Orange County
Biographies
GEORGE P. BESSONETT,
a prominent business man of Santa Ana, was born in Mississippi, July 21, 1850, and is the son of Edwin and Sophia (Neill) Bessonett, natives of Pennsylvania, and of French ancestry. The father was a cotton planter, and the mother was a teacher, from whom George received all of his education. The latter started out in the world for himself at the age of fifteen years, at Brookhaven, Mississippi, by clerking in a confectionery store. Subsequently he carried on the business in his own name. Quitting that place, he went to Kansas City and learned the bricklayer's trade, where he continued until 1872. He then went to Denver and was employed there a year and a half, and then in 1873 he came on to San Francisco. In 1875 he moved to Santa Ana, where he engaged as a contractor and builder. Nearly all the brick houses in that city were built by him. Two years ago he went into the livery business in his brick block at the corner of Fifth and West streets. Mr. Bessonett is a public-spirited and an enterprising man, taking a deep interest in the growth and development of Santa Ana, and owning valuable property in different parts of the city. His residence, a beautiful structure, is on orange avenue and Parton street. Politically he affiliates with the Democratic party. Recently he received the nomination of Supervisor for Los Angeles County. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the A. O. U. W.
August 7, 1870, he married Miss Annie E. Briggs, of Mississippi. Their children are named Edwin, Ida, Hattie, Georgie, Oscar, Frank and Charley.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 851-852
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
GEORGE W. SPONABLE,
horticulturist at Fullerton, was born in Eden, Seneca
County, Ohio, November 3, 1825. His parents, Christopher and Sarah (Lawrence)
Sponable, were natives respectively of New York and Vermont, and of German and
English origin.
George W., the third of his parents'
eleven children, started in business for himself in 1849, by coming to
California. His father had moved in 1836 to McHenry County, Illinois, where he
was an extensive farmer until his death in 1854.
Mr. Sponable followed mining and lumbering in California from 1849 to 1855, and then returned to Illinois, where he followed farming until 1879. He then moved to Nuckolls County, Nebraska, and bought 480 acres of land, which he cultivated until 1883, when he again made his advent to the Golden State and bought a fruit ranch a mile and a half northeast of Anaheim, and there he is spending the last years of his life in the pleasures of horticulture.
Mr. Sponable fought for the Union three years. Entering Company A, Ninety-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as corporal, he was at the battles of Vicksburg and Guntown, Mississippi, and in the expedition against Shreveport, etc. At Vicksburg he was wounded. He was discharged as a Sergeant, at Springfield, Illinois, in 1865. He is now a member of Malvern Hill Post, No. 131, G. A. R., of which he has been Quartermaster two years.
He has been married three times; first, in Illinois, in 1857, to Miss Anna Washburn, a native of New York State, by whom he had one daughter, Georgiana, now Mrs. Ed. Deitz, of Irving Park, Illinois. Mrs. Sponable died in June, 1865, and in 1869 Mr. Sponable married Miss Ella West, also from New York State. She died in 1871, and Mr. Sponable was again married in 1872, this time to Mrs. Sophia Huntington, who was born in New York, the daughter of Stephen Emery. By her first husband she had two children: Emery and Julia; the latter is the wife of Orson Knowlton, of Anaheim.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 852
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
R. H. GILMAN,
superintendent of the Semi‑tropic Fruit Company at Anaheim, was born in New Hampshire, left home in 1862, to follow the sea, and in the next year he ran away from the ship Wild Rover and for some time traveled. He afterward worked seven years at the tanner's trade, and then followed ranching in Lake, Napa, and Sacramento counties. In 1872 the Semi-tropic Fruit Company was organized by L. M. Hoult, R. H. Gilman, I. N. Chapman and others. They have 106 acres, most beautifully located and in a high state of cultivation. There are twenty-five acres in orange trees, ten acres in walnuts in bearing, and the rest in young oranges and walnuts. Mr. Gilman, who has been superintendent of the company since its organization, has practically demonstrated what can be done in a few years with the rich soil in this part of Orange County. He has also been practically interested in irrigation, being president, vice president and director of companies for this useful enterprise. He is a worker.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 852-853
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler