Los Angeles County
Biographies
RICHARD ROBERT TANNER
TANNER, RICHARD ROBERT, Lawyer, Los Angeles, California, was born March 30, 1858, at San Juan, San Benito County, California, the son of Albert Miles Tanner and Lovina (Bickmore) Tanner. On the paternal side he is descended from Captain Miles Standish, the Puritan, renowned in history and tradition. He has been married twice, the second time to Sebaldina M. Bontty, February 1, 1894, at Los Angeles, California. There is one daughter, Nora Ormsby (nee) Tanner, by his former wife, who was Miss Elizabeth J. Robinson, daughter of Judge Henry Robinson, of Ventura, California.
Mr. Tanner attended the schools of Monterey, Santa Cruz County, California, until he was fourteen years old, then, in 1871, the family moved to Ventura County, and there he finished his schooling.
He began his business career as assistant postmaster of San Buena Ventura. Meanwhile, he read law, and by the time he moved to Santa Monica, in the year 1884, was in a position to be admitted to the bar, which he was in that year.
Mr. Tanner practiced alone in Santa Monica for awhile, but soon formed a partnership there with Andrew T. Lewis. This continued until Mr. Lewis’ removal to Portland, Oregon, in 1888.
Then began a long, steady and prosperous career. In the year 1888, he was appointed to the post of city attorney of Santa Monica, and did the work of the office until 1901, a continuous stretch of thirteen years. By that time he was too busy with his private work and stepped out, contenting himself with serving occasionally as deputy city attorney, to be called only when his city needs him in a case of more than ordinary importance. He was deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County under F. P. Kelly for two years.
He formed a partnership with Fred H. Taft in the year 1894, and this association has continued ever since. In 1907 S. W. Odell was added to the firm, and three years later R. A. Odell and H. W. Taft became members. The legal business has been large and of general character. Offices are conducted at Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Pasadena, the most important cities of Los Angeles County. Attorney Tanner is an authority on land titles, and is said to know the history of every section of land in his region.
The firm represents many great corporations, but owing to his remarkable knowledge of land ownership, he has been retained as attorney for one of the biggest abstract companies of Southern California, the Title Guarantee and Trust Company of Los Angeles.
The law has not been Attorney Tanner’s sole interest. He has invested in various enterprises, and generally with success.
Mr. Tanner can truly be said to be a native son of California. His father was here before the Forty-Niners, and was quite a noted man of his day. He was a member of the famous Mormon Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cook. He was in a number of exploits that made his name known to every Californian. He was a man of exceptional daring and full of resource in the face of danger. He had all the typical manly virtues of the Western pioneer.
Mr. Tanner belongs to the National Geographic Society and to the Los Angeles Bar Association.
He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Lodge No. 307; Santa Monica Bay Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, No. 97; Thirty-second degree member of the Los Angeles Consistory Scottish Rite Masons, Al Malaikah Temple, Mystic Shrine; Santa Monica Lodge, No. 438, Independent Order of Foresters; Seaside Lodge, No. 369, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of various other fraternal orders.
Transcribed 1-29-10
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 372, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.
1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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