Library of Congress

Founded in San Francisco in 1945

By Susie J . Pak

A native of Oakland , California , George Halsey Grant was a 1922 graduate of the University of California . Having previously been a member of Grant , Knowlton & Co ., he parted ways with his partners and formed the firm of George H . Grant & Co . in 1938 , the predecessor firm to First California Company . As its name suggests , First California ’ s history has been closely tied to Californian brokerage entrepreneurs , who founded and led it . Interestingly , its history has also been intertwined with other California institutions like the Bank of America and the University of California .

George H . Grant & Co . and First California Company

First California Company was an investment securities firm founded in 1945 when Grant joined forces with Earl Lee Kelly .

The San Francisco-Bay Bridge contract recipients with Earl Lee Kelly in the center .

Born in Oregon and raised in Humboldt County , Kelly was a graduate of the University of California law school . After serving in World War I , he went into the title business before having a long career as a public servant in California . He was at one time the mayor of Redding , chairman of the State Highway Commission and the state director of public works . He also ran for governor in 1945 . He became a vice president of Bank of America in 1939 .

After resigning from Bank of America in 1945 to join Grant in forming First California Company , Kelly became the chairman of the board . Grant became the president , and H . T . Birr Jr . was named executive vice president . Very quickly , the firm expanded by merging with the Southern California firm of Nelson Douglass & Co . in 1946 . The new firm purchased “ the business of Bankamerica Co ., [ a ] wholly owned subsidiary of Pacific Coast Mortgage Co . in connection with the liquidation of assets of the latter .” ( Bankamerica Co . changed its name to Pacific Affiliates Inc .) At its inception , First California Company had 16 offices in California and Nevada .

Elbert “ Bob ” J . Evans was previously the vice president of Nelson Douglass & Co . and a general partner of Eastman , Dillon

& Co . He left Eastman Dillon and became chairman of the board of the First California Co . in 1947 . That year , Birr also became president , and he and Evans “ acquired the controlling stock interest in the company from Earl Lee Kelly and George H . Grant .” Kelly and Grant resigned from the firm at that time .

At that point , the leadership of the firm passed to Birr for the rest of its history as an independent company . The son of Herman Theodore Birr , Sr ., a native of Illinois and a Chicago banker , and the former Elizabeth Carstenn , Herman Theodore Birr Jr . was also a native of Oakland , California and educated at the University of California . He joined Bank of America in 1924 and worked for A . P . Giannini , the bank ’ s founder . He stayed with the bank until 1930 when he left to join Dardi-Reinhard & Co . and the Associated American Distributors , Inc . in 1923 . He became vice president of Bankamerica Co . in 1937 and the manager of the Oakland division for Bankamerica Company in 1939 .

Blair Holdings Corporation

In 1950 , Blair Holdings Corporation , a holding company that owned the brokerage firm of Blair & Co . -E . H . Rollins Inc .,

36 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2021 | www . MoAF . org