The increasing affordability of the automobile and the growth of suburbs contributed to a change in the "company town" concept, in which manufacturers had provided housing for workers on the site of the business. Some local company towns, such as the Simons Brick Company yard in Montebello, as well as the many oil company leases that existed in the region, were affected by the changes in transportation and housing, because workers could live in towns and cities and enjoy the amenities there without having to live at a work site, with the noise, smells and isolation.
This appears to have been the case with the Olinda oil field, as noticeably observed in comparing the 1920 and 1930 federal censuses. The 1920 enumeration, discussed last entry, counted nearly 1,000 persons within the area from Valencia Avenue east (with a few people on the west in those leases that straddled both sides of the road. By 1930, however, the entire area designated as the Olinda precinct within the Fullerton township, had less than half the population.
There were 462 persons listed in Olinda in 1930, most, obviously living within oil leases, thought there were 64 persons who were outside of the oil field, in Carbon Canyon and also to the south along Valencia Avenue and Rose Drive. For the 398 residents of the fields, here is the breakdown by company (CCMO is the Chanslor Canfield Midway Oil Company, successor to the Petroleum Development Company on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad lease):
CCMO: 222
Olinda: 77
West Coast: 56
Shell Oil: 21
General Petroleum: 19
Fullerton Oil: 3
On gender, the percentage of men in the Olinda area was 53% and women 47%. Adults 21 and over amounted to 57% of the population and those under 21, 43%. The white population was still overwhelmingly dominant at almost 97%, with 12 Latinos, from two families named Reyes {and likely related) and the same Japanese family, the Fujimotos, residing on the West Coast lease as they had ten years before, although the head of the family was now a "roustabout," or general laborer, and not a boilermaker as before. Finally, as to home ownership, there was a slight change in home ownership, as 16 of 119 househoulds consisted of families who owned their residence, about 13% of the total. One residence in particular stood out in terms of its value. Most owned residences in the oil fields were small, plain wooden dwellings at low value, but on Rose Drive, citrus rancher Michael Harmon, owned a home worth $60,000, a pretty substantial sum at the time.
The same general run of oil field occupations existed in 1930 as a decade previous, including drillers, rotary helpers, rodmen, several types of engineers, machinists, firemen, watchmen, electricians, and others. A few men held position of authority as superintendents, chief clerks, shop foreman and the like. Also, where there were several Santa Fe Railroad workers in 1920, there was only a field inspector in 1930, residing on the Olinda lease. There seemed, however, to have been more variety of jobs held by members of households in which the male head was an oil field worker, including more work done by women. This seems to be a consequence of the automobile, which allowed oil field residents to find jobs further away from their homes. What is also notable is that, while in 1920, there were a number of men who lived in bunk houses on a few of the leases, there weren't any who did so ten years later.
On the CCMO lease, there was a barber, dentist, dental assistant,, glass factory worker, nursery bookkeeper, boarding house cook, store clerk, bus driver and real estate salesman. At West Coast, one wife of an oil worker worked in a beauty shop and there was also an airplane mechanic and citrus workers. On the Olinda lease, there was a garage mechanic and citrus house packers.
There were also oil field-sited jobs that were not directly tied to the business. Along or near Valencia Avenue, at the CCMO, Fullerton and Shell lease areas were three teachers, presumably at the Olinda School, including Alexander Barnes, a 47-year old from Ohio, Gladys Payton, 31, from Tennessee, and Ethel Overton, 39, born in Illinois. Overton's husband, Job, also 39 and from Indiana, was the bus driver. On Valencia Avenue, there was a gas station, run by 67-year old Iowan Omar Waitz. The CCMO had a company store, whose keeper was George Cullen, a 60-year old Indiana native who was one of the few homeowners in Olinda and he had a manager, 22-year old Clarence Perrin, a native of California. A teacher, perhaps also in Olinda, lived there, too, Mary Lemke, whose husband had a citrus ranch on the lease property. There was a bus driver on the lease, too, Walt Cullen (son of the store keeper), but his occupation specifically said "high school," which probably meant that he drove Olinda teens to the only local high school, Fullerton Union.
