Los
Angeles County
Biographies
GEORGE EDWARD
AVERILL
A well-known citizen of Los Angeles
and one who has had a varied experience in several lines of activity and who
has steadily advanced with the growth of southern California is George Edward
Averill, who is now living at 1702-1/2 Miramar Street in Los Angeles.
Mr. Averill was born in Fairfield,
Iowa, on October 22, 1864, a son of Norman S. and Anna S. (Wells) Averill,
natives of New York and Massachusetts, respectively. When a young man the father went to
Evansville, Indiana, where he was in the grocery business for a time, and we
next find him among the pioneers of Fairfield, Iowa, a member of the general
merchandise firm of Wells, Stever and Averill, a firm
long known as the three brothers-in-law, for that is what the members
were. He continued successfully in that
location for a number of years and in 1878 disposed of his holdings and came to
California. He bought land from Deacon
Howe at what is now Garden Grove and developed a good property. In 1879 he was
joined by his family, his wife, and sons John M. and George E. In 1880 the family came to Los Angeles, where
the father became an employee of B. F. Coulter, dry goods merchant. Much interested in education he served as a
member and secretary of the board of education of Los Angeles for sixteen
years. He died January 28, 1911. The mother was a school teacher, serving as
principal and later as superintendent of schools in Los Angeles. She was the founder of the Averill Study Club
in Los Angeles, which has been well known for many years, and she was one of
the organizers of the Y. W. C. A. in Los Angeles, beginning in a small room at
First and Spring streets. A tribute to Mrs. Averill was paid her in
1855 by the Agricultural Society of Monroe County, Wisconsin, which presented
her with a prize for riding her pony in a race, winning it three successive
seasons. She died December 14, 1912. Both she and her husband are buried in
Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles. There
were three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Averill: John M., who met an accidental death in 1882;
George E., of this review; and Gertrude, who died at the age of three years in
Fairfield, Iowa.
George Edward Averill attended the grammar
schools in Fairfield, Iowa, and the Los Angeles high school, which stood on the
present site of the Los Angeles County Court House. After leaving school his first work was as a
messenger for Western Union and for the telephone company. In 1882 he became the manager of the Pacific
Telegraph & Telephone Company in Los Angeles, being the second one to hold
that position here. His next work was as
bookkeeper with the W. C. Furrey Hardware
Company. In 1885 he entered the employ
of the Germain Fruit Company, became head bookkeeper,
later cashier, and continued with that firm until 1893. He next entered the employ of Porter Brothers
Company of Chicago as accountant in their business in Los Angeles and
Sacramento for the ensuing eight years.
In 1901 he was given charge of the box material for the Earl Fruit
Company of Sacramento and Los Angeles.
In 1902 he entered the employ of J. K. Armsby
Company in San Francisco, where he remained for the next three years when he
became sales agent for southern California with the Associated Oil
Company. During the time he was with
this company he became familiar with all departments of the oil business and
became an oil broker in 1909. He was
secretary of the Greek-American Oil Company at Long Beach. In 1928 Mr. Averill retired to look after his
own interests. He had
purchased property on Ocean View Avenue, now Miramar Street, and there built
eight flats.
On April 26, 1896, in Los Angeles,
George E. Averill was united in marriage with Mamie E. Williams, who was born
in San Francisco, a daughter of Daniel E. and Dorothy Williams, the latter a
native of Germany who was brought to the United States by her parents when she
was a child of three years. Mr. and Mrs.
Williams owned a fruit ranch in Alhambra, where the hotels now stand. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Averill, three
children have been born, two now deceased.
Norman W., is in the electrical business in Los
Angeles and married Florence Bennetts. Mr. Averill is a Mason, and in politics is a
Republican. He is an ardent member of
the Christian Science denomination, having had a miraculous healing through
that agency.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 775-777,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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BIOGRAPHIES