G. Allan Hancock
Allan Hancock July 26, 1875 - May 31, 1965 was owner of Rancho La Brea Oil Company, vice president of the Los Angeles Hibernian Bank and treasurer of the Los Angeles Symphony Association. He owned Rancho La Brea, including the La Brea Tarpits which he donated to Los Angeles County.
HANCOCK, GEORGE ALLAN, Petroleum Interests, Los Angeles, California, was born at San Francisco, California, July 26, 1875, the son of Major Henry and Ida (Haraszthy) Hancock. His maternal grandfather was Count Agostin Haraszthy, the pioneer wine manufacturer of Northern California. His father and mother both came to California in 1849, the latter coming when a child with her parents, who crossed the plains from Wisconsin in a prairie schooner. Henry Hancock was a major in the United States army during the Mexican war. He later took up the study of engineering and law. One of his early tasks as an engineer was the laying out of the City of Los Angeles. He also published the first map of that city. He was an ardent believer in the city's future and purchased much land in the vicinity, among the tracts he acquired being the famous Rancho La Brea, covering 2000 acres, which is still intact and is now owned by Mr. Hancock. Mr. Hancock married Miss Genevieve Dean Mullen at Los Angeles, California, November 27, 1901, the issue of the marriage being Bertram and Rosemary Hancock. He received his early education in the primary schools and at Brewer's Military Academy, San Mateo, California, which he attended during 1888 and 1889. In 1890 he enrolled as a student at the Belmont School at Belmont, California. Here be remained during the years of 1891, '92 and '93. His vacations between school terms were spent on La Brea ranch. He shared with the men the labors of the fields, learning to raise hay and grain, and performing his full part of the plowing, mowing, stacking and baling of hay. He helped to care for the live stock and assisted at chores. By the time he had completed his school courses he was an adept agriculturist. His first occupation after he took up the responsibilities of active work was in this same field. He continued in the management and operation of La Brea ranch until he was twenty-five years of age. It was at this period that the early discoveries of petroleum were being made in California. The industry was rapidly developing and becoming one of the most important in the State. La Brea ranch was one of the localities in which petroleum was found. A firm believer in the future of the new industry, Mr. Hancock abandoned his agricultural pursuits and turned his attention to petroleum production. From the outset he determined to make a thorough study of every phase of the subject. He first gave systematic attention to the subject of oil well machinery, making himself familiar with the most modern devices employed in the work. He then went into the fields, performing every task connected with the drilling of the wells and the extraction of the oil He gave much time and attention to perfecting the details of his work. Fully three years were spent in these self imposed tasks, after which he urged his mother, his father having died in 1884, to allow him enough capital to sink a well on a portion of the property that had not already been leased to oil operators. He began work at once and from the outset was uniformly successful, meeting obstacle after obstacle and overcoming them, where other operators under similar conditions, but with much less fixity of purpose, abandoned their projects. In due time he returned to his mother $90,000 which she had advanced before Mr. Hancock was able to secure any returns from the investment he had made in the first well For the past seven years he has continued the development work on La Brea ranch. At the present time there are sixty-five producing wells on the property, all of them drilled and brought in under the management of Mr. Hancock. This number is exclusive of the wells drilled on the property by the Salt Lake Oil Company, to whom a portion of the property had been leased in 1900. The wells under Mr. Hancock's management are handled with the most modern machinery, the engines pumping the sixty-five wells being the first engines on any oil fields that were run successfully by compressed air. They run at a pressure of forty pounds. This pumping scheme required about a year of experimenting before it became successful. The idea had been tried a number of times in other fields, but up to this time had never been successful Many engineers of undoubted authority have examined the plant and declared it absolutely successful In the midst of his large business responsibilities Mr. Hancock has found time to devote himself to the study of music and is recognized in Los Angeles musical circles as an accomplished and talented musician. He has always been an ardent supporter of musical culture and has given of his time and money to furthering the interests of music in that city. He is a gifted cellist, playing that instrument in the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra for the pleasure he derives from the work. He is the owner of one of, if not the greatest, violoncellos in existence, it being a Nicholas Gagliano, made in the year 1747. Mr. Hancock is the owner of Rancho La Brea Oil Company, vice president of the Los Angeles Hibernian Bank, treasurer of the Los Angeles Symphony Association. For two and a half years prior to 1910 he was president of the Automobile Association of Southern California. He is a member of the California Club. Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Gamut Club of Los Angeles, and the South Coast Yacht Club.