Of the 64 persons not enumerated directly on oil lease land, a few of them worked in the fields, but there were a few farmers in Carbon Canyon, such as Ramon Reyes, Edward Gaines, who, as in 1920, ran stock where Olinda Village and the Hollydale Mobile Home Estates are located, and Adolph Friend, a West Virginia native in his early 70s who ran cattle in the Canyon, as well. Down on Valencia Avenue and Rose Drive, there was citrus grower Harmon, another Reyes family, a building contractor, and a moulder for a brass factory.
The 1930 census was taken in April, about seven months after the stock market crash of October 1929 that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. By 1932, when banks failed en masse, the Depression worsened. The 1940 census is due to be released this year, so there will be an opportunity soon to examine that enumeration and see what further changes came to Olinda.
Showing posts with label Olinda Oil Company. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olinda Oil Company. Show all posts
08 January 2012
02 January 2012
The 1920 Federal Census and Olinda
As a companion of sorts to the series of recent posts concerning the 1924 map of the Olinda oil field and surrounding areas, this entry examines the 1920 federal census for the oil field area, specific to the somewhat arbitrary definition this blog takes of Carbon Canyon. Namely, the discussion here covers the areas mainly east of Valencia Avenue, also the historic dividing line between the Rancho Cajon San Juan de Santa Ana to the west and public lands to the east. There are a couple of examples, however, where oil lease properties existed on both sides of the subjectively defined boundary--these being the Columbia and General Petroleum leases.
The tallying of twenty-one sheets on the census for the Brea township yields some interesting (and, possibly, useful) information on the nearly 1,000 people who occupied the heart of the Olinda oil field a little over ninety years ago. The research done deals with gender, age, race and ethnicity, and home ownership and is also broken down into population for the several existing leases. On this latter point, here's what was revealed:
Graham and Loftus [excluding company lands west of Valencia]: 29 persons
General Petroleum Company: 43 persons
Fullerton Oil Company: 65 persons
Olinda Land and Oil Company: 97 persons
Columbia Oil: 121 persons
Petroleum Development Company: Santa Fe Railroad lease: 275 persons
West Coast Oil: 316 persons
There were also a grand total of 14 persons counted in Carbon Canyon, east of Olinda and up to the San Bernardino County line (a future post will cover that county's portion of the Canyon).
There was an expectation that, because of the male-dominated nature of the oil industry, the gender imbalance would be significant, but, by 1920, there was certainly a difference in who lived in oil field communities compared to in previous years. Much of this was likely attributable to the availability of the automobile to more working and middle-class families. So, at Olinda, males amounted to 54% of residents with females, obviously, being 46%.
With more families residing at Olinda than were likely found earlier, the comparison of adults to children worked out to about 61% of persons above 21 years of age and, of course, 39% under 21.
What was not surprising was the segregated nature of the Olinda community. Simply put, ethnic and racial minorities were not welcomed at these work sites. 98% of all residents in the Olinda area were American, Canadian or European--94% of them being natives of the United States. Also to be expected were the large proportion of people who came from oil-producing states in the east, specifically, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Texas and the like.
There were only 17 persons of Latino or other ethnic groups. Of these, six were from a Mexican farm laborer family on the Graham-Loftus lease, who were not affiliated with oil production; and five were from a Mexican family that consisted of laborers who worked on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad spur line that came into Olinda from Atwood in Placentia. In fact, the only people of color who worked on oil properties was a Japanese boilerman on the West Coast lease named Fujimoto (who resided with his wife and two daughters--the children being California natives) and a Hawaiian named Richard Kahalulio, who worked on the Olinda Oil Company property as a teamster. Kahalulio, however, had a personal connection with Olinda's founder, William Hervey Bailey--he was from the Maui community where the Bailey families were Congregationalist missionaries.
As to residential status, there were about 240 separate households in the covered area. Of these, only 14 owned their homes with the remainder renting their dwellings, almost certainly, in most cases, from the oil companies. There were 5 persons whose status was listed as "unknown," though what this might have meant will have to go unexplained. It should also be pointed out the 50 single men resided in bunkhouses on four different leases (West Coast [17], Petroleum Development/Santa Fe [17], Columbia [9] and Fullerton [7].) It would seem probable that more single men in bunkhouses would have been found in earlier days.
It was also interesting noting the various listed occupations for oil workers on these leases. Standard job types would include pumpers, drillers, boilermakers/boilermen, tool dressers, well pullers, machinists, electricians, carpenters, engineers, truck drivers/teamsters, rotary helpers, rodmen, and roustabouts.
