Los
Angeles County
Biographies
WILLIAM LACY
William Lacy’s name has been very
prominently connected with the manufacturing, financial and civic interests of
Los Angeles during the past forty-five years.
A contemporary biographer, reviewing the career of Mr. Lacy for
“California and Californians,” said: “He
was born in Bolinas, Marin County, California, November 12, 1864, son of
William and Isabella (Rigg) Lacy. His
father was born in London and his mother in the ancient city of Carlisle,
England, the former of Norman and the latter of Saxon ancestry. They were married in Urbana, Indiana, and in
1863 they came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, landing in San
Francisco and settling close to the shore of San Francisco Bay, where their son
William was born the following year.
Their surviving children, two daughters and three sons, are all
residents of Los Angeles, though James Edward spends a great deal of his time
in Mexico. William Lacy, Sr., was one of
the pioneers in oil development work in southern California, being associated
with W. R. Rowland in the fields near Newhall, California. William Lacy died August 7, 1897.”
The son was educated in the public
schools of Los Angeles, including the high school, and after leaving high
school he attended business college, then served an
apprenticeship in the sheet iron and hardware business. He knew that work from the technical as well
as from the business office standpoint, and was president of the Lacy
Manufacturing Company, plate and sheet steel workers, manufacturing steel
pipes, steel well castings, oil storage tanks and other iron and steel
products, most of which was used in the oil industry. When he and his brother Richard H. in 1887
started in business under the firm name of Lacy, Ward & Company, they
manufactured all classes of sheet iron work, including well and water pipes,
and iron tanks. The office of this firm
was at 121 Los Angeles Street and the factory at the corner of Buena Vista and
Virgin streets. After about four years
the brothers bought out the interests of Mr. Ward, and the firm became the Lacy
Manufacturing Company, and under that title the business was incorporated in
1898. The brothers continued their business
always on a conservative footing, and consequently have passed through hard
times and panics with unimpaired credit, and have kept their business growing
with the phenomenal growth of the city until it is now one of the important
manufacturing and distributing concerns of southern California.
Mr. Lacy’s only important pioneer or
circulative work was a venture with his brother in developing oil wells in the
Kern River fields. William Lacy was vice
president and for many years was a director of the Farmers & Merchants
National Bank of Los Angeles, a director of the Mortgage Guarantee Company,
president of the Pacific Clay Products Company, a director and for several
years president of the Morris Plan Bank.
He was for years one of the
prominent members of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and served as
president in 1924. He was a member of
the Los Angeles Efficiency Commission, being associated on that commission with
George I. Cochran. He was a Republican,
and was affiliated with Lodge No. 99, B. P. O. E., the Los Angeles Country
Club, the Midwick Country Club, the Sunset Club and the California Club.
When Mr. Lacy at the beginning of
1924 was chosen president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce he made an
address containing an impressive program of work to be done through and under the
auspices of the Chamber. The address
attracted more than ordinary attention because of the prominence of its
author. In the course of his remarks Mr.
Lacy said: “For years the Chamber of
Commerce has planned to make Los Angeles a great industrial city, and now we
are within sight of that goal. It will
be the policy of the Chamber during 1924 to emphasize the necessity of more
industry, for the time is past when we need to advertise southern California’s
climate. We want more people and we want
to be in a position to offer them employment when they come here. We must create new payrolls and utilize our
tremendous wealth of natural resources such as wool, cotton, hides, copper and
iron. We have the markets and need only
the skilled labor and the capital. The
tremendous advantage offered Los Angeles commerce by the Panama Canal seems to
be little realized by the majority of our people. With that avenue open to the eastern markets
we can manufacture goods here and sell them in the east cheaper than they can
be produced back there.”
On February 2, 1892, in Los Angeles,
William Lacy married Miss Emma L. Gordon.
She was born in Missouri, attended school in her native state, and came
to Los Angeles when she was about sixteen years of age, finishing her education
here. She is an active member of the Ebell Club. Mr. and
Mrs. Lacy became the parents of six children, four sons and two daughters: Josephine married James Edwin Higgins, Jr.,
of Oakland, California, and they have four children: Virginia, Betty Ann, Peggy and Barbara;
William Gordon married Ruth Cullen, and they have four children: William, Mary, Virginia and Thomas; Walter Purches married Florence Crowell and they have four
children: Walter, Weymouth, Margaret Ann
and Frederick; Roy is secretary-treasurer and a director of the Pacific
Products Company; Gordon married Constance Kearney and they have a daughter,
Margaret; Elizabeth married Charles Madary and they
have a son, Charles Jr. After Mr. Lacy
was married he settled at the corner of Seventh and Spring streets, where the
family lived for several years, or until Mr. Lacy erected a home on Ninth
Street near Figueroa Street, and in 1907 he erected a home on the corner of
Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, which continued the home until 1924, at
which time another home was constructed on Muirfield
Road, where Mrs. Lacy still resides. Mr.
Lacy’s activity in civic affairs was attested by his aid in organizing the
Community Chest, of which he served as second president and continued in that
office for five years, when he resigned.
His success in business was due to close attention to his work, but he
had interest in sports and various forms of recreation. In his younger years he did a great deal of
yachting, and his hobbies were yachting, golf and hunting ducks. He died June 11, 1932.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
45-48, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES