California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

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 PICKFORD. Associated with George M. Kohler as one of the proprietors of the City Bakery and 
Restaurant, George Pickford is named among the business men of Fresno. He was born in Trempealeau 
county, Wis., December 28, 1 861, the fourth in a family of eight children. His father, Oliver Pickford, 
was a native of Manchester, England, and an early settler of Wisconsin, where he engaged as a farmer 
and an engineer. He is now living in Fresno at the age of seventy-six years. ( For more complete details 
concerning his life refer to the sketch of George M. Kohler, which appears elsewhere in this volume. ) 

Until he was fourteen years of age the home of George Pickford remained in Wisconsin, where he 
attended the public schools. Removing with his parents to California in 1875, he was located for a short 
time in Cambria, San Luis Obispo county, in 1879 coming to Fresno, which had then less than one 
thousand inhabitants. He secured employment shortly afterward with the Madera Planing mill, where 
he remained for one year, when the loss of the fingers on his left hand caused him to leave the 
business. He then learned the butcher business and established a place of his own in Mariposa street, 
between I and J streets, which was known for eight or nine years as the firm of Pickford Brothers. 
Disposing of this interest, he became the proprietor of the Ogle House, which he conducted for one 
year, and also of the Pleasant View Lodging House, at the corner of Fresno and J streets, and 
conducted it for two years, when he sold out and established the Armory Stables on K street, following 
the livery business for about three years. In 1895 he disposed of this business and established the City 
Bakery and Restaurant, which has since grown to be the most extensive business of its kind in the city. 
The bakery is thoroughly equipped and modern in every way, the large oven having a capacity of three 
thousand loaves, from five to eleven hundred being disposed of each day. The restaurant is the largest 
in the city and has a capacity of one hundred and fifty people. Mr. Pickford also owns real estate in 
Fresno in addition to this property, and is interested in both business and residence property in 
Oakland and San Jose. He is an important factor in the business progress of Fresno and is esteemed by 
all who know him. 

In Fresno Mr. Pickford was united in marriage with Ida Studer, a native of New York city, and they are 
the parents of two children, Rollin A. and William ( ). Mr. Pickford is a member of the Woodmen of the 
World, and politically is a stanch adherent of the principles advocated in the platform of the Republican 
party. of one daughter, Jennie May. Mr. Pratt is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
Portersville, and politically is a Socialist, having left the Republican party to take up these interests. 
Fraternally he is identified with lb'. Woodmen of the World of Portersville.