Early 1900's: Elder Needham

Starting in the early 1800s, the Prohibition movement began to take force to reduce the consumption of alcohol.  Toward that end, three men joined together to purchase 10,000 acres of Rancho San Francisco for use as a Prohibitionist Colony.  One of them was the ex-Governor John St. John of Kansas, the National Prohibitionist leader.  In 1889, John St. John sent Henry Clay Needham to Santa Clarita to ensure the project’s success.  Henry Clay Needham, who had served as Mayor of Arcadia, Kansas, was widely known as the author of the Kansas “Dry” Law.  About 9 years after he arrived in Santa Clarita, he was ordained as an Elder of the Presbyterian Church in Newhall in 1908.  He was a member of the Session until 1933 and was a powerful force in the advancement of the church for over two decades. 

Henry Clay Needham was the owner of a hardware and lumber store in Newhall.  He established the community water system and owned the Eternal Valley Cemetery site for more than 50 years.  He was a candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Prohibitionist ticket in California in 1920, and a candidate for the Senate in 1922.  And at one time he was an elected delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly in Cincinnati where he delivered a paper on the Prohibitionist Movement.