San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE B. McCUEN
A retired house painter, who has
worked hard and lived frugally and thereby gained independence, is George B.
McCuen, residing at 929 East Channel Street, Stockton. He was born in New York, August 14, 1864,
being a son of Lewis McCuen, who was born in Canada, September 29, 1838, and
later came to New York, where he farmed in St. Lawrence County. There, some time before the Civil War, he was
married to Miss Harriet N. Poor and three children were born to them: George B. of this sketch; Minnie died in
Stockton; Theron R., an employee of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company,
resides at Ione, California. Lewis
McCuen served in Company A, 60th regiment,
New York Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and when his son, George B.,
was a boy of eight years he removed from their St. Lawrence County farm to
Potsdam, New York. Lewis McCuen brought
his family from New York to California in 1888, coming direct to Stockton,
where he has since made his home and where he is a prominent member of the G.
A. R. Mrs. McCuen passed away at the family
home in March, 1907, aged sixty-seven years.
George B. McCuen attended the public
schools of Norwood, New York, where the family resided until he was nineteen
years old, when he left for California, arriving in Stockton June 19, 1884, and
took up the trade of house painting, having done journeyman’s work; also
engaged as a painting contractor. At
Stockton, on June 20, 1888, he was married to Miss May L. Tinkham, the daughter
of Wallace and Angela S. (Marsh) Tinkham, pioneers of Stockton, Mrs. McCuen
being a cousin of George H. Tinkham, the historian. She is a native daughter,
born in Stockton and here she grew up and received her education. Her father, Wallace Tinkham, was born at
North Pomfret, Vermont, August 9, 1828, and settled
in Stockton in the early ‘60s and was a pioneer painting contractor here. He was married at Woodstock, Vermont, May 17,
1860, to Miss Angela S. Marsh, also a native of Vermont. He came out to California the first time via
Panama in the late ‘50s, then went back to Vermont and married and brought his
wife out to Stockton. He had learned the
painter’s trade in Vermont, before coming to California. After coming to California he was engaged in
the butcher business with his brother, Henry Tinkham, and later engaged in the
house painting business. Two children
were born to this pioneer couple: Arthur
M., born in Stockton, September 15, 1861, and died February 23, 1879, being
killed in the explosion of a steam boiler at the head of the channel; Mrs.
McCuen was their only daughter. Both
parents are now deceased, Mr. and Mrs. McCuen are the parents of one daughter,
Alice Pearl, now the wife of Grat E. Cannon. For sixteen years Mr. McCuen was associated
with his father-in-law, Wallace Tinkham, in house painting contracting. He joined the Truth Lodge, I. O. O. F.,
Stockton, in 1886, and is past grand of that order; he is also a member of the
Fraternal Brotherhood while Mrs. McCuen is a member of Lebanon Lodge of
Rebekahs of Stockton and is an attendant at the Presbyterian Church. Both Mr. and Mrs. McCuen are consistent
Republicans.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1240. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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