Santa Barbara County Biographies

GEORGE W. COFFIN

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

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


GEORGE W. COFFIN, who is one of Santa Barbara's representative citizens 
and descends from Quaker stock, and whose ancestors formerly lived on the Island 
of Nantucket. His grandfather left the Island in 1778 on account of the oppression of 
the English, and settled in Washington, Dutchess County, New York, where George 
W. was born in June, 1817. His father was a farmer, and as it is said, " As a twig is bent 
so the tree inclines," so it was that the early life of George W. was spent in tilling the 
soil, and in the conducting of a farm on scientific principles. He lived at home until 
the age of twenty-two years, when he was married at Patterson, Putnam County, New 
York, to Miss Helen M. Howland, whose ancestors were from New Bedford, Massa- 
chusetts. He then settled at Amenia, New York, where for nineteen years he carried on 
farming on a farm of 108 acres. Devoting himself to the high cultivation of the soil, 
and the improving of stock, only keeping Ayrshire cattle, and South Down sheep, but 
gaining notoriety as a practical farmer. About 1856 he sold out his farm interests and 
went to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he followed a mercantile life. He then went 
to St. Paul in 1864, where he became interested in manufacturing, and then to St. 
Louis, where for four years he was connected with the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad 
Company. In 1872 he came to Santa Barbara in the interests of that road. Returning 
to St. Louis in 1873 he severed his connection with the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad,
 and in 1874 brought his family to Santa Barbara to take up permanent residence. 
For eight years thereafter he was connected with Colonel Hollister as private 
secretary. In 1882 he began the real-estate business, which he has since continued. In 
1884 he was elected Mayor and was re-elected in 1886. The first three years he drew no 
salary, but it went to a fund, called the Mayor and Common Council Fund, and was 
used in improving the city. Mr. Coffin was much interested in the sewering and paving 
of State street, which is one of the finest paved streets in California. 

Mr. Coffin, having lost his first wife, was re-married in Santa Barbara in 1886, to Miss 
Susan Robinson, a native of Thomaston, Maine. Mr. Coffin has been quite a traveler, 
having crossed the continent fourteen times and by every route. He owns a large amount 
of property, and is now devoting himself to his own interests and in the settlement of 
certain prominent estates. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.