GEORGE W. HALE

Is a native of Somerset County, Maine, and was born May 12, 1836.  At the age of fourteen, he moved to Brighton, Mass.  He came to California in 1857, and after residing in different parts of the State, returned East, and again com­ing to California in 1859, and settling at Columbia, where he now lives.  In the Fall of 1879, Mr. Hale erected his new sawmill, on the south fork of the Stanislaus River, and on the ranch once owned by the notorious Jim Lyons. The mill is 24x100 feet, has two circular saws, and its capacity is twenty thousand feet of lumber in twelve hours.  There is also a shingle machine in the mill, which turns out forty thousand shingles per day.  The prime industry of the region where Mr. Hale’s mill is located is the manufacture of lumber.  The pine forests of this part of the county are extensive, and for three decades men have been plunging into their depths and utilizing those stately trees.  Steadily, with the growth of the county, the business has increased, until it stands to-day a prime factor on the commercial cata­logue. Millions of feet are cut annually and yet the source seems practically inexhaustible.

“A History of Tuolumne County, California” B.F. Alley, 1882. Pg. 379.

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton