Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Ingersoll, Legrand G. 1869 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com January 1, 2006, 2:16 am Author: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908) LEGRAND G. INGERSOLL, born in Elmira, N. Y., June 9th, 1845, son of Piatt Carl Ingersoll, a graduate of Yale College and a native of Stanford, Conn., later studied medicine at Stanford; became one of the principal owners of the Grafenburg Medicine Company. He was gifted with mechanical genius and later turned his attention to mechanical pursuits. He met and married Miss Betsy Mariah Miller, a daughter of Abraham Miller, a successful grain farmer and distiller of spirituous liquors of South Port, Chemung county, New York, where she was born. The circumstances of his marriage proved to change, somewhat, the course of his life, and he settled down at Elmira and engaged in the milling business, an occupation more nearly in harmony with his tastes and natural bend of mind. He owned a steam sawmill, and incidentally became interested in a drygoods, likewise a drug store, at Wellsburg, a near-by town. About the year 1855 he invented and patented Ingersoll's cotton press, which he manufactured on a large scale at Brooklyn, N. Y. They came into popular use throughout the cotton-producing states and were, in essential respects, the most perfect machines of the kind of their day. He made several other mechanical inventions which proved practical, notably a coffee hulling machine, which he manufactured in large quantities at Green's Point, Long Island. He was a son of Alexander Ingersoll, who was a farmer and lived near Greenwich, Fairfield county, Conn. Besides Piatt C, Alexander Ingersoll had a son, Simon Ingersoll, who was the inventer of Ingersoll's rock drill, which effectually revolutionized the business of rock drilling, quarrying, quartz mining, etc., and is in general use for such purposes all over the world. After a busy and successful life, Piatt C. Ingersoll died at his home in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1870, at about sixty-three years of age and his remains were interred in Greenwood cemetery. Legrand G. Ingersoll is the only living of three sons of Piatt C. Ingersoll. There is one daughter living, Georgiana, Mrs. Geo. H. Hughes, of Brooklyn, N. Y. His boyhood and youth were spent at Wellsburg and in Brooklyn, in which latter city he learned the mechanic's trade and worked in his father's factories. He attended the public schools of Brooklyn and pursued a special course of study of mechanics in the night schools of Cooper Union, New York City. In 1865 he married Miss Augusta Wells, a daughter of Calvin Wells, an old-time citizen and manufacturer of Wellsburg, Chemung county, N. Y. For a time Mr. Ingersoll traveled and was identified with the promotion of various successful business enterprises in the East and Middle West. He lived for about sixteen years in the city of Pittsburg, Pa., where he developed Kenwood Park, one of the most popular amusement resorts in the city. There in 1896 his wife died as the result of a railway accident. In the year 1900 he commenced the development on a large scale of two amusement-resort enterprises in the city of Detroit, Michigan, which he carried to a most successful completion, operating the same for a time at a handsome profit. He came to California and to Los Angeles somewhat broken in health, in 1903. In 1904 he built the roller coaster at Ocean Park, which promptly became an amusement feature of that city. This he operated for a time and sold, retiring from active business pursuits. He lives in Ocean Park. Mr. Ingersoll married for a second time, January 3rd, 1898, Miss Eleanor, a daughter of John Burke, a native of Columbus, Ohio, and a railroad official. By the former marriage there were seven children, of whom four are living—Le Forest and Frederick of Pittsburg, Audley and Louis of Spokane, Washington. They are all operating large amusement enterprises originally inaugurated by the father. Mr. Ingersoll's business career has been one of large and successful achievements. Besides the extensive business enterprises that Mr. Ingersoll has built up and controlled he has made several successful inventions. He invented the first slot weighing machine that ever came into practical and popular use and for several years manufactured them on a large scale in Chicago. He also invented a slot lung tester which proved a phenomenal success. He is a man of positive temperament and independent thought and action. These characteristics he has inherited from a line of ancestry that dates back to the early settlement of the New England colonies and includes judges, preachers, lawyers, musicians and mechanics. They are all men of sterling worth who made themselves useful and memorable in their time. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities: prefaced with a brief history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County, 1542 to 1908: supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and embellished with views of historic landmarks and portraits of representative people. Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/losangeles/bios/ingersol253bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 5.6 Kb