Los Angeles
County
Biographies
WILLIAM
CHRISTIAN WARFIELD
In
real estate circles of Los Angeles the name of William Christian Warfield is
well known by reason of his activities as subdivisions manager of the Capital
Company, and before entering this line of business he had also won prominence
in other walks of life. A scion of old
and aristocratic families of the south, Mr. Warfield traces his genealogy in
this country to Richard Warfield, who emigrated to America from Wales in 1637
and settled at Black Horse Tavern, near the site of what later became the city
of Annapolis, Maryland. Colonel William
Christian, another ancestor of Mr. Warfield, married Annie Henry, a sister of
Patrick Henry, the illustrious Virginian.
G. Edwin, an uncle of William Christian Warfield, was at one time
governor of Maryland. In Hopkinsville,
Christian County, Kentucky, Mr. Warfield was born April 28, 1895, on an estate
which has been in the family for one hundred and fifty years. His parents, Walter Edmond and Cora Elizabeth
(Hargraves) Warfield, numbered among their forebears
men who were leading actors in events which shaped American history. The father, also born on the estate in
Christian County, devoted many years to the practice of law and is now
deceased.
William
Christian Warfield supplemented his high school education by attendance at the
University of Kentucky in Lexington, where he specialized in the study of
animal husbandry. In 1915 when a young
man of twenty, he visited the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco and
was so favorably impressed with this part of the country that he decided to
remain here. Accordingly he became an
employee of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, working under John
Newton Russell until 1917, when he enlisted in the United States Army for
service in the World War. He received
his military training at the Presidio in San Francisco, where he won the
commission of second lieutenant, and was ordered to the front. Joining the aviation corps, he devoted
thirteen months to service overseas and in August, 1919, received an honorable
discharge.
On
resuming the life of a civilian Mr. Warfield went to Florida, where for three
years he was citrus expert and county entomologist for Polk County. He then returned to California and in 1922
became identified with the firm of Dickinson & Gillespie, Los Angeles
realtors, with whom he was associated for six years. The experience thus gained well qualified him
for the duties of subdivision manager for the Capital Company, a position which
he has filled with marked ability, successfully handling the sales of their
properties for the past fifteen months.
Mr.
Warfield was married in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 30, 1923, to Miss
Catherine Pauline Callahan, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and they now have two
sons, William Christian, Jr., and George Edwin.
Mr. Warfield belongs to the Jonathan Club, is an Episcopalian in
religious belief and a Democrat in his political views. He is a progressive young businessman of high
standing, alert to the trend of the times and thoroughly informed on the
subject of real estate development in Los Angeles.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 613-614,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES