George Benjamin Brewer was born October 17, 1867 in Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois to Abraham and Rebecca (Lacey) Brewer. The family stayed in the Danville area during George's early years, which is where he met his first wife Lacy A Gebhart.
At the age of 19, George married Lacy On May 1, 1887 in Danville.
In 1900, George and Lacy are living at 514 Washington Ave and George is working as a candy maker in Danville. I have yet to identify who George was working for when he was making candy. Perhaps he was in business for himself?
In 1906, while George is still making candy for a living, he loses his wife Lacy. Lacy (Gebhart) Brewer died on February 11, 1906, leaving George with 11 children 18 years of age and under. I have not found a death certificate for Lacy yet, so I do not know what caused her death at such a young age of 42.
Some time between Lacy's death in 1906 and May of 1910, George headed off to California. We find George in San Bernardino, California with 3 men listed as his brothers (Frank C, Benjamin, and Oliver) and they are all working as machinists in a Garage. Meanwhile, George's oldest son George Adrian is married and living in Chicago and his oldest daughter Lacy is married and living in Danville. I haven't found all the children in 1910 yet. I'm not sure who they went to live with when George removed to California.
Some time between 1910 and 1913, George remarried to Emma Pauline Renner because in 1910, we find him living in Wilmington Township, Los Angeles County, California with Emma, 2 step daughters and his youngest child Helen (age 7). George is working as a Steel Cutter at the LA Ship Yards.
By 1922, George and Emma have purchased their home at 2567 Elm Ave in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California. In the city directories George and Emma are listed at this address at least up until George's death in 1945. The home is no longer there. A strip mall has been put in its place unfortunately.
From 1924 to 1932, George is listed as an oil worker. In the 1924 directory, it states that he was working for Henderson Petroleum Corp. In 1930, he's listed as a Pumper for Oil Wells. According to Wikipedia:
"In 1903, California became the leading oil-producing state in the US, and traded the number one position back-and forth with Oklahoma through the year 1930" and that "new oil fields across southern California were being discovered with regularity including Long Beach in 1921".
Furthermore, Wikipedia goes on to say that:
"The Long Beach Oil Field is a large oil field underneath the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill, California, in the United States. Discovered in 1921, the field was enormously productive in the 1920s, with hundreds of oil derricks covering Signal Hill and adjacent parts of Long Beach; largely due to the huge output of this field, the Los Angeles Basin produced one-fifth of the nation's oil supply during the early 1920s. In 1923 alone the field produced over 68 million barrels of oil, and in barrels produced by surface area, the field was the world's richest."
George would have been working in the oil fields during this most productive time. It appears he must have gotten out of the business around 1933 because he's listed as a gardener and laborer from 1933 to 1937. George was 66 years old in 1933. I'm sure the oil field work was getting to be a bit much at that age.
It looks like George may have retired around the age of 72. He is no longer listed with an occupation from 1939 until his death in 1945.
George passed on November 12, 1945 at 78 years of age having lived quite a varied and interesting life.
No comments:
Post a Comment