George H. Tinkham

George Henry Tinkham (often cited as George H. Tinkham; March 15, 1849 – March 9, 1945) was an American journalist and pioneer historian during the late 19th and early 20th century. He was a writer and compiler of early local history in California, especially in Stockton and San Joaquin Valley, where he grew up and lived the rest of his life.

Early life George Henry Tinkham was born March 1849 in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents of Scottish-English (father) and Dutch (mother) ancestry. Two months later, his father joined the California gold rush and immigrated to Stockton, California. Four years later, his mother brought first-born Tinkham (and baby sister) across Panama by mule to join him in Stockton; the family eventually grew to eight children.

In 1915, he reflected on his life: "In boyhood he mingled with the pioneers. He attended the public schools and grew to manhood with other pioneer sons. He has seen the majority of the '49ers pass on to the land whose streets are paved with gold. And he now sees a second generation of native sons spring into birth and active life."

Writing career

In 1878, while Tinkham was working as a book agent, a friend from his schoolboy days suggested he should write a history of Stockton. That was the trigger he needed to devote the next two years preparing and writing his first major historical work, A History of Stockton from its organization up to the present time, which was a labor of love with no remuneration. The book's frontispiece featured a signed portrait of the founder of Stockton, whom Tinkham consulted, Charles M. Weber, with the date, July 4, 1880. In its preface, he wrote: "the low state of finances compelled me to do all of my own labor". By canvassing hard door to door for his own book, Tinkham was able to sell enough copies to cover the publishing cost. But when the publisher wanted to charge him $20 for storage of the remainder, he told them to sell all 1500 of his remainder books to the paper mill. quote|He [Tinkham] is merely saturated with the romances of past years, and is culling their fruitage for men and women yet to come, knowing that however his work might be ignored in the present, it will live! In addition, he produced daily "20 Years Ago Today" vignettes for the Stockton Record for six years. He also wrote many historical sketches for the Stockton Mail.

In 1907, H. A. Preston from the Historic Record Company in Los Angeles, which was producing large handsome volumes of early histories of California counties together with extensive biographies compiled by the company as prestige collectibles marketed to subscribers, approached Tinkham to ask him to write a history of San Joaquin County for the company. Tinkham hesitated and tried to decline before he accepted the offer, which proved to be easy money and was the beginning of his transition from a local Stockton historian/journalist to a contract writer of county histories to accompany the subscription biographies by the company. which featured a steel-engraved image of himself on the frontispiece (same image as in his 1915 book, 2nd ed.) and a biography of himself by the company in the biographical sketches.

Death After his last book was published in 1923, capping 45 years of writing historical works, Tinkham spent two more decades in Stockton, known as the historian of San Joaquin County and California. He died of arteriosclerosis in March 1945, six days before his 96th birthday, survived only by a brother. His obituary was carried by the Stockton Record on its front page.

Major works

First edition (Panama Pacific Exhibition edition) published in February 1915; revised 2nd edition published in December 1915.