Los Angeles County
Biographies
GEORGE H. BIXBY
BIXBY, GEORGE H.,
Banking, Long Beach, California, is a native of that state, having been born on
Independence Day, 1864, at San Juan Bautista, San Benito County. He is the oldest son of Jotham
Bixby, the famous Southern California pioneer and
settler, and Margaret (Hathaway) Bixby.
His mother’s father, the Reverend George W. Hathaway of Skowhegan,
Me., was a graduate of Williams
College and of the Andover Theological Seminary
and served through the Civil War as chaplain of one of the Maine
regiments.
Mr. Hathaway
traced in direct descent to Governor William Bradford, who came over in the
Mayflower and was the first Governor of Plymouth Colony, and to Kenelm Winslow, a brother of Edward Winslow, the second
Governor of the colony. On his father’s
side, Mr. Bixby traces, as do probably all the families of that name scattered
in various parts of the country, to Joseph Bixby, who came over from England in
the early Puritan immigration and settled in Massachusetts, from which state
his descendants kept pushing out to the frontier in many directions.
This branch of
the family settled in Maine, and Mr. Jotham
Bixby’s maternal grandfather, named Weston, was one of the sturdy Maine
woodsmen-farmers who lost their lives in the service of their country in the
first year of the Revolutionary War, while guiding through those pathless
northern forests the ill-fated expedition of General Benedict Arnold against Quebec.
Mr. Bixby married
in Los Angeles, on August 31, 1887, Amelia M. E. Andrews,
a native of Toronto, Canada,
and a daughter of Joshua and Dinah Elizabeth Andrews, well-known old-time
residents of the Los Nietos Valley. As a result of this marriage there are now
surviving six children, Richard A., Philip L., Margaret W., Barbara L., David
W. and Stephen L. Bixby.
Mr. Bixby was
educated in the preparatory schools of Oakland,
California.
After graduating from the Sackett
School in that city he entered Yale
University, where he graduated with
the degree of B. A. in 1886. In college
he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
On returning to Long
Beach from the East, he immediately took up part of
his father’s interests at that place, becoming secretary of the Alamitos Land Company.
For several years he remained in this position, studying the business
conditions of that vicinity and acquainting himself with his father’s extended
properties and holdings. About the year
1901 he was appointed Vice President and Manager of the Bixby Land Company and
of the Palos Verdes land Company, his father retaining the presidency of these
corporations, but looking to his son to assist him in the management of them.
From that time
down to date he has had his time well employed in managing and directing the
various companies in which he holds office and in working for the development
of the Long Beach community in
general.
He is a director
of the Los Angeles Dock and Terminal Company, developing the Long
Beach Inner Harbor;
director of the Seaside Investment Company, owning and operating the Hotel
Virginia; director of the Wall Company Department Store; director Long Beach
Dairy Company and other local corporations.
He is also vice president of the National Bank of Long
Beach, and president of the Long Beach Savings Bank
& Trust Company, a substantial and growing institution.
As an owner of
extensive land holdings throughout the Southwest, Mr. Bixby has been in a
position to understand the alignment and condition of roads in Southern
California.
He was chairman
of the Los Angeles County Highway Commission up to August, 1911, having served
as Highway Commissioner for four years.
During this time he has been occupied in studying the highway conditions
of the county, in touring over the boulevards in the interests of his position
and in laying plans for new improvements in this direction.
Since retiring at
the end of his second term in this office, he is devoting his time to his
banking, real estate, ranching and other interests in Long
Beach and to the upbuilding
of his city, his work in this direction placing him in the forefront of civic
factors.
He is a member of
the California Club in Los Angeles, the Virginia Country
Club at Long Beach, as well as
being an honorary member of the El Rodeo Club in the latter city.
Transcribed 5-15-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 9,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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