Sacramento County
Biographies
GEORGE A. BROCK
G.
A. BROCK.--Forty-five years ago, G. A. Brock located in Nevada
County, Cal., where
he taught school for eleven years; then he removed to Stanislaus
County and taught for seven years, after which,
for seven years, he taught in Contra Costa
County. In November, 1903, he settled on his present
property, located on Fourteenth Avenue
and Sixty-fifth Street, Sacramento. Here he is engaged in the poultry business,
and at the present time has a flock of 2,000 hens and a four-incubator
hatchery, from which he supplies young chicks throughout the county. He was born near Mansonville, Quebec, East
Canada, July 3, 1854, the eldest son
of Alexander and Elizabeth (Taylor) Brock, both natives of
Canada, born in
1829 and 1831 respectively. G. A. Brock
was reared on his father’s farm; his father was also engaged in the dry-goods
business in Waterloo and Mansonville,
and was the owner of a large farm in Broom County,
a portion of which was in Vermont. Four sons and four daughters were reared on
the shores of Memphrimagog
Lake, then a sparsely settled
region, but now a favorite summer resort.
G.
A. Brock remained at home until he was nineteen years of age; then went to Bolton
as a teacher, where he remained for three years. Removing then to Council
Bluffs, Iowa, he there taught
for one year. In 1878 he came West to California,
and taught school for four years at Spenceville, another four years on “Rough
‘n’ Ready,” two years at Indian Springs and one year at Old Columbia Hill. In 1889 Mr. Brock removed to Modesto,
where he remained for seven years as principal of the Modesto
grammar school and also served on the board of education. In 1896 he removed to Martinez
and became the principal of the grammar school at that place and was also a
member of the board of education.
Meantime, in 1887, he had purchased his present home place of twenty acres
near Sacramento, which as since
been taken into the city limits.
On
June 23, 1890, Mr. Brock was married to Miss Lizzie Walker, a daughter of
William Walker, a native of Iowa who came to California
in 1849; he returned to Iowa and enlisted and served as
a first lieutenant in Iowa’s
volunteers. In 1874, he brought his
family of seven children to California and settled in Nevada
County; he was prominent as justice
of the peace at Spenceville and lived to be seventy-four years old. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Brock. Earle A. is a graduate of the University
of California, class of 1915, and
took a postgraduate course the following year.
In 1917 he received the degree of C.S.E. at Ann Arbor,
Mich., and the same year enlisted for service to his
country, serving as a first lieutenant at Edgewood arsenal as a chemist and
inspector in the manufacture of deadly gases, and was in charge of construction
of the chlorine plant at Charleston,
S. C. He married Miss Katherine N. Risser of Lebanon, Pa. Evelyn A. is at home with her parents. In 1903 Mr. Brock and his family located at
their present home, where he has made a decided success of the poultry
business. For the past twenty-five
years, Mr. Brock has been a member of the W. O. W. Lodge at Martinez;
he is also a member of the Blue Lodge of Masons of Georgeville, Canada. In 1882 he received his United
States citizenship and has since voted the
Republican ticket.
Transcribed by Barbara Gaffney.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 703-704. Historic Record Company, Los
Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Barbara Gaffney.