San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE MASON BANCROFT
An energetic citizen of Woodbridge,
to whom the community is much indebted, particularly for its fine new
schoolhouse, which was built under his supervision as clerk of the school board,
is George Mason Bancroft, who was born in Caledonia County, Vermont, on
September 23, 1876. The family of his
father, Parker Bancroft, dates back to Colonial days, the great historian,
George Bancroft, being a cousin. Parker
Bancroft married Miss Mary Ann Morrison, whose family is associated with some
of the most interesting annals of Maine.
He was a merchant, who died while they were living in New Hampshire,
when George was only three years old, and as Mrs. Bancroft also passed away
there, the lad had to get his education as best he could. At first he worked on farms in Vermont and
New Hampshire and later took work at the Groton, Vermont, mills. In 1899 he came to California and to
Acampo. Near there he labored for awhile
as a ranch hand; and then going to San Francisco, took a job with the Southern
Pacific Railroad Company in the maintenance of way department covering the line
from Ashland, Oregon, to El Paso, Texas, on all parts of the Western
Division. He spent twenty-three years
with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.
Notwithstanding these necessary
migrations and temporary residences elsewhere, Mr. Bancroft has always made his
home at Woodbridge since he came here. In 1903 he bought a vineyard of fifteen
acres, and later acquired a vineyard of twenty acres south of Woodbridge, both
of which are finely irrigated.
At Woodbridge on June 15, 1902, Mr.
Bancroft was married to Miss Flora May Shinn, a native of that town, and the
daughter of H. D. and Anna Shinn. Her
father was an honored pioneer of the state.
Mrs. Bancroft completed her education at the San Joaquin Valley College,
where she was a proficient student.
Three children have blessed their union:
Raymond Ellwood, now aged eighteen; Elizabeth,
aged thirteen; and Clarence, aged ten.
Mr. Bancroft is a Republican in matters of national political
import. He is at present clerk of the
school board of the Woodbridge district, and has had direct supervision of the
building of the new school, at a cost of about $60,000, designed to accommodate
200 or more pupils. It is modern in
every respect, and will be thoroughly up-to-date in its equipment. Mr. Bancroft is a Mason, belonging to the
Woodbridge Lodge, and is also a member of the Odd Fellow Lodge and Encampment
at Lodi, and has gone through all the chairs of the lodge. Mrs. Bancroft shares her husband’s
popularity; and they are untiring in their efforts to better the social life of
their community.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1528-1529. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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