Some of these terms needed definition, so here they are. A roustabout was a general unskilled laborer, doing whatever odd jobs were needed, and were usually more temporary than the skilled employees. A rotary helper would assist with the use of the rotary drill, a recent innovation in drilling technology. The tool dresser helped the driller by sharpening the drill bits. A well puller cleaned and serviced wells and their equipment. A rodman was a surveyor working on siting potential or chosen well locations.
A couple of men had the intriguing vocation of "gang pusher." Creative modern thinking aside, these were the guys who supervised the roustabouts and were, basically, foremen for unskilled general labor.
Above them all, of course, were the field superintendents or foremen, who often had assistants. In some cases, there were clerks, watchmen [security officers], painters, car loaders, and other field-related workers. Perhaps the most notable of the first-named was William J. Graham, brother of Smauel C. Graham, founder of the Graham-Loftus Oil Company, one of the oldest at Olinda. William Graham, a 60-year old veteran of the Pennsylvania oil fields, earliest in America, listed himself as an "oil overseer," meaning, evidently, that was superintending his brother's enterprise at Olinda. Though not listed on this research, because the fields were further west than the area covered here, was L. A. Hardison, the brother of one of the Union Oil Company's three founders, Wallace Hardison (the others being Lyman Stewart and Thomas Bard.) Hardison, a 66-year old Maine native, was merely listed as a "laborer." Samuel Graham's wife, Mamie, was the daughter of Ida Hardison, sister of Wallace and L.A. There were also a couple of stores on two leases (Santa Fe and West Coast) and a boarding house on the West Coast lease that had a keeper, cook and two waitresses--these being a widow and her son and two daughters. The Columbia lease also had a boarding house keeper and assistant, both women.
Then, there were those residents whose jobs were outside of the field. On the Olinda Land and Oil Company lease was the Olinda School and its two teachers were listed as Maud Crane, a 28-year old from Minnesota and Myrtle Harris, 23, from Wyoming. Also at Olinda was an apiarist, or bee-keeper. At the Columbia lease, there was a partner in a transfer (trucking) company and his wife, a music teacher. Their two daughters were an orange house packer (there were a few packing house workers in Olinda) and a house servant. At the West Coast lease, straddling Valencia Avenue, was a Baptist church, presided over by a minister, Wilfred Kent, who lived at the house of worship with his wife and two children. There was also a noteworthy listing, the son of a West Coast blacksmith, 23-year old John Woods, was attending law school. The West Coast also had a worker's son who worked as a bank bookkeeper and two hotel waitresses.
Finally, there were the few folks who resided in Carbon Canyon east of the Olinda oil field settlements. Two of these have already been discussed in a post related to the 1924 map, these being farmer Edward F. Gaines and his wife, who owned and lived on land encompassed now by the Olinda Village subdivision and the Hollydale Mobile Home Estates on the south side of the village. There were two others, however, who will be covered in a future post.
The tallying of twenty-one sheets on the census for the Brea township yields some interesting (and, possibly, useful) information on the nearly 1,000 people who occupied the heart of the Olinda oil field a little over ninety years ago. The research done deals with gender, age, race and ethnicity, and home ownership and is also broken down into population for the several existing leases. On this latter point, here's what was revealed:
Graham and Loftus [excluding company lands west of Valencia]: 29 persons
General Petroleum Company: 43 persons
Fullerton Oil Company: 65 persons
Olinda Land and Oil Company: 97 persons
Columbia Oil: 121 persons
Petroleum Development Company: Santa Fe Railroad lease: 275 persons
West Coast Oil: 316 persons
There were also a grand total of 14 persons counted in Carbon Canyon, east of Olinda and up to the San Bernardino County line (a future post will cover that county's portion of the Canyon).
There was an expectation that, because of the male-dominated nature of the oil industry, the gender imbalance would be significant, but, by 1920, there was certainly a difference in who lived in oil field communities compared to in previous years. Much of this was likely attributable to the availability of the automobile to more working and middle-class families. So, at Olinda, males amounted to 54% of residents with females, obviously, being 46%.
With more families residing at Olinda than were likely found earlier, the comparison of adults to children worked out to about 61% of persons above 21 years of age and, of course, 39% under 21.
