San Mateo County Biographies

Clarence S. CRARY

Transcribed by Deana Schultz

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


Clarence S. CRARY.   One of the progressive cities of the San Francisco Bay 
district is Burlingame, San Mateo County, and one of the progressive and 
representative business men of this city is Clarence S.  CRARY, who is here 
president of the Bank of Burlingame.
Mr. CRARY was born in the State of  Iowa, March 30, 1879, and is a son of  M. S. 
and Martha (LEONARD) CRARY, the other surviving children of the family being 
Charles J., vice president of Mercantile Trust Company in the City of  San 
Francisco, and F.W. and A.R. still residents of Iowa.  The early education of 
Mr. CRARY was gained in the public schools of his native state, which was 
supplemented by a course at Grinnell College, Iowa, and after  coming to 
California he entered Leland STANDFORD Jr., University, in which institution he 
was graduated as a member of the class of 1903 and with the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts.  Soon after his graduation he initiated his connection with the banking 
business, and in 1906 he became associated with the bank of which he is now the 
president.  Prior to this he had  held the position of cashier of the Mayfield 
Bank and Trust Company, later in the Merchants National bank of  San Francisco 
and still later  had been for a time identified with banking business in the oil 
fields of the Bakersfield district.  Mr. CRARY gave ten years of effective 
service as a cashier of the Bank of Burlingame, and at the annual January 
meeting of the Board of Directors of this institution in the year 1923 he was 
elected its president, a preferment which he had worthily won.  Mr. CRARY takes 
deep interest in all things tending to advance the general prosperity of his 
home city and county, is a republican in politics and is affiliated with the 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.  In 1924, he served as secretary of the 
Burlingame Chamber of Commerce.  Mr. CRARY has always taken an active interest 
in community affairs, and during the war had charge of the Liberty, Loan drives, 
and was one of the men who succeeded in more than doubling the quota assigned to 
this district.  He is one of the most popular men in the community.
The year 1912 recorded the marriage of Mr. CRARY and Edith SLIFER, a daughter of 
Lieut-Col Hiram J. SLIFER, who died in France as a member of the American 
Expeditionary Forces, having been connected with the American Railway Engineers. 
 He was formerly general manager of the Chicago and Great Western Railroad 
Company, and also at one time was superintendent of the Chicago and Rock Island 
Railroad Company and was associated with Col. George GOETHALS in the 
construction of the Panama Canal.  He was one of the twenty-nine upon whom 
General PERSHING conferred the Distinguished Service Medal.  SLIFER Post of the 
American Legion of Chicago is named in his honor.  Mrs. CRARY was born in the 
City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and they have four children; Leonard, Mary, 
Margaret and Martha.

Source: "The San Francisco Bay Region" Vol. 3 page 306-309 by Bailey Millard. 
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.


             Mr. Clarence S. Crary is not only a banker, but has in the 
comparatively few years of his business career, earned the title of �Builder of 
Banks.�  Mr. Crary is the Cashier of the Bank of Burlingame, and resides in 
Burlingame, where he is prominently identified with the business and social life 
of that city, being the Treasurer of the Burlingame Commercial Club and the 
Treasurer of the Merchants� Association of San Mateo and Burlingame.  He is also 
a member of the San Mateo lodge of Elks, and a member of the Delta Tau Delta 
Fraternity at Stanford University, where he graduated with the class of 1903.
             Mr. Crary was born in Boone, Iowa March 30, 1879 and attended 
preparatory school at Grinnell, Iowa, where he went to Grinnell College prior to 
entering Stanford University, California.  Upon graduation, he accepted a 
position with the St. Francis Hotel as Assistant Clerk.
             Shortly before the San Francisco fire he left the hotel to enter 
the real estate business where he was associated with Bovee Toy &Co., San 
Francisco.
             His first step in the banking business came after this.  From 1906 
to 1908 he was cashier of the Mayfield bank.  From there he went to the 
Merchants National Bank of San Francisco where he remained a year in the 
capacity of Assistant Cashier of their Fillmore Street Branch, and was promoted 
to receiving teller of the main bank on Market Street.
             About this time, Clinton E. Worden of the First National Bank of 
San Francisco was establishing banks in and about the oil fields, and sought out 
Mr. Crary to assist him in this work.  This string of banks included Maricopa, 
Taft, Wasco, Bakersfield and Richmond, California.  During this period Mr. Crary 
erected two bank buildings in the oil fields.
             In addition to assisting in the organization of these banks, Mr. 
Crary occupied the position of Assistant Cashier of the First National Bank of 
Maricopa.  Later he assisted in the organization of the First National Bank of 
Taft of which he was cashier.  From Taft he came to assume the position he now 
holds with the Bank of Burlingame, of which he is a large stockholder.  During 
the time he has been with this local bank, which is practically three years, the 
bank�s business has just doubled in volume.  Mr. Crary�s brother, Chas. J. Crary 
is also in the banking business, being Vice-President of the First National Bank 
of Richmond, California.
 
Transcribed by Betty Wilson

Source: History of San Mateo County by Philip W. Alexander & Charles P. Hamm 
page 127. Press of Burlingame Publishing Co., Burlingame, CA. 1916.