LOUIS WESTON POWELL

Los Angeles County

Biographies

LOUIS WESTON POWELL

POWELL, LOUIS WESTON, Mining, Los Angeles, California, was born in the town of New Madrid, Missouri, May 3, 1866, the son of Edmund Powell and Virginia Nash (Fontaine) Powell. He married Miss Allie Moore Jewell, November 26, 1884, at Hagerstown, Maryland, and of their union there have come five children—Jennie Jewell, Ralph Edmund, Ruth Fontaine, George Benedict and Dorothy Anne Powell.

Mr. Powell’s education spread over a period of many years and was divided into three parts. First he attended private schools and studied under tutors in his home town, then went to the public schools of St. Louis, Missouri, and finally entered Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Virginia.

Immediately upon the conclusion of his college work Mr. Powell engaged in mercantile business and other pursuits in Missouri, but removed to Virginia in the early nineties and there he became secretary and treasurer of the Buena Vista Company, a responsible concern engaged in mining, manufacturing and town building. While there Mr. Powell, in a manner characteristic of the man, took an active part in the affairs of Buena Vista and served as a member of the City Council.

He remained in Buena Vista until the latter part of the year 1895, but at that time moved to Bessemer, Gogebic County, Michigan, where he was engaged with Ferdinand Schlesinger. Schlesinger had formerly been the iron ore king of the Lake Superior district, owning some of the largest mines, railroads and ore boats on the Great Lakes. In the early nineties he had failed in business, and, turning all of his property over to his creditors went to Mexico. There he recouped his shattered fortunes to a considerable degree, and it was on his return to the Michigan fields that Mr. Powell became associated with him in the iron ore business. During the next five years Mr. Powell worked assiduously with Schlesinger and in that time aided him greatly in his work of re-establishing himself in the business world. His work in the interests of Schlesinger attracted the attention of iron and ore leaders to Mr. Powell, and by the beginning of January, 1900, his reputation as an expert and manager had become such that he was prevailed upon by the Carnegie Company to enter into the work of developing ore properties for it. The Carnegie Company previously had been interested somewhat in the iron ore business, but at this time decided to go into it more actively than ever before. Accordingly, Mr. Powell was appointed agent for the Oliver Iron Mining Company and vice president of the Pittsburg Steamship Company. Both these organizations were subsidiaries of the Carnegie Company and had charge, respectively, of the mining and steamship ore transportation ends of it.

Mr. Powell made his headquarters in Duluth, Minnesota, situated in the heart of the northern Ore ranges and one of the greatest ore shipping points in the world. There, as in his previous connection with Mr. Schlesinger, Mr. Powell won fame for himself and added largely to his standing in his profession.

When the United States Steel Corporation, capitalized at $1,000,000,000, was organized, it took in not only the largest steel and iron companies in the United States, but also took the best men from each company to be directing powers in the new concern. The magnitude of the Steel Corporation and its operations is known to everyone and its success is due largely to the work of the picked men who became the executive heads of its various departments. Mr. Powell was one of these men, chosen for the post of assistant to the president of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, which bore the same relation to the steel combine as it had to the Carnegie Company before the latter was absorbed. To this company was assigned all of the mining business of the corporation, and Mr. Powell’s part in its affairs was even more important than it had been previously.

In addition to his office as assistant to the president, Mr. Powell was appointed vice president of the steamship company and thus continued the work he had begun several years before in the employ of the Carnegie interests.

These two offices gave Mr. Powell direct charge of the mining and transportation departments of the world’s greatest industrial institution, and subsequently he was placed in charge of its timber land department, which put him actively in charge of all its timber and ore holdings. In this capacity he purchased thousands of acres for his company.

In January, 1906, after having spent more than ten years in the Northern Ore regions, during which he acquired international prominence as a mining operator, Mr. Powell deserted the iron and steel industry for copper. He resigned his position with the Steel Corporation and went at once to Bisbee, Arizona, where he became vice president and general manager of the Calumet and Arizona and allied interests in charge of their mines and smelter operations.

At this period of his career Mr. Powell began works quite as extensive and important as those he had performed in the interest of the Steel Corporation. They included, in addition to his mining and smelting activities, the building of railroads, property development and town making.

This part of his life Mr. Powell justly regards with pride, for when he started in the development of the copper properties now known as the Superior and Pittsburg Copper Company his friends and others in the business thought he was going up against a hopeless task. He persisted, however, matching his faith and experience against the opinions of the men who predicted failure as the only reward for his efforts. He was undertaking a monumental contract in trying to make these properties pay, but with characteristic energy and determination he went at it and continued at it, until today the company’s holdings are regarded as some of the best copper enterprises in the land.

This successful accomplishment will always stand as a memorial to the ability and perseverance of the man.

The Superior and Pittsburg was not the only great success of Mr. Powell, however, for when he took charge of the smelter of the Calumet and Arizona it was in an extraordinarily poor condition. He caused it to be rebuilt to a large extent and then put in operation.

Mr. Powell was the main factor in the founding of Warren, Arizona, the beautiful little suburban town just outside of Bisbee, and he constructed the Warren-Bisbee Electric Railroad lines, connecting the two places. Warren today is a thriving town and is rapidly becoming an attractive residence place, Mr. Powell himself making his home there, although his office is in Los Angeles.

After his first successes in the copper fields of Arizona, Mr. Powell became general manager of the Cananea Central Copper Company, vice president of the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company, president of the Cananea-Duluth Copper Company and a number of other corporations subsidiary to the Greene Cananea Copper Company, the largest copper operators in the Southwest and the forces of which were responsible for opening up that field.

All of this work in Arizona Mr. Powell accomplished in the remarkably short period of four years, and at the end of that time, or in July, 1910, resigned his positions with the Calumet and Arizona and the Superior-Pittsburg companies to devote his time and attention to his private interests. These latter include the Elenita Development Company and the Powmott Development Company, in both of which he occupies the position of president’ the Sierra Madre Consolidated Mining Company and the San Antonio Copper Company, holding directorships in both.

Mr. Powell is the principal factor in the operations of all of these enterprises and is today among the leading individual copper developers of the Southwest.

Despite his continuous and close application to his work, Mr. Powell has taken a keen interest in politics and government wherever he has been, and in addition to his service as City Councilman in Buena Vista, Va., he was Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors of Gogebic County, Michigan, during his residence in that State. He was also a delegate from the Territory of Arizona to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, in 1908, which nominated William H. Taft for the presidency.

He is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and takes a leading part in the affairs of that body. He is also a thirty-second degree Mason.

His popularity in business as well as social circles is attested by his club memberships, which include the Kitchi Gammi Club of Duluth, Minnesota; the Old Pueblo Club of Tucson, Arizona and the Douglas County Club of Arizona; the California and Sierra Madre clubs of Los Angeles, California; the Northland County Club of Duluth, and the Warren District County Club of Warren, Arizona. He is also a member of the Brotherhood of Protective Order of Elks.

Transcribed 9-23-08 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Pages 133-134, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

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