Tulare County Biographies

GEORGE A. O'BRIEN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        Among the commercial and industrial features of the city of Porterville 
there are several establishments that are entitled to more than passing notice 
by reason of their excellent character. One of these is the bakery of G. A. 
O'Brien at No. 127 Main street, an establishment which is considered one of the 
best of its kind in this section of California and which serves to supply the 
trade throughout a wide district in this fine trade area. Mr. O'Brien has been 
established in business in Porterville for something more than ten years and 
during that time has built up a business which marks him as among the leaders in 
his line in this region. Starting in a modest way with a small oven and one 
baker, he has found the quality of his products has caused a normal expansion of 
the business until he has gradually increased his facilities to the point that 
now requires the services of no fewer than sixteen persons in his bakery. Mr. 
O'Brien's enterprise and alertness to the needs of his trade are attested by the 
fact that he installed in his bakery in Porterville the first 
three-hundred-and-sixty-loaf electric oven set up in the state of California. It 
is needless to say that the other equipment of his establishment is in keeping 
with this and that he thus has one of the best equipped and most up-to-date 
bakery plants in this section of the state. He serves from this plant the trade 
needs of all the towns and villages in the Porterville area and the popularity 
of the products of his ovens attests their excellence. George A. O'Brien is a 
native of the old Green Mountain state but has been a resident of California 
since the days of his young manhood. He was born on a farm in the immediate 
vicinity of the fine old town of Waterbury, Washington county, Vermont, not far 
down the state from the birthplace of President Coolidge, in the nearby county 
of Windsor, March 7, 1887, a son of James and Nancy (O'Neill) O'Brien, both of 
whom are still living there in comfortable retirement.
        Reared on the home farm, George A. O'Brien finished his education. in 
the Waterbury high school and remained at home until he was nineteen years of 
age when, in 1906, he came to California and in Oakland became employed in a 
bakery, learning there the rudiments of a vocation in which he has achieved a 
distinctive success. In the next year (1907) he left Oakland and became located 
in Santa Cruz, where he set up a bake shop and was in business at that place 
until 1915, when he moved to Porterville and in this latter city set up an 
establishment which, as noted above, has gradually developed until now it is one 
of the leading bakeries hereabout. In connection with his extensive wholesale 
trade, covering this region, Mr. O'Brien also maintains a local retail store and 
the contents of his shelves and cases are widely distributed throughout the 
city. Everything connected with this bakery in the way of operative equipment is 
electrical, and the highest modern standards are maintained in these operations.
        On September 10, 1921, in Porterville, Mr. O'Brien was united in 
marriage to Miss Loretta Meighan, who at that time was a teacher of languages in 
the Porterville schools. They have one child : A daughter, Mary Patricia. Mr. 
and Mrs. O'Brien are members of the Roman Catholic church and are democrats. Mr. 
O'Brien is a member of the local council of the Knights of Columbus and is also 
affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
 
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. 364