Los Angeles County
Biographies
FELIX LOUIS ABNER HAMILTON
HAMILTON, DR. FELIX LOUIS
ABNER, President, Baltimore Oil Company, Los Angeles, California, was born in
Stone County, Arkansas, April 28, 1861, his father being Abner Hamilton and his mother Mary Ann (Pitman) Hamilton.
He has been twice married, his first wife having been Sallie Robinson, whom he
married at Bellefonte, Arkansas, January 17, 1885. Of this union
there were born to him two sons, James Austin Gervis
and Herman Bryan Hamilton. His second marriage occurred at Odessa, Texas,
December 20, 1906, his bride being Miss Cynthia Hogg.
Dr. Hamilton, who has been identified with development
work in the West for many years, is essentially a self-made man. He received no
educational opportunities until he was nearly twenty years of age and when he
did finally enter school he received his teaching in several different
institutions. He first became a student at the union country school, located in
Boone County, Arkansas, and remained there for about three months. He followed
this with three months’ attendance at the Bellefonte Academy, also located in
Boone County, and then entered the Riley Hill Academy, where he remained for
seven months, thus having only thirteen months’ (sic) of schooling
altogether.
After finishing at Riley Hill Academy, in 1884,
Dr. Hamilton continued his studies and also began teaching in a small
country school. The same year he took up the study of medicine under Dr. Leonidas Kirbey, at
Harrison, Arkansas, and read with him until he entered the Missouri Medical
College, at St. Louis, Missouri, in September, 1886. In the meantime he had
been continuously engaged as a country schoolmaster, earning enough to pay for
his course at college. He was graduated from Missouri Medical College in the
class of 1888, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
Dr. Hamilton had prepared himself so thoroughly for his
profession that upon his return to Arkansas and entrance into the ranks of the
physicians of that State, he was appointed (April 1, 1888), to a
place on the Arkansas State Board of Medical Examiners, which examined and
licensed candidates for the profession. His preceptor, Dr. Leonidas Kirbey, was a
member of the board also, and it was upon his recommendation that
Dr. Hamilton received his appointment.
Dr. Hamilton served on the State Board and was actively
engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery at Bellefonte, Arkansas, from
the time of his admission until January, 1890, when he resigned his post and moved
to Erin Springs, in what was then the Indian Territory. He practiced there with
gratifying success for about three years, and then located at Pryor Creek, in
the Indian Territory, where he remained from January of the year 1893 to
November of the same year.
About this time Dr. Hamilton, with five years of actual
experience to his credit, decided to devote a year to special study, so
relinquished his practice and went to New York City,
where he became a student in the New York Polyclinic Hospital Institute.
Returning to the Indian Territory in 1894, Dr. Hamilton located in the
town of Waggoner and resumed practice. He remained there for approximately
three years and in 1897, transferred his offices to Visalia, in Tulare County,
California. He remained there for more than a year, but during the period
between November, 1898, and the end of the year 1902 he was engaged in
professional work in several different localities. From Visalia he went to
Flagstaff, Arizona, but after practicing there for a few months, returned to
Waggoner, Indian Territory. Leaving there in October, 1900, he went to Silver
City, New Mexico, and practiced for three months, going thence to Safford,
Arizona. In the fall of 1901, he again returned to Waggoner and practiced there
until the close of the year 1902.
Realizing the opportunity for development in all parts of
the West and Southwest, Dr. Hamilton, in January, 1903, gave up medical
practice temporarily to engage in the land business and his success more than
justified the change. His first important enterprise was the opening and
colonization of a tract, several thousand acres in extent, in the Creek Nation
of the Indian Territory. He divided the land into plantations and then placed
upon it more than a hundred families, all of whom were engaged in cotton raising. Dr. Hamilton introduced modern methods of
cotton culture among the people and the enterprise, one of the most extensive
agricultural ventures the Indian Territory had ever known, resulted in a large
addition to its productiveness and general wealth.
Dr. Hamilton was engaged in farm land development until
1906 and then spent a year at El Paso, Texas. In January, 1907, he settled at Texico, New Mexico, and resumed his medical practice. He
was not content there, however, and in November of the same year, established
practice at El Centro, California, where he stayed for more than twelve months.
He next went to Las Cruces, New Mexico, remaining in practice there until July,
1909, when he moved to Los Angeles. He has been there ever since, engaged in
active business.
At the time when he arrived in the Southern California
metropolis the oil business was claiming the attention of investors in that
section of the country and Dr. Hamilton, who had made a success of his
other business ventures, determined to enter into that field of development.
Accordingly, he organized the Hamilton Oil & Gas Company, which he operated
for about a year, selling out his interest in the concern in June, 1910. Before
a month had passed, Dr. Hamilton formed a new corporation, known as the
Baltimore Oil Company, and as President of this company, has had active charge
of its affairs since its organization.
Member, Los Angeles Chamber of
Commerce.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
16 August 2011.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 739, International News Service,
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
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