California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


GEORGE ROBERT PHENEGAR. During his life, which spanned a period of nearly fifty- 
four years, George R. Phenegar followed diversified occupations. His success in a financial way 
was due to his splendid ability to make good bargains and to his thorough knowledge of live 
stock, to which business as a dealer he devoted many years of his life in Merced county, where 
he also won an enviable reputation as a successful rancher and fruit grower. Born July 25, 
1833, in Columbus, Ohio, he grew up on a farm, and up to 1854, the date of his removal to Cali- 
fornia, his life was comparatively uneventful. In Mariposa county he followed mining until 
the breaking out of the Feather river excitement, and following the tide of immigration to the lat- 
ter place he continued mining until he decided to remove to Merced county. For a time he de- 
voted his time solely to buying and selling stock, meeting with success, and in 1879 he purchased 
forty-seven hundred acres of land in Merced and Mariposa counties, and from that time 
turned his attention to farming in connection with the stock business. He was one of the first 
men in his locality to engage in fruit culture. At the time of his death he owned, in addition to 
his ranch, a fine fruit farm near Selma, Fresno county. 

In 1879 Mr. Phenegar was united in marriage with Mrs. Mary (Anderson) Shaug, formerly of 
Missouri and a daughter of John Anderson; who crossed the plains from the latter state to 
California in 1857, and for years was a prominent resident of San Luis Obispo county. Mr. 
and Mrs. Phenegar became parents of four children : George Leonard, who died in August, 
1904; Chauncey Anderson; Bert Washburn, who died aged six years, and Georgia Roberta. 
Mr. Phenegar was a man of strict integrity of character and was highly esteemed by all who 
knew him. As a business man he possessed more than ordinary ability, was broad-minded, 
public-spirited and aided materially in developing the natural resources of the various com- 
munities in which he lived. Upon his death, October 15, 1887, Merced county lost one of 
her most progressive citizens.