San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1561
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 2/18/2010
GEORGE W. JACOBS
Numbered among the promoters of the substantial upbuilding and progress of California is George W. Jacobs, one of the leading bridge building contractors of the state. He was born and reared at Hartland, Mich., his birth having occurred March 12, 1863. His education was obtained in the public schools of Hartland and at the age of seventeen he left his home for Wisconsin and found work in the lumber camps of that state; then he went to Minnesota and engaged in well boring in La Crescent; then he went to St. Paul, Minn., and there did his first bridge building work. His first work was on the construction of the Seventh Street bridge from St. Paul to West St. Paul, a fine piece of engineering work, the bridge being 2,785 feet long and 205 feet high. Following this, in 1888, he came to the Pacific Coast and first located at Spokane Falls, Wash., and was employed in the construction of the Washington Water Power Works. He worked on the first bridge over Monroe Street; then he received the contract for building two bridges over the Knootsac River at Seattle. Mr. Jacobs removed to San Francisco in 1894, where he was employed by the San Francisco Bridge Company, who had the contract for building the foundation for the Ferry building at the foot of Market Street; he also had charge, as foreman, of the construction of the first cylinder wharf in San Francisco. During the period of nine years of his connection with construction work for the San Francisco Bridge Company he had the opportunity of overseeing extensive operations in bridge building and other large construction work. He then joined the forces of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and was put in charge of the bridge construction in the Los Angeles division and remained with this company for four years, when he located in Stockton, where he entered the employ of the Clark & Henery Construction Company. He built steel tanks for the Benicia Water Company, also tanks at Antioch and Burlingame, and a drawbridge over the Sacramento River at Kechival Landing. He then organized his own company, the George W. Jacobs Company, and among his most outstanding work has been the building of bulkheads. He has, in fact, constructed a majority of the bulkheads along the Stockton Channel. Recently Mr. Jacobs built a bulkhead for the Western Pacific Railroad Company. After the earthquake Mr. Jacobs spent ten months in San Francisco engaged in wrecking work.
The marriage of Mr. Jacobs united him with Miss Kathryn Manion, a native of Grass Valley, Cal., whose father, a pioneer of California, came from Ireland by way of Panama in 1852. Fraternally Mr. Jacobs is identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of Khorassan, the Woodmen of the World, and the Moose of Stockton.
History of
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORY BY
George H. Tinkham
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1923
San Joaquin County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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