Los Angeles County
Biographies
EDWIN
W. SARGENT
EDWIN
W. SARGENT.--Sargent, Edwin W., Attorney and Vice President of the Title
Guarantee & Trust Company of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, was born
at Oregon, Dane County, Wisconsin, August 15, 1848. His father was Croydon Sargent and his mother
Lucy W. (Hutchinson) Sargent. He married
Ella Bar at Sterling, Illinois, on August 30, 1876, and to them there has been
born a daughter, Lillian Sargent.
Mr. Sargent, who has occupied a leading
position among the professional and business men for many years, was reared in
his native State. After completing his
preliminary education he matriculated at the University of Wisconsin, Liberal
Arts Department, in the year 1868, and continued his studies there until the
latter part of 1870. He then moved to
Iowa, and in 1873 entered the Law Department of the University of Iowa, at Iowa
City, graduating the following year with his law degree.
Immediately after his graduation Mr.
Sargent was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Iowa, and going to
Denison, Iowa, opened his offices. He
remained in practice there for approximately five years, and in 1879 moved to
Atchison, Kansas, where he pursued the business of his profession until 1886. During that time he came to be known as one
of the strong men of the profession, enjoyed a lucrative practice and achieved
considerable note as a specialist in land titles.
In 1886, upon relinquishing his
practice in Atchison, Mr. Sargent moved to Los Angeles and has remained there
ever since. When he first arrived in the
Southern California metropolis, it was only a small town, but even then gave
promise of the greatness it has achieved since among the large cities of the
country, and Mr. Sargent, in his capacity as a title expert, aided materially
in the development of the real estate business, the growth of which has been
almost phenomenal.
His land title business in Kansas had
made Mr. Sargent familiar with the activities of the guaranty title and
abstract companies and he knew the opportunities they offered. He discovered upon locating in Los Angeles
that there were no guaranty title companies in existence there and that land
titles, under the system then in vogue, were given without any guarantee. He immediately set about the correction of
this and other evils connected with property transactions, and through his
innovations came to be known as "The Father of the Land Title
Business" in Los Angeles.
Mr. Sargent made his impression upon
the community by establishing as evidence of title in Los Angeles City and
County the "Certificate of Title," practically in the form in which
it is used today in real estate transfers and has been for more than
twenty-five years.
In 1887 Los Angeles enjoyed a
tremendous boom in real estate, and during this historic period of activity
there were many persons engaged in the abstract business who thrived wholly
upon searching the records by the name index for the investigation of title,
making expensive abstracts and obtaining expensive legal opinions of lawyers
upon the same. With his wide experience
in the law and his intimate knowledge of the title and abstract business, Mr.
Sargent devised a plan for putting an end to what he considered an extortionate
practice, and with it the basis of the land title business of Los Angeles was
formed. The change was brought about, in
the first place, by the organization of the Los Angeles Abstract Company early
in 1887, conceived in a spirit of fair dealing and on a comprehensive scale,
with Mr. Sargent and several wealthy men of Los Angeles as its organizers. This company adopted what is known as the
"property system," by following the title to each individual piece of
land by the different references that are made by all instruments affecting the
title. The company merely completed an
abstract plant in the fall of 1887, and then began making full and unlimited
certificates of title at a moderate price, upon any and all real estate in the
City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.
It was the unusual legal ability
brought to this company by Mr. Sargent that enabled it to issue Certificates of
Title, and the community soon learned that for a moderate price they obtained
the most competent legal opinion that could be given on titles to real estate. These unlimited Certificates of Title soon
commanded the confidence of real estate dealers, money lenders and banks; and
in a few years there was a complete change in the business of furnishing
evidence of title, which was done quickly and at a great deal less expense than
under the former system. It is conceded
that Mr. Sargent, with his energy and force of character, took the leading part
in the establishment of the Unlimited Certificate as the universal and accepted
means and evidence of title employed by persons in the real estate transactions
of Los Angeles County.
The Los Angeles Abstract Company being
a success from the start, the business was soon expanded by the absorption of
other firms, and in 1894, it was reorganized and the name changed to that of
the Title Insurance & Trust Company.
The following year Mr. Sargent resigned from this institution and
organized another, known as the Title Guarantee & Trust Company, both of
which are now rated among the largest concerns of the kind in the United
States. They employ scores of men in
their clerical departments, require the services of many lawyers and transact
business of immense proportions. Each is
housed in a splendid office building, among the handomest [sic] of Los Angeles
skyscrapers, the one known as the Title Insurance and Trust Building, the other
as the Title Guarantee & Trust Building.
Mr. Sargent's residence in Los Angeles
has covered the period of its greatest growth and the companies of which he has
been the organizer have handled a large percentage of the titles to Los Angeles
property. In the management of these
companies Mr. Sargent has been one of the dominant factors, and few men are
more intimately acquainted with the history of ownership of acres and lots in
Southern California.
Aside from his own business interests
Mr. Sargent is one of those men who is quietly yet effectively behind every
public movement which concerns his city.
He recognizes that part of his success is due to the rapid growth of Los
Angeles and of the territory surrounding, and has always been willing with both
work and means to assist in all enterprises for the public good. He is not an active factor in politics, but
is an advocate of a beautiful and well governed city
He is a member of the Masonic Order, is
a Knight Templar and Shriner and a member of the Jonathan Club.
Transcribed by
Rhonda Ruick O'Brien.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Pages 463-465,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Rhonda
Ruick O'Brien.
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