Los Angeles County
Biographies
LUCIEN N. BRUNSWIG
President
of the large drug company and bearing his name, Lucien N. Brunswig heads one of
the largest wholesale houses of the kind in the United
States, and by reason of the scope and importance of his
interests he is accounted one of the outstanding citizens of French nativity in
Los Angeles and southern California.
Born in the fortified city of Montmedy,
in the valley of the Meuse, thirty miles from Verdun, August 10, 1854, of the marriage of
Charles Brunswig and Rosalie de Le Hault, he has an intimate knowledge of the
great theater of the western battle front, for in his younger days he covered
every foot of it on his bicycle. His
higher education was acquired in the College
of Etain, which awarded
him the Bachelor of Science degree in 1871.
Located in the city of Etain, six miles
from Verdun, the institution was destroyed in
1914 in the first rush of the Germans on Verdun. While a student of botany in his college
days, Mr. Brunswig used to gather plants in the Woevre valley, so frequently
mentioned in the war dispatches in earlier years and part of the American
sector in the Argonne campaign.
On coming
to the United States,
Mr. Brunswig located at New Orleans, Louisiana, and several years later was
admitted as a partner to the great drug house of Finlay & Company in that
city, the name being changed to Finlay and Brunswig. It was an extension of the interests of this
firm which brought Mr. Brunswig to Los
Angeles. The
Brunswig Drug Company is the successor of the F. W. Braun Company, founded
January 18, 1888. Mr. Brunswig and his
associate, F. W. Braun, became established in Los Angeles at that time, the
latter having the management of the business here, which was operated partly as
a branch of the firm of Finlay & Brunswig of New Orleans. In 1905 the Braun interests were purchased by
Mr. Brunswig and the firm named was changed to the Brunswig Drug Company,
wholesale druggists and manufacturing chemists.
Established on a modest scale, the business has steadily developed until
it now totals approximately ten millions yearly and furnishes employment to six
hundred people. The pharmaceutical
laboratories alone employ more than one hundred and fifty persons, producing
chemical products, pharmaceutical, medicinal and toilet preparations. The company maintains a branch at San Diego, others at Phoenix
and Tucson, Arizona
and the territory of the operation covers California,
Arizona, the Republic
of Mexico, parts of New
Mexico, Nevada, and Utah, the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines, Japan and Indo-China. During the World War the company contributed
forty of its best representatives to the overseas forces, including the son of
the president of the concern, who enlisted in the United States Aviation Corps
and served one year in England
and France. To Lucien N. Brunswig is due the credit for
the upbuilding of this great institution of business, which mirrors his
progressive spirit, his administrative power and high standards of production. He is the president of the Intermountain and
Pacific Coast Independent Wholesale Druggists Association. As co-founder of the Los Angeles College of
Pharmacy in 1905 he rendered service of value to his profession as well as to
his city and state.
In April
1878 Mr. Brunswig married Annie Mercer and the following children were born of
that union: Henrietta, the wife of T. S.
Sholars of Monroe, Louisiana, and the mother of Henrietta,
Standifer, Caroline (Mrs. C. Ford Currier) and Brunswig; Annie, the widow of
Marshall J. Wellborn, and the mother of Elizabeth, who married Elliott
Schieffelin and is the mother of Elise Schieffelin, and Lucien Brunswig
Wellborn; Aimee, the wife of Alexander Field of San Francisco, and the mother
of Alexandra and Aimee; Walter Mercer, who married Sarah Clark and has two
daughters, Lucille and Aimee. The wife
and mother died in 1888.
On the 2nd
of July, 1898, Mr. Brunswig was married to Miss Marguerite Wogan, a member of
one of the old French families of New Orleans and a lineal descendant of Comte
d’Augustin, the French governor of the islands of Santo Domingo and Haiti at
the time of the revolution of the blacks, led by the famous Toussaint
Louverture. To this marriage was born a
daughter, Marguerite.
Mr.
Brunswig’s estate covering six acres is at 3528 West Adams Street and his office is
at 501 North Main Street,
Los Angeles. In religious belief he is a Roman Catholic,
and his political allegiance is given to the Republican Party. He has been identified with a number of
quasi-public organizations and has devoted much time and effort to work of a
humanitarian and charitable nature. In
August, 1914, he became actively associated with and organized the French Red
Cross for the states of California and Arizona, later becoming
chairman of that branch of the Red Cross.
At the time of the World War he was managing director of the California
Board of Americanization. During a visit
to Washington he obtained tonnage of five
thousand tons to send a relief ship with food and clothing to France. The five thousand-ton cargo of food donated
by Southern California voiced a message which
did much to arouse the spirit of the French civilians behind the lines. After the signing of the armistice Mr.
Brunswig was closely associated with Ann Morgan in restoration work in the devastated
area of France. In the meantime he was elected in 1915
executive head of the Pacific Coast division of the Society for the Relief of the
Fatherless Children of France in the United
States, directing the work of that organization in ten
states of the Union and in the Hawaiian Islands
for many years. In 1919, he organized in
the state of California
the American Committee for Devastated France.
At one time he was commissioner in the United
States for the society in Paris for maintaining the Sunshine Houses for
Tubercular Orphans, and he has labored untiringly to aid the unfortunate, the
suffering and the needy. During 1931 and
until the spring of 1932 he operated at the Plaza Mission
Church the Brunswig Canteen,
which in nine months time served two hundred and forty thousand meals to the
needy and unemployed. This canteen he
reopened on September 10, 1932, for the care of women and children and families
of the suffering unemployment contingent.
Daily at noon, in the patio of the Plaza Church,
can be seen the object of lesson of his charity and philanthropy.
Mr.
Brunswig was made a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor by the Clemenceau
ministry on July 2, 1919. He is
president of l’Alliance Francaise, the France-Amerique Committee, the American
Committee for Devastated France and the Lafayette Society of California. Along social lines he has connection with the
club of the American branch of the French Legion of Honor in New York City, the University Club of Los
Angels, the California Club and the Westport Beach Club. The only municipal office Mr. Brunswig ever
held was that of police commissioner of New
Orleans, which duties he capably discharged for four
years. His activities have been
far-reaching and most beneficial in their results. Impelled by high ideals, he has used
practical methods in their attainment, and measured by the standard of service,
his life has been notably successful.
Transcribed
By: Michele Y. Larsen on February 3, 2012.
Source: California
of the South Vol. II,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 39-42,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Michele
Y. Larsen.
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