San Francisco
County
Biographies
OTHELLO SCRIBNER
SCRIBNER, OTHELLO, Vice-President and
Assistant General Manager, Associated Oil Co., San Francisco, was born in
Stockton, California, September 13, 1867, the son of James B. and Sophronia (Stone) Scribner.
Both his paternal and maternal ancestors, the former of whom were of
English and Scotch origin, and the latter Holland Dutch, were among the early
settlers of New England, chiefly of Maine.
Mr. Scribner passed his boyhood in the San Joaquin valley, and was
married to Elsie May Schuler on November 15, 1893. Of this marriage four boys were born, two of whom, Harold and
Theodore Edward are living. His first
wife died July 5, 1908. Mr. Scribner was
again married on October 19, 1910, in San Francisco, to Miss Florence B. Ives,
daughter of Mrs. Eunice Jane Ives. One
daughter, Eunice Jane Scribner, is the issue of this marriage.
Othello Scribner’s early education was a
desultory kind, obtained under trying conditions. When he was about nine years old he went to
work, for his board and clothes, on a farm north of Stockton, and for a few
years thereafter attended the public schools of Linden, Galt, Lodi and
Woodbridge. For several months he was a
student in the high school at Lodi.
Thenceforth he devoted himself chiefly to the task of gaining a
livelihood.
His first occupation after leaving the
farm was that of a clerk in a drug store in Lodi, in 1885. The vim and energy, which have since become
so characteristic of him, were sufficient, even at that time, to put him in
charge of the store at the end of the year.
This business he ran successfully until 1887, when he entered the employ
of Mr. Case, a druggist of San Jose. He
remained with him six months and then went over to the Webster Brothers,
druggists of Fresno. A year thereafter
they were burnt out and Mr. Scribner found employment with the underwriters,
with whom he worked until 1889. He next
shifted his operations to the abstracting business, conducted by Stewart S.
Wright, which held him until the fall of 1892, at which turning point in his
career he entered the law office of J. B. Menx as
clerk, student and general assistant.
Determined to qualify for the profession, he read law for the next five
years every night from seven to eleven o’clock, and in 1896, taking the
examinations before the Supreme Court, he was admitted to practice.
For something less than two years he
practiced law, with fair success, in Fresno.
He then returned temporarily to the soil and ran a fruit ranch near Wawona, Mariposa county. This proving a losing venture he went to
Mexico in 1898 to examine lands for the growing of bananas, sugar cane and
tobacco for a San Francisco syndicate.
After seven months of this occupation he returned to California and from
1899 to June, 1902, was chief of the U.S. Land Office at Visalia. In the meantime, however, he had found
another significant turning point in his busy career. Seeing the great possibilities of the Kern
River oil lands, he backed his judgment to the best of his ability and issued
from the venture $100,000 ahead.
Thenceforth he concentrated his energies on this industry, in which he
has become one of the most prominent figures.
In the fall of 1901 Mr. Scribner issued
the first circular for the consolidation of the various oil interests active at
that time. This project fell through,
but the following year he succeeded in forming the Associated Oil Company, of
which he was secretary and assistant manager until 1910, when he resigned to
become vice-president and assistant general manager.
This important and far-reaching
consolidation, in which his energy and shrewdness played a leading part, both
in the conception and in the execution, involved many properties. Among these were the San Joaquin Oil and
Development Company, controlled by John A. Bunting and Mr. Scribner; The Reed
Crude Oil, Green and Whittier, Aztec, Chicago Crude, Hecla,
Bolena and Alva; Canfield, Senator, Toltec, of which
Mr. Scribner was secretary and assistant general manager; Central Point
Consolidated, and others. Under his
management wonders of organization and development have been accomplished, and
about forty companies included in the association. His work has been confined chiefly to the
general management, the acquisition and development of properties, buying and
selling of oil, the transportation and similar activities.
From 1889 to 1898 Mr. Scribner was a
member of the National Guard of California, during the last five years of which
period he was captain and adjutant of the Sixth Infantry. In the strike of ’94 he played an important
part, aiding in the opening of the railway system from Mojave to the Oakland
pier. He has also been active
politically, especially in the McKinley and Bryan campaigns, and in Fresno, in
1896, was secretary of the Republican State Central Committee. He has never, however, sought political
office.
Besides his vice-presidency and assistant
general managership of the Associated Oil, he is a
director in all of the following companies, in which he is interested, except
the Salt Lake Oil and Arcturus Oil: Associated Transportation, Associated Supply,
Amalgamated Oil, West Coast Oil, Salt Lake Oil, Arcturus
Oil, Pacific Petroleum, Inca Oil, Arika Oil,
Bakersfield Iron Works, and the Shasta Copper Exploration Company. His clubs are the Bohemian, Family, Press,
S.F. Country, Presidio Golf, Union League, all of San Francisco, and the
Claremont Country of Oakland.
Among Mr. Scribner’s striking
characteristics are his notably keen sense of the duties and responsibilities
of life, additional evidence of which is furnished by the fact that until 1893
he took care of his mother, two brothers and a sister. His remarkable success has been due largely
to his ability to concentrate on the task in hand until it is finished, and to
grasp quickly the gist of a subject.
“Exercise and sunshine, work and play,” and, as he expresses it, “an
executed wrong is more potent for ill than a thousand right conceptions,
unexecuted, are conducive for good,” are his mottoes, close adherence to which
has also contributed to his rewards.
Like most Californians, he has invested
the profits of his business in property of his own city and State, and in other
enterprises. He has now heavy individual
interests.
Transcribed by Suzanne Wood.
Source:
Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 875,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Suzanne Wood.