Los Angeles
County
Biographies
ARTHUR
GUY DIVET
Engaged
in the practice of law, Arthur Guy Divet has also been actively concerned in
lawmaking and in civic affairs which have had marked influence over public
thought and action. He has ever held to
high ideals and standards of citizenship and in the various localities in which
he has resided he has worked untiringly for the best interests of the
community. Now a resident of Los
Angeles, Minnesota numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred
at Byron, that state, on the10th of January, 1870, his parents being Daniel and
Harriet (Sykes) Divet, the former born in 1835 and the latter in 1845. The father was of Irish lineage and the name
was originally spelled Davit. It was a
branch of this same family to which Michael Davit belonged. The mother of Arthur G. Divet was a
French-Canadian, born in Montreal, Canada, in 1845. Both the father and mother of A. G. Divet
became residents of Madison, Wisconsin, in childhood. About 1868 Daniel Divet removed with his
family to Minnesota and on leaving Byron in 1880 took up his abode in Wahpeton,
North Dakota.
Arthur
G. Divet was born and reared on a farm and began his education in district
schools, while subsequently he attended high school at Wahpeton, North Dakota,
and spent two years as a student in the University of Wisconsin. He passed the first twenty-two years of his
life on farms in Minnesota and North Dakota and then took up the study of
stenography, becoming a court reporter in 1894 and serving in that capacity for
six years. This awakened his interest in
the law and he took up the study of jurisprudence. After thorough preliminary reading he was
admitted to practice at the bar of North Dakota in 1898 and opened an office at
Forman, becoming a partner in the firm of Divet & Slattery in 1901. In 1904 he formed a partnership with W. E.
Purcell, United States Senator, under the firm name of Purcell & Divet,
practicing at Wahpeton, North Dakota.
Subsequently Mr. Divet removed to Fargo and entered into a partnership
relation that established the firm of Engerud, Divet, Holt & Frame in 1917, the senior partner, Edward
Engerud, resigning from the North Dakota Supreme
Court to form the firm. He died in 1919
and the remaining partners continued their association, while later others were
added and the firm became Divet, Shure, Holt, Frame, Murphy
& Thorp. From the outset of his
professional career Mr. Divet made steady advancement, his practice growing in
volume and importance as the years passed, but in 1928, unable to stand the
rigorous climate of North Dakota, he came to the Pacific coast and entered into
association with the law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg & Davis in Los
Angeles, thus continuing for two years.
In September, 1930, he was called to Washington, D. C., by Attorney
General Mitchell and made special assistant to him, serving in that capacity in
charge of income tax litigation and cases against the government in the court
of claims until April, 1933. Returning
to Los Angeles, he has been a member of the firm of O’Connor & Divet since
May 1, 1933, his partner being J. F. T. O’Connor, who has been comptroller of
currency during all this time. In his
practice Mr. Divet has specialized in constitutional law, real property law and
banking law, and few men have more intimate or accurate knowledge concerning
these branches than he. From 1919 until
1928 he was general counsel for the North Dakota Bankers Association, having
charge of all legal interests of all banks in the state, including legislative
interests, and he appeared regularly for the American Bankers Association
before congressional and senate committees of banks and banking during most of
that period. While the practice of O’Connor
& Divet at this time is in some respects general, it is mostly confined to
special matters involving large financial interests. They have an extensive clientele and the
consensus of public opinion ranks them with the leading lawyers of the Pacific
coast. Mr. Divet is a member of the bar
of the Supreme Court of the United States and of eight of the ten circuit
courts of appeal of the United States and the bars of North Dakota and of
California. He has practiced for
twenty-five years in all of the state and the federal courts of the states of
South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana. In
1927 he completed the writing of a book on banking law, which was published by
the North Dakota Bankers Association under the title “Divet’s
Opinions for Bankers.”
On
the 10th of April, 1894, at Hankinson, North Dakota, Mr. Divet was
married to Nora Russell, who was born at Fairpoint,
Goodhue County, Minnesota, August 3, 1874, and is a directed descendant in the
maternal line of the Franklin Pierce family.
Her ancestry can be traced back to colonial days and she is a member of
the Daughters of the American Revolution.
She had extensive club activities in North Dakota, is a past worthy
matron of Mecca Chapter of the Eastern Star, Fargo, North Dakota, and when
residing in that city took a most prominent and helpful part in the activities
of the Congregational Church. Her mother
was Uretta Pierce, a daughter of Dr. Paul Pierce, who
was married to Elisha Russell. Both of
her parents are now deceased. Dr. Paul
Pierce was a first cousin of President Franklin Pierce, and the Revolutionary
ancestor was Jonathan Pierce. Mr. and
Mrs. Divet have become the parents of a son, Donovan R., of Wahpeton, North
Dakota, and a daughter, Mrs. Berta Divet Lyndahl, of Hanover, New Hampshire, whose husband, M. L. Lyndahl, is a member of the faculty of Dartmouth College
and the author of several works on economic themes. In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Divet are
Congregationalists, with membership in the First Congregational Church of
Fargo, North Dakota. He is a thirty-second
degree Scottish Rite Mason, having passed through all of the chairs; is a
Shriner, a member of the grand lodge of the Knights of Pythias in North Dakota
and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 345-348,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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BIOGRAPHIES