Imperial County
Biographies
WALTER PEVEAR CASEY
Real estate and insurance interests of Brawley find a leading representative in Walter P. Casey, a progressive business man who has made his private enterprises public assets. He was born in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, April 23, 1885, a son of Albert W. and Nettie Gertrude (Pevear) Casey, the former a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, while the latter was born in Boston. On his graduation from the Harvard Law School the father was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts and began practice in that state. Coming to the west, he followed his profession in succession at Fergus Falls and Duluth, Minnesota, Fargo, North Dakota, in Colorado Springs and Denver, Colorado, at Salt Lake City, Utah, and finally in Los Angeles, California. He passed away in 1932 at La Mesa, San Diego county. He was an able attorney and a counselor whose advice was always sound and dependable. His widow still resides at La Mesa.
Walter P. Casey, an only child, completed his high school studies in Salt Lake City, Utah. Due to impaired health he lived on the desert in Utah and California for a time, doing whatever came to his hands to regain his health. Coming to Brawley in 1913, he entered the employ of Peter P. Hovley, in whose service he continued for three years, and on the expiration of that period purchased the business, which he has since enlarged and conducted with gratifying success. Mr. Casey is thoroughly informed regarding property values in this district and in addition to handling real estate writes all kinds of insurance. He has been financially interested in various lines of business, including a cotton gin and yard and a wholesale grain firm. He has followed farming on an extensive scale, at one time having two thousand acres of land under cultivation in one season. Mature judgment has directed all of his undertakings and activities. He conducts a very large insurance business, occupying spacious offices on the ground floor of the Dunlack Hotel building, and is the author of some very ingenious and original advertising copy.
At Glendora, California, in 1913, Mr. Casey was married to Miss Ana Irene La Fetra, the first white girl born at Long Beach, this state. They have two sons and a daughter: Barbara Ann, a sophomore at the southern branch of the University of California in Los Angeles; Walter Pevear, Jr., a lad of fourteen; and Robert La Fetra, twelve years of age. Mr. Casey worships in the Episcopal Church and contributes generously to its support. During the years 1918 and 1919 he was president of the Brawley Chamber of Commerce and active in all the allied drives to win the war. He is a member of the Del Rio Country Club at Brawley. Formerly a member of the blue lodge of Masons at Los Angeles, he is now a member of Brawley Lodge, No. 402, F. & A. M., El Centro Chapter, No. 109, R. A. M., San Diego Consistory of the Scottish Rite and Al Bahr Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. of San Diego. He has made the most of the opportunities that have come his way and is a dependable man and a public-spirited citizen, esteemed and respected in the community which has been his home for a period of more than twenty years.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
281-282, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Imperial County Biographies