San Francisco County
Biographies
ROBERT F. OSBORN
ROBERT
F. OSBORN, one of San Francisco’s respected business men and founder of the
hardware business of R. F. Osborn & Company, is a native of New York city, and dates his birth October 28,
1839. His forefathers came from England to America during the colonial
days and were participants in the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, Elnathan
Osborn, and his father, Homer B. Osborn, were both natives of New York. His father, a merchant of that city, married
Sarah Folger, also a native of New York. She was of Quaker ancestry and a relative of
Benjamin Franklin. Robert F. was the
second born in their family of eight children, all of whom are still living. He received excellent educational advantages
and is a graduate of the Wesleyan University of Middletown, Connecticut.
Mr.
Osborn’s father had come to this coast in 1850, and in 1856, at the age of
seventeen, his son followed him. Before
he was twenty years old he was employed as cashier of a business firm of Sacramento, and as soon as he had
accumulated money enough from his salary he came to San Francisco. In 1864 he started his present hardware
business, which he has conducted successfully for the past twenty-eight years,
his establishment being both wholesale and retail. Some of his surplus funds he has invested in
city property and in lands in Colusa and Santa Clara counties. He has interested himself in and been
connected with several of the financial enterprises of the city; is a director
and vice-president of the Union Iron Association, the oldest and most
prosperous in the city. He is a member
of the Masonic fraternity, and in politics has been a Republican since the
organization of that party.
Mr.
Osborn married Miss Alvina Anthony, a native of New York city, and to them have been born a son and three
daughters, all in California. The son, Frederick, is engaged in business
with his father, and is represented in the firm name by the “& Co.” They have a fine residence in San Francisco and also one in Santa Clara, where they reside,
alternating from one to the other in winter and summer.
Transcribed by Donna L. Becker
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2,
page 676, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Donna L.
Becker.
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