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pioneer bank of Santa Clara County), of which he has been manager,
President and principal owner for thirty years.
In August of the same year he married Charlotte Bray, daughter
of John Grandin Bray and Frances L. Miller, and great dranddaughter
of Anna Johanna Levering.
There were two daughters born to them, Frances Levering and
Anna Rowena.
In the midst of the financial panic of 1875, in California, the Bank
of San Jose stood firm. Again in 1893, during another financial stress,
his bank came through unscathed.
Thus for thirty years has the subject of this sketch stood among
the foremost men of the State for sound business integrity and unswerving
honesty of purpose.
Every scheme for the public welfare finds in him an earnest
friend and helper.
For fifteen years he served on the Board of Trustees of the State
Normal School, and during that time the building was destroyed by
fire. The State appropriated $150,000 to rebuild, and the Board
returned to the State Treasury several thousand dollars after having
erected a fine, substantial building--something rare in the history of
public officials.
In 1892 he took great interest in Sunday closing of saloons,
and, with others, succeeded in carrying the ordinance.
At the present time he is engaged with fifteen other freeholders
informing a new charter for the city, in which they hope to reform
many municipal abuses.
HON. GEORGE H. BOKER.
(1396)
(CONTRIBUTED.)
GEORGE HENRY BOKER was born in Philadelphia, Pa., October
6, 1823. He was the son of Charles S. Boker, a
wealthy financier of Quaker descent.
In 1842 he graduated from Princeton College, and afterwards
studied law, which, however, he never practiced. In 1847--after a
return from a tour of Europe--he published "The Lesson of Life
and Other Poems," followed in 1848 by a tragedy called "Calaynos,"
which was successfully brought out on the stage in England.
He next produced the tragedies of "Anne Boleyn," "Leonora de
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