WILL E. KELLER

Los Angeles County

Biographies

WILL E. KELLER

KELLER, WILL E., President Globe Grain and Milling Company, Los Angeles, California, was born at Woodville, Mississippi, January 30, 1868, the son of Charles E. Keller and Agnes M. (Phares) Keller. Mr. Keller has four sons, Robert L., Will J., Edward McD., and Henry E. Keller. In 1892 Mr. Keller went to Los Angeles and there began what has become one of the most notable careers in that city of successful men.

He first embarked in the wholesale grain business, and expanded it to such an extent that in 1898 he organized a manufacturing company and built a large mill plant. This was followed by another plant, erected at Colton, Cal., in 1902; the next year they built at San Francisco. This plant later was partially destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt in 1906. Another plant was built at Woodland, California, in 1905; El Paso, Texas, followed in 1909, and San Diego, California, in 1910.

It was about this time that Mr. Keller became interested in ice manufacturing, and in this line also he was concerned in the erection of several big plants, among them one at El Paso, in 1909; another at Fresno, California, in 1910, and a third at Bakersfield, California, in 1911.

The combined capacity of the flour mills is 4200 barrels per day of flour and 500 tons of feed. The daily output of the ice plants combined is 336 tons, and they have a total storage capacity of 20,000 tons. Mr. Keller bears the honor of having constructed the first fire-proof flour mills in the West.

These various ice and flour enterprises are owned and operated by separate companies, all organized by Mr. Keller, and in all of which he is the controlling factor, both as to management and policy. Each is a success by itself and they are not in any way interdependent. Through them many hundred persons are given work and they form a series of the greatest industrial operations in the western country. The companies and Mr. Keller’s connection in each are as follows: Globe Grain and Milling Company, Los Angeles and San Francisco, President; Colton Grain and Milling Company, President; San Diego Grain and Milling Company, President; Woodland Grain and Milling Company, President; El Paso Grain and Milling Company, President; California and Oregon Grain and Elevator Company, President; Globe Ice and Cold Storage Company, El Paso, President; Valley Ice Company, Fresno and Bakersfield, President.

Despite the arduous duties which fall upon him as head of these numerous and active concerns, Mr. Keller has other interests which claim part of his time, and to all he gives the best that is in him, as organizer, executive or planner. He is a director and stockholder in the Merchants’ National Bank, one of the largest in Los Angeles; also a director of the Ralston Iron Works of San Francisco.

From this list it is apparent that Mr. Keller is one of the busiest business men in the United States, and necessarily must be a practical improver of the great Pacific Coast country. He has little time for recreation, but when he does take a holiday usually spends it hunting. He holds memberships in the California, Los Angeles Country and Westminster Gun Clubs of Los Angeles, Pacific Union and Transportation Clubs of San Francisco, and the El Paso Country Club, El Paso, Tex.

Transcribed by Bill Simpkins.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 796, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

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