What was not surprising was the segregated nature of the Olinda community. Simply put, ethnic and racial minorities were not welcomed at these work sites. 98% of all residents in the Olinda area were American, Canadian or European--94% of them being natives of the United States. Also to be expected were the large proportion of people who came from oil-producing states in the east, specifically, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Texas and the like.
There were only 17 persons of Latino or other ethnic groups. Of these, six were from a Mexican farm laborer family on the Graham-Loftus lease, who were not affiliated with oil production; and five were from a Mexican family that consisted of laborers who worked on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad spur line that came into Olinda from Atwood in Placentia. In fact, the only people of color who worked on oil properties was a Japanese boilerman on the West Coast lease named Fujimoto (who resided with his wife and two daughters--the children being California natives) and a Hawaiian named Richard Kahalulio, who worked on the Olinda Oil Company property as a teamster. Kahalulio, however, had a personal connection with Olinda's founder, William Hervey Bailey--he was from the Maui community where the Bailey families were Congregationalist missionaries.
As to residential status, there were about 240 separate households in the covered area. Of these, only 14 owned their homes with the remainder renting their dwellings, almost certainly, in most cases, from the oil companies. There were 5 persons whose status was listed as "unknown," though what this might have meant will have to go unexplained. It should also be pointed out the 50 single men resided in bunkhouses on four different leases (West Coast [17], Petroleum Development/Santa Fe [17], Columbia [9] and Fullerton [7].) It would seem probable that more single men in bunkhouses would have been found in earlier days.
It was also interesting noting the various listed occupations for oil workers on these leases. Standard job types would include pumpers, drillers, boilermakers/boilermen, tool dressers, well pullers, machinists, electricians, carpenters, engineers, truck drivers/teamsters, rotary helpers, rodmen, and roustabouts.
Some of these terms needed definition, so here they are. A roustabout was a general unskilled laborer, doing whatever odd jobs were needed, and were usually more temporary than the skilled employees. A rotary helper would assist with the use of the rotary drill, a recent innovation in drilling technology. The tool dresser helped the driller by sharpening the drill bits. A well puller cleaned and serviced wells and their equipment. A rodman was a surveyor working on siting potential or chosen well locations.
A couple of men had the intriguing vocation of "gang pusher." Creative modern thinking aside, these were the guys who supervised the roustabouts and were, basically, foremen for unskilled general labor.
Above them all, of course, were the field superintendents or foremen, who often had assistants. In some cases, there were clerks, watchmen [security officers], painters, car loaders, and other field-related workers. Perhaps the most notable of the first-named was William J. Graham, brother of Smauel C. Graham, founder of the Graham-Loftus Oil Company, one of the oldest at Olinda. William Graham, a 60-year old veteran of the Pennsylvania oil fields, earliest in America, listed himself as an "oil overseer," meaning, evidently, that was superintending his brother's enterprise at Olinda. Though not listed on this research, because the fields were further west than the area covered here, was L. A. Hardison, the brother of one of the Union Oil Company's three founders, Wallace Hardison (the others being Lyman Stewart and Thomas Bard.) Hardison, a 66-year old Maine native, was merely listed as a "laborer." Samuel Graham's wife, Mamie, was the daughter of Ida Hardison, sister of Wallace and L.A. There were also a couple of stores on two leases (Santa Fe and West Coast) and a boarding house on the West Coast lease that had a keeper, cook and two waitresses--these being a widow and her son and two daughters. The Columbia lease also had a boarding house keeper and assistant, both women.
Then, there were those residents whose jobs were outside of the field. On the Olinda Land and Oil Company lease was the Olinda School and its two teachers were listed as Maud Crane, a 28-year old from Minnesota and Myrtle Harris, 23, from Wyoming. Also at Olinda was an apiarist, or bee-keeper. At the Columbia lease, there was a partner in a transfer (trucking) company and his wife, a music teacher. Their two daughters were an orange house packer (there were a few packing house workers in Olinda) and a house servant. At the West Coast lease, straddling Valencia Avenue, was a Baptist church, presided over by a minister, Wilfred Kent, who lived at the house of worship with his wife and two children. There was also a noteworthy listing, the son of a West Coast blacksmith, 23-year old John Woods, was attending law school. The West Coast also had a worker's son who worked as a bank bookkeeper and two hotel waitresses.
Finally, there were the few folks who resided in Carbon Canyon east of the Olinda oil field settlements. Two of these have already been discussed in a post related to the 1924 map, these being farmer Edward F. Gaines and his wife, who owned and lived on land encompassed now by the Olinda Village subdivision and the Hollydale Mobile Home Estates on the south side of the village. There were two others, however, who will be covered in a future post.
29 August 2011
Olinda Oil Field History: Origins of Olinda, Part 8
As the Olinda oil field grew in importance in the waning years of the 19th-century, Olinda Ranch founder William Hervey Bailey continued to work to improve his position within the field. Having already sold or leased large portions of the ranch he established a decade prior during the fabled Boom of the Eighties, Bailey formed the Olinda Oil Company and the Richfield Oil Company.
In early October 1899, however, he moved to expand his reach, as announced by the Los Angeles Times in an article on the 3rd, which announced that "there seems no longer to be any doubt as to the important position Orange county [sic] is to occupy in the development of oil on this Coast." Referring to important sales of oil land in the area, the paper offered that "yet the general public has but little conception of the real extent to which the development of this industry is destined to go." In truth, the paper had little idea either, given the oil production had not seen the advent, in any major way, of the emerging automobile industry and the Wright brothers and their airplane were still a few years off.
Interestingly, the Times indicated that, while oil was found in Olinda only within the previous few years, "it was believed to be in very small quantities—scarcely enough top justify development." After, however, "several men with capital were attracted to this locality," lands deemed only usable for sheep grazing became highly prized for the petroleum potential.
This led to the news that "today four deeds were filed here transferring over eight thousand acres of oil land to the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company, the aggregate consideration being $340,000." The paper went on to state that "this land was formerly owned by W. S. Bailey, Jr.," though they certainly meant William H. Bailey, Sr., not his 26-year old son. The next sentence has a little syntax and grammar problem: "The Olinda Oil Company, the Richfield Oil Company, and the Olinda Ranch Company, the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company, has secured control of the oil interests of the other companies above mentioned." What this seems to mean is that the new consolidated firm absorbed all the interest in the former Olinda Ranch of the ranch company, as well as those of the Olinda and Richfield entities. The article closed by noting that "this company will make extensive developments in the oil district in this county during the next few months."
Just two days later, though, the Times reported "that the big oil deal a few days ago, by which the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company became the owner of more than 8000 acres of oil-bearing land in this county, and for which they paid $340,000, was made in the interest of the Union Oil Company." In addition, a Union Oil representative appeared before the Board of Supervisors in Santa Ana "to present a petition for permission to pay an oil pipe line from the oil wells back of Fullerton along certain county roads to the Alamitos beet-sugar factory." Moreover, it was observed that Union first proposed securing a right-of-way to Newport Beach, but "that the use of the wharf at Newport could not be procured." Further, the company intended to build the line from Los Alamitos (near where the San Gabriel River empties into the Pacific at the border of Seal Beach and Long Beach [and, therefore, at the junction of Orange and Los Angeles counties]) and over to the harbor at San Pedro, recently the subject of massive federal appropriations for creating a man-made port facility that led to the modern day Port of Los Angeles.
The following day, on 6 October, the Times noted that the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company filed its articles of incorporation at Santa Ana and that $500,000 of stock was to be issued, divided into 50,000 shares at a par value of $10 each. At the time, though, only $1,220 was subscribed among those stockholders who constituted the Board of Directors. These were William Hervey Bailey and T. V. Bakewell of Oakland, Ralph Jones and a Mr. Donzel of San Francisco and Bailey's brother-in-law, Warren Olney, Jr., also of Oakland. Notably, Bailey held $1,000 of the initial subscription amount, while Olney and Donzel took $100 and Bakewell and Jones but one share of $10 apiece.
A little sidenote of interest: Olney was married to Bailey's sister. His namesake father was from frontier Iowa and was a teacher (one of his students was the legendary Texas judge, Wyatt Earp) before serving in the Union Army in Missouri during the Civil War. Warren, Sr. earned a law degree from the University of Michigan and then migrated to San Francisco in 1868. Although a sucessful attorney and mayor of Oakland from 1903 to 1905, the senior Olney is perhaps best known as a founder with John Muir of the Sierra Club and wrote its first charter, as well as serving as vice-president. As to Olney, Jr., he also had a distinguished legal career as an attorney and served on the California Supreme Court from 1919 to 1921. The younger Olney's son, Warren III, continued the family tradition of law and was Assistant Attorney General under President Eisenhower in the 1950s and oversaw the criminal division of the Department of Justice. More well-known than them all, though, is Warren Olney IV, a longtime news reporter, anchorman, and radio personality in Los Angeles.
