GEORGE WHITNEY VAN VORST
George Whitney Van Vorst was one of the representative young business men in the City of San Francisco, where he died at the age of thirty-four years. A man of ability and sterling character, he gained secure place in popular confidence and esteem and was successful in his activities in the stock-brokerage business, in which he was here connected with the Bernhard-Mattress Company, of which his father-in-law was the executive head. His death occurred in the year 1895, and a tribute to his memory properly finds place in this publication.
Mr. Van Vorst was born in Clinton, Iowa, October 11, 1860, a date that
indicates fully that his parents, James and Cynthia (Bowen) Van Vorst, were
pioneer settlers in that section of the Hawkeye State. The Van Vorst
family lineage traces back to staunch Holland Dutch origin, as the name
indicates, and representatives of the family were early settlers in the State
of New York, where the name has been one of prominence and influence during many
generations. Mr. Van Vorst was the eldest in a family of three children,
the other two being Charles, a resident of Los Angeles, and Ella, likewise a
resident of California.
Mr. Van Vorst was reared and educated in Iowa and came to California in 1886, when
a young man of twenty-five years. He remained for a time in Los Angeles
and then came to San Francisco and became associated with the well known
brokerage concern of the Bernhard-Mattress Company, with which he continued his
alliance until his untimely death.
In the year 1888 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Van Vorst and Miss Carrie
Bernhard, who was born in Monticello, Florida, and who was a child at the time
of the family removal to California. Mrs. Van Vorst is a daughter of the
late Joseph Bernhard, who became one of the early and leading stock brokers in
the City of San Francisco and who was here president of the Bernhard-Mattress
Company at the time of his death, he having specialized in the handling of
mining stocks and having amassed a substantial fortune after coming to
California. Mrs. Van Vorst still maintains her home in San Francisco, at
1806 Vallejo Street, and with her remains her younger daughter, Lillian.
The elder daughter, Adelia, is the wife of C. M. Redfern, who is a geologist of
marked ability and who is in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company, in a professional way. Mrs. Van Vorst and her two daughters are
communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Transcribed
by Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The San
Francisco Bay Region" by Bailey Millard Vol. 3 page 116-119. Published by The
American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.