San Diego County Biographies

GEORGE B.HENSLEY

Submitted by Kathy Sedler

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


	One of the best known and most energetic of San Diego's 
business men is George B. Hensley. Mr. Hensley is a native of England, 
having been born in Cornwall, November 26, 1847. His early boyhood was 
spent in Cornwall and he attended school there until he was thirteen years 
old. He then went to work in the mines, where he remained five years. At 
the age of eighteen he started for the great city of London. There he soon 
obtained a position in the office of a shipping and insurance broker. He 
remained in London for four years. The last business he was engaged in 
there was in a wholesale silk and lace house. In the spring of 1869 he left 
England for California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He arrived in San 
Diego in the month of June and at once took up a ranch in Tia Juana Valley.
In the early part of 1870 he became interested in mining with his brother, 
who discovered the Stonewall Mine at Julian. Three months afterward he 
went to San Francisco, where he remained a year. He then returned to San 
Diego, when he was appointed Deputy County Clerk, a position which he 
held until March, 1872. He then opened an abstract office, a business in 
which he was engaged till October, 1876. On account of his health he then 
moved into the country on a ranch, where he remained until the following 
year, when he was appointed United States Inspector of Customs on the
Mexican line. This office he retained for seven years. In May, 1884, he 
went to Portland, Oregon, where he spent a year. Then he came back to
San Diego and has since be enengaged in the abstract and real estate 
business.
	Mr.Hensley has been one of the most active promoters of the 
growth of San Diego. He has been identified with all public movements and 
has invested liberally in every enterprise having for its object the advancement 
of the city. He was one of the organizers of the San Diego Building and Loan 
Association and for two years acted as its Secretary.
He is a stock holder in, and present Secretary of, the San Diego and Old Town 
Railroad Company, and a large stock holder and Secretary of the Pacific 
Beach Company. He is also an active member of the Chamber of Commerce. 
He always had strong faith in the ultimate growth of San Diego, and to-day 
holds real estate which he purchased when he first came here. He owns a 
good deal of city property and is largely interested in Pacific Beach, which is 
destined to be, probably, the most attractive of San Diego's suburbs. He has 
a residence on the south west corner of Ninth and D Streets, which he erected 
two years ago. Mr. Hensley was married in this city in 1873 to Miss Hulda 
Bowers, sister of Senator W. W. Bowers. He has four children.
	Itis to men like George B. Hensley that San Diego is largely in debted
for the rapid progress he has made during the past two or three years. 
Public-spirited, generous, progressive, he is an excellent type of the true 
American citizen.

The city and county of San Diego illustrated and containing biographical 
sketches of prominent men and pioneers. by Theodore S. Van Dyke
Published in 1888, Leberthon & Taylor (San Diego, Cal[if.])