Santa Clara County
Biographies
GEORGE ELMER REA
Young in years, vigorous in body, strong and resourceful in mind, and determined in purpose, George Elmer Rea, represents the type of men to whom the west looks for the shaping of her future, no less than to the preservation of her prestige of the present. In partnership with George T. Dunlap, also represented in this work, Mr. Rea is conducting one of the largest stock enterprises in Santa Clara county, under the firm name of the Coyote Cattle Company, and at the same time operating a meat market in Gilroy, in which town he is making his home, and where he was born May 20, 1862. He comes of one of the pioneer families of the state, and one identified with the earliest, as well as later mercantile interests in Gilroy. As a boy he attended the public schools, and at the age of nineteen years purchased a half interest in the store called the Grocers’ Union, at that time the largest store of its kind in the town. Of freedom loving, generous, and frank nature, and rebelling at the close confinement incident to a mercantile life, he shifted his energies into the more physically active dairy business, conducting the same for fourteen years. He then became identified with the Coyote Cattle Company, which has since developed into large proportions, and is representative of what may be accomplished when good management and understanding are at the helm of this important industry. The company manage twenty thousand acres in the foothills near Gilroy, and if the past is any indication of the business prowess of these two popular stock men, the near future will witness material increase in their stock-raising capacity and in their influence upon this line of activity in Santa Clara county.
As a Republican, Mr. Rea takes an active interest in local and state politics, and fraternally is popular, prominent, and enthusiastic. He is a member of Blue Lodge No. 167, F. & A. M. of Gilroy, Chapter No. 68, of Hollister, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Hollister, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Gilroy, the Druids, the Independent Order of Foresters, and the National Union of San Francisco, of which he is a charter member. He was united in marriage with Mary Lee Tully, in Gilroy, a native of this city, and daughter of Congressman P. B. Tully, a pioneer of 1849, and a native of Tennessee. Mr. Rea has been supervisor of his district for three successive terms. He finds time to actively promote several business and other enterprises of the town and county, and in July, 1902, was one of the incorporators, of the South Santa Clara Fruit Drying Company, of which he is a director, and which is accomplishing efficient work in the fruit drying business. Mr. Rea is what is commonly called a hustler, a man of action and determination, and one in whom his friends see vigorous material for future effort. His mental endowments are borne out in his physical stature, which is over six feet, and splendidly proportioned. He radiates success, inspires to worthy action, and by his optimism and good cheer makes the world a better and brighter place in which to live. Unquestionably he is one of the most resourceful and promising of the younger generation of business men of this county.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1326. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Joyce Rugeroni.