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, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

and

Del Mar, California Del Mar (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach city 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 population was 3,954 ...

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 county's population center is Oneonta. The name ''Otsego'' is from a Mohawk or Oneida word m ...

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 list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

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'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', August 20, 2000 In 1892, he partnered with Edward L. Doheny 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 Burton Edmond Green (September 6, 1868 – May 13, 1965) was an American oilman and real estate developer. He was critical in the development of Beverly Hills, California, and he is credited with naming it Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms in ...

Max Whittier Mericos "Max" Whittier (1867–1925) was a pioneer in the early California oil industry and was instrumental in the development of 3 of California's billion barrel oil fields: Kern River, Midway-Sunset, and South Belridge. With his partner Burt ...

, Frank H. Buck, Henry E. Huntington, William F. Herrin and

William G. Kerckhoff William George Kerckhoff (1856–1929) was an American businessman. Early life Kerckhoff was born on March 30, 1856, in Terre Haute, Indiana.Short History of the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research', W. G. Kerckhoff Institute] Care ...

purchased

Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas was a land grant in present day Beverly Hills in 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 stre ...

from

Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker Andrew Henry Denker (October 17, 1840 – November 13, 1892) was a German-born American businessman and politician was a business partner of Henry Hammel. He and Hammel, his brother-in-law, ran hotels and owned an extensive spread of agricultural ...

.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 petroleum industry, oil company in the 20th century. The company, esta ...

(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 fr ...

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 fil ...

(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 Mary Bickford Dunn; November 8, 1896 – January 21, 1937) was a Canadian 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 discove ...

and

Kenneth Harlan Kenneth Daniel Harlan (July 26, 1895 – March 6, 1967) was a popular American actor during the silent film era, playing mostly romantic leads or adventurer roles. His career extended into the sound film era, but during that span he rarely c ...

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 Businesspeople from Beverly Hills, California Businesspeople from Los Angeles American businesspeople in the oil industry Burials at Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles 19th-century American businesspeople