Los Angeles County
Biographies
J. CRAMPTON ANDERSON
ANDERSON, J. CRAMPTON, General Manager of the American Petroleum and American Oilfields Companies, Los Angeles, California, was born October 26, 1877 at Mason, Texas. He is the son of Elbridge T. and Sarah J. Anderson. He married Daysie M. Betzold in Los Angeles on June 17, 1899.
While Mr. Anderson was still a youth, he moved from Texas to Phoenix, Arizona. A few years later he went to Los Angeles, where he has ever since been identified prominently with enterprises for the development of the matchless resources of the great Southwest. In the remote locality in which his boyhood was passed, he had but limited educational advantages and he entered upon his business career with practically no capital but a sound business head.
His early business ventures were in the remunerative field of mining. His interests were scattered over California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona, meeting with success in his numerous undertakings. In the course of a few years he became an authority on mining.
From mining for metals it was but a step to mining for oil, and Mr. Anderson, perceiving early the possibilities of California’s great petroleum industry, enrolled himself with the constructive forces engaged in developing it. He made a deep study of petroleum resources and conditions in California, at a time when the possibilities of the great industry were still largely locked up in the secret depths of the earth. In the course of his association with several oil producing corporations, he gained proficiency in the details of the oil business, and he sought and won a place among the men who are now doing the things that have drawn the eyes of the world upon California’s oil fields.
The American Petroleum Company, a $15,000,000 corporation, was launched in February, 1908, by Edward L. Doheny, Dr. Norman Bridge and Mr. Anderson. That company today is one of the largest producers of petroleum in California, and Mr. Anderson is its Vice President as well as General Manager.
The success of the American Petroleum Company forms one of the bright chapters of the history of California oil. It had a tremendous influence for further development, and to none did it appeal more effectively than to the man who had accomplished that success. The direct and inevitable result was the organization of another corporation, The American Oilfields Company, with a capitalization of $25,000,000, to operate along the lines of its highly prosperous predecessor. Associated with Mr. Doheny, Dr. Bridge and Mr. Anderson, in the formation of this latter company, in February, 1910, were C. A. Canfield, Thomas A. O’Donnell, J. M. Danziger, L. A. McCray and E. S. Gosney. The American Oilfields Company has duplicated the splendid results of the American Petroleum Company. Both corporations have steadily coined the petroleum of the San Joaquin Valley into gold at a rate that has turned a total of $3,000,000 dividends into the hands of the stockholders.
In contemplating such results, Mr. Anderson may do so with the satisfaction of having been an active factor in producing them.
From his Los Angeles office, as General Manager of both these companies, he directs the details of their activities where their derricks rise like forests on the plains and hills of Midway and Coalinga.
In addition to carrying the tremendous responsibilities that he assumes in connection with the management of these two great companies, he is the President of the Midland Oil Company in the Midway field, and is also General Manager of the Niles Lease Oil Company in the Salt Lake field.
He is active in Los Angeles civic affairs, but does not hold any club memberships.
Transcribed
2-19-11 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 594, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.
1913.
© 2011 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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