Los Angeles County
Biographies
ELLIS MARVIN HARRIS
HARRIS, ELLIS MARVIN, Stock
Broker, Los Angeles, California, was born in Abingdon, Washington County,
Virginia, April 3, 1883, the son of Thomas D. Harris and Elizabeth H. (Clark)
Harris. He married Pearl Creel, at Butler, Pennsylvania,
December 16, 1908, and to them there has been born a daughter, Ruth
Frances Harris. Mr. Harris’ family has lived in Virginia for many generations
and various members served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
Mr. Harris received the primary part of his education in
the common schools of his native town and later attended the Martha Washington
School, a private institution of Abingdon, Virginia, but gave up his studies
when he was sixteen years of age and began to earn his own livelihood.
He learned telegraphy in the service of the Illinois Central
Railroad at Cisco, Illinois, and remained with this company until 1899. He then
entered the employ of the Wabash Railroad at Decatur, Illinois, as teleprapher [sic] and train dispatcher and served in
this capacity for about four years. Leaving the Wabash service, Mr. Harris
went to Springfield, Missouri, in the employ of the St. Louis and San Francisco
Railroad (Frisco System) as telegrapher and train dispatcher and stayed there
until August, 1905, when he resigned to accept a position as Manager for the
Western Union Telegraph Company at Washington, Pennsylvania.
After a year at Washington, Mr. Harris was promoted by
the Western Union Company to the position of Traveling Auditor and Solicitor
for the company, with headquarters at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He held this
position until the year 1908, when he resigned and moved to San Francisco,
California.
He became connected with J. C. Wilson & Company, a
stock and bond house, with offices in various parts of the Southwest, starting
in as an operator in the San Francisco office. With his previous extensive
experience and the intelligence with which he handled his work, Mr. Harris
soon won the attention of his firm and in 1911, after three years of active
work in the stock business, was appointed Manager of the company’s offices in
San Diego, California. He remained there about a year and in 1912 was appointed
to the larger field of Los Angeles, as Manager of the office there, in charge
of all the company’s affairs in that district.
This is one of the most important branches of the
J. C. Wilson & Company’s systems and the selection of Mr. Harris
for the position of Manager was a distinct recognition of his services for the
company. J. C. Wilson & Company, of which J. C. Wilson
is the head, is one of the largest stock brokerage concerns in the United
States. It has the distinction of having put into operation the first
exclusively private stock wire between Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. A feature
of the business is the extension of courtesy to tourists interested in market
affairs, who are visiting on the Pacific Coast. They are permitted to use the
wire in communicating with their Eastern brokers and are thus freed of business
worries, although they are thousands of miles from home. The introduction of
this wire courtesy, as it is called, by the Wilson offices has served to
attract to Los Angeles and other cities where the company has offices, a great
many men of wealth who are interested in stock exchange affairs or other
financial matters. The company is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the
New York Cotton Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade and the Stock & Bond
Exchange of San Francisco, with two offices in San Francisco, one in Los
Angeles and others in San Diego, Pasadena and Coronado Beach, California;
Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia. It
handles a tremendous amount of stock and bond business and its transactions
equal those of many other large brokerage houses combined.
A large part of his success is attributed by Mr. Wilson
to the men he has had associated with him and of these Mr. Harris has
proved one of the most capable and conscientious. During his stay in San Diego
he greatly increased the business of the company there, and since taking charge
of the Los Angeles office he has added largely to its transactions, this being
due to his personality and his evident knowledge of stock exchange and the
general financial affairs of the country.
Mr. Harris gives practically all of his time to his
business and is not a clubman, preferring to spend his leisure time with his
family.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
07 March 2011.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 620,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES