Tulare County Biographies

JAMES L. VENN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        Among the wide-awake and progressive business men of the city of 
Porterville the name of James L. Venn, manager of the Porterville branch plant 
of the W. R. Spalding Lumber Company and one of the most experienced lumbermen 
in this section of the state, has come to occupy an important position, for 
during the nearly twenty years of his residence in that city he has created a 
very definite place for himself in the general commercial and industrial life of 
the community, one of the helpful men of affairs who has done so much to advance 
the material interests of this community during the past two decades. Mr. Venn 
is a Kentuckian by birth and rearing and had his initial business training in 
the city of Cincinnati but has been a resident of California and of Porterville 
since the days of his young manhood and has thus been a helpful factor in 
development work here during what might properly be regarded as the "modern" 
period of this wondrous development.
        James L. Venn was born May 19, 1884, in Ludlow, a pleasant suburb of the 
city of Covington, Kenton county, Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati, 
where he was reared and received his education, going on through the high 
school. When sixteen years of age he began work on his first formal "job", that 
of a presser in a Cincinnati hat factory, and not long afterward became a clerk 
in the Cincinnati office of the Washburn-Crosby Company, manufacturers and 
distributors of flour, and there remained until 1907, when at the age of 
twenty-three he came to California and became a resident of Porterville. Upon 
his arrival in Porterville, Mr. Venn became connected with the operations of the 
Porterville Lumber Company, founded and at that time operated by H. F. Brey, and 
for something more than ten years was thus connected, during that time becoming 
thoroughly familiar with the details of the lumber business as related to the 
fine trade area centering in Porterville. In 1918 he became the assistant 
manager of the Citrus City Lumber Company of Porterville, now carrying on its 
operations as the W. R. Spalding Lumber Company, and in September, 1924, was 
promoted to the responsible position of manager of the Porterville branch of 
that company's extensive holdings in the lumber trade. It thus will be observed 
that by years of experience Mr. Venn is a thoroughly qualified lumberman and 
since assuming the duties of manager of the business of the Spalding company in 
Porterville has done much to advance the local interests of that concern.
        On May 4, 1911, in Porterville, James L. Venn was united in marriage to 
Miss Minnie Rheinbold, who was born in Reese, Michigan, and he and his wife have 
a pleasant home in Porterville. In addition to his lumber interests Mr. Venn 
gives a good citizen's attention to general civic affairs and is known as one of 
the most effective of the progressive town "boosters" of Porterville. He is the 
secretary of the Arboleda Company and is also secretary of the Home of Peace 
Cemetery Company. He is an active member of the locally influential Lions Club 
of Porterville and is a member of the Masonic order, affiliated with Unity 
Lodge, F. & A. M., of Ludlow, Kentucky, his old home town. He is also a member 
of Porterville Lodge No. 1342, B. P. O. E.
 
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. pp. 54-55