Among the men whose initiative, enterprise and ability have been active factors in promoting the remarkable growth and prosperity of the city of Oakland is numbered Arthur Hastings Breed, of the firm of Breed & Bancroft, well known real-estate operators of the city. Mr. Breed has other important business affiliations, and his interests have extended also to politics, in which field his prominence is attested by his position in the state senate, representing the fifteenth senatorial district. He was born in San Francisco, California, November 27, 1865, and is a son of Daniel C. Breed, who came to California by way of the isthmus of Panama in the '50s and was afterward for many years a well known wholesale grocery dealer in San Francisco.
Arthur Hastings Breed acquired his education in the public schools of his native city and after his graduation was for five years connected with the wholesale book and stationery firm of Samuel Carson & Company. He afterward turned his attention to the real-estate business and with this has been connected continuously since that time. He is president of the real-estate firm of Breed & Bancroft, a corporation, one of the leading companies of its kind in the state, and through his work as its head has proven himself a man of administrative ability and executive power of a high order. In addition to this Mr. Breed is president of the Magnesite Dock & Land Company, president of the Pardee Park Company, president of the Roseville Heights Land Company, a director in several other land corporations and also in the Oakland Bank of Savings and the Bankers Trust Company--connections which prove the extent, variety and character of his business interests.
Politically Mr. Breed is a stanch republican and is without doubt one of the leading representatives of this party in Alameda county. From 1899 until 1907 he served as auditor and assessor of the city of Oakland and in 1912 was elected to the state senate for a term expiring in 1916. Mr. Breed represents the fifteenth senatorial district of California, embracing East Berkeley, the town of Piedmont and a considerable portion of Oakland. He has already made a creditable record as a member of the state legislature and it is a certainty that a great deal of important legislation will bear the stamp of his interest and activity.
On the 9th of May, 1893, in Oakland, Mr. Breed was united in marriage to Miss Caroline Hall, and they have become the parents of four children, three sons and one daughter. Two are students in the high school and the other two are in the grammar schools of Oakland.
Mr. Breed is connected fraternally with the Masons, the Elks and the Native Sons of the Golden West, holds membership in the Bohemian Club of San Francisco and the Nile and Athenian Clubs of Oakland and is a devout adherent of the First Congregational church. Broad-minded and liberal in his views, he has wrought along the lines of the greatest good to the greatest number and his city and state have profited by his efforts in various fields of endeavor. His unbending integrity of character, his fearlessness in the discharge of duty and his appreciation of the responsibilities which rest upon him make him a citizen whose worth is widely acknowledged.
Past and Present of Alameda County California, Vol. II
Published in Chicago by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1914
Pages 77-78
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 5/26/2008
Alameda County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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