George Augustus Hanks

George Augustus Hanks was the son of Ephraim Knowlton Hanks and Jane Maria Capener, He married Melissa Jane Merrill, December 20, 1900, Thatcher, Arizona. After she passed away of typhoid fever in 1901 one month after the birth of their first baby, Wilma. After the death of his wife, he left baby Wilma in the care of her grandparents, Thomas Steven Merrill and Ester Ann Collette Merrill. George went back to Utah and there married Bessie Bennets Johns, on May 20, 1905. Wilma never say her father again until she was 17 years old. The following history of George Augustus Hanks was written by his son, George Ephraim Hanks Jr. of San Diego, California: This short story is to acquaint those, who may be interested in parts of the life of George Augustus Hanks, my father. As history goes, he was born January 3, 1868, in Park City, Utah. Until the year 1905, when he was wed to my mother, Elizabeth ‘Bessie" Johns, he worked at many different occupations and businesses. Some of these, as I recall him telling me, were mining, butchering, contracting and hunting wild game to sell and trade with the Indians.

This brings to mind a little story he told me of his hunting experiences. He and his partner took off for the mountains with their pack train to hunt deer for the market. During the trip they came upon a cub bear up a tree. Dad climbed the tree and got the cub stuffed in a grain sack. On the way down his hand holding the bag got cramped so he tried to hold the cub between his knees. The cub bit his leg thru the sack and he didn't quite remember if he jumped or fell down the rest of the way. Now the real climax came after they got back to town with their outfit. He made a collar for the cub and used to lead it about with a chain. He was drumming around town for more business and happened to stroll into a saloon. The barkeeper right away claimed that the bear was his and had been stolen and, during the argument of "Yes it is", and "no it isn't" the barkeeper bent down and picked the bear up in his arms. Right then he lost a piece of his cheek, so decided the bear really was dad's and not the one that had been stolen from him.

Dad raised angora goats and sheep at one time, worked in a general store and kept rental property, (building and renting houses and store buildings), worked in the mines, hauled ore down from the mines to the railroad, worked at Fargo's Department Store buildings, and also operated one of his rental buildings as a shooting gallery at times.

I was the twelfth child born to my mother. Eleven were by her former marriage to Steven Johns. I was raised with three of them: Violet, Steve, and Stella, the youngest. The others had more or less gone out on their own. In 1918 we visited some of the children who were living in San Diego, California.

The following year, 1919, Dad and mother sold everything in Park City and moved to San Diego. We bought a home here and Dad worked in a butcher shop quite awhile and also took care of a stable of horses for a downtown dairy. Meanwhile, he sold the first property and bought a smaller home a couple of blocks away. In January, 1921, Dad leased a farm at Dehesa, about twenty-five miles eat of San Diego. After the first year he managed to lease two or three more places. Along with the farming he started to dairy a little on the side.

In 1926 we moved back to San Diego and went into the dairy business on a bigger scale. During the five years Dad was farming, Mother lived in and kept the home in San Diego. In the latter part of 1928 Dad sold the dairy stock and started back to contracting work with teams building and boat slip for repairing boats on the bay front.

Dad was taken by a heart attack while caring for the animals over the weekend, January 6, 1929. He is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery, San Diego, California, near the mausoleum where his mother is buried.

SOURCE: Find A Grave.com

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