San Diego County
Biographies
GEORGE H. BRODIE,
of Oceanside, was born in London, England, September 14, 1835. His father, Samuel F. Brodie, was English, and his mother Scotch. Both his father and mother died when he was quite young and for a time he lived with his grandmother. What education he received was mostly before he was ten years old. After that age he began to earn his own living as an errand boy in a cork cutting establishment. He was apprenticed to the baking business in Abingdon, Berkshire, England, for five years, without pay, but decided not to stay his time out and went back to London and worked two years in the government iron works for the arsenal. In 1856 he came to the United States. He landed at New York and soon engaged in work at his bakery business. He was there two years. He then went to Canada, but decided not to remain there and came back and worked in New York city nearly a year. Next be went over to Brooklyn, and then to Newburyport, Massachusetts, and worked there three years. From there he went to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he worked in the I. G. Hotel a year, and then went to the Bates House, Indianapolis. In 1869 he went to Independence, Kansas, where he opened and conducted a store for seven years, when he sold out. He then went to Galena, Kansas, and engaged in prospecting inn the lead mines for two years. In December, 1879, he went to Downey, Los Angeles County, California, and bought a ranch on which he made improvements and lived for four years, when he sold it and came to Oceanside, in April, 1886. The railroad had just been built. He bought lots and built his store and owns and runs the only bakery in the city of Oceanside.
He was married in August, 1860, to Miss Mary A. Shey, a native of New York city, born in 1837. She was a daughter of Judge Bryant Shey. They had a family of seven children, all living, viz.: Lizzie, born in Port Chester, New York, in 1861, is married to Rev. O. L. Snow, of Santa Barbara; Anna B., born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1864, is married to Mr. Charles Black, a druggist, and resides at Bakersfield, California; George W., born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1866, lives on a ranch near Oceanside; Lillie, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, 1868; Harry, born in Independence, Kansas, in 1871; Freddie, born in Independence, in 1874, and Maud, born in Independence, in 1877. Mr. Brodie was elected one of the first members of the common council of Independence. He is a member of the Holiness Church of Oceanside.
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.- 283-284
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
W. B. KERBY,
one of Murrietta's most reliable business men, was born in Portland, Ohio, March 5, 1856. His father, Thomas B. Kerby, was a native of West Virginia. His mother, Lydia (Bertly) Kerby, was a daughter of J. H. Bertly, also of West Virginia, and was married to Mr. Thomas B. Kerby in 1839. Their union was blessed with seven children, of which Mr. W. B. Kerby is the third. He was educated in Sedalia, Missouri, and when through with school learned railroading, and worked as operator and ticket agent for the Missouri Pacific for ten years. August 20, 1887, he came to Los Angeles, California, where he became bill clerk for the Santa Fe Company. March 6, 1888 he came to Murrietta and has had charge of the station since that time.
He was married in Los Angeles, September, 22, 1889, to Miss Stella Miller, born in 1869. Mrs. Kerby is taking charge of the newly opened hotel, the Fountain Hotel, of Murietta, which bids fair to become a first-class one, as the house is pleasantly situated, has good rooms and furniture, and Mrs. Kerby knows what constitutes a good table and how to serve it. They are young people of promise.
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.- 284
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler