Los Angeles County

Biographies

 

 

 

 

JOSEPH F. SARTORI

 

 

      SARTORI, JOSEPH F., Banker, Los Angeles, Cal., was born on Christmas Day, in the year 1858, at Cedar Falls, Iowa, the son of Joseph and Theresa (Wangler) Sartori.  He married Margaret Rishel, at Le Mars, Iowa, in June, 1886.  He received the elementary portion of his education in the public schools of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, then went to Germany, where he spent one year (1877-78) at the University of Freiburg.   Returning to the United States, he entered Cornell College, at Mount Vernon, Iowa, and was graduated from there with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1879.  He then entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was graduated from there in 1881.

     Upon completion of his college course he entered the law office of Leslie M. Shaw (formerly Secretary of the Treasury and now president of a bank in Philadelphia), at Dennison, Iowa, and studied for eight months.  He was admitted to the Bar at the end of that time, and from 1882 to 1887 he practiced his profession as a partner of Congressman I. S. Struble, of Iowa.

     In 1887 Mr. Sartori gave up his legal practice in Iowa and moved to California, settling March 19, 1887, in the then new town of Monrovia.  It was there that he made his first venture into the banking field, establishing the First National Bank of that place.  He was its first cashier, and served as such until 1889, and is its vice president at the present time.  Arriving in California during the years of its great boom, Mr. Sartori saw opportunities for greater successes in the larger field of Los Angeles, and in 1889 he transferred his residence to that city.

     He organized, in February, 1889, the Security Savings Bank, undoubtedly the largest of its kind in the entire Southwest, and has been connected with its management from the day it began business.  He was elected president of the institution in January, 1895, and has been its executive head since then.  At the present time the bank has capital stock and surplus of more than $2,000,000 and total resources exceeding $33,000,000.

     The history of Mr. Sartori’s banking career in Los Angeles would record in detail but one constant succession of advances, enlargements and accretions.  He has put into it not only a complete academic knowledge, but practical methods and seemingly unerring judgment.

     Coming from Swiss-Italian ancestry of honorable record and deep imprint on the consciousness of the people of that portion of Europe, Mr. Sartori, when he entered the banking world, met with unexpected and hearty support from a great number of persons who had known his family name in Europe, and to whom the probity and capacity of the Sartoris meant reliability.

     His remarkable insight into banking and economic conditions was never better illustrated than in his fight before the California Legislature in 1911 for real reforms in the State banking laws and oversight of State financial institutions.  He appeared before the committees on banks and banking as the leader of the reform forces, and his arguments had a palpable beneficial effect upon the legislation which resulted.

     In addition to his presidency of the Security Bank in Los Angeles, which is housed in one of the most beautiful structures in the country, Mr. Sartori is vice president of the Monrovia Bank, which he helped to found; has been a director for twelve years in the L. A. Brick Co., and is actively interested in numerous ranch properties in and about California.  He is also a director of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad.

     He is president of the California Club and holds memberships in the following: Jonathan, Annandale Golf, Crags Country, L. A. Athletic and the L. A. Country clubs, of which latter he was a charter member.

 

 

Transcribed 7-23-08 Marilyn R. Pankey.

 Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I,  Page 117, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.  1913.

© 2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.

 

 

 

 

 

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