San Francisco County
Biographies
DR.
HARTLAND LAW
DR. HARTLAND
LAW, President of the Viavi Company, Inc., San
Francisco, Cal., was born near Sheffield, England, July 7, 1858, son of Crossley Law and Rebecca (Brown) Law. In 1866 his parents
brought him to Chicago, Illinois, where, in December, 1884, he was married to
Miss Ada Ward. The children of this marriage are
Harold Ward and Hubert Edward Law.
He attended the
public schools of Chicago, Northwestern College at Naperville, 1879-89, and the
old Chicago University, 1881-92, paying his way through college by selling
subscription books. He was graduated from Hahnemann
Medical College, San Francisco, in 1893.
In 1884 Hartland
Law and his brother, H. E. Law, came to San Francisco and engaged in the
publishing business under the firm name of Law, King & Law. Subsequently the firm moved to
Chicago and purchased the control of the Western Publishing Company, but
disposed of this a little later.
In 1886 Dr. Law
and H. E. Law returned to San Francisco, and here they originated and developed
the Viavi System of Treatment, in connection with
which they have built up the world-wide business of The Viavi
Company, Inc. Both Dr. Law and his brother regard Viavi—The Viavi System of
Treatment, a high development of domestic medication—as their greatest
achievement and the most essential part of their own development and career.
While Dr. Law
has made Viavi his life work, he has been active in
public and quasi-public matters. He was one of the organizes of the First
Baptist Church of Berkeley, served a number of years as a director of the San
Francisco Young Men’s Christian Association and was chairman of the finance
committee that aid off the debt on the old Association building, the burning of
the mortgage on which by President Roosevelt was an interesting ceremonial
event. He was also a member of the original committee of the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition, as well as of the finance committee that raised the
money to secure it, and it was largely through the efforts of the Law Brothers
that the Harbor View section was made possible as a site for Exposition.
Dr. Law was a
member of the original Greater San Francisco committee; he represented the
Merchants’ Association on the committee that secured the high-pressure water
system for San Francisco. He built the Crossley
building. Seventeen days before the earthquake and fire he and his brother, H.
E. Law, exchanged the Crossley and Rialto buildings
and other property for the Fairmount Hotel, at that time uncompleted. The fire
added nearly two million dollars to the cost of completion. The opening of this
hostelry was celebrated on the first anniversary of the fire by the most
numerously attended banquet ever served in a San Francisco hotel. Later they
exchanged back the Fairmount with Mrs. Herman Oelrichs
acquiring in the exchange twelve blocks of land adjoining the Fort Mason
military reservation, for which they have planned extensive harbor
improvements. Since the fire, also, Dr. Law has built a residence in Presidio
Terrace, the Alder Sanitarium building, has rebuilt the Rialto, and, with his
brother, has built the Viavi building, on Pine
Street. All of these are costly buildings and architecturally are ornaments of
San Francisco. Dr. Law is one of those men who has
thrown every dollar of his means into the reconstruction of the Bay City, as
much out of loyalty as for reasons of investment, and his faith has been
justified.
He has been
president of the Presidio Golf Club, is now president of the San Francisco
Tunnel Association, Presidio Terrace Association, director of the Merchants’
Association, a member of the Union League, and thirty-second degree Mason.
Transcribed by Gloria (Wiegner) Lane.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 336,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Gloria
Lane.