Monterey-Santa Clara-Kern County CA Archives Biographies.....Bodfish, George Fenwick 1859 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 16, 2007, 1:18 am

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll, Editor (1893)

GEORGE FENWICK BODFISH, of Pacific Grove, is a native of California, born in San
Jose, February 1, 1859.

  His father, George H. Bodfish, deceased, was a native of Barnstable county,
Massachusetts, and an active and influential pioneer of California. Grandfather
Eben Bodfish was a native of the same county, and was by occupation a farmer.
Grandmother Bodfish was, before her marriage, a Miss Fish, and, like her
husband, was of old Puritan stock. George H. was the fourth of nine children
born to Eben Bodfish and his wife. He was reared on a farm. He, however,
inclined to mechanics and to milling. Locating at New Bedford, Massachusetts, he
engaged extensively in lumbering, shipping cargoes by an ocean vessel around
Cape Horn to San Francisco in 1849. In the latter part of that year he came to
California, via Panama, remaining two years. He disposed of his stock of lumber
and engaged in farming in Santa Clara valley, near San Jose, and also opened one
of the first mercantile houses in that city. Both these enterprises proved
successful, and he continued the same until 1855, when he embarked in the
milling business in the Coast Range mountains, about six miles west of Gilroy.
He manufactured large quantities of Redwood lumber, operating lumber yards and
planing mills in both Gilroy and San Jose. In 1855 he took into the Santa Clara
valley the first steam threshing machine of that region of country. In 1863 he
mined gold in the quartz mines of Kern county, California. He died at Sage Land,
a mining town of that county, in 1869. He was married in 1853, to Mrs. Allen
Luce, a widow of New Bedford, Massachusetts, returning to California the same
year with his bride and her only son, Allen. Allen Luce, at this writing, is the
keeper of Point Finos lighthouse. To George H. Bodfish and his wife were born
three children, namely: Emma, now Mrs. W. H. Lambert, of Monterey county, born
March 9, 1855; George Fenwick, February 1, 1859; and Jessen M., May 26, 1861,
died in 1868. Mrs. Bodfish by maiden name was Sarah A. Brent, daughter of
Honorable William M. Brent, deceased, an eminent jurist and ex-member of
Congress from Louisiana.

  George Fenwick Bodfish was educated in the public schools of San Jose and
Monterey, and has for years been a dealer in stock, cattle and horses. He was
married December 23, 1884, to Miss Brenda R. Prague, a daughter of Honorable J.
B. and Maria (Watkins) Prague, of New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a lady of
literary tastes and rare domestic accomplishments, and is a frequent contributor
to the San Francisco daily papers and Monterey local press. She is a true
southern lady, charming in her manner and brilliant in conversation. The familys
home is in Pacific Grove. They have two interesting little boys.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."-Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.

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