ARKANSAS - GEORGE W. HOLBROOK - Bio ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: California and Californians, Vol. Three. Hunt, Rockwell D., ed. Chicago: Lewis Publishing, 1932. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free Information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- George W. Holbrook. The same animating spirit of loyalty and progressiveness that has marked the career of Mr. Holbrook as one of the representative figures in the real-estate business in Southern California has likewise characterized his administration in the office of justice of the peace in his home City of San Bernardino, a position that he has retained since 1927. He is one of the leaders in real estate enterprise in San Bernardino County, and in this field of activity his reputation and his operations have far transcended mere local limitations. Further interest attaches to his success and prestige by reason of the fact that they have been won entirely through his own ability and efforts. Mr. Holbrook was born in Warren County, Iowa, September 20, 1874, a son of George W. and Jennie (Young) Holbrook, the former a native of Appanoose County, Iowa, and the latter of Ohio, she having thence accompanied her parents on their removal to Iowa, prior to the Civil war. George W. Holbrook, Sr., was not only reared and educated in Iowa, where his parents were pioneer settlers, but he also represented the Hawkeye State as a valiant young soldier of the Union in the Civil War, in which he served as a member of the Thirty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry. While on duty with his command in Arkansas he was captured by the enemy, at Marks Mills, and thereafter he was held eleven months and ten days in a Confederate log prison at Tyler, Texas, his exchange having been effected shortly before the close of the war. It was but natural that he should have been an early volunteer for service in the Civil war, for his father had been a stalwart abolitionist in Illinois prior to the family removal to Iowa and assisted negroes to escape bondage through the medium of the historic "underground railroad." It is a matter of record that the Holbrooks, then residents of Southern Iowa, thus aided many slaves to obtain liberty, they having concealed the negroes in an old coal drift until it was possible to send them farther to the North. George W. Holbrook, Sr., engaged in farm enterprise in Iowa after the close of his war service and there he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. They became the parents of nine children, all are living except two. George W. Holbrook, Jr., of this review, was reared on the home farm in Iowa and received the advantages of the schools of his native county until he was a lad of fourteen years, when he severed the home ties and set forth to work out his own fortunes. He went to Oklahoma, where he followed various vocations and where he supplemented his limited education by attending for a time night classes in a business college. There also he learned the printer's trade, which he followed some time, and there he later engaged in the retail grocery business and registered a distinct success. After selling this business he was employed several years in railroad service at Kansas City, Missouri, and in 1907 he came to California and made Redlands, San Bernardino County, his destination. Here he did furnigating service for the county, later was in the employ of the street railway company, and he served two and one-half years as county jailer, under the administration of Sheriff McMinn. In the World war period he was employed by a copper mining company at Miami, Arizona, and in 1919 he engaged in the real estate and insurance business in San Bernardino, where he has since maintained his home and where he has developed a large and prosperous real estate enterprise that has been extended into other sections of the state as well as in San Bernardino and adjoining counties. Mr. Holbrook is a stalwart in the ranks of the Republican party. In Oklahoma he was a delegate to the Republican conventions in his county, and he has likewise served in San Bernardino County. He has held since 1927 the office of justice of the peace, and in this office he has made an admirable record. In the campaign of 1930 three prominent San Bernardino attorneys opposed him in the primaries, but he was elected by a majority [p.294] of 325 over all three of his opponents. The 1930 election was for a term of four years. In 1929 he presided at the trial of more than 2,400 cases, and of the number only sixteen were jury trials. This record is unprecedented in the history of the justice courts of California, where the average of jury trials is about one-half. Remarkably few of the decisions of Mr. Holbrook have been reversed by courts of higher jurisdiction, and this fact stands in evidence of his mature judgment and his excellent conceptions of the principles of equity and justice, besides indicating his comprehensive knowledge of law and precedent pertaining to cases that find assignment to the justice courts. Mr. Holbrook likewise served four years as a member of the San Bernardino Board of Education, May, 1923, to May, 1927. He is director of the San Bernardino-Colton Oil Company, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Loyal Order of Moose. June 4, 1913, recorded the marriage of Mr. Holbrook to Miss Rachel Keller, who was born and reared in California and who is a daughter of F. M. Keller, of San Bernardino. Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook have two children: Margery and George Wilbur II.