Los Angeles County
Biographies
ROBERT
PARSELL DAVIE
DAVIE, ROBERT PARSELL, Sugar Manufacturer and Land Owner, Los Angeles, California, was born at Flushing, Genesee County, Michigan, August 22, 1867. His father was Lyman Ellis Davie, and his mother was Puella L. Davie. He married Martha Hays at Pueblo, Colorado, October 15, 1890. As a result of this marriage there were six children, Sydney R. (deceased), Marjorie Puella, Rachel Leah (deceased), Lois Elizabeth, Martha Frances, and Robert Parsell Davie, Jr.
Mr. Davie obtained his education in the public schools of Flushing, Michigan, and in a district school near his father’s farm. He taught himself pharmacy.
He moved west to Colorado in 1888, when Cripple Creek was a Mecca for mining men. He followed several lines with more or less success, and in 1890 became owner of a drug store in that city, continuing until 1895, when he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
At that time he had become interested in the real estate business in Colorado Springs. In association with J. R. McKinnie, now a successful realty operator in Los Angeles, California, he organized the McKinnie-Davie Realty Company. At the same time Mr. Davie became interested in mining enterprises in Cripple Creek, and he and Mr. McKinnie were influential in financing several enterprises in that district. Later Mr. David formed a number of corporations that are today flourishing in the Colorado country.
Napoleon B. Broward, Governor of Florida at the time, conceived the idea of draining the great Everglade country of that state and hundreds of thousands of acres of submerged lands. Mr. Davie at that time became interested in Florida property. He assisted Governor Broward with the problem, and as a result the state is now reclaiming several million acres.
In 1901 he with Mr. J. R. McKinnie organized the Western Sugar and Land Company at Grand Junction, Colorado, for the purpose of taking over the defunct beet sugar factory there. The task was a tremendous one, for the farmers of that region were opposed to it by reason of previous failures, but Mr. Davie with Mr. McKinnie staid with the proposition and in three years had developed one of the greatest industries in the country.
A similar achievement was the construction of the United States Sugar & Land Company factory at Garden City, Kansas, which marked the beginning of the beet industry in that section.
In 1908 he took hld of the Southwestern Sugar and Land Company factory at Glendale, Arizona, which had been a complete failure in the hands of a company of English capitalists, remodeled the factory, and persuaded the farmers in that region to take up the sugar beet industry, and in three years has turned that region into a sugar producing section. Today it is recognized as one of the largest industries in Arizona.
Mr. Davie moved to Los Angeles, California, late in 1909, and has since been permanently located in that city. He retains large interest, both mining and realty, in Colorado, Florida and Arizona, but is now interested in several California enterprises. He is Vice President of the Western Sugar and Land Company, President of the Southwestern Sugar and Land Company, Vice President of the Everglades Sugar and Land Company, Director in the Colorado Title and Trust Company of Colorado Springs, and a Director of the Valley Bank of Phoenix, Arizona.
He is a member of the California Club of Los Angeles, the Annandale Country Club of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Country Club, The Denver Club of Denver, Colorado, El Paso Club of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Pikes Peak Club of Colorado Springs, and is a thirty-second degree Mason.
Transcribed 3-26-11
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 615, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.
1913.
© 2011 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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