San Francisco County
GEORGE E. De GOLIA
George E. De Golia, attorney-at-law, 957 Broadway, Oakland, was born at Placerville, El Dorado county, California, in 1857. His father was a “forty-niner” from Lake Champlain, New York, a descendant of a family tracing their ancestry back to the twelfth century, and to Piedmont, Italy. His mother, a descendant of the Baldwins, dating their ancestry back to the early English settlers of this country, came “across the plains” to California in 1855, from Ohio. At the age of fourteen years Mr. De Golia was appointed a page in the California Legislature, and saved from the earnings of that position enough to enable him to attend college. At sixteen he entered California University and graduated in 1877, No. 5 in a class of twenty-six, and No. 1 in a specialty, that of civil engineering. For the next year he was engaged in Journalism, becoming a city editor of the Oakland Daily Transcript. While thus engaged he made acquaintance of Hon. Henry Vrooman, who took the office of District Attorney in March, 1878,and Mr. De Golia was his office man from the start, and more or less identified with his work until the death of the later, in April, 1889. At the legislative session of 1880-’81 he was Secretary of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He maintained a law office in Oakland until January, 1883, when he was appointed District Attorney, which position he held six years. In 1889 he stepped into Mr. Vrooman’s law practice, succeeding to a large library, and ever since then he has been engaged exclusively in his profession and with marked success. He has been prominent in politics, being one of the leaders of the “stalwart” element of the Republican party in the county. He holds a captain’s commission in the University Battalion, a branch of the United States service. Is a charter member of the Athenian Club, also a Knight Templar, a member of the Mystic Shrine, Scottish-Rite Masonry, order of Odd Fellows, N.S.G.W. and of which he organized and of which he is the Exalted Ruler. At college and since his connection with it he has been an “all-round” athlete, engaging in base ball, rowing, running, swimming, etc., being a member of the respective clubs. He is a gentleman of strict integrity and of good standing in the community as well as at the bar, and is a popular man in every way.
He was married, in 1883, to Miss Rabe, whose father, Dr. L. Rabe, was a cousin of the famous musical composer, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Mr. and Mrs. De Golia have two children and occupy a nice home in the fifth ward, an aristocratic quarter of the city.
Transcribed by David Rugeroni.
Source: "The
Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Page 229, Lewis
Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2005 David Rugeroni.