Los Angeles County
Biographies
WARD BELNAP BLODGET
Ward Belnap Blodget, a member of one of the most representative families of Southern California, is now engaged as an independent practicing geologist and petroleum engineer, and is associated with Cyrus Bell a very prominent and successful oil field operator, with headquarters in the Petroleum Securities building in Los Angeles.
Ward B. Blodget was born in Bakersfield, California, December 29, 1890 and is a son of Spencer L. and Carra M (Belnap) Blodget, the detailed history of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Both the Blodget and Belnap families came to American in pre-Revolutionary days, took part in that war, and in many other activities gained prominence. Ward B. Blodget went through the grammar schools of Bakersfield, graduated from Huntington Beach high school and then entered Stanford University for his higher studies. He majored in engineering and geology in this institution and in March, 1916, received his Bachelor of Arts degree. During all his vacations he worked in the oil fields of the state from roustabout to driller. The first year after graduation he was an engineer of the state highway commission in Kern County, then in 1917, became engineer and geologist for the Chanslor-Canfield Midway Oil Company and so continued until 1919, in which year he became assistant manager of operations. He was the incumbent of the later position until November 1932. Mr. Blodget is now an independent geologist and petroleum engineer associated with Cyrus Bell as noted above, an affiliation which dates from January, 1933. Mr. Blodget retains an interest in oil leases and royalties, scattered throughout California, also is interested in some gold-producing properties. Mr. Blodget’s residence in Los Angeles dates from 1919. Previous to that he lived in Bakersfield until 1906, then in Huntington Beach until 1909, in Santa Maria until 1910, in Coalinga until 1911, at Stanford University until March, 1916, in Bakersfield until 1917, then in Fellows, California, until 1919, and finally in Los Angeles until the present. In relation to his vocation he is a member of the California Oil and Gas Association and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Mr. Blodget has made a very outstanding record in the work to which he is devoting his career. He was instrumental in the discovery and development of the Torrance-Redondo Oil Field of Los Angeles County in 1922, and likewise of the Rincon Oil Field of Ventura County, California, in 1927.
On the 4th of March, 1919, Mr. Blodget was united in marriage to Miss Julia Elizabeth Schools of Boston, Massachusetts, who belongs to one of the old colonial families of the United States. She is a direct descendant of President Adams. To Mr. and Mrs. Blodget there has been born a daughter, Barbara Anne, who is living at the family residence in Beverly Hills, California.
During the World war, Mr. Blodget enlisted and served in Company M of the Twenty-third Engineers. Fraternally, he is a Royal Arch Mason, and his political affiliation is with the Republican Party.
Transcribed
By: Michele Y. Larsen on November 8, 2012.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 411-412,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Michele
Y. Larsen.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES