Sierra
County
Biographies
PHILIP A. CROSBY
The
city of Loyalton received a valuable addition to its
list of capable business men and public-spirited citizens when, on October 15,
1925, Philip A. Crosby located here and engaged in the drug business. His record since then has been one of
continued success and he now stands in the front rank of those who are
promoting the commercial and civic welfare of this community. Mr. Crosby was born at Aspen, Colorado, on
the 19th of July, 1887, and is the only child of George F. and
Elizabeth (Kamm) Crosby, well known Colorado
people. His father, who was a druggist,
started the first newspaper in Pitkin County, Colorado, and also served as
county clerk and recorder of deeds there in 1887. Later the family lived at Colorado Springs,
at Cripple Creek, Grand Junction, Julesburg and about nine other places, so
that Philip A. Crosby received his education in many different schools. His father became heavily interested in silver
production, and also lost heavily in the silver slump which followed in the
wake of the demonetization of silver, resulting in a panic and ruin to those
whose interests were in the silver industry.
Philip
A. Crosby received his high school education in Colorado and in 1906 came to
California, arriving here just prior to the great earthquake and fire in San
Francisco. He had returned to Colorado
just before that event, but soon afterward again came to this state and his
first work here was in checking up the building material that went into the
construction of the new Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco during 1906-07. He then secured a position as a clerk in a
retail drug store in Berkeley, where he remained until 1910. During 1911 and 1912 he took a special course
in chemistry at the University of California, after which he engaged in
research work in the chemical laboratory of the Metropolitan Match Company at Stege, California.
From 1913 to 1917 he was employed as an analytical chemist by the
Standard Oil Company at Richmond, this state, after which he was an industrial
chemist in the Western Laboratories at Oakland, California. For a short time he had a small retail
pharmacy of his own in Berkeley, where he resided from 1912 to 1918. From 1918 until 1925 he was in the employ of
the Roxana Petroleum Corporation at Wood River, near Alton, Illinois, where he
served as assistant chemist for two years and as chief chemist for the last
five years. During this period he was a
member of the American Chemical Society and the American Society for the
Testing of Materials, thus mingling with the best known chemists in the
country. He also made several trips
every year, attending conventions of chemists in New York, Philadelphia,
Chicago and other cities. In 1925 Mr. Crosby
took a six months’ vacation, during which he traveled much, looking for a
favorable location in which to establish business. He liked Loyalton
so well that he bought out the drug store here, which was then unpretentious
and poorly equipped. One of his first acts was to put in an up-to-date
prescription case, and from that time to the present he has been quick to sense
and meet the needs of the town, having added other lines of goods from time to
time. He now keeps a large stock of pure
drugs and proprietary remedies, with the usual auxiliary lines of a modern drug
store, and also has other departments, including hardware, books, magazines,
stationery, dry goods, paints, oils, brushes, varnishes, and similar goods, and
has recently branched out into the building materials business, carrying a
large stock of builders’ supplies and other heavy material. So well is he patronized in this line that he
utilizes two delivery trucks. His place
of business is a veritable beehive of activity, requiring the constant services
of himself, his wife and four clerks. Mr.
Crosby has backed his faith in Loyalton with his
money and in addition to his heavy investments in his own business he has
bought considerable real estate here. He
owns the two story frame building in which his drugstore is located, the second
floor being utilized as his home; he owns the building in which the post office
is located, the building occupied by the Sierra Valley News, the barber shop
building and the corner building occupied by the Kozy
Korner Confectionery.
His pharmacy is the Rexall agency for this
portion of eastern California, and in it is also located the telephone exchange
of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company.
On
September 22, 1912, at Colorado Springs, Colorado, Mr. Crosby was united in
marriage to Miss Virginia Parker, of that city, and they are the parents of
three children, Nelda, aged eleven years, Dale aged seven, and Dorris, five years.
Mr. Crosby is a member of Loyalton Lodge, No. 359, F. & A. M.; the chapter of
Royal Arch Masons at Alton, Illinois; the council of Royal and Select Masters
at Alton; and the Mystic Shrine at East St. Louis. He is a Republican in his political views,
though in the local elections he votes for the men whom he regards as best
fitted for the offices they seek, regardless of party lines. A man of sterling integrity, pleasing
personality and friendly manner, he has won a high place in this community and
is well liked by all.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Wooldridge,
J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley California,
Vol. 3 Pages 204-206. Pioneer Historical Publishing Co.
Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County Biographies