Riverside
County
Biographies
WILLIAM J. LATCHFORD
William J. Latchford has developed
an extensive and profitable industrial enterprise as president of the Latchford
Glass Company, with plant at 7441 Roseberry Avenue in Los Angeles. He was born in Neenah, Tipperary County,
Ireland, November 24, 1862, his parents being Francis D. and Emily H.
(Henderson) Latchford, natives of Ireland and Scotland, respectively. Francis D. Latchford, a squire in Ireland,
crossed the Atlantic to the United States and settled in Chicago, Illinois, in
1865. He passed away in 1897, having for
two years survived his wife, whose death occurred in 1895.
William J. Latchford, who was a
little lad of about three years when brought to his country by his parents,
attended the public schools of Chicago to the age of ten, when he obtained
employment as an errand and cash boy in a Chicago dry-goods store. As a youth of fourteen he
secured a position in a wholesale grocery establishment, being thus employed
for four years, and then for five years traveling for them as a salesman. On the expiration of that period he became a
traveling representative of the Snider Company of Cincinnati, Ohio,
manufacturers of Snider’s Catsup, and in this capacity visited every city in
the United States of more than twenty thousand population. In 1906 he severed his connection with the
Snider Company to organize the Royal Canning Company of Van Wert, Ohio, canners
of peas and tomatoes, of which concern he became the sole owner. On the 1st of May, 1910, Mr.
Latchford arrived in Los Angeles, California, and for seven years thereafter
devoted his attention to the land and mining business here. Subsequently he embarked in the glass
business, erecting the plant of the Southern Glass Company at Twenty-sixth Street and Santa Fe, where he manufactured
bottles for six years. Success attended
his undertakings and in 1926 he established his own plant under the name of the
Latchford Glass Company, as head of which he has since developed a trade
covering the entire Pacific coast. The
number of employees has increased from one hundred thirty-five to two hundred
forty-five. It was the Latchford Glass
Company that originated the five-gallon water bottle and high pressure ware,
including beer bottles, and also began supplying the trade with milk
bottles. The story of the business is
printed elsewhere in this work.
At one time Mr. Latchford was
engaged in the citrus business at San Fernando, having thirty-two acres of
lemons. In 1879, while on the road, he
sold the first car-load of oranges shipped east from California. These seedlings, about the size of a walnut
and covered with dirt and scale, were packed in boxes and shipped from
Riverside to Minneapolis where they were disposed of by the jobber to the five
leading grocers there.
Mr. Latchford was married first on
the 13th of August, 1886, to Anna C. Crocker, of Illinois, who is
deceased, and on the 30th of December, 1901, he married Mrs. Cora
May (Depuy) Marble, of Van Wert, Ohio. He has two children: Marjorie H., and William J., Jr., who is
associated with his father in business.
He also reared two step-sons, John McKinley and William Baird Marble. In politics Mr. Latchford is a Democrat. His religious faith is indicated by his membership
in St. John’s Episcopal Church and he is a member of the Jonathan Club of Los
Angeles. While interested in citrus
culture he was vice president of the San Fernando branch of the California
Fruit Growers Association.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 413-414, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S RIVERSIDE BIOGRAPHIES