Los Angeles County
Biographies
HENRY AUGUSTUS COIT
COIT, HENRY AUGUSTUS, Financial Underwriter, Los Angeles, California, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 3, 1875, the son of Edward Woolsey Coit and Caroline (Moore) Coit. He married Kathryne Howard at Los Angeles, September 21, 1912. His is one of the noted American families, his great uncle, Henry A. Coit, having been the first man to bring grand opera to American shores. He afterward became a prominent sugar factor in New York City. Mr. Coit’s father was President of the Reading Iron Works at Reading, Pa., and the latter’s brother was the founder and head of the St. Paul School at Concord, New Hampshire.
Mr. Coit received his early education in private schools of Philadelphia, but during the greater part of his youth studied under private tutors. Moving to St. Louis, he entered Smith’s Academy, a preparatory school, and in 1893 became a student at Washington University, St. Louis. He was prominent in athletics and noted as one of the greatest football players in the Middle West.
Leaving school in 1895, Mr. Coit embarked in business as a crude drug broker, but sold out a year later. He then purchased an interest in the Missouri Telephone Manufacturing Co. and occupied the position of sales manager until he later sold his interest. In 1897 he became engaged in the construction of telephone exchanges and long distance lines, and organized the Telephone Exchange & Construction Co., with himself as President. Associated with him were several well known business men of St. Louis, among them J. C. Howe, Treasurer, St. Louis, Peoria & Northwestern R. R.; and Robert L. McLaran, an attorney.
Mr. Coit and associates operated on a large scale, building the telephone exchanges at Terre Haute, Ind.; Nebraska City and Syracuse, Neb.; Baton Rouge, La., and Meridian, Miss. The plant at Terre Haute was the largest independent telephone exchange in the country and the first operated on a central energy multiple lamp line system.
The company of which Mr. Coit was the head was instrumental in giving to many small cities and towns modern utilities, its method of operation being the construction and operation of plants until they were on a paying basis, when they would turn them over to the municipality or local capitalists.
Mr. Coit directed the affairs of the company for about three years, disposing of his interest in 1900 to engage in a different line of business. In 1902, after handling various financial enterprises he became associated with Paul Cable in the transformation of the Santa Fe line between Las Vegas and Las Vegas Hot Springs (New Mexico) into an electric interurban road, this being the first in the West. He was active in the preliminary work, but before the line was completed he went to California to visit his father, who had settled there after retiring from business.
He remained at Corona for about a year, and in 1904 moved to Los Angeles, where he opened brokerage offices. He finally specialized in the underwriting of financial enterprises and has continued in this field.
In 1907 Mr. Coit organized the Burbank State Bank, at Burbank, Cal., and despite the fact that it was born in a year of financial panic the institution has thrived and ranks among the substantial banking institutions of Southern California. Two years afterwards he turned his attention to San Diego, and in association with Louis J. Wilde organized the Federal Building Co., which erected the American National Bank building there, an eleven-story structure, and the first to exceed six stories.
The same year Mr. Coit, acting for Los Angeles capitalists, purchased the Bank of Southern California, becoming Secretary and Director, and was active in the management of it until it was sold in 1911 to interests which changed the name to Globe Savings Bank. During the greater part of his connection with the bank he represented the controlling interests and was active in all of its operations.
While engaged in handling the affairs of the Bank of Southern California, Mr. Coit organized the Yucaipa Land Co., which owned nine thousand acres of ranch land in the Yucaipa Valley of Cal. He was associated with Los Angeles and several local and mid-western capitalists in this venture.
Early in 1910, Mr. Coit acted as the agent of the Southern California Cement Co. (now the Riverside Port. Cement Co.) in the sale of its underwritten bonds.
About the same time Mr. Coit became active in the financing of the Tejunga Water & Power Co., to which he has devoted much of his time.
Mr. Coit, early in 1912, organized and financed the Oxnard Eucalyptus Mills, at Oxnard, Cal., the first mill in the U. S. for the utilization, on a large commercial scale, of eucalyptus timber. This mill, with a capacity of 25,000 feet of finished material a day, is engaged in a general manufacturing business, and gives promise of developing into one of the important State industries.
Mr. Coit is a book-lover and owns one of the most select libraries in Southern California. Mrs. Coit joins Mr. Coit in his taste along these lines.
Mr. Coit is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and the Cuyamaca Club of San Diego.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 419, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.
1913.
© 2010 Joyce
Rugeroni.
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