DANIEL W. CARMICHAEL

Sacramento County

Biographies

DANIEL W. CARMICHAEL

DANIEL W. CARMICHAEL. The quality necessary to rightly estimate one’s abilities and to take advantage of waiting opportunities is expressed in the career of Daniel W. Carmichael, treasurer of Sacramento county, head of the real-estate firm of Curtis, Carmichael & Brand, and one of the first promoters of the oil industry in Sacramento county, where he is also an acknowledged leader in Democratic circles. He was born in Georgia, February 15, 1867, a son of William and Eveline (Fincher) Carmichael.

Owing to the necessity of earning his own living at an early age and January 19 1885, arrived in California having accomplished a trip which had long been fostered in his young mind. With willing hands and stout heart he began work on a farm, and by the exercise of diligence and economy he soon earned enough to pay his way through Stockton Business College. In the fall of 1887 he located in Sacramento and was fortunate in securing a position as bookkeeper for the firm of Kendall & Co., his faithfulness and ability resulting in his remaining for five years. In 1895 he organized the real-estate firm of Curtis, Carmichael & Brand, with offices under the California State Bank, where a lucrative business was carried on until January 1896. February 15. 1896, under the same name, the business was Incorporated with a capital stock of $50,000, and four years later Mr. Carmichael purchased the interest of his partners and has since conducted the business alone although retaining the name and good will of the company. Mr. Carmichael was one of the first to sufficiently believe in the oil output of the state to risk time and capital in its development. A company which he organized in the spring of 1899 sank one of the first oil wells near Bakersfield, and he was also the principal organizer of the Sacramento Oil Company, which came into existence in October 1899, and of which he has since been secretary and treasurer. He is on of its active members and has been a director for several years.

The active political career of Mr. Carmichael began in November, 1895, when he was a candidate and elected city treasurer of Sacramento city, serving two years. In 1900 he was a delegate to the convention held in Kansas City, Mo., which nominated William J. Bryan for the presidency. In 1904 he was chosen a delegate at large from the state to the National democratic convention held in St. Louis, which nominated Judge Alton B. Parker. In June, 1903, he was appointed treasurer of Sacramento county, his term to extend to January, 1907. During all of the time that he has held public office he has actively managed his real-estate and insurance business.

In January, 1892, Mr. Carmichael married Myrtle R. Robb, a daughter of Charles S. Robb, a prominent citizen of Sacramento, in which city Mr. Carmichael and his wife reside, at No. 1903 Twenty-first street. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. The positions of trust and responsibility held by Mr. Carmichael are the best indications of his standing in the community of his adoption. To unswerving integrity and belief in the rights and prerogatives of others is added a practical interest in all departments of municipal life in Sacramento city and county, and a keen desire to develop its moral, commercial, political and educational welfare.

Transcribed by Louise E. Shoemaker, October 16, 2007.

Source: “History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, California” by J. M. Guinn. Page 676. Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1906.