California Biographies, Santa Cruz County.
GEORGE A. MOREHEAD. 

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

Source:
History of Santa Cruz County, California 
Pacific Press Publishing Company
San Francisco, Cal. 1892
By E. S. Harrison 

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

GEORGE A. MOREHEAD. 

Through an intimate association with the commercial and agricultural enterprises of the Pajaro valley, Mr. Morehead 
has gained a thorough knowledge of the possibilities of this portion of California and has contributed his quota to the 
development of local resources. Since coming to the valley in 1875 he has studied the locality from the standpoint of a 
business man as well as a land-owner. Observations extending over this long period have convinced him that few places 
excel this valley in the opportunities it affords those desiring a healthful location with abundant facilities for the earning 
of a livelihood. His comfortable home in Watsonville occupies an attractive location at No. 613 Main street, and here his 
leisure hours are happily spent in the society of family and friends. During the busy season of recent years he has often 
spent considerable time in the country, packing and shipping apples, in the raising of which he has been extensively 
interested. 

With one of the band of settlers that crossed the ocean to the colony of Virginia the Morehead family became estab- 
lished in America. Several successive generations lived and labored in the Old Dominion. From there George W. More- 
head with his wife, both Virginians by birth and education, crossed the mountains into Kentucky and from there pro- 
ceeded westward to Missouri, where they took up a tract of raw land near the then small village of Mexico. During the 
remainder of their lives they were busily engaged in transforming their property into a comfortable and profitable 
homestead, and they both died at the old place. On that farm occurred the birth of their son, George A., in 1843, and 
there he was trained to habits of industry, self-reliance and intelligent labor. At the age of nineteen years he came to 
California and settled in the Sacramento valley, where he remained for twelve years, meanwhile attending for a short 
time the Atkins' Business College in Sacramento and later devoting his attention wholly to farming. 

Upon coming to Watsonville in 1875 Mr. Morehead secured a position as bookkeeper with the Corralitos Lumber Com- 
pany, in whose employ he continued during the five following years. At the expiration of that time he purchased the 
Watsonville drug store and for sixteen years he continued in business as a druggist. Upon selling out in 1896 he turned 
his attention to the fruit business and since then he has owned and sold several ranches. Shortly before he came to 
the Pajaro valley he established domestic ties, being united in marriage, April 11, 1875, with Miss Abbie Woodworth, who 
was born in Iowa, but at an early age in 1863 accompanied her father to California, settling in the Sacramento valley. 
The schools of that locality offered her fair advantages and enabled her to acquire an excellent education. Three children 
were born of her marriage, namely: Frank A., a druggist in Watsonville; Ada, who married C. F. Reynolds, of Chico, 
this state; and Elmer, who died aged twenty-two years. In fraternal associations Mr. Morehead has been identified with 
the Foresters of America ever since the founding of their camp at Watsonville. Political problems command his at- 
tention to an unusual degree. It has been his aim to keep himself posted concerning the issues of the age, but as a rule 
he has declined nominations for public office, the sole exception to this having been his service of one term as city trus- 
tee. The volunteer fire department was one of the early enterprises of the town that enlisted his active help and at the 
expiration of his time as a fireman his name was transferred to the exempt list.