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The Marstons: A California Family - Part 4
Hamilton & Marston, A Lifelong Partnership
By Robin Lakin
January/February 2023
 Hamilton & Co., Charles Hamilton's second storefront, circa 1890. Courtesy Marston family
 George W. Marston, early 1870s, about the time of his partnership with Charles S. Hamilton. Courtesy SOHO |
 George W. Marston's second storefront located at Fifth & F Streets, circa 1882. Courtesy SOHO |
 Charles S. Hamilton & George W. Marston, circa 1930. Courtesy SOHO |
Ohio native Charles Standart Hamilton arrived in San Diego in 1869 and was promptly hired as a clerk by the merchant Joseph Nash. A year later, George White Marston arrived from Wisconsin, and the two men developed a fast, lifelong friendship.
Knowing that Marston was working for Aaron Pauly, who managed the largest local mercantile operation at the time, Nash, in 1872, offered Marston a job in his store, alongside the young man’s friend, Hamilton. The next year, Nash, who was impressed by the efficiency and work ethic of his two clerks, offered to sell them his mercantile for $10,000. Hamilton came up with his half using a promissory note for $5,000 at 12% interest, while Marston’s half was a cash loan from his father, who charged the same interest rate. “It’s nice to have a father, even at 12 percent,” quipped Marston in his later years.
Within five years, the firm of Hamilton & Marston had paid their notes in full. As co-owners of a typical small-town store serving a population of 3,000, they divided their responsibilities. Charles was the buyer and sales manager, while George handled the paperwork, bookkeeping, and sales. They faced brisk competition from such retailers as Pauly, Abraham Klauber, George W. Hazzard, and Ephraim Morse.
Advertisements for Hamilton & Marston reveal an extensive inventory of both grocery and dry goods; the shelves were stocked with recognizable products from Coats & Clark, Wamsutta, Baker’s Chocolate, Fruit of the Loom, and Lea & Perrins. Unfamiliar, lost brand names such as Jenny Lind Crackers, London Layers, Babbitt’s Saleratus, Nabob Sauce, and Chow-Chow entice the imagination! One of the most interesting items they carried were frames of raw honeycomb procured from John S. Harbison, California’s leading beekeeper and National City resident. He established his bee farm in the backcountry, in an area known today as Harbison Canyon.
In 1876, Charles married Elizabeth Gunn, the elder sister of George’s future bride, Anna Lee Gunn. By 1878, George came to prefer selling dry goods as opposed to groceries, and the partners amicably ended their business association. Charles and his brother Fred established Hamilton & Co., continuing to sell groceries and dry goods and flourishing until the 1950s. George founded The Marston Company, specializing in dry goods, and developed it into San Diego’s first luxury department store, in operation until the 1960s. The two friends later speculated in real estate together, purchasing Johnston Heights above Old Town, which they developed as a residential neighborhood and renamed Mission Hills. Years later, they sold lots there at a 200% profit.
In addition to their collegial civic-minded work and business and real estate partnerships, Charles S. Hamilton and George W. Marston married sisters, shared their children as nieces and nephews, and enjoyed a lifelong friendship. When Charles died in 1933, George wrote eloquently of his dear friend: “I can think of no one who was held in higher esteem or enjoyed more respect and honor. As a businessman his integrity was unquestioned. …I sincerely believe that there was such a nobility in his life that it impressed very deeply a great company of friends and acquaintances.”
Today, we know that the same accolades he showered on his friend also describe George W. Marston.
Read the rest of the ongoing The Marstons: A California Story History Series.
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