PULASKI CO, AR - LEWIS DENT COLLINGS - Bio

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Source:  California and Californians, Vol. Three.  Hunt, Rockwell D., 
ed. Chicago: Lewis Publishing, 1932.

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Lewis Dent Collings, a native of Texas, where he first practiced law, 
has been a leading member of his profession at Los Angeles for over 
twenty years. He is senior member of the law firm of Cooper & 
Collings, located in the Washington Building. 

Mr. Collings' maternal grandfather, Capt. W. D. Beall, for several 
years before the Civil war had a Government contract to furnish corn 
for the army horses at Fort Los Angeles. While in California he became 
associated with John Quinn and John Guest, and was one of the founders 
of El Monte. W. D. Beall was a captain of cavalry in the Confederate 
army during the Civil war and spent the rest of his life in Texas, 
where he died in 1912. 

Lewis Dent Collings was born at Dora in Nolan County, Texas, March 10, 
1887, son of Edmund L. and Katie (Beall) Collings. The family for 
several generations were prominent in Texas. The earliest American 
ancestors were Scotch Presbyterians who settled in Rhode Island at the 
time of Roger Williams. Mr. Collings' middle name, Dent, comes to him 
through the maternal line. This Dent family were related to Julia 
Dent, a southern woman who became the wife of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. 
Mr. Collings' paternal grandfather, Edmund Lewis Collings, lost his 
life while serving as a captain of the Texas Rangers. He was killed by 
the Indians in 1862, near the site of Stamford, Texas. The father of 
the Los Angeles attorney, Edmund L. Collings, Jr., was at one time 
grand master of the Grand Lodge of Texas Masons. He died at Pecos, 
Texas, in 1928. 

Lewis Dent Collings was one of a family of two sons and four 
daughters, his only brother, H. Earl Collings, being also a 
Californian. Mr. Collings was reared and educated in Western Texas, 
attended Baylor University at Waco, and in June, 1908, was graduated 
from the Cumberland University Law School at Lebanon, Tennessee, and 
took postgraduate work in law at Vanderbilt University. He was 
admitted to the Tennessee bar in June, 1908, to the Texas bar in 
September of the same year, and three years later, on coming to 
California, was admitted to the bar of this state in April, 1911. He 
and Mr. John Sherman Cooper have been associated in practice since 
January 1, 1920. This firm has made an enviable reputation in trial 
and corporation law.

Mr. Collings is an all round athlete. In college and university he won 
letters in baseball, football, basketball and tennis. During the World 
war he volunteered and was in training at Camp Pike, Arkansas, until 
honorably discharged in December, 1918. He is a member of the Los 
Angeles County, California State and American Bar Associations. He is 
a Mason and Shriner, is a past president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon 
Alumni Association at Los Angeles, and belongs to the Los Angeles 
Athletic Club, Casa Del Mar Club, Pacific Coast Club, Santa Monica 
Athletic Club, Hollywood Athletic Club, Rancho Golf Club and City Club 
of Los Angeles. He is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Collings 
married, April 29, 1922, Miss Juniata A. Phelan, of Salt Lake City, 
Utah. She was born in Western North Carolina. They reside at 1945 
North Hobart Boulevard, Los Angeles.