San Diego-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Hensley, George B. 1847 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 21, 2006, 2:53 am Author: Theodore S. Van Dyke GEORGE B. HENSLEY. ONE of the best known and most energetic of San Diego's business men is George B. Hensley. Mr. Hensley is a native of England, having been born in Cornwall, November 26, 1847. His early boyhood was spent in Cornwall and he attended school there until he was thirteen years old. He then went to work in the mines, where he remained five years. At the age of eighteen he started for the great city of London. There he soon obtained a position in the office of a shipping and insurance broker. He remained in London for four years. The last business he was engaged in there was in a wholesale silk and lace house. In the spring of 1869 he left England for California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He arrived in San Diego in the month of June and at once took up a ranch in Tia Juana Valley. In the early part of 1870 he became interested in mining with his brother, who discovered the Stonewall Mine at Julian. Three months afterward he went to San Francisco, where he remained a year. He then returned to San Diego, when he was appointed Deputy County Clerk, a position which he held until March, 1872. He then opened an abstract office, a business in which he was engaged till October, 1876. On account of his health he then moved into the country on a ranch, where he remained until the following year, when he was appointed United States Inspector of Customs on the Mexican line. This office he retained for seven years. In May, 1884, he went to Portland, Oregon, where he spent a year. Then he came back to San Diego and has since been engaged in the abstract and real estate business. Mr. Hensley has been one of the most active promoters of the growth of San Diego. He has been identified with all public movements and has invested liberally in every enterprise having for its object the advancement of the city. He was one of the organizers of the San Diego Building and Loan Association and for two years acted as its Secretary. He is a stockholder in, and present Secretary of, the San Diego and Old Town Railroad Company, and a large stockholder and Secretary of the Pacific Beach Company. He is also an active member of the Chamber of Commerce. He always had strong faith in the ultimate growth of San Diego, and to-day holds real estate which he purchased when he first came here. He owns a good deal of city property and is largely interested in Pacific Beach, which is destined to be, probably, the most attractive of San Diego's suburbs. He has a residence on the southwest corner of Ninth and D Streets, which he erected two years ago. Mr. Hensley was married in this city in 1873 to Miss Hulda Bowers, sister of Senator W. W. Bowers. He has four children. It is to men like George B. Hensley that San Diego is largely indebted for the rapid progress she has made during the past two or three years. Public-spirited, generous, progressive, he is an excellent type of the true American citizen. Additional Comments: From: THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO. ILLUSTRATED, AND CONTAINING BI0GRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS. SAN DIEGO, CAL. LEBERTHON & TAYLOR 1888 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sandiego/bios/hensley833nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 3.7 Kb