Los Angeles County
Biographies
FELIX CHAPPELLET
CHAPPELLET, FELIX, Mining and Oil Operator, Los Angeles, California, was born in Oakland, California, April 26, 1877, the son of Felix Chappellet and Milvia (Frick) Chappellet. He married Mabel Clare Dimon at San Jose, California, February 15, 1902, and to them there have been born three sons, Felix, Cyril and Henry Chappellet. Mr. Chappellet is a member of one of California’s pioneer families, his father having been one of the immortal Forty-niners and one of the prominent mining operators in the earlier days of the State.
Mr. Chappellet received his primary education in the public schools of his native city, but the mining instinct being strong in him and it being his father’s wish that he should take up mining as his vocation, he spent a great deal of his boyhood working around the mines in which his father was interested. Later he attended the Van Der Naillen mining school and took a special course in assaying at the State Assay Office, being accredited an assayer in 1894.
Following the completion of his studies, Mr. Chapellet went to work for the Mayflower Gravel Mining Company, in Placer County, California, his father being President of the corporation at the time. He worked in the practical branch of mining for about a year, then left his father to become Superintendent of the Eureka Gravel Mines in the same county. He was then only a boy in years, but he had had many seasons of practical mining experience, having lived in an atmosphere of mining all his life, and proved himself fully competent to discharge the duties of the position.
After working for the Eureka Company for approximately five years, during which time he made one of the best records in the State in the tunnel work, Mr. Chappellet resigned the Superintendency to go to Mexico, where he became Superintendent of the Santa Rosalia Mining Company at Arizpa, in the State of Sonora. He remained in charge of these mines for about a year, then returned to California for four years. During this latter period he had charge as Superintendent of the Mohican Mining & Milling Company’s mines in Tuolumne County, California.
In 1905 he received an exceptionally tempting offer to return to Mexico as Assistant Manager of the Santa Eulalia Exploration Company, so resigned his position and went to the State of Chihuahua, where his new company’s properties were located. These included the San Andear, San Antonio Chico and the Buena Tierra Mines. This latter is one of the largest silver and lead properties in operation in the Republic of Mexico, its monthly shipments of ore averaging four thousand tons. When Mr. Chappellet became associated with the controlling company these various properties were just being developed and during the time he was connected with the enterprise he had a large part in this development work. In addition to his duties with this company, however, Mr. Chappellet’s services were in demand by other mining corporations and during the three years he was in Chihuahua he also served as Superintendent and Consulting Engineer of the San Juan Grande Mining Company and the El Cristo and Democratia Mining Company, both American owned properties.
In the latter part of 1908, Mr. Chappellet severed his Mexican connections and returned to California. It was just about this time, however, that the oil business was taking on boom proportions in the State and he turned his attention to this field. For nearly two years he did little more than study conditions and estimate prospects for the future of the industry, but in November, 1910, he plunged actively into the oil fields and has been steadily engaged in the business since. He bought an interest in the Midway Premier Oil Company, which owned about forty acres of proved land in the famous Midway fields of California, and immediately became one of the principal factors in the management of the enterprise. When he became associated with the company it had only one well, but he put down four others in quick succession, all of them proving good producers, and when he sold out his interest at the end of a year, his company was shipping an average of one thousand barrels per day.
In December, 1911, Mr. Chappellet was appointed Superintendent of the Delaware Union Oil Company’s property at Fullerton, California, which is one of the largest and oldest properties in that field and formerly was owned by Payne Whitney, the Waterbury Wire Rope Company and other New York capital. On May 1, 1912, this property was sold to the General Petroleum Company, one of the large companies of California, and Mr. Chappellet, was appointed Manager of its Southern Division.
In addition to the operation of numerous wells, the General Petroleum Company is engaged in various other branches, including refining and pipe lines. Mr. Chappellet has the management of all its operations south of the Tehachapi Range.
Mr. Chappellet, who is a comparatively young man, is one of the practical developers of the resources of California and is highly regarded as one of her successful and substantial business men. He is prominent in Masonic circles, being a Knight Templar and a member of the Mystic Shrine.
Transcribed 9-4-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 328,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES