GEORGE A. MCGOWAN

George A. McGowan is a native son and for over a quarter of a century has been successfully identified with the legal profession in San Francisco.  He is a former member of the Legislature, and had a prominent part in the reconstruction days of San Francisco following the great fire.

     Mr. McGowan, whose address is 550 Montgomery Street, was born at Arcata in Humboldt County, California, March 30, 1877.  His father, P. Henry McGowan, was born in New York, came to California in 1870 and was widely known in the newspaper profession.  He was a partner in the Stock Recorder, published during the height of the Comstock mining boom.  He published a paper in San Mateo during the '70s, and for some years was business manager of the San Francisco Evening Post.  During 1882 he was connected with the Treasury Department at Washington and his activities and interests made him a man of more than local prominence.  P. Henry McGowan married Martha J. Whaley, who was born in California, her father, John A. Whaley, being one of the pioneers of the state.

     George A. McGowan attended public schools in Humboldt County and was still a boy when he took up the study of law in the offices of Henry E. Heighton at San Francisco.  On December 29, 1897, before attaining his twenty-first birthday he was admitted to practice.  Through all the years since then he has been an active member of the San Francisco bar.  His practice has been largely in that class of litigation handled before the Federal American Bar associations.

     Mr. McGowan was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1905.  As chairman of the San Francisco delegation he had prominent responsibilities in the special session, handling the reconstruction legislation after the disaster of 1906.  He also acted as chairman of the Republican County Convention of 1905.  Mr. McGowan is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity in San Francisco and is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West.

     He married, March 12, 1898, Anna E. Abercrombie.  She was born  in Los Angeles.  Her father, the late William A. Ellis, was a Federal soldier during the Civil war, took an active part in mining and banking during the boom at Leadville, Colorado, and for many years was connected with the hide and tallow business in Southern California.

 

Transcribed 8-9-2004  Marilyn R. Pankey