Sacramento County
Biographies
GEORGE F.
POWELL
GEORGE F. POWELL.--A representative and successful business man, who did his part nobly in the upbuilding of the city of Sacramento was the late George F. Powell, a prominent manufacturing jeweler. Mr. Powell’s birth occurred in Milroy, Rush County, Ind., August 21, 1870, a son of Thomas and Margaret (Reiff) Powell, natives of Tennessee and Kentucky respectively, who removed to Milroy, Rush County, Ind., after their marriage. When George F was one year old the family removed to Rushville, the same state, and there he attended school. When fourteen years of age George removed to Fort Scott, Kan., and there began the jewelry business with his older brother, William R., as Powell Bros. After many years of successful business, George F. sold his interest and removed to Mena, Ark., where he also followed the jewelry business, continuing until 1906, when he removed to California and located in Sacramento and established the jewelry firm of Powell, McKee & Company on K Street. This business was conducted for about ten years, when Mr. Powell took over the business, continuing in the old location until the Forum Building was completed. Then he took up his location in that building and engaged as a manufacturer and retail jeweler, meeting with deserved success until the time of his passing in October, 1920.
Mr. Powell was a man of artistic taste and was original in his ideas and designs. His manufactured product was highly appreciated and popular. His specialty was Masonic and Elk charms and emblems, but he also manufactured all kinds of jewelry. His Elk emblems were very fine. They were made from elk’s teeth secured from an Indian trader in South Dakota, and they were sold all over the United States.
Mrs. Powell was in maidenhood Miss Alice Faber, her marriage to Mr. Powell occurring in Sacramento, April 7, 1916. She was born in Portland, Ore., but reared in Stockton, Cal. Since her husband’s death Mrs. Powell assumed the management of the business he left her and continues manufacturing, a business she learned under the preceptorship of Mr. Powell, and with the same ability carries out his plans and ambitions. Mr. Powell was a Democrat politically, and fraternally was prominent as a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, as well as a popular member of the Elks.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Page 894.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.