Los Angeles
County
Biographies
CHARLES
LOUIS DUCOMMUN
Among
the most prominent of the early merchants of Los Angeles was the late Charles
Louis Ducommun, who for forty-seven years carried on an extensive and important
business, an enterprise which is still being conducted by his sons under the
name of The Ducommun Corporation. Mr.
Ducommun was a man of unusual business acumen and vision, and was distinctively
progressive in his ideas and methods, so that he long exerted a salutary
influence in the commercial circles of this city.
He
was born in Besancon, France, on the 15th of November, 1820, and was
a son of Aime and Jeanne Marie Elizabeth (de Bonsgravier) Ducommun dit Tinon. These
parents, who were Royalists, found it advisable to flee from France to
Switzerland during the Revolution, and on their way, they stopped at the little
village where their son was born. On
their arrival in Switzerland, they settled at Locle,
where Charles Louis received his educational training and later learned the
trade of watchmaking. In 1841, when
twenty-one years of age, Mr. Ducommun came to the United States, and in 1849
left Mobile, Alabama, to join the rush to California. He came by way of the historic Santa Fe Trail
via Fort Smith, Arkansas, arriving about August 29, 1849, in the Pueblo of Los
Angeles. During the journey, he suffered
many hardships, passed through many dangerous situations and had some conflicts
with the Apache Indians. For several
summers thereafter he went to the placer mines in Mariposa County and also on
the Feather River.
Locating
at Los Angeles, he opened a watchmaker’s shop on the north side of Commercial
Street, near Main, where he enjoyed so successful a business that in 1854 he
was enabled to buy the property on the corner of Main and Commercial, where in
1873 he built the Ducommun Block, which is still well preserved and is occupied
by the Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles. After following his original line of business
for a few years, he added a stock of jewelry and imported goods, eventually
also adding the practical lines, cutlery and hardware, and was the first
merchant in southern California to import pruning shears for the orange
orchardists and sheep shears for the sheep herders. He also added imported and domestic
merchandise lines for all trades as business demand developed.
His
sound business judgment enabled him to achieve a noteworthy success and his
store became and still maintains its place as one of the leading commercial
houses of this city. Mr. Ducommun
devoted his attention closely to the business until his death in 1896, at the
age of seventy-six, when his sons took over and have since conducted the
business. They engaged extensively in
the specialty hardware business, and now, under the name of The Ducommun
Corporation, are handling only tools, metals and supplies. Their building is located on Central Avenue,
and they also have a warehouse covering over three acres of ground, located at
Forty-fifth and Alameda. There is also a
branch house in San Francisco.
Mr.
Ducommun was noted for his dependable qualities, his honesty and his unfailing
courtesy through which he made lasting friends.
During the earlier years of his business career he handled most of the
gold dust produced in this section of the state and weighed and banked for its
owners more than three million dollars’ worth of the precious metal during the
period when it was being used as a means of exchange.
Mr.
Ducommun’s business activities were diversified in their character, and he was
a leading member of a number of important enterprises. He was a member of the Congregational Church,
a charter member and one of the founders of the Farmers & Merchants Bank,
the Los Angeles Water Company, and the Main and Agricultural Park Railway, and in 1865 became one of the organizers of the Los
Angeles Pioneer Oil Company, the first oil company in California. In the early ‘50s he served as a member of
the original vigilante committee, which did such effective work in restoring
and maintaining law and order in the community.
In 1855 he was granted his citizenship papers in the court of the first
judicial district of the state of California.
On May 31, 1875, he was made a Master Mason, and retained a keen
interest in the work of that honored fraternity until his death. He was a member of Lodge No. 42, F. & A.
M., Los Angeles.
Mr.
Ducommun was married twice, first in 1857, in San Francisco, California, to Miss
Bertha Rontex, who died in 1859, leaving two daughters,
Amelia and Alice. In 1867, while on a
visit to Neuchatel, Switzerland, Mr. Ducommun met and married Miss Zelie Leonide Petitpierre,
a woman of splendid education, well versed in languages and an accomplished
musician. To this marriage were born six
children: Charles Alexander, who married
Lillian Hoffman, of Ohio; Alfred Henry Leon; Emile Aime,
who died in 1878; Bertha Clare; Emil Constant, who married Bessie Shemwell, of Los Angeles; and Edmond Frederick, who married
Lulu Gladys Morrissey, of Alhambra, California.
There are five grandchildren:
Virginia Leonide and Charles Emil, children of
Emil Constant Ducommun; and Alan Norwood, Edmond Graydon
and Jean Frederick, children of Edmond Frederick Ducommun.
Mrs.
Charles Louis Ducommun was for more than thirty years president of the Ladies
Benevolent Society, one of the first charitable organizations in Los
Angeles. She was woman of strong
character, interested in things worthwhile, a tactful and unfailing hostess,
and her gracious qualities endeared her to all who knew her. Up to the time of her death, in November,
1926, at the age of eighty-four, Mrs. Ducommun retained her interest in
charitable and civic movements.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 647-650,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES