Los Angeles County
Biographies
WILLIAM FITZHERBERT-WEST
FITZHERBERT-WEST, WILLIAM,
Oil Producer and Land Owner, Los Angeles, California, was born in Titusville,
Pennsylvania, February 11, 1865, the son of George Fitzherbert-West and Emma Fade. He was married in Los
Angeles, September 10, 1896, to Helen Zobieski
Ball. They are the parents of two children, George and Montgomery Paulison Fitzherbert-West.
In his childhood he was taken to North Adams,
Massachusetts, and there attended school. He was at Drury Academy from 1872 to
1880, and upon leaving there went to work in the Berkshire National Bank of
North Adams. He was with this bank and the North Adams National Bank for nearly
ten years.
In the spring of 1892 he took a trip through the West. He
was won by Los Angeles, and in October of the same year returned there to make
his home. He engaged in the land business, with Tomas McD. Potter,
and they bought fifty-five acres at Jefferson and Main streets.
After disposing of this tract of land he acquired
property on West Adams street, known as “Westacres,” which he subdivided and placed on the market.
He started in the oil business in 1899, and was president
of the Continental Oil Company, operating in the Kern River field. Then there
came a slump in oil, and he returned to land operations in Hollywood. In 1907,
he organized and became president of the American Crude Oil Company.
One of Mr. Fitzherbert-West’s
big operations is a 7221-acre tract on the mesa near San Diego, which he will irrigate,
subdivide into small ranches and place on the market.
Mr. Fitzherbert-West is a
member of the Annandale Country Club, the Bakersfield Club and the Los Angeles
Athletic Club.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
12 May 2011.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page Page
653, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES