George W. Brooks was founder of the reorganized California Insurance Company in 1905, was its secretary and manager for seventeen years and is now its president. Mr. Brooks is a native son of California, member of a prominent pioneer family, has had a successful business career, but is especially proud of the fact that he is executive head of a company that justified and reflected credit upon the name of this great state by the courageous and self-sacrificing attitude the directors took after the great fire of 1906 when the company immediately resolved and subsequently carried out the resolution to pay the obligations of the company in full, dollar for dollar.
Mr. Brooks was born in San Francisco, June 17, 1863. His father and the
California pioneer was Henry Benjamin Brooks, a lineal descendant of Gen. John
Brooks, a prominent soldier in the Revolution and one of the early governors of
the State of Massachusetts. Henry B. Brooks was born in New York State,
and came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama in the spring of
1850. After a brief trial at mining he settled in San Francisco in 1852,
becoming a member of the firm of Tay, Brooks and Backus, wholesale dealers in
metals and plumbing supplies. This firm handled the first importation of
tin plate and pipes to the Pacific coast. H. B. Brooks was one of the
prominent men in early San Francisco, and outside of business was active among
the forces of law and order. He was a member of the famous Vigilante
Committee and a member of the Kearney Committee to suppress the riots.
Henry Benjamin Brooks married Frances Butler, who was born in New Haven,
Connecticut, of Revolutionary stock and English descent. Her father,
Horace Butler, was a pioneer of California and when over seventy years of age
went to China, bringing back the workmen and granite to put up the building at
California and Montgomery streets for Mr. Parrot in 1853. That building
is still standing.
George W. Brooks was educated in the public schools of San Francisco, being a
graduate of the Lincoln Grammar School. At the age of seventeen he
assumed a business career, being for six years employed by Hutchinson &
Mann, and then with the Anglo-Nevada Assurance Corporation, which was owned by
Flood & Mackay. He left the "Anglo" to accept the position
as assistant manager for the Manchester Insurance Company of Manchester,
England and the Caledonian Insurance Company of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The California Insurance Company is the oldest organization of its kind in the
state, the charter having been granted in 1861. However, the business had
been practically dormant for a period of thirteen years until 1905, when Mr.
Brooks and associates revived and reorganized the company. He became its
secretary and manager, a post he held until June, 1922, when he was elected
president.
It was only a few months after this reorganization that the San Francisco
earthquake and fire of April, 1906 occurred. Then in a state of business
paralysis and disorganization unprecedented, the directors of the company a
week after fire unanimously resolved to pay the obligations in full. In
the absence of definite information as to the amount of the indebtedness, this
action of the directors was a magnificent exemplification of nerve and
integrity and a superb testimony reinforcing the axiom that a California man's
word is as good as his bond. Mr. Brooks as the secretary estimated the
obligations at $1,500,000, but in the end the amount exceeded $1,800,000.
These losses were all paid, largely through assessments upon the shares of
stock, the total assessments reaching $305 per share.
Recalling this period of the company's experience, Mr. Brooks recently wrote
under the title of "The Spirit of 1906": "Those were
strenuous times. Times that not along tested the dignity and honor of
men, but rocked them to their very foundation. Only the admittedly honest
and honorable men survived the experiences of those days without blotch upon
their escutcheons. It is naturally to be presumed that the minds of those
who passed through those days of reconstruction recall many deeds of heroism,
of sacrifices made upon the altar of duty. Each has the surmounting of
his individual trials to remember, but amongst all that was done as the result
of the San Francisco conflagration there is, in my opinion, nothing carrying
greater honor of higher integrity than the work and sacrifice of that gallant
band of men who were directors and shareholders of the California Insurance
Company. They were the pioneers and the sons of pioneers who braved the
hardships and terrors of desert and sea - the founders of this great
commonwealth. Incidents and happenings which have passed from public
record will still live in the memory of those who played a part. The
wonderful rehabilitation period, with all that it meant of physical and mental
suffering, but typifies today in concrete, stone and brick the sturdy and
stalwart spirit of those men who were made absolute pioneers by the ash heap of
1906. Some of these have gone to their last accounting, but for those who
are still serving, and still tugging at the oar, there remains but to guard the
heritage which they bequeathed - to bring upon the results of their work a
continuation of their ideals.
"The spirit of 1906, glorified by San Franciscans, which alone made
possible the resurrection from the ashes of that 'city loved around the world,'
sitting serenely upon its seven hills by the portals of the Golden Gate and whose
destiny is oblivious of fire and earthquake, is worthy of more than a passing
tribute. Its example should thrill and encourage those who are inclined
to falter. It is a beacon light to those who are to continue the struggle
with the petty details and the larger duties of everyday life. And among
the contributors none are more to be admired or borne in reverent respect than
the directors, those men who held either large or small investments in the
'California' and were true to their trust." On the basis of such a
record the California Insurance Company stands as one of the strongest today,
its home being one of the magnificent office buildings of San Francisco at 315
Montgomery Street.
Mr. Brooks is also a director of the San Francisco Sureties Corporation.
In 1902 he was president of the Board of Fire Underwriters. He is a
member of the San Francisco Commercial Club, is a republican voter, and is past
master of Oriental Lodge No. 144 of the Masons and a life member of the
California Chapter, Royal Arch Masons.
In 1887 he married Miss Olive E. Harris, a native of Oroville, Butte County,
California. Her father, David D. Harris, crossed the plains in 1849 and
for many years was a wheat raiser at Chico. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks have a
home in San Francisco and also one in Menlo Park. They were the parents
of four children. Loraine is the wife of Fred W.Sperry, whose grandfather
established the Sperry Flour Company, of Stockton, and their two children are
George, Sperry and Willard Staples Sperry. The second daughter, Madeline,
is the wife of Paul Van Etter of Budapest, Hungary. Eveleth is the wife
of S. H. Van Geuns, of Amsterdam, Holland, and has one daughter,
Madeline. The youngest daughter, Miss Frances A. Brooks, is now a student
of art in Paris.
Transcribed
by Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The San
Francisco Bay Region" by Bailey Millard Vol. 3 page 120-122. Published by The
American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.
© 2004 Marilyn R. Pankey