Los
Angeles County
Biographies
LOUIS MAURICE
COLE
In an active and useful career,
Louis Maurice Cole achieved a full measure of success in business pursuits,
contributing to the progress of the city of Los Angeles, where he long made his
home. He took up his residence in this
city after a varied experience on other parts of the west, and within a few
years rose to a position of leadership in its life. Los Angeles has reason to remember his name. He was a man of great public spirit, and his
many services to the city added to its development and to the richness of its
life.
Mr. Cole was born in Chicago,
Illinois on March 24, 1870, a son of Dr. Samuel and Ricka (Dinkelspiel)
Cole. He received his early education in
the public schools of Denver, Colorado, and following graduation from high
school, completed a business course at Bryant and Stratton Business College in
Chicago. In 1887, seeking the larger
opportunities of the west, he moved to California, and entered the employ of
the Kutner-Goldstein Company at Hanford, serving first as bookkeeper and later
as manager of the company until January, 1892.
At that time he was appointed to the position of manager of the
company’s branch store at Fowler, California, but after a few months he moved
again to Lemoore, California, to take charge of another store for the same
company. Mr. Cole continued this
connection until 1896, when he resigned to enter business for himself. In the same year he opened a general
merchandise store at Huron, Fresno county, California, soon building up a
lucrative trade. While attending to the
duties which the present brought him, however, Mr. Cole continued to plan for
the future, and in 1897 he disposed of his interests at Huron and returned to
his native city – Chicago. He remained
in Chicago from 1897 to 1901, dealing for a time in electrical specialties, and
later, for two years, traveling on the road for a Chicago house.
In the month of January, 1901, Mr.
Cole decided to return to California, and settled at Bakersfield, where he was
manager of Dinkelspiel Brothers Department Store from 1901 to 1903. During all these years of his early career,
he acquired much valuable experience and amply demonstrated the high quality of
his business talents which later were to be put to profitable use. About this time the possibilities which Los
Angeles offered came to Mr. Cole’s attention, and he consequently resigned his
position and moved to this city with the intention of starting business again
for himself. He spent two months
acquainting himself with conditions in the city, and finally, after mature
consideration, purchased an interest in the Simon Levi Company, wholesale
dealers in produce in Los Angeles, which was then in its infancy. Mr. Cole became treasurer of the company and
held that office until 1916. When he
entered the company it was only a few months old, and its trade was
comparatively small, but with the soundness of judgment which he always
manifested, he recognized its possibilities and devoted his best attention to
the building up of the business. How
successful he was may be judged from the fact that when he retired from the
office of treasurer this corporation had become one of the largest produce and
grocer’s specialty companies in the southwest, with an annual volume of trade
which far exceeded the million dollar mark.
Mr. Cole’s services were of the greatest importance to the enterprise
with which he was connected, and within a very short time after his arrival in
Los Angeles he had won recognition as one of the city’s ablest business men.
With the passing years his interests
steadily broadened. In 1908 he became
treasurer of the Herman W. Hellman building, one of Los Angeles’ first modern
office structures, and about a year later he was made president of the Purcell,
Gray, Gale Company, Inc., a large insurance agency company operating in
California and the entire southwest. In
1909 he also became secretary of the Warehouse and Realty Company. Meanwhile, from 1906 to 1908, Mr. Cole served
as president of the Produce Exchange.
“In a little more than seven years following his arrival in Los
Angeles,” as it was written at that time, “Mr. Cole has risen to a prominent
position in commercial affairs….He is an influential, public-spirited man who
is doing much toward the upbuilding of Los Angeles.”
In 1916 Mr. Cole took over the Royal
Packing Company, formerly a subsidiary of the Simon Levi Company, and remained
as its president until the time of his death, guiding its affairs with sure
hand along the pathway of success. In
addition he became president of the Cudahy Land Company, the Boulevard Land
Company, the Small Farms Company and the Walnut Park Mutual Water Company. He was vice president of the Washington
Square Land Company and a director of the Merchants National Trust and Savings
Bank. To all these enterprises he gave
his personal attention, and again his services were a decisive factor of their
success. He was one of the few to vision
clearly the remarkable future which lay ahead for Los Angeles. He had the courage to back his convictions
with long term investments, and the example of his activity in local real
estate circles stimulated this development enormously. In a very real sense he helped to create the
prosperity which the city was to enjoy so abundantly, and in that prosperity he
justly shared.
Although he never sought public
office, Mr. Cole was intensely interested in the cause of good government, and
was always willing to serve the community when convinced that his services
could be of value. He was one of the
most active members of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and was president
of that body until 1914, holding the office of director in other years. After the United States entered the World
war, he volunteered to aid his country’s cause in any way within his power, and
was appointed United States food administrator for Los Angeles---a position
which he was ideally qualified to fill and in which he rendered distinguished
service. His support, indeed, could
always be counted on for every worthy movement and the people of Los Angeles
had many occasions to recognize his enlightened public spirit as he took the
lead in civic and benevolent enterprises time after time.
Mr. Cole was affiliated fraternally
with the Free and Accepted Masons, and in this great order was a member of all
higher bodies of the Ancient Scottish Rite, including the consistory. To him was granted that often sought but
rarely accorded honor, election to the thirty-third degree of the Scottish
Rite, and it came to him in recognition of the high value of his services to
the order and for his constant allegiance to the finest Masonic ideals. Mr. Cole was also a member of the Temple,
Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and was affiliated in
addition with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks. He was a member of the B’nai
B’rith and was at one time its president, while in politics he was an
independent republican. Mr. Cole was a
member of the following clubs: The Book
Club of California, the Gamut Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Jonathan
Club, the Rotary Club, the Automobile Club of Southern California, the South
Coast Yacht Club, the Los Angeles Motor Boat Club, the San Gabriel Valley Club,
the Flintridge Club, the Hollywood Club, the Hillcrest Club and the Country
Club. He maintained his residence at No.
3240 Wilshire boulevard.
On January 6, 1904, Louis Maurice
Cole married Frida Hellman of Los Angeles, daughter of a famous figure in the
city’s business life. Mrs. Cole, who
survives her husband continues her home in Los Angeles.
Mr. Cole’s death brought to its
termination a career in which honor and success were equally attained, and his
loss was sincerely mourned, not only by his many personal friends but by the
people of the city at large. Strong in
will and character, vigorous in the pursuit of his chosen goal, and
inexhaustible in energy, he left the impress of his character on the city which
he helped to build. – Encyclopedia of American Biography – Volume XLIX.
Transcribed by
Mary Ellen Frazier.
Source:
California of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty,
Pages 739-742, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Mary Ellen Frazier.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES