Three prominent citizens

This week, we are going to look back at three prominent men of Main

Street who helped shape the destiny of our community.

For many years the Security Trust building stood proudly at the

corner of Walnut Avenue and Main Street, where it served the

financial needs of our people. Our first gentleman of Main Street

held the title of bank manager, and his name was William J. Ellery.

Bill Ellery was not an American by birth; he was a subject of the

queen. He was born in 1887 in Redruth, England, where he resided with

his family until 1895.

His family was not part of the elite of English society. Growing

up in England, he learned early in life about the value of being good

and playing straight with people, a trait he would continue

throughout his life.

Arriving in America as an 8-year-old lad, our future bank manager

and his family settled in Silverton, Colo., a small mining camp. His

family left Colorado to settle in Globe, Ariz., and they would

shortly move to Miami, Ariz., with the hope of someday striking it

rich.

Ellery learned the best way of achieving wealth was to buy land,

and while in his 20s he began buying real estate. He also got a job

at the Bank of Miami. In no time, he had worked his way up to become

president of that institution.

During his rise to the top, Bill had gotten married and became the

father of two boys.

In June of 1922, the family moved to Huntington Beach to settle

down. They lived at 1904 Ocean Ave. (Pacific Coast Highway).

He took over the management of the Security Trust and Savings Bank

and became a pillar of our community. He joined the Huntington Beach

Rotary Club and the chamber of commerce.

But his time as a resident here was short, for in October 1923 he

was promoted to the bank’s Long Beach branch as manager.

Taking his place here on Dec. 1, 1923, would be our second

gentleman, F.L. Slusher, a banker from Chickasha, Okla.

Slusher was born in Missouri and moved to Oklahoma as a young man.

He got work as a bank cashier at the First National Bank of Hobart,

Okla., in 1906.

Three years later, with a wife and son, Slusher moved to

Chickasha, where he would become a cashier at the First National Bank

of Chickasha. He remained there for the next 14 years, working his

way up to become manager.

He and his family moved to Huntington Beach in 1923 to assume the

duties of bank manager of the Security Trust & Savings Bank.

Our third Main Street businessman would one day open his grocery

store next door to the bank and would help shape the lives of many of

our early residents.

His name was William L. McKenney and, like Bill Ellery, he was not

born in America.

McKenney was born in Canada, but he moved to South Dakota and

become a prominent farmer. He brought along several pedigreed

Percheron horses and, from this stock, he established a successful

ranching business.

McKenney’s health declined, and he moved to Southern California

and settled in Huntington Beach. McKenney opened a grocery store at

201 Main St., just in time to see the town’s name change from Pacific

City to Huntington Beach.

As the town grew, so did McKenney’s grocery business.

In 1908, he was appointed a member of our town’s grammar school

board. At that time, our grammar school was a one-room school on Main

Street.

For the next 15 years, McKenney worked tirelessly with members of

our community to improve the quality of our children’s education.

McKenney lived with his wife and daughter at 225 11th St. His

daughter would benefit from this hard work, graduating from both our

grammar and high schools, and she later married a prominent Los

Angeles doctor.

In 1918, McKenney and his partner, George Bentley, opened a much

larger market right next to the Security Trust at 206 Main St. A year

later, he converted the store to a cash-and-carry market called the

Grocerteria. Later the same year, he changed the name to Valencia

Market and later to McKenney’s Alpha Beta #5 Market.

In their own small way, these three men of Huntington Beach helped

shape part of our rich heritage, and we are grateful to have had them

here in our city.

* 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.