Sacramento Valley Biographies

HON. BENJAMIN F. GEIS 

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, July 2009.

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


  
         A prominent place in the legal fraternity of Willows is accorded Hon. 
Benjamin F. Geis, a leading attorney of Glenn county, and a resident of Willows, 
where he is known as a successful man, an enterprising citizen, and one to whom 
much credit is due for the interest he has always taken in move-ments calculated 
to advance the general Westmoreland county, Pa., April 27, 1862, a son of Conrad 
and Catherine (Olegher) Geis. The father was a farmer by occupation. He enlisted 
in the Twelfth Pennsylvania Artillery during the Civil War and was killed during 
service in 1865. His widow now makes her home in Willows. 
       Hon. Benjamin F. Geis was reared in his native state, obtaining his 
preliminary education in the public schools, after which he attended St. 
Vincent's and Iron City College, the latter an institution of Pittsburg, Pa. 
After his graduation in the class of 1878 he came direct to California, locating 
in Sacramento, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1883. For two 
years following his admission to the bar he practiced in Sacramento, after which 
he came to Willows and opened an office, soon building up a lucrative practice. 
Since locating here he has been city attorney for twelve years, and when the 
county was divided he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the office of 
district attorney, serving from 1894 until 1896. He was then appointed for 
another term of two years, this fact bespeaking the popularity and esteem in 
which he is held throughout the county. In addition to his public interests Mr. 
Geis has proven himself a citizen of enterprise and ability, adding to the 
beauty of the city and the value of property by the beautiful home which he 
erected for himself. In 1896 Mr. Geis set out a few navel orange trees as a 
trial of the possibilities of the climate and soil; three years later the trees 
bore oranges with such promise that he continued in his efforts and now has a 
small grove of eighty-five trees, most of which are full bearing. He irrigates 
the trees once a month during the dry season and has raised the finest oranges 
in this section. Interested in the growth and development of various trees he 
also set out a pecan tree in 1897 and this is now forty feet high. In addition 
to this property Mr. and Mrs. Geis also own one hundred acres of the Glenn 
ranch, and one hundred and sixty acres some fifteen miles from Willows, all of 
which is given over entirely to the raising of grain. 
         The marriage of Mr. Geis united him with Maggie Hoy, a native of Glenn 
county, and the daughter of Rufus Hoy, deceased. They are the parents of three 
children, namely: Duard, Winnifred, and Elizabeth. Fraternally Mr. Geis is a 
member of the Independent Order of Foresters and has passed through all the 
chairs. A broad-minded, enterprising citizen Mr. Geis has always taken a keen 
interest in the progress of the city and county and has lent his best efforts to 
advance the general welfare. 
  
"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento 
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906, Pages 
967-968.