Margaret F. Slusher

Margaret F. Slusher (, Campbell; 1879–1971) was an American businesswoman who was founder, president, general manager, and owner for 20 years of Quality Laundry, one of Los Angeles, California largest laundries. Investing her earnings, she was the owner of several orange groves, one being at Santa Ana and another of being located at Santa Fe Springs, as well as valuable city property in Los Angeles. Her parents were J. C. and Mary Ellen (Langenkamp) Campbell, the former a native of Virginia, and for years the owner of a large plantation near Wheeling, West Virginia, and the latter born at Springfield, Illinois. One of her sisters, Mrs. Clara Hall, was the manager of a successful tea room, "The Tea Cup", at San Francisco; another sister, Mrs. James E. Morgan, was the wife of a retired capitalist of Los Angeles; a brother, George W. Campbell, was engaged in business in Paris, France; a cousin, Walter John Bartnett, was a wealthy business man of San Francisco, and formerly was vice president of the Gould Railway System; and a niece, Miss Sadie Morgan, was in charge of a Los Angeles dancing academy. Though she survived, her parents didn't. Ultimately, she was raised in a Catholic orphanage.

Slusher attended the public schools of Los Angeles and later, when she realized the necessity of further training, took a course at and graduated from the Bromberger Business College. At the Excelsior, she was rapidly promoted until given charge of several departments, but it was her constant and unfaltering ambition to become proprietor of an establishment of her own, where she could work out her ideas and plans, and an opportunity for the realization of her aims came in 1899, in which year she established her own business. At the same time, she continued to watch for chances to make small investments, particularly in buying stock in the laundries in which she was employed.

In the landing of these contracts, Slusher had gained advantage on other laundries, managed by men, who endeavored to make up for their delinquency and tardiness in action by acquiring control of her business. She was deluged with offers to buy her plant, but her price of was beyond what they desired to pay, and they accordingly adopted tactics designed to put her out of business. They found, however, that Slusher's capabilities included a marked tendency to grimly hold on to what she had worked so hard and fairly to obtain and to determinedly and skillfully fight back, with the result that the controversy led to considerable publicity, terminating in the publishing of the valiant woman's picture in the leading newspapers of the city, April 17, 1919. The reaction was immediate, Slusher receiving many letters of sympathy and congratulation and being forced to take innumerable interviews. The results, on the whole, were satisfactory, for while the notoriety was unpleasant, she was able to view the matter in a philosophic light in that hers was the victory and that the advertising thus gained brought her additional business.

Santa Fe Springs property In 1916, Slusher wanted to buy a home in the country whose location would be close enough to Los Angeles to permit her to go back and forth business each day. A 45-acre ranch with groves of orange and olive trees attracted her one day as she drove past Santa Fe Springs. The ranch, a portion of Gov. Pio Pico's estate, was owned by a Los Angeles man prominent in legal circles, and was for sale for . She borrowed as first payment on the ranch and moved in.

A month after she bought it, a wealthy neighbor, whose land adjoined hers, offered her twice what she paid for it, and later increased his offer to . She refused, and with her husband, continued to live on the ranch in the ensuing years.

In 1922, Slusher possessed a contract with the Shell Oil Company, by which she received as bonus, for the trees on the ranch, and royalty terms which made her income since then run between and a month. She leased the oil rights to Shell Oil Company and Union Oil Company.

Personal life On July 23, 1902, at Odd Fellows Temple in Pasadena, California, she married Silas Floyd Slusher (Floyd, Virginia, 1875 - Los Angeles, November 1946), a railroad fireman. They made their first home in Pasadena.

In addition to having considerable success as a newspaper woman, Slusher was active in club life of Los Angeles.

Slusher traveled through Europe in 1924.

The Slushers bought the Mineral Springs Hotel in Topanga, California in 1927, and three years later, built what became known as "The Goat House". They put up for sale their Los Angeles city home, located on Lafayette Square at 1717 Virginia Road, in 1928. It was constructed of cement plaster and contained 12 rooms, four primary bedrooms of which two were en suite, large dressing rooms and baths. The lot measured about . A 2-car garage included chauffeur's quarters.

On November 18, 1941, the Slusher's Santa Fe Springs mansion, located on Telegraph Road near Norwalk Boulevard, burned down in a fire; it had been a city landmark for 90 years. With it, Slusher lost much of her art collection. What she was able to salvage was moved into the cottage she built where the mansion had stood;

Death and legacy Margaret Slusher died in Los Angeles County on June 18, 1971, age 92. She left her estate to the Shriners Hospital and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. That land was first settled by the Gabrielino Indian tribe. Patricio Ontiveros family owned the land after exploiting the tribe. It was purchased later by the Harvay Hawkins family, and then the Martha Nimocks family. In the 1920s, it was owned by Slusher's family. A bird aviary added by the Slushers around 1916 is a restored feature in Heritage Park.