San Francisco County
George C. Gorham
George C. Gorham, of San Francisco, was born in Greenpoint, Long Island, July 5, 1832. His ancestors were from New England, and he attended school there, and when only seventeen years of age he came to California, arriving in San Francisco in December, 1849. Mr. Gorham first began the study of law, entering the office of Stephen J. Field, at Marysville, where he pursued his legal studies. In 1853 he went to Connecticut, but returned to this State in 1854, where he engaged in journalism at Marysville. At the outbreak of the war he was editor of the Sacramento Union, and held that position until the election of Governor Low, when he accepted the position of private secretary. After one year he was appointed Clerk of the United States Circuit and District Courts of California, but resigned that office after being nominated for Governor in 1867. Mr. Gorham went to Washington in the summer of 1868, where he was elected Secretary of the United States Senate, and held that office until the Democratic party attained the majority in the Senate. He again entered journalism, and was later editor of the National Republican for several years, and since that time has been engaged in literary work. Among other works he is engaged in the preparation of the Life of Edwin M. Stanton, the great War Secretary, and also of his “Reminiscences of Early Days in California.”
Mr. Gorham was married in Connecticut in 1853, to Miss Hills, of Lowell, Massachusetts, who died in 1875, leaving six children, four sons and two daughters. The sons are all in the legal profession; two in Seattle, one in New York and one in this city. One daughter resides in California, and one in Washington.
George C., a son of the above, was born in Connecticut in 1854. His boyhood was spent in California, and he attended the public schools of this city until thirteen years of age, when he went East to New England and attended the high school at Dorchester. He then entered the Columbian University at Washington, District of Columbia, taking the degree of B. L. at the Law Department of that University. He was admitted to the bar at Washington before reaching his majority, and upon the completion of his legal course he determined to come to California in 1876, where he has since been successfully engaged in his profession.
Transcribed
by Joyce and David Rugeroni.
Source: “The Bay of
San Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 378-379, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Joyce & David
Rugeroni.