Abiram Eli “A.E.” McConnell (1850-1914) owned a farm out here, back when this area was a backcountry called “Ballona“. McConnell was born in Canada but grew up in Grafton, OH, where in 1872 he married Sarah McConnell (1853-1935; her maiden name was in fact McConnell, but if she was related it was only very distantly). The couple promptly moved to Scribner, NE, where they ran a farm and raised four kids. (It appears one died in childhood.) They then relocated to Southern California in 1888 and, after an aborted attempt at growing fruit in Ontario, settled within a stone’s throw of USC. Even that neighborhood was rural in those days: in 1891, a neighbor stealing hay from the McConnells’ barn made the news. That same year, A.E. bought 45.69 acres of Rancho La Ballona from José Antonio Machado and established a farm with Harry W. Chase. (The two were soon related by marriage via the McLaughlin clan.) The McConnells sold all or some of their share to Chase in 1902. Twenty-one years later, Chase sold the farm – a walnut orchard, really – to real estate speculators who named Chase Ave. and McConnell Blvd. as thanks.
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