Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOSEPH JEFFERSON DAVIS
DAVIS, JOSEPH JEFFERSON, Los Angeles, California,
President of the Santa Monica Land and Water Company, is a native of Ottawa, Canada,
born August 8, 1869. His father was
Jefferson Davis, a prominent capitalist and land owner of his home region and a
native of Lancaster, England. His mother was also of English origin, the
place of her birth being Sussex,
England. Mr. Davis married Miss Emma Volkman, at Santa Monica, Cal., Sept. 11, 1894. There are three sons, Herbert Leslie, Robert
Carlyle and Joseph Jefferson.
Mr. Davis
was educated in the schools of Canada
and later spent a brief period with his father in business. At the age of twenty-one he left Canada for Southern
California where he foresaw great opportunities.
In 1890 he
located in the Santa Monica
region and engaged in the organization of the United Electric and Gas Company
for the purpose of furnishing light, power and fuel to the residents of that
vicinity. He was made Vice President and
General Manager of the company and for ten years was its business head. In 1900 the stock and plant of the company
was purchased by the Edison Electric Company, Mr. Davis resigning all interest
in that line.
Mr. Davis
soon became interested in land, in 1903 purchasing an interest in the Santa
Monica Land and Water Company. He also
bought large tracts of lands from the San Vicente and the Santa Monica grants and immediately began
their improvement. He spent large sums
in opening streets, boulevards and tracts and today the great system of
highways which stretch for miles around Santa
Monica can be traced to the work of Mr. Davis. In 1905 he became associated with R. C.
Gillis in the purchasing of new lands in the above region and a few months
later, the beautiful tracts of Westgate, Brentwood
Park and Carlos Heights
were opened. These residential districts
border along the foothills and command a great view of
the ocean on the west.
Mr. Davis
has seen Santa Monica, and the back country
which stretches toward Hollywood, grow from a
small seaside village to a city that promises to become the Newport
of the Pacific Coast.
And he has been one of the men, in the twenty-two years of his stay, to
insist up on the high standards of public and private improvement that has made
it the beautiful district that it is.
During the
last few years Mr. Davis has been known as President of Santa Monica Land and
Water Company and as one of the highly successful men of the Santa Monica district. He has been identified with many other land
enterprises and is a director in the Broadway Central Bank of Los Angeles.
He holds memberships in several of the largest business, professional
and social organizations of both Santa Monica
and Los Angeles.
Mr. Davis
is the owner of one of the most beautiful residences in Southern
California, situated on the broad boulevard at Westgate.
Transcribed
by Michele Y. Larsen 22 October 2011.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 815,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Michele
Y. Larsen.
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