Benito Wilson Shorb (1876-1877) was the infant son of vintner James De Barth Shorb, who honored his children with a number of avenues here. (See Shorb Street for more.) The baby was named after his grandfather, Benjamin Davis “Don Benito” Wilson. It’s not known what happened to the poor little lad, who was less than seven months old when he died. Absent a biography, I’ll take a moment to note that four of Benito’s five brothers – James De Barth “Barty” Shorb Jr. (1870-1907), Donald McMeal Shorb (1882-1933), Norbert Newlands Shorb (1887-1951), and Bernardo Yorba Shorb (1888-1928) – have no eponymous streets. (Only Joseph Campbell Shorb does.) De Barth, Donald, and Newlands avenues once existed but have all been renamed, and there was never one for Bernardo, the youngest, as he was born a year after Papa Shorb laid out the streets. News articles of the day revealed that Donald, Norbert, and Bernardo all had run-ins with the law; at least one of them, Donald (pictured), had demonstrable signs of mental illness. As for Barty Shorb, he married into the Glassell family and was a respected L.A. doctor before his own early demise.
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