Contra
Costa County
Biographies
GEORGE
BEMENT
GEORGE BEMENT. In George Bement
the state of California has long recognized one of its foremost promoters of
scientific agriculture and stock-raising.
That his operations have been varied and extensive is evident from the
fact that he is one of the founders, promoters and directors of the
agricultural societies of Napa and Solano counties and the San Mateo and Santa
Clara valley, the Golden Gate Agricultural Society and others which have aided
the farmer in his search for knowledge regarding his calling. Mr. Bement
belongs to the present as well as the past of stock-raising, for many of his
premiums at state and county fairs are of recent date, more especially the gold
medal received at the State Fair in 1903 and in 1904 for thoroughbred Essex
hogs and Southdown sheep. At present he
is confining himself to hogs and sheep, whereas in the past cattle and horses
constituted the chief of his output, special mention being due his herd of
Ayrshire cattle, which he exhibited at numerous fairs, and which represented
the largest enterprise in the state of this particular breed. In the line of horses, the trotter, General
Taylor, famous throughout the west, was a specimen of his ideals of fine
horses.
Mr. Bement’s
knowledge of the state dates from the influx of ’49, and extends through the
crude mining camps, the law-defying days of San Francisco, and the first
attempts at tilling the soil with unsatisfactory and dearly purchased
machinery. From all the phases of life
represented in the early days he has gained something, and to-day seems a
typical representative of the man who has spent much of his life out of doors,
and has evolved success out of as strange a medley of people and interests as
any part of the world has produced. Born
in Albany, N.Y., March 3, 1828, Mr. Bement’s
ancestors were numbered among the pioneers of New England, whither they took
refuge in Enfield, Conn., after being exiled from France in 1682. His paternal grandfather, William Bement, and his maternal grandfather, Jotham
Holmes, were soldiers in the Revolutionary war, the latter having been born in
Connecticut, while his daughter, Caroline, the mother of George Bement, was born in Massachusetts. His grandfather Bement
was a blacksmith during early life, but latterly was keeper of the jail in
Great Barrington, Mass.
Jotham Holmes, when a
small boy, was fishing at the foot of Horse Neck Hill when General Putnam made
his famous descent at Horse Neck, Conn.
He said that he did not go down the hill, but came around it so quick
that the British thought he went down the stone steps.
Caleb Bement,
the father of George, was born in Salisbury, Litchfield county,
Conn., September 28, 1791, and during his lifetime lived in Hudson and
Albany, N.Y., attaining renown as a stock-raiser and farmer. He acquired a better education than the
average farmer, was a close student of the science and was ambitious of greater
success than was possible within the boundaries of his farm. At the time of his death he was assistant
editor of the Albany Cultivator, the
Central New York Farmer and the American Agriculturist, his wide
experience in fancy stock-raising and scientific farming qualifying him
especially for this line of work. He was
one of the founders of the New York State Agricultural Society and the American
Institute of New York City, and for many years exerted
a broad influence in agricultural and stock-raising circles throughout the
east.
George Bement
had one brother and one sister, and with them attended the common schools of
Albany and afterward entered a boarding school in Lanesboro, Mass., for a few months. At the age of fourteen his school education
was practically over, for it became necessary for him to assist his father on
the farm. After the family removed to
Albany he secured a position as shipping clerk with the Boston &
Albany Railroad. During the four years
with the railroad he saved as much of his earnings as possible, and in the
meantime contracted the western fever, which resulted in his leaving Albany
December 14, 1848, for New York, at which port he sailed,
February 23, 1849, for Panama.
Owing to inadequate transportation facilities from Panama at that early
day, he joined a company of one hundred men who proceeded to Callao, South
America, and there embarked on the whaler Massachusetts, arriving in San
Francisco June 8, 1849. On this
vessel was D. O. Mills, as well as several others who were destined
to impress their worth upon the new country.
Mr. Bement’s first occupation on the
coast was characteristic of the conditions into which he was ushered, and
consisted in assisting in the erec- [sic] of a
gambling house called the Eldorado, for which he received $10 a day. The money thus secured enabled him to get to
the mines on the north fork of the American river, but after a few days of
indifferent success he went to Horseshoe bar, where he met some young men from
Albany, N.Y., with whom he went to work.
The inclement weather and the constant change soon undermined his good
health, and he went to San Francisco, where he bought an interest in a sawmill near Oakland.
In April, 1850, he began to team and freight in San Francisco, and in
1858 removed to San Mateo county and bought two hundred and forty acres, the
same being sold to the Spring
Valley Water Company in May, 1868. The same year he moved to the Napa Valley
where he remained until 1878, when he returned to San Mateo county,
and near Redwood City ranched and raised stock for ten years. Here began his first actual attempt to place
high-grade stock on the market, and he was so successful that in 1888 he moved
to a larger ranch near San Pablo. He
then went to Contra Costa county and ranched for two
years. He next moved to the edge of
Fruitvale, where he lived until purchasing his present home of two and a half
acres on Seminary avenue, later buying three and a half acres in the vicinity. His Essex hogs and Southdown sheep have been
famous for years, and from them he derives a comfortable income. Recently Mr. Bement
has come into an inheritance from an aunt in the east, which practically
assures him of a steady income for the balance of his life.
Mr. Bement’s
first wife was formerly Maria Green, who was born on the English Channel, and
who died in Redwood City in 1882. Of
this union there were five children, of whom Mary E. is in New York City;
George, Jr.; William is in Redwood City; Caleb N. is at home; and Harriett
is the wife of Claude Fox. The present
Mrs. Bement was born on Cape Cod, Mass., and was
formerly Mrs. Sarah J. Hardy. She has a
son, Frederick Alden.
Mr. Bement
is a Republican in politics. In 1904 he
became a member of the Society of California Pioneers. He has a pleasant home on Seminary avenue and Walnut street, and is living in comparative
retirement. He is an interesting talker
on topics relating to the pioneer days, and specially
likes to recall how he owned and drove in the first buggy seen on the streets
of San Francisco. Since then he has
watched the metropolis rear its giant industries and send its tentacles of
trade into the remote corners of the earth, while he himself has been
accomplishing in an equally worthy direction, upbuilding and maintaining a high
standard of stock-raising, one of the greatest industries of the west.
[Inserted by D. Toole]
1906
Jul 27, Oakland Tribune, P11, Oakland, California
Pioneer
Resident Dies at His Home
George Bement,
a resident of California in the days of ’49, died this morning at his home on
Seminary avenue, from a complication of physical
ills. He had been ill for some
months. He was surrounded by the
immediate members of his family including his wife and four children. George Bement has
for many years been recognized as one of the foremost scientific agriculturists
of California. His operations have been
very extensive. They date almost from
the day of his arrival in California in 1848.
In the intervening years, he has farmed in San Mateo county,
in Napa valley, in Contra Costs county, and lastly near Fruitvale. His second wife survives Mr. Bement. He also leaves
five children, one of whom lives in New York.
Arrangements for the funeral have not yet been perfected.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California
by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 958-961. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Donna Toole.
Contra Costa County Biographies