Santa
Clara County
Biographies
GEORGE LINCOLN BEAVER
The increasing tendency of the men of today to
return to the soil, and in its cultivation find that temperate mental and
financial satisfaction denied to dwellers in cities, finds emphatic
confirmation, more especially in the western country, where grateful sunshine
and infinite possibilities of verdant growth lure the scholar and laborer with
equal persistency. Here and there along the coast in Santa Clara, as elsewhere,
are men devoting their energies to soil production who are as familiar with
their Greek lexicons as with the scant mathematics required to market their
products. One of these is George Lincoln Beaver, whose brightest memories are
centered around his college days at Yale, and who
remembers as if it were yesterday, the day of his graduation in 1874, at the
famous old seat of learning in New Haven, Conn. Those were times of excessive
activity, and while not neglecting the mental training for which the
institution was renowned, the student of that year recall with zest their
delight in athletics, which were effective in laying a solid physical
foundation for the labor of after years. He was a member of the Delta Kappa
Epsilon fraternity, and in 1875, was one of three to help start the chapter in
Berkeley, Cal., being the only one living now of its founders.
Mr. Beaver is a native son of
California, and was born in San Francisco, February 10, 1854, being the oldest
son of George and Mary Beaver. His family ranks with those of early colonial days
who helped to sound the trumpet of civilization, and owes its representation in
Chester county, Pa., to the paternal great-great-grandfather George, who came
from his ancestral home in Alsace-Lorraine, at that time undisputed French
territory. His son George, the next in line of succession, carried his musket
in the Revolutionary war, and was one of the first to enlist in “Mad Anthony’s
Regiment” under command of Captain Church. He was a farmer and also a
clergyman, and his son David, the grandfather of George Lincoln, engaged in
agricultural pursuits also. George Washington Beaver, his father, was born in
Franklin county, Pa., July 20, 1825, and forsaking the
ways of his fathers engaged early in life in the mercantile pursuits. He was
identified with the early commercial business of San Francisco as a member of
the firm of James Patrick & Co. He was public spirited and enterprising and
his energy finding new fields of activity he became a recognized capitalist and
promoter of the interests of San Francisco. He was one of the founders of the
Oakland Cotton Mills and was early interested in the Spring Valley Water
company, (sic) being its honored vice-president for many years. During the
latter years of his life he was identified with various insurance and mining
enterprises. He died May 6, 1900, universally beloved and respected.
Mr. Beaver graduated from the San
Francisco High School in 1869, and the following year entered Yale College for
the academic course, receiving his degree in 1874. He studied law with Jarboe & Harrison of San Francisco, and was admitted to
the bar of California in 1877. In 1881 he established himself upon his present
fruit farm, formerly the property of Mr. John Messersmith.
For some time he experimented with the various fruits grown in this climate and
elsewhere with respect to their desirability as marketable products, and
finally decided upon prunes and apricots, principally, with some pears and
cherries. He brings to bear upon his interesting work a considerable amount of
research and experience and ranks with the most successful and progressive
fruit growers in the county of Santa Clara. Mr. Beaver is allied by marriage
with one of the pioneer families of Santa Clara valley, his wife, formerly Miss
Ella L. Lovell, being a daughter of Ira Joseph Lovell, who was born in Kentucky
and crossed the plains with horse teams in 1852, locating on his farm near
Campbell, where the rest of his life was spent. The Beaver home is enlivened by
the presence of three interesting children, George Lovell, Mary Ann and
Mildred. Mr. Beaver is a Republican in politics. In manner he is extremely
quiet and retiring.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1291-1292. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.