Los Angeles County
Biographies
LOUIS ALLAN MCCRAY
MCCRAY, LOUIS ALLAN, Oil Producer, Los Angeles, Cal., was born in Pennsylvania, May 7, 1865. His father was A. M. McCray and his mother Selina (Parsons) McCray. He was married to Mary Branson July 1, 1900, at Ventura, Cal., and of their union there have been three children, Irene, Blanche and Rita McCray, at the present time three handsome young women.
Mr. McCray spent his early boyhood in the great oil fields of his native State and New York State. At the age of sixteen years he left school and immediately took up active work among the wells.
He first began as a pumper, but in 1886, when a temporary lull overtook the industry in the two states where he was working, he with his father and brothers, all practiced oil men, journeyed westward to California, where the oil business was then in its infancy. At the time the McCrays arrived there were only three oil companies in the State, the Puente Co. at Fullerton, Pacific Coast Oil Co. at Newhall, and Hardison-Stewart Co., which was operating in Ventura County. The Hardison-Stewart Co. later became the Union Oil Co. of California
Mr. McCray was employed by the Union Oil Co., in a minor capacity at first, but was steadily advanced on account of his thorough knowledge and efficiency to many responsible positions with the corporation. He remained with this company ten years, and then, when oil was discovered in the city of Los Angeles, he and his brother, M. L. McCray, formed a partnership and went into the well contracting business. They were among the very first to get into active operation in the field, and they soon saw that there was a great future in the development of oil property.
Accordingly, they set about acquiring land leases and immediately began active operations in the Los Angeles field on their own account. Because of their complete mastery of the business in all its details they took a leading position. They drilled their own wells, handled and marketed all of the oil pumped from them, and at one time were the largest producing organization in the Los Angeles field. An indication of their activity and enterprise is shown by the fact that at one period they had fifty-three wells in operation. At the time of the oil boom in the northern and other sections of California, the McCrays decided these larger fields should be their sphere of endeavor, so they sold out their Los Angeles interests and turned their attention to leasing and developing lands in the newer districts. Here they met with success greater than that which had attended their efforts in the Los Angeles field and later they sold properties to the American Oil Fields Co., of which Mr. McCray is now a heavy stockholder and director.
He also formed a partnership with Thos. A. O’Donnell, and together they became interested with E. L. Doheny, another pioneer oil man, in the American Petroleum Company, one of the best known concerns of its kind in the West. The McCrays, Doheny, Canfield, O’Donnell and a few others are recognized as the real developers of oil in the Golden State.
Besides the corporations already mentioned, Mr. McCray is heavily interested in others. He is a director and stockholder in the Midland Oil Co., the Circle Oil Co., Section One Oil Co., J. F. Lucey Supply Co., and is a stockholder in the Mexican Gas Co. and the El Segundo Land and Development Co.
Two years ago Mr. McCray retired from the active management of any of his companies and is now devoting his time to the building of a beautiful home among the foothills of Hollywood, an attractive suburb of Los Angeles.
He is an active member of the Masonic Fraternity and also of the Hollywood Club.
Transcribed by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 761,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Joyce
Rugeroni.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES