San Francisco County
Biographies
FREDERICK L.
LIPMAN
For over a half century, Frederick L. Lipman has been associated with the financial affairs of San Francisco, and now holds the important position of president of the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company, situated at Market and Montgomery streets. Justly attributed to him is the reputation of being one of the ablest banking executives and one of the best informed men on economical questions in the state of California. He is a native of San Francisco, his birth having occurred February 21, 1866. His parents were the late Charles Frederick and Frances Caroline (Kellogg) Lipman.
Mr. Lipman traces his ancestry to an old English family, members of which settled in Jamaica, British West Indies, but who left there at the time of the freeing of the slaves in the English possessions and came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In this latter city, Charles Frederick Lipman was born in 1827, reared and educated. In 1850, he came to San Francisco by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and here first engaged in mining. Later he operated in real estate under the firm name of Randolph & Lipman. He was a republican; a member of the Episcopal Church; and belonged to the Union Club. He remained a resident of the city until his death January 8, 1873, when he was only forty-five years of age. His wife, Frances Caroline (Kellogg) Lipman, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 4, 1840, and was descended from a pioneer American family originally from England, the records of which are traceable back to 1638. By her marriage to Charles F. Lipman, she was the mother of four sons and one daughter, namely: Frederick L., of this review; Charles K., who died in 1919; Louise, who is the widow of the late Dr. G. F. Whitworth of Berkeley, California; Harris R., who lives in Palo Alto, California, but was formerly a resident of San Francisco and Mill Valley; and Alexander T., who married Ellie Meigs, a native of Australia. Both Alexander T. Lipman and his wife died in 1908.
Frederick L. Lipman attended the public schools of San Francisco until he was twelve years old, when in 1878 he secured his first employment with the Latham & King firm of stock brokers, with whom he remained until 1883. In May of that year he entered the service of the Wells Fargo Bank as assistant note clerk, and with this important institution he has remained throughout the subsequent years, years of achievement and substantial growth. He became assistant cashier of the bank in 1893; vice president in 1906; and in 1920 he was honored with the presidency. He holds an eminent position in the banking world, his business probity and fine executive ability being universally recognized. He has been intimately and vitally concerned with all the various steps in the development of the bank which he heads, his astute judgment having been the deciding influence in many situations determining the future of the institution. For three years, 1928, 1929, and 1930, he served as a member of the federal advisory council representing the twelfth federal reserve district. In the line of his life’s vocation, he is a member of the American Economic Association. He has been a close student of economic problems, both national and local, and he has created many sound theories, the application of which to various difficult problems have been signally successful in their solution.
On July 25, 1891, Mr. Lipman was married in Virginia City, Nevada, to Miss Edith Law, who was born December 15, 1868, in Chicago, Illinois, a daughter of the late Crossley and Rebecca (Brown) Law. The Law family, of English extraction, is one of the oldest families of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Lipman are the parents of three children. The oldest, Edward C., now a resident of Oakland, California, was born January 25, 1893, in Berkeley. He was married to Julia Austin, and they have two children, Kathryn and Margaret. The second in order of birth is Robert Lockwood Lipman, born April 26, 1894, in Berkeley, who married Ruth Fesler and is now engaged in the practice of law. Third is Mary Edith, born in Berkeley, January 18, 1897, and now the wife of George K. Jensen and mother of one daughter, Edith Louise. The home of Frederick L. Lipman is in Berkeley, California.
Mr. Lipman is a member of the Unitarian Church of his residence city, and in politics he has consistently given his support to the republican party. He belongs to the Pacific Union Club, the Diablo Country Club, the Bohemian Club, the Claremont Country Club in Oakland, and the Monterey Peninsula Club. Golf and outdoor sports have given him the greatest diversion from urban and business cares, and he and his family have won great popularity in the leading social circles of the bay district.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 62-64.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S SAN
FRANCISCO BIOGRAPIES