Back to Olinda. Readers of posts on Tonner Canyon will recall that the Union Oil Company, founded in Santa Paula by Pennsylvania veterans of the oil industry like Lyman Stewart, Thomas Bard and Wallace Hardison, will recall that Hardison's sister married William Benjamin Scott, one of the "three brothers" of Tres Hermanos Ranch in upper Tonner Canyon in Diamond Bar/Chino Hills, and founder of the Columbia Oil Company, which had a significant presence in Olinda. William Hervey Bailey's Consolidated Olinda Oil Company as a front of sorts for Union was further expounded upon by the Times in an editorial on 8 October 1899, when it referred to the recent deal with Consolidated as a transfer "from the Olinda Oil Company to the Union Oil Company." Because, "the latter is known to have very heavy capital," it was fully expected that Union was going to get its product from the field via pipelines to ports for transfer. This presaged a great boom for Olinda and, indeed, this was the case.
Yet, it is interesting to note that, on 13 October 1899, the Times reported that Consolidated Olinda filed a lawsuit against Columbia Oil, William Benjamin Scott, Wallace Hardison and others to take possession of 320 acres of land which it claimed it owned and which was said to be oil-bearing, as well as seeking $500 in damages. The outcome of that case has not been found by this blogger.
Meantime, in early November, the Southern California Railway petitioned Orange County's Board of Supervisors for a right-of-way across public roads because "it is the intention of the railroad to construct a branch from the Santa Ana Cañon to the location of the company's oil wells [the Santa Fe lease] in the vicinity of Olinda." This spur line will be the subject of a future post and reflected another example of important infrastructure to get crude oil from Olinda to shipping points. While Union Oil was looking at a lengthy pipeline system to San Pedro Harbor, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe via the Southern California Railway was relying on a shorter, simpler transport by rail.
Another sidenote in the same 8 November 1899 Times column from above: Burdette Chandler, a principal in the Puente Oil Company operating a few miles west and north of Olinda in modern Rowland Heights, also owned some oil lands in the vicinity of the junction of Tonner and Brea canyons and just consummated a deal to sell 200 acres to the new Brea Cañon Oil Company.
As 1900 dawned, the action was increasing with greater force and speed. More to come next entry.
In early October 1899, however, he moved to expand his reach, as announced by the Los Angeles Times in an article on the 3rd, which announced that "there seems no longer to be any doubt as to the important position Orange county [sic] is to occupy in the development of oil on this Coast." Referring to important sales of oil land in the area, the paper offered that "yet the general public has but little conception of the real extent to which the development of this industry is destined to go." In truth, the paper had little idea either, given the oil production had not seen the advent, in any major way, of the emerging automobile industry and the Wright brothers and their airplane were still a few years off.
Interestingly, the Times indicated that, while oil was found in Olinda only within the previous few years, "it was believed to be in very small quantities—scarcely enough top justify development." After, however, "several men with capital were attracted to this locality," lands deemed only usable for sheep grazing became highly prized for the petroleum potential.
This led to the news that "today four deeds were filed here transferring over eight thousand acres of oil land to the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company, the aggregate consideration being $340,000." The paper went on to state that "this land was formerly owned by W. S. Bailey, Jr.," though they certainly meant William H. Bailey, Sr., not his 26-year old son. The next sentence has a little syntax and grammar problem: "The Olinda Oil Company, the Richfield Oil Company, and the Olinda Ranch Company, the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company, has secured control of the oil interests of the other companies above mentioned." What this seems to mean is that the new consolidated firm absorbed all the interest in the former Olinda Ranch of the ranch company, as well as those of the Olinda and Richfield entities. The article closed by noting that "this company will make extensive developments in the oil district in this county during the next few months."
