Sacramento County
Biographies
ELBERT S. McNEIL
ELBERT S. McNEIL.--Emphatically a man of energy, Elbert S. McNeil is one of the enterprising and active men of Sacramento County, giving substantial encouragement to every plan for the promotion of the public welfare. He was born on October 19, 1880, at Rockville, Colo., and was educated in the public schools of Denver. While he was in North Denver high school, and when eighteen years of age, he enlisted with the United States army and went to the Philippine Islands, serving in Company G, 34th United States Volunteers, taking in the Filipino insurrection. For twenty-two months he served in the Spanish-American War, and upon returning he worked in the mines of Colorado for a short time. He came to Sonora, Mexico, and was employed by Charles Butters Company, where he learned the cyanide business and afterwards was foreman of the first large cyanide plant built in Nevada, in Six-mile Canon, below Virginia City, to handle the Comstock tailings, which closed down for the winter after sixteen months. He mined at Goldfield, Nev., in 1907, where he was employed for two years. In Carson City he served for two years as a member of the state police. He also served in the United States Indian service for two years, and in 1911 became deputy sheriff of Humboldt County, Nev. In 1912 he was appointed as a special officer in Joyland Park, Sacramento, Cal. Then for two years he served on the Sacramento police force. In 1915 he bought a half-interest in the Walker Taxi Company, of Sacramento. When they started out they had only three machines. In 1917 he purchased his partner’s interest and entered in business alone. He then purchased the City Taxi Company and in 1919 gave his concern the name “McNeil Taxi Service.” He enlarged his business and during the war ran twelve machines and did not raise the rate, but continued the twenty-five cent rate until gasoline rose to twenty-eight cents in February, 1919, when he was forced to raise the rate. He has improved the service, from cars costing $700 to cars costing over $3,000. He also runs taxicabs and touring cars for sight-seeing trips and tourists’ country trips. This fleet of taxis and automobiles renders the best of service at the cheapest rates.
Elbert S. McNeil was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude Fischer of Nevada; and they are the parents of one child, Gertrude Ethel. In national politics Mr. McNeil is a Republican; but in local matters he is a man above party, interested in lending his services to the man who will benefit the community. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Spanish-American War Veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Page 944.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.