San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE E. GAYLORD
As superintendent of the Stockton
division of the Southern Pacific Railroad, George E. Gaylord has demonstrated
his ability as an executive and has gained the good will and esteem of all with
whom he comes in contact. A native of
Ohio, he was born on a farm in Delaware County.
His ancestors settled in Ohio being among the very first white people
who located on the Western Reserve near Upper Sandusky, later moving to the
Delaware Indian Nation, which became Delaware County, and here his father and
grandfather were also born, when the establishment of a home was accompanied by
many hardships and privations. Nothing
daunted, however, they made the best of the opportunity and did their part to
blaze the way for the future civilization.
Having become used to pioneering the family moved to Red Oak, Montgomery
County, Iowa, when George E. was a lad of seven, and it was in this western
environment that he received his early education and grew up until he was
sixteen.
The building of a railroad and its
operation has a certain fascination for the boys of every generation, and
George E. Gaylord was of the usual character, and at the age of sixteen began
working for the Chicago and Northwestern as a clerk in the office of the
storekeeper when the road was making extensions through Illinois. Later he decided he would go into the train
service and he began as a fireman with that road, running out of Fremont, Nebraska,
running through Iowa and Nebraska. He
next was in the employ of the Union Pacific as a brakeman on the Rawlins and
Green River division in Wyoming.
In 1888 he came to California and
entered the employ of the Southern Pacific as a freight brakeman on their
Western division, later was advanced to be a conductor and ran out of
Oakland. During this time he ran the
first train out of Mendota when the West Side line was completed. For eight years he was depot master at
Oakland Pier, then he took up the duties of train master at the Oakland terminal
and has seen the growth of that terminal from ten engines to over half a
hundred now required to do the work at this important
terminal.
On June 1, 1916, Mr. Gaylord was
promoted to be assistant superintendent of the Western division at Oakland Pier,
and on the first of September, 1918, he became superintendent of the Stockton
division, his jurisdiction covering 500 miles of track from Tracy to Fresno on
the east and west sides of the San Joaquin Valley to Sacramento, California,
including the Amador, Valley Springs and Merced branches. Mr. Gaylord has made a study of railroading
in every department and is considered one of the most capable men in the employ
of the Southern Pacific at this time and has well merited the advancement he
has made.
The marriage of Mr. Gaylord united
him with Miss Eva L. Hubbard, a native daughter of California, born in San
Francisco, and a woman of many accomplishments.
They have one son, Charles E. Gaylord, a conductor in the employ of the
Southern Pacific on the Western division.
Mr. Gaylord is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner,
holding membership in Aahmes Temple at Oakland; he belongs to the Knights of
Pythias and the Woodmen of the World; and is also a member of the National
Association of Railroad Superintendents, the Pacific Coast Railway Club of San
Francisco, the Athenian Club of Oakland and the Stockton Chamber of
Commerce. While pursuing his duties he
has taken a very active part in promoting the best interests of the road over
which he has supervision as well as in furthering the growth and development of
San Joaquin County, and in the December, 1920 issue of the Southern Pacific
Bulletin, published by the railroad company appears a splendid article from the
pen of Mr. Gaylord setting forth the advantages of this region.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1597-1598. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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