Tulare County Biographies

GEORGE M. DOPKINS

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        No story of the growth and development of the thriving little city of 
Dinuba would be complete without some special reference to the life of the late 
George. M. Dopkins, who in his generation was one of the most forceful and 
influential figures in the general civic, commercial and industrial life of that 
place and of this region.    Mr. Dopkins may be regarded as one of the pioneers 
of the Dinuba settlement, for he was here as a builder when the town was getting 
its start. When the city was incorporated he was elected a member of the first 
board of trustees of the corporation, was made president of that body and thus 
served as acting mayor during the period of the city organization. For years, as 
an active building contractor, he was helpful in construction work in and about 
Dinuba and later became engaged in business there as a furniture dealer and 
undertaker, carrying on the latter phase of that business until his death on 
February 6, 1923, one of the best known men in this section of the state.
        The late George M. Dopkins was a native of the old Empire state and was 
reared in New York, where he was well trained in the building trades. As a young 
man, in the early '80s, he came to California and presently was occupied with 
constructive work in Tulare county, in connection with the operations of the 
Seventy-Six Land and Water Company, with headquarters in Traver, and later 
engaged in the lumber business at that place. He also was for some time ranching 
in the vicinity of Hanford. In 1902, during the time of the active building boom 
in Dinuba, Mr. Dopkins entered the field as a building contractor there, where 
he established his home and spent the remainder of his life. As a building 
contractor he had charge of much of the substantial construction work that was 
carried on there for several years and then went into the mercantile business, 
opening a furniture store and undertaking establishment. In 1915 he sold his 
furniture stock but retained the undertaking department of the business and 
erected a new and up-to-date building in which to carry on that business, these 
funeral parlors being as well equipped and as handsomely appointed as any in the 
valley. In that business Mr. Dopkins continued active until his death on 
February 6, 1923, and the business has since been quite successfully carried on 
by his son, Joseph P. Dopkins, one of the best known young morticians in the 
valley.
        This community ever will remember the late George M. Dopkins as a man of 
public spirit, progressive and enterprising, who was one of the real community 
builders hereabout. As noted above he was elected a member of the first board of 
trustees of the corporation, following the adoption of a city charter for Dinuba 
and as president of that body for four years served as acting mayor during a 
very vital period in the development of the municipality. He ever had the best 
interests of the community at heart and his labors in that behalf did much in 
the way of securing permanent and high-class improvements. At his passing he 
left a good memory and that memory long will be cherished in the community of 
which he was for so many years an important part. Mr. Dopkins was a Scottish 
Rite (thirty-second degree) Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and ever took an active and helpful interest in the affairs of these 
popular fraternal organizations.
        On October 26, 1888, in Fresno, Mr. Dopkins was united in marriage to 
Miss Clara Peacock, who survives him and who is still making her home in Dinuba. 
Mrs. Dopkins is a native of California, born in Napa county, daughter of Joseph 
Peacock, a pioneer of this state and in his generation one of the most effective 
promoters of the interests of Tulare county, for many years superintendent of 
the Seventy-six Land & Water Company. Of the children born. to G. M. and Clara 
(Peacock) Dopkins three are living: Two daughters, Mrs. Emma Hunt of Bakersfield 
and Mrs. May Mackechnie of Fresno ; and the son, Joseph P. Dopkins, mentioned 
above as carrying on the undertaking establishment in Dinuba in succession to 
his father.
        Joseph P. Dopkins, a veteran of the World war with an interesting 
overseas record, was born on the Dopkins ranch in the immediate vicinity of the 
city of Hanford, Kings county, October 13, 1892, and has been a resident of this 
state all his life. Due to the moves made by his father he attended the schools 
of Traver and of Dinuba, having been ten years of age when the family located in 
Dinuba in 1902, and he supplemented this schooling by a course in the Oakland 
Business College at Oakland, after which he became associated with his father in 
the furniture and undertaking business in Dinuba. When the furniture store was 
sold in 1915 he continued to give his attention to the undertaking 
establishment, and was thus engaged when in the spring of 1917 this country took 
a hand in the World war and called on its young men to get ready to go to war. 
Mr. Dopkins was not long in getting into the army and after a period of 
intensive military training in camp on this side was made a noncommissioned 
officer of the Three Hundred and Sixty-fourth Regiment of Infantry, which 
command was made a part of the Ninety-first Division (the "Fighting 
Ninety-first") of the American Expeditionary Forces, and it was with that 
gallant command that Mr. Dopkins rendered service overseas, this service 
including participation at the front in both Belgium and France, and he thus had 
a part in the notable and decisive engagements in the Epps-Lys sector in Belgium 
and in the great Meuse-Argonne and St. Mihiel campaigns in France.
        Upon completion of his military service Mr. Dopkins returned to 
California and presently became office manager for the Earl Fruit Company in 
Dinuba. Two years later he was made district manager of that company's affairs 
in the Bakersfield district and was thus engaged when following his father's 
death in February, 1923, he returned to Dinuba and has since been carrying on 
the business of the Dopkins funeral parlors in his mother's behalf. Mr. Dopkins 
is one of the active members of Dinuba post of the American Legion in Dinuba and 
is also a member of the locally influential Rotary Club of that city, ever 
helpful in promoting such movements and measures as have to do with the 
advancement of the general community interest. He takes an interested part also 
in the general civic affairs of the community and is now serving as deputy 
coroner for Tulare county. He owns a twenty-acre vineyard and fig ranch near 
Orange Cove.
 
Source:  History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen 
Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. II, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1926., p. 248