Los Angeles County

Biographies

 

 

 

OMA L. GRIMSLEY

 

 

     GRIMSLEY, OMA L., Mining, Los Angeles, California, was born in Jonesburg, Washington County, Tennessee, August 23, 1878, the son of John L. Grimsley and Polly (Hulse) Grimsley.  He is a member of one of the most prominent families of Tennessee and a cousin of United States Senator Robert Taylor of that State.  He married Ella M. Herron of Cumberland, Ohio, at Santa Ana, California, February 21, 1912.

 

     Mr. Grimsley, who is internationally famous as a horseman and known as one of the successful mining operators of the West, has spent the greater part of his life in the open country.  He attended school at Mossy Creek, Tennessee, until he was fifteen years of age and whatever else he learned from books was acquired by study in after years, while working as a cowboy.

 

     Leaving home in 1893, Mr. Grimsley went to Big Horn Basin, Wyoming, and there obtained employment as a cowboy on the ranch of the Pitchfork Cattle Company.  He remained with this company for five years and during that time spent his evenings and other spare time in study.  It was while working in Wyoming that Mr. Grimsley, then only a youth, heard of the riches to be made in placer mining near Denver, Colorado, and he determined to go there and seek his fortune.  Organizing a party of his associates, he went to Breckenridge, Colorado, and immediately engaged in placer mining.

 

     From the summer of 1899, when they began work, until 1902, they took out about $25,000, this representing their labors during the summer months only, because the snow lay too heavily on the ground in the winter period to permit of their working their property.  Mr. Grimsley left his first location in 1902 with the intention of returning to the cattle business and at Glenwood Springs, Colorado, was prevailed upon to match his riding ability with that of the leading cowboys of the West in a bronco-busting competition.  In this he won the world’s championship, receiving a cash prize of $1,000 and a silver belt valued at $500.  His fame as a rider spread to all parts of the world and in November of the same year he was invited to participate in a second bronco-busting contest, held at Buenos Ayres in South America.  This competition occurred early in January, 1903, and Mr. Grimsley again won the championship, which carried $3,000 cash and another silver belt as the prize.

 

     This marked the close of his career as a rider, for shortly after winning the championship Mr. Grimsley resumed his work in placer mining, operating in South America, and remained there until the fall of 1905.  Although he was very successful while there, he decided to return to the United States and located at Cripple Creek, Colorado.  There he leased quartz properties which he worked with profit until 1907.

 

     In the latter part of that year he transferred his operations to Rawhide, Nevada, where he purchased a quartz mine for $20,000 and after working it for two years sold out for $70,000.

 

    In 1909 Mr. Grimsley went to the La Paz mining district in Yuma County, Arizona, and there purchased a placer mine, which he has been operating ever since.  In May, 1910, he incorporated the New La Paz Mining Company, of which he is President and General Manager.  The company possesses 426 acres in that district, which has been estimated by engineers to contain gold gravel worth millions of dollars, waiting to be hydrauliced.  The company is installing a hundred thousand-dollar plant of modern machinery.

 

     It was on his way to this property that Mr. Grimsley and a party of friends had a narrow escape from death in the Colorado Desert.  They started from Los Angeles in an automobile in December, 1911, to go to the La Paz district and were caught in one of the dread sandstorms while in the midst of the desert.  They were blinded and half choked by the sand and for four days, the duration of the storm, suffered intensely.  Inured as he was to the hardships of the West, Mr. Grimsley considers this the worst experience he ever had. 

 

     Aside from the above he has recently organized the Arizona Funding Company and Posos Valley Water Company.  He is President and General Manager of the three corporations.

 

     Mr. Grimsley, in his later years, has given up the horse for the automobile and is one of the most enthusiastic motorists in Los Angeles, being a member of the Automobile Club of Southern California.  He is also a member of the Chamber of Mines and Oil of Los Angeles.    

 

 

 

Transcribed by Bill Simpkins.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I,  Page 806, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.  1913.

© 2011 Bill Simpkins.

 

 

 

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