Alameda County
Biographies
George Wallace Horton, Principal of the Lincoln Grammar School, of Oakland, was born in Cooperstown, New York, December 25, 1846, a son of Lyman and Phoebe Fenton (White) Horton. The mother was born in New York State, a daughter of Artemas and Lois White and a descendant of Peregrine White, one of the earliest emigrants to Plymouth colony. Among her ancestors school-teaching was a sort of hereditary profession. An uncle of G. W. Horton, Lyman White, was for thirty-six consecutive years connected with the public schools of Brooklyn, New York, and had been a teacher for forty years, and died aged over eighty. Daniel White, another uncle, has been for twenty years president of Cornell University, retiring only a few years since, well advanced in years. A third uncle, White, has been for many years a teacher in the Northwest. The mother is still living, born in 1817. Her parents also lived to an advanced age, the father being eighty and the mother about seventy-eight at their death.
The father of the subject of this sketch was of the Pennsylvania family of
Hortons, but a native of New York State. He died August 10, 1876, aged
about sixty years, from an injury received in lifting. He was a carriage
manufacturer in Cooperstown, New York, and afterward in Bridgewater, same
State, in both which places he filled some official positions. In 1860 he
moved with his family to southern Minnesota, settling on a farm, where he died,
leaving seven children, all of whom are still living, namely: Truman
Bliss Horton, a miller at Stewartville, Minnesota; George Wallace; Lucinda Ann,
now Mrs. Woodworth (widow of R. B.) of Wentworth, Dakota, where she has been a
teacher for about ten years; Willard Lyman, in the employ of the Chicago &
St. Paul Railway Company for twelve years or more; Alice J., the wife of
William Stuart, a farmer of Wessington, Dakota; Lizzie Lois, wife of Alfred
Koehne, a farmer of Wentworth, Dakota; Albert Artemas, in the employ of the
Chicago & St. Paul Railway Company since 1882, at Edgarton, Minnesota.
Grandfather Asel Horton and wife moved from Pennsylvania to New York State and
lived to an advanced age, being over eighty.
George W. was educated first by his mother and the primary schools from about
the age of thirteen years, then received a special education under a private
tutor, a graduate of Harvard, and was graduated at a normal school at the age
of nineteen years. He then entered the Minnesota State Normal School,
receiving his diploma at about the age of twenty-two. He had been
teaching district schools in winter at intervals during the progress of his
higher education from about the age of eighteen. After graduation he
taught in teachers' training schools and county institutes several years,
besides teaching in the village school of High Forest, Minnesota, five or six
years, and then in the schools of Rochester, Minnesota, until he came to
California in 1874. Here he first taught in Old Liberty school district
in San Joaquin county one year, then in Lathrop, same county, over two years,
and then was invited to Tulare City, where himself and wife took charge of the
public schools.
He was married in Lathrop, June 1, 1876, to Miss Amanda Crane, a native of
Litchfield, Maine, and a daughter of Edward and Julia (True) Crane. The
Trues were a long-lived stock. Two uncles of Mrs. Horton, twins, died in
1890, aged ninety-six, and their brother, A., in 1889, aged ninety-four; and
her aunt, their sister, born in 1792, is still living, in Hallowell, Maine.
After a residence of two years in Tulare, Mr. and Mrs. Horton came to Oakland,
in 1879, and began teaching in the Peralta school, Mrs. H. remaining a year and
a half, and then becoming principal of the Piedmont school, which position she
now holds. Mr.. Horton, two years after coming here, went to the San
Pablo Avenue School of Berkeley, as principal, remaining about seven
years. In 1888 he went as first assistant to T. O. Crawford in his
Polytechnic School. In April, 1889, he was elected principal of the
Lincoln school, his present position.
Transcribed 2-28-05 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source:
"The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 1, pages 51-52, Lewis Publishing Co,
1892.
© 2005 Marilyn R.
Pankey.