Los Angeles County
Biographies
FRANK OLIVER
OLIVER, FRANK, Mining and Constructing Engineer, Los Angeles, California, is a native of England, born at Bury St. Edmunds, June 13, 1861. He is the son of George John Oliver and Maria Agnes (Loder) Oliver, and married Sarah Emma Moald at Melbourne, Australia, August 18, 1885.
Mr. Oliver, who has an international reputation in his profession, received the preliminary part of his education in the Grammar School of his native town, then studied for a year and a half under a private tutor, George Griffith, M. A. Later he studied under W. A. Coates, B. A. , C. E., for several years, taking a full course in Engineering.
Upon the completion of his studies, Mr. Oliver entered the employ of a firm of mechanical engineers in his native town, serving two years of an apprenticeship. For three more years he was engaged with E. R. and F. Turner, engineers, of Ipswich, England, with whom he completed his apprenticeship. When he received his diploma, he was engaged under contract as Supervising Engineer for Dickinson & Company, an engineering firm engaged in the manufacture of machinery for the production of nitrates and silver in South America. His work lay between Iquiqui and Antofagasta, Chili (sic), and during much of the time he was in close association with Colonel North, of nitrate fame.
In 1883, Mr. Oliver returned to England and after a visit of several months, left in the fall of the same year for Melbourne, Australia, where he became associated with the Melbourne Cable Car Company, as Constructing Engineer. This was the first cable system in that section of the world, and all of the gripmen and conductors, in addition to the supervising car builders, were imported from San Francisco.
Upon the completion of his work with the cable car system, Mr. Oliver took up mining in Australia, in association with Mr. Ramsay Thompson of the Long Tunnel Mining Company, whose properties were located at Walhalla, Gippsland, Victoria. Later he was placed in charge of the property known as the Blue Jacket on the lower Jordan River, in the Mount Lookout district of Victoria, and during the two years he was there developed the mine and installed a large amount of machinery. When this was finished, he went to England for another visit, and after a six months’ stay, returned to Melbourne, where he engaged in a general engineering practice. For a year and a half he conducted an independent business, but he was then sought by Messrs. Thompson & Son, contracting engineers, of Castlemaine, Victoria, on construction of the sewage pumping plant for the city of Melbourne. The great Australian metropolis is built in a basin and all sewage has to be pumped out of it under vacuum pressure, a physical condition which afforded unusual engineering difficulties.
His work on the Melbourne system ended, Mr. Oliver made another trip to his home in England and remained in the mother country for about twelve months. He then accepted a contract, in 1896, with the British American Corporation, which took him to Rossland, British Columbia, as Assistant General Manager of their mining properties, which included the Le Roy, Nickel Plate, Josie and others. He was engaged there for more than three years and about the year 1900 gave up his work to come into the United States. He first located in Colorado and for the next four years was engaged in general engineering and mining work, and in 1904, was appointed by A. D. Parker, Vice President of the Colorado Southern Railroad, as mining manager for the Florence Goldfield Mining Company. Mr. Oliver was in the Goldfield district for more than three years and also managed the Little Florence Mining Co. and the Frances Mohawk.
In 1908, Mr. Oliver was engaged in quicksilver mining in the Pacific Coast Range of Mountains, but in 1909, he became interested in oil and gave up his mining work temporarily to engage in the petroleum business. Locating in Los Angeles, he turned his attention to the oil fields in the Midway district of Kern County, California, and for two years was active as an operator in that territory. In 1911, however, he sold out his oil interests and resumed his engineering work, establishing offices in Los Angeles. He had a general practice, but the greater part of his time was spent on projects in New Mexico and Lower California. He has continued his interest in some of the latter.
In 1912, he became President of the Western Excavator & Development Company, engaged in the Southwest in various important enterprises.
Transcribed 4-23-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 241, International
News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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