Los
Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN DUSTIN BICKNELL
A resident of Los Angeles for nearly
forty years and one of the city’s pioneer attorneys, the late John D. Bicknell
ranked with the foremost corporation lawyers of this part of the state, and was
equally well known as a progressive businessman of large affairs. He was a firm believer in the gospel of good,
and his benefactions were many. A native
of Vermont, he was born in Chittenden County on the 25th of June,
1838, and was a son of Nathaniel and Fanny (Thompson) Bicknell. He was a scion of one of the oldest families
of this country and took justifiable pride in his descent from Hannah Dustin,
the famous heroine of New England colonial life.
A few years after the birth of John
D. Bicknell his parents left the east and traveled westward to Wisconsin,
casting in their lot with the early settlers of Jefferson County. Reared in a frontier district, he attended
the schools of the locality and after completing a course in Albion Academy
prepared for college in the Western Reserve Seminary in Trumbull County,
Ohio. While a student at the University
of Wisconsin in 1859 his health failed and for about a year he lived in Howard
County, Missouri, endeavoring to regain his strength. He then determined to try the climate of the
Pacific coast and in April, 1860, started on the journey across the plains in
charge of a train of immigrants and livestock, comprising about forty
wagons. There were eighty men in the
party, which consisted of a number of families, owning some three thousand head
of stock, which had to be cared for during the trip. Mr. Bicknell was then twenty-two years of
age, very young for the responsibilities of captain, but in the course of the
long journey showed his resourcefulness and courage in every emergency. After leaving Topeka, Kansas, there were
practically no settlements until Carson’s Valley in Nevada was reached. The immigrants laid their course by way of
Lander’s Cut-Off, Fort Hall and Snake River.
The Sioux Indians were on the warpath, but the Bannock Indians gave the
most trouble to this train. Captain
Bicknell took the expedition safely through without the loss of a single life,
although many of the livestock were killed, stolen or otherwise lost. For about three years he remained in the
west, spending much of his time in the mountains of California, Oregon,
Washington and Idaho. With his health
completely restored he returned to Wisconsin, resuming his studies at the State
University in Madison, and subsequently read law under the supervision of H. W.
and D. K. Tenney, well known attorneys of that city. In January, 1866, he was admitted by the
supreme court of Wisconsin to practice in all the courts of that state. The following year he traveled throughout the
south, and at Greenfield, Dade County, Missouri, entered upon his legal
career. Well equipped for the work of
his profession, he was soon in possession of a practice that extended over
several southwestern counties of Missouri.
With a recurrence of asthma, he naturally turned to the Pacific coast,
where he had been quite free from the malady during his previous sojourn in
that region.
Arriving in Los Angeles in the
spring of 1870, Mr. Bicknell soon afterward formed a partnership with two other
attorneys, and later became head of the firm of Bicknell & White, with
offices in the old Temple block.
Composed of experienced, able lawyers, theirs became one of the leading
firms of the kind in southern California.
The partnership was dissolved when Stephen M. White was elected a member
of the United States Senate. The firm of
Bicknell & Trask was organized in 1890 and subsequently, through various changes
in the personnel, this became Bicknell, Trask, Gibson, Dunn
& Crutcher. Early in his
professional career in California, Mr. Bicknell established an enviable
reputation as a corporation lawyer. For
fifteen years he had charge of the legal interests of the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company in the southern part of the state, and also handled the legal
business of the Los Angeles Railway Company.
Entering the field of finance, he became vice president of the First
National Bank, and was long president of the Abstract & Title Insurance
Company of Los Angeles, which he and Frank A. Gibson organized. Some years before his death Mr. Bicknell
retired from the profession, giving up his general law practice in order to
look after his numerous investments and important business interests. He was one of the large stockholders of the
First National Bank and as an officer of that institution contributed toward
its success. A factor in the
incorporation of the Western Union Oil Company, he was elected its president
and under his wise guidance the business grew and prospered.
From the time of his arrival in Los
Angeles in 1870, when the city had only eight thousand inhabitants, until his
death on July 7, 1911, at the age of seventy-three years, the career of John D.
Bicknell reflected many important developments and events in Los Angeles, which
accounted him one of her most progressive and public-spirited citizens. A man of broad sympathies and generous
impulses, he did all in his power to aid the poor and the needy and was one of
the founders and chief supporters of the Hollenbeck Home for Old People. He was a Knight Templar Mason and served for
seven years as commander of Coeur de Leon Commandery, No. 9. In his life he exemplified all that was
admirable in conduct and character and his memory is revered by those who knew
him.
Mr. Bicknell’s first wife was a Miss
Maria Hatch, also of Chittenden County, Vermont, who died shortly after their
marriage. In 1870 he wedded Mrs. Nannie
(Christian) Dobbin, a native of Kentucky and a daughter of Alexander M.
Christian, whose home was in Todd County, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell were married in
Missouri and became the parents of four children, all of whom were born in Los
Angeles. Two daughters survive. Mary is the widow of Dr. Horace G. Cates and
lives in Monrovia, California, where she has a fine orange grove. She is the mother of four children: Mildred, the wife of John R. Stephens, is the
mother of three children, John R., Jr., Lucretia Ann and Nancy Bicknell; Dr.
Horace B.; Mary Edna; and Barker Trask.
Edna, the widow of Dr. Charles P. Bagg and a resident of Los Angeles, is
the mother of three children: John D.
Bicknell Bagg; Marion Nancy, wife of McDowell Eastman; and Charles Carroll
Bagg. A record of the life of Dr. Bagg
is given elsewhere in this work.
Mrs. Bicknell resided at 166 South Rossmore Avenue, in a beautiful home which she purchased
some years after the death of her husband.
Refined and cultured, of pleasing personality and gracious manner, she
long enjoyed social prominence in Los Angeles.
Like her husband, she was ever animated by the spirit of humanitarianism
and performed many unrecorded deeds of kindness and charity. She was a member of the Los Angeles County
Pioneer Society and the Women’s Athletic Club.
She died on November 1, 1931, in her ninety-sixth year.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 275-278, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES