San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE WILLIS
For fifty-three years George Willis
has been numbered among the citizens of Stockton, fifty years of this time
having been spent as chief engineer for the Wagner Leather Company. He came west and settled in Stockton in 1869,
when a young man and has progressed to his present prosperity mainly by
reliance on his own efforts, and is therefore regarded among his neighbors and
friends with that peculiar esteem always bestowed upon those who achieve their
own welfare and success. He was born in
Durham County, England, April 5, 1840, where at ten years of age he began
driving a horse in the coal mines; later he was engineer in the same mine; he
also worked on the hoists, taking the coal from the mines by cable. In 1867 he left England for America locating
first in Ohio; the following year he removed to Omaha, Nebraska, where he fired
on a locomotive during the building of the Union Pacific railroad for a short
time, then to Salt Lake city where he became engineer
in the Wyoming carbon coal mines.
Coming to California, he arrived in
Stockton in 1869 and worked as a carpenter with the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company, building water tanks and culverts between Stockton and Oakland. In the spring of 1870, he entered the employ
of the Wagner Leather Company where he work uninterruptedly for fifty years and
is now living retired on a pension granted by this company for his efficient
service during those years. When he
began to work for the company, twenty men were employed and Mr. Willis worked
as fireman and engineer; at one time he was sent to Humboldt County where he
worked in the extract plant of the company.
His years of service and valuable knowledge of the business made him an
expert in his line and the appreciation of the company for which he worked so
long and faithfully was shown in a substantial manner.
Mr. Willis’ first marriage united
him with Miss Hannah Sutherland, a native of England, who passed away in
Stockton. His second marriage united him
with Miss Mary Blackburn, who was brought to Stockton by Mr. Willis when she
was eight years old and received her education in that city. Three children were born to them: Evelyn, now Mrs. Harry Swift and they have
one daughter, Betty; Hattie is the wife of John McAdams and they have two
children, John W. and Frances, and they reside in Alameda; George B. is in the
employ of the Stockton street railway, and was in the Navy, stationed on the
South Dakota, conveying troops during the World War. In the early days of Stockton the slough came
up to the Wagner Leather Company’s plant by reason of the fact that Mr. Willis
built a dam to bring the water to proper height, and schooners came through the
drawbridge loaded with tan bark; as many as three at one time have been taken
through by Mr. Willis. Mr. Willis is a man
of genuine worth, and all with whom he has come in contact entertain for him
high regard.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
496. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases