San Diego County Biographies
 
G. C. ARNOLD 

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Was born at Toulon, Illinois, July 13, 1846, and came with his parents to 
California in May, 1853. For some months he lived in Sonora, Stanislaus County, 
where his mother died. In the fall of the same years his father moved to the 
Montezuma Hills, in Solano County, where he engaged in stock raising. Here the 
subject of this sketch resided until 1876, a portion of the time attending the 
University of the Pacific at San Jose, from which he graduated in 1869.

While a student at the University he made the acquaintance of Miss S. J. 
McConaughy, of Yreka, also a student, and October 10, 1870, they were married. 
At the time of his marriage Mr. Arnold was engaged in farming , and continued in 
the business until 1876, when, in consequence of the failing health of his 
family, he sold his farm and moved to San Francisco, where he opened a money and 
stock-broker�s office. Having heard much of the city of San Diego and its 
advantageous location for commerce, etc., he visited the place in 1878. 
Realizing the benefit that would accrue to the city by the advent of a railroad, 
as soon as the A. T. & S. F. Co., made known its intentions to build its line to 
that point, he removed to San Diego in 1880 and immediately opened a real estate 
office. Although a stranger, he at once stepped to the front in the business and 
is now January, 1890, the senior member of the firm of Arnold, Jerry & Mouser, 
the oldest regular real-estate firm in the city He is also a trustee of the 
Escondido Seminary and of the Ramona Seminary, and secretary of both boards of 
the trustees. He was one of the originators of the University of Fine Arts, now 
being erected on University Heights, which will be one of the finest educational 
institutions of the Pacific coast. Mr. Arnold is an enterprising, 
public-spirited man, as is shown by his having been prominently connected with 
nearly every leading enterprise inaugurated in San Diego. He took an active part 
in the Grange movement, and was a member of Denverton Grange of Sonoma for some 
years. In October, 1887, he was elected a member of the city council of San 
Diego and served until the adoption of the new charter in 1889. He is a member 
of the Methodist Church, and is an active, earnest worker in every good work.
 
An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San 
Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time.... - 
Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. pp 368-369