Just two days later, though, the Times reported "that the big oil deal a few days ago, by which the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company became the owner of more than 8000 acres of oil-bearing land in this county, and for which they paid $340,000, was made in the interest of the Union Oil Company." In addition, a Union Oil representative appeared before the Board of Supervisors in Santa Ana "to present a petition for permission to pay an oil pipe line from the oil wells back of Fullerton along certain county roads to the Alamitos beet-sugar factory." Moreover, it was observed that Union first proposed securing a right-of-way to Newport Beach, but "that the use of the wharf at Newport could not be procured." Further, the company intended to build the line from Los Alamitos (near where the San Gabriel River empties into the Pacific at the border of Seal Beach and Long Beach [and, therefore, at the junction of Orange and Los Angeles counties]) and over to the harbor at San Pedro, recently the subject of massive federal appropriations for creating a man-made port facility that led to the modern day Port of Los Angeles.
The following day, on 6 October, the Times noted that the Consolidated Olinda Oil Company filed its articles of incorporation at Santa Ana and that $500,000 of stock was to be issued, divided into 50,000 shares at a par value of $10 each. At the time, though, only $1,220 was subscribed among those stockholders who constituted the Board of Directors. These were William Hervey Bailey and T. V. Bakewell of Oakland, Ralph Jones and a Mr. Donzel of San Francisco and Bailey's brother-in-law, Warren Olney, Jr., also of Oakland. Notably, Bailey held $1,000 of the initial subscription amount, while Olney and Donzel took $100 and Bakewell and Jones but one share of $10 apiece.
A little sidenote of interest: Olney was married to Bailey's sister. His namesake father was from frontier Iowa and was a teacher (one of his students was the legendary Texas judge, Wyatt Earp) before serving in the Union Army in Missouri during the Civil War. Warren, Sr. earned a law degree from the University of Michigan and then migrated to San Francisco in 1868. Although a sucessful attorney and mayor of Oakland from 1903 to 1905, the senior Olney is perhaps best known as a founder with John Muir of the Sierra Club and wrote its first charter, as well as serving as vice-president. As to Olney, Jr., he also had a distinguished legal career as an attorney and served on the California Supreme Court from 1919 to 1921. The younger Olney's son, Warren III, continued the family tradition of law and was Assistant Attorney General under President Eisenhower in the 1950s and oversaw the criminal division of the Department of Justice. More well-known than them all, though, is Warren Olney IV, a longtime news reporter, anchorman, and radio personality in Los Angeles.
Back to Olinda. Readers of posts on Tonner Canyon will recall that the Union Oil Company, founded in Santa Paula by Pennsylvania veterans of the oil industry like Lyman Stewart, Thomas Bard and Wallace Hardison, will recall that Hardison's sister married William Benjamin Scott, one of the "three brothers" of Tres Hermanos Ranch in upper Tonner Canyon in Diamond Bar/Chino Hills, and founder of the Columbia Oil Company, which had a significant presence in Olinda. William Hervey Bailey's Consolidated Olinda Oil Company as a front of sorts for Union was further expounded upon by the Times in an editorial on 8 October 1899, when it referred to the recent deal with Consolidated as a transfer "from the Olinda Oil Company to the Union Oil Company." Because, "the latter is known to have very heavy capital," it was fully expected that Union was going to get its product from the field via pipelines to ports for transfer. This presaged a great boom for Olinda and, indeed, this was the case.
Yet, it is interesting to note that, on 13 October 1899, the Times reported that Consolidated Olinda filed a lawsuit against Columbia Oil, William Benjamin Scott, Wallace Hardison and others to take possession of 320 acres of land which it claimed it owned and which was said to be oil-bearing, as well as seeking $500 in damages. The outcome of that case has not been found by this blogger.
Meantime, in early November, the Southern California Railway petitioned Orange County's Board of Supervisors for a right-of-way across public roads because "it is the intention of the railroad to construct a branch from the Santa Ana Cañon to the location of the company's oil wells [the Santa Fe lease] in the vicinity of Olinda." This spur line will be the subject of a future post and reflected another example of important infrastructure to get crude oil from Olinda to shipping points. While Union Oil was looking at a lengthy pipeline system to San Pedro Harbor, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe via the Southern California Railway was relying on a shorter, simpler transport by rail.
Another sidenote in the same 8 November 1899 Times column from above: Burdette Chandler, a principal in the Puente Oil Company operating a few miles west and north of Olinda in modern Rowland Heights, also owned some oil lands in the vicinity of the junction of Tonner and Brea canyons and just consummated a deal to sell 200 acres to the new Brea Cañon Oil Company.
As 1900 dawned, the action was increasing with greater force and speed. More to come next entry.
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