. H. Sothern at the Lyceum Theatre in New York and opposite William Gillette on the road tour.[1] She achieved further fame with her roles in “Little Lord Fauntleroy” in 1888 and “The Prince and the Pauper” in 1890. The most enduring image of Leslie is the portrait of her, posing as Little Lord Fauntleroy, painted by William Merritt Chase. [2]
Leslie lived in the rarefied kingdom of the theater. She moved amongst and conversed with people everywhere she went and her friends were not only nearly all adults, they were among the most accomplished in the nation. She had pen pals everywhere with whom she maintained a lively correspondence, including leading actors, actresses and statesmen, as well as two young girls nearer her own age, one younger, the other a year older: Eleanor Roosevelt and Helen Keller. “I like to write letters,” she once said, “but I like to get the answers still better.”[3]
Leslie took a break from acting, but returned to the stage in 1898 to play parts in The Rivals, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Christian, The Taming of the Shrew, The Man on the Case in 1907, and Louis N. Parker’s Disraeli with George Arliss in 1911; but after years away from the stage she could not recapture the old magic as an adult. She had married Jefferson Winter, son of drama critic William Winter, but this marriage ended in divorce, after which Leslie married Edwin J. Millikin in 1918. She and her husband traveled the world until they returned to New York City, where she lived until her death in 1966.[4]
Leslie was known as a wonderful child. She carried on correspondence with her friends from her acting days until her death. Photographs of Leslie, parts of her diary, along with letters and cards from such luminaries as Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Edwin Booth, William Gillette, Elliott Roosevelt and Joseph Jefferson, are recorded in “Trustable & Preshus Friends”.[5][6]
She is also remembered by the “Elsie Leslie” doll by Madame Alexander, No. 1560 in the series.[7]