Los Angeles
County
Biographies
WORTH BROS., INC.
(Edgar, Walter G.
& J. W. & William Henry Dolby)
Worth
Bros., Inc., manufacturers of knitting and rug yarn, has a modern and well
equipped plant at 4400 Worth Street, Los Angeles. The business, as it now is, was founded in
1923 and established on the present site.
The officers at the time were as follows: Edgar Worth, president; Walter G. Worth, vice
president; J. W. Worth, secretary and treasurer; and W. H. Dolby,
director. At the start only twenty-eight
thousand square feet of floor space were utilized. There are now one hundred fifty employees,
and eleven western states comprise the field in which the product of worsted
yarn for knitting and machinery work is distributed. Worth Bros. are the first and, at present,
only industry of this type in California.
There is only one other mill on the coast, that in Portland, Oregon.
Worth
Brand yarns are made from the very finest materials obtainable, being
constructed from exceptionally long and fine fibred wools. The qualities are selected with great care to
suit the individual types of yarn and special attention is given to the
evenness in spinning and twisting the various fingering and knitting
yarns. Worth Brand yarns are made in
five qualities. Electra knitting yarn,
fourfold pure worsted long staple fibre yarn, is especially constructed for
hook rugs, afghans and general knitting. Woolray knitting
yarn is an artificial mixture or Lustre yarn fourfold and is used extensively
for hook rugs. This yarn is made from
selected fine materials with special attention given to the yarn in order that
same may have a heavy pile after being cut for hook rugs and makes exceptionally
fine afghans.
Germantown Zephyr is a fourfold
extra special selected fine grade of wool, spun a little finer in count than
Electra yarn, and is used extensively for general knitting where a finer
quality and thinner yard is required than Electra pure worsted knitting
yarn. Shetland Floss is a twofold pure
worsted yarn and is used for sweaters and scarfs, etc., put up in balls to
suite the requirements of the general trade.
Woolray Floss is a twofold artificial mixture
or Lustre yarn and makes very beautiful sweaters in a two-tone effect and is
considered an exceptionally fine Lustre yarn.
This yarn is also put up in balls and made of a selected grade of wool
and artificial silk.
Hiram
Worth, grandfather of the brothers now in charge of the business, was in the
textile trade in England. His son, Dyson
Worth, next in line, learned the business there, and when thirty-six years of
age went to Sweden, where his sons familiarized themselves with the
industry. The family is of English
origin.
J.
W. Worth was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, May 19, 1884, and as
noted, became acquainted with the textile industry in Sweden. He crossed the Atlantic to Canada in 1910 and
the following year became manager of the Bonner Worth Company of Peterboro, Ontario.
In 1919 he disposed of his interests to Canadian Woolens, with which
company he was associated until 1923, when he came to Los Angeles, California,
and here embarked in business on his own account with very limited capital,
becoming secretary and treasurer of Worth Bros., Inc. Under the capable direction and careful
management of himself and his brothers the enterprise has grown to extensive
and profitable proportions.
In
1910 J. W. Worth married Miss Agda Almen, of Sweden.
They are the parents of five children, as follows: Blanche, the wife of H. T. Judson; Evelyn who
is the wife of Lieut. Harvey Burden; Roy; Walter; and J. W., Jr. The family residence is at 1920 El Molino,
San Marino. Identified with the Los
Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Worth is a member of its manufacturing and
industrial committee and chairman of its textile sub-committee. He is a Knight Templar Mason and an
Episcopalian in religious faith, belonging to St. James Parish of
Pasadena. He is a popular member of the
Pasadena Athletic Club and is president of the Swedish Club of Los Angeles.
Edgar
Worth, president of Worth Bros., Inc., was born in Brighouse,
Yorkshire, England, August 24, 1886. He
was married in 1915 to Helen Harper of Toronto, Canada, and their children are Dorothy,
Edgar, Isabel and Constance Louise. He
has membership in the Pasadena Athletic Club and fraternally is a Knight
Templar Mason who has also attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine.
Walter
G. Worth, vice president of Worth Bros., Inc., was born in Huddersfield,
England, June 16, 1888, and came to America on attaining his majority. He served with the
rank of lieutenant in the Eighteenth Infantry of Canada from 1915 to 1919 and
was seriously wounded at Vimy Ridge on Easter
Morning, 1917. He is a member of the
Swedish Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Pasadena Athletic
Club. In Masonry he has attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and has also
crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In July, 1933, he married Lilly Cape, of Gothenburg,
Sweden. He is an Episcopalian in
religious faith and a member of All Saints Parish of Pasadena. His home is at 81 State Street in Pasadena.
William
Henry Dolby, a director of Worth Bros., Inc., was born in Ontario, Canada, in
1897. His father, William Dolby, a
native of England, was a railroad engineer in Canada. William H. Dolby came to the United States in
1924. He married Edith E. Worth in 1922. He belongs to the Pasadena Athletic Club and
is a member of All Saints Episcopal Church.
His home is on East Orange Grove Avenue, Pasadena.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 639-641,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES