Los Angeles County
Biographies
RICHARD W. PRIDHAM
PRIDHAM, RICHARD W., Manufacturer, Los Angeles, California, was born March 7, 1856, in London, Canada, son of W. C. and Elizabeth Pridham. He married Althea L. Hait, June 3, 1891, in New York City.
Mr. Pridham attended the public schools of Canada to the age of twelve, and then a business college for two years. When fourteen years old he went to work in a book bindery at Toronto, Canada. He worked with the same firm for ten years, thoroughly mastering the trade. In 1880, when twenty-four years old, he left Canada for Chicago, where he found occupation at his trade and worked for six months.
He went to San Francisco in 1880, and has resided in California ever since. He worked in San Francisco two yeas and then decided that he had been in the employ of others long enough. He looked about for a promising city in which to locate and chose Los Angeles.
At the age of twenty-six he opened a little manufactory is still in existence, but of a size and importance hardly even suggested by the little enterprise of thirty years ago. At first bookbinding was the sole line of effort, but he soon added to it the first paper box factory in Southern California, and later printing. At the present time he employs one hundred and twenty-five men and women, and goods are shipped all over the western half of the United States and to the Pacific Islands.
Of late years he has engaged in public affairs. He was elected Supervisor of Los Angeles County, November, 1908, and has served in that capacity to the present day. When the Good Roads Committee was organized he refused to take the office of chairman, desiring some one else to have the honor, but once in the harness, he has been one of the central figures in the construction of good roads in Los Angeles County. He insisted in the purchase by the county of the rock quarries, which meant the saving of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since his accession to office more than 240 miles of paved highways have been completed and many miles more are under construction. These roads are being built under a $3,500,000 bond issue. He was one of the prime movers in the arrangements which led to the construction of the mammoth concrete bridge connecting Pasadena and Garvanza, costing $160,000 the most ambitious highway bridge yet attempted in Southern California.
He was elected chairman of the Board of supervisors in 1911. One of his first accomplishments in this important office was to establish a county purchasing department. He expects to save the county through this department, which will be headed by experts, between $50,000 and $75,000 annually. He was one of the strongest opponents of the payment of $236,700 for the furniture of the Los Angeles Hall of Records.
With the majority of the Board of Supervisors against him, he managed to have Dr. C. H. Whitman appointed Superintendent of the County Hospital, under whose superintendency the hospital is said to have greatly improved. Between 1905 and 1908, he was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City of South Pasadena.
He belongs to the Municipal League, and furthers every movement for the benefit of the city and county. He is trusted and admired as one of the sincerely unselfish men in the public life of Southern California.
Mr. Pridham also holds membership in the Jobbers’ Association, and is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Shriners, the Free and Accepted Masons, and the Woodmen of the World. He belongs to the Annadale Country Club, the Union League Club and the Jonathan Club.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 753,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Joyce
Rugeroni.
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