WILBERT MORGRAGE

Los Angeles County

Biographies

WILBERT MORGRAGE

MORGRAGE, WILBERT, Attorney at Law, Los Angeles, California, was born in Castine, Maine, January 3, 1869, the son of Andrew Jackson Morgrage and Priscilla Cole (Fenton) Morgrage. He married Louise Miller of Auburndale, Massachusetts, on December 28, 1896, and to them there has been born a daughter, Priscilla Morgrage.

Mr. Morgrage received his early education in the public schools of Castine, Maine, and in 1889 was graduated from the Eastern State Normal School of Maine. During the years 1889 and 1890 he occupied the position of Principal of the Union High School at Union, Maine, leaving in the spring of the latter year to enter the employ of the city of Newton, Massachusetts, in the City Engineer’s office. He was identified with this work until January, 1893.

Mr. Morgrage then entered the Harvard Law School, where he received his legal education, graduating in the class of 1895. He was admitted to practice in the courts of Massachusetts the same year. In 1896 Mr. Morgrage was associated with Joseph Willard of Boston and in 1897 opened an office on his own account. In 1898 he entered into partnership with the Honorable Charles M. Bruce of Boston, the firm name being Bruce & Morgrage. The firm’s business was largely corporation work and extended over a period of about five years.

During the years 1903, 1904 and 1905 business affairs called Mr. Morgrage to the Pacific Coast and in 1906 he closed his Boston offices, moving with his family to Los Angeles, California.

He became identified with the Canfield interests in the California oil fields, operating principally in the Kern River and the Midway-Maricopa districts. The men with whom Mr. Morgrage was associated, C. A. Canfield and others, are among the largest oil producers in the California fields and for several years he was actively engaged with them, to the exclusion of all other business.

In 1912 Mr. Morgrage resumed the practice of his profession, with offices in Los Angeles. He confined his law work to corporation practice entirely, but still retains his oil interests and devotes a considerable share of his time to this business, as officer, stockholder or legal adviser for various companies. He is the American Director and representative of the Societe Generale Belge de Petrol en Californe, a Belgian corporation, operating in the Kern River region, and is Secretary and Attorney for the Ruby Oil Company and the Jade Oil Company.

Mr. Morgrage also is attorney for the Spellacy-Thomson-Montgomery oil interests on the East coast of Mexico and is interested on his own account in Mexican oil and farming lands. He figured, as one of the locators of oil lands covered by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company’s land grants in Kern County, California, in the Government action against the railroad corporation now (1913) pending in the courts.

One of the notable cases in which Mr. Morgrage appeared after resuming the practice of law in Los Angeles was that of the Sepulveda heirs versus the City of Los Angeles, Southern Pacific Railroad, Pacific Electric Railway, San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railway Company, Santa Fe Railway et al., in which the plaintiffs, represented by Mr. Morgrage, sought to recover certain property at San Pedro, Cal. (Los Angeles Harbor), known as tide lands.

In addition to his oil interests and his legal activities, Mr. Morgrage is active in several other lines and is a factor in land development near Los Angeles, being Secretary and attorney for the Harbor View Land Company, operating adjacent to Los Angeles Harbor. The section in which this company’s tract lies is expected to be the scene of great real estate activity with the opening of the Los Angeles Harbor, on which the city, State and Federal governments are spending millions of dollars.

Mr. Morgrage is a member of the California Bar Association, Sierra Madre Club and the Harvard Club of Los Angeles.

Transcribed 4-30-11 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 643, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

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