Los Angeles County
Biographies
CHARLES O. WHITTEMORE
WHITTEMORE, CHARLES O., Vice President and General Counsel, Las Vegas and Tonopah Railway, Los Angeles, California, was born at Salt Lake City, Utah, June 29, 1862, the son of Joseph Whittemore and Matilda (Busby) Whittemore. He married Sarah L. Brown November 26, 1886 at Salt Lake City, and to them there have been born two daughters, June and Leigh, and a son, Joseph R. Whittemore.
Mr. Whittemore is of that class of Americans known as “self-made.” His father dying when the boy was 14 years of age, the latter--eldest of a family of five—went to work at various occupations, the while contributing to the support of the family and earning enough for his own education. He attended St. Mark’s School, Salt Lake City, and was graduated with honors in 1882. He received a gold medal for highest excellence in his class and still prizes the trophy.
Upon leaving school Mr. Whittemore entered the law offices of Philip T. Van Zile, then United States Attorney for the territory of Utah, and read for a year. He was admitted to practice in 1883 and almost immediately was appointed Assistant City Attorney of Salt Lake City. He served until October of that year, when he resigned to take a special course at Columbia Law School, New York City.
Leaving Columbia in 1884, Mr. Whittemore returned to Salt Lake City and re-engaged in practice. As an active young attorney Mr. Whittemore entered politics and was one of the signers of the original call for the organization of the Republican party in Utah. This was in the early nineties, when new political lines were forming there. In 1894 he was elected County Attorney of Salt Lake County and in 1895, when Utah was admitted as a State, became the first State’s Attorney of the County.
He was a leading factor in the campaign of 1896, which resulted in McKinley’s election to the Presidency, and in 1898 was appointed by the martyr President to be United States Attorney for his district. He served in that capacity until 1902. Some years before this, however, Mr. Whittemore had branched into what was destined to be the most conspicuous work of his career. With others, he advanced the idea for a railroad linking Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, and as far back as 1893 made a trip to Los Angeles in promotion of this plan. Later, in 1896, he made the trip overland in a wagon, blazing a route for the road. By continuous effort he and his associates created interest in the project and about 1900 the aid of Senator W. A. Clark of Montana was enlisted. The outcome was the incorporation in 1901 of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, linking two great commercial centers and opening up one of the richest stretches of territory in the West and forming the last link in one of the three great trans-continental highways.
Mr. Whittemore was one of the incorporators of the road and secured all the right of way for the line in Utah and Nevada. He remained with it as general attorney through its formative and constructive periods until 1907, when the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad, another Clark line, was built into Goldfield, Nevada. He was made vice president and general counsel of the new road, positions he still holds.
In addition to his railroad affiliations, Mr. Whittemore has aided in the development of several important mining properties in Southern Nevada and oil properties in California. He is president of the Goldfield Merger Mines Company, a $5,000,000 corporation, formed by the consolidation of five valuable mining properties, and vice president of the Goldfield Deep Mines Company, capitalized at $10,000,000. Also he is president of the Las Vegas Land and Water Company, founders of the town of Las Vegas, Nevada.
He maintains a general legal practice in Los Angeles, devoting himself to corporation matters. He moved to Los Angeles in 1907 and has taken an active part in movements for the upbuilding of the city and Southern California. He has figured in some notable litigations, one of which, the “Yard decision” case, caused the passage by Congress of a new act protecting oil land purchasers.
Mr. Whittemore’s life has been so taken up with work that he has had no time for out-of-doors recreation, although he does hold memberships in the Jonathan Club of Los Angeles and the Alta Club of Salt Lake City. He is essentially a home lover and takes great pride in his
family, his son being a student in the law department of Leland Stanford University.
Transcribed 3-7-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 261, International News Service,
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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