Frederick Coombs (sometimes Willie Coombs and also known as George Washington II) was an eccentric who lived in San Francisco in the 19th century and believed himself to be George Washington. For a time he was as popular a figure as Joshua A. Norton, the "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico", and his deeds were reported in the local newspapers. He left the city after a feud with Norton, who he thought was jealous of his "reputation with the fairer sex" and moved to New York City. Early life and career Little is known of his early life. According to his own account, he was born in England in 1803. Coombs was apparently a phrenologist by trade, though he was also an accomplished photographer, daguerreotypist, inventor, and possibly a marriage broker. He had travelled throughout the west during the 1830s giving demonstrations of phrenology, apparently accompanied by a giant and a dwarf, and published at least one book on the subject, 1841's Popular Phrenology, in which the features of George Washington's skull are praised on the introductory page. He was interested in railways and designed a type of electric locomotive that enjoyed some minor success as a curiosity but was never put into large scale production. In 1848 he visited England where he obtained some commissions for the use of his engine, and claimed to have received a proposition to supply his engine to the Russians. He spent five years in England before returning to the United States. San Francisco Coombs was active as a photographer in the 1850s on the West Coast. Some time before 1863 he appeared in San Francisco, either claiming to be George Washington from the outset, or by other accounts, setting up his phrenology business and entertaining fashionable society with readings of their skulls. According to this second story, he was generally known as "Professor" Freddy Coombs and resembled George Washington so much that after many comments, he became convinced that he was the former President of The United States and took to dressing in uniform. He wore a Continental Army uniform of tanned buckskin, and set up his headquarters at the saloon of Martin and Horton, where he would study maps while planning his campaigns for the Revolutionary War. He was reported to have spent a winter starving himself until he was convinced by concerned friends that the Battle of Valley