Los Angeles County
Biographies
JULIAN B. HEDRICK
HEDRICK, JULIAN
B., Oil Producer, Los Angeles, California,
was born at Russell, Kansas, March 5, 1883. His father was Martin Van B. Hedrick and his
mother was Margaret (Snell) Hedrick. He
married at Los Angeles,
March 9, 1908, Agnes Jane Whyte.
Mr. Hedrick was
reared partly in Kansas and in Colorado, but at an
early age was thrown upon his own resources and was unable to complete his
schooling. He started as a messenger boy
in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with the Postal Telegraph-Cable
Company, remaining with them for a number of years. Then, with a comparatively insignificant
amount of capital and with practically no experience in that line, he entered a
brokerage business in Colorado Springs. He followed that occupation for two years,
having operated successfully while he was still a boy.
In 1900,
foreseeing the great future that California
offered for a young man of his years; Mr. Hedrick, who was not yet 20 years
old, sold his business in Colorado Springs and settled in Los Angeles, where he
shortly opened brokerage offices and where he was actively engaged in that
business for close to five years.
About that time
the Goldfield boom was exciting people in every part of the country,
particularly in the Southwest, and, like many young men of his age, he
determined to leave everything and seek his fortune in the desert country of Nevada. He went immediately to Goldfield, Nevada, where in the
brief space of a few months he associated himself with a number of the large
mining men and interests. He continued
there only two years, returning to Los
Angeles early in 1907, where he has been identified in
a business way, particularly with oil interests, down to date.
On his arrival in
Los Angeles he
made up his mind to enter the oil industry, which was then expanding. He became a close business associate with C.
F. Whittier in oil development and was one of the far-sighted operators who
arrived early in the Midway and West Side
fields to take part in the great development of that district. When the Whittier-Campbell Company was
organized, two years later, Mr. Hedrick became secretary and treasurer of that
organization.
Mr. Hedrick’s
success in the oil business was remarkable, and on November 19, 1909, when the
United Oil Company was incorporated for $2,000,000, he was made secretary of
that corporation, as well as a director.
Mr. Hedrick has played a prominent part in the financing and progress of
that corporation, he devoted all of his time to its welfare, and a short time
after organization the company was put on a dividend-paying basis.
He was made
secretary of the Midway Central Oil Company and is a director in the San
Francisco Midway Oil Company. He has
participated in the organization of several other large oil and petroleum
companies and helped finance numerous enterprises. He invested heavily in the Bakersfield
region, in the McKittrick fields and in the scattered oil lands of Southern California.
With a capacity for hard work and a determination to win, he has
followed the oil business for the last four years with an untiring energy.
He is a member of
the Gamut Club of Los Angeles, of the Elks and of the Los Angeles Athletic
Club.
Transcribed
by Bill Simpkins.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 907, International
News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
Atlanta. 1913.
© 2012 Bill Simpkins.
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