Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN THOMAS WOOTAN
WOOTAN, JOHN THOMAS, Manager, Amalgamated Oil Company, Los Angeles, California, was born in Wetumpka, Elmore County, Alabama, August 5, 1871, the son of John Thomas Wootan and Mary Ellen (Smith) Wootan. He married Margaret Eunice Kirkpatrick February 12, 1908, at Los Angeles, and to them have been born two sons, John Thomas, Jr., and James Kirkpatrick Wootan.
Mr. Wootan was educated both in Missouri and Illinois. He attended the district schools of St. Louis and studied in the public schools there from 1880 to 1886. The family moving to Ashley, Illinois, about this time, Mr. Wootan completed his studies in schools of that place, concluding his education in 1888.
From his earliest boyhood Mr. Wootan has been self-supporting, having begun to earn a livelihood during the vacation periods when he worked at various boy’s occupations, taking any kind of employment that presented itself. His first important position came to him when he was eighteen years of age, he being appointed foreman of a broom factory, one of the important industries of Ashley, Illinois.
He resigned this post in 1890, however, to engage in railroad work as an employe of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, Before the end of the year, he went to California, and he has been a resident of that State practically ever since. He first located in Tulare County, California, and for the next two years or more was engaged in farming. In 1894 he was appointed agent in Siskiyou County, California, and for the Singer Manufacturing Company and made such a splendid record during that year that he was promoted, in 1895, to the position of Traveling Supervisor for the Company. This is one of the important branches of the Singer Manufacturing Company’s business system, the Traveling Supervisor having under him numerous agencies and supervision of their selling methods.
Mr. Wootan’s territory included various California counties north of Mariposa, and the entire State of Nevada. His work kept him in the field most of the time and during the two years he held the position of Supervisor he familiarized himself with geological formation, general business conditions and the people of the sections through which he traveled. The knowledge thus gained stood him in good stead and was of particular value to him when he embarked in the oil business, with which he has been connected since the year 1900.
Upon leaving the employ of the Singer Manufacturing Company in 1896, Mr. Wootan became associated with a firm at Selma, California, and remained there for the next four years. He then entered the oil business as an employe of the El Dorado Oil Company and Clarence J. Berry, one of the successful operators of Southern California, and continued there until the early part of 1903, when he became a clerk for the Associated Oil Company of California on the San Joaquin Division, at Oil Center, Cal. From that time on his career has been one of successive advancement in the business. In time he became Chief Clerk for the Associated Oil Company and later was made Assistant to the General Superintendent of the company.
In September, 1907, Mr. Wootan moved to Los Angeles as Superintendent of Shipments and Purchasing Agent for the Amalgamated Oil Company and affiliated concerns, and upon the retirement of F. B. Henderson as General Manager of the Amalgamated Oil Company, on October 1, 1911, was appointed to the office. The Amalgamated Oil Company, which is controlled by the same interests which predominate in the Associated Oil Company, is one of the largest and most successful in the United States, and Mr. Wootan, as General Manager of it, occupies an important position in the industry. His duties, in addition to handling the operations of the Amalgamated Oil Company, entail also the management of the West Coast Oil Company, Salt Lake Oil Company and the Arcturus Oil Company, all of which are affiliated with the main corporation. He has made a study of the industry in all it phases and while a greater part of his work has been in connection with the executive end of the business, he also is a practical man in the field and is generally regarded as one of the most competent, all-round oil men in California.
Mr. Wootan devotes himself almost wholly to his work and spends a great deal of time in the oil fields, but he also is a figure in fraternal and social circles, being a member of the Masonic Order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and of the Sierra Madre Club.
Transcribed 7-10-10
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 483, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.
1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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