JERRY PERSON -- A look back

I wonder what our Look Back subject would think of today’s nearly $2

price of a gallon of gas.

Back when Warren Bristol ran his service station, a gallon of gas was

less than a quarter -- way under.

Fort Collins, Colo., was the birthplace of Warren Judson Bristol. The

son of Judson Bristol was born Dec. 22, 1886.

Bristol’s father was a New Englander who left his home in Vermont for

a new life in the West.

Bristol attended school in Fort Collins and after graduation attended

Colorado State Agricultural College to become a civil engineer. His first

job as an engineer took him to the Salt Lake area.

When the job was done, Bristol moved to Reno, Nev., to work as a pile

driver.

But California called, and Bristol answered that call by coming to

work as a bellboy at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. He also worked as

a bellboy at San Francisco’s Pacific Union Club.

Bristol then returned home to Fort Collins, where he took a job at the

Great Western Sugar Co. He transferred to the sugar company’s Sterling,

Colo., refinery, and it was during this time that Bristol married his

first wife, Jennie Brown.

In 1917, the sugar company transferred Bristol to a refinery in a

small California town called Huntington Beach.

He was made assistant superintendent for the Holly Sugar plant that

was at Garfield Avenue and Main Street.

In 1923, along with Wayne Pickering, Bristol bought the gas station at

602 Pacific Coast Highway, the first station on the highway within the

town’s city limits.

On Oct. 20, 1941, Jennie died. Bristol married his second wife, Fern

Wright, in a Las Vegas ceremony on Sept. 27, 1942.

Bristol’s Richfield Station was a fixture on Pacific Coast Highway for

27 years.

In October 1948, Huntington Beach Mayor Jack Greer pumped the 4

millionth gallon of gas at Bristol’s station in a short ceremony.

In 1951, Bristol retired and sold the station to L.W. Kelsey.

The Bristols continued to live at 1009 13th St., and the couple had

one daughter, Barbara Jean.

Bristol served as president of our Chamber of Commerce and was a

member of our Rotary Club. He also served as a director of the Huntington

Beach Elementary School board.

Bristol owned business property on Lido Isle and residential property

in Laguna Beach.

While on vacation in Miami, Bristol suffered a heart attack. He died

there on Jan. 9, 1958.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.