A Look Back -- Jerry Person

Jerry Person

One of the most important and underpaid jobs in Huntington Beach or,

for that matter, any local city, is that of city clerk.

It is their tireless duty to provide, at a moment’s notice, any type

of municipal record, which a current council person may require. It has

been my great pleasure to know some of these tireless, hard working

individuals, Alicia Wentworth and Connie Brockway, both past and present

city clerks for Huntington Beach. It is in their hands that the city

government is able to run so smoothly.

This week we’ll are going back a few years to another of Huntington

Beach’s city clerks and look at the life of John Henricksen.

It was in a far away city of Rorvik, Norway that our city clerk was

born in 1899. This tiny infant was given the name of Johan Storm Lund

Henricksen, but we knew him simply as John.

John had two brothers and a sister and in 1904 the whole Henricksen

family left Norway to settle in Duluth, Minn. If any of you have ever

been to Duluth in the winter you know how similar the climate is to

Norway and Sweden.

During this time many Scandinavians were relocating to Minnesota from

Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the late 1800s and into the first half of

the 1900s -- including my grandparents.

Young John attended school in Duluth and the family, as well as most

Norwegians there, attended the Norwegian Lutheran Church and were

confirmed -- as was John.

In 1918, when John was still in high school, he enlisted in the Navy

as America was preparing to go to war.

For the next 18 months he would serve in the frozen waters of the

north Atlantic.

After returning home John continued his education at the University of

Minnesota where he majored in business administration. John was a member

of the Duluth Boat Club in 1920 and was a runner-up in the Olympic game

trials.

He was a good basketball player and his team, the Luther Athletic

Club, won the Minnesota championships for 1920-21.

He next went to work in Brazil for the Phoenix Utility Company of New

York. While there he took a two year course in advanced public utility

accounting.

He remained with that company for the next nine years.

During his employment John traveled to Cuba, Florida and Brazil,

gaining a great deal of knowledge. While in Cuba in 1924 he found himself

in the middle of an uprising. He served as a paymaster, cost and field

accountant and company auditor during this time.

In 1929 in a confidential report to the company John warned of a

coming revolution in Brazil and even named the date of it in the report.

He missed the date, but only 10 days and the amazing part of it was that

he had that information for over a year.

When he left the company John traveled to Northern California where he

mined a placer gold claim.

Two years later he returned to accounting and served as a resident

auditor for the Ebasco Service Co. traveling to such states as Kansas,

Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

He spent the next five years in Southern California working with the

Austin Company as auditor.

John’s sister married a Huntington Beach man, Howard Moring, and while

Howard and he were on a bowling trip here, he met Howard’s sister Jewell

Brown. She was from a pioneer Huntington Beach family and the two fell in

love and were married.

In 1947 John was appointed city clerk and controller of the beautiful

beach town of Huntington Beach.

Alicia Wentworth told me that Jewell and John ran a trailer park on

Adams Avenue and Beach Boulevard.

They lived at 618 E. Quincy Adams Ave. in a large two-story home built

around 1900 with their son Jon and stepson Kao Ewing.

Jewell ran a food concession north of the Huntington Beach Pier near

5th Street called Julie’s Restaurant.

John was a member of the Masonic Lodge, a Shriner, a Rotarian and a

member of the Toastmasters.

He retired as city clerk in 1960 and handed the reins over to Paul

Jones.

As you can see, John led a very active life and throughout that life

he managed to play football, basketball, baseball, run track, ice hockey,

rowing and when time permitted, played a little golf.

Alicia said John and Jewell are no longer with us but she still has

some wonderful memories of these two and I have some wonderful memories

of two, very much alive, city clerks. We can be very proud to have these

great people on board to help our City Council and in later years some

future city clerk will look back and admire these three marvelous people.

* 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.