Charles Adelbert Canfield (May 15, 1848 – August 15, 1913) was an American oilman and real estate developer. He pioneered oil drilling in California and Mexico. He also co-founded

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

and

Del Mar, California Del Mar (; Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach town in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The Del Mar Horse Races are hosted on the De ...

Early life

Charles Adelbert Canfield was born on May 15, 1848 in Springfield,

Otsego County, New York Otsego County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,524. The county seat is Cooperstown. The name ''Otsego'' is from a Mohawk or Oneida word meaning "place of the rock." History In ...

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Career

In 1869, he moved to Colorado and struggled to find silver in the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

for seventeen years. In 1886, he found silver in Kingston, New Mexico Territory. In 1887, he moved to Los Angeles, California and founded the Chanslor-Canfield Midway Oil Co.Cecilia Rasmussen
Tale of Wealth, Murder and a Family's Decline
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', August 20, 2000 In 1892, he partnered with Edward L. Doheny (1856–1935) to develop the first gusher in Los Angeles at the intersection of Patton and Colton streets on Crown Hill, just northwest of today's Downtown Los Angeles. In 1900, he and Burton E. Green (1868–1965),

Max Whittier Max H. Whittier (1867–1925) was an American real estate developer and a pioneer in the early California petroleum industry. Biography Max Whittier (born Mericos Hector Whittier), was born to Charles G. Whittier and Ruth Keech, came to California ...

(1867–1928), Frank H. Buck (1887–1942),

Henry E. Huntington Henry Edwards Huntington (February 27, 1850 – May 23, 1927) was an American railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate ...

(1850–1927), William F. Herrin (1854–1927) and William G. Kerckhoff (1856–1929) purchased

Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas was a land grant in present day Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, California given to María Rita Quinteros Valdez de Villa in 1838. Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas (Ranch of the Gathering Waters), is named for the streams t ...

from Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker.Marc Wanamaker, ''Early Beverly Hills'', Arcadia Publishing, 2005, p.

/ref> After drilling for oil and only finding water, they reorganized their business into the Rodeo Land and Water Company to develop a residential town later known as Beverly Hills, California. In 1902, they founded the

Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company Compañía Mexicana de Petróleo El Águila SA, (''El Águila'' for short, called in English the Mexican Eagle Oil Company or Mexican Eagle Petroleum Corporation, was a Mexican oil company in the 20th century. The company, established in 1909, pr ...

(later known as the

Pan American Petroleum The Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company (PAT) was an oil company founded in 1916 by the American oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny after he had made a huge oil strike in Mexico. Pan American profited from fuel demand during World War I, and f ...

and now

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), which made Mexico the world's second-largest oil-producing country.

Personal life and death

He was married to Chloe Canfield. She was murdered in 1906 by a disgruntled employee called Morris Buck who had been fired five years earlier for leaving the Canfields' horses unattended and beating them. They had a daughter, Daisy, who was married to J.M. Danziger, but she divorced him in 1921, citing cruelty. In 1923, she remarried to

Antonio Moreno Antonio Garrido Monteagudo (September 26, 1887 – February 15, 1967), better known as Antonio Moreno or Tony Moreno, was a Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s. Early life and silent f ...

(1887–1967), and they lived in the Canfield-Moreno Estate. They also had a son, Charles O. Canfield. He was married to Pearl, who divorced him in 1930. The couple served as witnesses to the marriage of silent film stars

Marie Prevost Marie Prevost (born Marie Bickford Dunn; November 8, 1896 – January 21, 1937) was a Canadian-born film actress. During her 20-year career, she made 121 silent and sound films. Prevost began her career during the silent film era. She was d ...

and

Kenneth Harlan Kenneth Daniel Harlan (July 26, 1895 – March 6, 1967) was an American actor of the silent film era, playing mostly romantic leads or adventurer types. Early life Harlan was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of George W. Harlan and ac ...

in October 1924. In 1910, he moved into the newly built Canfield-Wright House in Del Mar, California. He died at his home in Los Angeles on August 15, 1913, and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Bibliography

Secondary sources

*Nicholas A Curry, ''The Charles A. Canfield family history: Fellow mining prospector, oilman and business associate of Edward L. Doheny'', 1994.Google Books
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canfield, Charles A. 1848 births 1913 deaths People from Springfield, New York People from Del Mar, California People from Beverly Hills, California Businesspeople from Los Angeles American businesspeople in the oil industry Burials at Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles 19th-century American businesspeople