(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
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He was born on August 23, 1839 in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, the son of Clement and Lucinda (Fairchild) Perkins. His father owned a small farm but was chiefly employed as a sailor and officer on vessels trading with the West Indies and the New-England coast. The son's early childhood was spent in cheerless work on the unproductive farm.
He had a few months each year in the district school.
Inheriting his father's fondness for the sea, he became, at the age of twelve, cabin-boy on a vessel bound for New Orleans, and followed a seafaring life for the next four years, making several voyages to Europe.
When not yet sixteen, he sailed for San Francisco, where he arrived in the autumn of 1855. In a few days he went by boat to Sacramento and tramped from there to Oroville (then called Ophir). For the next two years he worked at placer-mining in Butte and adjoining counties. Meeting with indifferent success, he returned to Oroville and soon became clerk in a country store. By practising the most rigid economy for over two years, he was able to save $800. This, with $1200 borrowed capital, he invested in a ferry at Long Bar on the Feather River, and a year later sold the ferry at a profit of $1000.
Returning to the Oroville store, he gradually saved enough to purchase the business, which was now becoming highly remunerative. During this period he built the Ophir flourmill, invested in mining and sheep-raising, and constructed sawmills, most of which investments proved profitable. He also assisted in the establishment of the Bank of Butte County in Chico, and was one of its directors.
In 1860 Perkins cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, and throughout the Civil War he was a stanch supporter of the Union cause, as a member of the Oroville National Guards and an aide-de-camp to Gen. John Bidwell. When barely thirty years of age he was elected to the state Senate (1869) as a Republican from a strongly Democratic district (Butte County), and served in that body until 1876.
While in the legislature he met Charles Goodall, and in 1872 became a member of the San Francisco firm of Goodall & Nelson. Transferring his Oroville interests to his brother, he moved to San Francisco about 1876 and shortly afterward purchased the interest of his partner Nelson. Thereupon the firm became Goodall, Perkins & Company, and soon was incorporated as the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. The Company acquired most of the coast-line steamers plying between Alaska and Central America; also the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, and the Arctic Oil Company.
Perkins was elected (September 1879) the first governor under the California constitution by a plurality of more than 20, 000. He served governor from January 8, 1880, to January 10, 1883.
He was the owner of a large cattle-ranch in southern California, and a heavy investor in quartz and gravel mines throughout the mining sections of California, and in iron mines near Puget Sound. He had a conspicuous part in the preparations for the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915; was president of the San Francisco Art Association; a trustee of the California Academy of Sciences, the State Mining Bureau, and of the State Institution for the Dumb and Blind at Berkeley.
In 1886 he was a candidate for the United States Senate but was defeated by Leland Stanford. He reached the Senate, however, through appointment by the governor (July 1893) immediately after Stanford's death. By successive reelections he remained a senator for nearly twenty-two years.
Upon the expiration of his term (March 1915), he returned to his home in Oakland and lived in retirement until his sudden death in 1923.
George Clement Perkins was the 14th governor of California, during his administration his main achivement was that the state prisons became practically self-supporting through the establishment. After careful investigation in each case, he pardoned and commuted the sentences of more prisoners than any other governor of California prior to 1918, and only one of those pardoned was ever returned to prison. His knowledge of maritime affairs made him prominent in connection with legislation dealing with the navy and ocean traffic, and for four years (1909 - 13) he was chairman of the Senate committee on naval affairs. For thirty years he also was the acting president of the Boys and Girls Aid Society.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Perkins was an outspoken opponent of the California constitution of 1879. He opposed Japanese immigration, had a warm controversy with President Roosevelt over the latter's message proposing naturalization of the Japanese, supported the Panama Canal project, and advocated a protective tariff. Perkins' interests in California embraced banking institutions as well as railroad and land companies.
He was a member of the Loyal Legion.
In 1864 he married Ruth A. Parker of Marysville, who died in 1921. To them were born three sons and four daughters.
