Contra Costa County Biography

GEORGE S. WALL

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

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

 
                  This history presents the record of no other citizen more 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of public progress than George S. Wall. He has 
ever been a man of fair judgment, broad-minded and sagacious, and is constantly 
working for the public welfare of Richmond and Contra Costa County. The Bay 
cities number him among their most representative, useful, and worthy citizens, 
to whose initiative spirit the city of Richmond owes much. He established the 
first permanent city hall in Richmond and many of the important industries. 
Several of the finest subdivisions placed on the market in Richmond are due to 
Mr. Wall's resolute energy and public spirit. He was born in Sonoma County, 
California, and is a son of Henry C. Wall, a native of North Carolina, and Julia 
(Sallec) Wall, the latter being a native of Wisconsin. Mr. Wall's father was a 
California pioneer, coming to the coast in 1849. He drove an ox-team overland, 
taking six months to make the journey, and settled in Sonoma County, where he 
acquired large holdings in land, and for a time was identified with mining. The 
substantial progress and success made by Mr. Wall's father show what may be 
accomplished when determination and energy lead the way. He was largely 
identified with the stock-raising business of this State in the early days, and 
several land deeds that George S. Wall has in his possession bear the signature 
of President Grant. In the parents' family there were three children - Henry, 
who died in 1898 at the age of twenty-six years; Ella, wife of Ira Kroster, a 
contractor and builder of Santa Rosa, California; and the subject of this 
review. George S. Wall  acquired his education in the public schools of Santa 
Rosa, after which he attended private school. He took up mechanical engineering, 
which he followed until 1902. He has been associated with many large projects 
throughout the State, and his work and qualities have been widely recognized and 
have made him popular wherever he has gone. Mr. Wall's success in Richmond is 
only the natural result of earnest, persistent, and well-directed labor. He 
first served as manager of the Richmond Land Company, one of the first 
subdivisions, consisting of four thousand seven hundred lots in the center of 
what is now Richmond. In 1909, he embarked  in the real-estate business for 
himself, and organized the New Richmond Land Company, a million-dollar 
corporation. He has been one of the chief factors in making Richmond a 
manufacturing center. He was also largely instrumental in getting the Pullman 
Company to locate here. Other manufacturing concerns were induced to locate in 
Richmond through the efforts of Mr. Wall, among the most prominent of which are 
the General Roofing Manufacturing Company and the Pacific Sanitary Manufacturing 
Company. Mr. Wall distinguished himself with the people of Richmond when he 
presented to the city its first permanent city hall, the building and land being 
valued at sixty thousand dollars. Politically, Mr. Wall is affiliated with the 
Republican Party, but he has never aspired to office. He has served as president 
of the Richmond Industrial Commission for five terms. Fraternally, Mr. Wall 
holds membership in the Masonic Lodge. In 1898 he was united in marriage to Lena 
Blanche Slack, daughter of Darwin D. and Sarah E. Slack. She passed away on 
December 3, 1916. To this union there were two children - Thelma Gertrude, born 
January 26, 1904, died September 26, 1916, and Harold Chelsley, born February 
17, 1905. Mr. Wall belongs to the Transportation Club of San Francisco, and Mrs. 
Wall was an active member of the Eastern Star. Mr. Wall has placed on the market 
several valuable tracts of land in Richmond, and owing to their favorable 
position has had phenomenal success in disposing of his holdings. He promoted 
the City of Richmond tract, Wall's Addition to Richmond, Wall's Center  Tract, 
and Wall's Second Addition to Richmond. In all the above tracts nine thousand 
lots have been put on market. All his properties are superbly located, and so 
situated that they cannot but increase in value to a remarkable extent. Mr. Wall 
is a man of sterling traits of character, progressive in citizenship, and has 
gained the confidence, good-will, and esteem of all who have been in any way 
associated with him.
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California," Elms Publ. Co., 1917, 
pp. 599-600.