Tulare County Biographies

JAMES ERSKINE

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        Back in 1872 James M. Johnson started the first abstract company in 
Visalia, California, covering the present counties of Tulare and Kings. During 
the next twenty years several other persons and firms engaged in the business 
and in 1892 the Visalia Abstract Company was incorporated through the 
consolidation of several abstract concerns already in existence. For many years 
the offices of the company were in a brick building on West Center street, but 
in February, 1923, it was merged with the Security Title Insurance & Guarantee 
Company and on September 22, 1923, the consolidated companies moved into a new 
home on the corner of Acequia and Locust streets, erected at a cost of sixty 
thousand dollars. On that date one of the Visalia newspapers said :
        "The new home of the Security Title Insurance & Guarantee Company, just 
completed and thrown open this morning for the inspection of Visalia, is, 
without fear of contradiction, the finest building equipped for this kind of 
work in California. Trust companies in metropolitan cities have buildings as 
fine, perhaps, finer in some respects, and in all probability, larger, but no 
title insurance company in California can boast of as fine a structure so 
admirably equipped for the proper attention to every detail of the business."
        The Security Title Insurance & Guarantee Company is a San Joaquin valley 
institution, with resources of one million five hundred thousand dollars. Its 
principal offices are in Fresno, with affiliated branches in Visalia, Riverside, 
Santa Barbara and other business centers in the valley. The officers of the 
Visalia branch are as follows : James Erskine, vice president and manager ; J. 
Pierce Gannan, assistant secretary and treasurer ; George D. Smith, assistant 
secretary. The Visalia Abstract Company was the oldest company of the kind in 
the San Joaquin valley and its complete records constitute one of the most 
valuable assets of the Security Title Insurance & Guarantee Company, of which it 
is now a component part.
        James Erskine, vice president and manager, whose name stands at the head 
of this review, was born in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 17, 1868. 
At the age of twelve years he affiliated himself with attorneys and district 
offices in that city and worked there until 1890, when he came to California. He 
readily found employment in an abstract office in San Diego and worked there for 
six years. At the end of that time he went back to Pittsburgh, where he resumed 
his old occupation and remained in that city for fourteen years, returning to 
San Diego in 1910.
        In 1911 he came to Visalia and since then has been closely identified 
with the title business of Tulare and some of the adjoining counties. The 
newspaper article of September 22, 1923, above referred to says : "The Visalia 
Abstract Company, now affiliated with the Security Title Insurance and Guarantee 
Company, has as its president and general manager James Erskine, recognized as 
one of the leading abstract and title men in California. For years Mr. Erskine 
has been connected with this institution prior to having engaged in its purchase 
and his intricate knowledge of local conditions is augmented by wide experience 
throughout California. He is particularly well adapted to the office he now 
holds and has a firm confidence in the future of this community and the true 
value of title insurance and correct searching of records. Under his guidance 
the company may be expected to continue the splendid program of development and 
expansion coincident with the genuine service and courtesy which has been shown 
through the years past."
        In Santa Ana, on July 31, 1910, Mr. Erskine was married to Miss Nellie 
V. Dorris, a native of Monterey county, California, and they have one daughter : 
Jean Dorris Erskine. Mr. Erskine, as manager of the Security Title Insurance and 
Guarantee Company, is frequently consulted by officials of the other affiliated 
companies and his advice sought in important matters pertaining to land titles. 
He is a member of the Visalia Lodge No. 1298, Benevolent Protective Order of 
Elks.
 
Source:  History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen 
Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. II, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1926., p. 177