Los
Angeles County
Biographies
ROBERT HENRY FAUNTLEROY VARIEL
The late Robert Henry Fauntleroy
Variel was a distinguished member of the California bar, a forceful factor in
politics, and a man of unusual attainments and culture. He entered upon his professional career in
northern California but the work of his mature years was done at Los
Angeles. A native of Indiana, he was
born November 22, 1849, of New England colonial and revolutionary stock on both
sides, and of Scotch-Irish, Scotch-English and Norman ancestry, his family name
itself being French. His father, Joshua
H. Variel, was born in Maine, and before reaching his majority journeyed
westward to Indiana, where he was married.
R. H. F. Variel was the oldest of
five children and was two and a half years old when his parents with an ox team
train crossed the plains to California, settling on the Yuba River but removing
soon afterward to the prosperous mining camps of Camptonville. It was in that atmosphere and environment that
Mr. Variel grew to manhood. Beyond the
advantages of public schools, it was his perseverance and ambition that brought
him the intellectual training and knowledge which always distinguished him. At the age of eighteen he qualified for a
second grade teacher’s certificate, and after teaching two years won a first
grade certificate.
While engaged in educational work
Mr. Variel devoted his leisure hours to the study of law and was admitted to
the bar. In 1873 he was nominated by the
Republicans of Plumas County for the office of district attorney and was
elected by a large majority in a Democratic county. In 1886 he was elected to the general
assembly from the district comprising Plumas and Sierra counties. Meanwhile he had built up a large private practice,
and in 1888 he removed to southern California, establishing his home in Los
Angeles. During the last fifteen years
of his life Mr. Variel was retained as an attorney in some of the leading cases
before the courts of southern California.
He was one of the counsel in the water suits in
which the city of Los Angeles and the Pomeroy-Hooker interests were
involved. After locating in Los Angeles
he became associated with Senator Stephen M. White, but later practiced alone. In January, 1905, a short time before his
death, he formed a partnership with his brother, William J. Variel, who is
still an active member of the Los Angeles bar.
Another member of the firm was his brother-in-law, H. M. Barstow.
Mr. Variel’s
success in his profession was ample satisfaction for his normal ambitions, and
his participation in politics and public affairs was attributable to his sense
of duty and high ideals of citizenship.
As a member of the charter revision committee of 1901 he did effective
work. He was keenly interested in
educational matters and during the administration of Governor Gage was a
trustee of the State Normal School at Los Angeles.
In 1876 Mr. Variel was married to
Miss Caroline L. Vogel, a native of Lockport, New York. She came to California in 1864 and passed
away in Los Angeles in 1927, after a residence of nearly forty years in this
city. Socially prominent, Mrs. Variel
had membership in the Galpin Shakespeare Club, the
Friday Morning and Ebell Clubs, and her humanitarianism was manifest as a director
of the Los Angeles Orphans Home. Mr. and
Mrs. Variel were the parents of two sons and a daughter: Mrs. Roger Sherman Page, who was the wife of
a well known attorney and died in Los Angeles on October 27, 1923; R. H. F.
Variel, Jr., who was accounted one of the leading lawyers of this city at the
time of his death, which occurred February 28, 1929; and Clarence L. Variel,
who is successfully engaged in the practice of law in Los Angeles and of whom
more extended mention is made in the sketch of his brother, published elsewhere
in this work.
R. H. F. Variel, Sr., was a member
of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and his Masonic affiliations were with
Hollenbeck Lodge No. 319, F. & A. M., Hollenbeck Chapter, R. A. M.; Los
Angeles Commandery, K. T.; and Al Malaikah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He also belonged to the Fraternal
Brotherhood, the California Club and the Sierra Club. He worshipped in the Independent Church of
Christ and contributed liberally to its support. A man of genial nature and high principles,
Mr. Variel had friends and admirers throughout the state and his death at the
age of fifty-six years, when he was at the height of his usefulness, occasioned
deep and widespread regret. In his Los Angeles
home, on the 3rd of March, 1905, he responded to the final summons,
passing away in the afternoon, just as the lighter shadows on the mountains and
canyons of the Sierra Madres, which he loved so well and which he longed for so
intensely, were settling down in the somber shades of twilight.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 197-199, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES