Los Angeles County
Biographies
DAVID DUNBAR BUICK
BUICK, DAVID DUNBAR, Oil and Mine Operator, Los Angeles, California, was born in Arbroth, Scotland, September 17, 1854, the son of Alexander Buick and Jane (Roger) Buick. He married Carrie Catherine Schwinck at Detroit, Michigan, November 17, 1878, and to them there have been born four children, Thomas D., Frances Jane, Maybelle Lucille and Wynton R. Buick.
Mr. Buick was brought to this country when he was two years of age, the family settling in Detroit, and there he made his home for the next forty-seven years. His father died when the boy was five years old and the latter had to shift for himself at an early age. He received his education in the Bishop public school of Detroit, but even in childhood displayed the energy which has been one of the factors in a life of uninterrupted successes. He left school at the age of eleven to go to work on a farm, but for some years prior to that time had devoted certain hours of each day to a newspaper route which he controlled.
After three years of farm life, Mr. Buick, in 1869, returned to Detroit and took up the occupation of brass finisher as an apprentice. Later when he was recognized as an expert finisher, he was chosen foreman of the plant where he had learned the business and remained with the company until 1882. He then went into business for himself, in partnership with William Sherwood, the firm being known as Buick & Sherwood, manufacturers of plumber’s supplies, and at that time the largest of its kind in the United States. They conducted this business with great success for eighteen years, selling out in 1900 to the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Co., of which Mr. Buick was one of the organizers. Mr. Buick continued as one of the members of the new concern for about a year, contributing towards its upbuilding several valuable inventions of his own.
Up to this time Mr. Buick had made a success of every enterprise with which he was associated, but he was destined for still greater fame and achievement. For some time Mr. Buick had been experimenting with the automobile and continued his experiments after he went into the manufacture, in the latter part of 1901, of marine and stationary engines, in Detroit. In the beginning of 1903 he produced his first automobile engine and thereupon began building a complete motor car. For a time, however, he was almost alone in his enthusiasm, but within a few months he completed his car, and interested several of the officers of the Flint Wagon Works.
Mr. Buick drove the car from Detroit to Flint, Michigan, demonstrating the practicability of the automobile which was destined to become famous under the name of “Buick.” This resulted in the organization, on September 3, 1903, of the Buick Motor Company.
The headquarters of the Company were at Flint, where the machines were constructed, and the first year of its existence thirty-seven cars were turned out. From that time on the success of the Buick automobile was assured. Mr. Buick at first engaged only in the manufacture of the engines for the automobiles, but later, with the increasing demand for the cars, his company established the extensive plant at Flint, which has been the home of the Buick automobile ever since.
It is interesting to note that Mr. Buick, who later withdrew from the automobile company on account of ill health and went to Los Angeles, where he has since turned his attention to other lines of industry, has been borne out a prophecy made by him years ago. It was in 1903 or the early part of 1904, during a consultation with the officers of his company regarding the sales of automobiles, that he declared with enthusiasm that the end of twenty years would find only the surface of the business scratched—that in time horse-drawn vehicles would be little more than reminders of a past age. He his mind’s eye he could see the immense traffic of the automobile as it is known to-day and he predicted to his associates the universal adoption of the automobile for business and pleasure. They were skeptical, but willing to be convinced, and Buick, the inventor, aided largely in the work of convincing them.
The picture sketched b him when the automobile was in its infancy has since become a reality, with hundreds of thousands of cars in daily use and the business itself regarded as the most gigantic manufacturing line in the United States.
Early in 1910, the year following Mr. Buick’s removal from Flint to Los Angeles, he took charge of the affairs of the Buick Oil Company, of which he is President. The company has been one of the successful operating companies in the California fields, and had one well, known as Buick No. 1, which produced 900,000 barrels of oil in ten months of operation. Another well, Buick No. 3, came in as a gusher and produced 550,000 barrels in a period of four months. This was one of the most sensational gushers in the history of California oil, being ranked second in size of flow.
As President and General Manager of this company Mr. Buick has been extremely active in the oil business, and has spent a great deal of time in the fields, personally directing operations, being qualified, because of his own engineering ability, to handle the work in all its detail.
In addition to his oil interests, Mr. Buick also has been engaged for some time in mining in California. He is President, General Manager and chief stockholder of a company operating on the mother lode at Jacksonville, Tuolumne County, and in this, as in his other enterprises, has met with splendid success.
Mr. Buick, during the few years he has been a resident of California, has become known as one of the State and is generally regarded as one who has helped largely in developing her resources.
While he is distinguished for having made a success of all his ventures, Mr. Buick’s greatest success came to him late in life, for he was forty-nine years of age when he organized the Buick Motor Company; but since that time all of his ventures have been attended with extraordinarily large rewards.
Since locating in Los Angeles, Mr. Buick has built a handsome home in one of the fashionable residence sections of the city and his family has taken an active part in the social life in California.
His only affiliation outside of business circles is the Gamut Club, of Los Angeles.
Transcribed 1-29-10
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 371, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.
1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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