Los Angeles County
Biographies
THOMAS
LAMONT HENDERSON
HENDERSON, THOMAS LAMONT, Secretary of the Avawatz Salt & Gypsum Company, Incorporated, Los Angeles, California, was born at Kingston, Canada, March 18, 1869, the son of William P. Henderson and Janet (Dunnett) Henderson. He was married to Miss Myrtella Eddo at Riverside, California, on May 7, 1906.
Mr. Henderson spent his boyhood and received his early education at San Jose, California, later studying under private tutors, fitting himself to be a civil and mining engineer, a profession he later rounded out with practical experience in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
In 1889 Mr. Henderson received his first business training when he entered the employ of M. E. Chapin at Santa Monica, California, who conducted a large general mercantile business. Resigning in 1891 he went to Arizona and New Mexico where for the next six years he engaged in the mining and mercantile business.
Mr. Henderson was one of the first to identify himself with the rich gold discoveries in southern Nevada and for a number of years was prominently identified with the development of Searchlight, El Dorado Canyon, and other famous camps in the southern part of that State. He became a United States Deputy Mineral Surveyor and as such his activities extended into the neighboring States of Arizona and California. As a practical mining engineer his services were widely sought and for a time he was with the famous Quartette Mining Company at Searchlight, Nevada. Throughout his residence in Searchlight he held the important office of mining recorder. His mineral maps, issued at this time, furnished the first authentic data published on this extreme southern part of Nevada. Throughout his residence he was considered an authority on all things pertaining to mining and the geography of the country.
In 1906, Mr. Henderson went to Los Angeles and since that time has made that city his headquarters. Since locating there he has been connected with a number of important development enterprises with H. H. Kerckhoff and others. The work has included mining and other ventures, in all of which Mr. Henderson has taken an active part as partner, adviser and consulting engineer.
Mr. Henderson’s greatest mining success began about the year 1909, when, together with his associates, he acquired and successfully promoted very extensive and valuable deposits of rock salt, rock gypsum and other earth minerals located near the extreme southern end of Death Valley, in San Bernardino County, California. This corporation, in which Mr. Henderson is Secretary and one of the principal stockholders, is known as the Avawatz Salt & Gypsum Company.
As field manager, Mr. Henderson has widely explored the estate which covers an area nine miles long by fully half a mile in average width.
Because of his wide experience in engineering and mining affairs and his intimate knowledge of the country, Mr. Henderson’s associates entrusted to him the practical planning and construction of the company’s plants and improvements, these including a modern salt refinery, plaster mill and a branch railroad sixteen miles in length which connects the company’s property with the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad.
Mr. Henderson devoted the greater part of three years to the work of getting the enterprise under way, and, being firmly convinced of the future of the industry as a commercial factor in Southern California, plans to make it his chief business. He is, however, a stockholder in the Calumet & California Copper Company, holding the office of Secretary of the corporation and also serving as it Field Manager.
Mr. Henderson makes his headquarters in Los Angeles, but he spends a considerable portion of each year in the desert lands, engaged in exploration and engineering work.
During his residence in Los Angeles, Mr. Henderson has devoted himself strictly to business. He has taken no active part in politics, but at all times has taken an active interest in every question pertaining to the welfare or advancement of the mining industry. He is known as a thorough, capable and conscientious engineer and ranks high among the member of this profession and the business men of his locality.
Mr. Henderson is an enthusiastic member of the Sierra Madre Club, Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Chamber of Mines and Oil.
Transcribed 6-24-09 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 309,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES