History and reminiscences, Los Angeles City and County, California, Vol. 3

History and reminiscences, Los Angeles City and County, California, Vol. 3

History and reminiscences, Los Angeles City and County, California, Vol. 3

BY WILLIAM A. SPALDING

VOLUME III 1931

PUBLISHED BY

J. R. FINNELL & SONS PUBLISHING COMPANY

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE109531

Page 298 to 301

For over sixty years Arthur C. Harper has been a resident of Los Angeles and is numbered among its enterprising, able and successful business men, being president of the Consolidated Pipe Company, of Bakersfield, this state.

He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, March 13, 1866, son of Charles F. and Martha W.M. (Mullen) Harper, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Mississippi. His father enlisted in the Confederate army at the outbreak of the Civil War and served throughout, taking part in some of its most important battles and campaigns. After the close of the war he moved to New York, but shortly afterwards came to the Pacific coast. He located first in San Francisco, where he remained until May, 1868, when he came to Los Angeles and engaged in the hardware business, to which he gave his attention up to the time of his death, which occurred in September, 1915. His wife passed away in 1922, and they are buried in Inglewood cemetery this city.

Arthur C. Harper received his early education in the public schools of Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California. During the past quarter of a century he has been engaged in the manufacture of pipe, under the name of the Consolidated Pipe Company, the headquarters of which are at Bakersfield, California. This company supplies most of the pipe material for the various oil companies of Kern county and has been very successfully operated under the able management of Mr. Harper. He is also the owner of a fine, well improved farm of four hundred acres in Kern county, all of which is in cultivation.

October 25, 1887, in Los Angeles, Mr. Harper was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Hamilton, who was born in Georgia, daughter of Colonel James C. and Julia (Stokes) Hamilton, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of South Carolina. Colonel Hamilton was an officer in the Confederate army and served in a number of important battles, in one of which he was wounded. He owned a large plantation and many slaves, but after the war he turned his attention to educational affairs, teaching at the university at Calton, Georgia, and later becoming a professor in Wilson College, Wilmington, Los Angels county. He died in 1907 and his wife in 1914 and they are buried in Rosedale cemetery, Los Angeles.

Mr. and Mrs. Harper are the parents of five children, three sons and two daughters, namely: Oscar Hamilton, who is superintendent of the Western Pipe and Steel Company, married Miss Stella Black; Charles Franklin, who is superintendent of the Bakersfield Consolidated Pipe Company, married Miss Zita Olcese, whose father, J. V Olcese, is a prominent banker in Bakersfield, and they have a son, Arthur O.;Joseph Hamilton, married Mary McGrath, and still resides at home; Lucile Hamilton is the wife of P. M. Gregoray and they have a daughter, Doris; and Marjorie Hamilton, who is the wife of David Lovell, Jr., and the mother of two children, Margaret and Thomas.

Mr. Harper is a strong Democrat in his political views. He was elected mayor of Los Angeles in December, 1906, and took office in January, 1907, and served the city two full years. His religious faith is that of the Church of Christ, Scientist. He is a member of Westgate Lodge No. 335,A. F. & A. M.; Los Angeles Consistory, A. A. S. R.; Los Angeles Lodge No. 99, B.P.O.E.; the Jonathan club, the Kern River Country club, and the Bakersfield club. Mr. Harper has long been greatly interested in the commercial and civic development of Los Angeles, has shown himself a capable and progressive business man, and abundant success has crowned his efforts.