Los Angeles County
Biographies
BENNETT S. DENNISON
DENNISON, BENNETT S., Secretary and General Manager, Pacific Tunnel Machine Company, Los Angeles, California, was born in Wichita, Kansas, August 1, 1875, the son of Edward R. Dennison and Agnes (Couguill) Dennison. He married May Rogers at Delta, Colorado, October 7th, 1895, and to them there have been born two sons, Roger and Bernarr Dennison. His great-grandfather, Aaron Dennison, was a pioneer watchmaker and credited with being the father of the industry in the United States.
Mr. Dennison was thrown upon his own resources at the age of seven years, his father having died at that time. He then worked his way through school, graduating in the public schools of Wichita in 1891. After leaving school he learned the watch-making trade and for several yeas traveled through the United States as a jeweler and watch-maker. In 1896 he entered the American College of Ophthalmology at Chicago. He was graduated in 1900, with a degree of O. P. H. D.
Following his graduation, Mr. Dennison engaged in the optical business, as a traveling optician, having headquarters at Delta, Colorado, and Denver. He maintained establishments in each city and twice a year made a tour of the State of Colorado.
In 1906, after six years of successful operation in the optical business, Mr. Dennison sold out his business and went into mining in Colorado, and after a short time moved to Chicago, Ill., where he became identified with C. G. Breitenbach, a wholesale silverware house, as traveling salesman. He traveled through the Northwest for some time, then was chosen Sales Manager for the house.
During this time Mr. Dennison had not given up his mining aspirations, however, and in 1908, returned to Colorado, where he engaged in leasing, developing and selling mining properties in the Clear Creek and Gilpin districts. Later in the same year he purchased an interest in the Georgetown Transportation Company, then engaged in boring a tunnel in Georgetown, Colorado, for the transportation of ore, and in this way began to take a serious interest in tunnel building. At that time the tunneling machinery in use was not entirely satisfactory, and one of the engineers engaged in excavation work for Mr. Dennison’s company, George Allen Fowler, began experiments which resulted in the invention by him of an entirely new type of tunneling machine.
This invention greatly impressed Mr. Dennison, and he supplied the financial backing for the organization of the International Tunnel Machine Company, which began the manufacture of the machines. The first machine was built in 1909 at the Davis Iron Works, of Denver, Colorado, and was tested with a block of solid concrete sixteen feet long, fourteen feet wide and twelve feet in depth. This trail demonstrated the practicability of the Fowler machine, but also showed its backers the necessity for further improvement. Within a short time another was built in New York, and after severe tests, proved highly satisfactory.
In order to place the machine on the market properly the parent concern, The International Tunnel Machine Company, divided the United States into trade districts, leasing the patents to various subsidiary companies for the manufacture and operation of the machines. Early in 1912 the territory west of Colorado was acquired by a group of business men headed by Delphin M. Delmas, the famous California Lawyer, and the Western Tunnel Machine Company was organized. This Company, in turn, formed an operating company, known as the Pacific Tunnel Machine Company, for the States of California, Nevada and Arizona.
An enormous amount of development was begun in these States a few years ago and, it is believed, will be continued for some years to come. In this work tunneling is an important factor and tunnel machinery can be employed to a great extent, both in railroad and mining operations.
Mr. Dennison early became associated with Mr. Delmas in these enterprises and has been one of the factors in the organization of the companies, which have begun operations and are building the machines for use in various large development projects in the Southwest.
In addition to his office as Secretary and General Manager of the Pacific Tunnel Machine Company, Mr. Dennison is a Director of the Western Tunnel Machine Company, the holding corporation, and a Director of the Casa Delmas Company, an affiliated concern.
Transcribed by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 901,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2012 Joyce Rugeroni.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES