2009 Recipient
William H. Tilley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Jacmar Companies is a fifth-generation Californian. The remarkable story of his family’s arrival in America begins with his great grandfather, Justin Joseph Tilley, who was born on November 24, 1859 near Over-Cambridshire, England. He emigrated to America with his family and passed through Ellis Island when he was six years old.
Justin J. Tilley made his way across the continent to Los Angeles where he wed Margaret Josephine Pena, a Spanish and Mexican descendant in 1883. Three years later Margaret gave birth to a son, Jesse Joseph Tilley. Justin J. Tilley worked as a barber for more than twenty years. Following his death in 1937, he was laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles. Margaret died three years later.
William H. Tilley’s great grandmother, Georgina Peters, of Aberdeen, Scotland also emigrated to the United States and passed through Ellis Island before the turn of the century. Georgina Peters made her way West and eventually settled in San Francisco. At the age of twenty two she married
Stephen Berkey Hanson, formerly a resident of New York. Georgina gave birth to Martin Stephen Hanson on February 15, 1876. With great joy, the couple recorded the date of their son’s birth in the front piece of the family bible. The family bible with handwritten entries of the dates of births of the Tilley descendants has passed through the hands of five generations. The family bible is now the cherished family possession of William H. Tilley.All contents of pages and images Copyright © 2003,
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