The San Francisco call., 1897-12-19
HERMAN w, HELLMAN.
A Prominent Banker and Cap
italiSt Of Los AnQeles.

lIdllSI O1 LOS AIlQ0lSS.
Any reference to those who have
helped to make Los Angeles the sec
ond city in California would be notice
ably incomplete without at least a
brief mention of Herman w. Hellman
of the Farmers and Merchants Bank
For nearly forty years the Hellman
brothers have been a part of the his
tory of Los Angeles. Their impress
is everywhere visible, not only in their
adopted city but throughout the entire
southern portion of the State. To
their financial genius and generous
public spirit are due many of the great
water enterprises of the south which
have transformed desert into garden.
But the work of these Napoleons of
finance, great as it has been, is not
confined to the land of the fig and the
olive. Although the two brothers are
officers or directors in some half
dozen banks in Los Angeles, city and
county, their attention is centered
largely in the Farmers and Merchants
Bank, which is the largest as we'll as
the oldest banking institution in
Southern California. This bank has a
paid-up capital of $500,OO0 deposits to
the amount of $4,000, 900 and an un-
oAN AUCQ sui pluS VI uGdIly 9SUU,UUU.
The local manager of this institution
is Herman w. Hellman, who is vice
president. In addition to this, he has
served as a director of the Southern
California Railway since 1890. This bank
is universally recognized as one of the
model institutions of the State It's
management from the very start has
been able and honest The history of
Los AnUalpS itCn1f could hn Old
in the history of this bank and that
of the men who founded it. But vast
as their fortune is at this time, it must
be said to their everlasting credit that
it is not founded upon the misfortunes
of their fellow w-citizenS. Theirs has
been a well-won victory in the strug-
gle for riches. To these two men more
than to any other agent does Southern
California owe its present high state
of development. They have assisted
in building cities as we'll as fortunes.
In this the whole community has
shared. There is many snug for
tune or fixed income enjoyed in the
city of Los Angeles which owes it's
existence to the good judgment of the
Hellmans. They have not only been
the means of creating many fortunes
in the flush times of the city but they
also guarded them when the panic of
1898 was tearing them to shreds in
other places. How well they succeeded
in doing this is best told by the fact
that the city of which they are the
recognized financial heads had but one
bank failure during that dark period.
Out of all the banks in which they
were interested there was not one that
closed its doors for a single minute
during banking hours. AS the result
of foresight they were not only able to
guard against loss themselves but to
extend valuable assistance to others
To their judgment more than anything
else does Los Angeles owe its escape
from the disaster of 1893. They proved
themselves friends of the city in a
time of need. Instead of locking up
their vast wealth and waiting for an
opportunity to buy in valuable securi-
ties through the stress of foreclosure
they came to the front and saved the
city from the cruel fate meted out to
others. The Hellmans have been to
the financial world of Los Angeles
what ]. Pierpont Morgan has been to
New York or Lyman j. Gage to that Of
Chicago.