GEORGE A. DAVIS. – This pioneer in the lumber and flouring business of Portland, and indeed of other points throughout the union, is a native of Maine, having been born in Hallowell in 1832. In 1851 he was one of the argonauts, sailing to the Golden state via Nicaragua, and remaining there until 1865 occupied in mining, lumbering and other sorts of business. Returning home in that year, he soon left for Iowa, making his home there for ten years, engaged in stock-raising and farming. He was married there to Miss Hannah C. Dudley. In 1875 he came again to California, contrasting the facilities of the railroad train with the slower steamship accommodations of the older time. Stopping only for a breathing spell at the metropolis of the Pacific coast, he came on to Portland, operating four years in the flouring business, and being well remembered there. In 1879 he went to Spokane Falls, opened a drug store and conducted it for two years, and in 1887 returned to his old-time business of milling, running a sawmill, and afterwards, with Mr. Havemale, building the Echo Roller Mills, the first of the kind in the territory. Two years later he sold out to his partner, but still continued in the lumber business, and in 1887 built a fully equipped roller flour-mill at Marshall, eight miles from the city, – the fourth that he has erected, all giving excellent work.
Mr. Davis was one of the first members of the city council by appointment, and served another term by election. He was one of the originators of the Methodist College, and has contributed liberally to its building funds. His life on this coast has generally been peaceful; yet in the early days of California he had at least one shrewd brush with the Indians, the train which he was driving being attacked and his partner shot dead at his side, and another man pierced with two balls, himself escaping unhurt. This providential preservation has given Spokane Falls one of her best and oldest citizens.
