San Francisco County

Biographies

 

 

 

WILLIAM STIRLING PORTER

 

 

PORTER, WILLIAM STIRLING, First Vice-President and General Manager of the Associated Oil Company, San Francisco, was born at Long Reach, Kings County, N. B., June 27th, 1864, the son of Charles A. and Caroline Amelia (Belyea) Porter.  His American ancestors were New York Dutch and Scotch-Irish, all except one paternal grandfather having resided in New York, to which the first of them came as early as the seventeenth century.  Most of them espoused the British, or Loyalist cause at the time of the American Revolution and served in the British Army.  At the close of the war they received from the British Government grants of land in New Brunswick.  Mr. Porter left that country while still a young man and reached California in 1887.  On January 5th, 1889, he was married at San Diego to Miss Jessie Grey Young, from which union one child, Hugh Beverly Porter was born.

      Mr. Porter received a common school education in his native town and then moved to Chicago.

      Shortly after reaching that city he entered the employ of Crane & Co., manufacturers and merchants, but in 1887 came to California to act as Assistant to the Manager of their Los Angeles house.  He left their employ to become a partner in the firm of John D. Hooker & Co., then manufacturers at Los Angeles, which concern shortly thereafter reorganized under the name of John D. Hooker Company and added to its other lines that of oil well supplies, Mr. Porter becoming Vice-President and Manager.

      While engaged in the oil well supply business Mr. Porter became thoroughly familiar with the operations of the various oil companies throughout California, as well as with the individuals then prominent in the industry, and with the conditions affecting it.  It was during this period that the Kern River oil field was discovered and that Mr. Porter conceived the idea of organizing the producers of this district into one company.

      Early in the year of 1900 the presidents of five of the largest companies in the Kern River Field entered into an agreement with Mr. Porter to turn over to the new company organized for that purpose the properties of their respective companies and accept in exchange bonds and stock for the appraised value of the personal property and stock for the appraised value of the real property.  The presidents of the companies were as follows: W. G. Kerckhoff, for Reed Crude Oil Company; Burton E. Green, for Green-Whittier Oil Company; C. A. Canfield, for Canfield Oil Company; M. H. Whittier, for Kern Oil Company; John A. Bunting for San Joaquin Oil & Development Company.

      These companies, through their presidents, agreed to convey their property to the new company and support Mr. Porter in acquiring the entire field, as far as possible, on the same basis.  He finally secured agreements from the following companies, comprising the cream of the Kern River Field, to accept the appraised value placed on their properties and to take stock and bonds in the new company in payment therefor:   Aztec, Kansas City, Bear Flag, Vernon, Senator, Queen Esther, Comet, Chicago Crude, Blinn, Toltec, Moneta, Section Five, Wolverine, Bolena, Cortez, Clarence, Hecla, Alva, Omar, Sycamore, Central Point Consolidated, Red Bank, Richmond, Missouri, Hanford-Fresno-Kern River and Mount Diablo Oil Mining and Development Company, John A. Bunting and Warren Gillelen Properties, Shamrock Oil company, California Standard and Giant Oil Companies, Standard Asphalt Lease, D. B. Parker et al, Del Monte Lease, Union Land and Oil Company of Georgia.

      The engineers and geologists employed by him to appraise the properties and to fix the relative values thereof were Arthur F. L. Bell, Bernard Bienenfeld and William Mulholland.  Their work was so well done that their appraisements, with some comparatively slight changes, were finally accepted by all the companies whose properties were acquired.

      October 7, 1901, the Associated Oil Company was incorporated, and on January 1, 1902, entered actively into the producing and marketing of crude fuel oil in California.

      Before the end of the year 1902 the Associated had added to its holdings the remaining thirty-four companies, twenty-seven of them in the Kern River field and seven in the McKittrick District.  Since then it has acquired many thousands of acres of productive oil lands in these and other districts, equipped a considerable fleet of vessels and greatly increased its transportation and distributing facilities.

      Mr. Porter has acted as Vice President and General Manager of the Associated Oil Company ever since its organization.  In addition to this position he has also served as President of the Associated Transportation Company and Associated Pipe Line Company, which companies handle the transportation business of the Associated Oil Company.

      Under Mr. Porter’s management the earnings of the company have increased from the first year, 1902, when they amounted to but $180,490.63, to the grand total, in 1910, of $3,273,920.79.

      Despite his absorbing business activities he has taken a considerable interest in club life.  While at Los Angeles he was for several years a director of the California Club, and for a couple of terms was Vice President thereof.  He was also one of the organizers of the Los Angeles Country Club.  His clubs at present are: Pacific Union, Bohemian, Union League, Press, Olympic, Automobile of California, S. F. Golf and Country, all of San Francisco; Bakersfield of Bakersfield, California; Jonathan, of Los Angles; McCloud River Country, and Santa Barbara Country.

 

 

 

Transcribed by Betty Vickroy.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I,  Page 833, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.  1913.

© 2007 Betty Vickroy.

 

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