San Francisco County
Biographies
WILLIAM
GRIFFITH HENSHAW
William Griffith Henshaw, American banker, business executive, realtor and public utilities organizer, was born in Ottawa, Illinois, March 28, 1860, and died in San Francisco, California, March 2, 1924, the son of Edward Henshaw and of Sarah Edwards (Tyler) Henshaw. Edward Carrington Henshaw served in the Union Army throughout the Civil war, dying in service at its close; his widow, left with four children, remained in the east until 1873, when, with her three younger children, she removed to California, rejoining the eldest son, who had gone there some time earlier. The family home was then established at Oakland, California.
This branch of the Henshaw family was established in America by Joshua Henshaw, who died in 1719; while on his mother’s side the family of William Griffith Henshaw descends from Jonathan Edwards and Daniel Tyler. Daniel Tyler was married to a daughter of General Isaac Putnam and served on his staff, being his adjutant at the battle of Bunker Hill. On both sides of the family Mr. Henshaw’s forbears carry the tradition of military service, participating in the various wars in which the country engaged, and establishing as a birthright a high conception of patriotic and civic duty.
William Griffith Henshaw as a young boy attended the schools of his native state, and at the age of thirteen years accompanied his family to the new home in California. He was thereafter a student in the schools of Oakland, and was graduated from the high school there.
Mr. Henshaw began his business career soon after finishing high school, and for several years devoted himself to the real estate field. He early evidenced exceptional business ability, achieving from the outset a success that foreshadowed the remarkable career he was to follow. As his increasing means warranted he gradually extended his operations beyond the limits of the realty business, engaging in various enterprises closely associated with the growth and development of California. In addition to his activity in the erection of improved business blocks and the handling of important sales of land, he founded a company for the manufacture of a superior quality of illuminating gas and also was instrumental in the establishment of an additional ferry system between Oakland and San Francisco. He likewise was an organizer and for many years was president of the Union Savings Bank building he inaugurated the reign of skyscraper buildings in Oakland. Another of his business ventures was the financing, building and operating of a cement plant at Napa, California, this being followed by the construction and operation of the Riverside Portland Cement plant; while he was as well one of the organizers of the San Juan Cement Company. Among his other undertakings may be mentioned oil, salt and mining.
The crowning achievement of his career was perhaps his accomplishment in the fields of irrigation and water supply. He purchased in 1911 Warner’s Ranch, a famous tract of land in southern California. There he proceeded to build one of the most important irrigation systems in California, designed for the supply of a large and semi-arid area in San Diego county. The principal unit of this system is a reservoir fed by mountain water, which was constructed at Warner’s Ranch and which is known as Lake Henshaw, a beautiful and fitting memorial to the man whose creative imagination brought it into being.
Mr. Henshaw’s career was particularly notable because of its unbroken series of successes. In the record of his life there stands no business failure, giving him a reputation of both rare and enviable. This happy outcome of his various ventures, however, may be ascribed to his exceptional business sagacity, his brilliancy of mind and a judgment that was both practical and imaginative, as well as to favoring fortune. To his business projects in general he brought a fine enthusiasm founded upon a well reasoned decision, invariably backing his undertakings to the limit of his strength, and, in general consensus of opinion, fully earning the great success that came to him. And in no particular was it more gratifying to him than in its relation to the development of the state of his adoption and the upbuilding of the great commonwealth that is one of the wonder spots of the world. His public service was ever in line with the high ideal of devotion to the country that was his heritage.
He was married at Oakland, California, to Hetty Tubbs, daughter of Hiram Tubbs. Of this union there were born three children, a son and two daughters, whose names follow: Alla Henshaw; Florence Henshaw; and William Griffith Henshaw, Jr. The family residence is at Piedmont, California.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 243-245.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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